The crime that Jesus was accused of was that he, being a mere man, represented to be God. Many people throughout history have been accused of like ambitions. But when push comes to shove, they can't back up the claim. The miracles and signs testified to the truth that Jesus spoke, yet few believed.
The harder truth is that this was God becoming a man. I find it harder and harder sometimes to wrap my head around this truth. I held my new granddaughter for the first time this week. This little girl can only do three things - eat, poop, and wail. The Lord, creator of the universe was a helpless baby like that. God incarnate walks the earth for three years living penniless and homeless.
The cross takes that even a step further. God takes the abject punishment of a slave, naked and laid bare hoisted up on a tree. Mid-day as Jesus utters His last breath, there is some inkling that He spoke the truth. The sky becomes black and the earth shook and bodies rose out of the tomb. But there is still a body up on the cross. The body is laid in a tomb heavily guarded.
Then the resurrection testifies to the claim. Jesus appears to more than 500 witnesses, many of whom are alive at the time of the writing. Christianity is the only religion that is based on a historical event. That is the God of the universe took on human flesh for the sole purpose of dying an ignominious death to bear the personal punishment that our sins deserve. Thanks be to God for that gift.
It seems like just yesterday I was a kid running around E. 236th St. in Euclid, OH. Then I was finding salamanders in the back of our yard in Chagrin Falls. Then going on to high school in New Jersey and college in Indiana. Then I got married and had a kid thus feeling like I was a real adult with real responsibilities.
Yesterday was the start of the next phase of my life - I am a Grandpa! Our daughter welcomed our first grandchild into the world-yet another girl (we have three daughters). I still feel like that kid running around, but I am now another generation removed. Life is so fleeting.
The psalmist in Psalm 71 is filled with reflection. He wrestles with God abandoning him. He says "O God, do not be far from me; O my God, hasten to my help! But he reminds himself of God's goodness. He says, "O God, You have taught me from my youth, and I will still declare Your wondrous deeds". And finally, the verses that rang to me yesterday "And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to all who are to come."
The new generation comes along. The old generation passes on. The other day I quoted from a 90's movie and a millennial looked at me like I had four eyes. Time waits for no one. Yet God is so faithful to His children. The psalmist has that confidence and passes that confidence to you and me. He says God's righteousness reaches to the heavens. Remember, reflect.
Last weekend our church baptized 451 believers in Christ. It was called a spontaneous experience. Many people, for whatever reason have chosen not to go through the ordinance of baptism. Baptism is an outward profession of an inward change. You go down into the water and come up out of the water signifying your complete transformation. There are two ordinances of the church - baptism and communion. Baptism is not required for salvation, but as a testimony.
Pastor Joe went through a literal checklist of what it means to be a believer and then asked if you checked those things why shouldn't you be baptized. And by golly, many people went forward. I must admit I had initially mixed feelings about this process. It almost seemed too easy - no baptism class, no baptism testimony like many do. And then I though about what happened in the early church when people were baptized. There wasn't much documented about anything special you did other than just acknowledging a changed life. And that really is what it is all about - a testimony of a changed life. And seeing 451 people acknowledging a changed life is a powerful experience.
We are all on edge and all on our guard. That is the downside of living in a low trust society. A while back, Stephen M.R. Covey (son of the more well known Stephen Covey) wrote a book called Business at the Speed of Trust. In it, he refers to a trust tax. A trust tax imposes a broader penalty of a tax in every relationship, every transaction, every communication, and every dimension of life. When I turn on the t.v. to watch a game and I see that every other ad is for a personal injury lawyer, I have to question whether we have truly disintegrated into a low trust society. When the default mode for relationships is suspicion, then we are living in a low trust society.
A lot of people don't realize the implications of the trust tax. The economics of it are that everything costs more. If there are chronic lawsuits, the cost of defending has to show up somewhere and it is reflected in the price of things. A number of years ago, my daughter was in a fender-bender type accident at the age of 17. My mail started filling up with requests to represent us for the "pain and suffering" my daughter experienced. There were no injuries, just car damage. Some letters implied we should invent injuries.
