Merry Christmas!

What a tangled weave we weave when a championship we can’t receive…

Writing a Christmas letter in December and looking back to January is quite a challenge, but the first thing that stands out is the Razorbacks’ horrific loss to LSU last month which knocked them out of contention for the National Championship game. It was just yesterday (last January) that Sam and Jeff flew to New Orleans to see the Hogs drop another clutch game in the Sugar Bowl against Ohio State. They were blessed with tickets by members of our church who also sent our worship leader, Cody, with them since he was an OSU fan. He didn’t rub it in too much. That was the big event for the first week of January 2011.

The first few months of 2011 were tough ones as well. Carolyn had a double mastectomy and reconstruction surgery as a result of breast cancer coming back. Boobs became a household topic and provided Jeff with an endless source of humor that helped keep things light. Sam and Adelyn were incredibly gracious and a source of encouragement during this time. We are so grateful for the continuous love and support we received from our church family here and friends and family from all over!

The early months of 2011 were spent bundled up. It’s COLD in Blacksburg during the winter, but that didn’t stop us from catching several VT basketball games! With the Hokies getting left out of the NCAA tourney for March madness, we got to see them in the first few rounds of the NIT which were hosted at VT’s Cassell Collosseum.

Sam tried out and made the JV baseball team for Blacksburg High School as an 8th grader in March. It was great experience for him. Carolyn’s brother Jeffrey came to see us in Blacksburg, but we were unsuccessful in hooking him up with any VT gals.

In April-May, we spent many a chilly afternoon at ball parks, with Adelyn engaged in softball (on top of her continued dancing and guitar lessons). Our church’s Volunteer Appreciation Dinner was western-themed, which provoked Jeff and the staff to make some insane videos. Our worship leader got bucked off a horse, and then he and Jeff performed the “My Little Buttercup” dance from The Three Amigos movie dressed in full costume. Scary. Sam took an overnight trip to DC on a field trip, and he and Carolyn planted a garden on the side of the house.

Adelyn’s dance recital was at Radford University in June, and Carolyn’s folks (Pa & Memaw) were able to join us for that extravaganza. Sam got to ump some of the younger kids’ baseball games in June-July, and we were blessed to be able to travel with a team from our church to San Sebastian, Spain. It was our first mission trip together as a family, and the Lord provided every dime we needed! The Nobles came to visit in July, and we took them all over SW Virginia where they experienced Jefferson’s Monticello, UVA campus and Abingdon’s Barter Theater. On the way to Abingdon, they learned their house had been burglarized and their TV stolen. They were good sports, and Gayle began to scheme about how to get a 3D HDTV.

We spent a week in San Angelo, TX in August at Carolyn’s family’s lakehouse. It was HOT! Even Jeff’s iPad was sweating. Temps ranged around 105-110 each day, but we drank plenty of iced tea and had a blast watching all our kids on the jet skis, fishing and card games. Carolyn’s folks were incredible hosts – there were 18 of us, including kids all together for a week. School started that month, and Adelyn began 7th grade, while Sam moved to Blacksburg High to enter 9th.

Our church exploded in August, and in the span of four weeks, we grew from one service to three services. We were so excited about God’s work in our midst. By the end of the year, Jeff had baptized almost 40 people – only one under the age of 12. Adelyn began helping lead worship for the younger kids at church, and Sam began volunteering to run the media for the worship songs for the evening service.

September-October were truly blurs. Even now, we wonder where they went. Carolyn and the kids traveled to Arkansas for a week for a doctor checkup for Carolyn (all clear), and they all got to spend time with dear friends in Monticello. Adelyn turned 12, and she got interviewed by a Roanoke TV station at school about an iPad app that VT had developed for use in schools and was featured on the news. Carolyn and Jeff went to see Bill Cosby at VT for an early birthday present for Carolyn, and they laughed their heads off. (Of course, Jeff still claims that he’s funnier.)

In November, VT quarterback Logan Thomas agreed to come share his faith story at a college outreach event our church hosted. Sam got to meet him and now really looks up to him. (Of course. Logan is 6’7″.) Carolyn continued subbing at schools. She has really enjoyed serving special needs children as an aid. Jeff did several weddings this year, and Carolyn went with him to all them. She took pictures for one of our church couples at a beautiful outdoor wedding in Pennsylvania the 2nd weekend of November. Our church partnered with a new church start in Radford, and since they needed help with worship leadership, Adelyn began helping with some other musicians from our church. We all went to Little Rock to see Jeff’s parents for Thanksgiving and enjoyed the down time. Sam and Jeff slipped down to Monticello for a day. Sam went deer hunting with our long-time friend, Jeremy Woodall. Jeff’s too-short morning was spent reminiscing with a few friends.

