John Christie asks the question, “Is America Nailing Itself in the brain?”

He shares the picture from the Huffington Post, true story: accidental nail gun to head!

Dante Autullo, the guy pictured above, goes to hospital clueless to his peril.  He says this: “When they brought in the picture, I said to the doctor `Is this a joke? Did you get that out of the doctors joke file?’ The doctor said ‘No man, that’s in your head.”’

John shares a great reflection about our spiritual self-destruction in America.  The cultured influencers in America continue to undermine the spiritual foundations that make functioning community possible.  He calls us to pray.  Prayer moves us into the depths to experience the wonder of God and his presence among us.  Only the clarity that comes from the deep places will give us what we need to know the truth. 

 “Dude, you’ve got a nail in your head.”

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Mark Zuckerberg, founder, CEO, guiding light, god of FB:

"Simply put: we don't build services to make money; we make money to build better services and we think this is a good way to build something. These days I think more and more people want to use services from companies that believe in something beyond simply maximizing profits."

Even though Wall street is a bit twisted around Facebook’s initial offering and The Daily Beast is skeptical,  Zuckerberg expresses a worthy hope for business in America: “something beyond simply maximizing profits.” 

So do  you think people want to live beyond maximizing profits?  What might that be?  Health?  Family?  Community?  Love?

In the cool light of day we say “Amen!” to all of that.  However, when the pressure’s on, when we’re jonesin’ for a fix, when we’re distracted by endless flavors and varieties, “maximizing profits” seems like the obvious solution. 

We need something more than Zuckerberg’s  “something beyond.”  We need a very particular something.  We call that, Vision.

What’s your vision?  What has the Lord laid on your heart to give your life shape, purpose, meaning, direction?  What kingdom need has God created you to fill?  Figure that out and you’ll be well on your way toward living “beyond simply maximizing profits.”  No vision?  Maximizing profits will probably be the best you can do.

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So says George Schmidt, Google exec., at the Boston U. commencement.

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post has a must read piece detailing “the curse of constant connection.”

Intimacy with God is a must have core value, central in any life that would rise above the death dealing vacuity of life without depth.  Our desperate need for validation and connection has been served a pseudo-answer in our techno-centered lives.

Ruth, George, and I celebrate the potential and possibilities presented in the amazing new world of easy communication.  Really.  If nothing else, the rapid dissemination of prayer need makes it all worthwhile.

But we must be wary. Heed George’s advise: “Take on hour a day and turn that thing off.”  And pray.  

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Stephen Marche takes an interesting turn in “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely,” found in this month’s The Atlantic.  He reviews the contemporary problem of loneliness in America.   He cites Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone, and more recent treatments to establish the deeply troubling fact that many Americans are deeply and pathologically lonely.

He explores the pervasive role of Facebook in American culture.  He identifies a variety of ways social media complicates the issue of loneliness.

Our omnipresent new technologies lure us toward increasingly superficial connections at exactly the same moment that they make avoiding the mess of human interaction easy. 

He cites Sherry Turkly from, Alone Together, to establish what some of us sense:

These days insecure in our relationships and anxious about intimacy, we look to technology for ways to be in relationships and protect ourselves from them at the same time.

He affirms what we already believe: social media provides a pseudo community, a convenient but poor substitute for the real thing.

Then comes the twist.  Marche identifies the status posts, the photo presentations, the constant checking in and self-presentation of Facebookers.  He reports,

Among 18-to-34-yer-olds, nearly half check Facebook minutes after waking up, and 28 present do so before getting out of bed.  The relentlessness is what is so new, so potentially transformative.  Facebook never takes a break.

Marche suddenly shifts and suggests that the true problem of Facebook is not so much its effect on relationships, but the failure to disconnect, to get away, to be truly alone…because we’re always on…Facebook.

Solitude used to be good for self-reflection and self-reinvention.  But now we are left thinking about who we are all the time, without every really thinking about who we are.

What we’re losing is not just intimacy with one another, but intimacy with God.

