Boring Soccer Games And Boring Lives

So I finished my prior blog with a note to self: As in soccer, so in life. Don't waste the game watching the clock. Play the game while you have time.

Good soccer games are not boring. Brazil vs. Chile was riveting.

Bad soccer games can be excruciatingly boring, and never more so than when it seems neither team wants and/or knows how to score.

Having watched Greece vs. Costa Rica last night, I speak from experience. The first half was so stultifyingly boring, I only watched the highlights of the 2nd half.

(Thankfully, this was an option. I wasn't watching the game live.)

But wow, folks... Even the 2nd half highlights were boring.

More fun than watching the game was reading the reviews of the game. Here are some choice comments I found:

...Drama seemed highly unlikely at the end of an excruciatingly dull first-half when the crowd in Recife, which was far from capacity, made their feelings known by whistling and jeering the teams into the break.

...Sometimes, the movement of a soccer ball can be hypnotizing. The worst time this can affect someone is when they are playing in a World Cup match, and trying to prevent said ball from entering their net, slowly.

Enough said on soccer. What about our lives?

Let's not give God lives that are so boring that he'd be tempted to skip whole years at a time. Nobody makes movies about couch potatoes.

I had just deleted those prior words. They seemed overly obvious.

And overly harsh.

Nobody makes movies about couch potatoes.

I had just deleted the words, and then my wife walked into the room and proceeded to inform me that someone we know is ailing.

This woman married young. Never got a job. Reached 400+ lbs on a diet of maybe 5-10 hours of TV a day. That was her life for 60+ years.

And now her clock is running down. Fast.

Does she belongs to Jesus? Yes. Is she nice? Nes. But if I reviewed her life, I'd fast-forward through decades of self-imposed sofa time.

How terribly sad. And I feel harsh putting these words down.

But we do ourselves a disservice if we don't take a plain look at our own lives and the lives of those around us with eyes wide open.

God has given us the gift of life. And a mission.

Are we going to give him a highlights film?

Most of this blog seems a repeat of the prior one. But I have a motto.

Never say with one blog on boredom what you can stretch into two.

In my next reflection, I'll get to what I had intended to write here.

Thoughts in response to this question....

When God reviews our lives, which parts would he call highlights?

To be continued...

What FIFA Referees Have In Common With God

Certainly not omniscience! (This will come as no surprise to anyone who saw the Nigeria v Bosnia game.)

No, not omniscience. Nor a perfect sense of justice.

But I won't keep you in suspense. The answer to the riddle is this: they both have final say on when the game is over, and the moment they choose to end it is shrouded in secrecy.

A silly riddle? Sure... but I didn't come up with it on purpose. It's the byproduct of another realization that's been rattling around in my head over the past week or two.

The reality is that I sometimes feel (in life) a bit like a soccer player trying to figure out how to play out the minutes.

Anybody who has watched recent World Cup games knows what I'm talking about. Take the USA v Ghana game. The Americans were fortunate enough to score in the first 30 seconds.

But the game lasts 90 minutes. So what do you do now?

Well, here's a bad idea. Try to "play out the minutes" with an insipid passing game. Watch the clock wind down.

Problem is, when you're not playing to win, you're usually playing to lose. And your opponent is likely still playing to win.

As it worked out, Ghana tied up the game at 82 minutes. Oops. The Americans were fortunate enough to score again and win, but rest assured the Americans got a bit more frantic once the score was tied.

And who can forget Portugal pulling a tie against the sleeping Americans in the last 15 seconds of the game? Double Oops.

Enough on soccer. What about life?

Well, truth be told, sometimes I feel like I'm not playing to win.

What exactly do I mean?

When you're playing to win, time is your friend. More time means more opportunities for you to score.

When you're playing the clock, time is your enemy. More time means more opportunities for you to be scored upon.

Sometimes I feel like I've lost my motivation in life to actively accomplish things — and I'm just trying to not give in to sin while I wait for God to wind my clock down.

That's not what God had in mind for me. Not the attitude God wants me to have. It's a very dangerous place to be, spiritually speaking.

So I should have higher aspirations than sin-avoidance? Yes. The Apostle Paul has already described it well. And he used a sporting analogy to boot!

1 Corinthians 9:24-27
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

In short, St. Paul exhorts all of us to become like Christ.

So... What does that look like? A hint. Here's what it doesn't look like.

Wherever Christ went, people didn't say, "Wow, here comes the sinless man! Look at how he never does anything wrong!!"

