Bridges, Humanity, and God

To most people, bridges are beautiful. If we visit San Francisco, we will probably want to see the Golden Gate Bridge. We will want a digital picture of it.

            The newest and biggest suspension bridge, opening to traffic in 1998, is in Japan, the Akashi-Kaikyo bridge. It boasts a main span of 6,532 feet, almost four times the length of the Brooklyn Bridge, for example. It stretches 12,828 feet across the Akashi Strait to link the city of Kobe with Awaji-shima Island. Each cable is composed of 290 strands, each strand containing 127 wires. The length of the wire used totals 300,000 kilometers, enough to circle the earth 7.5 times. Its two towers, at 928 feet, soar higher than any other bridge towers in the world.

            But not all attempts to push the limits are successful. In 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State was hit by strong winds and collapsed, sending a 600-foot section of the bridge into Puget Sound. The roadway had been open to traffic for only a few months, and it took 10 years to redesign and reopen the bridge.

            Because people love to reach across water and establish a link, there will always be a human hunger to build immense bridges around the world. One current dream is to construct an intercontinental connection across the Strait of Gibraltar. Europe to Africa, by bridge. Planners are calling for a structure that would stand 3,000 feet tall and dwarf any existing bridge in height and length. Driving from Spain to Morocco, you would cross a full seven miles of water.

            We like to establish links, to fill in the gaps, and reach out. Yes, economics plays a part. Another part is communication. However, I think we like to explore. The bridge helps us explore a little more easily than we could without them.

            The suspension bridge is a metaphor for the oldest question in human history: How are we related, or linked, to God and what can we do to bridge the chasm between the human and the divine?

            The history of religion shows that humanity feels a need for connection with what it senses is above and beyond it. We sense we have missed the mark, we have fallen short of what we could be, and this feeling leads to some sense of estrangement from God. We may work hard at it. We may construct idols. We offer sacrifices, burn incense, and offer prayers. Yet, the chasm remains.

In Romans 8:31-39, Paul wants us to know that the chasm we feel is one God has chosen to cross. We could not build a bridge across the chasm between God and us. In Jesus Christ, we know that God is for us. The grace and love of God are already there. We need to receive it. God has built the bridge. We need to have the faith or trust, and the hope, to take the step onto the bridge.

Teachers, Destiny, and Helping

            Elizabeth Ballard, published a story in Home Life magazine in 1976. The story is fiction, but it rings so true because many people could relate such a story of how one person influences another, of how people can rise from such humble beginnings, and even the matter of human destiny.

According to the fictional, yet so true, story, Jean Thompson was a teacher who had a fifth grade boy in her classroom, Teddy Stallard:

On the first day of school, Jean Thompson told her students, "Boys and girls, I love you all the same."  Teachers lie.  Little Teddy Stallard was a boy Jean Thompson did not like.  He slouched in his chair, did not pay attention, his mouth hung open in a stupor, his eyes were always unfocused, his clothes were mussed, his hair unkempt, and he smelled.  He was an unattractive boy and Jean Thompson did not like him. Through school records, the teacher learned that Teddy's mother had died a year ago and his father showed no interest.  A previous teacher's note had read: "Teddy is in deep waters; he's totally withdrawn."

Christmas came, and the boys and girls brought their presents and piled them on her desk.  They were all in brightly colored paper except for Teddy's.  He wrapped his present in brown paper and held it together with a string.  Scribbled on it were the words, "For Miss Thompson from Teddy."  She tore open the paper and out fell a rhinestone bracelet with most of the stones missing and a bottle of cheap perfume, almost empty.  When the other boys and girls started to giggle, she had enough sense to put some of the perfume on her wrist, put on the bracelet, hold her wrist up to the class and say, "Doesn't it smell lovely?  Isn't the bracelet pretty?"  Taking their cue from the teacher, they all agreed.  

