Wayfarer on the Creative Path

Chapter-a-Day 2 Corinthians 8

The pressure triggered something totally unexpected: an outpouring of pure and generous gifts. I was there and saw it for myself. They gave offerings of whatever they could—far more than they could afford!—pleading for the privilege of helping out in the relief of poor Christians. 2 Corinthians 8:3-4 (TM)

When I was in high school, my parents went through some extremely difficult times financially. I was the last of the four children still at home and my sister was in college. I will never forget the afternoon I sat at the counter drinking my after school soda as mom opened the mail. I looked up from my Coca-cola to see tears steaming down my mother's face, her hand over her mouth.

My sister needed money for an upcoming college event and my parents didn't have it. My folks did not have the money, nor did they have any idea how they were going to get it. They had not said a word to anyone, but chose to pray for God to provide the amount, which was in the hundreds of dollars.

In the envelope my mother had opened that day was the exact amount of cash needed for my sister's trip and a small note that read, "In Jesus name."

To this day I don't know who sent that pure and generous gift. I was there. I saw it for myself. That day became a life-long lesson. Not only did I learn that God can and will provide, but I also learned that I want to give that kind of blessing to others.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and slice.

It's Not What We Intend, But What We Do

The following post was published on my corporate blog, QAQnA:

Most companies have performance management goals of some kind. When our group provides Quality Assessment in client contact centers there are usually goals that each Customer Service Representative has surrounding their quality scores and service delivery.

It's interesting to note how rare it is that people actually know their goals and work towards improvement. We like to start call coaching sessions by asking people to tells us their goals. It usually ends up with an uncomfortable chuckle and a shrug of the shoulders. Mind you, I don't think people willfully choose not to  remember or act on their goals. I believe that most people have the best of intentions each time they walk out of a coaching session. Unfortunately, those intentions don't always translate into actions.

My daughter, Taylor, just graduated from high school. Like most young people, she has a passion to make a difference in the world. She sees the pain and injustices around the globe and wants things to change. However, while most young people shrug their shoulders and wonder how on Earth they can make a difference, Taylor and two of her friends chose to act on their intentions.

The three girls identified a handful of issues they wanted to address. Then, they started their own non-profit organization which designs t-shirts to address each issue. Profits from the t-shirt sales not only go to fight each of those issues, but also helped provide them the opportunity to personally go and make a difference themselves. The three girls just got back from spending a month of their summer working with orphans in Romania.

If you'd like to encourage these exceptional young women by buying a t-shirt, you can find them at www.epochmovement.org (Be patient, the high-res photos on the t-shirt pages load really slow. We're working to help them remedy that!).

It's one thing to intend to make a change. It's another thing to actually follow through.

What goals will you do something about today?

Chapter-a-Day 2 Corinthians 7

Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets. 2 Corinthians 7:10 (TM)

As I look back on the path I've followed thus far in life's journey, I can see both of the examples Paul provides in response to distress. I can see times when life's distresses drove me down a path towards God. In those cases, I depended on God to provide the patience and perseverance I needed to traverse that difficult stretch. My faith grew. When all was said and done I ended up in a better place.

Other times I can see how life's distresses caused me to take a path away from God. Call it pride, call it anger, or call it plain foolishness. In each case, it was willful disobedience on my part. I was a petulant child refusing to heed his parent's warning. "I don't care what you think, Father," I said in my heart. "You may want me to take the path on the right, but I'm going to take this path on the left. Damn the consequences. It's the path I want to take and I'm taking it!"

Do I regret my numerous willfully disobedient choices? Of course, I do. Taking many a selfish and disobedient path has yielded its share of lamentable consequences and shameful memories. Once I found my way back to the straight and narrow path, it eventually provided a host of valuable lessons. The scars I still have from taking the wrong path are a constant reminder not to do it again. As time goes on, I'd like to think I'm less likely to take the wrong path.

Life's road will lead us down avenues of distress. It's unavoidable. What is avoidable is the consequences of choosing to take the wrong side of the street.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and Lord Manley.

Chapter-a-Day 2 Corinthians 6

Don't become partners with those who reject God. 2 Corinthians 6:14 (TM)

When I think of the word "partnership" I think of two distinct relationships. There are marriage partnerships. There are business partnerships. I have both. I would hate to be in either with a person who did not share the same faith.

