Ordinary Visionary

Earth Day

So I was a little sad to get my results on this one. I guess the SUV hurts the score… Take the Earth Day Footprint Quiz in honor of Earth Day and see how you rate.

Asking The Right Questions

“      Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, 'Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind? Jesus said, 'You're asking the wrong question. You're looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do.'
— John 9:1-3 (The Message)”

Response

My first year in the Gifted program was 1992. I was in second grade — Mrs. Bray's class — and it was my first year at my new school. There was a boy in my class who I thought was the dumbest person I had ever met (I was not always a nice person) because he asked questions constantly. We learned multiplication tables and long division that year, and there were moments when I was so frustrated with him for not thinking it through on his own that I just wanted to scream.

Through the years, this boy hardly changed. There were limited options for Gifted students in our zip code, so we were in the same classes for elementary, middle, and high school (except for the two years I went to MSOA). He was always questioning our teachers about things he would read or things they would teach, never taking anything for granted just because it had a PhD's name stamped on it. After a while I had to admit to myself that he was asking good questions — questions I only wish I had the wisdom and knowledge to ask myself.

His name was Darren Goldman, and he was the valedictorian of my high school class of over 800 students. He is probably the smartest person I have ever met.

Darren is a little bit like Jesus' disciples. He's Jewish (ha), and he asks questions about everything.

The disciples were raised to believe that if someone had an ailment they had done something to deserve it, so it was only natural for them to wonder if it was the parents or the child who were responsible for the blind man's birth defect. In asking this question they miss the point of Jesus. God sent Jesus to heal and save sinners (that means everyone), not to condemn them.

There are going to be things we can't figure out on our own. But it takes a wealth of wisdom and experience to know when to ask questions and what questions to ask. I am probably more in line with the disciples on this — I ask a lot of the wrong questions. When I ask "why did this happen" (and I have done that a lot lately) I need to be praying instead about what God can do to help me through it. Not everyone has the wisdom to ask the right questions, but like Darren, if you ask enough of them you will eventually reach a point when you are asking all the right questions at all the right times.

"House" of worship

I used to live in Orange County (now I live a few minutes from it) and hadn't heard about this story until now. Apparently a local resident and rabbi was fined $56,000 for holding prayer services in his home because of a county ordinance prohibiting "operating a synagogue or any function related to a synagogue and/or church services...." in a person's home. Interesting, because Status has been holding Small Groups and is starting house churches in people's homes. At least now the US Court of Appeals ruled that the county ordinance is vague and unconstitutional, so we won't have to go through the same nightmare this rabbi apparently went through. I can't believe that in America today there are still public legal struggles against peaceful, private religious gatherings.

Link: ADF: "House" of worship: Religious freedom in one's own home reaffirmed - Alliance Defense Fund - Defending Our First Liberty.

Quotable: Dr. Dupras

“      While we're waiting for the pizza to arrive, why don't we talk about dismemberment and torture?
— Dr. Dupras (Forensic Anatomy)”

My slogan!

I sloganized my name at The Surrealist and here it is…

Ha! I love it.

Not My Job

“      How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I damn whom GOD has not damned? … Balak said to Balaam, "What's this? I brought you here to curse my enemies, and all you've done is bless them." Balaam answered, "Don't I have to be careful to say what GOD gives me to say?"
— Numbers 23:8,11-12 (The Message)”

Response

I decided upon the above passage before I really had anything to say about it. I have to be careful on this one because it's something I struggle with every day. What can I say, or what do I have the right to say, about something I am so bad about myself?

So I pasted the quote above, saved it as a draft, and prayed that I might be inspired to write something about it at some point between work and class. On the way into the Math and Physics building at UCF, there is a "free speech area" in the grass to the left of the walkway. There in the middle of a crowd was a young man in a shirt that read "TRUST JESUS" in huge bold font on the front and back. I remembered his voice from the day I walked by in a tank top and jeans on a 90° summer day and he yelled at me to put some clothes on. Today instead of walking on, I stopped, sat down on the edge of a planter, and watched from a distance while he fought back and forth with another outspoken young man.

I sat in silent wonderment as I watched the angry evangelist pace back and forth carrying a sign the size of a small sail that read "God hates the sinner!". His arch-rival carried another sign that read "No more war!" In the time that I sat there, a boy spat in the angry evangelist's face, a woman in the crowd proclaimed that he was the "worst Christian" she had ever seen, and in an awkward unexpected moment "No more war" guy gave him a hug and walked away (followed of course by voices from the crowd calling him a homosexual).

The angry evangelist epitomizes the "hateful Christians" that nudged me away from the religion several years ago. After I moved away from my church and was without a church home, all I saw of Christians were those who showed up at the abortion clinic I took my roommate to, those evangelizing on television, those who fly banners with pictures of aborted fetuses above elementary schools, and those who stand in the free speech area preaching hate.

