GOD'S WILL

For years my understanding of "God's will" was pretty darn limited. "Seeking God's will" was something that came up only at certain major forks in the road of life.

Which college do I attend? What should I study? Should I take this job offer or not? Is this girl "the one"? 

I grew up reciting the Lord's Prayer on a regular basis each Sunday morning in worship. But even then, "thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven" meant "Lord, guide my major decisions so I don't depart from the path you have for me". 

It wasn't until my flight back to the U.S. after my first trip to Haiti in 2010 that God expanded my understanding of what Scripture meant by "God's will". 

I would have to go back and search through my journals from the time to find exactly what passage triggered my deeper understanding, but it might have been something like:

"Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother." (Jesus in Mark 3:35)

Anyway, it dawned on me that God had certain things - important things! - that he was trying to accomplish here on earth RIGHT NOW and that my job as a Christian was to find out where he was at work and put the gifts that he had given me to use, day in and day out. 

The dawning was instantaneous. I had been thinking of God's will much too narrowly. 

WEBSTER'S

When teaching English, especially to 8th graders this year, I have to be conscious of opportunities to expand vocabularies. Supposedly, the typical young teen knows between 8 and 12 thousand words - as compared to 20 to 40 thousand for adults. That's a big gap! 

Sometimes I will ask the students if they know a particular word and then have them rate it on a scale of 1 to 5 fingers: 1 finger up indicates "I've never seen or heard that word in my entire life" while 5 fingers up means "I know that word well enough to use it in a sentence". 

What I find is that most words fall in the 2 to 4 finger range - "It sounds familiar but I really couldn't tell you what it means with confidence."

Here's another thing I have realized about students and vocabulary: Just because you have the dictionary definition of a word memorized does not mean you truly KNOW that word. A student can memorize a definition and still be unable to use the word correctly in a sentence. 

And it seems to me that if you cannot correctly USE the word, it is not really part of your vocabulary. 

Over the past year or two, I have begun to wonder what kind of grip we have on some common biblical terms. Words like "faith" and "wisdom" and "truth" and even "love". What about "righteousness" and "sin"? 

What if God means something different - deeper - by a particular term than we think he means? What if we're giving a biblical term 5 fingers when in reality we can't correctly use it in a sentence? Is it really a part of our working vocabulary?

Tomorrow I will try to illustrate what I mean by showing how the Lord expanded my understanding of the phrase "God's will". 

GRADUATION DAY

Today was so good that eventually it took my focus off my self-pity over not being present for graduation day at Cap-Haitien Christian School. 

Eventually.

I suppose it also helped that there was nothing Haiti-like about today's weather. When the ceremony started (outdoors because of Covid, of course), the temperature sat at 51 degrees. People dragged out their winter coats and gloves for the occasion.

Every speaker made repeated references to Covid, blah, blah, blah. I started to wonder if they were going to figure out a way to work a pandemic reference in while they were reading off the names of the graduates.

Eventually it was Samuel Wesley Gross's turn to walk across the platform to fist bump the principal and collect his diploma:

Here he is after the ceremony with proud mom and dad:

And with super cute and talented girlfriend, Hannah, who also graduated today:

The whole family plus Grandma Trudy:

After the ceremony, Grandma Trudy treated us all to lunch at El Hefe in Hope, we had a little down time at home and then we spent the evening at a graduation party for Anna Combs, longtime friend of our family. 

An all-around fantastic day. We have much to be thankful for. 

STRUGGLING

I am struggling a bit tonight. Tomorrow is Samuel's graduation from North High School and I should be excited and happy. But our plan for years had been that Samuel would be graduating from Cap-Haitien Christian School along with his friends, Brandon, Frantz and Fabio. 

Instead, Brandon, Frantz and Fabio gathered tonight 1,500 miles away from here to celebrate their graduation with a special dinner with their families and teachers ... and we were not a part of it. Tomorrow morning those three guys will receive diplomas in Haiti and Samuel will receive his in Columbus, Indiana. 

And it just doesn't feel right at all.

