Going Through the Motions

During Jesus' conversation with the Samaritan woman, he talks about worshiping God "in spirit and in truth." According to a journal entry from Saturday, December 14, 2002, my reaction to this Scripture was the following prayer...

Lord, I pray that this Sunday, I will be worshiping You - and leading others in worshiping You - through the power of the Holy Spirit. Send Him with power and peace and joy and "blow the roof off the joint!"

That sounds so purposeful and dedicated, right? Now read the next journal entry, from Tuesday, December 17th...

So, did the roof get blown off the joint? Probably not; though some people may have thought so because they really liked the bells or the sax. Probably not; though I must admit that I had forgotten all about the above prayer until I read it again just now and so my head and my heart weren't really geared toward the Spirit.

I was going through the motions, wasn't I? I remember raising my hand in praise, but I wonder if I would have done that if I had been in the congregation instead of in front of it?

Truth is...I want to be a dynamic man of God, but even on my best days, I'm just kind of leaning in that direction. I am a work in progress...and I'm thinking that you probably are, too.

Conan O'Brien's Lesson on Handling Hard Times

Conan O'Brien is a freakishly tall, angular, oddly-funny redhead. You may recognize the name from the writing staff of The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live and, oh yeah, sixteen years as the host of Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Also of note are the seven months he spent as host of The Tonight Show...seven months that ended with the job being taken away from him because Jay Leno's move to prime time was a disaster that everyone except the NBC executives foresaw.

With that absolutely unfair event in mind, Mr. O'Brien's final broadcast as host of The Tonight Show included some of the most gracious words ever spoken by a professional comedian.

Please enjoy this bit of kinetic typography by Jacob Gilbreath.

Click here to view the Vimeo video in a new window.

Truth is...when it comes to handling disappointment and upset, one's attitude may very well be everything...or at least as close to everything that anyone's ever going to get.

Bringing Up the Rear

The Apostle Paul, on more than one occasion, compared the followers of Jesus to a human body...even to the point of calling the church, "the body of Christ" (I Corinthians 12:27).

In the twelfth chapter of First Corinthians, Paul emphasizes that no member of the body is more important than another, that our differences are necessary, and that we all belong together: You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts - limbs, organs, cells - but no matter how many parts you can name, you're still one body. It's exactly the same with Christ....I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn't just a single part blown up into something huge. It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I'm not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don't belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I'm not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don't deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it. (I Cor. 12:12-18 MSG)

I like that one phrase: It's all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together.

In his letter to the Christians in Ephesus, Paul repeats the idea that each part of the church/the body has an important role to play: From [Christ] the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Eph. 4:16 NIV)

To put the analogy in practical terms, if you're a person who speaks words of encouragement or teaching, you might be thought of as being the mouth of the body. If you are always helping others, you could be compared to the hands. Maybe you offer transportation to doctor appointments, etc. for the elderly, or drive people to the church services...just like legs.

Now...

If your sole contribution to the life of your church is coming into a particular building on Sundays and sitting...there's a different part of the body to which you might be compared.

Truth is...every body needs a butt, but each body only needs one. 

Art Imitating Life

The Buckets is a comic strip, currently written and drawn by Greg Cravens, distributed by United Feature Syndicate, and available at gocomics.com. It focuses on a suburban family and is based on the actual family of its creator, Scott Stantis.

A recently-published strip featured the mother of the family, apparently driving by an example of road rage or some other form of public disturbance:

A fair enough observation, but it is the second panel that causes the chuckle...as we see a far-too-common disconnect between what a person is perturbed by and what a person does:

I spend enough time on Facebook (too much time, probably) to see plenty of examples of people hatefully accusing others of being hateful and narrow-mindedly calling other people narrow-minded.

It's an old saying, but certainly true: You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar. (Of course, I have no idea why anyone would want to catch flies.)

Truth is...there is a dire need to develop the skill of respectfully disagreeing with people; of supporting one's convictions or opinions without ripping someone else's to shreds.

Truth on a Subway Wall

The very first paragraph of the very first post in this blog made reference to Simon & Garfunkel’s song, Sound of Silence:

It's been said that no one has cornered the market on truth. That's probably accurate, but it doesn't rule out the possibility of this being a little corner of truth, tucked away in the huge City of Life, where, according to Paul Simon, the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls.