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God and politics is one of the themes of Andrew Sullivan’s “Crisis in Christianity.”  For my taste, he pushes a bit too hard for a faith that runs the danger of being “privatized,” that is, kept to one self rather than brought out into the open of public discourse.

For example, when addressing the occasional engagement of Christianity in politics, Sullivan suggests that the church filter the God-talk out of the discussion.

When politics is necessary, as it is, the kind of Christianity I am describing seeks always to translate religious truths into reasoned, secular arguments that can appeal to those of other faiths and none at all. But it also means, at times, renouncing Caesar in favor of the Christ to whom Jefferson, Francis, my grandmother, and countless generations of believers have selflessly devoted themselves.

This seems naïve.  How do you contend for a public policy rooted in a transcendent reality without the language of faith?  Part of the broader crisis of our time is the failure of the public sphere to grant a place for conversation that acknowledges the possibility of a divine presence.  The default, acceptable world view becomes a materialistic atheism, with politics devolving into a scramble of how to divide up the pie.  After all, there is nothing else out there.  Presumably. 

Lots of people, Muslims, Jews, Christians, et. al., say that’s a bad presumption.  I don’t think it is possible to always translate “religious truths into reasoned, secular arguments.” 

Let’s try one.  “God is love.”   Okay.  Let’s see, “Transcendent reality is good, personal, and to be trusted.”  Does that work?  It’s not very warm.  It makes my head hurt a little bit.  And, frankly, I don’t think it will make it through the filter of the secular pluralists Sullivan is asking us to appease.

Sometimes the conversation needs to be frank, honest and hard.  The only way I know to maneuver through that successfully is, well, by being anchored in that simple Truth, God is love.  

Kyle

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Andrew Sullivan has made interesting observations in his Newsweek Easter article. Really, he's saying out loud what a lot of people are thinking.

When speaking of the traditional church structures, practices, and patterns, both Catholic and Protestant, sometimes made notorious through the media’s reporting, Sullivan fingers an important reality.

Something has gone very wrong. [The church reacts in] impulses born of panic in the face of modernity, and fear before an amorphous “other.” This version of Christianity could not contrast more strongly with Jesus’ constant refrain: “Be not afraid.” 

He makes a good observation here.  The MO of the church appears to be aggressive and reactionary (the “religious right”) or controlling and evasive (the Catholic child abuse scandals) as if God needs to be protected or defended.  No matter how “bad things may get,” I believe we can trust that God will continue to be God and continually be at work for his purposes.

As the people of God, we really can relax, take a bit longer view, even as we contend for truth in the public square.  The more thoughtful our expressions, after all, the more likely we will be heard, even if rejected.

The writer of Hebrews extends to us a wonderful invitation,

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has  entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.  Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort  of disobedience.  Heb. 4:9-11

I long for the day when the public face of Christianity will look more like humble, open hearted confidence than a strident campaigner or an evasive bureaucrat.  

Kyle

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Are we living in the truth or are we campaigning for the truth?  Another challenge Andrew Sullivan lays out there in his Newsweek Easter piece, “Crisis in Christianity."

Whether or not you believe, as I do, in Jesus’ divinity and resurrection—and in the importance of celebrating both on Easter Sunday….What does it matter how strictly you proclaim your belief in various doctrines if you do not live as these doctrines demand? What is politics if not a dangerous temptation toward controlling others rather than reforming oneself? If we return to what Jesus actually asked us to do and to be—rather than the unknowable intricacies of what we believe he was—he actually emerges more powerfully and more purely.

In an election year it’s good to be reminded that we are citizens of heaven before proponents of a particular ideology.  We make a mistake if we think a savior will come out of our bitter party spirit electioneering rather than from the midst of a community indwelt with the Spirit of Jesus.

In Sullivan, however, I hear the contemporary pitfall of an isolated, privatized faith.  If “reforming oneself” leads to a deeper sense of personal satisfaction and contentment, and it ends there, the church remains the kept pet of a secularized, pluralistic culture.  I fear Sullivan falls into the individualistic trap that so pervades the West. 

