My Movie

So, as I mentioned last time, this book, "A Million miles in a Thousand years" has really got me thinking about my life.  Am I living a life worth writing about?  Am I living a life worth making a movie out of?  Boy, I'd have to say most days, not really.  I sit in front of my computer a lot.  I check facebook more than I should.  I read great stories written by other authors, and watch shows and movies put on by other people.  But, as for doing something truly epic and worthy with my life?  Meh.
Now, that's not to say I've never done anything epic or note-worthy.  I've had some colossal failures in my life, you could easily write a tragedy or two from some of those.  There's even a few "I shall overcome" moments worth writing about, but those happened back when I was 10 and 11, and I'm not sure I've done anything as impressive lately.
My biggest accomplishment I would say, with true joy actually, is my family.  I love my family.  I have an amazing wife, and 4 fantastic kids.  All of them are talented, and kind, and they all love Jesus (my greatest joy of all.)  And, actually, it is the story in how we came to have our fourth child that I figured would be the greatest story I would have told in my life.
For those of you who don't know, Sarah and I were blessed to adopt our last child, Sage, from China about 2 years ago.  And she is amazing!  We have been so blessed by her addition to our family, I truly cannot remember what life was like without her.  But, when I think about it, it was a pretty big story.  Maybe not a story worth making a movie out of for some, but I would go see it. 
You see, this was a story that we did together as a family.  Sarah and I felt called for a long time to adopt, and just seemed to keep having kids the old fashioned way so we never got around to it.  But, after our third child, we decided that if there was going to be a fourth Walles' kid we were going to adopt. 
And when we felt God push us to be more serious about that, we talked about it together and with our kids.  Because this would be a big deal for all of us.  Adoption is awesome!  And one of the reasons it's a blessing is that you can plan on certain things as a family.  You can really talk about the reality of what adopting might mean.  And for us, as we began to feel called to adopt a girl with special needs, it was such a blessing that we could talk about that as a family.  We talked it through with the other kids - what it would mean to be gone from them for 2 weeks, only to return with a little girl who would need a great deal of special care and medical help for who knew how long.  It was going to be a fair amount of work.  Sage was going to need a lot of unconditional love, and the sacrifice that everyone in the family was going to have to make was something we got to talk about and prepare for.  It was such a unique opportunity that you don't always get when adding a child to your family.
Now, to be fair, it wasn't always easy when we brought Sage home.  All our preparations and conversations still didn't ward off some hard days, and even harder nights.  But now, as we look back over the last 2 years, and see how Sage is healthy, and happy, and unconditionally loved, I know without a doubt it was all worth it.  It was an amazing story, one I never tire of telling.  All the main characters played a great role, our other kids, Sarah, Sage herself.  Our family is complete, it's exactly as God intended it to be, and the fact that we got to play a part in this story is humbling.
And, again, in many ways I would be just fine if this were the greatest story of my life.  If bringing Sage into our family is the highlight of my life story, I'm good with that, because it's one of my favorite stories ever.  But I'm beginning to think God has one more great and exciting story for our family as well.
What is your greatest story?  What is it in your life that you think, "Yeah, that'd be worth making a movie out of."  Give thanks for that story.  And then ask yourself, does God have another story in mind for you as well.  My next post will be what I think that next one is for us.  I'd love to hear about yours as well.
Happy Easter!

