Month: April 2008

A very interesting question was posed today in the job section of the Dallas Morning News. The query was posed to career advisor Joyce Lain Kennedy.

I’m on the market – again – and I’ve never seen such competition as I’m finding in this job market. I was at my last job seven months and left before I was fired. I read a book that says you can lie about certain things on your résumé and omit a negative experience, much as advertisers don’t mention what’s wrong with a new product. Do you agree?

Haven’t all of us been tempted to “fudge” our qualifications a bit to appear more qualified? One company that does background checks has found that well over half of all resumes contain false information. Background Information Services has found that most people stretch the truth about their work and educational credentials.

This one hit close to home for me. A few years ago I was asked to write a bio that would be sent out with a press kit for my new book, When Bad Christians Happen to Good People. My educational background was, to be very kind, inconsistent. I was attention deficit before it was cool. Instead of having accommodations and testing and medication I was called into the guidance counselor’s office and chastised for underachieving and laziness. Those are indeed great motivators. I loved the line from Donald Miller’s book To Own a Dragon. Miller was describing the difficulties of paying attention in school.

“I felt I was on a merry-go-round, hearing every fifth sentence. The rest of the time I wondered what a civilization of puppets would use for currency.”

That, ladies and gentlemen, is my brain. I just spent about ten minutes wondering what the puppets would use for currency. Maybe string.

At any rate, I survived high school with good enough grades to pass. With a clean slate I enrolled in Marietta College with a determination to show I could do well academically. I stayed interested for one semester and did well, even making the correct Dean’s List for a change. After proving I could accomplish that goal my interest promptly turned to ping pong, pinball and Strat-o-matic baseball for the second semester. Not surprisingly, I dropped out after my freshman year to become a disc jockey. That was a well thought out strategy.

As I examined my educational credentials for my book bio here is what I had to put on the table.

College drop out.
Marginal ping pong player.
1972 high game on the Play Ball pinball machine – Student Center, Marietta College

Not exactly Algonquin Round Table material. I would have loved to embellish the old academic credentials. But it was like my grandpa used to say when he noted that you can’t polish a, uhhhh, well never mind what grandpa used to say. Even though I have had some success here and there my lack of “credentials” was a source of shame for me even as my career advanced. It didn’t help that I married into a family of advanced degrees. Anyone or anything that made me feel stupid would trigger that shame and caused me to try way too hard to “prove” I was smart and capable. So I reached a crossroads in my journey of self-esteem when I sat down to write my bio.

You will notice that there is nothing mentioned in my book bio about my stellar educational background. My philosophy? “There’s nothing to see here. Move along.”

Like Donald Miller I found my refuge in reading and research. I learned that you never stop learning. And something incredible happened in my life. I realized the miracle of how God can use anyone, even a slacker like me. Getting puffed up with pride is not an option for me when it comes to my academic credentials but I can be quite content in who God says I am.

But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12, NLT)

That is who God says I am. His child. Wow.

So here is my educational and job resume with no embellishment.

Education:            One year of college
Degrees:              None
Honors:                None
Clubs/societies:     Member of Sam’s Club
Job experience:    Former disc jockey. Television director for twenty five years of Texas Rangers baseball telecasts (enough bad pitching for three lifetimes). Writer of two books that have sold enough to keep me in television.

Personal: Child of God and Follower of Jesus
                   Devoted husband of Joni (32 years this summer)
                   Proud father of three wonderful men and two beautiful daughter-in-laws                  
                   Blessed with wonderful friends and work associates
                 
Sometimes I wish the top half of my resume could be tweaked a little. But the personal portion of my file is what matters. And there I am blessed beyond words…and that is no embellishment.

Last week I was out strolling with dog friend Hannah and thinking about the lesson I would be teaching on Sunday. Recently I have been devouring the TrueFaced Grace series based on the book of Romans. This series of messages continues to challenge, clarify and mature me in my journey with Jesus. Teachers John Lynch and Bill Thrall are teaching truth that is a couple of thousand years old but they have a gift of connecting the dots in a way that rocks me to my core.

So I decided to relate what God was teaching me from Romans and steal…uhhh…resource some of the material from the TrueFaced CD. I am always upfront about giving proper credit to the Leadership Catalyst boys. I figure if I make anyone mad I can simply blame them.

So I am walking along, thinking about Paul’s argument concerning the law. At that moment this song comes up randomly on my iPod.

Breakin’ rocks in the … hot sun
I Fought the Law and the … law won
I Fought the Law and the … law won
I needed money, ’cause I … had none
I Fought the Law and the … law won
I Fought the Law and the … law won

And I smiled and realized that was so true. Many years ago I examined God’s Word and I realized that I could not keep the law and live a sinless life that would allow me to be declared innocent in front of a Holy God. For a while I fought the law and the law won in a contest that was as lopsided as the Globetrotters playing the Washington Generals. I realized I could never reconcile with a Holy God on my own merit. James pretty much let all of the air out of my self-effort balloon with this little gem.