No! Jesus was indeed sinless, but that wasn't his calling card.

What did people say about Jesus? Try these on for size.

John 7:46
The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man!”

John 6:68
Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life."

Luke 11:14
Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed.

Luke 9:42
Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the impure spirit, healed the boy and gave him back to his father. And they were all amazed at the greatness of God.

Luke 7:16
They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.

So the hallmark of "Jesus in town" is not absence. It's presence.

It's action. Someone doing good. Someone speaking words of life.

When Jesus is around, people say, “God has come to help his people.”

I cannot resist a silly analogy. Jesus scored an early game-winner. But 2,000 years later the clock is still running.

The referee says the game is still on. How do we play out the minutes?

Are we playing for a 1-0 victory? Well, we might be, but God is clearly not. If a 1-0 victory were sufficient, God would have blown the whistle a long, long time ago. God is looking for action.

FIFA and St. Paul together remind me to keep my eye on the prize.

Not the clock.

To Be Continued...

Two Debts Of Gratitude To India

About five years ago I found myself working closely with two Indians, one a Christian and the other a Hindu. I no longer work with either of these friends, but I'll never forget them.

They each gave me a gift.

Fasting

The Christian (we'll call him Jeevan) fasted regularly. Every Friday, in fact. Jeevan informed me that everyone in his home church does that. Fasting is part of life's rhythm for them.

Here in America it's hard to find people who fast regularly. I had fasted on a few occasions, but it had never occurred to me to make a habit of it. That's just something Americans don't do.

After observing Jeevan, however, I decided that this American wanted to give that habit a try. I never looked back. Weekly fasts are now deeply etched into my life's rhythm.

Fasting brings many benefits. In some future blog perhaps I'll get into those perks, but here I'll simply acknowledge my debt of gratitude to Jeevan and to India.

Vegetarianism

Yes, the Hindu (we'll call him Amit) was a practicing vegetarian.

As a Christian I felt rather relieved that my faith did not require me to practice vegetarianism. So I didn't.

But Amit's habit was not lost on me nor forgotten. As the ensuing years passed, I never lost sight of the reverence that some Hindus give to animals. Obviously I don't believe in reincarnation or have any confusion over the holiness of cows and monkeys.

But a respect for animal life... that is something many Hindus have, and it's something many Christians have lost. I felt that loss.

But meat tastes good (!) so for years I continued to postpone making a change in my diet. In recent weeks, however, I finally did face my thoughts head on. I decided to become a vegetarian. And when I did, Amit was not far from my thoughts.

Two friends brought Indian customs to American soil.

Their practices were foreign to me at first. Now I call them my own.

Thank you, Jeevan and Amit. Thank you, India.

All My Heroes Are Certifiably Insane

The heroes who inspire me all died some time ago, but to me they're more alive now than ever.

So who are these certifiably insane, dead, living heroes?

Let's start with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a poor soul who lacked the common sense to leave Nazi Germany when offered safe passage to American soil.

No. Worse than that. He took up the offer, and did visit America.

And then didn't have the common sense to stay. The year was 1939.

I celebrate his uncommon sense.

Bonhoeffer explained his rationale to his friend Reinhold Niebuhr.

"I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the people of Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people... Christians in Germany will have to face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose but I cannot make that choice from security.

So he returned to Germany where he involved himself in Christian ministry under a watchful Nazi eye. His story cannot be done justice in a small blog, so I'll simply note that he was killed by the Nazis just a week or two before the war ended.

Certifiably insane. By most reckoning.

My hero, nevertheless.

Today, I am reminded of this blog because I've added another name to my list of heroes: Father Jerzy Popieluszko, a Catholic priest who spoke out against communism in Poland during the 80s. He and Bonhoeffer were truly cut from the same cloth. Neither had the common sense to abandon sinking ships.

After a failed assassination attempt on his life, he was offered a stay in Italy by his superior, but he refused to leave Poland. On October 19th, 1984 he was murdered by three officers of the Służba Bezpieczeństwa.

Certifiably insane. By most reckoning.

My hero, nevertheless. But whereas Bonhoeffer died quietly in a dark corner of Nazi Germany, Popieluszko died under the watchful eye of all of Poland. He was a national hero even before he died. Largely because he was insane. He stood up in a pulpit, Sunday after Sunday, and made himself a red-circled target for the authorities by calling them out for what they were: cowards and bullies.

