Generalities and Specifics

A wise person once told me (and I literally can't remember which wise person, because I have had so many in my life) that:

"The Devil works in Generalities, the Angels work in Specifics."

What I think my wise friend was saying in this axiomatic phrase is that a lot of damaging things happen in life when people use generalizations, rather than giving specific details about a situation.

We see this a lot in politics today - on both sides of the isle.  Here are some gems from just this past week that came through cable news outlets: "Democrats are doing this country a lot of harm." "Republicans are all only interested money."  "Immigrants are all criminals."  "Billionaires are always selfish." "All news media is fake."  "Californians are all crazy." "New Yorkers are all cold hearted." "Southerners are all racist." "White people are all detached from reality." While it, of course, may be the case that some Democrats do harm, some Republicans are financially focussed, some immigrants take part in criminal activity, some billionaires are selfish, some news media fibs on the truth...(you get the picture), it cannot be said that anything happens all of the time.

"The Devil works in Generalities, the Angels work in Specifics."

This also happens on the interpersonal front.  Not long ago a couple came into my office for pastoral counseling.  They had been struggling in their marriage.  I began by asking the wife what her issues with her husband were.  She said, "He never gives me affection."  The husband retorted with, "She is always ragging on me."  After about half an hour of this, I asked the wife to see if she could remember any time in their marriage when her husband had been affectionate.  She paused, "when we were first married, he used to take me on dates."  I returned the question to the husband, "She used to tell me how many things I did well."  You could see from the looks on their faces that a breakthrough had been made.

"The Devil works in Generalities, the Angels work in Specifics."

A person stopped me at church recently and told me, after a worship service, "A lot of people are upset about...(the flowers arrangement, to use a hypothetical example)."  Concerned, I asked, "Who is upset?"  "I can't tell you that's confidential."  "How many people are upset about this?" "Lots", "But how many?"  "I can't tell you."  "What specifically are they upset about?" "They're just upset."  I could see I wasn't getting anywhere. The rest of the day I wondered to myself who it was that was upset, how many, what they were upset about?  The generality left me feeling enervated.  A specific would have helped me to work on the problem.

"The Devil works in Generalities, the Angels work in Specifics."

It turns out that this saying is actually true from a Biblical standpoint.  Think of the first encounter we have with the devil in the Bible in the garden of Eden.  The snake comes to Eve and encourages her to eat an apple from the tree of good and evil.  Eve thinks its a bad idea.  The snake gives Eve a generalized response; "Your eyes will be opened, you will be like God."  It's a generalization.  Eyes opened to what?  Like God how?  What qualities of life will Eve get from the apple that she doesn't already have in the perfect garden?

The corollary to this is that every angel we encounter in the Bible gives specific instructions and details.  When the angel announces the birth of Jesus, he is extremely specific; "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.  This will be a [specific] sign to you - you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."  Specific details - time, place, name, sign.  Clarity.

Another pithy way of communicating this same principle is; "clarity reduces conflict," "generalizations are always pathologies."  But, of course, I just made a generalization about generalizations, so, I guess...count that one out.

So, today, try to be as specific as you can be today about whatever is happening in your life.  What you may find out is that the angels are closer to you than you think!

All For Now,

GB

Grow Old With Me...

During Christmas vacation I had a chance to go through some old boxes of papers from my mother's, Scottish, side of the family.  Some of those papers had to do with my grandparents who were interned during World War II in Japanese concentration camps in the country of Borneo (more specifically, the Batu Lintang Camp in the present city of Kuching).  My grandparents, Donald and Nini, were interned for 3.5 years, along with their two children, Ranald and Sheena.  Finally, when the war came to an end, Nini, my grandma, was able to go visit her favorite sister who was living in Scotland.  She had waited through the war to see her, and now that the war was over, she could go and visit her.  On the way, home my grandma received a tragic letter that, sadly, her sister, Isabel, had just passed away.  Isabel was just 42 at the time.  It was these papers from Isabel that I read for the first time this Christmas.

My grandma and grandpa's wedding picture, from before the war, is included above.  Nini (my grandma's) sister Isabel, is shown in the background, second from the left.

One line that instantly jumped out at me from one of Isabel's last letters to her sister (my grandma) were:

Grow Old With Me...The Best Is Yet To Be

When I read that line, it brought a tear to my eye.  It's such a beautiful and poetic line about life, and the perseverance through it, and that sadly, this was not the case for Isabel, who died too young.

Grow Old With Me....The Best Is Yet To Be

It's a positive affirmation that time marches on, life moves forward, we all grow older, and yet, the best things in life often await us in older age.

