Author: Frank

Makes Me Sick

Frank

In the busyness of the Christmas season, I’ll be reposting some of my favorite posts and scaling back my original content. Leading up to New Year’s I’ll be posting a best-of 2012. This particular post was published in January and had the most comments this year (in fact, comments are still coming in!).

The tweet read “this is perhaps the biggest scandal in the history of college football.” It was followed by, “Filing this report made me sick to my stomach.” Obviously the first tweet caught my attention. The second made this a must-click. The tweets were from Yahoo Sports report Dan Wetzel, who broke the Gary Sandusky story. A simple recap if you’re not familiar (and a simple recap does not do this story justice): Gary Sandusky was a former assistant coach at Penn State University who headed up a youth foundation out of an office there. The first break was simply a report of Grand Jury testimony describing how a then-graduate assistant observed Sandusky molesting a young boy in the Penn State football locker room. Like most things of this magnitude, this was only the tip of the iceberg. Eventually, more names surfaced, Sandusky was arrested, and famed head coach Joe Paterno was forced out of his job. Sadly, last week Joe Pa passed away with this cloud still hanging over his otherwise record-setting legacy.

It’s a shame really. Just like you cannot say Catholic priest without conjuring up images of that scandal, so it is likely to forever be with Joe Paterno. Never mind anything else he had done over the course of his career, this is too awful to leave as a footnote in his biography.

I’m glad I didn’t get around to posting last week, as I really didn’t want to pile on. This story disgusts me, and I’m not writing about it just to get more hits to my blog. But the popular public face hiding the seedy underbelly of Penn State football, where Legends and Leaders are more important than integrity and protecting those who cannot protect themselves, kept coming to mind as I was reading the fifth chapter of Kyle Idleman’s Not A Fan, “following Jesus or following the rules?” In this chapter, Kyle calls our attention to the “seven woes” in Matthew 23 where Jesus lashes out against the religious elite.

Six of the seven woes begin, “Woe to you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!” While we throw around that word, hypocrite, we usually don’t think of what it actually means. I’ve read both that it means the actors in Greek plays or that it means the masks they wear. Either way, the word is synonymous with, duplicitous, two-faced, masked, or putting on an act. As more evidence of the Penn State scandal it appears that administrators at Penn State, including head coach Joe Paterno, were more concerned about the reputation of their university and football program than exposing, reporting, and prosecuting the truth. Literally, they were hypocrites. (And to be fair, it is still not clear the extent of who knew what, but the dismissals of their Athletic Director and famed head coach indicates that they knew enough to act, but chose not to. Their motives may never be known.)

But like I continue to say through these series of posts, this isn’t  a sports blog. Yet we can learn a lot from the headlines around us to cause us to pause and consider our own motives and our own religiosity. Christians are notorious for condemning vice from the soapbox while engaging in that very same vice behind closed doors; putting on our Sunday best while acting differently the rest of the week. It is the contrast between being religious and being faithful. Or in the context of this book, being a fan or a follower.

If we can learn anything from the Sandusky case, it is that not exposing the truth often leads to more hurt as bad behavior is enabled by inaction. We may be tempted to be hypocrites to protect some private sin, but that only allows the sin to grow. In the case of the Pharisees, their hypocrisy hurt not only themselves but also those whose very souls they were responsible for. The Pharisees were guilty of piling on rules upon rules that they themselves did not obey. And when we become more concerned about our spiritual image, we neglect the condition of our hearts.

The hypocrisy of the Sandusky case is stomach-turning. We need to have the same gag-reflex to spiritual hypocrisy. Our sin needs to disgust us to the point of being sick.

“So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to [vomit] you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:16)

“As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.” (Proverbs 26:11)

This post continues my series blogging through the book, Not A Fan by Kyle Idleman. I encourage you to follow along by clicking on the Not A Fan label to the right. And I urge you to pick up a copy of this book for yourself.

Hulk Smash!

Frank

In the busyness of the Christmas season, I’ll be reposting some of my favorite posts and scaling back my original content. Leading up to New Year’s I’ll be posting a best-of 2012. This particular post was published in May and had the second most page views of the year.

Everyone has their childhood hero. Someone whom we could look to from our immaturity and relate or find hope. Often we find those heroes in works of fiction; epic poems, science fiction or fantasy masterpieces, movies, or comic books. Me, I was a comic book nerd as a child. And like any other child, I had my favorites and would argue with friends, “Spider-man could beat up Batman!” or “no way Lex Luthor could have fooled my hero like that.”

