If the crass commercialization of the season has tempted you to hate Christmas like a certain Dr. Seuss character, I’d like to share with you a practice that has helped my family and me get back to the heart of Christmas.

I first heard Pastor Rick McKinley several years ago on a podcast, talking about an initiative he had started at the church he leads — Imago Dei Community in Portland, Oregon.  He called it “The Advent Conspiracy,” and it was designed to be an antidote to the consumerism that had overtaken the original message of Christmas.

Stated simply, The Advent Conspiracy consists of four ideas:

1. Worship fully
2. Spend less
3. Give more
4. Love all

Worship Fully

The true meaning of Christmas — the inescapable origin of the season — is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.  Where we’ve gone wrong is that we’ve allowed ourselves to become dull, relegating Jesus to the category of ancient history.

But what if we were to think about the significance of Jesus more deeply?  Consider that God made a perfect world and set humanity at the top of  the created order.  Not long after this, humanity rebelled and rejected God’s authority, bringing about God’s righteous judgment.  Sickness, death and every kind of heartache resulted from this betrayal on our part.

God could have scrapped the whole project, but since his very nature is love, He chose a people for Himself and made them a great nation.  He gave them His law to indicate they were His people, and he sent them prophets, leaders and teachers to communicate His will to them.  And when the time was right, this loving God took on human flesh — leaving the splendor of Heaven — and chose to be born into the world he created as a helpless baby.  The coming near of God and the establishment of His kingdom on earth — the hope for all humanity — is what we celebrate at Christmas.  This is why we worship for all we’re worth.

Spend Less

From the time our sons were babies, we’ve always had a budget for Christmas and stuck to it. Even so, since we’ve adopted the Advent Conspiracy, we’ve sought to spend less for gifts while increasing the value of each one.  Part of this is to designate ten percent of our Christmas budget to benevolence — that is, making it a point to do a kindness to those who have less.  Another part is to manage our expectations and intentionally limit the size of our Christmas budget.

Give more

It seems like an oxymoron to spend less and give more, but there is a way.  McKinley calls it giving presence, rather than presents.  With this idea, our gifts to family members and each other are more thoughtful and involve an experience more than an object.  For example, a few Christmases ago, my younger son gave me a deep-winter backpacking weekend.  What a splendid gift!  We shared a weekend of father-son time and made great memories.

The gift of presence is, more than anything, taking the time to give a gift that says, “I get you.  I know you.”  In this case, it really is the thought that counts.

Love All

In the same way God showed His love for the whole world in sending His son,  we look for ways to make Christmas — and life —  better for others.  Our church helps sponsor a Christmas Village Toy Store that sells new, donated toys at a steep discount to disadvantaged families so they can have the dignity of giving gifts to their own children.  The church also takes up a special Christmas Eve offering to help spread the Good News of Jesus around the world.  If you’re not affiliated with a church, you can contribute to the Salvation Army, or send Christmas cheer to kids via Operation Christmas Child.

The subtitle of the book The Advent Conspiracy is “Can Christmas Still Change The World?” I believe it can — and it starts with you and me.  A joyous Advent to you.

So how about you?  In what ways are you recovering the joy and meaning of Christmas? Add your comments below.

Note: I have taken a sabbatical from writing new posts to enable me to focus on family and work matters, but I am committed to keep this site up and running. Meanwhile, I read and respond to all comments and correspondence. I’ll resume regular publishing of new content in January.

In honor of Veterans Day, a heartfelt word of thanks to all of you who have served or are serving in America’s armed forces.  Thank you for your willingness to train, to suffer hardship, to experience separation from your loved ones, and to put your life at risk for your countrymen.

My late father-in-law was a veteran of World War II,  He was one of four brothers, all of whom were drafted away from their family farm in rural Tennessee.

After completing his training, he became a Technical Sergeant in the Army Air Corps — the precursor to the US Air Force.   His responsibilities included making in-flight repairs and serving as a waist gunner aboard a B-24 Liberator bomber in the European theater, as part of the Mighty Eighth Air Force.

