God and Football

This won't be the most edifying blog-post I have ever written, but it will offer some insight as to what I have been upset about lately.  Boise State University is the best football team in the entire country, they hale from a middle-class farming town, they aren't connected to th entrenched establishment of football in this country, and therefore will not be playing in the National Championship Game.

I should begin by saying that I was raised in Boise for 12 years of my upbringing, and, growing up as a child of modest means, the only thing to do in Boise in the 1970's was fish for mud suckers in the canals around the town perimeter, and go to football games to watch the Broncos play - a team who were, at that time, only a little bit better than a Jr. High girl's field hockey team....

I could spend some time in this post complaining about the fact that no other team wants to play Boise, who is a great team, because they don't want to run the risk of losing to the Broncos, and effecting their own win loss record.  I could lay out arguments about how the Boise football scenario is emblematic of an entire elitist class structure in this country that usually keeps people in middle and low income areas trapped in poverty and marginality.  I could ask the question of why we even have a National Championship game at all (the BCS), and why college sports has devolved into a commercialized empire that is today more about money than educational opportunity.  I could ask the question of why we have decided to pick a National Champion based on a computer polling system, rather than the opinions of real live human beings....

But I won't

I am just going to commit this whole thing to God, and know that our God (Jesus Christ) came to a place and a town not so different from Boise, Idaho to minister to people who nobody else wanted to play a sporting event against.  And he made them, and all of the rest of us, winners in the process!

All the For Now,

GB

Faith is a Fight

Faith is complex!  Whenever I hear a person say; "just believe", or, "faith is simple," or, "that guy has a simple faith," I want to cringe.  Saying that faith is simple is like saying a nuclear reactor is simple, E=MC2 is simple, quantum mechanics is simple, or the Human Genome Project is simple.  Faith simply isn't simple.  Faith the most complex and most difficult human experience in our entire lives.  

I am convinced that God meant for faith to be the most basic elemental building block in every human life, as well as being the most complex meta-physical dynamic in the entire universe.  The Bible says; "Faith is being sure of what you hope for, and certain of what you do not see."  (Heb. 11:1).  Oh...Now I get it....:-)

Here are some ideas that have helped me to begin to grasp some small part of my own, "faith walk".     

1.  Faith is trust.  Faith is allowing our own cognitive understanding of a problem be superseded by our trust that God has a better plan, a better answer, a fuller understanding.  

2.  Faith is belief.  Faith is a deep sense of belief that God's plans will prevail, even when we don't understand them.

3.  Faith is knowing.  There is always small "k" knowing and big "k" knowing.  Small "k" are the things we know based on facts.  Big "k" knowing is represented by the things we understand that is not based on facts.  I know, for example, that my wife is at work right now and that she is alive.  She is living and breathing.  I do not have facts in front of me to support this, but I know it

4.  Faith is a feeling.  When we feel deep down that something is true, we can't explain it, but we intuit an understanding.  My mother woke up the other day and just felt that her brother had passed away.  She felt...capital "F" feeling.  At that moment, the phone rang, her brother had just passed away, 5,000 miles from her.

Here is my latest out of the box idea....Faith is actually also a fight!  Everything in this world has a tendency to pull our gaze, our focus or our heads downward.  So, Faith is the daily fight that we engage in to hold our head up, despite the things that work to pull our gaze downwards.

Our faith as Christ followers isn't an etherial philosophical dynamic that stands alone...

***  Our Faith is in Jesus Christ.  Literally, what we hold fast to in our lives is the idea that our Trust, our Belief, our Knowing, our Feeling, our Fight resides within the living reality of Jesus Christ.  Inside of it...

So, as I was saying...faith is complex

All for now,

GB 

Sadness and Fear

I woke up today to learn about a friend who just lost his job and who, with his new wife, has to vacate his apartment and move in with his parents.  I was contemplating this loss and my sadness for him as I sat at my computer in my office at home.  My heart full of sorrow for him. My office was silent, except for the clicking of my computer keys.  Then, out of nowhere, a voice behind me said, "Hi, how are you?"  I jumped nearly a foot out of my chair.  As it turns out, my own wife had forgotten to tell me that the house cleaners were coming today and that they would let themselves in with their own key. Now, here's the thing, I am not a generally fearful person.  I don't jump very often when I watch a movie that's scary, or get bad news...

What am I rambling on about?  I think there is a sometimes a connection between sadness and fear.  When we are sad we are more prone to being afraid.  When we are afraid, it is often a result of some depressing situation that we are dealing with.  I wish I understood synaptic neurological psychological programming of the human brain enough to know if there is any scientific proof for my newfound theory.   

