Waiting For Sunday

Here’s an article of diet tips from Kyle Pott (his real name?) who lost 50 pounds in three months and has kept it off for more than a year.  Like a lot of good advice, it’s nothing you haven’t heard before, but the thing that makes it attractive to me is the realistic approach.  Potts dieted only five days a week and gave himself a break on the weekends.  Or, if he had a social event during the week that called for a little indulgence, he made it up Saturday.

His ten tips may not allow you to drop 50 pounds by May 1 - he’s got to have some good metabolism - but his approach seems solid and workable, including his ideas for keeping it off.

Found this through Lifehacker.com

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I recently discovered Carmine Gallo, a Business Week writer who focuses on the craft of public speaking and giving presentations. I’ve been slowly working through his articles, trying to learn as much as I can to apply to my own preaching and teaching. Gallo is practical and entertaining. Check him out before you face your next crowd.

Here’s a link to the RSS feed for his articles. You can search the Business Week site for older postings.

PS - I found Gallo’s feed on another blog. As soon as I remember where, I’ll give credit.

Update: Ah, here is is - a post from Steve Rubel at Micro Persuasion about the Business Week feed builder which mentions Gallo as an example.

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Each day the Internet Movie Database posts the names and photos of four celebrities who were “born today”. I don’t know when I started doing this, but I always click through that list hoping that today all the stars listed will be older than me. There aren’t many such days anymore. Yesterday it almost happened. Only Teri Hatcher from Desperate Housewives was younger than me. (We were born in the same year. Too bad she isn’t holding up as well as I am).

Today, though, everyone IS older than me, thanks to Judi Dench (72), Kirk Douglas (90), John Malkovich (53) and Felicity Huffman (also a Desperate Housewife, 44).

Why do I care? I can’t say for sure. I guess I find comfort in knowing that there are people well ahead of me in the age race who are valued by society. The IMDb list gives balance to an interview I heard last night with two guys in their early-20s who just sold their internet start-up company, presumably for millions.

This particular neurosis hit me early. I remember, when I was 21, writing a letter to a girl I liked about how strange it felt that Dwight Gooden (then 20) was making a big splash pitching for the Mets. I think I was basically trying to sound deep to impress the girl, but Gooden’s early success did make me think about how quickly life passes. Doc Gooden’s recent life also makes me think - about how the full story of a life takes years to write. Gooden spent most of this year in prison.

In Searching For God Knows What, Donald Miller writes at length about this need we have to validate ourselves in contrast to others. He says that an alien visiting our world would see clearly that it drives nearly everything we do. Age makes a handy comparison. So does weight, looks, athletic ability, success and the accumulation of possessions. Miller traces this back to The Fall when Adam and Eve sinned and cut us off from the One who tells us that we are valuable.

Christ means to bridge this gap back to God, to reconnect us with the Source of our identity. The more I abide in Him, the less I need to compare.

And the less need I have to point out that Brad Pitt is older than me.

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Every once in awhile, NPR’s “This I Believe” series features a profound and moving piece. This morning I heard this one, I Always Have a Choice, on the way in to work. Catherine Royce was a dancer and an artist before she was stricken with ALS. Her perspective is worth hearing.

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I met a good friend for lunch today. As we finished up, he asked me what I had planned for the afternoon. Although I was a little embarrassed about it, I told him that I was taking a few hours off to go see a movie. I was embarrassed to tell a church member that I was taking a few hours off (but don’t worry, MHCCers - you got your money’s worth out of me today), and also because I was going to see a movie by myself, which I fear sounds odd. Turns out that he was also taking a few hours off to go play golf by himself.

Six years ago, Robert Putnam published a book called Bowling Alone, about how community ties in America are fraying and falling apart so that folks these days are just as likely to bowl alone as to take part in a league. He made it sound so sad.

The thing is, I love going to movies by myself. (Let me hasten to add that I love going with my wife too!) I also love traveling alone by plane, walking alone, working out alone. It energizes me almost to giddiness to be alone in a public place, alone in a crowd.

I do need my friends. I’m human (and sometimes insecure) after all. But I am also an introvert, so I need more time by myself than most of you. Still I wonder how many of you feel the same way. Maybe you live in a house full of beloved people, or you’re surrounded all day at school or work by not-so-beloved-people. Isn’t alone-time one of our most precious commodities, one that’s in awfully short supply?