Like many men of his generation, he rarely talked about his experiences during the war, downplaying the danger and his role.  “It was late in the war by the time I got over there,” he always said.   Once when my grandmother asked if he had ever been to Germany, he gave a slight smile and said, “No, but I’ve been over it.”

Following the war, he returned to the farm for a while before enrolling in Tennessee Tech on the GI Bill.  Following his graduation from college, he earned a doctorate in agronomy and genetics from the University of Wisconsin.

With his PhD, he took a position as a research agronomist with the US Department of Agriculture and was assigned to a research station at a large state university.  He worked there the rest of his career, developing numerous soybean cultivars that fed millions and teaching graduate students from around the world.

As distinguished as his career was, he was also a devoted husband and father, raising my wife and her siblings in a godly household.

Over the past dozen years or so, we have seen popular sentiment regarding military service return to an appropriate level of respect and gratitude.  This is as it should be.

At the same time, I hear and read some people saying that the US is no longer worthy of such devotion or service.  I am not here to argue for or against — especially not with those who have served.  On this occasion, however, I want to commend those who, like my father-in-law, saw their duty, did it and came home to build an exemplary life.  This is still a county that produces such men.  That is worth preserving.

So how about you?   What lessons did you learn from your own military service, or that of your friends or family members?  How are you using that wisdom to be your best?  Add your comments below.

“Well begun is half done.” – Aristotle

Throughout my life, I’ve found that I begin new tasks with great gusto. This is a good thing, and I have learned to take advantage of my enthusiasm to create momentum that will help carry me through the eventual letdown. The particulars vary from project to project, but it’s usually the result of higher-than-expected costs, missing parts, or delays. When the slog hits, it’s critically important to have built in some incentives to help keep your motivation and to keep you on track.

Wisdom from the ancient world

I’ve always liked the quotation above from Aristotle. For most of my existence, I’ve taken it to mean that a strong start is a great advantage. This is just one of the axioms I refer to to help me overcome procrastination — to begin now — especially on those difficult or unpleasant chores. But there’s another way to interpret it: a strong beginning is only half the battle. You and I are bound to run into what is known as the “muddle in the middle.”

This is true of books, blog posts, product launches — and it’s also true of life.

Solomon sacrifices his lineage on the altar of an idol — Don’t be that guy

Enter King Solomon

Let’s look at King Solomon to illustrate what I mean. Frequent readers will know that I refer often to the biblical book of Proverbs — written primarily by Solomon, the son of King David, who succeeded his father on the throne of ancient Israel. As king, Solomon was unparalleled. He was wise and wealthy because God had blessed him from the beginning of his reign.

In addition to these gifts, God chose Solomon to build the temple in Jerusalem — the center of worship for God’s chosen people. And his body of work also included three books of the Bible — part of the Bible’s wisdom literature — Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. Clearly Solomon had an enviable collection of skills and used them to accomplish many good and enduring things.

It didn’t end well

However, as he grew comfortable in his achievements, apparently, Solomon became complacent. In the following passage from 1 Kings, Chapter 11, we see that Solomon squandered something essential:

King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love.  He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord; he did not follow the Lord completely, as David his father had done.

On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.

The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command. So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates. Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”

What went wrong?

Notice the telltale signs. Like his father before him, Solomon got his head turned because of his sexual appetite. Despite God’s direct instruction to the contrary, he amassed a harem of 1,000 women — most from the idol-worshiping folk Solomon’s ancestors had conquered to inhabit the land of promise.

As I wrote in an earlier two-part post titled, “When You Marry a Mountain Girl, You Marry the Mountain,” you’re going to adopt the ways of the people you spend time with — this is especially true of one’s spouse. This is another reason it’s better to marry someone with similar beliefs and values. Failure to do this results in what the Bible calls “being unequally yoked.” In agricultural terms unequally yoked animals couldn’t  plow straight, as the stronger animal would always pull the weaker in its direction. In Solomon’s case, his wandering eye resulted in a wandering heart that worshiped inert idols in place of the living God. This ultimately led to the destruction of the temple Solomon built, but also to the captivity of God’s people.

