How to Vote as a Christian

Have you seen the viral video going around of the four-year-old girl who is crying because she is so tired of hearing about "Bronco Bamma and Mitt Romney"?  I am guessing that if I lived in one of the swing states I might share her campaign-fatigue as well.

Funny. Cute. We grown-ups feel you. That being said, we need to be careful to not let our cynicism take away from the significance of what we are being called to do this coming Tuesday.

A friend of mine (Brian Howell) posted the following thoughtful post on his Facebook page that I wanted to share.  I modified it just a tiny bit, and am reposting, as a reminder of what it means to be a Christian and vote.  While I do think the economy is important, it ought not serve as the Christian's main pivot when it comes to voting.  Here is a reminder, I think, of what is important.

We are blessed to live in a country where we have a say in who serves in our government. As Christians, we live in this world as sojourners (1 Pet. 2: 11-12) called to live as citizens of the countries in which we find ourselves (Rom. 13:1). Like the Israelites living in exile in Babylon, we must “seek the good of the city,” (Jer. 29:7) and do what we can to serve the poor, support good rulers, and promote justice wherever we live. 

As we seek this good, we should consider how our votes support policies that promote the heart of the Gospel: doing justice, loving mercy, concern for poor, care for the orphan and the widow, making peace, and promoting life. There is lots of good debate about how best to translate these concerns into policy, so I will not suggest which candidates or parties do this best. I would just encourage everyone to prayerfully consider your vote this Tuesday.

Christian Faith and Mystery

Here are the three G.K. Chesterton quotes from this past Sunday's message:

"The poet only desires exaltation and expansion, a world to stretch himself in. The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens in to his head. And it is his head that splits."

"Mysticism keeps men sane. As long as you have mystery you have health. When you destroy mystery you create morbidity."

"The ordinary man...has always cared more for truth than for consistency. If he saw two truths that seemed to contradict each other, he would take the two truths and the contradictions along with them."

Of course, these quotes are best appreciated within proper context, which in this case is Chesterton's classic Orthodoxy.

As we journey through the life Joseph for the next six weeks, I hope we all keep our hearts open to the wonderful mystery of the interplay between God's providence and human will.

Darkness into Light

An 'insight' moment for me today, from something I was reading.

Biblical (Jewish) understanding of time is that a new day begins at sunset: Sabbath begins on Friday night, holidays begin with the evening supper.

Life is often like that, isn't it?  It moves from darkness into light.

May those of you who find yourselves in darkness today find hope in the Light who is sure to come.  Amen.

Simple, Not Simplistic, Part II

So my daughter has been playing softball in our city's girls league.  She plays in the "6-and-under" (6U) division -- which is both what you might imagine ("Okay, run to first base!  No, that's third base!", "Great job, but next time, touch the base with your foot"), and much more than that ("Wow, did she just hit that line drive?", "They turned a double-play?").

What has really been impressive for me is the coaching.  It would not have occurred to me that you can teach even 5-year-olds how to bat properly.  If it were up to me, I would have been like "Just stick the bat out there!"  Instead, our coaches have been impressing on these little girls the proper stance, the right mechanics, muscle focus, etc..  Seriously, these little girls swing -- and often hit!  By the time they move up to 8U, or 12U, they look... 'pro.'

Here is where I am going with this.  The coaches did not start the season by having the girls sit down and memorize all the rules of the game.  Nor were they given a thorough instruction on the right way of batting versus the wrong way.  Rather, the coaches kept it simple, but kept on building, one piece at a time.

Simultaneously however, they never took short-cuts to the process, and they never taught them anything that the girls would have to unlearn later if they were to progress further in the game (Stanford?  ASU?  CS-Long Beach?).  In other words, they never made things simplistic, in the name of 'fun'.  The girls still found their 'fun', but it was in learning to do things the right way.

None of this surprising for anyone who has ever received good coaching in sports.  In fact, you would expect nothing less.

But it seems to me that churches... when it comes to helping people grow, have gone the simplistic route, instead of the simple.  We dumb down spiritual life left and right, and then blame the short attention span of our congregants.  Or for the sake of "getting people in the church." (Like what one church did recently raffling away a car, all in the getting people in the door. Uh, you think there might be a mixed message somewhere?  "Do not store up your treasures on earth, unless it is to encourage people to come to church." Awful.  Just awful.)

