“Utopia is Creepy”: Five Thoughts

I first became aware of author Nicholas Carr a few years ago when I read his book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. That book really affected the way that I think about digital technology and social media and was one of the best books I read that year, so I was excited to also take a look at Utopia Is Creepy and Other Provocations. This book is a bit different in that, rather than being a sustained treatment of a subject, it is a collection of blog posts and essays written by Carr between 2005 and 2016. It covers a range of topics regarding technology and its continued effects on our world. Here are five ideas that stood out to me:

We work for technology

One of the draws of social media is that, in most cases, it is free to use. As a ‘consumer,’ this seems like a great deal. It’s almost as though tech companies let us use these services out of the goodness of their hearts. Carr points out, however, that it is our engagement with these services that allows them to be profitable. He writes:

The members of social networks may think they’re just ‘sharing’ their thoughts, interests, and opinions with other members, but actually they’re working for the companies that operate the networks…It’s a modern kind of sharecropping system. Like plantation owners in the American South after the Civil War, a social network gives each member a little plot of virtual land on which to cultivate an online presence, through the posting, for instance, of words and pictures, and then the social network collects the economic value of the member’s labor through advertising (or, less frequently, through subscriptions or the sale of goods). (p. 31)

For us, it’s worth remembering that using social media is a two-way street. We use the service, but the company also uses us. We need to at least recognize this fact if we are going to be wise in how we engage with social media today.

The erosion of patience

Technology is speeding up, and with it, the pace of our lives is accelerating as well. I remember when my family first got an internet-capable computer when I was a kid and we began using AOL. It took a couple minutes to log on (accompanied by that terrible crunching sound of dial-up internet). Each page would take at least a few seconds to load. But today, all of these things happen almost immediately, and I get annoyed if there is any delay. This speeding up of technology, Carr writes, is having an effect on our ability to wait for anything. He explains:

If we assume that networks will continue to get faster–a pretty safe bet–then we can also conclude that we’ll become more and more impatient, more and more intolerant of even the slightest delay between action and response, between desire and its fulfillment. As a result, we’ll be less likely to experience anything that requires waiting, that doesn’t provide instant gratification. That has cultural as well as personal consequences. The greatest of works–in art, science, politics, whatever–tend to take time and patience both to create and to appreciate. The deepest experiences can’t be measured in fractions of seconds. (p. 206)

I would add “spirituality” to Carr’s list of art, science, and politics. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit, after all (Gal. 5:22). Often, the fruits of obedience and faith take awhile to come. As technology speeds us up, is it also making it more difficult for us to practice that patience needed for a mature Christian life?

Music as activity

In one article written in 2015, Carr reflects on the Google Play Music service, which curated music playlists to go along with various activities a person may engage in. So there would be a playlist for barbecuing, one for daydreaming, one for family time, one for working out, and so on. Carr points out that this approach takes a certain slant toward music. He writes that from Google’s viewpoint, “Listening to music is not itself an ‘activity’–music isn’t an end in itself–but rather an enhancer of other activities, each of which must be clearly demarcated” (p. 208)

When I thought of my own habits, I could see what Carr is talking about. I listen to a lot of music, but often, it is simply background to whatever else I am doing. I’ll listen while I’m driving, or while I’m working in my office, or while I’m doing chores around the house. But I rarely would take time to just listen. Since reading Carr’s book, I’ve been trying to change that. Each day I’ve been listening to a complete album in my music collection–not while doing something else–but simply to listen and soak it in. And I have to say, it’s been an enjoyable part of my day!

Forfeiting privacy

There is a truth about technology that most all of us know but few of us want to admit: There is no real privacy online. Every click and keystroke is recorded somewhere. It used to be that people feared that the government (“Big Brother”) would one day seize the population’s right to privacy. Today, we gladly forfeit that privacy as we browse and post online. In an article originally written for the Wall Street Journal, Carr writes:

The greatest danger posed by the erosion of personal privacy is that it may lead us, as individuals and as a society, to devalue the concept of privacy, to see it as outdated and unimportant. We may begin to view privacy as something that gets int he way–a barrier to efficient shopping and socializing. That would be a tragedy. (p. 258)

That article was written 2010–just a few years after the introduction of the iPhone. Now, ten years later, I wonder how our value of privacy has changed even more. Is it something we care about anymore?

Politics via tweet

In an article written for Politico Magazine in 2015, Carr reflects on then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and his use of social media. It is interesting to read this article now that Trump has been in office for almost four years. I think, “Oh man…if 2015 Nicholas Carr only knew!” Carr is skeptical that a medium like Twitter can or should be a way for politicians to communicate and warns that it can reduce important discourses to trivial nonsense. He writes, “Social media favors the bitty over the meaty, the cutting over the considered. It also prizes emotionalism over reason” (p. 316). He goes on, “Political discourse rarely benefits from templates and routines. It becomes most valuable when it involves careful deliberation, an attention to detail, and subtle and open-ended critical thought–the kinds of things that social media tends to frustrate rather than promote” (p. 320).