How to avoid foolishness and failure

The objective here is to be a faithful steward of the gift that is your life. This means you don’t want to peak in high school, and it also means you don’t want to put it in neutral once you hit 50, 60, 70, whatever. To finish your life strong and satisfied, here’s what I recommend:

Begin with the end in mind – The late Stephen Covey coined this phrase in his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.  Having a mission — a purpose with a desired outcome — in front of you is paramount. It’s a challenge to remain as motivated at the end of your shift as you are when you clock in, but having a mission makes it easier. Notice that Solomon’s resolve weakened as he got older.

Count the cost – The funniest and yet saddest episodes of the TV show “American Idol” are the ones featuring the deluded contestants who swear they can sing — the judges just aren’t being fair. If you want to be a professional musician, you have to put in the time in solitary practice. The 10,000-hour rule is no joke — and you can only spend those hours on one thing, not multiple things. This is the definition of opportunity cost. What are you willing to do without to achieve at your peak? It’s your life, so do be honest with yourself.

Stay connected to your power source – To be the best possible version of yourself you need to be working at the intersection of your Passion, Purpose, and Potential. This is a quest, and it is easier for some than for others, but the effort is worth it. God made you and He knows His plans for you. Get out your spiritual shovel and dig with your eyes open. Don’t get discouraged if you have to do some living before it snaps into focus. It’s all training if you’re legitimately seeking. And when you find it, you’ll have to pray, study and reflect — alone and with others —  to stay on track.

Stay fresh – I know I’ve said it before: You’re either green and growing or you’re ripe and rotting. Are you an expert? A virtuoso? Not yet? You still have those challenges in front of you. If you are an expert or a virtuoso, consider the challenge of teaching what you’ve learned to other people. There’s always more to learn, more to do — and if you’re not dead, you’re not done.

Get some rest – Take care of your body by exercising, eating right, drinking plenty of water, and getting enough sleep.

Get your mind right – The body goes where the head goes. Competitive divers learn this to enter the water with that minimal splash the judges reward. It’s the same in life. And we’ve talked about it before: thoughts lead to feelings; feelings lead to behaviors. If you’re not impaired, you can choose what to think about — good or bad.

But sometimes you’re vulnerable. Then what? As Dr. Charles Stanley advises, use the H.A.L.T. method to avoid giving in to the temptation to foolishness — whatever form that takes for you. Don’t do anything when you’re Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired. Whether you’re tempted by an unlocked door, an unwholesome relationship, a bottle, a smoke, or a plate of fries, it’s much easier to resist when you recognize when and where your defenses are at their lowest, and you can see the larger goal beyond the moment.

Is it hopeless if I’ve wrecked it?

Not at all. If you live to tell the tale, you can still finish well. If you need a refresher on Grace and forgiveness or if the whole idea is new to you, you can read about it here. Your Father in Heaven made you, and He — with all His faithful ones — is cheering you on. You can be clean. You can be His. You can be faithful in fulfilling your mission and finish strong.

So how about you? What steps are you taking now to finish well. Encourage your brothers by declaring it below.

“If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”
-Romans 12:18 (ESV)

In Rock Hill, South Carolina, a judge recently vacated the sentences of nine civil rights activists who were arrested and convicted in the 1960’s. Their crime was sitting at the same lunch counter as whites in a local five and dime store — a violation of the Jim Crow laws of the time that demanded separation of the races.

Although it took more than 50 years for this injustice to be overturned in the court system, the Friendship Nine as they are known have been hailed as civil rights pioneers and lauded for their courage and willingness to confront the immorality of racial segregation — even though it cost them.

“..the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.” Stand out anyway.

There will come a time in your life when you will recognize that something isn’t right.  You’ll think to yourself, or say aloud, “Somebody ought to do something.”  And then you’ll realize — “It’s got to be me.”

