Entertaining is not Illuminating

We are starting to head into the heavy travel season. Deb and I were on a United flight recently and we were at the point where the plane was pushing back from the runway. You know the part where the pre-flight instructions are given to the passengers. Probably most of us tune out this part because we have heard it so many times before; "Pull the belt low and tight across your lap", "be sure to put the oxygen mask on your child first", "in the unlikely event of a water landing", etc.

United took a different tactic. They created entertainment. The video below shows the same information but presented in the form of travel or life events.

I did find myself paying more attention to the video because it was mildly entertaining. I am not sure how much of my recall of what was being actually said was improved or not. Imagine however it we knew the plane was going to have a crash landing or there would be extreme turbulence. We would probably be all ears and hanging on every word coming from those pre-flight instructions.

Much of our culture seems to revolve around boiling serious matters to entertainment and slick productions. It seems harder and harder to talk to things that are deadly serious in a straightforward manner. Many church services seem inclined to produce slick multi-media productions that the simple proclamation of the gospel. Thankfully while our church, Christ Community Chapel is really good at producing these types of productions, it ultimately points forward to the simple message of the gospel spoken during the service by a lone man with a microphone.

Like the pre-flight instructions, we should hang on these words and not dilute them. I am always disappointed by someone who says "I did not get anything out of that service" as if the point of the service is to entertain you. The very words themselves have power in and of themselves. Paul says in Romans 1:16 that the gospel is "power of God unto salvation". It is a life or death message that requires us taking it far more seriously than we do.

Direct Access

I was in Washington, D.C. this past week at Health Datapalooza the growing healthcare data show. One of the keynote speakers was Vice President Joe Biden. As I entered into the hotel lobby the morning of the conference, I saw a large line going up the stairs. I quickly deduced that normal conference protocol was out the window. Everyone was required to go through a scanner and hand searches of bags, backpacks etc. When Biden spoke (he was very good), it was pretty obvious that anything out of the ordinary would prompt the numerous plainclothes secret service men to move closer. I was about 50 feet away, but I probably might as well have been two miles away. And this was the Vice President. I can only imagine how far away from President Obama I might be.

Yet every day I have direct access to not just a president, or a king, but the creator God. I look up at heaven and I feel so small yet in God's eyes I am infinitely valuable. In essence, God has given me His cell phone and said "call me anytime day or night" and often I do. God never says He is busy running the universe or handling bigger problems that day. But I think it even goes beyond that - God isn't bothered by me or my trifling human issues but loves for me to call Him up and talk to Him.

Prior to Jesus death and resurrection, I would have needed more than security clearance to get to a holy and righteous God. But something strange happened when Jesus died on the cross. The curtain across the Holy of Holies split in two. This curtain was used to prevent the commoner from approaching God. It was may more than a security scanner. The historian Josephus says that it took multiple horses to pull it apart. Yet, at the point Jesus finished bearing our shame, this curtain was completely torn apart. What does that mean? The scanners were done away with. I have that unfettered access to a holy and righteous God.

I love the Psalms - they reveal this intimacy in such graphic ways. Just these verses in the first 10 chapters.

3:4 - I was crying to the Lord with my voice and He answered me from His holy mountain.
4:8 - In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for You alone, O Lord make me to dwell in safety
5:3 - In the morning, O Lord you will hear my voice. In the morning I will order my prayer to You and eagerly watch.
6:9 - The Lord has heard my supplication, the Lord receives my prayer.
8:3-4 - When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You have ordained, what is man that you take thought of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
 

The NFL Draft and Being Wanted

The NFL draft is one of my favorite things to watch. Being from Cleveland, it is always our Super Bowl and one we routinely screw up. But then there is always next year. There is much to intrigue me about the draft:

• There is strategy to figuring out when someone is available or who might take someone
• There is drama as the names are read out
• There is disappointment as some are chosen and some are not
• There is elation as dreams are made true
• There is data and analytics to support the draft approach and strategies

As part of this, there are always a few people that inevitably slide. This year it was Laremy Tunsil and Connor Cook. It is very painful to watch as these guys are scrutinized as to why their draft stock keeps plummeting. Some for known reasons (Tunsil and the hacked social media which is a whole other story) and some for unknown reasons (Cook and his questionable leadership attributes).

The draft comes down to individual guys being wanted. We all want to be wanted. When I was in 7th grade, we had just moved to New Jersey and I went out for football. Hard to believe, but I was actually small for my age and when they held the draft for football, I was way down at the bottom. I played sparingly and this carried on to high school. Even after a growth spurt in 9th grade, I never went out for football.

Most in the NFL draft have relative value. In other words, the player is only wanted if another player of equal or greater value is not available. The only exception is Jared Goff, the number one player selected. Every other player's value is graded relative to others. Do you really think that if Philadelphia had passed on Carson Wentz that San Diego would not have taken him instead of Joey Bosa. And so on and so forth.

I am really glad that God does not look on us as those that are worthy only on the relative scale. God says that "He predestined us as adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to God according to the kind intention of His will" (Ephesians 1:5). These words are everything. Our drafting was not free. The draft picks were very costly. They cost God everything - thus the words "through Jesus Christ". God made what would be viewed in the football world as a stupid trade. He sacrificed the perfection of His Son to move up in the draft to take you and I in the top spot. Amazing. Further, our career merited nothing of this move up the draft order. We had no performance to merit it and in fact had Tunsil and Cook type question marks all over the place.

But God also sees our potential. Once on the team, there are expectations. The Browns drafted "character guys" that had the potential of being high performers. As the players were announced, it was amazing how they immediately identified with their new team. So also in Christ, my identity is reformulated around my team and my mission (2 Cor. 5:17).  In fact the word Christian means "little Christs". God pulled the mega-deal to get us, but now there is a team and a mission.