Let me be transparent here. I thought I had done a pretty good job of forgiving certain individuals and a particular organization for sidelining us this past year, but tonight ... tonight I am full of anger and sadness. 

I don't like how I am feeling at all. I am going to bed and I am hoping things will look better in the morning. 

PRAYER REQUEST

Last night we got word that a fellow missionary in Haiti was shot during an attempted carjacking. His name is Mike and he and his wife work with a medical mission. They were our next door neighbors during our last year in Haiti and still live in a house that is part of the little missionary community composed primarily of Cap-Haitien Christian School teachers. 

Mike and his wife were returning home last night around 8:00, turning sharply off Route 1 Nationale to head up the mountainside drive just as we ourselves did hundreds of times. But we were never confronted by armed men as Mike and Hope were last night. 

I don't know any of the details of how the tragedy played out but apparently, even after being shot, Mike was able to steer their vehicle up the drive while Hope stepped on the gas. 

I cannot even imagine the chaos and fear that ensued. A bullet wound under any circumstances must be incredibly traumatic, but in a place lacking - shall we say - state of the art medical facilities, it must cause utter panic. 

Praise God, folks banded together to get Mike transported to the hospital at Milot, 45 minutes away, where Mike was stable through the night. And today Mike and Hope were able to get a medical evacuation flight back to the States. 

Please pray for Mike's recovery and for peace for his family and for the missionary community and all of Haiti as the nation endures ongoing social and political unrest. 

LAST SCHOOL NIGHT

Tomorrow I give one more final exam and by 3:00 PM I will have all my grades turned in and I will be ready to walk out of the school building and into the summer sun. It's a weird mix of emotions tonight:

Relief - I am ready for the semester to be over.

Regret - Did I cover everything I needed to cover these past few months? No.

Anticipation - Looking forward to reading more, writing more, and working around the house. I have a hundred projects to finish and a hundred more to start. We also have a quick weekend trip coming up to New Jersey and the best part is nobody will be left behind. The whole family will be roadtripping - just like old times. 

All these emotions are very familiar for the eve of summer break, but there's a new one this year:

Guilt - The kids and I are starting our summer breaks, but Melissa is not. Clarity's work continues in the summer months and Melissa does not have anywhere near the number of days off each year that a typical teacher has. It will be a big adjustment. We have long appreciated summer breaks as being a huge perk of life as a teacher and now she is working a job - the first in her adult career - that doesn't offer that perk. 

So I need to give some extra thought on how to turn my sense of guilt into positive action to make her working summer as pleasant as possible. 

Beyond the obvious - taking on more of the cooking and cleaning, finishing up long-desired house and yard projects, and taking her out to lunch on occasion - I am open to suggestions!

WRITER'S ADHD

Since January 1st, I haven't experienced any "writer's block" like I anticipated. If anything, I seem to have writer's ADHD when it comes to these daily blog posts - and I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing. 

Sometimes I spend 2 or 3 evenings exploring a single topic, but mostly I hop from one topic to the next. Sometimes I start on a topic thinking "an entire book could be written on this!" and then I get distracted the very next night and move on. 

I have two more days of school and then a few months of freedom. It remains to be seen if more time will equal deeper dives. 

I hope to find the time and energy to study - and write about - what the Bible teaches regarding gossip, slander, grumbling, self-righteousness, repentance, the Kingdom, eternal life, and hell, among other things.

I would also like to explore a biblical perspective on cognitive biases, metaphysics, and metacognition. And I realize that all of that sounds like "heady" stuff, but I think a biblical understanding of these things could be profoundly practical. 

And I'm only using the fancy, technical terms because they exist and make me sound smart:

• Cognitive biases = how the human brain is wired, for better or worse.
• Metaphysics = the nature of reality and how in touch with the deepest aspects of reality we are.
• Metacognition = thinking about how we think.

In the meantime ... Here's to the last two days of the school year!

