Ok, I have two mini-rants because I’m mad about a couple things. 1) I’m mad at KU fans who are taking “the sky is falling attitude”, and 2) I’m mad about KU losing (I’m not mad at our team or mad at Bill Self – I am frustrated with some things our team does, but they’re college kids – not pros.)

I’m normally a pretty happy-go-lucky guy and I consider myself an optimist. I can find the positives in most situations – if I step in dog poop in my backyard my thought is, “Well, at least my dog isn’t constipated.”  And at the end of this post I think you’ll see I still have high hope for our team and don’t feel that the sky is falling for KU. This year especially college basketball is WIDE open and I still believe we can win the Big 12 title and make a deep run in the tournament.

Let me set the stage and give a little context for those who might be reading this who are not KU fans.

Legacy of Greatness

A snapshot of our greatness -

• 5 National Championships
• #2 winningest program of all time
• 2,089 wins in 115 years
• 14 Final Fours
• 4 Final Fours in last 10 years
• #1 in NCAA in number of Conference Championships
• 55 Conference Championships
• 8 straight conference Championships
• 10 out of last 11 Conference Championships
• #1 in NCAA in consensus All-American Selections
• 23 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances – longest active streak in NCAA
• We’ve only 8 head coaches in 115 years of basketball
• The inventor of the game of basketball coached at KU
• 3 years in a row we’ve won 30+ games
• 7 years in a row we’ve won 25+ games
• 23 years in a row we’ve won 20+ games

Coaching Legends

We have had amazing coaches at KU. The inventor of the game, James Naismith, coached at KU and he’s the only coach at KU to have an overall losing record. Phog Allen is considered the grandfather of modern coaching. He coached Dean Smith who found greatness at the University of North Carolina. Phog Allen also coached Adolph Rupp who found greatness at Kentucky University. More recently with our coaches, we were spoiled under Roy Williams when he was our coach. He won several conference titles and went to four Final 4s in 15 years. But then Roy left for home (North Carolina) and Bill Self was hired. Everyone knows you never want to be the guy who immediately follows a legend because expectations and comparisons will be enormous. Absolutely nobody thought Self could do as well as Roy’s 81% winning percentage. Well, Self proved us all wrong! Self has an 84% winning percentage and he’s brought us eight consecutive conference titles, two Final 4s, and a national championship in just 9 years. And all signs are pointing towards that success to continue steamrolling like a powerful locomotive.

At KU we expect greatness! And we produce our own greatness.

As KU fans we are flat-out spoiled. And you know what? That’s ok! We should demand greatness. Yes, I know that sounds cocky; deal with it. I don’t want to be like the SEC teams who chant “S-E-C! S-E-C!” when teams other than the one they support win national titles. It’s their prerogative if they want to have pride in their conference while their own teams wallow in mediocrity and they get their jollies of other teams successes; I care about KU’s success – KU alone. I don’t want to be happy because Texas, Oklahoma, or god forbid KSU wave championship banners. Conference championship banners* and National Championship banners should be waved by us. We should strive to hang even more championship banners in Allen Fieldhouse.

* as a sidenote, at KU we’ve won so many conference titles (55) that we don’t hang individual banners – we just add the year we win the conference title on to an already existing banner listing other years. We only hang individual Final 4 and National Championship banners

1st Rant

Again, as KU fans we are spoiled. UNBELIEVABLY SPOILED! And that’s ok! It’s not our fault we enjoy so much success. We expect greatness from our basketball and they produce greatness. But in this losing streak I’ve seen and heard some ridiculous comments from KU fans. Stop it now! Holy freaking crap, stop it now! Bill Self didn’t become an imbecile and forget how to coach in a 7 day span. Admittedly, this team has peed down its legs in recent games, but this is still the team that won at Ohio State, it’s still the team that looked absolutely unbeatable in December. We are 19-4. Our talent ceiling, as we’ve seen many times this year, is very high. So it’s time to stop your bitching and support this team.

2nd Rant

Along with being mad about KU fans acting like the world is coming to an end because of our 3 consecutive losses I’m mad about another thing. I’m sick of us losing. 14 days ago we were ranked #1 in the country in the coaches poll and then on Wednesday we lost at home to Oklahoma State. Honestly that loss felt like it was a long time coming because we had been flirting with losing a couple other games. But hey, no problem, shake it off and regroup. Well, then we lost at TCU…T-C-U! A bunch of frogs who are a VERY bad team. Losing consecutive games was foreign territory for KU fans. We hadn’t lost consecutive games in 7 years…7 years! Think about that, that’s incredible! Ok, we’ve got that out of our system, let’s get back to winning. But then we followed that up by losing at Oklahoma this past Saturday. We hadn’t lost three games in a row in 8 years. By the reaction of some KU fans you would think it’s the apocalypse. We went from being #1 in the country to now being #14 (as of today). Losing three games in a row is not good – but you know what? It happens to everybody. So we sit here today in the thick of a conference title race and we HAVE to get back to winning.