And, don't forget,
Don't go to church, Be the Church

Bill

A Million Miles

For those of you who follow this blog you know I tend to take a break during the Winter months and then pick up again as we head towards Summer.  It would appear this year was no different.  Part of my intent is to connect with people as they're off on vacations and such, which tends to happen more in Spring and Summer, but I appreciate the opportunity to engage at any time as well.  And, I thought this was a great subject to start that back up.
I recently finished a book by Donald Miller called, "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years."  Now, I continue to hear sad statistics about how adults in America read, on average, only the ingredients of a box of cereal in any given year.  I'm hoping that's not true, and there are still a number of avid readers out there.  And, even if you're not, I really recommend this book.
It's a memoir by a guy who got pretty famous when he wrote his first memoir, "Blue Like Jazz".  It was a quirky little book with this guy's take on life and faith that seemed to connect with a lot of people  After that he wrote a few more books, and life was "pretty good".  Then, a couple of movie guys came around and asked to make a movie about Don, basically crating a fictional story out of Blue Like Jazz.  And so Don agrees, and works with these two guys to create a movie about the fictional 'Don' with help by the real "Don'.  Kind of meta, I know.
But here's the kicker.  In this process, Don really comes to see that he's not living a life worth making a movie out of!  Don's life isn't bad, but it's not movie material.  That's why they have to invent a fictional Don whose life has greater highs and lows, because that's what all of us are looking for when it comes to a movie or a great story.  And it causes Don to ask himself (the real Don, that is), can we choose to live our lives so that they are Movie-worthy?  Can we choose to live a great story?
It is a great question that drives the rest of the book, and has really driven me lately as well.  My next couple of posts will be on this idea.  Looking at my life, would it be worth making a movie out of it?  Some things I've done, yeah maybe.  And I hope that's true for all of us.  But am I really living a life that's a great story?  Every day?  Now that's a tough question. 
I think our little family did something great in the last couple of years, and that will be my next blog post.  And then, I think we're going to attempt something great in the next few years of our lives as well.  I'll talk about that one next.
But, in the meantime, read this book.  "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years."  It's fantastic, and hopefully challenges you as much as it did me.  Is your life a great story?  Are the choices you make defining?  Would anybody see a movie about your life?  Now that's a challenge worth answering.

Don't go to church, Be the Church

Bill

Matthew's Genealogy

If you've been at Shepherd of the Valley over the last several weeks, you've heard me talk about the great stories we read from Matthew's genealogy.  If you're not familiar with this, go ahead and get your Bible open to Matthew chapter 1.  This is the first book in the New Testament, and in the first chapter we get a story that most readers (let's be honest) usually skim at best.  It's the record of historical genealogy from Abraham leading up to Jesus.
Now, in church we talked about why Matthew would do a such a thing.  From a theological standpoint, this line of ancestry shows that Jesus comes from the line of King David and before that even, from Abraham.  So, Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecies we see in the Old Testament about being the Messiah, the Savior.  In order to be the Messiah, Jesus' heritage matters, and so Matthew makes that case.
We also talked about, however, the spiritual side of this genealogy.  I stole a line from another great preacher that Matthew wrote this genealogy, and included all the names that he did, because they are "The point of the story."  The people listed in this ancestry were sinners and outsiders, just like Matthew was himself.  They prove the point of why Jesus came - that He came for sinners and outsiders.  He came to offer grace and forgiveness and wholeness to all.  That's a pretty cool message.
But Matthew's genealogy offers a couple of tough questions for the serious student.  One - it's different from the genealogy written in Luke 3.  How can that be?  And two, possibly of greater concern, if Joseph wasn't Jesus' "real" dad, then why does his ancestry matter?  Shouldn't the genealogy trace Jesus' heritage through Mary, since she at least is related to Jesus by blood?
Two good questions.  And, I'm not sure if you'll find the answers satisfactory.  There are many possible answers as to why the two genealogies are different.  One answer says that the genealogies follow different lines back to David, certainly very possible in such a tight-knit and inter-married community.  Some say that Luke does trace the lineage back through Mary, hence the difference and an answer to both questions.  Most scholars actually don't find evidence for either of these possible answers, but that doesn't mean you can't find truth in them.
As to Joseph not being Jesus' "real" father, I'll admit my perspective on that has changed a bit now that I'm an adoptive dad myself.  Because that's what Joseph is with Jesus, he's His adoptive dad.  And just as I would defy anyone to tell me that I'm not Sage's "real" dad I bet Joseph felt just as fiercely paternal towards Jesus.  Blood doesn't make you someones parent, Love does.  Something I think God understands fully as He uses adoptive language throughout the Bible in terms of how He sees us - His adoptive children.  Since God looks at us that way, what a perfect image for Joseph and Jesus.
But, again, if you're a strict student of things, I don't know that any of these answers truly satisfy.  Which bring us to our last point.  The thing is - the early Christian church apparently wasn't bothered by this at all.  After all, they could all read just as well as us.  They saw the same Gospels that we read today, they saw the same issues.  And we have no record of the early church struggling with these issues.  Our two big questions didn't appear to make their list of things to worry about.  It's hard for us, we want so much certitude from the Bible that, honestly, the Bible isn't all that interested in providing.  I guess that's why they call it Faith. 
For Matthew, the point of the genealogy is much more important than any problems with it being "right" or "wrong".  Matthew knew where Jesus came from, and why He came.  That's what mattered.  And the challenge to us is, are we able to see that as well?

