Faith and Technology: What is the point of technology?

Here in North America, it really seems that we have this desire to have the newest and the latest thing in technology.  When the iPhone was introduced, it seemed like many people rushed out to get it.  Same thing with the iPad.  Now there are TVs with internet capability, and I find myself wanting to go out and get one. 

In part, I think that this is the way that God made us.  I really don't believe that the world would have simply remained static had Adam and Eve not fallen into sin.  Since God is a creative God, and He told His creation to continue that creativeness, I believe that we humans would have continued to be creative when it came to this world.  Would that mean that we would have the same things?  Perhaps not.  But I do believe that we would have continued to demonstrate that creativeness.

Which brings me to the point of this blog post.  What is the point of technology?  Is technology simply a continuation of the creativeness that God has put in us?  Or, now that we live in a fallen, sinful world, is the point of technology to overcome our need for God?  For example, do we continue to seek advances in medicine because we want to overcome death and illness, in a way, overcoming our need for God?  If so, we're not doing so hot at that.  Or, is technological advancement both a reflection of the creativeness that God has put in us, but a trait that is, sadly, tainted by sin and therefore, in some ways, both self-serving and a demonstration of our creativeness?

How we answer these kind of questions has a great deal of impact on faith matters.  If technology is an outflow of our God-given creativeness, then we will tend to focus on the benefits, even though they are tainted by our sinfulness.  If technology is a way to declare that we have no need of God, then suddenly nothing is off-limits.  I would be greatly interested to know how many people think about this.

Faith and Technology: So what exactly is "Technology"?

In one of my posts last week, I mentioned the invention of the printing press, and how it was a technological innovation that had some far-reaching impacts in our world.  Yet, if you were to compare some of the technological innovations today with the invention of the printing press, you'd probably have a handful of geeks laughing at you.  After all, in today's world, books are old school.  If you don't get your publications via computer or some other electronic version, you seem to be way behind.

Which brings me to an interesting question.  What exactly constitutes our idea of technology?  If a beekeeper designs a new kind of box in which bees make more honey, has that person had a technological innovation?  Or maybe I should ask it in this way.  Do we only associate technology with electricity in our day and age?  If something is invented that increases our abilities to accomplish something, but it doesn't involve electricity, is that really considered a technological innovation?

I realize that, in some circles, asking that kind of question may be along the lines of questioning if the Bible really is the Word of God.  It may seem rather blasphemous.  After all, many of us have now lived in a world with electricity and electronics so long that life without them seems foreign.  It's hard to believe that so many of these things have only come out in the last generation or so.  To think of a room lit only by candles and not by the latest LED, powersaving lightbulbs seems so Middle Ages. 

I would suggest that how we define technology will have some fairly significant impact on our faith life, as well.  If we consider that the development of better ways of understanding communication is a technological innovation, that will impact our belief in the Holy Spirit and His working through God's Word.  If we consider the invention of the printing press as a technological innovation, we probably find the thought of everyone having access to God's Word as a good thing.  If we think that technology and technological innovation goes beyond mere electronic gizmos, it will inevitably have an impact on our faith life in some form or another.

I would actually be interested to know if, first of all, you have ever given any thought as to what constitutes technology, and then, secondly, have you wondered how technology impacts your faith life?  Remember, it can have either good or bad impact upon you, and I am curious to see how you think about such things.

Faith and Technology: The Good With The Bad

Yesterday, I pointed out how Martin Luther made use of the new technology of the printing press in order to let people know more about God, about the Bible, and how to teach the basics of the faith in people's houses.  He wrote a great many essays, letters, and treatises on matters of faith, as well as small books (called catechisms) which were widely distributed to households throughout Germany, and are still widely used in Lutheran congregations still today.

Making use of a new technology to do something like sharing the message of good news through Jesus is a good thing.  In Luther's day, people could now read the Bible on their own rather than just hearing small portions of it every so often.  They could have small booklets to help learn more about their faith, and the important parts of that faith to teach their children.  All good uses of technology.

However, this same technology could also be used for less than desirable purposes.  If you wander into most bookstores these days, not only will you find sections like the kids section and the Christian section, but you can also find those shelves with books that may, on occasion, need to be wrapped in plastic to keep prying eyes from looking.  The same technology that could be used for good can also be used for less than desirable purposes.

Is this the fault of the technology?  No.  In and of itself, the technology is not good or bad.  Books are neither inherently good or bad.  However, the use of the technology can be bent to purposes that may not necessarily be for good.  That will be a theme that you may notice as we go through this series on faith and technology.

In a way, this also relates to our Christian faith.  One of the things that God reveals about us as humans is that we have a sinful nature.  All of us have it, and it leads us to do things that are not necessarily for the good of ourselves and others.  When we add technology to that sinful nature, we see that the opportunity to bend that same technology to sinful uses is a possibility, and one that crops up very frequently.

This means that we recognize the potential for good in technology, but we also don't fool ourselves to its potential to be put to bad or evil uses.  Books that grow us in our faith or that show us better ways of living together in peace are good.  Books that focus on sinful actions and activities, and make these seem common or acceptable, are not good.  Both make use of the technology, and that means that we must also use wisdom when it comes to the use of technology and matters of our faith.

Faith and Technology: A Time of Revolution

For this post, I'm actually thinking back about 500 years.  The printing press had been invented, and some people were just starting to realize the impact that it could have on society.  In particular, a man by the name of Martin Luther, who happened to be a monk, seemed to realize that this new technology had some far-reaching impact when it came to the Christian faith.

Let me say quickly that I'm not here to reacquaint you with the time of the Reformation.  Many, many books have been written about that time and its impact on the world.  Instead, I want to focus on how technology suddenly impacted the Christian faith. 

Martin Luther wrote a great many things.  Some were short letters, others were books that explained parts of the Bible.  Still others were letters to a great many people, explaining what the Bible said about their life, their faith, and how they lived.  Many of these have been compiled into books, and you can probably find a few of them at any local library near you.

Here is where a technological innovation had an impact on faith.  It became much easier to create books.  Rather than having to painstakingly write out each character if you wanted to reproduce a book, the printing press made this much easier.  You could arrange the letters, dip it in ink, and suddenly you had a whole page printed out.  Even better, you could make multiple copies of the same page in a much shorter time than writing out that same page over and over again.

Martin Luther used this technological innovation to his advantage.  Describing just one instance, he had traveled across Germany and noticed that many children and parents did not know the basics of the Christian faith.  So he went to work to create a small booklet on the basics, which has come to be known as Luther's Small Catechism.  Easily reproduced, a copy could be given to each household so that every family could learn the basics of the faith.

This was a daring use of technological innovation, even back in the early 1500s.  Luther published a great number of works through the printing press.  He made use of it to ensure that families could know the basics of their faith.  He also translated the whole Bible into German and then began to pass them out to the people of Germany.  Now the people no longer had to rely only upon the word of their local priest or pastor, but could actually read God's Word at home!

In our day and age, trying to imagine a time with very few books is practically impossible.  We have bookstores all over the place, and books are pretty cheap, too.  Just imagine, though, if the only time you ever heard the Bible was when you attended worship at your local church, and really, the only person who could read was the priest/pastor.  Even though we hardly think of the development of the printing press as a technological innovation, it was one that has truly had a tremendous impact upon the Christian faith.

Faith and Technology: My 200th Post

Today marks a great day for me.  I started this blog up about 10 or 11 months ago, with the goal of trying to blog about 5-6 times a week.  For the most part, I've been able to do that, though there have been trips and vacations and other such things that have gotten in the way on occasion.  So here it is today: my 200th post.

What is amazing to me is how technology has made things like this possible.  I still remember back to my early days in college, when I first received a free AOL disc in the mail and was invited to join the online community.  I remember the sound of my computer dialing up its modem to reach into this thing called the "internet".  I remember having the ability to talk to people in chat rooms and in IMs, and how cool I thought it was at the time.

Technology certainly has made many things more possible than they were before.  I almost shudder at times to think about where things will be in 10 years or 20 years.  The one truth concerning technology is that it is always changing.  So it seems that we must be ready to change as our gadgets and gizmos change almost at the speed of light.

There has been one really good thing about this explosion of technology that I have observed.  It is that we are able to be in touch with our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus that much easier.  I have websites that I go to in order to look up bible verses with specific words in them.  I have sites that I go to in order to read up on some of the latest thoughts of theologians.  Just a few minutes ago, I downloaded and prepared our worship service's music for tonight, and will have someone pushing play on the computer to deliver the organ music that we will be singing to.  Technology makes it possible to do so many different things that can serve our Lord Jesus and our faith life.

