An Ode to Brooks Robinson

"As one writer once said, people may have named candy bars after Reggie Jackson, but they named children after Brooks Robinson." -p. 215, The Baseball UNcyclopedia, Michael Kun

I just got done reading the section of Genesis that involves Noah (directly, Genesis 6-10). There's one part where Noah has been shamed by his one son, Ham. Ham is noted twice as being the father to Canaan. Noah, thusly, curses Canaan and no one has been named "Ham" or "Canaan" since (that i know of). But i have known a Japheth in my time and i think Shem was one of the Three Stooges.

I'll get to the point: what type of person do you strive to be? The one that gets the candy bar named after you, or the one that people name their firstborn after?

I think it's easy in this culture to aspire towards the former. Who's the first to know? Who's the greatest? Who has the most? There's nothing really inherently wrong with Reggie Jackson. But there's something really amazing about Brooks Robinson that i think we all deep down desire more.

Legacy.

I believe a true walk with God, a life with Christ, in tune with His Spirit, produces in us the kindness and grace that turns us from "candy bar" into "namesake" type people. And the greatest most frustrating part is that if you try to become a namesake-type person, you end up chasing the candy bar. To truly be the Brooks Robinson, you need to simply be the namesake-type person, not strive to achieve it.

This is a great mystery, but aren't those the best mysteries? Aren't those the ones you can't wait to find out how they end?

Well, you are the mystery. You can be great, or just another candy bar.

By the way, the Reggie Bar only lasted a couple years, and the best info i can find on it is here on facebook!

But "A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold." Proverbs 22:1

Thank you Brooks Robinson for being esteemed over flaunting (see "The Bronx Zoo" portion) over the fact you could get a candy bar named after you.

Enoch or Noah? Part II

"Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God." Genesis 6:9

Just a few verses after reading about Enoch's walk with God, we read the aforementioned verse.

The story of Noah has become Sunday-schooled. We all conjure up pictures of felt boards, children's books, and even toys. The story has become about a faithful old man who seemingly has the giftings of Ace Ventura and Thomas Andrews (but with a much better outcome than the Titanic).

But there are a couple other verses that tell another story.

"The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain." Genesis 6:5-6

and

"if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others." II Peter 2:5

Please note the words "every inclination" and "was only evil all the time" in Genesis 6:5 above. Now things here on earth aren't exactly peachy keen, but that verse is harrowing! And though people were this way, Noah was blameless among them, and yet was a preacher to them. This reminds me a lot of Jesus in John 1:14:

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

The thing that never makes the felt board is this. While Noah is hammering nails and building a giant sea-faring vessel (maybe the first one ever, which must have looked like a U.F.O. if it were) and warning people of rain (also the first mention ever which must have sounded like "the sky is falling!") he was also a preacher of righteousness to them. Yet, no one killed him! How? He must have been full of the truth of God's heart towards them, yet inviting and gracious to them. Begging them to come into the boat with him.

And when the rain starts falling and the springs of earth open up, and the door to the ark is shut, Noah hears his friends' gurgling last words. And certainly weeps.

This, though gruesome, should hint to us something. Though so much might be perishing all around us, are we full of both grace and truth towards all of those around us?

And there's another hint here too. Not much at all is written about Enoch's walk with God but so much is written about "righteous" Noah. Maybe that's a warning to us! Should we be much more concerned with living Noah-ly than Enoch-ly? Is the story of Noah the prescription to how to have the walk of Enoch?

The main point here is this. Of course we all want to have the kind of walk with God where we are "walking with Him" and He hates to see us taste death. But i believe God gives us the prescription to how that is walked out.

And it's not on the felt board.

Enoch or Noah? Part I

"Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him." Genesis 5:24

"By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek Him." Hebrews 11:5-6

This is about all that is written about Enoch in the Bible. But one thing is certain: this is just plain cool!

Seriously, Enoch walked so tightly with God, God didn't want him to even taste death. I believe that most professing Christians, and even my non-believing friends, really would want such a life where they were, and then were no more. Simply translated from this life to that one. Wow.

But we, i fear, have Christianized the "walk with God" thing pretty well. When is the last time you've thought about what that literally means, to "walk with God?"

