Monthly Archives: February 2012

A Bad Evaluation

Posted in Education, Faith, Ideas by

One can learn a lot from 8-year olds. I do every day as a grade three teacher.

Today the lesson was on evaluating myself. Emily, a third-grade student, was upset that she did the “baddest” on her power write (a writing assignment where students are given a topic to think about and time limit to write as much as they can.

Emily was disappointed because she was only able to write 49 words about the different uses of helmets. “49″, she scribbled in large letters, circling it and adding the caption “baddest”, with two X’s beside.

This reaction happened because she was able to write more words about another topic last week. Emily was trying to outdo her performance on another topic in the past.

What Emily will find out tomorrow when I give her her journal back is that my evaluation of her work is completely different. My comment on her page reads: ”This is awesome, Emily. You really connected the topic of helmets to some great facts and even personal stories! Well done.” I’m even considering giving her a Star of the Day certificate for her exemplary anecdotes.

As a beginning writer, Emily actually isn’t the best judge of her writing and how “bad” or “good” it is. It’s not just the number of words that count. If they were, then the famous poet by the same name, Emily Dickinson, wrote some truly horrible poems. In an instant, my proper evaluation of Emily, as her teacher and official evaluator, overturns whatever she may have thought about her performance on this assignment. Emily probably didn’t realize that there were other factors at play: I might have even given the class less time to write today.

God used this process to teach me a lesson. As I realized how Emily had wrongly judged her performance by using faulty criteria, he showed me how he is the only one who can judge justly.  Whenever I sit in judgement over myself, I’ll always give myself a bad rap because I’m horribly biased, my perspective tainted by my own perceived shortcomings. Despite what I may think of myself, God is the one with the criteria, and we may find ourselves more often that not judging ourselves with faulty criteria. God overturns our judgments and tells us to listen to how He judges.

What’s truly ironic is that the times that we feel inadequate before God and have failed his standards are likely the times we haven’t consulted his opinion on the matter. Where does our righteousness come from? Not actually from our works at all. It was what Christ did that we were unable to do. That’s why the Bible says that the blood of Jesus speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (a righteous man by works). In fact, Paul uses the most coarse and base word in the entire New Testament to describe how worthless his own works were: “I consider them scubilon” (the first-century equivalent for shit).

It’s God alone who holds the standards by which he judges us – and he’s told us. It’s the standard of the blood of his Son – one standard, for all, for all time. God had one test, and Jesus passed with flying colours. He upheld that standard for all of us.

The name “Daniel” means “God is my judge”. That’s easy to remember; it’s my middle name.

Risk & Paradox

Posted in Faith by

Published at Converge Magazine online: 
http://wp.me/p1EUL8-119

The kingdom Jesus preached is an environment that does not fear looking upside-down to others. It involves risks; sometimes very small ones, sometimes great leaps of faith, standing upon nothing except the promises of the Bible, what some call “blind faith”, or, disparagingly, “foolishness”.

In this universe He created, God has set forth many paradoxes. Jesus and others through history have blazed their trails, proving, incredulously, the validity of these paradoxes as lives and indeed kingdoms and institutions have been revolutionized through the proactive love and demonstration of the Spirit’s power by a servant-king’s empowered disciples. To be first, one must become last. To become great, one must be humble. To become rich, one must realize one’s poverty. To live, one must die to oneself, taking up the cross daily. Remember that though paradoxes appear at first not to be true, they prove true through experience.

In the struggle of the early morning wake-up routine after a night of interrupted sleep, today’s dark, frosty dawn presented me with a choice testing my faith in one such paradox: do I go with the feelings, emotions and desires of my body, which would have been quite happy to sleep in (just 10 more minutes . . . ) or do I trust God when he says that if I put His kingdom first (how applicable that verse is in the ‘first’ light of the day), that all other things shall be added, supernaturally and generously, to me by my loving Father.

Too often I allow the outside world to dictate what I feel on the inside. This might sound very normal; indeed, it is the normal experience of many people to be bombarded and bullied each day by externals. We find ourselves affirming things we don’t believe, agreeing to things we don’t want, and failing to do things we should. However in the Bible I see a different way of living: one where our internal atmosphere has authority over external circumstances, starting with God’s initial creative act. Elijah’s prayer changes the weather. Jesus’ confidence could not be swayed by governors. Peter’s command heals the cripple.