Regardless of where you stand politically, I think Carr’s warning here is important to hear, and that it has actually played out over the last few years. Twitter is a poor place for political discourse. Nuance is lost. Careful thought isn’t rewarded; a snappy punchline is. The world today feels chaotic, and I wonder how much of that is due to the fact we have turned important discussions over to a medium never designed to carry them.

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Utopia is Creepy covers a vast array of topics related to digital technology. I found some of the articles really great, and others less gripping, but that is part of the nature of a book like this. I would suggest The Shallows as a better introduction to the topic, though this collection of blog posts and essays also touches on a number of important topics that are all too easy to overlook in our technology-saturated culture today.

Hey, Are You Listening To…?

I’ve loved music since I was a kid. I have fond memories of singing songs in children’s church as a youngster, or of my dad playing the Beatles or Rush on the family stereo system on Saturday mornings. When I was in elementary school, my own musical tastes began to emerge, only to be more fully developed in middle school, high school, and college. I had a collection of tapes that I would listen to in my room when I was young (early favorites were by artists like Reality Check, Ian Eskelin, and Fold Zandura). Eventually I upgraded to a CD player (the first CD I owned was Skillet’s self-titled album). I started playing percussion in the school band in 5th grade and began learning the drum set a couple years after that. Now I’m not a professional musician, of course, or even an expert, but music has still been an important part of my life.

However, I was thinking recently about how my experience of music has changed in the last decade or so. The change happened without me really noticing at the time. In short, my engagement with music has become more private.

For years, music was something that helped me build connections with other people. It was a bridge in developing friendships with others. Now of course, my friends and I didn’t all have identical tastes, but there was often some overlap. If a new album by a favorite artist was released, there were other interested people to discuss it with. If I met someone who shared a fandom for a particular artist (especially if it was a fairly obscure one), it created an instant connection. My enjoyment of music was something that took place in the context of community and relationship.

That isn’t the case these days as much. I don’t talk about music with others very often. It’s rare that I discover a new band based on the recommendation of a friend, or that I make recommendations to others. For the most part, the topic doesn’t even come up.

I wonder: Why the change? I can think of three possibilities:

1. The experience is unique to me. Maybe my musical tastes are too obscure, or at just don’t fit with people in my age and location. Maybe I’ve just forgotten how to use music to build a bridge with others. Maybe everyone else still uses music as a point of connection, but for whatever reason, I’ve stopped doing so.

2. Maybe this is just part of adulthood. It could be that music tends to be a more formative experience in youth, but by the time you hit your 30’s, it’s not really something that binds people together so much. Maybe the change I’ve noticed in myself is just something that happens at this time of life.

3. Maybe the experience is due to changes in our culture or in our technology. When I was a teenager or a college student, music was played on stereos. With speakers. It was easy to walk by someone else’s dorm room and notice that they were bumping a song that you dug too. But today, we engage with music differently. We listen through headphones plugged into our smartphones, or maybe on tinny laptop speakers. Because of that, maybe we’ve gotten used to enjoying music alone rather than in groups. Could it be that the means by which music is delivered has changed the role music plays in our relationships?

I’m not sure which of these possibilities is the true one. Maybe all three are, to a point. If you’re a music fan, have you noticed the same trend in your own life and relationships? Is music something that helps tie you to others, or has it become something more private?

And finally, what are you listening to these days? Some artists that I’ve discovered over the past couple years that I have been enjoying include: John Van Deusen, The Gray Havens, Dens, My Epic, and Reawaken Hymns. Check them out!

“Faith for Exiles”: Five Thoughts

What are practices that help young believers remain faithful and resilient in the world today? That’s the question that David Kinnaman and Mark Matlock tackle in Faith for Exiles: 5 Ways for a New Generation to Follow Jesus in Digital Babylon. Kinnaman is the president of Barna Group, which does a lot of statistical study of the religious practices of our society, and Matlock is the former director of Youth Specialties.

Faith for Exiles fits alongside two other books written by David Kinnaman: unChristian (2007) and You Lost Me (2011). unChristian explores the attitudes that unchurched, young adults have about the church. You Lost Me examines reasons that young adult who were raised in the church often end up leaving the church. And now, Faith for Exiles turns the attention to young adults who do stay connected to their faith and to the church.

I had a chance to read Faith for Exiles recently. Here are five thoughts from the book that stood out to me:

Digital Babylon

Kinnaman and Matlock use the term “Digital Babylon” to describe the world we live in today. Like the Jews who were in exile in ancient Babylon, we find ourselves in a world where the values at work are not the values of God. A wide-ranging array of beliefs and ideas fight for our attention and our devotion. Our modern-day Babylon is “digital” because the pressures we face are so often transmitted to us through our screens. We have an entire world available to us at our fingertips, and often that world is indifferent or even hostile to God’s kingdom.