When that moment comes, will you be ready to accept the challenge?  Here’s a sonnet from the poetry corner:

Stand

There comes a time to stand for what you know
To be the right, whatever be the cost.
Then get you up to speak, or do, or go
To fill some gaping breach, though you be tossed
From wave to towering wave, while dervish winds
Pull sail from yard, and blind your eyes with spray.
Do what you must; go fight beside your friends;
Do what you can, and more; go seize the day.
Fear not the foe, and damn the shores alee.
To win the fight, you must run to the van.
The valiant prisoner’s heart may yet be free;
The coward’s heart is chained, and never can.
Go fight your fight; you must do what you ought.
It’s better fought and lost than never fought.”
– Mark Lukey

Speaking out against powerful people and their interests is not without cost or consequences. Take note of that old Japanese proverb, “The nail that sticks up gets beaten down.”  When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. engaged in civil disobedience, he understood that his breaking of unjust laws would still result in his going to jail. He did it anyway.

Likewise, if you are called to raise your hand or your voice against some wrong, you shouldn’t be surprised should you encounter opposition.  No one can guarantee your success or assure your safety. Our society is as polarized as I have ever seen, and the lengths to which some people will go over mere differences of opinion is still surprising to me.

Even so, we must not allow ourselves to be cowed into silence. There really is such a thing as evil in the world and, as Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Whatever battle we’re called to, let’s prepare ourselves to do the right thing.

So how about you? What conversation or issue have you been avoiding? Haul it out into the daylight, kiss it on the mouth and watch it die. Add your comments below.

Note: I’m re-running this post in honor and memory of Mr. James Wells — one of the Friendship Nine — who died Sunday, July 8, at age 77.

Christmas is just around the corner.  Despite the holiday-themed TV ads that began in early November and the radio stations that started playing Christmas music around the same time, it’s possible you may have missed it.  As a friend of mine observed, “Christmas seems to come earlier every year.”

Recapture the wonder of Christmas — become part of the Advent Conspiracy

If the crass commercialization of the season has tempted you to hate Christmas like a certain Dr. Seuss character, I’d like to share with you a practice that has helped my family and me get back to the heart of Christmas.

I first heard Pastor Rick McKinley several years ago on a podcast, talking about an initiative he had started at the church he leads — Imago Dei Community in Portland, Oregon.  He called it “The Advent Conspiracy,” and it was designed to be an antidote to the consumerism that had overtaken the original message of Christmas.

Stated simply, The Advent Conspiracy consists of four ideas:

1. Worship fully
2. Spend less
3. Give more
4. Love all

Worship Fully

The true meaning of Christmas — the inescapable origin of the season — is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.  Where we’ve gone wrong is that we’ve allowed ourselves to become dull, relegating Jesus to the category of ancient history.

But what if we were to think about the significance of Jesus more deeply?  Consider that God made a perfect world and set humanity at the top of  the created order.  Not long after this, humanity rebelled and rejected God’s authority, bringing about God’s righteous judgment.  Sickness, death and every kind of heartache resulted from this betrayal on our part.

God could have scrapped the whole project, but since his very nature is love, He chose a people for Himself and made them a great nation.  He gave them His law to indicate they were His people, and he sent them prophets, leaders and teachers to communicate His will to them.  And when the time was right, this loving God took on human flesh — leaving the splendor of Heaven — and chose to be born into the world he created as a helpless baby.  The coming near of God and the establishment of His kingdom on earth — the hope for all humanity — is what we celebrate at Christmas.  This is why we worship for all we’re worth.

Spend Less

From the time our sons were babies, we’ve always had a budget for Christmas and stuck to it. Even so, since we’ve adopted the Advent Conspiracy, we’ve sought to spend less for gifts while increasing the value of each one.  Part of this is to designate ten percent of our Christmas budget to benevolence — that is, making it a point to do a kindness to those who have less.  Another part is to manage our expectations and intentionally limit the size of our Christmas budget.

Give more

It seems like an oxymoron to spend less and give more, but there is a way.  McKinley calls it giving presence, rather than presents.  With this idea, our gifts to family members and each other are more thoughtful and involve an experience more than an object.  For example, a few Christmases ago, my younger son gave me a deep-winter backpacking weekend.  What a splendid gift!  We shared a weekend of father-son time and made great memories.