As I have observed the recent downturn of our economy in America, I have wondered about the connection between sadness and fear.  People are hurting, so they become afraid about their lives and then they lash out.  

The Bible says, "there is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made in perfect love." (1 John 18)

I suppose the simple remedy for fear then, is to reach beyond sadness, somehow, and look for perfect love.  Jesus Christ is perfect love.  He is the only one who has ever been perfect.  He is the only one who has perfectly loved us.  Knowing how to embrace perfect love, however, is another question.

For now, I will try to remember whom I have given the key to my house, and when I they might be stepping into my office unannounced.

All for Now,

GB

Lekhayim!!!

So, I am visiting my family in Merced this weekend.  My very macho, very farming, very cowboy, very American family.  This is family that have been in California for 6 generations, and involved with winning rodeos, growing Almonds (AMANDS), staking claims on property, spitting in the mud - tobacco or whatever else.  We're talking apple pie, chevrolet (or at least Ford F150), and all that.

So, we are looking at family photographs hanging on the wall - iconic photographs, the kind that get hung in the Whitehouse and places like that.  And my great second aunt once removed says, "That's a picture of Adam Kahl....who was, of course, Jewish!"  My aunt carried on in her prattle about family history, like she had done it a hundred times before.  "Hold on," I said.  "What was that about my great, great, great grandpa being Jewish?"  "Well, it's a family secret, nobody wants to talk about it, but he was Jewish.  It is confirmed.  I mean look at him, he was as Jewish as...." "Alright, Alright I got it," I said.  "So, that makes me about 10% Jewish? I asked.  "Looks like it," said my aunt.

It has taken me three days to process this new information about myself.  Frankly, I'm elated.  I always knew there was something sort of unique about myself that I have been unable to put my finger on for years.  For years I thought it was a cognitive programming, attitudinal behavior, what have you.  Finally, I know what it is.  I am part Jewish.  I am of the same race, at least in part; of Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, John Stewart, Sarah Silverman....and Jesus! Lekhayim!!!

Honestly, I don't have any particularly deep insights about this newly discovered personal revelation.  Except this...Embrace where you have come from, Embrace from whom you have come, and most of all, who you have been made - in Christ.  For all of us, our personal identity is made up of our cultural heritage, our national ethnicities, our environmental influences, our biological makeup.  And yet, the most important thing about ourselves is that when we are Christ followers, we are one in Christ.  The apostle Paul said it better; Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above...Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian...but Christ is all, and is in all (Col. 3:1-11).

Come to think of it, Paul was also Jewish...

All for now, 

Graham "Jesse" Baird

 

Eagles and Wings

I've been thinking about eagles lately - and our faith.  If you've ever had the opportunity to view an eagle on the edge of a precipice or a cliff, it's a stunning sight.  The eagle sits perched, very high above the earth, sovereign and sturdy.  Then, seemingly without word, the eagle tips forward and drops.  A full grown eagle can weigh up to 60 pounds.  60 pounds of bird drops about 50 feet to the earth.  Then, an incredible thing happens.  The eagle begins to spread it's wings.  The spreading of the wings begins slowly at first - emerging from the side of the bird like two automatic doors on slow mode - extending out.  The bird continues to drop.  The wings keep getting extended.  One foot, two feet three feet, four feet - the wings spread.  The bird keeps dropping.  And then, at five feet the eagle's descent begins to slow.  He hasn't stopped his fall quite yet.  The wings, extended at five feet are only a baffle against the wind and the air. And then, as if another button is pushed inside of the eagle, the tips of the feathers begin to get extended - like five long fingers on each side.  It is only when the wings are fully extended, and the feather tips are extended that the bird finally begins to take flight and soar.  It's a majestic thing to behold.  Swooping upward, the bird reaches it's wings even further by extending it's shoulders to the distant horizons.  The eagles soars!

Now, here's the thing.  God has made us humans like eagles - in one important respect.  We too must extend our wings as far as possible if we are to take flight.  Like the eagle, our descent, our fall (our FALL) continues to happen in our lives, every day of our lives, unless we use every inch of the wings that God has given us to fly with.  

What are our wings?  Our wings consist of faith, hope, love, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, trust, trust, trust, positive feelings, ambitious concepts, inspiring dreams, trust, trust, trust...

Most people go through life with their wings at half extension.  Or, they extend their wings fully, only to quickly pull them back into their body - ashamed, or afraid to take full flight.  Or, at full extension, we constantly wonder if our wings are "out there too far" "maybe there are holes in the wings somewhere" "perhaps our wings will break off".  And so, we fly with an inner trepidation that makes flying much less possible and certainly less enjoyable.