For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws. (James 2, NLT)

I had broken large chunks of the law and obviously there would be no grading on the curve. If I had to depend on keeping the law I was doomed. Then, and I promise I am not making this up, this song by Johnny Cash came up next. 

There was a time on Earth when in the books of Heaven
That an Old Account was standin’ for sins yet unforgiven
My name was at the top there was many things below
But I went unto the keeper and I settled it long ago

Long ago,yes long ago I said the Old Account was settled long ago
And my record’s clear today ’cause he washed my sins away
And the Old Account was settled long ago

And that, in simple iPod theology, is justification. I cannot keep the law. God justified me and declared me righteous because of Jesus and His substitutionary death. Just as Paul argued to the Romans centuries ago that Abraham was declared righteous by believing and not for behaving. So it is with me.

From  the moment I trusted Jesus God credited to my account His righteousness. When I screw up He refuses to put that against my account. Do I believe that? That is the amazing grace of the gospel. I am as righteous as Abraham. I don’t have to work or beg or strive for it. That is crazy. But that is what God’s word is saying.

So what happens if I believe this? Won’t I take advantage? I know me. I am lazy and undependable and easily distracted. Won’t I just become a sluggard for Jesus? I will tell you what happens if you really get this.

You will worship. It actually becomes not about me but about Him. And you will behave better. This is borrowed from the TrueFaced CD because I could not write it any better. I did change the name in the quote to my bride’s name. I mention that because I did not want you to think Joni left me for a better speaker.

I have learned with Joni that I don’t do right stuff to earn her love. That is what I used to do. I do right stuff because I have found her love.
That changes how I love her and that changes how she responds. That is what this truth does. I don’t do right stuff to earn the love of Jesus. I do right stuff because I have found His love.

That is grace. Grace gives and we simply need to believe to receive it.

There is a game show on NBC called Deal or No Deal. I have only watched the show in passing but the concept did generate a little spiritual musing. Let’s suppose that some thirty-eight years ago Jesus had come to me in person and offered the following deal.

Jesus: “So here is My deal for you. I will forgive you of your sins and relieve you of the guilt and fear that burdens you. I will give you the assurance of eternity spent with me. I will be there throughout your life to teach, console, strengthen and bless you. Just ask me and accept my gift of grace and I will provide all of that.”
Me: “Wow.” (I wasn’t much of a wordsmith at sixteen)
Jesus: “By the way, I know that your relationship with me will lead you to a beautiful and Godly woman who will be the love of your life and who will help you become the person you want to become. You will have three wonderful sons who will all grow up to be Godly men. You will have troubles and some tragedy but I will help you through every step of the way and I will use those trials for good in your life and the lives of others. So Dave, will you accept the deal?”
Me: “Is this a joke? Sure I will.”
 
It just seems too good to be true. But it has been true in my life. If you read When Bad Christians Happen to Good People and these humble ramblings you know that Joni and I have not lived a life free of heartache. But despite some difficult times it is a deal I would agree to accept even more quickly now.

But let’s add a layer of complexity to my imagined time with Christ. When He asks if I will accept His deal I have a question.

Me: “That sounds a little too good to be true. I have done nothing and you are offering all of this for me. Don’t I have to do anything?”
 Jesus smiles and says, “Well, there a couple of things.”
“Ah hah!” I reply smugly. “I knew it was too good. What’s the catch?”
I picture Jesus looking at me with that gentle hint of a smile and saying, “You need to trust my character and receive my love.”
I wait.
Silence.
“That’s it?” I ask incredulously.
He nods.
“You will give me all of those things and that is all you want in return?”

He nods again and speaks. “It won’t be easy. You will be hurt. There will be some people that will be tough to love. As we walk together I will ask you to drop your masks and be honest about yourself. I will ask you to forgive, be patient and love one another.”
I consider His words. “For all that you have done for me that would seem to be the least I can do.”
I picture Him looking at me with a pensive and almost sad expression. “You would think my son. You would think.”

Regular readers of the humble ramblings know that the morning walk is my time to muse. Today an iPod tune and C.S.Lewis quote occupied much of the usually dormant gray matter. The song was from legend Bob Dylan and you likely know the words…

How many years can a mountain exist
Before it’s washed to the sea?
Yes, ‘n’ how many years can some people exist
Before they’re allowed to be free?
Yes, ‘n’ how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.

