Dangerously Unaware

I personally find the prospect of carrying a gun around a bit unnerving. I have never fired anything beyond "bb" caliber. Mostly because the opportunity has never really presented itself but I'm not exactly going out of my way to try it out either. I would call it a healthy fear. It's not a crippling fear by any means. Perhaps more of a deep respect. There's something about the idea of carrying the power of life and death in my pocket that I feel would steal the "lighthearted" out of everything.

I'm sure if ever found myself on a gun range or fending off an alien invasion, I could bring myself to squeeze the the trigger. My heart too resonates with the battle cry of a soldier just like my fellow man. I've even fought in my fair share of imaginary battles, wielding everything from a six-shooter to a laser sniper rifle equipped with an x-ray scope and rocket launcher attachment. And that was just last week. But tucking the cold steel of 9mm into my belt right now would more likely put me in a cold sweat. All my mind would be doing is... 

I have a gun. I have a gun. I have a gun. It's tucked in my belt by my left butt cheek. Act natural. Act natural... THAT GUY KNOWS! HE SMILED AT ME FUNNY SO HE KNOWS! Oh gosh...

"Excuse me sir, why are you looking at me like I'm lethal? Why would you even think that?!"

"Oh hi, ma'am! Nothing's extremely dangerous on me, how are you today?... I have a gun."

I would be awkwardly conscious of the weapon I was carrying.

I've been around people who "conceal & carry" before. I didn't always know they were "concealing & carrying" though. One time I got a glimpse of a gun tucked into my friend's belt and, although we had a good 3-years worth of trust built up in our relationship, I suddenly found myself quickly rifling through all of the "disagreements" we might have had to make sure they all resolved happily.

To be clear, I am not against guns or the concept of conceal & carry. We need to protect ourselves and the people we love and when it comes the right tool for the job, well, you know how the saying goes "don't bring a knife to a gun fight". I'm sure I would get used to it with some training and time. I should probably see to that before my daughter hits her "teens".

Now here comes the metaphor...

This same concept often happens when we find Jesus for the first time.

Yeah. Jesus is like the gun. The first time you start carrying him with you, in your heart, you are so aware of the power present on your person. The power of life and death that can impact everyone in every room you walk into.

But what happens is, over time, we grow comfortable with that power, even take it for granted. My friends who conceal and carry do it without a skipping a beat. It doesn't phase them because they've done it for so long. The same goes for Jesus. As we mature in our faith, we forget about our first love.

In fact, God warns us against growing complacent like this in the letter addressed to the Church of Ephesus in Revelations:

"Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love." Revelation 2:4

The Church of Ephesus was doing a lot of things right but they had forgotten about the darkness from which they were plucked and had grown used to the grace that was covering them. Parents know all about this. Think ungrateful, spoiled teenagers who don't know how good they've got it. The next verse goes on to say...

"Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent."

So, let us not forget the passion of when we first encountered the love of Jesus and the power of his forgiveness. Let us walk into every room fully aware of the redeeming love that lives inside us and use that power to change the lives around us.

Encourage someone today. Spread the Good News. Breathe life where there is none. Bring hope to the hopeless. Esteem others higher than yourself. If someone asks for a favor, do more than the favor. Call someone and ask for forgiveness. Release freedom in your workplace. Show love to an enemy. Go out of your way to bless someone.

These are blows made by a blade sharper than any double-edged sword, that cuts deep into workings of evil and break the chains that hold us back from walking as joint-heirs to a Kingdom more glorious than we could ever imagine.

Scriptures that fueled this blog:

2 Corinthians 10:3,4

Revelations 2:4,5

Proverbs 18:21

Matthew 5-7 (Sermon on the mount)

Romans 8:17

Hebrews 4:12

Mark 16:15

Rhetoric: Cognitive Atrophy Theory

I've been thinking...

What is technology doing to our brains?

By technology I'm referring stuff like the internet and mobile phones and touch interfaces.

There's this concept I picked up from a book - yeah, that's right, a book - and it's called "transactive memory". In my words, the concept is this: we don't store information we know how to find. 

Take, for example, a phone book. You don't remember the phone numbers in there because you know where to find your phone book.

Who uses a phone book any more anyways? And who is delivering them to my house? How are they in business? Someone should tell them about Google. And then they should talk to a recycling business.

The book I read was focusing on how this concept, transactive memory, impacts relationships. In my marriage, I store information like computer troubleshooting, video game reviews, car repairs costs, etc. My wife stores information like hair cutting techniques, casserole recipes, fashion trends, etc.

When my daughter was 2 it just-so-happened that it worked best for me to take her to swimming lessons on Fridays. It wasn't necessarily my top choice as I'm not the biggest fan of swimming. Everything that lives in water is faster and slimier than me. Anyways, one of the moms in the class seemed to think I was a mom. She would ask things like "Where do you typically grocery shop around here?", "Little Suzie seems to break out in a rash from the chemicals in this water. Have you noticed that?", "We live far away so I like to get all of my errands out of the way in one trip, ya know?" I'm sorry lady. No I don't. I'm a dad. I pick up heavy things and make kids laugh with fart noises.

