Go Nuts!

One morning recently I decided to take a vacation. I went to the Message and got a suite in I Peter, rooms 1 and 2. I spent some time meditating on what I found there. I brought out a couple of things left by the first tenant, pay it forward style.

"Now that you've cleaned up your lives by following the truth, love one another as if your lives depended on it." (1/22)
"So clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk. You've had a taste of God. Now, like infants at the breast, drink deep of God's pure kindness. Then you'll grow up mature and whole in God." (2/1-3)

How many of us love one another as if our lives depended on it? How many of us even come close? How many try? That's a good start, trying.[0] Even if you fall short, you did better than before. Too often we look at something like this, think "I can't be that good", and give up. That can be intimidation, insecurity, fear of failure, a sense of hopelessness, or just an excuse. But none of those excuse us from going for it.

"But I can't! I mean, I tried it a couple of times, and I made it like an hour..." That's two hours more than before. One of my favorite lines in Batman Begins comes from Bruce's Dad (later repeated by Alfred).

"And why do we fall, Bruce? So we can learn to pick ourselves up."

While I disagree with this exact statement as a theological principle (I don't think God makes us fall so we can learn not to), it otherwise holds a great deal of wisdom. We can learn from anything. When you fall (fail), get back up and go some more. Learn what made you fall, and avoid that, or learn ways to cope with it.[1]

Love those aground you as if your life depended on it. (I'll let you in on a secret. Loving people is about the most fun thing you can do. But hold on-- some of them will love you back so much it will blow you away.)

"...Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy and hurtful talk." These four things drive a lot of the drama in our lives. Drama is a poor substitute for fun and excitement, but a lot of us settle for drama. Malice is first cousin to hate, the very opposite of love. Love is real, it doesn't need to pretend, and doesn't hide behind fakery. Envy? Heck no! I'm excited when good things happen to the people I love. And love never wants to hurt someone, directly or indirectly.

This is not a definitive list; it was almost certainly addressing specific issues at a specific place and time. But these things are common to humans, and commonly get in the way of living in love.

So do it. Go nuts in your love for others. God does it for us, all day, every day.

[0] As you may have noticed, Yoda wasn't always right. [1] Need help with that? A side excursion to James 1/5 has the answer:
"If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you." (NIV)
"If you don't know what you're doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You'll get his help, and won't be condescended to when you ask for it."

(All Scriptures from the Message unless otherwise noted...)

People Are People

People are people
So why should it be
You and I should get
Along so awfully
People are people
So why should it be
You and I should get
Along so awfully

So we're different colours
And we're different creeds
And different people
have different needs
It's obvious you hate me
Though I've done nothing wrong
I've never ever met you
so what could I have done

I can't understand
What makes a man
Hate another man
Help me understand

"People are people..."
I got that back in my hippie days.
I got that as a baby Christian, devoid of religion and politics.
I got that when I got sucked into liberal theology.
I got that when I got sucked into right wing, fundamentalist Christianity.
I get it now as someone who just basks in God's grace and thinks both sides have their good and bad points.

Not much boggles my mind, but I have a hard time seeing how anyone would not see this. (My track record isn't perfect, either, but hate isn't an option, so even when it sneaks in, it doesn't stay past having a little light on it.)

In Mt 25/31-46, we find Jesus talking about visiting people in prison, feeding the hungry, and generally helping the hurting as a pretty big deal. (Note: I don't see this as a passage about "What you must do to get to heaven (works), but about our actions showing who we really are. This implies that if we truly love Jesus, these things come naturally.)

In Lk 10/29-37 he applies this to someone his listeners saw as extremely different (a Samaritan).

In dealing with tax collectors, whores, adulteresses, drunks, lepers, Romans, and pretty much every sort of "different" there was in his day, he took a stand for this. "People are people. I created them. I love them. I'm going to die and come back for them as well as you."

Today he'd do the same for all of them again, as well as the homeless, black people, gays and lesbians, illegal immigrants, Muslims, and everyone else. Would he point out anything wrong in their lives and offer to heal them? Sure... just as he does with you and me.

People are people...
Help me understand

Now you're punching
And you're kicking
And you're shouting at me
I'm relying on your common decency
So far it hasn't surfaced
But I'm sure it exists
It just takes a while to travel
From your head to your fists

I can't understand
What makes a man
Hate another man

Help me understand

Depeche Mode lyrics (C) 1984 Sire Records Company

Sweet Surrender

I've always loved this song by Sarah McLachlan. I never knew what it was about, but it was so good and spoke to me so deeply I never worried about it. If you haven't heard it, you should listen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2JWJYLNUq4&ob=av2e

(Whatever version I'm currently hearing is my favorite, so I just chose the album version.)

Recently I found a live performance video where she explained the song's origin before she sang it. Here's a transcription from the net:

"The initial inspiration came actually after seeing Leaving Las Vegas, which I found to be this beautiful and tragic love story of these two people who were rather pathetic, both in their own rights, and yet completely accepted each other for who they were; all the beautiful things, and all the ugly things. That's a lot to do with what this is about, accepting ugly things, and being able to appreciate the fact that someone can love you for all those nasty things, especially when you think you are completely unlovable. There's some great comfort in that."

Wow. I've never seen the movie, but this helps explain why the song grabs me like it does. On top of Ms. McLachlan's brilliant songwriting and vocal skills (and great band), this comes from a place near and dear to my heart.