This is important for Christians, and especially ministers, to remember today. Kinnaman and Matlock point out, “Screens disciple” (p. 25). The people in our churches spend way more time with their devices than they do in our churches. How are those devices discipling them? What assumptions can we no longer take for granted as we communicate the truth of God? The world today is radically different than it was and is changing all the time. As believers and servants of God, we need to understand our culture and wisely discern how to live and minister in the midst of it.

How many young adults are resilient?

Barna has done a lot of research into the religious backgrounds and practices of young adults. In the breakdown of this information, Kinnaman and Matlock look at young adults (18-29 years old) who were raised as Christians, and divide them into four groups: prodigals, nomads, habitual churchgoers, and resilient disciples (p. 33). The focus of the book is on the resilient disciples, who are defined as those who attend church at least month and engage with their church other than worship attendance, who trust in the authority of the Bible, who are committed to Jesus and affirm basic facts about him, and who desire to transform culture as followers of Jesus.

According to the book, 10 percent of young adults who grow up Christian fit into that category. In one sense, it’s great that this many young disciples are experiencing a robust faith. On the other hand, it also means that 90 percent of young people who grow up in the church are not experiencing that kind of faith today. This should be a wake-up call to the church and it’s leader (me included!) We need to think long and hard about how to not only keep young Christians attending the church, but how to develop a resilient and living faith in them.

Making a decision too early?

In one passage, Kinnaman and Matlock make an interesting observation: The median age at which resilient disciples made a decision to follow Jesus is higher than it is for those who eventually leave the church. Young believers who prove to have a resilient faith tend to make that decision slightly later than others.

Based on this statistics, the writers make this suggestion: “Don’t rush a decision to follow Jesus” (p. 60). There may be wisdom in this, at least as it comes to our children. Now don’t get me wrong – I’m not against children making that decision (I decided to be baptized when I was nine). But we need to make sure young people making that decision understand what it actually means. We don’t want to squash their enthusiasm, but we don’t to set them up to have a faith that lasts. As Kinnaman and Matlock write, “It appears that resilient disciples are more likely to make a decision to follow Jesus when they know what they are signing up for” (p. 61).

Pastor as Marketer

In another passage, Kinnaman tells of a conversation he had with a teenage girl who had left the church. She explains that she didn’t really have good friendships in the church. When asked about the youth minister, she said, “that was part of his job. He’s paid to be a marketer of church to teenagers” (p. 120).

I wonder how many other people in our churches see pastors like that. That causes me some pause, because I’m one of those pastors! It challenges us to reflect on how we can build genuine connections with those under our care. How can true relationships be built within the church without it comes across as phony or pre-packaged?

Danger in Safety

Our contemporary culture is obsessed with safety. Our society is becoming increasingly risk-averse in almost every area. In her book iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy – and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood, Jean M. Twenge exposes how the emerging generation has made safety into a core value, and how this can make young people unprepared for the real world (pp. 143-177). Along a similar vein, Kinnaman and Matlock question whether our concern for safety is hampering young believers whom we are seeking to shape into resilient disciples. They write:

…the Christian community – including parents, church leaders, and other well-meaning stakeholders – sometimes works at cross-purposes with regard to young disciples’ participation in countercultural mission. We try to keep them insulated. We helicopter-parent them. We imagine that safety and security are kingdom values. We want them to change the world around them, but only at a reasonable distance. We like the idea of countercultural mission, but in practice, here in exile, it’s kind of terrifying. (p. 192)

Following Jesus has never been safe. Jesus never promised it would be. If our goal is to protect young people in every way, we’re going to have a difficult time preparing them to be resilient disciples in Digital Babylon.

I wonder how the current pandemic will only heighten our cultural value of safety. How will months of social distancing affect how our young people interact with the world in the long term? Will they retreat only further into the “safety” of the digital world? Will they be willing to heed Jesus’ call to “deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (Lk. 9:23)? How can we faithfully invite them into the risky and dangerous life of mission?

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I really enjoyed reading Faith for Exiles, just as I enjoyed unChristian and You Lost Me. Actually, maybe “enjoyed” is the wrong word, as there are a lot of gut-punches here! But if you’re a Christian parent or a minister, I would say that this book is really helpful. The world that young believers are growing up in is much different than it was only a few years ago. Kinnaman and Matlock provide insights into the challenges that young Christians face and suggest how we can raise the next generation to be resilient disciples who follow Jesus well in the exile of Digital Babylon.

Where Is Your Faith?

Recently I have been reading through the gospel of Luke. A few days ago my reading was from the well-known story of Jesus calming the storm. It begins like this:

One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” (Lk. 8:22-24a)

There on the lake, the disciples are meant with a danger that they cannot control. A storm is a thing of chaos. It’s destructive. And it is beyond our ability to really manage. Even 2000 years after that storm in Galilee, we are unable to control the weather. Tornados and hurricanes come whether we plan for them or not, and we can’t divert their paths. Blizzards, droughts, windstorms – they’re all beyond our reach.

