Paved With Good Intentions

Is there anyone out there who doesn't know what is "paved with good intentions"?

If you, in your life, have ever encountered . . .

• a Sunday School teacher, or
• a parent born during the "can do" Twentieth Century, or
• a sanctimonious preacher, or
• a book of well-known quotations, or
• anyone disappointed when you have not followed through on a project,

 . . . then you have heard - 

 

"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions"

 

 This comes to mind for me (and, I suspect for anyone with a Blog) when I look again at the woeful publishing history of this site.  Having said that, my most recent "paving stone" is to publish on Thursdays, by hook or crook.  Stay tuned to see if this happens or if it just becomes part of a new On Ramp for the nether regions.

As a preview (and to put a little pressure on yours truly), let me announce the theme for next week:

"How Did He Know?"

That posting is intended (ooh, that's a dangerous word) as a look "behind the scenes" at an encounter between Jesus and the Pharisees in the 19th chapter of Luke.  In this account of the Triumphal Entry, Jesus' disciples begin to "... rejoice and praise God with a loud voice, saying 'Blessed is the King who comes in the Name of the Lord.  Peace in Heaven and Glory in the Highest.'"

 

When this happens, some Pharisees who are part of the multitude ask Jesus to "rebuke" his disciples (in modern parlance, 'tell them to shut up!').  That's when Jesus makes his memorable reply:

"I tell you, if these are silent,

the very stones will cry out."

That's an intriguing image.  Once when I was working on learning this story, the thought came to my mind that maybe he had actually had that happen before - which led me to working on a story called "How Did He Know?"  The story is intended as a kind of Midrash on Luke 19.  A Midrash, as I understand it, is part of a long (mostly, but not exclusively Jewish) tradition of fiction which expands & expounds on Scripture by using imagination to think about stories from Scripture.

 

Since I have no (paying) Editors to give me publishing deadlines, I'm giving myself one, by way of the Leaving Nadderby blog.  Check back - God-willing you should at least find the first installment right here - in the words of my generation: 'same time, same station'.

 

If you do not find it here by then, you have my permission to mutter and complain.

 

Where else are you going to find a deal like that?

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[A little more about Midrash, if you have never encountered that before (or even if you have), can be found at White Fire: The Art of Writing Midrash - by Alicia Ostriker - interesting reading.]

Refreshing Candor at Christmastime

[First things first - my thanks to friend & UM Minister extraordinaire Brad Martin for getting me this picture.  I saw it as I was leaving Parkview UMC in Miamisburg (Ohio) but didn't get a picture until Brad was willing to tromp out there on foot & get it & send it to me - muchas gracias, Brad (I was going to try to say that in Hindi or Tamil in honor of your recent trip to India, but Google Translate let me down)].

It's good to be reminded occasionally that if you are trying to live a Kingdom kind of life, you will spend a lot of time 'swimming upstream' with regard to the world in which we live.

We don't need to be reminded so that we can think bad thoughts about that heathen world 'out there', but so that we remember why we keep running into lots of people/philosophies/lives headed in a different direction.

As a (not so) proud owner of my very own Storage Unit, this sign made me laugh out loud -  NOT at the folks at Advantage Self Storage, but at my own sometimes fevered attempts to hang on to my Stuff (George Carlin, you were right again).

Again, our job is not to throw rocks at the folks who aren't trying to live as members of the Kingdom, but to make our own course corrections day by day.  Remember the complete list of rules for how to live as members of God's Kingdom:

1. Remember Christ is Lord.
2. Don't be a jerk.

Namaste 

Christian T-Shirts & Mugs

You've seen the T-Shirts.

"Mom & Dad went to Hawaii

and all I got

was this lousy T-Shirt"

This came to mind yesterday afternoon as I was listening to the new Bishop for the West Ohio Conference* speak at Ginghamsburg UMC.

He spoke, in part, about the difference between Pilgrims & Tourists.  Pilgrims are on a journey to get to somewhere significant.  Tourists want to hit the sights they have seen on postcards and pick up a t-shirt or mug to prove they were there.