UNDER PRESSURE

This evening as I pulled a bag of salad from the refrigerator, I heard water running very suddenly as if someone was taking a shower in the kitchen. In an attempt to find the source, I ran downstairs and asked Caleb to help me locate the sound. About twenty seconds later, a waterfall started right over our heads, pouring through the edge of my brand new drywall!

Fortunately, I was thinking clearly enough by that point to shut off the main water valve, located in a basement closet just a few feet away. 

The waterfall slowed to a trickle and I went upstairs to locate the source. I pulled the fridge away from the wall to discover the icemaker line looking like this:

The tube that I had replaced last summer when we had bought a new fridge was all stretched out. Under constant water pressure, it was only a matter of time before the plastic bulged beyond the breaking point. 

I wanted to yell at someone, but it turns out it was my own fault. I had bought the plastic line at Lowe's last summer without giving much thought to a key number:

I'm guessing I picked up the cheapest plastic tubing I could find. Because that's how I roll. (If I had made the trip to my brother's hardware store, I am sure he would have steered me in the right direction and prevented this evening's mess entirely.)

In the end, all I can say is I am so thankful that the bubble burst behind the fridge tonight while I stood in the kitchen. I can't imagine what a mess it could have made in the middle of the night or for several hours during the day when nobody but the dogs would be present to notice! 

Thank you, Lord, for the good timing, because with all the other turmoil currently in our lives, if either of those other things would have happened, I believe my own internal pressure rating would have been exceeded!

FRICTION

Scientifically speaking, friction can be a very useful force. It enables you to walk down the sidewalk without falling on your butt or sliding out into the stree. And on the street, it keeps the tires of passing cars responsive to the turning of the steering wheel and, thus, off the sidewalk. It is what enables a rock climber to defy the forces of gravity and a parachute to slow the descent of a skydiver. Ironically, without friction, our lives would be at a standstill. We couldn't go anywhere. 

The same force that enables motion in proper amounts, though, is also what opposes it, limits it, even brings it to a complete stop. When there's too much friction, that piece of furniture will not budge and that engine will lock up. When friction wins, things stop moving altogether.

I have begun seeing the misbehavior of certain of my students throughout the school day as a type of friction. A little bit of friction is not necessarily a bad thing. It can actually make the classroom more interesting, even for me up front. 

But too much friction and the lesson begins to crawl, then stall out, and sometimes even come to a complete halt. 

Some periods, some days, I feel like I am swimming up stream. And it is exhausting. 

And the students who are acting up are blissfully unaware of the damage they are doing to the learning environment.

Tomorrow begins our final week of class for this school year. I love my students, but I cannot say I am sorry to see this week arrive.

Maybe over the summer I can devote some thought and prayer to discerning what factors in my students' lives are causing friction that works against their ability to learn.

The nice thing about friction is that there ARE ways to lessen it. I'm just not sure how much is within my power as a teacher.

PATIENCE

We had a wonderful day today - our niece Lauren got married. 

Here's the happy couple at the reception:

And here's my brother Spencer doing the Father/Daughter dance with Lauren:

   

It really got me thinking - Melissa and I MIGHT be just a few years away from such a scene in our own family. Not that any of our kids is currently on a fast-track towards marriage, but three of the four are college age now and who knows what the next couple of years could bring.

I suspect I will be one of those rare fathers who is overly-emotional at each of his kids' weddings. I won't be able to hold it together. 

I've known parents who push, push, push for their kids to get married and start families, but, for me, time is already moving way too quickly, so I am in no rush to see that day. 

It will come soon enough.

In the meantime, Melissa and I are enjoying this new stage in our family's life - having children who are young adults. 

Here's a family shot from before the ceremony, courtesy of my brother, Russ:

And, since Mother's Day passed without me getting a photo of Melissa with the kids, I took the opportunity at the reception to make sure I snapped one: 

One last thought that occurred to me in the midst of my niece's wedding festivities today: While I am patiently awaiting my own kids' wedding days, I might want to start figuring out a way to earn a little extra money ...

UNHEALTHY EYES

"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" Matthew 6:22-23

These are two stand-alone verses in the middle of Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, sandwiched between "store up for yourselves treasures in heaven" and "no one can serve two masters". 