Do you assume people are at their best or at their worst? Have you ever questioned the motivation of people that ask you for help? I would rather be defrauded and assume the best in people than live with the constant suspicion of others. In Covey's book, he also refers to a trust dividend which is the benefit of living in a high trust society. You may be wronged and likely will be. But you will live a life free from constant suspicion and people may surprise you.
My day job is running a cool software company that transforms public data into actionable insight. I write a weekly blog that analyzes issues around community health and postsecondary education. These past few weeks I have been writing about the alarming trends in the mortality or death rates. Last week I wrote on the causes of death that have spiked up in recent years which include external causes such as substance abuse and behavioral disorders. This week I wrote about the death rates among ages 15-44 which have spiked in recent years, and especially the 25-34 year old age group which has spiked 19% from 2014-2016 as noted in the following graph. There is an associated video blog on the topic.
As the parent of three millennials, I was staggered by this, but not totally surprised. Why is this generation in essence killing themselves over just a three or four year period? My prayer is that these thoughts spur yours and cause you to reflect.
This generation is the first full social media generation. There are some really good things to like about social media. It has enabled me to reconnect with old friends for example. But it is not social and it has rapidly devolved into a platform for shouting my opinion. I believe it has ruined the ability to practice empathetic listening. We as a culture have rapidly lost the ability to listen to others. Terry Pluto wrote an excellent article where he deemed this the age of rage.
Millenials by and large that I talk to (I am also the parent of three of this generation) have a very strong interest in making the world a better place. But they are also the same generation that expects rapid results and they become impatient and frustrated when they can't effect change. Because millennials seem to be less interested in filling gaps with tangible things, this breeds a deep self-reflective cause of frustration.
We as a culture simply no longer take time to reflect and meditate. Deb and I were just discussing this today. My phone cries for my attention. I get deeply busy, but I lose a little piece of cognitive awareness and self-reflection with each battle for my attention.
But I believe the biggest reason by far is this generation is the first to believe that a personal, creator God has no interest in them and they have no interest in a personal, creator God. The most recent Pew study cites a large rise in "Unafilliated" rise in religious identification. They are the "None" generation as Andy Stanley calls them.
It comes down to a set of foundational beliefs that occur in a critical order.
A belief in a personal God who created me and gave Himself up for me
A priority in building into that same relationship
Because of the vertical relationship with a holy God, there comes a priority on horizontal personal relationships with others who are created in the same image.
A focus on listening empathetically (something that I am working on). This is why Jesus said the first and foremost commandment is to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself".
Putting a priority on anything that might drive a wedge in either of those relationships. For example, while I have an opinion on the events of our day, I try to stay away from anything that will alienate or drive a wedge in those relationships.
Recently watched the movie 99 Homes. This is a painful movie to watch and it is not the type of movie you would likely watch twice. Spoiler alert if you plan on watching the movie. The story-line is about a young unmarried father (Dennis Nash played by Andrew Garfield) who lives with his young son (9 something) and his mom in a house that gets repossessed. Nash then in turn, because he is so good at so many things and in desperate need of money, joins the real estate company of the slick man (Rick Carver played by Michael Shannon) who repossessed his house. Along the way, he continues to do shadier and shadier things. It was hard enough to evict people from their homes, but then there were the numerous ways they continued to stretch and then outright cheat the system.
At the very end there was a moral line that Nash could not cross. What was intriguing to me was his realization that the line simply carried too much human cost. His mother had moved out with his son and there was another family that would be forever damaged by his action. So he briefly crossed that moral line, confessed it, and the movie ends abruptly. We are left not knowing what happens after that and I think that was intentional.
I had two major takeaways from this movie. First, moral lines are like boundaries. When we keep moving them, the lines get easier and easier to cross and the size of the offense gets greater and greater. Exaggerating leads to small lies, which lead to bigger lies. When you get away with one, it seems easier to break bigger ones.
Second, there are always consequences. Early in the process, the offense was depersonalized. Nash was cheating the "system" or the "government". There are no faces. But as the lying and the moral line got further crossed, there was a personal toll. In fact, every moral offense has a personal toll even if it is just to yourself. That is the minimum. Then it works it's way outward. That is what happened in the movie. The lying and the cheating revealed itself over time and those closest bore the cost.