Partnerships require two people to make daily decisions that will affect each other, the two as a whole, and others who are dependent on that partnership. Even when the partners share the same vision, share the same values, share the same faith and share the same principles, there are still times when the relationship becomes strained. When the partners do not have those things in common, it becomes perilously difficult - if not impossible. When partnerships fail the acute pain is intense and the fallout is widespread.

It's best just to avoid partnering with those who aren't walking the same spiritual path as you.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and iirraa

Chapter-a-Day 2 Corinthians 5

That keeps us vigilant, you can be sure. It's no light thing to know that we'll all one day stand in that place of Judgment. 2 Corinthians 5:11 (TM)

Much of my daily work is providing quality assessment in call centers. Have you ever heard the phrase "this call may be monitored to ensure quality service?" Monitoring calls and ensuring quality service is a large part of what my company does. It's an interesting job.

A few years back we were providing service quality assessments for one salesman in a particular company. The salesman's manager left and it was over five months before the manager was replaced. In the meantime, we continued to assess the salesman's calls. The salesman, however, thought that our assessment stopped when his manager left. He believed that he was no longer going to be held accountable for the quality of service he was providing on the phone.

The chart of the salesman's performance on the phone began to drop off the month he believed he was no longer being assessed, and it continued in a steep decline for five months. He had consistently been one of the top performers in the company. After five months believing he wasn't being assessed, he had the lowest service performance in the company.

It's funny how the knowledge that we will be held accountable for what we do influences our behavior. The Bible is clear that we will all stand before God and we will be held accountable. Our sins are forgiven. The price of our sin-debt was paid by the blood of Jesus. There will be no record of our sin because those records have been expunged.

But, what did we do with what was left when the sin was washed away? What did I do with this precious, gracious gift? Was I faithful with the time, energy, talents, and resources I've been given?

Blessedly Mundane Weekend

Speaking of mudane, it was a quiet weekend and a gorgeous weekend:

• We returned Friday from getting Taylor registered at the University of Iowa. Taylor is officially a Hawkeye! She's got her ID card and everything!
• This weekend felt like the beautiful May weather we all missed this spring.
• I worked a good part of the weekend, analyzing calls that are due this coming week.
• Nevertheless, we made time for some socializing. On Friday night, we went our with our friends Matt and Anne McCullough Kelly for a quiet dinner and conversation.
• We went out with our friends, Jen and Justin Parker, on Saturday night. The four of us buzzed over to Knoxville to drive GoKarts and then out for a liesurely dinner.
• Sunday morning worship was great. I directed the video for the 9:30 service, then we met up with the girls for the 10:30. Wendy made homemade pizza for lunch and we sat with the girls and enjoyed a long conversation about how Christians are to respond to the world's problems.
• I also kept an eye on the Chicago Cubs as they finished up the first half of the season (this week is the All-Star break). They finished with the best record in the major leagues and sent eight players to the All-Star game. This is the best season for Cubs fans in my life time!

Weekend over. Another week begins. Looking forward to dinner with mom and dad Hall tonight.

Chapter-a-Day 2 Corinthians 4

If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. 2 Corinthians 4:7 (TM)

Let's face it, our daily lives aren't that exciting. We watch the lives of celebrities, we read about the ups and downs of superstars, we watch the drama of "reality" television, and our lives pale in comparison. Few of us have lives which would make good fodder for reality television. They're just not that exciting. They're "unadorned clay pots."

And yet, our ordinary, clay pot lives are a vessel in which we carry a priceless treasure. Our simply, daily existence is to carry within it the brightness of Jesus' message. It might take others a bit to see it. We might have to build a relationship with them so that they have opportunity to see what's inside of us. That's all part of the plan.

God's Message is not about bling. It's quiet truth that pervades the most mundane items on our to-do list.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and ebby.

Madison's Slides from Thailand

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Slides from Taylor's Mission to Romania

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An excerpt from Taylor's blog...