Grow Old With Me...The Best Is Yet To Be

It's an affirmation that the best things in life lay before us and not behind us.  Often we feel that the best things in our lives are in the past.  People who think this way are often prone to deep periods of regret or remorse or grief.  People who believe that the best things are yet to come are often more hopeful, more joyful, more contented.  Though things may not be perfect in the present, The Best Is Yet To Be.

The apostle Paul put the same sentiment in a slightly different way; "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you, will carry it through to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:6).  What Paul is saying here is that God will make sure that the best things in our lives not only continue to happen in this life, but will happen in the life to come.

It was this assurance, too, that helped my grandma, Nini, cope with the notion that her favorite sister had died.

Grow Old With Me...The Best Is Yet To Be!

All For Now,

GB

No One Else Is Having More Fun:-)

So, today is New Year's Eve.  It is 3:34 post meridian to be exact.  This marks my 46th new year's eve, which if you are good at math, you can figure out how old I am as well.  And here's what I have experienced in at least 40 of those years of New Year's celebrations (grant you my 6 year old New Year's celebration involved popcorn and an early showing of Mr. Rogers neighborhood):

No One Else is Having More Fun:-)

For 46 years I have sought out the most fun thing I could think of doing on New Years Eve.  I have sought out the most fun celebrations when I was single in my twenties.  I have searched out the most happening locales, which I did when I was married without kids.  I have undertaken the most entertaining restaurants, house parties, church activities, venues, places, spaces and more.  To this end I have celebrated Hogmanay (the Scottish version of New Years) in Glasgow, Scotland.  I have watched fire works shot into the sky over the Nile River in Cairo, Egypt.  I have visited happening night clubs in Copenhagen, Denmark, and in Minnesota (actually went to Prince's famous Purple Rain bar).  I have eaten at some of the nicest restaurants (The CIA "Culinary Institute of America" - Greystone, in Napa being my favorite).  I went to fun house parties in San Francisco on the boundary of the Castro and Noe Valley where my sister used to live.

And here's what I have found.  No matter where I was at the time, I always thought someone else was having more fun.  I would invariably be sitting in a room of people, say in San Francisco, who, when the ball dropped on New York's Time Square, were watching the television screen.  And everyone watched with a pining inner angst as they watched other people having more fun than them.  And then, everyone would look around the room at each other, and the glance in their eyes said, "I wish I was there in that place, rather than here in this place."  But guess what?

No One Else is Having More Fun:-)

New Year's Eve is one of the most aspirational holidays that, to be honest, never seems to meet its own aspirations.  I have spoken with people who were standing but a few feet away from the ball dropping in Time's Square in New York, and within eyeshot of the equivalent of Anderson Cooper and Kathy Lee, and they were totally miserable.  The temperature was like 25 degrees with wind chill, and all of them standing there were wondering if someone else around the world was having more fun.  Actually, I have heard that in New York, they show pictures of places like Dubai and Sydney and London, and everyone wonders of they are having more fun in those places.  But, you get the picture:

No One Else is Having More Fun:-)

So, wherever you are tonight, and however you are celebrating.  Whether you are in Salem, Oregon, or Boise, Idaho, or Decker, Michigan.  Whether you are sitting around with kids or grandkids.  Whether you are in a nursing home in Pasadena, California.  Whether you have money, or no means at all.  Whether you have someone to kiss when that yard arm reaches it's median point, and crosses over into the new year.  Realize this:

No One Else is Having More Fun:-)

So, make the most of where you are!

All For Now,

GB

The First Televangelist

I was reading a book recently about the 16th century Reformer, Martin Luther.  WAIT!  I know, Martin Luther is sort of a boring topic to write a blog post about.  However, I just learned something very interesting about Martin Luther.  He was really the first "televangelist", "mass media pastor".  In today's terms he might have been considered the Rick Warren of pastors, or Billy Graham, or what have you.

As you know, the Gothenburg Press was just being invented and used for mass communication purposes about the time of the Reformation.  What I didn't realize, is that Luther never really intended for his famous "95 Theses" to be published.  Luther simply wrote up a series of debating theses, for his students at seminary to be debating in class, that involved the Catholic Church.  You remember your debate days: "Resolved that a Comprehensive System of Health Care Reform be Implemented". Someone found his theses, thought they were so good, that they mass produced them and sent them around the entire German countryside.  Before Luther knew it, he was famous.

This has gotten me to thinking about the importance of mass communication when it comes to modern day church work.  When I was first starting New Churches with my brother Jamie, about 10 years ago, the best way to get your name out as a church was to send mass mailers in snail mail.  These still have some impact.  However, today, online platforms like Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, are actually much better.  Each week, I film a little video snippet for these, letting the larger community know what God is doing at Burlpres.