"Healthy" eyes belong to the person who sees the world as it really is - and I think that would include basic guiding truths like humanity's creation in the image of God, the fallenness of human nature, and the sovereignty, love, and self-sacrifice of the Creator. 

"Unhealthy" eyes, then, belong to people who are under the impression they know what is going on in this world, but are actually blind to reality - missing one or all of the basic guiding truths of reality. 

The darkness in that case is "great" because the person is under the impression that he already has it all figured out - with no need to change his mind. 

It's a good idea to examine our own eyesight and to be open to the possibility that some of what we have deemed to be "light" could conceivably be "darkness". 

We must be open to changing the way we see things.

THERE'S A CHANCE I AM WRONG

"Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything." - George Bernard Shaw

 

I am very willing to admit I might be wrong. 

It occurred to me long ago that chances are mighty slim that I am 100% correct in all my beliefs and opinions - my judgments about politics, theology, entertainment, as well as the character of friends, coworkers, and enemies. 

Now, believe me, it sure FEELS like I am right about absolutely everything I believe, but everyone else feels the exact same way, even people who hold beliefs that are diametrically opposed to my own. 

What if I have a friend who is an avowed atheist? I, obviously, believe in a God who rules over the universe. 

One of us feels incredibly, confidently right but is absolutely wrong.  

So I know that just because I FEEL right does not necessarily mean I AM right. 

So, realistically am I likely to be even 95% correct in all my beliefs? 

90%? 

75%?

At the very least, a little humility seems to be in order whenever I go asserting my strongly held opinions. 

And, maybe if I listen closely, I might learn something that will change my mind ... for the better. 

I DREAM OF A WORLD ...

What would it take to push our current American culture towards valuing - perhaps even celebrating - changing one's mind? Could we brand it as "rethinking" rather than "flip-flopping" or "being inconsistent" or "lacking conviction"? 

Maybe a good slogan would help.  "Second thoughts are often better thoughts."

Would it take support groups where adults sit in a circle and confess to each other, "Sometimes I'm wrong"?

Perhaps we would need to start early in grade schools with curriculum teaching cognitive biases and logical fallacies. And how to recognize the soft spots in our own thinking.

And maybe someday we will live in a society where Facebook fights are rare and they always end in "I see where you're coming from" rather than "Just shut up, you brain-dead troll!" 

What would it take?

THE NEXT SENDING

"Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.'" (Matt 9:37-38) 

When I reflect on God's sending my family to Haiti in 2013, several aspects of that sending stand out years later: 

• It was out of the blue.
• We hesitated - briefly - to say "yes".
• The sending was to Melissa and me and the family equally.
• It was scary and way out of our comfort zone.
• It was confirmed in multiple ways.
• It took two years to launch.
• God surrounded us with an incredible group of people to support us as we were sent.
• The field we were sent to brought us greater joy than we ever anticipated.

As I consider the future and as I (somewhat) patiently await God's next "sending", I can't help wondering in what ways the next might resemble the first. 

SEND ME

I am struggling to understand why the Lord allowed us to be sidelined. We sacrificed so much to move our family to Haiti and we LOVED the people there and we LOVED living there. It was good Kingdom work.

These lines from Matthew keep running through my head: "Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.'" (Matt 9:37-38) 

The "harvest field" is anywhere there are lost people who need to hear the gospel, anywhere extra hands are needed to advance God's will. And I have no doubt that the workers continue to this day to be "few". 

But here I am - more than happy to be put to good use in Kingdom work - and I'm sidelined. 

Ready to go, but idling.

And the only thing I know to do right now is to keep praying what Jesus commanded: Lord, send out workers into your harvest field. 

(And let me be one of them.)

Maybe some day I will understand what this was all about. 

MY SIDE

I have a vague memory from my childhood which related to me an important lesson about politics (and really all of life). I suppose Ronald Reagan was president at the time and I knew enough about politics to know that my parents were pretty firmly in the Republican camp. On one occasion,  I remember hearing my dad say something critical of Reagan. I could not hide my surprise: I thought we were Republicans - how can we be critical of a fellow Republican? Dad explained that sharing a political belief with someone does not automatically insulate against criticism where it is warranted.