When Stan Lee and Jack Kirby started Marvel Comics back in the 1960’s, they created heroes with flaws. They wanted their heroes to be human and relatable, in contrast to heroes like Superman or Wonder Woman from DC whose alter-egos were their pedestrian identities, not the other way around. Spider-man was a teenager, with teenage problems of self-doubt and self-discipline. Thor was a prideful rebellious son. Daredevil was blind. The X-Men were surrogates for minorities. And so on.

Because of this it was always easy to be drawn in to my favorite hero’s adventures. For me, it was Daredevil. I related to his blindness (no, I’m not blind, but my eyesight is really bad) and that he had red hair (seriously, these things were important to me as a kid!). I related to his overriding desire to do what was right, even if it often meant doing it the wrong way and causing unintended harm as a result. And I related to his faith.

I went to watch “Thor” with a friend of mine. Like me, his favorite comic book hero shared his character. He related to Thor’s pride and impulsiveness. And he was excited to see that character portrayed on the big screen.

So as I sat watching “The Avengers” with my family, I was reminded of another favorite character, whom I probably relate to more than Daredevil if I was completely honest: the Hulk. Admittedly, I never really got into the TV show, I was more a fan of the Saturday morning cartoon. And I didn’t get into Greg Pak’s recent run that redefined the character. But I read religiously Peter David’s take on the character that focused on Bruce Banner’s split personality and internal struggles with his personal demons.

I didn’t bother watching either attempt to translate the character into a major motion picture, hearing that both movies stunk. But the early reviews for The Avengers all raved about how the Hulk was portrayed. And it was a single moment in the movie that caused me to almost jump out of my seat and cheer because someone actually got it. If you’ve seen the movie, I’ll only give the line and you can fill in the context. “I am always angry.”

I am always angry. That is what I relate to most with the Hulk. I have hurt people in my anger. I have broken and destroyed things. Though I have never turned green. I am always angry.

“‘In your anger do not sin’: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” (Ephesians 4:26-27)

It took me a long time to accept that it is not a sin to be angry as this verse makes that distinction. I used to beat myself up over my bad temper, thinking God could never forgive me. But there is no sin beyond the grace of Jesus. Yet I need to be careful that my anger does not cause me to sin. I need to learn, as Bruce Banner did, to keep my anger in check. And only let my rage loose when threatened by an alien invasion.

(Stay tuned, true believers, another post to come on the Avengers in a couple of days!)

Protect This House!

Frank

In the busyness of the Christmas season, I’ll be reposting some of my favorite posts and scaling back my original content. Leading up to New Year’s I’ll be posting a best-of 2012. This particular post was published in September and had the most page views of the year.

College football is officially underway, which is great news for me because this past baseball season has completely stunk. With the length of the baseball season, or even with basketball and hockey, you can’t expect teams to win every game at home. But in football, winning every home game is what separates good teams from mediocre, and being able to win on the road separates the great from the good. So winning at home is a priority for teams. You are defending your turf, you are playing in front of your fans- there is just something inherently more at stake. So athletic apparel company Under Armour has the slogan, “Protect This House” which works great on t-shirts, posters and billboards when combined with mascots and school colors.

We, too, need to protect our house:

“When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.”(Luke 11:24-26)

It is not enough to just clean up or rearrange the furniture, we need to actively protect our house. When you made the decision to follow Jesus, there were some things that were obvious that needed to be thrown out of the house. Things in your heart you knew you needed to rid yourself of. But did you replace those things with anything else?

I remember a friend of mine not buying into the addiction ministry I’m a part of. “Even if you quit drinking or smoking, you’re just going to replace it with something else,” he would say. Of course he’s right. So what is the “something else”?

Switching gears slightly to your literal house, do you ever feel like an evil spirit has completely moved in? You know what I’m talking about, when everything seems to turn into a fight with your spouse, the kids are unusually wild and crazy, and bills are past due; when you can’t seem to catch a break. So you pray and you step away and you hope that things will be better tomorrow. The problem is, if you kicked that evil spirit out of your home he is only going to come back later with some of his friends.

So what are we to fill our house with in the meantime?