Frankly, this blogsite used to be a wonderful way to reach people, however, technology has changed, as new digital platforms have emerged.

If you are a pastor of a church, or are in a congregation that doesn't use mass media to reach the larger world, you are missing out.  If Martin Luther could do it, so can you!

All For Now,

GB

Divine Accidents

I am watching a Netflix documentary on the late, and some would say great, film maker named Orson Welles.  The truth be told, I have never really been an Orson Welles fan, and thought Citizen Kane (1941, pictured above), was only ok.  Keep in mind that I lived on the Central Coast for a while, near to where the real subject for that movie, William Randolph Hearst lived (Hearst Castle) and I have a slightly different interpretation on Hearst's character.  But I digress.

Orson did say something that I want to write about today.  He said that all films would be totally boring if it weren't for one important thing:

Divine Accidents

Actually the exact quote was; "The greatest things in movies are divine accidents."

Divine Accidents - says Welles, are things that happen in the directing process that are not what you planned, but rather are accidents that make a film much better than it would have been.  Throughout his career, Welles tried to cultivate these experiences.  When an actor or actress messed up a line, Welles would sometimes leave that "mess up" in the movie, because it made the scene seem more real.  When a bird would fly through a shot, or a sunset would be covered by a cloud, Welles would keep these in the movie as well.  These Divine Accidents made Welles' films seem more real, more palpable, more down to earth.

I have been thinking that ministry is really about Divine Accidents as well.  That is, the things that you plan in ministry don't always turn out the way you would like them to, but those mis-haps are actually better.  Here are some of my favorite examples:

1.  When my brother Jamie and I were starting a new church in Paso Robles, we were out playing the bagpipes one night, trying to take a photo for a promotional piece we are doing.  Across the street was a local TV station filming a news story for a low news day about a "fake bank robbery".  Before we knew it, the film crews that night were over filming my brother and I about the start of our new church, Highlands, and on the evening news that night, they led with that story from Paso Robles!  A divine accident.

2.  About a month ago, I bought a present for a person that I wanted to show some appreciation for.  This person had done a lot for the church, and I wanted to show them how much we were grateful to them.  Unfortunately the person that the present was meant for seemed to be on a long vacation, and hadn't picked up the gift.  Then, someone else happened by with the same name, took the gift and assumed it was for them.  They opened it, and were so grateful.  We didn't tell that person that the gift wasn't meant for them.  Maybe God meant the gift for the second person after all.  A divine accident.

3.  My wife was working a job recently that wasn't a fit for her, and she wasn't happy with.  One day, when doing a routine call to another agency on a professional matter, that other agency said, "Hey, is this Star?  How are you?  Are you looking for work, another job?"  Star said, "Actually I am, I am not that happy in this job."  So, Star applied with this other agency, and lo and behold she loves her new job.  A divine accident.

Whether or not you like Orson Welles' directing, perhaps you might agree with him that some of the best things in life are things that seem to happen by accident.  Or perhaps, with God, nothing is really an accident...

All For Now,

GB

A Modern Day Exodus Story

Let me share with you one of my favorite Biblical texts: "Leaving Succoth, they camped in Etham at the edge of the wilderness.  The Lord guided them by a pillar of cloud during the daytime, and by a pillar of fire at night.  So they could travel either by day or night.  The clouds and fire were never out of sight" (Exodus 13:20-22).  This is the account of when the Israelites first left Egypt, in about the year 1,500BC, and fled pharaoh (a brutal and awful dictator), to hopefully make it to the Promised Land.  What is so amazing about this text, is that even now, thousands of years later, you can still feel the deep fear and pain that the Jewish people faced as they left Egypt.  Would they make it to the Promised Land?  Would they die in the desert?  How long would the journey take?  Would they be welcomed when they reached the Jordan River, or would they be turned away?

Now, let me share with you a news clip from last week's news about a caravan of Guatemalan and Honduran refugees who are currently fleeing an equally despotic and evil regime: "A caravan of Central American migrants marching into Mexico bound for the United States grew to at least 5,000 people Sunday despite threats by the United States to seal the border.  The throng, many from Honduras, streamed across a bridge over the Sachiate River connecting Guatemala with Mexico" (USA Today, Oct. 22, 2018).  Similar to the story of the refugees who left Egypt 3,500 years ago, the modern day Exodus of immigrants tells an equally harrowing tale.  These are people who have nothing left to lose.  They have nothing else to live for, except the possibility of finding freedom in Mexico or the United States.  The same questions apply.  Will these people make it to the Promised Land?  Will they die in the desert?  How long will the journey take?  Will they be welcomed when they reach the Rio Grande, or will they be turned away?