It Ends Tonight by Beginning Again

Enter KSU. The Farmers. The Aggies. Land grant university. Soil judging and livestock judging national champions. What better way to get back to our winning ways than playing and beating our rival. (I use the term “rival” lightly because in order for a team to be a rival they should win occasionally.)

So tonight for the game I’m wearing this shirt in support of my Jayhawks. As a fanbase we need to be rabid in support of our Jayhawks, just like the Fighting Jayhawk. If you’re going to be at home watching the game cheer so loud that they hear you in Lawrence. If you’re going to be privileged enough to be in hallowed Allen Fieldhouse get your butt there early and cheer your ass off the whole game! The losing ends tonight. The winning begins again.

As Jayhawk fans we need to believe in our team – fly your flags at home and on your car. And when you look at your flag you can know and understand that the sky is not falling. We’ll be fine and I’m sensing we’re going to have a good March and hopefully April too.

Jayhawk Victory

Living in Arkansas I’m surround by Razorbacks. And I get asked all the time, “What does Rock Chalk mean?” My response, which is also espoused on a KU t-shirt, “Another Jayhawk victory!”

It’s time to start winning. It’s time to once again start hearing the haunting chant of…Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

Why is there a (very much delayed) second (and third) part to this post? Well, this is a follow-up to my first post and is what actually happened to me (and my wife), and in the next part I’ll examine “why” it happened. I will bring up some ideas/thoughts of why what happened in our community group actually happened. Make sense? In essence, I am going to look at the reason behind the reason.

What happened 

Earlier this year…well actually, earlier last year (2012), my wife and I were asked to leave our community group. Over 2 1/2 years ago my wife and I had joined this community group through the church we used to attend, and we had been part of this community group since the beginning of our marriage. The reason two of the guys were asking us to leave was that in their opinion, and in their words, I was bitter, and divisive with my opinions of their church, and also that I was posting negative thoughts (on social media) about their church that made them feel defensive. They told me I could remain in the community group if I stopped posting the things I had been posting, and that I had 48 hours to decide if I would comply with their demands…I mean their desires.

Rush to Judgment

First of all, their accusations were completely off-base. Unless there is something completely egregious done by a specific church I don’t post about any one specific church. I post about the “church at large”. I did have one blog post about a year ago from a sermon I heard at our former church that really irked me, but in all other examples I posted in generalities about “the church at large”. I guess somehow they had a bit of narcissism built into the things I post where they thought everything I talked about was about their church. On their last complaint it almost brought me to the point of laughter, is that one of them went so far as to say that he felt uncomfortable with what I post because he believed people would associate what I would post as representing his thoughts and views. WTF?!?! Wow. That comment totally blew me away. That type of attitude is full-fledged narcissism. But now the whole “excommunication” has had time to blow over; in a way can still be a bit irksome (not sure if that is really a word) but in actuality it’s just simply comical and laughable. What happened in that community group is no way representative of true community. My wife and I now just laugh at the whole situation. While she doesn’t always condone what I post…and truth be told she sometimes cringes when I proudly proclaim, “I blogged!”, she overall respects and supports my beliefs and supports the avenues in which I express them. I love my wife!

Me and the Wifey

Now I will admit, none of this would have happened if I knew how to keep my fat, pie-hole shut about things that the church (at large) does that upsets me. (if you need a reminder of why I post what I post see my last post: The Explanation) But please understand what I am saying: the things that I posted & tweeted, that the guys were upset about, (which were not anything over the top or crazy!) are the the things where I feel the church has missed the mark on and missed the reason the church is in existence. In fact, I’m more discouraged with them as Christians in their beliefs and most of all their handling of the situation that they tried to squash what I had to say. And I honestly feel so strong about how much the church has bastardized its mission and how neglectful the church is being towards those who need assistance that I can’t keep my feelings to myself. Spending millions of dollars on audio/video equipment (which many churches do) while people in our streets go hungry is merely one example. When I post/talk about these issues I don’t bring them up in a spiteful manner; I speak from the heart for why it upsets me. I can handle less than perfect acoustics in a church if it means others can have food to eat, or healthcare for their illness. A while back my wife and I visited a church that was a beautiful church building with concrete floors, grandiose vaulted ceilings, and a sound system that by the looks of it might have cost $10,000. Were the acoustics the best? Not by any means, but I can honestly say I had a more worshipful experience that Sunday than at any other church here in Little Rock. (We also got a pretty good aerobic workout because it was an anglican church which meant we were doing a lot of up, down, kneel, up, down, kneel, up, down, kneel. I digress…)

Thou has committed a grave sin! “Say What?!”

