A quote I love from C.S. Lewis, illustrated by a cartoon from zenpencils
To Love Is To Be Vulnerable
The Mis-Value of Doing
Recently I have been thinking a lot about how much we are defined by our production or doing. We have numbers all around us telling us whether we are doing a good job of accomplishing our own or other people’s goals for us. I have to admit I like many of these numbers. I enjoy recording on goodreads that I have finished another book and seeing my number of books for the year go up. I like that the Bible app I often use for reading my Bible records how many days I have read scripture in a row. I have a goal for the number of steps I walk/run each day, I have a goal for how much money I save throughout the year, I record what I do for work, etc., etc., etc.
These aren’t bad things – in fact, sometimes they help motivate me to be who I believe I have been called to be.
But being who I have been called to be is the key.
We aren’t what we produce. I am not the numbers that I can record. Instead the numbers I record should help me to live out who I am. The opposite is so often the way we are viewed and, even worse, how we view ourselves. We accept the lie that we are what we produce and that our value comes from the value of what we accomplish/produce. Thus our companies, decades ago, moved from departments of personnel, concerned with the people who the company employed, to departments of human resources, concerned with making sure that the humans who are resources to the company are most effectively used just as the materials department is concerned that the company’s material resources are best used for the company’s goal. You are not just a resource to be used.
I think determining our value by our production is also why we usually first ask a person what they do for work when we are introducing ourselves. “What is your production value?” “Well I am retired now, BUT I used to produce this and it was of high value.” Or we ask our spouse and kids at the end of day “so what did you do today”, as if what was done is the most important part of a day. You and I are not just the value of what we do.
Our value comes from the One who loves us and created us, not for the numbers we produce. Still our choices do help us to live out who He proclaims us to be. I am a father, my choices help me to live out being a good or a bad father. I am a son, my choices help me to live out being a son. I am a friend, my choices determine what type of friend I am. I am a child of God, my choices shape what type of child I am.
I like something that the Danish Philosopher and believer Søren Kierkegaard wrote on the subject. He wrote,
“Now, with God’s help, I shall become myself.”
Søren Kierkegaard, Papers and Journals, Page 295
I like the quote because it acknowledges that we can’t make free choices without God’s help (scripture says we are slaves to sin) but that the goal of His help is to enable us to make choices that are consistent with who we are and who we are becoming. We aren’t just our production, but what we produce should be consistent with who we are (or as I understand it, who we have been proclaimed to be by a gracious and loving God). The numbers in our lives aren’t bad, but they can become so when we think those numbers are who we are. You are so much more than those numbers. You are claimed by God. I am the brother to the Lord.
I believe one of the saddest things of this whole situation is that using our production to determine our value actually robs us of the joy and pride that we should be able feel when we accomplish something. Instead of feeling a sense of accomplishment, we immediately feel the need to do more. Rather than being able to recognize that we just accomplished some good work, we see the faults that are present and believe we must still improve on our work. When your production determines your value then your production has to be of ultimate value … and that is something that nothing we can produce can ever give us. Ultimate value being placed on things that were never meant to provide ultimate value destroys not only our joy, but also the portion of joy that those things used to be able to provide us.
One of the parenting things that Pam and I did when the boys where significantly younger was to teach them that advertisements would often promise things or make claims that the product could never deliver on because the promise was for a need that the product wasn’t design to meet. For example, if you buy this truck you will suddenly be the type of person who does work requiring a truck. If you buy North Face gear then you will become someone who spends lots of time outdoors. If you buy this product the your family will begin to love spending time together. So much advertising uses values that are way beyond the product, to try and sell the product to us. This product will bring you community, hope, meaning, etc., etc.
Nope, it won’t
So we taught the boys to shout out at the TV “That’s a lie!” when they saw a commercial that was obviously saying it could deliver something that was beyond’s its scope. I hope it helped them learn that many things make promises that they could never fulfill. I know their tiny voices screaming at the television helped me learn that lesson.
