Hell and Celebrity Rehab

I watch a show called "Celebrity Rehab". I am not even going to try to justify it or say I was channel surfing and happened upon it. I watch the show ok? Wow, I am glad I got that off my chest. Anyway, the show is about celebrities who are in rehab trying to make it to sobriety. Their guide is Dr.Drew, who really does seem pretty gifted. I watch as these poor souls struggle to break free from their addictions. Some things, like alcohol and opiates result in a quick disintegration. The lives of these celebrities have completely come apart due to their addiction and they have destroyed nearly all relationships in the process. They are isolated and still craving the substance that has made them so lonely. They sometimes describe their condition as being in hell. I think in some ways they are right. God made us for Himself. Anything I put in His place is bound to be less than what I need there in my soul. I will demand more and more of it until it begins to make me come apart at the seams. The problem with most of our addictions is they are slow acting. The man with the job that keeps his mind whirling through the night doesn't realize his addiction. The woman who sits up and worries all the time about her children thinks of herself only as a good mom. But if I take these and extrapolate them out hundreds or even thousands of years what will be left of that person? I watch Celebrity Rehab and I see people who desperately need God. They are going to replace one habit with another. Cocaine for Cheetos. What then? Then I think of all the people who are addicted to the slow acting things like success and relationships and family. Hell is being dependant on something for life that cannot deliver. It is a substitute that cannot fill the hole. The result is the craving for salt by a man who is dying of thirst. I am so succeptible to this. I think it is good for all of us to check ourselves every once in while to make sure we have not slowly substituted something for God. When Jesus promises to never leave and never forsake us he is promising that he will always be enough even throughout all eternity. That is a promise that requires no rehab.

On Character and Clay

It seems like every election is the most important election of my lifetime. It actually may be true. The conditions of the world continue to grow more and more complex. The Judeo-Christian foundation of the country continues to deteriorate. The stakes are high indeed. I have been thinking about the pressures that are inherent in the highest office in the land. It must be enormous. I have also been thinking about character. I tend to see things in my mind and when I think of character I think of a clay suit. My character is like a clay suit that surrounds my soul. There are cracks I have noticed and then there are tiny cracks I have not yet discovered. Pressure expands the cracks. I know the pressure of leading a church like Hudson Community Chapel. I have no idea the pressure of being President. The sermon I gave this past weekend I commented that what one believes and how one behaves is always connected. That will be so for the next four years in the one we choose the lead the country. The pressures will also be tremendous and whatever character flaws there are will be exposed. I think it wiser to vote more for character than policy. I don't know who will win next week but I know we should start praying now. I will pray that the character of the man will be strong and even get stronger as the pressures grow.

Butterflies and the National Anthem

Last night I went to the last home soccer game for my daughter Becca. She is a senior so this was her last home game. It was an amazing game and she ended up scoring the winning goal which is always a great way to end a career. She is also the youngest of my three children so this was my last home athletic event period. I stood before the game with my baseball cap over my heart as the Star Spangled Banner was piped over the loud speakers. It struck me that for over two decades I have never heard the National Anthem without pre-game butterflies dancing around in my stomach. Every game I played and then every game my kids played I have been a little nervous. It actually made me very grateful. How amazing is it to live in a country where my memory link to the National Anthem is an athletic event. It is not linked to insurrection or fear or any of the countless other emotions that other National Anthems are connected to. In this wonderful country the last note of the Anthem is not followed by a gunshot but by a "Let's Play Ball." And so it has been my entire life. The election is now exactly two weeks away. Every four years emotions run high and there is talk of the imminent collapse of the country if the candidate of the opposing party gets elected. I have been all over the world. There are places where fear runs deep and strong at election time for very good reason. I am not saying that here in the United States it does not matter who you vote for. It does. But I also know that no matter who is elected on November 4th I won't be hiding in my basement on the 5th worried that death squads are coming. In December in every gym in America there will be dads listening to the Star Spangled Banner with their ball caps over their hearts hoping their child will be the hero. I had that experience last night and it was the beauty and the strength of this country that gave me the freedom and it made me not only proud of my daughter but proud of my country and thankful to God.

Do You Feel Lucky?

There is a scene in a movie I have watched where a character says,"I must be the most unlucky person in the world." The other character decides to educate him. The wise character says something like this,"You only say you are unlucky because you didn't realize how lucky you were yesterday. You thought yesterday you were just normal and now that things have taken a turn all of a sudden you feel unlucky. If today you are unlucky then every day up to this one you were very lucky so you should feel like you are a lucky person." I thought the scene was fascinating. Sometimes people come into my office and they think their life is very, very bad. They feel "unlucky". What they don't know is someone has just left my office that had a much worse situation. What is interesting to me is the attitudes people have. Most people think their attitude is a result of what is going on outside of them. After watching people for a long time I don't think that is the case. Attitudes seem to be based on expectations more than experiences. I sit with some people who are going through horrific experiences and yet they have an attitude laced with joy. Others fight the pull of bitterness and depression. I have been thinking more and more about the Gospel. It is the Gospel that helps me move everything in my life into the category of grace. If it is hell I deserve (and make no mistake, I do deserve it) then there isn't anything that can happen to me where I cannot say,"I had that coming." If it is grace I am given then there isn't a single good thing that happens where I cannot say,"Wow, I did not deserve that." I have to believe the Gospel is designed to change the way I experience every single thing in life. When I live by grace there isn't a day that goes by where I don't feel lucky.