P. S. It so happened that I REALLY got some alone-time at the movie. I was THE only person in the theater! When there was a delay in starting the movie, I was SURE that they were going to come tell me to leave! This was at Downtown West, an older, smaller eight-screen multiplex, but I saw NO ONE there except two employees! Cindy and I saw the second Matrix movie with one other couple, but I’ve never had the place to myself before. Have you?

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When I was young, adults I cared about lied to me. These adults weren’t my enemies. They were friends, teachers, church folks, relatives, people who cared.

The lie they told me: “You can be anything you want to be.”

It wasn’t true. I wanted to play shortstop for the Cleveland Indians, or quarterback for the Browns. I couldn’t do it, and no amount of positive thinking or even practice could have made it so (although with the Browns’ record, what difference would it make?)

The fact is, I was made for certain things and not for others. So were you. Your natural abilities, your temperament, and the spiritual gifts God gives you make you unique - different than me, different than your sister, different than your Dad’s expectations of you, different maybe than your own dreams and desires.

This point was driven home to me recently by Parker Palmer’s book, Let Your Life Speak. Palmer, an educator and a teacher of teachers, reminds me to “listen to my life” to hear God’s calling on me. He says: “Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you.” (p. 3)

And: “Engineering involves more than telling materials what they must do. If the engineer does not honor the nature of the steel or the wood or the stone, his failure will go beyond aesthetics: the bridge or the building will collapse and put human life at peril…The human self also has a nature, limits as well as potentials. If you seek vocation without understanding the materials you are working with, what you build with your life will be ungainly and may well put lives in peril, your own and some of those around you.” (p. 16)

This may sound like advice suited best for young people who are choosing a trade or a college major. But Palmer speaks and writes to teaching professionals who have been at their life’s work for some time, whether they entered it for good reasons or poor. He helps them learn to teach in ways that grow out of who they are. That’s encouraging to me, because at this stage in my life, I’m probably not going to head off into nuclear physics, diesel mechanics or stand-up comedy no matter what my life tries to tell me (well maybe stand-up comedy). What I CAN learn is how to live, minister, preach, write, visit and care about people in ways that are true to how God has made me.

One of the themes we’re stressing at church this month is discovering how God equipped you to serve. “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us”, Romans 12:6 says. And in Christ’s Body, the church, “God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be” (1 Corinthians 12:18).

So let your life speak. Or, more accurately, let God speak through your life. Maybe it won’t change what you do for a living. But it could change the life that flows out of you.

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A. W. Tozer said that every Christian must learn to bear one of two pains; either the pain of double-mindedness, or the pain of the crucified self. The pain of double-mindedness is the pain of a tooth-ache that lasts a lifetime. The pain is always there, filling you with resentment, anger, and envy. The pain of the crucified self, on the other hand, is a deep, terrible, surgical pain. But once it’s over, it’s over.I’ve had this quote from Tozer laying around on my hard drive for many years, and I’ve used it in sermons before (and I used it this Sunday). In all honesty, though, I haven’t been able to trace it down via Google, and I’m starting to wonder if he really said it. Like I said Sunday, I agree with all of this quote except the last line: “Once it’s over…” Surgical pain fades away, but I think I was the reason Jesus told us to take up the cross DAILY in Luke 9:23.

Yet I can’t quibble with the underlying truthfulness of Tozer’s words about double-mindedness. I find myself seeking God in the morning, and looking out for myself by lunch. I pray and I count my money; I worship and I assess the honors people give me; I call myself a servant and then get angry when people treat me like one.

And it’s an awful way to live. O wretched man that I am!

How many Christians do you know who REALLY practice dying to self? I DO know a few. I work with at least two. I know a few others in church, and most of them are older. Is it their life-and faith-experience that makes them as they are? Or is it that my generation and the younger ones are failing to produce that kind of Christian?

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“Human beings are explanation generators.”

So says Daniel Taylor in his book The Myth of Certainty (p. 22). He says that we generate explanations about what life means to give us security, and that (and this is the interesting and scary part) all explanations for life are self-verifying. That means that they all seem to be true, that we can find “evidence” to back them up.