While he is right in recognizing that the delusion of political power has captured the heart of many in the church, he misses the mark in suggesting that the central point is “reforming oneself.”  The tough thing to think through is the public, communal application of what Paul describes as our aim, which is, “love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”  (1 Timothy 1:5)  That public application, especially in America, will always have a political expression, although hopefully not the dominant expression.  To suggest otherwise is to relegate faith to a “behind closed doors” privatization, leaving the public sphere vulnerable to real confusion, if not evil.

Still, Sullivan’s rightly recognizes that the call to discipleship first begins in our own souls as we seek to become the people Jesus died to transform us into.  From our souls the transforming power must move through Christian community to impact the world around us, or it is mere spiritual titillation. 

Kyle
 

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The American media still gives attention to Jesus during Holy Week.  In Newsweek Andrew Sullivan wrote the cover article, “Forget the Church-- Follow Jesus.” The headline alone captures a broadly held, and perhaps spreading, view.

He identifies “Christianity in Crisis” and reflects upon it with the help of Thomas Jefferson and Frances of Assis.  For my money, Jefferson in his 18^th century dissection of Scripture is not at all helpful.  Frances, however, continues to challenge a culture in the grip on Mammon.

Sullivan touches upon some transcendent realities.  The central questions continue to haunt our hearts:

The thirst for God is still there. How could it not be, when the profoundest human questions—Why does the universe exist rather than nothing? How did humanity come to be on this remote blue speck of a planet? What happens to us after death?—remain as pressing and mysterious as they’ve always been?

Yep.  The God question simply refuses to go away.  We can know, without a doubt, that every soul we encounter wonders about these things.  If we will take the time to develop real friendship, we will be invited to go to that place in the heart where such questions are asked.  Are we taking the time with lost others?  How do we make the time?

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Not by might nor power, but by His Spirit at work in the body of Christ as we obey. When I wrote the blog entitled “Jesus, what a friend for sinners,” Zacchaeus had been the catalyst for my contemplation. Imagine my incredulity when I opened my email this morning to find this account from my longtime mentoree Keith, the worship leader for History Makers USA, who had visited with Philippe and me in our home a few days after the conference along with his pastor from Congo and another of my mentorees, Shelley. This event occurred that very evening at the home of Keith’s mother in Houston.  Keith wrote: "I checked the door and standing quite far away from the walk-up to the door was a young black man, dressed in shirt and tie. I had a mind just to wave him off and get back inside, but he looked so earnest. So I said, "yeah?" He told me he was selling magazines. At that point I really regretted not waving him off. But I could barely hear what he was saying, so I asked him to come closer. He hesitated, but then took a step forward and said, "Look man..." I usually am very bothered by solicitors. And I myself really hate doing door-to-door campaigns. But this guy had such an earnest look in his eyes. So I stepped outside. He explained to me that he was a part of a restoration program for ex-convicts and criminals.He was just out of jail, from Lousiville, KY, and if he sold enough magazines or got enough donations, he would have enough “Points” to gain a government-paid two semesters in college. We talked on and after about 10 minutes, I had been convinced to donate. I went back inside to get my wallet. And had it not been for Shelley...! She asked me, "Keith...who is that at the door?"I explained to her. Then it dawned on me. Wait...its 7 PM! Nobody solicits so late! But this guy couldnt have been trying to pull one over on us. I saw all the papers, and he had that earnest look. This had to be a God appointment. So after getting an OK from my mom, we invited him in. "Sure," my mom said. "Is he hungry too?" He sat on the couch and after hearing about Zaccheus,He gave his life to Christ. In a pool of tears he just spilled out his heart, and his fears, and his hopes and dreams. I couldnt believe this was happening. It was so obvious that God sent him there. That God had brought us all together. I gave him my Bible (Not the blue one that Philippe gave me! That one stays with me!!!) and he did not want to leave. We offered him some food but he said he wasn’t hungry. He just made us promise that we would keep in touch. We told him about (the good pastor in Kentucky) and that he should definitely visit the church there. I just felt honored that God used that moment to do that miracle in my mom’s living room. All who were there received something. I definitely did." We have a choice. We can step through the doors that God opens and allow Him to use us to bring life. This young man was hungry, just like Zacchaeus was hungry. Keith opened the door - and a former prisoner found Jesus. His chains fell off; he has been set free. “Today, salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost.” Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! Jan