Net Worth

The news this week has been all about the stock market. I read yesterday that Americans have lost several trillion dollars in net worth this past 2 weeks. The plunge has been breathtaking. I have been thinking of the term "net worth". I feel like God has been teaching me over and over the last several months that my worth needs to be placed in Him and Him alone. I tend to look for worth and value in all kinds of things. I don't feel preoccupied with my worth until I notice how much I compare myself with other people and how important what other people think is to me. Anyway, back to the market. I was thinking of how God must look at us and the closest I can get is how I look at my teenage daughter. Becca has a domain in our house that we have given over to her. It is her room. It is where she keeps her stuff and we let her keep her stuff however she wants as long as we can close her door. At times it looks like a clothes bomb went off sometime during the night in there. We provide the most important things in her life. All the stuff in her room is stuff she has accumulated over the last nearly 18 years. I was thinking what it would be like if something happened that reduced her stuff to less than half of what it is now. Maybe someone would come in with huge garbage bags and began to just load up a bunch of stuff indiscrimately. It would definitely cause Becca some pain. I on the other hand might look into her room and think it a good thing. Now if she wailed that her "net worth" had been reduced I would sit her down and look her in the eyes and say, "Oh, honey, all that stuff had nothing to do with your worth. Look me in the eyes and see the love I have for you. If your room is completely empty this love for you will not go away, it will not fade. You are mine, my princess, the apple of my eye and in the midst of your cleaned out room we will have a wonderful time just the two of us". So, as I have watched my room get cleaned out these last couple of weeks I have been sitting in a cleaned out room with the Lord of the universe and listened carefully about how He really feels about me. I can sit and wail as the garbage bags are hauled out of my room or I can run to my Father, the One who owns the whole house, and sit with him until I remember what my net worth is really based on.

Treasures You Know Not

Brittany plays soccer on my daughter's team. When my kids play sports I am vaguely aware of other people being in the stands. My wife is much more in tune with people than with the actual game although she watches the game. I on the other hand like to sit or stand by myself and watch. I don't multi-task especially at sporting events. Anyway, I could probably have picked Brittany's parents out of a line up but I had never talked to them really. I would do the polite nod and smile and then my face would return to the slightly concerned look of the too competitive father. Yesterday I was visiting my father in law in the hospital (he is doing much better and came home from the hospital today). We were talking when his doctor came in to check on him. It was Brittany's dad. He was very friendly and professional and obviously knew what he was doing. By the time he left I was feeling grateful my father in law was in such good hands. That night I went to the soccer game. I looked forward to seeing Brittany's dad just to say hello. I found it fascinating how quickly my feelings had changed toward him. I looked up at the stands and scanned the faces of the parents watching their daughters play. I wondered what each one did for a living or how each of our lives might touch each other away from the soccer field. I blunder through so much of life unaware of the gifts that crowd around me. I remember C.S.Lewis writing that a person, any person, is the most magnificent thing you will ever encounter outside of God Himself. Yesterday I found myself really seeing Dr. Chung for the first time. I was thankful for how God had gifted him and thought this treasure has been sitting next to me all year and I never even noticed. I guess I am inviting you to look around today. The person behind you at Starbucks may be the one who one day saves your life or you theirs. The world is full of jewels and they all have names even if you don't know them yet.

Jesus and my Father in Law

Early yesterday morning my father in law had a stroke. He was getting out of bed and discovered that his right side was paralyzed. We have spent the last 2 days running back and forth to the hospital and trying to figure out what it all means. He has recovered much of his feeling in his right side but they are keeping him in the hospital for a while. My father in law is one of my favorite people. It is not just that he raised my wife to be the wonderful person she is but 35 years ago he gave his life to Jesus and has become a really amazing person. I sat with him in ICU just the two of us. I asked him how he felt about having a stroke. It was one of those questions you don't often have the chance to ask. I was asking how he felt about growing old. I was asking not just how he felt about the possibility of dying but of dying like this with tiny explosions in his brain that would take life away little by little. It tells you something about my father in law that I felt free to ask him such a thing in the middle of ICU. He laughed his normal little laugh and then looked at me and said,"Well, you know me Joe. I like to be active. I really like to be active. But if God has other plans then He has other plans." And then he said, "I know what my first priority is. I want to impact these people." and he pointed to the nurses and aids walking around outside the room. My father in law admittedly didn't know God's long term plans for him but he could see His short term plans. He was saying that he didn't know about recovery or future strokes but he did know that right now he was in ICU and as far as he could tell it was as good a mission field as any. My father in law has a way with people. Everyone who has ever spent any time with him at all falls in love with him. It is a great trait to have. I think I saw at least some of the reason why. He never looks past them to the next thing. The people in his path are not obstacles to get by in order to get where he is going. They are their own destination and for them it feels absolutely wonderful. I have to believe that is the way people felt around Jesus. After 35 years of walking with Jesus my father in law is acting just like him. And right now the two of them are in ICU on a short term mission trip and the people in Akron City Hospital may never be the same.