Practice Makes Perfect

Practice Practice Practice... These are the words that are echoing in my mind every day. I need to practice self control, I need to practice love, I need to practice mediation, I need to practice exercise, I need to practice eating healthy, I need to practice reading, I need to practice sleeping, I need to practice practice practice, but why? Why are these things so important? Why is practice necessary for the things listed above?

The reason for practice is so that one can get better at something. I remember this going back to my days of playing baseball. Just before our season would start the coach would call and say that we are going to start practicing two days a week in order to get ready for the season. Each practice we would hit, run, throw, learn signs, and go over scenarios so that we would be prepared if they happened in a game. Since I was one of the pitchers, the catcher and I would go over our own signs for each pitch that I threw. I remember I was 14 or 15 and our team had a new coach. As a kid having a new coach was always hard. You never knew what kind of coach he would be and whether he would be hard (which isn't bad) or too soft (which is bad) on the team. Well this coach and his style is forever etched into my memory. He may not realize but he made such a lasting impression on me. He took time teaching me very important skills about pitching a baseball. I remember one day he was teaching me how to throw from the stretch, which is used when someone is on base, over and over and over again. He would practice the same thing until the whole team go it down. He helped me understand that importance of practice and what the results can be. That year our team won the championship and I received the M.V.P plaque. If it was not for this coach pushing us to practice everyday and not give in to our tiredness or youthful immaturity in not understanding why we kept doing the same thing, we would not have been able to win that year. This coach seemed to understand the reason why practicing was so important and necessary to be successful. If he ever reads this I want him to know that he has always been someone I looked up to.

In trying to become more like Jesus I need to practice the things that he lived out each day. I have tried to become more focused on his teachings and his actions in order to put others before myself, take good care of myself, and spend more time listening to what God has to say to me. How have I done? If I honestly critique the last couple of weeks in practicing more of this Jesus lifestyle... well... Its been ok, maybe a 40/60 split with Jesus at 40 and the rest of the time 60. I will be practicing, waking up early, reading, meditating, exercising, loving, eating healthy, and going to bed earlier each day, sometimes I will fail, I did not win every game I pitched but when I did lose I did not let that stop me. Even to this day I play old mans softball because of the love I have for the game, I will now show my love for Jesus by practicing and living a life that mirrors his.

Life is Fragile

I wake this morning with the gruesome images of the fatal accident Teresa and I witnessed flashing through my mind. Yesterday started as a gloriously beautiful day filled with fun and relaxation. We walked around the our town and took in the sun and sights of a bustling little city near the sea. We had a wonderful healthful lunch poolside as our dogs enjoyed the water and the rawhide meat sticks. We planned on attending a movie at The Palace Theatre in Boca Raton, we even splurged and bought balcony extra large seat seating. All day we talked of our decision to move to South Florida and how thankful we were for things falling into place after our daring decision to up and move 1200 miles away from home. It was such a pleasant day and we looked forward to a wonderful evening at the movies.

At around 5:46 pm we were on our way to the theatre and stopped at a red light heading west towards the movie theatre. Off to the left of us three people were riding their bikes east towards the ocean. In a flash a car traveling at a high speed south flew through the intersection and all of a sudden we heard screeching tires, saw white smoke, and heard a large crash as if two cars collided. We saw something fly into the air and hit the ground. I looked over at Teresa and she said, "that was a person." I jumped out of the car and pulled out my cell phone and started running towards the body that lay lifeless in the middle of the road. I am connected with the local police and they start asking questions, "Is the person breathing? Who is screaming in the background? Can you tell me the license plate number of the car? Chris I am going to need you to take control of the situation until the police arrive!" During the questioning by the police officer I was running back and forth, checking the body, getting the license plate number, telling cars to pull off the road and staring at my wife as we stand next to a seemingly dead body and hearing the screams of a young woman "my husbands dead! He's my whole world! What am I going to do now? Oh my God, Oh my God, no no please don't die!" At that moment a man on bicycle rides up and he is an ER doctor and he is checking his pulse and from the looks of the doctor he could not find one. At that moment the police arrive and a few moments later the paramedics. The police ask all of us to move to the side since we are witnesses, they are going to need our statements. The rest of the night was filled with retelling the story to different investigators and signing witness statements.