That idea of where the words of the prophets are sometimes written is preserved on the Truth is... Facebook page (which you are invited to go to and “Like”) and has led me to share another Paul Simon lyric; this one even more focused on the theme.

A POEM ON THE UNDERGROUND WALL by Paul Simon

The last train is nearly due
The underground is closing soon
And in the dark deserted station
Restless in anticipation
A man waits in the shadows

His restless eyes leap and scratch
At all that they can touch or catch
And hidden deep within his pocket
Safe within his silent socket
He holds a colored crayon

Now from the tunnel’s stony womb
The carriage rides to meet the groom
And opens wide and welcome doors
But he hesitates, then withdraws
Deeper in the shadows

And the train is gone suddenly
On wheels clicking silently
Like a gently tapping litany
And he holds his crayon rosary
Tighter in his hand

Now from his pocket quick he flashes
The crayon on the wall he slashes
Deep upon the advertising
A single-worded poem comprised
Of four letters

And his heart is laughing, screaming, pounding
The poem across the tracks rebounding
Shadowed by the exit light
His legs take their ascending flight
To seek the breast of darkness and be suckled by the night

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

When looking up this lyric, I read several different opinions about what this song means and what the four-letter poem is. Many assumed something profane, others opted for “Hope” or “Love.”

Truth is…in every city, every village, everywhere you look, there are hurting people who are crying out, each in their own way. What kind of people, then, should we be?

What Are You Dying For?

In 1912, Teddy Roosevelt was running for a third term as President of the U.S.A., as head of the newly-formed Progressive Party. He eventually lost the race, but gained a lot of sympathy and respect as a result of being shot in the chest on his way to deliver a speech in Milwaukee.

Doctors and other attendants urged him to forego the speech and get to a hospital, but he insisted on talking to the gathered crowd: "It takes more than that to kill a bull moose!"

Henry F. Pringle quotes Roosevelt in his book, Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography:

"I am not hurt badly. I have a message to deliver and will deliver it as long as there is life in my body. It matters little about me, but it matters about the cause we fight for. If one soldier who carries the flag is stricken, another will take it from his hands and carry it on. Tell the people not to worry about me, for if I go down another will take my place. For always the army is true. Always the cause is there."

Is there a message or a cause for which you are willing to take a bullet to the chest and yet carry on? Is there anything that important to you? Faith? Family? Freedom?

Truth is...I believe if it came down to facing a gunman who said he would kill me if I didn't renounce Christ, I would choose death. The thing is, in many ways it would be easier to die for Jesus than it is to live for him.

Some Tough Questions for the Church

Had a great visit to my home church the last Sunday in April. Whenever I go back there, I get all nostalgic and overwhelmed with a sense of Heritage and Steadfastness. I spent practically every Sunday of my growing-up years planted in the second row, right behind the, in my mind, ancient deacons with enormous ears...while they waited to pass the communion trays and offering plates.

They've had a new preacher since November, and it was refreshing to hear him stir things up a bit; rousing the sleepy little country church of my youth into a new kind of wakefulness.

One of the spoons he used (to stir things up) was this list of questions taken from Reggie McNeal's book, THE PRESENT FUTURE: Six Tough Questions for the Church.

TRADITIONAL QUESTION: How do we do church better?
TOUGH QUESTION: How do we deconvert from Churchianity to Christianity?

TRADITIONAL QUESTION: How do we grow this church? How do we get them to come to us?
TOUGH QUESTION: How do we transform our community? How do we hit the streets with the Gospel?

TRADITIONAL QUESTION: How do we turn members into ministers?
TOUGH QUESTION: How do we turn members into missionaries?

TRADITIONAL QUESTION: How do we develop church members?
TOUGH QUESTION: How do we develop followers of Christ?

TRADITIONAL QUESTION: How do we plan for the future?
TOUGH QUESTION: How do we prepare for the future?

TRADITIONAL QUESTION: How do we develop leaders for church work?
TOUGH QUESTION: How do we develop leaders for the Christian movement?

Truth is...these are great questions for ANY church...for any CHRISTIAN...for me.