Heed the Signals

One of my favorite bike routes takes me up Route 82 to the Summit Bike and Hike Trail. You can then take that south where it connects to the Portage Bike Trail or north where it connects to the Cuyahoga Bike and Hike trail. Route 82 is quite busy and the speed limit along that road is 45 miles an hour. The trail actually crosses Route 82. There is a crossing signal that you can initiate as a walker or cyclist which issues flashing lights to the traffic. However, I have learned a long time ago that at best 1 in 3 people will actually stop for the flashing lights to let the people cross. Some probably don't know they are supposed to stop, some may not care and proceed anyway, and then there is the group that actually lets people cross.

I was reminded that God issues warning signals throughout the Scriptures. It is not good for us to violate those signals. They are there for our own good. Like the crossing signals however, we can be ignorant of them (not know they are really there and for our own good), we can choose to ignore them (in which case, beware because they are there for a reason) or we can obey them. I find in my own life that I have to have a willingness and even a yearning to obey the signals. I have to trust that they are there for my good. I have to trust that they are there for me to be everything God wants me to be. And then I have to take the step of obedience.

It is not enough to desire to obey the signals. I am sure some who pass through probably think they should but they don't. Maybe they are in a hurry. But intent simply is not good enough. We must desire AND actually take the step of obedience. Our life depends on it.

The Zamperini Story After Chapter 37

After seeing the movie Unbroken, I felt compelled to read the book. It is the story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic athlete who endured incredible hardship as a survivor of a plane crash in open sea and then as a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese. After seeing the movie, I could not believe what he went through but the book tells even more of what he had to endure. To emerge a survivor is truly incredible.

About 95% of the book is dedicated to the horrors that Zamperini experienced. But the title is misleading because Zamperini could not possibly have endured what he endured without being broken in some way. Every man has his breaking point. Zamperini post-war was a shell of a man. We learn of his alcoholism and recurring nightmares of his lengthy abuse at the hands of the sadistic Japanese guard "The Bird" beginning in Chapter 34. We learn of his overwhelming desire to find and kill "The Bird". We learn of his marriage falling apart. This is a man that is really broken. We would not have a movie if the story ended after Chapter 37. Zamperini would have been one of the many racked by the ravages of Post Traumatic Stress.

In Chapter 38, we learn of his coming to faith in Christ and in Chapter 39 we hear of him going to Japan to purposely forgive his captors. He even was willing to forgive "The Bird" who was determined to be alive but did not show up to face Zamperini. The book ends after Chapter 39 although there is an Epilogue that describes Zamperini's  life post-conversion. The movie celebrates this man's endurance and so that is truly special. But it is false to think that this man was unbroken.

Time and space could not heal the deep wounds of his soul. God had to heal him.The opposite of broken is not unbroken, but healed. Zamperini was healed! What healed him was grace. Jesus Christ was broken in an even greater way. His undeserved breaking resulted in our healing.  We cannot will ourselves from our brokenness - we have to be healed. Healing is being changed from the inside out and that is what Zamperini experienced. And that is why we have the movie.

The Feel of Death

When I was in Rwanda, we visited a site of a technical school where more than 50,000 people were slaughtered during the genocide. As a memorial, the bones were excavated and laid out in the open. Debbie made a comment when we visited that place that she heard absolute silence - no birds singing, no sound of children playing, just utter silence. I have been told the wind that whips threw the trees makes a sound in a minor chord.

We just returned from Good Friday service and they did a great job of having us feel the literal sting of death. But not just death, but the death of our Lord. At the end, they simulated in some small way the revulsion of nature at the death of the Lord. Death has a sting Paul says - we feel that sting. It is the sting that is caused by sin.

Wisdom That is Not Self-Serving

I got takeout Chinese food this week and I eagerly opened my fortune cookie to see what pearls of wisdom were in there.  This is what mine said.

I was Ralphie on "A Christmas Story" who infamously said "A Crummy Commercial?".  I paid good money for this Chinese food and this is what I got.  Someone must have run out of good ideas.

A lot of us think that God is too busy running the world that he has run out of time and wisdom. But James says that God gives to us "generously and without reproach" (1:5). In other words we can never ask him for too much wisdom and He never gives it grudgingly. God doesn't say "Oh here comes Dan - he is out of wisdom again" which happens often by the way.

Another interesting thing about this verse is it's placement. It comes right after the end of the verses talking about trials. Trials force us to abandon much thought that we have wisdom. Trials bring us to our "wits end" (Psalm 107:27). It is great to know that God does not leave us in trials but offers us His abundant wisdom.

As my kids got older, it is interesting that they finally got around to asking their mother and I for advice. As they approached the real world, they recognized that we had experiences and wisdom worth asking for. And we got a small glimpse of what it feels like to be God in dispensing wisdom. We were only too glad to help and that was a form of love. God will not leave us lacking.

Quick to Hear, Slow to Speak, Slow to Anger

This you know my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.  James 1:19-20

I love the book of James - it has to be my favorite book of the Bible because it is so practical and down to earth.  I have committed to memorizing it this year and I am sure from time to time I will comment on it in my blog. James talks to scattered believers all over the globe at the time of its writing but it feels like he is just talking to you and I in our living room. He refers to us constantly in his book as "his beloved brothers".

