Author: Dave Burchett

I picked up USA Today today (that drives the grammar check crazy) and found a story about The Secret. What is The Secret? It is a controversial self-help book and DVD that claims to know the secret to happiness. Author Rhonda Byrne says the secret is the law of attraction. If you think positively you become a magnet that pulls everything you want toward you. Whether you want a new job, a million dollars, or a gorgeous girlfriend. I apparently need to reverse the polarity of my magnet because I tend to only pull dog hairs and dysfunctional people toward me. So I was intrigued. Especially when I discovered that The Secret carries this centuries’ version of the Good Housekeeping Seal…an endorsement from Oprah. Like she needs another million or a new job.

Byrne is an Australian reality-TV producer who discovered “the secret” to obtaining everything you want through studying religious and philosophical texts.

“Everyone has to have their own experience to believe,” says Byrne, 55. “People start with little things like deciding a cup of coffee will come to you or that you’ll see a feather. There’s no difference between attracting a feather and anything else you want. It’s as easy to attract one dollar as it is $10,000.”

I have to admit that as I was writing this post on a flight from Memphis a cup of coffee came to me. The flight attendant on this American Airlines flight pulled a little cart right up to my seat and asked if I wanted something to drink. Amazing. I have to confess that the exact same thing happened yesterday before I knew about the secret. Perhaps I am just gifted at this.

I decided to skip the whole weird feather thing and go right to bigger things. I am going to think positively that you will click on this link right now and buy 5 copies of my books.

I’m waiting.

While I was waiting I found some more dog hairs on my pants. Obviously the polarity has not switched. There are, of course, skeptics of The Secret. Professor Robert Thompson of Syracuse University calls it “at best, silliness” and “good old-American snake oil salesmanship.” Advocates of The Secret tout the law of attraction for everything from finding good parking spots to curing disease. That is a concern. No one dies from getting a bad parking spot. Not surprisingly, the always bizarre celebrity set has jumped on board the phenomenon.

The whole thing just makes me sad. People are so desperate to find something, anything, to give them hope and a little happiness. Like the old country song, I believe they are lookin’ for love in all the wrong places. So I decided to share my secret with you. I have gleaned this from my study of ancient texts and from personal experience. I cannot promise you good parking spots. I cannot promise you a million dollars. I can’t promise you a gorgeous girlfriend or boyfriend. My blog is not endorsed by Oprah.  If you are still interested let me tell you what my secret will give you.

Joy
Purpose
Significance
Strength in times of trouble
Power to forgive

My secret is not a law or rule. My secret is actually The Gift. The Gift is grace. The Gift is given by God. Jesus said that He came that you may have life and have it more abundantly. That verse has been so misapplied by those who claim “Beemers and Baubles” as a sign of God’s blessings. That is not what Jesus said in this text. The abundant life is simple. By living a grace filled life I can forgive the hurt and forget the grip of my past. I can live confidently without fear of the future. And I can live content in the moment. That is a prescription for happiness. When I autopsy what makes me unhappy it fits into one or more of those categories. Regrets from the past, fear of the future, or discontent with the present. The Gift can free from you those joy robbers even  if you have to go get your own coffee.

That’s my secret. You don’t have to buy my book (but feel free if you want to) to share my secret of The Gift. For further research read the Gospel of John.

 

I have made many new friends through my one year association with the good folks at Crosswalk.com. I suspect that the cool redesign of the website will cause a few more to stumble into my cyberspace and ask the question that nearly everyone asks.

“Who the heck is Dave Burchett?” 

Because time is precious I have put together a linked list of the most popular articles I have written out of the over 300 times I have strode to the blog batter’s box and tried to connect with you, the reader.

These are the ten most read blogs that I have posted with a brief excerpt from each one. Sample one or two or ten by clicking on the title and see if this is a spot that you will want to revisit. I hope it is. But most of all I hope you find grace and joy as you follow Jesus today.

10) You have been warned!

