a nonconformist vision

Thoughts for my sons

2011-04-26T20:52:00.000-07:00

Dear Madigan and Declan,

I love you both so much. The past year with you, Madigan, has filled my heart with so much joy at the opportunity to be your dad. The time has flown by so fast. Declan, I can't wait to meet you face to face. You both have retaught me that each life is so very precious and that life happens very fast, especially when you are not looking. In my next few blog posts, I hope to share with you lessons that God has taught me through His Word and illustrated in my life. They may not be the big things that stand out in Scripture (e.g. Creation, Fall, Redemption in Christ, and the hope of Glory), but I hope they will encourage you to walk faithfully with our Lord in your own way as God illuminates the meaning of His Word in your life. I have been thinking about writing these things to you for sometime, since I am forgetful and have no guarantee of the opportunity to teach them to you at an age when you will understand.

The first passage that has meant a great deal to me is Proverbs 27:10:

Do not forsake your friend and your father’s friend, and do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity. Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away.

This passage is very true! I come from a very geographically spread out family. My uncles, aunts, and cousins live on at least three continents at the time of writing this. They are serving the Lord faithfully, which is very great blessing, but it does make family a challenge to keep up with even though they are very loved. I suspect that your own uncles, aunts, and cousins will live a great distance from us as you grow older, but for now we are very blessed to have Aunt Virginia and Aunt Lisa living with us. Keeping up with family is part of life, but it is very important that you make friends with your neighbors, wherever you live. I don't know what our culture will be like in the future, but, right now, turning neighbors into friends is hard work because society encourage to live such separate lives. Your mom and I are trying to overcome this challenge by hosting High Tea, which I hope you'll be able to remember.

The value of friendship has always been challenging to me, since we moved a lot growing up so there was very little opportunity to develop friendships that lasted. Shortly after your mom and I married we moved to Austin, TX and found some of the best friends of our lives through our small group. Those friendships were not easy to form because being honest about life with others can be painful and scary, but we've never make a better investment of time and energy in our lives. The rewards of these friendships are hard to communicate, so maybe we'll just have to show you the photo galleries of our times together. Those friends were very painful to leave, but worth every tear and more.

This verse is also the biggest reason that both of you were born in Nashville. When your grandmother, Mama Lynn, died, it taught me that I could not effectively help family from a distance, so I found a job that God provided near home. He made it clear that I could help family and serve Him effectively in the calling He has given me. Sometimes you have to choose God over family to remain faithful, but sometimes He provides a way to do both, if we are paying attention. While in Nashville with family, we didn't stop pursuing friendships. We found them because we knew we needed them and looked for them. And, God has provided them and we are learning new things for they are very different kinds of friends from the ones we had before.

There are other passages in Scripture that teach us to serve God where we are first and then serve Him elsewhere as He provides the opportunity. I'll just mention two briefly, but you'll have to look them up, Acts 1:8 and 1 Corinthians 7:24. There is a popular slogan at the time I post this blog, "Think globally, act locally", but faithful Christians have always known and done this throughout history. Just remember the example of the family you come from.

Love,

Dad

P.S. When you are in your early teens, you need to read a chapter from Proverbs every day each month for at least a year (e.g. Prov 15 on the 15th). Proverbs 1 explains why, so go read it first!

Girls are named more creatively than boys

2009-07-22T09:31:00.001-07:00

Interesting site: http://howmanyofme.com/info/

Of the top 10 most common first names (according to the Census Bureau), 9 are male names and Mary is the only female name on the list. I guess that this is because parents are more likely to name their sons something typical and put more imagination into naming their daughters. However, it could be that boys are more likely to be named after family members, which would also reduce the variation.

I wonder if first names are diversifying over time. It would make getting your own domain name a lot easier. James Smith's are really out of luck (the most common first and last names respectively)

HT: Yobany

Sometimes you can see the train wreck coming

2009-03-10T08:52:00.000-07:00

Spencer Williams just published an article that I highly recommend reading. Here is an excerpt:

We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West.
Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the "Protestant" 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century.
. . .
We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically, the billions of dollars we've spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it.

No man can serve two masters

2009-03-03T07:35:00.000-08:00

A recent article from University of Virginia sociologist Bradford Wilcox was published by the Witherspoon Institute.