I have to catch myself in the moment when I am prone to even the smallest lie. I have to nip it in the bud. It is so easy to start and so easy to continue going. I have even started to tell someone a lie or exaggeration and stopped confessing it on the spot. I do that not because I am so moral (because I am definitely not) or because these lies would hurt the other person, but because I know it will hurt me.
It has been really cold here as it has in many places. The other day Deb was getting one of my heavier coats. She stuck her hand in the pocket and found this surprise.
Yes, it is a very rare find. It was the last playoff game that we attended by the Browns in 1994. Yes, playoffs and Browns rarely go in the same sentence. We would be happy just to win a game. But then I digress. It caused us to remember the game and the details of it. One little factoid - the Browns head coach that year was one Bill Belichik and the defensive coordinator was one Nick Saban (now longtime head coach at Alabama).
On the last day of the year, we love to look back. But then tomorrow, we start to look forward. We make our plans and New Year's resolutions. I have been fond of using something I called Be Goals which I have written about before. It is the concept of setting personal goals of internal change and transformation. But as I look into next year, I also want to be content in just living day to day. I want to approach each day with a fresh set of eyes and expectantly looking forward to just what God is doing that day. I also want to be thankful. How much God has indeed blessed me and how much I take for granted. I am talking about blessings of family, relationships, and most of all faith. God has indeed been good to me all year and I know, no matter what he is a God fully worthy of my trust.
I love those Sports Sciences videos that break down the athletic marvels like this block by Lebron James into incredible science nuggets.
For example, in this video it talks about the reaction time of the block being .20 of a second, about the same amount of time to pop a champagne cork (not sure why they picked that one).
Do you ever marvel at the wonder of Christmas? If I were going to script it out, I would not script out the way God did. God, the infinite creator of the heavens and earth enters our finite time and space, He enters the birth canal of the same woman He created. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords comes into a completely impoverished family and born in abject poverty in a non-descript town (Bethlehem). He is raised in a town that is not known for much of anything (Nazareth). He takes on a trade that is reserved for the common man (carpenter). He is obedient to fallible parents. He is an itinerant, homeless preacher for three years. He suffers tribulation and trial just like we do. He suffers a ghastly execution reserved for the worst of criminals. He endures hell for three days. That is just a sampling. The highest of the high becomes the lowest of the low.
I can't get my head around this. And that is a good thing. If I got it, it would lose its amazement. But what I love is, I can't say I am deserving. I marvel, I wonder at the perfect sacrifice of Christ. And that is worth celebrating.
I am old enough to remember when Jimmy Carter infamously said to Playboy magazine in 1976, "I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times." It was ranked on Time Magazine's Top 10 Unfortunate Political One Liners. Carter has been ridiculed many times for that comment. Some just think it was goofy (of course men lust) and others thought just too information. But I appreciate Carter's honesty and being honest with ourselves and before our creator is the first step towards transformation from lust.
Last week I talked about the problem with sexual dysfunction in our society. It is not at all a shock to me that accusations against prominent men are coming out of the woodwork. There is a problem in the male community that rarely is spoken of. How we view women is a byproduct of many things. If there is a root problem, there has to be a root solution.
Do you see that you actually have a problem with how you view women? If you don't think you do (which is a very small percentage of men), then read no further.
Are you committed to a relationship with your spouse? Again, the answer has to be yes. You have to believe that marriage is a covenant.
Do you view that lust is damaging to that relationship? And I am talking about just viewing other women in that manner. BTW, this is damaging also to friendships you can have with women.
Commit to taking it to the Lord and asking him to change your heart. This has to be done daily. You see, there is an adversary that would long to see you mess up your life. Ask God to protect the sanctity of your marriage. Paul says "No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man, and God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide a way of escape so that you may be able to endure it." (2 Cor. 5:17).
Aggressively guard against that which comes into your eye-gate. Deb and I love movies and we know that part of our movie watching process is to avoid any movies with erotic stuff and fast forward through parts as they pop up. There is a reason Paul says to flee immorality. Put that into the vernacular of our modern Internet society and it means we must be fiercely resistant.