Snow flurries began to tease us in November, but so far, December has been relatively mild. Sam has gone hunting here with one of the Cru staffers that goes to church with us, but he hasn’t killed a deer yet. We walked in the Blacksburg Christmas parade alongside our church’s float (which won 1st place!), and we celebrated all that the year has given us – both good and challenging. Just this week, we worshipped with Shane & Shane and Phil Wickham that Northstar brought back to town for a community Christmas concert. Jeff’s sister Amy came to visit and was able to watch Adelyn perform in the Nutcracker at Burruss Hall.

It’s been a wild, wonderful, worshipful year for the Nobles. It’s been so full of experiences, and we’re amazed. This letter can’t contain our gratitude for the blessings and yes, even, the trials we’ve encountered. From cancer to Christmas, from New Orleans to Spain, from Hogs to Hokies, from pictures to baptisms and from quarterbacks to coffee shops, we have seen and testify to the vivid reality of Jesus Christ’s presence in our lives. We yearn for you and your family to experience His deepest blessings and favor this Christmas.

He is the baby given. He is the King reigning. Merry Christmas, one and all!

Tebow Time

This weekend may be Tim Tebow’s biggest test as the quarterback of the Denver Broncos. He’ll lead his worst-to-first AFC West team (8-5) against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, the AFC East’s best team (10-3). Tebow has converted critics into fans in his astonishing 7-game winning streak that has featured six, count-’em, six 4th quarter come-backs. He is 7-1 as the Broncos qb this year.

The vitriol and venom that has been spewed about Tim Tebow has been nothing short of astonishing this season. He’s been demeaned and ridiculed for more than just his football skills. It’s his vibrant and in-your-face faith that has upset the apple cart and shown us the depths to which political correctness and inverted tolerance have infected even the sports world. In our culture’s strange way of labeling, “Tebowing” has become synonymous with praying in American slang this year.

I’ve not read a better post than Jen Engel’s Why the heck do we hate Tim Tebow?

From his advocacy of abstinence to his infamous “You will never see another team play this hard” speech at Florida, it is like he is too good to be true. He is too nice, and thereby we want him to trip up so we can feel better. We want him to be revealed as a hypocrite, and when that fails to happen, we settle for gleefully celebrating his failures on the football field. And why? Because he dares to say thanks?

She continues:

I could not figure out what was causing this onslaught of venom for a guy almost everybody claims to like, and I finally decided it is more about us. He makes us uncomfortable. He is a reminder that the blue-red, liberal-conservative fight over taking God out of everyday life is intellectually dishonest. He is too good.
Tebow is proof that God goes comfortably into whatever arena of your life you wish to take Him.

Engel notes that Christians, in Tebow’s defense this season, have often been as nasty and little as Tebow’s critics. It does not help to glorify the God that Tebow lifts up when we do not demonstrate love.

Christians, of all people, should be used to criticism. After all, the Christ we follow promised us that we would receive it if we were genuinely following Him. The problem for many of us is that we receive criticism justly. When we are maligned unjustly for living holy and authentically good lives, that is one thing. However, we ourselves malign the character of God when we act in ways that deserve criticism.

Tim Tebow is walking the walk as he’s talking the talk these days. I can’t imagine the immense amount of temptation and attack he must be under. Rather than arguing our cases about Tebow, can Christians resolve to simply pray for him and for those who are made uncomfortable by his vocal faith?

Don’t be surprised by how God can use anyone surrendered to Him. Strange things happen when ordinary people commit to live lives of faithful obedience and joyful love.

The following video is a funny look at how dramatic and surreal this season has been so far for Tim Tebow.

Another video with Tebow’s testimony:

By the way, I’m rooting for the Broncos this weekend!

Live like those who cannot die

I recently started Beth Moore’s new Bible study on James. James is the one of the half brothers of Jesus, and she begins her study looking at how that difficult familial relationship evolved from doubt to faith.

We know from John 7:5 that there were long years when “even his own brothers did not believe in Him.” However, somewhere between his final earthly days and His post resurrection appearances to the disciples, Jesus’ earthly family surrendered their hearts in belief.

Soon after, James became a leader in the growing early church. When Peter was arrested and then freed by an angel from prison in Acts 12:1-17, he instructs those gathered at Mark’s house to tell “James and the brothers about this.”

Beth (we’re on a first name basis) posits what may have been going through James mind when he heard the news about Peter’s deliverance. Keep in mind that James the apostle had already been killed by Herod before Peter was arrested. All this happened around the time of the Passover, and it may have been the first Passover after Jesus was betrayed (the one year anniversary of that event).

This thing we’re doing is deadly. Terrifying. I feel sick. I feel exhilarated. He said not to fear those that can kill only the body. Think past the pain. What about our families? What does all this mean? I feel like hoards of demons have been unleashed on us. There are angels. Real, live angels – and some of them appear in beams of brilliant light. We may be captured, but we may be rescued. We may see horrors, but we may see wonders. We may lose our heads, but we cannot lose our souls. The stakes are up. The fire is lit. It’s time to live like those who cannot die.