A great song with a sad message. For many people their answers are blowing in the wind. Their lives bounce from one failed philosophy to another. Check the best selling non-fiction list for the last several years and you will see how common the “flavor of the month” answer to life has become. People are desperately searching for something to fill the emptiness that success and acquiring stuff cannot. Christians believe they have found the answer to that search. That answer is not blowing in the wind but is found instead in the living Word of God. That doesn’t mean I can answer some of the questions that Dylan poses but I can answer the questions that haunt me. Why I am here? What is my significance? What is my destiny? That led me to think about why so many followers of Christ are frustrated and unhappy despite the incredible message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is where Mr.Lewis came into the cranium. A quote came to mind about how easily we settle for the familiar in our walk with Jesus instead of daring to believe the supernatural. You may have heard this thought from Lewis.

It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

Indeed we are. I have spent far too many years being too easily pleased on my journey. I want to trust God and believe He has a spiritual holiday at the sea waiting for me. That means trusting the character of God when I feel like my circumstances are overwhelming. Abram (Abraham) looked at his circumstances when God promised him a son and told him that his descendants would be countless. Abram was older than Larry King. His wife was several decades past menopause. Abram did exactly what I do when I face a really tough situation by jumping in with some ideas for how God could make this work.  Abram suggested the son could be born in his house instead of from his seed. But God said that was not the plan. The heir would come from him. So Abram (Abraham) looked at the circumstances and then he looked at the character, faithfulness and power of his God. And he believed. For that simple choice God did the most amazing thing. For simply believing “He (God) reckoned it to him (Abram) as righteousness.” Abraham was declared righteous not for his actions but for his faith and trust. That is the starting point for me in dreaming and believing that God has great things ahead. Most of us who are self-sufficient would much rather be getting dirty making the mud pies than having to be patient and trust God. But Abraham was declared righteous not by his actions but by his faith. He didn’t know how God was going to do it. He simply believed that He would. And God was pleased not by his gifts, talent, sacrifices or even obedience. God was pleased by his belief.

Seems too easy to be true. Surely I must have to do more that that to merit God’s favor. The amazing answer is no. When you believe and trust in God’s character and faithfulness good things will happen. It has been true since the beginning. And it is true today.  

April 15^th is not my favorite day of the year. Tax day is never fun for a guy who is organizationally challenged. My idea of being prepared is having everything in one gigantic box. But I was heartened to find that April 15^th is a great day for baseball fans. 

Jackie Robinson made his major league debut at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on this date in 1947. It was a historic and significant day for baseball but maybe more so for our country. You can argue that the American civil rights movement was ignited when Robinson came to bat in Dodger Blue. The journey for Robinson was difficult at best and nearly impossible at worst. 

Many Dodgers players, mostly Southerners led by Dixie Walker, threatened to walk if forced to play with a black player. That ended when Dodger management let them know in no uncertain terms that they could keep walking all the way to the unemployment line. I often write about the pain that is caused by “bad” or thoughtless Christians. Can you imagine the pain that Robinson felt to have his teammates reject him for only one reason and for a reason over which he had no control?

But one teammate reacted in a way that I wish all serious and thoughtful Christians would emulate. Team captain Pee Wee Reese was an unlikely ally for Robinson. He was born in segregated Louisville, Kentucky, and the odds were that Reese would participate or even lead the boycott against a black player. But the diminutive Pee Wee Reese proved to be a giant of a man one day in Cincinnati. During infield practice the Redleg players were screaming at Jackie with all of the usual hateful epithets. And then the venom was distributed to Reese. They were yelling things at him like “How can you play with this (epithet)?”, as Jackie stood uncomfortably at first base.  

“Pee Wee kind of sensed the sort of hopeless, dead feeling in me and came over and stood beside me for a while,” Robinson recalled, as quoted in his biography “Jackie Robinson,” by Arnold Rampersad (Alfred A. Knopf). “He didn’t say a word but he looked over at the chaps who were yelling at me through him and just stared. He was standing by me, I could tell you that.” The hecklers ceased their attack. “I will never forget it,” Robinson said. A silence fell over the Reds dugout and the fans witnessing this amazing act of grace.

At Reese’s funeral, Joe Black, another Major League Baseball black pioneer, said: “Pee Wee helped make my boyhood dream come true to play in the Majors, the World Series. When Pee Wee reached out to Jackie, all of us in the Negro League smiled and said it was the first time that a White guy had accepted us. When I finally got up to Brooklyn, I went to Pee Wee and said, ‘Black people love you. When you touched Jackie, you touched all of us.’ With Pee Wee, it was No. 1 on his uniform and No. 1 in our hearts.”  

Robinson later wrote this sentiment to Reese in a book inscription. 

“Pee Wee whether you are willing to admit what you being just a great guy meant (a great deal) to my career, I want you to know how much I feel it meant. May I take this opportunity to say a great big thanks and I sincerely hope all things you want in life be yours.”  

