Author: twoznek

Husband...Father...Pastor...

Why not Wednesday? Failed ideas…

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Irony: 747 became the best cargo option for the 787 projectIdeas can fail for a few reasons:
Bad idea
Bad timing
Bad placing

Take a look at failed ideas and think through if they will work again? People’s initial reaction to anything new is often NO! Very few people just grab on to any change. Take a look in your closet of failed ideas. Today may be the day where it will be a:
Good idea
Good timing
Good placing

Erie Canal vs Steam locomotive
Grace concern arose in NY over the horseless carriage as it may destroy the economy surrounding the Erie Canal. NY survived the paradigm shift to trains, and the canal became a thing of history (and awesome school field trips).

Cargo Plane vs Jumbo Jet
Boeing failed the large cargo plane competition. However, the ideas developed for the project turned into the most successful jumbo jet- the 747. One failed idea turned into an iconic aircraft.

100’s of failures vs 1 mistake
The lightbulb was discovered by a mistake after hundreds of failures.

The bottom line:
A failed idea may not be a bad idea. Sometimes ideas we had that did not work then may work now. And then again, they may not work now. But, you’re likely wiser and more experienced than you were on the first attempt.

God save me from…. because I’m bad!

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Psalm 38 really popped out at me. It’s like a divine irony. I invested much time meditating on psalms 37-40. All these Psalms focus on God’s deliverance, with a unique twist. In Psalm 38, the twist is a double whammy: sin & enemies.

I’m bad
The Psalmist realizes his depravity and grieves over his sin. While one should work under grace, patients, and meekness when dealing with their depravity, there is still a real and sickening element to sin. Sin should grieve us. Grace does not remove the sting of sin.

Pop-factor #1: In trials, we must remember we’re also fallen.
Avoid: Self-righteousness, it’s everyone else’s fault.

Save me from…
The Psalmist realized he’s lost and in grave need of grace. He still asks for deliverance. God can use enemies, hard situations and trials independently or because of our sin. In either case, we see the pattern of asking for God’s deliverance. While trails are hard and grievous, its ok to ask for them to be over.

Pop-factor #2: In trials, its ok to ask for God to end it.
Avoid: Self-pity, making it all about yourself.

God
The real issue for anything good or bad in our lives is to show God to be God. Trials may deal with our sin, or be completely independent of it. They may be to strengthen us, or they may not. The big thing the Psalmist realizes both in his sin and in his trial is the greatness of God. God is the biggest concern. God’s justice must be satisfied as well as His compassion. God upholds the righteous, but only He can make one righteous. This deals with our sin. God delivers His own, and only He can do such. This deals with our situations.

Pop-factor #3: Trials regardless of reason are about God showing Himself as God.
Avoid: Self-focus, forgetting the big picture.

The bottom line:
God delivers bad people from bad situations because He wants to show Himself as good. It’s a hard listen. But, in bad situations don’t think you’re all perfect. Deal with the sin God reveals, even if its unrelated to the difficulty challenge you’re facing. Remember, God is God, you’re not. So, God save me from…because I’m bad!

Manic Monday: The little things unplugged

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I’ve been choosing one day a week to be unplugged. This is starting to turn into unplugged times throughout the day. This leads me to a few thoughts:

1) We’re human and not machines. Technology is helpful, but natural and organic life moments cannot be replicated.

2) starting to unplug will drive you nuts. What I found is the nuts part is often lots of ideas and creativity wanting to get out… It’s as if some ideas are scared of tech. Yes, that’s an anthropomorphism, but it’s true. (Especially for art.)

3) You’ll play more when unplugged, be more relaxed from lack of bleak news, and you’ll be a little stir crazy resulting in more housework done and a happier wife.

4) You’ll discover in rest moments that God really did give life as a gift to be enjoyed. The irony? That busyness can hide life. Rest moments should not be invested in busyness, and must be weekly.

If God, who is omni- you name it, took a day to rest; who are we, who are mortal and finite, to not do the same?

Take time an plan out your rest moments for the week!

(especially on Mondays)

Why not Wednesday? The power of paper & pen

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There is something about being able to write and sketch that will never go away. Technology cannot replicate the sheer delight of pen on paper. My tool of preference is the Moleskin Cahier Journal, ruled & pocket-sized. Whatever you choose, you really need something.

Why Moleskin?
I’ve given some of these away, used many. They are a perfect repository for ideas, craziness, or that needed brainstorm. The following just did not work: computer, planner, journal, diary, notebook, sticky notes, portfolio, memo book or composition notebook. They were all too bulky. Size and the ability to be nearly invisible is essential.

Why Paper?
Paper is crash proof. About the only thing that can really destroy them is fire or a shredder. What’s even better, paper helps you be unplugged. To me, computer equals work. There is something about a blank yet confined space that allows one to just feel free to think, draw, sketch, or scribble.