Even though I was young and hardly paying attention to politics, I had already picked up on the basic framing of American political discussions: my side must always be portrayed as right, smart and good, the other side as wrong, stupid and/or evil. No criticism of my own team is allowed, and not an ounce of generosity to the other team.

Dad's willingness to call out failings on his own side of the aisle deeply impressed me. It is something today's political climate could use a whole lot more of. 

POLITICAL EVOLUTION

Throughout my childhood, I thought THE most boring topic in the world was anything having to do with politics.

After college I began to find interest in politics and tuned into talk radio. At that point, politics became a way to feed my sense of self-righteous anger. 

Eventually I decided that any radio host who could maintain that level of outrage for three hours a day and five days a week was either faking it or incredibly unhealthy. Either way, I decided it was best not to keep listening. 

Nowadays, I am largely immune to politics-induced anger and I find politics absolutely fascinating and exhausting.

Fascinating because it is a clear window into the universal drama of human nature, with all of its conflict, problem-solving and attempts at persuasion. 

Exhausting because - today more than ever - politicians (of every stripe) can hardly speak a sentence without spin and oversimplification and outright falsehoods. It seems like they take our gullibility for granted.

FEAR AND ANGER

I am beginning to wonder if our culture has become addicted to fear and anger. You would think that we would avoid such unpleasant emotions, but in fact we seem drawn to them. Social media and the 24 hour news cycle have nothing that comes even close as a motivator of engagement or clicks as good old fear and anger.

But even in real life, when we get a hit of fear or anger, we are eager to pass it around our circle of family, friends and colleagues.  

This week I witnessed a small firestorm spread around our school community. It was sparked by an innocent misunderstanding which I was not directly involved in - I watched from the sidelines. But even as I saw it unfold, I had a knot in my stomach because I could envision the incident metastasizing into a rumor which would hold a powerful  appeal to both fear and anger. 

In fact, what I predicted came to pass. The rumor proved unstoppable. And a friend of mine was hurt as a result. Deeply.

Sadly, we are addicted. And we're not even close to admitting we have a problem. 

BROKEN STREAK

I accidentally broke my streak last night, but only because I forgot to hit the "Publish" button when I finished writing. Every night since January 1st I have written and posted something here. (Though sometimes it was after midnight.) 

Early on, I worried that if I ever broke my streak, it might dishearten me from continuing. But at this point the writing is a daily habit and one I enjoy AND find personally useful.

My decision to write daily wasn't a New Year's Resolution. It was something I simply determined to make a part of what I am considering the third stage of my career. 

Stage One was Youth Pastor. 

Stage Two was English Teacher, eventually at a Christian school. 

And Stage Three is ... 

I don't exactly know yet.

But here is what I do know: I started out after college as a Minister. Then I became a Minister AND a Teacher. Now I think I am supposed to be a Minister and a Teacher and an Artist. 

But the Lord has yet to reveal how those three aspects of my self are to be combined now. 

Or to what end.

So I keep praying.  

KILLER BEES

I sat on the living room couch and cried. I was 8 or 9 and not usually prone to watching the daily 6 pm news, but somehow I had caught a segment on killer bees. Swarms were migrating northward from South America and soon would be crossing into America. After swiftly conquering the Southwest, they would inch their way relentlessly towards the Midwest. 

I would be dead before I reached college age. I had it on good authority that nothing could stop them.

Mom and Dad reassured me, but why should I trust them over the people on TV?

That was when the world needed only three channels on TV (four if you counted PBS, and I didn't). And it was long before the 24 hour news cycle. News premiered at 6 pm and repeated at 10.

I was a nervous child. A few years later when I started to see magazine covers featuring the new and bigger threat of global COOLING, my stress levels increased again. ("We are entering a new ice age!") 