The manner in which these two guys “confronted” me about their issues with me, and also in the weeks leading up to it (they never responded to emails and texts that I had sent to both of them with honest questions and concerns), and also the way they kept me in the dark with their feelings towards what I posted and never voiced any disapproval until they gave me their ultimatum of “stop posting or get out”, and the fact that they gave me such a ridiculous ultimatum, it was very clear to me and my wife that we would not remain in that community group. And I ended up letting them know our decision just right before their 48 hour deadline expired (I wanted to create a little soap-opera-esque drama  The way they handled the entire situation honestly almost felt like I had committed some huge sin and they were enacting “church discipline” on me. In no way whatsoever was what went down in this situation a reflection of good, true, meaningful community. Again, it was just absolutely 100% absurd.

Why are we so quick to eliminate and/or paint people as miscreants when they hold a different point of view than what we hold? It seems like Christians have no tolerance whatsoever.

I Must Break You…But In Case I Can’t Please Just Go Away.

Of all religions, the Christian is without doubt 

the one which should inspire tolerance most, 

although up to now the Christians 

have been the most intolerant of all men.

- Voltaire

The longer you are removed, chronologically, 

from your conversion the more likely it is 

that you’re going to struggle with self-righteousness.

- Darrin Patrick

Spiritual security comes when we stop being anxious about others and begin to watch after ourselves. 

- Teresa of Avila

Faith afraid to think is unbelief masked in piety. 

Unbelief afraid to think is pseudo-faith 

with Enlightenment trimmings. 

- G. Ebeling tweeted by @trippfuller

Do the hard work of questioning your doubts, 

not just the easy work of raising them. 

- @Jonathan_Dodson

Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord! 

- Lamentations 3:40

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy,

as cause for withdrawing from a friend. - Thomas Jefferson 

“Humility is born when we acknowledge our biases and the limitations of our perspectives. … An important part of life is learning to see things from different perspectives rather than simply judging those who don’t agree. I am a person of faith. I believe we are supposed to cooperate with each other instead of comparing ourselves to one another. I believe that each person on this planet is unique and different – a Masterpiece. The hues of melanin add beauty and the myriad of philosophies and perspectives make me consider and evaluate what I most deeply believe. Faith is supposed to encourage me to courageously explore all of life, not to fear the unknown. Faith is supposed to teach me to trust that God is with me wherever I go, not to rely on sight alone. This means that there are times when the perspectives and schemas I’ve developed to process life must be completely torn down and rebuilt when new and challenging viewpoints are presented.” 

- Ethan D. Bryan, “Run Home & Take a Bow, Stories of Life, Faith And a Season With The Kansas City Royals”

Building off of Ethan’s great quote (from his book which I highly recommend!!)…as Yoda would say…

“You must unlearn what you have learned”, pretty wise teaching from Jedi master Yoda. We must be willing to not rush in so quickly to judge people, but instead see what we can learn from others…but I’ll delve more into that in part 3.

So after going through all of this ridiculousness over the past 6 months it got me thinking about how some Christians treat other people (and yes, even how some Christians treat other Christians), and how some people deal with others who who hold different views. It’s honestly a bit discouraging when you think about it.

Eliminate?

Acclimate?

Tolerate?

What is the right way to handle those who have different belief-systems? It seems simple when you think about, but what we believe we should do and what we actually do are sometimes two entirely different things. The ole “ought/is” debate. It’s always fun.

1) Why we treat some people the way we do, 2) a glimpse of what should’ve happened in my community group, and 3) what can be learned from the whole crazy situation, are topics I’ll dive into in part III. (I promise it won’t be as long of a time-frame to post part III.

The Explanation

I wanted to wait awhile before I posted this series of posts because I was pretty ticked about something that happened recently (more on what actually happened later) and wanted to make sure I wasn’t writing this from a knee-jerk reaction of being ticked – however, this specific post was inspired by what actually happened. And after waiting, processing what happened, and reflecting back I think I’ve reached a good point of levity to spell things out honestly and objectively while intertwining my own take of what went on – as weird and off-base as it was…but most of that is in the second part of this post that I will post in a couple days.

This post is an explanation of why I write and post about what I write and post.

Some thing compels me, therefore I write. 

Provoking a reaction isn’t the same thing as saying something significant.