In it he says:
A recent study of 33 countries around the world by Anthony Gill and Erik Lundsgaarde, political scientists at the University of Washington, indicates that there is an inverse relationship between state welfare spending and religiosity. Specifically, they found that countries with larger welfare states had markedly lower levels of religious attendance, had higher rates of citizens indicating no religious affiliation whatsoever, and their people took less comfort in religion in general. In their words, “Countries with higher levels of per capita welfare have a proclivity for less religious participation and tend to have higher percentages of non-religious individuals.”

read full story here

My reaction:
Correlation does not mean causation. Perhaps a lack of religiosity causes people to want (or tolerate) bigger government. Or, maybe, big government encourages loyalty to the state at the expense of others. Or, perhaps a third factor (e.g. a general decline in personal responsibility) encourages both. I think the pattern that emerges is the same one seen repeatedly in the Old Testament, where people become wealthy, comfortable, and lazy. They fail to practice their own dominion under God (as commanded in Gen 1:26-28) and think it better to have others rule over them (1 Samuel 8:6-7).

Unfortunately, the current "mega"-churches of the U.S. tend to reinforce this trend, because they often have very hierarchical structures than discourage active involvement of members. This is in contrast to what happened in Acts when the apostles urged the church to select (i.e. vote) for deacons, who would actually decide how money was spent. Without experience in the give and take of a local church, people do not develop the skills necessary to be actively involved in the civic community. It was the strength of congregational churches that provided the U.S. at its founding with a large fraction of the populace that wanted liberty for the purpose of following God. The typical modern church infantilize its members by spoon-feeding them tiny bits of doctrine and huge dollops of fluff (aka "application"). The Roman Catholics in particular are really great at this. (e.g. "Don't know how to pray? Here, have a necklace with some beads on it. Recite these prayers, it will teach you spiritual discipline.") This type of extra-biblical teaching saps the typical member of the strength to practice what is taught in Romans 14:4-8 (to follow their own Scripture-based convictions rather than the teachings of others).

The only way to remedy this is for families to teach their children to rule the world as God intended and to obey Him rather than man (Acts 4:19). Parents that require their children to obey simply because they say so end up with children who are incapable of obeying God. Parents must always point to God in all things, not themselves (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).

HT: Justin Taylor

There is an alternative?

2009-02-19T14:08:00.000-08:00

From Marvin Olasky's recent article in World magazine, in response to Tim Keller's theme on the prodigal son:

"What's rare on television and in life are third brothers who, because they know deeply that the Father loves them, have love for and patience with both elder and younger brothers. Third brothers, knowing they have been forgiven, are not prideful."

"Third brother politics is also different. The Founders fought for both liberty and virtue: Elder brothers tend to forget the former, younger brothers the latter. Third brothers know that we can never have enough laws to banish sin. They tell the truth but do not rant at abortionists and gay rights activists. They control their tongues and lungs not because killing babies and killing marriage is right, but because their goal is to change hearts. "

Read the rest here

Liberty and church

2009-02-11T07:57:00.000-08:00

Watch the following video by the economist Milton Friedman. Or, if you are pressed for time, just jump down to my comments below

Friedman mentions that, historically, the vast majority of people have lived lives of misery under abusive authority. Liberty is the exception in history not the norm. However, the 19th century America demonstrated the greatest degree of liberty ever observed. However, Friedman does not explain how the greatest expansion of liberty that the world has ever seen came about. I suspect that one of the greatest contributing factors is the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer and its expression in congregational churches. (Priesthood: all believers have direct access to God through the sole mediation of Christ. Congregational churches: policy and leadership is provided by all the members, rather than by a few special people.) I think the congregational style of church governance is a fairly natural outcome of a robust belief in priesthood of the believer. When churches practice this form of actively involved governance, it emphasizes the individual responsibility of each believer for the health of the church. This, in turn, trains a population of people who can be trusted to make wise civic and governmental decisions, because they have had practice at a very local level with often immediate feedback about what works. It also trains people for leadership (e.g. deacons) that can go on to be political leaders. Many of America's founding fathers had active involvement in their churches.

New tagline

2009-02-03T13:40:00.000-08:00

I just changed the tagline/description of this blog to Romans 12:2 (ESV with alternate renderings from the footnotes). Hopefully, I'll be blogging again soon. In the meantime, check out my dad's posts at Essentials.

Seeing through the tears: vision and heartbreak

2008-01-10T14:48:00.000-08:00

Our small group has been studying through Nehemiah, which is a great book to read when searching for encouragment to keep going. The book starts off with Nehemiah hearing a report about the sad state of Jerusalem, which leads him to tears and anguish. This is so much at odds with our recent examples of masculinity from both modern culture (which whines and cries about everything, including how pop starlets are treated) and the masculinity of a few generations ago (which claimed real men don't cry about anything).

What a man cries about indicates what he holds dear to his heart. In Nehemiah's case, his tears were about something that was simultaneously concrete and abstract. The concrete reason for the tears was the broken down walls. The deeper but more abstract reason for the tears was that God's beloved nation and messenger to the world was in disrepute.

