So, I’ve decided that it’s time to go on another diet. I can’t say that it’s something I want to do it’s just one of those things that would be in my best interest. If experience is any kind of teacher then I know (going in) that my chances of success are (at best) mixed. Over the last 30 years I’ve lost close to 150 pounds but the problem is that over those same years I have managed to find about 120 replacements.
The fact that after 30 years I’m down 30 pounds should be counted as a success but I remember how hard it is to drop a few pounds and how easy it is to pick them up. I have a friend who once told me (and I believe he knew of what he spoke) that it is physically possible to gain 3 pounds a day but it is physically impossible to lose 3 pounds a day which creates an interesting dilemma. It is easier to fail than it is to succeed.
We actually might say that about life in general. It is easier to quit something than it is to start something and it is easier to sit than it is to go ahead. We may know it is best and we may want to succeed but we have a life full of things that encourage us to fail. We need support.
For dieters there are groups like Weight Watchers and for people struggling with substance abuse there are groups like Alcoholics Anonymous. These are places where people who are struggling to do what is best can find emotional support for taking up that challenge. For followers of Jesus that place is the Church.
Starbucks is trying to encourage us to “take comfort in rituals” (that’s their new advertising campaign) and there are many people who see the Church as nothing more than comforting rituals or a cultural touchstone and they miss the whole point. The Church is a family of the forgiven and a gathering of the transformed. We have been given a message of new life to proclaim to a world filled with people who are struggling to do what is right and are failing.
So, it is time again for a little discipline and we need each other’s help if we are going to succeed. Just remember, the next time you are trying to decide if you should go to Church, that there are people there who need your help (attending is NOT all about us) and subsequently there are people there who will help you, too. Everybody wins.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Ponytails And Clean Fingernails
I recently found a place where (for a reasonable fee) they would (as they say) “lower my ears.”
Whenever I go anywhere to get my hair cut someone will ask me what I would like it to look like and since I rarely (or try not to) look at myself in the mirror I always feel like I am not the best one to make that judgment. “You’re the expert.” I always say, “Just do what you think is best.”
Having grown up through the 60’s I have always been somewhat fascinated with hairstyles. From time to time I think about just letting it grow. In my mind I can picture myself as an aging hippie, going through life with French cuffed shirts, three-piece suits, tennis shoes and a ponytail; the 21st century expression of “cool.”
I know that I appear to be a fairly conservative guy (and basically I am) but the length of a person’s hair has never really been that big a deal to me. Maybe it’s because of all the years I’ve worn a beard of some sort. When I first grew a beard (back in the late 70’s…which seems like a long time ago) I would find myself (from time to time) talking to older people who thought my beard was a sort of “abomination” and yet talked endearingly about their grandfathers who were often pictured sporting long, untrimmed chin whiskers. I never quite understood the difference.
In High School, when my hair was actually shorter than it is today, my father (who thought I was beginning to look too much like an actual hippie) offered to pay me $2.00 to get my hair cut. He was a crew cut (flat top) kind of guy. We were operating with differing definitions of the word “long.”
On the surface, following Jesus seems easy. After all, he has done all of the heavy lifting. The complication is that there seem to be a lot of (inconsequential) things that tend to get in the way for us.
So, we end up saying (without saying it) things like, “Jesus died for your sins and all you have to do is trust Him, as long as you get your hair cut and clean under your fingernails.” Or “God really loves you, but He would love you better if you wore a nicer pair of jeans.”
It seems to me that God’s love for us is non-negotiable and his sacrifice for us is thoroughly sufficient. I always put things like church attendance, tithing, Bible study and service as expressions of our thanksgiving. These are some of the things that I expect to see in me because I love Jesus more than anything else in this life. These are things that I expect we should all do gladly because our relationship with Jesus is making a difference in our lives every day. I suppose (under certain circumstances) I could insert clean clothes and personal grooming into the conversation at this point, but I would never want to get these carts in front of the actual horse (if you get my drift.)
So, I expect that when I finally get the nerve to move into my ponytail/three-piece suit stage that Jesus will love me just as much and I will love him the same (or hopefully even more.)
Whenever I go anywhere to get my hair cut someone will ask me what I would like it to look like and since I rarely (or try not to) look at myself in the mirror I always feel like I am not the best one to make that judgment. “You’re the expert.” I always say, “Just do what you think is best.”
Having grown up through the 60’s I have always been somewhat fascinated with hairstyles. From time to time I think about just letting it grow. In my mind I can picture myself as an aging hippie, going through life with French cuffed shirts, three-piece suits, tennis shoes and a ponytail; the 21st century expression of “cool.”
I know that I appear to be a fairly conservative guy (and basically I am) but the length of a person’s hair has never really been that big a deal to me. Maybe it’s because of all the years I’ve worn a beard of some sort. When I first grew a beard (back in the late 70’s…which seems like a long time ago) I would find myself (from time to time) talking to older people who thought my beard was a sort of “abomination” and yet talked endearingly about their grandfathers who were often pictured sporting long, untrimmed chin whiskers. I never quite understood the difference.