Why Collect?
People do not always need to enjoy your moments of inspiration or epiphanies. They are enjoyable to look back upon when alone on a rainy Sunday afternoon. You never know when that idea will come about, or that plot outline written. People always want to leave the mark in some way, whether a cave drawing of a hunt or an insightful witticism by a friend. Ideas are important, they’re what makes us human.

The Bottom Line:
Have something that is easy to carry around with you to write ideas, inspirations, or whatever else you just need to write. Technology cannot replace pen & paper.

Link: Moleskin Cahier Journal

Simple. Community. Authentic. Fad or rediscovery?

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I think we over-programmed ourselves. People often do not know how to ‘just be.’ We fight it. Busyness is the vaccine against relational intimacy. We are very busy people, creating very shallow relationships. I wonder if the Simple. Community. Authentic. trend is a discovery of something lost, not something new?

Simple.
In simple we over program. There are many Christians that are so busy doing good things that their faith is extremely shallow. In zealousness we forget that life is more than just activity. Some churches program their way out of the missions context God placed them in. We are the analogy of a chick-flic where the girl gets the guy and then…role the credits. (Ever wonder what happens next?)

Willow Creek discovered this. They were doing many incredible things, but they were not making disciples as they should. The leadership realized they needed a radical re-working of how they do things to focus on producing disciples. The book Simple Church deals with the same issue among many (most?) churches.

Community.
We need commonality for community to exist. The phrase “online community” is used all the time. Let us be honest with each other: we lost what community really means. Social media strikes a chord because as humans we really do crave community. Community is diverse. I disagree with the sentiment that states people are into social media because they want fame. Honestly, that is too complex. People want identity.

If churches traded simplicity for programs, it traded community for commercialism & commodity. The danger of being over programmed is we start treating issues and people as a commodity, as customers and not as they are: People in the image of God. God is infinite, which means if the church is to glorify God (show or demonstrate accurately who He is) it takes diversity. Relationships are organic not synthetic. Ministry is farm work, not lab work; a muddy or dusty field not an assembly line.

Authentic.
We know we have opinions and we know we are not perfect. I find it hilarious how academic writing requires 3rd person (as if that magically more objective) or how we can make things a production instead of just being together and worshiping. A business workshop aptly stated: If you say you’re authentic, you better be, because everyone says it. I often heard from people that: if you have to state something, you’re likely not. If something is true, it will show itself true. Here is the key question: Why do we feel we need to say we are authentic?

My English prof described a hard conversation with her parents. She wanted to know if her parents were saved. Her mom was upset. “Couldn’t you tell by how I lived?” There are eras where how we lived that was the true judge, not what we said. “We need both,” Mrs. Williams stated. “I feel as though we lost the art of our living communicating what we believe.”

The Bottom Line:
Simple. Community. Authentic. Maybe we should take off the mask and call them for what they are: three areas where we need to repent. I hope we pursue them less as fad and more as a call to get back to what God wants us to be. I can’t help but notice what is core to each of these three things: People. Love God…Love People…Simple. Community. Authentic.

Senior Chief Pinning

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I had the privilege to watch a good friend’s pinning ceremony. He’s now a Senior Chief. We can quickly gloss over ceremony. It’s important. Achievement should be recognized and celebrated.

I’m impressed by the military community, and submariners in particular. They do a job they can’t and won’t talk about.. They do a job, do it well, and we are safe because of it. They are a classy group.

Freedom is not free; I find it easy for us to forget that while I watched the ceremony. The military deserves appreciation and admiration.

Social media: Pensées au sujet des medias sociaux

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Thoughts about social media

The last few years I jumped into the social media frenzy: learning, participating, engaging, listening and observing. I thought it would be fun to highlight some of my thoughts. After all, we’re all human…

Social Media is a cure of LIAR’s
LIAR stands for Low Information to Action Ratio… The dilemma many deal with is having too much information. This eventually trains people to ignore large volumes of solid thought. In a real sense our information driven culture trained us to ignore Sunday mornings or other “data dumps.” This leads to us knowing lots, but acting little. Social media is an ironic cure.

Social media helps in two venues:

  1. It breaks large chunks to doable small chunks. The best example observed: Rick Warren’s tweets.
  2. It builds a passive accountability. Social media gives opportunity to soak, digest and respond to information given. It allows community to live truth out together in real-time.

Social media is the Borg at birth
Star Trek created the Borg as an allegory for over invasive technology. If you read up on this sci-fi nemesis, you’ll find remarkable parallels. While the real-time connection to community is a help, it is also a vice. The Borg, even while right next to each other, have a blank stare and only connect through the hive (network). Kind of like talking to your friends by texting when they are right in front of you. This hurts.