At the end of the day, when all the children had left, Teddy lingered, came over to her desk and said, "Miss Thompson, all day long you smelled just like my mother.  Her bracelet, that is her bracelet, it looks real nice on you, too.  I'm really glad you like my presents."  When he left, she got down on her knees and buried her head in her chair, and she begged God to forgive her.  From then on, she was a different teacher.  She tutored Teddy and put herself out for him.  By the end of the year, Teddy had caught up with some of the children. He was even ahead of some. 

Several years later, Jean Thompson got this note:    Dear Miss Thompson:  I'm graduating and I'm second in my high school class.  I wanted you to be the first to know.  Love, Teddy.   

Four years later she got another note:  Dear Miss Thompson:  I wanted you to be the first to know.  The university has not been easy, but I like it.  Love, Teddy Stallard.    

Four years later, another note:  Dear Miss Thompson:  As of today, I am Theodore J. Stallard, M.D.  How about that?  I wanted you to be the first to know.  I am going to be married in July.  I want you to come and sit where my mother would have sat, because you're the only family I have.  Dad died last year.  She went and she sat where his mother should have sat because she deserved to be there.

Was Teddy predestined to become a doctor?  Was it his destiny? Who can say?  We do know that he would not have without an assist from a teacher who, through her, became a decent human being.

Maybe we need to pay attention to those in our lives who may seem hopeless. It just might be that we will have in us the gifts needed to turn the life of that person around.

I know, it would be wonderful if this story actually happened. Yet, good fiction is true in deep ways. This type of fiction speaks to our hopes and dreams of what humanity can be, maybe even ought to be.

Peggy Noonan, writing for The Wall Street Journal, comments on a scene in Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down. The movie is about the Battle of the Bakara Market in Mogadishu, Somalia, in October 1993. In this particular scene, the actor Tom Sizemore, in the role of a hard-bitten, hard-core U.S. Army Ranger colonel, is in command of a small convoy of Humvees trying to get back to base with mortar and rocket fire exploding all round. In this violent vortex, the colonel guy stops the convoy, brings some wounded on board, throws a dead driver out of the driver's seat and yells at a bleeding sergeant who's standing in shock nearby:  

Colonel: Get into that truck and drive.

            Sergeant: But I'm shot, Colonel.

Colonel: Everybody's shot, get in and drive. 

The words, “Everybody’s shot,” struck Noonan. They suggest a metaphor for life. Everyone has taken a hit; everyone has been hurt. We are all walking wounded.

A statement by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow gives me pause. 

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we would find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.

She goes on to cite the case of Rosie O'Donnell, who more often than not is likely to be referring again to the fact that she lost her mother when she was a child.  

"This of course is very sad, and Rosie has spoken of its sadness very often, and with a great whoosh of self-regard. Her sympathy for her loss made me think the other day: She doesn't really know that other people lost their mothers when they were young. She doesn't really know that some people never even had mothers. She doesn't know everybody's been shot." 

The apostle Paul affirms the same truth. Everyone suffers, but, he adds, the sufferings "of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us" (8:18). He even argues that inanimate creation "groans," waiting that day of future redemption.

For Norman Sleep, a professor of geophysics at Stanford, who has presented his theory to the American Geophysical Union, the travail of creation is very real. The Stanford University scientist says that the Earth may have been repeatedly pummeled by asteroids between 3.5 and 4.5 billion years ago, snuffing out all early life. He argues that there may have been long periods during which life repeatedly spread across the globe, only to be nearly annihilated by the impact of large asteroids.

Just when your life-form is beginning to make some progress -- BAM! -- an asteroid knocks you back to the first chapter of Genesis.

The early Earth, Sleep says, may have been "an interrupted Eden" -- a planet where life repeatedly evolved and diversified, only to be sent back to square one by asteroids 10 or 20 times wider than the one that hastened the dinosaurs' demise. When the surface of the Earth finally became inhabitable again, thousands of years after each asteroid impact, the survivors would have emerged from their hiding places and spread across the planet --- until another asteroid struck and the whole cycle was repeated.

Bummer.

It is just a theory, granted. Nevertheless, it is a reminder that it is tough to live a meaningful life when you are shot, or when you live in an interrupted Eden -- that is, a place where you know that at any time a catastrophic event might knock you back to square one.