So rolling out of bed, I grabbed my Bible and Henri Nouwen’s Life of the Beloved and under the reading light I began to ingest words that would nourish me, as I am promised in the Proverbs. Indeed, if I eat no other food today, I am blessed by God. I am empowered by a sterling strength superior to my own variable energy level. I have what I really need.

By God’s grace and his gifts, I can stand and win against the pangs of hunger, loneliness, failure, and even death, for Jesus has conquered them all for us.

Though the spiritual life holds much in tension with human perception, the securities we are given are plentiful. Great and numerous are the promises of God’s Word. His heart is set towards us with a consuming and exultant love. I am His beloved. Here’s another paradox: His power is made perfect in our weakness. May our minds be utterly renewed.

Words With Meaning

Posted in Ideas, Quotes by

As an English literature student become writer and teacher, I am very fond of words. I wrestle with them in order to find the right ones to say.

But the biggest challenge is not in saying the right words, but in refraining to say words that lack value. I bemusedly confess to my friends that as a teacher I say much more than I would like to, yet in the moment my words never seem to be enough to effectively communicate the ideas I wish to convey in the classroom.

Two years ago I was deeply challenged by Henri Nouwen’s appropriately thin book on silence, solitude, and prayer, The Way of the Heart. The following passage increased my awareness of how full or void of power my words can be, when they are just more words in an ever-growing sea of babble. I must choose my words carefully. We all must, if we hope for our words to mean anything at all:

“Words, words, words. Our society is full of words: on billboards, on television screens, in newspapers and books. Words whispered, shouted, and sung. Words that move, dance, and change in size and color. Words that say, “Taste me, smell me, eat me, drink me, sleep with me,” but most of all, “buy me.” With so many words around us, we quickly say: “Well, they’re just words.” Thus, words have lost much of their power.

Still, the word has the power to create. When God speaks, God creates. When God says, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3), light is. God speaks light. For God, speaking and creating are the same. It is this creative power of the word we need to reclaim. What we say is very important. When we say, “I love you,” and say it from the heart, we can give another person new life, new hope, new courage. When we say, “I hate you,” we can destroy another person. Let’s watch our words.“

Excerpted from Bread for the Journey and The Way of the Heart, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc.

Owning Up to Redemption

Posted in Arts & Creativity, Faith, Ideas by

The church needs to establish a working theology of creativity.

Rummaging through an old bookshelf a few summers ago, I chanced upon an intriguing Salem Kirban title: The Devil’s Music. This is a book written decades ago that made the case that rock ‘n’ roll was unsuitable for Christian worship music because it was devoid of anything worshipful. It had some meritous claims, but I was not convinced by its overall wrongheaded, straw man argument. Kirban’s major mistake was made in claiming that some genres are not worshipful. I would understand more if that was said about some artists, but genres are neutral vehicles. Good or bad depends on who is driving.

This same generic claim used to be made about some classical music. Beethoven, for example, was a real punk. He upset some of his contemporaries by ignoring existing composition guidelines. The conservative Christian community has historically disdained ruckuses.

The assumption was that worship is not meant to be noisy. Well, tell that to King David, or to any of the characters who surround God’s throne in the book of Revelation.

In the meantime, the church has heartily adopted rock as the modus operandi for modern worship music (thanks, U2), but I think religion’s mistake of “surrendering genres to Satan” still cripples the church.

I will certainly agree that evil has a hand of influence in many of the messages and culture of rock and many other genres, and brokenness is visible in fashion, sports, commerce, politics, religion, science, and . . . you know, everything else . . . but that does not disqualify any of it from redemption. Darkness has never been reason for Christians staying away. That would be fear. It’s really an invitation to put things right. Jesus already paid the price for all things. He is waiting for the church to claim the return on his investment. Christians can take back any territory lost to the devil in the Fall of Man.

I’m not talking about some weird sort of religious coup here. I mean influencing these areas of society through practicing love, imagination, and the commands of Jesus. Heal the sick*. Cleanse lepers*. Raise the dead*. (*Make sure you take these terms literally AND figuratively.)