Step 5 is precarious without Step 4. Humans are notoriously weak. I know some well-meaning Christian men who have accountability groups. This is in and of itself a good thing, but absolutely not enough by itself. A man cannot be transformed by other men and he can't will himself out of this problem. I find that if I am on the right track, I am naturally looking at women differently than if I am on the wrong track. I also know it does not take much to get on the wrong track.
In the past, allegations of sexual misconduct might occur maybe a few times a year. Now, it is seemingly several times a week. Matt Lauer, Al Franken, Trent Frank, John Conyers, Roy Moore and the list goes on and on. What is going on?
To some level, much of what has occurred happened in a much earlier time and women are increasingly emboldened to speak out when in the past they might have been afraid to. I wonder how much of this has occurred that we don't know. But I happen to think the insidious nature of how we look at sexual relationships goes way beyond specific situations to a society that is absolutely saturated with the wrong images of sex.
As much as 20% or more of Internet searches involve pornography. It is so readily available and so easy to get. Free and paid T.V. also glamorize sex as casual and fun. Virtually none of this occurs in the context of traditional marriage. The goal in pornography is self-satisfaction. The other party is simply the means to this end. It glamorizes how women can exist to pleasure men. Men in particular are really good at storing these mental images in their computer brain and the images intensely cloud how they look at the opposite sex. The can no longer look at them as people but as pleasure makers.
I participate in a number of close knit men's groups and the vast majority of them have struggled with exposure to Internet porn. One pastor I spoke with said 90-95% of the young men (as early as middle school) are purveyors of Internet porn. No wonder we have dysfunction with women, and especially our wives. Sex in the form of marriage is all about other-satisfaction and complete transparency. I wrote about this in my previous blog on intimacy in response to the death of Hugh Hefner.
There are damaging consequences to this behavior. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians says that we are to flee immorality. The word used here is the word porneia which is where the word pornography comes from. He goes on to say that every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body (1 Cor. 6:18-20, emphasis mine). In other words, no other sinful behavior has the capacity to wreck a man physically. I believe that is what David was dealing with in Psalm 32 when he said, "when I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long". The woods are full of people who have messed themselves up. And the list of those that could mess themselves up is the vast majority of us.
Fortunately there is a solution and I will explore this in another week.
It has been a long time in-between blog posts. First it was writer's block and then a series of trips for both business and personal down south. Much of the time I was in Florida but now back into the long winter season here in NE Ohio.
I am one of those people who suffer from a malady called Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD for short. Mayo Clinic defines it as a type of depression that's related to changes in seasons — SAD begins and ends at about the same times every year. Symptoms start in the fall and continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody. Strange as it is, I have lived in three of the four snow belts (NW Indiana, NE Ohio, and Western Michigan) which make for long winters. When I was in Florida, I almost felt like I had unlimited energy. When we got home, I felt like someone has sucked the strength completely out of me. I cope through the winters with a lot of Vitamin D.
I have a love-hate relationship with the seasons. Part of me just loves the four seasons. I really think the bad weather in Cleveland from December through April just makes me appreciate the really nice weather from May through October. It also really helps to see the beauty of all the seasons. Today, I decided to take my bike out in 40 some degree weather. Now some of my fellow bicycle enthusiasts will go when it is much colder, but I usually cut it off at 50. But I have found that just getting out even when others aren't helps me to be aware of the beauty around me. That appreciation helps my outlook. God has beauty even in the midst of winter doldrums.
We are in a series of messages in church called "All Things New" talking about what the new heaven and the new earth will be like. I read Randy Alcorn's book Heaven and it really challenged me to look at just the glimpse of heaven that this earth is like. Take things like athletics. Do I think athletics and competition will be heaven. I do! Think of things that give us the greatest joy and multiple by hundred, yet without sin. Competition is referred to in the Scriptures as something positive. Paul, for example talks about running and boxing in such a way as to be successful.
I have seen this video several times over the past number of weeks. This man is color blind and has never seen colors. His family gets him a pair of glasses that allows him to see colors for the first time. This is the kind of amazement that we should see in all we do on this earth and even more as we think of eternity.
He was known to only a few and even to them, not well. He was apart from his family, but not completely estranged. His brother was shocked as shown in the video. He was not associated with any extremist organizations. He was by all accounts well off financially. He had a girlfriend but even she was shocked. Yet, Stephen Paddock meticulously planned and carried out a mission of mass execution of strangers.