I am thankful for technology.  Yes, I realize that it has its downsides, and we will talk about those in some of the upcoming posts.  As with all things, when technology is put to good use in the right hands, it can be a tremendous blessing.  When in the wrong hands, and with the wrong intents, it can cause severe damage to our society.

My hope is that I always seek to make the good, positive use of technology as it continues to advance forward.

Faith and Technology: A Series

It's that time of year when TV commercials and internet ads are showing us all the new glitzy packages that we can buy for each other for Christmas.  Smart phones, smart TVs, new computers, electric cars, and all sorts of other kind of things are out there for our commercial consumption.  All you have to do is shell out the money, and the most up to date technology can be yours.

In a sense, recent Christmas seasons have seemed to be all about technology.  Who needs Jesus when you can watch commercials with a kid buying stock on an iPhone?  Or who needs to go to worship when you can download the most recent movies right onto your TV?  Why pray when you can text?  Technology seems to slowly but surely taking over the Christmas season.

Can technology and our faith life coexist?  Does technological advancement mean that faith becomes an outdated thing to be cast aside as irrelevant and inconsequential?  If you regularly read this blog, you probably know that I will say that it is possible for the two to be compatible.  So we'll take time this Advent and Christmas season to look a little bit at faith and technology, and how they work together, as well as the many dangers that technology introduces.  Please feel free to chime in, especially since some of the topics will probably be somewhat controversial.

Are Angels Benevolent and Peaceful?

Throughout this week, I've been taking a look at some of the typical thoughts we humans tend to have about angels, and am comparing them to what the Bible reveals to us about angels.  Hopefully by this point, you've started to see that the image of angels that we have created tends to be quite different from what the Bible tells us angels are like.

So today I want to tackle the next one.  We have this idea that angels are invisibly watching out for us, turning away danger, and making sure that we don't stub our toes or walk into doors, or things of that sort.  We tend to think that angels are looking out for our good, and therefore, they would never do anything mean, or act in a way that would confuse us as to their good intentions.

Let's face it, it is nice to think that we have these invisible beings watching over us and protecting us from life's little accidents.  We'd like to think that they have our good in mind at all times, and that their definition of good matches up with what we think is good.  However, when we look at what the Bible tells us about angels, we may have these thoughts shaken up a bit.

In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, in Genesis, we have two angels that are sent to get Lot and his family out of the city before its destruction.  They basically tell Lot that he needs to get out because they are about to destroy the city because of its wickedness.  (If you question the city's wickedness, you can read the story in Genesis 19.)  Of course, the results are fairly well-known, as Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed by fire from heaven.

In the book of Exodus, we have God telling Moses to have the people of Israel slaughter a sheep and to paint its blood over their doorposts.  That way, the angel of death would "pass over" their houses, and in all the rest, anyone who was the firstborn would be put to death.  This sounds all great and nice if you are an Israelite, but sounds rather strange to us if we don't happen to have lamb's blood on our doors.

We have several other stories like this in the Bible.  In fact, it is rare that we hear of an angel behaving in a way that we humans would call "nice and gentle".  I've mentioned in a previous post that the word angel is merely the word for messenger, in both Hebrew and Greek.  Usually, when God sends His messengers, He is sending them to warn people to give up their bad ways (sinful ways) and turn back to God.  The idea of that is that there is a consequence should the people not change, and it is usually the angel(s) who carry it out.

Maybe that's something we should keep in mind when we think about angels.  If one just happens to show up and give us a message from God, it likely means that either we or the people around us have a need to change.  If we fail to heed God's message, then we shouldn't expect that the angel (who, by the way, does only what God tells it to do) to simply act benevolently on our behalf.  We should expect that it will do what God has told it to do, and so we should take heart any message that we might hear.

Those Cute Little Angels

You see them in kid's programs.  Kids dressed up with cardboard wings, white robes, and some kind of golden halo sitting on top of their head.  You see them in some movies, perhaps acting strange and quirky, but overall pretty friendly and nice.  We hear talk of guardian angels, who stand by night and day to protect us from harm and danger, and maybe even to guide us at certain times in life.

Overall, our picture of angels are of these cute angels who may or may not appear, and who rarely show themselves, but direct us when needed and turn harm and danger away from us.  But is this really the picture of angels that the Bible paints for us?

Almost without fail, when we have a record of an angel appearing to deliver his message, the initial reaction of the person to whom he is appearing is that of fear.  That is why the first response of an angel typically is "Do not be afraid."  Now, I have to admit that the Bible doesn't tell us that this is because of their appearance, or if they just suddenly appear out of nowhere, or anything like that.  However, from the many times when we see angels appearing and having to tell people not to be afraid, it seems that there is just something frightening and awesome about their appearance.

On top of that, we're also told that angels can have different appearances.  If you read through Isaiah 6, you come across these angels called seraphim.  These are literally angels of fire.  They have six wings and fly around the throne of God.  I don't know about you, but if an angel appeared to me and looked like it was burning and had six wings, I'd be pretty frightened.

The one thing that we know about angels is that they are spiritual creatures, which means that, when they show themselves, they are doing something that doesn't completely fit with what God created them to be.  So it would make sense that they would appear somewhat strange to us.  And then, that they are sent by God, and are His holy messengers, brings us another level of fear.  These are, after all, beings who are perfect, and who live in God's presence.  They know God face to face, unlike us.

So enjoy the shows with these pictures of cute angels.  But just remember that the reality is probably a lot more frightening that we could ever imagine.

An Angel with a Message

Yesterday, I introduced this brief look into angels.  Angels played a rather significant role in announcing the conception and birth of Jesus, and are familiar figures this time of year.  So many children's programs have angels walking around with their little white wings, white robes, and golden halos, and over the years, so much has been made about angels.  But how much of that is accurate from the Bible?  That's what we're looking at.

Yesterday, I shared that the word angel is the word for "messenger" in both Hebrew and Greek, the original languages of the Bible.  In some instances, this word is used to describe a visitor who brings a message from God.  When we read through the story of Jesus in Luke chapters 1 and 2, we see several angelic beings who bring very specific messages to God's people.  In an Old Testament story, in Judges chapter 6, we have Gideon having an encounter with an angel, who brings a message specifically for him. 

That is the thing with angels: they appear when a message needs to be delivered from God to His people.  We find this with the resurrection of Jesus, where the angels are found at the tomb to let the women know that Jesus had risen from the dead.  In fact, in almost every occasion where an angel makes an appearance in the Bible, some kind of message is being sent from God to the person to whom the angel appears.

As a last thought, over the years I have heard stories of angels appearing to people and doing things in their lives.  While I will acknowledge that God can send His angels to do things other than deliver messages (and for that reason will not tell someone flat out that angels don't do that), I also try to stress that when angels appear, they usually are fairly frightening, and usually have a message to deliver.  While God can choose to work outside of those criteria, it would seem rather unusual for Him to do so.  So my word of caution is usually along the lines of: it may be what it seems to be, but remember that God has given us something that is more sure than visions of angels, and that is the word which tells us of what God wants and desires of us and for us in the Bible.

Angel-ic Thoughts

Wings.  Halos.  Smiling faces that shine.  Mysterious beings that reach out to stop danger in its tracks as it approaches you.  Biblical characters that don't seem to make too many personal appearances.  These are just a few of the thoughts that I know are out there concerning angels.

So what exactly are these beings called "angels"?  Well, maybe a few quick facts about them are in order.

1. The word "angel" finds its root in the Greek word angelos.  This word simply means messenger.  There is a corresponding word in Hebrew, and it also means messenger.  
2. Angels exist to do God's bidding, not that of mere humans.  For example, prior to the conquest of one of the cities of the holy promised land, Joshua sees one of these angels, who is dressed in battle gear.  Joshua drops down and asks him whose side he is on.  The angel's answer is that he is on no side, but is sent to do the Lord's bidding.
3. Angels seem to have frightening appearances.  Almost every time we come across an angel in the Bible, practically the first words out of their mouths are something like, "Do not be afraid."  
4. Angels tend to bring messages from God to specific people.  We have angels talking to people like Joshua, Mary, Joseph, Zechariah, and shepherds in a field.  In each of these instances, the angel has a specific message for the person/people and instructions from the Lord.

Are any of these new to you?  Have you given a lot of consideration to what angels are and what they do?  Since angels play an important role in the announcement of Jesus, and in His birth, we'll take a look at angels throughout this week.  Be ready to have some of your thoughts on angels challenged by what the Bible really says about them.

Candles: An Advent Tradition

Lots of people like candles.  These days, you can get candles of all shapes, sizes, and scents.  While in the past candles were used for light, these days candles are used for so many other reasons than to provide light.  In the time before electricity, the only real means of lighting a house after the sun had set was to use candles.