Unfortunately this is not the first time I was the first on scene during a fatal accident. During one of my drives to Florida with a friend of mine and my father, we witnessed a car flipping in the middle of the air heading north on I-95. We immediately pulled to the middle of the median and ran to the scene as I called 911 from my cell phone. As I reached the vehicle explaining to the dispatcher where the accident happened I saw one woman in the passenger seat moaning in agony from the pain she said she was having. As I focused my eyes to the driver I realized that this woman driving had lost her life as her body lay limp and her eyes open but nothing was present. Two other people were ejected from the car and as I explain again to the dispatcher the scene of the accident he explains that the two ejected need to be held down so they do not hurt themselves more by moving. Holding the phone to my ear with my shoulder I hold the man down by pressing on his chest and softly saying, "sir please don't move, help is on the way." After the paramedics showed up I went back over to the car and the lady who was moaning in pain asked if I could call her son who was graduating college that day and let him know that she was in a car accident. This was not something that I really wanted to do but I felt that it would only be right if I did. I called this young man and let him know, I informed him of the location and he thanked me and I hung up. Moments later we got back in our car and continued to drive south towards our destination. I can still see the whole accident in my mind as if it just happened.

Last nights traumatic event leaves me with many existential questions. It also leaves me realizing how fragile life is. In just an instant so many people were affected by a single incident. A wife is now a widow, a driver is now a killer, 8 other people, including Teresa and I, are witnesses of a gruesome death that will forever stay with us. Why? All the little events that brought together a group of people to that location at that time is certainly unexplainable. I could sit for hours and try to find an answer for my question of why but in reality I am sure I will never know. What I can do is look at what the incident has taught me or showed me or enlightened me about life.

As I think about that young woman who lost her husband in an instant, I realize how it is so necessary to cherish every moment with my wife. Unfortunately tomorrow isn't promised to us and so for today I will cherish her love, her smile, her laughter, her compassion, her passion. I will take advantage of the moments that we have together and give her all my love at each moment.

As the image above says, Life is Fragile Handle with Prayer, I have made a decision even before last night to spend more time in prayer. I pray for the safety of my family but I also pray for me to love my wife to the fullest. This morning I pray for the family of the young man who left his body last night and entered into eternity. I pray for the witnesses who will forever have the horrid pictures tattooed into their memories, I pray for the driver who will have the guilt of killing an innocent man.

As the Son Rises

The past two days I decided that I would start them by going to the beach around 6am and watch the sun rise of the atlantic. Some of my friends have said that I am crazy because I wake up before the sun does and do various things. For some reason I am a person that doesn't need any more than 5 or 6 hours of sleep. If I go to sleep at 10 I am up by 3 or 4. If I go to sleep at 12 I am up at 5 or 6. It is something that has been going on with me since I was really young. I remember sleeping at friends houses was the worst. They would sleep till about 12 and I would be up at 6 just laying there, a couple of times I tried to get my dad to pick me up or something but when I couldn't it was painful to lay there and do nothing for that long. Anyway, I woke up and decided that I would spend my mornings on the beach watching the sun rise while listening on my IPhone the bible. I chose to listen to the book of John. With darkened skies the deep voice comes through my headphones saying, "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God." My eyes start to water and chills run up and down my body. The thought of Jesus, the one who was there at the beginning of time and was behind creation, while sitting there watching this giant force, the sun, come above the horizon and bring light to the earth was emotional and existential.

