Tag Archives: Spirituality

An Argument for Higher Education

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College is the place you go to learn to pronounce things. Flaubert (Flo-bear), Post-modernity (post-moe-dear-nit-tea), etc. It’s important to sound important; and academic to be in academia (Akku-dame-yah).

That’s why I didn’t do well with Italian. I never sounded like I was intelligent, academic, or important. Most of my Italian pulled smiles and nods from Italians, at least until I turned around. Then it was guffaws.

Example: When I hear “bagna cauda” (a culturally-rich, hot dipping sauce rich in garlic), I hear “hot bathroom” (bagno=bathroom; caldo=hot). An Italian friend asked me: “tu piace la bagna cauda?”  I had a ten minutes conversation in Italian about how I love a warm bathroom and a hot bath.  He smiled and nodded. From across the room, I heard guffaws from several Italians.

Learning to hear and repeat (pronounce) is important. This is why we think the news reports from Stephen Colbert (C0e-bare) is incredibly funny. And G.W. Bush. And Al Gore. All educated savants (Saw-vaws). Our vocabulary (and lexicon) are richer and more expansive.

So, I say: Keep the halls of high education open. And keep attending college. We need more people who look smart. And here’s to hot bathrooms!

Riccardo

Not Good News, but God’s News

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Sometimes, the best thing we can tell someone is the “not good news” life brings. A friend is battling cancer, right now, and he’s losing the fight. A relative has chosen to leave her spouse, because she feels she deserves better. A church copes with the sin of a pastor who left them for another bride. All these things are happening. And, for someone, it’s not good news. But it is truth.

Jeremiah was pulled from the dungeon to come to the king’s chamber secretly. The king asked for news about what God was doing or saying. Jeremiah assured him the message had not changed: Babylon will defeat you.

Conversation:
Jeremiah: “A dungeon? Really? Why?”
Zedekiah: “What’s God up to? What’s he saying to you about me?”
Jeremiah: “All is lost. You will be defeated. There is no hope for rescue coming.”
Zedekiah: “No, I want to hear the good stuff God has to say.”
Jeremiah: “You aren’t listening. It’s all over.”

The truth hurts. The church is hurt by the truth about the wayward pastor. The spouse and kids suffer due to the truth of a selfish act. The first visit of a hospice worker pierces the hearts of the wife and kids (and friends.) God’s news can hurt.

The balance? God hurts with you. He knows the pain of loss, of abandonment, of rejection, of death. And because he knows, he hears. And he hears because he is near.
God’s news can be painful and “not good news;” but it’s always good news that he is near, he hears, and he knows.

Come and get me, come and get me…

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I’m not sure it’s exactly a mathematical formula, but the closer we get to “old-ness” the deeper is our longing for eternity. Things that taste like heaven remind me that’s where I’m supposed to dine some day. Things that hint of eternity nudge me to think how unsatisfying it is “down here.” When God’s Kingdom flashes through the dark and touches me or someone I pray for, I’m drawn toward that brilliance, if just for a moment.

Susan and I watched “City Slicker 2” a few days ago. Setting aside all the vignettes for the stars (Lovitz’s impersonation of Rainman, Crystal’s conversation with the cow on the jogging path, etc.) the whole story is Billy Crystal’s consummate self-centeredness set against the total focus of Jack Palance’s character toward “getting Curly’s gold.” At one point, Palance’s hungry gaze looks over the wilderness and hears the gold calling, “come and get me.” It’s a frightening look he gives to the character: a man possessed by the big fever for gold.

I need an impassioned longing for real treasure! Not “Curly’s gold” but the stuff of heaven. And I need to accept that God passionately loves me. His love for me is totally full-time – no momentary flash of “I like Rick.” He loves me (and you, if you’ve chosen to believe how far He stretched to rescue you) with unrestrained passion.

Jesus was moving on in his mission with his followers, heading for death, looking toward the resurrection and the new way of relating to those He calls. He says to his loved ones on the week of his execution:

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.” (John 14:1-3)

So, if you are troubled by the trouble? Trust that God has you life in the safe cup of his hand. If you feel the wonder when His eternity flashed into our time-consumed existence? He has a place beyond time that fits you perfectly – it’s under construction just like you are. Do you have a longing for knowing Him more intimately? Trust me: your longing to be with Him is only a smattering compared to His longing to have you with Him always. He longs to “come and get you (and me.)”

Eternally for Him

Rick

Grace in a Head-butt

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I come from the school of “gentle evangelism.” Don’t confront… at least too strongly. Listen and talk from a compassionate position. Always remember: the Holy Spirit is a gentleman, right? I wonder if you asked Paul this. Didn’t he get knocked off his feet? Or was it his horse… I forget.

When I shared the Good News with a room full of addicts and two nuns, I was gentle as was the rest of our team who were invited to have desert with them at their halfway house. When I visited a friend in the hospital because of knife wounds from a boyfriend, I was firm… You need Jesus as your Lord and Protector, and you need to distance yourself from your boyfriend!

Which brings up a question. What do we refuse to embrace in others? God embraces all we are in each of us. A pastor friend told me he loves us “warts and all.” Sometimes, I wish all he saw was a little wart. And sometimes, I wish all we had to embrace in others was a blemish or two.

Jude verse 23 says the Good News we share will at times be a “snatching from the fires of hell” itself. A “snatching” from imminent incineration, but gently… well, this seems a contradiction.

A friend of mine just returned to a life of drugs and left his wife and walked away from his church and walk as a disciple. How do I respond? Do I tell him that, like a “patio bug light,” he’s flying into the zap? Do I show grace in a “welcome home” or do I head-butt him?

I’m really leaning toward a head-butt.

As a gentleman
Rick

Collateral Damage

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It’s almost Easter again (2013) and the Cross gets the headlines in churches and news-blogs. Most of us relegate crucifixion to the Gospels, but what about today? Men will be crucified on Good Friday in the Philippines as a sign of desperate devotion (one woman joins the parade of the crucified – her fifteenth time – hoping for a miracle for her sister.) The cross as execution tool is still used against Christians (and other betrayers) in the Muslim world. Egypt, Iraq, Indonesia and other nations have had recent crucifixions to punish the infidels.

For some, this is collateral damage to show the world that Islam rules. Or in the case of the Filipino devotees, a way to display a profane dedication to their God’s holy demands. For many, it’s a religious sideshow. For this Christ-follower, it breaks the heart.

The message of the Cross is simple, liberating, life-altering, and resolves the soul’s deepest cravings… for those who believe. For those who deny or oppose, it is a foolish thing for anyone to think God would take on the pain of the Cross for a barely worthless person. Such an idea would trip up the rationale of anyone with the sense the world gave him or her.

In some ways, the collateral damage that hurts the most is the sacrifice willingly made by the Son of God. (Maybe we should, at least around Easter, feel the pain of what God allowed in the crucifixion.)But beyond the Cross (and really for the Cross) Christ-followers have been willing to sacrifice themselves to show the message of the Cross to generations of cultures. Some have been willing participants of collateral damage, crucified or otherwise executed for the Message… a part of the legacy of getting the Good News to the world.

Collateral means parallel or alongside of, a good picture of what we as Christ-followers do in sharing the Good News with others through our lives, prayers, resources, gifts and talents… and of course, our words. But collateral also means payment or bond or guarantee (as in bail money).

The sacrifice of Christ on the Cross is the bond paid forward and offered to be received by faith. And the sacrifice you and I make to take this Message that is so offensive to some in hopes they will received the gift? We may or may not be a part of the collateral damage, but it’s worth the risk and the reward.

With a view to the Cross,

Rick