Waiting...

No one likes to wait. I hate waiting. I recently took my daughter to the doctor, and we had to wait for over an hour. Apparently, she hates to wait too. I hate slow drivers. I hate slow computers. I hate waiting in lines. I hate waiting for the mail. I want answers now. I want to know what is going to happen tomorrow now. I want an Oompa-Lumpa now. I want all of those character traits that you only acquire through time, trial, and experience, but I want them now. I want all the things that take years to get, without all those years.

Recently, however, I have become quite accustomed to waiting. I am even learning, quite reluctantly, the beauty of patience and resting in God. I recently lost my job (I don't think the world is quite ready for that blog yet!), and the process of finding another one has taken a bit longer than I expected. Granted, I admit that I unrealistically believed I could find another job in two weeks, but my current job search with one company in particular has been extremely grueling and exhausting. The whole process began nearly six weeks ago, and has included a phone interview with an outside recruiter, a phone interview with the company recruiter, an interview with a district manager, and a field interview (that lasted 12 hours) with the district manager and three reps. And the thing is, I'm finding out that this is the norm. Another company that I am interviewing with has the same process but adds two personality test/interviews.

You may wonder where I am going with all of this. Well, the past few weeks have been unusually taxing. I feel like I am caught at a railroad crossing with the gates down and the lights flashing and the bells ringing, but the train went by 15 minutes ago. As I was driving yesterday, I noticed a church sign which stated that the upcoming message would be taken from Psalm 130. Unfortunately, I only have up to Psalm 126 memorized, so I had to look this one up. As I sat down this morning to read this Psalm, I was feeling especially anxious, especially down, and altogether frustrated. I was supposed to find out more about the position and my status two weeks ago. Then last week I was told we would know something by Friday. Then Monday. And now, it was Thursday and I knew nothing more than I did some three weeks ago. With tears in my eyes, I begged God to give me something. To let me find out something. I honestly could not take another day of not knowing, of waiting. I began to read:

Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
O Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy.

If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,
O Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness;
therefore you are feared.

I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I put my hope.

My soul waits for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.

O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.

He himself will redeem Israel
from all their sins.

Needless to say, tears again filled my eyes as I began to pray. "God, I will wait for you. My hope is in You."

And then the phone rang.

Tuesday is Joke Day

A blonde decides to try horseback riding, even though she has had no lessons or prior experience. She mounts the horse unassisted and it immediately springs into motion. It gallops along at a steady and rhythmic pace, but the blonde begins to slip from the saddle. In terror, she grabs for the horse's mane, but cannot seem to get a firm grip.

She tries to throw her arms around the horse's neck, but she slides down the side of the horse anyway. The horse gallops along, seemingly ignorant of its slipping rider.

Finally, giving up her frail grip, the blonde attempts to leap away from the horse and throw herself to safety. Unfortunately, her foot becomes entangled in the stirrup, and she is now at the mercy of the horse's pounding hooves as her head is struck against the ground over and over.

She starts to lose consciousness, but to her great fortune, Bobby, the Wal-Mart greeter, sees her and unplugs the horse.



Yesterday, scientists from the Centers for Disease Control suggested that men should curb their beer consumption, considering the results of a recent analysis that revealed the presence of female hormones in beer. The concern was that consuming large amounts of beer would turn men into women.

To test the theory, 100 men were fed 6 pints of beer each. It was then observed that 100% of the men gained weight, talked excessively without making sense, became overly emotional, couldn't drive, failed to think rationally, argued over nothing, and refused to apologize when wrong.

No further testing is planned.



A pirate walks into a bar and orders a drink. The bartender looks down and says, "You know that you have a steering wheel in your pants."

The pirate replies "Ay, it's drivin' me nuts."

Let's Get Relevant!

This past Sunday marked the last weekend of service at Southeast Christian Church for Senior Minister Bob Russell. After 40 years of service, Bob Russell's last sermon, his last words of admonition to the staff and members of Southeast were simple: "Preach the Word." This message was taken from 2 Timothy 3 and 4, where Paul instructed his young apprentice in his duties as a pastor. Paul wrote:

"But as for you [Timothy], continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.

A pastor's duty is not to entertain or be "cutting edge" or stay up with pop culture. While it is beneficial for a pastor to be all of these, his singular charge is clear: Preach the Word. Obviously, this method has been successful for Bob Russell and Southeast Christian. Forty years ago, the church had some 130 members, and their first sanctuary was someone's basement. Now, with over 18,000 attending weekend services, it cannot be denied that God has blessed the efforts of Bob Russell and the rest of the Southeast staff and members. So, what is it that accounts for the success and blessing of this church? Russell suggested three things: the primacy of Christ and the Gospel at Southeast, the providence of God, and presenting the gospel in such a way as to make it relevant for today. Russell stated, "The Word of God is eternal in its message and application. So, if you want to be relevant, be eternal."