Our house is currently under the attack of fruit flies. There used to be a theory that said that fruit spontaneously generated fruit flies. It isn’t true, but if I hadn’t been taught otherwise, I would THINK it was true. It’s an explanation that works. All I have to do is leave an apple out and I’ve got fruit flies.

People used to think that the universe revolved around the earth. It seems to do just that. If you picture the night sky as a black globe enclosing the earth with the stars painted on it, that works as an explanation for most of the universe. Only a few objects mess up that theory by moving against that black globe, including the sun, moon and planets (which is why they’re called “planets” or “wanderers”).

Explanations of all kinds “work” to explain life, and everybody has one - from staunch young-earth creationists to strict Darwinists, from radical Islamic clerics to shouting fundamentalist Christian preachers to left-leaning atheists, from the Amish in Lancaster who stoically mourn the recent school shooting (and put it in God’s hands) to the baffled worldly reporters who sip Starbucks Chai Tea Lattes in front of their farmhouses…we all know how to explain the world and we all have a group of friends around us who will affirm our explanation.

Doesn’t make it true, though.

I see these life-explanations at work in Christians around me:

• Money doesn’t buy happiness. Money and Christ buy happiness.
• Pursuit of pleasure is empty…unless you go to church every other Sunday. Then pursuit of pleasure is quite admirable.
• The greatest commands of the faith? Learn to love yourself so you can love your neighbor and give ten percent of a tithe to God’s work.

Daniel Taylor: “Once in operation, a belief system processes all information, all evidence in its own terms, appropriating that which verifies its outlook and defusing or ignoring anything else” (p.23).

Remember, friends…there are many people who will affirm your version of the truth, for now anyway.

And then there is One who is Truth Himself.

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HP is promoting a new slimming feature on their digital cameras. The before-after pictures are impressive, but when you watch the demo at HP’s site, you can see the distortion take place. CBS took flak in late August for slimming down Katie Couric in a publicity photo.

I learned of the HP camera feature at Church Marketing, er, Stinks, a site devoted to evaluating and improving the way we promote churches. This is a good, short article on how dumb advertising campaigns may generate buzz but they hurt more than they help.

BTW, HP has been in the tech and business news lately for an unethical and probably illegal leak probe conducted against journalists, employees and HP directors.

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Mike Zukowski sent me this link to a Philip Yancey story called “Postcard from Africa” in Christianity Today. In Africa, AIDS, death, poverty and strong Christianity live with one another. My persistent thought while reading this story: African Christians will certainly lead us in the Kingdom of Heaven.

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Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:12

To me, this is one of the best promises of heaven that there is. Not just to know God fully, but to KNOW that he knows me fully, that he has all along. My heart’s greatest longing is for someone who KNOWS me as I am, not as I appear to be, not by the political or religious or cultural mold someone has chosen for me, not as a pastor or a white man or an American or a small town hick (though I am all of these things, without regret). I need that Someone who knows me in my sin, which is uglier than I can ever admit, and yet who calls me higher, “further up and further in”*, someone who sees the stained and rotten clothing I have left behind and no longer defines me by it.

There is, of course, no one one earth who can do this for us completely. In the best marriages and friendships, we sometimes come close. But then we see in the other that which threatens us, and we attack it and run.

That’s why I always return from my fruitless searches to the One who promises in Revelation 2:17 that one day (if I overcome) he will give me “a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.” Ah, to be NAMED by Him is to be known by Him, to receive His blessing, and to be granted a new destiny.

AMEN! Come (and name me) Lord Jesus!

*(A Narnia reference from The Last Battle(?))

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Since my previous post was about finding community and the one before that dealt with finding a life-long passion, I want to offer you this link to an 8-minute NPR story that pulls both together.

Shari Caudron, who is about my age, confesses that she has been serially passionate about a succession of things - running, saving the earth, photography. When she began to discover people who are totally sold-out to narrow and puzzling passions (the Andy Griffith show, collecting Barbies, talking about Star Wars) she wrote a book called Who Are You People? Her research taught her that it isn’t just the common passion that sets these folks apart but the community they find in each other’s company. When one Barbie-collector lost her son, the outpouring of support she received came not from local neighbors and friends but from “Barbie Nation”.