I cannot even imagine how different my experience might have been if born 40 years later and coming of age in the midst of fake news, conspiracy theories, clickbait and Tiktok.  Not to mention 24/7 access to instant communication with friends ... and enemies ... and strangers. And then top it all off with unlimited mindless entertainment (and pornography?!) at my fingertips? 

Holy cow, I would have been a mess! 

I believe I have just talked myself into a fresh admiration for my own sons and daughters and even for the roughest, most ornery students in my 8th grade English classroom ...

TODAY'S OREGON TRAIL

Recently some of my 8th graders were really getting into playing the old Oregon Trail simulation game for their social studies class. They were checking their progress before my English class began and comparing tallies of deaths within their imaginary groups by snake bite and dysentery. 

I remarked that I am amazed when I stop to think of the absolute bravery of those early pioneers - travelling into unfamiliar territory fraught with hidden dangers. 

Then I said something like, "It's amazing when you stop to think about how much easier life is now."

One of the boys immediately protested, "Life isn't easier today! If anything it's harder!"

I believe it was the Spirit who checked my mouth before I could let loose with a "Oh, come ON. Harder!?"

It took me just half a second longer to realize that he was talking about emotional rather than physical hardships. 

It's been a tough year and many of the students at my school are incredibly fragile at this point. I cannot even imagine boarding the teen-years-roller-coaster just at the time an unprecedented pandemic hits the planet. And for too many, any family safety net was shredded long before the onset of Covid-19. 

At least the original Oregon Trail pioneers had the comfort, protection, and community of the wagon train. Some of my kids are travelling through unfamiliar and dangerous emotional territory on their own.

LOVE COVERS

One of my favorite verses of the Bible is 1 Peter 4:8:

"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins."

None of us is perfect - we're all still prone to a multitude of sins. If we live and work in the midst of gossip and judgment, we will always be looking over our shoulders, fearing a stab in the back. And with good reason! 

But where love is strong and deep, we have confidence that we will not be cast aside for our mistakes. 

This is one key value of a stable family.

And this is why in authentic Christian community - where people are following Scripture's command given through Peter - we can truly call each other brother and sister. 

If we're not able to see past our differences within our church, small group or ministry, and to love each other as we love ourselves, what real chance do we have of making progress for God's Kingdom here on earth?

A LIST OF EVILS FROM JESUS HIMSELF

Here is a  list of EVILS from Jesus, as found in Mark 7:20-23:

"What comes out of a person is what defiles them. For it is from within, out of a person's heart, that evil thoughts come - sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile a person."

If you're like me, you read this list and shake your head over mention of the evils of sexual immorality, theft, murder and adultery.

 Shameful! Sinners! Tsk, tsk.

We feel pretty righteous because we know these words do not describe us.

But then Jesus gets into "greed", "malice", "deceit", "lewdness", "envy", "slander", "arrogance" and "folly". And, I don't know about you, but I hit those words later in Jesus's list and find myself dismissing them just as quickly as "theft" or "murder".

But should I?

Can I?

Here's a little expansion on each concept thanks to biblehub.com:  

Greed: covetousness, avarice, aggression, desire for advantage

Malice: badness, depravity, wickedness

Deceit: guile, treachery

Lewdness: licentiousness, debauchery

Envy: misuse of the eye

Slander: abusive or scurrilous language, blasphemy

Arrogance: pride, disdain, haughtiness

Folly: impiety, lack of sense

Could any of these words apply to you or me?

Before you answer, keep in mind two things:

1) Jesus says these things are in our hearts. Thus, they don't even need to be expressed out loud to be a problem for us!

2) It seems that even a little envy, a little greed, or a little arrogance is just as serious as a little murder or a little theft!

Jesus, make us holy!

A MARK OF MATURITY

Did you notice anything surprising about the last verse of the four cited in yesterday's post?

That would be Hebrews 5:14 - "But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."

Here is what I find curious: the author of Hebrews says that one thing which marks spiritual maturity is being able to "distinguish good from evil" ... after a whole lot of practice and "training". 

But isn't the difference between good and evil so very obvious that even an extremely immature believer can figure out the difference? (In fact, can't even most non-believers do it?)

I mean, murder is evil. Going to church is good. Drunkenness is evil. Being nice to people is good. Greed is evil. Giving is good. 

That's not difficult. Right?

But Jesus comes along and says, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister  will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell." (Matthew 5:21-22)

But hold on a minute. Getting angry with a fellow believer subjects me to judgment? But (I protest) my anger is always righteous!

Calling someone stupid and inferior ("raca") or a fool puts my soul in danger? But what if they are stupid and inferior? 

And there is Jesus patiently reminding us that perhaps our God has a more comprehensive understanding of good and evil. And higher standards of holiness.

This might take some training ...

INFANTS AND MILK

Hebrews 5:11 to 14 - 

"We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand. [The "this" about which the author has much to say is Jesus's role on our behalf as high priest in the order of the Old Testament's mysterious Melchizedek.] 

In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!

Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 

But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."

The author of Hebrews pulls no punches in his smackdown of immature believers who "no longer try to understand" and are being demoted to milk instead of solid food. The prescription for them is to find "someone to teach them the elementary truths of God's word all over again"!

In any Christian community - church, small group, ministry - we should not be overly surprised to find individuals who call themselves believers but who do not have a firm grasp even of the basics of the faith they profess.

This makes me think of numerous short term mission teams who visited Haiti during the years we lived there. The experience of those who visited our OMS campus typically included a trip into a nearby village to share the gospel and distribute solar powered radios tuned to Radio 4VEH, our Christian broadcast ministry.

This terrified people.

The majority of individuals on these teams could be found sitting around the table the evening before their evangelistic experience processing their fear of sharing the gospel. 

That fear always stemmed from their inability to explain the basics of the Christian faith to another person. 

I was sympathetic, of course, but it always left me wondering this: How can a person claim to truly believe something that he can't even articulate?

A TOUGH SPOT FOR LEADERS

For several decades now I have watched the following truths play out across many different venues, slowly and inevitably:  

A leader within an organization who pushes for excellence and raises standards will draw the ire of the lazy, the lax, and the unserious.

A leader who fails to push for excellence and lowers standards will draw the ire of the competent, the purposeful, and the serious. 

The ire of the lazy is sharp and loud. And it is dangerous to the leader: the lazy will work for the leader's removal.

On the other hand, the ire of the competent is blunted and quiet. And it is dangerous to the organization: the competent will eventually remove themselves from the leader's influence. 

20 YEARS IN A BLINK

 Here's the man (!) of the hour on his twentieth birthday:

Twenty years ago today, Melissa and I were starting our third day in the hospital in Pensacola, Florida. Melissa was at hour 47 of an induced labor when Caleb finally made his appearance.

May 5th, 2001.

So this evening, Melissa and I made the 80 mile drive to Crawfordsville along with Samuel and Grandma Trudy to spend a couple of hours with the birthday boy. 

We took Caleb and his roommate Seth to the best Mexican restaurant in Indiana. We weren't thinking about it being Cinco de Mayo. The place was packed out, so the service was slow. But the food was incredible.

(I mean, BACON on a steak FAJITA? Genius!)

After dinner we went back to Caleb's dorm to have a bit of homemade birthday cookie together and to pack up some of his belongings in our vehicle so he won't have to make two trips when he comes home for the summer ... this weekend!

Unbelievable. Two years at Wabash College under his belt now. He'll be doing an internship this summer with the U.S. Marshalls in Indianapolis and, later, going off to basic training. Big plans.

Time is picking up speed at an alarming rate ...

MARGINS

My "sabbatical" last semester has helped me set boundaries this semester and, God willing, into the future. I came to realize that my job is not my life.

And since it is not my life, it does not hold a claim on every waking hour. 

When the school day ends at 3:00 pm, I don't think, "I'm glad that day is over." Because the day is not over. Instead, I think, "What am I going to do with the second half of my day?"

And it is the second half of the day that gives me the most satisfaction: connections with family and friends, keeping up with the necessities of physical and spiritual life, reading, writing, and exercising. Melissa and I have four short years before our nest is empty. These are precious weeks and months.  

In January I signed a contract with the school system in which they promised to pay me for 7.5 hours of work each day, 5 days a week, and I promised to work for 7.5 hours a day, 5 days a week. 

So far I have kept my end of the bargain and then some. I do the work that can reasonably be done within 7.5 hours Monday through Friday and some days a little extra when absolutely necessary. Some things don't get done. 

But just as I do not squander my school hours with reading Twitter or scrolling Facebook or answering personal email, I also will not spend an extra hour or two of a weeknight on school work (at least on a regular basis). And weekends are much too short to give any hours to unpaid work time beyond what is unavoidable. 

It feels like I finally got some balance.

(RE)DEFINING GOSSIP

I looked more closely at the research I cited here a couple of days ago which claimed, in essence, that gossip is good. 

In a curious move, the authors broaden the definition of gossip far beyond "primarily negative evaluative commentary about absent individuals" and "baseless trash talk" to include "chit-chat", "idle talk", and "self-disclosure" among other things. 

So, talking about yourself is part of this study's definition of gossip.

I fail to understand the reasoning behind redefining the term "gossip", studying it, and then declaring this new definition to be a social good.  

I am pretty certain that the Bible does not have "self-disclosure" in mind when it roundly and repeatedly condemns "gossip". What the Bible says about gossip - and what terms it uses for the phenomenon - would make for an interesting "deep dive" into Scripture. 

I might have to take on that project when I get the time since I have seen firsthand the incredible destructive power of gossip - of the "negative evaluative commentary about absent individuals" kind. And it seems like a sin that is commonly winked at by most Christians. (Is that because we all enjoy it so much?)

Beyond redefining gossip, the gossip study also downplays the amount of gossiping (as traditionally understood) that we tend to do: "in daily life, “social policing” has been estimated to comprise a mere 5% of naturally occurring private conversations."

Considering the researchers also cite 16,000 as the number of words most adults speak in a day's span, the math works out to 800 words a day spoken against other people behind their backs. 

(For reference, this entire post consists of roughly 300 words.)

Does that match with your own experience?

Doesn't the Lord expect us to bring that number of critical words down closer to zero?

SAMUEL'S PROM

Samuel and his classmates were thrilled that their school decided to hold the senior prom - outside under a tent on the football field in order to keep things as safe as possible as this pandemic (hopefully) is winding down. The students were blessed with a perfect Indiana spring day. 

And I was thrilled to have a much better phone camera to capture some photos before the big event.

Here is Samuel all cleaned up with his little sister and his mother in our front yard:

He was looking pretty sharp, I have to admit:

And if you think HE looks good, you should see his date!

Samuel and Hannah have been dating for almost a year now and they make for a very cute couple. And Hannah is one of those girls who is beautiful both inside and out. Samuel is a very fortunate guy.

They obviously enjoy each other's company. Here's Hannah's mom getting a few photos in downtown Columbus before Samuel and Hannah and a group of their friends all left for dinner:

And here are the proud parents alongside the cute couple:

Time continues to fly ...

GOSSIP IS GOOD?

Studyfinds.org compiles information about the latest scientific studies. Three days ago the site shared information about a Dartmouth College study on the dynamics of gossip published in Current Biology. 

The article, by Chris Melore, is entitled "Spread the word! Gossip can actually be good for you, Dartmouth researchers say". 

The authors behind the study call gossip "rich, multifaceted communication".

According to Melore: 

Study authors find “baseless trash talk” is not the sole purpose of gossip. It can also create a “shared reality” where friends and colleagues build social bonds, exchange information, and reach agreements on socially acceptable behavior.

So the conclusion is that gossip can bring the gossiper social benefits.

I do not doubt this is true but it seems a bit of a stretch to proceed to a conclusion that gossip is good, since this key question remains unaddressed: What is the spiritual cost to the gossiper?

Still unknown, too, is what sort of damage gossip does to the one being gossiped about.