We need a lot more Pee Wee Reese’s in the body of Christ. We need men and women who are willing to step up for others when it may not be the best action for personal gain. We need men who are brave enough to look hatred and bigotry in the eye and call it by its name. April 15^th was a day that demonstrated the greatness and courage of Jackie Robinson. It also reminds us of how one man did the right thing for his teammate. We need men who have the courage to emulate both Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese in our walk with Jesus. If Pee Wee Reese was willing to risk his reputation for the cause of team and winning a World Series how much more should we be willing to risk for one another to further the cause of Christ? The Apostle Paul had some good advice to accomplish that dream.

Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day’s out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ’s law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.

    Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life. (Gal 6, Msg) 

I want to be willing to stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. As I meditate on the gift of grace and redemption I received through the Cross I wonder…how can I do anything else? 

No time to write day…so here is a personal favorite from the hermetically sealed vaults.

The striking Mrs. Burchett accompanied me on a speaking engagement in Knoxville, Tennessee. We spent a few days at a cabin in Pigeon Forge and did the tourist thing. One of the highlights took me by surprise. My bride loves pottery so one of my “sacrificial” ways to love her is to accompany her to pottery shops. Guys refer to that as “hitting behind the runner” or “taking the charge”. We stopped by a local shop called Alewine Pottery and I was immediately fascinated by the open work area. There was the owner making vases and pots right before my eyes. Behind me were shelves of the finished products – colorful and beautiful and functional.

I watched him take a nondescript piece of clay and skillfully make an unique and beautiful creation. The verse from Isaiah came to mind.

O Lord, you are our Father.
      We are the clay, and you are the potter.
      We all are formed by your hand.

Suddenly that verse came to life. The complexity of the potter’s work and his skills made the metaphor really connect for the first time. The forming of the raw material into unique forms is just the beginning of the process. That is how it is with us as unique creations of our Father. He forms us by His hand. Like the pottery in that shop, everyone of us is an original. But our process is also complex and it has just begun when we first submit to shaping by the Potter’s Hands.

The potter must make sure that no dirt or impurities are in the clay as he forms the pot. If he finds those impurities he carefully removes them before finishing the shaping. These bad materials will make the pot weak and not useful for it’s intended purpose. God desires to do the same with us. Impurities (sin) weaken us and keep us from our intended purpose.

The potter must also make sure that air bubbles don’t remain in the clay. Air bubbles can cause the pot to crack when the heat is applied in the kiln. I thought of those air bubbles as pockets of resistance in my life. I can appear to be molded to God’s direction. But I have “bubbles” of pride and anger and control. These bubbles of self can cause me to crack under fire.

The metaphors that Scripture uses are so powerful when we take the time to understand context and culture. I realized that the pot on the potter’s wheel is beautiful but essentially useless when it is initially formed. The pot is carefully dried and set aside. At this point the piece is called greenware and it is extremely brittle and easily breakable. Two things need to happen to make the pot strong and usable. The clay must go through the fire of the kiln to be strengthened and it must be glazed. An article on pottery at Wikipedia had an interesting parallel to the spiritual metaphor.

Pottery is made by forming a clay body into objects of a required shape and heating them to high temperatures in a kiln to induce reactions that lead to permanent changes, including increasing their strength and hardening and setting their shape.

Trials by fire can have that same effect on us as followers of Jesus. Trials can make us stronger and set our shape as His followers. Or the fire of life’s trials can harden us against God and make us useless for His plan.

I realized that I am just beginning to really understand that process in my life. I would be content to stay in my greenware state, brittle and not useful for service. But God knows that it is in the fire that we are strengthened and made useful. It is in the heat of trials that the true beauty of our creative process is revealed. And every instance of significant growth in my life has been in the fire of adversity.

There are a couple of  huge differences between the earthly potter and God as the Potter. When the earthly potter finds a bad piece of clay he will just discard it. Our Heavenly Potter patiently works with us even when we seem unshapable. If careless handling or air bubbles cause an unfired pot to break the pieces are discarded. Only our Heavenly Father can take the shards of brokenness and make a pot more beautiful and useful than before.

The words of James made more sense in the context of the potter’s process.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

There is no joy in the trial but there is joy in the knowledge of how God uses such events in our lives. If you are in the trial or facing a trial be comforted that God desires for you to emerge strengthened and beautiful and useful. One potter said that the greatest thing about making pots is that each lump of clay has near-infinite potential. The lump of clay that is me and the lump of clay that is you has infinite potential because we have an infinite God. I pray that we will allow Him to shape us in His image. I pray that we will confess the impurity of sin and ask Him to remove it. I pray that we will burst the bubbles of self that control us. I pray that we will trust the Heavenly Potter as we enter the fire. And most of all I pray that we will not fear the process that God uses to make us beautiful and useful creations.