I talk too much, I listen too little, and I get angry too easily. Isn't it interesting how those three are connected? It starts with listening to others. I have a habit of not listening with empathy. One of Steven Covey's seven habits is "Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood". My brain goes to what I am going to say without listening to what the other is saying. Or I have a nasty habit of filling in what the other is saying. My wife and I call each other out on that all the time. Wise counselors say very little. They have perfected the act of listening. I have a friend who is an incredibly good listener. His listening enables him to ask wise questions. My board of directors of my company are fantastic listeners. So it starts there.

If you are quick to hear, you have to be slow to speak. You wait until it is time to speak. Most of us don't wait until the pause. One time I had co-workers who were constantly interrupting each other. We used another Steven Covey technique called the "talking stick". The talking stick is an object that rests in the hands of another until they are done and then they push it to you to symbolize that they are done. Another technique is asking "framing questions". It simply means repeating back what you think the other person is saying.

Finally, isn't it interesting that anger is associated with listening and speaking. But that makes sense. So much of conflict is rooted in an inability to communicate. Anger is born out of frustrated expectations. I find it really interesting that much of my anger surfaces in two venues where I retain some level of anonymity - e-mail and car. E-mail is uni-directional communication. I can say exactly what is on my mind without any response from you. So many times (even this past week), I sent an e-mail in anger based on a total misconception. Should have called the person when it sent off a nerve and it would have revealed the issue. It is the cowards way out and misdirected anger is cowardly.

Second is driving. I am a recovering tailgater. Just yesterday (as I was leaving church), I tailgated a woman who was driving slower than I would have liked. She got angry at me, let me pass and honked the horn at me. Now if I was in a line at the grocery store and I saw that woman's face, I would have let her go in front of me. But because I was in anonymity, I get frustrated. I literally have to imagine that person in that car as in front of me personally.

Trying to Do Better

I love ESPN's Pardon the Interruption (PTI).  Because it is on in the afternoon I hardly ever get to watch it, but I listen to it via podcast. Tony Kornheiser always closes the show with "we'll try to do better then next time" and Michael Wilbon always closes with "same time tomorrow knuckleheads".  Because I have nothing better to do, I captured a week of show closes for your listening pleasure.


Our repentance to God must often seem like this. It is hollow almost comical. "I'll try and do better the next time Lord" knowing full well I will stumble again. Often it happens with our closest relationships. If I belch at home (usually after something heavily carbonated), I might say I'm sorry, but really I am quite proud of my ability to belch loudly.

The good news is we have a God who loves to forgive repentant sinners. My sin breaks God's heart and he so wants to restore me. He will forgive and restore countless times, endless numbers of times. But there is a caution flag. There was and is a cost to this forgiveness. Jesus took my sins to the cross so my sin should grieve me more in the cost of it than the fear of penalty. The writer to the Hebrews says "If we go on sinning willfully, there is no longer a sacrifice" (13:26) and "we are trampling underfoot the blood of the covenant" (13:29).

My sin should make me weep for what it cost God far more than what it can cost me. It cost God everything. It should make my repentance genuine and not hollow. I need to trust God to move me away from sin in true repentance. I can no longer just "try to do better the next time".

Are Signs Ok?

King Hezekiah was dying and he appealed to God to live through His illness. God listened to Hezekiah and gave him 15 more years of life. Further, He gave Hezekiah a supernatural sign that He heard his prayer by causing a shadow on the stairway to go back 10 steps. Note Hezekiah did not ask for the sign.

King Ahaz was told he would be delivered from the King of Aram. He was told to ask for a sign of this deliverance. He refused and the country was judged. Moses and Gideon asked for signs and they were given them. They were not chastised for their requests. God uses signs as signs of his covenant with the people, yet Jesus says an evil and adulterous nation craves a sign.

The word "sign" appears 90 times in the ESV Bible. As people, we crave for signs. Something visible that we can see or touch. We live in the seen world. Yet we are told to look at things that are unseen (2 Cor 4:17-18). So what are we to think of signs today?

If I think biblically about this issue, I seem to come down that God does not care for signs that test and validate him to an unbelieving faith. We might call those foxhole or ultimatum requests. I think that is what Jesus was referring to when He responds to the Pharisees in Matthew 12. But I do think that God will provide signs to a weak faith. I call these "fleece" prayers after Gideon in the Book of Judges. God knows that my faith can be pretty flimsy and that I simply cannot live 100% in trust of the unseen world and I really need to see Him every now and then in the seen world. So he says these prayers are ok. Further I have learned from the Bible that God will give these signs even when we don't ask for them.

I am so thankful that God knows how fragile I am and meets me halfway in the seen world. It might be something really tiny but very obvious that God is here with me in the seen world. Something that encourages me in my faith. There are many days where I just feel completely lost and abandoned. And seemingly in those days God appears in my seen world with a sign. However, I want to be careful that I don't cross that fine line to demanding a prayer to authenticate God. He is there whether I see Him or not.