Why should I love God if he hates me?

I never understood angry evangelism. When have you ever heard of a person who found God through words of hatred yelled at the top of a man's voice? Evangelizing is tricky. The Bible tells us that as Christians it is our job to bring others closer to God — to introduce them to the most important entity in our lives. This duty can mean something different to each of us. Some might feel called to ministry or church leadership, while others might feel called to read to the blind, serve in a soup kitchen, go to K-Stan, host Small Groups at their homes, or just take a friend to church.

Whatever it is, God is not calling us to pass judgement on others. Numbers 23 tells us that is not our job. Who told "TRUST JESUS" guy that it was his job to judge me? Who told him to speak for God? Even the Old Testament warns us that it isn't our job to curse others for their sins when we ourselves are sinners. If we are not perfect and clean, we have no business shouting at others for their lack of cleanliness.

My mom has a Master's in psychology (God bless her… and her children) and she always taught me that when you want to change a bad behavior you should offer a positive replacement for that behavior. Chester chews up underwear, you give him something he can chew on. A child wants to press the buttons on the remote in the middle of the most intense scene in an episode of Lost, you give him a non-working remote or a set of Legos or a tranquilizer to replace the bad behavior.

I have a habit of looking at other people's sin and avoiding them or talking negatively about them or having some other not-so-nice reaction because of it. It seems only natural to respond to sin negatively! But that is not my job! That is my bad behavior. And I know that I'm not the only one who struggles with this.

So what do I replace that with? If Numbers 23:11-12 is any indication, instead of ugliness toward the sinner, we should display extra love for that person. Look at the sin as an illness or an affliction, and you will begin to see that you can love the sinner, not the sin. Angry evangelism isn't going away any time soon, which makes our responsibility to show others God's love that much more important.

Google thinks I look like...

So just for fun I Googled, "Jamie looks like" today and here are the top ten responses to my query…

1. Jamie looks like the love child of Charlie Sheen and Kevin Federline.
2. Jamie looks like she's wearing some undercover fatigue.
3. Jamie looks like William Hung from American idol.
4. Jamie looks like Cardboard City's cage.
5. Jamie looks like he gained some weight — an occupational hazard, I guess.
6. Jamie looks like the illegitmate child of Jackie and Donna from That 70's Show, but in a good way.
7. Jamie: Looks like it's made for killing children. (??!)
8. "I wonder what Jamie looks like in a two-piece."
9. Jamie looks like he does this all the time. That's me. Beautiful Bountiful. Ben Lomond Peak. Antelope Island.
10. Jamie looks like she's being dry-humped by a koala with a thyroid problem.

Wow, so Google loves the Jamies. About as much as I loved getting my wisdom teeth removed. :-)

Quotable: dooce

"I can laugh about it now but at the time I was a wreck because I had a mental tally going of how many surfaces she could destroy with that dye. Jon kept telling me to relax because this mess was the essence of the activity, because we were creating memories with our child. And I totally see his point, which is why next year I think we should dye eggs while we’re drunk and naked."

Link: dooce: The extent of the religion in this house.

The Weakest Link

“      But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.
— 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 (NIV)”

Response

A few weeks ago I visited a church in Birmingham and during their contemporary worship service, there was a sermon about who God would call a "winner." The focus was on the youth sports, but the message was for everyone — we are all winners (every last broken one of us) in God's eyes. I even got a purple silicone bracelet to prove it.

But seriously, let that sink in a minute. All of us. Not just the preachers and the missionaries, but all of us.

Think about it… All throughout the Bible, we see God choosing the people who we might consider "least fit" for a job. Moses was a murderer and apparently had some kind of speech impediment but he was chosen to deliver the most important moral message in history; Mary was a young unmarried girl but she was chosen to carry the Son of God; when Jesus was resurrected he sent Mary to alert the disciples and emphasized that she should tell Peter, the person any of us would have wanted nothing to do with after such a betrayal, that He wished to see him. Peter!

I get the feeling from many of the people I talk to about faith that in a simpler time (when they were kids) they believed in God, but it's just too hard to be a believer at this point in their life. Some of them admit that they have an intention to start going to church again after they "settle down" (after college). And just a couple of the bravest admit that 10 rules are way too many to adhere to at this point in their life. Belief in God seems to come with so much baggage — responsibility, reading, witnessing, waking up early on Sunday, self-control — things most young adults want nothing to do with. Belief is neither convenient nor easy, so turning away from God is the most natural thing to do.

But here's the thing. God knows the rules — he wrote them for goodness sake! But all through the Bible and in our own experience we can see God calling upon the most unlikely, immoral, inept rule-breakers we could ever hope not to meet. We are trained to see those people as "the weakest links" but God doesn't watch BBC enough to have such a reference point. God defies the pop culture definitions of who the winners and losers are.

"God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him." If you feel weak, if you feel lowly, if you're not "in," God is probably calling on you.