It was this last part that struck me and has stayed with me. I began to realize that, overwhelmingly, the world no longer sees Christianity as being relevant. The Church is no longer pertinent, the Gospel is irrelevant. And is it any wonder? It has been my own experience in the previous churches that I have been associated with that more concern is given to music style, the number of hymns to be sung, music volume, the color of choir robes, preaching style, and the like, than to those matters that mattered most. And most recently, the Southern Baptist Convention added to this list by adopting a resolution on the prohibition of alcohol use in America. Much has already been written about this matter, so I will be content to only point to this resolution as yet another example of "irrelevancy." The fact that delegates spent hours debating this resolution, eventually adopting it, undercut so much of the relevant work that was accomplished at the convention. Unfortunately, little is being said about the resolution denouncing North Korea's Kim Jong-Il and his murderous regime, or the resolution calling for action by Christians everywhere to help end the horrible tragedy in the Sudan that has caused 400,000 deaths, 2.5 million persons being displaced, and 3.5 million persons living in starvation, or any of the other "relevant" measures that were adopted, both past and present.

The Gospel message is one of Love and Hope, Grace and Forgiveness, Salvation and Mercy, Freedom and Peace. True religion. according to James 1:27 is "to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." We are to go out into the world and care for those who are hurting. We are to refuse to sit comfortably by and bemoan the evils of the "rest of the world." To be relevant, we have to put our faith into practice. Again, this is the message of Scripture, as James 2:14-17 reminds us: "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." It is irrelevant.

It is time for the Church to become relevant again. We have to focus on the eternal. We have to ignore silly disputes, which, in the end, will count for little, and take to heart Paul's admonition: "Preach the Word." It is our duty to be the face of compassion for the refugees, of hope for those millions of Africans losing the battle agains HIV/AIDS, of comfort and love for the millions of children who are abandoned, mutilated, and orphaned, and of salvation and freedom for those captured in the prisons of abuse, addiction, and confusion. It is time for us to take seriously Paul's instruction in Philippians 2:

"Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father."

I would take Bob Russell's message of "Preach the Word" and make one small change: "Live the Word." And we can expect that God will do nothing less than to absolutely amaze us and do "immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine."

Seeing Yellow

I love soccer. I've played soccer, coached soccer, and am a soccer referee. I love the World Cup. I love the fact that, theoretically, every country in the world has a chance to win it all. I love how four years of training, qualifying, sweating, bleeding, hurting, and dreaming comes down to one month, one group, one game, one champion. This is the best soccer the world has to offer.
Well, it’s almost the best the world has to offer. Unfortunately, one fatal flaw has become all too evident again this World Cup. It's the referees. Rumblings were heard four years ago in Korea/Japan. Now, in Germany, those rumblings have turned to peels of outrage and cries of horror. The absolute ineptitude of some of the FIFA referees at this world cup is enough to embarrass anyone who wears the referee patch. Like any other referee, I have some compassion for the refs. I mean, no matter what you think, the fact that these guys are officiating on the world's biggest stage cannot be ignored. Anyone would be susceptible to jitters, butterflies, and an occasional blown call. But what I have witnessed thus far goes well beyond this small grace allowance. These are supposed to be the best referees the world has to offer. Just the process of gaining a FIFA assignment, let alone a World Cup assignment, is nothing less than monumental. It takes years. Years of training, education, climbing your way up the "corporate ladder," doing game after game after game. So how is it that we are again witnessing matches being taken over and ruined by these "best of the best" referees? And I'm not talking just about the horrendous blown call during the USA--Ghana match. The sea of yellow cards, given out for seemingly any meaningless and harmless foul, has handcuffed teams looking to advance out of the group stage.
I blame FIFA. Their process for choosing referees for the tournament is obviously flawed. Sure, one, maybe two, referees will inevitably sneak in who have no business being there. And it is inevitable that one or two referees will have an "off" game. But the systematic and uniform trend of tight calls and an over-abundance of plastic yellow rectangles points to a fatal flaw that is bigger than any one referee is. It points to instruction by FIFA officials, in meetings and instructions given to the referees before the tournament even began, to manage the matches as they are. I can't believe that all these referees are that bad. Of course, since I have never come close to officiating a match of such importance and weight, I have no real idea what these guys are going through. But what I can say from experience is that politics have no place in choosing who will and will not referee a match. FIFA, please, we beg you, find the best officials possible. It doesn't matter if they are from Brazil, California, Moscow, Liverpool, Johannesburg, Tehran, or Bangkok. Just find the best refs in the world, and let them be a part of the best soccer in the world.

