Moving My Asteroid

This a picture of the small asteroid that collided with the Earth's atmosphere last February over Russia.  It was a pretty small one, about 55 feet, but the explosion delivered 500 kilotons of energy, shattered glass in buildings, and injured over 1000 people.  There have been much larger asteroids that have collided with our planet and have done much more damage - leveling mountains, changing climates, and wiping out the dinosaurs.  I don't think we would ever want a large asteroid to collide with our planet.  That would be bad.

Fortunately, we live in time when very smart people are able to locate objects and estimate whether or not they could collide with the Earth. These scientists are devising ways to avoid the cataclysm the impact of a large, Near-Earth Object would create.

Having earned my degree in space geology and astrophysics from Hollywood,  I had always assumed that the best way to stop an asteroid from destroying our planet was to simply wait until it got close by and then launch Bruce Willis on a rocket to blow it up with a nuclear bomb.  But many scientists at NASA's Near Earth Object Program say that's probably not the best idea.  Blowing up a big asteroid would create many small asteroids to deal with (and we've just experienced the damage even a tiny, off-course asteroid can do.)

It turns out that one of the best ways to deal with a large, near-earth object heading for catastrophe is to simply nudge it over time from its current trajectory.

Because of their enormous mass, size and velocity, large objects can be unstable and quite often, they are fragile.  They must be gingerly, slowly, steadily nudged into a safe trajectory to avoid the damage that breaking them would do.  It can take years to do this.

There are many large asteroids and comets in my life and they are all on various trajectories - some good, some not so good.  These are my Near-Heart Objects.  Some of those objects are outside of me but within my sphere of influence are my family, my workplace, my neighborhood, my church, my government.  Some asteroids are within me and when they are off course, they send me onto destructive paths of behaviors and thoughts.

Out of His goodness and love for me, when I am off course, sometimes God breaks me into pieces.  He blows me out of the sky.  That big, off-track asteroid inside of me gets shattered and I crash to Earth.  Sometimes that's what required to get my soul back on the right trajectory.

I've found that much more often than not, God's Spirit chooses to simply nudge me slowly and gently over time.  He whispers to me softly and subtly and it moves me.  And before I know or even realize it, I am in a better place - solid, whole, and at full velocity.

There are many Near-Heart Objects in our lives, all moving through time and space on different trajectories.  I pray God's Spirit gives us the discernment to know which ones are off course and how to lovingly move them onto the path back toward Him.

Simply Human

Do you remember the first time you realized your parents were human?

I was 8 years old and Frank was one of my best friends. Frank loved cars and he owned about every Matchbox car ever made (hundreds of them) and he built elaborate racetracks which enveloped his entire living room in a web of orange plastic strips. I went over to house to play with him after school and we would race for hours until Frank's dad came home from work.

And while the racing was fun, the massive, 200-car Matchbox pileup which happened at the end of each day at the track, was even better. Frank loved that part the most, too. And he would bring out his toy tow truck and start picking up all the Matchbox wrecks, car by car, and deliver each one to his Hot Wheels garage for repair. Miraculously, no Matchbox drivers were ever killed.

The reason Frank liked this part of our playtime was because his dad drove a tow truck for a living.  Frank thought that this was the greatest vocation a man could have.  His dad's tow truck was awesome, all decked out in red and polished steel, wielding a massive wench, and it glowed with scores of orange lights.  It was a breathtaking sight, especially when Frank's dad came home at night. It looked like an alien spacecraft landing in his driveway.

Frank truly loved his dad and would often boast about how cool his dad’s tow truck was, or how smart his dad was, or how how strong his dad was. In short, Frank thought his dad was the greatest man on the planet.

This was a real problem for me, because I knew my dad was the greatest man on the planet. I believed my dad was virtually indestructible and that he was the strongest, toughest man in the world.  What Frank was saying about his father was absolute blasphemy!

And then, it began to dawn on me. I thought, "Frank’s dad prowls the highway searching for twisted wreckage while driving four tons of metal-moving power.  My dad, is a salesman for Hostess and drives a step van filled with Ding Dongs.  Franks dad goes to work wearing a utility belt.  My dad marches in the Apple Festival parade dressed as a 6'3'' Twinkie.  Could it be that my dad is not the strongest, toughest man on the planet ...?"

