It’s Not About the Lab Rats

If Lance Armstrong went to jail and Livestrong went away, that would be a huge setback in our war against cancer, right? Not exactly, because the ­famous nonprofit donates almost ­nothing to scientific research. BILL GIFFORD looks at where the money goes and finds a mix of fine ideas, millions of dollars aimed at “awareness,” and a few very blurry lines.

The article raised an interesting question that we discussed as a staff: Does contributing to awareness about a need or cause make you feel like you’re helping without actually helping? The article raises disturbing questions of whether we really know where our money goes when we contribute to organizations. Gifford makes the point that most people who buy the little yellow “LiveStrong” bracelets believe that by doing so they are contributing to cancer research and helping to fight cancer. The truth is that none of that money goes to research. While the value of the LiveStrong programs that the money is used for is debatable, the point is that whether or not buying one of those little yellow bracelets actually helps in the fight against cancer is questionable. Yet everyone who has bought one or contributed to LiveStrong did so, because they thought they were helping the cause. And after they had done so they felt like they had helped. So did giving in this way effectively anesthetize them from feeling the need to continue contributing to this need?

These days there are hundreds, probably thousands, of organizations that claim to be working for the common good by addressing the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of our world. The question is, how much of that work is engaging those needs through action and how many are just raising awareness? And at what point does contributing to awareness about an issue make us feel like we’re helping when we really aren’t? Where has our awareness anesthetized us from actively engaging? This conversation helped reinforce our desire at New Denver to develop strong relationships with the people and organizations with whom we partner to contribute to the common good of our community, our city, our country, and the world. We need to make good choices about where we invest our time and resources and ensure that we aren’t just raising awareness about issues but also actively engaging the issues. Awareness is a good thing – a necessary step before engagement. But it’s not the final step.

To close this post I’ll throw out some deeper and more personal questions that this raised for me, and I’ll come back in a later post (more likely a series of posts) to address them. Has the way we’ve presented Jesus and the gospel effectively anesthetized people from discipleship (the process of actively following him with their lives)? By focusing on gathering large crowds to church on Sunday and teaching about Jesus have we raised awareness about him and given people the feeling that they’re following him when they really aren’t? Have we truncated the full message of the gospel into the plan of salvation (read Scot McKnight’s book King Jesus Gospel to understand what I mean by that) and called people to a decision instead of discipleship? Has doing so given them the impression that their journey of faith is complete when in fact they have only taken a first critical step?

Awareness is an important and necessary first step, but it cannot be our last step.

When I look back on my life and journey of faith thus far, it is divided into two parts. In the first half, faith for me was mostly about a decision. The decision was to accept that Jesus’ death on the cross and his subsequent resurrection accomplished something for me. It was about deciding that I believed who Jesus claimed to be and that his sacrifice accomplished something on my behalf that I could not accomplish for myself. I was accepted, loved, and redeemed by God based on what Jesus did. The problem is that for too long, this is where faith ended for me. What I didn’t realize for many years was that the decision I made was a first step not a final step.

When my two boys first learned to walk, they both had a similar experience. Both stood and took faltering first steps before deciding that crawling was way more familiar and comfortable to them. Walking was scary, uneasy and unpredictable. They couldn’t get very far crawling, but they also couldn’t fall down. Crawling was safe and predictable. But you can’t really grow and mature as a human being and insist on continuing to crawl.

In his letter to the church in Galatia, Paul addresses a somewhat similar situation. Having taken their first steps of faith, some were actually going back to crawling:

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
Galatians 5:13

Paul sees these new followers of Jesus who have taken their first steps of freedom. They have made a decision to believe in Jesus and to follow him. But Paul also sees that these followers want to stop and rest after taking their first few steps of faith. But he pushes them to keep moving forward:

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Galatians 5:15

So Paul has now contrasted two different ways of life – “indulging the flesh” and “walking by the Spirit.“ Paul goes on in Galatians 5:19-26 to explain more what each of these ways of life look like. To continue my metaphor, indulging the flesh is about continuing to crawl in your familiar habits and ways even after you’ve taken your first steps of faith into a new way of life. Walking by the Spirit, in contrast, is the awkward stumbling-forward process of learning to walk, in the way of Jesus.

