A Million Reasons

I know you rather not hear this but Pam and I tell each other that we love one another quite often. Some may attribute it to an overactive thyroid producing too much love insecurity and some may roll their eyes and moan, “T.M.I!” (For those of you who didn’t suffer through teenagers that stands for “too much information”). None-the-less, this past Sunday I informed my lovely wife that I loved her for a million reasons. Little did I think she would put my feet to the fire and ask me to list said devotion! So, for the next 25 miles of our journey to church I began to list the reasons. When she stopped at Starbucks for her “Sunday Morning Treat” I had reached number 70. When she returned to the car after retrieving her caramel frappuccino light, extra caramel, no whip… I said, “Number 999,999 -because you are the lyrics to my music… and 1,000,000 because your kisses are sweeter than the morning light that reveals that one more day God has blessed me to wake by your side!” (Yes, insert gagging sound here and voice over disclaimer that some facts and details may have been altered for dramatic enhancement). However, this unadulterated fact goes uncontested… it is hard to articulate a million reasons for anything and is best reserved for hyperbole and romantic poetic license.

Not learning my lesson, I tell God quite often I love Him! I love Him for a million reasons… and if He holds my feet to the fire to list said devotion I hope He stops at heaven’s Starbucks for a treat! Seriously though, I have challenged myself in my prayer life to try to articulate to my heavenly Father the million reasons I love Him. I figure at the rate I’m going it will only take me into the next millennium to get to the last reason. I pray that it will be words I speak with wings, a harp and a crown… and that I vow to list them again and again as I join in the new song that hails the Lamb and lauds the Creator and Sustainer of all things!

At this point you’ve probably grumbled a few times under your breath that this is silly nonsense from a silly source… and I will freely admit to this being romantically charged, poetically driven and idealistically based. However, I would implore you on some occasion to engage in such unrestrained love and praise that you experience a little heaven, “Day and night they never stop saying: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come (Revelation 4:8).” Number one… I love you LORD because…Come on fill in a million blanks! -DAN

There's Got To Be A Name For That?

Recently, I was a chronic victim of serial mental blocking where I was unable to recall the names of an author, a quarterback and a… well, I can’t quite remember right now but I think it was a 15^th century metaphysical philosopher and philanthropist who dabbled in painting and sculpture? I’ve got to believe that there is some technical terminology for this muddled mind jam that crusts over the memory synapses preventing them from firing and making contact with stored information in the cerebral cortex. Well, at least that’s what my mad scientist imagination assures me. Reality is that the older I get the more forgetful I become! So, what is the name for this geriatric defect? It’s not quite Alzheimer’s and it’s more than a brain burp… thanks to my googling fingers I’ve located a name for it: I suffer from Memory Block Effect –MBE. Now, I feel better that I have scientifically labeled my forgetfulness. There’s a certain serenity to be able to just acknowledge that I suffering from MBE… or is that MBC… no I’m confusing that with NBC… or is that NBA??? Well, so much for having a name for being unable to name whatever I can’t remember!

All this just reminds me how thankful I am for the Holy Spirit! You know… you’re praying along and you just can’t find the right words or even worse, you fall asleep and your narcoleptic prayer trails off… then the Holy Spirit steps in and intercedes with what we fail to express (Romans 8:26,27). God planned for our MBE! In fact He uses it to His glory and purpose for verse 27 assures us “…he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” We may have memory blocks but God assures us we will never have Spirit block. Okay, that’s great but I’m a little uncomfortable with it being labeled “groans that words cannot express (v.26).

Good! I’m glad we’re uncomfortable with the mystery and sovereignty of the divine that surpasses our knowledge and refuses to let us explain away His working and presence in our lives. Mankind has found it greatest weakness when it thought it knew it all or could explain it all. Can you say Babel? I thank God for MBE that reminds me how frail and temporal are all my ways and how much I depend and need the God who holds all things together through His Son! May God enrich me daily with the fullness of His grace and the intercession of His Spirit. -DAN

What Kind of Pilot?

In 1993 on the first night I was scheduled to preach I kept repeating to myself the cliché K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Son). My first time to speak to a Russian audience with an interpreter was a challenge to be persuasive but also to be understandable. At first it was a bit like an old car sputtering at a stop light but I finally felt I had their attention and a good rhythm of speaking that made it easy for Serge to interpret. But that all came to a squealing halt when I smiling waited for Serge after I proclaimed, “Jesus was King of kings who now rules over a kingdom not determined by physical boundaries but a spiritual kingdom that unites Russians, Americans and all people.” That would have been fine but then I added, “Just as Jesus said to Pilate…” Serge instantly turned to me and said, “What kind of pilot?” I did my best to quickly explain that Pilate was a Roman ruler who sentenced Jesus to the cross but Serge still looked puzzled. We went on but I thought then and I still continue to think –what a great question!

