Humanity

Let me begin this post by saying what happened in Boston is a real tragedy and my heart goes out to all who are affected. This post is not meant to make light of that horrible event or dismiss it as frivolous, if you interpret it in that way I apologize in advance.

I was watching the news in the lobby of a waiting room yesterday and a woman said to me: "What is wrong with humanity, what is wrong with the United States...we're becoming barbaric like other nations."

I know she was grieving the Boston Marathon bombings in her own way, but right away I was struck by our short sightedness when it comes to thinking the United States was/is a beacon of morality. As the movie "42" reminds us it wasn't that long ago that we treated African Americans horribly--and a short time before that when we treated them like property to be beaten and sold. I'm also reminded of the genocide that we perpetrated on the Native Americans from our moral high horse.

I wanted to tell this woman, "no ma'am we've always lacked respect for humanity as a whole." Instead I shook my head with her and said "it is sad." 

How can we move forward in peace? How can we live the life we're called to where we all love one another?

Tailgating

I was ready to enter the office today and write a blog about how angry it makes me when people don't use their turn signals. I was going to write how it is just plain selfish as well as dangerous. I was in such a hurry to get home and write about this that I became more enraged when the car in front of me was doing at least 10 mph below the speed limit. To show my frustration I pulled up as close to their bumper as I could so that they couldn't miss me in their rear-view mirrors. Finally the car turned and I was able to proceed at a reasonable rate of speed. I got to my office and turned on my computer and scanned some blogs that I like to read. One of the blogs was about the selfishness of people who are in such a hurry that they feel the need to tailgate. Ouch! Now this wasn't the person I had tailgated; the person who wrote this lives in a different state, but the timing was spot on.

Sometimes I feel like I'm able to look around the 4x4 in my own eye so easily!

I want to live in a world . . .

I want to live in a world . . .
where people aren't judged
where there are no jobless or homeless people
where animals aren't mass produced for slaughter or scientific testing
where we don't feel the need to have weapons
where differences are celebrated
where there are no stereotypes
where the gift of creation is celebrated and not hoarded
where there is no disease

What I am I doing to help create that type of world?

Genocide

I was reading the homepage of my new Logos 5 software and there was an article on the Walls of Jericho. It was interesting and then it became disturbing. I've copied the disturbing part:

"Like the Genesis Flood and the fiery destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Israel’s extermination of the Canaanites was a judicial act. They were to be destroyed because their sins were so great and their religious corruption so complete that extermination was just."

It scares the bejeezus out of me anytime I see anyone say that a people's group "extermination was just". I am sure Hitler thought his attempted extermination of the Jews was just. I am sure the Hutus thought they were just in trying to exterminate the Tutsis.  Stalin thought he was just in exterminating the enemies of the people. The list could go on and on.

So what do we make of the seemingly God-ordained genocide in Scripture? In my opinion the early Israelites were a lot like the Christian Crusaders and justified their conquest by calling it God-ordained, but that is just my opinion that I'm still wrestling with. Greg Boyd has a couple of thought provoking blogs on the subject. 

But my main point is that people can never determine extermination of a people group is just. It is horrifying to think of all the killing we blame on a God who is love :-(   

Cross Roads

I finished reading William Paul Young's new novel Cross Roads (he is also the author of The Shack). 
Three things I absolutely love about Young:
1) He knows how to get me emotionally invested in a story...I laughed, wept and smiled a lot while reading this book.
2) He does a masterful job of presenting a relational Trinity that is not far away, but active and involved in our lives.
3) The unique way that he pushes against our stereotypes of each person of the Trinity causes me reflection and ultimately makes me feel closer to God.

I know some don't like Young's books, some even call him a heretic. Remember, he isn't writing dogma, he is telling a beautiful story--a parable if you like.

This story presents Tony who has lived a solitary existence with success and self preservation as his goals. An accident leads him on an unexpected journey where he is given the opportunity to make choices that will allow healing for his many failures.

I loved the book! 

I don't want to do the work

For the last 2 months my Logos Software has been crashing every time I tried to use it. I contacted customer support via e-mail and we tried some different things. Finally they suggested I call the customer tech support line. I hate talking on the phone so I put it off, but after a few weeks I realized how much I was missing this valuable resource tool so I called.

The tech walked me through hooking up my computer via remote to his computer which took only a few minutes. Then he did the rest. I watched as he moved files on my computer, changed names and rebuilt databases--it was like he was sitting in my chair! After about 20 minutes he fixed the problem and we were through. It was amazing how painless and easy the process was!

There are times when I wish God would fix me like that--where I didn't have to do any of the work. If only I could just sit back and watch God fix all my flaws and then walk away completely loving. But we are relational beings. We are in a relationship with God and with people. And relationships take work and often the work is messy and uncomfortable. I read this quote from Young's book Crossroads yesterday:
Much of what you must forgive others for, and especially yourself, is the ignorance that damages. People don’t only hurt willfully. More often because they simply don’t know anything else; they don’t know how to be anything else, anything better.
I thought about how many times I have hurt others based on my ignorance and I want that fixed. I want the tech to come in and fix the corrupted files so I no longer do this. However, I am called to do that work alongside the Trinity. I have my part to play and I know I am better off for working alongside God.

But I still wish I could just sit back...

A Game of Thrones

I just finished reading A Game of Thrones. It was the first fictional book that I've read in quite some time and I have to admit I couldn't put it down. George R.R. Martin kept me on the edge of my seat and kept me in a mindset of not being able to wait and see what happens next. There is romance, political intrigue, battles and a looming sense of dread. I would not classify it as an epic battle between good and evil because the reader is not always sure who is good and who is evil...perhaps, like life, the propensity for both is in everyone. If you like fantasy novels with Kings, Kingdoms, and uncertainty you will find this entertaining.

This is not a happy-go-lucky, feel-good novel. As matter of fact it made me depressed at times. But at the same time it is not predictable and that is what makes it a great read. Martin does his best work in setting the mood of dread right from the beginning and even escalates it throughout the book...winter is coming!

The downfall of the book is that it really doesn't end. It seems to stop in mid-story and invites the reader to seek after the next book in the series.

I've started watching the HBO series and I am disappointed. It follows the basic story line, but inexplicably adds sexual plot lines and gratuitous nudity where it wasn't found in the book. I'm not saying the book is PG-13, but HBO seems to take an R book and tries to make an X out of it for no reason.

Since starting the book I wonder how many people live with a sense of dread in their life...I wonder how many have no hope. I think that would be a terrible way to live. If my atheist friends are right at least I've gone through life happy and with a sense of hope.