Do You Tweet?

I’m just not sure how I feel about micro-blogging. I remember when my brother more than a decade ago asked me what I knew about blogging. I hemmed and hawed because I thought myself tech savvy and finally bailed out with some kind of logging joke. I now have a blog (http://danmcquiddy.blogspot.com). Someone recently asked me if I tweet. They were making reference to the social networking, micro-blogging brain child of Jack Dorsey, called Twitter. It basically is a quick way for mass distributing to friends and interested parties what you’re currently doing, thinking or promoting. It is fast-food, microwave, text messaging communication that some might protest is at best narcissistic and at its worst a catalyst for unfiltered, shallow communication that throws caution to the wind by telling all while telling nothing. That is, Twitter’s logo is a bird (hence a post is a tweet) and the danger is such squawking and tweeting may contribute to less meaningful dialogue and reflective writing… or maybe it’s just harmless fun keeping people connected?

It did make me think of Scriptural exhortations to let your conversation be always full of grace and that what ever we do in word or in deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus! Weighing ones words and reflective thought have suffered in a world that prizes instant communication and information. In Pam’s kindergarten class there is a lone desk and chair that bears the sign “Reflection.” The higher powers of elementary education determined that “Time Out” was too negative and replaced it with “Reflection.” It is however, reminiscent of our mothers final instructions shouted through our bedroom door, “You just sit there and think about what you did for awhile, Mister/Sister!” Yes, reflection is good for the soul but what’s even better is to think before we speak and to choose carefully the words we share so they can be full of grace.

Now, I said all of that to tweet this… social interaction is an important part of the health of society and the church. The most often complaint I hear is that we don’t have enough communication. What I believe is true about that is we don’t communicate. There is plenty of tweeting, bulletin listing, PowerPoint posting, pulpit announcing, telephone and e-mail chaining that you could wallpaper a bedroom. What’s missing is attention. We’ve all ran a stop sign or red light because we weren’t focused. The real tweet here is to pay attention to one another. Really informed people know things before they are announced because they stay on the alert, focused, concerned and attentive. This is not advocacy for nosey busybody activity but the simple exhortation to stay in touch. Keep yourself close to those who mean the most to you! -DAN

Will Convert

We’ve all seen the menagerie of hand printed cardboard signs held by indigent and vagabond souls soliciting help. Most messages are humble pleas identifying their hungry and homeless status but recently a great deal of creativity has been employed.
I’ve seen a couple of people with signs that read, “Bet you can’t hit me with a quarter!” Maybe you’ve seen the laconic reverse psychology sign that reads, “Who am I kidding? I need a beer!” These intersection cries for help have been taken to a new level when I recently saw a gentleman holding a sign that read, “Atheist. Will convert for cash. God Bless.” Now that’s a variation on a theme. I’m not sure if it was a political statement against the religious right perceived to do anything to convert some, or if it was just simply a sardonic soul that found the absurdity of an atheist saying “God Bless” was too good to pass up. None-the-less, he caught my attention and got me thinking.

What will motivate someone to convert? The Bible is a collection of conversion stories and history is replete with dramatic conversions and of course there is always the ever popular (let’s try to forget) crusades that not only involved Muslim-Christian contention over Jerusalem but forced and coerced conversions. Maybe the crusades are after all the best illustration of the nature of conversion. In 1212 some two hundred years after the first crusade a young French boy allegedly rallied a band of children to march peaceably to Jerusalem to convince the Muslims to accept Christianity and it’s right to the church of the Holy Sepulcher. Historians now believe it was more likely a grassroots movement of the poor. However history views the Children’s Crusade, it is reminder of Jesus affirmation to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place (John 18:36).” Paul adds, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17).”

What will motivate someone to convert? Only the Spirit of God piercing the heart with its sword of truth revealing one’s sinful soul in need of redemption. Cash won’t do it. Military might won’t do it. The finest argument or slickest PowerPoint won’t do it. The list is endless of tried and failed methods but the target never changes. God wants to convert the heart! Conversion mandates a two-fold confession: 1) I am sinful and alienated from the Creator; and 2) Jesus can wash my sins away and lead me home if I’ll submit to His Lordship. The promise is that the Spirit not only convicts men of sin but leads them into holiness. What motivated you… or will motivate you? -DAN

Cherry Treed

My mother would remind us when she caught us in a pubescent prevarication (aka lying) that Revelation 21:8 said that all liars would have their place in the lake that burned with fire! She would go on to remind us that Jesus said the devil was the father of lies and lying was his native tongue. In school we learned that our first president as a little boy chopped down his father’s cherry tree and redeemed himself by not telling a lie but confessing his sin before his father. I would like to tell you that such cautious tales and well applied Scripture kept my lips on the straight and narrow path of truth… but then I’d really be a liar and because I can still taste the bitter residue of ivory soap that had more than once washed my mouth free of untruth, I confess that I have told a few whoppers in my time. As I have matured over the years I have discovered that an ingenuous spirit rejoices in the truth and always speaks truth in love. However, such spirit demands diplomacy yet presupposes that honesty IS the best policy. Truth is enveloped in love and elucidates not just observable facts but applies a wisdom that has as its goal, “to build one up not pull them down (2 Corinthians 10:8).”

