The Wonders of Life

In my blog post last week, I reflected on the cicadas and the wonders of observing this phenomena. I think many of us take for granted those things that happen routinely but are anything but routine. Several weeks ago, we were flying to Florida and the man in the seat behind me of nearly 50 years old commented that he had never flown before.

He was so excited that he asked the people on either side of him to take pictures out the window. He was also hyper-ventilating as we took off and gasping as we landed. About 30 minutes in the flight, he hit the call button and asked the flight attendant if she could "take his order". He did not understand the routine of airplane service. About a few hours in, I got up to stretch (I do this routinely in flight because I have had a blood clot and my hamstrings also are very tight). He asked me if it was ok to stand in the aisle like that.

I reflected on what this man was experiencing. Since when does flying 600 mph in a metal tube with a hundred of our closest friends become normal? My brother-in-law is a pilot and even he is routinely awed by what the world looks like from 10,000 to 30,000 feet in the air.

We were at a wedding last night and a friend of our daughter brought her seven week old baby to the wedding. Looking at a new born baby should fill us with wonder. In the movie Rocky (Rocky II that is), Rocky says to Adrian when their baby is born "I can't believe you did this". Rocky has wonder but it is misplaced. God is the author of this complicated human organism and uses people as the means.

Do we approach life with a sense of wonder?  Or with a sense of routine? There are so many daily routine, ho-hum things that we see that reflect the wonder of who God is. Even giving ourselves credit for the wonders of technology should be directed not from the inventor but to the ultimate creator God who fashions the complex into the seemingly ordinary.

Cicada Lessons

We are at the tail end (no pun intended) of the cicada invasion. These little buggers depending on where you live in NE Ohio are everywhere. There is a neighborhood by where I work where they are particularly prominent. I learned a whole lot about cicadas reading up on them on websides like cicadamania.com.

 When we look at things in nature like cicadas, we can have one of several reactions. We can say to ourselves, "so what" and just move on with our lives. At the opposite end of the spectrum, we can marvel at these things and think they are the end in and of themselves. Or we can admire and draw from the great Creator God who fashions an unbelievable and complex world. In many cases, cicadas and much of nature serves to remind us of what life is like, especially in perspective to eternity. For example:

1. Cicadas remind us of the cycle of life. Cicadas have a very predictable life cycle much like the seasons that should remind us of life and death as matters of course in this life post the fall.
2. Cicadas remind us of the brevity of life. Cicadas have a short life span and their life span as adults outside the ground is a mere 2-3 weeks.
3. Cicadas remind us of resurrection. They emerge from the ground just as God brings forth life out of the ground as part of the creation of man and the subsequent resurrection of all men whether to destruction or new life (heaven or hell).
4. Cicadas remind us of new birth. Cicadas emerge from the ground as nymphs and shed their exoskeleton skin for a new purpose. While unfortunately their life as adults is brief, ours in a resurrected body are created for eternity.
5. Cicadas remind us of courtship (ok maybe this one is a stretch) - Cicadas actually sing to attract their mates. Males sing, females respond, mating begins, and the cycle of life begins again. Somehow the attractiveness of their mates is a natural course of life. I found on the cicadamania site a place where you can listen to all of their singing and noises.

I marvel at what God is doing in creation. I am sorry, but even when I was not a follower of Jesus, I never doubted in an orderly, complex creator. And when you look a little closer, you can experience and see much of what life is about.

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.

Muscle Memory

Been a few weeks since I posted. Sometimes we get caught up in life and we don't take the time to sit down and compose our thoughts. I normally have no shortage of things swirling in my head to blog about but sometimes sitting down and composing them is more difficult. So back in the swing this week.

The NBA playoffs are upon us and before that March madness. I am enthralled by the emergence of the sharpshooters. I am particularly amazed by Stephen Curry who hits from way beyond the three point arc at a rate that is fascinating. From that distance there are so many things that can go wrong to cause the ball to not go through those net laces. Any slight variation from the trajectory would cause the ball to go off. This is what I believe is what people refer to as "muscle memory". It is a practice of precision gained from repetition. Stephen Curry practices these same shots with the same movement over and over again until it is almost automatic. He does not vary at all especially in the game when a man is upon him. In practice, he actually made 77 in a row. Now with the physical pressure of a game, maybe that drops to 40+%.

God wants the believer to be fueled by a kind of muscle memory. By that, the scriptures and the presence of the Holy Spirit are so ingrained so in our lives that to live by them is normal and to go against them is abnormal. Paul says to "let the word of Christ richly dwell within you" (Col 3:16). This takes intense practice. Yet so many of us just slough off the practice of knowing God that holy muscle memory doesn't have a chance. I find the disciplines of godly living require, well discipline. Many of my brothers and sisters in Christ have holy habits of study, memory, and prayer, but others treat these disciplines like they are going through a fast food window.

I play left field in baseball. From left field my accuracy is very good. I can throw a ball 150 feet with very good precision. Yet when I pitch it is almost comical how much I struggle to get the ball over the plate. I switch up arm angles and alligator arm the ball up there. The difference is 100% muscle memory. To the Christian, that type of mid-stream adjustment leads us to be like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. (James 1:6). What I have found fascinating is a complete lack of confidence fueled by lack of discipline when I stand on the mound. And unless I cultivate the habits of holy living, I will similarly alligator-arm and arm-slot my way through life. Muscle memory is essential to the man bent of Stephen Curry like precision.

Clothing and Identity

I was in Florida the past few days visiting my mother and stepfather. That meant spending time in airports as people are going or coming from spring break. People proudly wore hats or shirts with their favorite school or sports team on it. I proudly wore my Valpo gold shirt as the Valparaiso Crusaders made it to the NIT finals. I have a friend who I think has an entire wardrobe dedicated to Ohio State. A friend of mine said on Facebook "why do I feel so bad when my school loses and I haven't been there in 35 years".

We proudly identify ourselves with these schools or teams by wearing the apparel. It makes a statement to the rest of the world that we are proud to be associated with this or that school or team. This of course also has to do with the presumption that the team is a winner. Don't see a whole lot of Browns paraphernalia these days.

This picture is somewhat Paul had in mind when he says "For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ" (Gal. 3:27). The clothing is a symbol of our identification with Christ through salvation. I can wear the shirt of my favorite team and have a loose connection. That is a fan. But to be clothed here means I have to have a true union with Christ and that can only come from salvation and faith in what Christ did for me.

The context of the verse is also one of unity. When I proudly wear my Valpo shirt, I can immediately join in unity with those who are Valpo grads. My college buddies and I connected with Valpo's NIT run. How much more when Christians relate? It does not matter where they are from or what they do, there is a unity. I can go halfway around the world in places like Africa and have an instant connection with other believers in Christ.

Sadly how much more do I pronounce my loyalty to my team or my school and yet be ashamed to pronounce my identity in Christ. There is no greater identity I can have than who I am in Jesus. That goes beyond physical clothing to the very core of my being.