She concludes with the thought, “Welcome to the life of those called Christians.” (The believers were first called “Christians” in Antioch – Acts 11:26 – as a derogatory term meaning “little Christs.” This would been an aspersion along the lines of calling them junior messiahs, or saying something like, “They think they’re little gods.”)

Instagram

The last week in pictures:

You can follow my Instagram feed here or view the pics here.

Resisting terror: the VT shooting of December 8, 2011

I was at lunch with a friend when I got a text. It said simply:

“Stay at the LH – apparently there were gunshots.”

My BBQ sandwich was right in front of me, but it seemed like a slow fog descended on the table. I read the text to my friend, and then did something that has become a habit for news and information. I checked Twitter.

It was crowded with reports of a gunman on Washington Street in Blacksburg. There was one person shot. Washington Street? That is where our church’s office is located, and it’s about 150 yards from the Virginia Tech basketball collosseum.

Then my phone began vibrating with texts:

“REPORT OF GUNSHOTS NEAR COLLOSSEUM!”

“Shooting on campus.”

“Possible suspect on VT campus who fired some gun shots in Cassell parking lot..”

Lunch was over. I called Carolyn to let her know I was OK and then began trying to call Cody, our worship leader who had last been at the church office when I left. He didn’t answer his phone or the texts that I sent him. Within minutes, there were reports of a second shooting and another body.

Source: The Collegiate Times of VT

There was a fist that began clenching my insides into the size of a golfball. I said a hasty goodbye to my friend, who had driven in from Salem for lunch and headed for the church office. My imagination and scattered thoughts were running faster than Seabiscuit.

Before the day concluded, we learned with the rest of the nation that the person shot on Washington was a VT police officer. The second shooting death (at the time of this entry) had been reported by many news agencies as the suicide of the gunman.

Cody returned to the Lancaster House (office) a few minutes after I arrived to find it empty. He had left his phone in his car while running errands. We spent the afternoon inside the locked house, tying Christmas cards on candy canes for our church’s float in a local Christmas parade. We listened to the police scanner and followed the Twitter feed. At one point, a stream of police cars, marked and unmarked, as well as a SWAT van and other rescue vehicles roared past our office headed to Squires Student Center where there reports of more gunshots. (Those turned out to be false. The scanner soon buzzed with the police demanding someone to tell the VT waste disposal folks to quit emptying dumpsters. That may have been the sound folks heard.)

News outlets ran far behind Twitter, another powerful example of the website’s influence in the transformation of our information avenues. As an example, VT’s student newspaper, The Collegiate Times, saw their Twitter following grow “by more than 18,000 — to more than 20,000 from 2,000 just before the news broke. The growth shows just how Twitter can amplify a single message, or a single account, even if that account is a college newspaper without a local following.” (Source)

But it wasn’t the power of Twitter or social media that taught me another lesson today. It was the power of God’s Word. This past Sunday, I preached from the gospel of Luke in chapter 21, verses 5-38. The message title was A Bright Hope in Dark Times. (podcast and notes here) In the middle of the confusion, fear and angst of the day, it seemed that a recognizable voice reminded me of one particular verse:

“…do not be terrified…” (v9)

The context of the chapter is Jesus’ prediction of terrible times that were to come on the world and on Israel itself in the future. He urged His followers to not allow the darkness of the times to keep them out of the light.

It was easy today to get caught up in the heartache and drama of another tragedy in Blacksburg. I felt the fist in my stomach clench and release several times over the course of the afternoon. Cody and I prayed diligently for our campus and community, and for the families of those who had died.

Yet, the voice from Luke 5 beckoned quietly. It wanted my attention. It wanted my obedience. Jesus told His followers, “Do not be terrified.” It has been said that the Bible contains more than 350 commands for us to not be afraid. That’s a difficult imperative to obey in the midst of confusion, evil and death. Yet Jesus affirmed this other-worldy confidence in Matthew 10.28:

“..do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.”

I hunted down a conversation I vaguely remembered in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Rings between Frodo the hobbit and Gandolf the wizard:

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Profound words. We all live in dark times. Sometimes the darkness and evil is much closer than our hearts can stand. At times like today, it’s just down the street. But I take great comfort in the words of Jesus, and I encourage anyone who finds their courage faltering to consider them:

“Do not be terrified.”

God will supply all we need in dark times to shame those who love the darkness. He supplies courage to face tragedy with an unconquered spirit. He also supplies the very tears we shed over the brokenness and rebellion of this evil-stained world.

Let us mourn. Let us grieve. Let us heal. But let us not fear. Fear will forever cripple those who allow it to grip them. Let those of us who have experienced the love of God gently but determinedly display it when darkness seeks to swamp our faith with fear.

VT students are gathering tonight and tomorrow in candlelight vigils around the memorial to the students killed in the infamous April 16, 2007 shooting. Their lights urge us to remember lives cut short. Their lights also are a visible rebellion against darkness.

