Staring You in the Face

Sports bars are great places to go to. You have the sights and sounds of a key game going on and you can easily get caught up in the moment when some great event occurs. When the Browns drafted Johnny Manziel a few weeks ago, Cleveland sports bars hit the national and even the international news.

But I have found a sports bar to be a terrible place to take my wife out on a date. Why? Because our date nights are our time to have communication, a dialogue. The distraction of the big game, the sights and sounds are just too much for me. So the person closest to me is crowded out by the distractions of the environment.

How much so with God. He doesn't try to communicate over the noise of our environment. He gives us free will to come to him in relationship. But we defer to the noise of the sports bar of life. We succumb to the distractions. There is lack of personal development then in intimacy with God. God wants to be intimate with us, to communicate with us. But we have to seek Him in the quietness of our heart and block out distractions. I find my best time with God is in the morning when those distractions are less.

I confess that there are days I come home and I am toast. I just want to sit on the couch with clicker in hand just searching for something to dumb my brain. It is work to sit and communicate with my wife. Communication can be so hard. Some of my friends say they can't make time for a "quiet time" with God. Imagine if every night with my spouse was a sports bar or a brain dumbing night on a couch. Wouldn't take much to assume that the relationship would suffer. So with our Creator God who loves for us to spend time with Him.

Note today is my 29th wedding anniversary. I am very thankful for my best friend who has put up with me for so long.

The Marks of Legacy

It has now been six months since my father-in-law, Donald Amsler passed into the presence of Jesus. It has been three weeks since his memorial service in which people from 17 states and 3 countries attended.  Legacy however lasts much longer than that - legacy lasts a lifetime and usually multiple lifetimes. Legacy is not always predictable because we don't have omniscience and can't see all that is going on. However, legacy has a way of revealing itself and that is what we are just now starting to discover. My personal reflections on his death are summarized in a previous blog. This blog focuses on his legacy which is revealed primarily by others.

In the aftermath of his death, people have started to come out and tell us of the legacy of "Dr. Amsler". I refer to that because his legacy, while multi-faceted was primarily through his skilled work as a physician. The stories tend to follow something of a story-line like "I was surfing the web for Dr. Amsler and saw that he had passed and then found your blog and Facebook post..". Why were they surfing the web for Dr. Amsler? Probably because even years later, he had left a lasting legacy. Then there are the reflections which are just amazing. "He saved my life", "He delivered a problem baby", "He told me it is in God's hands".

God used the hands of a skilled doctor who loved Jesus to impact many people for him. Isn't that how it should be? As I think about it in the form a good Baptist sermon, I see three traits that he had that affected his legacy.

Competence - you can't leave a lasting legacy if you aren't competent in what you do. If you say you love the Lord and display incompetence, you will have no legacy or worse, a bad one. Excellence in what you do is a prerequisite to a lasting legacy.

Character - this refers to the man of integrity who does not compromise his beliefs. In the stories we are hearing, we constantly hear about a man who acted what he believed. He truly acted as a man who believed he was ordained in what he did. He did what was right and few challenged his morality or his integrity.

Compassion - doctors see thousands of patients in their careers. Yet Dr. Amsler treated each one like they were his only patient. He could have been a physician displaying competence and character, but not practicing empathy. What gave him a legacy is that he saw people as people and he loved them as God loved them. That is what transformed him from a good man to a great man.

As a businessman and entrepreneur, I can see those traits being critical to how I live. The traits of a lasting legacy is something we can all look at, admire, then live. As a bonus, the following observations were made by Dr. Dwight Kett, one of Dr. Amsler's partners in practice at the memorial service.

Priceless, but Costly

My parents raised me with a pretty strong work ethic. I have pretty much always tried to earn what I could through hard work and determination. We tell our kids the same thing - to keep trying and keep striving and good things would happen. So it is still somewhat shocking when my heavenly father tells me to give it up. He says to stop trying. What is He talking about?