I think I am going to start posting a warning label so the Spiritual Hall Monitors will be alerted to the fact that my blog may contain humor or, according to some, attempted humor. With this warning they can avoid encountering humor, satire, and sarcasm that might trigger an allergic reaction for the sullen saints.

Warning: The following post may contain humor. This blog was produced in a program where irony and satire are processed. May contain sarcasm fragments.

I think that singer Chris Rice may understand my plan to post the humor/satire warning.  

9) The Dangerous Lure of Celebrity Christianity

I have struggled for years with the concept that God somehow intervenes in athletic events. I have seen the post game interviews where athletes thank God for helping them make the big play or for helping their team win. And I wonder if God really chooses to get involved with sporting event outcomes. Does He sovereignly evaluate the two teams and inventory the number of Christians on the home team versus the visiting team? Is it quantity or spiritual maturity that determines the eventual outcome? Would God bless a team with 20 nominal Christians or the one with 10 really committed believers?

8) The Devil Didn’t Go Down to Georgia After All

Earl Wilson once said that “one way to get high blood pressure is to go mountain climbing over molehills”. If the following story were Jeopardy categories it would go something like this…
“Let’s go with ridiculous church and state objections for $50, Alex.” 

And then you would follow up with this category.
“I’ll take spectacular over reactions for $100, Alex.”

7) A Guaranteed Winning Exit Strategy

When I used to visit my family in Kentucky I remember the saying they used when someone thought a little differently.“That boy ain’t right!”, they would note with a smile and shake of the head.

That is how I feel today after my “ain’t right” brain somehow linked two widely disparate stories. Story number one was found in The Week Magazine and told about a growing number of multimillionaires who are leaving their money to themselves in the hope they will someday be brought back to life. The Wall Street Journal had originally reported that these very future investors are having themselves cryogenically frozen with the hope that medical advances will allow them to be revived.

6) Won the battle…losing the war?

The box office run of End of the Spear is likely drawing to a close. The backlash from a number of Christian blogs, publications, and from many  pulpits accomplished its goal. Estimates are that the controversy cut the box office return by one-half to two-thirds. I wish congratulations were in order. But I am simply burdened and discouraged by our choice of battles in the evangelical community.

5) Enroll now in the Canine School of Evangelism

I was taught to “dog” people about their faith. But maybe a ministry with mutts would be more effective to reach others with the message of the gospel. So I am thinking about starting a new seminary with man’s best friends as the instructors and role models for the students. My inspiration for this “hounds-on” approach to ministry training came from an article in American Way Magazine. The story was about dog training programs that have been implemented into prisons across America.

4) A gentle proposal to deal with Chad Allen, End of the Spear, Every Tribe Entertainment and especially one another

I have been reading with my usual mix of amusement, sadness, and disbelief the growing debate over the movie End of the Spear. Some in the Christian community have decided to grab the pitchforks, light the torches, and storm the gates of Every Tribe Entertainment, the production company behind the movie. In case you have been a cloistered monk until today I will give you a bit of background.

3) Confessing my agenda to Rosie O’Donnell

When I became aware that word of my Evangelical Christianity was out I went to the secret underground bunker where we all meet to plan how to advance our agenda.
“I have been Valerie Plumed!” I told the group.
“They know?”, they asked.
“I’m afraid so. Should I come clean?”
They looked horrified. “You mean tell them your agenda?”
“Yes,” I said boldly. “I am going to lay out my entire agenda so there will be no doubt.”

So here it is. I certainly don’t speak for all Evangelical Christians but I think I just might represent a number of them. Rosie, I am coming clean. Here is what I believe and my entire agenda.