When i go on a walk with my wife, it is known that i am on a walk with my wife. We hold hands. We smile. We talk, deeply (goals, God, the future, fears, etc.) and not so deeply (which means i talk about baseball or she talks about The Learning Channel). It's obvious that i'm on a walk, and on a good walk with my wife.

Could you imagine coming up to me and asking, "How's your walk with your wife going?" Hopefully it's obvious! Hopefully i don't have to tell you! You would know. Wouldn't you?

The next time someone asks you "how's your walk with God going?" or something to the like, take it as a challenge. If they have to ask, it's not obvious enough that you are already walking with Him. Because to literally be on a walk with God has to be life's greatest pursuit and achievement and lifestyle all in one. What would one fear? What would one lack? How could one go wrong hand in hand with God? It's not so much what you do in life, but who you are, and who you are with.

Oh, and if they do indeed ask, please answer them politely. That would be nice. Because after all, my walk with my wife...

Ha! It's going great! Can't you tell?

"when you love, you do."

Every year the CCO, whom i work for (the Coalition for Christian Outreach), hosts a conference called "Jubilee." this year's theme was "In Him all things hold together." Jubilee always has this wonderful message that Christ can be, and should be exalted and worshiped through all things. Especially in our majors, vocations, and callings.

One of the main speakers was Bob Goff, a mentor of a favorite author of many young adults, Donald Miller. And his one quote, which i will do my best to represent, was the highlight of the conference to me.

Bob mentioned the movie "Groundhog Day." The movie is based on Bill Murray's character, Phil (a great name), reliving the same day (Groundhog Day, a mediocre holiday. Seriously, no matter what the rodent does, there's more winter. We might as well call it "Bad or worse news day.") over and over and over again. There are some obvious comedic points as a result. But one of the things he does is memorize all this information about a girl so as to woo her. The girl catches on a little and asks, "Are you trying to memorize me?"

After telling that reference, Bob then shared this incredible quote, "When you love, you do."

There are two things i recall being taught about Christianity. Never in just one lesson. But simply over time.

A) Don't __________ (fill-in-the-blank with your typical cardinal sins of drinking, sexual activity, cussing, etc.)

and

2) Memorize __________ (insert Bible verse, typically taken out of context that helps us with letter A above)

This isn't any one person's fault, or even any one of the church's i attended fault. It's more likely a systemic fault. We as the church often leave out the conversation on love. And therefore, we don't do.

God doesn't want to be memorized just like Phil's lady friend didn't want to be memorized.

And people don't want a God they have to remember everything about. They want a God that loves them. And we reveal God in the way that we act every day. No one that needs His love really sees what we memorize about Him. And they likely don't care if they haven't witnessed any sense of His love from us to them.

What if every week we focused not so much on our "devotions" (which are very important, and the backbone to our "doings" and worthy of a blog here in the future) and our "memorizations" but we dedicated ourselves to at least one out of the ordinary act of love a week? A day, even.

Now, Bob told some ridiculous stories of his involving his kids, how he became a consul to Uganda, flipping Jeeps and giving the person at fault a bouquet of flowers, etc.

But the only thing that makes him the speaker on the stage and us the listener in the seats is...

he acted.

"When you love, you do."

Sin, part II (a.k.a. Excellence OR Sin)

The Great Commandment "is this: ... Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." (Mark 12:31, NIV, emphasis mine)

Colossians 3:17 says, "Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."

This idea to love God with all ya got is not only for God's sake. I think we often look at it this way: "i better love God with everything, or He sure will be mad." Or, "that didn't look like i did that 'in Jesus' name.' i better go back and do it again."

I think we miss a little bit of this command to love Him with all we got. It's not only to please God, but so that we are kept from sin! Look at this verse,

"And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it." Genesis 4:7, ESV.

When we cut a corner, or do something half-heartedly, that opens the door to sin. And the character of sin is not very polite, is it? Sin is crouching at the door, ready to push the door down, tackle, and get into the rest of your business.

When you are looking out on your day, do things excellently! Make a good name for Jesus, love Him through anything you do (i.e. doing the dishes for my wife is a LOT different than doing them for my former roommates, no offense guys), and avoid sin in the process.