No Pain No Gain

So you finally get it together and decide to begin an exercise program. It almost does not matter whether it is walking, jogging, swimming, practicing yoga or step aerobics, weight-training or following some other plan. As long as it has gotten you off the couch and onto your feet in some active way, it is a good thing.

Perhaps this time, you really get into the program and stay with it for a while. Your muscle tone and overall fitness improve, your cholesterol numbers head in the right direction, your pulse slows, your weight goes down while your energy goes up, your self-image improves and your sense of well-being becomes cheerful. You may even feel as though you can keep going like that for years to come.

Then something happens that, at least temporarily, derails your plan. It could be an injury that forces you to put your program aside for a while. It could be a death or crisis in the family that not only disrupts your routine but also so demoralizes you that you have no heart for the physical activity. It could be the arrival of the Thanksgiving-to-New Year's holiday season, with all the parties and the abundance of rich food in the house. If your exercise program is an outdoor one - such as cross-country skiing - the arrival of warmer weather can force a halt. If you are like me, I am a fair weather runner. When the cold starts, I stop. It could even be a happy family event, such as a wedding, that requires a lot of your time and causes you to set aside your fitness plan for a while.

Whatever the case, in a very short time, all those physiological and fitness gains start to reverse. A cyclist says he finds regular cycling good for his body, mind and spirit. He also says it takes only about two weeks off the bike before he starts turning back into a "slug." That is why, during the cold months, most serious cyclists either switch to a winter activity such as skiing or spinning, head south and keep riding, or learn how to dress for the weather and ride through the winter. 

What the biker calls "turning into a slug," can also be described as the process of decay, which is a natural phenomenon. Most things, it seems, do not stay the same; if they are not improving, they are decaying. In the vocabulary of sports and fitness training, that is often expressed as "no pain/no gain," but the truth is, it is also no pain/no maintain. As bodybuilder Tom Venuto puts it, "The ultimate truth is, you are either moving forward or moving backward; growing or dying. There's no such thing as comfortably maintaining."

In fact, Venuto also applies the no pain/no gain philosophy to endeavors beyond physical. He says,  

"To grow, you must step above past achievements; beyond your perceived boundaries and limits. That means stepping out of the known, into the unknown; out of the familiar and into the unfamiliar; out of the comfortable into the uncomfortable. You must get out of your comfort zone." 

Do you think such a statement is true? 

If there is no pain, is there really no gain? 

Yeah, it really is. Of course, you can find studies online proclaiming the contrary, saying that the no pain/no gain idea is a "myth." Usually, however, the people making this claim also want you to buy their program that supposedly will make you fit with little or no effort - all for only three easy payments of $59.99.

The life-journey of every human being involves pain. We may wonder why. We may rebel against it. However, the harsh reality is that living things struggle and suffer to maintain life. Often, such pain deepens the experience and appreciation of life.

A statement by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow gives me pause. 

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we would find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility. 

Paul, beginning in Romans 8:17, says that we are heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ, but only if we suffer with him so that God might bring us glory with Christ. He will stress that what we suffer now is not worth comparing to the glory that shall be. In fact, creation suffers and groans, awaiting the redemption of humanity. Every part of the created order experiences decay. The destiny of creation is life with God and fellowship with God. Paul challenges his readers to expand their conceptual horizons and place chronological time and personal experience within the context of eternity. Paul invites his readers to catch a glimpse of the "big picture." God, through the Spirit of Jesus Christ, has freed humanity. God, through the Spirit of Jesus Christ, is also effecting the liberation and redemption of the entire created order. Not only are persons enslaved, but the whole creation. Suffering unites all of creation. Human beings are to have dominion, yes, but they are to do so recognizing this bond they have all creation.

I am not trying to explain suffering. I am saying that suffering and pain in life is part of the training we experience that will reveal who we are. Does pain deepen our character, help us appreciate life, and even go deeper with God?