Do we fill our house with things? Is that what we are teaching our kids, that they can have any toy they want, watch any movie they want whenever they want, ask for anything they see advertised on TV? More things, more movies, more toys, more games, more gadgets, more electronics. Bigger, faster, better, newer. Our children notice when we complain that our iPhone 3 is no longer good enough even though we just got it a year ago.

Do we fill our house with food? As a kid we knew which house we wanted to go play at after school because they had all the good snacks. Chips, cookies, junk food. Are we teaching our children that happiness comes from sweets? Do they see us snacking between meals when we tell them that they can’t?

Do we fill our house with the World? Do we always get wrapped up in politics, news, celebrity gossip, or sports? I was convicted thinking that sports elicit a more emotional response from me than anything my family may accomplish. Do I get up and cheer their achievements as loudly as I cheer a touchdown? Are we filling our house with TV? Do you realize how much television and the Internet influence our values? Even shows that are described as “family friendly” like Dancing With the Stars, Survivor, or even American Idol teach us that modesty isn’t important, that it’s ok to back-stab if it helps us to get ahead, and that it’s ok to mock those who are willing to step out and aspire to greatness (really the first few weeks of American Idol are appalling). Do we fill our house with pornography? Pornea in Greek means “stimulating” or “pleasure”, so this is more than straight-up porn and includes things such as the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, Maxim Magazine and the Victoria’s Secret catalogue, even much of what passes for celebrity gossip as who is dating who, who has the best beach body, et cetera. So what are you watching on TV late at night? Where are you surfing the Internet?

Do we fill our house with negativity, criticalness, or gossip? Are the conversations around the dinner table about what so-and-so did today at work, or how much you don’t want to go to church tonight after dinner? Your attitudes rub off, especially on your children. Or instead are your conversations filled with encouragement or edification?  Your attitudes rub off on your children. “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” (Ephesians 4:29)

When the evil spirit comes back, he will bring all his friends. So you will need to protect your house. So fill it with something!

Fill it with the Holy Spirit and with the Word of God. That doesn’t mean you hang Bible verses around the house, or buy religious trinkets at your local Family Christian, or even literally to “write them on the doorframes of your house” (Deuteronomy 6:9). Deuteronomy 6 reads earlier, with respect to God’s Laws, to “impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” (v 7) How much do you talk about God with your family? Do you share what you are studying in the Bible? (Are you studying the Bible?)

Fill your house with prayer. When someone enters your house do they know that they are entering a place of worship? I don’t mean to change out all your windows for stained glass, but Jesus promises that when two or more come together in His Name, there he will be. (Matthew 18:20) Are you gathering together as a family in Jesus’ name? Your home is a place of worship. Or it should be. Do you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to one another? (Ephesians 5:19) Do you pray together as a family?

The truth is, that evil spirit will come for an uninvited visit. He may overstay his welcome. You may be successful in driving him out. But he always comes back. Always. And sometimes he doesn’t come back alone. You need to protect your house.

The End

Frank

No time to write a new post. I have to get ready for the end of the world tomorrow.

Of course, this isn’t the first time to tackle the subject on this blog. In May 2011, we braced ourselves to be raptured according to Harold Camping’s predictions. Just a few months earlier, the Large Hadron Collider came on-line and some speculated it would create a black hole that would swallow the earth.

Two tries (three, if you count Camping’s second try that October) and I’m still here. I figure I’ll survive this one too. But just in case, I better get this post up early…

As a side note, an asteroid flew by the Earth last weekend and missed by only 5 million or so miles. I reasoned with my engineer coworkers that the Mayans did some pretty impressive math. 5 days and 5 million miles isn’t too bad if you propagate small errors five thousand years.

What are you doing tomorrow to celebrate the end of the world? Me, I’m taking my kids to Legoland!

Fit to Give the King

Frank

In the busyness of the Christmas season, I’ll be reposting some of my favorite posts and scaling back my original content. I’m focusing on Christmas this week and will post a best-of 2012 next week after Christmas. This particular post was published back in 2010.

While we’re on the subject of Christmas gifts, what do you give someone who has everything?