The coronavirus pandemic isn’t so different. On the Every Thought Captive Podcast, my old professor Doug Welch described the pandemic as the slowest-moving tornado in history. It is chaotic and destructive, just like a storm, but it doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave. So like the disciples in the boat, we feel that we are being swamped. The pandemic crashes in on us like waves against the sides of the hull, and like the disciples, we find ourselves crying out, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”

Luke’s account continues:

He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.” (Lk. 8:24b-25)

These past few days, I’ve been struck by that question Jesus asks his shipmates. “Where is your faith?” I wonder if he is asking us the same question today.

The pandemic has done many things, and I believe that one of those things has been to expose our idols. In our modern world, we tend to place our trust in a people and institutions other than God. We turn to them for a security and safety. But this year, we have been forced to acknowledge that, in the face of a storm, they have been unable to live up to the hopes we have for them.

Is your trust in the economy? We’ve seen unemployment rise, businesses shutter, and markets stumble.

Is your trust in politics? Our leaders have been unable to provide a coherent strategy for dealing with the virus.

Is your trust in technology? Even with all of the advances we have made over the centuries, all of the best minds of our world haven’t been able to prevent the 600,000 global deaths (and counting) from the virus.

Is your trust in education? Our schools and universities are struggling to figure out what education looks like this fall in light of the crisis.

As a human race, we are so confident in the things we have built. We are the people of Babel, erecting our tower to make our name great and to prevent ourselves from being scattered. But in spite of our ingenuity, a microscopic strand of RNA has brought all our striving to a halt.

So where is your faith? That’s the question I’ve had to wrestle with this week. Is my faith in myself? Is it in my society? Is it in the works of human hands? Is it in what we have built? All of these have proven inadequate.

So let’s put our faith in the one who calms storms. Let’s put it in the one who is Lord over all things (even pandemics). Let’s use this season, as frustrating and frightening as it is, to allow our idols to be stripped away and to place our trust only in the one who “commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.”

The disciples made it to the other side of the lake, and I believe our world will make it to the other side of this pandemic. I hope we reach the other shore as different people than we were when we set sail. I hope we have more humility, more faith, more trust in our Storm-Calmer.

Granted, when the disciples got to the other side, they were met by a demon-possessed naked man. I hate to think what the epidemiological parallel to that would be, but let’s hope it stays where it is for a while!

“Renovation of the Heart” by Dallas Willard: Five Thoughts

This is already the third post I have written this week…after only writing three posts in the previous four years! I say that only to caution that this frequency probably won’t be maintained, but as I’m trying to get things off the ground again, I thought it may be helpful to have as much new material as I can.

With that said, this week I decided to become a “real” blogger this week, pony up a little bit of cash, and simply the URL. So now you can find us here at http://www.davidheffren.com. I figure that if I spend money on the blog, I’m more likely to actually write on it. It’s the same reason I sometimes buy new running shoes. If there’s one thing I hate more than exercising, it’s wasting money.

I’ve been thinking about things that I could be writing about, and that led me to today’s post and what I hope will be a reoccurring theme here. I’ve always been a big reader, though sometimes I’ve been more lax in that area that at other times. However, since the pandemic hit and I’ve had more time at home than normal, I’ve been trying to spend more time reading. I thought it might be helpful (and maybe even fun!) if, when I finish a book, I shared a few highlights or ideas that stuck out to me. This will be most useful to me than anyone else, I suppose, as it will help me digest what I’ve read. But maybe you’ll find something interesting here as well or decide to check out the book yourself.

Last week I finished reading Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ by Dallas Willard. So without further stalling, here are five thoughts from this book:

1. This book is about spiritual formation. Normally, we might think of spiritual formation as something that is a uniquely Christian topic. But Willard points out that all people have experienced spiritual formation, because all people have spirits that have taken one shape or another. He writes:

Spiritual formation, without regard to any specifically religious context or tradition, is the process by which the human spirit or will is given a definite “form” or character. It is a process that happens to everyone. The most despicable as well as the most admirable of persons have had a spiritual formation. Terrorists as well as saints are the outcome of spiritual formation. Their spirits or hearts have been formed. Period. (p. 19)

2. Throughout the book, Willard uses the term “apprentice” where most other Christian writers would use the word “disciple.” He doesn’t really draw attention to this word-choice, but it does become noticeable as you read along. This may be a helpful way for us to think about what discipleship is. The goal of an apprentice is to learn from and eventually become like their master. The same is true of disciples of Jesus. We follow Jesus, learn from him, and follow his example of life with the goal of becoming more like him. If you’re around church for long, you hear the word “disciple” so often that it can be easy to forget it’s meaning. Seeing a different term used serves as a good reminder of what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

Everyone’s spirit has been formed. Maybe it’s been formed by Christ, or maybe it’s been formed by culture, by family, by education, by media, or by any of the other influences in our world. The role of the church, then, isn’t just to lead people in a process of spiritual formation. We lead people into spiritual transformation. None of us are blank slates when we encounter Christ. We come already shaped in some way, and we allow Christ to begin to reshape us into his image and character.

