Filed under: God at work, thought of the moment | Tags: C3 Church, C3 Orlando, Church, Community Bible Church, Highway Community, Memorial Baptist Church, Realizing Harmony, serve, stuck in their ways
Sunday, after church, I was talking with someone who I barely knew. His name is Jehaan. He’d been with Highway Community for quite a while longer than me, and in fact, is on staff at the church.
I believe Highway Community has been in existence for more than 10 years, but only a few years ago they expanded when they were approached by Community Bible Church (CBC) to join forces. CBC had a reasonably nice facility, but they were struggling financially as I understand it.
Prior to our move to FL, my wife and I had been members of CBC for quite some time. Me, since about 1990. She had been going there since before she was born.
CBC was the “new” name for Memorial Baptist Church. And Memorial Baptist Church was the “new” name for one of the longest-named churches I’ve heard of: First Memorial Baptist Church of Mountain View. (My record for longest church name still remains: First Filipino Southern Baptist Church of San Diego – or FFSBCSD for “short” – where one of my college roommates was a member. But I digress…)
So, despite being one of the “new people” at Highway Community, we’ve got quite a history with the church. And surprisingly, there are quite a few Seniors who have stayed – through all the name changes, and style changes, and even building changes. My Mother-in-law is one of those Seniors.
Back to my conversation with Jehaan…
We got to talking about the church’s history, more the history of the building and a bit about the history of the people who’d been worshiping there over the years. He was amazed that so many Seniors were still there, particularly with the fairly radical changes wrought by CBC and then pushed even further by Highway Community.
Later in the afternoon, I asked my Mother-in-law why she and all the other Seniors stayed. Her response?
“I guess we’re just stuck in our ways.”
That struck me as strange. I’ve heard that phrase before, but it’s usually used of people who are stuck in their ways in terms of style of teaching (casual vs formal, topical vs inductive), style of learning (Sunday School vs Home Bible Study), style of music (hymns vs praise choruses), etc.
When Parkway Baptist Church, in Orlando started to change to become C3, droves of people who were “stuck in their ways” left. Yet here in Mtn. View, when First Memorial Baptist Church of Mtn. View went through all the changes to wind up becoming Highway Community, there were quite a few people who stayed because they were “stuck in their ways.”
So, what “ways” are they “stuck in”?
I think that answer to that is instructive, and helpful. It’s a sign of maturity, I believe.
Here are what I can determine are the “ways” they’re “stuck in.”
They are “stuck in” fellowship. They enjoy each others company. And they are good at sharing burdens and joys.
They are “stuck in” serving. They serve where they can. Some are losing strength and stamina that’s required for some areas of service, but they still are interested in serving where possible.
They are “stuck in” loving God and loving others.
They are “stuck in” relationships.
They are “stuck in” learning more and more about what it means to be a follower of Christ, and doing their best to live that out authentically and with integrity.
While they have their preferences for liturgy, musical style(s), etc., they recognize that those things are of MUCH lower priority. And so they “put up with” the relatively unimportant things that they disagree with, in order to continue on with the important things.
There is no such thing as the “perfect church” here on earth, because every church is made up of imperfect people. And each person will have different tastes and differences in how they can best be served and how they in turn can best serve others.
I’m not sure who said it first, but I think this saying applies:
Wherever you are, be there!
In this context, I think that means, if you’ve found a church that meets your needs and where you are able to serve, then stay there and serve. Don’t get distracted by small differences. Focus on the big picture, and get “stuck in the ways” that are truly important – to you and to God.
Filed under: God at work, Personal Development, gratitude, positive, thought of the moment | Tags: harmony, love, Prodigal, realizing, Realizing Harmony, thankful
I had never questioned who the Prodigal was in the story of The Prodigal Son. I just “knew” that the Prodigal was the wayward one, the rebellious one, the wanderer, the derelict, the outcast of his own making. He had done the unthinkable in asking for his inheritance early, and he’d gone away and disgraced himself in how he squandered it. He had made himself unlovable, at least in his own eyes.
His older brother had stayed home, and been a “good boy” – faithfully doing all his chores and helping out around the house. He was obedient, compliant, reliable, careful, stable, and loved.
We all know the story.
Or do we?
I’ve often seen myself as more similar to the younger son, the “Prodigal” – wayward, rebellious, wandering, somewhat of a derelict, and an outcast who can largely only blame himself.