The gift of presence is, more than anything, taking the time to give a gift that says, “I get you.  I know you.”  In this case, it really is the thought that counts.

Love All

In the same way God showed His love for the whole world in sending His son,  we look for ways to make Christmas — and life —  better for others.  Our church helps sponsor a Christmas Village Toy Store that sells new, donated toys at a steep discount to disadvantaged families so they can have the dignity of giving gifts to their own children.  The church also takes up a special Christmas Eve offering to help spread the Good News of Jesus around the world.  If you’re not affiliated with a church, you can contribute to the Salvation Army, or send Christmas cheer to kids via Operation Christmas Child.

The subtitle of the book The Advent Conspiracy is “Can Christmas Still Change The World?” I believe it can — and it starts with you and me.  A joyous Advent to you.

So how about you?  In what ways are you recovering the joy and meaning of Christmas? Add your comments below.

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion — to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” – Isaiah 61:1-3 (NIV)

Let’s continue our discussion from the previous two posts. In part I, I told how I recommended to a friend that he read the Old Testament story of Joseph, and how he didn’t expect to encounter the story of Judah and Tamar — a single chapter in the book of Genesis that appears in the middle of the story of Joseph. In Part II, I explained why the story appears in the Bible. Today, I want to explain why this seemingly random story matters, and what we can learn from it. But first, we have to state a most important premise:

Reading the book without getting the lesson leaves out something important.

The Bible is ultimately all about Jesus. (He said so.)

As surprising as it may seem, Judah and Tamar figure in His story, too. After all, Jesus is not the descendant of Levi, and even though Joseph’s story is magnificent, Joseph is not the direct ancestor of the Messiah. Judah is.

Look at Jesus’ family tree in the gospel of Matthew.

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.” – Matthew 1:1-6 (NIV)

And, of course, this is just the first part. You can read the entire genealogy of Jesus here, or you can listen to Andrew Peterson’s song Matthew’s Begats below.

Lessons from Judah and Tamar

Here’s what I take away from this story and its presence in the Bible:

• It all fits together — The sacred and the profane, the glorious and the scandalous are part of the picture. This doesn’t justify the profane or inglorious, but it does illuminate the grace and generosity of God. The Japanese art of kintsugi made use of gold to repair broken cups and dishes, making the brokenness and the repair part of the beauty and the story of the vessel. God, the master craftsman, can take all the broken parts and communicate something eternal through each one of us.
• God’s purpose can’t be thwarted — If God were as dainty as we imagine, the slightest human frailty would derail His plans. Here we see God, like a master of jiu-jitsu, taking the fallibility of Judah and Tamar and using it to continue progress toward the advent of the promised Messiah.
• It all matters (even the bad stuff) — Again, I’m not advocating that we all go out and sin just so we can experience the joy of forgiveness. But recognize that every occasion of failure is a new opportunity to find comfort from our Father in Heaven, and to know His love more profoundly. Note that if Onan hadn’t rebelled, and if Judah and Tamar hadn’t conceived, Perez would not have been born.
• Nobody’s here by accident — If your parents ever described your birth — or worse, you — as an accident, it’s time to shake that off. As we see in this story and in the genealogy of Jesus, there are at least two births that technically shouldn’t have happened, yet they did. Perez and Solomon were both the sons born of liaisons that were not by the book, and yet each man had his role in bringing about the central fact of history, the birth of Jesus our Redeemer. None of us can tell from here what our life’s total contribution will be to the larger story, but isn’t it better to live in the expectation that one has such potential, and to aim for it?
• The Bible is true — The story of Judah and Tamar illustrates the space-time reality of the life of Jesus. He isn’t some cipher of unknown origin. The writers of scripture placed Jesus in direct descent from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and David — and all of this in accordance with prophecy. These are additional reasons you can hang your hat on the reliability of the Bible.