Is music broken? Certainly. Listen and watch anger, jealousy, disrespect, violence and addiction glorified in music media. Music television may be the biggest testament of a world in need of a saviour. But contrary to what some believe, God never says to sit back and watch the world go to hell. He gave the church a spirit of power. He set before us a mission which is daunting, but “not greater than we can bear” with Christ. That mission is to “bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom to the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners” (Isaiah 61:1).

Without a working theology of creativity (stemming from a imagination that’s been offered to God), the church has only the world to imitate. It will produce bland facsimiles of worldly art, relationships, economics, education, and leadership. Jesus desires for the church to live inspired lives that pull others into the wholeness and adventure that God offers. Jesus’ victory has immediate impact on our daily lives and our ability to be leaders in creativity and innovation. When Jesus told Peter that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church, the underlying meaning was that we would be on the advance, not surrendering territory to “the devil’s music”.

Interview: Shane Claiborne and the Irresistible Revolution

Posted in Arts & Creativity, Faith, Global Issues, Government & Politics, Ideas, Interviews, Social Issues, Storytelling by

I sat down with the affable Shane Claiborne at MissionsFest 2012 to talk about social justice, life, and junk food, for Converge Magazine Online.

Vancouver Missions Fest 2012 with Shane Claiborne from Converge Magazine on Vimeo.

 

For My Part…

Posted in Environment, Global Issues, Storytelling by

My darling Rosa,

Thanks for securing this channel. I’m glad you’re so savvy when it comes to modern technology. You asked me last month about the price hikes you learned about in your economics class. What they won’t have told you is that water used to be free. Completely unpriced. It is best that you don’t mention this in class because even raising the idea is threatening to some. You know who I’m talking about. They may accuse you of sympathizing with an unpopular crowd; there were groups in the past who were branded as socialists and have long been outlawed, who campaigned against the privatization of water. It wasn’t always the way it is now.

Sometimes I feel remorse about my own irresponsibility in creating the shortages that sparked the Water Wars. I’d say less than ten percent of my generation was conscientious enough to conserve water even moderately. I am old enough to remember the rabbles of humanity smeared across the face of the earth who rinsed their clothes, their pots, and their plastic dishes under drainspouts or filthy rivulets in urban hovels – burgeoning ecological hazards by dumping the suds of their low-grade soap.

Back then we thought that was just Africa, Asia, South America. That would never be us! The luxuriant first-world lifestyle propagated on this continent was far too idealistic. I remember taking 10 or 15-minute showers and thinking nothing of it. Or emptying the dishwater from the sink to refill it – two, or even three times to do the dishes from one or two meals! I know for you, young as you are, it must be difficult to believe how a person could be so short-sighted and selfish about earth’s most precious resource. But we carelessly exposed ourselves to the point of infection with that mindset. It had taken hold of us too firmly by the time we woke up to the fact that it was too late to turn things around.

You’ve no doubt read parts of the story in your history books. The shortages began with one region here, or a city there, finding themselves in an awkward lack. Needing to be accommodated by an obliging adjacent municipality, sharing was performed in the name of brotherhood. Then were the initial rumblings of the impending shortage, and the first day the restrictions were announced. The government installed the timed auto-shutoff retrofits. People tampered with them then just like they do now. But that’s a heavy fine to risk for just a few extra litres.

People in the past actually filled tubs of water large enough to completely submerge themselves! In fact, swimming pools – the ones I showed you photos of – used to exist in almost every municipality. It was uncommon for a child not to take swimming lessons. There’s no use for such an irrelevant skill now, but I’d teach you if we ever found a pool. Or a bit of clean ocean. As if! All pool owners were given six months to fill them in with dirt and plant something green.

With the restrictions, of course, came the bureaucratic handling. All water use had to be properly documented. Next were the excruciating diplomatic strains between our country and our global “neighbours”. Our Canadian government was quick to realize the commodity as a major economic fulcrum.

The war, which ended the year you were born, was ugly and bitterly unjust. It began unfair and it ended the same way. But the dust settled and the treatise was finally signed. Another attempt at colonialism masquerading as world security – will we ever change? The synthetic H2O tastes similar but I remember the days when genuine clean fresh water used to flow down mountainsides and meander through the valley. You could swim in it, drink it, and even flush your toilet with it! It wasn’t a crime. We thought it would last forever – it wasn’t even a moral issue then. Everyone did it. It was just how we lived.

I look forward to your next visit.

Your affectionate grandfather