Don't go to church, Be the Church!

Bill

Lightsabers and Wands

So, I had the chance to watch Harry Potter 7 over the long week.  It was a snowy week here in Washington and I had to get out and do something with the boys.  Or, at least, that's what I told Sarah.  And Harry Potter was an excellent choice.
If you're looking for a movie review, here's a bit of one.  I thought the movie was brilliant.  I think David Yates, the Director of the movies since HP 5 is by far the best director yet.  Each Director did well with what they were given, but David Yates has stopped just turning out "Good Harry Potter" movies and is turning out Good Movies.  These last three movies remind more of the Lord of the Rings trilogy from that standpoint.  A fantastic combination of source material, great cast, and excellent production.  And I can't believe we have to wait until July to see part 2!
A couple of notes along with that.  Is this a movie for kids?  Yeah, if your kid has read the book they're not going to see too much that will bother them more.  The visual of Nagini is pretty creepy.  And the scene of Hermione getting tortured was actually fairly disturbing.  But, again, J.K. Rowling did such a good job with those moments in the book I would say if your child has read those scenes, they can probably see those moments.
But the bigger, philosophical question many Christian families ask is: should their kids watch this movie?  Much has been made about the magic/Witchcraft connection of Harry Potter and the Bible's clear prohibition about dabbling with that type of stuff.
As a parent, I certainly don't want to argue that a kid has to see Harry Potter.  Yeah, they're really well written books, and well done movies, but there are lots of good books and good movies I don't need to let my kids read and see because I disagree with their content (No child should be subjected to Grease 2 as an example.  Wow, what a stink bomb of a movie.  Oh, and the morals are questionable too :) )
But, as a Christian parent let me be clear that I've let my kids read the Harry Potter series, we own the movies, and I've read and watched all of them myself.  My thoughts on this comes from a couple of things. 
First, I don't discount the Bible, but I see a big distinction between Magic and Witchcraft being part of a story and actually trying it myself.  When I watch movies about the Mafia it doesn't mean I'm going to change my name to Fat Tony and start conducting my business in the basement of a bar.  I am able to separate the two things, and I want to teach my kids they can do the same.
And, on a related note, my kids are exposed to magic all over the place.  There's magic in the above mentioned Lord of the Rings Trilogy, and in the Narnia books.  And, if you've ever watched Star Wars just trade the Lightsabers for Wands, and call The Force "magic" and you'll see it's really no different from Harry Potter on that issue.
Do I ban all such magic related pop culture from my house?  My response is no.  When I watch and read Narnia, or LOTR, or Star Wars, or Harry Potter I see the same things.  I see good triumph over evil.  I see heroic sacrifice.  I see friends laying down their lives for others.  I often see great, relatable Christian ideas - whether that was the authors intent or not.  That's just how I'm wired.  I see Jesus everywhere.  And I think He's pretty glad about that.
So, I want to instill the same gift in my kids.  If something is truly irredeemable (I'm looking at you G-Force.  Super hero rodents.  Really?) I see no need to support it.  But much of pop culture can be seen in a variety of ways.  I choose to err on the side of Grace.  And fun.