Let us rebel with them against the darkness of fear and the war it wages on our spirits.

“Perfect love casts out fear.” (1 John 4.18)

Christmas basketball shot

By now most of you probably know that Sam and I enjoy setting up unusual basketball shots. When we were putting the wreaths on the house earlier this week, we couldn’t resist.

Blacksburg Christmas parade

Our church had a great float in the community Christmas parade tonight!

Check out the other pictures here.

Review: Switch – How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

If you’re looking for a extremely practical book about how to experience change, influence change or lead change in either your personal life or organization, Switch is the book for you. It’s not a dry, textbook or monotonous business book either. Brothers Chip and Dan Heath weave stories together in a very Malcolm Gladwellish way to produce a fun read that will also have you underlining and talking to others about what you’re learning.

They use an illustration that includes an elephant, a rider and a path throughout the book to make complex motivations and change resistors not only understandable but entertaining. Essentially, the rider represents a person’s rational intellect. The rider is motivated by facts, information and logic. If you can explain something to the rider, he will change.

The elephant represents the emotional side of a person or organization.

Analytical arguments will not overcome reluctance… The sequence of change is not analyze – think – change, but rather see – feel – change.

The Heaths point out that in many cases, we may know the facts, but it still doesn’t motivate change in our behavior (i.e., think about medical professionals who still smoke).

Trying to fight inertia and indifference with analytical arguments is like tossing a fire extinguisher to someone who’s drowning. The solution doesn’t match the problem.

Image from "Are Going Mental?" Click for article.

So how do you change or lead people to change? The book shares thoughts about changing ourselves, others and organizations in extremely manageable terms and gives one practical tools to use.

The third piece of the illustration is the path. It’s not enough to provide reasons (for the rider) and inspiration (for the elephant). For effective change to happen, there must be practical, doable steps to take toward that change. Too often, we default to negativity when we’re not experiencing desired change. The status quo suffocates us, and while we know we need to change and desire to do so, we can’t see our way to the change.

We also assume the worst at times about the people or situations in our life that seem to be blocking change.

A good change leader never thinks, “Why are these people acting so badly? They must be bad people.” A change leader thinks, “How can I set up a situation that brings out the good in these people?”

When we begin “tweaking” the environment (situation), we are able to help others build new habits. After new behaviors come into play, one begins to see change happen, and after a while, the herd is rallied, according to the Heaths, and the real transformation begins.

I’d highly recommend Switch for church leaders. Filter the book with scriptural principles, of course, but it has some dynamic material that will aid thinking theologians in becoming spiritual change agents for their churches and ministries.

Very thankful

We are tripping back toward Blacksburg on the day after Thanksgiving. It’s called Black Friday. An otherwise benign day transforms soccer moms to hockey players and CEOs into campers. In their rush to get the latest TV or $3 off a spool of yarn, ordinary people become Twilightish vampires, willing to stake out Best Buy or Hobby Lobby three days ahead of time. (And it’s not really the time you can get the best deals… Source).

We had a great Thanksgiving with my family this year. It was just the right blend of laziness, technology, food, entertainment, cheating and football.

Laziness: We left after our evening worship service last Sunday night and finally drove into Little Rock on Monday. We enjoyed sleeping late and laying on the couch watching mom and dad’s new big screen 3D TV.

Technology: I sold mom my old Macbook Pro (she’s had an iBook G4 for years), and I upgraded to last year’s model (mine was a 2009). I came out even on the sale and used purchase off of Ebay. Helping mom get up to speed with all of her Mac gadgets was fun, and Carolyn even helped “reload” her digital picture frames with newer pictures. Dad is still happy with his Motorola Razr, but Mom is geeking out with an iPad, and iPhone 4 and now a Macbook Pro.

Food: Nuff said. My sister voted her contributions of sweet potato casserole and dressing as best in show on Thanksgiving. We really couldn’t disagree with her. But she was rather smug about it.

Entertainment: Football and more football. Sam, Dad and I saw In Time on Tuesday. Great scifi flick. The premise of time being used as currency is sobering. I loved how they portrayed most people in the movie as having less than a day of time left. When you time out, you die. It was a disconcerting reminder of the danger of living from paycheck to paycheck.

Cheating. We like to play chickenfoot with dominos. I’ve observed that it’s ridiculously easy to cheat at that game – not that I would do so with my aging parents, silly kids, or distracted wife. That would be terrible. However, we did overhear someone around the table say, “I was doing a lot better when I was cheating.”

Football. The only thing that made the end of the week melancholy was the Razorback’s blowout loss to LSU in the Battle for the Golden Boot. It was more significant this year since they were undefeated and ranked #1, and the Hogs were ranked #3. We left Little Rock early Friday and drove hard to make it about halfway to Blacksburg by game time.

We checked into our favorite chain – Country Inn & Suites – just in time to watch the game. Since we did no shopping that morning, the Hog loss became known as our own Black Friday.