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Holy Week. The most sacred week in the liturgical year. The very atmosphere charged with groaning expectancy, a heaviness that permeates my being, despite the fact that I know the end of the Story. But there are so many who do not. What are we as Christian leaders to do? Jesus tells us how to live in Luke 10:27 when an expert in the law asks Him what he must do to inherit eternal life. The answer, of course, is from Leviticus 19:18 and the man scores one hundred percent when he answers, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus affirms him in this and says, “Do this and you will live.” But the legal expert wants to justify himself, so he asks, “And who is my neighbor?” Naturally, Jesus answers with a parable, perhaps the most famous one of all, the Good Samaritan. And He tells the man to go and do likewise. So how are we faring in this? Are we truly experiencing Intimacy with God, or just coming up with the right answers for the quiz? As we contemplate the abject agony of the Cross and the sinless Savior taking on the burden of all of our transgressions, are we loving the Lord with all that is in us…and our neighbors as ourselves? St. Francis of Assisi clarified this for me when he wrote, “That we may love You with the whole heart by always thinking of You; with the whole soul by always desiring You; with the whole mind by directing all of our intentions toward You and seeking Your honor in all things; and with all our strength by spending all the powers and senses of body and soul in the service of Your love and not in anything else, and that we may love our neighbors even as ourselves, drawing to the best of our power all to Your love, rejoicing in the good of others as in our own and showing compassion in trouble and giving offense to no one.” I don’t know about you, but I have some work to do, especially in the last category - the same one in which the legal expert wanted to justify himself. Do I draw to the best of my power ALL to His love? Do I rejoice in the good of others as in my own? Do I show compassion in trouble and give offense to no one? The world will know who - and Whose - we are by our love. His love. “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all.” Jan

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Real conversation heard Friday morning, about 15 hours before the Mega Millions drawing:

“I’m going to win ½ billion dollars today.”

“Why don’t you make it a full billion?”

“I’m talking about the lottery tonight.”

“Yeh, but if you’re dreaming, you might as well dream big.”

“Somebody’s going to win it.  Might as well be me!”

We feed people 6 days a week out of our building.  Obviously they don’t have a lot of money and need every penny.  Why in the world do we allow our states to generate income out of the desperate hearts of America’s most vulnerable?

The Washington Post reported that folks had a greater chance of…

…being hit by lighting,

…being wiped out by an asteroid,

…getting a royal flush in a five card draw,

…having identical quadruplets,

…being killed by a bee sting, or

…dying in a plane crash.

Great wealth makes us independent…isolated…and lonely.  It’s a vanishing hope.  Lord, make us wise.

Kyle

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Miguel Villanueva went on to glory yesterday.  He retired from teaching Spanish in a San Diego area community college in the late ‘80s.  He said he always dreamed of living in Hawaii, always spoken with a twinkle in his eye.  Instead, the Lord had him move onto a canyon wall in Tijuana. 

The space was a squatter’s barrio on the side of a ravine formed by the San Andeas fault.  Tijuana’s poor were gathering there.  Some found work in the new NAFTA factories taking root up the ridge.  Others had migrated from Central America and Southern Mexico hoping for a chance to cross the border into the US.  Most were undocumented, meaning born in the villages and barrios of Mexico without a birth certificate.  Without a birth certificate in Mexico, a Mexican can’t go to school.

Miguel built a small, ramshackle shed and called it a church.  A small handful of mothers and their children started showing up.  One day, a mother asked, “Pastor, when are you going to start a school?”  Miguel’s answer, “There is no school.  We have no money for desks or books or teachers.”  The mother kept asking.  Miguel saw the need, felt the burden, and said, “Tomorrow, we start school.”