3. Willard reflects on the difficulty (or even the impossibility) of making a decision to obey Christ in the moment of temptation or crisis if a person has not adequately prepared themselves to face that situation. He writes:

I will not be able “on the spot” to do the good thing if my inner being is filled with all the thoughts, feelings, and habits that characterize the ruined soul and its world. Rather, if I intend to obey Jesus Christ, I must intend and decide to become the kind of person who would obey. (p. 90)

This is so true. In order to live righteously, we can’t choose to live righteously only in the moment of decision. We must choose to do so before we meet that point. Willard calls this “Training ‘Off the Spot.'” An athletic metaphor may help here: If a professional basketball player wants to excel, he can’t only play basketball during the game. He must train himself in practice so that, when the game comes, he is ready for the challenge. We need the same approach to our discipleship. This is why spiritual disciplines (things like Bible intake, prayer, worship, community) are so key: They form us into the kind of people who are ready to obey God when the time comes.

4. Near the end of the book, Willard writes something that I initially found pretty shocking to read, and I imagine many other church leaders would be surprised as well:

It is, I gently suggest, a serious error to make “outreach” a primary goal of the local congregation, and especially so when those who are already “with us” have not become clear-headed and devoted apprentices of Jesus, and are not, for the most part, solidly progressing along the path. Outreach is one essential task of Christ’s people, and among them there will always be those especially gifted for evangelism. But the most successful work of outreach would be the work of inreach that turns people, wherever they are, into lights into the darkened world. (p. 244)

At first glance, it may seem Willard is bashing evangelism as a task of church, and we may think, “Wait, isn’t evangelism what the Great Commission all about?” But what I think Willard is pointing to is the fact that, for evangelism to be effective, is must come from disciples of have truly experienced transformation into the character of Christ. Church outreach does little good if the people of our church are not growing into Christian maturity. The most effective evangelistic tool is a life that has been changed by Jesus. In our desire for outreach, we can’t afford to neglect the work of spiritual transformation.

5. The previous ideas I’ve highlighted have all been ones I’ve found helpful, but there is one area of Willard’s presentation about which I still have questions. One of the main ideas of the book is that we must be transformed in six essential areas of our human nature: our thoughts, feelings, spirits, bodies, social relations, and souls. Willard describes what each of these human dimensions are and how they relate with one another. But if I can be honest, I have always been confused by discussions that seek to differentiate the “spirit” from the “soul” of a person, and I can’t say that Willard clarifies this for me. He says that the role of the spirit is “to organize our life as a whole.” He then later writes that the soul is “that aspect of your whole being that correlates, integrates, and enlivens everything going on in the various dimensions of the self.”

Now I will admit, I have never done a deep study on the concepts of soul and spirit, or looked at how the Bible uses these different terms. But the way Willard explains them seems confusing to me. I’m curious if any of you have heard a helpful differentiation of what the spirit and the soul are and what they do?

Overall, I found Renovation of the Heart to be a helpful book in directing my attention to the importance of character formation from the inside out as I seek to obey Jesus more and more. This is the second book I have read by Willard (the other is Spirit of the Disciplines). His writing style can be a little dense, so you need to be ready to pay close attention to some complex arguments. But if you’re able to slow down and soak in what he is saying, I think you’ll find a lot of useful material about the our nature as human beings, a vision of what Christ wants to do in our lives, and some practical steps to take to be transformed into the image of Jesus.

Parapets & Pandemics

Did you know that there’s a global pandemic going on? I know, right?

I recognize that writing anything about the pandemic seems to invite criticism from one side or the other, so maybe I’m being foolish. But my goal isn’t to comment on the specifics of whether or not schools should reopen this fall, or the constitutionality of the government imposing restrictions on businesses or churches, or whether the national media is overhyping or underselling the seriousness of the situation. All I want to do is share a passage of Scripture that has affected how I understand my personal responsibility during this time.

In Deuteronomy 22:8, God gives the Israelites this command: “When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof.”

I know, this passage seems random and irrelevant. At first glance, this building code seems tied specifically to the Israelites’ cultural context. In ancient Israel, the roofs of houses were flat. Because it could get so hot and stuffy inside the house, it would be common for people to do various things on the roof. (Remember, for example, how King David was walking on his roof one evening when he noticed Bathsheba.) So God commanded the Israelites to build a parapet — a little protective wall — around the edge of their roofs to help prevent people from falling off. It functioned like a guardrail.

I imagine that doing this would come with some personal cost. It would be a little inconvenient. And it would have been easy to say, “Well, if someone falls of my roof, that’s their own fault! If they don’t feel safe, they don’t need to come over.” And yet, the people were expected to build these parapets. Why?

When I read this passage a couple months ago, I thought about what underlying principle is at play here, and how it might apply today. And what I saw is this: The Israelites understood that they had a responsibility for the health and wellbeing of others around them.

And boy oh boy, is that principle relevant today! It has saddened me to see the pandemic-response become such a partisan issue. Sometimes it feels like we’ve gotten so distracted by arguments about who’s right and who’s wrong that we’ve forgotten to ask this simple question: “What responsibility do I have for the other people around me?” It’s not just a matter of politics. It’s a matter of discipleship, and a matter of love.

During this time, many people have said how they hate having someone else tell them what to do, whether it’s in relation to social distancing or face masks or quarantining. And I get that, because I hate people telling me what to do too! To be honest, I hate wearing a mask. It’s uncomfortable, it fogs up my glasses, and it robs people from being able to see how good-looking I am. And in the early days of masks being recommended, I usually didn’t wear one when I went to the store. It didn’t seem to be worth it, and I didn’t have one that fit anyways. But after reading Deuteronomy 22, my thoughts changed. I realized I needed to stop thinking only about my own comfort and convenience, and begin thinking more about the interests of others (Philippians 2:3-4).

My goal isn’t to condemn or point fingers (Isn’t there enough of that in our world these days?). Otherwise, I’d have to be pointing most of the fingers at myself for the times I’ve put my own comfort or convenience ahead of the needs of others — not just in this pandemic, but throughout my life! But what I do hope is that as people who are following Jesus, we really reflect on what it looks like to love our neighbor well in this time. What are the “parapets” we need to build in our lives to help protect others?

I know all of us are kind of making it up as we go. After all, we’ve never been in anything like this before! But wouldn’t it be great if the world could look at Christians and see us as the people who are most willing to deny ourselves? As the people who are most willing to lay down our rights? As the people who are most willing to be inconvenienced for the sake of others?

After all, we follow a Savior who sacrificed his personal prerogatives for us. Doesn’t it only make sense for us to do the same?

For the One

I’m writing this one for my wife.

Over a year ago, I started writing again (after a hiatus of several years before that). I said, “Alright, I’m going to stick with it this time! Let’s get this thing rolling!

And then I wrote two posts and quit again.

Since then, my wife Katie has often said, “You should write a new post!” I always say, “Eh…I don’t know. I don’t have much to write about. And besides, I don’t think anyone will read it.” To which she replies, “I’ll read it.”

And as I’ve thought about it, that’s probably enough.

These days, we live in such a performative culture. We want everything we do to be noticed and appreciated by as many people as we can. We ask, “If people aren’t watching, then what’s the point of doing it? If I don’t get many likes on my Instagram post, should I just delete it? If my video doesn’t get many views, was it worth the time? If what I write doesn’t find many readers, should it have been written?”

In our digitally-connected age, we so often seek the attention of the crowd, no matter how anonymous they may be to us. It makes us feel good to get good numbers in our site analytics or to get a lot of comments.

But in all of this, perhaps we’ve lost something. Maybe we’ve forgotten the goodness of doing things, not to be noticed by the digital crowd, but to bring some pleasure to the people closest to us. Isn’t there value in doing things for a single person – especially when that person is the most meaningful individual to you?

As I’ve been rolling this idea around, I’ve also thought of a spiritual application. I’m reminded of Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount: “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven” (Mt. 6:1). Instead, Jesus talks about doing things only to be noticed by God, who “sees what is done in secret” (Mt. 6:4).

Jesus’ words confront our cultural obsession with performance. The hypocrites might have asked, “Is it worth giving to the needy if no one is paying attention? Is it worth praying if other people can’t hear you? Is it worth fasting if others don’t witness your piety?”

Or maybe we could turn these questions around into something like this: Is it worth living in love and obedience, even if the only person who will notice is God?

The answer to that last question has to be an emphatic “Yes.” We aren’t called to live righteously in order to impress the crowd. We’re called to live righteously to honor the One. In a world where we place so much focus on getting the attention of others, this is an important truth.

I’m not sure if many people who read this post. And I’m pretty okay with that, because I know my wife will. And I don’t know if many will see any of the good things we do as a followers of Jesus. But God sees, and that’s probably all we need.

God’s Word in the Age of Victimization

It’s important for all of us to understand those who are different from us. This makes us better people, better Christians, and better servants of Jesus. And often, this means trying to understand those of other generations–whether those who have gone before us or those who are coming after us.

In an effort to better understand the next generation, recently I’ve been reading a book by Jean M. Twenge titled iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy–and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood. The book provides a statistical profile of what Twenge classifies a “iGen”: those born between 1995 and 2012. The members of iGen are now graduating high school and college and entering adult society. As a minister, these are the next generation of Christians believers and of unbelievers who need to hear about Jesus–and like any generation, they hold certain values and modes of thought that are different from Millenials like me and other generations before them.

There is much that could be discussed from this book, but I won’t do all of that here. If you are in ministry, or even if you just want to know more about how American society is changing, I would recommend that you pick up a copy. Twenge highlights several major areas in which iGen is different from previous generations, and it’s helpful for all of us at least be aware of these.

But for my purposes today, one idea especially caught my attention. In one chapter, Twenge shows that iGen is more concerned with safety that other generations had been. Many members of this generation have experienced greater levels of supervision at home, at school, and elsewhere, in order to make sure they are safe. In many ways, this concern for safety has had positive effects: Today’s teenagers and young adults are more likely to wear their seatbelts and drive safely, and are less likely to drink or get into fights.