Little Drummer Boy is my favorite Christmas song. It has always held a special place in my heart. Watching the music video of David Bowie and Bing Crosby is a vivid memory from my youth. On my tree now are two drummer boy ornaments, one from when I was two years old and the other from when I was four. That adds to the sentimentality, but when I actually stopped to listen to the words, from the perspective of a disciple of Jesus, the song took on its intended meaning. Consider it a musical version of the Parable of the Talents (or “bags of gold” in the new NIV).

While I could show you Bowie and Bing, all they’re doing is standing around a piano. Plus the medley takes something away from the meaning of the song, in my opinion. So here’s an original version, and a great video from The Almost:

What gift do you bring, no matter how humble, that is fit to give the King?

Play your drum.

What Matters Most

Frank

In the busyness of the Christmas season, I’ll be reposting some of my favorite posts and scaling back my original content. I’m focusing on Christmas this week and will post a best-of 2012 next week after Christmas. This particular post was published last year following my kids’ Christmas program at school.

I admit I’ve been too busy this Christmas season. I’m busy at work. I’m busy at home. I’m busy everywhere in between. I put up Christmas lights a couple weekends ago, but most of the time I forget to turn them on. We finally got a tree Sunday and I appreciate my kids starting to decorate, but I haven’t touched it since. And as far as all the Christmas shopping goes… I’ve purchased a single present. One. Out of a long list.

Sigh.

But last night reminded me to take the time to enjoy this season. Last night my kids performed in their elementary school holiday recital. There’s just something about little kids dressed as reindeer and others in cowboy hats singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer out of time and out of tune that makes all the hustle and bustle an afterthought.

Sunday we dress it up a little more as my son gets to play one of the three Wise Men as they act out the birth of Jesus from the Gospel of Matthew. He’s so excited he forgets he’s also singing with his choir (which is a good thing). My daughter meanwhile, will be singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas with other 2-4 year-olds.

So last night I remembered to turn my lights on. I slowed down a took a deep breath. And I remembered that I’m actually supposed to be enjoying this time of year.

All because of a bunch of silly kids. I bet Jesus was a silly kid. And if he could’ve dressed up as a Reindeer, I bet he would’ve volunteered to be Rudolph. I wish I could hear him sing.

Frank 2:8

Frank

In the busyness of the Christmas season, I’ll be reposting some of my favorite posts and scaling back my original content. I’m focusing on Christmas this week and will post a best-of 2012 next week after Christmas. This particular post was first published in December 2009 (and I’m very grateful the videos are still up, otherwise this post would make no sense!).

You’ve no doubt seen them since Thanksgiving, ringing their bells. With the Christmas spirit of giving, you may have also been accosted by a number of other “causes”. Maybe accosted isn’t the right word, but I’m much more willing to give to someone in front of Target than I am someone who approaches my car in the parking lot.

Personally, this relates to whether the cause is a hand-up or a hand-out. And the Salvation Army offers more than just help to the needy. In fact, the Salvation Army has stepped up their marketing campaign to emphasize that they’re more than just kettles at Christmas. I was surprised this year to hear the very Evangelical-like “when I was saved” in one of their spots.

What Christmas is really about:

God is Good?

Frank

It is hard to reconcile God’s love with what happened on Friday. The easy question to ask is how can a good God allow such bad to happen?

I like how a friend of mine puts it: “people wonder how there can be a good God when there is so much bad in the world, but I ask how can there be any good in a bad world if there is not a good God because I know how evil my heart is without God.”

It’s a good point and worth repeating. If there was not a good God, how could a organism that exists by random chance, that is advanced because of millenia of survival of the fittest (ie looking out for number one), feel any empathy or concern enough for others to hide innocent children while she herself is killed? Just like the despicable act cannot be explained, neither can that act of heroism.

My friend posted yesterday on Facebook,

I know many of us were tempted to doubt yesterday that God really cares, especially in light of the shootings in Connecticut.

But then today, I hear about a teacher who gave her life saving her students in one of the Connecticut classrooms.

I see photos of local adults, students, as well as our elected officials taking a Saturday morning to place wreaths on the grave sites of our American heroes: the Veterans.

We spent the morning with a group of people at a downtown Los Angeles hospital that dedicated the better part of their day to lighten up the lives of some children who will have to spend their Christmas in the hospital because of a variety of illnesses. These folks brought lunch, a magic show, a dance recital, the Laker girls, and of course, the man of the season, Santa Claus who handed out LOADS of presents.

How do I know God cares? Because He made so many people who care as well.

