Mr. Nick

Tonight I met an 85 year old man while hanging out with my family waiting for the fireworks to start. His name was 'Nick.' I didn't feel right calling him Nick. I felt like I should call him 'Mr.' But Nick was the name he gave.

I met Nick because I was wearing this shirt I have that says "Reagan/Bush 84." Its a t-shirt that looks just like one of the shirts that would have been used during the campaign of 1984. I'm a big fan of Ronald Reagan, and when I saw the shirt for sale on the Internet I just had to get it. Its sorta silly, sure, but people like making statements about their political views, and I'm no different.

A number of people said things to me tonight because of the shirt... Nice things, like "Hey, I like your shirt." I'm sure there are people who didn't like the shirt, and they didn't say anything. That's good. I'm not looking for a fight!

So anyway, there was a man sitting just behind my family, called me over. "Hey you man," he said, motioning for me. "I just wanted to say that I like your shirt!" I went over to the man sitting in his chair and knelt down to talk to him. We got to talking, not about politics, but about other stuff. He saw me running around with my girls catching lighting bugs and I suppose he just wanted to chat. He mentioned that he had very recently lost his wife of 58 years, a loss that I can't imagine. It must feel like losing a piece of yourself.

He asked me how long I had been married.

"To my wife?" I asked (a very silly question, but I didn't understand what he said at first).

"No! To your boyfriend! Of course your wife," he laughed.

"9 years"

He told me he was 85 years old.

"Were you in the war?"

"Yep, World War II," he said.

Now here's the part that really said something about this man, Nick, and his entire generation. They really were The Greatest Generation. Good, humble people. These people never felt like they were owed anything. They didn't demand that the government give them money. They didn't demand unearned respect. They didn't complain. They didn't brag.

He didn't mention much about the war, so I asked him, "Where were you in the war?"

"Normandy. D-Day."

D-DAY! Wow. I am in the presence of a living piece of history, and proof that The United States is the greatest country in the world.

"Wow! D-Day?"

"Yep, I was in the third wave..."

He went on to describe how he watched the first and second wave of boats mowed down by German fire. He said it was an indescribable and horrific thing, and his voice quivered a bit. I can't imagine. From there, somehow, we talked about The Great Depression. He described growing up in New York City and literally having no food to eat.


I don't want to go to war. I don't want to live through an economic depression. But I do think that somehow, some which way, generations after The Greatest lack something. We lack respect and humility. If I was in the third wave of D-Day, and lived to tell about it, I would brag to anyone who would listen.

I tucked my daughter Reagan into bed tonight. She asked who that man was and I told her that he was Mr. Nick, and because of his generation we a very bad man named Hitler didn't save the world. I told her that there was an evil man who wanted to take over the world and kill a lot of people.

Reagan asked, bleary eyed and tired, "Did God make Hitler bad?"

"I don't think so, Reagan. I think God made Hitler and Hitler chose to be bad."

"Well, I choose to be nice," Reagan said, drifting off.

"That's good, Reagan. So do I. Sometimes I'm not nice, but I want to be."

Mr. Nick was awesome. His is a generation that we are losing fast, in many ways.

My Most Non-Cynical Blog Post Ever

I really believe that the vast majority of people at church are good people who want to help others.

I don't think the "church smile" is always phony. Being someone guilty of having a "church smile," I think it is a result of being someplace where everybody knows your name, and feeling good about being there. Really.

I was going to write two posts, the first being "My Most Cynical Blog Post Ever," and following it with a post like this tomorrow. But I think most of the posts on this blog for the past year or more have smacked of cynicism.

I don't know what happened or who "corrupted" me, but it turns out I am more interested in theology than I knew. I was at a church recently where I met with an elder and started asking some theology questions. After a while I realized that I sounded like that annoying guy in the new membership class at church. I detected a bit of an "oh boy, here we go," look in the elder's eyes.

Labels: cynicism

The Liberal Calvinist

If I were to rename this blog I would call it "The Liberal Calvinist."

After several years of wrestling with theology, from trying to understand it to trying to reject its value, I think I've figured out where I stand. And I don't stand here because it feels nice or generous or like an intelligent thing to say. I stand here because I think it is the truth: I am a Liberal Calvinist. No, I'm not politically liberal. Far from it. I have friends who are politically liberal and Biblically very conservative. I have even more friends who are politically conservative and Biblically conservative. When I say "Liberal Calvinist," I think what I mean is "Mostly reformed, but with some footnotes."

Before I get started I'll preface with this: Someone much, much smarter than me is likely to read this and roll his eyes at how simplistic and naive I sound. Naive works for me. Maybe I was elected to naivety (that's a joke, lighten up).

WHERE I AM CALVINIST:

Reformed Theology is Good, Right (but don't get all righteous about it)
What I mean by this is that I believe in the points of Reformed Theology, at least as far as I can possibly understand it. The Internet is a terrible place to learn about Calvinism. Its mostly full of bloggers who love some dude named Spurgeon more than Jesus. Hyper Calvinists are the modern Pharisees, eager to throw stones at Methodists, Catholics and Rob Bell. Yuck.