An interesting wrinkle, however, is in the observation that safety has come to not only refer to physical safety, but to emotional safety as well. Just as people are cautious to not be physically injured, they take steps to avoid “emotional injury” too. Such emotional injury may come from someone’s words, or from being confronted with a viewpoint that offends or is at adds with yours. Twenge writes, “This is the flip side of iGen’s interest in safety: the idea that one should be safe not just from car accidents and sexual assault but from people who disagree with you.” All of this lends to the development of safe spaces, trigger warnings, and concern for microaggressions. More and more, people are anxious about being forced to confront messages that they do not want to have to confront.

One example of this trend helped me think on what this all means as a minister. She writes:

Some students have taken this notion even further–beyond offensive or extreme speech to anything that makes them feel uncomfortable or challenges them to question their actions. Everett Piper, the president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University, said a student told him he felt ‘victimized’ by a sermon on a passage in Corinthians about showing love. Why? Because it ‘made him feel bad for not showing love! In his mind, the speaker was wrong for making him, and his peers, feel uncomfortable.’ In this way of thinking, no one should ever say anything that makes a student feel bad, even if it might inspire him or her to do better.”

I read this paragraph to my wife and asked her what she thought about the student claiming to be “victimized” by the sermon. She responded, “Isn’t that conviction?” And I would agree. Conviction is one of the things God does, after all. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would “convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment” (Jn. 16:8). The goodness of the gospel is so good because the badness of our sin is so bad. To understand what Jesus has done in rescuing us, we need to understand how we have failed. In addition, the process of sanctification requires that we continously be confronted by and convicted by the reality of our sin. Only in this way can we grow in Christ-likeness.

But it all poses challenging problems for those of us who teach or preach. If, for example, calling people to be more loving causes our hearers to feel “victimized,” how can we teach about sin? How can we help even believers grow in holiness and Christlikeness?

I don’t know that I have clear answers to those questions yet. But here are a few basic ideas that I’ve been tossing around as I’ve been thinking about this:

1. The problem isn’t entirely new

Granted, the language of victimization in place of conviction may be new to me. But the root issue isn’t really new: People don’t like to be told that they have been doing something. We recoil from the conviction that comes through God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. In the 60’s AD, Paul wrote, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions” (2 Tim. 4:3). He also wrote of those “whose consciences are seared” (1 Tim. 4:2). When Stephen preached a sermon that challenged the Sanhedrin, they “stopped their ears” as they rushed at him to kill him (Acts 7:57). Even 800 years before Jesus, the king Ahab complained that the prophet Micaiah didn’t prophesy good things about him, but only bad (1 Kgs. 22:18). It’s a common element of human nature in all generations: We want to be patted on the back and told we’re doing everything right. We don’t want anyone (prophet, preacher, or God himself) to tell us that we have sins that need corrected. This element of our nature may be repackaged at different times, but its the same problem at its core.

2. The answer isn’t to tell people to suck it up

I have to admit: my first reaction when I read about someone like the college student in the example above is to say, “C’mon man. You’re not a victim because someone preached a sermon you didn’t like. Deal with it.” And while that may all be true, it’s probably not helpful in many cases. If our response to the changes in culture is to say, “They’re all just being stupid. They need to be more like me instead,” then we’re turning away our hearers before they ever have a chance to listen. We have to meet people where they are instead of expecting us to meet us where we are. Paul famously wrote, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some” (1 Cor. 9:22).

3. The answer isn’t to dull the Bible’s edge

Another possibility is to take the opposite track: If today’s generation doesn’t want to be challenged or made uncomfortable, then let’s just gloss over the challenging or uncomfortable parts of the Bible: “Let’s not worry about teaching about sin. Let’s not call people to die to their old selves and follow the way of Christ. Let’s just give people uplifting, inspirational messages that will help them feel good.” But to do this is to diminish the power of God’s Word. The Bible is by nature challenging. It makes us uncomfortable. It is “sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow” (Heb. 4:12). God’s Word is sweet in so many ways, but it can also be bitter (Rev. 10:10).

What do you think? What challenges does today’s concern for emotional safety pose for the church? How can we effectively teach God’s Word in today’s cultural context?

Older & Wiser. But Really Just Older.

At some point, I should go back through all of my blog posts (which I started writing in 2008!) and count how many times I begin a post by talking about how long it had been since I had written, and how I’m sorry for that and I’ll try to do better. My guess is I’ve said something like that a lot. But this post probably deserves it more than others, because it’s now been almost three years since I’ve written anything on here! In fact, the last time I wrote a post, I talked about how Chick-fil-A had changed their barbecue sauce recipe. But don’t worry! They changed back to the original recipe a long time ago! (Thank goodness!)

For a while now, my wife Katie has been encouraging me to write on the blog again. I think that Katie understands that I don’t do a good job verbalizing my thoughts or feelings in conversation, so she figures that the only way to really know what’s going on inside my head is for me to write about it.

It’s not a bad plan on her part.

So I’m back to writing. I will try my best to do so consistently. I can’t say that my writings will have specific focus from post-to-post. Sometimes I’ll probably talk about something going on in my ministry or something that caught my attention from the Bible. Sometimes I may talk about movies or baseball. And of course, I’ll keep you updated on the latest happenings on Chick-fil-A sauces.

I feel like the obligatory thing to do in a post like this is update you on what has changed in my life over the past three years. So here are the highlights:

• I got married! Katie and I were married in Oregon in November 2016. We got to ring a big bell at the end of the ceremony, and they played the Space Jam theme song at the reception.
• We also got a dog. Griffey is a miniature Australian shepherd and is about a year-and-a-half old. Dogs were my greatest fear when I was young. In fact, my mom took me to see “The Sandlot” when I was a kid, but I was so terrified when they showed the shadow of the dog against a fence that I cried, and we had to leave. So we saw “Cop and a Half” with Burt Reynolds instead.
• When I last wrote, I had just started my first full-time ministry as the Associate Minister of my home church: Town & Country Christian Church in Topeka, Kansas. Well…I haven’t been fired yet! I oversee our small group ministry, connect with newcomers, teach, preach, and take care of other little tasks throughout the week.
• Katie and I bought a house. Our neighbors are a retired couple. I’m pretty sure they think we’re idiots, because we don’t really know how to take care of a house or be responsible citizens. But they are patient and kind with us, and they give Griffey treats. He likes them more than he likes us, I think.

Well, those are the major things. Thanks for reading. If you did read it, anyways. Do people still read blogs? Did they read them when I started this thing over 10 years ago? I don’t know. But in any case, it’s nice to be back. I’ll work on having some more substantial content each week. In the meantime…I’ll have a three-piece chicken strip meal, waffle fries, and a Cherry Coke.

Fighting Violence with Peace

Here’s something crazy: This is my first blog post since April 17th! That’s over three months! You may be wondering what’s been going on in my life over these few months. Here are the highlights:

1. At the end of June, I began an exciting new stage of life when I started to serve as the new Associate Minister at my home church–Town & Country Christian Church in Topeka, Kansas. After all the changes that have happened in my life over the last 10 years, I never thought I would end up right back where I started, but I am grateful for the opportunity!
2. Chick-fil-A changed the type of barbecue sauce that they use. And while the new sauce isn’t bad, I would say it’s not as good as the original.
3. I got engaged! I’ll be getting married this coming November. Actually, that may be the main reason I haven’t written in a while. I started this blog with the goal of using it to impress girls. Mission accomplished!

So that’s pretty much all the important stuff. Now for what I wanted to write about today:

Recently I read an interesting, yet sobering, article from CNN by Paul Cruickshank, who is described as CNN’s terrorism analyst. He writes about the recent murder of a priest in Rouen, France at the hands of two ISIS-associated killers. Cruickshank points out that the attack is yet another instance of ISIS’s specific targeting of Christians. There have been serious attacks against Christians over the past couple years in Libya, Egypt, Nigeria, and Pakistan.

The thing that stands out to me most about Cruickshank’s analysis is when he explains one of the reasons ISIS would target a priest. He writes, “The goal in going after such a provocative target? To trigger a backlash against Muslims in France and drive the country’s Muslims into the recruiting arms of the Islamic State.”

Terrorist groups like ISIS want Christians to fight back. They want retaliation, because when we seek revenge, it allows them to replenish their ranks. It feeds into their narrative that Christians (and, by extension, the entire Western world) hates Muslims.

It puts Christians in a difficult spot, because we want so badly to fight back. When we get hit the way we have, we want to hit back harder. Isn’t this the way we can provide security for ourselves and for others?

But then I am reminded of what Jesus said about how his followers are to respond to such things. He said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” He said that when someone hits you, you don’t hit back. He says we should reflect the mercy of the Father (Lk. 6:27-36).

The apostle Paul echoes similar ideas in Romans 12:14-21. He writes, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.” He goes on:

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by doing so you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

The material in the CNN article makes sense when read alongside what we see in the New Testament. Satan wants to create violence, chaos, and hatred. ISIS and others create violence, hoping for a violent response, which allows them to continue to act violently. It creates a spiral–violence responded to with violence; hatred with hatred.

But Jesus offers another path. He shows that the answer to violence isn’t violence. That only creates more violence. Rather, the answer to violence is peace. It’s love. It’s prayer. Only this can stop the spiral. Only this disrupts the designs of the hateful.

I realize, of course, that I have not real right to even comment on issues such as this. I’m safe behind a computer in the Midwestern United States. I’m not a believer in the Middle East or in France or in one of the other places in the world where the violent threat of ISIS may be a daily reality. It’s unearned and easy for me to say what those facing persecution should do.

So all I can really do is pray–pray that the worldwide church listen and heed the teaching of Jesus. We pray that we might have the resilience and the faith to be peacemakers in the midst of a world that wants anything but peace. We pray for the courage to love those who hate us. And we pray that, by suffering, we someone comes to more fully participate in the life of Christ.