But the question still remains – how do you do this? Unfortunately I can’t give you the process or formula (did you read the title of this series?!). What I can give you are the words of Jesus. These words have been immensely helpful for me on many occasions:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Matthew 7:7

While there are no formulas, Jesus does give us a process that is helpful in understanding how we can continue taking steps forward, learning to walk in step with the Spirit:

• Ask – God invites us to come to him with our cares, concerns and questions. So take him up on it. Go to God in prayer, ask him for wisdom, for guidance, for strength, for courage, for support. We ask, he gives.
• Seek – This is an invitation to action. Seek people who can guide you in the process. Seek books and resources that provide insight and wisdom. Seek truth, beauty, and justice, knowing that these come from God.
• Knock – Try things, and be willing to fail. The invitation to follow where Jesus leads is an invitation to learn from him. This will not be a perfect process. You will stumble. You will fall. But you never learn if you never try.

I can’t give you a formula or tell you what your journey of walking with God will look like. But I can tell you that God is found by those who seek him, and there is more joy and life in stumbling forward, learning to walk, than there is in going back to crawling. Who knows, we might even move beyond walking one day and actually get the chance to run. That’s something to look forward to.

**Photo from Flickr user cc511, used under Commercial Commons license

In part one of the series I talked about Jesus’ call in Mark 1:15 to “Repent and believe” that the kingdom of God had “come near” or was “at hand.” We really focused in on what it meant to repent – or literally to change your mind. In this second half, I zeroed in on Jesus’ call to “believe” and explored what Jesus meant by that.

The way I think about what it means to “believe” has changed a lot over the years. One great catalyst for thinking about the concept of belief, and the corollary concept of doubt, was a book by John Ortberg entitled Faith and Doubt (available for Kindle or in paperback under the title Know Doubt). In my life I had always thought of belief as a binary concept – you either believe or you don’t. But through reading John’s book and others, my own reflections on Scripture and my own experience of belief, I now think about believing very differently. So what’s changed?

First, I no longer thing of belief as solely or even primarily an intellectual exercise. For most of my life I thought of belief as something that took place in your head, or perhaps if you were acting based on intuition or emotion, your heart. I saw it as a strongly held conviction about something that you believe to be true. While this is an accurate understanding of the concept of belief, it is incomplete. Second, as I mentioned I used to see belief as binary – you either believe or you don’t. Ortberg was the first to help me see that belief is more of a continuum. In Faith and Doubt he describes three types of faith that I would say are actually points along a continuum:

• Public – What we say we believe.
• Private – What we think we believe.
• Core – What we really believe as reflected by our actions.

So our belief in something moves along this continuum – moving from being an intellectual process, something that we say we believe to ourselves and to others, until it comes to fruition in our actions. Our core beliefs are reflected in our actions. All you really believe is what you do. My first attempt at sharing these ideas was in 2011 in the series I did at New Denver entitled Moving Beyond Belief, which was an exploration of the idea of belief through the lens of Paul’s letter to the Colossians. But in this Walking in Circles message I was really able to zero in on Jesus’ call to believe the good news that the kingdom of God is at hand and explore what that means for us who choose to follow.

So when we come to Jesus’ imperative to “believe,” what was he asking us to do? I believe he was calling us to move along that continuum toward a life that reflects a core belief that we can live as part of the kingdom of God. Here. Now. Wherever “here” and “now” happens to be for you. Through the people, circumstances, and events of your life, God is trying to move you further down the continuum of belief. Currently the best paradigm I’ve found for how we practically do that is the learning circle developed by Mike Breen and 3D Ministries.  I talked about the first half of that circle in part one of this series, but I wrap it up here in part 2.

The first half of the circle is the “repent” half. It is about asking the question, “What is God trying to teach or tell me through this kairos moment?” The second half of the circle is the “believe” half. After you have clarified what you believe God is saying or asking you to do, the next question is, “What are you going to do about it?” This comes by walking the second half of the circle:

• Plan – After reflecting on the kairos moments you observe in your life and then discussing it with a trusted friend or group of friends, you need to clarify what it is that you need to do in response to what God has shown you through this moment.
• Accountability – Often in life we know what we need to do but lack the resolve to actually do it. Herein lies the importance of community and making yourself accountable to others. When you share what you believe God wants you to do and what you plan on doing, close friends can offer you the challenge and support to follow through.
• Act – This is where your belief becomes core belief. What you believe in your head and heart becomes action. Be ready, because usually this isn’t the last step. Stepping in faith into the reality of the kingdom often opens new kairos moments as God invites us to experience more of the kingdom as we continue repenting and believing.