Candles have also played a fairly major role in the Christian church.  Many of the large cathedrals and churches in Europe were built prior to electric light, and so candles were used to light the sanctuary when people would gather for worship.  You could always know when a time of worship was being observed by the light filtering through the windows, cast from the many candles throughout the building.

As the church celebrates the season of Advent, we also make use of candles.  A traditional part of the season of Advent is the Advent wreath, in which four candles are placed around the outside, with a fifth candle at the middle of the wreath.  Three of the outer candles are purple, and one is pink.  The center candle is white.  While there are many explanations as to what the four candles symbolize, as well as their colors, the matter of importance for us is that the prepare us for the time when we light the central candle.

Why is the central candle so important?  In the Advent wreath, this candle is known as the Christ candle.  It is lit on the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  The other four candles are all in preparation for the time when we light the white central candle.  Just like the season of Advent is a time of seeing God's preparations for the birth of Jesus, the four other candles prepare us for our yearly celebration of Jesus' birth, which began His journey to the cross and the open tomb.

Starting the first week, one purple candle is lit.  The second week, an additional purple candle is lit.  On the third week, the two purple candles are lit along with the pink candle.  The fourth week, all four exterior candles are lit.  And then, on that holy day of Christmas, the entire wreath is lit up as the Christ candle shines its light, symbolic of Jesus, who is the light of the world.

If you don't already mark the season of Advent with an Advent wreath, maybe it's time to start seeing how God prepares us for our yearly celebration of Jesus' birth.  I encourage you to either buy an Advent wreath, or make your own. 

Advent, Christmas, and Traditions

If I were to simply ask how many of you are aware that we are in the season of the church year called Advent, how many would have a positive response?  If ever there was a season of the church year that seems to get overlooked, Advent would be that season.

Part of the reason for this lies in how many Christian churches approach the various seasons of the church year.  To many, following the seasons is too much like the "Catholic" way that so many broke away from in the 1500s.  Observance of seasons and the like are seen as remnants of the past, and tie the hands of their pastors too much in terms of what they would like to preach on.  So many Christian churches have simply dropped their observance of the various seasons that have traditionally been part of the church year.

We are also in a society that places far less emphasis on things Christian.  If you were not raised as a Christian, what would be the point of observing a season such as Advent?  In many ways, special holidays would be for others to observe, and so you might be ignorant of the fact that Christians celebrate specific holiday seasons.

And then, you get to the massive influence of marketing and economics.  Even as early as Halloween, Christmas things have started to appear in stores.  Once Thanksgiving passes, all restraint is released.  The blitz toward Christmas begins, and the whole focus is on getting those deals for those Christmas presents, even though Christmas is still four full weeks away.  So, from a marketing and economic standpoint, there is no point to Advent.

And yet, Advent remains a significant part of the church year.  For the Christian church, it is actually the beginning of a new year.  Since Christmas is the observance of Jesus' birth, we back up four weeks to see and hear about God's careful preparations for that birth.  That is what the season of Advent is all about.  It is about preparing for our celebration of the birth of Jesus by hearing about God's preparations for that birth.  In that time, we see God's patience as He arranged the world so that His own Son would be born at just the right time, in just the right place.

There are a number of traditions that are related to the season of Advent.  I'll be sharing a few of them over the next few days.

Recovering from Thanksgiving

I was perusing my facebook page updates, looking over the various things that my friends were putting as their statuses, when one caught my eye the other day.  It said something along the lines of, "Isn't it ironic that we Americans give thanks for what we have one day, and then the next day is dedicated to greed and getting more?"  That's not an exact quote, but the thought was very much along those lines.

That got me thinking.  How thankful are we really?  I realize that there are so many times that I take so many things for granted.  On "Black Friday", my wife and I stopped at Old Navy.  They had some jeans on sale, and I was in need of some new jeans.  I have two pairs that have the knees ripping out of them, and they could use replacing.  So we went in and found two pairs to replace the ones that I will have to get rid of.  Only, now as I sit back and think about it, I wonder how thankful I am, not only that I live in a country where you can get so many jeans for such cheap prices, but that I even have a single pair of jeans.

That seems to be the problem to trying to recover from Thanksgiving in this country.  We're immediately bombarded with the message that we now need more, and that the stores will graciously discount some of the things so that we can get them cheaper.  As I recover from Thanksgiving, I really do wonder: do I need this stuff?  Sure, it might be a great deal, but am I going to suffer without it?  Is it really necessary?  It may be a great deal, but I save even more money if I don't spend any on the thing in the first place!

The kind of recovery from Thanksgiving that I would truly love to have is one that reminds me that I have so much to be thankful for, and that I then become even more thankful for what God has given me.  Recovery isn't about wanting more just because it's discounted, but realizing that I have so much more to be thankful for, and then actually being thankful for it even more than I was before I thought about it.  That's the kind of recovery I'm going to aim for following this Thanksgiving.

Black Thursday/Friday

In some ways, I'm a bit of a traditionalist.  It just seems wrong to me that stores should start opening up late on Thanksgiving Day with their special "Black Friday" deals.  I know that more and more stores are staying open on holidays, and sometimes I have been thankful for that (especially when I've forgotten something for the meal!), but I still lament the fact that some people have to work while most of the rest of us take time to eat and be lazy.

So when I was hearing about all these stores opening up or starting their deals at times such as 10:00 PM on Thursday, I felt bad for a number of families.  How many people had to change their usual schedule of Thanksgiving simply because they had to work.  Granted, many of them may have been thankful for the extra hours, especially if they got holiday pay, since so many in our nation are now struggling to make ends meet.  I just find it sad that it comes at the cost of a time that is supposed to be dedicated to thankfulness and family.

Yes, my wife and I made our way to one of the local stores that started their deals at 10:00.  Really, there weren't that many things that we wanted.  In some ways, we really wanted to see what the crowds would be like.  And wow, were there ever crowds.  I have never seen that particular store as busy as it was at that time.  Even with our skills at finding the couple of things we were looking for and picking the short line, it still took about 45 minutes to get in and out. 

I recognize that many families need to look for good deals because money is tight.  But in the back of my mind, this whole Black Thursday/Friday thing seems much more about greed and covetousness than about saving money and being thankful.  It seems much more about profit and money than anything else.  And when Jesus said that a person cannot serve both God and money (mammon), I find it sad that so many people are bowing down to the almighty dollar.

Will it change?  I seriously doubt it.  When stores and businesses realize that there is money to be made, they will probably find it irresistible.  A few will probably try to hold out, only to realize that their profit margins start slipping, and then they have to fight for those customers.  But in the end, the thing that really seems to stand out in all of this is the love of the almighty dollar, and bowing down to false gods and idols of our own making.

Building Community

As I've let you know over the past few days, this is a new theme and challenge that I am taking up for myself.  Today, I want to focus for a moment on the second word of this theme: community.

What is a community?  In a very general sense, it is a gathering of people in some form.  I use this definition because you can have a local community made up of the people around you, or you can have a specialized community, such as a community of faith.  It doesn't merely have to be people in a physical proximity to one another, either.  I have a couple of online communities that I am part of.  I also have a community of runners, and a community of people at the gym, as well as a number of other smaller communities of which I am a part.

While there is some distinctiveness to each of these communities, one thing that they all have in common is people.  You simply do not have a community without people.  And so, as I am looking to be about the business of building community, that means that I am striving to bring something of value to that particular group or gathering of people of which I am a part.

That also means that there will be some specific things that will "build" each of those communities.  What would be needed in my local neighborhood would not be the same thing that would be needed with the runners that I know.  A community of faith may have significant differences in a community created around food.  In a way, this means that, if I am to build up each community that I am a part of, I have to know what particular skills or words or actions will serve to build up that community.

I know, it sounds like so much common sense.  However, I have seen it happen way too often that someone is part of several different type of communities, and yet they apply the same criteria for building up those different communities in all situations and circumstances.  While there may be a number of things that each community needs in common, very few communities are such that a one-size-fits-all approach will work.

A Couple of Thoughts on Building Community

A couple of days ago, I introduced something new that I see myself doing in life, "Building Community."  When you first read it, that may seem like a rather vague notion.  What do you do to build community?  Which community?  How do you build something that is a bit of a vague notion in the first place?  So today I wanted to think about those for a few moments.

I see several avenues of building community.  One is in the church that I am part of.  One thing that God makes very clear is that He wants His people constantly working on how they live their lives together.  We all have times where little squabbles break out, or where we want to see something done while another person wants something else done.  Being human, it means that we will inevitably sin against one another and hurt one another, and so those kind of things need to be dealt with.  That's one avenue.