Our tears should fall when we see that the world is not as it was designed. Isaiah 53 refers to Christ as a man of sorrow and Jesus wept over Jerusalem for he knew its future (Luke 13). Too often we do not weep because we do not see what should be, but merely what is. We are like the Israelites of whom Jesus said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! (Luke 13:34)".

Let us pray (and see and think and feel) as Jesus instructed, "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Trip to see Patrick and Kim

2007-12-13T19:13:00.001-08:00

Well, this is the first of a long overdue series of blog posts about my recent trip to China. My first photo is one of first impressions, which I snapped looking out the back of one of the many taxis I took. As you can see from the construction cranes, China is expanding rapidly! There were a common sight in both Tianjin and Beijing, as was the smog that obscures them. The smog only lifts when winds carry them away. The air tastes of coal - the source of energy for most of that growth.

No rest for the weary

2007-11-29T06:43:00.000-08:00

I just spent 10 wonderful days in Beijing and Tianjin visiting with Patrick and Kim. I got back to Austin last night and finally got to bed after about 32 hours of traveling and unpacking. I head out to San Diego this afternoon for a science conference where I'll be presenting a poster. I was in San Fransisco just yesterday for a long layover. If I was not so intent on seeing Eryn after such a long trip, it would have been much easier just to have booked my flight home a day later and spent the evening in California. I'll post more about the trip itself when I get back.

Life and talent

2007-09-06T09:03:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite quotes is by Oscar Wilde:
"I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works."

One of my favorite movies, "Mr. Holland's Opus", strikes a very similar theme.

To me, both the quote and the movie invite you to consider how much you value people and relationships. It seems that a biblical view of the world (i.e. the foundation of reality, the triune God, is inherently relational and that man is made in His image), consistently leads the Christian to a greater appreciation and love for his neighbor.

The small group that I am a part of has taught me a great deal about love, relationships, and the nature of reality. I am thankful to my friends for shaping who I am and helping me see God's desire and intent for both the world and individual relationships more clearly.

Becoming unimportant

2007-03-26T08:09:00.000-07:00

One of our Adult Learning Community (aka Sunday School class) teachers is a practicing psychologist who once confessed to the group that he viewed himself more as an applied theologian than a psychologist. I was "surprised" that no one joined me in clapping for the direction he has taken. Questioning one's training is always difficult, but consistently holding to biblical truth in the area of psychology is particularly challenging because of all the anti-biblical theories of man that float around. To paraphrase our teacher: "A pat on the back for anyone who even tries."

The past couple weeks the topic has been dealing with various characteristics of narcissistic people.
They tend to:
1. Overreact to criticism.
2. Hold an inflated view of their own importance ***Comments on this below***
3. Feel a sense of entitlement (that the world owes them)
4. Exploit others to achieve their goals
And we're only halfway through the list! Needless to say, having the mirror held up is not comfortable, but this is a whole lot better than hearing "Jesus loves you just as you are" for the umpteenth time.

The applied theologian gave us homework to help overcome our tendency toward self-importance. "Ask your mate how you can be unimportant to them." I.e. Serve them in a way that they are fully capable of doing themselves (emphasizing that you are not desperately needed, but are still called to practice love).

We are unimportant (God has no need for us), yet in His mercy and grace He has chosen to use us for His kingdom and given us the gifts and abilities to match the visions and passions that He has given us. What is important is His kingdom and His purposes, not us. We are frail and weak and easily fail, but His purposes do not.

What better way of becoming unimportant than working yourself out of a job? Let me explain. Many people think that their company (or family), desperately needs them and derive satisfaction from being needed. I've known quite a few mothers that don't know what to do once they begin to realize that their children don't need them as much as they thought. But, that is exactly what parents are called to do - raise children to be mature adults, who no longer need them. I think people should try to do the same at work. If you have people working for you, train them to do your job (not overnight, but strive toward the goal). That does not do much for job security, but it might open up a new job as a trainer. (You should probably train people even if that does seem like it might threaten you down the line - hope and trust are important virtues to learn).

I've been thinking about it for a while and I hope that our "applied theologian" will take bigger steps toward being unimportant. I figure that he is "important" to at least 35 clients a week (probably much more since he strikes me as somewhat driven). His biblically consistent counseling really can make a difference (to those who are willing to respond to truth). Of course, he already caps most (all?) of his counseling at 10-12 weeks, which ensures he is not too important in the process of healing. But, he could become even less important by taking a younger counselor under his wing to train in biblically driven counseling. If that training took up 3-4 hours a week, the counselor could only be "important" to 30 clients a week. If he were to extrapolate this trend (add a couple more trainees), this counselor could be VERY unimportant. And, eventually, he could really capitalize on his unimportance by training others to train others, so that biblically consistent counseling in Austin could go on without any of his future involvement (a lifetime goal). Of course, God would probably have to provide some novel forms of financial support to help facilitate this level of unimportance, but I for one would be willing to help.

