Random Thoughts About Elements Of Faith

One of the things I like about being a follower of Jesus is that it creates a process of constant rediscovery. Like music, faith is a process of ever growing possibilities and understanding. It's akin to a Mandelbrot Set where exploration and discovery are a constant and solutions run to infinity.

A concept occurred to me this morning that I thought I should share with my fellow analytical, mathematical, engineering and scientific friends. It was a thought that seems elementary in concept but profound in execution.

Faith is not knowing the HOW something will happen, it's knowing that it WILL.

Please forgive me when I forget this and feel free to remind me often.

But let me say this: The battle to bring the Hope of Jesus Christ in to this world should be fought just as hard by compassionate, convicted Christians fulfilling the mission of Jesus Christ on November 4th through the following November 2nd. Our mission should be about so much more than politics. We place so much of our hope for this country in political offices occupied by flawed humans and too little Faith in the ability of Jesus Christ to bring true change to this world. When we spend what precious little time we have in this world espousing a politician or a political party while tearing down and insulting a party or politician that we dislike, we've lost our mission, Church.

We have a challenge set before us today that requires our due diligence to honor. That challenge is to be care takers, guardians of, soldiers for and deliverers of the truth.

In the book of Exodus, we find the line "you shall not bare false witness against your neighbor." We are commanded (this is one of the Big 10, by the way) to not bare false witness against our neighbor. Not baring false witness means that we are to be people of truth. This is not a hard concept to understand.

But who is our neighbor? The Greek word that gets translated to neighbor is πλησίον which can also be understood to mean anyone one who is near. Anyone around us or within our perception could be considered near. In our modern world, that could mean anyone who is near virtually as well.

So it would seem that literally anyone can be considered our neighbor and therefore we should not bare false witness against anyone. Let me repeat that last part of the statement: ANYONE.

Too often, we find things on the internet that aligns well with our personal feelings and without a thought as to the truth of the content, we fling it at the internet in our continual effort to make the world see things the way we do. The challenge for Christians today is if what we are sharing is baring is a false witness.

I'm going to be honest in diagnosing an issue without levying judgement. Too often, when someone points to an issue, they are accused of being judegmental. A quick Bible lesson, diagnosis is not the same thing as judgement. When Jesus warned against judgement, he was warning against condemnation. Diagnosing an issue is not judgement. If a Doctor says "you have cancer" he is diagnosing a condition, not accusing the patient of their lifestyle that may have contributing to their cancer. So let me get to my diagnosis.

Many of us who claim the cross of Jesus are failing miserably at being purveyors of truth. We share content on Facebook without taking a moment to verify the source of the information. We see something that we feel verifies our political stance without ever asking "is this really true?" In that process of sharing a false witness, we may reinforce a narrative that serves a political purpose while at the same time nullifying our witness to the Gospel Truth. In light of eternity, I would say that the mission of Christ should never run secondary to any other perspective, opinion or political meandering.

May we be people of peace and truth this day.

To the greater Church,

How we respond to each and every issue that we encounter in life matters. With each word we speak and message we post on social media, we hold our witness to the Gospel of Jesus in the balance. When we place a higher priority on communicating our political perspectives than the message of Christ, we fall short of the mission we have been called to communicate to those around us. Our witness to the cause of Christ can all too often be sacrificed on the alter of opinion.

Today and tomorrow present us with opportunity. Today is a great opportunity for us all to recommit ourselves to the cause of Christ and shake off our constant, determined and often reckless need to shout our polarizing opinions and perspectives to the masses. We have faltered from our mission but while we have breath in our lungs, we have not failed.

God be with us all this new day.

Amen!

We’re all in this together, right?

The question I keep thinking about is how can we be in this together in a more positive way? Just walked the parking lot at Kroger snapping these pictures. This is an issue for multiple reasons. Let me explain the how and why.