We moped around for a while tonight and fielded a few tacky Twitter comments, such as the one from @rebman10 who said:

“@journeyguy are you still riding shotgun or are you off the wagon?”

It was a reference to his wife’s tweet earlier this week that asked me:

“Where were u in the lean years? #bandwagon”

My response to her had been a simple hashtag: “#icalledshotgunonthewagon”

Ok, so maybe I had tweeted excessively and exuberantly about the Razorbacks this season. To my defense, I have always loved the Hogs but not been a big fan of Nutty coaches. Ole Miss fans now know how right I was.

What about you? What characterized your Thanksgiving?

You can see more Noble family Thanksgiving photos here.

An interview with VT QB Logan Thomas

Our church’s college ministry hosts regular gatherings called Refresh for the express purpose of giving collegians an opportunity to draw aside from hectic schedules and simply enjoy life. On November 7, the evening was especially memorable as Virginia Tech quarterback Logan Thomas came to be interviewed about life, faith and football.

When inaction is odious

We are being inundated this week with the unfolding scandal of Penn State University’s football program and how Joe Paterno and university officials did (or did not) handle revelations of child sexual abuse by Jerry Sandusky. The morally abhorrent news continues to come out.

PSU students rioted last night because they’re beloved football coach was fired. But where was the moral and cultural outrage over the ongoing sexual abuse of children across the world prior to the PSU incident became a media frenzy?

The indignation over Sandusky and the inaction of PSU leaders reveals an unsettling reality. We don’t like our idols messed with. In our culture, the love of sports and its personalities overshadows the reprehensibility of the abuse of children. It would be difficult, indeed, to mobilize stadiums of Americans to work against the mistreatment of children in our country and internationally.

I don’t know Joe Paterno. However, I question where his moral outrage was when he learned of the allegations against Sandusky. In addition, I question why those who witnessed the incidents didn’t have the backbone to physically intervene or to report things to the police. I have an uncomfortable sense that the perpetrators were ushered out with quiet threats in order to protect the reputation of an academic institution and a revered sports program.

The folly of inaction is addressed in the New Testament:

“So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” (James 4:17 ESV)

It’s easy to sit on the periphery and cast stones. Lest we forget, we are all guilty of significant moments of inaction.

What life transforming resolutions will you make after seeing another powerful reminder that sin has great consequences – whether sins of commission or sins of omission?

Review: Radical Together

David Platt’s followup to his book Radical is intended to be a tome for the corporate church rather than for the individual Christian. Platt’s first book was an in-your-face approach intended to slap, sometimes not too gently, compromised Christians into a radical allegiance to the One they call Lord. Radical Together is also a rather blunt instrument intended to beat down the spirit of consumerism that has invaded the western church.

I read and reviewed Radical here, and I noted that -

While I was challenged by the book, I think that it also needs the balanced corrective of God’s deep and majestic love for His people. Platt comes across many times as simply… angry. The book seems to need a great dose of the joyand love of God.

Radical Together, at times, reads as a corrective to some of Platt’s first book’s extremes. He seems to have chewed long and hard about the motivation needed for believers and realized that only a humble awareness of God’s grace in light of our sin produces love. And love produces obedience.

Speaking about the possibilities of Radical being taken out of context, Platt says,

“I get frightened when I think about Radical in Ashley’s hands. Though in writing that book I tried to show the entirely underserved grace of God toward us in the gospel, I know Ashley is prone to think, ‘I need to do more for God. I need to sell this possession and make this pledge in order to be right before God.’ Guilt will motivate her obedience, and action will be her obligation.”

Exactly. Thanks, David. That was my concern when reading the first book. It had so many merits, but I felt that it was heavy on external motivations to radical living rather than internal appeals to loving obedience to a radical God. With that said, Radical Together, on the whole, is a great read and resource for churches and small groups.

Platt writes to church members, collectively, to urge them to savor God’s Word, appreciate God’s leaders, work for God’s glory, pray for the nations and to progressively enjoy the exaltation of God.

He confronts the tendency of churches to become immersed in activities planned for church members. In doing so, he reminds us that “church leaders are intended by God not to plan events but to equip people.” (See Ephesians 4:12.) He asks us why we see a dichotomy in local ministry and global missions. There shouldn’t be.

…biblically, our mission is not only about loving our city or invading our culture with the gospel. Our mission is also about leaving our cities to infiltrate every culture with the gospel. I am convinced that satan, in a sense, is just fine with missional churches in the West spending the overwhelming majority of our time, energy and money on tryng to reach people right around us.

Reading this book together, I think, would greatly benefit any group. It’s been said that theology is best done in community. It wards off the spirit of individualism which refuses to submit to another. It also provides needed corrective.