Lesson from tennis

When I was around twenty years old, while attending college at Indiana Wesleyan, someone introduced me to tennis. I fell in love with the game immediately. However, I struggled because I did not immediately hit the ball with top spin. One day, after some instruction, it happened. I hit the ball with top spin, and experienced what it was like to do so. From then on, my game improved. I needed to take another major step with the serve, of course, but it was all much fun.

            Among the aspects of the game to which I had to become used to were unforced errors. By that, tennis players mean points your opponent receives, not because he or she made a good play, but because you missed a relatively easy shot. The unforced error in tennis admits that the opponent does not always make a good shot in winning the point. Sometimes, the reason for failure to make the point is in us. When I play tennis, I have to accept that I will make plenty of errors like that.

            Of course, tennis professionals do not make many such errors. They make so few unforced errors that they can count them.

            Jana Novotna, of the Czech Republic, a player who at one time was ranked second in the world and who would — before her career was over — earn more than $11 million on the circuit, was just five points away from history. Leading 4-1 in the final set of the 1993 Wimbledon women’s championship, she was about to upset the legendary Steffi Graf.

            Novotna seemed confident — playing smart and aggressive in front of the center court crowd with members of the British royal family looking on. She had just hit a wicked backhand that skimmed the top of the net and fell short on Graf’s side, catching Steffi flat-footed. 40-30. Leading in the third and decisive set, 4-1, and one point away from taking the game, one game away from taking the set, one point from taking the match — thereby capturing the holy grail of tennis.

            Then it happened.

            Her serve for game point went straight into the net. The next toss and strangely halfhearted serve had the same result. Double fault.

            On the next point, she reacted slowly to a high shot from Graf and shanked the return. The next shot again went straight into the net. Suddenly, the set was at 4-3. Then 4-4. Then 4-5. Novotna began to crumble. Minutes before, she was a world-beater, and now she was playing more and more like a beginner with every shot. At match point for Graf, Novotna hit a low, cautious, shallow lob that Graf smashed for the winner. Game, set, match.

            At the awards ceremony, Novotna leaned over to the Duchess of Kent to receive the runner-up trophy and the white-haired royal whispered something into the devastated tennis player’s ear. Then, in a moment of compassion, the Duchess pulled Novotna’s head down on to her delicate shoulder and the young player began to sob.

            What happened? Officially, Novotna’s collapse had to do with what tennis statisticians officially deem as “unforced errors.” Throughout sports, we have the phenomenon of the choke. Something happens mentally, and the mind takes the body down the path toward failure.

            Greg Norman, “The Shark,” had a seemingly insurmountable six-stroke lead over Nick Faldo going into the final round of the 1996 Masters Golf tournament. A short shot on the unforgiving ninth hole at Augusta caused something in Norman to snap. He began to hit shots into the water, missed short putts, and shot bogey golf for the rest of the round. By the time he and Faldo walked up to the 18th hole, Nick had a four-stroke lead. When it was over, mercifully, the victorious Faldo embraced Norman in a gesture of compassion. “I don’t know what to say ... I feel horrible about what happened. I’m so sorry — I just want to give you a hug.” With that, both men began to cry.

            The 2004 New York Yankees: Up three games to none in the AL Championship Series against the Boston Red Sox and going home for game number 4. However, they lose. Boston wins, and then goes on to win the series against St. Louis for their first World Series title in over 80 years.

            Consider an industry where perfection is critical. None of us would want to be on the receiving end of an unforced error by a pharmacist. Many companies pay the same bill twice. Insurance companies often misrate drivers. Companies lose customers all the time because of little mistakes.

            In the sports world, examples abound where good players suddenly go bad. The stakes might be high on the court or on the field; however, unforced errors can have even more serious consequences in business and in other areas of life.

            The unforced error in tennis is a way of saying something like, “My bad.” It was my fault. We need that type of instinct in us spiritually as well. Of course, we can always find reasons we have done something wrong. Yet, spiritually, we need to take responsibility for who we are and the decisions we have made. Romans 8:1-11 uses the language of responsibility, where we set our minds on the things of the flesh, which leads to death, or the Spirit, which leads to life and peace. Paul refuses to let us off the hook when it comes to the fruit of our lives.