This Adam Sandler SNL skit is along a similar vein.
So maybe when we begin to feel the need to define ourselves based off what we produce we need to remind ourselves that our production can’t determine our value. Therefore, our work is not who we are, our hobbies don’t have to be productive, we don’t have to be using every second effectively, we did a good job (not a perfect job) and that is okay. You and I are so much more than what we produce and do. So be comfortable with just being, rather than always doing.
As the old cliché goes, “You are a human BEING, not a human DOING.” It is clichéd, but it is also true.
Not Really Designed For That
This short video is pretty awesome … well unless you are the owner of the sailboat. I don’t think the sea lions care that this sailboat wasn’t really designed to function as a resting rock for them, they are going to use it for this purpose anyhow. I love the fact that a third sea lion tried to get on the boat but was denied by the other two. That would have been very interesting.
I’m sure there is an illustration in there somewhere concerning using things in our life for purposes they weren’t meant for (for good or bad) but it is December 30th and such thoughts are beyond me at the moment.
I really hoped the sailboat survived without too much damage.
ht Jami
What Tapestry Did for Christmas – We Raised Enough Money for at least One Well
I was a part of a D.Min final project for Clint Calvert a little over a year ago. Clint is an awesome guy who really likes to help small, local churches figure out how to do their most effective ministry. His project was focused on helping churches determine what their building needs were and then determine how to raise money to meet those needs. I was one of the pastors that he met with and coached in this process. One of the things that came out of this coaching was that while a building would be convenient to have for Tapestry it wasn’t something that necessarily helped our ministry at this moment, and therefore I was the subject in his project that didn’t try to raise money for building needs. Still it started me thinking about what we could raise some extra money for.
That’s when the idea of initiating a capital campaign (the things churches often do to raise money for a building) to provide clean water to someone. Thanks to the Holte’s I had already begun a friendship with Sam Dinga of the Makah Foundation and I asked him to meet with our leadership team. The leadership team was amazed by what the Makah Foundation has done to provide clean water to villages in Cameroon, West Africa. Therefore, we decided that we would do a combination of a capital campaign and an NPR fundraiser – i.e. we would spend four weeks asking the church members to give more than the normal offerings they give that support the ministry of Tapestry AND we would use resources the church already had to match whatever the church members gave for a well through the Makah Foundation.
We aren’t finished yet but thus far we have raised enough money to build one well and we are a fifth of the way into the second well. It has been a pretty good way to celebrate our Lord’s birthday – I can’t really think of a better way to honor the Lord Who gives “living water” than to provide our neighbors with clean, healthy water. It has also been pretty fun that Tapestry’s first “capital campaign” has been to meet the needs of others.
SIDE NOTE – If you are a thread it isn’t too late to give towards the well. You can do so HERE.
SIDE SIDE NOTE – if you aren’t a thread and are looking for an organization to support the Makah Foundation is a good one to support.
Observing
I love “Yogi Berrisms”! The New York Yankee catcher/manager/coach from the 40s through 80s just had an amazing way of saying very profound things in extremely unorthodox and sometimes confusing manners. I’m presently reading Bessell A. van der Kolk’s book “The Body Keeps the Score” (which has been amazing thus far) and the 3 chapter began with the above quote from Yogi Berra. “You can observe a lot by watching.”
So good.
Unfortunately I, and I think others too, often react without observing.
Stack Pole
The photo attached to this post is from my favorite chaplaining discussion from yesterday. The doodle on the right side of the image is my attempt at describing a stack pole. A “stack pole” is an ancient agricultural concept that I learned while studying theology. Within theology is was meant to convey the central idea that gives shape and structure to all of your other theology. In the image attach to this post the stack pole is the dark line that is draw in the center of what is supposed to be a haystack. (Don’t judge my haystack – this was a conversational doodle, not an attempt at art).