There is thus a need to engage theology not just by way of individual contemplations of truth but more importantly, in a faith community of collaborative theological learning. This is how theology is best done! (Source: Edmund Chan, How Theology Should Be Done)

I think this book was necessary for Platt’s total message to be understood. We cannot be radical without considering what it means to be radical together.

I received this book from Waterbrook Multnomah for free as part of their Blogging for Books program.

Engage in business

This past Sunday, Adam Wilson preached for us at Northstar. Adam is a staffer with Cru at VT, and he has recently come on board as volunteer staff to help us with our discipleship processes.

*As a quick aside, I can't describe the blessing of having passionate, gifted men in our church who are able and eager to teach God's Word. I love sharing the joy of preaching with a teaching team.*

We’ve been in Luke since January of last year, and he spoke from Luke 19:11-27 in all three services.

Sitting under someone else’s teaching is a humbling and joyful experience. No minister is ever above being taught, nor have we “arrived.” I’m going to share in a couple of brief posts what God surfaced for me as truths to dwell on.

The entire passage is a stirring and provocative parable that has serious implications for how “Christians” live and conduct their lives.

‘Engage in business until I come.’ (Luke 19.13)

Adam pointed out that the parable is a parallel to the ascension and inevitable return of Jesus Christ, our King. The command to his servants is not vague. He has entrusted an equal responsibility to each one, and there is clear direction and consequentially, expectation, for each servant to follow through.

Modern Christians should examine their lives with humility. Are they engaged in the business of the King, or are they engaged in their own business? Before we get defensive and claim “that’s none of your business,” we should realize that there will be accountability.

In the parable, and in reality, the king will come back. He returns to assess, rebuke, and reward. We are not given the option of doing nothing.

So, have you made God’s business your business? Are you engaged? Are you busy? Think about it. He is coming.

Guy on a Buffalo

Wow. Sometimes, you’re just amazed at the time people have to waste… and how grateful you are for it.

Here’s the first in a series of shorts called Guy on a Buffalo.

The scenes are taken from a movie made in 1978, titled appropriately, Buffalo Rider. Here’s the entire 1978 movie. You can thank me later.

The Language of God review, continued

Sometime ago I began a review of The Language of God by Francis Collins. I concluded that review with some of the following thoughts:

What makes us clearly think we can think clearly?

Faith is required because scripture tells us that no matter how much we don’t like or that we want to deny that our very brains and logic systems are ultimately flawed by sin. Our minds are clouded and must be cleared by the light and love of God. Only then can they function as they were intended to.

In addition, because of sin, our consciences are corrupt. Our thinking is flawed. We see partially. Our motives are impure and skewed. No matter what the observation of our natural world and the methods that we use, our conclusions and interpretation of data are flawed, obscured and, according to scripture, even set against the knowledge of God.

I wanted to continue my thoughts about Collins’ book by looking at his approach and belief about miracles. As I mentioned in my last post, it’s imperative to recognize the lens through which you view reality in this ongoing discussion about evolution. There are significant presuppositions that we all bring to the table in our dialogues. Let’s not pretend we are not embracing “truth” when we use science as a our lens. Science, after all, is man’s attempt to discern reality through means and methods that may be tainted with subconscious bias or creational brokenness.

About the Miraculous

Collins agrees that man is a miracle. His belief is that God superintended the evolutionary process to get us where we are.

Collins has some strange thoughts about God’s miraculous interventions, however. He wants to empirically define what is and isn’t a miracle. “Whatever the personal view, it is crucial that a healthy skepticism be applied when interpreting potentially miraculous events, lest the integrity and rationality of the religious perspective be brought into question.” (p51)

It’s sad that his a priori for miracles is so low. Who says miracles must be submitted to scathing skepticism? The intimacy of God’s involvement in creation in Matthew 6.25-30 reveals that birds are fed and flowers watered by the loving care of the Father.

Throughout Collins’ book, he appeals to “laws” of nature, physics, and biology. However, what if these laws are not such at all? What if man claims these observable laws to avoid contemplating that there are higher laws and even commands that demand our subservience and obedience? What if these little “laws” we are so addicted to defining and presuming to define reality are not laws at all? They may be only guardrails to keep the children from falling off the cliffs.

That’s why Collins and others have issues with miracles. They are interruptions and upset the apple carts of observation and scientific method that have led to the publication and adherence by man as laws.

Another perspective is that “miracles” are not extraordinary occurrences. Rather, they are normal expressions and routine manifestations of a reality that supersedes ours. They’re only extraordinary because we give such rare attention to their prevalence.

From Collins’ perspective though, “in order for the world to avoid descending into chaos, miracles must be very uncommon.” (p53)

So things get out of control of God when He performs too many miracles? This would be true only if God is subject to natural laws. Collins points out that even C.S. Lewis says miracles should be scarce. As much as I like Lewis, I disagree with that conclusion. What do we define as miracles? Are they only what defy empirical proof and are noticed by us?

