On Apple vs. the Government

The government wants information from Apple and Apple refuses to provide that information. It would seem that most of us would naturally gravitate towards supporting Apple. After all, who wants "big brother" cracking into our precious devices? The very thought conjures up the Hunger Games society of President Snow.

Yet Apple is seemingly losing the court of public opinion on this matter. And if you break it down, it is not hard to determine why. We all desire two very core things in the society we live in. The first is basic safety and protection. Who knows how many were involved in this act of terrorism. The uncertainty of it and the fact that it came out of nowhere feeds our insecurities of basic safety. The second core societal issue is the need for justice. Justice has already been served for the main perpetrators - they were killed. But there are others out there and we demand a sense of justice. So in the end, we are willing to give up a potential right to privacy to advance these two basic needs.

The bible advances that same concept. A Christian is a "doulos" or slave. But he is not a slave because he has been compelled to be. He is a slave because he completely trusts the master and the master has shown himself worth to be trusted. The master holds the key to security and justice and God has shown in Christ perfect love and perfect justice. Therefore we rest in the arms of the master as a slave. God knows us so perfectly that this willing act is not for God but for us. The government as a human institution is not perfect like God and there certainly can be some distrust. But at the end of the day, the government advances our own interests of security and justice and that is a stronger basic need than privacy. How much more can we trust in God for these same basic human needs?

The Case of the "Secret" Service Worker

This week, I heard the case of the Spanish water utility civil servant who did "absolutely no work" for six years but continued to receive pay. Apparently the utility thought he was transferred to the local city hall. The only reason he was caught was because they were trying to recognize him for 20 years of "service". Spanish media has dubbed the man "el funcionario fantasma" which means the phantom official. The man was ordered to pay a fine of $27,000 but apparently the pay is his to keep.

What would cause someone to receive benefits but provide no service? That is the question I ask myself. When I came to know Jesus Christ as my Savior, I became the beneficiary of an incredible gift that I did not earn in any whatsoever. I also became part of a larger family, the church - the family of God. I have the benefits of being part of that family, but I also am expected to do my part. But so many of us are like the phantom official - they want to receive the benefits but provide no services. The church is a working organism that is reliant on each of us to do our part. Growing up, if I did not do my part as a member of my family (e.g. cleaning my room, doing the dishes, etc.), I was not a member of the family. I was a tenant or a border. The family necessitates each to do their part.

Madoff and Forgiveness

I was completely absorbed into the Bernie Madoff documentary this past week on ABC. It is just intriguing to me how this man got so many people to invest in him over such a long period of time. He did it because he played hard to get and he had the trust of people. So few people suspected what was going on. And then it came crashing down.

After the documentary aired, they interviewed some of the people that had lost money and some much of their life savings. They also interviewed Stephanie Madoff, Mark Madoff's wife and daughter-in-law of Bernie. Two years after the scheme broke, Mark Madoff committed suicide. Stephanie Madoff told of her hate for Bernie Madoff and said she would "spit in his face".

It is so easy to play armchair quarterback and dismiss the reactions of people who placed their trust in a man who so calculatingly betrayed that trust. However, hate of this kind hurts the victim a second time. It creates an incipient, festering wound that grows and grows over time. It can't change the circumstances and the hate can't change the other person. It seems counter intuitive that forgiveness would actually heal someone but it does. And forgiveness is not dependent on the repentance of the other person. To be clear, I am not talking about justice. Bernie Madoff needed to pay for his crimes. But for the sake of the victims, they can only heal if they forgive.

The standard by comparison is the forgiveness of God. A fully just God could come at me with full wrath for all of the times I have sinned against Him. But that same God is infinitely merciful and He forgives my sin. He cannot forgive my sin without justice for He cannot just overlook sin. So the justice is meted out on His Son. Therefore when a human being faces betrayal, he cannot look at the debtor and see the size of the debt circumstantially, but he must look at the size of the debt relative to the larger debt that God has paid on his behalf (Matthew 18:23-35).

Something weird happens when forgiveness happens. It heals the person. The reality of the debt is still there, but the offended person can somehow move on. I think that change can only be explained supernaturally. In our natural tendency, vengeance and hate just seem right when in fact it is so wrong.

Playing to Win

When the girls were little, we loved to play the game Oregon Trail on the computer. Ashley in particular loved that game. What was most interesting about that game was the many number of smaller decisions you needed to make. When to leave? What provisions to buy? How much meat to hunt? But the end objective was the same. To arrive safe and sound at the other end.

It was amazing how much we would get hung up on the miniature games and completely miss the end objective. Ashley in particular loved to hunt and she would just keep blasting away at the buffalo because getting the buffalo became the objective. Problem was that you can't physically carry two tons of buffalo meat and your camp may die of scurvy because all you had them eat was meat. So inevitably Ashley's party would all die off before reaching the end. I on the other hand loved to have my party leave in January and they would all die off from freezing.