Then, last week I received and started reading a book from my oldest brother. It’s called “He Loves Me! Learning to Live in the Father’s Affection.”
I was a bit nervous to read it, given the strained relationship I have had with my own father for as long as I can remember. Nevertheless, I picked it up and began to read.
In chapter 4 after summarizing the story, Wayne Jacobsen wrote (pg 26):
Traditionally this story is called “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” and is one of Jesus’ most poignant tales. It has been told and retold because it is so easy to identify with the son and the mercy he received in spite of his arrogance and stupidity.
By focusing on the prodigal son, however, we lose the central lesson of the parable. He was only one of two brothers, each dealing with an estrangement from their father, albeit in vastly different ways.
The central character is the father himself, and for that reason I wish it were called “The Parable of the Incredible Father.” For Jesus used this story to paint a portrait of his Father, and believe me, this is like no father you’ve ever known.
He goes on to describe how unusual this Father is. And how amazing his love is. He asks, “In this incredible story, when do you think the father loved his son the most?”
Was it the moment the father met the son on the road?
Was it when he gave the son his inheritance and let him go?
The truth is, it’s an impossible question to answer because the father’s love was unwavering. At no point in the story did he love his son any less than at any other time.
But the son… he perceived his father’s love to be varying. And I think that’s what I (we) resonate with.
It’s almost unthinkable and/or unbelievable that we could be loved so consistently and unconditionally.
I know I’ve never experienced that in my relationship with my own father. (Didn’t Jacobsen say the father in the story is unlike any father we’ve ever known?) Yet that’s the kind of love we all long for. And some of us would be thrilled to experience even a faint imitation of that kind of love.
So, I’d been reading that, and then yesterday morning at Highway Community the message was titled “The Prodigal Father.” I thought, “This is gonna be different!”
And it was.
Right near the beginning of the message we were given the TRUE definition of “prodigal.”
It turns out a “prodigal” isn’t one who is wayward, rebellious, a wanderer, a derelict, or outcast of his own making.
Here are some of the definitions from the dictionary:
recklessly extravagant
giving or yielding profusely; lavish
lavishly abundant; profuse
WOW! THAT’s different! It’s amazing the difference when you understand the real meaning of words that are somewhat commonly used.
Suddenly I can see how the story really could be called “The Prodigal Father.” It really is a story about a father’s love for BOTH of his sons. It illustrates recklessly extravagant, lavishly abundant, and profuse love being shown to both sons, and the sons’ unwillingness and/or inability to accept such love as it’s given.
Knowing the true meaning of “prodigal”, I now realize I have not been a prodigal. But I’m trying to learn to accept my prodigal God’s love.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Andy McCarroll, ccm, Cyan City, Fun, Happy, instrumental, Moral Support, music, Music Video, Realizing Harmony
In my search for “Paint Your Windows White” (for my last post), I mistakenly thought that song was written by Andy McCarroll. And in looking through Andy McCarroll’s stuff I was reminded of this fun instrumental. (I hadn’t seen the video before.) Enjoy!
Filed under: Politics, thought of the moment | Tags: climate change, environment, global warming, nuclear, radiation
The other day, President Obama’s Climate Guru, Dr. Stephen Chu, said that in order to reduce the effects of Global Warming we should all paint our roofs white.
Now, he’s supposed to be a really smart man. In fact, he’s won a Nobel prize. (Much like former-Vice President Al Gore, who’s used his celebrity to great effect.)
While painting your roof white would quite possibly have the effect of somewhat reducing your cooling bill, if Global Warming is real, and it’s caused by heat being trapped by greenhouse gases, then bouncing more heat into the greenhouse gases isn’t going to slow, much less reverse Global Warming.
This suggestion, however, reminded me of a suggestion from years ago. It too was a suggestion to use white paint as a defensive measure. Maybe you don’t remember it, but back in the days of the Cold War, it was suggested that we should all paint our windows white as part of civil defense. Yes, it was suggested by the smart people in government that we might be able to survive a nuclear blast if we just used regular white paint. ( See this link to a 12-minute video.)
White paint will help save buildings, but it won’t do much for you if that’s all that is between you and the radiation. A much more effective “solution” is to fix the problem at the source… if that’s possible.
Now, given that I wasn’t even born at the time, why would I know about this, much less have it jump to mind?