I am not a farmer, nor the son of a farmer (though I did have a step-grandfather that was a hobby gardener and really liked to use all his step-grandkids as free labor on his hobby garden – but we didn’t deal with hay so I didn’t learn this from him, however I have dug more potatoes and picked more green beans and tomatoes than I care to remember), but I learned about stack poles because of the theological discussion.
A stack pole is the pole in the center of a haystack that gives the stack structure for stability, shape, and aeration. The stack pole makes the haystack sound and reliable. Without a stack pole the haystack has to have some other form of structure or it will fall down on itself, become unmanageable, or even worse, combust from the heat that accompanies a lack of aeration.
So often in discussion I describe a “stack pole” to people in an attempt to help them figure out what is the person/concept/thing that lends structure to everything else in their life. What is the ultimate “yes” in my life that determines whether I say “yes” or “no” to everything else? This stack pole gives and shapes meaning to everything else. For me this stack pole is Jesus.
For far too many people I believe there is no “stack pole” in their lives, or, maybe even worse, what they have as their ultimate “yes” is nowhere near strong enough to be the center pole of their lives and thus can’t handle the weight such need for meaning brings – this can lead to chaos. In a post in September I mentioned Søren Kierkegaard’s famous quote, “purity of heart is to will one thing,” which is another way of expressing, and probably a better way because it is from Kierkegaard after all, what I mean by “stack pole”. I hope you have a stack pole that gives structure to your life. If not, or if you are realizing that what has been your “stack pole” isn’t up to snuff, then I know a great God that is the perfect “stack pole”.
Any how this post was really about two things:
- first, I love what I get to do in life
- two, I love when a conversation leads to a doodle.
A Thanksgiving Battle Cry
Today, thanks to my wonderful wife, we are trying out what I believe will become a new Terrell Thanksgiving lunch tradition. Our friends and family who gather today will participate in a shared reading. Pam found this reading on The Rabbit Room and we both love it because of the idea of our meal as a battle against the lie of the enemy. God says you are loved and He invites you into communion. The adversary says you are alone and separate from everyone else. Thus a meal in the name of Christ becomes a battle against the power of the enemy. My wife has really cool ideas.
Here’s the reading.
CELEBRANT: To gather joyfully is indeed a serious affair, for feasting and all enjoyments gratefully taken are, at their heart, acts of war.
PEOPLE: In celebrating this feast we declare that evil and death, suffering and loss, sorrow and tears, will not have the final word.
But the joy of fellowship, and the welcome and comfort of friends new and old, and the celebration of these blessings of food and drink and conversation and laughter are the true evidences of things eternal, and are the first fruits of that great glad joy that is to come and that will be unending.
So let our feast this day be joined to those sure victories secured by Christ,
Let it be to us now a delight, and a glad foretaste of his eternal kingdom.
Bless us, O Lord, in this feast.
Bless us, O Lord, as we linger over our cups, and over this table laden with good things, as we relish the delights of varied texture and flavor, of aromas and savory spices, of dishes prepared as acts of love and blessing, of sweet delights made sweeter by the communion of saints.
May this shared meal, and our pleasure in it, bear witness against the artifice and deceptions of the prince of the darkness that would blind this world to hope.
May it strike at the root of the lie that would drain life of meaning, and the world of joy, and suffering of redemption.
May this our feast fall like a great hammer blow against that brittle night, shattering the gloom, reawakening our hearts, stirring our imaginations, focusing our vision
on the kingdom of heaven that is to come,
on the kingdom that is promised,
on the kingdom that is already, indeed, among us,
For the resurrection of all good things has already joyfully begun.
All participants now lift their glasses or cups.
May this feast be an echo of that great Supper of the Lamb,
a foreshadowing of the great celebration that awaits the children of God.
Where two or more of us are gathered, O Lord, there you have promised to be.
And here we are.
And so, here are you. Take joy, O King, in this our feast.
