Yeah I’ve come to know the wishlist of my father.
I’ve come to know the shipwrecks where he wished.
I’ve come to wish aloud among the overdressed crowd.
Come to witness now the sinking of the ship.
Throwing pennies from the seatop next to it. (more…)
Years ago, I listened to a lecture by Leonard Schlesinger, of the Harvard Business School. He told the audience about his time working with Taco Bell to help them grow their business. They identified their target audience as teens and college students. With that audience in mind, they worked at creating inexpensive Mexican food that poor students could afford. They stayed open later to appeal to student looking for a place to hang out or study.
It worked. Taco Bell found their audience and business boomed. The executives reconvened and looked to expand on their success. They decided to bring thirty- and forty-somethings into the fold. Their chefs created healthy salads and lighter fare. They rolled out their new advertising campaign and waited for growing revenues.
But the opposite happened. It turns out that adults don’t like to hang out in the same restaurants as their teens. The teens stopped feeling comfortable when they saw moms sitting at the next booth over wincing at the sight of theirs son blowing Mountain Dew bubbles out their nostrils.
Both groups stopped coming to Taco Bell.
Schlesinger supplied the moral to the story: Unless an entire demographic cannot stand your product you have not created anything of value.
That axiom should be encouraging to Don Miller and Steve Taylor. (more…)
Last night I taught my church’s FAITH curriculum to a really sharp group. We were exploring humanity’s relationship with God before the Fall and a lot of the usual phrases were used: Intimate, comfortable, and personal. One perceptive individual pointed out from the beginning God’s relationship with Adam and Eve included “death threats.”
The matter of fact manner in which she said this caught me off guard, but she’s not wrong. Genesis Two is the story a paradise, created by a loving and perfect Divine Being, who tells the first couple to enjoy creation. But one caveat: Eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and you’ll die.
When I step back and separate myself from being overly familiar with Scripture, God’s pronouncement does sound like a death threat. If I was at a bank and I heard, “Touch that alarm buzzer or I’ll shoot” I’d count that as a death threat immediately after I finished soiling myself.
Perhaps the words placed a seed of doubt in Eve’s heart that made her vulnerable to Satan’s treachery. We know that Adam and Eve made for the bushes the next time God showed up for his daily visit. Adam said it was because they were “naked and ashamed.” Perhaps Adam was afraid that these new emotions were the precursor to an immediate execution so he hid himself and Eve.
We kicked this idea around before deciding that what what play wasn’t anything like a capricious death threat, but a parental warning. When my children were young I gave them stern warnings about riding their bikes in the road: ” A car will hit you and you could die.”
What there a threat of death in my statement? Absolutely.
Would a passerby report me to the authorities for abusive language? Absolutely not.
God knew that through their disobedience Adam and Eve would be passing through a door, but unlike the wardrobe in the Chronicles of Narnia, they would not be passing into a magical world, but leaving one. Also, unlike the Chronicles of Narnia, movement through this door was “one way.” There could be no return to Eden.
So the most loving thing God could do was to warn them of impending death.
This morning, I read some more an excellent memoir of an L.A. priest who dedicated decades of his life attempting to eradicate gang violence in LA. He befriends and loves gang members and works to create work opportunities for these men and women so they can walk away from their circles of violence.
I got to the chapter where the priest unpacks his thoughts on God. Much of it moved me with its truth. But I have to admit that my “cringe” reflex was tweaked. He wrote about how he thought the church misunderstood Jesus’ words about being the narrow way. He frequently quoted poets from Eastern religious traditions which, in spite of being able to affirm that all truth is God’s truth, made me a little suspicious about his theology.
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I’ve been thinking about Jesus’ parables lately and how Jesus seemed to subvert all of our expectations. And I realized that if Jesus were on the exercise machine next to mine he would have walked over and grabbed my e-reader and brought up the story of the Good Samaritan. Prior to telling that parable Jesus identified that loving God and our neighbor with all he have are the two greatest commandments. The religious lawyers (if your religion needs lawyers, that might be a red flag) tried to get Jesus to narrow his definition of “neighbor.” Instead, Jesus tells the story that teaches us that a neighbor is someone who lovingly meets the needs around them. But in extra, unnecessary twist Jesus makes the hero a Samaritan, a person who– in the eyes of the Pharisees– was a theological heretic. The Samaritans were a sect within Judaism that had been corrupted by Assyrian beliefs.
Jesus was saying that the Samaritan was the theologian fundamentalist in the arena that mattered most, love. Though the same lens, the Pharisees lived their lives in a heretical manner.
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Jesus might have retold the story but cast the L.A. priest as the Good Samaritan’s would have replace the Levite with me.This priest, no matter what I wonder about his theology, has loved more unlovable people in twenty-years than I will in my lifetime. Jesus would have me against the ropes. I’d have no choice but to admit defeat.
I could only hope that one of the personal trainers would toss Jesus out for wearing open toed sandals. That is very much against the rules.
Matt McKenzie is an old Internet friend, the CEO of ROAR, one of those Orange Leaders, and an all around good guy. Yesterday, he let me stand on his soapbox and talk about some lessons I’ve learned about myself after fifteen years of being a pastor. I’m learning how to be an achiever without letting my big ego sabotage things.
Check it out and comment on his blog. And buy an app or three while you’re there.
Several years ago, back when our church still did children’s Christmas musicals, I had the unwelcome privilege of sorting through a stack of preview CD’s next year’s program. I immersed myself in syrupy keyboard arrangements and young voices earnestly singing about the true meaning of Christmas for the better part of a morning. I came across a musical that disturbed in a different way than all the others. The musical told the story of a group of children preparing to perform the annual Christmas program in the town square. However, the city counsel decided to block the performance because it was a display of religion on public property. The children rallied and under the guidance of their choir director put together a successful public protest. By the end of the forty minute piece, the misguided mayor confessed his sins, submitted to Jesus’ lordship, and stood up to city council, and made sure the children were able to celebrate Christmas under the gazebo.
I closed the book and wondered what the lesson was that the children learned about Christmas. The story wasn’t so much about Jesus as it was about the right of Christians to engage the political system and fight for their rights. I couldn’t believe someone thought this was the most important message to pass onto kids. Had the so-called war on Christmas gone on so long that it was now time to enlist the next generation?
After doing a little digging I discovered this “war” was declared in 2005 when Fox News host John Gibson’s book The War on Christmas found its way onto best seller lists. This was the same year that Bill O’Reilly called moves to tone down mentions of Jesus on Christmas the first steps down a slippery slope toward the “legalization of narcotics, euthanasia, abortion at will, gay marriage.”[1] (more…)
On Sunday, my good friends Dave (far left) and Russ (far right) took and passed our black belt test in the Zanshindo fighting system. It’s a mixed martial arts system and took me about four and half years of training to earn it. Will is our instructor. He’s a former cage fighter and a great friend. It was fantastic that he took the time out of his travels to administer the test. My first black belt is in taekwondo. I can honestly say that the white belt test in this system was more grueling than my tkd black belt.
I’m fixing to take up a sport more suitable for a man of a certain age. I’m thinking shuffle board is next.