Don't go to church, Be the Church

Bill

A Christian response to an unjust government

So, I've heard some positive feedback on my sermon from this week.  If you haven't listened to it yet, you can find it at http://www.svlccommunity.org/  I spoke about Politics, and in particular about how we as Christians are Biblically called to engage in politics.  I won't recap the whole sermon here, but I got one question from a number of people afterwards that I thought would be good to address in this format. 
I argued that, Biblically, Christians are called to "support" our government.  You see this a number of times in Paul's writings and I believe in many of Jesus' actions as well.  But the question that was raised was, "What then do we do with an unjust government."  What are Christians supposed to do in Germany under Hitler?
It's a great question.  And one I don't think I have all the answers to.  But, I did a little thinking and some research and I have a few ideas.
One, the truth of it is, Paul and Jesus lived under governments that were pretty unjust as well.  They probably didn't have it as bad as life in Nazi Germany, but they were much worse off than life in most First World governments in our day today.  So, for Paul to say to that Government leaders were put there by God, is a pretty bold step in his day.  That shouldn't be discounted.
However, we also shouldn't discount that Paul almost certainly believed that Jesus was coming back very soon.  In most of his writings it's very clear that Paul believes Jesus' return to be imminent.  That colors much of his commentary on life style choices.  It colors his thinking on marriage, and I think it colors his thinking about governments.  Why worry too much about an unjust government when Jesus is coming to bring a new Heaven and a New Earth and all this be wiped away anyway?
But, as we have seen 2000 years later, although Jesus' return is imminent, God's time frame and our time frame don't seem to be similar.  So, we still wait for Jesus.  We still wait in a broken world where governments can be bad, and sometimes truly evil (again, the image of Nazi Germany comes to mind.)  As Christians, do we just wait for Jesus to come back, or do we step into unjust situations and do something to combat that?  Do we take a page from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the great Lutheran leaders, and plot to kill Hitler because he is that evil?  Good questions.
Again, I'm drawn to the Bible for answers, and here I'm afraid it's a little less clear.  And it requires much humble thought on our part.  To begin, let's look at a specific example with Jesus.  Many are familiar with Jesus encounter with the crowd and the woman caught in adultery.  In that instance, Jesus challenges the crowd who is seeking "justice" (blood, really) "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone."  And after all of the woman's accusers walk away He sends the woman away forgiven, with the command to not sin again.  For me, this provides a great example of Jesus' response to an unjust situation.  The woman, although guilty, was being treated without justice.  By Jewish law, the man she was with should have been brought along with her for accusal.  The whole scene reeked of a set-up, and flew in the face of Jesus' message of forgiveness and grace for all, regardless of sin.  So, instead of letting the unjust action slide, Jesus stepped in, and acted.  He did so in a very unique way, but He acted to subvert the unjust action no matter how you look at it.
Paul does something similar in his letter to Philemon.  This is a story about Philemon, a slave owner, and his runaway slave Onesimus.  Paul has come into relationship with Onesimus, and has discovered that he knows Philemon quite well.  In fact, Paul brought Philemon to faith.  So, Paul takes the radical step and sends Onesimus back to Philemon and urges/commands Philemon to forgive Onesimus and treat his as an equal in Christ.  Paul sees slavery as unjust, and knows that if Onesimus is caught as a runaway slave he'll be killed.  But instead of hiding Onesimus, Paul sends him back to his "owner" and says you can't hurt him, you can't punish him, you have to treat him as Christ treats you.  Paul steps into an unjust situation and challenges it.
So, what do we learn.  Well, my reading is that Paul and Jesus chose not to try and change the un-justices of the world, but they did stand up to the unjust actions before them.  They did what they could when they could, and expected others to do the same.  So, yes they didn't fight the unjust governments under which they served.  In their wisdom, that wasn't where they thought they should spend the majority of their time (this was spent on bringing the Gospel to the World.)  But, they didn't ignore it either.
So, that seems like our calling, to do what we can when we can.  Sometimes that means individual action.  A modern example might be to stand up to bullying in our schools when we see it, a real problem right now.  But yes, sometimes that needs to be done on a large scale.  To stop Hitler, or Stalin, you couldn't do that one encounter at a time.  It needed to be done with millions working together, forcefully.  On this, Reinhold Niebuhr did some great work arguing for Christian Realism, in direct contrast to those Christians arguing for a pacifist reaction to the Nazi's.  Niebuhr argued that in this clear case, pacifism was not the Christian response at all, direct action was needed.  It's not always easy to see when that is, but when it is clear, then our Christian response should be equally clear.
So, a few thoughts on a difficult idea.  I'd love to hear your thoughts or further questions if this gets you thinking as well.  Have a great week, and as always. . .