I've heard that some political campaigns get started when someone is convinced to run by those who think they are capable. So, I guess this a "draft 'unnamed psychologist' for greater unimportance" post. One of these days, God is going to smite me for "suggesting" what others should do (if people don't beat Him to it), particularly when they are both older and wiser. In my defense, I have benefited greatly from others who have taken steps toward unimportance and I truly want to see others have the opportunity to learn from unimportant people who just happen to be building outposts of God's kingdom in their backyard.

Is there anyone you want to draft for greater unimportance?

Paralytic Piety

2007-02-04T13:15:00.000-08:00

Many, if not most, American evangelical Christians seem to suffer from paralytic piety. This paralysis seems to cross most intellectual, denominational, personality, and other boundaries. It keeps many from serving the Lord with the full potential that He gave them. This paralysis seems to affect many, but in varying degrees. Some become quadriplegics, others paraplegics, and a few only suffer from occasional numbness. Pious paralysis is more subtle than most sins, because it masquerades as holiness and because it infects so many, it seems normal, not pathological. Even those who can see its effects rarely have the tools to combat it. Unfortunately, it is often leaders in the Church that are hardest hit with the paralysis and least capable of helping others recover from its effects. Even the few who see the symptoms and some of the underlying unbiblical thinking have a difficult time expressing themselves without using words, phrases, and attitudes that subtly reinforce the very problem they are trying to combat.

Most of the Christians I've met are infected with some strain of paralytic piety, even if it is fairly symptomless in themselves. If you could sit down with me for an afternoon and discuss the problems of the modern pious view, you would walk away with a glimpse of the problem. However, it would take a much longer interaction to demonstrate the full implications of the disease, let alone illustrate the direction to take for finding a cure. It is almost like taking someone who has had very bad eyesight for a long, long time and putting glasses on them. The new glasses help make things clearer, but simultaneously cause disorientation because it provides such a strong change in perspective (I speak from experience). Over the next few posts I plan to discuss this paralysis in more detail and comment on some of the changes needed to combat this disease of the mind and replace it with the healthy perspective of citizens of the kingdom of heaven.

I am certainly not the first to have observed this piety problem, but I encounter it frequently enough that I feel compelled to address it. At the very least, this will serve as a repository for my thoughts, so that I do not have to recreate them from first principles every time I encounter the problem.

Building Biblically

2006-11-09T20:36:00.000-08:00

Have you ever thought about what a biblical house would look like? I have an acquaintance from my Sunday School class at work who is a custom home builder that I put on the spot one day by asking this question. After looking at me with a slightly worried expression, he admitted he had no clue what I was talking about. Let me share a few of the thoughts I mentioned to him and you can tell me if I have any idea what I am talking about.

Let me start by saying that there is no "one true biblical house", but that some houses may better fit God's purposes than others. I will give you a few fairly generic examples that might make sense for our day and culture.

For the sake of illustration, I have four "houses" sketched below.

House #1 is probably rather unbiblical and inappropriate for the typical family because it diminishes the importance of children by placing them far from the parents and primarily under the care of hired help. Children probably should not have to cross the entire house to meet their parents. Think of the theological distortion that children in this house would subtly suffer from: the Father is distant and far off and an intermediary is necessary.

House #2 fails in another fashion. It illustrates the other extreme that some parents have adopted by bringing the children into their own bedrooms to sleep. This approach fails to recognize the preeminence of the marriage relationship in the family and the subordinate role of children. It communicates that the children are the center of their parents world. What a disaster when people believe God is just waiting around for their approval!

House #3 is a better house because it does not fail in the fashion of the previous two. However, it can still be the home of an overly inwardly focused and isolated family.

House #4 recognizes that the Kingdom focused family will always make minister to other through their home. The family does not need large bedrooms for isolated retreats from other people. God designed people for relationships and meeting each others needs. Modern society's emphasis on autonomy has mislead us into thinking we are islands only joined by wi-fi or cell phones. People need to be together. The family that shares the common purpose of serving and engaging their community will be less prone to internal struggles than those that curl up around TV or the Internet, each in their own rooms.

These are just illustrations, but I hoped my friend would think long and hard about the homes he builds for customers. Think about the difference he could make in their lives by communicating his biblically informed vision for their home. Are you a home builder or architect? Please comment!

What is a nonconformist?

2005-11-14T08:03:00.000-08:00

non·con·form·ist (nŏn'kən-fôr'mĭst)
n.

1. One who does not conform to, or refuses to be bound by, accepted beliefs, customs, or practices.
2. often Nonconformist A member of a Protestant church not observing the doctrines, usage, or polity of a national or established church, especially the Church of England.

From Answers.com