Living the Life

As I have grown older (matured one might say...) I have learned that it is not the one who argues the loudest, puts on the best show, or berates his opponent in the most efficient manner is not the one who ultimately ushers in a change of the heart. In order to effect change we have to enter into the lives of those we hope to persuade and dare I say love them...through the long run. Dr. Tim Keller says: "You need to enter into a person's worldview, challenge that worldview and retell the story based upon the Gospel." Hardly revolutionary...No, now is the time to think reformationally.

breaking and remaking

In one of his sermons on greed and giving, Tim Keller says that "Culture is a world with meaning;" even our everyday pennies go for or against something. He says that we can use our money in two major ways: as a distraction by purchasing sensation stimulation OR as seed to plant and grow exciting liveliness, for our friends, our family, our neighbour, ourselves. Lest we think it is our dollar bills that fund and run the universe, we must learn the reality that, in Keller's words, "God's righteousness re-weaves creation."

Eric and I inevitably find ourselves spending more than we should on food we didn't need, wasting money on fees and penalties, investing where we didn't have back up plans, and in trying to be prudent, robbing ourselves or someone else of the happy luxuries we call necessities of life. Where the balance of giving and saving lies, no one knows until the money's on the line and a decision must be made. We learn meanwhile to say the honoured prayer, "give us this day our daily bread," hoping in God's righteousness for tomorrow by praising His provision today.

Valentine's Day

Two years ago today Eric picked me up to walk across the street to the coffee house, 49 West, in Annapolis. He had just flown in from Virgina. A waltz party was going on at St. John's that gave him reason to come back early and ask me to the dance, since we'd been taking swing lessons on Tuesday nights in the little back stage room on St. J's campus. I suppose we wouldn't have gone to the dance if my answer had been different that night.

After all, the new semester marked the turn of the year in which we had barely begun to be simply friends. We got back from Christmas break wanting to renew an old aquaintance, go out to a movie in the greyness of winter, and found out that we already frequented Barnes and Noble to study, and it would be lovely to get our mutual friends over there at the same time. Meanwhile, we're both thinking of other possibilities; but one can hardly be expected to say yes to a man after two dinner conversations and a few stolen side long glances at him over oceanographic equations.

I found myself faced with his question over a small cup of strong coffee, warming my fingers, while the rest of the drafty ailse was cold. His words were diplomatic ambassadors from his heart to my head. I felt necessity impelled me to explain a few things; I didn't think he could really be serious if he really knew me; and here was a man not to be messed with. His reply encompassed my fears round about and drew them into a kerchief as on a stick to be carried on his back and taken up together at a right time some time down the road. The undertaking he proposed, to gain my affection through the proving of his own for me, seemed unlikely, but desireable. Thus, his words met their mark and mine echoed, yes, I'd like that, too.

Religion

I am a religious person...but so is Ted Kennedy...so what differentiates us? In the newspapers, on the TV, and in conversation it seems that religious people are only Christians; and they seem intent upon forcing their religion upon the rest of an unsuspecting populous.

Websters defines religion as a "particular faith system and worship." And so, yes, I as a Christian am Religious. My life is spent in worship to the Creator of the Universe. However, since the humanist-leftist-neo-Darwinists feel that Christians are the only folks who are religious and are also the only folks who wish to impose their religion upon others, we need to take a moment here and call a spade a spade. The humanist-leftist-neo-Darwinist is just as religious as I and he is bent upon forcing his religion upon me. In fact, he is so zealous about forcing it upon me that he even does it with my own tax money in the Public School system, through legislation, and through political action.

The difference exists in Truth. The reason that the humanist-leftist-neo-Darwinists are working so hard to suppress the Christian Religion is that it alone stands as Truth. No other belief system requires so little of a person, and yet so much, to recieve salvation. As in other religions where salvation is dependent upon the work of the individual, Christianity calls for the individual to submit, admit they have sinned, and ask for forgiveness. Such submission is not acceptable in our culture. It is within Christianity that the humanists fear, for in Christianity life is sacred, things of this world do not matter, Truth exists, boundaries are present, Grace and Mercy abound, and death has been conquered. If I were a humanist-leftist-neo-Darwinist and relying upon my own goodness to achieve Nirvana, I would want Christians to shut up as well.

down by the Frio

On Martin Luther King Jr's birthday, we celebrated on the Frio River, first running long distances of road winding through the Hill Country, eating large amounts of panckaes, and finally getting down to the river, where Aunt Paula suggested we launch one of their kayaks to test Herbie's sea legs. Eric took him out first, then I followed up with my first ride in the slender water craft. Even with cool, cloudy skies, the paddling is great fun, and now we have to find sea kayaks to take out on the Bay!