The imagery of a sun rising up and giving the world light and newness of life is something that almost automatically draws me to Jesus. Lets think about it for a moment... Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead and brought newness of life to all mankind. He told his disciples that he was the light of the world. It seems pretty simple to put the pieces together and recognize that from the creation itself, God was giving us glimpses of his beautiful gift to all mankind.

This is my first try at real meditation. I have the words of scripture in my ears and the sun or son in my eyes. I spend the time praying and listening to what God is trying to say to me. Meditation is an ancient practice that is very difficult for someone like me. Teresa always tells me that I am A.D.D. because I can run around like crazy and constantly be doing something. So for me meditating very difficult to focus my mind and be calm and quiet and just listen to God. My plan is to do that at least twice a week.

Please pray that I would continue to make this routine

How's that humble pie?

What does it mean to be humble? What does it mean to accept the possibility that you may be wrong? Humility is not something that a lot of us are accustomed to, we don't like it and we want none of it. Humility is about acceptance and honesty, humility is about seeing beyond your own scope and recognizing that there may be more to something than you can see. Humility is knowing your place in the world and accepting it. We expect children to be humble and listen to what we tell them because we are older and we know more, we expect our subordinates at our jobs to be humble because we are the managers and supervisors, sometimes we expect our spouse's to be humble because we know more about a specific subject than they do, we expect humility from other people, but rarely do we practice this principle in our own lives.

The apostle Paul wrote, "the man who thinks he knows something does not yet know what he should know." We are a people who claim to know everything. We have all the information we can possibly want right at our fingertips. If I want to know what the year 200 b.c was like all I need to do is press a couple of keys and there it is, if I want to know who won the olympic games 40 years ago, its easy to find. In our world knowledge and information is so easy to acquire that we have all, in our own minds, become experts on any topic. The problem with this is that in reality we are not experts. We base most of what we know on google searches and wiki answers. We have not done the real work of study needed to become experts in anything.

Socrates said, "the only thing I know is that I know nothing." Socrates was a great teacher who using his own method. When someone came to him and asked him a question, Socrates would often ask a question back to the person and allow the person to come to the answer on his own. We call this the Socratic Method. Socrates believed that the answers to questions we hidden deep in the person and that he needed to do was allow them to see that they had the answer already. He would cause people to think and use their rational faculties in order to come to an understanding of things. Jesus often used this method (although I don't think he would have called it the Socratic Method) often with those that would listen to him speak. Someone would ask him a question and he would tell a story and then ask a question to the questioner. Asking questions to me is a sign of humility, it points to the fact that you don't know something but you believe the someone else might.

I believe that asking questions is a vital part of spiritual growth. When we want to understand something on a deeper level we ask questions in hopes that we will find the deeper meaning. Unfortunately asking questions in certain settings has been deemed inappropriate. What if you were sitting in church one day and the preacher says something that you didn't understand or even agree with? Would you just sit there and accept what he said or would you go up and ask him afterward to further explain? If you leave church that day without getting any clarification, then either you ignored him and kept thinking the way you want (not humble) or you just believed what he said and threw out your own understanding (not humble). In my understanding the best thing would be to go and speak to the person and ask questions. The person speaking may have more insight for you to better understand and so its possible that you may learn something new. Or maybe you may have more insight than that person and that person may learn something new.

Humility is not throwing away all your knowledge and experience, humility is recognizing that you may not know everything. Wisdom is combining what you have experienced and what information you have studied and conversing with those who have experienced and studied other things. Can you imagine if we were more open to others in our daily lives? Can you imagine what we can learn and what we can accomplish by pooling all the experience and knowledge around us?

I wonder what church would look like if we didn't have all these denominational splits. I wonder what would happen if we opened the doors to new ways of worship and study. I wonder if we are missing an experience with God because the name above the door to our church is different than the one down the road.