In High School, when my hair was actually shorter than it is today, my father (who thought I was beginning to look too much like an actual hippie) offered to pay me $2.00 to get my hair cut. He was a crew cut (flat top) kind of guy. We were operating with differing definitions of the word “long.”
On the surface, following Jesus seems easy. After all, he has done all of the heavy lifting. The complication is that there seem to be a lot of (inconsequential) things that tend to get in the way for us.
So, we end up saying (without saying it) things like, “Jesus died for your sins and all you have to do is trust Him, as long as you get your hair cut and clean under your fingernails.” Or “God really loves you, but He would love you better if you wore a nicer pair of jeans.”
It seems to me that God’s love for us is non-negotiable and his sacrifice for us is thoroughly sufficient. I always put things like church attendance, tithing, Bible study and service as expressions of our thanksgiving. These are some of the things that I expect to see in me because I love Jesus more than anything else in this life. These are things that I expect we should all do gladly because our relationship with Jesus is making a difference in our lives every day. I suppose (under certain circumstances) I could insert clean clothes and personal grooming into the conversation at this point, but I would never want to get these carts in front of the actual horse (if you get my drift.)
So, I expect that when I finally get the nerve to move into my ponytail/three-piece suit stage that Jesus will love me just as much and I will love him the same (or hopefully even more.)
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Rad Dog
The other day I was following a Toyota Avalon (that’s a car) with the license plate “RADDOG” and my first thought was RADDOG doesn’t belong on a Toyota Avalon. RADDOG is a license plate for a Grand Am (that’s another car) or maybe an Alero (car) but RADDOG on an Avalon just didn’t seem right to me. I have always thought of Avalon people as “Golf Wisconsin” people or “Endangered Resources” people, nothing flashy. RADDOG on an Avalon is like wearing white socks with a black suit, it’s just not done.
Then I thought maybe RADDOG was a Grand Am guy who was moving up in the world and just couldn’t get the State to change his plate to something like MUVNUP (because all the good ones are already taken.) Or maybe RADDOG found himself in an Avalon but he was still a Grand Am guy at heart and “what can you do?”
Then I wondered where all of this was coming from. Do I really carry all of these unspoken prejudices with me all the time? Do I really make those kinds of associations? I guess so. Can my mind’s inner monologue really take me so easily from reality to fiction? Apparently. And is it possible that I can walk through this crazy line of reasoning and then think that it’s actually true? You know, like looking at a photograph of an event so many times that you begin to think that you were actually there? This is just scary.
Not too long ago I had another one of those conversations with someone who wondered if Jesus really expects us to “pray without ceasing” and I realized that this person (and lots of others) interpret the statement to be a command rather than an opportunity. The text from 1 Thessalonians (5:16-18) says, “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks” and it seems to me that I need to be doing all of these things continually or else my imagination can take me to places that I should not go. I have been given the opportunity to be in a relationship with Jesus that is constant and continual. What a blessing.
There were no pragmatic consequences to my experience with RADDOG except to remind me that I have to be careful where I let my mind take me. If anything, this little conversation has reminded me that I have been called out of the world to be (as Peter said in 1 Peter 2:9) a “royal priest, a holy nation, God’s very own possession” so that I might “show others the goodness of God.” If I’m going to get this done I have to be paying attention because I want all of the RADDOG’s in the world to know the “goodness of God.”
So, drive on Mr. RADDOG and drive anything you want…except maybe an Escalade. Oops.
Then I thought maybe RADDOG was a Grand Am guy who was moving up in the world and just couldn’t get the State to change his plate to something like MUVNUP (because all the good ones are already taken.) Or maybe RADDOG found himself in an Avalon but he was still a Grand Am guy at heart and “what can you do?”
Then I wondered where all of this was coming from. Do I really carry all of these unspoken prejudices with me all the time? Do I really make those kinds of associations? I guess so. Can my mind’s inner monologue really take me so easily from reality to fiction? Apparently. And is it possible that I can walk through this crazy line of reasoning and then think that it’s actually true? You know, like looking at a photograph of an event so many times that you begin to think that you were actually there? This is just scary.
Not too long ago I had another one of those conversations with someone who wondered if Jesus really expects us to “pray without ceasing” and I realized that this person (and lots of others) interpret the statement to be a command rather than an opportunity. The text from 1 Thessalonians (5:16-18) says, “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks” and it seems to me that I need to be doing all of these things continually or else my imagination can take me to places that I should not go. I have been given the opportunity to be in a relationship with Jesus that is constant and continual. What a blessing.
There were no pragmatic consequences to my experience with RADDOG except to remind me that I have to be careful where I let my mind take me. If anything, this little conversation has reminded me that I have been called out of the world to be (as Peter said in 1 Peter 2:9) a “royal priest, a holy nation, God’s very own possession” so that I might “show others the goodness of God.” If I’m going to get this done I have to be paying attention because I want all of the RADDOG’s in the world to know the “goodness of God.”
So, drive on Mr. RADDOG and drive anything you want…except maybe an Escalade. Oops.
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