God’s love never fails. It never gives up. It never runs out on you.

Worshipping At the Altar of My Gun

Frank

My wife is at school today. In my kindergartner daughter’s class. Kindergarten. She turned five just a couple of months ago. I cannot for the life of me think about anything else right now.

26 dead. Most between 5 and 10 years old.

My son is soon to be 8.

Why, why, why?

After Jovan Belcher of the Kansas City Chiefs killed his girlfriend and then himself, Jason Whitlock questioned just what in this world we worship. To satisfy the thousands depending on fantasy football stats from a single game, the NFL chose to to tell the Carolina Panthers go ahead and play in Kansas City the next day. Do we worship the athlete? The stats? Pro football as a whole? In Whitlock’s piece, he included a single line about gun control. During halftime of Sunday Night Football one of the best sports broadcasters alive, Bob Costas, leveraged that single line to pontificate about gun control and was roundly villified in social media for “self righteousness”, being a “glory hound”, for being “out of touch”. One friend on Facebook mocked Costas by suggesting that we regulate keyboards as they are the number one cause of typos.

One day earlier was a “shooting” in Casper, Wyoming. Ironically, the killer did not use a gun but rather a crossbow. Many pointed to this incident to make the classic argument “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”

But, just a little more than a week later a gunman opened fire in a Portland mall, killing two before killing himself.

And now 26 are dead in Connecticut.

The truth is that sick people will do sick things. A pastor was killed in Texas a couple of months ago, beaten to death with a guitar. Gun or not, if I store up anger and hatred in my heart, the only logical conclusion is to hurt- even kill- another.

But why do we (some, not all) come to such an emotional defense of our “right to bear arms” when tragedies like this strike? Are guns that important? Do we need them to protect our eternal security? (And seriously, I could go on and on about many I know who call themselves Christians yet their membership to the NRA is just as important, if not more so, as membership to their church. This became evident leading up to the last presidential election.)

I’m not a pacifist. I don’t hold a doctrinal position on Just War. I grew up in gun country, where students would bring their guns to school just so they would be ready to leave as soon as the bell rang to go hunting. But to own those guns they were required to take hunter’s safety courses. In fact, it was practically part of my curriculum, taking it in 6th grade.

I understand the arguments. I have coworkers who collect guns. I have friends who frequent shooting ranges.

But at some point we need to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask what, exactlly, are we worshipping? Why are guns so important?

“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus told said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52)

What if?

Frank

In the busyness of the Christmas season, I’ll be reposting some of my favorite posts and scaling back my original content. Reading Multiply by Francis Chan and gearing up for a Multiply Movement study in the New Year, I’m going to select posts on evangelism this week and Christmas next. This particular post was first published in August 2011.

***

Much of what passes for doctrine in American Christianity (TM) is based off of a what-if theology. You get these kinds of responses when reaching out to others to spread the Gospel. In an over-correction to be “seeker-sensitive” churches have gone out of their way to try and answer every what-if. But you don’t need to. The Bible answers sufficiently and our faith should take care of the rest.

What if there’s some tribe in the middle of the desert that never hears of Jesus? Then maybe God is calling you to pack your bags to go there and change that.

“From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” (Acts 17:26-27)

But what if in the middle of the desert there’s no water to be baptized? Well, first of all, people can’t live where there isn’t water. And we can’t get too far from it and still live. Did you know that there’s a military spec for building a baptistry out of boxes of MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) and tarp?

“Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Go south to the road—the desert road’… As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, ‘Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?‘” (Acts 8:26,36)

What if someone is a prisoner of war with no hope of release? Do you think God is that small?

“After [Paul and Silas] had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.
 
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the prison doors flew open, and everybody’s chains came loose. The jailer woke up, and when he saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself because he thought the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted, ‘Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!’

The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’

They replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.’ Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family.” (Acts 16:23-34)

What if God creates a rock he cannot lift? Ah, the classic canard. So what if he does?

“Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save,
nor his ear too dull to hear.” (Isaiah 59:1)

What if my grandma was the sweetest person I ever knew? Eventually, the what-ifs become personal. But at some point we have to let go of our vested emotional interest and just trust God.

“[God] wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4)

What if Ghandi (or pick your strawman) was a really good person!

“No one is good- except God alone.” (Mark 10:18)

What are the what-ifs you struggle with?