If you’d like to listen to the audio of this message it is available online at our website or through our iTunes Podcast.

A little over two years ago I was introduced to a book called Building a Discipling Culture by Mike Breen (hard copy book available from 3DM’s website) which introduces an approach to discipling known as Life Shapes. As someone who has led small groups ministries for over a decade, I’ve seen my share of group models and curricula. But after hearing friends who are pastors in Ecclesia (the church network we’re part of) rave about this book and its intentional approach to making disciples – teaching people to learn to follow Jesus more closely in their everyday lives – I was definitely intrigued. After reading the book, my first thought was, “Is that it?” It seemed too simple. I didn’t see how this approach would be any more effective than any other small group material I had ever seen. I struggled for a year, talking to the most ardent supporters of this approach, trying to understand what was so different about it. They all said the same thing, “You just have to be in a group and experience it to get it.”

Finally in March of last year, thanks to my friend Ben Sternke who is a pastor from our church network, I got the chance to experience a group. That experience more than lived up to the hype. In the four months we spent together as a group, learning this intentional approach to discipleship, I experienced personal growth in my relationship with God and instantly saw the potential inherent in this approach. I have personally adopted the Life Shapes paradigm of spiritual growth and applied it to my own life and spiritual journey. It has also influenced how I lead and guide others that I lead or mentor do the same.

So what made this so different from other groups? First and foremost is the paradigm with which you approach the process: God is already directing and discipling you. The question is, “Are you listening?” In the past I have looked to systems or curriculum to figure out how to help myself and others engage the felt and unfelt spiritual needs of people’s lives. But what if God is already in the process of doing that? What if God is already trying to get our attention and direct our growth through the events, the people, and the circumstances of our lives? What if what we need isn’t more information or talking through curriculum that may or may not address the issues God wants us to address? What if all we had to do was to begin paying attention to what God is already trying to do and responding to him? That is the simplicity and the power behind the Life Shapes approach to discipleship.

Since I finished my group with Ben last summer, I’ve started three different groups based on this approach at New Denver Church. Each one has proven more effective at helping people take real steps of growth in their life and faith in a shorter period of time than any other group approach I’ve ever seen. As a result, the language of Life Shapes has begun to take root at New Denver and become our way of understanding discipleship and spiritual formation. In order to begin disseminating some of that language into New Denver I decided to share the principles behind the core of the Life Shapes approach – the circle.

Last Sunday I taught through the first of a two-part series called Walking in Circles. In this first part we explored Jesus’ call in Mark 1:15 to “repent and believe” by looking at what it means to “repent” or to change your mind about what we experience in life. The process of repenting involves three steps:

Observe - Pay attention to the events of your life and be attuned to possible “kairos” moments that God may be trying to guide or direct you. Here are some questions to help you discern kairos moments in your life:

• What were the high points or the low points (of my day, my week, my month, etc)?
• Where did you experience stress or peace?
• Were there any relational conflicts or tension?
• What do I want the most in life right now?
• Is there something I’m thinking a lot about?

Reflect - Once you have identified the significant “kairos” moments it is important to reflect on those and to seek to understand what God may be trying to teach or tell you through those moments. Here are some questions that may help you:

• Why did I react to that situation in that way?
• What emotion was I feeling in that moment? What does that emotion tell me?
• What is it God may be trying to teach or tell me by bringing this moment to mind?

Discuss – We all need the objectivity of others to help us discern how God may be leading us. Sharing the significant events of your life with others and talking about how you feel God is leading you may help to clarify what your next step should be.

If you’d like to listen to the audio of this message it is available online at our website or through our iTunes Podcast. In my next post I’ll share the second half of the circle and talk about the steps we take to believe that the kingdom of God is present and available to us.

