facing an aftermath with new grammar

You’ve read the headlines.

Not just the ones that break our hearts, but the ones that enlarge our hearts.

Our world became fragile again when we heard about the Boston explosion, and we cringed when we learned an 8-year old boy became its third fatality.

There are no words for that.

Yet somehow we were strangely encouraged when we saw how many people ran into the smoking chaos after the blast.

We cheered when Twitter posts shared how runners who crossed the finish line of the Boston Marathon kept running to the hospital to donate blood.

The world took note of the District Attorney’s Office Braveheart-esque declaration, “Moments like these, terrible as they are, don’t show our weakness. They show our strength.”

Individual acts, big and small, can overcome fear and reveal Light in times of great darkness.

There is also something about the aftermath of a tragedy that gives us a desire for new grammar.

For a brief moment, virtually everyone online paused. Instead of recycling more pictures of cats waterskiing or posting our self-righteous outrage about the latest thing we didn’t like about someone else, we looked for something deeper.

Apparently, we found it in Mr. Rogers… yes, that Mr. Rogers.

Facebook was flooded with a quote Fred Rogers said years ago:

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers - so many caring people in this world.”

What if we could live like this all the time? What if instead of living with outrage about what we find wrong, we engaged what was right from the get-go?

Most days we’re searching Starbucks cups, organic juice bottles or Chinese buffet fortune cookies for a jaunty manifesto to live our day by. Maybe your desk calendar spouts a daily quote or you regularly check your horoscope for advice from a bull or scorpion.

I wonder if we’re so distracted with all these surface-level options that we forget what it means to be deeply attentive.

Psalm 46:10 challenges, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Our hurdle is we can post a personal thought online that’s immediately met with a global audience. Facebook posts and groups can quickly devolve into a Tazmanian Devil-like mob of ranting. Even local “Letters to the Editor” often become more about stomping our feet at others than dialoguing.

We become people looking to say something versus actually becoming people who have something to say.

The aftermath of a tragedy, be it personal, local, national or global, gives us an excuse to mature in how we think and speak. You realize policemen are “heroes” instead of “someone looking to bust me.” Firemen are finally thanked for their everyday, unnoticed volunteerism because you realize when you need them they’re actually there.

Pardon the interruption, but again… why can’t we live this way more often?

I ask because the opposite observation is also true. We often assume we’re the “rescue workers” of everything from local matters to family tensions, when in reality we’re just causing more explosions.

Life is going to continue to squeeze us. Pain will happen, and what we store up in us will spill out of us. Part of the gap we see in the world tracks back to a gap inside of many of us.

Try this: Write down what you hope would come out of you in a tragic moment, then get around people and ideals that will nurture that. Make sure it’s a legitimate commitment, though - even the strongest anchor can’t serve you if you’re only loosely connected to it.

You can waste your breath complaining about life, or bring life into this world until your dying breath.

P.S. This is 8-year-old Martin Richard who died at he Boston Marathon waiting to greet his father.

I could try to say something profound here, such as Martin Richard was embraced and greeted by his heavenly Father that day instead... but I think I'm just going to weep over this for now.

a letter a day

Twenty years ago the Harry S Truman Library in Independence, MO made public 1,300 discovered letters that the late President wrote to his wife, Bess.  Mr. Truman had a lifelong rule of writing to his wife every day they were apart, and followed this rule whenever he was away on official business or whenever Bess left Washington to visit her beloved Independence.

Scholars examined the letters for any new light they may have thrown on political and diplomatic history. Of course, the obvious truth couldn't be dismissed - every day he was away over the course of 50 years (even during the Presidency), Truman took time out from his dealing with the world's most powerful leaders to sit down and write a letter to his wife.

The application runs deeper than marriage, for the God of the universe and everything in it thought you were important enough to write you a love letter called the Bible. Every day you wake up He seeks to woo you away from sin and death and toward freedom from addiction and life. Enjoy this, and enjoy Him as you build your relationship with Jesus Christ. Read from His letter to you every day, and think about what He is trying to tell you through it. You matter that much to Him, after all.

"Behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her." (Hosea 2:14)

yesterday, today, and infinity

Interesting...

60% of Apple’s sales are from products that didn't exist 3 years ago.

http://www.asymco.com/2010/10/19/60-percent-of-apples-sales-are-from-products-that-did-not-exist-three-years-ago/

Which raises the question... what are you doing today that you think matters, yet won't be doing tomorrow?

Unless it's eternal, it's temporal.

september 11: opinion versus compassion

"I am troubled by the fact that this coming Saturday, September 11, our focus will be turned from an event that altered the course of history to a publicity-driven clergyman in Gainesville, Florida, and a location two blocks from "Ground Zero" that may or may not become the site of a Muslim mosque... Sure, in both cases, they most likely have the right to do what they propose, but why...?" - H.B. London

Every one has an opinion about this, and I'm not writing this post to stir up more.

It's been argued that much of the ruin in this world has come about by religious people.  I wouldn't disagree. I'd also add that plenty of agnostics and atheists have left a bad mark in history as well.

Of course, that's limited logic.  After all, great advances in the world have come about through those who authentically walk with God.  Likewise, well meaning agnostics and atheists have contributed to the flow of His will as well without even believing in Him.

Is that really the issue or argument of this moment, though?

Cross rises from the rubble of World Trade Center

I am spending a few moments here to more remind us all of what it means to the 3 out of 10 Americans who personally know someone who died during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

An empty chair around a dinner table.

A once real relationship with someone who is now a memory.

A medicine chest that hasn't been altered in nine years because "that's the way he/she left it."

A young child who is now nine years older and without his/her parent(s).

Perhaps we can keep talking about book burning or mosque building, but I'd argue the best thing we can do right now is to watch archived footage of that day, letting the chaos of that moment wreck us again.  And to not move on to quickly but to consider how ruined we would be if those around us were suddenly gone from such tragedy.  And as we are hypothetically hit by that, to then extend true compassion and prayers to those around us whose real tragedy we're ignoring with publicity-driven stories.

Then... and only then... after your heart has reengaged on this level... then let's enter into September 11th.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF_khJV6a3E

Here's something I pieced together just days after that happened.  I hope it serves you in remembering what the real issue is.

you can't handle the truth

I have always been impressed by the ability of others to make bold statements that sum up an appropriate tension. And even more so, when those statements are so filled with truth that they help you "feel and think" at the same time. For instance:

• "The Church is a whore, but she is my mother." - Augustine
  
  
• "Where you live should not determine whether you live or die." - Bono
  
  
• "I had a professor one time... He said, 'Class, you will forget almost everything I will teach you in here, so please remember this: that God spoke to Balaam through his jackass, and He has been speaking through jackasses ever since. So, if God should choose to speak through you, you need not think too highly of yourself. And, if on meeting someone, right away you recognize what they are, listen to them anyway'."" - Rich Mullins

There are times when those thoughts need to creep up into you, like a whisper someone plants behind your brain when you aren't looking. Later you turn your head and your parietal lobe catches wind of it... and you are forever stunned and changed by it. It's something out of left field, and yet it isn't... its out of the box, and completely within your box.

"Wow," you say, "I had no clue, and they helped me see it."

And then there are moments when we need someone to pull us into the locker room, shut the door, and throw their clipboard or hat across the room at us. It's a bit edgier to be sure, evidenced by the sweat on their forehead and blood in their cheeks... and as they call us on the carpet for something we've been otherwise coy about, our heads droop... be it from conviction or self-examination.

"Wow," you say, "I had a clue, and they made me face it."

In both instances, you can't handle the truth.

Oh, you'll try... you'll put your fingers on it, but find that you can quite grasp it all because it's like trying to palm an over-sized medicine ball in one hand. The weight alone makes you want to drop it, not to mention the size and depth and width that you simply cannot contain.