But the ugly side shouldn't push me away from the good side (and its mostly good).

I've had this "Calvinism" stuff explained to me backward and forward and in all sorts of ways. I've learned the TULIP acronym, and I've tried to follow the explanations as much as I can. I tell you the truth: This stuff is more difficult to understand than Advanced Calculus II.

But I've figured out a way to explain it much better. I should write a book, "Calvinism for the Dude Who Doesn't Understand You Eggheads from Seminary." The book would have one page, and that one page would says this:

God is sovereign.

That's it. All it means to be reformed is to believe that God is, in all ways, sovereign. This is important, critical even, because a non-sovereign God isn't really a God. A non-sovereign God, in my mind, would just be some very powerful being, but defeatable by man. More importantly, the Bible describes a sovereign God.

(This is a complete side-note: I get so tired of hearing the "God vs. Science" debate. Learning about science is simply learning how God works. But whatever.)

WHERE I AM LIBERAL:

Free Will
God is sovereign, yes, but he doesn't take away our free will. This means that God is control of everything, yes, but we are in control of some things, even if only a bit. Maybe in God's sovereignty he chooses to hand over some control to us. I don't know how it works, but this seems evidenced in many ways, both through experience in in the Bible. I also believe that prayer can and does change things. I don't like praying "God, if it is your will..." I know why people pray that way, and I get it, but I really, truly believe that prayer is a means of two-way (not one-way!) communication with God. (If, like a good little Calvinist, you believe in the Preisthood of all Believers, surely you must believe that prayer changes things, right?)

God does whatever He wants, however He wants
This may seem like a conservative idea, but I'm not so sure. It seems like I've heard a number of reformed people, including the beloved John Piper, telling people how God can and cannot be experienced. I'm not intending to rip Piper based on a single comment, but I do think that God can and does speak to people, sometimes (gasp!) audibly, even outside of the pages of the Bible. To say that God ONLY speaks to us through the pages of the Bible is to say that God lacks the ability to do so. I've never heard the voice of God, but who knows, someday I may.

I think it is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG when certain Calvinsists, Dispensationalists, whatever they are called, argue that we are in some sort of covenant in which God no longer offers us gifts of a charismatic nature.

I was reading my daughter one of those "Kid Bibles" the other night. The part about Moses hearing God talk in the form of a burning bush said, "God no longer talks to us out loud in this way." I nearly threw that little fake Bible across the room! (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) That little Kid's Bible is going in the garbage, for sure! I don't want to teach my children that God can't do something.

(That kid's Bible also said that Jesus turned water into grape juice. Yummy. Why not Coca Cola? I guess kids can read about people in Jericho being judged, floods of Noah and Jesus being nailed to a cross to pay for man's sin, but a little wine is too dangerous to speak of!)

I understand why we need to be cautious about charismatic spiritual gifts and "God said to me" and such things. I've never experience God talking audibly, nor have I ever experienced any kind of charismatic gift (do my charming good looks count?), but to say that God doesn't do such things today is absolutely wrong, and it contradicts the idea that God is sovereign. I've often wondered why it is acceptable to say, "God has given me the spiritual gift of leadership," while the more 'strange' charismatic gifts are frowned upon.

(Extremely) Generous Election
Finally, and this is the hard one for everyone, I do believe in election. To not believe in it is to doubt the whole "God is sovereign" stuff (well, maybe, anyway). However, and this is where I'm going to be accused of heresy or blaspheme or something (in other words, this is where get really wacked out liberal), I believe God has elected many, many more than we realize.

I think there are Christians with vastly differing beliefs who are elected in the same way.

Dare I say what I am about to say? I believe there are non-Christians who are elected. I won't argue this, but I will say Billy Graham agrees with me. I also believe that this idea of "generous election" is evidenced in scripture. We're going to be very surprised when we get to heaven and see who all is there with us. (Perhaps another way of stating this, possibly less outrageous sounding, is this: There are many Christians who do not yet realize that they are Christian.)

People may say that I'm misinterpreting the Beatitudes. I don't know. It says what it says. I always become concerned when I see something written in the Bible and someone says that I'm not understanding it right...

Different Standards?
But with this comes a catch, and this part I'm not so sure I can explain that well. I think some of us have known God in different ways and are perhaps held to different standards. This is just a hunch, and admittedly it could be a belief I have only because it "feels good."

There it is. Let the stone throwing begin! ;-)

Labels: Calvinists Gone Wild

Scary if True

Christianity Today Article Comments

Ever read Christianity Today online?

Being perhaps the most popular Christian magazine, it has readers from all sides of Christianity, from the most fundamentalist to the most liberal. Given this diversity of readers, the comment sections on nearly any article are pretty funny. Its a nonstop collision of debate about who is sinning and who is not.

The comments have a striking similarity to comments that may be seen on a political forum... Well, there is one difference: The Christians who debate each other claim to do it out of love and compassion for their brothers and sisters.

I guess I'm not stating any kind of stance on the matter. Its just funny to see all the hair splitting and debate about who is a better (or more correct) Christian than whom.

Quick Question/Quick Answer

Quick question.