**Thanks to JR Briggs for the circle diagram we used during the series.

At the end of last year I had an experience that led me to begin 2012 by unplugging from some of the technology that saturates my life (read about that decision here). I decided (arbitrarily) to unplug for a week and then evaluate my experience. That week ended yesterday so I’m still processing my reflections from that time, but here are some initial thoughts as I re-connect to my digital world.

1. Unplugging was more difficult than I expected.
   It was more difficult than I expected to decide where I would draw the line around “unplugging.” I decided to try and unplug within the context of a normal week of life and work, and I quickly learned that it was impossible to do my work as a pastor and completely disconnect. I spent hours last week on my computer answering emails, researching for and writing my message for last Sunday at New Denver Church, answering phone calls and responding to text messages. Since I couldn’t fully disconnect, I just decided to eliminate the non-essentials. I didn’t interact with any social media (specifically for me no Facebook or Twitter), no games (not on my iPhone, iPad, or most temptingly, my new XBox 360), no web surfing, no blog reading, and I tried to eliminate television unless watching something with someone in my family. Short of leaving my everyday life and work to pursue a completely disconnected experience (which I would like to do at some point) I think this was about the best I could do at unplugging.
2. Unplugging was easier than I expected.
   The things I gave up I didn’t really miss as much as I thought I would. This was encouraging to me. You never really know how strong a hold things or experiences have on you until you try to give them up. In part, this is the great benefit of practicing the discipline of fasting. We let go of good and permissible things that God has given for our enjoyment as a way of keeping ourselves from making lesser things into more ultimate things. I recognize the power that technology has to draw my attention and affection, and I think I will probably always live somewhere on the continuum between “healthy and appropriate use” and “unhealthy and inappropriate abuse.” It’s good to find myself somewhere on the positive side of that continuum.
3. Social media is mostly a one-sided conversation for me.
   During my hiatus from social media, I was curious to see what, if anything, I missed from the experience. I was surprised that what I missed more than anything was the feeling of sharing my thoughts, observations and experiences to “someone.” As an extrovert I realize that often my thoughts aren’t even real for me until I say them out loud. Social media is a way to do that. So while I guess I hope people will read and interact with what I say, the interaction was not what I missed most. What I missed most was having a way to express myself and feel heard, whether someone actually reads what I say or not.
4. My family appreciated the effort.
   One of the main reasons I wanted to disconnect from part of my digital life was that I have seen how it can affect my focus and attention on the people in my embodied life. I’m not sure those words (digital vs embodied) are the best way to describe the experience of my life, but I prefer that paradigm better than others (e.g. virtual vs. real). The point is that as much as I try to multi-task or to have my attention focused into my digital and my embodied world, I don’t do it well. It has often created frustration for Kate (and to a lesser degree my kids) when my focus is into my digital world (staring at my phone, computer, iPad, etc) instead of on them. Kate mentioned on a couple occasions how she appreciated this exercise.
5. Distractions are found in all forms of “technology.”
   One interesting discovery was that even if I take away my technological distractions (phone, computer, television) there are lower forms of technology that I still used to distract myself. For example, I took my son Andrew to lunch last week, and I took a magazine with me. While no one would probably refer to a magazine as a piece of “technology” it served as a distraction for me. I could have chosen to simply sit and watch Andrew play or to just sit and think. Instead I chose to sit and read. This disconnected me from my embodied world and connected me to a print world. So the dangers of distraction aren’t limited to shiny tech gadgets.

There’s more than I could say about the experience, but I’ll close by saying that I found this to be a very worthwhile exercise. So I’ll close with a question for you as you read this. Is there anything good but lesser thing in your life that you may be making an ultimate thing? Maybe it’s time to take a break to find out what you might learn by paying more attention to your embodied world.

** Image from Flickr user kozumel, used under Creative Commons license.

When we got to the mall my worst fears were realized. It was a complete madhouse. I have never seen that many people at a mall in my life. Seriously. Every road was jammed. Every parking spot was full. Every parking-lot aisle was backed up three to four cars deep as people were “trolling” for parking spots. I reached for my phone to call the store where we were heading to find out if they even had the item we came after. Oh yeah, no phone today.

