Taking Sides

As I get older, something claiming to be wisdom keeps intruding into parts of my life where opinions are born black and white, demanding that the gray of discerning grace settle over outrage in a calming insistence that I wait.

So often, we hear of some horrible event, and it demands that we root for the victim and curse the perpetrator, as portrayed by the one relating the awful occurrence. We want to rush to seek out cause and blame, that punishment and retribution may be parsed out.

More often than I’d like to admit, the moment I close my mouth after its issuing of my ‘considered’ opinion, more information comes out that either reverses who was really the victim and perp or that both were one or the other. The egg on my face tastes vaguely of some monstrous prehistoric ostrich. My personal opinion is that it goes rather well with the boiled sock lint left over from having my foot in my mouth.

Consistency

We humans are remarkable creatures in many ways, not all of them good. In particular, we have an amazing capacity to rationalize our morality, seeing others' shortcomings and ignoring our own. It is difficult to “judge rightly,” as the Bible calls it. (John 7:24)

Well targeted was Christ’s command to pull the log out of our own eyes so that we can see clearly the speck in our brother’s. We even judge each other on judging. We quote, “Judge not, lest ye be judged,” but fail to remember the rest of the quote that says we will be judged by the standard we use to judge others.

Nonesuch

Saturday, the New York Times published an op-ed in the Sunday Review section entitled, “Americans:  Undecided about God?” by Eric Weiner, author of Man Seeks God:  My Flirtations with the Divine. He identifies himself as a brand new (to me), but apparently fast growing spiritual demographic, the “Nones.”

He says that nearly 12% of the US are Nones (as opposed to nuns), and a quarter of young people (no age range given). What are the Nones? They are people who do not identify with any specific or organized religion, yet believe in “God.” They consider themselves spiritual, yet are ‘undecided’ and will explore a wide variety of ‘isms’ and probably cherry pick from each.

Weiner cites a Notre Dame/Harvard study that indicates this trend towards amorphous spiritualism is due to the increasing religious polarization of politics and how it drives folks away from both politics and organized religion. I think that is far too simplistic.

Grudging Grace

If you’re like me (and I fear you are, and hope you aren’t), then there are times you aren’t very gracious about extending grace. Today I was the poster child for GGD, Grudging Grace Syndrome, and I suspect more than a few faculty suffer from it, especially at the end of term. This isn’t an online telethon—raising funds will never find a cure, only raising prayer. Fortunately, there are no busy signals on that hotline.

Polarization

When watching the news, it is increasingly easy to conclude that things are getting worse and doing so faster. This gives rise to a correlated increase in polarization in pretty much any area of life (politics, religion, education, the economy, sports, etc.) as people take sides on issues.

It becomes exceedingly easy therefore to develop an ‘us versus them’ mentality in each of these areas. We can even become so carried away that we start judging the status of someone’s salvation by their position, and concluding someone is lost because of decisions they have made.

Who is the Church?

In John 17, Jesus prays one of His longest prayers—that for the unity of the Church to be identical to the unity between the Father and the Son. It also seems to be the one the Father has most likely (as far as appearances go) answered with a resounding “No.”

Skeptics have for centuries cited various divisions, sects, and denominations within Christendom as evidence against its veracity. I’ve always felt that these ‘divisions’ were like the various organs of a body, in accord with Paul’s descriptions of the Church being one Body with different parts, but unified in purpose…just seemingly suffering from some sort of auto-immune disease caused by human nature and the actions of the Adversary.

Humbled by Honor

I’m the president of a local civic club. Today was our monthly lunch meeting, and the speaker had requested a video projector and screen. John is a friend who has these items to use in his ministry and willingly lets me borrow them when needed.

There was just one problem. I forgot to ask to borrow them.

The speaker emailed me about an hour and a half before the meeting confirming the equipment would be there. I thought, “Oh, <insert flowery vocabulary of blessing and warm feelings>”

Foolishness

Sometimes (often) we humans are humourously pathetic. How often have you seen a child or a pet act good in front of you, but you can tell there is mischief in their mind that they plan to jump into as soon as your back is turned?

We adults are no different.

It came to mind tonight about how recently, I had in mind to do something I knew I shouldn’t, but wanted God’s help for something else, so put the first out of mind long enough to pray for the help and get that task done, then went back to entertaining the original thought, as if God could be tricked.