Even the most acknowledged miracles in scripture are targets of empirical derision today. All is explainable in terms of natural laws, some would say. So why limit the miraculous to the “big” stuff? Is this to make us seem less superstitious and more rationally acceptable? We claim to believe in a God who loves us. Let us press on to believe that this self-revealed, loving Father will intervene in our lives constantly to answer wild and desperate prayers and to spontaneously demonstrate His glory! Whether it’s parting the Red Sea or leading a person to salvation, miracles abound!

But Collins stubbornly insists on rarity for miracles. He quotes John Polkinghorne, “Miracles are not to be interpreted as divine acts against the laws of nature (for those laws are themselves expressions of God’s will) but as more profound revelations of the character of the divine relationship to creation. To be credible, miracles must convey a deeper understanding than could have been observed without them.”

What is the reason for limiting the existence of definition of miracles? And why would one tell God how He must work within the “laws” that we are confined to? It makes perfect sense in this broader discussion of evolution. Is God strong and powerful enough to have created the world in seven literal days? Is He strong and powerful enough to have intimately directed an evolutionary process that last billions of years? The answer to both are yes, and to believe in God, we must believe in this-reality-distorting activity and intervention on His part. However, choosing the latter puts one at odds with what orthodox Christianity claims is the Word of God. Both the Old and New Testaments point to God’s creation of Adam and Eve as a literal event.

As far as miracles are concerned, the primary miracle that every true Christian must adhere and proclaim is the resurrection of a man from the dead. The miraculous is required for the Christian’s lens. So, if God is able, what thought process will we embrace? One that limits the existence of miracles or one that proclaims God’s goodness through their frequency?

To that, I point to Isaiah 55.8-9.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Donuts…

It’s so fun to be in a community with so many creative, fun-loving gospel partners. Check out this video from our local Young Life team. Word, Sloop Doggy Dog!

A big but…

“But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 1.13)

That’s a big “but.” And a beautiful one at that.

I love how God displayed mercy to Paul because it shows the extravagance of His love to use as well. In the verse above, the apostle Paul uses that contrasting conjunction to illuminate his former identity as “a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent.”

Think about it.

Paul wasn’t just innocently acting ignorantly. He was zealously pursuing the arrest and persecution of believers in Christ. He detested what he deemed as their heresy. He partnered with other Jesus-hating Jews to attempt to exterminate the explosion of The Way (Acts 9:2) that was occurring in and around Jerusalem, going as far as Damascus, Syria. He was intentional and intense about his religious violence. Yet, God “who is rich in mercy” (Ephesians 2:4) considered him simply… ignorant.

In fact, verse 12 is even more stunning:

“I thank Him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because He has judged me faithful, appointing me to His service, though formerly I was…”

God looked at Saul (who would be renamed Paul to indicate the radical internal change of identity and priority) and saw not a persecutor but an apostle. God’s vision was not hindered by the present or the past. God saw it all of Paul in one glance. Paul couldn’t see all of reality. That was why he was ignorant. He didn’t know it all.

When he knew more than he did, Paul would surrender his life to serve the Christ he claimed he hated. He would lay down his life for the church he sought to squash. God saw what Paul didn’t.

You see, it doesn’t matter how zealous we are in our ignorance. We are eligible for God’s abundance. 

What does God see when he sees you? Does he see your present failures or past mistakes? Or does He see future glory?

What will your big “but” be?

Google mail rant

Rant warning:
I do not understand people who use Gmail’s web interface for Gmail.

1. It’s cluttered.
2. It’s confusing.
3. It’s clunky.
4. I can’t ever make it “just work.”

Tha’ts four Cs: cluttered, confusing, clunky, and can’t. You can thank me later for helping you with memory retention.

I’ve used Apple’s Mail app forever, and it’s just… clean, intuitive, helpful, and it works.

Case in point: I saved a draft in Apple Mail last night. When I went to access this am, it showed up in a folder on Gmail called “[IMAP/Drafts].” It was uneditable. I could not figure out how to edit it… So I copied it, downloaded the attachments, and recreated the message again. Sigh. Fail. Whatever.

People who have used Gmail web’s interface for email say I’m clueless. But I think I’m relatively tech savvy. It has always just screamed of PCish poor user interface to me. Sorry.

End of rant.

Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

I was watching a movie, and Carolyn and the kids were in Little Rock when she texted me a picture of a TV with Fox News’ “breaking news” headline of “Apple confirms that Steve Jobs has died.”

I was stunned. I turned the TV to Fox News and watched a wonderful tribute and highlight of Steve’s life and contributions to the world in technology and generosity. He was a vivid personality but an incredibly private person.

It was just recently that I wrote an entry called Ode to Steve upon Jobs’ resignation as CEO of Apple. As I reread it this evening, it really sums up my personal history with Apple and Steve.

