November 2006

So, I’m taking a sociology class as a part of my continuing education requirement to keep my teaching license updated.  It’s called Social Problems:  A Critical Approach.  In order to identify and understand social problems, social scientists have devised the “ideal society”, a list of ideal characteristics to serve as a standard for society to attempt to achieve. 

Here’s the ideal, this gets a bit lengthy, but it’s pretty interesting:

1.  Our relationship with the poor, underdeveloped nations is nonexploitative and supportive of movements to secure basic human rights.

2.  Members of society are able to particiapte actively in or influence directly those political and economic decisions that affect them.

3.  Our government provides international leadership and sets a strong example for other nations in its approach to nuclear disarmament, and the cooperative, nonviolent settlement of differences.

4.  Resources are devoted to the preservation and conservation of the natural environment , and technological decisions take into account the well being of future generations.

5.  Work is freely available to all.  It is organized cooperatively, with special attention to providing meaning, dignity, and satisfaction.

6.  Gross differences in personal wealth and income are greatly reduced, so that the life chances of all members of U.S. society are relatively equal and all are able to share in the abundance of goods and services being produced.

7.  Each individual has ready and continuing access to the education and training needed to develop his or her interests and capabilities to the fullest extent.

8.  There is no personal and institutionalized discrimination against individuals on the basis of group membership (e.g., race, ethnicity, sex, age, or sexual orientation).

9.  Adequate health care is understood to be a human right and thus is made accessible and affordable to all.

10.  Special attention and support are freely given to troubled families and their members, including single-parent households.

11.  Members of US society are at peace with themselves and with one another.  The vicarioius rewards associated with such activities as crime, violence, and substance abuse have no attraction, and the social factors that provoke mental troubles and suicide are absent. 

So, how are we measuring up?

I was quite amazed at the connection between Sociology’s ideal, and a Jesus following respect for humanity and it’s created design.  There is an inherent understanding in humanity of how we were created to live.  It reveals itself  in these ideals.  These aren’t a list of a local church’s core values, (although they could be, and maybe should be,) but they are an ideal that all Jesus followers would do well to try to live by.  If Jesus is the model of humanity’s design, the ideal, then wouldn’t it make sense that those of us who live to follow Him would be attempting to uphold that ideal?

So how are we measuring up?

Choose to believe something different. 

So in keeping with the theme from a post or two ago…some more thoughts on the last four months without “going to church.”

4.  Why is the building we gather in considered such a spiritual place, if not The spiritual place?  Everywhere we go is spirtual because God is always there, always with us, always wanting us to grow from every circumstance, and encounter.  We have come to realize that throughout our life there are places that are much more spiritual to us, sanctuaries if you will.  Here’s three of them, and I must add, these are mine, not necessarily Elizabeth’s.

         

Wrigley Field.

Take the L train to Wrigley.  You exit behind and above the right field wall, allowing you to peer into the stadium.  I’ve done it dozens of times and I swear, everytime the doors open on the train, you can hear the Heavens singing.  The only way I can think to explain it is, Hope.  No group of people has hoped for anything more or longer than Cubs fans hope for a World Series championship.  Wrigley Field buzzes with this ethos of Hope.  It’s as if every time I go to a Cubs game, God reminds me, this feeling, this sense of Hope, of never losing faith, of continuing to beleive, no matter how much you get let down, yeah, that’s how I feel about you.  Keep going.  I believe in you.

 

Oakwood Inn, Lake Wawasee

Elizabeth and I met here.  Were engaged here.  Got married here.  No children have been conceived here yet.  But who knows.  A month ago we celebrated my Grandma’s life here.  My Grandma is the first one who brought us to this place when we were little kids.  So much of my family’s story has been written from this place.   

 

Fido.  Nashville, TN

This is my coffeeshop.  I worked here for two years.  We continue to visit frequently.  This is where the divide between sacred and secular ceased to exist for me.  This is where I was introduced to the beautiful humanity that exists beyond the Christian subculture. 

What are your spiritual places?

Choose to believe something different. 

Several weeks ago I learned that I was an acknowledgement in a book. Here’s a copy of the email I sent, thanking the author :

I really wanted to say thank you for the acknowledgement.  It’s been very, well, inspiring.  I mean, maybe it was a year ago or so, and I was reading the acknowledgements in a book and thought, man how cool would it be, to be an acknowledgement, what do you have to do to be an acknowledgement in someone’s book, besides being a publisher or an editor because they always get thanked.  You probably have to be a really close friend of someone who is a writer, or someone really old and well known and important who imparted their wisdom onto the author.  So, I’m not old or well known, I’m not best friends with anyone who is a published author, and I’m definitely not a publisher or editor.  But, man it would be cool to be an acknowledgement. 

And what do you know, I did it anyway.  I am an acknowledgement.  So maybe I had that acknowledgement thing all wrong.   

My family’s time here in Nashville has been a “desert” for us, a much needed desert, but a desert nonetheless.  We have finally journeyed to a place where we are beginning to see the good that is coming from this time.  Man, it’s been a long wait.  To know that I was one of your acknowledgements in the middle of that desert…maybe we are at our greatest when we are in the middle of the worst. 

So my wife and I are going to enjoy reading your journey, your part of the big Narrative of life.  Thanks for putting into written word and thanks for letting me be a tiny part of that process.  Here’s to caffeine!

The book is called “Here’s to Hindsight” by Tara Leigh Cobble.  Grab one and check it out. 

Choose to believe something different.

It’s been four months since my wife and I went to church. It’s the longest period of time that either of us has gone in our lives without attending church of some kind. It’s been a very intersting time. We’ve questioned alot about who we are and why we do what we do. Here’s some of our thoughts so far…

1. The whole Sunday morning ritual thing is pretty weird. There is alot of comfort in ritual. I was very uncomfortable not being a part of it for the first few weeks. It’s quite odd what we draw comfort from. Wake up and put some effort into looking a certain way, sometimes making it look like you didn’t put any effort into it. Drive to a building that is at maximum capacity for only a few hours a week. Make nice with a few people. Sing songs together, while being told how to respond to the song. Listen to someone tell you how to think about God. Make nice with a few more people. Hmmm…

2. We often aren’t encouraged to grow in church. We are challenged sometimes. But generally, we don’t root for and encourage one another to do the tough work of growing. Jesus invites us to be like Him. He says come follow me. Come means leave, follow me means go somewhere. Leave who you are. Journey to becoming like Jesus. The environment for each one of us to take stock of where we are, and where we are going, and how we can grow more mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, healthy, very rarely exists, if at all. If you aren’t growing, then what’s the point?

3. There are alot of people who are following Jesus who are not in a church on Sunday. Is it possible that humanity is all attempting in one way or another to follow Jesus? How much selfless good is done by never been to church before, no way I am a Christian, humanity on a daily basis? Alot. Is it possible that a great deal of humanity simply needs to be made aware of the motivation behind their selfless acts? Do they need to be made aware that following Jesus has very little to do with where you are from 10-12 on Sunday mornings?

Choose to believe something different.

I have a wife, two daughters, two sisters, and twenty or so adolescent girls that I teach every weekday. How many of them are striving for something they can’t ever obtain because it’s not real?

Check out this video…

Dove Evolution

Choose to believe something different.