It was a simple little song by Malcolm And The Mirrors (Malcolm was formerly recording with Alwyn Wall) from the 1982 album “Red Alert” that locked it in my mind. I couldn’t find a direct link to the recorded music, but here are the lyrics:
Paint Your Windows White – by Malcolm Wild
Verse:
I am the man, I am your government
I can show you how and where your money went
Put a coat over your head and forget about the rent
Verse:
When the bombs begin to fall in the middle of the night
When you start to lose it all, and your heart faints in fright
Put a coat over your head, and paint your windows white
Chorus:
“Paint your windows white,” they say, “It’ll make it all go away
You don’t have to understand, just bury your head in the sand”
Verse:
This is your school; I am your teacher too
Hear my rules and I’ll tell you what to do
Put a coat over your head, and believe that it’s all true
Repeat Chorus
Verse:
Men are fools; they make their rules
They think they’re wise in their own eyes
Men are blind; they’ve lost their mind
All because they discard God
Instrumental break
Verse:
I am a man of books, I know the human race
It’s not how it looks; I say that we all came from apes
Put a coat over your head and hide your monkey face
Repeat Chorus:
Repeat
Men are fools
They make their rules
They think they’re wise
In their own eyes
Men are blind
They’ve lost their mind
All because they discard God
Filed under: Challenges, On-Purpose, Personal Development, thought of the moment | Tags: change, david, goliath, lawrence of arabia, On-Purpose, purpose, Realizing Harmony, success, T.E. Lawrence, underdog
This article by Malcolm Gladwell was pointed out to me today with the note, Read this, it’s worth your time.”
It ties together several stories, pointing out a common factor: the amazing results that are possible for underdogs when they break the unspoken rules… following only the declared rules.
The stories include
- David & Goliath – from the account in the Bible.
- Lawrence of Arabia – and his battles in the 1910s against the Ottoman Empire.
- A war game contest – called the Traveller Trillion Credit Squadron tournament – where contestants (most of whom had a long-standing interest in war games) were given several volumes of rules well beforehand, and asked to design their own fleet of warships with a mythical budget of a trillion dollars. The fleets then squared off against one another in the course of a weekend. (The winning fleet was designed by a computer – with no experience whatsoever in war games, war strategy, tactics, etc. It just had been programmed with all the rules, to use as a guideline for developing the optimal fleet and optimal strategy.)
- A local basketball team from the Silicon Valley area made up of 12 year old girls – all but two of which had little to no experience, skill, or natural talent for playing traditional basketball.
In each case the underdog came out, if not on top, then at least FAR better off than conventional wisdom would predict.
What did each do?
David surprised Goliath by running at him, instead of patiently marching out to the slaughter. It was a surprise attack. Goliath never figured out what was happening.
Lawrence surprised his foes too. Rather than directly attacking Medina, he attacked them all along their poorly-guarded supply route. Rather than attacking Aqaba from the sea, he again used the strength of his troops – mobility and the ability to travel long distances in the deserts – by attacking from the desert.
The well-versed strategists in the war games were surprised by the plan concocted by the computer – to create a HUGE floatilla of small but well-armed boats, each of which was considered expendable. (One strategy, not normally “approved” is to sacrifice one’s own resources for the ultimate goal.)
The inexperienced and unskilled basketball team had a phenomenal season because they incorporated strategies that played upon strengths they were able to develop – endurance – and weaknesses caused by assumptions of regular players. (That “fair play” means allowing the opposing team to normally get the ball inbounds and down the court with little, to no resistance.) What’d they do? They trained for conditioning, and then played a maniacal full-court press buzzer to buzzer. (They even had one game where only 4 of their girls showed up and played anyway. Sure, it was one of their few losses… but far from getting slaughtered, they lost by only 3 points!)
How’s that apply in my life?
Not completely sure. I think it’s something I’ll need to work out. After all, in each case, the underdogs took at least a little, if not quite a bit of time to assess their situation, their strangths, their weaknesses, and what they were really trying to accomplish.
One thing is clear though…
When playing as the underdog, if you skew things in your favor and, against all odds, start succeeding… then others are likely to object… perhaps quite strenuously. But I believe that’s all part of “counting the cost.”