- Calvin, from Calvin and Hobbes

Let me dispel any myths, or incorrect assumptions, about why I write, tweet, and post, right off the bat: I’m not a bitch-and-moan type of person and I’m not bitter towards the church or towards Christians. I’m not. Bitter and negative people actually annoy me…alot. Plus, that type of an attitude or mindset gets you nowhere other than being cynical and focusing on the negative things in life. If you surf the internet or flip on the TV you will be flooded with all kinds of information about what’s wrong with this world. Bad things happen where we work and there are things that happen in our families that we can’t control, and I choose not to waste my time focusing on those things because that would just beat me down. I don’t ignore the negative things that happen – it needs to be fixed or corrected if possible, but I choose not to focus on it being bad and instead choose to see what is possible – how things could be better. Another way to look at is, if I was apathetic to an issue I wouldn’t be voicing any concern, because it wouldn’t matter to me – but I actually care about what I write about. You won’t see me writing about the WNBA or NASCAR or gardening tips because mainly I don’t care about those things. You won’t see me giving fashion tips, or hair-styling ideas (honestly, have you seen my hair?…or lack thereof). Again, because I don’t care about those things.

I just don’t care.

I mean, I care to some extent in the fact that NASCAR is a sport and I like sports, and in regards to fashion I don’t want to dress like a slob; but that’s the extent of those examples. They don’t interest me enough to delve into. So I write about things that truly matter to me.

I deeply care about Christianity. I care about how we as Christians have withdrawn from culture and taken an “individualism is king”/evacuation theology approach to our faith. Also, I think it’s rather important that we as the church examine how churches are appropriating our money (that is another post I’m writing that is coming in the near future and I’m pretty sure it’ll piss off some people; but if some people get pissed off I’m not that concerned about it considering there are people dying in the streets while churches spend umpteen millions of dollars on buildings, lights, and audio/video equipment – that wastefulness and ignoring of what Jesus told us to do really brings out Grumpy Derek; and Jesus was just kidding about that whole “Feed my sheep” idea, wasn’t he?). All that stuff matters to me so I write about it. But I’m not bitter. I don’t bitch and moan. I don’t say things to solely provoke a reaction and piss people off. I would like to think I provoke people to action. Or if nothing else, if that action is to solely think about what we as Christians are doing or what we could be doing then that’s a-ok with me. That’s a step.

“He who begins by loving Christianity more than Truth,will proceed by loving his sect or church better than Christianity, and end in loving himself better than all.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I’m not a SAD person.

A couple weeks ago I went to North Central Arkansas for work and on my drive back home to Little Rock I was talking to a friend on the phone. I wasn’t paying attention to how fast I was going but to my chagrin the police officer coming from the other direction was paying attention to my speed. He turned around and pulled me over and thankfully this fine officer of the law only gave me a warning (and a racing heartbeat), when he definitely could’ve given me a healthy sized ticket (I might have possibly been going 67mph in a 55mph speed limit). But the funny part was before he handed me the warning he needed to write down my license plate information and his comment to me was, “Ha, that’s funny! I haven’t seen a license plate that spells “SAD”. I told him that I was very disappointed when I went to get my license plate and just by dumb-luck my license plate actually spelled “SAD”. I told him I was an optimist. He laughed. I laughed. I drove home with my eyes glued to my speedometer.

So…like I mentioned, some people have misunderstood things I’ve written or moreso the manner and reason behind why I write about topics on my blog, Facebook, and Twitter, in regards to the Church-at-large and because of that I’m writing this post to explain some things. Let me also remind you, you can ALWAYS ask me for clarification. Don’t just assume I mean something if you’re not exactly clear what I mean. Again, this is what happened recently and it honestly ticked me off (it brought out Grumpy Derek) because these people who I had been in a community group with for more than two years conferred with each other, not with me, and formed their own wrong conclusions about my intentions, made a decision, and gave me an ultimatum, instead of asking me what I actually meant. Going to the source for clarification..what a novel idea. Grab a beer and hang out with me and you’ll get to know me and what I’m like…but if you want to draw your own assumptions I can’t help that. Unfortunately, that’s what happened, and I thought these guys knew me. Nope. (I hope all this foreshadowing will compel you to read part 2 and continue to read my blog in the future.

Seriously, I’m actually a pretty cheery kind of guy.

…ok, but not over the top like Jim Carrey in “The Truman Show”.

“Lucy, you’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do.”/The Explanation.

So…due to this recent confusion (read crazy-ass assumptions), I have felt the need to clarify topics that I write about, and more importantly the manner/attitude in which I write them. I write, post on facebook, and tweet about alot of different topics: theology, politics, books, culture, the Church, trends in Christianity, world-views, KU sports, cigars, beer, and more. But when I post, tweet, or write things about the Church 97% of the time (I have no idea of the actual percentage, but I would imagine 97% is pretty dog-gone close) I write about the “church-at-large” – Church with a capital “C”; not about individual, specific churches. The only time I will single out a specific church is if I know they’re doing something so egregiously bad it’s reprehensible…or if they are doing something amazingly good.