When the bullies killed him, 800,000 sane Poles attended his funeral. It was one of the big tipping points for Poland on its march to freedom from Communist rule.

There are others, of course. Martin Luther King, Jr. comes to mind, along with less well-known names like Jim Elliot.

All the best heroes are insane.

After all, who but the most insane would follow a man who said this?

Matthew 16:24-45
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it."

Sane people don't rally to this call.

But then again, sanity is in the eye of the beholder.

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." — Jim Elliot

Those words aren't crazy. They are logical. The question is this:

Are we insane enough to believe them?

His Happiest Moment

I recently asked what Jesus would have called his proudest moment.

That was, as my daughter sometimes says, "a toughie."

I soon found myself asking this follow-up question:

"OK, and what was his happiest moment?"

That one is much easier to answer, so this reflection will be short.

Luke 10:21
At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.

Of all the deeds and words that have been recorded by Gospel writers, I gather that this is the passage that shows Jesus to be most full of joy.

When does it take place? It takes place after the disciples he sent out (in his own name) return — with exciting news to report.

Luke 10:17
The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

So Jesus' joy follows on the heels of his disciples' joy.

And why are they themselves so joyful?

The disciples are full of joy because they discovered that the power of Jesus went with them, even when Jesus was not around.

So why is this the high point in Jesus' three years of ministry?

I think Jesus was beside himself with joy because he was, for the first time, watching his Church in action.

Granted, the church is properly understood to have its birth in Acts, but Jesus wasn't around for that part. Not bodily, at least.

So Jesus was getting the sneak preview. Watching the movie trailer. And he was beside himself with joy, in anticipation of the upcoming full-screen release.

Not everyone is always happy to hear the word "church". Frankly, I understand why. I've had a few "church" run-ins, myself.

But while "little c" church antics can wreck us on rocks of despair...

It's good for all of us (myself especially) to remember this:

The happiest moment in Jesus' life (that we have recorded, anyway) was when he saw his true Church in action for the first time.

May God help me to be part of that joy-inducing Church.

...And give Jesus another good reason to smile.

Yes, Virginia, Heaven Is For Animals Too

In Alice in Wonderland the Queen proudly notes that she has believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. My brain is not that flexible, so vegetarianism spares me a fair bit of ongoing discomfort.

What do I mean by this? I chose two for-instance examples.

I covered the first in my prior blog post.

Time for the fat lady to sing. Last thought.

Children everywhere love their animals, so every parent who's had a pet in the house eventually gets the question.

"Will <name your pet> go to heaven?"

Many children (and adults like myself) want to see their pets again.

The promises of God give Christians a wondrous hope. But does this hope apply to people only? Or does it apply to animals too?

Most of us don't have a clue, so we get a bit ham-fisted in our reply.

Do we need to be so unsure? Does the Bible have nothing to say on the matter? Most serious Christians I know are pretty ambivalent.

I am more confident in the assurances I give my children. Here's why.

Let's turn to the book of Jonah. It ends with Jonah quite angry with God because God didn't utterly destroy the ancient city of Nineveh.

God, in turn, is angry with Jonah.

Jonah 4:10-11
Then the Lord said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals.

First and foremost, God cares about the people within Nineveh.

But the sphere of God's care doesn't end there.

God also cares about all of the animals within Nineveh.

Now some can argue that this passage of scripture has nothing specific to say about what future awaits animals after their death.

Fair enough, but think about it. If God loves these animals, doesn't it make sense that he might not have a "second death" in mind for them?

But for those who remain unconvinced, weightier evidence exists.

A few blogs back we considered "(Plan B)" — Genesis 9:1-3.

It will now serve us well to now carefully consider the verse that directly follow this passage. God had a bit more to say on the topic...

Genesis 9:4-5
...But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting...

So animals will be held to account??

For what? Killing humans? For killing other animals? Something else?

The passage is vague on the details. But one thing is clear.

Animals will be held accountable for their deeds. When?

I repeat. When?

I think the answer is perfectly clear. After their lives are over.

Ironically, even for humans the afterlife was not a widely held concept when this text was written.

By the time of Christ, however, the order of events was known.

Hebrews 9:27
Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment...

So that's when humans will face their maker. It doesn't make sense to assume anything different for the animals, since God referred (with similar words and in the same section of text) to the accounting both would face.

So animals, like us, will one day see their life in review. That doesn't make much sense if there is no afterlife whatsoever awaiting animals. What sort of life it might be is beyond me to guess at. But doesn't the possibility of judgement imply also the possibility of reward?