Filed under: On-Purpose, gratitude, positive, thought of the moment | Tags: celebration, contentment, discontent, gratitude, Happy, On-Purpose, purpose, Realizing Harmony, thankful
This clip of comedian Louis C.K.’s appearance on Conan’s show is a funny, clear explanation of how we take so many amazing things for granted. Some of the things he touches on include: telephones, banking, internet, and transportation.
I LOVE his little story:
This is what people are like: they’ve got their phone [acts out dialing on a cell phone] and they’re like, “Ugghh!!… … [waiting for a connection] It won’t… … “ GIVE IT A SECOND!!! It’s going to SPACE! Can you give it a SECOND to get back from SPACE? Is the speed of light too slow for you?
Then, after relating another funny story of someone getting frustrated with the failure of some totally new service he point out the ingratitude by saying, “How quickly the world owes him something he knew existed only 10 seconds ago?
Everything is Amazing, Nobody is Happy
We’re so quick to lose perspective.
As I’m writing this I’m reminded of an experience I had back in 1992. That was the year Intel released the 486DX2 which increased computer processing speed all the way up to 66MHz. (If my understanding is right, for comparison, current consumer-grade computers are frequently at least 45 times faster.)
I was tasked with putting together a small ad to place in a national magazine. A friend worked for one of the local mainframe computer companies. Their computers were among the best in the world for dealing with graphics – they had lots of memory, and were significantly faster than anything else out there.
Well, we had scanned in images of the album, and each of those images took up about 10-15 MB of memory. (Which at that time was an awful lot, given that one had a “lot” of storage if one’s hard drive could handle two or three of that size image.) We were trying out different layouts, and my friend was getting really frustrated and upset when it took the computer 10-20 seconds to process our changes. (At one point he was so frustrated, he yanked out one of the computer’s sheets of circuits and, using some tools, tweaked a few things before shoving it back into place.) Mind you, this was a machine that was valued at something well in excess of $100,000. And no other computer any of my friends had access to could have completed one of those processes in less than an hour. The computer’s processing was amazing but he wasn’t happy.
I was amazed… both with the computer and with my friend’s reaction. I wasn’t just content, I was very grateful. Today, I can’t honestly say that would be my gut reaction. Do you, like me, find yourself becoming less content and less grateful for the amazing things we are able to do?
Let’s work on developing a better sense of contentment and gratitude. First step: pay attention to the amazing, wonderful things in life.
Filed under: On-Purpose, positive, thought of the moment | Tags: coach, Mission, On-Purpose, purpose, Realizing Harmony, sportsmanship, Values, Vision
Most coaches are upset when a basketball player misses a free-throw. But this situation was different, and coach Dave Rohlman made sure his player knew that this time he was expected to miss the shots. “You realize you’re going to miss them, don’t you?” Rohlman said. Darius McNeal nodded his head. He understood, and missed the free-throws by a mile! What was going on?
It was a lesson in sportsmanship.
Here’s another account of this amazing, unusual story of sportsmanship… no, it’s not so much sportsmanship as it is selflessness. Sportsmanship would be playing the game sincerely and to the best of one’s ability within the rules and spirit of the game without gloating over a win or doing anything unreasonable to harm another, nor getting unreasonably upset.
Despite winning this particular game
It hasn’t been the greatest season for the team, but they have stuck together through a lot of adversity.
“We maybe don’t have the best basketball players in the world but they go to class and take care of business,” (Milwaukee coach) Womack said. “We have a losing record but there’s life lessons going on, good ones.”
None so good, though, as the moment a team and a player decided there were more important things than winning and having good stats.
I loved the comment DeKalb coach Rohlman later made:
“This is something our kids will hold for a lifetime. They may not remember our record 20 years from now, but they’ll remember what happened in that gym that night.”
As we live and work and interact with others, what can we do to develop a sensitivity to what’s most important? To live out our personal Purpose, Vision(s), and Mission(s) in alignment with our core Values?
Filed under: Happy News, Optimal Health | Tags: harmony, health, hearing, hearing loss, music, On-Purpose, progressive hearing loss, realizing, Realizing Harmony, research, results
As an Audio Engineer, Musician, and one who has several family members who are in various stages of hearing loss, this article grabbed my attention.
In parallel studies in human and mouse, two groups of researchers have come to the same conclusion: that a new kind of gene is associated with progressive hearing loss. The new gene – called a microRNA – is a tiny fragment of RNA that affects the production of hundreds of other molecules within sensory hair cells of the inner ear.