My wife during the course of coordinating meets a person for the first time and literally only a few minutes later says calls her a liar, says she is getting bad vibes from her, and questions her faith. My wife, who does not have a mean bone in her body, was devastated. There is not a person on this earth who knows my wonderful wife better than I do and I cannot imagine more undeserved comments.
We see in these situations two opposite situations. The first is not suspecting the monster within and the second is making instant conclusions about people we hardly know. As humans, we love to sit in judgment, but most times we get it wrong either way. The human heart is amazingly complex and underneath it all no one can understand it. To quote my favorite poet Shrek "ogres are like onions" meaning they are complicated. Jesus (a little better source) said that he could never require man's testimony "because He knew what was in the heart of man" (John 2:25).
In the course of every day dealings, I constantly have to remind myself of this truth. Most times I have no idea what is going on in the hearts of minds of people. When I want to pre-judge people I hardly know, I have to stop and try to see them as God sees them. I have to take the high road which is what Deb took with her false accuser. She instantly apologized for offending the woman even though she knew she had done nothing wrong.
What about overt wickedness like in Las Vegas? It should remind us of the depravity in each of us. But it should also spur us to the good that is in us. The stories of heroism, of the many who donated blood, of those who supported the grief of others, and so on.
Hugh Hefner had been married three times and dated numerous women over the course of his 91 years of life. He also claimed to have slept with over 1,000 women. By all definitions, by the definition of worldly pleasure, Hugh had it all. Many guys would have loved to traded places with him. Yet this epitome of success was strangely alone at his death. Hefner had no real transcendental relationships.
King Solomon seems like a close match to Hefner. 1 Kings 11 tells us he "loved foreign women" and he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines (mistresses, girlfriends). If you add up the seven hundred and the three hundred, it strangely matches the 1,000 of Hefner. Solomon was the original Hugh Hefner. But we get a sneak peek of where that left him in the book of Ecclesiastes. It left him empty and void. Solomon calls his chasing after pleasure part of his "vanity and chasing after the wind".
I have been married 32 years. I have had my best friend by my side through thick and thin. I have someone whom I completely trust. I heard a great definition of intimacy as "someone whom you can be completely transparent with". God has wired the marital relationship to be so much more than physical. Intimacy is praying together. Intimacy is crying together. Intimacy is sharing thoughts together. Intimacy is just watching a movie together. And on and on it goes. I doubt that Hefner, the original playboy, really knew intimacy.
The Cleveland Indians won 22 games in a row before the streak finally ended Friday night, a game I happened to attend. This streak set a major league record previously dating back to 1935 (I am not counting the Elias record from 1916 that included a tie). The Indians did it with surprising ease outscoring opponents by huge margins with few games being close. However, the 22nd game was an extra inning thriller where the Indians came from behind. The players apparently started wishing that the streak was over and they could get back to just playing ball. The streak of perfection was getting harder and harder to maintain. To keep it going was a day to day grind.
Likewise the Old Testament law contains laws that are impossible to keep. I haven't even rolled out of bed and gotten into the morning routine before I have violated at least one law. At the time of Christ's earthly ministry, the Pharisees had even further gummed up the works by adding numerous trivial laws that weighted the people down.
If the perfection of God's law is impossible, why does it exist? Thankfully, the answer is supplied succinctly by Paul in Galatians 3:24. It is our tutor to lead us to Christ. We recognize our own inability and sinful pattern and it reveals our need for a Savior. Tutor is an interesting word. The Greek word denotes a slave whose duty was to take care of a child until adulthood. the tutor escorted the child to and from school and watched over their behavior at home. Tutors were disciplinarians and caused those under their care to yearn for the day when they would be free from under the tutor's custody. Likewise the law is our tutor and shows us our sins leading us or escorting us to Christ.
Just about all of us have friends and/or family going through a once in a generational storm in Florida as I write this. As I sit here in Northeast Ohio, the sun is shining and it is a beautiful day, but in Florida it is nasty. It is so easy to feel helpless about what is going on. If I could pull a Star Trek, I would beam people up here. But time and space prevents me from doing that.
