Documentaries

We recently decided to try out Netflix. I'm not entirely sure why- it just seemed more convenient than going to the video store, and a (much) better value than either the video store or On-Demand cable movies. Along with the DVD rental service they are known for, Netflix has recently started streaming movies online free for members. The catalog of those movies isn't all that big yet, but there are a lot of documentaries. I really enjoy documentaries, but I generally don't choose to rent them. But, watching one for free on my computer while I also do some work at night? That, I am willing to do.

So, in the last couple of weeks, I have caught The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters, Helvetica, Confessions of a Superhero, Word Wars, and The Future We Will Create. All of these movies interested me to differing degrees and in different ways, but they all had one thing in common: People who are obsessed, absolutely single-minded obsessed to an unhealthy degree, with one thing. These people sacrifice their jobs, their families, their lifestyles, and their physical & emotional health to pursue their obsessions, obsession which often have little to no reward. For example, "Word Wars" is about several of the world's top Scrabble players. Yes, there is a thing as competitive tournament Scrabble, and it pays money. Many of these players consider themselves "professional" Scrabble players, inasmuch as they have no other profession, in order to devote all of their time to Scrabble. To be sure, these players are exceptionally good. At one point, one of the players we are following wins a significant tournament. His cash reward? $875.

How does someone become so single-mindedly obsessed with something like Scrabble? Or Donkey Kong? Or a font? Or Superman? Or anything? I think the answer is that our culture says that in order to be successful, you have to sacrifice everything for that one purpose. In practice, if enough people do that, it becomes true. In general, people who outwork others are going to outperform them. I am a reasonably good Scrabble player, but I could not beat someone with no job who spends 6 hours a day doing anagrams and memorizing word lists. I'm a reasonably good businessman, but it's hard to compete with someone who works 18 hour days and ignores their family (or doesn't have one).

So, am I willing to do what it takes to be successful? Honestly, I don't know that I am. Or maybe I just have a different definition of "success." Is success limited to becoming the best at something? To making tons of money? Or can success be much more modest? Can success be found in moderation? Can a guy with a job he enjoys, a family he loves, meaningful friendships and a supportive church be considered successful? Obviously, the answer to me is "yes." But what about spiritually? Are we not called to live sacrificial lives? To lay down our families, give away our money, pick up our cross and follow him? Does this sound like something that can be done moderately or does it sound like something that requires a single-minded obsession? As Kierkegaard says, "Purity of heart is to will one thing." Not, "Purity of heart is to live a balanced life."

Do I need to stop watching documentaries about really strange people?

Waiting

I'm not a huge "quote" person, but there are a few that I find meaningful. One of those is John Lennon's "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." I've always tried to keep this in mind, as it is very easy for me to plan for the future at the expense of really living in the moment. It helps keep me grounded.

That's been on my mind a bit lately, because I feel like I'm in a bit of a couple week "holding pattern" before all the excitement for the year happens. Here are a few things I'm excited about:
-March 20: First day of spring. Take that winter!
-March 20: March Madness begins;
-March 28 & 29: teaching the Good Sense seminar at church;
-March 31: Cubs opening day (Go Cubs Go!);
-April 5-11: Grandma Dayton in town to watch Sophie so Nancy can write (and we get to go on a date or 2)
-April 12: Grove's wedding;
-April 18 &19: I'm taking a motorcycle riding class (seriously);
-April 26 & 27: Disc golf tournament with my brother Mike and his friends Nick & Eric.
-May 3: Going to the Kentucky Derby for the third time (and coming out ahead, I hope);
-May 16-18: Weekend trip to the Tussey's lakehouse;
-June 3: My third anniversary of turning 29;
-June 12-15: Sophie's first trip to Wrigley Field and Kelsey's graduation party;
-June 28-July 1: Our first family vacation with just the 3 of us and our 8th Anniversary;
-July 2-6: Camp with Daytons;
-July 8: Nancy officially gets old.

Meanwhile, I have loads of work to do. Sophie has words to learn. Nancy has a book to write and coffee to drink. I have to cut down the stupid maiden grass. Oh, how I hate cutting down the maiden grass. It's my nemesis.