You just want to laugh at the foolishness of it—not so much the choices themselves, but the sheer transparency of it. Ridiculous. We adults may be more sophisticated than kids, but we play the same juvenile games. The worst of it is how we lie to ourselves that we aren’t doing it.

The dirty little secret is that we all do it. No one is innocent of playing these mind games. And all of us think we can get away with it at least sometimes. Fortunately, like a good and loving parent, God forgives both insults (and make no mistake, they are grave insults against His character)—the sin and the hubris.

Thanks be to Christ for the grace that daily redeems us from our own conceit.

SDG

"This Space Intentionally Left Blank"

Ever notice signs or other messages that seem nonsensical? Some, like the title of the post are printed on forms so you know that all pages/text are present and not missing. Some, like the sign (behind the main building of my university ) on the left, seem to indicate someone just wasn’t paying attention to their work.

Many things in life have the appearance of wisdom but are foolish and many things have the appearance of foolishness yet do have significance.

Who's In Control?

In our modern, highly technologically advanced age, it is easy to assume self sufficiency and the ability to make our wishes come true. There is an attitude in this age that if an idea sounds good or works on paper, then it should work in real life.

While some humans have always been tempted by such thoughts throughout history (mostly the young, the powerful, the rich), in today’s America and the developed world, it is easier for more people to think this more successfully more of the time, and all the more so as we have moved into climate controlled urban areas that provide readymade food, water, sanitation and other creature comforts.

There’s just one problem.

What is Fair?

This spring term I had two nearly identical academic integrity cases. Two sets of partners turned in nearly identical lab reports, with attempts to hide it by changing fonts and other cosmetics. My default penalty for such situations is a zero for both parties. However, in each case, it turned out that one student had let their partner have access to their report with good intentions, and the partner stole the work, claiming it as their own.

God-In-The-Box

We have a problem. The Bible hasn’t changed in nearly two millennia, but how we view God changes regularly and certain aspects of His character rise and fall in trendy popularity. In short, regardless of how His Word describes Him, we still “create” God in our image.

During pretty much my whole lifetime, our culture focuses on the aspects of God that deal with love—‘Our Father in heaven,’ ‘God is love,’ and so on, with just enough of His justice so that we can get back to mercy, grace, love, peace, blessings, and so on with some sort of ‘context.’

There is also a kick of flavor added in by Lewis (in Narnia), Young (in The Shack) and others, including me who talk about God’s unpredictability, that He is wild and doesn’t conform to our image of him, but we still tend to think of things more on the softer side of wild, as a whole.

It was not like that 200+ years ago.

Teaching All Kinds

For one of my lab courses, I have them write a one-page essay on “What I Want To Do With My Life.” Then, I meet with each of them individually to discuss it and offer some suggestions on getting to whatever their next step is. No, it doesn’t have anything to do with physical chemistry. But we do so little to help our students prepare for life post-graduation that I think it is important. Most of the students agree strongly. Many thank me saying none of their other instructors have shown personal interest in them like this. But that’s not what I want to talk about. (Though if it offers you any ideas, feel free to use them!)

It is interesting to see the variety of dreams and plans they have, and nice to be able to share in those with them. A number of them reveal they are Christians in various ways—some by writing their essay somewhat evangelistically, some by commenting somehow about their faith, or by a chance phrase they might say in the interview. Whenever I pick up on it, I enjoy sharing my faith with them as well, and it is a mutual encouragement.

But I also have students coming from the complete other end of the spectrum. One of the questions I ask most students is “What are you passionate about?” Today, one student grew emphatic about his antipathy towards incorrect thinking about science, “things like the Intelligent Design movement!” Though I did my best not to react, he must have picked up on something, because he instantly switched to some scientific inaccuracy in a “Doctor Who” episode he saw. (For my take on the topic, see here.)

The rest of our time continued as normal, and I helped him just as completely and enthusiastically as everyone else. Sure, that’s the ‘professional’ thing to do, but it is also what love does. Christ fed thousands of people, some of whom would later shout, “Crucify!” He healed ten lepers knowing nine wouldn’t thank Him. He did it because He loved them as His children, not because He would get anything from them. It is called grace.

He did it without a word of explanation, and most probably never realized who they had just encountered. It is the same with this student. I had the opportunity to show love to him and help equip him for a successful career, and I gave it to him, even if he chooses to use that career to attack my faith.

Ministering meets the need without asking anything in return, and even with risk of hurt. Jesus ministered and received crucifixion. Helping this student was a no brainer.

“Always share your faith. If necessary, use words.”         -St. Francis

SDG

Dr. Toughlove or: How I’m Learning to Stop Worrying and Kick Some…

Bear with me for a minute. Inspiration comes from strange sources and today’s came from one of those inspirational dreaded email forwards. But it came for me at a time that I was in the middle of one of my hardest kinds of struggles as an educator. But first the email.

There was an unusual high school football game played in Grapevine, Texas.  The game was between Grapevine Faith Academy and the Gainesville State School.  Faith is a Christian school and Gainesville State School is located within a maximum security correction facility.

        Gainesville State School has 14 players. They play every game on the road. Their record was 0-8. They've only scored twice. Their 14 players are teenagers who have been convicted of crimes ranging from drugs to assault to robbery. Most had families who had disowned them. They wore outdated, used shoulder pads and helmets. Faith Academy was 7-2. They had 70 players, 11 coaches, and the latest equipment.

         Chris Hogan, the head coach at Faith Academy, knew the Gainesville team would have no fans and it would be no contest, so he thought, "What if half of our fans and half of our cheerleaders, for one night only, cheered for the other team?"  He sent out an email to the faithful asking them to do just that. "Here's the message I want you to send, Hogan wrote. "You're just as valuable as any other person on the planet."

         Some folks were confused and thought he was nuts. One player said, "Coach, why are we doing this?"  Hogan said, "Imagine you don't have a home life, no one to love you, no one pulling for you. Imagine that everyone pretty much had given up on you. Now, imagine what it would feel like and mean to you for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you."

          The idea took root. On the night of the game, imagine the surprise of those 14 players when they took the field and there was a banner the cheerleaders had made for them to crash through. The visitors' stands were full. The cheerleaders were leading cheers for them. The fans were calling them by their names.  Isaiah, the quarterback/middle linebacker said, "I never in my life thought I would hear parents cheering to tackle and hit their kid.  Most of the time, when we come out, people are afraid of us.  You can see it in their eyes, but these people are yelling for us.  They knew our names."

        Faith won the game, and after the game the teams gathered at the 50-yard line to pray. That's when Isaiah, the teenage convict/quarterback surprised everybody and asked if he could pray and he prayed, "Lord, I don’t know what just happened so I don't know how or who to say thank you to, but I never knew there were so many people in the world that cared about us."  On the way back to the bus, under guard, each one of the players was handed a burger, fries, a coke, candy, a Bible, and an encouraging letter from the players from Faith Academy.

        What an incredible act of Christian witness and kindness and goodness that was.  Proverbs 11:17 says, "Your own soul is nourished when you are kind." Proverbs 3:27 says, "Do not withhold good when it is in your power to act." Here is the video link.

At the time I received this, I was dealing with a student who previously failed my class, mostly for poor attendance, and this semester had completely failed to show up even once to the first four labs because it conflicted with his intramural hockey game. (short version of the story) Since this is an upper-division lab course, I don’t have much patience for this immaturity. These students are about to graduate, enter the work force and this stuff won’t be tolerated. I feel an obligation to be Dr. Toughlove so they will stop shooting themselves in the foot before they get to where it really matters.

Yet, in the midst of back and forth emails with the student, I get this email reminding me to be kind and do good. Personality-wise, I lean pretty heavily towards Mr. Softlove, so this was pulling at me, asking if I should be extending grace to this student. This balancing act is one of the toughest for me as an educator, because I not only have to take into account the course objectives, the particulars of the situation, but also the needs (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual) of the student to elicit the best long term benefit for them.

As I thought about the choices before me and prayed, I was reminded once again that goodness, righteousness and holiness are not the tame, children’s Sunday School concepts we tend to associate with the terms. They are dynamic and concerned with the end result as well as the means, that ‘niceness’ in the milquetoast sense is irrelevant and counterproductive.

There is a difference between young men who are convicted felons at the bottom of society’s heap, accustomed to being treated as dirt (even for valid reasons), and someone privileged enough to attend one of the world’s best universities who is putting recreation above graduation and acting as if he is entitled to our indulgence.

One desperately needs a period of true grace, and the other, just as desperately, a hard reality check. Both, properly given, are in the highest sense, good.