The seasoned fisherman were terrified. Storms, like hurricanes were common on the Sea of Galilee. But this one seemed completely out of the ordinary. The boat was being swamped. They feared for their very lives. And there was Jesus asleep like a baby on a cushion, an intentional act of rest, not one like dozing. These fisherman did not suspect that Jesus was unaware, but that He didn't care that their lives were in danger. Jesus calms the storm and says to them "Where is your faith?". (Mark 4:25-41).
What is it to be learned about storms?
Storms remind us of our human frailty.
Storms remind us of the brevity of "stuff".
Storms offer an opportunity for human generosity and caring.
Storms remind us of who is the one who is in control.
I was trying to leg out an infield hit. I stretched to the bag and felt a little pop and realized I had popped my quad muscle. I limped back to the dugout and realized I was done. Two days later, feeling I was recovered enough from my quad, I tried to hit. As a power hitter, when I swing it is all parts of the body working in forward motion. On a 3-1 count, I let her rip and went down. Done for the evening again. Two days later, I am back at it again trying to catch and while stretching right to catch a ball out of the strike zone I did it again.
After three re-occurrences of the same image, it finally sunk into my thick skull that maybe I ought to lay low for a while and let my injury actually heal. So I did or so I thought. I was putting spaghetti away and I dropped a container of spaghetti on the floor. As I was going to pick it up, I felt the most intense pain in the leg to date and I dropped to the floor in agony. This pain caught me by surprise.
Author Philip Yancey has written extensively about the subject of pain. He co-wrote a book called The Gift of Pain and has referred to it in multiple of his books. Leprosy patients are at great risk of doing harm to themselves because they can feel no pain. Someone with leprosy can stick their hand in a fire and not know it. The book makes the fascinating conclusion that pain is actually good for us. Pain is much broader than physical. It reaches to the very core of our being. Some of the worst pain is emotional and spiritual.
Intentional Pain Stops Us from Unintended Consequences
If there were no consequences to our behavior, we would do all sorts of bad things. But the bad things we do leave a mark. My continued insistence on playing through pain only made my situation worse. We can see this with our dabbling with sin. There are always consequences and the mark of pain helps us to recognize it.
Unintentional Pain Reveals Our Need for God
Some of the worst pain comes from outside. It is the consequences of living in a fallen world. My worst pain on my example came from the accidental spill of the spaghetti. Likewise, the unforeseen such as an accident or a trial occurs. This type of trial leads us to recognize our frailty and our need for a personal God.
Tomorrow millions of people will witness the rare phenomena of the moon blocking the light's rays. In some places, there will be a total eclipse. Here in Northeast Ohio, 80.5% of the sun will be blocked. During the solar eclipse, the lunar shadow will darken the sky and temperatures will drop will bright stars and planets will appear at a time that is normally broad daylight.
Retired NASA astrophysicist and photographer Fred Espenak said the experience lasts for just a couple minutes, but it's truly out of this world. "It is unlike any other experience you've ever had, "Espenak, known as Mr. Eclipse, told ABC news. "It's a visceral experience. The hair on your arms, on the back of your neck, stand up. You get goosebumps."
There are two ways to react to this event. One is to be awed by the event itself and the second is to be awed by the creator of the heavens and the earth. I love it when God gives us glimpses of His handiwork in a way that interrupts our mundane. It is easy to get wrapped up in the day to day routine. We are hurtling through space every day. Our body intakes oxygen. Gravity keeps our feet on the ground. We don't thank God enough for His handiwork. How good it is for us to take a step back and just reflect on the wonder of it all.
David writes "When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you take thought of him, the son of man that you care for him." It is awesome that the creator of the heavens and the earth desires a personal relationship with me and you. Reflect on that tomorrow as you see His handiwork.
My baseball team played a game Saturday at League Park in Cleveland. For those who don't know League Park, it is a restored baseball park on the near east side. I have been told that it is the only original structure from its era other than Fenway Park and Wrigley Field. All other stadiums of that era were razed to the ground and stuff built on top of it. League Park was the host to professional baseball from the turn of the century all the way until 1946.