What kind is truly a question we ought to ask ourselves more often. Paul wanted the Corinthian brethren to examine themselves (2 Corinthians 13:5) to articulate what kind of Christ connection they had. What kind of Christian are you? That may be a painful question but then again it may force us to look honestly at our lives. In a world crowded with ideas and politically correct positions it seems appropriate that one stop and inventory who they are… what kind of person has one become. This is more than if I wasn’t me… would I like me? It’s about honest scrutiny of our faith. Have we put our faith in Christ or the world… in our Maker or our own character? Such leads us beyond Socrates “the unexamined life is not worth living.” Spiritual examination is not a progress report but a confession of a daily need to keep our eyes on the pilot of our lives, Jesus who not only redeems us but refines us!

Who pilots you? He’s looking for a certain kind of passenger… those who want to reflect His image and transform into His body. What kind of pilot is He? The kind that never fails you nor leaves you… the kind that makes promises that won’t be broken and His supreme promise is that He is your advocate! -DAN

Church Portmanteaus

On my home web page this week was the subject line, “How to identify Frenemies.” This current portmanteau combines “friend” and “enemy” to create a title for those people you in essence either love/hate or maintain a fake friendship with for selfish purposes. Such neologisms tell much about where society finds itself but also remind us that we are constantly looking for new words to describe our ever changing world. A portmanteau (the French word for suitcase) was first used by Lewis Caroll in “Through the Looking Glass” when Humpty Dumpty explains to Alice that slithy is the combination of lithe and slimy. Subsequently, history is full of such combination words. For example, smog is smoke and fog, or brunch is breakfast and lunch. I know this because I heard it on an infomercial from a former televangelist who was a Texican who spoke Spanglish. Yes, many a new word has come through the portmanteau.

What if we started creating portmanteaus for life in the kingdom of God? I’ve got a few church portmanteaus to start us off:

1. snackmunion –The process by which the Lord’s Supper became the Lord’s Snack.
2. sermlongated –The state in which the sermon has continued past its logical conclusion and now intrudes on after church lunch plans.
3. hymunknowlogy –The confused state of a song leader who is unable to locate a certain hymn and in some cases the pitch.
4. bulletoodling – Random drawings found in the margins of Sunday’s bulletins (not to be confused with bulliter – The folded, wadded, paper-planed and scattered residue of Sunday’s bulletins left in the pews).
5. squaide – The high pitched squeal coming from a senior saint’s hearing aide that is worn by the only person who is unaware of its piercing siren.
6. handfake – The awkward extension of your hand to shake hands with a brother or sister who brushes it aside to give you a holy hug.
7. repipraise – Good intending brothers or sisters who ‘amen’ everything and inadvertently ‘amen’ an ailment or death announcement.
8. prayerliché – The use of overused, over-worked, antiquated and often unintelligible clichés in public prayers.

Of course… my intention here is to be humorous but within that humor to ask each of us to look closer at what we do and what we say. Then maybe we can become Snoves – i.e. shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16). -DAN

True Religion

When I first made my entrance into the teen years my family had moved from Salt Lake City, Utah to Modesto, California. No longer surrounded by Latter Day Saints I now was cradled in the Big Valley and the home of fruits and nuts… of which not all grew on trees. I’m not sure if it was the cultural shift or puberty prodding but I suddenly became aware of what I was wearing. I didn’t just throw things on… I carefully selected the coolest threads available to me. Since their cool factor was some where in the barely showing on the scale I begin to save what little funds I had available to me to purchase a pair of button down 501 Levi jeans and a pair Converse sneakers. I lucked out in time to find both items on sale for $4.00 each. It was a considerable fortune for me but I hooked and crooked it out until my threads finally made the mark on the cool meter! Fashion is, after all, what life is about –right?

Recently, I heard someone talking about True Religion jeans. My curiosity was peaked because of the name but I was flabbergasted (a term appropriate considering the cost of gas) when I heard they cost from $200 to $350 a pair! Who pays that kind of money for jeans! The answer is quite a few and not many of them have Beverly Hills addresses. The hook and crook stakes are much higher than my 1960’s ensemble but the idea is the same. People want to be cool! Their “true religion” is for everyone to be envious of their cool threads. Now, before you go shaking your head at such shallow adolescent validation first be informed that many of the purchases are by adults and that status buying crosses all age barriers. Trying to look cool is as old as the fig leaf craze of the Garden of Eden.

On the label for these overpriced, over-hyped, only the cool celebrities wear them jeans is a picture of the Buddha holding a guitar and making the thumbs up sign. You see these postmodern/post-Christian era symbols are not just about fashion or status, they reflect the “true religion” of our times… anything goes! The Buddha never wore jeans or played guitar but in this “new” religion the cool factor is not about reality but the reality we make! Can a Christian wear these jeans? The answer I think leads us to “pure religion” (James 1:27) –Why would one want to? Cool is not in threads, or golden calves, or outward appearance but rather in the heart (1 Peter 3:3, 4). True Religion is not about us but about our God! -DAN