VillagePastor

Looking Ahead to 2013

Some time in early March of this next year,  I will turn sixty-three. As much as I might protest, declaring I still feel like a young man in his thirties, it will do no good to resist. Whether I like it or not, I am steep into the second half, or, to use Wright's language, I am moving into my third third. Little wonder I am reading more and more about this next phase of life.  It started with Buford's book Halftime, a book that had a certain impact on my life in the early 90's.  More recently, Wright's book, The Third Third, has been a helpful read, for it provides a bit of a map. 

And a map is necessary, for you can get lost at this point of life. There are no end to the maps for the front side of life—road maps to the career one should pursue, the university one should attend, the mate one should look for.  But there aren't many maps for this third third. There is this false assumption by some that this period is associated with decline, letting go, waiting it out, and traveling aimlessly. And as a result, I observe a number of people who seem to be lost at this juncture. Now I must also admit that some of the lost seem to actually delight in their lostness. After years in professions where they may have been engaged in SWOT analyses, goal setting, vision casting, and strategic plans, it's nice to get up and enter into another unplanned day, where watches and roadmaps have been discarded.

But I must confess I need a map. I need one because I am convinced this part of life is the most important part of the journey, something affirmed in Rohr's new book, Falling Upwards (my latest read on the subject). As he sees it, the first half of life is merely preparatory for the second half. It is the gate. In this first half, we write the text. In the second half, we write the commentary on the text. Having worked through the necessary questions—who am I? what are the boundaries I must submit to? how can I support myself? if I should marry, who will this be? what are my projects that will bring success?, we move into the second half, where the real issues are sorted out.

Rohr describes this second half as the time in life you begin to learn to hear the deeper voice of God. You have come to grips with reality, with what matters, with what is worth investing in.  No longer are you trying to keep up an image or live up to other's expectations. You are finding what life is like in union with God. Faith is no longer defined merely by rules, but by a deep desire for intimacy with God. There is a certain gravitas that has replaced the thinness. Life is not becoming more confined but is actually becoming more spacious. One is no longer obsessed with being right; rather, one is more interested in being in right relationships. And in these relationships, people have less power to infatuate, less power to control or hurt. 

Not everyone gets to this second half. All too many seek to stay in the securities of the first half, and never grow up. They refuse to drop their nets, as Jesus demands. They avoid the risks—the necessary suffering one must experience to move into the second half. But the truth is, change and growth, death and resurrection must be programmed in. Some falling is necessary.

I will always remember the day I was working with my daughter, helping her to ride a bike without training wheels. She insisted that I put them back on. She did not want to fall, but as Rohr notes, you learn to recover falling only by falling. If one stays in the protective bubble of the first half, you can become a well disguised narcissist, an adult infant. If you are willing to move forward, "fall upward", you will learn to become resilient, age well, overcome adversity, find your way through complexity, and bloom with each opportunity. And it may be that the best opportunities are the ones that come in the third third for those who are looking.

Wright underscores this, though he uses different language. Moving forward, be it to the second third or the third third involves some risk. We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are!  We must journey forward to a place we have not been. Risk avoidance is not for those who live well in the third third. So here's to living well in 2013—receiving all that God wants to do in us!

Impulse Control

After hearing of yet another horrific shooting in Connecticut—and witnessing another mindless act of evil much closer to home at Clackamas Town Center, the news will have its usual stories, interviews with eye-witnesses, and ultimately search for some explanation. We will hear words of grief and shock. People will say that Jacob Roberts was a good kid (his aunt referred to him as a “warm and loving person”). Others will say that they never saw it coming. 

The recent NFL tragedies have a similar theme. Kansas City Chief Jovan Belcher shot and killed his girlfriend, and shortly after committed suicide in front of team officials. The memorial service remembered him this week as a “humble, kind, young man.”

What is it that causes a young man to take an AR-15 assault rifle and burst into a crowded mall and spray bullets randomly, all with the intent of creating havoc and destruction? Mental illness? Maybe. Rage? Perhaps. Need for attention? Why would Jovan Belcher destroy the life of one he loved, drive over to team practice, and do a horrifying act that will haunt his coach forever? Why would Josh Brent, with everything going for him as a professional athlete with the Dallas Cowboys, consume enough alcohol to exceed twice the legal limit, then get in a car, flip it, and kill his teammate? I’m not sure.

The easy answer, the answer we Christians often share, is that it is all part of living in a fallen world. Sin is always crouching at the door, always aimed at destroying a life. And that is true. Behind all of these acts is a self-centeredness that replaced (or never gave room for) a God-centeredness. Others will point to an out of control culture when it comes to gun control.  And I believe this is true as well. I honestly cannot understand why it is we protect the right for people to buy assault rifles and gun magazines that have the capability to fire off a significant round of bullets.  And maybe some, those with enough courage, will point to alcohol and the way we have let it define much of our culture. I found it interesting that on the sports radio I listen to, no one brought this up. My guess is that both Jerry Brown and Kasandra Perkins would still be here if alcohol consumption wasn’t so glorified.

