Getting Rooted at the Right Now Conference

Last week, I had the privilege of attending the Right Now Conference in Dallas and hearing some amazing speakers (Francis Chan, Eric Metaxas, and others). I've been digesting what I heard for a couple days and want to summarize the most pertinent points here -- for your and my benefit.

- The parable of the mustard seed. Note that, when we plant a mustard seed, our end goal is . . . well, mustard. But in the parable, what God accomplishes is a huge plant in which birds build their nests. We have one goal -- God uses our work to accomplish another goal, often something that never even occurred to us. God's purposes are far beyond what we have in mind. Cool. (From Mark Batterson)

- If the Spirit lives in us -- if we really and truly believe that -- why don't we allow Him to live through us more often? Why do we insist on doing things on our own strength? (Pete Briscoe)

- We pray best when we're most aware of our sin . . . when we involve our bodies (knees, anyone?) . . . when we pray our gut-honest desires (which is risky and takes courage) . . . and when we remember God's grace. (Jen Pollack Michel)

- Plagiarism is taking credit for another person's work and words. How many of us commit spiritual plagiarism every day? Taking credit for work that was actually God's. ALL THE TIME . . . (Bryan Carter)

- Larry Osborne spoke about Daniel being a model for the Christian in this post-modern age. He teaches us how to live successfully in Babylon. So much to glean from that. Daniel had humility with the pagans around him. He never copped an attitude about how wrong they were; he spoke with respect and graciousness to them. He made Nebuchadnezzar a better king and a better person, just being with him. He had the wisdom to pick his battles rather than fighting everything wicked around him.

Something interesting he pointed out. Daniel and his friends were brought to be trained "in the language and literature of the Babylonians." That means, they were being taught Babylonian religion -- paganism and the occult. And not only did they not refuse to participate in that education, but God gave them "knowledge and understanding" of what they were learning and more, to the point that when their training was evaluated by the king, he found none equal to them. And this was the only reason that they were allowed to be in the service to the king, that they were put in places of such tremendous influence, that they had ANY credibility with the most powerful rulers of the world at that time, and that we even know their names today. A great argument against the "cocooning" so many Christians do today -- as if knowing the theory of evolution or the basic tenets of Islam will transfer heretical germs to the believer.

- When you accepted Jesus, you accepted the call to missions. Period. No further call is needed.

- Eric Metaxas talked about William Wilberforce. When Wilberforce was saved, he assumed he would need to give up politics (which at the time was an even dirtier profession that it is today). But his pastor, John Newton, told him to stay, to be a light in the place where God had put him and with the gifts God had given him. Again, no cocooning ourselves from the world's dirt and grime: go engage, and learn, and salt, and shine your light.

- God's desire is for us. (Francis Chan) Why do we need to be reminded of that? But we do. Often. God's greatest desire is not for a just society or sinless followers or miserable people or even happy people. God's desire is for a relationship with us. Everything else is either a means to that end or a result of that blessing.

Yep. A good week. Thanks, Paul and Jackie.

ESP: Extra Spiritual Perception

When I was a kid, my best friend and I decided to learn braille, just in case we ever went blind. We also learned to spell in sign language, in case we went deaf. (I don't think we were really as pessimistic as that sounds -- we just liked to learn cool stuff.)

I was pretty fascinated with the idea of living without one of the senses back then. Even more fascinating to me is the idea of being born without one of the senses. Can you imagine never having been able to see? Not having any concept of what color is? And you wouldn't even miss it, because you've never experienced it. I don't know how you'd begin to explain color to someone born blind.

I was also fascinated with the idea of our possibly having senses that we aren't even aware of or using. I mean, we apparently only use a small percentage of our brain's capacity as it is -- who knows what we would be capable of if we were operating at our full potential? Maybe there's another way of "knowing" that we have inborn senses for, but don't know about. ESP and stuff. Yeah.

I kind of outgrew those fantasies a while ago . . . until I read A.W. Tozer, an old theologian who awoke those wonderings in me again.

Tozer notes that, for most people, even Christians, God is an inference more than He is a reality. We infer His existence based on the things we know. All evidence points to the fact that He is there, and that certain things are true about Him, so we assume it is so because we are a people of reason. (Romans says the natural world screams the existence of God, so that we are "without excuse.")