I am not for 'complicated.'  But going the simple route does require patience -- both for those who lead, and are being led, as the 'simple' route, simple insofar as it is meant to build something deeper, sophisticated, more real.  As Eugene Peterson emphasizes, "we don't get to ignore the how, for the sake of what."  We cross the border into a simplistic faith, if our message/action compromises the message of Christ.  We don't get to teach people something that people are going to have to unlearn later.

What are some examples of this?  That's my next post.  In the meanwhile, feel free to share your thoughts and experiences.

Loving Our Children

Last week, the teachers had our bi-monthly meeting. In discussing our philosophy of ministry at Cross, we talked about how important it was that we treat the children and youth we teach as if they were our own. To accept them and love them deeply, but also to love them enough not to allow bad habits and false ideas about God to blossom. This is important because many times when we don't see things this way, it leaves room for bad habits to form. For instance, most parents know that when a child displays a bad attitude or throws a tantrum, the worst thing is to allow them to think that this is a good type of behavior. Why then would we allow them to do this at church? What are we really teaching them by letting them get their way?

In some ways, letting them get away with things at church might be more than just bad, it might be detrimental. When we allow children to put their needs before God's or when we let them think that they can disrupt worship, we are passively teaching them that church is not about God but about them.

In an article I recently read, Greg Stier writes about 5 Reasons Jesus Would Be Fired if He Was Your Youth Pastor. I think all five reasons (well really four) were helpful to think about, but his number 1 reason kept me thinking. Stiers says that Jesus would shrink the group before he grew it. I don't think Jesus (or Stier) would do this just to keep the numbers down. It's more about seeing value in the quality of the group over the quantity. In other words, if we really want to do ministry as Jesus does it, we might think less about what people want and more about what is good for people. This, of course, includes grace, love, peace, and acceptance. However, it also includes speaking truth, rebuking, and working through conflicts.

We know that when we love someone, we do more than just be nice. We get involved, things get messy, there's some conflict, but we love them enough to work through it. We are called to love our children and youth this way. We are also called to love one another this way.

Simple, Not Simplistic, Part 1

"I miss the days when I used to know everything." So begins a fitness blog I recently read.  It was about how the 'latest' and the 'greatest' scientific studies would tell you exactly what is best for your health in black and white terms...  "Eating fat will make you fat"; "Protein never results in weight gain"; "Coffee is really bad for you"; "Egg yolks are evil"... so on and so forth.  The point was how we so often gravitate toward these unequivocal statements.  The more adamant and simplistic the claims were, the more we thought them to be true.

But they were not.

Often, after several months, someone would publish another study that would soundly debunk the first study.  (Case in point: couple of years ago, people began to rally around the dangers of high fructose corn syrup. And it is true -- high consumption of high fructose corn syrup is bad for you, but so are 'regular' sugars.)  The truth of the matter is that being healthy is more about balance and moderation, requiring both self-discipline and accountability.  It is sometimes as simple as "walk more", but always bigger than a simplistic black-and-white solution that will magically make everything better.

By now you've caught on that I think spiritual life (or life) is like this.  We--especially in the church--are often prone to jumping from one big "do-this-and-you-will-find-transcendent-peace/purpose/success-in-life" bandwagon to another.  (Remember the Prayer of Jabez?  How did that work out?)

But spiritual life (life), while clearly it does not have to be complicated, can never be simplistic.  Over the next several posts, I want to reflect on this.  What are some 'simplistic' approaches or slogans that you've latched onto trying to jumpstart your faith life?

Truthiness

"I believe that when I perform it in a theatrical context in the theater that when people hear the story in those terms that we have different languages for what the truth means." Mike Daisey, This American Life #460-Retraction

I recently listened to TAL's retraction episode (first aired on March 16) and I admit I was baffled by Mike Daisey's insistence that "truth" meant something different in theater than it did in journalism. Scott Walters defends Mike Daisey in the Huffington Post citing that in "creative non-fiction" (huh?) there is a distinction between "emotional truth" and "factual truth."

[Short summary: Mike Daisey is a writer/performance artist who wrote and performed a one-man play called The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs (NY Times gave it a good review). As part of the play, Daisey recounts his trip to a Foxconn factory in Shenzhen where he observes firsthand the deplorable working conditions. That's the part that gets him press from the mainstream media, including TAL. The problem is, however, that many of the details were not factually correct; in fact, many were just plain outright fabricated. Hence the retraction from TAL. To his credit, Daisey admitted he made a mistake and has since publicly apologized.]