This is some rather good news!
In order to solve a problem, one must first identify the problem. We’ve done that… in specifying that progressive hearing loss is a problem.
The next critical step is to then identify the source of the problem. If only the problem, and not the source is identified, it’s likely that the only thing treated will be symptoms. And treating only symptoms can create even more problems.
At this point we’re still only able to treat the symptoms of progressive hearing loss. Most often that’s done by making things louder… either yelling, turning up the volume on the sound system, using hearing aid(s), or some combination of those options. But none of those really fixes the real problem… that hearing is progressively declining. In fact, they may be causing even more hearing loss.
But with this new breakthrough in research, we may (hopefully) soon be able to find a remedy if not cure for progressive hearing loss. Think of all the people who would be helped by this.
… by the age of ten, one in 500 children has suffered significant hearing impairment and the majority of over-70s are affected.
Meanwhile, we can each do our part to protect our own hearing by Practicing Safe Sound.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Tomorrow is Easter Sunday… the day Christians celebrate the best news of all. If you’re not familiar with that best news, let me recommend you stop in at a Christian church tomorrow morning to find out what it’s all about.
Meanwhile, let me share some good news I just read about over on Neal Boortz’s website. Mind you, Neal is normally a bit of a curmudgeon with a sense of humor. He likes to call himself “the high priest of the church of the painful truth” and often says “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.” He really likes to stir things up. However… what I was reading today, while written with a backhanded slap at the new administration, is actually some pretty good, encouraging news! Here’s what he said:
… in efforts to leave you with a good taste in your mouth for this Easter weekend, I’ll tell you a quick story.
You can find the whole thing on CNN, but there is a state park on Hawaii’s Kauai island. And this Polihale State Park has been closed since December after suffering severe flooding. In fact, the flooding was so bad that it destroyed an access road to the park. So even if you wanted to get to the Polihale State Park, you couldn’t.
Local residents and business owners started to get nervous. Months went by and our wonderful, all-knowing, all-powerful government did not come to the rescue. The state Department of Land and Natural Resources estimated that it would cost $4 million to fix the damages, including the access road to the park. They also said it would take two years before it would be fixed. And that was if .. in these economic times .. there was money in the budget to do so.
So rather than sit around and wait for the government to do something, the people of Kauai came together and did the repairs themselves. It only took them eight days to finish all the repairs. Eight days .. compared to two years. And it didn’t cost the taxpayers a dime.
One volunteer said, “We can wait around for the state or federal government to make this move, or we can go out and do our part … Just like everyone’s sitting around waiting for a stimulus check, we were waiting for this but decided we couldn’t wait anymore.”
Good for them!
The truly amazing of this story is that the government didn’t step in and prevent these people from handling the situation themselves.
We really need more people like this… ignoring the negative news from the media and government, and acting responsibly to solve or resolve their own problems instead of waiting for a handout from the government which will only get that handout by confiscating it from someone else who earned it.
Can the problems be solved?
YOU BET!!!
And this story is just one example of a group of people who proved it can be done… faster and better than the government can or will.
Filed under: Fun | Tags: Focus, Hocus Pocus, House of the King, music, Realizing Harmony
A while back, I was trying to fill in my music collection. There was an instrumental piece that one of my older brothers unintentionally introduced me to – back in the early ’70s – that has bounced around in my head over the years. I had knew the piece was by a band called “Focus.” But I wasn’t sure of the title. The only song title by them that I could recall was “Hocus Pocus.” I remember thinking it was funny… asking for “Hocus Pocus by Focus.”
So, when filling in my collection, my wife offered to use some free download-bucks to buy me some one-hit-wonder music, and I chose Hocus Pocus by Focus as one of them.
It’s a fun tune, but not the one I remembered.
Here, for your enjoyment, is one hyper-fast live version I just found. The studio version my wife downloaded for me is quite a bit slower, but still fun. I just doesn’t quite have that drugged/uppers/speed vibe to it. 
Anyway, today I was surfing the web again, and ran across the REAL song I remembered. The one that’s been bouncing around in my head is really called “House Of The King.” Here’s the original music video of it.
Just for fun, here is a link to a live version where Jan Akkerman breaks a string (48 seconds in) and yet continues playing without too many in the audience noticing any difference.
The best version I’ve found (both audio and video are good) is this one from a 1990 reunion performance:
