New Life'n

Signatures

Six-year-old Stella drew a picture of a cow.  It’s a clean, bold drawing of a spotted cow saying “moo” next to a barn with a bell tower.  A round red sun shines over the barn. 

And in big letters at the top it says, “Stella.” 

Why did she write her name?

Because kids are told from the beginning, “Put your name on it.”  So we know who did it.  Because it’s not just a picture of a cow.  If some other kid made it would we stick it on our fridge under a pizza store magnet?

Art and creativity are connected to the artist.  Creativity expresses a heart and soul and a single personality.  Great art does not stand on it’s own as something random and purposeless. 

If a painting is suspected to be by a famous artist, but it’s unsigned, there’s all that expert-polling to find who the artist is.  Why?  Isn’t it the same picture no matter who did it?  No.  If an ‘unknown’ painted it, it will be looked at much differently than if “it’s a Matisse!”  Even though it’s the same picture.  Because the artist matters.

Think you know how it's gonna go?

You wouldn't have guessed last night when the score was 10-0 after the first quarter that the Colts would be outscored 31-7 after that.  It looked like they could dominate.

In the college National Championship game a few weeks ago some of the Texas players and coaches were quoted saying, “We were about to dominate,” when Colt McCoy was injured on the fifth play of the game and never played again.  Texas lost.

If Peyton Manning had been injured at the end of the first quarter against the Saints, and the Saints went on to outscore them 31-7, Colts fans and players would have believed, “We were about to dominate,” too.  Yeah, right.

You don’t know what’s going to happen from how things begin.  Oh, you can look back afterward and say that was the turning point.  But you rarely know it at the time.  Things keep changing – or don’t; you never know how or if they will until it’s over. 

In sports, you know when over will be here.  There’s a big clock and everyone sees when the alarm is going off, after a set amount of minutes or innings.  You plan for that.

In living, too, a big lead today can be wiped out tomorrow, and what's in the toilet now can be rescued and turned into a celebration.  The Colts and Saints are experiencing that now.  Both happen all the time. 

And in living there’s a clock, but the Timekeeper has his own rules and he never tells.  You hear the ticking, and you feel like it’s near the end or maybe you feel like it’s just started.  But you can’t know!  This game could go tons of minutes and a bunch of quarters, or it could be over at what seems like halftime! 

Knowing that, what’s your next play?

So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom – Psalm 90.12

My wife sells a desk

A guy is coming to see it.  She’s asking $125.  Before he gets here I role-play with her.  “I’ll give you $75.”  One-ten she says.  We go back-and-forth like that on a few different prices.

He likes the desk.  “Would you take…” – alright, here it comes…

One-fifteen?

Uhhh…sure!

He unfolds the cash and starts talking about the strategy for fitting it in his little car.

Brenda pipes up, “You know what…I’ll take a hundred…OK?” 

Now he’s saying, uhhhh, sure!

Later she says she could tell he wanted to say one hundred when he first came in but he just couldn’t. 

Because he didn’t, and meant it, she felt free to give him what he didn’t ask for. 

When you start to open a door and there’s resistance, what do you do?  Push harder.  And when you’re on the other side and a door is opening into you, it’s the same – you naturally push back. 

But when the pusher lets up, so do you.

It’s not just in money – think of anything where some kind of persuading is going on, say in your family and there’s disagreement on a new house or planning a vacation.  You can make things a negotiation to get the best “deal” and you’ll get the consequences of that: a deal of some kind.  Or you can make things about being human and get the consequences that go with that: some kind of connection and affirmation.  You get to pick. 

You may not be able to get the best deal and the best connection at the same time.  Or maybe you can:

With patience a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone – Proverbs 25.15

A greedy man stirs up strife, but the one who trusts in the Lord will be enriched – Proverbs 28.25

The Stromboli King

What if it’s rigged?  What if marriage and family and work – three of the biggest places where you deal everyday with authority – were actually facades; fronts with extensive construction behind them?  Yes the fronts are real and have their purposes, too – for companionship and intimacy, and multiplying people, and making life and culture work, and all that.

But what if that’s not the only reason for the whole thing existing?  What if it’s all been invented to show something off?  What if what God is really up to is revealing himself – to us, to others, to the whole world?

And what if I’m supposed to cooperate with that by how I relate to my wife and to my family, and to bosses and coworkers?  And in all my relationships where authority happens.  And what if I’m instead running around consumed with how these things affect me? 

What if you were a stromboli chef and it was important that the whole world know it because not only are you the Stromboli King, you’re the king of everything good and necessary for people (now we’re in an alternative universe, OK?). 

And so you make this incredible stromboli to reveal and prove yourself, and you pass out the stromboli with the intention it be shared with everyone! and yes, eat! but also you want to make sure everyone is properly in awe of the Stromboli King.  Because it’s not really about the stromboli, it’s about the chef.

And what if everybody thinks the stromboli is only for eating and filling them up and that’s all they do.  And they thank you for the meal, but also complain a lot.  And you’re shaking your head because you never meant for the stromboli to make them full and satisfied like they’re expecting it should.   

How would you feel?  How could everyone misunderstand and how could your message get so messed up?…

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More of The God Show.  We’re on the authority channel.  The previous post is HERE.  You can find out more HERE.

The God Show is five channels (in addition to the Bible) that don't change over time or according to culture, where God's ways, invisible attributes, eternal power and divine nature are clearly perceived but often missed: 1. Nature, 2. Authority, 3. Family, 4. Marriage, 5. You.  Really, he's all over the place. 

Go make some mistakes

That’s how you learn.  Have you ever done something new and got it right the first time?  It’s like there’s a quota of mistakes you have to make before you get to learning the thing. 

So if the quota is 15, hurry up and get most of them out of the way – the sooner you do, the sooner you get close to success.  Plus, what you learn from messing up is often transferrable, so the more mistakes you make, the quicker you learn.

If the quota is 7,136, it will take longer.  Better start now.

Here’s a shortcut to avoid making lots of mistakes, or any mistakes at all: Say, “I’ll never learn this” or “I’ll never get there” and quit, or slow down.  You’ll be 100% correct.

How to be happier in church

Ray is a pastor in Nashville.  I really like him.  He thinks experiencing satisfaction in Jesus Christ will change your life.  The picture that goes with this post is perfect. 

A church can be controlled by a horizontal dynamic of winners-and-losers, the people focused on each other, disappointed with each other, grumbling about each other — self-righteousness bumping up against self-righteousness, hurting and getting hurt.

Or a church can be controlled by a vertical dynamic of response to Christ, the people looking upward, amazed at him and his grace — broken but grateful sinners coming together because all they need to be happy is Christ himself.

Your church might be dysfunctional.  But if Christ is being preached, even with impure motives, that should be enough to make you happy.  It might be all you’re going to get out of your church.  And if you require more, who gave you the right to overrule the Lord Jesus Christ as your only treasure and satisfaction and sufficiency?