It's one reason, by the way, that you need a community outside your own household to help you process the most important things in life. Say... a church?

So typically we'll take a portion of the truth presented - the piece that we were able to put our own fingerprints on - and walk away with only that piece. Some may defy this and attempt to take that piece and bring the whole ball with them later so that they can better digest it over time and study. But this is a rare breed, for the usual Joe or Jane will focus in on one thing, and one thing alone.

Sometimes that one thing is good - it's a thought or an "Aha!" idea that they walk away and do something. Other times, though, that one thing is merely a piece of truth that distracts from the others. Maybe it's a love or a hate for how the other person shared the thought... and so now the focus is less on the truth itself and more on the messenger of it.

I dare you to be the rare breed. While you can't handle the truth, you can *keep on* handling it... turning it... sizing it up... digesting it into your life.

And that journey alone will push you into new places of growth that you otherwise would have stopped off and settled for something lesser on.

Learn the truth, keep handling the truth, and the truth will set you free.

"To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, 'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'" (John 8:31-32)

a reminder

Whatever you are going through today doesn't define you.

Good or bad, all it can at best do is refine you.

Your identity and the true status of your life have more to do with what you allow to happen in you versus what you can't control happening to you.

So let your Creator do His thing and show you a much larger Story to live in.

pony up

I spoke with a few folks this past week who need to be reminded of this story:

There are twin boys of five or six. Mom was worried that the boys had developed extreme personalities -- one was a total pessimist, the other a total optimist -- their parents took them to a psychiatrist.

First the psychiatrist treated the pessimist. Trying to brighten his outlook, the psychiatrist took him to a room piled to the ceiling with brand-new toys. But instead of yelping with delight, the little boy burst into tears.

"What's the matter?" the psychiatrist asked, baffled. "Don't you want to play with any of the toys?"

"Yes," the little boy bawled, "but if I did I'd only break them."

Next the psychiatrist treated the optimist. Trying to dampen his out look, the psychiatrist took him to a room piled to the ceiling with horse manure. But instead of wrinkling his nose in disgust, the optimist emitted just the yelp of delight the psychiatrist had been hoping to hear from his brother, the pessimist. Then he clambered to the top of the pile, dropped to his knees, and began gleefully digging out scoop after scoop with his bare hands.

"What do you think you're doing?" the psychiatrist asked, just as baffled
by the optimist as he had been by the pessimist.

"With all this manure," the little boy replied, beaming, "there must be a
pony in here somewhere!"

pinball

Ever feel like you're merely rolling through life?

Without a vision - a purpose for waking up each day - you are a pinball. The next push from any direction will make you start bouncing around, purely out of reaction. And as you spin around and ram into things, you will undoubtedly feel sick... don't be surprised at this.

One choice is to come up with a vision, something that many people will tell you that you need for your life. This is why leadership conferences do so well, why Tony Robbins is still making money, and why self-help books fly off the shelves.

Only those self-help books don't work. If they did, we wouldn't need them anymore. Only people keep buying them, from one "Secret" to another.

This is because true vision cannot come from within you - for if it does you are still the pinball. Or more clearly, you are simply a pinball with a magnet inside of you. That magnet is deceptive, because in many ways you may feel like it is guiding you... sometimes you will be attracted to things, and other times you will be repelled by them. But at the end of the day, you're still a pinball that is reacting, trying to bounce around without any "beyond you" perspective... and your life will still feel quite dizzy.

Vision for your life must come from a place of revelation - Someone who sees your life from ground level (as you do) as well as the birds-eye view (which you do not). If you listen to such a Voice, only then can you (even if only for a brief second) see the big picture of what you're bouncing around in.

Only then can you tell if you're heading toward scoring points or losing your turn.

Only then can you avoid the flippers and run a straight path toward your True Destination... the one where you help release all the other locked balls and let the potential for scoring points truly take off.

Pray for your life to have more than human-sized vision...
pray for it to have a God-sized revelation.

Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law. (Proverbs 29:18)