He told the story with the same twinkle in his eye he had when he talked about Hawaii.  Miguel had a vision of a school for poor children not only in Tijuana, but across Mexico.  He talked about it with passion, conviction, and hope.  You listened to him and you believed him, or wanted to.  You did what you could to help and watched miracles of God’s provision happen, all the time.

Miguel is with the Lord now.  He’s probably still talking about schools throughout Mexico to educate the poor. Don’t know if that will ever happen, now that Miguel is gone.  But it doesn’t matter.  Miguel had a vision for a school.  He started teaching little kids using the floor of a shack for a desk.  Twenty-some years later hundreds, if not thousands, of kids got an education because Miguel moved to a barrio in Tijuana rather than a condo in Hawaii.

Kyle

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Just sharing stories discovered on the flight home from our first History Makers Journey, found in Southwest's, Spirit magazine, March 2012.

Nicole Cochran won the 3,200 meter title at the Washington State Class 4A Track and Field Championships in 2008, except a judge disqualified her for stepping outside her lane.  All’s fair except for the fact that nobody agreed with the judge, including the opposing runners.   Later, a video affirmed everyone’s opinion.  But, Andrea Nelson, second place, was declared the winner.

Andrea wasn’t happy,

               “That’s not the way I wanted to win.  It wasn’t fair.  [Nicole] deserved it.”

What follows is simply beautiful.  At the award ceremony, when the top eight finishers received their medals, Andrea takes off the first place medal, walks over to Nicole and slips the medal around her neck.  And then…the second place takes her medal and gives it to Andrea, the third gives hers to the second, the fourth to the third and so on, until Lyndy Davis, the eighth place finisher gives her medal away, leaving nothing for herself.

Later in the day, Nicole comes in eighth place in the 800 meter race.  After receiving her medal, she seeks out Lyndy, and gives it to her, not wanting her to go away empty handed.

Ten days after the event, officials reviewed the results and reinstated Nicole Cochran as the true winner of the 3,200 meter race.

The “officials,” those in charge, will get it wrong from time to time.  When they do, the community can step up to make it right.  Call it justice, or righteousness, or just doing the right thing.  What can we do, as people-in-community, to ready ourselves “to make it right” when others get it wrong?

Kyle

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Johntel Franklin’s mom lay dying of cancer in a Milwaukee hospital.  A handful of his teammates stood with him as Johntel loved his mother to the end, standing at her side. 

Johntel was the co-captain of his basketball team, and they were missing a game to be with Johntel and his mother.  Their coach wanted to cancel the game, forfeiting  out of concern for Johntel and respect for his mother.  Johntel insisted that the game proceed.

Early in the second quarter of a close game, the grieving son and his friends showed up at the game.  Calling a time out, the players and fans hugged Johntel, sharing his pain.  The coach invited him to join the team on the bench.  Johntel wanted to play.

Problem.  The coach hadn’t included Johntel on the pre-game roster.  For him to play would mean a two shot technical foul.  The opposing coach tried to refuse the technical, but the referees insisted.  Darius McNeal walked toward the free-line to take the shots.  The ball went two feet and fell to the ground.  For his second shot, he just dropped the ball.

As Johntel’s team realized what Darius was doing, the stood and began to clap.  The crowd joined them, cheering the opposing team.

Johntel’s team won.  Darius’ team lost.  Dave Raohlman, the loosing coach said, “They may not remember our record 20 years from now, but they’ll remember what happened in the gym that night.”

What will folks remember as we live through our days?  Where and when can we “just drop the ball” and bring cheers from those around us?

Jesus was a master at bringing slices of the kingdom into the everyday, astounding the watching crowd.  Think of the poor unnamed woman who touched the hem of his garment.  Jesus just stopped and  noticed her.  Everybody was amazed.   Amaze the crowd.  Do something simple but unexpected and bring a glimpse of the kingdom into focus.

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 If Joseph Kone, a cause far away in time, space, coherence, and relevance, Trayvon Martin demands our attention and passionate prayer far more.