2) Forgive? I don’t wanna…

One of the things that really struck me from the movie “End of the Spear” was that in the Waodani language, there is no word for forgiveness. The concept was so foreign to that culture that no word had ever been coined. In our Christian culture we have the word but we too often lack the ability to apply it. One of the joys of writing these daily ramblings is hearing from readers who are blessed or challenged by something I have written. Occasionally someone takes time out of their busy schedule to tell me I am an idiot. Isn’t it a waste of time to tell an idiot that he is an idiot? How can an idiot comprehend that? But I digress. The communications that are really hard for me are the ones from people who have been wounded by other people in the church or by church leaders. Those break my heart and such messages arrive far too often. Today was such a day.

1) Sentences that change your life

Most of life’s sentences are blissfully mundane. I can’t find my keys. Take out the garbage. Please feed the dog. I can’t find my keys. ADD readers will relate to that string of comments. But sometimes a single sentence will change your life. My bride of nearly thirty years dropped one of those sentences on me earlier this week.

“My spot was cancerous.”

After an optimistic initial briefing from the surgeon days earlier we were not prepared for the harsh reality of the pathology report. The  tumor is still small but the type of cancer is aggressive. The prognosis is optimistic but the journey will be hard. Yesterday I quoted that noted scholar and philosopher Mike Tyson who said, “Everyone has a game plan until they get hit in the mouth.”  That was how I felt after talking and crying with my wife. We are looking at a year of treatment and trials. But God is good and His grace is truly sufficient. How can you explain how forty eight hours later we can have such confidence and peace?

 

Hope you found something you enjoyed.

Blessings,

Dave

 

 

This Valentine’s Day is different. Oh, I have the same valentine but having her as my valentine means a little more this year. In just five weeks we will mark (not celebrate) the anniversary of diagnosis day. Having walked with Joni through eleven long months of chemotherapy and radiation has made my love and appreciation for her grow even deeper. I was listening to the old iPod today and a song by the Turtles summed up the current state of the marital union. Cue booming announcer voice…

Let’s take you back forty years to the spring of 1967 when a California rock group hit number one with this song…Happy Together.

I think about you day and night, it’s only right
To think about the girl you love and hold her tight
So happy together

I can’t see me lovin’ nobody but you
For all my life
When you’re with me, baby the skies’ll be blue
For all my life

We are so happy to be together. More than ever. Solomon wrote a chapter in Proverbs that is most often used to warn about avoiding temptation and the dangers that lurk with unfaithfulness. But lost in the negatives of that chapter is this wonderful bit of positive advice.

Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you.
      Rejoice in the wife of your youth.  Proverbs 5:18   NLT

I have often joked that I married my trophy wife first and got it over with. But the truth is that I did not always appreciate the bride that God had given me. Thank God I slowed down long enough to realize that I am blessed beyond measure by this incredible woman. I have censored the first part of verse nineteen because the advice there is a bit personal…not that there is anything wrong with it. (I am pretty sure I just drove many of you to Proverbs).

I will pick up with last part of the verse…

      May you always be captivated by her love.

I intend to do just that. She makes it easy.

Last March I posted a blog about a flap occurring at a Dallas area high school. The story confirmed one of my developing beliefs that the biggest problem with kids activities is adults. A little background from the first post.

The news story was about the selection process for cheerleaders. Here is an excerpt…

Southlake Carroll high school is in the midst of turmoil over the results of the cheerleader selection process. The controversy has actually reached the school board trustees who are being forced to weigh in on a no win issue. Parents are filing grievances. Classmates are choosing sides. Suggested new cheer:

Fight, team, Fight!
Fight, parents, Fight!
Fight, fight, fight!

Initially fourteen girls made high enough scores to make the squad. A grievance was filed. The school decided to add four seniors. More grievances were filed. Then the school decided to include all thirty-two of the girls who auditioned on the team. More grievances were filed. The parents of the original fourteen argued that their daughters demonstrated the skills required to make the team. Those parents ratcheted up the battle by going over the school administration’s heads to the school board trustees. 

The Dallas Morning News  reported that after several hours in closed session Monday, board members ruled 4-2 that the 14 girls who initially qualified for the squad should stay. The rest of the squad will be selected at a later date and time. Some of the original 14 cheerleaders applauded after the board vote. One cheerleader who made the first cut, said allowing everyone on the squad who auditioned “doesn’t teach anyone a lesson. It’s the principle,” she said. “It’s the work ethic behind it.”