These gloves were used to protect the person who used them. If they were contaminated, the CDC estimates that this latest coronavirus that causes COVID-19 can live on materials anywhere from a few hours to a few days.

The first issue is this is that it is littering and this is OUR Kroger. Let’s have some pride. Let’s treat this place like it’s ours...because it is. It is one of the hubs of OUR community in which we live.

Second, if those gloves make their way to the storm drains, they can block them up and cause drainage issues. Never mind what they can do to the environment and the ecology since those storm drains lead to creeks that lead to streams that lead to rivers that lead to the oceans.

Our grocery store workers are exposed to a lot of people. They are already on the front lines of this pandemic. If too many of them get exposed and start getting other workers in the store infected, it will be difficult to keep the store running. Imagine if enough people that work there get sick and they have to shut it down. Someone from the store has to go pick these up. Imagine if every glove carries the virus and a person has to pick them all up. That is a multiplicity of exposure potential.

My hope with this post is not to shame anyone but to help us all see the holistic nature of our actions. When we use the expression “We’re all in this together” we have to consider what our impact can potentially be on others. Please utilize the trash cans by the doors at Kroger. Or, bring a bag with you to place your gloves in when you are finished. Dropping them on the ground impacts others right here in the community where you also live. Not only could we endanger someone else but holistically speaking, the person we endanger with our actions could also endanger others, someone close to us and then land right back in our lives.

I recently posted this picture in an album of photos I took during the 2020 MLK March in Dayton, Ohio. Tony Ruby Sr. asked me if I could join him and capture some images of the walk.

As we came to this bridge, I had the idea for them to cover the “road” on this sign so it just says “work ahead.” Do you see the two men standing there on either side of these words? Do you see their faces? Did you see their lineage? Do you see their smiles? Do you see what this image represents?

We have figured out all sorts of ways to divide ourselves in this country. Black/white, R/D, rich/poor, Liberal/Conservative, and the list keeps going. It’s almost as if our new national hobby is to find ways that we are different instead of focusing on the ways we are the same. We seem to be driven by division rather than working together for the good of all.

The work ahead of us is essential. Through the lens of the MLK March we can view our work ahead in terms of racial reconciliation. That work is essential. Some of us reading this post immediately say “YES, let’s go!” while others of us can’t figure out how we can even contribute in a positive way.

Not to shift the focus from the dream of Dr. King but some of the other work ahead is in the way we divide ourselves politically. The wisdom of the Biblical text tells us to love our enemies...not make enemies to love. That’s some work ahead, right?

I’m requesting a high-jacking of this post. Share your thoughts of what you think Work Ahead means to you. Let’s not argue or defend. Let’s value each other enough to simply hear perspectives. Without defense, attack, belittlement, abnegation, polarization, demonization or just being mean, share your thoughts below.

What’s your work ahead?

On a weekday morning, what are your first thoughts when you are just waking up? Some of us have thoughts about the tasks we have in front of us in the next 10 minutes while some may begin to process the next 10 hours. The dreadfulness of the day might be the first stop that arrives at the train station of the mind in those early minutes. The tedium and the repetitive nature of life might create feelings of hopelessness or worse.

My first thought this morning was “What will I get to see today?” That was followed by “What will I get to experience today?” Then I started thinking about the possibility that I could learn something new today and I started to get excited. Might the day bring something sad? Yes, that’s possible. Could happiness and joy be experienced today? That could happen too. But that first question, I feel, could set the entirely new trajectory.

Yes, my days often bare resemblances to other days. I drive to work, I scan in with my badge, I turn on the lights, I walk down the hall and go toward my desk and turn on my computer. These are the things that often feel like part of the movie Groundhog Day. If I focus too highly on the repetitive, those things might appear to be the length and breadth of my existence. But I would counter that those are not the things of life that should hold our attention.

The experiment is to see what happens when we ask “What will I get to see today?” What new thing might I experience that makes this day unlike any before. Isaiah 43:19 says “See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up, do you not perceive it?” That speaks to our perception of the new thing that God is doing. There is a responsibility to be perceptive to what God is doing.