Give it a listen.

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In response to my thirst for adventure that I described in my last blog post (which received wider-than-normal readership because it also ran in our church newsletter) I have had no shortage of suggestions from friends on how to kick-start the jaw-dropping life I desire. One guy suggested that I join him on an upcoming two-week backpacking trip. I think he was kidding, as I doubt he wants to carry me out of the woods after three days. But his long-lived passion for serious hiking is contagious.

A woman offered me the chance to join her in leading a group of middle/high school students on a whitewater rafting trip. I might actually try this one, though I fear it may remind me how much I like to sit inside where it is warm and dry and read. Another friend at church suggested that if I wanted adventure I could lead the soon-to-be-enjoyed congregational budget meeting. Um, no.
The suggestions, along with a great supportive email from another friend, reminded me that even when life is unsatisfying, it is great to have community, Christian friends who care what you think and respond to it.
I’m seeing it this weekend in our church’s grief over the death of A. L. Woody, a thirty-seven-year-old husband and father who died suddenly on Saturday evening after battling an aggressive cancer for all of this year. I can see in our church family that people not only want to help this family, we actually grieve with them.

Thanks for providing me with community. Thanks to those of you who have invited the Woodys into your life. Let’s keep our eyes open for those who still need to be welcomed in to the family.

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Lately for me, the joys of life have begun to wear thin. For some people, this happens at 65, when work ends and, well, what then? For some, it happens at 18 when suddenly there is a baby and bills and work. For some blessed folks, it never seems to happen.

Is this the mid-life crisis I’ve heard so much about? I’m 42. I’ve got more material things than I need and there really isn’t anything I want (which doesn’t keep me from buying junk sometimes). My various hobbies that have drifted in and out of my life have never been consuming, nor have I desired them to be. I continue to work on a stronger faith, stronger marriage, and stronger ministry. But I find myself aching for adventure, the optimism of youth.

I see people around me who seem to reclaim the adventure in ways that are good (adopting kids) potentially good or bad (building a house, starting a business, buying a motorcycle) and bad (illicit romance). I understand the void that makes even sin seem alluring.

In the midst of this introspection, I read an article by Sarah Wright, in which she said:

I thought about the most spectacular thing in my life, God…Has He grown ordinary to me? Or is He that almost mythical God of the Old Testament that did all those interesting miracles? I can’t handle a common god. I need the One who still does miracles in my life. I don’t want to settle for less. I don’t care how foolish I sound; I want the jaw-dropping life.

Why do people say that I don’t need to aspire to do anything great, but can be ordinary and affect the people around me? Of course they are right, but shouldn’t I at least try to reach for the Brother Andrew-type life? How can we show God’s power if we don’t do audacious stunts that beg for God to help us out, like selling all our belongings and going to Uganda? That’s a life that I can look at and get fired up. That is a life that has stories to tell.

That’s what I want too, even if it turns out to be God’s jaw-dropping power in plain old ordinary life. I’m praying for it too.

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I’m not a big fan of church message signs, but I can at least ignore them when their messages are cute, trite, sappy or irrelevant. This one makes me mad. Of course the problem isn’t with “Share your faith with others” but with “Keep your doubts to yourself”. This advice makes us look like anti-thinking, anti-rational simpletons to the world because it suggests that doubt is a powerful enemy to faith, and as such it should be ignored, denied, stuffed down deep until it disappears.

“Keep your doubts to yourself” also makes it impossible to authentically “share your faith with others”. After all, if I sometimes have doubts (and I do), and yet I still stake my life on my faith (and I do), I think that makes for a more compelling testimony about faith, which by definition isn’t a 100% certainty. On the other hand, if I feign certainty, I tend to come across as a blinded fanatic.

I recently read Daniel Taylor’s The Myth of Certainty, a great book that gave me more freedom to strongly affirm my faith even in times of doubt, or at least uncertainty. Taylor writes:

“…Job’s friends spoke many so-called truths to him which taken abstractly are theologically unimpeachable. Scripture recognizes, however, that the cool self-righteousness with which these truths were offered renders them useless to Job or anyone else. Christ, on the other hand, repeatedly modeled truth as relationship” (p. 129)

How do I know my wife loves me? I could pull out our marriage certificate and study it, and then keep my doubts to myself. But it is in the relationship that I find meaningful certainty.