As an undergraduate I studied Political Science at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.  What I learned from my undergraduate degree is that political problems are always more complex than the pat and simple answers that politicians often give.  There are times for "Realpolitik" (tough solutions), and there are times for "Amnesty" (more gracious solutions).  That said, if I was President of the United States I don't really know what I would do to help with this problem.  My gut tells me I would follow the advice of modern day political adviser David Gergen, and former adviser to 5 Presidents, and give Honduras and Guatemala each a billion dollars in aide, help to move along the dictatorships in those countries, and help the Mexican government to build a kind of wall along the southern border of Mexico.  But again, I am not President.

The real question is not what should have been done, but what should the United States do now?

What I do know is that as Christians, whenever we read the Bible, we should look around us for modern day examples of the accounts we read about.  So, when we see a homeless person by the side of the road asking for money, we should be reminded of the time when Peter met the man outside the temple and prayed with him, "silver or gold I do no have, but what I do have I give you.  In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk" (Acts 3:6).  When we see a single mother in a supermarket, holding a baby in one hand, and a basket cart in another, we should offer to give her some help, buy her a bottle of water at least.  When Jesus encountered a woman like this by a well, he struck up a conversation and he gave her hope, "Woman, you are not far from the kingdom of God" (John 4:25-26).  And I know that when we see a modern day of oppressed people, who have nowhere else to turn, we should hear an echo from the distant past about our own people, our own lineage of faith, who fled a similarly desperate set of circumstances.  And we should remember how the Exodus ended for the Israelites - in freedom: "Then all the people crossed at a spot where the river was close to the city of Jericho, and the priests who were carrying the Ark stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan and waited as all the people passed by" (Joshua 4:16-17).

All For Now,

GB

My New Friend

It is no surprise to anyone who has known my ministry for any amount of time, that I am a big fan of the Schuller family.

If you don't know who the Schullers are, I apologize, the next blog post will be for you:-).

In high school, when I was just sixteen years old, I will never forget taking out my Walkman cassette radio (bear with me if you are a millennial), and place in that Walkman a cassette of Robert Schuller Sr.'s powerful talk on the "Power of Possibility Thinking".  On a snowy winter evening in Salt Lake City, Utah, I listened to a riveting talk by Dr. Schuller about how the, "greatest churches in the history of the world haven't even been founded yet."  On that wintery evening in December, I decided that THAT is what I wanted to do with my life (even though I definitely didn't ever want to be a pastor).

Later, in college, I visited a conference on preaching by Robert Schuller, and met Schuller and told him that I wanted to go into politics in my life.  He said to me, "Graham, I wanted to go into politics too, but I decided to become a pastor instead.  Be a pastor like me, you will never 'term out' as a pastor (the way that a congressman gets term limited out)."  Even though it would be many years after that that I would become a pastor, my conversation with Dr. Schuller went deep.

When my brother, Jamie, and I started Highlands Church, in Paso Robles, many of our main big ideas came from Robert Schuller.  We met in a movie theater in downtown Paso Robles.  We did out of the box things like have a huge beacon at night on Christmas Eve, attracting local party goers to our Christmas Eve service.  Our founding elder in that church, Nancy Richardson, grew up in the Crystal Cathedral, and her father (Wilterink) was a founding elder at Schuller's church in Garden Grove.

Today, I met, Robert Schuller's grandson - Bobby Schuller - who can be seen regularly on Trinity Broadcast Network (TBN) with the "Hour of Power".  And - get this - Bobby Schuller, and his church are joining the Presbyterian Church (USA), the same denomination that I am a part of.  In Bobby's own words; "We think the Presbyterian Church USA actually has a good name brand.  People outside the church actually look up to the PCUSA, and want their kids to grow up in churches connected to the PCUSA.  We, at 'Irvine Pres' are not an open and affirming congregation on same gender issues, but we want to be in conversation with people who hold different opinions on that topic.  We are excited about the future of our congregation in the PSCUSA."

During the course of my one hour meeting, I found Bobby to be extremely thoughtful and kind and engaging.  Even though he comes from a long line of pastoral greats, he doesn't seem to be overburdened by the weight of history, or the expectations that he must feel upon his shoulders.  There is an unabashed optimism about Bobby that is contagious.  He is excited about what the future of the church is for people who are committed to justice issues and who offer vital ministry options for needy people who come to visit local congregations.  Bobby feels that the future of the church is not with denominations, but with local congregations.

I for one am excited about our new friendship with one another.  As I met with Bobby today in Irvine, CA, I sensed that the Holy Spirit was a part of our conversation, and that God was doing something bigger than just a meeting between two pastors.  I sensed that in an ineffable but real way, God was bringing together two young men, whose families have served in the ministry in significant ways, to bring them together to do something great for God.

All For Now,

GB