About 5 years ago I was exposed to a very different type of worship. I had never been to a Pentecostal church before and didn't know what to expect. As I sat in the seats listening to the loud music, watching people dance waving flags, trying to understand the people prostrating themselves, I prayed to God. I prayed that He would allow me to see the beauty in this form of worship and push out all my presuppositions and beliefs that the way I do it, in my church, is the only way it can be done. That prayer has been repeated many times over the last 5 years. It was a piece of humble pie that I needed to eat. I believe that piece of pie forever changed my life and has opened me up to the God is not boxed into my own understanding. God does not belong in our boxes, he doesn't belong in any box or confined space, so why do we try and put him there?

Practicing the Way of Jesus

Two times in the last two days I have read people say that they do not want to be called "christian" anymore. These two people have stated that unfortunately around the world, including, here in America, the label christian comes with a lot of negative connotation. I partly believe this to be true. I am not a world traveler so I can not speak in global terms but in my studies and conversations with people the word "christian" does carry a significant amount of baggage. I think for too long we have moved away from the true practices of the first century men and women who followed the way of Jesus. The word Christian actually means as an adjective, of or pertaining to, or derived from Jesus Christ or his teachings. It seems to me that his teachings at times get lost in all the religiosity of the church. Please don't misunderstand me, I love the church, I believe the church to be a vital part of following Jesus, I believe that the church, when moving in the right direction, is the catalyst for so many to come to an understanding of who Jesus is and how Jesus can transform your life. Again I say, unfortunately, for so long a different message has been preached from the pulpits.

Today's reading focused on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus in contrast to a member of the christian religion. I believe that the two can actually be the same when the focus of christianity is to be a disciple. If you look through history the practice of making disciples was very popular. When someone seemed to have something that others wanted or proved to be an excellent leader there were always others who wanted to follow in that persons footsteps. Socrates had Plato, Plato had Aristotle, and Aristotle had Alexander the Great. The passing on of wisdom and skills and beliefs is we should all be desirous of. Jesus used this method to spread his words and deeds. He told the disciples to go out and make more disciples and teach them what I have taught you.

So I pose this question, have the true teachings of Jesus been passed down through the ages to our generation?

To answer that question I guess I would need to take a survey.

One can read Matthew 5 and 6 to see some of the teachings of Jesus.

I can answer for myself. I on the whole do not follow the teachings of Jesus. I have a desire to do so but often fail. The idea of loving enemies, giving to the poor, letting go of my pride, being humble, being content, being restful, praying, meditating, not being angry, treating everyone with respect, etc are enormously difficult especially within the culture that we are in. See I think the struggle for me is the fact that I try to do these things without actually following Jesus. I try to do these things without actually being on the path with Jesus. I often try and follow him in my own strength. I need to let go.

Being a disciple means following along. See that is the difference between being a disciple and being an employee. When a boss tells you to go and do something you go and do it and often you accomplish that task on your own. Being a disciple is different. Being a disciple means walking next to the one your following. It means doing as that person does. As a disciple you are not on your own, your not all alone. Even as Jesus sent out his disciples he ended his statement by saying, "I will always be with you." So maybe if I instead walk with Jesus and do as he does I may be able to transform and actually be more like him. I may be able to practice the type of lifestyle he did, I may be able to have a relationship with God on the level that he did, I may even be able to love others the way that he did.

Prayer: God I ask that today you would allow me to follow Jesus. God I ask that you would help me to let go of my own pride and allow me to just follow instead of trying to lead all the time.

The Genesis of Practice

In this chapter of the Finding Our Way Again Mclaren points to the fact that the ancient practices of the three major religions can be seen to begin with Abraham. In fact Judaism, Islam, and Christianity look at Abraham as the father of their particular religion. The ancient practices that are going to be discussed over the next year are pilgrimage, fasting, sacred meal, common prayer, giving, Sabbath, and liturgical year. Each practice has a book dedicated to it in this series of books. Again my plan is to read through each one of them and interact not only in written word but also in action.