Following this story (yes, I realize that it's a month old), I found myself asking a few questions:

1. Does fact=truth? Or truth=fact?

2. Can fact and/or truth mean different things in different context? (e.g. we believe the Bible to be true, but is it true in the same way that a math book is true? Can something be sort of true and still be considered true?)

What do you think?

Why We Sometimes Procrastinate

For the past couple weeks, I've been plagued by red eyes, which I came to call as Sauron eyes.


The funny thing is that I tried to do everything, but I put off the one thing that might help - to go and see a doctor. I researched "red and raw eyes" online, talked to an optometrist friend, and tried every form of eye drop that was available over-the-counter. I kept hearing the sweet promise of Ben Stein, the Clear Eyes' man...you know the one from Ferris Bueller, that my eyes would become startlingly white. Unlike that red-striped beach ball from the commercials, my eyes did not instantly clear. In fact, no matter what I did, they only grew redder. It was only after I visited the doctor that they cleared up.

Why is it so hard for us to do what's good for us? Why do we sometimes let our problems, issues, pains fester?

One insight I gained from my short trial was that sometimes we do this because we fear it might be something serious. AND if it's serious, we might actually have to work really, really hard to make a change. Change will not sweep over us and instantly clear our red eyes. It's work and most of us fear it.

Why is it that I can't (or won't) let go of that one insulting comment? Why do I let a wrong fester for a week, a month, or even years without doing anything? Or how about a hurt from someone? Why do I let myself live with pain rather than go and see the Healer?

If you're still stuck, then let me say these three things:

1. The longer you let your ailment fester, the harder it will be to undo.
Like a knot, it will twist tighter and tighter into itself. So the application here is, get on it. Don't be like me and do everything, BUT ask for true help.

2. Asking for help is not just a step in the healing process, sometimes it is the main step.
I think we tend to underestimate asking God for help. Sometimes that's all people did in the Bible. They didn't try and do it by themselves. Remember the Israelites crying out to the Lord? Most times all we can do is say, HELP!

3. The Holy Spirit is alongside of us to help us do the work.
Be encouraged! God is with you, to comfort, compel, and guide you through the grueling hard work. We cannot do this by ourselves and God knows it. Our illness, hurts, pains, need more than the human touch. It needs God's touch and he is all too willing to heal us. And, yes, God does use people in this process.

On Good Friday we brought things to the cross. Things that we've been keeping from dying on the cross with Jesus. Jesus already did the work of dying, now how are we going to break out of our cycle of death and live?

Lonely Interactivity

There is a lot of discussion these days about whether "social media" is actually "social."  In fact, there is growing evidence that greater reliance on social media is making us more antisocial in our behavior, and adding to our feelings of loneliness.  However you slice it, you can't get away from the looming sense that the more connected we've become, the greater our sense of alienation has grown.


I just read an article in The Atlantic on the impact of Facebook in all this, and it brought up some interesting research.  One was that the lonelier someone felt, the more time he/she would spend on Facebook.  And when they spent more time on Facebook, the more disconnected and isolated they would feel.  What seems to be happening is that when one reads about all the cool things other people are doing with their lives, the more depressed they became about their own lives.


Another researcher noted that those people who tend to use Facebook in a "non-personal" way -- scanning for updates of other people, reading what other people post -- have a greater tendency to feel lonely, versus those who use Facebook in a more "personal" way -- leaving comments on their friend's dog's pictures, liking someone else's status update, etc..


Clearly, there are limits to what Facebook can and cannot do, and it would be a poor substitute for real friendships and real "in the flesh" connections with people.  Some of this criticism is brought on by Facebook itself.  Words like "friends", "like", are connection- and emotion-laden terms, and we have all scoffed at someone mistaking their Facebook friendship count for true social capital.  Alternately, everyone has had those awkward moments when someone you barely met now wants to be your "friend."  But what seems to be happening is that our ultra-connected times are exposing some dark tendencies of the human heart -- depression, narcissism, loneliness, superficiality...


I am not espousing going back in time; social media is here to stay.  So then, how then do you approach things like Facebook?  Any advice on how to grow 'true' community and friendships in our times?  What are your standards for "friends"?


I have to go post about this blog on Facebook now. ;-)

What Does the Cross Remind You?

I've been thinking about this question this week, as I prepare for our Good Friday service.  Then I thought this we would be something that others are probably thinking about.  So...

What does the cross mean to you?  

Holy Week: Eyes on Jesus...

Palm Sunday (last week) begins what is traditionally known as 'Holy Week', the week leading up to Easter Sunday.

For those of us less-liturgically raised, it is a challenge. We lack the guide of tradition to understand just how we ought to be during this time.

Don't get me wrong--I am not saying we do not appreciate the significance.  We know this ought to be a centerpiece of our year, but like someone who understands the words but misses the punchline, we feel left out of something we think we should 'get.'

One thing I am beginning to understand, is that this is the time when the focus turns to Jesus.  This seems like a blatantly banal statement... and it may be.  But what I mean is that Lent has led me (us) to a time of deep personal reflection about the darkness of my condition, and my soul's dependence... but now Holy Week comes around and makes me travel with Jesus, in what is clearly his journey.  In doing this, my obsession over my life gets swept up into an observation of Christ's life, death, and resurrection.

In other words, it turns from "Christ, who is with me" to "me, who is with Christ."

Which is the way it should be...

Less Is More

One of the themes of the popular new teen movie, The Hunger Games, is that of greed and materialism. In this world, there are 12 Districts that are forced to give all their resources to the Capitol. Thus, the Capitol has become a land of opulence and overindulgence. Like the ancient Romans, they have so much food that they vomit it out so that they can continue to eat more. Meanwhile the other 12 Districts are starving to death, hence, the title The HUNGER Games.

The odd thing about having a lot is that you always want more.

The Capitol has so much, but they vomit up their food so that they can consume more. This seems like a crazy idea, but on a certain level we might be accused of the same sort of greed. We have probably consumed beyond our need and we have probably overindulged ourselves. Who hasn’t gotten one too many handbags, shoes, DVDs, phones, TVs, etc.? Who hasn’t felt compelled to buy something that they really didn’t need? And more importantly, who, in that moment of consumption were ignorant that they were guilty of greed?

My hand is up. I am guilty. However, I’m not pointing this out to make us feel bad about ourselves. Well, maybe just a little, but the main reason is that this is what I have learned from Lent - I cater too much to my own needs and desires. Why do I do this? Because I think that by serving myself, by indulging, consuming, and over-feeding my desires, I’ll be satisfied.

The sad thing is I don’t feel full. I’m just left with more cravings.

Going back to The Hunger Games, the surprising thing about the children from the poor districts is that some of them have so little, but from the little that they have they share. While those with enough, hoard and consume to excess. On the other hand, those with barely enough, give away their measly portions. I think they can do this because the poor know that they can survive with less.

They have learned the hard way that they can live with a smaller portion.

During Lent, I realized that I, too, can live with less. One unexpected thing that arose from this was that it really made me appreciate all that I have. Secondly, it made me realize that maybe, even with my small income, I can help others. I can buy that friend a dinner, I can give that homeless man something significant, and I can share my small portion and make someone feel full.

Anything here make you think? Please share your thoughts with us, we want to hear.

Generous, But Not Too Generous...

Earlier this year, a woman in northern California won a million dollars playing scratch-off lottery. She used the money payoff a massive medical bill she accrued for a ruptured spleen.  She gave people she loved gifts.  And ever so grateful, she gave $100 bills randomly to strangers.

She also continued to play scratch-off lotto at the store she won her big jackpot.  For old-time sake. And it seems that she gave some of these lottery tickets away--one of them to a homeless man, who told her she was 'lucky.'

Except that perhaps she was too lucky for her own good, because that ticket she gave away won $260,000.  And now she says she wants it back.  She never intended to give that ticket away, she says. Just the hundred dollars.

(Surveillance videos shows otherwise, we are told.)

So...
Anybody else think this sounds a parable that Jesus might have told, to reveal the petty nature of the human heart?  Two things occur to me.  First, if she was consistent in her grateful attitude toward life, she would have realized she really lost nothing, since she didn't ever have it in the first place.  Second (and THIS is really my point), well, I am totally not surprised by her pettiness, in that I think most of us (including myself) would probably do the very same thing.

Human nature, Jesus tells us, is to be generous, but not too generous.  That's our problem.  True grace is always from God.

If that lottery ticket won just $100, well, then...

