The Educated Conscience

It was past midnight, everyone awake in student housing. Ike sat with feet on the desk, leaning back, confident. "I did it, you know, finally educated my conscience."

Leaning on the doorway, I had to ask: "What does that mean?"

He: "Don't feel guilty at all, not a twinge. Total sexual freedom."

Me: "Really?"

Final word: "You bet!"

Well, not quite the final word. Next month there was the announcement - unexpected pregnancy! Then, a quick marriage. Then, out of grad school, career off-track, two unhappy folks in a dysfunctional moment/relationship. No guilt. And no future.

As old as Adam and Eve - when you're feeling selfish, just re-define it until you're feeling good about it! The problem, of course, is that it doesn't work. Didn't. Doesn't. Won't. Ever.

Take, for example, conservation. Suppose someone says, "Save the forest", but you want the paychecks to continue with no break. Re-naming gets started. A few paychecks make it to the surface, but soon the forest shrinks. In the Big Thicket of eastern Texas, enormous yellow pine trees and magnificent oaks provided material for a strong ship-building industry. There's no long-leaf yellow pine now, and no oak except the scrubby stuff used by the paper mill. And there's never a check, either. Some long-forgotten logger got maybe 12 more checks, but the forest basically went away.

I wonder - educated conscience or self-sustaining conscience - which really feels better, in the long haul?

Book Burning

Why should we not burn someone else's books? Because that strikes at the heart of the values that make this country work. It is an insult to Muslims! But, it is a more serious insult to our own values. The worst of western civilization has been the times of eradication of things we disagree with. From the slaughter of the Crusades to the slaughter of the Inquisition, we haven't always done the will of Jesus.

From the early Christians who followed the path of the Egyptians, who wiped out monuments and libraries of religions they did not follow, to the book-burnings in every century, to the re-writing of history in modern times, this is a threat to our own values. You can't build up truth by destroying evidence!

Asking the old slogan: "What Would Jesus Do" is revealing here. Is there any instance in which Jesus, incarnate in a religiously complex world, took on a mission of being competitive with other religions? He did cleanse the Temple, but that was a matter of authenticating honorable following of the law, and done within the boundaries of Judaism. It was an accountability issue, not opposition. (Of course, raising accountability issues usually irritates like crazy!!)

Take one example of a strong religious argument going on around Jesus. He extended a hand to the Samaritans, both in the story of the Good Samaritan, and the meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well.

A second example: When Jesus said "render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar" he was laying down a clear guideline: the enemy is not Caesar - the enemy is IN-authentic faith.

In every instance I can recall, Jesus' concern is for people to celebrate the kingdom by personal faithful authenticity and obedience. And that never did manage to include ridicule of others, or destruction of whatever might be of value to them.

And what did he say about our enemies: pray for enemies and for all who despitefully use us. Human nature always wants to enlist God in the destruction of our enemies; God always wants to enlist redeemed human nature in a process of reconciling with our enemies in such a way as to win them for the kingdom. High hopes? the highest!

Sacrifice and Prophecy Failed

Personal pain and sacrifice may compel us to look, without convincing us to believe. Year after year, kings of the Mayan civilization underwent a sacrificial bleeding to secure the rains and the fertility of the soil, to make the crops grow.

It was a rather rough and public sacrifice, involving pulling a barbed blade through the tongue, incredibly painful and producing a strong flow of blood. To be both convincing and effective, it had to be hard to watch. It took great belief on the part of the king, and sacrifice.

But, the year came when the crops failed. Perhaps the king tried again. But his bleeding and the crops weren't connected. There was no truth in it. The people quietly moved away; the power of the kings was over. The civilization disappeared into a long-unsolved mystery.

Truth has a way of winning the day. Mayan kings are a thing of the past. The 2012 prediction of the end of the world was taken off a magnificently carved stone calendar, which had actually been abandoned by the ones who carved it. Their beliefs, like the sacrifice to secure crops, had collapsed long before we learned of them. The old calendar stone may compel us to take a look, but there is no truth in it.

