Friday, February 28, 2014

"Where's Your Harley?"


Sunday 2/23/2014 6:12 AM
Last weekend Jaci and I went to San Luis Obispo to visit with family.  Friday night we had gone to order pizza for dinner and went for a walk while it was being prepared.  I was deep in conversation with my brother-in-law, Stan, standing on a corner waiting for a streetlight to change.  “Where’s your Harley?” queried a gravelly voice to my left.  I glanced in his direction to see a wizened face sporting a week’s worth of stubble and a gap-toothed smile staring at my Harley Davidson tee shirt, a gift from my wife and daughter.  “In my garage,” I responded, wishing the light would change soon.  “Are you a professor at the college?” he continued.  I told him I was a math teacher at a community college in the Los Angeles area but not at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, as he assumed.  He proceeded to tell me that his dad was a professor but had gotten fired because he “did” one of his graduate students, more information than I really wanted to know, and then he accompanied me as we walked down the sidewalk, filling me in on more of the details of his life.  After walking with me a few blocks he slowed his pace, stopped in front of a convenience store and ended the conversation.  He thanked me for talking with him, gave me a fist bump and walked into the store.
I caught up with Stan and our wives as they waited for our pizzas.  We discussed the problem of homelessness in our country for quite some time.  As always, when I have those kinds of discussions, I get a sense of hopelessness that I can do anything meaningful to alleviate the situation.  I want to solve the problem but anything I do seems insignificant.
This past Wednesday I had lunch at local diner that I visit about once a week.  There is a homeless man sitting on the pedestal of a former newspaper vending machine nearly every time I visit.  I often park my motorcycle in the spot next to him and greet him each time I visit.  After I eat I often sit in the diner for a couple of hours and correct papers.  Wednesday he came into the diner to use the restroom and he stopped by the table where I was grading papers.  “I thought you were a teacher,” he said.  “I often see you correcting papers when you come.”  I engaged him in conversation and found that he has lived in the neighborhood nearly all his life but was recently separated from his wife and ended up on the street.  He was unable to work because of injuries he had sustained.  He explained that he slept behind the diner each night next to the dumpster to keep vandals from wrecking things at the diner.  In return the owners allow him to use the restroom and occasionally give him a meal.  He is not using drugs and is not an alcoholic; he simply is unable to afford to get a place of his own.  After nearly ten minutes of conversation he thanked me for talking with him and told me his name was Al.
Looking back at the two situations I have mixed feelings.  I am still frustrated by the enormity of the homeless problem in our country but I also realized that just taking a few minutes to talk to someone and hear their story is meaningful to them and informative for me.  It is easy to stereotype all homeless people as addicts or mentally impaired and simply walk the other way, ignoring them.  I pray that I might have the grace to treat them with the same dignity and respect that I would like when I interact with people.

Monday, February 17, 2014

It Only Takes a Minute


Monday 2/17/2014 7:08 AM
As I cooled down from my morning run I noticed a feeble, eighty-something woman stooped in the gutter picking up a few pieces of trash that probably had been thrown out of a passing car during the night.  She carefully placed them in a small paper bag with trembling hands, working slowly, yet deliberately.  “Thank you for doing your part to keep our neighborhood clean,” I said to encourage her.  She looked up at me quizzically and I quickly added, “It must make you angry when people throw out their trash in front of your house.”  “It only takes a minute,” she replied.  “Pardon me?” I queried, not sure I heard her accurately, having anticipated an angry rant about the young people nowadays having no respect for other people’s property or some such thing.  Again she quietly responded, “It only takes a minute.”  I thanked her again and as I left I noted a puzzled look on her face as if she did not understand why I had thanked her for doing what she did each morning.
Her unexpected words continued ringing in my ears as I walked down the sidewalk.  I become angry when I see others acting irresponsibly and often utter words of condemnation or sarcasm to those around me.  I despair of the plight of the culture in which I live, longing for the good old days when there was proper respect given to people and their property.  How much better it would be if I did what I could to improve the world in which I operate through simple acts of gracious service to others.  Philippians 2:3-4 is a goal for which to reach, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.  Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”  Lord, give me grace to “take a minute” to serve others.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Do I Make God Bigger or Smaller?


