Asking the Right Question (Reflections on Haiti)

I tend to shy away from events everybody is talking about.  If everybody is talking about it, then there’s probably already enough coverage of it that I can safely ignore it.

And unfortunately our news coverage almost helps to minimize the significance of tragedies by constantly bombarding all of us with tragedies at every level.  In this environment, it’s easy to grow a hardened heart.

And then, with every tragedy people ask the same questions, “If there is a God, how could he let this happen?”  and “How could a loving God allow this to happen?” or even “Is God punishing this people group or nation?”

They’re good questions, but I don’t think they are the best question to ask.

Every Year, a holocaust survivor, Sonia Weitz, comes to speak to Gordon Students.  I heard her story several years ago and for me the most powerful thing she said is that we ask the wrong question about the holocaust.
(http://www.facinghistory.org/video/sonia-weitz-remembers-holocaust-recites-her-)

We ask, “Where was God in the Holocaust?”  but we should be asking, “Where was man in the Holocaust?”

We should be asking, “Where is man right now?”

We can’t get caught up in these unanswered questions that we may have that we fail to act on what we know is right.

So my question to you:  What will you do?  Where will you be?

The last thing we need is for people to be suffering and those (like myself and like you) who could make a difference, to stand by and do nothing.

We, as Christians, as a body of believers world wide need to ask, what can we do?  We may be hundreds of miles away, but we always need to ask ourselves, “What can I do?”

Maybe you can’t do anything.

Maybe even sending money would be too much of a strain, but if the crises of the world do not at least continue to bring us to our knees in prayer than we disconnect ourselves from that body.

I’m not sure how much it is that those in Haiti need our support in comparison to how much we need to have broken hearts before our heavenly Father.  If John 15 tells us anything about our God’s attitude toward people, then our Father just lost some 200,000 children and heaven help us if we don’t feel something.

So, what will you do?

They are going to need lots of help in Haiti for a long time, so even though it is some time since the initial earthquake, they are still in great need.  And will be for a long time to come.

I know there are lots of organizations out there helping, so there are plenty of places to send money to, but I just wanted to highlight that Compassion International, if you sponsor a child already, has a place to add an additional amount online to go toward the Haitian earthquake relief efforts, and as this video points out, they were there before the earthquake, and they will be there long after.

Also if you’re really worried about where your money is going, Compassion has a long track record of spending money very wisely, so I recommend them.

Sanding against the Grain

Wisdom series

Seems like we’ve been in this series forever, huh?  This is the last one I promise.

So we started off this series by realizing the fact that we make split second decisions everyday that can drastically change our lives.  We all know there are big decisions that require wisdom, like choosing a college, getting married, taking a job, buying a car etc., but we need to regularly exercise wisdom to be able to affectively make good decision.

Then we said that just because you’re young does not necessarily mean you are unwise, it just means you’re inexperienced.  Then we explored how to gain wisdom, and finally this last one we’re going to close out by vision casting wisdom in our wisdom-less society.

I say “wisdom-less” society because really, we have to recognize that to exercise wisdom in our culture we will really be sanding against the grain.

It’s popular to do dumb things, isn’t it?

Drinking games, over eating, sleeping around and many other things are all celebrated by the media.  But we all know that these things are unwise.

I mean, ask anyone in their thirties if sex with someone outside of marriage has made things more or less complicated?  I’m not even getting at the ethical issues of such actions or whether or not you think it’s morally acceptable, everyone can agree that sleeping around makes things more complicated, not less.

And you’re never going to meet someone who is married who would tell you they wish they slept around more before they got married because they think that would make their marriage more intimate and fulfilling.

Not gonna happen.

So, across the board we know, often from personal experience what is wise and what is unwise, but actually putting wisdom into practice is difficult.  But we have to learn from our experiences and put into practice what we’ve learned.  The more we practice that, the easier it will be to make those split-second decisions we are face with everyday.  For instance:

Once we realize that it’s unwise to sleep with someone outside marriage, because purity paves the way to intimacy, than decisions like when to stay and when to leave will be easy to answer.
When we know that it would be wise to save a certain amount of money for the future it helps us decide if we can afford to eat out, spend extra money at that sale or take an extravagant vacation.
When we know that we want to be healthy, it’s easier to know what the wise decision would be when goodies are placed before us.

Again, the problem is actually putting this into practice.  But like many things, it’s easier to do the more we do it.  The additional problem is that we don’t always have the support of the people around us.  Making the wise decision is often going to make you look strange to others, because you’ll be making decisions in the present in view of the future.

When you choose to not go to that party because you know what will be going on there.  Or when all of your buddies are going to the club and you know someone else is buying the drinks and everyone is going and you say you’re just going to go back to the hotel.

Or when you stay at school to study and do homework rather than going out to go skiing with all your friends.  Or when everyone is going to go see a movie, and you know your budget can’t support it.

But here’s the thing: every time you make a radical decision to go against the grain, people will admire you.  Often they will ask you why you’re doing what you’re doing and you may find yourself in a position to witness your faith in God and explain how your relationship with Jesus affects your daily life.

And suddenly, your actions will speak volumes about your faith.  If you’re really willing to stand up in the face of peer pressure and make wise decisions people will take notice.

Putting Wisdom into Practice

Wisdom – part 7

I have a confession to make: I spend large amounts of time thinking. Have you ever been asked what you would wish for if you had three wishes and you could wish for anything in the world? That’s a difficult question! Imagine that pressure. I’ve thought and thought about what I’d ask for, because (I know it’s unlikely) but what if someone did ask you that question and had the power to fulfill your requests and you didn’t have an answer ready? That would be terrible!