But the Bible doesn't treat God as an inference. When you read closely, the Bible clearly indicates that human beings should have the capacity to know God as a reality, the same way we know our fellow human beings.

How can this be, if God is spirit and we are material? ""We have in our hearts organs by means of which we can know God as certainly as we know material things through our familiar five senses," Tozer explains. "We apprehend the physical world by exercising the faculties given us for that purpose [vision, hearing, touch, etc.], and we possess spiritual faculties by means of which we can know God and the spiritual world if we will obey the Spirit's urge and begin to use them."

Whoa.

Now, these spiritual senses became deadened within us from The Fall, Tozer continues; we have to be spiritually regenerated -- "born again" -- for them to be turned back on so to speak. And even then, we don't know how to use them or even recognize the information they are giving us. (Like color to someone born blind -- how can we even conceive of what this would be like, this completely different way of "seeing" or knowing? How could someone who uses these senses explain it to the rest of us?)

I'll admit: the Realist in me thinks this sounds a bit out there. But the Believer in me recognizes that, as Tozer says, this is a reasonable assumption based on what the Bible teaches, if you believe what the Bible teaches We are made to know God. Not inferentially, but really. And there seems to have been people who have known God that way. I've met a few myself.

So, I've been praying lately for my spiritual senses to be turned on. Knowing God -- really knowing Him -- is what I'm created for, after all.

Driving With No Map

We're nearing the end of our study of the life of Moses in BSF. Last night our teaching leader talked about how we all like to think we'd be more successful and happy if we knew exactly what God had in store for us in our lives. If we knew God's plan for our future, we could prepare for that and be ready.

But, no, probably not. She said if she had known, on her first visit to a BSF class, that she was going to be teaching one someday, she would probably have run for the hills.

She's right. I'm glad I didn't know what was coming up in my life. I would have made stupid decisions that messed everything up.

Lord knows, I never dreamed I would ever be writing and directing plays for students. But if I had, I would have probably tried to take all sorts of classes trying to get better at both skills. I probably would have gotten more involved in theaters, trying to get more experience. I probably would have looked for mentors to attach myself to and learn from. And in the end, the work I do, I would be attributing to my education, experience, and mentors. As it is now, I can only give credit to God, because I have no idea how these plays ever come out as well as they do.

My daughter is very anxious to run into her future, figure out her life calling, get a jump on that today. She so wants to know what God wants her to do with her life so she can immediately start preparing. I keep telling her to chill out on that; God will reveal those things to her in due time. For now, her best preparation is to do the things she loves to do to the best of her ability -- take advantage of the opportunities God places in her lap today.

I had my own Creative Memories business for several years while we lived in New Jersey. As I've already mentioned here, I am SO not a businessperson. I loved making scrapbooks, I loved teaching others how to make them, I loved encouraging others to make the effort to record their life stories . . . but the business side of all this was completely and totally out of my comfort zone. It took a tremendous effort of the will for me to, for example, make business calls -- just thinking of it now makes my hands sweat. I doubt anyone ever knew how hard that was.

But even at the time, I had a feeling that this business venture was merely a means to an end. I always thought that God was using this business to build up certain skills or knowledge in me that He intended to use later for something else.

(Which reminds me of my whining the other day about not wanting to do the work to market my scripts. Sigh! In any case . . . )

No, as much as I always wanted to have a roadmap for where God was going to have me in ten, twenty, thirty years, I'm quite grateful I didn't have that. As uncomfortable as it was sometimes, I'm glad God kept me in suspense, just showing me the next step, one step at a time. Otherwise, I would be taking the glory for it all. My planning. My learning. My doing. My pushing. My knowing. I got myself here. Thank you, God, for making me so capable.

I'm so glad now that I know I'm so incapable. It makes me all the more aware that anything I accomplish is all God's doing. And I'm so much more successful and happy that way.

Yeah, We Could Make Movies

So, I haven't blogged for a while. Science fair, spring break starting, family in town . . . you know how it goes. We're on spring break this week, but I still won't have an excess of time, because the San Antonio Christian Worldview Film Festival.

Our school was given two free student passes, and our principal offered them to my daughter, the budding young actress who loves to edit video. (The festival organizers graciously allowed me to use the second pass so she wouldn't be going alone.) It's a five day event: two and a half days of workshops and two and a half days of film festival. We get into the whole shebang.