Fast forward to today’s edition of the Dallas Morning News  and we find that now the courts might get involved. Allegations of harassment, assault between parents (seriously), defamation, and uneven distribution of demerits are just some of the charges flying. And this is over an extra-curricular school activity.  

As the father of three sons I did not have the cheerleader thing going on. But Joni and I were squarely in the middle of youth sports.  I have seen the effects of the traveling squads and elite teams. Sure, some scholarship athletes come out of those programs. But the unseen consequence is that we (alleged adults) have sucked the fun out of childhood sports for a large percentage of the participants.

Warning…geezer rant directly ahead: 

I remember playing sandlot baseball for hours because I loved the game. I also played in an organized league but my joy and love for baseball came from the hours of camaraderie built around the sandlot games. I learned more about tough negotiations playing in my friend Vic’s backyard than I ever learned in school. For example, we were able to hammer out the Hirn Street Accord with this rule. Any ball hit into Mr.Moore’s garden was an automatic out because we were afraid of him. And so I learned to hit the ball to the opposite field because of a grouchy old man. When was the last time you drove through a neighborhood and saw a group of kids playing baseball just for fun? What you likely saw was a bunch of dads in bad coaching shorts yelling at eight year olds for being, well, eight year olds.Why do so many of us feel the need to live out our athletic prowess, real or imagined, through our children? 

Geezer rant over…resume normal reading.

I have been one of those dads. I dreamed that one of my sons would be a great pitcher or all state basketball player. Now that I am 50 something I can ask myself the question that I apparently never considered before. Where did I expect my sons to get those athletic genes? I have coached youth all-star teams in a competitive league so I am not naive about the topic of parents and competition. I wonder in retrospect if I allowed the kids to have enough fun in the process of teaching them a game I love? I wonder if winning was just a little too important? I wonder if I caused any of them to love the game less? The ugliest split I have ever seen outside of church was a group of parents fighting over all-star selections and subsequent playing time. It was an early indoctrination to the perils of writing this humble blog. I have had to come to grips with the fact that people will call you names and question the marital status of your parents just because they disagree with your opinions. And the all-star parents were even worse.

There are a lot of lessons that can be taught through life experiences like this. For example, for the cheerleader candidates that are blessed with the attractiveness and skills to make the cut there is the lesson of humility and grace toward those who haven’t been so blessed. Some could work just as hard and not make the cut. It is not just about work ethic. It is also about the basic skills that you inherited.

For the cheerleader candidates who feel the process was biased there is the very real lesson that life is hard and often not fair. I am sure my sons would tell you that if they had five dollars for everytime I told them, “life isn’t fair”, they could likely buy a new car. When we try to protect our kids from life we really aren’t doing them any favors. I have had my heart broken watching my sons go through the often brutal process of adolescent and teenage passage. But as a father, my job was to prepare them to go into a world that is every bit as difficult and more. So sometimes I had to lay out and let them experience some pain and then help them get through it.

As Christians we can make the same mistake. “Jesus is the answer” we say with giant smiles on our faces. And He is. He is the answer to the search for significance and to fill the longing of our soul. But He does not guarantee perfect health or a trouble free life. We do seekers a disservice by intimating that following Jesus results in nonstop green lights and blue skies. That is why Jesus prioritized a few things for us.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Jesus knew that trouble was a part of the process. He also taught us that God will provide our needs. We too often are disappointed at God when we feel He doesn’t provide our wants (that we perceive as needs). Life isn’t fair. The sooner we can teach our kids to understand that truth the better they will be prepared for the journey ahead. And frankly, the sooner we understand that we will be disappointed less often and begin, as Paul learned, to be content with our circumstances. If we understand the same lesson we will be better prepared to accept the troubles of life and trust God to help us get through them. Life still isn’t fair. And I don’t expect that to change.