Take joy, O King!
Glasses are clinked with celebratory chime, and participants in the feast savor a drink, admonishing one another heartily with these sincere words:
Take joy!
All will be well!
Participants take up the cry:
All will be well!
Nothing good and right and true will be lost forever. All good things will be restored. Feast and be reminded! Take joy, little flock. Take joy! Let battle be joined!
Let battle be joined!
Now you who are loved by the Father, prepare your hearts and give yourself wholly to this celebration of joy, to the glad company of saints, to the comforting fellowship of the Spirit, and to the abiding presence of Christ who is seated among us both as our host and as our honored guest, and still yet as our conquering king.
Amen.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, take seat, take feast, take delight!
Love & Do What You Will
I think I referenced Augustine of Hippo‘s famous quote “Love and do what you will” during our small group Tuesday night (BTW if you are not in a small group of people who are trying to do faith together, 1) I think you should be, and 2) you are more than welcome to join us – we meet on Tuesday nights at the Terrell abode and we bring things to share a common meal as we read and talk about faith), but if it wasn’t there then I referenced it in another conversation recently. Therefore, I thought I would post the context from which it comes. Here’s its context:
What I have said so far applies to actions that are similar. When they are different, we find people made fierce by love; and by wickedness made seductively gentle. A father beats a boy, while a kidnapper caresses him. Offered a choice between blows and caresses, who would not choose the caresses and avoid the blows? But when you consider the people who give them you realize that it is love that beats, wickedness that caresses. This is what I insist upon: human actions can only be understood by their root in love. All kinds of actions might appear good without proceeding from the root of love. Remember, thorns also have flowers: some actions seem truly savage, but are done for the sake of discipline motivated by love. Once and for all, I give you this one short command: love, and do what you will. If you hold your peace, hold your peace out of love. If you cry out, cry out in love. If you correct someone, correct them out of love. If you spare them, spare them out of love. Let the root of love be in you: nothing can spring from it but good.
You can find the entire sermon here. I’ve got nothing to add to that. Love and do what you will.
I Love My Church Because of Trunk or Treat & Lamentations
I know I say/write this pretty often, but I love the church of which I am a part. The response to the two very divergent things we did this past week is yet another reason why I love my church. First let me explain the two different things that we did last Sunday.
1st we held a “Trunk or Treat” for our kids – i.e. decorate your trunk and pass out candy to the kids that make up a part of our congregation. We are not a large church (usually around 30 to 40 people attend our weekly worship gatherings) and yet 8 vehicles were decorated and candied up for our kids to enjoy and participate within. That’s about a 1/4 to a 1/5 of the church participating and making sure our kids had a good time. Here are a few photos of what people did.
I love the fact that these “threads” care about our kids.
2nd our gathering this past Sunday revolved around the Book of Lamentations. In fact, we read the entire Book of Lamentations as our message for the Sunday. A thread read an intro to the Book of Lamentations and then we read one chapter, sang a song, read the next chapter, sang another song, etc., etc. through all five chapters of the book. First, I loved the gathering that was all about scripture and lamenting. Second, I loved the fact that one of the “threads” who was reading had come in costume as a part of her trunk for “Trunk or Treat”. Erin dressed up as Merida from Pixar’s movie “Brave” (a great movie in my opinion) and was still in costume when she read. You know how many complaints I heard about someone reading scripture while in costume? Not a one. We were just focused on the scripture and understood that she was in costume for our kids, which was one of the most God-honoring things she could have done.
I love our church.
You Have To Save This Date Because We’re Going to Chicago
Bragging on my awesome wife because a while back she said “you need to be free on this Friday afternoon because we are going to go to Chicago for a surprise for you.” That’s all the info I got. I only discovered when we walked up to the Broadway Theater that Pam had bought two tickets to An Evening with C.S. Lewis. It was wonderful. As usual I am very grateful for Pam.