How could they?

I am amazed at the ancients.  I was inspired to pick up Augustine's Confessions today, and I marvel at the detail of his account and the depth of his insights.  Before he came to Christ, he struggled with discovering truth.  He tested the ideas of the prevalent gnostic religion of the day, and his search for truth led him to Jesus.

After these years of searching and discovery, Augustine wrote multiple books, commentaries and essays.  He drank deeply of the classical works of Greek philosophy and passed the truths of these non-Christian writers along to Christian thinkers.

What amazes me his how prolific men like Augustine were.  They read and studied vast works of the thinkers before them.  And they did it without the incandescent light bulb, and without reading glasses.  I imagine that large-print scrolls were hard to come by, too.

Then, they wrote so thoughtfully.  I would feel quite accomplished if I could just read all the works of Augustine.  But he read all the works of all the ancient philosophers, grappled with the ideas, came to his own conclusions and THEN wrote voluminously about them. 

Today we have word processors.  (Wish I had a computer back in my college days.)  We have spell checkers in our computers and thesauruses on line.  We have lights and glasses to help us see.  The information available to us in an instant is staggering.

And, yes, there are a lot of people who write a lot of stuff today. But rarely do we find someone as thoughtful and profound as Augustine.  It's not hard to see how someone could write volume after volume today--it's easy.  So how did they do it hundreds of years ago?  I'm amazed.

Now for my confession.  I began reading Confessions probably 15 years ago.  I'm maybe a third of the way through the book.  But today, for the first time, I think I get it.

Kids just aren't safe anymore

The latest menace is Silly Bandz.  Those shaped rubber bands -- the ones that look like animals or rockets or waves -- could be dangerous to your children.  Sound the alarm. 

As it turns out, these rubber bands could actually constrict the flow of blood to the hands.  It's the tourniquet effect.  Some kids like to wear hundreds of these bands, all up and down their arms.  Having lots of Silly Bandz indicates high status on the playground.  

Maybe the government will require the manufacturer to have a warning label.  Maybe they will tell you how many you can safely wear on your arm.  Maybe they will put these behind the counter at Wal-Mart, so only responsible adults can purchase them.  There could be public service announcements. 

"Parents, do you really know how many Silly Bandz your child has on his arm?  Oh it looks like fun, but wearing these bands could result in gangrene.  Is it really worth it?"

Or parents could instruct their children not to cut off their blood flow.  Is it too much to expect parents to teach common sense to their kids?

Of course, you can cut off your circulation with ordinary rubber bands, too.  When I did that as a kid, my mom told me not to.  "It can cut off your circulation," she told me.  Wow, apparently she's smarter than a lot of parents today.  And I still remember the lesson.

Paper or electrons

I'm considering getting an old-fashioned paper calendar again.  For years I carried a pocket Day-Timer everywhere I went.  Then, in 2003 I got a Palm Pilot PDA.  I could justify spending the money because I would no longer have to buy those expensive Day-Timers every year.

Well, the PDA was not everything I had hoped for.  It did a fair job keeping me organized, but I never enjoyed entering "graffiti" with a stylus.  When I got my first laptop in 2006, I could carry my computer with my Outlook calendar.  Who needs a PDA?  I used Outlook's calendar fairly well for a few years.  This year I had to get a new laptop, and I planned to purchase the Microsoft Office suite, including Outlook.  The clerk told me that MS is moving away from Outlook.  They have something newer and better.  Fine.  I got Office without Outlook, and went looking for a new calendar system.

For now I'm using Google Calendar.  It's OK for an electronic calendar.

But here is my problem with electronic calendars:  There is no real permanent record.  I suppose I could dredge up my Palm PDA software and try to find the files on my old desktop.  But I think that all those files have now been deleted.  I can turn on my old laptop and pull up my Outlook data from the archives.

Eventually I'll donate these old computers to Good Will or something.  Before I do, I'll reformat the hard drives and get rid of all that information.  I suppose I could copy the files onto some storage device, and hope that I could pull out the info later if needed.  Nah.  It's too much trouble.

But with my old paper calendars, I've got all that history right at my fingertips.  I know right where they are (more or less).  When I pull them out, there are no compatibility issues, no archives to dig through.

Popular formats of electronic calendars will probably change every few months from now on.  Whatever I choose will be obsolete in a matter of mere months.  But paper is always there.  Yeah, I could print out my electronic calendar every month, but that's too much trouble.  I'm not even sure how to do it.

So, why do I want a permanent record anyway?  Hey, I've looked back through those old Day Timers many times.  I nearly always find exactly what I'm looking for.  But rarely have I looked through my Outlook or Palm files.  I'm not sure that old info is even there.

Getting Connected at Connection Point

We had our first fellowship meal at Connection Point yesterday!  Of course we ate pizza and sat on boxes on the last Sunday in March, but this was our first real meal.  Our hospitality team did a great job planning, coordinating and serving the meal. 

We also had  special prayer time in our worship celebration, asking God to provide for our financial needs.  We are "this close" to having all our work paid for, but the home stretch of paying our last subcontractor bills has been a real challenge.  It is really hard for a church hit hard by unemployment to go to the well again.