Let me share my background briefly. I moved to Little Rock in 2008 and from day one I have had a hell-ish church experience for many reasons I won’t go into right now; I have attended 4 churches in Little Rock and am currently church-less. Going back a bit further: since I graduated college in 1999 I have lived in 5 metropolitan areas and have seen the Church trends I talk about happen all over the country.  But the one thing I hold onto that gives me hope is I attended 2 churches (one in Kansas City, Beggars Table, and one in St. Louis, The Journey) who  have given me hope of what church here in Little Rock can look like and I guess I’m just crazy enough to believe I can help to be a part of the change that needs to happen. But again, I bring up my background in all of the cities to say that I’ve seen the trends that I write about happen all across the country. I’m not picking on any one church in Little Rock. Like I mentioned before, unless there is a specific issue happening at a specific church (egregiously good or egregiously bad) I try not to single out any one church by name – most of the time it’s not beneficial and just not necessary. If I did that it would be akin to when a cop sees a group of 10 cars speeding on the highway and pulls over just one person and only gives them a ticket while the other 9 cars continue speeding down the highway without getting in any trouble. Even though the person who got the ticket is guilty of speeding it sucks that they were singled out and given the ticket, while all the other speeders were not pulled over. Many churches in the area are all guilty of the same thing so why pick on one individually? Bring up the issue and take action to make things better. Don’t just bitch and moan about things that go wrong. Do something about it. My hope is to help start a new church in Little Rock similar to Beggars Table and the Journey and some good things are starting to happen.

Wrapping up

I write because I enjoy writing.

I write about things I care about.

I write out of deep conviction.

I write because it is cathartic.

I write because I believe things can be better than how they currently are.

I write because I believe some things we as Christians currently do/believe, in Christianity, are not how Jesus intended them to be.

I write because I see how things can be different and better within Christianity.

I write because I hope to make a difference.

I’m writing this post to hopefully dispel any assumptions.

I write because I am hopeful.

Getting to the top is optional.

Getting down is Mandatory.

- Ed Viesturs (summited Mt. Everest 7 times)

A couple years ago one of my best friends, Jeremy, asked me if I wanted to climb a “14er” with him. A “14er” is a mountain peak that is more than 14,000 feet tall. I don’t exactly have a well-defined bucket list, but if I did climbing a 14er would be on it. Growing up in Kansas we spent alot of our vacations and spring breaks in Colorado skiing, mountain biking, or hiking in the Rocky Mountains. Colorado has forever been my 2nd…I mean now 3rd favorite state behind my home-state of Kansas and  Well, a couple years ago I was in the middle of helping to plan my wedding. He asked me again last year but we were taking a family vacation at the same time they were going. He asked me again this year…glory be, I was free! The plan was set in motion to climb 14ers, finally. Then it hit me…I’m going to climb a 14er…I better get my butt in shape. I’m in fairly good shape, but playing in and adult soccer and softball league doesn’t exactly qualify as living my life according to a hard-core training regimen. So I set out to construct a training regiment that would at least get me to the top of the mountain and if all else fails I would fall back on gravity to get me back down the mountain – what goes up, must come down.

My training regimen consisted of 2 sets per day of: 40 sit-ups, 10 push-ups, 60 curls per arm (in various manners) of 20 pound weights, 3 minutes of leg-lifts, and finally running  a total of 2 miles per day. The running portion was planned to be very beneficial since we live in an extremely hilly neighborhood – but then tragedy over-zealousness struck me on the softball field. Three weeks before I was to leave for Colorado I was playing in a softball game and while sprinting to chase down a pop-up in foul territory I heard my short-stop yell, “You’ve got room.”, but then I felt my body hit what seemed like a mack-truck when in actuality it was the fence. Apparently I didn’t have enough room. In case you’re wondering, I actually caught the ball but when I hit the fence, in the same manner like cartoon characters who run through a wall and it leaves a cut-out of their body in the wall, I wasn’t that lucky. The fence jarred the ball free and it resulted in being a very dramatic strike 2 on the batter and left me with a wrecked ankle. When I hit the chain-link fence my body hit it and bounced off but my right ankle got caught in one of the holes of the fence and while my body fell my foot was still stuck in the fence and we’ll just say my ankle looked like a beach ball (swollen and colorful) about 15 seconds after the dramatic strike 2. One of my teammates said he thought I was dead since I took a little time to get up and my short-stop who told me, “You’ve got room”, shook his head and apologized repeatedly. Unfortunately my job doesn’t lend itself to staying off my ankle since I have to walk in to speak to the doctors instead of them coming out to my car to speak with me (the nerve), but I’ve normally been a quick healer my whole life and was hoping for that again. Thankfully this was the case again as I was able to start my training regimen again for my first 14er. While my ankle is still not 100% (two weeks after returning from the mountains), it was at least strong enough at the time for the hike.