My mind almost always moves directly from words to images, and so it was perhaps inevitable that I could immediately see this T-shirt for sale at any number of Christian outlet stores:

"Jesus went to Calvary

and all I got

was this lousy T-Shirt"

In a judgmental moment, I added a postscript to the text on the shirt: '... and most days, to be honest, that was all I wanted out of the encounter'.

I was thinking of how tempting it is to experience what Christ has done as a tourist - or (perhaps even worse) as a member of an audience.

Jesus went to Calvary and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt

 - but that's not a complete story.

Jesus went to Calvary  - . . . and defeated Death and its power over me and all of Creation - and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt

Jesus went to Calvary - . . . and broke the power of Sin and mortally wounded the Adversary - and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt

Jesus went to Calvary  - . . . and opened to door to Life, and to a relationship with the God who made us - he went there and made his death an invitation to live as God's sons & daughters - and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt - 

We need more than spiritual souvenirs.  The world needs more Pilgrims who are going somewhere (to return to the Bishop's words)  "on purpose"  - and fewer Christian tourists.

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The new Bishop for West Ohio is Gregory Palmer.  If you have not heard him yet, I recommend you click on this link as an introduction: Bishop Gregory Palmer preaching on Isaiah - then spend a moment thinking about whether this faith is a spectator sport, or an invitation to be on the front lines fighting against sin & death in a world where the Kingdom sometimes seems very far off.

*(of The United Methodist Church)

CONFIDENCE!

I came across a great phrase in a great book last week.

The book was from 1995: The Trivialization of God: The Dangerous Illusion of a Manageable Deity by Dr. Donald W. McCullough (an under-appreciated book and worth looking up).

In the book the author describes being lost on a rainy night in Edinburgh, Scotland - a city with which he had no familiarity to begin with.  Having gone out alone he found himself without an umbrella or a raincoat in a late-night rainstorm.  Convinced that he could find his place of lodging before getting soaked, he describes himself as setting off "with confidence bolstered by complete ignorance."

'Confidence bolstered by complete ignorance'

 What a phrase - what an idea!

 On the surface it sounds like the worst of a collection of bad ideas, but there are times when that kind of confidence is just what is needed to get us moving.

Many of us know the reality of "analysis paralysis" - the condition of being unable to begin because we cannot see how things will work out perfectly.  To that degree, CBBCI can get us moving without waiting for all the answers - but it can also lead all the way to a brick wall.

That's what happened to the author, who got hopelessly turned around in a driving rain.  Two thing saved him that night.

• A local who knew where he needed to go, and (just as importantly),
• His willingness to give up on the plan begun with only CBBCI and follow the new direction (directions, actually) offered by his rescuer.

Many cultures have noted that the most difficult part of a journey is getting beyond our own front gate.
Boldness - even badly informed boldness - coupled with humility & flexibility, can get us on the road and can even manage to get us somewhere.

The Compleat Guide

I thought I'd better get this down somewhere besides the notes in my office. After a decade or so of telling folks I really needed to get a T-shirt deal - since I had condensed my rules for life down to 2 lines - I think I'd better get to it for real. I'll tell you why after I share the rules.

The Complete Set of Guidelines

for

Living as a Member of the Kingdom of God

1. Remember Jesus is Lord.

2. Don't be a jerk.

Years ago I wrote (but did not publish) a Chorus named "Remember" - built around the line "Remember who you are" - Within a year someone warned me that Disney was also featuring those words in "The Lion King" - Disney, for crying out loud - I couldn't go up against DISNEY - (actually the folks at Disney have been great and have hardly trespassed on the area of Worship choruses at all, so kudos to the boys in legal).

Fast-forward to this week, when a religious group suggested some 'guidelines' that I suspect were intended as snarky ('cause snarky is very big with the young folks now). There was some intellectual congruency between their list & mine (even though they couldn't get Life handled without a third line).

HERE'S THE THING - When I came up with the guidelines above, I meant it. In succeeding years just about everything I've lived or observed has been covered by these two lines:

1. Remember Jesus is Lord.

2. Don't be a jerk.

Most misbehavior by Christians - on the Left or the Right for that matter - could have been avoided by a strict observance of the guidelines (with a special emphasis on not violating Rule #2). Look for the T-shirt soon.