Another one is simply being a good influence and participant with those people with whom I come in regular contact.  There are a number of places that I go to quite regularly, and I see some people in those places quite often.  Getting to know them, finding out what is important in their lives, and if there is anything of value that I can contribute to their lives are ways of building up community.

There may also be ways that I haven't previously thought of to be active and at work in the overall community in which I live.  Part of this challenge may be to identify areas of the community in which I can participate, and then find ways to interact with the people of the community to make it a better community.  Part of this involves the discovery of what needs to be done in the community, and then figuring out where my gifts, talents, and time could best be invested.

It's an adventure and a challenge.  As with so many things recently, it also reminds me that I cannot do all of this myself.  That's the critical thing about community.  Sometimes you even have to build up a community to support you in the various things that you seek to do on a personal level.  A challenge, yes.  But one that I really look forward to engaging in!

Building Community: My new personal theme

Every once in a while in life, I find myself in need of a new challenge.  There's a lot of regular stuff that happens in life, both at work and in my personal life, which just seems to be the same from week to week.  While it's nice to have a somewhat regular routine, there are also times when I need something to light a fire underneath me and give me something to work toward.

So over the past week or so, I've been giving a lot of thought to my new "challenge" to take up.  What I have come up with is the title of this blog entry: building community.  I have been seeing the need for something like this both from a professional and a personal standpoint in life, and so I am taking it up as my challenge.

So what does it look like to build community?  Well, that's the kind of question I will be trying to answer.  In some ways, it will shape how I approach my work.  I find that it's necessary to work intentionally on building community when it comes to God's people.  God doesn't put us alone in a vacuum when we become His child, but He instead puts us into a community of faith, the "body of Christ", to borrow from the Apostle Paul.  While that community does happen as a result of faith, it also takes work to connect the body to one another, and to discover how everyone interacts and works together and builds each other up.

I'm also looking at what that means for my personal life.  Maybe it will find some application in my running, as I regularly talk to a few people to get them excited about running, and maybe even will lead to the creation of a small running group (or at least a group that does a few races together!).  Maybe it will find a place in my love for playing board games.  I'm not exactly sure, but I do know that it gives me something to think about and strive for, which I have found to be an essential part of my life.

Being Noticed

"Thanks for noticing me."  Eeyore

"Let the one who is taught share all good things with the one who teaches."  St. Paul

I have to admit that there are a lot of things that I do in life that very few other people ever notice.  In some cases, I really don't want or expect to be noticed for them.  An example of this is when I change one of the candles at my church every Saturday morning.  It's a small task, and one that relatively few people notice when we worship, but I just enjoy doing it.

However, there are also times when I do something and hope that other people will notice.  It's not necessarily that I need an ego boost or something like that, but that it's just nice when it gets noticed.  When I cook a nice meal for my wife, or when I do some of my regular chores around the house, it's nice for me when she notices and tells me that she appreciates what I do.  (I should also remark that she does this quite often and quite well!)

I believe that we all want to be noticed at certain times in life.  Maybe it's for something that we do, or maybe it's because that person is very important to us.  We may not even want to be noticed ourselves, but sometimes we only want others to notice what we did.  Hearing a word of appreciation for how clean the kitchen floor is may be just the thing that we want noticed, rather than personal notice for ourselves. 

Since God created us to be in community with one another, noticing each other and the contributions that each of us bring to the community are important parts of our life together.  When we do as Paul wrote and share good things with one another, we notice them as people.  We notice that they are important to us.  When we do this, we also notice that they play an important role in our life.  This makes our life together very personal, and shows us the importance of being in the community and being a part of the community.

Who can you notice or share something with today that just might be waiting to be noticed?

How literal are you?

"It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"  Jesus

How literally do you take people when they talk to you?  How literal do you tend to be when you talk?  I've had a number of occasions over the years that have made me think about how we often use words that carry different meanings, and how much we say things that we don't mean to be taken extremely literally.

For example, this morning my wife finished with her shower, dried off, and then commented to me that she forgot to turn the thermostat up for some warmer air.  I happened to be lying in bed at that time, and I continued to do so.  A few moments later, she asked me specifically if I would go turn up the thermostat so that she wouldn't be cold.  As I thought about it, she didn't literally ask me to turn up the heat when she made her first comment, but it seems that her intent was for me to go do that.  However, literal me took her statement as merely a statement, which meant that I waited until she literally asked me to go turn up the heat.

This seems to be something we do quite a bit.  We'll say something and hope that the other person responds, even though we may not have asked them to do something specifically.  A comment like "The trash is overflowing" is far different from "Will you take the trash out?"  If we look at the first one literally, there is only a statement of fact.  The second one is the one that contains a specific request in it.

In my line of work, I have encountered something like this that comes up with some degree of regularity.  A person or a group of people want something specific of me, but, rather than directly approaching with what they want, they drop a few hints about what they want, and hope that I will catch on.  That kind of approach leaves all sorts of room for misunderstanding and confusion.  I have become convinced that a more direct approach, a more literal one, clears up potential confusion.

Yet, when it comes to matters of faith, we can also have a difficult time with this whole literal or not discussion.  Take the verse that I listed at the top.  How literally do we take this?  If we take it completely literally, all followers of Jesus "live" by every word that comes from the mouth of God.  Does this mean that we, in a literal sense, eat the pages of the Bible?  Not only are they not very nutritional, but the ink might cause problems.  Is it merely a figure of speech?  How literally we take words such as these determines much about what we think about God and life.

Personal Growth

There are times where I wish I could be like Jesus, knowing everything, having everything under my control and direction, and knowing exactly what to do and say at the proper time.  But I have been repeatedly reminded in life that I am not that all-knowing, or perfect, and that there are many times where I mess up, sometimes in a rather large way.

This is the case for every single one of us human beings who inhabit this earth.  And what this means is that we all have room to grow.  Some of us are really good at task items, while being somewhat deficient at people skills (or vice versa).  Some of us are really good with planning, and others are really good at following through.  Some of us are really great at listening, and others are really good at prodding others on to something more or better. 

It's very rare to find someone who does all things well.  In fact, in the history of the world, only one person/being has ever NOT had room to grow, that being Jesus.  This means that every single one of us has things about us which would greatly benefit us and others if we would put a little work in on improving those.

For me, personally, one of my areas for growth is in interacting with, listening to, and being in touch with people.  Because God has made me with what I consider to be a fairly good mind, I naturally find myself gravitating toward study and learning, books rather than people.  At times, I have realized that this tendency has had an effect on people, who may see me as somewhat stand-offish or lacking people skills.

Over the years, I have made various attempts to grow in this area.  One of my favorite books is written by Dale Carnegie quite some time ago, entitled "How to Win Friends and Influence People."  I typically read this book 1-2 times each year as a reminder of my need to grow in how I interact with others, and to also give me reminders of how I can go about that.

I honestly don't know that I will ever become a completely people oriented person.  In some ways, I am thankful for that, since that doesn't seem to be where God has gifted me.  At the same time, I also recognize that it will be a lifelong effort to keep that reminder that people are important, and that I need to grow in how to interact with them.

Picking up the phone

One of the things that I have realized about myself over the years is that I almost always need to have a reason or purpose for doing something.  The good thing is, if you can convince me that there is a good reason to do something, I'm likely to be swayed.  It also helps keep me focused on what needs to be done, and gives purpose to the things I do.

However, this need for purpose can sometimes keep me from doing some things that would be great to do.  For example, one area of my life where I struggle is simply calling people to see how they are.  I often fail to pick up the phone and call someone because it seems so trite to just say, I was thinking about you and wondering how you are.  I feel that I have to have a reason to call, whether to set up a time to visit together, or to see about something getting done.  Simply picking up the phone to be in touch with someone seems, well, purposeless.

But I have started to change my way of thinking about this.  Over the past few months, I've actually tried simply calling people just to see how they were doing, or just to talk to them for a few minutes.  And in the process, I've come to realize that this, also, has a purpose.  Building up relationships and developing connections with people is always good.  And discovering this has led to a change in my way of thinking about picking up the phone.

I will probably never be the best at simply calling up someone to shoot the breeze.  I'll probably always feel that I need to have a purpose to make that call.  But, as I think about being a person who builds up the community, suddenly picking up the phone is something that has meaning and purpose.  And I really hope that it leads to me doing this more and more in the future.  So don't be surprised if one day I suddenly give you a call, and have nothing more in mind than just saying "Hi!"

One more thought on Justice and Mercy

On Monday, I presented a scenario in which your kid has been stopped by the police for shoplifting.  I want to change that scenario a bit for today as we continue to think about justice and mercy.