 

It was good to hear from the official agnostic poster of this humble site…Shawn from Ohio. Shawn and I don’t agree on much of anything (except for our love of the Ohio State University and the need for civil discourse) but we do agree completely on a point he made in a recent post.

Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will show their true selves.

Amen. No offense meant, Shawn.

Christian thinker and writer Brennan Manning has a quote made famous by the group DC Talk…

“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and get on with their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”

The search for authentic Christians reminded me of one of my favorite ancient characters, the philosopher Diogenes of Sinope. Born in Turkey about 400 years before Christ, he was a student of Antisthenes (444-370 BC), who was himself a pupil of Socrates. His philosophy was “marked by an ostentatious contempt for ease, wealth, and the enjoyments of life.” Diogenes would have had a field day skewering the consumerism and materialism in modern day America. One of the things that I love about Diogenes is his moniker. The irascible philosopher was known as Diogenes the Cynic. What a great name! How cool would that be to have a title like that? It certainly is better than Diogenes of Sinope. I would gladly swap Dave of Garland for Dave the Self-Deprecating as my appellation any day.

One story relates that while Diogenes was sunning himself, the powerful and feared Alexander the Great came up to him and offered to grant him any request. “Stand out of my light,” he replied. For a man who lived in a tub that was probably all he needed at that point in time.

When asked what wine he found most pleasant to drink, Diogenes replied, “That for which other people pay.” (So I actually do think like some of the great philosophers at times). But the name Diogenes is most known to the general populace as the man who would stroll through the Agora at full daylight with a torch (or, as legend sometimes has it, a lantern). When asked about it, he would answer, “I am just looking for an honest man”.

While I part company on much of Diogenes philosophy his search for an honest man resonates with me. This will likely sound harsher than intended but sometimes I feel like taking up the lantern and going out in search of one authentic Christian. Please hold the e-mails about how negative and judgmental I am. I know they are out there. But what breaks my heart is how many people are not living an authentic and transparent life as followers of Jesus. That is what those outside of the body of Christ see far too often. Is that a smokescreen by those who reject faith to avoid the question of who Jesus really is? Of course it can be. But I do not want on my ledger that I was a person that someone looked at to evaluate the Christian faith and I showed them nothing. Or at least not enough to find it compelling.

That is why I would choose Dave the Self-Deprecating as my title. I am not using the definition of self-deprecating that means to undervalue one’s abilities. That would be a false humility. I am talking about being able to see and admit my shortcomings. Simply being honest and real. I have to admit that I have grown to really dislike the smug little phrase “I’m not perfect, just forgiven.” I know it is true but I have seen that used as a convenient excuse for not doing the right thing. Part of the acknowledgment of forgiveness and grace is realizing how much we need to forgive and extend grace. Every time I fail as a representative of Jesus I need to repent (change direction) and repair the damage. I am a sinner saved by grace. Because I received grace I must also dispense it if I am to follow Jesus.

The parts of Diongene’s philosophies that apply to me are summed up in these points.

• Living by personal example
  
• Exposing the falsehood of conventional thinking
  
• Exposing vice and conceit

That would be a decent road map for a follower of Jesus.

• Walk what you talk
  
• Share the hope that is in Jesus, not in this world
  
• Hold one another accountable in our walk

James was a straight shooter. Here are his words in the second chapter of James.

What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing,  and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.”
But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”  NLT

Is James saying that our salvation is obtained only by a combo platter of faith and works? Not at all. Salvation is entirely a product of grace and faith. But James is correctly saying that a living faith manifests itself in good deeds. How can it not? Like a physician, a follower of Christ should pray and strive to “do no harm”. In our case as Christians we should live our lives in a way that we do no harm to the name of Jesus.

If Diogenes were walking around Garland, Texas today with his lantern looking for one authentic Christian and ran into me…would he put his lamp down? And would his quest be accomplished if he encountered you?