SDG

Integrity

Integrity:  the quality or state of being complete or undivided

I recently sent out invitations to a Christmas party I am having this year. I invited several colleagues from my department, and this produced a problem. To the best of my knowledge, they are not believers, and some may be somewhat antagonistic towards Christianity. Most in my department suspect/know I am a believer. Yet as I worded the online invitation, which went to mostly other Christians, but not exclusively, I really wrestled with my wording. Given that this is Christmas and not some unnamed winter holiday, I saw no reason to be politically correct…except, for them.

I typed what I basically wanted to say, then looked at it over and over. I started with, “Given how chilly this month has been already, now seems like a good time to warm the house and celebrate the advent of Christ. Please come with your family and celebrate His blessings of home and salvation!” but ended up keeping, “Given how chilly this month has been already, now seems like a good time to warm the house and celebrate the advent of Christ. Please come with your family and celebrate His blessings!”

I still struggle a little with whether I should have kept the original or not. I dropped the ending for a couple of reasons, one good, and one based out of fear. The fearful reason was not wanting to come across as ‘too extreme’ for my colleagues. The good one was that I’m throwing a party, not a worship service, and I want all of my guests comfortable. We celebrate Christmas for a reason, and I won’t let go of that. Yet also, one of the blessings of such celebrations is extending fellowship to all where appropriate, not remaining in a ‘holy huddle.’

As a non-tenure track contingent faculty, I am conscious of having a certain exposure to political whims, but in Whom do I trust? At the same time, He calls us to be as innocent as doves, yet wise as serpents. I conclude when I think over it, that I haven’t hidden who I am (or Who’s I am), while at the same time trying to be wise about the world in which I move. Were my motives perfect? No way. Is my solution good, true and sufficient? There is room for debate.

And a lot of room for God’s grace to work in my life and theirs.

SDG

The Innocence of Lot

One of the most vexing passages to me in Scripture (and there are quite a few!) has been 2 Peter 2:7. Here is versus 7-9:

“…and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.”

This is a bizarre passage when you think back to the stories of Lot. In Genesis 13:10-12, Abraham and Lot are so wealthy that they need to split up so the land could support their herds. Abraham, the elder, is exceedingly gracious and gives the younger man the first pick of the land. Lot chooses the better land for himself. Instead of deferring to his elder cousin, he is selfish. The Bible notes that Lot’s land is around the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah which were wicked. It also goes on to tell how God speaks to Abraham and gives him the remaining land in perpetuity and will bless him with many descendants. Lot’s decision will lead to hardship and trouble.

Then, in Genesis 14, the land of Sodom and Gomorrah (including Lot) are captured by raiding kings, and Abraham raises and army to rescue them. Lot still doesn’t take the hint. Finally, in chapter 19, we see the angels coming to destroy the cities, and Lot ‘rescues’ them from the perverse crowd, offering his daughters to be gang raped to protect his guests, as hospitality was one of the highest virtues in that culture. Finally, when the angels rescue him and his family, the daughters get Lot drunk and sleep with him.

Yet, Peter calls him righteous. Wow. There are just some passages in Scripture that make you want to question its inspired origin. Given that it is inspired, what then could Peter mean? I finally ‘got it’ one day, and I can’t begin to tell you what a relief it was to me—a shower of grace washing over me. Peter actually does explain himself. Lot was righteous in his soul and tormented by the sin around him. He was in a land of compromise, of bad choices, and yes, one in which he continued to choose to live, but nonetheless, he was righteous because of faith. There are two amazing points here: 1) God rescued him before he could be truly corrupted, and 2) innocence/righteousness is not something binary—on or off, you have it or you don’t—it is a state of being that can be worn away, dissolved like tooth enamel, and by grace, restored.

God knows His people and the limits of their endurance (not what they think they can endure, but what they actually can—I Corinthians 10:13), and will NOT allow them to be swept away by forces greater than themselves.

He also recognizes the stress we endure in this fallen world. While our actions, words, and thoughts matter (Romans 6!), His declaration of our righteousness is stronger than not only our environment, but also our choices. It is His declaration of righteousness that stands, for He is the judge, not our feelings or assessment of our own lives, and definitely not the opinions of any other. He will NOT allow us to be corrupted by either the world or our fallen nature, for we are redeemed.

As academics, we are in a world of pressure to conform to the academy’s image of success and morality. We have a God greater than our pressures and who WILL see His purposes accomplished in our lives. This frees us from worrying about right or wrong so that we can love and serve Him, and He will see us through the choices we face, even when we choose poorly.

That is a precious gift indeed.

SDG