Life really matters

Yesterday I had a long phone conversation with my dear friend Brian Mulder. He and I toured together last Fall and now he's back in Michigan getting ready to embark on an epic bicyclic exercise of trans-national proportions. He's doing Blood:Water Mission's Ride:Well Tour. If storks (the birds) wore leg garments I could probably qualify to be a trouser model on their behalf. I mean, I just ran a mile non-stop for the first time in my life this past week. I am very proud of that, and ashamed. Brian, on the other hand, will be fine. It is always sweet to be a part of his life and adventures.

Nearly two years ago my roommate Rajesh asked if he could invite his friend, who was in a difficult living situation, to join us here in this house. I really didn't want to say yes. In fact, I said no. Several weeks later, he insisted that his friend needed a better living situation. So I said we could try it if it were only for a little while, since we just didn't have room. So six months became twenty or so months. And now Sashi is heading to California to a new job and I'll be missing a great friend.

When I was in seventh or eighth grade we got our first youth minister at the church were I grew up. Two years ago I flew to East Asia to visit him and yesterday I heard him speaking the spanish that he's learning in Honduras, his new home. A good many years have passed between eighth grade and now. Richard is still a deeply important brother to me, more than I can say.

The middle of June will mean the departure of D. and Corrie Merricks and their two little boys that I love. They'll be closer to their families and new ministry opportunities in Georgia, but four of my 'tent pegs' are getting pulled up from the ground. I begin to realize how I will miss them, how their lives constitute, in part, my life. Things may feel a little strange, a little less secure as they go.

In the bookstore a few days ago, I sat reading book by a woman who interviewed many people -all of them older than one hundred years. One woman remarked that the world was missing the point of life. She said we were too worried about making money, achievement, and acquiring security. The point of life abides in sharing it through relationship.

I am struck by how important the lives of others can become to me. There are many I would love to write about and describe how I love them. We let people into our lives, that vulnerability deserves great respect and care. Love changes us though. And love is real. When I have the patience and the courage to gather attentiveness and wait with Jesus in prayer, I remember how his love is evidenced by a new creation in this frustrated heart of mine. He matters deeply to me. His love is true.

Our lives are a great opportunity to deeply matter in the lives of others. We can take that wonderful risk. Jesus has led the way.

The God who loves bad ideas

About three years ago my beardly buddy William Parks gave me a book called "Dove" by Robin Lee Graham. He told me that it helped change his life. I put that book on my shelf and forgot about it. Occasionally, I would glance over toward it and think, "I should read that someday". But I didn't, till now. I just read the first chapter and I'm already excited enough to write a blog as I begin. I've also already called William to thank him for the book. It may be God's magic timing for me.

In the first chapter, after Lee, the main character, and his two buddies nearly get killed in a squall while attempting to sail from Hawaii to Lanai in a rigged up lifeboat - his Dad, instead of telling his son to never get in a boat again, decides to buy his son a better boat! Amazing. His Dad encourages his boy to sail again after he had just returned from a nearly fatal adventure.

I did not grow up this way. I was always told to do the safe, smart, secure thing.

Bob Goff twittered today: @bobgoff: I used to be afraid of failing at the things that matter to me; now I'm more afraid of succeeding at the things that don't matter.

When I called William to tell him I was reading "Dove". He said, "That book came to me at a time when I thought my life was worthless, so I had resigned myself to simply pursue things that didn't really matter. I thought that was all I could do, I thought that was all I was worth."

Imagine a Heavenly Father who looks at our crazy attempts to live, our failures, our ridiculous ideas and says, "That's exciting, hoist the sails! Onward into the imprudent!" Would that surprise you? It seems kind of unbelievable to me. So now Lee's dad has bought a better boat for his sixteen year old son and they are fixing it up together. Secretly, Lee is dreaming that he will use this boat to sail around the world by himself. He doesn't want to break the news to his Dad, because he's sure his Dad will think it's a terrible idea and try to stop him. Eventually, he spills the beans. Here are the few lines that slapped me in the face like a salty sea spray:

"Surprisingly, my father barely reacted when I put the idea to him. We were now working ten hours a day on preparing the Dove for the ocean. I did not realize at the time that secretly my father had been hoping I would come up with just such a scheme..."

Immediately, I thought, "God is always quietly hoping that we will come up with crazy schemes to light up the world with real life that only comes through ridiculous trust in him." We're always so afraid to admit that we want more life, or to do anything about it, God is just aching for us to give it a shot. And if we follow his example, we're bound to come up with terrible ideas. I'm learning those may be the best kind.

"For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom..." 1 Cor 1:25

Escapism vs. Baptism

I went on a great retreat a couple weekends ago with D. Merricks and the Ole Miss Wesley Foundation and the Arkansas Wesley around Little Rock. J.D. Walt was the retreat pastor and speaker. J.D.'s theme was "there are only two stories". Which is the theme of the Lenten/Spring Reader from Asbury Seminary this year. ( http://blogs.asburyseminary.edu/asbury-reader/start-here/ )

We are always trying to work our way UP, considering 'equality with God something to be grasped' but Jesus works his way DOWN to us 'not considering equality with God something to be grasped'. Those are the two stories and we live in one or the other, with either the mind of fallen Adam, or the mind of Christ.

Today though I've been thinking about Escapism vs. Baptism.

What's the difference? What kind of life do they bring respectively?

For myself, I'm seeing more and more that I want to preserve my controlled, familiar world and neglect dying to my self-preserving desires. I'd rather look out the window than be outside. (An example, actually, I had a great day out in the sun today.) It's easy then to end up with a fabricated pseudo-life wherein all the sensations of a real living committed movement and story are available without any of the actual attachments.

Entertainment can become escapism. I can get the feelings of adventure without the risks. I can save my life, but really I'm losing my life to meaninglessness and immobility.

I want to be Baptized. I want something real to happen to me. I want the legitimate hunger to be alive to be fed with the legitimate means of an actual life.

Even Jesus wanted to be baptized. And right after he was baptized he was tempted in the desert with the availability of escape from the pain and difficulty of real living. But he chose to walk forward in his baptism. Every day a baptism. And the result was life realized, good choices with actual meaning, living redemption.

What do you think about the comparison of Escapism vs. Baptism? What do you see?