Your kid was once again stopped at the door for shoplifting, and the police are involved.  Let's say that it was for a game that your kid has really wanted for his/her gaming system, but cost too much, and you as the parent thought it was too violent for them to have.  So you are once again on your way over to see what needs to be done.

When you approach your kid, he/she tells you that they really wanted the game, and that they knew there was no other way that they were ever going to get it.  There's a hint of remorse there (maybe only from getting caught, but you aren't sure), but there's also a bit of defiance involved.  He/she knew you didn't approve of this game, and not only did they seek to get the game, but to do it in an illegal way.

What is the appropriate balance of justice and mercy here?  Obviously, there needs to be some form of consequence.  This child did something knowingly that was wrong and against your wishes.  At the same time, there is also a degree of recognition that he/she was wrong, and a bit of remorse.  In this situation, what is the balance of justice and mercy?

This is where things get tricky for us as humans.  I would dare say that there is not a blanket, one-size-fits-all balance.  Balancing justice and mercy in this situation depends on how you know your kid.  This may be the first time your kid has ever tried something like this, so you may think that it's appropriate to nip this in the bud, so you choose to be heavy on the justice aspect.  Or, you may know that your kid will be very humiliated to have been caught breaking the law, and that the damage to his/her reputation may be fairly significant in his/her life, so you show more mercy.  On the other hand, this may be something that isn't unique in the kid's life, and so it's time to show that justice has a great price for breaking the law.  Or your kid may be defiant about it, in which case a greater dose of justice may be called for.

The thing I most want to point out in this situation is that it requires knowing your child to know what will be appropriate and effective.  That's the thing with justice and mercy.  In many cases, the balance of these two depends on how you know the other person.  While it may be the case that there are some common points in which justice needs to be administered (he/she did, after all, break the law by stealing), the balance of mercy and justice depends greatly on how well you know your child, and what affects them the most.

This places a great deal of responsibility on all of us.  It means that we probably are not the best ones to determine the balance of justice and mercy on those that we don't know.  But it also means that, if we want to have the right balance toward the people we know in our lives, we need to take the time to get to know them, so we know what will be best in our connection with them.

The differences between justice and mercy

Justice and mercy are two words that really intrigue me a lot.  We seem to want these, though we tend to want them on somewhat of a situational basis.  When someone wrongs us, we want justice, and we want it now!  But when we are the one who did the wrong, we really hope that the other person responds to us in mercy, and may actually get upset if they call for justice.

The balance of these two is difficult, both in the lives we live as we encounter other people, but also when it comes to our faith in God, and in what God has done for us in Jesus and the cross.  In our own lives, we may wonder if we should demand justice in a certain situation, or if we should show mercy.  And maybe a small illustration will help us as we consider this.

Let's say you are a parent.  Your child calls you up one afternoon because he/she has been caught stealing a movie from a local electronic store.  For the moment, this is all you know.  What are your initial reactions?  We might be angry at the child.  After all, we taught him/her that stealing is wrong.  Even as we get into our car to go over and pick this child up, we may be thinking about the appropriate punishment and consequences to their actions.

Now, here is where I could ask this question.  How many of us would first of all think about showing mercy to the child?  Would we think that, even if things are as bad as we are thinking, we should show him/her mercy for this trouble?  Probably not.  We think that they should know better, and so it seems that some justice is called for.

So we get to the store.  There's your kid, talking to an office who was called in by the store.  What is going to be your first reaction to your child?  Anger, because he/she should know better?  Anger because they got the police involved?  Anger because it reflects badly on you?  Anger because you had to take time from other things to come get this situation taken care of? 

So you go over to get to the bottom of the story.  That's when the officer says that they've gotten to the bottom of the problem.  It seems that a couple of your child's friends tried to play a joke on your kid, and put the movie into his backpack while they were in the store.  He/she didn't know it was there, and then, when leaving the store, the alarms went off.  The other kids had already left, which left your kid there to take the full brunt of the situation.  They've looked at the video and seen that your child didn't do anything wrong. 

I think most of us would agree that punishment and consequences would not be called for in this situation (at least, not for your kid, but maybe for the others).  We would probably want justice to be served now on behalf of our kid.  And tomorrow, I'll dive a little deeper into this whole situation.  But as I close today, just a couple of quick thoughts.

First, why do we typically assume guilt before innocence? 
Next, why is anger typically a first response when something doesn't go the way we want or hope for?
Another one: what would justice look like in this situation for your kid?
Final one: would you apologize to your kid for assuming that he/she was guilty, even though you may not have said anything to them about it?

The Importance of Connection

Many of you know that I love to read.  And recently, I read a book by John Maxwell called "Everyone Communicates: Few Connect".  In some ways, this was a challenging book for me.  Being a person who loves to read, and who delights in thinking about things and figuring out things and new approaches, I sometimes lose the people element.

That's why this was a challenging book for me.  In my chosen career, connecting with people is vitally important.  While it is important to know things such as what the Bible says and how my particular church body understands what the Bible says, connecting people to God and to Jesus is what is most important.  It's not a lot of good to know a whole lot of stuff if you never connect with others, so that they see the importance of those things.

In particular, Maxwell pointed out one area in which I have a lot of room to grow.  He makes the assertion that, in order to really connect, you have to understand what the people with whom you are trying to connect really need.  You have to understand people and what their needs are before you can effectively connect with them.

This is where connecting and communicating are two different things.  Everyone communicates.  If my wife tells me something and my response is a frown, I have communicated.  The problem is, I haven't connected.  Or, if I'm watching TV and try to have a conversation with my wife in the other room, we may be communicating, but we probably aren't connecting very well.  And that is the point that Maxwell makes.

Connecting involves getting to know people, finding out what their needs are, and then working to ensure that communication takes place in such a way that it fits what they need.  He uses a lot of examples from his life as a speaker to point these out, and even indicates that it was something that he had to grow into.  And that is where I realize that this book is good news for me.  These kind of things do not come naturally.  I have to work at them.  And as I work at them, it seems a good possibility that I will improve at them.

The master of communicating and connecting is Jesus.  His message of hope and grace, or of warning and consequence, happened to be exactly what those listening to Him needed to hear.  Even from a physical standpoint, when Jesus would heal, He would heal exactly what was needed and exactly when it was needed.  That message of good news is one that all people of this would need to hear.  And that is why Maxwell's book has stuck with me.  I would actually suggest reading it, especially if you find that you don't seem to have good connections with people in your life.

Remembering those before us

There is a somewhat unknown holy day that many Christians observe, but which does not get the attention of most people like Christmas and Easter do.  It's celebrated every November 1 as a day called All Saints' Day.  This is a day where Christians remember those who have lived before them, who shared their faith, and who have now gone on to receive their eternal inheritance from God through Jesus' sacrifice for them.

In some respects, this is a rather solemn day.  After all, on it, we give thought to those who have died before us, especially when we remember people who were close to us.  This may even give us pause to remember the grief of their loss in our lives, as we think about how much we miss them.

Yet, this special holy day is also one that demonstrates the distinctiveness of the Christian faith.  We may mourn their loss, and we may miss them, but the assurance that we have is that our faith and theirs guarantees that we will see each other again, when Jesus raises all the dead, and gives eternal life to all who believe in what He has done for them.  It is a sad occasion, and yet, it is one that is filled with hope and future joy.

While we may be reminded of that every year on November 1, one of the great realities for us Christians is that we have that same hope every day of our lives.  We have a future with our God!  We will see those loved ones who have gone before us in faith!  That is why we can have joy even in the midst of our sorrow and grief.  And that is all possible because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and resurrection from the dead.  Thanks be to God, through Jesus!

Halloween, Reformation, Saints, and the End of October

Most of you probably know October 31 by the day of Halloween.  For many of my faith tradition, we also know this day as Reformation Day.  It's a day that carries a great deal of significance toward understanding God and His actions in this world, and in some ways, observes a day that had a great deal of influence in shaping the world we know today.

In ancient days, November 1 was set aside as a day to remember those who had died.  For Christians, this day was one in which those who had died in faith would be remembered.  They had received the inheritance of their faith: eternal life with God because they had been forgiven through Jesus and the cross.  So the day was called All Saints Day, as God's people would remember those who had gone on in faith before them.

Several traditions sprung up from that.  In many towns and villages, the night before, a person or two would dress up as a devil or demon, and the townspeople would chase that devil or demon out of town.  They would then be rewarded for doing this.  (I'm sure you can see how this would later on lead to the current observance of Halloween, with people dressing up and looking for treats.)