Periodically we warm-up a vacuum sealed leftover when time does not allow a fresh entree. Hope you enjoy this look back at one of the odd quirks of a Founding Father and how it relates to you and me – Blessings, Dave

Thomas Jefferson is an enigma for many. An article by Bruce Tomoso in the Dallas Morning News noted that his enemies accused him of being an atheist and yet he started the statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom with the phrase, “Almighty God hath created the mind free.” But he certainly would not have been invited to speak at an evangelical conference to share his beliefs that most clergymen are “soothsayers and necromancers.” You likely have a bigger brain than I do but I will confess that I had to look up necromancers. It literally means one who interrogates the dead. Okay. Not sure what church Jefferson was frequenting but clearly he had some issues with clergy and he believed that most of what they preached was a mockery of Jesus’ teachings.

Jefferson “believed that an authentic Christianity had long ago been hijacked by the Christian Church,” wrote Erik Reece in the December Harper’s. Jefferson decided to just fix the problem. So he took out his scissors and cut out the parts of the Bible that he didn’t believe. “Jefferson,” Mr. Reece wrote, “cut out the virgin birth, all the miracles – including the most important one, the Resurrection – then pasted together what was left and called it ‘The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth.’ ” (Later, he added portions of the Bible as translated into Greek, Latin and French.) Jefferson described his work as separating the “diamonds from the dunghill.” Out went all references to Jesus as divine, all accounts of healings, of walking on water, of making loaves and fish appear out of thin air. What remains? His teachings about helping the needy, shunning earthly wealth and power, treating people as we would have them treat us – in Jefferson’s words, “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.”

Mr. Tomoso wrote that “not all scholars are impressed.” Historian Garry Wills, a Catholic, writes that Jefferson’s Gospel, “cleansed of all the supernatural hocus-pocus, is the tale of a good man, a very good man, perhaps the best of good men.” But, he argues, the Jesus of Jefferson is boring, utterly without mystery, “shorn of his paradoxes and left with platitudes.”

It is so easy to criticize Jefferson. What audacity! The incredible chutzpah to modify sacred texts to fit your own views! But then I took a breath and stepped back. Do I do the very same thing at times without the in your face honesty of Jefferson? When I choose to ignore the hard teachings of Jesus I have, in practice, done the same thing. I just skipped the scissors. When I say that some command in God’s Word is too hard I have essentially taken my scissors of intellectual and spiritual doubt and cut that teaching out. When I point out that I cannot forgive or love or give because you don’t understand my circumstances I have clipped out the challenge of supernatural living. In my book When Bad Christians Happen to Good People  I wrote a chapter called “This is a Hard Teaching” about the challenging and difficult things that Jesus taught that I tend to mentally, emotionally, and practically excise from my walk. Let me give a couple of examples.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven,  Matt 5: 11-12

Do I believe that? Does feeling blessed even cross my radar if I feel insulted? Do I rejoice? Or do I simply pull out the scissors, clip, and concentrate on the ones I am more comfortable with like this.

Blessed are the merciful,
      for they will be shown mercy. 

That’s better. I can live with that. But when I read words from Jesus like this I start to squirm again.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[h] and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies[i] and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?

Are you kidding me? Love your enemies? Pray for them? Shears please…that must be removed. I often feel like the disciples of Jesus who struggled with His teaching about the bread of life.

On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” 
 Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you?

That is the bottom line isn’t it? Sometimes the hard teachings of Jesus offend me. Or at least annoy me.  I don’t want to forgive the unforgivable or love the unloveable. I don’t want to serve the least of these because it is inconvenient, messy, and hard.  But I have a choice to make. I have to accept the entire Word of God and be open to allowing the Holy Spirit to move in every area of my life. Or I have to take the scissors of my lack of faith to His Word. As for cutting out the miracles and just making Jesus a profound and amazing teacher. I don’t think that He gave us that option. He clearly let it be known that He was the Son of Man sent by His Father in heaven. If that is not the truth then Jesus was not a great man and teacher. He was, in the famous words of C.S.Lewis from Mere Christianity, a liar or a lunatic.