After circling the parking lot without success for thirty minutes I heard the words from our back seat that every parent dreads in situations like this: “Daddy, I have to go potty.” It was Andrew, my four-year-old. “Okay, just hold it for a few minutes. Daddy will get a parking spot soon.” Fifteen minutes later Andrew was crying, and we still hadn’t found a parking place. I made a split-second decision. Passing the main entrance to the mall (in bumper-to-bumper traffic) I opened the door and instructed my seven-year-old son, Ethan, to take his brother inside to the bathroom and told him exactly where to wait for me inside. I headed straight for the valet parking line. At this point seven dollars seemed like a small price to pay to retrieve my two boys who were somewhere in the middle of the mall madness. As I dropped off my car, I began praying that the boys made it to the bathroom okay, that they weren’t scared, and that they’d be right where I told them to be. I was speed walking to where I told Ethan to meet me, and as I walked my hand slipped to my pocket. Oh yeah, no phone today. I continued to pray. I opened the door to the mall and immediately saw my boys, exactly where I told them to wait. I prayed again, thanking God for this small but oh-so-important answered prayer.

The mall was as insane inside as it was outside. Every seat in the food court was full, and people huddled in corners to eat. Madness, total madness. We made it to our destination, the Lego store, to find that, sure enough, they did not have the one thing we came after. After finding a suitable substitute (what four-year old is willing to wait?) we headed out. I had promised the boys lunch at Chick-Fil-A, but the food court was still packed so I decided we’d just head to a different location as far away from this mall as we could get. As we walked out through the food court, I reached down to snap a pic with Instagram and tweet it. Oh yeah, no phone today.

We finally made it out of the mall parking lot (another prayer of thanks was offered) and headed to Chick-Fil-A. We finished lunch, and the boys headed to the play area. This is a familiar ritual for me with my boys – fast food lunch followed by play time for them and some time to read, browse the web, and surf social networks for me. I reached for my pocket. Oh yeah, no phone today. For the first time in a while, I had a chance to just sit. And to think.

As I thought about my day, I noticed that more than my phone was missing from the day. A lot of my usual anxiousness and frustration was gone. I was more patient with my boys than I usually am. Given the unusually stressful nature of my day that was surprising. As I thought about it, I thanked God for that extra measure of grace, but I also began to wonder what else was different. I realized that I was fully present in every moment of that day without any distractions or diversions.

As a person who has spent much of his life working with technology (both as a vocation and an avocation), I spend a lot of time “plugged in.” But as a pastor, I’ve also thought a lot about how technology influences us. I am grateful in this regard to a pastor from Michigan named Shane Hipps. Shane wrote a great book a few years back that I highly recommend entitled Flickering Pixels which is an excellent exploration of the unintended consequences of media and technology. If reading a book on the topic seems too large a task and you’d prefer something shorter (which is true for most of us…technology, the internet specifically, did that to us) there’s a great article on Shane’s blog that should get you thinking.

I love technology, but I realize that using it as frequently as I do has unintended consequences. The best way that I’ve found to combat these consequences is to unplug – to fast from technology. It’s been a while since I’ve done this, and my experience at the mall made me realize it’s time to do it again. So I’m going to spend the first week of 2012 “unplugged.” No Twitter. No Facebook. No web surfing. No non-work-related email. I’ll probably still carry my phone in order to be available in my role as a pastor, but I intend to use it as little as possible. I want to create some silence and thought margin, some room to listen.

I’ll be back in a week – hopefully with more to say than if I hadn’t taken this break.

One of the first and most helpful principles you learn when studying the Bible is that context determines meaning. You can’t just rip a verse out of context and expect it to make any sense. The same is true for the things Jesus said and did. He said those things to a specific group of people, in a specific place, at a specific time, for a specific reason. To make those things generally applicable is an error. Likewise to assume that they’re not generally applicable is also unwise. Instead we zoom out and read the surrounding verses to understand how that verse makes sense within the story of which it is a part. We read those verses within the chapter or section of the book of which it is a part. We understand that section as a part of the whole book, which has its own place both in history and within the overall story of Scripture.

So applying that to Jesus breaking the laws in order to fulfill them, we need to look at what he taught his followers. Then what did they in turn teach their followers? Then, how have followers of Jesus understood this for two thousand years? Then, with those things in mind, we still have the work of deciding what that means for us, here, now.