For Christians, November 1 would be a very high celebration day.  Special worship times were set aside to remember God's promises of grace and forgiveness, and many would gather for those times of worship.  So, in the early 1500's, when a young monk by the name of Martin Luther wanted to initiate some discussion on the teachings and practices of the church, he went to the door of the local church in Wittenberg, Germany, to post his 95 different thoughts, or theses, upon which he desired discussion.

That began a movement that has had both good and bad repercussions.  On the one hand, Luther and a number of his colleagues wanted to get back to what the Bible said about God, Jesus, and salvation, rather than things that were decided by group vote at council-type meetings.  The message of Good News that God gave in the Bible should be the focus, they maintained.  This led to a movement to look to the Bible for the truth, rather than other places.

On the other hand, though, it created a great rift between people who held to the Christian faith.  Some people were kicked out of the church at that time, which led to their gatherings being separate from other Christians.  Over time, those differences have led to more and more "splinter groups" of Christians, forming what are the many denominations, each of which have different understandings of what God says in the Bible, and how it impacts our life.

For those of my tradition, who have Luther's name attached to our churches, and who study his thoughts in how to understand the Bible, October 31 has always been a special day.  It is the day that essentially started the whole Reformation process.  That's why, in Lutheran churches throughout the world, special times of worship were held yesterday or today which remember those events that have given shape and form to how we understand God and His work.

A few last thoughts on character

I've really enjoyed putting these blog posts about character together.  It's helped shape a few things in my mind, and I hope for all of you who have been reading that it has done the same for you.

As we seek to grow and adopt the kind of character that is spoken of throughout the Bible and that we want to have as part of our lives, we also have to come to grips with the fact that we will never fully achieve this.  The sinful nature in our lives simply does not permit us to always do everything in the way we want, or in good ways.  I would actually argue that part of our character development is learning how to "own up" to those times when we fail, learning how to admit to others that we were wrong, and then asking for forgiveness and seeking to change (especially if it's a recurring problem or sin). 

Another thing we have to face is that developing character will often leave scars behind.  One TV show that I regularly watch usually opens and closes with sayings that pertain to the topic of the show.  One in particular has stuck with me for a long time.  It says "Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars."  (Quote is by Kalil Gibran)  What it seems that he is saying here is that we won't grow our characters by hiding in safe places.  It is by being put into the new, the uncomfortable, the challenging, where we will encounter growth.  It doesn't take a lot of character to keep doing the same things over and over again.  It does take and develop great character to try new things, to stretch yourself in ways that you could not have imagined. 

All of this also takes a great deal of courage.  Courage is not the absence of fear, but is more like staring fear in the face and going ahead with what you were doing anyway.  We discover the strength that God has given us when we put ourselves in new situations and seek to grow.  (Would you be surprised to know that this also has the potential to grow us in our trust in God as the One who cares for us and provides for and protects us?) 

In all of these things, we can also rest completely assured that, when we fail, or when we falter, or when we plain just don't want to, the relationship of forgiveness that God has for us does not change.  How well or poorly we may do in changing our character still does not change our relationship with the forgiving God.  He who begun the good work in us is also the only one who can bring it to completion, and He will do that on the day when Christ once again appears and claims His own to be with Him forever.  This gives us courage and the strength to take those chances, to step forth in courage. 

Thanks for listening to my thoughts on character.  I look forward to the next series and seeing what your thoughts are!

Shaping Character in a Desirable Way

"So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the prophets."  Jesus

As I have been thinking about this topic of character over the past couple of weeks, I've been led more and more to the thought that our character is shaped to a great degree in how we interact with others.  While we would all love to just be given a good character, the reality is that the development of a good character involves a good bit of work and a great deal of consideration for others.

Or maybe a better way to say it is something along the lines of what Jesus said in the quote above.  If you do to other people what you want them to do to you, the likelihood is that you will have a good character.  If you want people to treat you kindly and with respect, it's a good idea to treat them kindly and with respect.  If you want them to think less of you, then simply think less of them.  In the grand scheme of things, how we interact with and treat others will invariably become the way that they interact with and treat us.

This is by no means a guarantee.  I'll use a personal example.  I generally try to be good-natured and good humored around others.  I'll try to greet them with a smile and say something uplifting to them, or ask how they are doing.  But there are always those who will seem like they just want you to leave them alone.  They brush you off, or ignore you, or just kind of grunt back at you and move on.  In that case, it's likely that your character, at least in their eyes, is less than desirable.

But overall, I really do believe that Jesus knows what He is talking about here.  Our character is going to be defined by how we interact with and treat others.  If we think that we are better than other people, or that we deserve more than they do, that's just going to come across, and will affect our character in their eyes.  If we are humble toward others, if we listen to them, if we show a genuine interest in their life, that also will come across and affect our character in their eyes. 

Our character is shaped by the way we are toward others.  And wouldn't you know that God knew that all along?

For whom do we have good character?

Please forgive the absence of the last couple of days.  A more full schedule, along with a little forgetfulness, will go a long way toward the lack of posts that sometimes comes up.

As we've been looking at character, the next arena of character I want to enter into is that which thinks about for whom we have good character.  When we strive to have "good" character, who do we see as the recipient of this character?

Naturally, our first place to look will always be at ourselves.  We want to be known for our good character because it enhances our reputation.  We want to feel good about ourselves, and the things we accomplish.  We want to be known as someone who keeps our word, or who is helpful.  Very few of us strive to be known as selfish, or to be arrogant, or mean, or other character qualities that we may tend to view more unfavorably.

But looking at that previous paragraph, notice that, while we want these things for ourselves, they really involve how others see us.  That means that our character is going to end up being defined by how we act toward and treat other people.  If we want to be known as "good", then we'll have a hard time living up to that character if we are not good to others.  If we want to be known as generous, it will be hard if we never give of our our time or resources to help others.

In other words, a significant part of our character is going to be determined by how we see others and what we do for them and to them.  We don't have "good" character for ourselves.  We have good character when we are truly good to others.  In fact, the way that it works, when we are good to others, then we will become known for our good character.  The reverse just doesn't happen.  We aren't known for being good, and then decide to do good to others.

I recognize that you can probably find a number of characteristics that may not exactly fit this.  Yet, every characteristic is somehow going to involve others, even if it is merely how we appear to others.  (For example, a shy person may not interact much with others, but even that lack of interaction involves the lack of others, which other people notice.) 

So when we think about the kind of characteristics we want to be known for, we would be wise to look at how we interact with others to see if those characteristics are being made clear.  After all, character is formed to a great degree in the eyes of those whom God has put around us.

Character: Good or Bad? Who Decides?

Up to this point in this series on character, I've been treating the thought that character is a neutral thing.  In other words, we come to be known for certain things in our lives, which define our character.  From that standpoint, character is neutral.  To use an example I have been using throughout, we avoid conflict, or we find some level of comfort in dealing with conflict.  In and of itself, our reaction is neutral.

However, when we look at the character of others, or even our own, or when others see our character, we tend to label that character as good or bad.  We might say that the person who avoids conflict has bad character, whereas the one who deals with it is good (and the one who seeks out conflict because they enjoy it, well, many would probably say that's bad, too).  But here is the question for today.  How do we determine what kind of character is good and what is bad?

Quite often, I believe that we do this based upon our own character.  In my ongoing example, a family that has developed and avoids conflict would probably find someone who is comfortable with it as bad, especially should that person point out an area or two where this family perhaps should talk about their differences, and not merely avoid them.  On the other hand, a family that develops their ways of dealing with conflict might seem bad to a person who was taught to avoid conflict.  That might seem overly stressful.  And many others might look at the person that seems to seek out conflict and think it's bad that this person never can seem to let anything go, but seems to have to make their point at almost everything that comes along.

But is there a better place to look than our own personal experience when it comes to defining what good character is, and what constitutes bad character?  I would suggest that we look to the God who made all things, which includes us, and includes not only our character, but who knows what perfect character is.  And yet, I have to admit that even this can be somewhat confusing.  After all, we might look at different places in, say, Proverbs in the Bible, and we see that it says things like "so quit before a quarrel breaks out" (Proverbs 17:14) and "whoever heeds reproof is prudent" (Proverbs 15:5), and we may wonder, which is better, to avoid the conflict, or to engage in it to better the person? 

I would suggest that God actually intends something even greater than mere specific verses to apply to any particular situation.  When it comes to defining "good" character or "bad", I would suggest that character which demonstrates love for one's neighbor would be "good" character.  And that is not always a cut and dried thing.  Sometimes it's more loving to pass over something that causes conflict, perhaps like a minor thing that is a one time occurrence.  At other times, it's more loving to speak up to the person, especially if the thing they are doing is hurtful to themselves or others.  Love for our neighbor, and not something from our own selfish desires, probably should be the criteria for determining if character is good or bad.