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I just finished reading Searching For God Knows What by Donald Miller, who also wrote Blue Like Jazz. One of Miller’s main points is that we, being separated from the security of God’s love, look to everybody else to tell us that we’re OK. He included this magnificently honest quote from Tom Arnold, the former Mr. Rosanne Barr and former host of The Best *** Sports Show, Period. It comes from Arnold’s book How I Lost Five Pounds in Six Years (sounds like my diet plan):

“The interviewer asked him why he had written the book, and I was somewhat amazed at the honesty of Arnold’s answer. The comedian stated that most entertainers are in show business because they are broken people, looking for affirmation. ‘The reason I wrote this book…is because I wanted something out there so people would tell me they liked me. It’s the reason behind almost everything I do.’”

It’s the reason behind more of my actions, sermons, and blog posts than I care to admit. Oh to reconnect with the Father in such a way that we can live with and love others and not worry about their opinions!

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Most of you know that my wife Cindy and I have no children of our own. I have no regrets about that because I think it’s important to live the life God gives you and to live it faithfully, and we have many wonderful blessings for which to be grateful – my greatest blessing being her. But occasionally I get to look through the window at what might have been…

This past Saturday, for reasons you can read about in an earlier post, I found it necessary to go to a mall in Chattanooga with Mallory and Jessica, the college students who have been working at MHCC this summer. Both of them are twenty-year-old college juniors, Jessica at Wheaton College near Chicago, and Mallory at Vanguard University in Southern California. Now most of my friends my age (42) have children who are in early high school and younger. But it wouldn’t be unusual at my age to have a twenty-year-old child. My parents did when they were 42.

This little road trip opened me to a new world, one which is commonplace for many of you. I pray that you don’t take it for granted. First, the drive itself – I listened to their music (Coldplay, Pedro the Lion, Ben Folds) and I made them listen to some of mine (I had to pronounce the name “John Mellencamp” a couple of times before they said it sounded familiar). Then when we walked into the mall, I suddenly realized that I hadn’t been in a mall for maybe three years. Not exactly my kind of place, you know. But more than that, watching these two young women shop and make wise and mature buying choices was fascinating to me and made me proud on behalf of their parents.

What an awesome responsibility and privilege to raise daughters these days! The best parents teach their girls to be strong, independent, and smart, to respect themselves because they are beloved daughters of God and to expect nothing less than respect from others. Most of you have seen these two young women at church and you know that they are both beautiful. But what I have seen over these last seven weeks (and what I pray their parents see) is that each is, in her own way, wise, confident, steel-strong, excellent in leadership, compassionate and gracious.

Here’s my advice to those of you who are working hard to teach your daughters the same qualities, and feeling the pressure, the strain, and maybe even the heartache of raising your girls: Don’t miss it for anything.

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When I suggested to Mallory and Jessica (from Group Workcamps) that we should go fishing this coming week, I knew I should do some boat maintenance and fish-scouting in order to have a successful trip. Through various circumstances, Jessica (a Junior at Wheaton College) and Cindy (my wife, natch) came along on what was supposed to be the scouting and boat-shakedown trip.

It would be an understatement to say that things didn’t go exactly as planned. I made my first mistake when, after the boat motor didn’t start right away, I hooked up the electric trolling motor and pointed us away from shore. I figured that I’d get it started soon, and I didn’t want us drifting back onto land in the meantime.

My second mistake happened when, as I saw a really ominous black cloud heading in, I didn’t turn us back immediately. After all, it hadn’t rained around here for weeks!

So what happened? I never got the motor started, and we were overtaken by an ugly storm (with lightning) that blew us to a point midway between the launching ramp at the city park and the one at the Highway 58 landing. Along about the time that Jessica and I were swimming and pushing/pulling the boat along the shore, she laughingly reminded me that her mother had sent me an email thanking me for taking good care of her. Ouch!