But I wonder if what we are witnessing is a culture that is no longer aware of the need to control its impulses. My guess is that behind the above mentioned tragedies are impulsive young men who have not been guided to restrain their emotions. Maybe it is a steady diet of film, where people fall in love in a moment, followed up in the next moment with both in bed.  Maybe it is the constant narratives where people are in a rage, immediately followed by some act of violence. Impetuous, spontaneous behavior is the present storylines, be it on the screen, in video games, or in real life.

All of us are given to some impulsive behavior (a 12-12-12 air ticket for 12 dollars-who wouldn’t move fast?). The holiday shopping is aimed at impulse buyers. We pause to give thanks on Thanksgiving for what we have (it’s only a pause), because Black Friday invites us to remove restraint and reconsider what we don’t have and think about what me must have this minute! And the good news is that online shopping has made it unnecessary for one to get up at 3:00 am and wait in the Best Buy parking lot.

We are no longer conditioned to restrain desires—no longer prepared to pause and reflect. We are encouraged to gratify our desires, whatever they may be, and do it now.  AT&T may have given us the tag line of our culture: “The Freedom to Do What You Want When You Want It”. There was a time you waited two weeks for a return letter. There was a day when it was expected that your sexual longings were reserved for the one you married, restrained until the right moment, the honeymoon. There used to be such things as Layaways. You waited until you could afford it. But caution and restraint are something of the past (and thanks to recent lending practices, our economy is now paying a severe price). Impulse control has shifted to impulse out of control. We refuse to abide by time boundaries—or any other—and this has had the broader impact of redefining everything from marriage to ministry.

One of my favorite parts of the Christmas story is Mary beholding her Son Jesus. She is pondering, treasuring, and meditating on all these things in her heart (Luke 2:19).There is nothing impulsive in the story. She must yield and wait and reflect. Her freedom is to be what God wants when He wants. It’s a centering image that informs how we should both celebrate Christmas—as well as how we should live, especially in an age that is so out of control.  

 

 

End of Term Reflections

Coming to the end of Fall term, I get to reverse roles and learn from the students. It is always (well, almost always) quite stimulating. My students in leadership class come back to report on a leader they have studied and assessed. Students in a course in worship return with field reports, sharing what they discovered in attending area worship services. This can sometimes be quite depressing (“we listened to a sermon on the woman at the well in John 4 that focused on the need to protect and preserve our water systems”). This is what you call “watering down the text”!

Back to the leadership course, I am always amazed at the leaders students select, as well as the lessons they draw out.  Here is a representative sample from my Fall class—

 -Adolf Hitler-“Egoism can kill the most brilliant leader”

-Bill Bright-“When a man is given a God inspired vision, nothing can get in the way”

-Peter the Great-“Behind some of the greatest leaders are deeply flawed people”

-Pat Williams-“If you truly love people, your leadership can go a long way”

-John Maxwell-“Great leaders treat people as people they really like”

-Huey Newton-“Living out courage wins many followers”

-Henri Nouwen-“True servant leaders have their identity rooted in Christ—not in degrees or accomplishments”

-Abraham Lincoln-“Great leaders look for the good, even in their greatest rivals”

It’s an interesting cast of characters (from corporate heads to Black Panthers to ministry leaders), but each presentation always draws out lessons that explained their lives and inform ours. Leadership is a gift, but it is also something learned, and one of the best ways of learning is to study the lives of those who profoundly influenced others.

An hour ago, I stepped out of another class, having listened to student presentations evaluating contemporary ministries. Again, I was amazed by the diverse choices: Tim Keller (Redeemer Church); the US Army Chaplaincy; Joel Osteen (Lakewood Church); John Piper (Desiring God Ministries); Jews for Jesus; BSF; Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church); Chinese Homecoming Ministry; Village Missions; Youth for Christ; Harvest Bible Chapel: Andy Stanley (North Point); Inter-Varsity Fellowship.

Here are some of the questions we pondered—

-how big is too big? When 43,000 meet for worship, is it still a church?

-can a ministry that is called to be all things to all people still qualify as a ministry?

-is a video venue approach  biblical? Can you truly shepherd multiple locations?

-if a parachurch ministry is not intentional to support the local church, is it still valid?

Here’s one I found myself asking. With so many creative ministries, where do you draw the line at what truly constitutes ministry?  We can do lots of things in the name of Jesus and call it ministry. Are we doing a disservice to the body of Christ by continually creating new ministries?  What I mean by this is this: are we bleeding the local church to death by funding so present many ministries? Could we take a break from launching a new church, a new site, a new parachurch ministry devoted to reaching…?

I’m sure these questions may get some to see red, but the fact so many ministries are in the red causes me to wonder these things out loud. I’m not sure how to answer this (after all, I teach in a seminary). But I sometimes wonder if the landscape would be healthier if it were simply composed of local churches, each calling people into community, each member giving their time and resources to making the church a vital witnessing, training church. I know this—I would get a lot less mail this time of year.