Sin, part I (a.k.a. God does not want us to stop listening to our wives)

Bible knowledge quiz:

In Genesis 3, God lays curses on the serpent, Eve, and Adam. What were the two reasons God gives for laying a curse on Adam?

...

Here's what Genesis 3:17 says in the NIV:

"Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you..."

We often remember that it was because Adam ate from that infamous tree but forget the "listened to your wife" part. Now, before you start assuming some sort of chauvinistic, over-patriarchal view here, let's look at the ESV of the same verse:

"Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you..." (emphasis my own)

This one little word, which is in the original Hebrew, is so huge.

For Adam, he knew what the command was, but he lost track of what God was saying in that very moment. Eve could have been the mouthpiece of the Lord, cautioning Adam that a crafty serpent was giving this advice. But instead was speaking on behalf of satan in that moment, offering up the forbidden fruit to Adam. And frankly all of us live in that constant reality as well: who do you speak for? Moving on though...

I think a major flaw in our teachings, especially to our youth, is that we often only teach them the commands, i.e. the Bible, the Ten Commandments, the Gospel (of which i think is often well undershot as well), etc. But what we need to teach is a two-fold understanding of God's words: those that are given to us in Scripture and those that continue to come out of His mouth.

Interestingly enough, when satan tempts Adam he is cursed for eating of the tree (breaking the command) and listening to the wrong voice (not adhering to God's voice, again God is NOT trying to tell you to not listen to your wives, i promise). Jesus encounters satan in a very similar way!

When Jesus is tempted by satan in Matthew 4:2-4, the encounter looks like this:

And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." But He answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.'" (NASB)

Oh, after forty days he became hungry? Thank you Captain Obvious! Anyway...

Jesus quotes a command (the first part to knowing how to not sin) that points us to live on "every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." (The second part.) Not proceeded but proceeds. Obviously we need to know the commands, but we also need to realize that life comes from having a very present relationship with Him where i feed off of every word that proceeds from Him continually, every day, even right now.

And we learn this way back in Genesis 3 with Adam.

Know His commands AND gain an ear for His every-moment voice. Not only to avoid sin, but to live fully. Even to live life violently!

Coming posts on sin: how our view on our identity helps us to not sin, and why we should do all things excellently.

true freedom and violent life, part II

i just changed the subtitle above, and i meant to say "insights" not "incites." But ya know? i kinda like it better that way! And for now i'm going to keep it!

violent life

Most Christians hold a pro-life stance. And when Jesus talks about life we have to, we must understand what He implies by life. It is not simply being born.

In John 10:10 (ESV) Jesus says, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." I looked up the Greek for the word "abundantly" here are three of the meanings that were expected: superabundant, superior, and excessive. These alone should force us to look in the mirror. "Does my life with Christ look like i have life and life superabundantly?" "Excessively?" "A life superior to others?"

It gets better, or worse depending on your view. The Greek also means "violently."

Does the life of the Holy Spirit have such great influence in you that your love tackles others? What about joy that strangles others? Can you shoot someone right in the chest... with hope? How about a swift kick to the... the face with compassion? The question is simple. Does life come out of you violently?

You see, the reason why so many people do not affirm the choice of life is because we do not, as Christians, give them a reason to. Our lives look just like theirs in so many ways.

"Among young outsiders, 84 percent say they personally know at least one committed Christian. Yet just 15 percent thought the lifestyles of those Christ followers were significantly different from the norm. This gap speaks volumes." (p.48, unChristian, Kinnaman)

We accept the life of Christ, and are impregnated by His Spirit. But before the life of His Spirit matures in us, changing us from the inside-out, we cut Him off. We choose to abort His life in us! (i must admit, i originally read this in a Rick Joyner writing but can not find it to properly credit him.)

So if you are a Christian, and you are pro-life, do not sneer at people who have a pro-choice stance or have had an abortion. Poke them in the eye with compassion, trip them up with comfort, and assault them (peaceably, of course) with a hope that there is reason well beyond birthing a child that you are "pro-life."

Be pro-life by constantly pursuing a life that violently comes forth from you.