There is a Latin phrase, in absentia parentis, that used to describe the responsibility of colleges and universities (no longer, unfortunately), and should still fit the church. In absentia parentis means that we look out for the children of other people even as we look out for our own. Even though I had offered to Jessica the chance to let Cindy take her back to the church and leave me to fix my mess, I really felt rotten later for letting her family down and getting her into this “adventure” just because I didn’t want to give up.

Well we did get the boat back home, Cindy and I had a brief fight about my poor judgement (it’s all better now), I ended up replacing Jessica’s rain-damaged cell phone (glad to do it, Jess), and the inside of my truck smells like a kennel (from water, not from any specific passenger).

Despite all of this, I had a really great time. Jess is such a great girl that she had me laughing most of the time instead of insanely clubbing my boat motor with the paddle, Chevy Chase-like. Still…

The bad decisions we make don’t usually affect us alone. My desire is to live and lead responsibly out of respect for those who work (and “fish”) with me and those who care about them.

P. S. - Tonight, after a little tinkering, the motor started on the second pull!

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Last month I heard an interview with Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness. This book immediately went on my must-read list (haven’t read it yet) because Gilbert gave some intriguing ideas about how most of the things from which we expect happiness fail to provide it, and how we blindly sacrifice real happiness now for imaginary happiness later.

One of Gilbert’s points was about money. Going from $4,000 to $40,000 in annual income certainly increases happiness for most people because basic needs are met. But going on up to $400,000 or $4 million doesn’t make a predictable difference. I.e., money can buy happiness, but only to a point.

A new study called “The Happy Planet Index” confirms it, by comparing happiness v. Gross Domestic Product in 233 nations. Economic and consumerist giants like the U. S., Japan and Germany are unhappy places (the U. S. ranked #150) while the happiest place in the world is Vanuatu, a tiny South Pacific island nation (well, sure!).

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I found this article called “Go from Couch to 5K in Six Weeks” at one of my favorite blogs, Lifehacker. I haven’t run a 5K since 1991 (in Denver - the altitude was a killer for me, but I made it), and I don’t plan to run one just now, but I think I might try this simple training plan as I try to lose the twenty pounds I’ve gained since last summer. When I trained in 1991, I designed a plan similar to this one, except that I broke my goals down into quarter-miles (which are marked on the Kingston walking trail) rather than minutes. Most folks in reasonable health can train themselves to run a 5K (3.1 miles) in a little over 30 minutes. (When I ran in Denver, I finished behind a 77-year-old man - but he was in GREAT shape!)

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My previous post (and church newsletter article) was about my boyhood admiration for Superman. Well what’s a young kid who loves superheroes to do when he’s too old to believe in the Man of Steel? In the 70s there was a real-life substitute who flew through the air, put his own safety aside for the sake of his cause - heck, he even dressed in red, white and blue and wore a cape. His fame swept across America and through my Elementary School too. I’m speaking of Robert Craig Knievel, Jr.

Evel Knievel was nearly thirty years old when he made what became his most famous jump - and crash - at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. I became aware of him when ABC’s Wide World of Sports featured him regularly from 1973-76. During that time, he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, had a popular line of toys, and inspired a two-part Happy Days cliffhanger in which Fonzie tried to jump his bike over a line of barrels. (It wasn’t till later that Fonzie - and Happy Days - jumped the shark).

Even today I can’t help watching this guy. Last night I saw him featured on The History Channel, and today I have spent more time than I should have reading about him on the web. But these days, the fascination is more about a guy whose LIFE is a motorcycle crash. Superman was invincible. Evel Knievel has broken up to fifty bones, spent a month in a coma after Caesar’s Palace, and says he has been in the hospital for a total of three years. He had a liver transplant in 1999 after contracting hepatitis C, apparently in one of his many surgeries.

Superman fought for truth, justice, and the (politically incorrect) American way. Knievel beat Sheldon Saltman (who Knievel said wrote lies about him) with a baseball bat while another man held Saltman (Knievel served six months in jail for that). Superman was a force for good. Knievel has been in trouble for tax evasion, soliciting a prostitute, and carrying illegal weapons.

When I was a kid, I looked at Evel Knievel and saw Superman. Today when I watch those old interviews, I see a guy who is just LOST, an Elvis impersonator who has been kicked in the head a few times too many.

And Superman never sold a scooter.

