Sacred Scarred

In the Spirit of MLK

I haven't posted recently, but this needs to be watched.  In the coming weeks, I'm going to focus on the themes of poverty, race and war.  Let's start with this...commit the 34 minutes needed to watch it...

I Don't Think I Can Adjust, Man

I was riding the Septa Broad St. Orange Line yesterday on my way to lunch - it was a short ride.  At the first stop a guy who appeared to be in his mid-30s stuck his head in the open doors and frantically asked me if the train was a "local".  It was.  He got on and sat down next to me.

I was admittedly lost somewhere deep in thought when he just started talking...apparently to me...without any room for me to get a word in edge-wise...

"I don't think I can adjust, man.  I mean, this is hard and I don't know if I can live in the corporate world like this.  I don't know if I can do it.  It's so cut throat, people pulling your strings, jerking you around - I'm not used to that...I don't think I like it.  It's not like teaching philosophy at the community college I was at in Texas.  I mean, there I was working on my Master's and teaching Intro to Philosophy.  It was great - I got jerk students around a little bit.  That's what you do when you teach Intro to Philosophy - you get to try to destroy everyone's foundation - their preconceived notions and ideologies.  But that's okay because there's good stuff going on in the midst of that.  But I came out here 10 months ago to start law school and I just finished my first year and now I've got to do this internship for a judge, but everything is so corporate.  It's all politics.  Why should my day be spent worrying about who I know and who I don't want to piss off and who's got my back?  Do I seriously have to worry now about who I want my friends to be 10 years from now?  That's too much pressure.  And maybe none of that will matter if I decide to go into an area of the law that focuses on writing wills and executing estates, but what if I want to be a defense attorney - maybe I need to be kissing ass now to make sure that I'm on the inside later. It's not like teaching philosophy.  I don't think I can adjust."

At this point, I have only smiled and nodded - truly tried to engage.  And the train is slowing to a stop and the door opens to reveal my stop.  So I say...

"Well, this is my stop.  Best of luck with that law school thing - but if you want my advice - you're a teacher - go be one."

"Yeah...yeah, thanks," I hear him almost inaudibly say as I step out.

Stumble trip, stumble trip, stumble trip

I had a beautiful discussion last night with my cell group about being a pioneer instead of a settler.  Following Jesus is about being a pioneer, not a settler (the amazingness of Settlers of Catan aside).  We are to move forward with the Spirit, not hunker down with ourselves and our own.  We recognized (and I think agreed) that sometimes there are good reasons for laying fallow and that sometimes despite our best intentions we get derailed from the trail (Jesus often meets us and grows us when we're detoured - see Pilgrim's Progress) - but the best place to be is blazing ahead, following Jesus (I would argue together).  Sometimes that's difficult, sometimes that hurts, sometimes it does force us to lay fallow or bumps us off the trail, but we are called to be pioneers...to fix our eyes on Jesus and get there.

My picture is this...

My daughter is 16 months old.  She's been walking for about 6 months.  Now if you know her, you know that she's a rough and tumble type of gal.  It is not unusual to find her bruised or scratched (half the time she's semi dazed and confused).  But here's the reason why...

If there is something off in the distance that she wants, she goes for it full out.  If she's in the living room and her baby doll is by the kitchen sink, she'll yell, "Ba-ba!" at the top of her lungs and take off running.  It doesn't matter to her that her pursuit of said baby doll will cause her to bump her shoulder on the coffee table and her precious head on the half wall that separates our living room from the kitchen.  It doesn't matter to her that she'll trip over a kitchen chair, landing on her tukus and that she'll then sprawl out again as she trips over the place where the carpet meets the linoleum.  She keeps going right to the baby doll, bumping her head on the closed cabinet door as she bends over to pick her Ba-ba up.

Sometimes one of these falls or bumps will cause her to sit for a moment in order to collect herself.  Sometimes, she gets distracted half-way there and settles for something less loved than her baby doll.  But she always gets back up, she always remembers what she wanted before she got distracted, and she always gets her baby.

That is how I want to follow Jesus.  Full out.  Sure it might hurt.  Sure it might sprawl me out.  Sure it might take longer to get there than I anticipated (because I needed a moment to collect myself or I settled for a distraction/detour).  But I want to blaze ahead toward Jesus. 

We're following our Jesus.
We're gonna reach him someday.
What a beautiful thought!
We're not scared!

Oh-oh, pain!
Deep, lasting, pain.
We can't go over it,
We can't go under it,
We've gotta go through it!

Stumble trip, stumble trip, stumble trip.

The writer of Hebrews puts in this way (translated by Eugene Petersen in the Message)...

Hebrews 12:1-3 (MSG)
Do you see what this means - all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on?  It means we'd better get on with it.  Strip down, start running - and never quit!  No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins.  Keep you eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in.  Study how he did it.  Because he never lost sight of where he was headed - that exhilarating finish in and with God - he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever.  And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.  When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through.  That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!