No man can by any means redeem his brother,
Or give to God a ransom for him—
For the redemption of his soul is costly,
And he should cease trying forever—
Psalm 49:7-8

That brought me to the difference between priceless and costly. Priceless is something that carries such extremely high value that it is not purchasable with the currency we have. The price of a soul is beyond our ability to purchase. I could walk into the most expensive store out there and still something in me tells me I could afford it if...  Maybe if I save up more, maybe if I win the lottery, maybe if I am successful in business. But priceless indicates to me there is no chance I could purchase it. So God says forget it. Can we accept it? So much of us still want to strive for something that is beyond our means.

Costly on the other hand sets a very high price tag, one again almost unimaginable. It can be purchased but only under extreme circumstances. The purchaser must have certain qualifications. I remember buying my first car on credit. I qualified to purchase the car - they researched my record and found me credit worthy. God is the only one credit worthy of redemption. But O the cost. I am trying to wrap my head around the incarnation - God becoming a baby. Can't get there. I am trying to wrap my head around redemption - Jesus bearing the brunt of my sins. Can't truly get there. I am trying to wrap my head around resurrection - the payment being accepted. Still not there. Costly may be attainable by God, but not cheap. I believe it fully and I accept it. But can I truly understand it's cost?

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich. 2 Cor. 8-9

I have found that those truly touched by grace have a hard time not being humble. Why? Because they recognize that which was priceless to them was purchased at great cost by the only one who could redeem their soul.

Bread

Along the Pan-American highway in Peru, there is this bread place that pops up seemingly out of nowhere. It has been our traditional stop whenever we make our way up to a beach spot close to two hours from where Mom and Alberto live. When we first stopped there they had only one oven, but business expansion has pushed this up to I think five ovens.You can get the bread with either cheese (con queso) or olives (con aceitunas). I am not a big fan of olives in anything so of course I opt for the one with cheese.





Isn't it interesting how big a part bread has played in the movement and symbolism of God?

1. Part of the worship of Israel and the sacrificial system
2. God's provision to Israel in the desert was manna, a form of bread.
3. Part of the celebration by Israel (Passover, bread without leaven)
4. Temptation of Jesus ("command these stones to become bread")
5. Part of the Lord's prayer ("give us this day our daily bread")
6. Reference to the body of Christ when celebrating Communion ("this is my body broken for you")
7. Symbolizes free gift of God (Isa 55:1)

Then there are the numerous uses of it in figurative language in the bible. “The bread of tears” (Ps. 80:5) and “the bread of sorrows” (Ps. 127:2) refer to food eaten in grief and distress. The “bread of mourners” (Hos. 9:4) is bread eaten at the time of death. The “bread of adversity” symbolizes hardship (Is. 30:20). The virtuous woman does not eat “the bread of idleness” (Prov. 31:27); she is diligent, hard-working, and productive. (Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary)

All points to Jesus as the "bread of life" and the "true bread from heaven" (John 13:26-35). He is an eternal supply of divine sustenance. Just as manna predictably supplied nourishment to Israel, Jesus supplies an endless supply of nourishment for the famished spiritual soul, of which I count as one. Passover and Easter meet in the person of Christ, the bread of life.

Carlos

As we have been going to Lima every other year for the past 10 years or so, we have sort of settled into a routine. We now kind of know the routine and we know the area.  Barranco and Miraflores are the districts where my mom and stepfather live. They run along a beautiful coastal bluff walkway or malecon. My walk takes me along the malecon overlooking the Pacific. It is a mix of runners, cyclists, leisurely, and power-walkers. When I first was going there, there was a man who just started talking to me in Spanish as I was on one of my walks. He struck me as kind of nuts and being in a foreign country, I quickly moved on. Then my stepfather told me "O that is just Carlos". Carlos is maybe more eccentric than nuts. Apparently he speaks poetry and other pithy things. So in the past few times to Lima, I have been just saying "Hola Carlos". This year, I recognized him saying to me "Hola Mi Buen Amigo" or "Hello My Good Friend".

Carlos from Dan Quigg on Vimeo.