There is truth to be found in Jesus. There are lots of other claims that fade, but truth is in Him.

The Observer

She sat in DFW airport, in Terminal A, having a good view of the flow of people coming by. She wrote quickly, making sketches (in prose) of the people passing. As I watched her hard at work at her writing, I thought of the amazing spectacle that passes us all each day.

And I remembered the Nashville airport. On the other side of a large planter, about 4 feet high, a man stood up from his chair, showing a big western hat and a fine leather jacket. Then another man, then another. BIG men, powerfully built.

First thought: well-dressed linemen from a football team. Then they moved past the planter box. Second thought: completing the outfit with spandex tights that went down into boots was not a football kind of style.

Pro wrestlers. Traveling somewhere. Flamboyant. Transparently themselves.

We're all transparently ourselves, every day.

Seize the day, be conscious of it, and make it a day for Jesus. Folks who see you will know who you belong to, so celebrate it clearly!

and always BCurious!

Learning to Cast

Learning to cast a fishing lure was a fundamental when I was a kid. Grandpa brought home fish, it was important to him, so it had to be important to me! He used the old bait-casting reel, open spool, nothing automatic or push-button involved.

When he offered to teach me, I thought maybe learning to compare one kind of tackle against another, one rod and reel against another. but no. He brought out a pretty trashy piece of equipment. No ferrule on the end of the rod, looked broken off. No reel. Just the rod, and a bucket. And in the bucket, some mud.

Placing a blob of mud on the end of the rod, squeezing it so it would stick, he then flipped it to land on a wall, about 25 feet away, where the blob stuck. "There," he said, "now you flip one as close to that as you can."

I thought, "This is fishing????" but went ahead. Not good; missed by a mile! Again, not good, but medium, maybe. Again, and again, and again, until I got close. Practiced more. Kept on. Graduated to a rod and reel (learning how to avoid backlash) and a practice plug (no hooks at all).

To make a long story short, contest followed, casting accuracy contests, and it felt good to win. Then the fishing moments when that bait could be placed under a limb, close to the bank, with some real precision.

Lesson: Fishing skills aren't bought at the store, and they don't consist in fine tackle. Fishing skills are learned in the mind, and in the eye-hand-coordination.

Spiritual-life skills are the same; labels don't get it done. Something happens at the moment when you realize that ancient, old Abraham is your spiritual "senior", living far beyond the level where you yourself live in your journey with the Lord.

It's not "having the latest tackle"; it's all about authenticity between your heart and the Lord. Everything else is just for show!

Just a Bronze Baby, or Not

It was a hot day, and the shade looked very welcoming as I walked out the door at Lowe's. The shade was provided by one of those yard loungers, for sale, but occupied at the moment by a grandfatherly type holding a sort-of bronze colored infant.

At least I thought it was an infant. Tucked into his arm, maybe two feet total height, as he leaned down to kiss its little head. Sweet, I thought. Then, as I got exactly even with him, it was apparent that there was no baby at all.
A miniature Buddha. Nothing wrong with that. Object of devotion for millions. But the kiss on the very top of a bronze head in the summer heat outside Lowe's was just unique. It wasn't clear whether he had just bought the little fellow or brought him along on the shopping trip.

We live in a multilayer religious world. Many recognitions all around us. Lots to see. From the Sikh, to the Hindu, to the converts moving from one to another, to the claims of various Protestant groups and Mormons, to the YMCA camp at Estes Park, with a large group of Buddhist monks playing tennis for the first time.

From discovering the zest for life among Buddhists, the powerful commitments of the Sikhs, to the sheer numbers of other groups, we need an openness to discover how God is at work in other cultures and other religions.

Ask the question: could it be possible for 1 billion Chinese to be on their journey through life without God deeply wanting to be in touch? And already there? And wondering when we'll discover that and find our way in behind Him?