It is only through Christ (through our faith - trust) in God that we can actually have the strength to fully extend our wings - our lives.  The book of Isaiah says, "those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.  They will soar on wings like eagles..." (Is. 41:31).

Ask God to help you extend the wings of your life further than they have ever been extended.  I have recently come to the conclusion that as an eagle/human, I have only been flying at half extension most of my life.  Full flight comes through trust.  Trust me, Trust God, the fall you are experiencing will come to a halt, and your true flight will begin.

All for Now,

GB

A Window Pane Away...

This morning I had a bit of a traumatic experience with my 2 year old - Haley.  While putting Haley in her car seat, I accidently allowed her to grab my keys, and in the process inadvertently lock all of the car doors.  Haley was on the inside - Daddy was on the outside

For a good 10 minutes I tried to communicate with my 2 year old.  "Haley, will you please unlock the car?" "Just push the button on the door, push the button." "Haley, just reach down an open the car door handle."  Beaming with a smile, Haley was thoroughly enjoying the experience.  With me safely on the outside, and her a window pane's distance from being punished, Haley took advantage of the experience.  She actually opened up an entire packet of gum and began to inhale a huge piece of Hubba Bubba (maybe inhale isn't the right word).   

All the while that Haley was on the inside of the car, a commotion was developing in the parking lot.  People were overhearing my pleas to my 2 year old and were convinced that I was an abject parent and that they must intervene.  In fact, one woman, a self proclaimed parking lot protector, offered to call the cops.  "Shall I call the police?" she asked.  "No, it's under control" (It really wasn't under control, but I wanted to make it look like it was...).  Before I knew it, this well intentioned "do gooder" was delivering my license plate number to the Paso Robles - DMV."

Fortunately, about a half hour later, and a packet of chewing gum longer, Haley was freed from the confines of my car, when she figured out how to open the door on her own...none the worse for the wear (the same cannot be said of her father).

This somewhat traumatic experience made me wonder if God doesn't feel the same way about us at times.  Does God feel that He wants to communicate with us, but that we are just as innocently (sometimes not so innocently) oblivious to God's pleas for connection?  Does God care about us as much as I care about my daughter, and is He as worried about our safety as I was about Haley's safety?  Is the substance that separates us from the full love of God as thin and yet sometimes as impenetrable as a pane of glass?

The answer to all of these questions is "Yes".

My word for the week?  Let God connect with you today.  He is worried about you, and is trying to get through.  God is actually less than a window pane away.  Also, don't let your 2 year old play with the car keys...

All for now,

GB

The Bloom is off the Prayer

Many of the people who speak with me about their "Spiritual Life", complain that they are suffering from a lack of theological excitement; that there is nothing new in their Spiritual walk; that there is nothing fresh in their faith.  One man recently said, "I have no more mountain in my top."  My recent conversations have led to an increasing sense that people are looking for "highs" in faith that may not, in fact, exist.  Maybe they need to be more in touch with the "lows".

Recently, I have been reading about the life of Martin Luther (originally Luder).  The primary driving dynamic in Luther's life was a fear of God - more specifically that God would condemn him to hell.  While this daily and perpetual fear of damnation may seem strange to us in our modern world, Luther was plagued by such thoughts.  Luther lived every day of his life with a petrifying fear of being condemned by God - even though he was a relatively holy person.  In order to minimize his chances of being sent to a fiery eternity, he spent every moment of his life in worship, prayer, meditation, penitence.   Luther would literally spend hours in confession with a fellow priest, confessing every tiny confession of his day ("Dear Lord, I did not remember to pray before breakfast...and when I did pray, it wasn't in total adoration..."). In response, Luther's confessor would tell him to "lighten up"  - that his confessions were not real confessions and that he had, in fact, done nothing really wrong.

The juxtaposition between the recent connections I have had of people who feel no loftiness in their Spiritual Life and the depth of despair that Luther felt and which drove him into deep prayer, made me begin to think that the primary problem with modern Christ followers is not that they are not in touch with the "highs" of faith, but that they are not in touch enough with the "lows" of faith.  Maybe what is needed for people is a fair and healthier measure of fear.  Soren Kierkegaard wrote a book called, "Fear and Trembling."

If we were to be more in touch with the fears of our faith perhaps the "Bloom would be off the Prayer" but our prayers would be more real...and maybe our highs would feel more "high".

All for Now,

GB