Wednesday 2/12/2014 4:09 AM
1 Peter 2:12-17 gives some great advice that Christians would do well to heed.  “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.  Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.  For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.  Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.  Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.”
Somehow it seems that the broader Christian community latches on to certain verses in the Bible, which they champion with the enthusiasm of a town crier, while ignoring the practical verses like those above that give concrete ways to live and interact with others.  The Christian community rails against homosexuality, abortion, and the like, but, when it comes to living peaceably with their neighbors, loving the alien, and submitting to government authorities, they are nowhere to be found.  They insist on their own rights but do not seek justice for those who are oppressed. They feel slighted and victimized at the least intrusion of government into their lives but ignore the plight of many throughout the world who are being slaughtered by their governments.
 Peter suggests that we should live in such a way that God is made bigger when people see our actions.  As it is, it would appear that God is being diminished because of our arrogant way of interacting with those around us.  It seems hopeless.  I need to make sure I am not a part of the problem.  Lord, give me the grace to walk in humility with you.

Humble Pie Anyone?


Monday 2/10/2014 5:46 AM
Yesterday I read a Facebook post from one of my colleagues at Cerritos College.  The post was about atheists, with whom he identified himself, and it struck back against the notion many Christians have that atheists are evil people who need to be avoided because they do not acknowledge God.  It pointed out that many atheists are more loving than many Christians, a claim that I believe to be true.  I “liked” the post because I agreed with everything it pointed out.
In the broader Christian community there is a tendency to portray atheists, agnostics, and others with whom we disagree as the enemy, people to be avoided at all costs.  We jump on various bandwagons and despair because The Ten Commandments are taken down in courtrooms, crosses are removed from public places and prayer has been removed from public schools.  We vilify those who we feel are responsible for such atrocities and claim that Christianity is under attack, that we are being persecuted for our beliefs.
My reading today includes Hebrews 12:14, “Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”  I also read this quote by Albert Edward Day in his book Discipline and Discovery, “True holiness is a witness that cannot be ignored.  Real sainthood is a phenomenon to which even the worldling pays tribute.  The power of a life, where Christ is exalted, would arrest and subdue those who are bored to tears by our thin version of Christianity and wholly uninterested in mere churchmanship.”
Too many Christians live that thin version of Christianity to which Day refers.  We go through the motions of attending worship but we do not let the claims of Christ change our daily lives.  If we would put aside our personal interests, looking instead to the interests of others, if we would love others rather than judge them, if we would give up ourselves for the good of others, then we would have more credibility with those with whom we disagree.  Perhaps if we put aside our pride and don some humility people around us would see the Lord. 

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Unselfishness or Love?


Wednesday 2/5/2014 4:01 AM
David begins Psalm 27 with bold statements.  “The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?”  Later in verse 4 he spills the secret of such confidence.  “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.”  David lived without fear because he sought after God.  He knew God intimately because he spent time with him every day.  He knew God’s character and had confidence that God would not abandon him even if the circumstances of his life went south.
In his book Weight of Glory, C. S. Lewis writes about how over the centuries the greatest Christian virtue has morphed from love to unselfishness.  He distinguishes between the two by pointing out that unselfishness is simply self-denial and is an end in itself whereas love requires not only self-denial but also seeking the good of another person.  He then writes what seems to be a contradiction of self-denial.  “If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is in not part of the Christian faith.  Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak.  We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.  We are far too easily pleased.”
I spend much of my life worrying about drink and sex and ambition, fearing I won’t have enough money to live comfortably after I retire, wondering about what others think of me in my life as a teacher and bemoaning the aging process as I feel my body become weaker.  When I focus more and more upon my needs, my desires, and myself I lose focus on the lives of others.  I am blinded to the hurting people around me who need to experience the love of God through me.  Ironically, I spend most of my energy worrying about things that will provide no lasting joy and fulfillment while ignoring the things that will allow me to live confidently and fully before God.  Humankind is designed to live in relationship with God and in relationship with others.  Only when those relationships are healthy will we experience joy and fulfillment in our lives.
Lord, give me the desire to know you more intimately.  Give me confidence that you will provide for my needs and that you will walk with me through the changing circumstances of my life.  Then give me the grace to move from unselfishness to love so that others might be blessed by you through me.