Jesus said that the prostitutes and tax collectors would enter the kingdom of heaven before the religious authorities who denied him.¹ They don't quote that one in religious tracts or put it on billboards! I don't think we're reminded enough of that story. In fact I think I'll put it on a billboard now.

Sinlessness is impossible. But without God you will never be freed from the sins you commit. Now is the time in a young person's life to put the most — not the least — faith in God. You don't have to be perfect; he made you and he likes you just the way you are.

Quotable: TechnoGecko

“      Blessed are the geeks, for they shall internet the earth.
— TechnoGecko.com”

Chester Pictures

This is Love

“      This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
— 1 John 4:10-12 (NIV)”

Response

The Easter service at Discovery Church yesterday was so amazing. When it started I was skeptical because it seemed like they had gone overboard with the theatrics (I mean, a waterfall on stage and six sets of drums, seriously?) But I quickly let go of all that as I was moved to tears more than once over the course of the next hour and a half.

Pastor Loveless spoke to a very tender part of my existence. "It was a dark night," he said more than once (referring to Peter's betrayal of Christ before his crucifixion). "But it's a new day!" I think most of us have a dark night — a doubt, a fear, a memory, an enemy — that prevents us from experiencing the good God has planned for our lives. I know I do. Am I alone in this?

We were each given a blank card in our bulletin on which we were asked to write, in a few words, the 'dark night' of our life. Committing such a thing to a white card felt very Post Secret. I wasn't sure how to put mine into words. I wanted to write down all of the events that have led to this dark night, but we were asked to write it in two or three words so I had to sit and meditate on that a moment before I picked up a pen. How could two or three words describe my dark night?

Church is so much about giving praise and worship to God that sometimes I forget to hand my biggest burdens over to Him. 1 John 4:10 reminds us that the very act of letting God take care of our burdens, wash away our sins, is love. The act of trusting God with my dark night — that is love. Our love for God is not everything, for it is the love we receive from Him through the sacrifice of His son that shows us what love is and ultimately how to love in the first place.

After a few moments the man sitting next to me put down his pen, removed his glasses, bowed his head, and let the tears fall from his eyes into his hands.

A procession of church members entered the stage, each with the dark night of their life written in large bold print on a card. "Cocaine addict." "I relied on witchcraft." "Doubt plagued me." Each of the dozens turned over their card to reveal how God had worked to heal them of their darkest nights. "Clean." "I rely on GOD." "I put my doubts in God's hands."

As a tear stained my cheek I felt a longing for my new day. I had my three words to describe my one pain, and I was ready to hand that over to God. I looked down at my card, picked up my pen and wrote, "Discarded. Disposable. Lost."

J'ai mal au cul!

I just had to share this one with you on Easter…

In case you were wondering, "J'ai mal au cul!" means "My butt hurts!" and "Quoi?" means "What?" Poor chocolate bunnies with their missing butts and ears!!

Happy Easter!

Regardless of where you happen to be in your faith, Happy Easter to you!! Eat Cadbury eggs out of the freezer, spend time with the ones you love, eat as much as you can, and do whatever else you want to celebrate this holy day. Praise God!

Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

“      The LORD is my strength and my song;
   he has become my salvation.

Shouts of joy and victory
   resound in the tents of the righteous:
   "The LORD's right hand has done mighty things!

The LORD's right hand is lifted high;
   the LORD's right hand has done mighty things!"

I will not die but live,
   and will proclaim what the LORD has done.

The LORD has chastened me severely,
   but he has not given me over to death.

Open for me the gates of righteousness;
   I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.

This is the gate of the LORD
   through which the righteous may enter.

I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
   you have become my salvation.

The stone the builders rejected
   has become the capstone;

the LORD has done this,
   and it is marvelous in our eyes.

This is the day the LORD has made;
   let us rejoice and be glad in it.
— Psalm 118:14-24 (NIV)”

Response

What a glorious day it is! In my Christian denomination it isn't common to say "Thanks be to God" during the worship service, but today… Thanks be to God!! It will be a busy Easter for me and I'm sure many of you will hear enough sermons today, so I will keep this short.

This is the first year of my life I will not be with family or friends on Easter. It's an odd thing, really. As much as I have written about it here the past couple of days it doesn't "feel" like Easter. I won't be getting an Easter basket with odds and ends in it from my mother. I won't wake up at 5:00am to be at Lake Worth beach for Easter sunrise service. I won't sample whatever my dad grills up. I won't be sitting down to dinner with my parents, brother, and grandfather.

But I will be able to spend the day in worship and quiet reflection for the immense gift we all have in Jesus. And because I am alone today it might just be a more personal conversation with God than I have ever had on an Easter Sunday. I love my family, and I will miss their company on this Holiest of Sundays. But I have so much to be thankful for, and I will rejoice and be glad in it!