Profoundly, in Steve’s 2005 Stanford University commencement speech, Steve said:

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. (Watch below)

One of the things that I’m reminded of is one of Steve’s most quoted contributions to leadership, called Steve’s 12 Rules of Success:

1. Do what you love to do. Find your true passion. Do what you love to do a make a difference! The only way to do great work is to love what you do.
2. Be different. Think different. “Better be a pirate than to join the navy.”
3. Do your best. Do your best at every job. No sleep! Success generates more success. So be hungry for it. Hire good people with passion for excellence.
4. Make SWOT analysis. As soon as you join/start a company, make a list of strengths and weaknesses of yourself and your company on a piece of paper. Don’t hesitate in throwing bad apples out of the company.
5. Be entrepreneurial. Look for the next big thing. Find a set of ideas that need to be quickly and decisively acted upon and jump through that window. Sometimes the first step is the hardest one. Just take it! Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
6. Start small, think big. Don’t worry about too many things at once. Take a handful of simple things to begin with, and then progress to more complex ones. Think about not just tomorrow, but the future. “I want to put a ding in the universe,” reveals Steve Jobs his dream.
7. Strive to become a market leader. Own and control the primary technology in everything you do. If there’s a better technology available, use it no matter if anyone else is not using it. Be the first, and make it an industry standard.
8. Focus on the outcome. People judge you by your performance, so focus on the outcome. Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected. Advertise. If they don’t know it, they won’t buy your product.
9. Ask for feedback. Ask for feedback from people with diverse backgrounds. Each one will tell you one useful thing. If you’re at the top of the chain, sometimes people won’t give you honest feedback because they’re afraid. In this case, disguise yourself, or get feedback from other sources. Focus on those who will use your product – listen to your customers first.
10. Innovate. Innovation distinguishes a leader from a follower. Delegate, let other top executives do 50% of your routine work to be able to spend 50% your time on the new stuff. Say no to 1,000 things to make sure you don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much. Concentrate on really important creations and radical innovation. Hire people who want to make the best things in the world. You need a very product-oriented culture, even in a technology company. Lots of companies have tons of great engineers and smart people. But ultimately, there needs to be some gravitational force that pulls it all together.
11. Learn from failures. Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.
12. Learn continually. There’s always “one more thing” to learn! Cross-pollinate ideas with others both within and outside your company. Learn from customers, competitors and partners. If you partner with someone whom you don’t like, learn to like them – praise them and benefit from them. Learn to criticize your enemies openly, but honestly.

One thing we can all take away is one of Steve’s pithy contributions to Apple’s culture: Think Different.

My prayers are with the Jobs’ family  and friends and the employees of Apple.

Here’s the Stanford commencement speech:

Networking and humility

Yesterday, I had the joy of being a part of a meeting with pastors from around the region who are interested in planting new churches. It’s hard to quash enthusiasm when the compelling vision is sharing the soul-quenching news of forgiveness with those who do not relish a relationship with God through Christ.

Also yesterday, I had the great pleasure of connecting with two pastors in Radford, VA and one in Christiansburg. Of the Radford pastors, Bret Johnson leads a newish church – Valley Bible Church, and Chris McCrary’s *brand new* church officially launches this Sunday – Love Church. I connected with Chris at Starbucks before meeting with with the Southern Baptist regional pastors. (Chris would want me to clarify that he’s not a part of the SBC.) I met Bret that evening after he shared about “The Church” at Virginia Tech’s Cru worship gathering. Tim Hight is the pastor at GraceLife Baptist Church in Christiansburg. Our daughters are the same age and have played Upward Basketball together.

Although neither Bret nor Chris are part of my church’s tribe of Southern Baptists, that’s pretty irrelevant to me when I encounter men who are joyfully and genuinely serving and introducing others to Jesus. One of the hopes that our church has is to network with other churches with similar ministry DNA and who clearly see benefits behind cooperative effort.

One significant requirement for leaders who wish to see a movement of God in their geographic area is one of the hardest to attain. It’s humility. Any attempt to “own” or force a work of God ultimately falls short. We’re not in charge.

Scott McKnight says:

Humility, I am suggesting, is a comprehension of who we are before God and before self and before others and before the world. When we know who we are before God, self, others, and the world, we are humble — and part of that comprehension is our cracked-ness. But, focusing on our cracks does not inevitably produce humility. Humility is a positive; sinfulness is a negative. We need to move beyond the negative to the positive if we are to have humility.

Humility is noted by joy, and graciousness, and love, and honor and the like.

It’s discomforting to me to constantly discover within undercurrents of self-satisfaction. They are dangerous to the soul that should be rooted in Christ. These undertows are more powerful than we realize, because in a moment, we can be sucked out to the sea of self-consummation.

That’s why networking and genuine friendships in ministry are essential. I truly believe it’s urgently important for pastors to cultivate open, honest relationships with leaders outside their church. We need one another. As we share, celebrate and whine together with other leaders, we are reminded that the Church is His and not ours.

What is possible when the people of God humble themselves and seek His face is beyond estimation.