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.)

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.

A Harry Potter World

I’m sitting here somewhat engrossed in the fifth movie in the “Harry Potter” series (for those of you who haven’t been keeping up with all things Hogwarts that would be “The Order of the Phoenix”) and I’m asking myself why this particular movie world has become so popular for so many people.

I guess it could be the quality of the product. I’m not much of a movie critic but each of the films in the series seems to be fairly well produced, decently acted, with nice special effects and fairly true to the book on which it was based.

What I think is happening is that there is something appealing about a world filled with magic where nothing about life is set in stone. How many of us grew up wishing we could wave a wand and change the size of our noses or whisk off a few extra pounds? There was a time in my life when I actually wanted to be a “wizard.” It was an irrational dream but I was young and insecure and thinking about it today reminds me of how desperate life can be.

I’m starting to think that we want to believe in a Harry Potter world because life is hard and we are weak.

Some people would say that we believers in God do so for the same reasons but I see it as just the opposite. In the Harry Potter world I either have magical powers or I don’t, some are blessed and some are not. In God’s world all of us have been equally invited to belong to Him. All of us can know his love and forgiveness in our lives. In a Hogwarts world I manipulate the world to make it what I want it to be. In God’s world I have come to learn that God is the author of all creation and that I have been invited to be one of his stewards. In a Harry Potter world I escape from reality. In God’s world I come face-to-face with the person I really am.

I still like a good fantasy. I have been a sci-fi guy since I picked up my first Superman comic but I understand the difference between make believe and reality and I am here to testify that it doesn’t get any more real than Jesus.

Isn't God Amazing?

I was reading an interesting article in the most recent “Christianity Today” about a man who was moved to return to faith through reading the writings of Albert Camus, a French philosopher (and atheist) who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957. It reminded me a little bit of my own faith journey.

I’m not trying to suggest (or even imply) that I was filling the quiet moments of my teenage years reading the works of Albert Camus, I had never even heard of Camus until I was in college, but one of the big players in my spiritual journey was the rock musical, “Jesus Christ Superstar,” a musical and dramatic piece that was never thought of as being that complimentary to the historic Christian faith.

“Superstar” was the only thing that I asked for on my 18th birthday. I listened to it incessantly and after years of singing in Church choirs this was the first time that I consciously remembered hearing about people like Caiaphas (the High Priest in the temple in Jerusalem) and Judas Iscariot (the disciple who betrayed Jesus.) I learned the story of Jesus passion from Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

I didn’t give my life to Jesus because of “Superstar” but I did hear the story in a way that I had never heard it before. No matter how inaccurate (or inappropriate) “Superstar” was socially or theologically it became a piece of the spiritual puzzle that I was struggling to understand.

In 1 Corinthians 10 the Apostle Paul said, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is beneficial” and I believe that to be true. There are lots of things that can influence us away from hearing or following after Jesus. Not everything is helpful, but I wonder if we sometimes dismiss things too quickly. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I believe that God is able to use an amazingly diverse collection of things to draw us closer to Him and we should never underestimate what God is able to do with ordinary things and in the lives of ordinary people. I guess what I’m trying to say is, “Isn’t God amazing?”

Sailing Through Life With A Smile

I was driving home from Church a few weeks back and I happened to glance in the rearview mirror and realized that the woman behind me, driving a rather large SUV, was flossing her teeth. With two hands doing the flossing there were no hands left for the steering wheel. I’ve heard some car companies suggest that their vehicles practically drive themselves. At this particular moment I was hoping the claim was true.

And, to make matters worse, while I was using my rearview mirror to check on what was going on behind me (something my Driver’s Ed. instructor told me I was supposed to do every eight seconds) this woman was using hers to check her smile.

Now, I have nothing against good oral hygiene, but I wanted to say to the woman with the clean teeth, “WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?” And then I found myself praying for a complete stranger in a big SUV who happened to have a nice smile.