Don’t worry, it doesn’t keep me up at night. I’m just saying, that’s a tough question.

I think Solomon was wise (if I may) to ask for wisdom when he had only one wish. What gets me is that even this man, which the Bible claims was the wisest man who has ever lived and will ever live, struggled with the very issue we’re looking at today–that is actually putting wisdom into practice.

See, the wisest man who ever lived did some pretty dumb things.

God gave Solomon a warning not to follow other Gods, which he didn’t have to give to his father, David. God warned Solomon not to follow other Gods.

So, here’s this young king, with all the wisdom in the world and he starts having to make decisions about running his kingdom. Economically, politically and militarily it’s wise to make treaties with other nations around you for stability. Better yet, as a young man, you could marry the princesses of the nations around you, and that’s exactly what Solomon does. The thing is, we all come with baggage, right? And marrying a princess comes with a lot of baggage. Specifically, in their context, marrying a princes came with religious baggage. You can’t marry the princess and cart her off to a foreign land where she can’t worship he God, can you?

Not to mention that in their context, political, economic and militant success was dependent on your god. So you when ally with a nation, marry the king’s daughter, you have to acknowledge their great god at some level.

And in the end, it is his wives that lead him astray to worship these other Gods.

In the eyes of the world, Solomon’s actions were brilliant, even wise, but in the evaluation by God, he fell significantly short of the potential his wisdom allotted him.

If this issue was hard for him, it will be hard for you.

And often we hate it, because sometimes we know what the wise thing to do is, and we hate that we know that because it takes some of the joy out of doing the unwise thing. So what do we say? “You’re probably right.”

“Aren’t you on a diet? I don’t think you should eat that chocolate fudge brownie Sunday.”

“You’re probably right.”

“You’re going to go where with him? Or do what with her? Is anyone else going to be there? I don’t think you should do that.”

“You’re probably right, but I’m going to do it anyway.”

The holy spirit is whispering things to us, and we go, “you’re probably right” and keep on going anyway.

So it’s really simple, but really hard to do. As we’ve talked about, you can learn wisdom from other’s mistakes, you can learn wisdom from the Bible, you can even take time to learn wisdom from your own personal experiences (I’ll prove this later) but you have to actually put it into practice.

That’s why we have friends who are still in unhealthy relationships. Or friends who have money but can’t save it, or friends who had money but don’t have it anymore because they didn’t save it. Or friends that aspire to great goals of a high paying job and great life but can’t seem to get through college.

That’s why we have friends that want a great intimate marriage but aren’t living with purity now. Or maybe friends who are married and wondering why their marriage feels like strangers cosigned on a huge mortgage.

Or friends like me wondering how all of the Christmas fudge could have possibly disappeared already.

We know what the wise thing to do is, we just don’t do it.

We can’t leave it there.

We may not often do the wise thing, but beating ourselves up about the past is only going to do so much. Here’s what I do know:

God’s mercies are new every morning, and you still have time to make wise decisions. And imagine what that would look like. What if you did make wise decisions, not in every area of your life, but even in just one area. What’s one thing about you you’d like to change? You may already know how to change it, or you may know at least how to go about starting to change it. You can do it. You just have to pause and put your wisdom into practice, and even if you don’t like doing it, the more you do, the easier it will become

Books as Souvenirs

Mind-blowing video by Seth Godin on the future of books.  Actually, more truthfully, the present of books.

I first saw Seth Godin at Catalyst 2008 where he spoke on his book Tribes, which was fantastic.  I’ve also read his book Purple Cow and I’m starting The Dip.  If you’re a leader of any type, or just a tech guru I highly recommend everything he’s written.  The man is brilliant and this is a fascinating video.

http://blip.tv/file/970223/

The Best Question Ever

Wisdom, part 6

This is completely stolen material, so credit to Andy Stanley.

Andy Stanley does this great series called “The Best Question Ever.”  In it he describes a question that has the potential to fool proof our lives so that we’re not looking back on our college years wishing we could redo them because of poor decisions we’ve made.  Or look back on our twenties, or our first marriage, because we only get to have a first marriage once, we only get to be in our twenties once, and so we just don’t have time to waste making poor decisions.  The question he asks is:

In light of my past experiences, in view of my current circumstances and my future hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing to do?

Not what’s legal.

Not what would be most enjoyable.

Not what we want to do but in light of my past experiences, my current circumstances and my future hopes and dreams, what is the wise thing to do?

We don’t ask that.

At least not amidst our daily lives.

I know this because I would be thinner and richer if I did.

You would be too, right?

We buy the most foolish things, and so easily talk ourselves out of dinner and into dessert don’t we?

Some people go through relationship after relationship not stopping to figure out the common denominator for what went wrong.  Some people suddenly feel distant from people they loved because they haven’t taken time to evaluate how they’re spending their time.  Or sometimes we look in our pitiful bank account and wonder where all the money went.

But, if we put this into action in our lives, it has the potential to fool-proof our lives.  We’d ask this question and think, “Well last time I went there with the guys….” or “Last time she and I were together in that environment….”  Well, maybe in view of my past experiences, my current circumstances (I’m married, I’m single, I’m a leader in an organization, I’m in school) and my future hopes and dreams (maybe to be married, or a leader or graduate school) this would not be a wise thing for me to do.

Not everyone.

But for me, this would be unwise.

Easier said than done.

And that’s exactly what we’ll talk about next week, how do we actually act on what we know to be wise?