Breaking the Past

I am a little annoyed right now driving around the streets of my hometown. It seems like in every turn I make I run into a construction site. Two major East-West arteries here are reduced from three lanes down to one. THREE of the main North-South roads I used to cross those construction sites are having work done as well.  You would think someone would coordinate this madness. Now the road I use the most often in my getting around town tells me in January to “Expect Major Delays” until August. I remember an expressway here being under construction for 4 years. That’s FOUR YEARS!

But how I love a nice, smooth, well-planned, and new road! I love it so much I forget about the pain quickly after the last of the orange cones are removed.

We always dread the mess in our way but how we love a new kitchen a few months later. We will pee in buckets for months, wipe drywall dust off our electronics, cover couches with cloth, and wipe-down windows weekly ALL to have a newly renovated and restful room to enjoy.

We must often break the past to have a better future. Not break WITH the past, but we must break the part of the past that has a hold on us, keeping us from a better future. That part of our life that says “Hey, we always done it this way! Why would you want to change anything?” The problem is that the present keeps slipping into the past and what works today keeps changing into something that worked yesterday.

It is, of course, an analogy for our lives and the changes we need to make too. So many people that I run into have broken down expressways in their lives that they just cannot strip down, deal with the mess for a while , and renovate into something new. My mom (or dad, or brother, or sister, or friend, etc.) hurt me so much that I must hang onto that past even though it is crumbling and full of potholes. We prefer the broken down street that we know to the mess of the construction zone. We want the NEW and SHINEY lives but we don’t want to go through the orange cones and “road closed” barriers to get there.

“How can I do this?” you ask? It is simple to say, but hard to do. Start with small steps and work to the bigger ones. Grab a friend who is willing to go on this journey with you. Get professional help. Rest in God’s presence and not in your comfortable present.  It is time to break the past.

Theseus’ Ship

Theseus’ ship is put into dry dock. Bit by bit, each part of it is replaced. As one old board is torn out, an new one is put in. Eventually, the work is complete, and the ship sets sail. However, someone has been collecting all the old bits and has put them back together again, and this ship too heads into sea. So, which of these two vessels is the real ship of Theseus?

Would you say the one with all the original parts?

Would you say the one with all the new parts?

But what if Theseus believes his ship has been renovated and not replaced?

It cannot be the case that the ownership is a matter of a particular physical thing: when you go to the bank and withdraw the $20 you deposited last week; would you expect them to give you the SAME $20 bill?

Thomas Hobbes proposed this problem and it may seem very abstract to you and even nonsensical, but let me propose it in a different way: suppose for a moment that every cell in your body changes over time, one dies off and is replaced by a new one as naturally happens over your lifetime. So are you still you? Are people particular lumps of matter, or are they a continuous way of organizing matter that is constantly changing? Are we like the $20 bill or are we like the monetary value of the bill?

Would it matter to you if your spouse was replaced with an IDENTICAL “bill” and not the same $20 bill you knew yesterday? There have been movies out there where the consciousness of a person was put into a machine … would that machine still be your spouse?

As Christians we understand that we are a NEW creation in Christ Jesus. Does that mean we are an old $20 bill that was replaced by a new $20 bill? Or does that mean that we are the SAME $20 bill that has a different “value”? Was every cell in our body renovated or was the consciousness that makes us human changed while we are in the same old body?

I can make a case for both ways from scripture but what we, as Christians, cannot do is believe we are that same old $20 bill … something has changed. I don’t quite know which way we have changed … but SOMETHING has changed.

Your Comfort Zone

I remember going to a doctor with one of my many knee ailments and he had to drain fluid from around my knee. The only way he knew he was in the wrong place was when I jumped in pain. Then he withdrew the needle a bit and drew out the fluid from whatever I had torn that particular time. Once there was pain then he knew he went too far.

I am trying to maintain a pretty strict walking regimen right now and even enter some “running” competitions. Throughout the race and the pre-race material or website I will find many platitudes about running. Things like “no pain, no gain” and “pain is just your body telling you that you’re getting closer to your goal!”

Which is true? It is what the Dr. said? That pain means it is time to pull back and withdraw? Or is it the running platitudes? That pain is good, more pain is better and that pain will help you achieve your goals? Is pain good for you or bad for you?

Now obviously if there is something wrong and pain is telling you that something is broken or torn, you must pull back. But what if pain is your laziness yelling at you? I find it is more my lazy body that tells me it is too painful to go on. JUST as I find it is my lazy spirit that tells me it is too painful to go on. 