Still a Step Ahead of Molokai

Many are familiar with the story of Father Damien - a Catholic priest who went to serve what was then called a leper colony (for victims of Hansen's Disease) where patients were segregated on a remote point of Hawaii. [Note: any who are not familiar with Father Damien's story will find greater inspiration in looking up his story now than in what follows below - you can always come back here later - it's not crowded].

A famous scene in his biography depicts the moment when Father Damien, who has contracted the disease himself (after disobeying his orders not to touch or share meals with the patients), begins his sermon one day with the ringing words, "My fellow lepers".

My life has not paralled Damien's in any way - not in drama, or sacrifice - and yet I have recently (for wholly different reasons) felt a kinship with that one moment, when anyone can say to what has been an 'other' group: "My fellow __________."

After reading about Ohio's unemployment woes for years, I find that, in one SMALL way, I will be able to join the ranks of those affected by job insecurities in the months ahead. I hope that I have not been without empathy or sympathy before now, but since I now know that 1/2 of my employment (the payment part, anyway) will disappear after October, I feel a stronger connection to the rest of the folks in Ohio (some of them my dearest friends) who have found themselves unemployed, or - to use the vernacular - underemployed.

While supposedly immune to much of this (due to pledging myself to a system which "guaranteed" full employment opportunities to Full Members such as myself), it turns out that one reason these are called "tough economic times" are because sometimes, when reminded of such promises, the powers that be say, "Tough."

Still, I'm several steps ahead of Father Damien - he had died by the age of 49, in virtual exile from the life he had known. [Seriously, if you haven't looked up his story yet, go do so now - it will do you good - you can at least get started at Wikipedia - Search for "Father Damien"].

Stay tuned for the next step for my small part of the journey that is employment in Ohio in 2010. I may have to read (& take seriously) the blogs that have come before on this site. Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor?

Alternate Exit

I loved fire drills when I was a schoolboy. One minute you were stuck at a desk, and the next moment you were allowed - even required! - to go outside. I always wished we would have a fire drill every week (you can tell I don't remember too many rainy or cold fire drills, BTW).

In 1965 one of our fire drills was different.

It wasn't because there was a real fire - that would have been less weird.

When we (Mrs. Morrison's 5th graders) got to our exit door, there stood our Principal - Mr. Hackler. He was wearing a red beanie and yellow work gloves and holding a red flag in each hand. Around his neck hung a sign that simply said, "FIRE".

I like to think that if it had been a real fire blocking our exit we would have done a better job of reacting (by, say, proceeding directly to our alternate exit). Instead we more or less held an impromptu meeting. Some kids asked Mr. Hackler what we were supposed to do - but he was busy being the Fire, and he wasn't any help. I'm pretty sure that our teachers had been instructed not to talk, as well.

Some kids pointed out that it was still possible to get around Mr. Hackler, but by then we had pretty much figured out that this was a test of some sort. That's when we more or less 'voted' to head for the alternate door - which was further away & IN THE WRONG DIRECTION for us to go for a fire drill.

I point out that it was IN THE WRONG DIRECTION so that I can be a little more forgiving of our 5th-Grade selves. It is a fearsome thing (or at least it was in 1965) to go in ANY direction except the normal one. Remember that this is around the era immortalized in "A Christmas Story" (aka - The BB-Gun Movie - the one with Ralphie). There is that great moment when the recess bell rings and they all desert their friend who has just become frozen to the flagpole by accepting a dare to lick it. Why do they leave him there? As Ralphie 'explains' - "I don't know. The BELL rang!"

We didn't easily decide to go in aberrant directions - but sometimes the Fire is real.

Sometimes there really is a brick wall in our way. Sometimes we figure out that continuing on in the way we expect to go will not only be impossible - it may hurt us to try to hang on to Plan A.

Thank God for Plan B (& C, D, E, etc.) - even though it's almost always painful to turn away from Plan A. There just may be life outside that alternate exit.