I think it does.

But anyone (myself included) who hopes to see their pets again in the afterlife has to consider an unpleasant scenario. It's this...

If dogs can be in heaven, so can pigs. And cows.

Along with chickens and hamsters...

And while we may be excited to see our dogs and hamsters again, conversation with the pigs and cows we ate could prove awkward.

I'm just saying...

Now that's the kind of incongruity that causes my brain discomfort.

The Queen may enjoy six impossible things before breakfast, but if enjoying bacon for breakfast ups my incongruity count by just one?

Maybe you can just pass me the cereal.

I have, of course, spoken a bit tongue in cheek. Whatever awaits us in the afterlife will need to include a lot of mercy for much greater wrongs than the bacon we ate for breakfast.

But here again, I retreat (confidently) to a simple logic noted at the end of an earlier blog on this topic.

If I am awaiting a better world...
and that world includes Fuzzy the hamster...
and Old Yeller the dog...
and Charlotte the pig...
and Bossy the cow...

Perhaps now is a good time to arrange my eating habits accordingly?

OK, on that thought, one last verse for the road...

Romans 8:19
For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

Yes, we humans look forward to the end of all death and suffering.

Can the animals we eat be blamed for keenly sharing our sentiments?

Not to be continued any time soon....

Promise kept: this link is from several months later.

Of Hamsters and Men

We continue the tale of my transition from carnivore to herbivore...

Two comments capture the feelings that followed this decision.

The short one first. Kronk astutely notes, "It's all coming together."

But some people prefer G. K. Chesterton to animated Disney characters. In his book Orthodoxy Chesterton described his Christian conversion experience as one where two seemingly incompatible "machines" came together. Miraculously, they came together well.

...The spike of dogma fitted exactly into the hole in the world — it had evidently been meant to go there — and then the strange thing began to happen. When once these two parts of the two machines had come together, one after another, all the other parts fitted and fell in with an eerie exactitude. I could hear bolt after bolt over all the machinery falling into place with a kind of click of relief. Having got one part right, all the other parts were repeating that rectitude, as clock after clock strikes noon. Instinct after instinct was answered by doctrine after doctrine. Or, to vary the metaphor, I was like one who had advanced into a hostile country to take one high fortress. And when that fort had fallen the whole country surrendered and turned solid behind me. The whole land was lit up, as it were, back to the first fields of my childhood."

Kronk said it more succinctly, but Chesterton said it better.

After I threw in the towel and decided to give in to the idea of going vegetarian, incongruity after incongruity fell down before me.

Sources of guilt fled. Paradoxes unraveled. Decisions made sense.

Examples? There are many, but most can be anticipated from things I've already written in recent days. (Don't repeat yourself, Pilgrim!)

But two (I promise, just two) thoughts remain that I want to get down.

I'll break them up into two blog post, this then being the first of two.

Don't delegate unconscionable tasks to others.

This principle has helped me navigate some tough topics and grey areas in life. Consider torture, for instance.

We all know the old question. "Is it OK to torture one person in order to find out the location of a hidden bomb and thereby save a city?"

I used to answer this question with a reluctant Yes. It's a very unsavory job, but if it must be done, so be it. For the good of many...

A few years ago I abandoned this line of reasoning after realizing that I could not and would not do the dirty work myself.

And if that is the case, how can I ask someone else to do it for me?

It's another topic for another day to discuss why I myself can or cannot torture a terrorist "for a good cause." My point here is simply that if that is my conviction, I can't ask others to do it for me, either.

So I'm opposed to torture. Period.

All that to say... There are some jobs that are unpleasant.

And then there are jobs that disturb your soul.

I could collect garbage for a living. No problem. It's just a smelly job.

Killing animals for a living would trouble my soul, however.

Fact is, I have a very hard time killing animals. The practical matter of putting a dying hamster out of its misery has proven difficult enough. We paid a vet to do it for us last year. Spent $80 to give the hamster a more peaceful exit.

So I find it hard to kill a dying hamster. What about a healthy one?

And oh-by-the-way?

A hamster weighs half a pound and has rocks pebbles for brains.

Yet for years someone out there has been killing and cutting up much larger and smarter animals. Healthy ones. All day long. For me.

Perhaps it doesn't bother them. But some assassins don't mind killing people, either. The conscience I am responsible for is my own.

For decades I've been complicit in this uncomfortable arrangement.

But today I am free of it. And that feels good.

To be continued....