I've driven an Electric Vehicle or EV for a little over 3 years. It's a 2013 Smart Car Electric Drive. I bought it when we needed a third car and I wanted to buy something inexpensive, so I bought it used. I had wanted to experiment with an EV for years but converting one of our vehicles wasn't something I was willing to get in to and the industry just wasn't there yet.

I'm constantly amazed at the amount of misinformation that has made it in to our general knowledge about EVs. There has been an intentional movement working against the move to EVs in the US and to some extent in Australia. So there is a lot of bad information out there about them.

Ford recently did a survey about electric vehicles. Beyond the misinformation that is out there, there is a general lack of understanding about EVs here in the US. Here's what they found with my responses below each point.

42% of Americans said they believe electric cars still run on gasoline.

I plug my Electric Vehicle (EV) in to a charger in my garage. It's connected to a 220 volt circuit. It uses only electricity, no gas. I'm estimating that I use between $25 and $35 a month in electricity to operate my EV. It equates to about 2 or 3 cents per mile. Compare that to our Honda Insight that gets over 43mpg and runs a little over 5 cents per mile. There are vehicles called Pluggable Hybrids or PHEVs that are sort of like an EV with a built in generator. The Chevy Volt and the BMW i3 are examples of this. They drive on electricity only for daily driving then have a gas engine that kicks on when the battery runs low. They plug in to charge but have gas as a backup for longer drives.

67% said electric vehicles have no towing capacity.

I recently pulled a 900 pound trailer hauling about 1300 pounds of landscape blocks from Lowes to our house. Yes, it used a lot more power and no I would not do it all the time. But it works in a pinch. I might add that it actually had a lot of power while pulling the trailer. If a Smart Car can do that, imagine what a modern EV can do.

65% said they would not consider an all wheel drive electric vehicle.

Until you've ridden in a Tesla Model 3, Model S or Model X with all wheel drive, you've missed out on one of life's great joys. They'll pin you to the back of the seat.

80% said electric vehicles don’t work in hot or cold conditions.

While EVs do loose range, they operate in all kinds of weather just fine. My EV has been my daily driver for over 3 years with no issues due to weather. Yes, there is a pinch of range anxiety at first but that goes away in the first few weeks when you learn about what the car can do.

Seems many people today are used to their anger and hate. The presence of these emotions have come to be a part of every day life. Through the fog of anger and hate, many will say and do things otherwise ruled against by standard goodness and reason.

James 1:19-20 says this: “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”

Can we talk about the term "stay in your lane" for a moment? This term has come to be applied mostly to when someone disagrees with the viewpoint or perspective of someone. It's used (mostly in political discussions but not limited exclusively) to discount someone and invalidate them. Let's consider what it means to stay in our lane and ask if we're really willing to live with the true ramifications of the concept.

First, let's get to what Stay in your lane really means. It's applied when someone attempts to express knowledgable input or communicate opinion on topics about which they have to real working knowledge. It's akin to a plumber telling an electrician how to do his job. It would be like me giving weight loss advice.

But what we've turned "stay in your lane" in to is a way to blow someone off when we disagree with their opinions or viewpoints. We've also come to apply the expression to people who are working to venture in to leadership roles when they have no background to equip them to do so. That may be appropriate at times. But when we use the term to hinder someone from growing and developing as a leader in our society, we are indirectly saying that people are not permitted to better themselves. We are saying that transitions in life are wrong. Are we willing to stay in our OWN lane when we see an opportunity to move in a new direction in our own lives? As well, who are we to ever have knowledge enough about other people we don't even know to be able to fairly and justly establish their need to stay in their lane.

These words were spoken by Nathanael in John 1:46. Phillip was telling Nathanael about Jesus and Nathanael doubted what he was saying. He looked down his nose at Nazareth, the place Jesus was from, and casted a blanket opinion about everyone and everything associated with that place with one single statement.