I want to put my thoughts into action. In many ways I have, for some, I am proud, for others, not so proud. But that is the journey of life. Journey is an interesting concept. Are you journeying through life? Do you recognize that life is a journey? I see life as a journey, or as used above, a pilgrimage. In life we set goals for ourselves and then we do our best to achieve those goals. These goals are pretty typical, house, family, retirement package, travel, etc. These are great goals. I have some of those myself. But, what about the goals that you can not see i.e. happiness, joy, peace, love, and gratitude. These goals are too often linked to the previous goals. Often what I have found and read when men and women look back on their lives the things that meant most to them were the latter goals. The houses and money and retirement packages were nice but they didn't bring what they really wanted.

For me, my journey and goals are going to consist of desiring both, but most important the things that cannot be seen. My thought is if I can not find those things that make the soul feel alive how will I ever really enjoy the things that make the body feel alive. If I am dead on the inside, how can I be alive on the outside.

It reminds me of Dorian Gray, in the story by Oscar Wilde, Gray's physical appearance never changes. Dorian recognizes that his beauty and his charm can get him anything he wants, so lives a scintillating life filled with serving the physical desires. One day he notices this painting on the wall and recognizes the face although it is old and decrepit. It was himself he saw in the painting only thing was the painting took all the results of his lifestyle. Hating himself and ignoring the priests suggestion he stabs the painting with his knife, and this in fact kills him because although he looked pleasant and pleased on the outside his true decaying portrait was his real self.

I wonder what my true self looks like? I wonder how much damage I have done over the years of gratifying selfish pleasures and focusing on what is seen rather putting my focus and attention on what is most important? I think for me this should be a daily question. As I think through ancient practices and apply them to my life, I should be asking the simple question of what is my goal? what do I want out of this? Who and What am I seeking?

Why even care about spiritual practices

Brian McLaren wrote, “You can’t take an epidural shot to ease the pain of giving birth to character. In a sense, every day of your life is labor: the rhythmic agony of producing the person who will wake up in the your body tomorrow, creating your reputation, continuing your legacy, and influencing your family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, and countless strangers, for better or worse. It is questionable whether you can ever be exactly the same person for two consecutive days: what today throws at you will force you to become better or bitter for tomorrow; it will push you toward breakdown or breakthrough, nudge you a step closer to courage, nobility, charity, integrity, and honor... or otherwise.

It seems to me that working on my character is not top priority. Growing up some of the most important things in life consisted of being tough, being cool, having money, having clothes, and fresh pair of kicks. None of those things actually prepare you for the real world. In my estimation the real world is not the world filled with meaningless jobs, meaningless conversations, and meaningless relationships. The world is much bigger and deeper. We tread mostly on the top soil of the world. We focus on the exterior rather reaching the depths where real sustenance begins. We must get to the root.

I believe that spiritual practices will bring us to that place. “Spiritual practices are actions within our power that help us narrow the gap. They help us become someone weighty, someone worthy of a name and reputation, someone who makes survival worthwhile by turning life’s manure into fertilizer.”

In my life I have had to deal with some manure. Some has stayed manure and others I have turned into fertilizer. The recognition that I have manure is the first step towards changing it. I feel so often that I have allowed my pride and my insecurities to prevent me from changing and morphing some of that manure. If you are walking down the road or in some field and you are watching the ground you can notice if someone has not picked up after their dog and you can avoid it. The problem is for me so often I am looking in the wrong direction and I step right in it (its probably one of my dogs anyway). I am not aware enough. I am not willing to look hard enough probably because of fear, fear of what I might find.

I need to alter my vision. I need to focus on what is important in life. There is a deep longing to be connected to something bigger than myself. Many people in history have felt that longing and have used spiritual practices to satisfy that longing, to find that connection, to identify what is most important in life.

Prayer: God I ask that you will open my eyes and allow me to see, I ask that you will open my ears and allow me to hear. As I practice these principles and and allow your spirit to guide and direct me, open my heart to your beauty, open my heart to what is important in this life.