Life is always a series of smaller decisions but all with the objective of finishing well. Paul equates life to running a race. We are to run the race in such a way as to win the prize (1 Cor 9:24). He goes on in verses 26-27 to say how he does that. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. I sense a lot of Oregon Trail type decisions that add up to winning the race.

Seemingly inconsequential decisions will make a huge difference in running the race of life. Kent Hughes wrote a book called "The Disciplines of a Godly Man". He breaks down those disciplines into relationships, soul, character, and ministry. I am just finishing up two years of meeting with a group of guys every Monday night and we essentially focus on those disciplines to be men of God. It is tough - we each have those items of baggage that hold us back. But we are committed to those disciplines that help us to run the race in such a way that we can win.

Life as a Video Game

It seems like there are waves of time in our lives where the struggle of life and death become more and more real. In the past several weeks, we have had numerous friends lose loved ones. Some of these were longstanding illnesses and in some cases they were abrupt and unexpected. Each has its own challenges. How do you go through life on this earth where the struggle of death permeates so? 

Last week I was listening to a podcast by Radiolab called "The Cathedral" and I was profoundly moved by listening to this. It is about a family who struggles through the terminal illness of their child. The father is moved to create a video game called "That Dragon Cancer" that lets the player personally experience the challenges of this type of situation. But it is beyond that - it is how you experience the joys and sorrows of life and death. You can listen to the podcast below - it runs about 32 minutes but worth your listening.
 

I just finished reading the book "Happiness" by Randy Alcorn. The Bible has much to say about the sheer joy we experience by knowing the Lord God personally. Life in the kingdom is going to be one massive party. We can experience that in part now. But then life is punctuated by the sting of death (1 Cor. 15:56). That is an accurate depiction of life in this world during the fall. It is the preview of the kingdom, but the reality of the fall. This video game seems to do a really nice job of capturing that conundrum.

Powerball Mania

Spoiler alert - I have never bought a lottery ticket and I never will. I never understood the fascination of the lottery. I think it is a primary weapon in the arsenal of the evil one because wealth is the great distraction. One, we weary ourselves out to get it. The proverb says "Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone." (23:4-5).

Secondly, once you get it (wealth), you want to give it back. It becomes the big life wrecker. Something like 75% of lottery recipients end up in bankruptcy. It wrecks relationships as well. When we sold two businesses in 1999 and again in 2003, I came into some significant wealth. I found myself figuring out how to "invest" it which translates to how to "spend" it. I found myself wandering adrift with the new found wealth. My relationship with my God was damaged as were other relationships. Thankfully, it was stripped through God's mercy and discipline manifested in some bad decisions on my part. I have told many people that I am thankful for that time although it was painful going through it. I can testify that God is excellent at stripping wealth. Some of us are really good at handling wealth but most are not. You may think you are but chances are you are not.

I have this mental image of a dog chasing a car. The dog thinks catching the car is a major coup. But pity the poor dog that actually catches the car. The car will squash the wayward dog like a bug.

The wealthiest man of his time wrote a biography of his life in the midst of his wealth. His name is Solomon and his autobiography is Ecclesiastes. Solomon used a word throughout the book that describes the folly of wealth. It is the word "meaningless". This book is worthy of your consideration.

The sleep of the working man is pleasant, whether he eats little or much; but the full stomach of the rich man does not allow him to sleep. (Eccl. 5:12)

Being a Truth Seeker

I received an e-mail from a friend of mine this past week. I knew without even opening the e-mail that it was bogus. It was because the friend of mine had passed away several months ago. It was pretty easy to spot because there was hard, objective truth that I knew that my friend could not have written the e-mail. It was even shocking to see the e-mail because I knew without researching it that it was patently false.

Our culture has become increasingly either ignorant or blatant when it comes to truth. Truth is something that is objective. Opinion is something that is subjective. I am looking out my window at home and seeing a windy, rainy day and can say that the weather stinks. But someone like my wife who loves rainy days like this may disagree and say no it is a great day. That is opinion (even though most may agree with me). Lying on the other hand is objective. If I say it is sunny outside, then that is a lie because it is obviously not sunny (the sun is out there somewhere). So many of us have mixed truth and opinion together. Truth has become optional.

I believe God's word contained in Scripture is truth and if I am a truth seeker, I will seek to know more of the truth. This allows me to also know what is counterfeit, just like my friend's e-mail. Circumstances cannot overcome truth. I had a friend who once justified committing adultery by saying that God had put the woman in his path and he desired her. After all, doesn't desire come from God? He needed a good dope-slap because God cannot violate His objective truth and adultery is clearly a sinful violation of the marriage covenant. Some of us willingly ignore the truth and some of us are just ignorant of it. If we speed 70 miles an hour in a 50 zone and the policeman pulls us over, ignorance of the law will be no excuse.

Being a truth seeker means diligently seeking to know it and then applying it. I have been told that in a bank you are not taught to recognize every variation of counterfeit bills, but to know the real thing so intimately that it is very clear when you see a counterfeit. But if a bank teller still accepts the counterfeit, then he/she has knowledge but does not act on it. Both are necessary to be truth seekers.