The Superman image of I had constructed of my father was beginning to collapse.  I started to panic as this stark new reality set in. So, I did the only thing I could.

I lied.

“Your dad may drive a wrecker, Frank, but my dad’s so strong, he broke out of jail with his bare hands!”

“His bare hands?” Frank asked.

“Yep!  His bare hands!  He bent the bars with his bare hands and broke out of prison. And  ... he beat up some police officers on the way out and he’s gonna come over to your house and beat up your dad, too!”

In less than a minute, I had transformed my dad from Twinkie the Kid into Billy the Kid.

Frank ran home terrified and crying. Strangely, I felt relieved by that.

As a child, I had this need for my father to be the greatest man on the planet. I needed him to be good, strong, and invincible; so much so, that when that notion was challenged, I would not accept it.  When we are youngest and most vulnerable, God provides His care for most of us through our parents.  So, it makes sense to me that we can see our parents as ultimately strong protectors and providers.  They, in a sense, become "God-like" to us.

There’s a verse in 1st Corinthians Chapter 13:

“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”

For me, one of the childish ways I needed to give up was thinking my father had to be more than he humanly could be.

Looking back, I realize that my parents did many, many good things that molded me positively as I grew up. They loved me and I knew this.  But the truth is, along the way, they did a few things that were painful for me, too. They made some mistakes. They messed a few things up from time to time; just like I do sometimes in parenting my children.

But when I became a man ... I realized that my parents are human.

My parents are humans who try to make their way, doing the best they can in a broken and hurting world. They are humans who are in need of much forgiveness and much Grace.  Just like me.  Just like you. Just like all of us. The Good News is that our ultimately strong and perfect Father in Heaven offers unlimited Grace, love, and forgiveness to us freely.

And this wonderful reality allows me to love and forgive others freely while allowing God to be God and myself, my parents, and others to be human.

Riding the Gravitron

Do you remember the Gravitron?  You know, that  circular-shaped carnival ride where you get inside of it, stand up against a wall, and it starts spinning.  As the ride spins faster and faster you feel yourself being pressed harder and harder against the wall.  And then ... the floor drops from beneath you!  You scream in terror but ... you don't fall.  You remain just where you are, plastered against the wall, safe and sound, having fun.  Centrifugal and centripetal forces, acting together, keep you suspended until the floor rises at the end.  It's a very simple and exciting ride.

Unlike roller coasters and other thrill rides at the amusement park, the Gravitron requires no harnesses, straps, or bars to keep the people on it from being flung into space.  Natural forces alone keep people suspended, in place, on board, and having fun when the bottom drops out.

Organization are a lot like thrill rides.  I think a good question for leaders to ask themselves is this:

"Do I want my organization to be more like a roller-coaster or more like a Gravitron?"

Roller coaster organizations and their leaders can use many types of straps, bars, and harnesses to keep their people and their patrons in place:

• Rigid contracts and rules
• Fear tactics
• Heavy surveillance
• Reliance on compensation and incentives

Gravitron organizations require few, if any harnesses.  People are held in place by:

• Purpose
• Alignment
• Trust
• Transparency
• Generosity
• Culture
• Friendship
• Vision

I think that given the choice, most people would choose to be in a Gravitronic organization and be led by a Gravitronic leader.  I think Jesus was a Gravitronic leader.  People wanted to be around him and wanted to be part of his world-changing movement.  Yes, there were those who despised him, and some who even betrayed Him.  But most who really knew Him, would have died for Him. They stayed committed to His movement that Friday even when it seemed like the bottom had dropped out.

photo credit: Caselet via photopin cc

Creating Jobs for the Sadistic

It's in our nature to complicate our Faith.  We see an example of this right from the beginning, in Genesis Chapter 2 when God tells Adam:

"You are free to eat from any tree in the Garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of  good and evil, for when you eat from it, you will certainly die."

It's a pretty simple rule: "you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."

In the very next Chapter, Satan is tempting Eve and asks her:

"Did God really say, 'you must not eat from any tree in the Garden'?"

Eve replies, "We may eat fruit from the trees of the Garden, but God did say, 'you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the Garden, and you must not touch it or you will die.'"