Don't go to church, Be the Church

Bill

116 - 3

You may have noticed a decent gap between my last post and this one.  That's because I try to maintain the blog a little more during the summer months, as a way of checking in on things when so many of us are out and about.  But, I'll try to do a few new pieces throughout the Fall and Winter as well just to keep you all intereted :)
And this weekend, what better way to spark your interest than 116 - 3.  I knew it was a bad weekend for Washington Football, but until a friend posted that on his Facebook status I didn't realize just how bad it was.  The Huskies, Cougars, and Seahawks all lost this past weekend by a combined score of 116 - 3!
Seriously.
What do you do with that?
First off, I've got to say that as a guy who never played a lick of "real" football, I certainly hand it to our guys for going out there and playing week in and week out - taking a physical punishing I can only imagine.  300 pound linemen don't try and hit me when I play Tennis or go Sowboarding you know.
But, as an interested observer, it's hard to not to question what's going on with the players and the coaches.  I guess, I think we just start to to all become experts in something that we spend that much time watching.  Or at the very least, something that we're invested in.  And, let's face it, there are a lot of Americans invested in Football.  I'm willing to bet (I hope I'm wrong, but this is still my hunch) that more Americans watched Football on Saturday and Sunday this weekend than went to church.  They probably spent more on Footbal related stuff too.  Now, that's an investment.
So, after 3 good old fashioned poundings, what do you do?
I"m thinking that we need to remember, that it's just a game.  Yes, it's an industry that is responsible for Billions of dollars.  Yes it's their jobs, and our work ethic means we should all strive for our best every day in whatever we do.  But, it's still just a game.  So, three of my favorite teams lost their games this last weekend.  It was frustrating.  It was annoying.  But, did anything bad really happen?  No lives were lost, no wars were started.  And, after it was all said and done: I played with my kids, went trick-or-treating, played Crazy Eights with Princess cards with my daughter.  Those were the things that mattered to me this weekend.  Those memories will last a lot longer than the bad football ones, as well they should.
So, I hope you had a great weekend.  I hope your favorite team won a game somewhere.  But, I hope you also were reminded this weekend of what matters in your life.  And what really doesn't.  Who knows, you may get the chance to remember it again next weekend.  After all, the Huskies are playing the Ducks!

Don't go to church, Be the Church!

Bill

A perfect game for one

So, Roy Halladay pitched a no-hitter yesterday.  Only the second such gem in MLB post season history.  He was one walk away from pitching a perfect game, and being the only guy to have two such games in the same year.  In a year when we had a whole lot of bad baseball to watch around Seattle, it was pretty amazing to read about, and see such a wonderful display of baseball might.
From one guy, at least.
It's funny.  Maybe it's because I'm a Mariners fan, but as excited as I was for Roy Halladay, I couldn't help but think that his no-hit game means that at least 9 guys on the other team "failed" all game long.  Their job was to go up and score some runs.  Heck, the way Halladay was pitching, I think most of Cincinnati would have been fine even just getting a few hits.  But, no dice.  No hits.  No runs.  Nothing.
So, we celebrate Halladay, and we should.  But what does that mean for the other guys who barely got wood on the ball?  Do we fire them?  Ship them down to the minors?  Nope.  They'll all be back at it at the next game, having put their colossally bad night behind them.

We can learn a lot from baseball.  When we fail in our lives we beat ourselves up, we blame others, we get depressed.  Most Baseball hitters fail 7 out of 10 times for their whole career.  Yesterday, an entire team failed at their jobs.  But they're back at it today, none the worse for wear.  Kudos to Roy Halladay for a thing of beauty.  And Kudos to the Cincinnati Reds for a lesson we all need to remember.  We're can't be perfect.  We learn from our mistakes.  And tomorrow is another day to do better.

Don't go to church, Be the Church

Bill