You'll notice that Easter and the end of lent did NOT make the list. This is not because I'm not excited about it. I'm planning a crazy cookie/chocolate/pizza/pop orgy that will be the stuff legends are made of. Still, throughout lent I have been re-studying the spiritual disciplines with my friend Dan. This has been equal measures challenging, enjoyable, frustrating and rewarding. Most of all, it has reawakened a spiritual awareness in me, one that hadn't exactly fallen away, but was in need of refreshing. I think that at the end of the day, that is what lent is all about. The cookies or other trivial sacrifices we make are essentially meaningless, but when they are accompanied by real spiritual change, they take on a profound significance. So, am I excited for Easter and excited for the end of lent? Yes! But I'm more excited to keep learning and growing now and hope that growth stays doesn't get swept away with the Dr. Pepper.

A Common Word

A large group of Muslim scholars recently wrote an open letter to leaders all throughout Christianity. It is an interesting read, and I have a few thoughts.

Let's assume for the sake of this discussion that the arguments they make for the similarities and, essentially oneness, of our two faiths are valid. Where does this leave Judaism? Christianity is, after all, simply a cult of Judaism. Yet this letter only mentions the Jews in passing as "the people of scripture." It's almost as if they are a character in the Biblical stories, but a non-entity for the purposes of modern discussion. While I think that every true Christ follower applauds and agrees with the call here for peace and understanding between our two faiths, I think that this call is essentially irrelevant if there is not also peace and understanding between the Muslims and the Jews. Is there a similar letter addressed to Jewish leaders worldwide?

I fully understand that before peace can occur in the real world, this type of dialogue must take place in the abstract. Yet this letter does not really discuss a practical application for our faiths to coexist in this tumultuous world. I agree with the reasoning that loving God and others is the absolute fundamental tenant of the two religions, and this should be reason enough for both of us to choose to live in a spirit of love with the other. Furthermore, the 2 religions comprise 55% of the world's population, making peace imperative or non-peace unviable over the long term. Yet I'm not sure I saw a clear idea of what this looks like in practical terms. Certainly there is a call for a change in attitude towards one another, a call to which I agree fully. Perhaps we are not yet at the stage to work this out in practical terms. Maybe we're only at the point where we can peacefully "agree to disagree," so to speak.

In the end, I'm quite amazed that this letter was put together and agreed upon by a group as diverse as the authors listed, a group whose beliefs are as diverse as the group of Christian leaders to whom it is addressed. This is an accomplishment to be commended. It brings me much shame and disappointment to think of the chances of the Christian leaders listed all agreeing and signing off on anything, let alone a response to a letter as important & certainly controversial as this. I guess that it is my hope and prayer that they can/will agree and that this type of understanding and dialogue can filter down into our churches in a meaningful way.

Mountain Top Experiences

When Nancy & I got married, we were blessed to have her Dad serve us communion and share a short, private little pep talk during the ceremony. Although I won’t claim to remember all of the details of that blur of a day, I’ll never forget the essence of what he said. He told us that in our lives, we will have many mountain top experiences, some of which may even take place on top of a mountain. Our wedding, of course, was one of those mountain top experiences, hence the message. To borrow liberally from my wife here, when a mountain top experience happened in the Bible (regardless of whether it happened on a mountain or not), it was frequently marked with a massebah, or standing stone. These standing stones were erected as a reminder of what God did in that place. When people would come upon a standing stone, the natural response would have been “What happened here that they erected a standing stone to commemorate it?” This was then an opportunity to share the story of what God did there.

So, what is the point of that elaborate introduction? As many of you may be aware, I turn 30 in a few short days. All year I have resisted that idea and insisted that I was merely beginning a new tradition of turning 29 every year. This was to be my second annual 29^th birthday. Just in case, though, I spent a good part of the last year taking a poll of those who had previously crossed that 30^th birthday threshold and they seemed to speak in one voice: the 30’s is the best decade of your life. Unless they are all engaged in a conspiracy to lie to me about this, I see no reason to continue to deny the fact that I am turning 30 and to, in fact, embrace the upcoming years of my life.

So, with my new found acceptance and enthusiasm for the fate that lies ahead, I figured it was an appropriate time to reflect upon the last 30 years and tell the stories inscribed upon the standing stones that are erected on the mountaintop experiences of my life.