I wasn't sure how excited to get about this at first. For one thing, this is my spring break. I have all sorts of stuff I need to get done this week -- lesson planning, curriculum writing, costume shopping, plus just all the family stuff that gets put off until "I have some extra time." Going to this thing all day for five days would really kill my Spring Break productivity and make me scramble for the next several weeks.

But I also wondered how beneficial it would really be for my daughter. If these workshops are for
serious film-makers, how much would she get out of it? She may not have the base knowledge or background to even understand what they are talking about.

Never fear. "Film-Making 101" with Stacie Graber to the rescue.

Our first workshop yesterday. Perfect. Everything we needed to know about the basic process of putting a real movie together. Oh, my goodness. Are we both psyched now!

The second workshop was more of an acting workshop (Exploring the Spiritual Lives of your Characters), so it had immediate use for us also. And it was also inspiring.

I have always had in the back of my mind that my daughter might enjoy something in the area of film-making someday. But not until yesterday did I realize how doable this is for her NOW. How much potential there is for her to use these skills and interests of hers TODAY. Or soon, at least. I'm listening to the speakers and thinking, "She could make a short film to submit next year."

Next year. Holy cow. That's exciting!

What's more, I'm thinking, I would enjoy this. Not every part of it, but certainly the writing. Certainly the directing. Certainly the whole create-the-vision-for-this-thing part.

Daughter and I talked on the way there yesterday about how conferences like this are often a lot of "rah-rah" to get people excited about their topic . . . and how susceptible she and I are to the "rah-rah." We are easily excited. But really, I think this is something worth our getting excited about.

So, "rah-rah"! Let's see what comes of this.

Magic Words

Let's say you're a coach, or a teacher. Your job is to help young people get better at performing a certain task -- running, singing, writing, whatever. And there's a particular young person in your keep who needs feedback from you today.

Wanna learn a secret that will increase his effort by 40%?

A team of psychologists from Stanford, Yale, and Columbia did research on how to give helpful feedback. "How" because as we all know, how you give such advice is as important (if not more important) than what advice you give.

They discovered a secret phrase, a phrase that, when used, increased the effort among white students by 40% and increased the effort among black students by 320%. (They didn't go into the reasons for that discrepancy, so I won't either, though I have my thoughts.) Here's the magic sentence:

"I'm giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know you can reach them."

Let's dissect that a bit.

"I have very high expectations." No soft-pedaling here. No dumbing down to what they can do easily. You have to have high expectations and own them, without apology.

"I know you can reach them." Confidence in the student's abilities. No doubts. You have to have the vision of the student succeeding and then communicate that vision to the student, because their vision is hazy.

The article about this research brought out another important factor here: "The secret is to understand that this feedback isn't just feedback. It's a vital cue about the relationship." When you build a connection with your students or trainees, and build a sense of teamwork in the group that identifies them as special and capable of great things, then words like these become "authentic, clear signals of trust, belonging and expectation."

A key word there is "authentic". You can't manufacture this kind of faith in your kids; they'll see right through that.

This was awesome for me to read, because I already feel this way about one class I'm teaching this fall. I already have a vision for each of them; they already are on their way to this kind of bond. Now, the other class, I don't know as well . . . and I suspect they will need some building up.

But more than that, I see application here for every relationship we have in our lives -- particularly in our families. Our children need to catch our vision for them. Our spouses, too.

Nineteen magic words. The trick is to believe them when you say them.

Just What Gives You the Big Idea that You Should Be Free?

My eldest got tired of listening to talk radio yesterday and pulled out an old Adventures in Odyssey cassette to listen to. Boy, did that send me back! My little ones buckled into their car seats behind me and John Avery Whitaker's soothing voice coming through the speakers. Enjoyed those years.

The tape she picked was the story of a boy who gets bonked on the head and goes back to Revolutionary War time (I never said the stories were realistic -- just fun). He ends up in the middle of the Continental Congress session where they are debating whether or not to declare their independence from Britain. John Dickinson from Pennsylvania is arguing vehemently and eloquently against the idea. When he realizes he can't convince them, he graciously steps down from his position so they can proceed with a united front. (Wikipedia tells me he then joined the Pennsylvania militia. Fascinating man.)