We'll talk more on this subject on Monday.  In the meantime, have a blessed day of worship tomorrow!

A Changing Character: Dealing with Doubters

Okay, so you have identified something about yourself, some characteristic, that you want to change.  You spend the time learning how to change, working on the change.  You fight through the setbacks and start to intentionally bring out the characteristic you want to be known for.  However, that's when you start to hit another obstacle: other people's expectations.

We as humans do not change quickly, and that goes for how we perceive others when they change.  We think that they will always be the same person that we have known.  So, when someone does something differently, the first few times, we may be somewhat surprised at them, but figure that they will go back to normal before too long.  Then, if they persist in the new character for a while, we find ourselves in an uncomfortable position, that of having to change our view and thoughts of them.

That change does not happen easily.  If you talk to the family of an alcoholic, one of the toughest tasks for the recovering person is having others change their expectations and behaviors.  In so many ways, we sort of form ourselves around that person's behavior or character, and then, when they change, we have a lot of things that have to change as well.  But we may not want to change.  It's easier to hope that the other person will change back to what they were before.

How do you deal with these, for lack of a better word, doubters?  That can be tough, especially since some of them are likely ones that you look to for support in the change.  Helping them to see your seriousness in changing can help.  Share with them the things that they do which hinder your change, and emphasize how important it is to you that they do this with you.  These are truly some of the ways that we show love and care for others.

This time may seem the most difficult to the person who is trying to make the character change.  It can truly seem like the whole world is against you, even those who are close to you.  I have a thought that this may be the kind of suffering and endurance that Paul was talking about when he said that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character.  So my encouragement is to hang in there, and work with those in your life who may be your support, but also some of your greatest challenges.

Developing Character: When Failure Strikes

You really want to change something about yourself, some character trait that you just plain don't like.  So you take a little time to learn how to go about the change, and then you start trying to do things differently.  Maybe you have a few times where you are able to do the new thing you want, but you find yourself plagued by the desire to just do what seems to come naturally.  You might even find that you do slip back into what you've always done before, and you end up kicking yourself for not being stronger, or for your failure.

Trying to change a pattern or habit is very difficult.  It gets much harder when it comes to something that we seem to be "wired" for.  Over the past few days, I've been using the example of someone who has the characteristic of avoiding conflict, but who wants to learn how to actually engage in it constructively. 

So this is how today's thought applies.  You've learned a few things about how to handle conflict constructively.  You've even found a few times to try out what you have learned, and they didn't go badly.  In a way, you may have been surprised that things actually worked, though you have to admit that your stomach was churning the whole time.  You were really nervous, and you thought that it might go away after one or two successful times.  But you still find your stomach in knots when you think about confronting something in a conflict situation.

So then it happens.  You give in to that feeling.  Rather than engage in the conflict that comes your way, you avoid it.  You give in to the other person, even though you know it's wrong.  Now you feel like a failure in addition to your fear of conflict.  All your work and preparation seems for naught.  You may even start to think that you should just give up.

For some reason, we humans have a tendency to think that, if we don't do something perfectly the first time, that we should just give up.  And yet, that is a completely false thought.  None of us are able to do things well without working on them or practicing them.  Even people who seem to have natural talents in areas have to work to further develop those skills.  And the same thing goes with changing our character.

I would argue that this is where the help and support of another person or other people is vital.  God did not make us to go through things alone, but gave us a community in order to give strength and support.  It's only our stubborn pride which thinks that we can do it all by ourselves.  And quite often, just knowing that we have others to help makes it a little less difficult to bring about that change in life.

So, back to the example.  You go ask two of your friends if they will help you by keeping you accountable when it comes to learning how to deal with the conflicts that arise in your life.  They agree to ask you how you responded, and maybe even to walk you through how the discussion might go.  They will also be there to understand when you fail to live up to the new standard you are trying to create, but will also not just let you get away with it. 

Believe it or not, sometimes just knowing that you will have to tell someone else about your encounter gives you the courage to press forward.  It might actually be easier to go through the confrontation rather than have to let your friends know that you failed.  Bringing others in to give you help and assistance does not take away the possibility of failure, but can give you the means and motivation to make the changes that you are after.

Dealing With Unsatisfying Characteristics

We've heard the expressions before.  "You can't teach an old dog new tricks."  "A leopard doesn't change its spots."  These expressions seem to indicate that it is impossible for us to change who we are.  The claim they make is that we are static beings, that, once we have come to have certain characteristics, they simply cannot be changed.

You might guess that I disagree with this, and you would be right.  I do believe that it is possible for us to change our character.  However, I also will acknowledge that this will likely prove very difficult to do.  Yesterday, I used the example of someone who naturally runs from and avoids conflict.  And I'll stick with that example to describe what I'm thinking today.

Let's say that you were raised in a way to avoid conflict, for whatever reason.  And yet, you find that this character trait isn't helping you in situations you come across in life.  So you want to change.  You want to get more comfortable and able to deal with conflict situations.  So what do you do?

Well, you've already done the first thing that is necessary.  You've realized what your character is.  You have come to know who you are (and believe me, it seems that I know a lot of people who don't really know who they are.).  You are able to see something in you that you are unhappy with, and you've taken the next step toward wanting to change that character trait.

So, you decide to work on your ability to be a steady presence in conflict.  You discover some of the many curricula or books out there which teach some of these skills.  You work through the workshop, or you read the book.  You discover great ideas on what do to do.

Now, at this point, our human nature may want to stop.  We've learned more, and for some reason, we tend to think that knowledge will suddenly make everything better.  But you find that, even though you know more about dealing with conflict, when someone says or does something with which you disagree, you still find that you want to close up and avoid rocking the boat.

Knowledge is merely a step along the way of change.  In fact, I would say that the next part is the hardest.  You have to start trying out what you have learned.  An opportunity arises for you to practice what you have learned, and, if you are serious about changing who you are, you have to be bold and courageous and actually start doing things differently.

When you try to do that the first time, you will probably learn a lot about yourself.  Very likely, you'll be relieved to get through the situation as quickly as possible.  In fact, it might be a success that you actually said something, where you would have kept quiet in the past.  That might be enough for a good first time.  Then, the next time, you might try to explain why you think the thing you are standing up for is right.  Don't get me wrong, you'll probably still need a Tums afterward, but you have started learning how to actually do something in a different way, and are working on changing your character.

It would be nice if this were a smooth, easy process, right?  Tomorrow I'll talk a little bit about failures and what they mean as we try to grow or change our character.

When life throws you lemons...sometimes you just get sour

Let's face it, we all have character flaws.  They are those little parts of us which we are not proud of, and which we would much rather have go away.  However, we have found that no amount of wishing them away or trying to battle them has completely overcome them.  They just seem to be a part of who we are.

Once again, in this talk about character, I'm using character as a neutral kind of thing.  Character is what we are known for.  One person is known to avoid conflict, while another almost seems to take a perverse joy in seeking it out.  While we might look at one as better than the other, the reality is that our response becomes part of our character.  And there are times where we really wish our character could be different.

Let's take my illustration from the previous paragraph.  Let's say that I am a person who avoids conflict.  This could be for a number of reasons.  It may be that I grew up in a family that made it a habit to avoid talking about difficult issues, or the theme of my family may have been "don't rock the boat."  While these may have shaped my character to avoid conflict, it's very likely that there would be times in my life where I would really wish that I had the courage to stand up for something, or to address someone in something that I know is wrong. 

Now, in this situation, I could recognize that my character is to avoid conflict.  However, wanting things to be different is likely not going to suddenly make things different.  It would take major work and effort to bring about that kind of character change, and very likely, that initial character will always be present, no matter how much I may learn how to deal with conflict, or to see the need for it, or even develop tools to be better equipped for it.  In all likelihood, my initial response will probably always be a bit of a recoil.

A vital part of our character development happens when we encounter negative experiences in life.  We may become bitter, or fearful, or we may try to overcompensate by going in the opposite direction.  And when we look back on it later in life, we may wish that we had developed different characteristics at a younger age. 

So what do you do when you come to a point of wanting to change your character?  Tune in tomorrow for a few thoughts on that!

Character: in good times or bad?

I apologize for not getting a blog post up on Saturday, as I was dealing with an illness.  Though you have probably noticed by now that my character is not such that I consistently hit my goal of blogging 6 times a week. 

Last week, I ended by asking if character is something we are born with, or something that develops through life experience.  You may recall that I believe it's a little bit of both, that we have certain things that we are born with, and that we can grow in character through life experience as well.  So today, I want to look a little bit at the growth of character as we experience life.