How do you think you would react?

The Road Not Taken

I'm inspired by people who are willing to give their life to a single, noble cause (e.g. William Wilberforce, Amy Carmichael, Mother Teresa, Charles Colson, etc.; to this list you could add Bryan Stevenson who gave this TED talk). G.K. Chesterton made this astute observation in his book Orthodoxy, "So he who wills to reject nothing, wills the destruction of will; for will is not only the choice of something, but the rejection of almost everything." This is not easy for me as my natural tendency is to have as many options available as possible. When people choose a cause, it means they reject other things (including other good things); and it is the rejection of the other things that empower them to focus on the one thing. I really admire this and it is one of my deepest longings and prayers to live that kind of focused life.

I think Robert Frost expresses a similar sentiment in his poem The Road Not Taken:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim

Because it was grassy and wanted wear,

Though as for that the passing there

Had word them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I marked the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that had made all the difference.

Choosing one path often requires that we reject another path. Sometimes we're hesitant to make a difficult decision because we're afraid to close the door on the "other path(s)". We want a backup plan; a second option just in case the first one doesn't work out. We're afraid to go "all in" because we might end up with nothing. This is a sensible and practical way to live, but....

This Lenten season, my prayer is that we would follow Jesus – who lived and died with a singular focus of glorifying God the Father by redeeming all those who would look to Him in faith. He chose one path - the path of the cross; may God gives us the grace to follow Him.

Levitated Mass

I often find myself being hopelessly negative. It can begin with a small kernel of a thought; something harmless like my jeans are really tight today. Then it grows bigger...I'm so fat! Somehow it all ends with I'm 30 and I have nothing. Pretty depressing, right? Well, I do this with my spirituality. At Cross we're talking about transformation, and sometimes I let one bad thought in about my sinfulness and then I find myself saying, "God, I haven't grown at all!!!"

This is not true.

This past week I had the opportunity to pray in a really cool environment. There was a violinist who played live for us, a cool art piece in the front, and dim lighting. As I prayed I felt those negative kernels of thoughts melting away. Thoughts like: I should pray more, why can't I focus for more than five minutes, why do I always remember to catch up on my favorite TV shows, but I don't remember to read the Bible. For some reason, I wasn't caught up with all that, and I just got to come before God. Freed from guilt.

As I prayed, there was one resounding thought: God, let me be open. Open to just hear from you. Use my distracted thoughts and just let me hear from you. I don't want to set the agenda for prayer, I want you to set it for me.

Then he pointed something out to me. Look, Sun, look how you've grown. Before you came before me and you felt like a distracted and energetic puppy. You bounced from thought to thought, not really knowing what was of significance. Now look at you, you're solid. And I felt it too.

I felt solid like a rock. Like that Levitated Mass that's been making it's way through our cities. It's so huge and solid that it took 12 days to move. God reminded me that I have grown. He doesn't want us to be weighed down by guilt every time we come before him. He wants us to be open, to listen, and know that he is working in us.

He is making us a little more solid everyday.

Spiritual Spandex

 There is a theory going around that says that spandex is making America fat.  Seriously.

The reasoning is simple.  Something like 80% of clothing sold in the US has spandex, and spandex stretches with you -- and can even make your body look more streamlined -- so that 1) we feel better about ourselves when we look at our instantly-slim-selves and, more to the point 2) we don't notice the weight that we are gaining.

Think about it.  When I used to wear my suits on a regular basis, I could actually feel the weight gain against my waist, pound by pound.  Same is true of the classic 100% cotton denim jeans.  But in the age of spandex, we can have jeggings.  For men, even.  No longer would men and women be forced to fit into rigid fabrics, Americans can now look for clothing to accommodate their expanding waistlines!

Interesting, no?  I personally have nothing against spandex (I probably own more than my share of spandex in my cycling gear to give this dude a run for his money.)  But why am I writing about this, in this blog, about Christian life?

Okay, this is the image you get when you look up "cycling shorts" in wikipedia. Why, dude, why?!?!

Well, I have to admit, part of it is that it is just interesting.  And it does give me an opportunity to use some interesting images.  But there is a real point here some where.

Spiritual Spandex, then, would be those things that we do/surround ourselves with that makes us feel better spiritually, but are in fact hiding/enabling some unhealthy things in our lives.  There are couple of ways in which I think this works for most of us.  