My spirit tells me that this is simply not worth it. My spirit tells me to stay in my comfort zone, don’t venture out of what you are good at, or known for. My spirit tells me that it is better that other people do this and not me. My spirit LOVES the comfort zone, just as my body LOVES my lazy-boy chair.

The problem is pain. It is painful and scary to get out of your comfort zone. It is painful and scary to love someone new. It is painful and scary to give yourself to your God and to your church because that is NOT comfortable. Neale Donald Walsh says “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” I believe that he means a REAL LIFE is all about stepping out of what you are comfortable with. A REAL LIFE is about trying things new, traveling to different places, and loving more people. The REAL LIFE is outside of your comfort zone.

Will YOU dare venture out? Will YOU dare step out of your comfort zone? Are you willing to take a chance on pain and love in order to really life? Let’s take a leap together!

God is Here

Let me ask you a question. When you see a beautiful sunset, or the Grand Canyon, or fresh snow glittering on the trees and land, or anything in nature that causes you to pause; what do you see? I mean, truly see?

The Bible tells us that the attributes of God are evident, see-able, in his creation (Romans 1). So when I see these things I see God. An awesome, creative God! But how do people who do not know God or have any clear idea of who or what a god is; what do they see? Do they see thousands of years of a river carving out the Grand Canyon? Do they see the pollution that causes amazing sunsets? Do they see electrical storms caused by the depletion of our ozone from global warming forming the aurora borealis? When they see the snow covered hills do they think of weather fronts and high pressure zones?

What you see tells a lot about you. In fact, I believe that nature is a foil.

A foil is a device that reveals your beliefs and even your personality. For example, if you find a wallet full of hundred dollar bills and no one saw you find it … what would you do? The wallet/money is a foil. It will reveal something about your beliefs and your personality. If you work hard to find the owner to return it; it says something about you. If you take the money and throw away the wallet; it says something about you. If you take the money, uses the cards, and set up a new mortgage on your house with that person’s identity; it says something about you.

Nature is like that. Nature is a foil. When you see a beautiful sunset and you see the handiwork of a creator God; it tells me what you believe and what you DON’T believe. When you look at the sunset and see pollution in the air causing colors that shouldn’t be there normally; that also tells me what you believe and something about your personality. The Bible tells us that if you see only pollution or evolution and don’t see God in nature, then you are deceiving yourself. It is a deception akin to a child covering his eyes and yelling “I can’t see you!” over and over again.

Don’t let the blind fool you. Don’t let the blind determine where beauty comes from when they cannot see it for themselves. Creation virtually screams “GOD IS HERE!”

Outwitting Nature

I remember growing up on the farm where all the neighbors got together to rent a corn “harvester” which would remove the individual grains of corn from the cob. This was before the advent of combines where this machine took 3 men and concentrated work to manage. 

Now, you can sit in an air-conditioned cab and let your GPS drive while you pick the corn.

My father tells the story of when a family member from the “old country” came to the USA for a visit and saw the corn stalks ripe and drying he wondered why my father was not out there already picking the corn, putting it in “shocks” for it to dry. This was the process that was even BEFORE the neighborhood corn harvester. He though my father was slacking off and the grain was going to fall off the plant and he would lose his crop. My father had to explain the machine used to pick the corn. This old farmer from the “old country” was amazed to see such a miraculous invention.

“Machine” comes from the Greek word “machen” which is defined as a “cunning device to outwit nature.” Which has a root word for “having power over” something. Its first use in its current form was in the 1500’s where it was used to name a device for breaching enemies’ walls.

We are now finding that we have outwitted nature too much.

Now we have “getting back to nature” outing and the desire to “unplug” along with the desire to get outside and experience nature. We are moving to “natural” and “organic” foods and even clothing. We have a nostalgic view of homegrown and outdoorsy. We no longer want to outwit nature, we want to live with it and adapt to it instead of adapting nature to fit our needs.

I see this trend in the upcoming generation and I am torn. On the one hand I too have the desire to grow my own food and raise chickens for eggs and meat. But on the other hand I also am old enough to know that “problems” with natural and outdoorsy. I remember a time where there were no showers for cleaning, when laundry was a full time job, and a farmer could only feed himself and a few other people. I remember a time when having a lot of children was not a problem it was a necessity. There were a minimum amount of children you had to “produce” in order to make sure that a few lived to adulthood as well as enough children to work the farm and other necessary chores. There is a balance that must be maintained in nature, a “chi” and “ma’at” that must be maintained. I believe we have swung too far into the realm of machines and away from nature. But I think I fear the pendulum swinging in the opposite direction even more.