The field itself was remade (see picture below by my creative photo savvy spouse) to exactly the dimensions of the original ballpark including the short 295 foot fence in right field, which has a high 40 foot fence (even higher than the famed 37 foot Green Monster fence of Fenway). The other parts of the field were 380 feet to the outfield. Quick side note - I hit a blast to the fence on Saturday but because I popped a quad muscle during the week I only ended up with a single. My manager called it the longest single in League Park history. We envisioned that Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig played on this field. Bob Feller pitched here and all the greats of one of the most famous eras of baseball.
The word remember or recall occur 167 times in the Bible. As I look through the list, these are some of the themes:
Remember events such as Passover
Remember people who preceded you
Remember the goodness of God
Remember the sacrifice of God
Remember the commandments of God
Remember what you were like before
Remember the days of your life or the days of old
Remember God's holy word
Remember the brevity of life
Remember if your brother has something against you
Apparently God wants us to remember stuff. It seems like our culture today is stuck in the now. Remembering is healthy in context.
We eat a lot of Chinese food. For whatever reason, our sleepy little town of Brecksville has two takeout Chinese restaurants. When the owners of our preferred one went on vacation leaving us in a potential lurch, we simply turned to option B which is almost as good. Anyway, I actually read the fortune cookies and I am fascinated (sometimes) by what I read.
At first blush, this seems to be a fantastic combination of words. We all identify with adversity and we understand that adversity leads us to something, but truth? I could see how adversity could lead us to strength. I could see how adversity could lead us to God? Does the fortune cookie author mean that adversity could lead us to recognize truth? If so, that is a lame one. Kind of like getting pulled over for going over the speed limit and saying I did not know the speed limit. The officer would say that my ignorance does not excuse me.
Truth is one of those words that more and more get relegated to a point of reference in our culture today. But truth is one of those words that stands alone and needs no context. Further, we are responsible for knowing truth. Adversity is irrelevant. Jesus says "If you continue in My word, the you are truly disciples of mine and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free" (John 8:30-31). The truth is the gospel. The trigger is knowing it and believing it.
In fact, the more I think about it, if Jesus were writing a fortune cookie, he would write "Truth is the first path to adversity". Think of those who have placed their lives on the line for the truth of the gospel. They were convinced the truth was the truth and some people don't like truth. About 100,000 of them die every year for the truth.
I have an awful combination. First of all, I sweat a lot. Second, I am a baseball catcher. When you wear the equipment of the catcher (the tools of the trade) on a hot, humid July day, you produce sweat - lots of it. On a typical game, under these conditions, I will lose five or six pounds. Which is why my car always smells like a locker room.
I can spray a whole can of aerosol Fabreeze in there and it still smells. I bought one of those scent things that hangs from your rear view mirror and it was used up about five minutes into its journey. Deb's car on the other hand still smells new even though it is several years older. You see, she is not a sweater and she is not a catcher.
Seems like a strange introduction to my blog, but half the battle to the journey of the sinner is the realization that they are odorous in the sight of an Almighty God. We are currently studying in the Sermon on the Mount at church (Matthew 5-7). The first part of the sermon is the Beatitudes. Beatitudes literally mean "happy". But they sure don't sound happy.
Blessed are the poor in spirit
Blessed are those who mourn
Blessed are the gentle
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
Blessed are the merciful
Blessed are the pure in heart
Blessed are the peacemakers
Blessed are those who have been persecuted
The first four are self-assessment. They in essence say, I am a stinker. It is the one who completes the self-assessment and says that I need a holy and righteous God to remove the contamination of my stinkiness. That is the meaning of what the prophet Isaiah writes "though our sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow"(1:18). I need to come clean before God. To God, my stinkiness problem, when acknowledged in faith plus trust in Christ, is not only neutral but even sweet smelling. I still have the new car smell so to speak.
I bring this up because our culture wants to constantly say we are all right and we can make our own way. Saying I am ok enough times does not make me ok. This is not a healthy self-image. I am bound to disappoint myself no matter how many self-help books I might read. Don't get me wrong - we all have fascinating potential and I am an avid reader of authors like the late Stephen Covey. But my self-image must start with the flaws that I have. The amazing things can happen with a flawed sweaty guy.