I’m going to end the word description portion of this post and leave you with a picture description for the remainder of the adventure. All I can say is it was an amazing experience of enjoying God’s creation all around us for 4 days – picturesque scenery, wildlife running free, fresh mountain air, aromatic pine tree scents wafting all around us, babbling brooks of crisp mountain water, cold evenings curled up in our sleeping bags, crisp, early mornings and trying to wake up with our warm coffee, majestic views from just about everywhere, great companionship and dare I say, “fellowship”…and returning to our roots and basics of life and getting away from the phone, email, and civilization. Basic tasks of setting up my tent and pulling out my sleeping bag out of my pack actually left me quite winded and I would have to stop to catch my breath. We saw amazing wildlife – elk across the grassy ravines, mountain goats running and bounding up the rocks in our camp, porcupines walking right outside my tent since my tent was 5 feet from our “kitchen”, marmots and prairie dogs all over the place, and even a Disney movie-esque encounter with a hummingbird who flew into our group, hovered at eye-level, and stared at us as if to say, “Good morning, god-speed and safe travels on your journey gentlemen.”

So we packed everything we needed into our backpacks, used the streams and lakes for our water supply and had a fun and truly spiritual experience. As a bonus, we returned with the same number of people as we left with.

packed and ready to go

on our way to Colorado – Kansas sunflowers

met by rain showers on our way to the trail head

testing the water depth

our caravan fording the water

on our way

you mean we have to hike uphill?

our route to base camp – where the streets have no name

finally at base camp

base camp

my wife slipped a note/pic into my bag and I hung it in my tent

another view from base camp – I look stoked

our friends in base camp

another view from base camp – Cresstone Peak

thar she blows – Humboldt Peak

on our way up to Humboldt Peak

our highway

still on our way up

almost there – don’t look down

finally made it! – Humboldt Peak – 14,064 feet

signing the register at the summit

me and my best friend Jeremy at the summit

view from the summit

another view from the summit

another view from the summit

another view from the summit

backside of the mountain

last view of Humboldt Peak

had an amazing time and hope to do more 14s next year

time to hit the trail and head back to civilization

once we were back in Colorado Springs I gorged myself with a huge piece of medium rare cow

…and a banana split blizzard

Be sure to read the comment/response section because there are good questions in there…and there is also one tragically ignorant statement. You can’t fix stupid.

Graphic Novel part 8

I’m going to try to have a new post (my own “quasi”-original thoughts) up before I leave for Colorado, but we’ll see if that happens. I can tell you that my next post is going to make me a lot of friends within the church community (sarcasm intended). It touches on one of the reasons why I have left the church for the time being. I am still a Christian and I fully believe in the church but have not found one in Little Rock which wholly (or as best as possible) encompasses what I feel the church should represent. I’ll explain more in the post.

Cheers!

I deny the resurrection too…sometimes several times a day. God forgive me when I don’t feed your sheep.

Why institutions matter. Everything that follows is from Mike Metzger. Enjoy!

—   —  —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —  —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —   —

It’s stunning that while Christians understand marriage as an institution established by God, most evangelical Christians are anti-institutional. They imagine institutions as cold, calculating corporations. This explains why evangelical Christianity is often so powerless to affect real change in the world. It has become, as Theodore Roszak, a Professor of History at California State University memorably put it, “socially irrelevant, even if privately engaging.” The proper exercise of power requires a proper understanding of institutions.

Power is translating authority into action. Having authority is having dominion. Jesus said all authority has been given to him. He has delegated authority to Christians (what is known as the Great Commission). We don’t have authority over all creation, but do have it over spheres of creation, such as a local business or school. Power is the capacity to translate wherever we have authority into action. Without this power, our faith is socially irrelevant, even if privately engaging. This power comes internally from the Spirit of God and instrumentally from institutions.

The best book on this – other than the Bible – is Robert A Caro’s masterful tome on Robert Moses, called “The Power Broker.” In studying the life and impact of Moses, Caro learned about the power of institutions. It began with an “epiphany about power” in the early ’60s. Moses got approval for a bridge from Rye, N.Y., across Long Island Sound to Oyster Bay – a bridge so atrociously big that it would disrupt tides. Caro never imagined Moses getting approval. He had been incredibly naïve. “I got in the car and drove home to Long Island, and I kept thinking to myself: ‘Everything you’ve been doing is baloney. You’ve been writing under the belief that power in a democracy comes from the ballot box. But here’s a guy who has never been elected to anything, who has enough power to turn the entire state around, and you don’t have the slightest idea how he got it.’ “

Moses got his power by heading, or sitting on the boards of, most of the most influential institutions in the city. I’ll be telling you more about this in an upcoming column. But this does raise a few questions.