I don’t know about you but on balance I would like to strive to be more like Phillip than Nathanael when it comes to seeing the value of people as individuals and not where they are from. Over the course of my adult life I have met thousands of people from all over the Miami Valley. Many were great people, some were EGR (extra grace required) and a few were people that seem to thrive on being miserable to other human beings. What I have found to be the truth is that where people live dictates quite little where they land on the kindness/egr/miserable spectrum.

It may sound a little crazy

But you were sent by the King

The path may seem a little hazy

But you were sent by the King

You might not know the “how”

But you were sent by the King

You might be saying “not now”

But you were sent by the King

May you have peace in knowing

That you were sent by the king

May your goal be seed sowing

Because you were sent by the King

While it may sound preposterous

That you were sent by the King

Your efforts will be prosperous

Because you were sent by the King

Please have you little doubt

That you were sent by The King

Enough that you might shout

I am sent by the King


We are Sent by the King

Hear this now within your soul

We are sent by the King

A challenge to my busy friends as seen in a lesson from my Dad.

Dad worked two jobs for over 3 decades. He taught school by day and was a farrier in the evenings. Needless to say, he stayed busy. But Dad did something that I would not fully appreciate until I had my own children. He prioritized his family. His family was the reason he worked so hard so it wouldn't have made much sense to sacrifice time with the same family he was sacrificing for. Are you with me so far?

Too often, we get busy at our jobs and forget the reason we are working so hard. The target becomes less about provision and more about success. Many of us find ourselves in jobs where companies subscribe to the "do more with less" mentality. If we allow inappropriate expectations to get the best of us, we'll find ourselves overwhelmed with work and underwhelmed with family.

I can remember standing on the soccer field at Kercher Park in Germantown. I could look out in the parking lot and see my Dad's farrier truck. He had several over the years and each one was a unique vehicle. No matter what he had in his horse schedule, he would make time to be at our games. Afterward, he would often head out to another stable or farm to take care of horses but he was there to support us.

I have been having this multi-day conversation with a good friend and we have been trying to schedule something. I kept having obstructions due to an activity that my youngest son is currently involved with. Thankfully, he is an understanding person who understands, appreciates and encourages me in my family-first approach.

Doubt is not a weakness. We should embrace our doubt with confidence. Doubt leads to questions. Questions lead to inquiry. Inquiry leads to discovery. Discovery leads to truth.

One of the greatest vices facing our culture today is that we don’t embrace our doubt. We allow polarized talking heads to tell us how to think.

We need more people to embrace their doubt. Those who perceive they have all the answers are seldom equipped to handle the truth when it contradicts their preconceived notions.

Not enough time.

Never enough time!

We all sense in our soul that the minutes in a day are too few.
 Seven days in a week just aren't enough for the week we really need. The weeks allotted to a year just fall a little short. We need more minutes, more hours, more days and weeks. Of course, the years…they are all too few.
 We want…we desire…we hope for more years. But why is it that we struggle with notenoughness?

We always, always, always want more years. 

I have this idea that we sense something beyond what our existence allows us to fully comprehend. Much like those dreams where we somehow understand all of the answers of the universe exist but fall just out of reach when we awaken, we have this same just-out-of-reach idea that there is more life to be lived than we have years to do it in.

What we may sense, what we feel we know, what we almost believe is that there is a place where time doesn’t matter…where minutes pass without notice…where days and weeks are measures unused. It is a place where that constant feeling that we just don’t get enough years in life is a distant concept from another long forgotten existence.



In this place and in this life, we often feel cheated by time. 80 years is not enough in a life, we want 85. 85 is still not enough, we want 90. Give me 95 and I’ll be somewhat at peace. Give me an even 100 years in this life and we’ll somehow accept it. But what we too often forget is that it’s not the number of years that matters, it’s the content leading up to it and the eternity that lies beyond that is everything.