A little more about that last point: If you and I were trying to start a religion from scratch, we wouldn’t include the flaws and failures of our founders. Yet that is exactly what the Bible shows again and again. Look at Tamar posing as a prostitute to get an heir, and look at Judah the lonely (and randy) widower who falls into the honey trap set by his scorned daughter-in-law.

Then look ahead to Rahab the harlot in the lineage of Jesus — King David’s great grandmother. And that’s not all. David famously betrayed loyal Uriah the Hittite to cover his adulterous affair with Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba. Yet it was Solomon, the son of David and Bathsheba who built the Temple in Jerusalem and carried the messianic line forward.

This frankness about the earthy nature of Jesus’ earthly ancestors shows that God is not faint of heart, nor squeamish when it comes to our preoccupation with sex. Nor is he put-off by our rebellion and resistance. Instead, He is patiently and persistently loving fallen and fallible people like you and me. You and I — broken as we are — can be and are redeemed and take our place in the Great Story God is telling. Even though you may feel far away from God based on something you’ve done or are doing, if you’re breathing it isn’t too late to turn to Him.

So how about you? How does the story of Judah and Tamar encourage you? Add your comments below.

Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.  – Colossians 3:17 (The Message)

It’s time for another visit to the poetry corner.  The following was in regular use in my old Boy Scout troop.   It was there I learned a lot about leadership and about service.  So here, for your edification and enjoyment is Edna Wheeler Wilcox’s Two Kinds of People

A leaning door isn’t quite fulfilling its purpose.

TWO KINDS OF PEOPLE

There are two kinds of people on earth today,
Just two kinds of people, no more, I say,
Not the good and the bad, for ’tis well understood
The good are half bad and the bad are half good

Not the happy and sad, for the swift flying years
Bring each man his laughter and each man his tears.
Not the rich and the poor, for to count a man’s wealth
You must first know the state of his conscience and health.

Not the humble and proud, for in life’s busy span
Who puts on vain airs is not counted a man.
No! The two kinds of people on earth I mean
Are the people who lift, and the people who lean.

Wherever you go you will find the world’s masses
Are ever divided in just these two classes.
And, strangely enough, you will find, too, I wean,
There is only one lifter to twenty who lean.

This one question I ask, Are you easing the load
Of overtaxed lifters who toil down the road?
Or are you a leaner who lets others bear
Your portion of worry and labor and care?

-Edna Wheeler Wilcox

Whether it acknowledges it or not, the world needs the unique contributions and leadership of men.  Discovering your purpose — your calling — is worth the time and effort it takes.  And after this, committing to your mission according to that purpose is where a man crafts his legacy.  It is at this point that a man must dedicate himself to being, in the words of the poet, a lifter.

If you’re a leader, bear the burden of leadership by serving those you expect to follow you.  It is important to meet your obligations, and the heart of management is motivating and inspiring others to own and perform the necessary tasks.  Leadership is management with human concerns at the forefront.  So take care to value people and use things — not the other way around.

And if you’re a follower, ease your leader’s burden by offering to take on some of his tasks, and even more by having at least one well-thought-out solution for every problem you bring him.  It may ultimately be his call, but you’re lightening the load by bringing your leader the best thinking you’ve got.

So how about you?  In what ways are you helping to bear your share of the load in your family, career, church and community?  Add your comments below.

“Then he taught me, and he said to me, ‘Take hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands, and you will live. Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn away from them. Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding. Cherish her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you. She will give you a garland to grace your head and present you with a glorious crown.’” – Proverbs 4:4-9 (NIV)

Over the weekend, I took Mrs. Booth to see the movie Hacksaw Ridge — the true story of World War II Army medic Desmond Doss. It is as frank in its depiction of combat and human destruction as anything I’ve seen since Saving Private Ryan, and it is also the most uplifting story I may have ever seen.

Meet Desmond Doss

The facts of Desmond Doss’s life are a matter of history. A devout Christian and a pacifist raised in the hills around Lynchburg,VA, volunteers to serve in World War II. His convictions forbid him to even handle a gun, so he enlists with the purpose of becoming a combat medic.