            I still love tennis, even if I do not play as much as I did when younger. I love tennis, even when I often have unforced errors. Even the unforced errors are part of the process of learning to play tennis well. We need to have enough insight, however, to know if our choices in the game of life are leading to death or to life. What fruit is coming into your life as a result of the decisions you have made?

Stewards in Saint Mark's Square

If you ever get to Venice, one of the places to see is Saint Mark’s Square, the spot Napoleon called “the drawing room of Europe.” Nevertheless, if you go there, make sure your belly is covered up. They do not have a dress code, but they do expect decorum.

Venice had 20 million visitors last year, so at any given time, there can be thousands of people in this famous square, which is surrounded by great architecture and sites of historic importance. Nevertheless, some people just do not get it, and they are not above wandering onto the square bare-chested or with their midriff exposed. Some carelessly drop litter and others try to set out picnic lunches on the square. Still others treat the nearby Grand Canal as if it were a beach.

The city leaders view these behaviors as disrespectful of the place. City council member Augusto Salvadori, who is in charge of tourism and the city’s image, explains, “Venice is a city of art and a city that belongs to the world. Guests are welcome — but Venice has to be respected.”

Indeed, the city leaders have no interest in keeping tourists away, but they do want people to observe the niceties. So recently, in addition to posting signs naming the prohibitions, they have started employing a squad of women as stewards of the square to make sure tourists are not taking unwarranted liberties.

These stewards, several of whom can speak more than one language to deal with foreign tourists, patrol the square and are ready to intervene at the first sign of unacceptable behavior. They wear special T-shirts to identify their role, and they try to do their work in a friendly way. For example, if a family starts to lay out a picnic, a steward will direct them to a location where the city permits such activity. Most visitors whom a steward corrects respond positively. However, when tourists turn belligerent, the women are able to call in police backup who can hand out fines ranging from 25 to 500 euros.

Actually, the stewards are not there to stop people from enjoying themselves, but to remind them of the importance of conducting themselves in a way that recognizes the specialness of the place.

Most local people agree with the idea of stewards in the square. They appreciate that the city is imposing some standards.

Venice is not alone in its efforts to hold the line. You cannot go into St. Peter’s in Rome in shorts or sleeveless blouses, and several other significant tourist spots have certain standards.

What is more, most of us can think of some places where some standards stewards might be useful. The attire of some people at funerals might be an example.

The point is not attire and manners. The point is that on occasion, we need a steward to direct us in how to be in the public square of life. That can be hard to hear in our individualist, don’t-fence-me-in society, but it is true nonetheless.

Paul will say in Romans 8:1-11 that all of us struggle between the demands of the flesh and the aspirations of the human spirit. The first leads to death and the latter to life and peace. His point is that the Holy Spirit can help us pay attention to the things that lead to life. Granted, sometimes the decision is “easy,” in the sense that we know the difference. On some occasions, the decisions are not quite so obvious. In either case, the Holy Spirit can be our guide, our steward, who helps makes the choices that lead to life.

Questions and Romans 7

People have accused me of asking too many questions. Sometimes, when Suzanne asks me to do so something, and the reason does not seem obvious to me, my question is, “Why?” It frustrates because usually she is on a mission and just wants me to do it. The other is that it reminds her of the questions asked by her children when they were young.

Learning to ask good questions is important as we read the Bible. In fact, life itself should stimulate some questions.

Are you ready for some humorous questions? Not important questions, but questions nonetheless:

Why do snooze buttons only give you nine more minutes of sleep?

Why can you not tickle yourself?

Those big clocks in the hall way or sometimes in large rooms — why do we call them “grandfather clocks?”

It is unlikely that these questions have crossed your mind, but they have crossed someone’s mind. The editors at Mental_Floss, a trivia magazine, have even included them in an article called “The 25 most important questions in the history of the universe” (November-December 2004).

Tongue firmly planted in cheek.

More of Life's Unanswered Questions:

 

* If pro is the opposite of con, is progress the opposite of Congress?