God created nature and natural but he also created us in his image to be creative. So there is nothing inherently wrong with machines and medicine to outwit nature (especially our fallen nature). But, as in all things, we must balance and we humans are not very good at balancing … we tend to collect in groups on the extremes.  

Life

I heard this somewhere and I think it is perfect for the beginning of a New Year: Life is not a series of problems to be solved but a series of mysteries to be unraveled!

As you look to this new coming year what do you see? Do you see problems ahead or do you see mysteries that are going to be revealed to you?

Obviously I am going to try to convince you that seeing the mysteries of life is the better option. All of us know people who only see problems. When they look to the future there is nothing but gloom and doom, more depression, more moping because all that is ahead is one problem after another.

I want to scream from the hilltops that you HAVE TO look at life as a mystery! I have a good friend who says to me (after his latest problem pops up) “I can’t wait to see what God has planned now because things sure aren’t going the way I want them to…” What a great attitude toward problem and setbacks! When a problem pops up can you say: “Whoa, God must be working on something in my life!” I pray that you can and will this year.

My overall theme for this year in my personal and professional life is “Get busy with God!” That means I must get busy loving people, I must get busy serving people, I must get busy learning more about my God and Savior, I must get busy showing my faith and my life as a GIFT from God, and I must look at my problems as a mystery that God is slowly revealing to me about myself and my life.

Some believe they can just sit back and let life happen to them. I don’t believe that is possible. In the immortal words of Stephen King through the mouth of Andy Dufraine in Shawshank Redemption “it all comes down to a choice really: get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’” THAT is our choice. We don’t have the choice of staying right where we are. You must get busy living or you WILL be getting busy dying. Your choice this New Year.

Never let this be on your tombstone: “He/She had potential.”

I pray this is on your tombstone: “He/She really LIVED!”

Get busy this new year and unravel all those mysteries!

Why Civilizations Fail 6

There is a HUGE book called "A Study of History" in twelve volumes and written by Sir Arnold Toynbee in 1987. In the fifth volume subtitled "The Disintegrations of Civilizations" he gives us six different reasons why civilizations throughout history have collapsed. Edmund Burke said "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." And so let us take a look at the six reasons civilization fails.

Reason Number 1: Cultural Suicide

Reason Number 2: Truancy or Escapism

Reason Number 3: A Sense of Promiscuity

Reason Number 4: A Sense of Drift

Reason Number 5: Abandon

Reason Number 6: Sense of Wrong

The final reason why civilizations fail according to Toynbee is that the society loses a sense of “wrong” or “sin”. Or, to put it another way; they have lost the sense of guild and self-loathing that comes when you do wrong.

This is the backwash of the previous abandon where lawlessness reigns and so BECAUSE there is so much law-less-ness the sense of guilt and shame from sinning is desensitized out of our consciousness.

The Canaanite Phoenician city of Carthage was a prime example. There is ample evidence of child sacrifice from the 9^th to 6^th centuries BC. Even Israel practiced it at that time (2 Kings16:3, 21:6, Jer. 19:5). The sense of guilt and shame that would come from killing your own children was stifled down by abandon and lawlessness. Guilt was assuaged because the gods demanded it and you could get ahead in society by offering your children to be sacrificed. It became a sign of honor and strength instead of a sign of wrong, evil, and sin.

Today in our society we see men and women going to extreme lengths to assuage their guilt and shame. The counselors they go to tell them that it is not sin, it is simply a choice. Our schools are now teaching that sin is an acceptable way of life and a choice and you should not feel guilty about it. The stigmas of life are gone … everything is acceptable and legitimate.

Where do we go from here? We have abandoned sin and rationalize away the guilt and sense of wrong that goes with it.

From these six indicators of a falling civilization we in America could feel a sense of doom. 

As I said at the beginning of this series I am not a total pessimist. I believe there are still ways in which we can pull ourselves out of this moral malaise. There is still hope for the United States and many Western Countries. But it will take a massive attitude and reasoning shift. The kind of shift that will take a bomb-like event to change it; and it would take something even bigger than 9/11 to do this. Scary thought.

Perhaps God will turn his face towards US again and bring us back to the shining light and savory salt we used to be. Perhaps.