Medal of Honor Recipient Cpl. Desmond T. Doss (photo courtesy of the Desmond Doss Council)

Assigned to Fort Jackson, SC, Doss finds himself in a rifle battalion, where his officers and his fellow soldiers accuse him of cowardice and harass him trying to hound him out of the Army — even subjecting him to a court-martial for refusing a direct order to handle a weapon. But Private Doss didn’t waver in his faith or go along to get along to make the trouble go away.

Desmond Doss and his battalion saw combat in the Pacific, ultimately participating in the bloodiest battle of that theater — the battle for Okinawa, set atop a 400-foot cliff known as the escarpment. Desmond Doss did not carry a weapon into that carnage — only his Bible and his faith. When the enemy counter-attacked, the Americans retreated from the top of the escarpment — all of them except Desmond Doss. And he single-handedly rescued at least 75 wounded men, retrieving their broken bodies while under hostile fire, moving within yards of enemy soldiers. As he tended each soldier, he carried each man to the edge of the cliff lowering him into US hands.

Who is this guy?

The movie does a good job of conveying that it was Desmond’s faith in God, and his desire to please God that motivated him to resist the taking of life, but that also motivated him to serve. When the war began, Desmond was eligible for a deferral based on his work in a naval shipyard. He felt it was his duty to serve, so he chose the more difficult path of honor.

And during the night as he lowered his wounded comrades away from danger, he prayed through his fatigue: “Lord, let me get just one more.” I wondered if this was simply Hollywood gloss, but in a documentary titled The Conscientious Objector, Desmond Doss explains that this was indeed his prayer.

The takeaways from “Hacksaw Ridge”

I hope you’ll see the movie, but if not, here are the main takeaways I left with:

1. We need stories. As we’ve discussed before, there’s much less benefit to telling a man to “Man up,” than there is in telling a story of a man who was willing to put principle ahead of his own comfort.
2. We need heroes. Too many people we enshrine as heroes will let you down if you study them closely enough. Here, at least, is one case, where a man walked unarmed into Hell to save his fellow-man. He even provided care to some wounded Japanese soldiers. The fact that one man was able to do this inspires me to aim higher.
3. Freedom of conscience is necessary — and expensive. Just to have the right to go into combat — unarmed — with is battalion Doss had to suffer the insults, the beatings, the extra duty, and the mischaracterization of his motives.
4. Even when you’re right, sometimes you have to absorb the hit. Conscientious objectors like those practicing civil disobedience have the right to express themselves. And defying authority usually brings consequences. Doss never lashed out at the unfair treatment he received. He stuck to his principles and trusted God to work it out.
5. One man can make a difference. Desmond Doss’s devotion to God and country impelled him toward danger again and again. As a result, 75 men who almost certainly would have died of their wounds or been finished off by the enemy lived.

The rest of the story

Desmond Doss sustained multiple wounds from enemy snipers and grenades. Even when it was his turn to be carried from the battlefield, he insisted that a more critically wounded soldier be carried on the stretcher he occupied at the time. For his most conspicuous gallantry and willingness to put himself in harm’s way for his fellow soldiers, Corporal Desmond Doss received the Congressional Medal of Honor — the first conscientious objector to receive the nation’s highest military honor.Desmond Doss had numerous health problems resulting from his wounds, but he lived well into old age giving honor to God.

A lot of times, a movie based on a true story takes liberties to make it seem better. In the case of Desmond Doss, the truth is even better than Hollywood, as I hope you’ll see.

So how about you? What stories make you want to be a better man? Add your comments below.

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die — but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” – St. Paul (Romans 5:6-8 ESV)

A very merry Christmas to all of you — and thanks for your reading and commenting this year. A conversation falls apart if only one side is there, so I want to make sure you know I appreciate your lending me your attention.

Our hopelessness is not the “reason for the season” but it is the origin of it.

Christmastime is here with all of its longing and all the ache of unfulfilled hope. It can be a time of unparalleled joy — a real rip — but for many people I know, the season is a mix of high and low. This is something of a choice, and I want to challenge you and me to focus on the tremendous upside that is Christmas.