I'm in the club

Last night was my first time attendance of the Officer Spouse Club meeting of Eric's flight training squadron. It was a perfect time to join the large group of women, in an evening of wine tasting; where one would normally be shy and self conscious (of the shirt one changed three times before showing up), the wild animal feelings of self strangulation in the midst of a crowd of new faces are calmed with the sweet Resling or a more heavily grounding Merlot. Next time it'll be waffle baking.

glaciers in his heart are melting

If you've never seen Ice Age, now's the time, and you will see the essense of doggie animalistic terror written upon the face of Scrat, the prehistoric squirrel. Scrat is the screen-living representation of human frustration. Both Herbie and his new dad are experts in the expression of this wide-mouthed Scrat-scream, since both their lives are filled with little daily frustrations.

Tonight was the night that Herbie crossed the line of Scratty new house pet to playfellow: he's already chasing, leaping and catching bones midair, reducing the king and queen of the house to floor-roiling packmates.

the Secret Life of Herbie

At heart, he's a mild mannered, pleasant sort of little man, who asks only for his slippers at bedtime and a biscuit to top off his tank.
However, the trying transition between households has altered his life clock and upset his worldview. His former playpen of the great outdoors is now a threatening Hazardous Front Line upon which he must keep on red alert, translated to: tail between the legs and run to mommy (who's on the other end of the leash).
To help him overcome outdoor people and Other Dog terrors, he gets carried one-way on walks and then let down again to race his way back home.
It is, after all, a useful thing to know the way home when caught out in the wild world.

We've got him

Herbie came home with us yesterday! He's a wild boar coloured, four month old Wirehaired Dachshund. To see pictures of the breed, go to raydachs.com and you can see his mom ("Goose").

One Year Ago Sunday...

I married the most lovely of women. Kelly and I celebrated our very first anniversary this past weekend. The actual date was not the great celebration and tremendous feat of accomplishment that one would guess is reserved for such occasions. The real celebration lasted for the entire year and I may suggest will continue for the rest of our lives.

Marriage is a great mercy to me. I have learned more in one year from my beautiful bride than I had learned in five combined prior. She has taught me to love, to be selfless, to sacrifice. I have learned the aforementioned gifts not from her lecturing or badgering me, but from her example. In this one year of marriage I have asked her to pack up and move three times. She has complied with narry a complaint, and takes it upon herself to settle in to our new home as quickly as possible and form a new community around us so that we might settle back into a state of normalcy as quickly as possible. She continuously stays up late with me, helping me prepare for my flights, drilling me on my procedures, and urging me on when I fall back. She rises with me every morning, long before the sun rises and has my lunch made and breakfast ready even before I am out of the shower. She is truly an inspiration and a model to emulate.

Accordingly, it was not the wedding day, or the anniversary that has made the first year special. It was the year itself. I look forward with great anticipation to the coming years and cannot wait to see what else she has to teach me.

Killing Christmas

It seems that we Christians have once again lost the forrest for the trees. Our current fight over the meaning of Christmas reminds me of a battle wherein the leaders have to ask, "what was the objective again?" I ran across this article and have found it to be the most clear thinking, forthright, and Truthful synopsis of this battle over the "meaning of Christmas."



As a Christian, I naturally see Christmas as more than a cultural tradition. It is also (or should be) the year's clearest display window for presenting that grand story of the long-ago O Holy Night.
And what is that story? God stooped down to enter and live on the Earth. That "stooping down" is what we call the Incarnation -- God became one of us. Luke gives a revealing little vignette of what God-with-us must have looked like:
As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out -- the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her.
When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he . . . touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!" The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
They were all filled with awe and praised God. "A great prophet has appeared among us," they said. "God has come to help his people."
-- Luke 7:12-16

Think of it: People watched as God felt -- and then acted on -- compassion for an "Earthling." They saw him raise her son from the dead and then give the boy back to her. (He didn't try to recruit or exploit him for his "movement.") That did it -- they reached a conclusion that was both logical and astonishing: "God has come to help his people."