In the spirit of Hezekiah's prayer in 2 Kings 19, we took the bills and laid them out before the Lord in worship.  We asked him to provide, not knowing how he would choose to do so.  As it turned out, we received enough special offerings to pay the most urgent bills.  We also received a challenge from an anonymous donor.  The donor promises to match all our gifts received next Sunday!  I never saw that coming.  But then, that's how God works -- with surprises.  He also always provides for the the things he calls for. 

We are getting connected at Connection Point, but we are not there yet.  While we were enjoying fellowship after worship, my daughter (who had left earlier) was trying to reach me and Lisa on the cell phone.  Unfortunately, still no cell signal in the building.  We are working on that!

Why are you alone?

Sometimes we face situations by ourselves.  When David was fleeing from Saul in 1Sam. 21, he runs to the priest at Nob.  The priest asks, "Why are you alone?  Why is no one with you?"  The priest knew David, and knew that he never traveled alone.  The priest was obviously -- and rightfully -- concerned about David's situation.

We may need to ask that question more these days.  Might need to ask ourselves the question.  Why am I facing this situation all alone?  Am I shutting people out?  Am I avoiding meaningful conversations?  Or is this situation just one of things you have to do alone?  I think that only a very few situations are really that isolating.  We just choose to go it alone.  And it only makes it worse.

David's response to the question is interesting.  Like any normal person, he lies.  "Oh...uh...I'm on a secret mission for the king.  Yeah, that's it."  Sure you are.  I get the feeling that the priest doesn't buy it, but he agrees to help David anyway.  He gives him bread and a sword.

Does anyone ever ask you why you are living life alone?  Do you respond truthfully to that?  If you are a loner, you may be cutting yourself off from the best things in life.  After all, the best things in life are relationships, not achievements. 

We work so hard to achieve something in life.  If we succeed, then we may become proud and self-centered.  If we fail, we may feel dejected and worthless.  But "success" in the world's eyes is really not the point.

What we really long for is relationship.  That is the substance of fulfillment in life.  God gives us a relationship with him through Jesus Christ.  He then empowers every other relationship we have.

We don't have to do life alone.  Reach out to someone.

Enigmatic Saul

As I read through 1 Samuel, I have come across one of the most puzzling characters in the Bible.  Saul was the first king of Israel, anointed by Samuel for the job.  God selected Saul, a young man who stood much taller than other men.  He seemed to have all the right stuff for leadership.

Samuel promised the young man that God would come upon him in power, and that Saul would be a different person.  Sure enough, as Saul left Samuel, "God changed Saul's heart."

Saul was even humble.  After being anointed as king, he didn't tell anybody.  Only when Samuel called him out publicly did Saul acknowledge that God had called him as the nation's leader.

But soon the power of kingship went to Saul's head.  He began taking shortcuts with his instructions from Samuel.  He tried to justify his actions and explain his good reasons for disobedience or "near obedience."  At one point he even asks Samuel to make him look good in front of the people, in spite of his disobedience.

Eventually God removes his hand of blessing and decides to take the kingdom away from Saul.

It really gets bad when David comes into the picture.  Saul becomes convinced that David is conspiring to kill him and take the throne.  Saul behaves like a madman, suspecting everyone of treason.  His bizarre behavior actually leads some of his subjects to work around him, but not to kill him.  Saul eventually dies on the battlefield, having led his army to defeat. 

So, I wonder, what's up with Saul?  Did God really change his heart?  Did Saul change it back?  Was God's work in his life conditional upon Saul's obedience?

I believe that God changes hearts today.  He transforms lives.  He puts his Holy Spirit in us to lead us and to change our patterns of behavior.  This work of God depends not on our righteousness, but on the righteousness of Jesus, who gave his life as a sacrifice for us on the cross.  We can't undo the work of God.

That's why I just don't get Saul.

Disillusioned

I'm reading A Patriot's History now, and learning everything I never knew from American history.  Somehow I missed a lot of important stuff in my school years.  For example, I knew that Benedict Arnold was a traitor, but in reading this book I learned exactly what he did.

Another thing I am learning is that the partisan spirit has always been part of American politics.  Last year I read Washington's Farewell Address, in which he warns of the dangers of opposing parties seizing political power from one other in alternating elections.  On that basis, I assumed that after the Constitution was ratified in 1788, everyone got along like one big happy family.

We speak of our "Founding Fathers," and what they would say about various issues today.  What I am learning about our history is that different founding fathers had different (strong) opinions about how government should work, and what government should do.  We have always had opposing points of view, struggling mightily with each other.

What really amazes me is that both the Jeffersonian and the Washingtonian camps have left important marks on our history and traditions.  From today's vantage point, it seems like we received the best from both extremes.  If either party in the country's infancy had had full sway, our country would not be nearly as great as it is today.

So, my illusion that political fighting is something new is just that--an illusion.  Now I'm trying to wrap my head around what really makes our country great.  Why did we get the best from both sides in the controversies?  What if each side had left us with its worst ideas?

The more I read, the more I see God's fingerprints on the history of this nation.  Yes, we had egregious faults, especially allowing slavery anywhere, any time.  But somehow, God, I believe, has really blessed us.  And I think he has blessed us for a reason.  Why has he so blessed me that I could be a part of this nation?  I'm trying to find out.