On Evil - A Contemplative Answer

Life in the world draws us into an existence of division and alienation, alienation from our true inner self and, in turn, the world around us. All of this is part of the human condition, a predisposition to chaos and disarray, an undoing of the order and beauty instilled in creation. Thomas Merton, in examining this phenomenon, writes that “the world itself is no problem, but we are a problem to ourselves because we are alienated from ourselves, and this alienation is due precisely to an inveterate habit of division by which we break reality into pieces and then wonder why, after we have manipulated the pieces until they fall apart, we find ourselves out of touch with life, with reality, with the world, and most of all with ourselves.” Merton advocated a “contemplative lifestyle,” a journey to true consciousness of the God that encompasses all of life, all of the person, all of creation and restores the unity in our life and our relationships, both secular and divine. “The highest peak of contemplation is a mystical union with God in which the soul and its faculties are said to be ‘transformed’ in God, and enter into a full conscious participation in the hidden life of the Trinity of Persons in Unity of Nature.”
Defining what contemplation means is no easy task, much like describing the form or shape of water. Water has no form in itself, rather it takes on the form of the container, and the same concept is true of contemplation. The journey of contemplation is specific to each individual, and what shape this journey will take depends upon the container that God has ordained. In The Ascent to Truth, Merton writes that “love is both the starting point of contemplation and its fruition,” and in New Seeds of Contemplation, Merton adds, “the beginning of contemplation is faith. If there is something essentially sick about your conception of faith you will never be a contemplative.” Merton goes further and states that “faith in Christ, and in the mystery of His life and death, is the foundation of the Christian life and the source of all contemplation: and about this there can be no issue.”
The key point is that unity with God conditions our hearts to reach out in love, even to those who are least deserving in our eyes, for true love teaches us that in fact we are all undeserving. Love compels us to stand up against evil that confronts us on a daily basis, for we all contain some of the evil that is the problem. To raise our voice in opposition is to first see the shortcomings in our own life and to stand not on our own accord, but to stand in unity with creation and speak out as the very voice of God in the world. Contemplation leads us to this unity which allows us to have a voice, to have a message to preach, and contemplation places within us a Divine compassion that enables us to love our neighbor as our self. Thus, the seeming paradox of contemplation and action disappears and we see that at its core, contemplation produces action. Action not for self or motivated by selfish lusts, but divine action flowing out of humility and perfect love. And it is in this way that we can begin to affect the world for good, not that we will abolish all hate and injustice, but we can begin to recapture the world of peace that was lost in the Garden. Jesus, in His beatific sermon blesses those who actively seek peace, and for the contemplative this “seeking” may never attain perceptible results but nevertheless demands our energy and effort. “If we can love the men we cannot trust (without trusting them foolishly) and if we can to some extent share the burden of their sin by identifying ourselves with them, then perhaps there is some hope of a kind of peace on earth, based not on the wisdom and the manipulations of men but on the inscrutable mercy of God.”
Too often, we hide behind our dogmas and look for sanctuary in the foxholes of our church pews, ready to cast blame and bemoan the evils of those who are not like us but of the world. We pompously wonder when God will “have enough” and come down and wipe out all the evil in the world, thinking that we would not be included in those labeled as evil. We brag about how we too hate those who are evil, not remembering that Jesus came in the world to befriend sinners and give his life for such “evil” ones. We find the fault so easily in those around us, conveniently excusing our own shortcomings with thoughts of good intentions and dubious promises. Merton warns of this attitude: “Do not think that you can show your love for Christ by hating those who seem to be his enemies on earth. Suppose they really do hate Him: nevertheless He loves them, and you cannot be united with Him unless you love them too.”
In the end, the answer begins in the hearts of men, ordinary men, and in the conscious choice of individuals to seek love and mercy and unity with God – a life of contemplation, not of self. And this is not a unity and love that sees someone who is hungry and stops to pray that they will be fed, or that sees suffering in their neighborhood and goes into church to implore God to act on behalf of the oppressed. We are the feet and hands of Christ! “It is easy enough to tell the poor to accept their poverty as God’s will when you yourself have warm clothes and plenty of food and medical care and a roof over your head and no worry about the rent. But if you want them to believe you – try to share some of their poverty and see if you can accept it as God’s will yourself!”
The purpose of contemplation is not to find happiness or love and then to go into our rooms and enjoy the fruits of our labors! We must take action in the situation that God leads us into; we must show love to the ones that are in our path. The story of the Good Samaritan is memorable not because three pious individuals chose not to act, but rather because one person chose to love and to take action. And who was it that this story upset so much? The religious elite – the very ones who were supposed to care and have compassion and mercy and be an example of the love of God to others. But Christ indicted them as evildoers and called them whitewashed tombs. But the most damning evidence offered by Christ was the sacrifice of his own life. Jesus associated with the whores, the corrupt politicians, the thieves and beggars and cripples, but in the end, he did not tell them that all would be better one day and then ascend back to heaven. The humility of Christ associated himself with evil men in every way, even to death, though he himself was perfect and without fault. The answer to evil begins in our mystical union with Christ, in all His humility, love, grace, mercy, and peace.

A Prayer

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.
- Thomas Merton, "Thoughts in Solitude"
© Abbey of Gethsemani