Sadly, that story -- "God has come to help his people" -- has almost disappeared from Christmas. It has been replaced by torrential capitalism, unmerciful stress and (worst of all) an irrational, seething anger from Christians toward the very people God came to help.
So it seems that every holiday season now carries another angry blast from prominent Christians. This year we have two (so far).

The reliably nutty Pat Robertson recently told the people of Dover, Penn., that God is so angry about their recent school board vote that they can just forget about his mercy. Short version: "Go to hell."
And Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, sniffed some anti-Christmas attitudes from Wal-Mart. He went a little berserk, demanding an "apology for insulting Christians" and calling a Wal-Mart statement "flatulent." He also asked 126 religious organizations to boycott the retailer. His news release went on to taunt Wal-Mart with: "Don't forget, we have the next six weeks to pull out all the stops, and we will."

Wouldn't it seem reasonable for Christian leaders to consult the Bible in order to form responses to perceived insults? Had they done so, they might have discovered classic Christian disciplines and graces.
For example, Jesus said, "Blessed are you when men cast insults at you, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, on account of Me . . . Rejoice, and be glad." (Matthew 5:11-12)
And, the apostle Paul wrote, "When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly." (1 Corinthians 4:12-13)
Clearly, Robertson and Donohue did not rejoice, bless, endure or answer kindly.

I find it incredible that many Christian leaders are essentially saying that the Bible, our "constitution," is irrelevant and not to be consulted on these matters. They are taking the same position toward the Bible that they often accuse liberals of taking toward the U.S. Constitution.
Forget original intent. We cannot possibly know what Jesus and the other framers of our faith would do in these modern times. Therefore, the Bible ends up saying what we want it to say.
Christians have an annual opportunity to bestow a profound blessing upon our society. Especially at this time of year, in the midst of so much pain, conflict and poverty, we Christians could display healing graces that come from another world.

But some of us shoot right on past the heavenly attributes of love, blessing and kindness in our mad dash toward more modern tactics -- boycotts, marches, talk-show shouting matches, trading insults, etc. Many Christians now see themselves as merely another special-interest group, fighting for space on the airwaves, at funding troughs and at White House briefings.
This is part of what is killing Christmas. Some things are too deep, too profound, too mysterious to talk about. In a very real sense, they are beyond language. That's why some Christmas carols seem aglow with holy and awesome silence.

The woman at the heart of the Christmas story -- Mary, the mother of Jesus -- understood the silent interior rhythms of spiritual life. After glimpsing the spectacular majesties of that incredible "O holy night . . . of our Dear Savior's birth," she did not take to the streets to demand respect for Jesus; she didn't "engage the culture." She simply "kept and pondered these things in her heart" (Luke 2:19).
Sadly, the quiet, meditative life is out of favor these days. Even President Bush, a follower of Jesus, often turns to the louder and more divisive Christian voices for counsel. (Yes, I am concerned about the effect of angry and reactionary Christians on our public policy.)
I would like to read of him hosting a quiet dinner in the White House for the more insightful and contemplative "deep rivers" of spiritual leadership. I'd love to see a renaissance of "ponderers" such as Mary.

Call me sentimental, but I hope I live to see another "silent night, holy night [where] all is calm, all is bright." Think of it: a post-marketing, stress-free, heart-deep Christmas. Kindness to strangers, generosity to the poor, good will toward the earth.
To that end, it might be helpful if Christian leaders would go home to their families, read their Bibles and try to silently lay hold the exquisite truth of the Christmas story.
As for me, I'm going to Wal-Mart. It's certainly the time, and that's probably the place to spread some old fashioned Christmas cheer.
Ed Chinn is a free-lance writer who lives in Fort Worth.

The Peeves that are our Pets

What is your pet peeve, in getting ready for Christmas?
I wish for lost time, when I could have gotten out Christmas cards. Moving mid-Christmas season requires planning ahead of time to get the gifts out that one wanted so cheerfully to supply, and planning ahead is a learned activity for me. I find that good things don't happen on their own. Thus, I am a bad girl--again!