The Holy Spirit pricked my conscience to remind me how terrible it is when we form snap judgments of people. Each person is made uniquely in God's own image and I believe that each varied personality reflects who God is. That is why Jesus made such a big deal out of human relationships. They are a reflection of God's relationship with us. Those personalities by the way stay with us through eternity - the best of our personalities I mean. Eternity will bring out the best of us while subtracting the worst of us. I am hopeful I will see Carlos there.

Ambassador

Just got back from 10 days in Lima, Peru visiting my mom and stepfather. Yes, they do live there. My mom as a bilingual ex-pat does make some interesting friends. One of the highlights of our trip was an invitation to a private party at the home of long-time Australian ambassador John Woods, who at this time was winding up a 41 year career in that role as ambassador to Peru. Mr. Woods and his wife Gay were incredible hosts. They brought in a renowned guitarist Scott Borg to play at the party (see brief video below). They were very friendly in a natural way. We felt like we had known them for a long time. As it was Debsue's birthday, they made her feel even more welcome.


A Christian is an ambassador for Christ. (2 Cor. 5:20). An ambassador is a representative. As a representative, he/she is a reflection of who they are representing. Imagine if Mr. Woods blew us off at the party or was gruff in his demeanor. That would have been representative in a negative way of Australia, his representative country. Or imagine if they had brought in some cracker-jack performer to come in instead of Scott Borg. We might have concluded that Aussies have not sense of music.

I sometimes wonder if I use my sinful nature as a defense. Yes, I am sinful but I am still a representative for Christ on this earth. I am sure that Mr. Woods could have had a brutal day, but you would never know it. How poor is it when those who name the name of Christ defame His holy name. Thinking of myself as an ambassador helps to frame how important it is to represent well. And the good news is in myself, I can only be a poor representative, but Christ as who I represent lives through me. Mr. Woods represents a country. I represent a living person who lives within me and through me.

Hard or Soft Trends

I am an avid reader of business books. I have a thirst for learning about key things I can use as a business leader. One of the books I finished reading recently was Flash Foresight by Daniel Burrus. The premise of the book is to examine any emerging business under the lens of 7 principles. One of the principles in to "Start with Certainty".  Certainty in the book is the process of making sure what you are looking at is a hard trend and not a soft trend. A hard trend is something that you can know with certainty. For example, increase in aging and information is a hard trend. You can predict it with a certain amount of certainty because it is supported by measurable, tangible and fully predictable facts, events, or objects. A soft trend is a projection based on statistics that have the appearance of being tangible, fully predictable facts. A hard trend is something that will happen: a future fact. A soft trend is something that might happen: a future maybe. 

The mistake many entrepreneurs make is that they tend to treat a soft trend as a hard trend. They are over-optimistic about a trend that may appear as a hard trend. We might say for example that given the proliferation of information ("hard trend"), the use of fax machines as a medium will increase ("soft trend") which is obviously wrong.

I thought about this in the realm of the spiritual. For Christians, I think the risk is 180 degrees the opposite. We tend to take from God what is a given and make it contingent. In other words, a hard trend becomes a soft trend. God has pledged to us and committed to us that He will never leave us or forsake us, yet we treat God like a soft trend where there are no guarantees. Our tendency is to take what is ours and place it on the shelf. Usually it is based on something I have done to distance myself from God. Yet God's forgiveness is 100% guaranteed (a hard trend).  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9 - emphasis mine). There are very few soft trends in the Bible - why would God provide ambiguity? There is also very little that is predicated on us. God has done it, not me. Jesus said "It is Finished" on the cross. Either it was finished (hard trend) or it wasn't (soft trend).

In daily life, I come to God almost begging that he appropriate my will and do what I want. Yet, my maturity is based on my ability to completely accept what His will is for me and plug myself into it. That is really what prayer is - "Your Will Be Done on Earth as it is in Heaven". Do I want to take the hard trend and go with it or mold it into my soft trend? How firm is my belief in the hard trend?