The greatest lie is not a truth opposite or even an exaggeration but rather a truth twister. The father of lies from the beginning was a truth twister convincing the original pair that God was hiding truth from them. Life is full of such subtle twists. Unhappy spouses convince themselves that God wouldn’t want them to be unhappy and certainly doesn’t want their children subjected to such unrest and hostility. Employees fudge on time sheets and help themselves to office supplies because it’s an unspoken fringe benefit. Sir Walter Scott was right when he wrote, “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!” Lies often twist and distort the truth until the mangled remains become so confusing that even the liar is at loss to recount what they have said.

The cherry treed dilemma here is echoed in Pilate’s query, “What is truth (John 18:38)?” Certainly, reality shows are not reality but edited, scripted, manipulated emotional cattle calls. George Washington’s cherry tree story is after all been discovered to be a “preacher story” by an overzealous biographer. Whether you are googling, reading the front page, or listening to your favorite anchor, preacher or analyst one can be assured that truth has been altered, slanted and preened for use. So is everything a lie? NO! There is one who is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6)! Truth is not in facts nor is it in perception. Truth is divine. It is embodied so that it can remain living and active. It is anchored by principle and articulated by faith. It stands alone. It demands both humility and tenacity so that we remain willing vessels to be filled with a treasure not our own.-DAN

Suitcase Abuse

Pam was packing her bag getting ready for a quick trip to visit Bryndyn and family (better known as… seeing the grandkids) and wondering what to pack for Missouri weather. I’m a moping mess when she’s gone but happy that her Spring break allows her the opportunity to see Caelleb, Tia and Kobe (and their adult wardens). When I got to the office I received a call that a former Roseville church member Haskell Meadors had passed away. I got on line to view his obituary and immediately saw that the Tracy police department was reporting that the missing 8 year old, Sandra Cantu’s remains had been found when a nearby farmer drained a collection pond. Her remains had been stuffed into a suitcase that apparently had been tossed into the collection pond about two miles away from the mobile park where she lived. My heart sank. My spirit whispered, “Suitcases are for anticipated trips and joyous reunions not macabre chambers to hide the most heinous of crimes.”

The newspapers chronicle the history of mankind all too often revealing the unconscionable acts of the villainous depraved among us. We are sickened by their callous invalidation of the sanctity of life and appalled at the darkness that fills their souls. We are amazed at a God who laments not only their victims but longs for their repentance (2 Peter 3:9). We are glad that He is their judge for we long for their annihilation. We want the bell unrung and the innocent restored and vindicated. We want life to be fair! We will take our lumps and bumps but children are to be hedged around by an impenetrable army of angels! We want a world without Satan!

The Easter story affirms to us that God too longs for that Day which He secured through the cross. A day of resurrection where neither the grave nor the ravages of time, nor an ill-fated suitcase can stop the rebirth of life! God chooses not to prevent the evil machinations of the depraved but He will not let it be victorious. Death will be swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54). Our God reigns… victory is through our Lord Jesus Christ! Now that’s the Easter Story! -DAN

Friend

While my grandson Payden was visiting I was delighted with his view of the non adult world. When we visited Pam at school he called her kindergarten class, “the friends” and when he called out to our neighbor’s children through the fence he solicited their attention with, “friends.” In Payden’s world the possibility of friendship is assumed with those of like stature and youthful innocence. When describing the child led world of God’s redeemed kingdom Isaiah writes, “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together and a little child will lead them.” Such poignant and poetic imagery evokes the view of a world that is enemy free… where friendship is assumed and peace prevails. In John’s third letter he interchangeably uses brother and friend. John’s customary greeting was, “Friend.” It is in John’s gospel we are told of Jesus’ affirmation, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you (John 15:15).”

I want to be more like my grandson and view the world full of friends! I want to take serious my Lord’s affirmation that knowledge of the divine produces friendship. I want to recapture the spirit of first century Christians who were not only a brotherhood but friends. And most of all I want my life, my church, my world to be friend invested with an openness that looks beyond fences and calls out, “Friends!”

Though this may be a child led and youthful innocent view of life, I don’t believe that it is naive or irrational. Will evil still exist? Yes. Will enemies disrupt peaceful and friendly efforts? Yes… but in the midst of a fallen world the only hope to dispel such darkness is a kindly light. Friends work hard at loving, sharing, caring and repairing a world at odds with itself. I can think of no greater challenge for the church and our communities than for each of us to be committed to being friends. No more wolves, lambs, leopards, goats, calves, lions or yearlings but simply friends! “Welcome friend,” should always be on our lips. -DAN