Questions to ask:

• Does your church know which are the most influential institutions in your city?
• Does your church have a plan to head, or sit on the boards of, most of the most influential institutions in your city?

It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so. 

– Mark Twain

(disclaimer – in all of the scenarios and examples I create and illustrate in this post, please know they do not represent my own views or the views of anybody else in particular. They are merely examples that have been plucked out from scenarios I have seen from people throughout all of my history with the church.)

Ok, where were we? We were talking about the bifurcation (or fragmentation) that we do in our lives (i.e. sacred vs secular, private vs public, etc) to help us avoid the fear of the other or the unknown. I don’t want to focus on the fear of the unknown too much; it definitely fuels the bifurcation, but it’s not the sole reason behind why we bifurcate. But I do think the fear of the unknown is still worth exploring a little bit.

Continuing on.

Fear of the unknown 

Please hear me out on this next illustration. When some of you read the name of who proffered this analogy, which was Rob Bell, you will turn your brain off because sadly many people have ignorantly thrown the baby out with the bathwater (post coming on that topic soon) in valuable take-aways because of his most recent book, “Love Wins”. But I think this is an excellent illustration of why the fear of the unknown is so powerful. Rob Bell explains it like this: imagine all your beliefs are individual bricks in a wall and this wall is your faith – the trinity is a brick, the virgin birth is a brick, abortion is a brick, alcohol is evil, Jesus was a republican is a brick, homosexuality is a sin is a brick, strict creationism is a brick, the earth was created in 6 literal 24 hour days is a brick, the Bible being read literally is a brick, Jonah being swallowed by a fish is a brick, Jesus’s miracles are all bricks, the rapture is a brick, etc, etc.

Imagine that below is that brick wall I was talking about. The bricks are a rusty red and they are all stacked on top of each other.

to rethink what it means to be the Church,

not merely critiquing the presently existing church 

for failing to live up to its ideals,

but rather for espousing the wrong ideals. 

- Peter Rollins

Several weeks ago I was sitting in church, probably just surfing on my phone, and the pastor made a comment that made my head snap up like a yo-yo being yanked upward. I was fully focused on listening to how he was going to explain what he had just said.

Before I jump in, please trust me, I am writing this not to solely criticize his statement/attitude; but I do believe what he said is bad theology and also a prevailing thought shared by many in the Church (the church-at-large); if not always explicit in word (although in this instance it was) it is most certainly implicit in actions. Overall, I want to try to make our church culture in Arkansas (and elsewhere) better.

Here’s the story:

The pastor was telling a story about how one afternoon he was just cruising around on the internet and saw an advertisement of a gathering for single adults that said, “Come and have some fellowship with us.”

{This next paragraph was his explanation of his gripe with that particular internet ad. When I started to write this post I listened to the podcast of the sermon when it was posted online to accurately quote what he said.}

“Man, don’t use our word! That’s not “fellowship”! “Fellowship” is not any casual human interaction that we have. “Fellowship” is not two christian guys getting together talking about how great the razorback basketball game was or how all their hunting exploits have been, that’s not “fellowship”. “Fellowship” is a lot deeper than that. “Fellowship” is not two people just getting together and working on something. It’s not you calling a friend and saying “hey, why don’t you come over and let’s do scrapbooks together and have fellowship. Well, maybe you will maybe you won’t. You say, “{Pastor} (name withheld), why are you talking about this?” Because there is incredible joy, listen friends, in genuine “fellowship”. Genuine “fellowship”. And “fellowship” is not some kind of mere friendship, “fellowship” is much deeper than that. It’s not a group of Christians getting together and having a potluck together. It’s so much bigger and deeper and wider than that.”

He went on to explain, in his opinion, what Paul teaches is required to have “genuine Fellowship”.

Deep breath…ok, I’m better. Let’s dive in.

So what’s the big deal? Why am I getting so picky about a word? First of all, even though “fellowship” isn’t used in our everyday vocabulary, I completely disagree with his definition of the word “fellowship”. I believe every situation he listed can be an excellent example of fellowship and yes, even worship, but overall that’s not what this post is about. It’s not the specific word that was used that is the problem. The false-ownership of a word is a problem, but the main issue is the problem behind the problem that I want to focus on. Some people in the Church (again, the Church-at-large) try to separate themselves from the culture in many different areas of life because they believe culture is bad and out to get to them. They isolate themselves and deem there are Christian words, watch only Christian movies, read only Christian books, and condone or criticize things under the banner of “God”, “Jesus”, or “the gospel”, when I wonder if God would want his name attached to some of those things. Yes, I’ll go as far to say this isolation and bifurcation is bad theology. I believe it portrays and creates a fragmented worldview and also creates an “us vs them” mentality. God called us to redeem (reclaim) his creation – this includes culture, but if Christians are separating themselves from culture and simply saying, “Come quickly Lord Jesus”…well, that’s the problem. So how does this “us vs them” mentality form?

