All the kids are home and I have decided to spend as little time at my computer as possible while it lasts.
Sharing meaningful quotes, though, is always quick and easy, so here's one from scientist Donella Meadows I came across in James Clear's newsletter:
"There is too much bad news to justify complacency. There is too much good news to justify despair."
Everything in me yells "Amen!" at this thought.
And I'd like to think that this is how I approach life in general.
James Clear is aware of the trap of confirmation bias:
"The more an idea is tied to your identity, the more you will ignore evidence it is false. People seem to have no trouble finding reasons to ignore the merits of ideas they dislike."
Is this why people invest so much energy in theological arguments? I can't think of too many things more closely tied to our own sense of identity than our beliefs about God and humanity.
Clear continues with a concise description of what some call "beginner's mindset": "To continue to grow and learn, you must be willing to update, expand, and edit your identity. In many ways, growth is unlearning."
"Unlearning" is a crucial aspect of learning. Preachers and teachers within the church need to be aware of this.
A good teacher must have a good handle on 1) what he himself needs to unlearn and then 2) what his audience needs to unlearn.
"If, of three friends (A, B, and C), A should die, then B loses not only A but "A's part in C," while C loses not only A but "A's part in B." In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets." (C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves)
Several months ago, two longtime supporters of Mission Resource, Steve and Clark, responded to my general invitation to accompany me to Ghana to witness the ministry's work firsthand.
Several other men expressed interest but then dropped out for one reason or another.
I have known Clark for at least a decade at this point, but Steve was a complete stranger. Clark works in investments and knows the ins and outs of finance. Steve is a retired judge with a quirky sense of humor.
Each brought something unique and valuable to our time in Ghana with our director there, Emmanuel.
One night in particular I was keenly aware that I was in the midst of an important discussion that simply would not have happened if I had traveled solo.
Each of the three of us drew out different facets of this experience in Ghana for each other. This is the nature of teamwork. I am now glad to call these two men my brothers.
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| Steve is to the left of me and Clark on the right, just after we finished touring the Elmina Slave Castle. |
Spending time in the developing world leads inevitably to lots of reflection on the nature of charity and generosity and my own responsibility to my fellow man.
And that gets rather uncomfortable. Because, honestly, there's a part of me that wishes I could shut out all the needs and inequalities and the suffering of others. It's tempting to throw up your hands and ask, "What difference can I make anyway?"
But Scripture doesn't leave that as an option.
Here's a passage I came across this week as I have been working on a Thanksgiving weekend sermon:
Hebrews 13:9 - Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
Perhaps I was looking for some loophole here, but I decided to investigate the word that is being translated as "share" in this command - and I ended up with a surprise.
Turns out it's one of the words which might already be familiar to you if you know anything about the original Greek of the New Testament: koinonia.
This is the word that is typically translated as "fellowship" - meaning sharing together in life, bonding over commonalities.
The author of Hebrews says, in effect, "Fellowship what you have with one another".
I'm not sure exactly what this means - I've got more chewing to do - but it seems to encompass much more than simply writing a check to a worthy charity.
The sense of fellowship - the koinonia - with the amazing individuals we have met this week has been what has made our time so special, meaningful, and memorable.
My day started around 4:00 am, but that was OK since I had gone to bed at 8:00 pm.
Ultimately, we enjoyed a great day of meeting some of Mission Resource's beneficiaries around the town of Sogakope.
Thanks to jetlag, I am too tired to write tonight, so I will just post some photos of the day.
It's 7:15 pm here in Ghana and I am ready to hit the sack soon - there was no sleeping for me (or the other two guys) on the plane last night.
And even if I HAD slept, it wouldn't have been enough. We deplaned at 7:00 am local time - which is 2:00 am Indiana time.
Then we made our way through customs - with minimum hassles from officials over the 2 SmartBoxes we were bringing into the country.
Upon leaving the airport in Emmanuel's pickup, we drove straight to Beacon International School and its founder, Samuel Yeboah, who was eagerly awaiting the gifts.
It turns out that Beacon is quite an impressive school and Samuel an impressive individual. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting him and came away thinking, "This is someone who makes things happen. I need to stay in contact with this guy!"
Our day was rounded out by a delicious dinner at Emmanuel's house which included grasscutter stew.
It wasn't bad for meat from a giant rodent. 😉
Now I am alone on the balcony of a hotel. There's a cool (enough) breeze and a full moon and I am very conscious of being incredibly blessed by God.
It is 4:30 pm and I am typing this post on my phone as I sit on a giant Delta airplane ready to depart JFK for Accra, Ghana.
The flight is just over 9 hours. God willing, we will arrive by 7 am local time - which will be 2 am in Indiana. So I am anticipating losing a night of sleep!
I am traveling with 2 other guys and that will make this a very different experience from my first trip 2 years ago. I am looking forward to getting to know them better.
It's impossible to know what this trip will hold, of course, but I have an anticipation of great things. Only God knows.
I would appreciate your prayers for Melissa and Sarah and especially for Grandma Trudy while I am away!
Not much time tonight for writing. I leave for a 10-day trip to Ghana two days from now and I have been running around like a head with my chicken cut off (as my friend Tim likes to say).
So I am posting the trip itinerary that was created by our Ghanaian director for Mission Resource, Emmanuel.
He will be the one picking us up from the airport and getting us everywhere we need to be.
I post the itinerary here hoping that maybe your curiosity would be piqued and cause YOU to picture yourself coming along next time. 😉
Itinerary for November 2024 Trip to Ghana
Friday the 15th
Saturday the 16th
Sunday the 17th
Monday the 18th
Tuesday the 19th
Wednesday the 20th
Thursday the 21st
Friday the 22nd
Saturday the 23rd
Author Derek Sivers was on the Modern Wisdom podcast recently and gave an illustration that highlights how counterintuitive and illogical human reactions are.
He paints a picture of three Olympic athletes standing on the winner's platform after their competition and asks, "Which one is happiest?"
Well, the Gold Medalist is happiest, of course.
But then Sivers asks, "Who is the next happiest?"
Your first instinct would be to say the Silver Medalist would be next in line, but then you pause and consider the situation... Maybe not?
Sivers maintains that the second happiest is the Bronze Medalist and his reasoning has the ring of truth to it.
The Bronze Medalist is thinking, "Out of all those who competed, I am one of the few to stand here and represent my country before the entire world. If I had been a fraction of a second slower, I wouldn't be here, but I made it to the platform!"
On the other hand, the Silver Medalist is the least happy of all on the platform - by a long shot. He is standing there thinking, "I just barely missed it - if only I had pushed myself a little harder, I could have had the gold. I could have been first place."
I think Sivers is right. And I think it says something profound about how we allow our minds to frame our experiences.
No time or energy for writing tonight beyond sharing a quote from author, musician, and entrepreneur Derek Sivers:
“Mastery is the best goal because the rich can’t buy it, the impatient can’t rush it, the privileged can’t inherit it, and nobody can steal it. You can only earn it through hard work. Mastery is the ultimate status.”
It has only been later in my life that I have come to understand the value of mastering a skill or discipline. Now I feel like I have one overarching drive - the desire to understand my faith at a far deeper level.
And with greater understanding comes more effective practice.
I wasn't familiar with Sivers before coming across this snippet of his thinking about "mastery" in an email newsletter, but now I am curious to hear more of what he has to say.
After a little searching, I discovered that Sivers was a recent guest on one of the podcasts I find most useful: Modern Wisdom with Chris Williamson.
Tomorrow morning, as I fix breakfast for Melissa and Sarah, I plan to find out what else this Derek Sivers fellow is thinking about.
This morning I finally located the Bible book, the passage, and the verse where I want to focus for my dissertation work.
The book is Paul's letter to the Colossians.
The passage is this one from Chapter 3:
5 Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience. 7 When you lived among them, you also used to walk in these ways. 8 But now you must put aside all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
9 Do not lie to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices, 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free, but Christ is all and is in all.
12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Bear with one another and forgive any complaint you may have against someone else. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which is the bond of perfect unity.
And the sentence within which really brings together the elements of my dissertation is found in verses 9-10:
Do not lie to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
The reference to the "practices" of the "old self" and "new self" is tied to habits, both bad and good.
The talk of "knowledge" highlights the centrality of a disciple being taught (and thus the need for the church to take education seriously).
And the focus on restoring the "image of the Creator" ties the New Testament teaching about Christ back to the Old Testament - Genesis in particular - where humanity is created "in the image of God".
I will undoubtedly write more about this in the future, but for now I am just glad to have some direction on this - a key component of my project and one which had not yet felt settled.
This morning I wrote a little article for our Mission Resource newsletter about something called an "awe walk".
An awe walk is simply an ordinary walk plus an intentional focus on finding things along the way which inspire wonder.