This picture in my rearview mirror was also a reminder to me that the world around me is outside of my control. I can order my own life to the best of my ability (keep both hands on the wheel and pay attention to where I’m headed) and still be run down by someone who thinks they are somehow exempted from common sense.

This, in turn, reminded me that I really do need to trust in someone who is bigger than me; someone who is bigger than SUV’s and inattentive drivers.

Some people might call this need for someone to order my “order-less” life a weakness but I think of it as just being smart. If I know that there are large segments of my life that are beyond my control it seems to me that I (we) need to give control to someone who can take the randomness of our lives and make it meaningful.

I’m not talking about a self-centered protectionism. This is not a relationship that exempts me from the stupidity of the people around me. But, this is a relationship that can help to make sense out of the stupidity that we see lived out every day. In His own miraculous way, our God is able to take the “out-of-control” and use it to transform the world. I’m just saying. You have to pay attention.

Run Away Life

I apologize for being away so long but these last couple of months have been crazy.

For those of you who don’t know us that well, Julie and I found out at the end of January that we were being reappointed to Community United Methodist Church in Elm Grove, Wisconsin and since that time we have shopped for and found a house to purchase, arranged for new flooring, appliances and countertop, sorted through 15 years of accumulated memories, packed our entire lives into boxes, moved to New Berlin, unpacked countless boxes and tried to create some form of a “new normal” life.

What I have been learning (and not for the first time) is that “life” has a way of grabbing you by the nose and leading you from one challenge (or opportunity) to another, leaving you very little time for the things you want to do or for things you know you should do.

It’s an interesting thought...to be enslaved by our own lives. To paraphrase Walt Kelly, “I have seen the enemy and he is me.” To paraphrase the Apostle Paul, “our battle isn’t against flesh and blood (other people)”, our real battle is against our own desires, our dreams and fears.

Jesus’ message has always been that if we are willing to trust in Him He will help us re-order our lives. He can change the way we see ourselves and the way we see everything around us. Jesus can fulfill our dreams and take away our fears. This is the kind of help we all need.

So, as I watch my life run away with me I realize that I need His help. The temptation will always be to work harder or get up earlier and try to bend my life to my will. I have played that game and lost a number of times. Our help will always be found in Jesus. That’s the first thing we need to recognize and then we need to learn to lean on Him.

Spiritual Meatloaf

May 12th:
The other day I was enjoying a meatloaf sandwich (some things are just better leftover) and mid-bite a morsel of ketchup and mayo covered meatloaf fell out of the sandwich, bounced down my shirt and on to my pants. It’s one of the risks one accepts when you’re dealing with culinary perfection. Consequently, after the sandwich was gone I went to change into a spot-free outfit.

As I was going through my clothing change I thought back to my childhood to a time when my shirtsleeves were my napkins and dirt simply wasn’t that big of a deal. This led me to wonder what it is about youth that makes appearance such a non-issue and what it is about adulthood that makes appearance such a big deal.

I’m not sure I have all of the complexities of this issue figured out, but the word that came to mind was “oblivious.” It seems to me that children have a tendency to be oblivious to what is happening around them including what other people think. Ketchup spots just don’t register.

The question then became, “When Jesus suggested that we all need to be like children was he encouraging us to be “oblivious” to the world around us?” I don’t think so. Jesus sends us into the world to “seek and save the lost.” That doesn’t happen unless we care and in order to care we have to pay attention.

Maybe what Jesus was saying is that we need to learn to be “oblivious” to ourselves. We need to surrender ourselves to God’s love for us and then (because we are convinced of that love) we will begin to understand how unimportant all of the temporary things in our lives really are. Ketchup spots just don’t matter and neither does the style of our clothes or the size of our houses. We are not the sum total of our things. We are special because God declares it so. The challenge of faith (for those of us beyond our childhood) is to be oblivious to our own lives and passionately involved with everyone else.

Like I said, I’m not sure I have all of the complexities of this issue figured out, but I am working on it. One thing I do know for sure. I like meatloaf sandwiches.