What I have described is a fairly linear, rational, intellectual approach to understanding how to live as a follower of Jesus. This is good. At least it is a good place to start. But as I’ve been describing in this series, it is not enough. You cannot simply live by the rules and principles found in Scripture forever. At some point that approach begins to break down.

So Jesus knew how to truly fulfill the law (even if it meant breaking the rules) by, in his words, only doing what he saw the Father doing. Apparently Jesus was so intimately connected with the Father that this informed what he did. So when you watched what Jesus did – how he lived, how he treated people, all that he did and didn’t do – you were watching what God would do if he were walking around as a human being. Because that’s who Jesus is, God with skin on. So what about us? This isn’t something we can do…is it? Well, Jesus seemed to think that it was.

Toward the end of his life, Jesus made a promise. His promise was that it was now part of the plan that he go away – he would no longer be physically present with his followers to show them how to live. But he was sending someone who would show them how to live:

“7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you…12 ”I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.” (John 16:7, 12-15)

Jesus promises to send the Spirit of God to guide his followers in his absence. The Spirit will receive from Jesus what he will make known to Jesus’ followers. In his last words to his followers, Jesus gave them this command:

“18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20

Jesus calls his followers to go and to make disciples (literally, “followers”) and to baptize them into this reality of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He doesn’t invite them to follow a rule book or to live according to a set of precepts or principles. He calls his followers to make more followers who will all live in a dynamic, living connected relationship to the Father by the Son through the Spirit.

In my next post we’ll take a look at how Paul describes this life – learning to walk with the Spirit. I’ll share some of my own struggles to understand what that means and how God is teaching me to do this more and more.

**Images from Flickr user loop_oh used under Creative Commons license

The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible

Throughout the Gospel accounts (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – the four books which tell the story of Jesus’ life) we see Jesus regularly encountering resistance from the religious experts of his day. These men were the foremost expert of what the Hebrew Bible (what we know as the Old Testament) had to say and how to apply it to life. These men had taken the handbook paradigm to the extreme. They were so zealous to live by the laws of Scripture that they had added a long list of additional rules of their own. There was only one problem: they had lost sight of the purpose of the law. More accurately, they had lost touch with the one who had created the laws in the first place. Jesus knew that (obviously, since we believe he was actually God, the one who wrote the laws) and he pointed it out to them.

Beginning in Mark 2:23, Mark relates a story about Jesus’ interactions with the religious leaders around the rules and laws associated with the Sabbath. In Exodus God gave Israel strict instructions about their work week. They were to work six days, and then they were to rest on the seventh day – the Sabbath day. The practice of Sabbath was core to Israel’s identity. But somewhere along the way they forgot why God gave them that instruction. It just became a rule to be followed. Enter Jesus.

The story begins when Jesus’ followers, his disciples, picked some heads of grain and ate them while walking through a field on the Sabbath. The religious leaders confronted Jesus and asked why he allowed his disciples to “work” on the Sabbath. Now it seems a bit of a stretch to say that by picking some kernels of grain Jesus’ friends were working, but that’s how the religious leaders of Jesus’ time saw it. Jesus points out their error when he tells them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” He took them back to the intent of the law. He re-introduced them to a God who desired that there would be a rhythm of work and rest in their lives. He did this, not to have them to serve a law but to have the law serve them. Sometimes the rules should be broken. When? When following the rule undermines or contradicts its intent. To make this point perfectly clear, the next story Mark tells is of Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath (an act taken as “work” once again by the religious leaders) to show that sometimes the rules are made to be broken.

“Know the rules well, so you can break them effectively.”
Dalai Lama XIV

So how do you know when to break the rules? Well first, you have to know the rules. That means knowing the Scriptures and what God has to say about what is good and bad, right and wrong. But just knowing the rules isn’t enough. You have to know the maker of the rules. John gives an account in his gospel about Jesus healing on the Sabbath, and in his account he records Jesus’ answer to how he knew when to break the rules.

“Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”
John 5:19

So what does this mean for us? First it means we should always be studying and learning more about what the Scripture says. But that is not enough. We should also be looking for what the Father is doing, even if it threatens the way we’ve always thought about the rules.

I’ll talk more about that in my next post.