I am not talking about a new guitar (ahem), outdoor gear, or any present under the tree. Instead, I challenge us to look beyond the reactive trappings to see the reality that set all of them in motion. Here’s my video message to you:

In my short life, I have seen the world deliver the message repeatedly that we’re on our own. It isn’t true. Christmas proves it. It can be hard to see underneath the advertising and the desire to strip the season of its spiritual significance, but the substance of it is there if you have eyes to see it.

What if it’s all make-believe after all?

I assure you it isn’t, but consider the following. In C.S. Lewis’s The Silver Chair, Puddleglum the Marshwiggle is fighting off the enchantment of the green witch who has enslaved the prince and taken him and his young charges captive. As he extinguishes the witch’s magic fire with his foot, he delivers the following:

“One word, Ma’am,” he said, coming back from the fire; limping, because of the pain. “One word. All you’ve been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won’t deny any of what you said. But there’s one more thing to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things-trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia.”

So let us live like Christmas people and celebrate the God who came to demonstrate His love for us by laying down His life for you and me. Merry Christmas!

So how about you? How do you intend to celebrate this Christmas? Add your comments below.

“Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.”
– Proverbs 17:27 (ESV)

With Thanksgiving this week, I am seeing articles and hearing reports unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Families are dividing, disowning, and disinviting over political differences. Ridiculous!

Before we take a long-overdue visit to the poetry corner, I’d like to offer a couple of thoughts in hopes of helping some of you in this unfortunate group find your way back to sanity.

Slow your roll (and maybe take a bite of one) while you consider your words.

First, the family

Please recognize that the family is the cornerstone of an orderly society. Despite its flawed execution, the family is still the best environment for rearing and sustaining emotionally, spiritually, physically, and intellectually healthy people. On numerous occasions, we have discussed that we human beings have an enemy with many aliases. He is variously known as the deceiver, the father of lies, the accuser, the devil. His mission is to steal, kill, and destroy — and one of his favorite targets is the family. He will use any opportunity to divide and conquer. Could you be playing into his hands?

If you and your family members don’t share the same political views, I suggest you (ahem) table them for the greater good of family unity.

Does this make sense?

Further, only a fool would allow a politician of either party to alienate him from his own family. Look at it this way: The number of people Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton can affect personally — favorably or unfavorably — is vanishingly small in a nation of 320 million people. What did either candidate ever to to you or for you, that you would prefer him or her over your own kin?

Everything else at this point is opinion and speculation. I hope this isn’t news to you, but you can choose your thoughts. And I submit to you that turning your back on your loved ones — loved ones! — is a sign of fear and self-absorption. Let us choose instead to focus on the finer qualities of our family members and friends and let us disown and disinvite the intrusive and uncharitable thoughts about those with whom we differ.

Have you tried Kipling?

Here is a classic poem from Rudyard Kipling that seems strangely apt for our times.

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!”

Take a look at how much of what Kipling recommends is within our power to choose it. And note the rewards of being noble — especially when we aren’t afforded the same treatment by others. I am recommending that you and I resolve to behave like Christian gentlemen no matter what kind of reception we get. I’m not promising it will be easy, but you’ll stand out for the best reasons.

Elsewhere, I have written that often the greatest obstacle to our success lies not in our circumstances, but between our ears. This is another such occasion.

Seek wisdom

Please refer again to the Proverb at the top of this post. Note the verb “restrains.” You do want to be a man of knowledge, don’t you? Restrain your words, then. And maintain a cool spirit. Then you’ll be able to discuss nearly any topic without losing precious relationships. Oh, and one more thing: If you’re sure you’re right, you don’t need to yell.

Happy, happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. Remember your relatives are meant to be a blessing and a treasure, so find a way to enjoy them.

So how about you? How are you choosing to keep a cool spirit this Thanksgiving? Add your comments below.

P.S. If you’re sweating making a good impression at the Thanksgiving table because you’ve forgotten your table manners, check out this post for the quick and dirty on keeping it clean.