This has actually been researched and found to be a great stress reducer as well as a way to feel more connected to all the deeper aspects of life.
Anyway, I decided that if I was going to write about it, I should try it. Fortunately, it was a beautiful morning for a walk, so I put Sugar on the leash and went out for a mile.
I found that in one sense, an awe walk is harder than it sounds. It's like trying to meditate - my mind was constantly wandering.
But in another sense, if you're looking for wonder, it isn't hard to find.
It's all around you. Every day.
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of His hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
(Psalm 19:1-2)
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| A marigold in our backyard, enjoying the November morning sun. No filter needed. |
This year more than ever, my favorite part of an election is the defeated candidate's concession speech and the phone call to the winner.
And not just because it signals a true end to the campaigning and that the outcome is not going to be contested for weeks.
Rather, it's my favorite because it is the closest any politician ever gets to admitting outright that their political rhetoric is 99% hyperbole and BS.
Day before the election: "We must win this fight. If my opponent wins, it will be the end of democracy itself and our nation will have no future whatsoever. Don't forget - the other guy is worse than Hitler and will begin creating concentration camps on Day 1 of his administration. Lives will be lost if he is elected."
Day after the election: "I called my opponent today and congratulated him on winning this hard-fought battle. I pledge to do all in my power to help him get started well and I will make every effort now to bring unity to this divided nation."
"Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth."
The internet is split in attributing this quote to Lenin, Hitler, and Goebbels.
The uncertainty, ironically, does not stop the attributions from being repeated - until they become accepted truth.
There is a theological lie that gets repeated often and, thus, taken for truth, and it drives crazy every time I hear it: "Jesus taught more about hell than about heaven".
You will find this sentence in the mouths of way too many preachers, from the unknown to the famous, but I don't believe I have ever heard anyone even attempt to quantify it with hard data.
It wouldn't be hard to do. There are plenty of tools online these days to help - you wouldn't even have to reread the four Gospels with a highlighter in hand.
In fact, all it takes is a little thought and reflection and you would instantly see the impossibility of Jesus teaching more about hell than heaven.
If you DID quantify it, you would find - like this guy - that Jesus spoke on heaven at least five times as much as on hell.
I'm not sure why people get so invested in promoting a hell of eternal torture that they have to resort to obvious lies to bolster their position.
Satan, being the Father of Lies, undoubtedly approves.
Numbers 11 tells the fascinating story of Moses and God getting frustrated with the Israelites as they complain about having nothing but manna to eat.
They want meat and they have fond memories of the food they used to enjoy back in Egypt - when they were SLAVES.
There's material here for several different sermons.
But this week I was focused on the tail end of the story. God eases Moses' burden by calling out 70 other leaders and taking some of the Spirit that is on Moses and spreading that Spirit among the 70.
And "when the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied".
I think the average church member hears that word "prophesy" and envisions these 70 men making weird, symbolic pronouncements of events that would occur hundreds of years in the future.
But is that what the Israelites were needing at the moment?
What they needed was correction, rebuke, and guidance. Perhaps a reminder of God's faithfulness and provision in the past.
That seems to be what is meant by prophesying in the New Testament, anyway, and it makes sense here.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14, "1 Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. 2 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. 3 But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort."
There's a curious epilogue in the story of Moses and the 70 new prophets of Numbers 11. Two of the men never left the camp to join the big gathering of leaders and they end up prophesying back at the camp among other people. Joshua finds this to be out of order and tells Moses that he ought to stop them.
At this point, Moses does a bit of foreshadowing of a big change coming in the future:
29 But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”
After getting into a verbal tussle with a fellow believer in the comments section of a YouTube video* today, I just feel the need to say this:
If your faith makes you angry, judgmental and humorless, you are doing something very wrong.
God invited you into His family to be His son or daughter, not His theological pit bull.
Although my opponent questioned my salvation, I did not return the favor.
Imagine calling a fellow believer's salvation into question based on a few sentences back and forth on the internet!
So I did not suggest that he himself was unsaved - but I did wonder aloud if he was getting enough fiber in his diet.
*If you're curious about the venom this brother spat at me, just look at the discussion under this video HERE by James White. The video highlights some interesting squabbles recently among Calvinists resulting from some creeping antisemitism in their ranks. You'll have to click on the replies under my original comment/question. I am "mrgrossism" and I asked, "This development begs the question: What is it about reformed theology that opens a door to antisemitism?"