I think this was the first human complication of the Faith in the Bible.  Eve adds, "you must not touch it" on top of God's simple rule.  Now, don't get me wrong, it makes a lot of sense to not touch the fruit.  It's a great guardrail because it is fair to say that if you don't even touch the fruit, then you can't realistically eat the fruit.  It's wise not to touch the fruit.  I believe we need to have both personal and corporate guardrails as Followers who are broken and prone to sin. (Especially if we have proclivity to a certain sin.)

Where we can get in trouble is when we begin confusing guardrails with God's law, and we start transforming those guardrails into Laws.  That's where Satan saw his best chance of winning, and before you know it, he's using rules that have been over-complicated to instigate the Fall of Man.

Satan uses this single layer of complexity to gain a foothold  - only one layer of complexity.  Imagine if Satan had tempted Adam and Eve many years later (or had tempted their offspring many generations later,) they might have replied:

"We may eat fruit from any tree in the Garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat from the tree in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, and you must not get within 50 feet of the tree, and you must build a wall around the tree, and while your at it ... don't even look at the wall."  Guardrails for guardrails for guardrails.

 I think when we over-complicate our Faith with too many rules:

• It can make God seem unreasonable. 
• It can make God seem unloving.
• It can distract our focus from God's Truth.
• It can divert our energy and our productivity.
• It can make it easier for us to judge other people.
• It can be an unneccessary "barrier to entry"into the Faith.
• It can distort our view of God's true Nature.
• It can dispose us to assume the worst in people.
• It can warp our view on how God truly values us.
• It can create cumbersome and unnecessary religious infrastructures and hierarchies.
• It can allow us to hide behind observable behaviors and cover the true condition of our hearts.

Complex legalism can lead to religious fanaticism which, as religious history has shown, can create plenty of jobs for the sadistic (Inquisitions, Crusades, Joan of Arc, 911.)

Jesus came to earth at a time when religious Legalists ruled God's people with iron fists.  It's no wonder He called the Sadducees and Pharisees, "You brood of vipers!" (Snakes) I find it interesting that when I say the word "legalist," I sound like a snake.

Legalisssst.

Legalism is a form of complexity that Jesus came to destroy.  It's foretold at the end of Genesis Chapter 3,  God says to the Serpent (Satan), "I will place enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers, and he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

I'm working hard to keep my Faith simple:  Love God, love others, and tell the world about it.

Peace.

The Theology of George Thorogood

I walked forty seven miles of barbed wire, I got a cobra snake for a neck tie

A brand new house on the roadside, and it's made out of rattlesnake hide

A got a chimney brand new chimney put up top, and its made out of human skulls

Come on baby take a walk with me and tell me who do you love?

Who do you love?

                                       - George Thorogood

I've asked this question of myself these days:  Who do I love?  Certainly my family and close friends. Outside of that, it turns out most of the people I love look a lot like me:  white, Christian, middle-class, Midwesterners.  I would further describe the people I love as "good people" and by most human measures, they are: good citizens who work hard, who vote and pay their taxes, who have a good family and good kids.  Many attend church.  I go to dinner with them and  have coffee with them and talk about the things good, Christian, tax-paying, white, family men talk about.  You know, those kinds of things. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.  Who wouldn't want to be in the presence of good people?  I think that it's perfectly normal.  

The trouble with normal behavior is that followers of Christ are supposed to be peculiar.

When Jesus walked the Earth, he loved others like no other person had done before.  He latched on to the most marginalized people of his day:  tax collectors, thieves, prostitutes, adulterers, the demon-possessed, the ethnically hated, the physically unclean (lepers and the physically disfigured.)  Regardless of whether they attained this status by their own actions or by Providence, these people were all considered the lowest of the low.  

The people Jesus loved were more than unloved, they were often those the society in His time simply despised. 

Societies have despised various groups from time to time throughout history Blacks, Jews, homosexuals ... the list goes on and on and on.  Regardless of when Jesus would have entered into our History, I know He would have loved and would have shown compassion to them all.

Who are the despised today?  Child Abusers?  Drug dealers? Sex offenders? Terrorists? Frauds?   
Who do I love?  That's easy.

Perhaps the question I should ask myself is,"Who might I or my society despise today, and how can I find a way to show them the Love of  Christ?"

