A Message to the Underdog

You are not defeated.  The game is not over.  The buzzer has not sounded.  Are you ready to admit defeat so easily?  There are 70 year old men climbing Mt. Everest right now.  There are soldiers with prosthetic legs running marathons.  There are women fighting breast cancer and walking arm and arm across a finish line with their beautiful sisters.  There are single mothers trying to finish their college degree while working two jobs. 

There you are: lying on the canvas as the champion stands above you, the ref is counting you out. I have been on that canvas.  The only direction to look is up. The only place you want to stay is down. But I thought about being down and it is not the place I want to be. I am climbing to my feet.  I am not giving up.

You think this battle is against everyone else?  You really think anyone cares who crosses the finish line first? This battle is against yourself. It always has been.  You run at your own speed.  You move at your own pace.  It doesn’t matter if you crawl across the finish line---arms bleeding, feet calloused and blistered.   You are your own personal trainer.  You are your own motivational speaker. You are your own cheerleader.  You are the one that makes it happen.  No one is going to run for you.  It is up to you. Are you going to give up; stay on the mat and in the gutter with the other poor unforgiven souls?  Those who wallow in their own self pity.  Those who pass the blame and give everyone else the regrets they should carry on their own back.

I know it’s not easy.  There will be pain and tears along the way, but many joys as well. You are Columbus kissing the ground upon arrival to the new world.  You are a miner saved from a deep well of darkness.  You are Nelson Mandela arising from his filthy prison.  You are Martin Luther King, Jr. expressing his dream.  You are the smiling scientist accepting a Nobel Prize.  You are a recovering addict watching the sunrise after a year of sobriety.  You are the mountain climber who empathically pounds his stake at the top of the mountain.

Defeat is not in your vocabulary.  The finish line is always in front.  Your eye is always on the prize. Run as if you want to win.

Oh by the way, this is not just about running.  This is about living.  Join the race.

Sincerely,

You  

Making Waves

"Don't you know that your life will amount to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean?” the father told him. With a smile he replied, “Yet what is any ocean but a multitude of drops?”

from Cloud Atlas

Life begins and ends before we know it. Even the line in between our start and our finish is a dash, which also sounds like a short period of time.  Childhood is a blur and then the teenage years are over before we realize it. Young adulthood leads us to our career of choice and future spouse. That is followed by a long (and hopefully satisfying) career and raising children as we inevitably stare retirement in the face. We sit in our comfortable chair trying to understand where the years have gone. Have we made a difference? Have we changed anything or made a dent in this world of 7 billion?

Like a stone thrown into a still lake, we make ripples that spread out from the impact and rock the area near the splash. If we are lucky, it spreads to nearby boats or laps on the shore. Before long it is still again; the pond waits for the next disturbance. Every generation sees its heroes. It’s presidents. It’s sports stars and celebrities. They come upon the scene, steal their 15 minutes of fame and their spot in a hall of fame, a star on a boulevard, or a website, and they fade into oblivion. Should we give up on making a difference? Hide in our rooms and protect what is ours? Or do we fight?

Speaking from the optimist’s camp, I believe we have to make ripples. We can make people happy. We can love our children and our parents. We can change someone’s life by believing in them and letting them know they have potential.  We can stand up for injustice. We can help people see God and the love He offers. We can help them share in the peace that passes all understanding. We can choose to make waves.

Who are the brave? The ones who get out of bed every morning, take a deep breath, and prepare for battle. They are the ones who throw stones into the water and make as many waves as possible during the time of their “dash”. They know the water will calm when they leave. They know it cannot last forever. But they have not given up on making a difference. They have not given up hope for humanity.

And neither have I. I choose to make waves in the areas my life touches and ride the waves that stir around me, carrying hope with me until my dying breath.   

Kiss the Ones You Love Goodnight

"August evenings
Bring solemn warnings
To remember...to kiss the ones you love goodnight

You never know what temporal days may bring
Laugh, love, live free and sing
When life is in discord
Praise ye the Lord"
~from Paperthin Hymn by Anberlin

Once again I found an obscure song that inspires me. It inspires me to love and never stop telling the ones I love how important they are to me. The song is inspired by a loss suffered by one of the band members. I found the following explanation on www.songmeanings.net:

Singer Stephen Christian said the song was inspired by the troubles of his guitarist Joseph Milligan. 

"Right at the time the album was being written, the guitarist Joey Milligan, his sister had passed away from cancer, and she was very young. She was only 29 years old, she had a one-and-a-half year old son and it really, really, just affected the band. It felt like a giant weight was placed on our chest the entire time we were recording." 

Christian added that the song conjured up powerful experiences of his own. 

"So, while I was writing that song, the memory of my Grandmother and also the circumstances that were surrounding us in the studio really made it almost a necessity to write a song getting that off our chests and really showing the listener what we were going through. So, out of that was derived the song, 'The Paperthin Hymn.'"

When I get to the end of my life, I don't want to regret that I didn't tell the people I love how important they are to me. This song also tells me that tragedy will happen, but God is faithful to see us through the darkness.