Listening to the story made the girls and I wonder: how exactly did the founding fathers, the leaders
who led our country into making this radical and dangerous move, get this all-consuming passion for "freedom"? I don't think any other country in the world had "freedom" in this way. Where did they get the idea from to begin with, and what made them so convinced they had to have it that they were willing to stake their Lives, their Fortunes, and their Sacred Honor on it? People all over the world lived contented lives under governments that controlled much of their lives -- why did the Americans find this so intolerable?

How Then Shall We Live by Francis Schaeffer compared the American Revolution to the French Revolution . . . but he first compares the Reformation to the Renaissance. He sees them both as reactions to the corruption in the Roman Catholic Church. In northern Europe, people reacted by separating from the church and forming the Protestant denominations, based on believers reading the Word for themselves and being accountable to God individually. In southern Europe, people reacted by rejecting the premises of Christianity altogether and celebrating the greatness of man on his own -- the Enlightenment and so forth.

The American Revolution grew out of the Reformation tradition, Schaeffer says, and that's why it succeeded. The French Revolution grew out of Renaissance and Enlightenment thinking, and that's why it failed within a few years and Napoleon took over.

Now, this may be a bit simplistic of a view of things (and I haven't read the book in a while -- I may be simplifying it too much), but I do know that even the founding fathers argued that America needed godly principles to keep it going. "Only a virtuous people is capable of freedom," Ben Franklin said. And John Adams agreed: "Our Constitution is made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

We know that the founding fathers were influenced at least some by Enlightenment thinking, and that they were rather mixed and varied in their religious views, some more orthodox than others. But we also know that they all came out of a tradition of Protestantism, and they seemed to operate on a public level as Protestant believers even when their private views were more murky. Am I right in surmising that their passion for "freedom" came from their understanding of their relationship to God? Hmmm.

Listening to Dickinson's arguments made me think a lot of the arguments I hear liberal friends make justifying what conservatives feel is dramatic over-reach of the government. Wouldn't we all love to hear that Constitutional Convention crowd discuss, say, Obamacare? I'd buy tickets for that show.

Three Stories

The Bible is rife with figurative language and imagery. Jesus himself taught in parables much of the time. Last night, at Bible Study Fellowship, I heard three stories -- well, two "examples" and one genuine "parable" -- all of which I have heard before, but they each spoke to me again very vividly.


* When Secret Service agents are taught how to recognize counterfeit money, they do not study examples of counterfeits. They study examples of the real thing -- thoroughly and frequently. They become so familiar with the look of a real twenty-dollar bill that when a fake is presented to them, they recognize it immediately and can identify exactly what is wrong with it.

In the same way, we don't learn to recognize false teaching by studying it for its flaws. What we need to do is immerse ourselves in what we know is true -- thoroughly and frequently. Then when a falsehood is presented to us, we recognize it immediately because it doesn't jive with the truth we already know.


* There is a species of catfish that has essentially lost its eyes. It lives where there is total darkness, and scientists hypothesize that because it has no need for vision, its eyes have practically scabbed over. Now, if it were brought into the light, it wouldn't be able to see anyway.

We, in modern America, live in a very dark world. Sin is rampant and truth is mocked. If we immerse ourselves in that darkness, we are in danger of losing our eyes -- of being unable to see light when it is there. Although we can't avoid living in the world, we must not be OF the world. We must be residents of the Light, and bring that light with us into the darkness when we go there.


And my favorite parable of the evening:

* A young girl had a favorite string of fake pearls that she wore every day and loved with a passion that only little girls can have for their favorite things. One day her beloved father came to her and asked her, "Sweetheart, do you know I love you?"

"Of course I do, Daddy," she replied.

"And do you love me?"

"More than anything, Daddy!"

"Then I need to ask something of you. I need you to give me those pearls."

The girl was very saddened at this request and couldn't imagine why her father would ask her to give up something she loved so much. But she took off the necklace and, after holding it in her little hands for a long time, tearfully gave it to her father and ran to her room. For two days, she mourned the loss of her favorite possession and wondered why her beloved father would take it away.

But then her father came home, pulled her aside with a smile, and pulled out of his coat pocket a string of real pearls -- far more beautiful and far more valuable than the string she had given up to him -- and fastened them around her neck.

Oh, how many fake pearls I am clinging to in my life! How many!!  Christ tells us that those who lose their lives for his sake will find them -- those who willingly give up their treasured fake pearls will get the real thing. Lord, give me eyes to see the falseness of my pearls and a heart to desire what is better.

