reflecting on reflecting on the super bowl

There are no shortage of opinions are the Super Bowl halftime show.

On one hand, it was sexual. 

Do we celebrate that or critique that?

On the other hand, it was cultural.

Do we celebrate that or critique that?

Metaphorically speaking...

Antifreeze has water in it. I can "celebrate" that. But serving antifreeze to people to drink in the hopes that they appreciate the water... is serving poison.

Putting antifreeze into their cars in the right reservoir, though, is great. Context matters.

Sex has a context, too. Let's support keeping it in its God-gifted/intended context. I'd hope we wouldn't applaud a movie focused on sex because they had a "diverse cast," and in doing so ignore the content of what was presented.

Poison is poison in any language...

water is water in any language.

Shall we as missionaries to the world clap for what is blue to the Lord, or shall we dig deeper cross culturally by building real wells that actually refresh people?

Sure - you could find a way to extract water from antifreeze and serve it to people. But let's be honest - how often do we take the time to do that with antifreeze? To be speculatively candid, I believe you or I more regularly buy guests water versus antifreeze we spend time chemically purifying, correct?

But... I'd also guess you'd allow spiritually poisoned guests who don't know they are spiritually dying into your home for that water. In doing so, you likely admire what they are doing "right" in life, but not at the expense of addressing the poison.

Yes, let's enter the world. Yes, let's redeem what is the Lord's. Yes, let's have compassion and point people to Christ.

Let's also be clearer about it, lest people think our straddle into the darkness is an endorsement of it.

#WaterWeTalkingAbout

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. " (Romans 12:2)

the intention for the exorcist

On the heels of Halloween, I'm intrigued by this quote from the writer of "The Exorcist" - the book that the pop culture movie was based on:

"That I am regularly hauled out of my burrow every Halloween like some furless and demonic 'Punxsatawney Phil' always brings a rueful smile of bemusement to my lips as I lower my gaze and shake my head, for the humiliating God's-honest truth of the matter is that while I was working on The Exorcist, what I thought I was writing was a novel of faith in the popular dress of a thrilling and suspenseful detective story—in other words, a sermon that no one could possibly sleep through—and to this day I haven't the faintest recollection of any intention to frighten the reader, which many will take, I suppose, as an admission of failure on an almost stupefying scale. But it's true! … Every [Halloween] I put out the pumpkin with the cutout eyes and nose and face, and the basket full of Snickers and Mars bars beside it; but I do keep wishing—oh, ever so wistfully and—let's face it, hopelessly—that The Exorcist be remembered at this time of the year for being not about shivers but rather about souls, for then it would indeed be in the real and true spirit of Halloween, which is short for the eve of All Hallows or All Saints Day."

—The Exorcist author William Peter Blatty. This October marked the 40th anniversary of his book's publication. And about his inspiration for it, Blatty says, "When I first heard, in 1949, of an actual case of demonic possession and an exorcism going on nearby while I was a junior at Georgetown University, I remember thinking, 'Someday, somebody's got to write about this, because if an investigation were to prove that possession is real, what a help it would be to the struggling faith of possibly millions, for if there were demons, I reasoned, then why not angels? Why not God?'"

[10/28/11]

back... from the future

A clever commercial based on Back to the Future.  Interesting concept we've seen before, but personalize it - when can you leverage your personal past successes for future wins that bless others?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yiSdjwi_bg

how (ordinary/super) heroes are made

Some people grow up reading the Bible. Others grow up reading Harry Potter. I happened to grow up reading comic books.

Yep, I said it out loud.

Back then it wasn't a big deal. Then some time after that it became a big deal - you were a geek for doing this. And then now it's not quite a big deal again.

Super heroes are popular - so much so that Captain America's movie release weekend bumped Harry Potter down to second place in its second week. (Although Harry Potter probably isn't too worried, given its opening weekend)

I've always known that following these fictional adventures - Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Captain America - brought into the focus of my life the reality that I am here for a reason.

We all are, actually - it involves living in a much larger Story than "me, me, me."

This week at a large convention called "Comic Con" the star of the upcoming movie "The Amazing Spider Man" put it rather profoundly and personally: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wemtXS4Zx9o




Good fiction wakes us up to the hidden truths of this world. There is a reason we all cheer on the "good guy" because deep down inside we know that there is a "good" underneath the "bad" in our world. There is also a reason why we ache over tragedy, for we know that tragedy shouldn't exist in the first place - as if hidden within us there is an awareness that this world shouldn't have been broken by humanity in the first place.... it started out good and should be that way again.

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:20)

I'm not sure what you grew up with, but I hope it was something that awakened a calling inside of you to be the hero that this world needs. Perhaps you jumped too quickly into horror movies and haven't gotten past that sense of feeling scared around every corner of life, or maybe you were exposed to sex and nudity in ways that have always made you feel like your body is nothing more than a biological toy.

Unfortunately today's comics have turned in those directions, so with rare exception do I support them. There are still some solid "younger kids" comics that keep the adventure and the innocence alive.

Maybe that's why I started writing this post in the first place. Perhaps we are now the rare heroes who need to not only join into the pages of the Story - God's Story - and likewise be the very pages of Truth in a world of fiction. The people around you need to know what is worth fighting for, and if you know... if you truly know the values of the Reality that exist in the thought bubbles of our thought bubbles... then it's time to start sharing it and living it.

With great power comes great responsibility.

(You knew that was coming, didn't you?)

"Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God's living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it." (2 Corinthians 3:2-3, MSG)