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For some reason, I feel a kinship with people who share my birthday. In our church, I have the same birth date as two people - a new friend named Brandy and an old friend named Teresa (I won’t say how old).

Famous people have the same birthday as I do. Nicole Kidman does (she’s three years younger). So does John Goodman (11 years older) and Josh Lucas (7 years younger) who has been acting for 15 years but only recently became moderately famous in Glory Road and Poseidon. 80s pop-star Lionel Ritchie shares my birthday, as does Darko Milicic, who was drafted between LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony in the NBA draft a few years ago (he has yet to pan out). Other notable birthday buddies include guitarist Chet Atkins, Errol Flynn,and Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson, who once said: “Beware the lollipop of mediocrity; lick it once and you’ll suck forever.”

Why does this matter to me? I think it’s because we all need to connect with others somehow, so we look for affinity where we can find it. When we’re far from home, we get excited to to meet someone from our state. We want to be identified as Southerners or jazz fans or members of Earnhardt nation.

For me, it’s birthdays. The day I was born - I had no control over it whatsoever, yet it defines me for the rest of my life, telling me when I can drive, when I can vote, when I’m over-the-hill (not yet) and when I’m supposed to retire. So it pleases me to stumble across someone who shares the same defining random day.

The birthday thing is a shallow connection, though - an ice-breaker, a conversation-starter, not much more. How much more wonderful it is to find connection with people who share our deepest and most-eternal quality - our faith in and love for Jesus Christ.

Happy birthday Teresa and Brandy…and you too, Darko (hang in there).

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My friend DeWayne Britt supplied me with another good thought for this blog (I really need to add his name to the blog!) This is about something Christians can do as a pro-life ministry, our “hot topic” from last Sunday. DeWayne says:

The one thing that Christians can and should consider short of Adoption is being a Foster Parent. This is something that can be done now and with no real effort on the front end. The Department of Children’s Services is always in need of good Foster Parents but even much more, Christian Foster Parents. What an opportunity awaits both the Christian and the foster child. We have never received a child in our home that had been “churched”. All have come from very dysfunctional families where incest, drugs, physical-sexual abuse, neglect were common place. As a Christian we have been able to, if nothing else, introduce them to Jesus Christ through our commitment to a Christian life, Church and through our example, be it not always perfect. They are able to see a family, who although not the “Beaver Cleaver” example, one that loves each other regardless of our flaws and failures, stick it out, try to make things better and most importantly knows who holds it all together; Jesus Christ. Some children are only in the foster home for a short period of time but others longer. Imagine that child being introduced to Jesus then returning to the dysfunctional home. What a support for the child in a bad situation, but what if the child is able, through Jesus Christ change that family? Although Fostering can be difficult at times, the benefit for all exceeds any other accomplishment that I can think of. Attached is the DCS Adoption/Fostering web site for more information about DCS opportunities; http://tennessee.gov/youth/adoption/

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I just finished listening to a sermon called “Conviction vs. Preference” by Andy Stanley. Some of his themes lead perfectly into my upcoming series on Hot Issues (things like gay marriage, abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, war). These issues are being debated and decided in terms of personal preference rather than conviction. Stanley says:

We have preferences. We have very few convictions. We know what is right and what we’re taught. We look around at society, and we’re sure we can tell the difference between right and wrong. But we develop few real convictions, and consequently our walk does not match our talk. Many of us are people of preference. Not enough of us are men and women of conviction.

In the book of Daniel, thousands of Hebrews are captured by the Babylonians. Among them are Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men make up their minds that they will not disobey God and betray their convictions no matter what the consequences.

Stanley points out something that should be obvious to us, but which may be obscured by our familiarity with the stories - namely that Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego obeyed not knowing how their story would end. WE know that all will work out well. Daniel won’t be eaten by the lions and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will not burn in the fiery furnace. But THEY don’t know that. They only know that it is better to obey God. Shadrach and friends make that memorable statement of faith in Daniel 3:16-18:

“O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

In every area of life - money, dating, entertainment, sex, business - we need to obey God out of Biblically-informed conviction rather than follow our personal preference. Like the four young men in Daniel, we don’t know exactly how it will turn out if we do. What we DO know is that, from the perspective of eternity, it will always be worth it.

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