A Little Face Time

I love spending time with my iPhone.  I really do.  It might be the coolest thing ever created by man.  With it, I know where I am, where I'm going, and I can figure out how to get home from wherever that is.  I can check the weather in a distant city, manage my retirement fund, and simultaneously tune my guitar.  I am a lot smarter when I have my iPhone; I win Jeopardy! every time.  Sometime I just get lost in its coolness.  It's precious to me.  I call it "i-Precioussssss."  (Tolkien fans will get that one.)

iPhones have some neat features that help me stay connected with others:  email, talking, texting, and this cool app for video chatting called FaceTime.

The Bible tells of Moses having FaceTime conversations with God "as one who speaks to a friend."  Moses however, is not permitted to look directly into God's face.  God tells Moses that His Goodness and Glory are so great that if Moses were to look directly at Him he would die.  "No one man can look at God and live."

It appears that God delivers His "Concentrated Goodness" when he casts His Face upon you.  Here are two simple rules:

1) God's Face turned toward you = Good

"May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us."
      - Psalm 67: 1

2) God's Face turned away from you = Bad

"And I will certainly hide my face in that day because of all their wickedness in turning to other gods."
     - Deuteronomy 31:18

Again ...

God's Face turned toward you = Good

"Restore us, Lord God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved."
     - Psalm 80:19

God's Face turned away from you = Bad

And in that day I will become angry with them and forsake them; I will hide my face from them, and they will be destroyed.
     - Deuteronomy 31:17

As wondrous creatures, Divinely created in the image of God, we are called to reflect God's Goodness onto our broken world.  There is something innately good and holy about looking into the face of another person, one image-bearer of God into the face of another image-bearer of God.  But sometimes I spend a lot of time with my face turned downward, into my phone, or whatever thing that occupies my mind or consumes my attention.

With grateful appreciation that you might be reading this post from your mobile phone or tablet, I encourage you to make sure you are regularly looking up and around, casting your face upon another child of God who's life might benefit from your loving smile, your kind face, your encouraging nod, your hope-filled eyes.

Eye contactphoto credit: ejbSF via photopin cc

"You are Such a Downer"

"That guy is a real downer."

No one likes to be around people who are downers.  I mean, it's hard enough today without having someone around who points out the flaws in my plan, my business, or in me.  I need encouragement, advocacy, cheer leading, unbridled enthusiasm, energy.  And by the way, does it really matter whether or not I'm wearing any clothing? I need positive people who will get behind me, thick or thin. I have a dream and its not going to happen unless the people around me get on board and get in step.

I deserve that, right?  After all, those people work for me.

There were these guys in the Old Testament who held Kings and entire nations accountable called Prophets.  But I like to call them real downers.

• Nathan - called out King David, the most powerful man around, on his adulterous affair and for being a murderer - downer.
• John the Baptist - called out King Herod (an insanely paranoid megalomaniac) on his incestuous relationship with his brother's wife and niece - downer.
• Daniel - tells Nebuchadnezzar (a particularly nasty king) he will go insane for 7 years because of his pride - downer.

These downers lived a long time ago, but I think God places prophets in our lives today.  You know, the ones who might not always think "you're all that and bag of chips."  There the ones that aren't afraid to ask questions like:

"Are you serious?"

"What were you thinking?"

"You messed up; now how are you going to fix this?"

"Are you on dope?"

"Can we swim back to reality island?"

My tendency is to avoid being around downers at all cost; they're just not very fun and quite often, they just get in my way.  

"Attend my launch meeting?" Ugggh.  

"Meet for coffee?"  Please God, anything but that.

I just dread it.  

The Bible says that there are false prophets and that they should be killed. I recommend you do that (figuratively, of course.)  That means I need to distance myself from the false prophets and figure out who the real prophets are in my life.  Here are some of the qualities of the real prophets I've experienced:

1) They're pretty good people, they lead pretty good lives, they love God.

2) They care about me.

3) They care a lot about my "kingdom" (my family, my business, my church, etc.)

4) Speaking into my life gives them little to no direct personal gain (the best prophets are the ones that know they could lose their heads, but they speak up anyway.)

5) They don't really enjoy being my prophet.  (that is they don't derive pleasure from watching me squirm.)

