My third daughter is a child of wonder. She is a fountain of vitality and youthful energy. She is the type of kid for whom it is more appropriate to say, instead of "she runs", rather "she skitters". But the thing I love the most about her is her sense of wonder - everything she hears is fascinating and marvelous. She wears her heart on her sleeve and makes these big facial expressions that make me smile every time I see them.
Case in point: The girls come with me on Saturday mornings when I go to train karate. The karate club is training right now at an inner city start-up church that meets in an old retail storefront on University Avenue in St. Paul. The building is in a state of half-repair and there are hazards galore for little girls to hurt themselves on. The girls always want to come with me and always discover, about five minutes after we get there, that watching dad do karate for 90 minutes is interminably boring. We bring backpacks full of crayons and books and snacks and dolls and you name it, but all of that buys us about a net of five minutes of pre-occupation. Then it is boredom. Unfortunately, the hardest part is that dad seems so busy with what he is doing and he doesn't seem to be paying very much attention to them.
At some point, it was realized that a surefire way to get dad's attention is to announce "potty, potty, potty" which is the emergency signal which means "I have waited too long and now I'm about to have an accident". Generally, we are pretty good about only saying this during real emergencies. But, at karate, and in particular when it is boring, the truth gets bent a little bit. On several occasions, I have jumped out of line in the karate class, swooped up a little girl with crossed legs, and bolted for the toilet at the end of the hall. And, on some of those occasions, stood there, waiting and cooling off and stiffening up, while they take their time on the potty and then tell me they don't have to pee. What's more, the bathroom has two doors, one from the hall, that we use, and one from a classroom on the other side where there is typically a bible study going on at the same time we are there for karate. Based on how clearly I can hear what the teacher in the bible study is saying, I extrapolate that they are probably clearly hearing all of our dialogue about wiping and pooping and peeing.
On one particular morning, I was in the bathroom with daughter #3. She really did have to go and she was particularly chatty. To redirect her attention and try to quiet her down I whispered "Suzie, we have to be quiet". Hearing me change my tone to a whisper, her eyes got big like she expected me to tell her a secret. "Why?" she whispered back, louder than she normally talks. "Because this is the Lord's house" I whispered. Her eyes got big. "This is the Lord's House?" she said, looking around. "Yes". The chatter died down a little bit. We finished up in the bathroom fairly quietly and I went back to training.
About 15 minutes later, I saw her, out of the corner of my eye, bee-lining full speed for the bathroom. Now, because of the hazards all around, this is a "no-no" - we always go to the bathroom with dad so dad knows where we are. I started chasing and calling after her "Suzie, wait up. Suzie, do you have to go potty? Wait for dad." etc. She got to the bathroom door, threw it full open so that the bible class would have clear reception and shouted back to me at the top of her lungs "DAD, I CAN'T WAIT! I HAVE TO TAKE A POOP IN THE LORD'S HOUSE!"
I'm not making it up.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Every Man to His Post!
No, I don't mean everyone should be blogging...
Rather, I am referring to a scene toward the end of the third movie in the Lord of the Rings series ("The Return of the King"), where the enemy is marching en masse (and I do mean "en masse") on the city of Minas Tirith, which in the movie, is a symbol of human civilization. The leader (called the "Steward") of Minas Tirith has become corrupt and has actually (and secretly) come under the control of the "head bad guy", known as Sauron (who is a pretty good approximation of the devil).
The scene I am referring to juxtaposes showing the "mad" Steward carrying out some sort of twisted "suicide of honor" (taking his comatose son Faramir along with him in his despair) while the battle is raging at the main gate of the city. The sense, as you watch, is that the people of the city are looking to their leader to defend them, and he is not there. At one point, the Steward finally looks down from his lofty tower and sees the enemy army and is so struck with fear he panics and shrieks "Run for your lives, run for your lives!!!". As he says this, you see the confused (and confounded) looks on the faces of the soldiers who are trying to keep their nerve in the face of such overwhelming odds. In classic movie style, the scene finishes with the white wizard Gandalf striking the Steward down with his staff and in a strong, authoritarian voice (the voice of a commander), saying "Every man to his post". This command (and tone) brings the soldiers, who a minute ago were standing around not sure what to do, back to clarity - you see them start instictively moving in the way that they have been trained.
I sense that we are in need of a Gandalf right about now. There is a sense that we are in for some serious trouble. The economy is in a shambles, the political divide increases with each election, there's swine flu, there's nuclear Iran, there's environmental disasters, high school shootings, asteroids passing near the earth. The list goes on. It seems like, through it all, the TV blurts out "Run for your lives, run for your lives.". When I meet to talk about things with my peers, there is a lot of hand-ringing. I have to admit there are time it seems like it would feel good to see a newscaster hit over his (talking) head by Gandalf and to hear some words that make sense - "Every man to his post, work your job, save money, love your wives, raise your kids, keep the faith".
Now is not a time for panic, it's a time for falling back on what we know works - on what has worked for at least 2000 years, if not more.
Every man to his post!
"The Darkness Will Soon Become General"
So goes a line from a prophetic document, entitled "Words from Jesus", that a friend of mine recently passed along. The intended meaning of the verse, in context, is that there is a spiritual "darkness" has descended on our world at the present time and that it is spreading everywhere.
I tend to agree.
However, the problem with spiritual darkness is that we can only see it with the eyes of faith. I can find many Christians these days, of various denominations, who would agree with me that we have spiritual darkness - heck, in a certain sense it's the one thing we can all agree on. But I find it curious that beyond agreeing on the existence of the spiritual darkness, there is far less agreement about it's nature or what to do about it. Some pray for revival, some want massive excommunications of Christians who stray from the tenets of the faith, some say it's time to drop out of society altogether, some are waiting for a supernatural prophetic signal that will give them direction in a looming crisis, some are preparing for a rapture. I find elements of truth in all of these.
But even more curious, in the face of such widely differing perspectives on the part of Christians on the nature of this spiritual darkness (awareness of which should ultimately drive how we deal with it...), I also sense a rise in a certain "polemical" tone among Christians in general. Now, polemics is not wrong per se, but it seems that many Christians think that this spiritual darkness is a fairly simple thing - the thinking seems to be "We all know what the answer is".
But do we? Are we really "seeing" with the eyes of faith? Or is it more accurate to say we are sort of "smelling with the nose of faith". It seems to me as if we are smelling something nasty around us and our entire response is based on the same level of knowledge we would have if we were in a dark room relying on our nose to defend us - where does it smell like the enemy is now? Does it smell high or low? Does it smell big or little? I don't know, but it stinks! Attack!
Historically, and contrary to all modern sensibility, tolerance has been the virtue of Christians and their spin-offs. Warren Carroll makes an interesting point that the Catholic Church, in particular, has never exercised greater power than when it exercises it's power to forgive it's persecutors. This power to forgive has been the key to it's historical longevity. Over and against the modern stereotype of popes sitting on golden thrones commanding mindless masses to do their bidding, the first 1000 years of the history of the Church is a story of pope's pursued, captured, threatened, tortured and terrorized. These were the last significant "dark ages" or ages of darkness. And, in each case, just when it appears that the Church is about to be crushed forever, these heroic leaders have time and again uttered the words that send a chill down the devil's spine: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." These are the words that have caused centurions of all ages to pause, to stop short, to say "What?" and, ultimately, to declare "Truly, this was the Son of God". History shows that it has been in the conversion of her bitterest enemies that the Church has received her greatest strength. It is in the act of running the lance into the side of the crucified Church that the water of rebirth is released and washed the darkness out of the eyes of the persecutors.
We Christians need to pray for all the things I listed above, but we must not forget to pray for light that empowers us to be both "right" (as in "conforming to the truth") and beautiful at same time. It is in our seeming destruction that we find the power to destroy spiritual darkness with a light that shines from heaven through us.
God give us the grace.
I tend to agree.
However, the problem with spiritual darkness is that we can only see it with the eyes of faith. I can find many Christians these days, of various denominations, who would agree with me that we have spiritual darkness - heck, in a certain sense it's the one thing we can all agree on. But I find it curious that beyond agreeing on the existence of the spiritual darkness, there is far less agreement about it's nature or what to do about it. Some pray for revival, some want massive excommunications of Christians who stray from the tenets of the faith, some say it's time to drop out of society altogether, some are waiting for a supernatural prophetic signal that will give them direction in a looming crisis, some are preparing for a rapture. I find elements of truth in all of these.
But even more curious, in the face of such widely differing perspectives on the part of Christians on the nature of this spiritual darkness (awareness of which should ultimately drive how we deal with it...), I also sense a rise in a certain "polemical" tone among Christians in general. Now, polemics is not wrong per se, but it seems that many Christians think that this spiritual darkness is a fairly simple thing - the thinking seems to be "We all know what the answer is".
But do we? Are we really "seeing" with the eyes of faith? Or is it more accurate to say we are sort of "smelling with the nose of faith". It seems to me as if we are smelling something nasty around us and our entire response is based on the same level of knowledge we would have if we were in a dark room relying on our nose to defend us - where does it smell like the enemy is now? Does it smell high or low? Does it smell big or little? I don't know, but it stinks! Attack!
Historically, and contrary to all modern sensibility, tolerance has been the virtue of Christians and their spin-offs. Warren Carroll makes an interesting point that the Catholic Church, in particular, has never exercised greater power than when it exercises it's power to forgive it's persecutors. This power to forgive has been the key to it's historical longevity. Over and against the modern stereotype of popes sitting on golden thrones commanding mindless masses to do their bidding, the first 1000 years of the history of the Church is a story of pope's pursued, captured, threatened, tortured and terrorized. These were the last significant "dark ages" or ages of darkness. And, in each case, just when it appears that the Church is about to be crushed forever, these heroic leaders have time and again uttered the words that send a chill down the devil's spine: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." These are the words that have caused centurions of all ages to pause, to stop short, to say "What?" and, ultimately, to declare "Truly, this was the Son of God". History shows that it has been in the conversion of her bitterest enemies that the Church has received her greatest strength. It is in the act of running the lance into the side of the crucified Church that the water of rebirth is released and washed the darkness out of the eyes of the persecutors.
We Christians need to pray for all the things I listed above, but we must not forget to pray for light that empowers us to be both "right" (as in "conforming to the truth") and beautiful at same time. It is in our seeming destruction that we find the power to destroy spiritual darkness with a light that shines from heaven through us.
God give us the grace.
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