If I were to ask you what some of the most influential experiences have been which have made you who you are today, would they consist of mostly good events or bad events in life?  As I look back at a number of different things that have shaped my character, I tend to find that those elements developed as a result of events that tended to be more difficult.  Don't get me wrong, I believe that good events can help shape our character, too.  However, it does seem that character is built most when we find ourselves tested.

The apostle Paul also seemed to note this.  Romans 5:3-4 states that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character.  When we are challenged in life, we tend to discover who we are.  When trials come upon us, we discover much about ourselves.  Sometimes what we discover is good.  Sometimes we don't like what we discover, and so we make an intentional effort to make a change.

Once again, I'd like to point out that these trials and challenges reveal our character, which consists of what we are known for.  Someone who encounters a challenge in life and runs from it finds that the challenge reveals the characteristic of flight.  On the other hand, another person might encounter that challenge, and then strive to bring good out of the situation, regardless of how difficult that might be.  The challenge reveals the characteristic of fight.  This is not to say that one is better than the other, but that, in both situations, the challenge revealed the character of the person.

How have bad events or experienced shaped your character?  Well, they don't always do so in ways that we are proud of.  So tomorrow, I'll look a little bit at that. 

How do you build character?

Yesterday I kicked off a blog series talking about character.  I'm finding that the discussion on character is very interesting, and wanted to put a few thoughts out there about how you build up character in life.

I've heard and read two different "theories" about character development.  The first one says that you are born with your character, or at least, the foundation is there before you ever start working on it.  This theory would say that we are born with certain fundamental personality aspects that will simply build up over time as we grow.  For example, a person whose character can be defined as trustworthy is someone who was born with some kind of leaning or gift in that direction.

The second theory about character development says that character aspects are nurtured and grown through life experience.  What you are taught as you grow up, the various experiences in life, and your willingness to learn and adapt shape your character as you grow.  For example, that same person with the character trait of trustworthiness becomes so because he learns that being trustworthy is preferable to being untrustworthy, he finds himself in situations that reinforce that, and so these experiences shape his character.

Personally, I see a little bit of each of these at work in shaping our character.  God creates each of us unique, which means that we each have a distinct personality and character that God has put inside of us as we were conceived and born.  However, the experiences that we face in life help to either build upon that character, or work to alter it as we go through life.  A person whom God created as a very caring, trustworthy person may find herself in a situation where she experiences abuse, and so she finds it difficult to trust others, even though she may really want to.  Her care for others is influenced by the lack of care she has experienced in life, and without someone there to develop that character trait, she may find it challenging to care for others, especially if she has had that character trait used against her.

On the other hand, you can take someone who doesn't seem very caring, and then introduce them into a situation where the need for care becomes very apparent.  A person who finds his parents suddenly disabled in a car accident may suddenly discover that caring is something that he needs to do, regardless of how intuitively it may come to him.  By caring for his parents, he learns how to care for others, and that experience shapes his character, even if such caring does not come easily to him.

It would seem that the ideal would be to nurture those character traits which God gives us in our nature, and to let our life experience nurture them to even greater levels.  (As an aside, this is one reason why I believe that everyone should be open to new situations and trying something that you've never done before.  You never know how much such an experience will shape you, and how it will help sharpen your character as you endure through it.)  When a person has the gift of caring, and then puts herself in a situation where she can demonstrate that care, she will likely find even greater ways of enhancing that character. 

Just a few thoughts from me.  Feel free to let me know if you agree, disagree, or just have a few thoughts to share!

Character, godliness, and integrity

"More than that, we know that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope."  Romans 5:4-5

I've been doing a bit of reading on the topic of character lately.  It's also been a topic which I have been talking about with others in my life.  And so, for a little while, I'm going to focus on a few things involving character on this blog.  So please stick with me, and feel free to offer feedback, share thoughts, and even correct me if/when I may step out of line.

How do you recognize character in a person?  Well, perhaps the first step to that is to discover what we mean by character.  In my mind, that's not the easiest thing to do.  We have characters in a play, characters in movies, we call people who act out or have distinctive personalities "characters".  So what do we really mean by this word?

Part of my reflections on this word character involve coming up with what I mean when I use it.  So for the purposes of clarity in future blog posts, this is what I will mean when I use the word.  Character is the distinctiveness and uniqueness of an individual which is observed over time.  Okay, let me explain that a little bit.

Every one of us has certain things that we will tend to do with a degree of regularity.  These come to define who we are as a person.  This is not to say that a particular characteristic is good or bad, it is to say that this comes to define who we are as a person.  For example, I might know a person who regularly goes out of his way to help others.  That would be part of that person's character.  I might know another person who lies every time he gets caught doing something.  Again, that's part of that person's character.  While the action which defines the person may be good or bad, right or wrong, the idea of character is neutral in itself.  In other words, it shows what makes that person distinctive and unique, regardless of whether the action is right or wrong.

Now, I understand that we tend to use the word character in a more positive sense.  When someone stands up to others for what is right, we say that person has character.  When someone endures consequences for doing the right thing, we say that person has character.  While I will not disagree with these kind of statements, I would also argue that the person who regularly lies in certain situations is also demonstrating character.  That person is living up to the thing that makes him distinctive and unique.

For my last point today, I will say that character can be either good or bad.  The person who has a tendency to tell the truth, regardless of the consequences for himself, demonstrates good character.  The person who has a tendency to tell lies, regardless of the consequences, demonstrates bad character.  Therefore, as we work to discover what character is, and how we demonstrate it in life, we'll very likely find that we have both good points and bad points to our character.  But more on that tomorrow!

Fall: A Beautiful Season

The leaves are starting to change color around here.  Over the past week, we've had a couple of cold fronts that have brought night-time temperatures into the 30s, which means that the leaves start to show their beautiful colors, and the air gets a bit of a nip to it in the mornings.

In some ways, I think fall here where I live is the most beautiful time of the year.  The grass is still green, not scorched brown from the summer anymore.  The leaves show their bright colors before they start to find their way to the ground.  And then, looking up to the tops of the mountains, the white snow starts to blanket the ground.

Psalm 19 starts off by declaring that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky His handiwork.  It seems that this world also likes to display the creativeness and splendor of God.  And the thing is, this is a broken, fallen, cursed world (read Genesis 3:17-19).  Can you imagine the beauty and splendor of a world that isn't cursed, that knows no sin? 

That's the world that is promised to those who believe that Jesus lived, died, and rose again for them.  He has purchased your ticket to that world, and you get that ticket by believing that He has washed you and made you perfect through His blood.  Just think of the splendor of that world, which awaits us when He shows Himself once again and re-creates this world.

Reaction to the News: Steve Jobs

Watching the news last night, I heard a lot about Steve Jobs and his death.  When we think about the technological world in which we live, it's hard not to see his fingerprints all over it.  While I am not a huge Apple person, I use my ipod pretty much every day, especially when I run, and I frequently listen to songs on my itunes player. 

That really got me to wondering.  We have so much technology in these days, and how does that technology relate to God and His work in our lives?  In some cases, it seems that technology and God are on opposite ends of the spectrum.  Technology often seems to be about discovery, about knowing more, and about human potential.  Technology and faith matters seem to create lots of gray areas, especially when we think about things like cloning, in vitro fertilization, artificial human body parts, and the extension of life.  Some of these questions are not easily answered, and, in reality, we may not know what God would say about some of the particulars while we live this life on earth.

Yet, at the same time, technology and God also seem to fit hand in hand in some ways.  God demonstrated His creativeness when He made the various life forms present in this world.  He gave some of that creative ability to His creation, as they not only reproduced and multiplied, but as they also learned about this world and came to a greater understanding of how God is at work here.  In fact, much of today's technology should be thankful for those Christians who studied this world and laid the foundation for modern day science and learning. 

God created us to learn and to grow and to be creative.  That would seem to suggest that God isn't necessarily opposed to technology.  When His people are able to connect with one another and provide resources that help and assist in the faith, that would seem to be something He would desire.  And yet, when technology starts to become the goal of life, or when it starts to take over responsibilities that we are supposed to have for ourselves, then it becomes a dangerous thing.

Overall, it seems that technology has both its good points and its warnings.  Technology is never to become the thing in which we put our faith.  That role belongs to God, and to God alone.  When technology assists people in knowing God, in growing in their faith, and in connecting with one another, then it seems to serve a purpose in line with what God would intend.  When it crosses the line and becomes something to control life, or when we start to put our faith in technology rather than in God, then it becomes a false god, and a danger to us.

I'm thankful for the contributions that Steve Jobs has made in our world.  He demonstrated the creativity that God seems to have put inside all of us.  While I do not know his particular faith life, I can say that there are many Christians throughout this world who are thankful for his contributions, and how they have helped people grow in their faith in God and Christ Jesus.