I am so thankful for the modern-day poetry of song that inspires me daily to love with fervor, depth, and purpose.

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Perfection and Other Lies (A Message to the Church)

“Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in your beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken.”

~Rich Mullins

Perfect bodies. Perfect language. Perfectly pressed shirts and matching shoes. Perfect people. Can we really be perfect? Of course not. But many of us try. Is it good enough to be good? Or is our good not good enough? Who's standards are we trying to keep up with and who are we trying to impress? Can we find a balance between constantly trying to grow and improve ourselves and reaching for the unrealistic goal of perfection?

Years ago, I wanted my children to think I was perfect. They couldn't know about my flares of anger or my occasional slip of the tongue. They couldn't know that I was like everyone else: human. They had to believe that I was Superman. A hero that never fails and always saves the day. Now I know I was doing them an injustice. I should have been transparent about my imperfection. I should have let them know that it’s alright to be human. It is alright to fail. That doesn't mean that we can't be good people. The Bible wants us to be good. To love others. To feed the poor. To make a difference in people's lives. Do we really change people by painting on a smile at church every week and making them believe faith solves all their problems? I wish we could wear signs that tell the world how broken we really are. I wish they knew the pews are filled with a messed up bunch of sinners. Are we afraid the world will reject Christ because they see that we are human..that we are sinners just like them?

I think the best gift we can give to the world is to stop trying to be perfect. That doesn't mean we shouldn't be like Christ. That means we have to realize we will NEVER be like him. More than anything, grace teaches us how utterly impossible it is to be like Him. Yet we strive and reach and fear and paint on the fake smiles week after week. May we be open and broken to a world that needs to know the job of the church is not perfecting its members, but making them see the importance and dependence we all have on grace.

Sorry if I seem cynical or sound like I am bashing the church. I am not. As I have said before, I love the church. And I love God's people. I just want us (myself included) to realize that perfection is a dead end and a source of frustration at best and insanity at worst.

So stop telling them they are broken if they are divorced. Stop reminding them they are going to hell when they know what it takes to get there and what it takes to avoid it. Stop reminding them of the size of your building or try to impress them with your grandiose and lengthy prayers. Just love them. And tell them what grace means to you and that you don't have it all together. Be transparent to the world and they will respect you for it.

I choose to fall on grace. That is my testimony of brokenness: a Christ-follower who is bumped and bruised and imperfect. Just like the rest of the world. 

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How to Shine: Lessons from the Sun

“There on the sun
So bright and young

There on the sun
So bright …you could be anyone

Above the clouds there is a canvas ocean blue
And all the lost balloons and rainbow ends swim there
Higher still the stars are shining out the truth
That here is there and there is everywhere

Up there on the sun
So bright and young
There on the sun
So bright you could be anyone

Here in this place
There is evidence enough that I can change
Here in this place
I’m a shadow of what I could be.”

~Smalltown Poets from There on the Sun

I love when I am listening to music at the gym and I hear an obscure song that probably no one has ever heard. It’s called “There on the Sun” by Smalltown Poets and some of the lyrics are above. I know that are many strange references in the song, especially the line about “rainbows and lost balloons”. However, my favorite line is “There on the sun..you could be anyone.” I know it is partly a reference to heaven and the fact that eternity affords us the luxury of being anything we want to be. We have forever to get it right and enjoy it.

I think the song also speaks to human potential. I have been thinking about the dreams we reach for and the promises we make to ourselves. “I will be happy and successful…” “I will always work out…” “I will read my Bible every day…” “I am going to be a better person that I was 3 years ago….” I got to wondering why we make the promises in the first place, and also why we break them. Sorry, but I don’t have the answer. Maybe you do. We could blame it on sin, the human condition, the fickleness of our brains, or a number of other factors. The fact is that our potential to do amazing things exists and it is as clear and limitless as the Sun.

Scientists say the sun will burn out in about 3 or 4 billion years. Obviously, there is no reason to worry about something that far away. It runs on the process of nuclear fusion, which creates a natural, sustainable, and undying source of energy. It burns continually and gives light to everything around it. The sun is the source of life for all living things. When I think of a role model for meeting my potential, I look to the Sun. Alright, so I know you are thinking I am crazy because it is not a living object. But bear with me. When I think of a goal, be it losing weight, training for a run, finishing my degree, or reading my Bible, it has to burn within me for me to be successful. I have to have a passion for it. It needs to be bright enough for all to see. Finally it needs to be lofty and unquenchable. If it’s not, it will burn out.

I see people all the time that have burned out. Given up. The fire is out. How sad and how true that is about the reality of the human spirit. As we look to these Olympic games and also reflect on our goals and dreams, may we be inspired to burn with passion for the goals we wish to accomplish and for what is truly important in our lives. May I reflect on the blinding, burning, and unquenchable fire of my goals and passions as I see them come to pass. If not, my life is a burned out torch. Any empty and cold moon.

If you have a goal or dream for yourself, let it shine. That’s the only way it will ever happen.

I’ll end with another song. This one may be more familiar: “My future’s so bright…I gotta wear shades!!”

Shine on!!

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