A 17-year old teen-ager is shot and killed by a 28 year old “crime watch captain.”  The 17-year old is black, the 28 year old has a white father and a hispanic mother.

It would be worthwhile to sit down with a group and prayerfully discern the issues at play.  Racism, family, drugs, vigilantism, the media, justice, revenge, populism, and more.  Much more.

Hearing the truth is important.  What is really going on?  If we will listen deeply, the Holy Spirit will lead us into the truth.

For example, here are two voices.

The first is Joe Oliver, a friend of George Zimmerman, the shooter.  He’s a black man speaking from his experience.

"This incident on its own is not a racial incident; this story is a racial story ... It has sparked a dialogue that needs to be made, because I live with what they're talking about every day. But in this particular instance when it involves this happening, it was not racially motivated."

LZ Granderson is an award winning journalist.  He too is black.  He addresses a $10,000 bounty that a militant group has placed on Zimmerman.  He focuses us on the language of violence,

“…the words we use shape the way we think. And what we think is the precursor to what we do. If we continue to allow words of conflict to define the conversation about race and racial profiling, then I fear we will move on from this tragedy having learned absolutely nothing, like so many times before.”

 There is a lot going on here.  Jesus’ words to his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane apply: “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation…” (Matt. 26:41)

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Flying back from our first History Makers Journey in Houston, found some inspiring stories in the March 2012 Southwest flight magazine, entitled, Spirit, of all things.  Thought I’d share them.

In April 2008, Sara Tucholsky hit a home run playing for Western Oregon Universtiy.  It was her first one.  Ever.   Rounding first, she failed to touch the bag, stopped, turned, and blew out her knee.  She collapsed in agonizing pain.

The umpires ruled that her teammates could not assist her around the bases.  If a pinch runner came in, the pinch runner must remain on first and the hit would be scored a two run single rather than a home run.  She’d loose her first ever homer.

At that moment, Mallory Holtman, the first baseman for the other side and the all-time leading home run hitter in the conference asked, “Can I help her out?”

Mallory and teammate Liz Wallace lifted the injured Mallory and carried her around the bases, pausing at each so she could dutifully touch each.  The three of them made it home, laughing all the way, while the fans wiped tears from their eyes and cheared.  

Mallory’s team ended up loosing 4-2. But, of course, in the eyes of all, Mallory won far more than a game.

We love to here stories like this because we want to live like this.  What opportunities are there around us to "carry" those who have fallen?  I'll bet there are a lot more than we realize.

Kyle

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Newspaper, radio, television, internet: “The gospel” has been shaped by the media leaders use to express what Jesus is about. 

“The medium is the message.” Marshal McLuhan said so long ago.  The tool you use to communicate determines what you communicate. 

How do people frame and therefore reformulate Jesus by tools they use? 

Consider some examples:

Joel Olstein’s gospel, in this instance, is “Programming your mind for victory.”  Watch the beginning.  Notice how in the opening sequence the camera sweeps in over a massive crowd of well-dressed, middle-class people gathered in an over-sized auditorium that glitters with lights.

In an earlier generation, Jerry Falwell framed his presentation of the gospel within the constraints of the American political scene.  The camera here captures a traditional Southern congregation.  There is nothing arresting or surprising visually.  Notice how Falwell reshapes the gospel as criticism of the ACLU.

Go back another 20 years to the age of Billy Graham.  (An interesting aside: Notice how different Olstein's gospel is from Grahams'.)  Graham framed his presentation of the gospel within the context of a rally.  His voice, his tone, and the content of his message is received and processed by the crowd and projected back to him.  The emotion of the crowd provides social proof that enhances the perception of the message as meaningful. 

Note that Adolf Hitler pioneered this method and this medium. 

The question, of course, is how does the method we use to communicate frame and reform people’s perception of Jesus? 

Is Jesus present in the medium? 

Or, does the medium serve as a filter that removes Jesus from the message so that, despite our good intentions, the Gospel is emptied of its power?

Leadership Beyond must wrestle with these questions or be eternally irrelevant.

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