It doesn't mean much...
It doesn't mean anything at all...
The life I've left behind me
Is a cold room...

I've felt like this several times in my life, but the ones that stand out all involve total, relentless, utterly forgiving love that surrendered much to me and left me feeling that this was, indeed, all I had to give. Some of these were God moments, others involve my wife, or falling in love with people others saw as flawed, giving in to that love, adopting them as it were.

I've crossed the last line
From where I can't return,
Where every step I took in faith
Betrayed me
And led me from my home.

[Chorus]
Sweet surrender...
Is all that I have to give?

I don't know what the author means by "Where every step I took in faith betrayed me and led me from my home", but that can be read in multiple ways. I take it as betraying my quest for security and safety. Love always involves risk, and the reward is always worth it.

You take me in,
No questions asked;
You strip away the ugliness
That surrounds me.

If that isn't the definition of love, I don't know what is. Absolute love, no reservations, it goes beyond mere (mere!) forgiveness into overwhelming grace. God strips away all the crap, to reveal the core, the beauty, of who we are. True love does that. Other people have done it for me, and by His grace, I do it for others. But it only works if we recognize that love. Otherwise it feels like we're being assaulted when someone tries to strip away the ugliness.

Are you an angel?
Am I already that gone?
I only hope
That I won't disappoint you...

When I'm down here
On my knees...

How well I know that feeling that all I can do is disappoint. But that's the sign of someone who doesn't know what it is to be loved!

Surrender is always a scary thing. Too often, we only do it when we feel trapped, like a soldier with a gun in his or her face. But it runs out there are things we should surrender to long before we get to that point. Love is at the top of the list, especially unconditional, unstoppable, unending love.

Sweet surrender, indeed.

(Lyrics courtesy of lyrics007.com)

Don't Hate the Hunger Games for the Wrong Reasons

Some of my Christian friends were very unhappy with the movie, The Hunger Games. These generally centered on a lack of morality, or a totally self-centered, un-Christlike morality. I didn't get why they were so upset until I watched the movie. If you didn't read the book, you will not get the message in the movie.

There are several reasons for this.

The book is from Katniss's perspective. It's all first person, and you know her thoughts. You know her struggles, her fears, her loathing to kill, how she had to be the adult when her mother completely shut down for several years after her father was killed in the mine explosion, how the family had nearly starved to death, how the bounty from winning the games will give so many in her community a chance at survival and more, that they would otherwise not have.

Speaking of which, the movie really didn't convey just what winning the Game meant to a district, per the end of that last item.

The movie what drove Haymitch to drinking, and what really brought him out of it. Haymitch had been a Game winner, and then a mentor. But District 12 was so beaten down, that every year he invested his time and energy in trying to save two people from home, two people with no survival instincts or skills, who never had a chance at anything but victimhood, bloody sacrifices. Nor does it make it clear that once he saw the character and potential of Katniss and Peeta, he snapped out of it and put his all into helping them survive.

The movie doesn't really show just how dangerous the days after the Game were, not just for Katniss and Peeta, but for Haymitch and indeed all of District 12.

The movie just makes Katniss look like a pragmatist, differing from the pack of killers mainly in her lack of blood lust, and perfectly happy to fake romance with Peeta. neither is true; she was relentlessly forced into her actions by circumstances and her goal. She wasn't just fighting against (and she never killed if she had an option), she was trying desperately to save her family, her friends, her district. And Peeta, once she realized he wasn't the enemy.

If the movie upset you for reasons such as I mentioned, I strongly urge you to read the book before condemning the movie.

If the movie upset you because of its theme of government and media betrayal, I strongly urge you to read the book to better understand that theme.

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No Listy lists were harmed in making this post, though they may have been offended at being left out. But, like a film maker, I have to choose what will fit. Sorry, Listy, you would have made my blog too long, and I didn't want to have to include an intermission.

Got Breakthrough?

"If you need personal breakthrough, try praying for someone else's breakthrough. Job 42:10: And the Lord restored Job's losses when he prayed for his friends." -Chris Gore

From what I find in the scriptures, Jesus spent a lot more time helping others with breakthrough than he did off praying for himself. The time just before he was arrested to be crucified was a notable exception, but even there Jesus refused to focus on himself as we often tend to. Examples of this during the last day of his life include the healing the servant's ear, making sure Mary and John took each other as family, and forgiving the thief on the cross. (The effort to talk on the cross must have been massive and brutal, yet he expended that effort for others.)

As a rule, whatever I need, if I find someone to bestow that on, I get it by the truckload. Feeling left out? Include someone. Unloved? Love someone. Sad? Go make someone happy. Need healing? Go heal someone. I have found (and Scripture backs me up) that the more I pour out, the more I'm filled up. If I focus on God and others, I am taken care of. If I focus on me, I'm still cared for, but because my focus is wrong, I don't even notice. He could drop a breakthrough in my lap, and I usually wouldn't recognize it.

Don't do this out of principle or just to get what you want (or even need). Do it for love! You can't go wrong following the two greatest commandments:

"...The Lord our God is one Lord. Love the Lord your God with every particle of your being, physical and otherwise. The second one is just like that: Love yourself, and everyone else the same way." (Mk 2/29b-31a, Miles' Modern Version)