First -- and we have talked about this many times in our services -- is that when we use spiritual disciplines legalistically, they can quickly degrade into spiritual spandex.  We pray and fast, not because we are interested in hearing God, but because we want God to do something for us.  It gives us a sense of being holy, without ever pursuing the hard work of pursuing holiness, through lives based on mercy and justice.

But second, we can spiritual-spandex ourselves with certain habits and patterns of behavior that do not honor God by avoiding truth and accountability in our lives.  I think most of my friends will say I am a pretty direct person.  But I've been stunned by my own ability (agility?) to avoid difficult conversations, whether it is in avoiding something about my life or loving someone enough to to tell them something they need to hear.

Let me give one simple example: passive-aggressiveness. Have you ever seen Christians spiritualize passive-aggressive behavior as the fulfillment of Jesus' command to 'turn the other cheek'?  It is spiritual spandex--we tell ourselves we are being loving, but in fact, it hides a something ugly, a resentment, an anger, a hatred...

AND, all this usually begins with something that is really seemingly harmless to us, doesn't it?  But like real spandex, there are unintended consequences that we may not be aware of.

Lent is a good time to pray that these things become revealed to us.  And repent.

(Yeah, this blog started kinda light, then became serious.  Sorry.)

Web of Relationships

Since I enjoy reading books and watching movies, I'm always on the look out for the next good read/watch. So it comes as no surprise that I love playing around with Amazon's yasiv - a sort of visual "customers who bought this also bought" feature. Just type in a book, movie, or even youtube, and yasiv will pull a web of similar, related items. (Yes, I realize that this is just another marketing tool by the evil empire Amazon, but I still get a kick out of using it.)

What would be really fun is if you could type in a person or an organization and see how the web of relationships develop. I would be curious to see what would pop up if we put "Cross Community Church" in the search field. Let's imagine for a moment that each line of connection generated by yasiv represented "friendship" or "strong relationship". What would Cross' "web" look like? Would there be lots of zig-zagging lines connecting one another or would it look sparse with each person connected to just a few others?

What do you think?

Lenten Practices: Harder Than You Thought?

Okay, confession time.

When I was thinking about what lenten practice I would commit to this season, I was going to go for something kinda hardcore.  Like fasting for 40 days.  Or at least 7.  Something that a medieval monk might do.  Or at least a 1970's evangelical.

But I didn't.  I decided to go for something a lot easier.  Like fasting three lunches a week.  And refraining from shopping.  While they don't have the 'wow' factor as the harder stuff, they seemed worthwhile, and I thought I could focus more on quality, rather than quantity.

But 'easy' has not turned out to be so easy.

Okay, is it just me, or is anyone else struggling with keeping up with their lenten practices?  I mean, for the most part I've been pretty good about the refraining part, but I catch myself just 'drifting' all the time!  And while I've definitely had couple of instances of 'deeper reflection' during these moments, for the most part, I am focused much more on just simply 'not doing'.

All of which is quite revealing to me...

So, let me ask you -- lenten practices: harder than you thought?

[btw, as I was composing this, Nadia just commented on the previous post about her struggles with the lenten practices.  Thanks Nadia!]

The Other 'Lent'

One of the vocational risks of being a pastor is that you use words differently than most 'normal' people.  (I am thinking of words like 'calling', 'charismatic', and 'election', among many others.)

Some time ago, I was having a conversation with someone about Easter.  And I guess I used the word 'Lent' several times. It was already about ten minutes into the conversation when my dialogue partner looked at me and said "I don't think I am understand what you mean when you say 'lend.'"  "Oh," I thought, "I need to watch how I speak my Christianese."

But that misaligned conversation has been helpful to me in thinking about some aspects of this 'Lenten' time, as I remember that the other definition of the word 'lent' is as a past tense of 'lend.'  As in, all of these things around us that we enjoy and feel incredibly blessed to have -- our children, our friends, our family, our world, our possessions, our health -- ultimately are given to us on a 'lent' basis, which is to say they are ultimately not 'ours.'  

Which means the thing that we ought to be most thankful about is not our children, our friends, our family, our world, our possessions, our health -- but rather the One who is so kind and loving toward us to give these things to us to love and enjoy for the duration.

Which actually is kind of a good thing to think about during this other 'lent.'  

May God re-orient my gratitude toward Him.

(So, what thoughts have occurred to you during this Lenten season?)