• Pinterest.com – I’m pretty late to the party on this one it seems, but I blame the fact that I’m a guy. This new invitation-only social networking site (let me know if you want an invitation) where you can “pin” things from the web you find interesting seems to have a pretty heavily female audience to date. The whole idea is that you find something you find interesting on the web (a recipe, arts and crafts ideas, decorating ideas, etc) and you “pin it” on your page. I’m still getting the hang of it, but it seems to have a lot of momentum. Which probably means Google or Facebook will buy it soon. :-) Kudos to my buddy Dan Snyder for this one.
• Pepperplate.com – My friend Jason Malec shared this one with me. It’s a website where you can add recipes (by clipping them from websites like foodnetwork.com or by adding your own recipes manually), create a menu plan for the week, and it will then generate a shopping list for you. This solves the problem of getting to the end of the day and saying, “What should we have for dinner?” and then having to figure out what you need, go to the store, and buy it. With a little planning Pepperplate helps you avoid that ordeal. One of the things I love is when technology integrates well – particularly between computers and mobile devices. This is where Pepperplate is strong. You add your recipes, decide when you want to make them, and it will generate a shopping list for you that you can then access through your (free) Pepperplate iPhone app. I haven’t really put this one into practice yet (I’m still collecting recipes to use) but am excited about the possibilities.
• Klout.com – Ever since I read The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell years ago, I’ve been fascinated by how people influence one another. Why do trends start? Why do some bands get popular and others don’t even get noticed? Behind all the decisions we make is a network of people who influence us, people who connect us, and people who persuade us. Social networking makes it possible to observe and analyze these trends and see who influences whom. That’s where Klout.com comes in. Just connect Klout to your social network and it will give you a score of your influence – analyzing all your social network connections and who you motivate to action (to click on a link, to retweet a post on Twitter, to like something on Facebook, etc). Interesting stuff.

handbook |ˈhan(d)ˌbo͝ok|
noun
a book giving information such as facts on a particular subject or instructions for operating a machine.

I don’t know who first thought it was a good idea to start thinking about the Bible this way, but I’m guessing it’s probably a post-industrial revolution idea. In a world where we are surrounded by machines and their associated handbooks, it is tempting to think about life in a very process-oriented sort of way – to see it as a very big, very complicated machine – and to see the Bible as the operating manual for life. The problem is, the Bible just doesn’t cooperate with that paradigm. The Bible is a very complex book. In fact, it’s not a book at all. It’s a collection of books – sixty-six in all – written by over forty authors across thousands of years of time. It is narrative. It is poetry. It is correspondence. Even when it is proverbial and seems to be giving “how-to” directions about life it isn’t that straightforward. Here’s an example.

We’ve all had someone say something foolish to you before. Maybe it was that drunk guy sitting in front of you at a football game. Maybe it was someone being rude in line at the grocery store. So how do you respond? Well, let’s go to the handbook:

“Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him.” Proverbs 26:4

Okay, so I just shouldn’t say anything to that person who spouts off at me, right? Well, maybe – maybe not. Look at the next verse:

“Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.” Proverbs 26:5

So wait. I thought I wasn’t supposed to answer. So according to this verse I am supposed to let him know he said something foolish or he will simply continue thinking how he acts is okay. So which is it? Do I answer or not?

In my previous post I mentioned that my counselor/spiritual-director Denise pointed out to me not long ago that I was trying to live by the precepts and principles of Scripture – to understand the formulas to solve the problems of life, but that paradigm of life was breaking down for me. She said something interesting, “You can’t pre-decide how you’re going to act in a particular situation. To do so is not to be fully present in that moment. More importantly it means not being present with God in that moment.”

Knowing and understanding the truth of Scripture is important. It is vital. It is necessary for following God. But it is not enough. Knowing Scripture is not the same thing as knowing God. The Bible is not a handbook; it is God’s revelation to man – the story of his relationship with man throughout history. Knowing the Bible helps us to know God, but it is not the same as knowing God himself.

In my next post, I’ll take a look at a story from Jesus’ life that provides some insight into the difference between following God and just following the rules.

Follow up thought:
If you’re interested in reading more about how we think about the Bible, a book that was very influential for me was The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible by Scot McKnight.