Social media hurts in two venues:

  1. Artificial communication often replaces organic real-time conversation. The text, Facebook, tweet replaces the sit down conversation over coffee. Nothing can replace human interaction. Environments, touch, smells, etc are equally important to the human experience and communication. These dimension cannot be carried by technology.
  2. Always on can lead to allows off. The ability to focus and develop the depth needed for many things can be diminished with social media. While processing one can lose the product. This is more than just getting work done, it is also a matter of deepening relationships; the key one being with God. Humans need down time and periods of quiet reflection. Always on breeds the expectation for always available. We’re not God. Let Him be the always on always available guy.

Social media is the new old
I hear often that social media is a revolutionary not evolutionary thing. I disagree. Social media demonstrates something that has always been true: People want to be known, their fallenness unknown and both openly revealed. Any engagement with humans leads to this interplay. While the technology, feel and look may be new, human nature and the proverb…I mean torch runner… I mean bumper telegram…sigh… are still around.

The old renewed:

  1. Human depravity and redemption is active in social media because we can not escape our depravity and need of the Spirit. We can’t stop being human.
  2. Humanity always craves simple and brief tidbits of communication.

The bottom line
While social media is in vogue and seemingly new, it reveals that which is true of all ages. It has strengths it has weaknesses and it will be used for both. I do not advocate balance & wisdom. I do not advocate passionate usage & complete openness. I advocate remembering we are human: fallen and in need of redemption. We cannot escape that and anything “revolutionary” will point out that we’re a mess and God loves us anyway. C’est la vie.

Why not Wednesday? Collecting proverbs

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I recently had the thought to write all the ‘proverbs’ I’ve gained or developed over the years. As I wrote each one down, I noticed there is a story behind each one. Some are original, others not, and more its hard to tell.

The book of Proverbs talks about collecting the sayings of the wise. We often think about brief statements, but there is much more to them. The proverb is as alive today as any other day. It is a good activity to write these things down. I came up with about 61.

I am not sure if I’ll create a separate category for my proverbs or not. Truth be told, many of them permeate why I write about anyway. On the flip side, the story of how they were obtained is interesting and part of life and learning. What do you all think? Leave a comment below.

Book review: No One Like Him by John S. Feinberg

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Defined systematic theology as that branch of theology which studies the whole of Scripture and presents the results on the basis of logical connection, detailing what the scriptures mean in our contemporary context. This is the greatest strength of Feinberg’s work on the Doctrine of God. This doctrine has been brushed over in my life and “No One Like Him” is the first serious discourse I have read about the Doctrine. It raises the question of why this doctrine is often taken for granted.

The question being asked
Feinberg’s task in the book is to give a constructive overview (understated) of who God is, in terms of our contemporary culture. Constructive and contemporary are key elements in the book as Feinberg takes on a unique approach. Instead  of a flat-out rejection of any theological system that contradicts itself or his own system, Feinberg looks at what the issues of such systems are. Within process theology or the open view of God, the driving force, driven by contemporary culture, is a highly relational God. Feinberg brings out the value of such false systems, and then clarifies how a refined conservative approach fits the needs of contemporary culture. God is King, but He is the God who cares. While not purposely bringing a balance of two conflicting views, in each section Feinberg seeks to answer properly the questions being raised. This approach leads to a logical approach within the book.

Book Size
Oddly, another strength of the book is its size. One reading is not adequate to review this book as its flow of thought builds a solid argument for God. While the spirit of communication is to state one’s point as briefly as possible, making a case for a God who cares and is King is not something that can be done in a theological journal or a Two hundred page, easy read. In a contemporary culture where people generalize, the need to give ‘exhaustive’ coverage is critical in developing a subject, especially in dealing with a infinite person such as God.

The main Point
The conclusion Fienberg reaches is one of both/and. God is king, and God cares. The conclusion, while the answer for contemporary society, does not fit with how society thinks today. It is today’s culture which polarizes issues, not seeing how they fit together as a whole, resulting in the growing popularity of process theology. God as sovereign and man as a free agent seem incompatible, unless one thinks in a both/and mindset. Great comfort comes from knowing that one need only to prove the possibility of something, not the logical necessity of something. Classical thought, while solid, is a system derived by men with inherent problems.

The bottom line
After reading this book, it begs the question of why there is not a class dealing with God exclusively. It seems that since the concept of God is so immense. As Christians we gloss over the topic and move onto more tangible things, like Christology. Perhaps it is this avoidance of focusing on God that is the root of church decline in North America. In listening to the testimonies of those brothers and sisters undergoing persecution, it would seem that they have a better grasp of who God is than we do. A solid look at God would do us all good, as there truly is no one like Him.