Full Disclosure: I find that the best ideas in my life are usually not mine. Although the idea of reflecting as part of my 30^th birthday celebration is mine, I also drew inspiration from Derry Prenkert’s well-written blog. His “Greatest Hits” series is beyond coincidentally similar, so I wanted to make sure to give him some credit. Nonetheless, I would expect our experiences, with several exceptions, to be strikingly different. You can check out Derry’s blog here.

MOUNTAIN TOP EXPERIENCE #1: My Salvation Story

I was born on June 3, 1977. I was born again on December 29, 1991. But I’m skipping ahead.

I think that I always believed in a god, even the Christian God- I just had no idea what that meant. I would occasionally go to church with extended family members or even friends. Growing up in the heavily Catholic South Bend area, I had no concept that there were churches other than Catholic churches, which was ironic since I had never been to anything other than a protestant church. I remember in 7^th grade a Catholic friend of mine asked me if I was Catholic. As I held some notion of believing in the Christian God and didn’t understand the distinction, I said “yes.” It was spring time, so he asked me what I was giving up for Lent. I had to admit to him that I had no idea what he was talking about, at which point he explained to me that I wasn’t Catholic. That was nice to know.

So, I was officially not Catholic. I was curious, though, what I was. For whatever reason, I wanted discover what I “was” spiritually, but I wasn’t sure how to do that. After my Dad died, I began praying. A lot. I suppose this is natural. Even though I did not yet know God at that time, I think of those prayers as some of the most “real” prayers I’ve ever prayed. Some were angry, some were sad, some were begging, most were totally selfish, but they were all authentic.

Several months thereafter, my very good friend Mike Grove invited me to go to church with him and his family. It was Palm Sunday 1991. I began attending regularly with him- his family had to drive past the church to get to my house to pick me up, but they did it every Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday night for several years. I’m fairly certain my mom thought I joined a cult.

Although I eagerly attended church for the greater part of the year, I never made a commitment to follow Jesus. As I look back upon it, I find this strange, because I was clearly looking for God to fill that void in my heart. Over Christmas break of that year, Mike invited me to a youth conference, which was then known as NCYC. I remember being a little hesitant to go because, although I was starting to get into the whole church thing, the idea of spending 3 straight days in church over my Christmas break didn’t yet sound all that appealing. Mike sold me on it as a 3 day sports event. We would mostly play in basketball, soccer, and volleyball tournaments, and if there was time we might get in a little church stuff as well. We most certainly did play in a basketball, soccer, and volleyball tournament, losing in the first round of each.

During the appointed “church stuff” hours, I found myself surprisingly captivated. Although I really enjoyed our youth pastor Jim’s messages, I had never heard someone speak so clearly and intentionally for a youth audience. When he explained the heart of the gospel message and asked us to pray and invite Jesus into our lives, I knew this was a different type of prayer than anything I had ever done. I prayed it willingly and joyfully, asking Jesus to forgive me of my sins and come live in my heart. After the prayer, the speaker asked that any of us who prayed it should stick around after the imminent dismissal of the service and one of our youth leaders would come and talk to us. I knew I had prayed the prayer, but was not yet bold enough to stick my neck out on my own, so I decided that I would stay if Mike stayed as well. When the service ended Mike immediately turned to me and asked “Are you staying?” I assumed that he was staying and wanted me to stay with him, so I told him I was staying. He said “Good,” and turned around and walked away.

I figured that I was stuck there at that point, and since I had made the decision anyway, I might as well talk to one of our youth leaders. Paul Hampton found me almost immediately. I think I told him something to the effect of “You guys finally roped me in,” as though they had won and I had lost. I think the next few moments were some of the most important of my entire life, as he explained to me what my decision meant and how I had, in fact, won. I cried a lot that evening, as God began to fill the void inside me. They were mostly tears of joy, relief & wonder, but I think also tears of every other emotion available to a 14 year old. I like to think of them as my spiritual water breaking so that I could be born again.

I hate to stop at this point in the story. After all, life only begins at birth- it is not the end of the story. There is much more to tell, but I suppose that is the point of this series…