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon and you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

I am praying for the grace to embrace the hard teachings. Simply cutting those difficult passages out of my life is not an option that God has given to me. So I am also praying that I will leave the scissors in the drawer. Jesus never promised this would be easy. But He did offer this promise to me.

And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.  Matt 28  NLT

Following Christ can be a very difficult journey at times. Experiencing the truth of those words in Matthew makes it possible.

 

 

Leo Durocher allegedly said that “nice guys finish last”. When you look at the most successful coaches of recent years you would not generally use “nice” as the first descriptive word.

Indianapolis Colts Coach Tony Dungy is one of the nicest, most admired men in professional sports. He has the respect of his team and those who follow the sport. One year ago he dealt with the tragic death of his son James with dignity and strength. Last Sunday he coached his team to a win in the Super Bowl. And now he has created controversy with this statement made to CBS sportscaster Jim Nantz after the game.

Jim Nantz of CBS Sports: This is one of those moments, Tony, where there is also social significance in this victory, and to have your hands on the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Tell me what this means to you right now.
Tony Dungy: I’ll tell you what. I’m proud to be representing African-American coaches, to be the first African-American to win this. It means an awful lot to our country. But again, more than anything, I’ve said it before, Lovie Smith and I, not only the first two African-Americans, but Christian coaches showing that you can win doing it the Lord’s way. And we’re more proud of that.

The blogosphere lit up with analysis of Dungy’s comments. LA Daily News Columnist Kevin Modesti  wrote a piece that praised Dungy’s character while still asking a few questions. I have added my comments after each query.

Does Dungy really think “showing that you can win doing it the Lord’s way” has more social significance than breaking the Al Campanis generation’s stereotypes about blacks in sports management positions?

No. I think he was saying that the individual viewer and the country would decide the social significance. Nance asked him what the accomplishment meant to him. Tony Dungy was speaking for himself and for his good friend Lovie Smith. They believed that winning while living by their faith and principles meant more to them than the race issue.  Dungy answered the question honestly. Isn’t that what we clamor for from celebrities. Or would we prefer the tried and true cliché fest immortalized in the movie Bull Durham

Crash Davis: It’s time to work on your interviews.
Ebby Calvin LaLoosh: My interviews? What do I gotta do?
Crash Davis: You’re gonna have to learn your clichés. You’re gonna have to study them, you’re gonna have to know them. They’re your friends. Write this down: “We gotta play it one day at a time.”
Ebby Calvin LaLoosh: Got to play… it’s pretty boring.
Crash Davis: ‘Course it’s boring, that’s the point. Write it down.

Tony Dungy answered the question that was posed. And it wasn’t boring.

Was he suggesting that alongside black kids inspired by the sight of two black men at pro football’s pinnacle, there are Christian kids whose minds have been changed about whether they can make it big?

Don’t think so. I think he was saying that you can be successful and hold onto your faith. Period.

Should other winning football coaches take offense from the implication that they’ve been doing it the morally corrupt way?

No. But I suspect that at least a couple of coaches are looking to adopt the “Lord’s Game Plan” before training camp starts. West Coast offense. 3– 4 defense. Lord’s way. Whatever it takes to win.

Should believers of other religions take offense from any or all of this?

Why should they? Tony Dungy has earned the platform to speak by consistently living his faith through adversity and heart wrenching tragedy. Dungy was saying that he had stayed true to his values and that he was successful with those values. Dungy doesn’t curse. He never raises his voice. He doesn’t demean his opponents or his players. Are those exclusively Christian values? Of course not. An agnostic could be just as nice and soft spoken and civil. But for Tony Dungy it was his faith in Christ that was the foundation for his values and approach. Christianity worked for him. He earned the right to speak and he spoke. Good for him. And I have to tell you it is really nice to see a nice guy finish first.