What to the following books have in common?

Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller
Wild At Heart, John Eldredge
Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell
To Own a Dragon, Donald Miller
Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott
Messy Spirituality, Mike Yaconelli
The Prayer of Jabez, Bruce Wilkinson
Seizing Your Divine Moment, Erwin McManus
The Message, Eugene Peterson
Love is an Orientation, Andrew Marin
The Shack, William Young

Answer:
1. They've all been accused of HERESY!
2. They're all books that I have found deeply spiritually meaningful and full of wisdom.
3. I should read more books like this, because when I do I find that I learn things from them and grow because of them.

Solution?
1. The word "heresy" is embarrassingly overused!
2. Christian books that I have read that have not been accused of containing heresy I have found to be deeply boring and a waste of money.
3. From now on, I will only purchase books that are accused of heresy.
4. "Heresy" has become nearly silly in its usage. It is a meaningful and important word, but not in the way it gets thrown around in Amazon book reviews. It has becoming useful in Amazon book reviews in a new and special way: It is a keyword that indicates that a book is full of good thought and not mindless regurgitation.

Admittedly my solution is tongue-in-cheek, but hopefully the point is clear. It probably isn't though. I haven't read as much lately as I did only a couple years ago. I should.

(And as far as true heresy, I can spot that.)

Corporate Politics and Healthy Cynicism

I'm proud to say that I'm a cynic, and here's why:

I've been in the work force for long enough to know a thing or two about corporate politics. The main thing to know is that corporate politics are mean and nasty. Another thing to know, and this is less obvious, is that deciding to stay out of corporate politics can be harmful to your career. Deciding to "stay out" is not staying out at all. Rather, "staying out of it" is making a public statement that you won't sink to that level, and this is generally taken as further corporate politics (and this can get you fired).

Long story short, when there is a new sheriff in town, if you want to stay at your job and thrive you must get on board and kiss the sheriff's ass. Sheriffs like having their ass kissed, after all. This doesn't mean becoming a drone or selling out necessarily, but it does mean kissing a little ass here and there. Sheriff's can be stupid too, in that (and I've witness this) they prefer a good ass kisser to a good employee. It also means that you must act like you are more "into" the corporation than you really are.

Generally when a new boss shows up people start getting fired and other people, people that the boss considers friends (yes men), are hired and promoted. The boss realizes that he must surround himself by people who will not call for his resignation. He likes having his ass kissed, sure, but the most important thing to the boss is his position of authority, and that authority is only good if it is respected (it doesn't matter if the respect is true respect or fear).

It also seems that generally, the big boss is some sort of sociopath who would throw his grandmother under a boss if it meant getting a larger bonus. As cynical as this sounds, its true. Its not always the case, but it is the case often enough... And to clarify, there are places with good, honest people in charge, plenty of them. It does happen. Smaller companies have a greater tendency to be this way (I'm at a very small company right now and loving it).

But I've also seen it happen again and again, where the new boss changes things to his benefit, and I'm sure I will continue to see it happen again and again. This is simply how corporate affairs work. Everyone thinks it sucks and its unfair, but everyone also wants (and needs) to stay employed.

This is what happens in a big corporation: People work hard out of fear for their job. I actually love my job right now because it is extremely small (11 employees) and there is almost no office politics. There simply isn't time or space for such things. In turn I have found that I like the work and work hard while there because I appreciate what we are doing and what we can get done. Its a much more healthy way to go to work. But size doesn't matter when it comes to office politics. Small business can be infected by the politics of nastiness as well.

I sound horribly cynical, but I really do think that can be somewhat healthy. A little cynicism is a good way to remember that people are people and we can be selfish pricks at times. It helps me to observe the way I don't want to be (and, being a person, I may just as easily fall into being the prick boss myself, if not for the memory of bad bosses past).

This healthy cynicism can also help to keep you on your toes just a bit. It also helps to remind us of what is really important. Do I really want to dedicate myself to a corporate world that can be mean and nasty? No, I don't. I'll just work hard and kiss the right asses and collect a paycheck. I'll put my love and devotion to things that are real and important, like my family and friends.

I've come to expect these things of the corporate world. I've resigned myself to admitting that corporations work this way and that's that! Its a little more difficult when witnessed in other places.

HEALTHY CYNICISM!

iMonk on Andrew Marin

Good blog post, but the comments are most interesting...

[iMonk: My Highest Recommendation: Love Is An Orientation by Andrew Marin]
[Amazon: Love is an Orientation]

Denomination Test

Just for fun: What Denomination of Christian are You?

My results:

1. Assemblies of God
2. PC USA
3. PCA
4. Reformed Baptist
5. Reformed Churches (huh?)

How does Assemblies of God reach #1 with Presbyterian churches in #2 and $3 slots? These things are fun, but I don't think this test was very good. I'm going to look for another.

Speaking of Doubt...

When I started to tell people that my family and I were no longer going to go to our present church, the one we've gone to for over 8 years now, I started getting phone calls and emails. People want to meet for lunch or coffee to talk about it. It actually feels good knowing that my friends aren't content to say, "Well, see ya later."