Many people know I just returned from a mission trip in Romania. Everyone keeps asking me, “How was your trip?!” and of course my response is always “Great!” It’s hard to give more than a one-word answer when talking to someone in passing. But I hate that I can’t just vomit my whole trip out onto them. I want to shake people and tell them to wake up because there is so much wrong in this world and more people need to do something about it. I want to be able to show them the difference I was making and how many times God showed up in such a real way, it would be nearly impossible to deny His existence. I have lots of pictures, but there were so many places I wasn’t allowed to take my camera to because of the conditions people were living in. It’s so sad how blind America is. How blind the church in America has become.
Everything needs to change. I watched the Romanian people in worship and I was in awe of how passionate they are. I saw 70-year-old men jumping and dancing around the sanctuary. These people are really living the way Jesus did. They’re really going out into their community and building up relationships with people and serving them. They get the police called on them when they visit parks. They have gypsy people persecuting them, people making fun of them to their faces. But they still go out there anyway. Jesus is real to them. He’s not their homeboy. He’s not a bobble head or on bumper stickers. He’s their only hope. He’s all they have. But He’s more than enough for them.
How come He isn’t more then enough for us? What is enough? We’ve built up this equity system that doesn’t lead us to work for the common good. The gap between rich and poor grows more and more. Then the poor use the ignorance of the rich to justify crime, war, terrorism and the rich polarize from the poor by shutting them out. We have this system that feeds civilization with products and services that leads us to constantly want newer, better things. We’ve been guided to disrespect environmental limits and pursue as much resource use and waste production as possible. We burn through non-renewable resources without concern for their eventual disappearance. We don’t reconcile peacefully with competition. Instead there are patriotic religious stories that celebrate how “redemptive violence’ has helped “the good people” (us) defeat the “evil people” (them) throughout history. When more nations arm themselves with more lethal weapons, everyone feels less secure. Jesus offered an alternative way from all this, but we have to re frame him outside the stereotypical assumptions that have developed.
I heard Shane Claiborne speak once and I’ll always remember this thing he said. “We tend to throw our hands up at God and say ‘Why aren’t you doing anything about this?’ but God says, ‘I did. I created you.’” God chose us. Not some of us. All of us. And we have the choice to choose Him back. If we weren’t given the choice, we’d all be a bunch of puppets. But if you choose God, you must accept His calling to GO and do your part to save the nations.
The church has become so divided over stupid stuff. Why can’t we all just agree to disagree and actually live up to the one purpose we were put on this earth for- to love people, to satisfy the needs of the oppressed and feed the hungry? Christian doesn't mean right-wing extremists or homo-sexual haters or hypocritical idiots. Sadly,a lot of people see Christianity as just that, even though that's not what the REAL radical christians are about. That's where we've missed the message of Jesus. He loves everyone just the same though. But if everyone is turned off or turned away from Christianity because of what it’s become in some places or how it's represented by certain people, then who’s going to do something about it? You can’t expect to see God working through you in miraculous ways if you’re only giving Him twenty percent of your time or effort. He wants all of you. Trust me, it’s so worth it.Gandhi said, “The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.”
I have so many stories of people being healed. I have so many stories of how people lived these awful, horrible lives and when they gave in and started listening to God, He saved them. I met a girl who was molested by her grandpa for ten years. I met a boy who’s dad sold him for a TV set. I met a girl whose boyfriend practiced vampirism with her. I met a girl who was involved in a lesbian relationship with a woman who was twenty years older than her. All these crazy stories where people were suicidal, depressed, anorexic, you name it. But you would NEVER have suspected anything like this happened in their life. They were happy, joyful, servant hearted people that loved God and had amazing testimonies of His work in their lives. And hey, I've got my own story.
I’m sorry this is so long and I’m like jumping from thing to thing. I’ve just been so lucky to have the opportunities to see what I’ve seen and I want people to know that it’s changed my life and I’m determined to change the world in some way and that people will know I've got a light in me. And for those people that know me- one day I hope you'll see it and you'll understand why I am who I am. I’ve got so much love in me right now. You need a hug? Want me to your laundry? Make you a sandwich? Let me know.

Chapter-a-Day 2 Corinthians 3

And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him. 2 Corinthians 3:18 (TM)

Taylor wrote me the other day that a friend had commented on her blog, and this friend told her that she writes like me (fortunately, she took it as a compliment). As Taylor grows and matures, I do see certain things about her that are like me. I, likewise, see things in Madison that remind me of myself. I also see things in myself that are much like my father. I catch myself standing a certain way and think, "This is just how Dad stands!"

While my father's genetic code was inside of me when I was born, it has taken years for me to become like my Father. Some mannerisms and actions only showed themselves as I've grown and matured into adulthood. The same is true with the relationship we have with our Heavenly Father. When Jesus enters my heart, His spiritual DNA becomes, forever, a part of me. Becoming like Him, however, only happens as I "gradually grow brighter and more beautiful."

I've witnessed some followers of Jesus who become discouraged and beat themselves up when they fall short of Godly perfection. But, Christ-like-ness is not an event - it's a process.

Chill.

God's not through with you yet.