Even in society as a whole (Christians and Non-Christians) we tend to hold a fragmented view of certain ideological issues in our lives: sacred vs secular; public lives vs private lives; and church vs state are just a few examples. Some Christians interpret the Bible as proffering this separation (which is borderline Gnosticism), they believe this bifurcation of sacred things and secular things (I don’t like the word “secular”) as acceptable to God. In this post and the next I’m going to hash out and explain a little more why this is not what God desires as our worldview.

{Yes, you can probably think of examples where the fragmentation isn’t a bad thing.  A boys bathroom and a girls bathroom – yes, that’s a good thing. But when the fragmentation does occur in the wrong instances it often leads to an undesired end.}

A bifurcated worldview tries to eradicate the fear of the unknown. And the fear of the unknown can cause us to do some childish things.

Here are two quick examples of a bifurcated worldview and also the fear of the unknown -

(quick note – part of this was written before the firing of Bobby Petrino and I am very impressed with the integral approach Jeff Long took in this situation.)

1) Bobby Petrino. Now, try to take off the razorback-red colored blinders for a second…  I can’t tell you how many times during this whole shameful incident I heard or read somebody say something along the lines of, “He’s our coach, he’s not the pope.”, and “We don’t care what he does on his own time, we just want him to win ball games.” That’s a clear bifurcation of his public life (his job) and his private life (his affair). And below even the waterline of people bifurcating his job from his actions, people have also bifurcated their treatment of a winning coach vs a losing coach. What I mean is, would Arkansans still be holding rallies and fighting for his job if he had an average record as a coach then had the affair, paid the woman and lied to his boss about the accident? Doubtful. Should we just care about wins and losses and not the way he carries himself in the community? Or should we value what the coach does wholly? So why all the angst from Razorback fans? Because Bobby Petrino is a damn good coach – he had won 21 games in the past 2 years and had them in the hunt for an SEC title this year which automatically put them in the hunt for the national title. Well the angst might be from what my favorite KC sports radio host likes to ask, “If not him then who?” Now that Petrino has been fired, what’s on the other side? A possible fear of the unknown. Arkansans don’t know for sure what’s on the other side since there is a coaching search just now starting, but Jeff Long did a damn good job in showing that overall integrity matters and he will attempt to make the appropriate hire. Fear of the unknown: greatly diminished.

2) Now, an example for my Jayhawk brethren on the fear of the unknown. We don’t have to think back too long ago to have a similar example. Roy Williams was our coach from 1989-2003. While on the job for 15 years at KU, Roy racked up – 4 final fours, 2 championship game appearances, several Big8/Big 12 titles, and won 81% of his games – a staggering clip. In 2000, the University of North Carolina’s coach Bill Guthridge retired and UNC (chiefly, Dean Smith) tried to coerce Roy to “come home to North Carolina” to be their coach. Roy graduated from North Carolina and was an assistant to Dean Smith their hall of fame coach. After deliberation Roy declined by saying, “I’m staying.”

This isn’t one of the posts I originally intended to post today but it has so much truth. I don’t have much more to add than what Mike Metzger says (link below). I think he hits the nail on the head…and his thoughts are in line with my continuing theme of how the church needs to think about if it’s solely striving for heaven in the clouds or if it’s also working to bring heaven to earth. By relegating itself to the “heavenly realm” the church has rendered itself insignificant in our present culture. The church “prairie dogs”. What does that
mean? It means the church sticks its head out of its hole in the ground to say what it is against or what it thinks is so wrong in our culture and then it scurries back into the whole – it withdraws from culture only to be heard from in regards to what it disagrees with.

If there was a person that popped in and out of your life only to tell you what’s wrong with your life would you listen to them? Probably not.

We as the church need to work for more relevancy in our culture; but that’s earned, not just given. We earn the right with our friends to speak into their lives, and vice versa.

Another quick analogy. I’m in sales. I believe the products and the service my company provides is better than my competitors but to get the doctors and nurses to use my company I have to build their trust and create rapport. I can’t just walk in, tell the doctor they’re using the wrong company, & they need to use me then walk out and expect them to use me. I show up and talk with them (not at them). I show up again. And again. And again. And after they start using my products I keep showing up; and I have doctors and nurses that I consider friends.

Will you keep showing up? Or will you choose to just prairie dog?

…thy kingdom come thy will be done on EARTH as it is in heaven.

Acts 17: 16-34
Romans 8: 18-25
Romans 15: 1-7

Eating Our Lunch