* If the #2 pencil is the most popular, why is it still #2? 

* If the cops arrest a mime, do they have to tell him he has the right to remain silent?

* If the Energizer Bunny attacks someone, is it charged with battery?

* Why does Hawaii have Interstate highways?

* If you spend your day doing nothing, how do you know when you are done?

* Should vegetarians eat animal crackers?

* Why are there Braille signs on drive-up ATMs?

--Life's Unanswered Questions, Bored.com/questions.htm.

 

Such questions are kind of like riddles. They do not intend to bring an answer. They just intend to make us puzzle and humor us.

How do rabbits travel? By hareplane.

What did the sock say to the foot? You’re putting me on.

What do whales like to chew? Blubber gum.

 

Questions intrigue us, even if they are trivial or humorous in a grade-school sort of way.

Questions are how we learn as human beings.

Questions are how we grow in our faith.

Then sometimes we are hit with questions that stop us in our tracks, conundrums that confuse us and paradoxes that perplex. Like the dilemma the apostle Paul poses in Romans 7:  “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (7:15). He repeats himself in verse 19: “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.”

Some people want to read this in a psychological way. All of us wrestle at times with the difference between who we are and what we desire to be. When we see the difference – that was not me, we say, when we know it really was part of us – it causes us to ask questions. All of that is true.

Yet, I think Paul is wrestling with another matter. He has been writing about the universal nature of sin, its turn away from God. Yet, God has turned toward us to redeem us in Jesus Christ. He has also wrestled with the Jewish Law, for it promised to bring redemption as well, especially through its ethical guidance, as well as its purity legislation (mostly related to foods and Sabbath observance) and its various sacrifices. His point is that as long as you are trying to obey the Law, you will never have the peace with God for which you long.

I would like to extend the argument a bit. Today, we often hear the distinction between religion and relationship. In this chapter, that distinction works well. Religion becomes your best effort to get right with God. Frankly, I wish more people today would at least make that effort. Many people could care less today. Yet, the speaker at the Indiana Annual Conference in 2014, the writer of Renovate or Die, noted that the biggest mistake he made was to make sure his children had a relationship with the church. He was not so good about making sure they had a relationship with Jesus Christ. You see, I think many people in our churches are trying to get the church thing right. Yet, we are not following a church. We as a community are people who seek to make disciples of Jesus who will then transform the world.

When I read this passage, the question that comes to my mind is how can I move from being a religious person to being a person who abides in Jesus Christ?

Paul may put it better. All the Law and religion can do is show me that I am a sinner, for I am locked in this dilemma of not performing what the Law tells me. His question, then, is, “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” His answer comes next: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Let that be our answer as well.

Independence Day and Freedom

Article on Freedom

This nation is unique in world history.  The world has had dominant world powers in the past.  However, they have only been over areas of the world, such as Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe.  Today, America is the only recognized superpower in the world.  With that power comes a great responsibility.

The words of Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence still sound sweet to our freedom-loving ears. 

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among us, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. 

 

Signed on the evening of July 4, 1776, that powerful dream is still frightening tyrants around the world and giving hope to the people.

A movie about the Scottish fight for independence from the English, "Braveheart," is the story about Sir William Wallace.  At the end of the movie, as he is about to be executed, he is offered the chance to pledge his allegiance to the English king.  After being beaten and tortured, he struggles to shout out one word: "Freedom!"  Freedom.  I have to admit that the word still sounds good to this American.  The movie “Amistad,” which is about slavery in America, has the same theme.  When the African learned his first few words in English, they were, “Give me freedom.” 

The order in our constitution of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” may seem obvious. Yet, if we switch order, putting liberty or happiness before life, we run the risk of moral poverty. John Adams put it this way:

 

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

 

            Augustine defined the freedom to choose as a minor freedom.  The primary freedom is to choose rightly and virtuously, to be whom God created us to be.

We human beings have a tendency to abuse our freedom and independence. Among the most important ways the church can be a healing influence in American society is to help people use their freedom well.