Time with a prophet can be a real downer, but I still need them because I know I can't be everything God wants me to be without them.  And sometimes, I need to have the love and show the courage to be one for someone else.

Why I Love Tension

You can learn a lot from a bubble.

When I was a kid, blowing bubbles was one of my favorite things to do. My sister and I would buy the brightly-colored bottles of bubble fluid, unscrew the tops, and hurriedly dip our fingers into soapy liquid to find the plastic wand that waited inside. The wands had two circles on each end, a larger, smooth circle and a smaller, ridged circle.  The small circle was fun, because you could blow through it really hard and roughly one-million, small bubbles would come spraying out.   But I liked blowing through the larger circle so I could create big bubbles - the biggest bubbles I could.

There's beauty in watching a large, perfectly-formed bubble as it slowly expands and then gently tears away into effortless flight - water, soap, and air in harmonious tension floating hypnotically away. Light shimmers off these crystalline globes as they dance off into the distance with whatever breeze they court.  Simply magnificent.

How long the bubble "lived" depended on the pressure of the air both inside and outside of its elastic skin. Too much pressure on the inside and the bubble would expand beyond its capacity and explode. Too much pressure outside and the bubble would collapse upon itself, crushed by the weight of the air around it. Bubbles are created and take flight only when they exist in a perfect state of tension between opposing pressures.  Too much pressure from within or from the outside world and there's nothing left but a soapy globule on the ground.

In a state of balanced tension, people, businesses, and organizations can take flight and soar.

Properly countered tension can create all kinds of good things in our lives:  Tension can make us move.  Tension strengthens our muscles.  Tension allows us to build bridges.  Tension brings dramas to life.  Tension can add spice to a relationship.  Tension can call us to perform at levels we never dreamed we could.

I believe that because tension is a fundamental property of the Universe, it was created by God.

I think a simple life is not a "tension-free" life.  I do not seek a life free from tension.  Without it, the story of my life would be a pretty boring read.   But if I am to truly take flight, to have an expansive life, I must counteract the pressure of the outside world by allowing myself to be filled within.

Psalm 16:11
You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

photo credit: Jeff Kubina via photopin cc

I Need to Get Pregnant

I have a lot to say, and my tendency is to say it.  Yep, I can dish out all the advice you can possibly eat, dominate the discussion, toss out a clever saying, factoid, or humorous quip.  I can readily pull out a bible story or something I read in the news.  I am a fast verbal processor, so I can produce voluminous prattle.  I'm loud, too.  God gave me a really loud voice so I can speak louder than you and make sure I am heard.

That's a big problem for you if you have something to say in my presence.

I've learned it's an even bigger problem for me.

I've been working on that a lot, but even still, I mess up.  I did that yesterday with a group of men I meet with semi-regularly to talk about the Faith and about life.  The guy who leads our group is one of the most Christ-like people I know.  He tossed a question to me and that was all the permission I needed to unleash my thoughts on the group.  Because they are really good and Godly men, they just sat there listening and let me go on and on ... and on.

I've been in sales all my life and I know better:  "He who talks the least, wins."

I carry an iPhone with me and it has a cool stopwatch application.  I think I'm going to start pressing it every time I start talking.  I know I'm going to be embarrassed by what I find.  I'm pretty sure I'm not the person at the table who talks the least.

I've learned over my years that there's a goldmine of Wisdom inside those God has placed in my life and I just need to listen to what He has to say to me through them.  Sometimes I need to be more active in mining that gold:

"What was it like when you ... ?"
"How do you go about .... ?"
"What are your thoughts on ... ?"
"Tell me more about ...?"

If my part of the conversation is mostly asking questions, the math should work out that I am the person who talks least.  Where I get in trouble is when I ask a question and then .... and then ... silence.

Silence in a conversation can be really uncomfortable.  It doesn't seem natural and so I tend to fill the void with my voice.

But a void in a conversation can be really good.

In sales they call it a "pregnant pause."  You ask the client a question, and you wait, and you wait, and you wait ... until they speak.  Because it can be so awkward, in my opinion, it's one of the hardest communication skills to master.  I need to become a master at being "pregnant."

"Be still and know that I am God." - Psalm 46:10