He who has ears, let him hear.

Being Born Blind

I think I've mentioned before how I like to memorize.  In second grade, I memorized the Gettysburg address, just for the fun of it.  My best friend in late elementary school was the same way, so we memorized together.  We memorized the Greek alphabet (although we didn't know how to pronounce the letters and now they're forever stuck in my brain with the wrong pronunciation).  We memorized the bones of the body (my friend is a doctor now -- at least she's using that information).

We learned the alphabet in sign language, just in case we went deaf.  (Sign language appeals to me greatly -- it's a blend of language and dance, two of my passions.)  We also learned braille, just in case we went blind.  Braille didn't come to me so easily.

The idea of going blind used to terrify me.  The quiet things that could be going on around me that I wouldn't know about . . . objects sitting in my path for me to fall over . . . people in the room I'm not aware of . . . facial expressions being exchanged that I'm not privy to . . . it makes me tense just to think about it.  I'd much rather be deaf than blind.

I consider sometimes how bizarre it would be to have been born blind.  To have no concept of what vision is, of what it means to see.  People around you would talk about this other way of "knowing", this other way of perceiving things that would seem just magical to you.  They would talk about an object having "color" -- how could this not seem like a ridiculous made-up notion, this idea of "color"?  This shirt is blue and this one is red.  So what?  What difference does that make?  What possible good is "color"? 

And blind people have to be so dependent on the seeing for so many things.  How do you learn to have that kind of faith?  I guess if you're born blind, you learn it from birth, so it's just natural to you, but really -- that's a lot of faith you're putting in strangers who claim an alternate form of perception that sounds totally imaginary to you.  I mean, sometimes you would have to put your very life in their hands.  You have to trust them that, yes, you can cross the road now because "the light is green".  Green.  Of course.  That elusive "greenness" makes the crosswalk empty. 

In a way, it's kind of like learning to trust God.

We're looking at houses again.  And with our limited five senses, there's only so much we see about them.  But God "sees" so much more.  He is not limited by time or space.  He sees the erosion in the foundation that will cause problems years down the line (and decides if those are problems he can use in our lives beneficially).  He sees the neighbors and how they will or won't interact with us (and knows how he can use that to grow us, either way).  He sees us walking in that house in that moment . . . and us sleeping in that house this fall . . . and us eating in that house in next summer . . . and us entertaining in house for Super Bowl 2015 . . . and he sees it all in one glance.

"Sees" it.  That magical "vision" that we can't even comprehend -- we just have to learn to trust.  After all, one of the Biblical names for God is El Roi:  God Who Sees.

Hazy Vision and Shifting Sand

It's January 2nd. I haven't blogged since December 23rd. Kind of been out of the mental loop. But I'm back, and it's January 2nd, so it's time for my annual personal vision-casting post.

However, I'm having a hard time finding a vision for this year. I really don't know what's coming. With Hubby looking for a job, everything's in limbo. Limbo's a difficult place for an obsessive planner like me.

OK . . . a moment of self-revelation . . . I have, in the past, been an obsessive planner. It's part of my nature. God has given me many gifts, but spontaneity is not one of them. I don't like surprises, I don't like feeling unprepared, and I don't like "going with the flow". But life tends to be a go-with-the-flow kind of affair. You can't plan for everything (hubby's job situation being a case in point), so I have become much better over the years at taking things as they come and living with uncertainty. This is good. Always nice to recognize growth in myself.

But I still don't like limbo. It's like walking on shifting sand. In my head, I know there's solid rock under there, but instincts still react to appearances. And the future appears hazy, at the moment.

Nevertheless, we are who we are no matter where we are or what we're doing, so I can still cast a vision for 2012. When New Year's Day 2013 rolls around, my hope is that Hubby has a job that fulfills him, that uses his gifts well, that fits God's purpose for his life. I hope that my girls have friends and activities that give them joy and growth opportunities. I hope that I will be accomplishing God's purpose for my life, whether here in Siouxland or somewhere else. And I hope we all have grown closer to each other and closer to God.

And I hope I'm sleeping well.

Oh! And to toot my own horn for a moment . . . I met my goal this year of consistently wearing a size 10 again! Yay for me! Always nice to recognize growth in myself.