I realize the household responsibilities vary from couple to couple, but generally, people in relationships differ in what they do and what they are good at. That's why, the book was saying, some people take breakups so hard. All of the sudden, they can't find half of their information. I'm so used to bouncing ideas off my wife that I sometimes have trouble making tough decisions when I'm away from her.

Wow, how did I get so far off topic? Here's hoping all of that helped build good springboard for my overall point.

When we don't have to remember what you can easily find and everything is easy to find, what are we remembering? 

Google practically thinks for you. You don't even have to type to a whole word or spell it correctly and it already has what you were looking for within the top 5 results. Finding it took all of 1 second. Sometimes I feel like I'm actually holding Google up. As if it's saying "Come on, just start typing what you're thinking! I've got this! See, I've already started with the results."

When I was in middle school, I remember being asked to report on a country for a Social Studies class. I picked Sweden. I liked their flag colors the best. I spent a whole week researching, renting out library books, and skimming over the pages for any morsels of information I could pull out. After all that work, which I was proud of by the way, I had a colorful poster highlighting the types of food they ate, the geographical layout, some nice population stats, their awesome flag, etc.

Now, Wikipedia makes all of that work seem laughable (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden). Even if schools don't let you cite Wiki as a valid reference, you can follow the breadcrumbs in the reference section to get to the original source. I wonder if middle schools assign reports like that anymore?

Ultimate convenience seems to the destination we're headed. Mobile phones, tablets, TVs everywhere, intuitive touch interfaces. My children are already trying to "swipe" the screen on my laptop to scroll down only to be frustrated that it isn't working.

What would happen if a gigantic electromagnetic wave put the entire world into a blackout and wiped every bit of data of the face of the earth? All of the data and records, gone into oblivion. Any of you glass-half-full-ers wanna take a stab?

Are we suffering from cognitive atrophy? Some might say these advances free up our minds up to think about other things. If we are only using 20% to begin with, why did we need to free some up? How did Adam remember all the names of the animals if he didn't write them down?

Will we be able to "think" our Google searches soon? Are there going to be any "experts" in the future if we all have instant access to the same information?

Time will tell, I suppose.

One Quirky Snowflake

I sometimes think God let's me believe I came up with an idea when it was really His. Only when I look back on the outstanding circumstances under which I came to the realization do I notice the depth of wisdom behind it and realize there is no other explanation of the occurrence than: He planted it there. 

My wife knows this about me as well, much to her chagrin. She can tell me an amazing idea or thought but knows that I won't really own it or endorse it until I feel like I've come to the understanding by my own willpower... that must be frustrating. It's something I'm working on. I've got to learn to be more supportive in the moment rather than retreating into my thoughts to process things only to regurgitate the idea/thought on a later date, unbeknownst to the idea originator. Is that intellectual plagiarism? But then again, wouldn't another word for intellectual plagiarism just be "learning"? Either way, I think I'm weird.

What I find interesting is that God knows my quirkiness and works with it. I guess that shouldn't surprise me. That's like being surprised that a painter knows the subtle nuances of their painting or a composer knows the disjunct melodic tendencies of their composition.

I wish everyone would discover their quirkiness and embrace it. It is that which makes us unique from the billions of other people on the planet. Scientists have studied snowflakes and found that no two of them are alike when scrutinized under a microscope. My mind can't wrap around the infinite creativity of that. Not only are they unique to one-another but they are also all beautiful! If I had to design millions of snowflakes, I think I could do a decent job but at some point they would start to lose their symmetry and look like Picasso drew them... not that Picasso's paintings are ugly... who am I kidding, they are freakishly disfigured drawings that are upsetting to look at, in my opinion of course. I can appreciate avant-garde jazz but I just don't see eye-to-eye with Picasso.

Rule # 3: Avoid Boxes

As with the previous two rules I've written about, this one was also birthed from an interaction with God. It always seems like these revelations come after a long, drawn-out period of internal struggle or soul-searching; a spiritual dry season if you will. This time was no different. I was having a hard time understanding certain parts of the bible, unsure if God was happy with me, and straining to hear from Him.


Driving home from church one night I was praying, and I forget about what exactly, but suddenly it was as if I was caught up in a day-dream. My eyes were open and I was still driving but somehow, at the same time, my mind was transported elsewhere, to a new setting. Now that I put it into words it seems pretty far-fetched but I know there are people out there - you know who you are - who can drive to and from work without remembering a single thing of the trip in-between. Their motor skills (pun unintended) are so practiced that they are able to put their body in autopilot and retreat into their thoughts.

What I was experiencing was something similar but it came out of cognitive left field and the subject matter was in stark contrast to what I had been praying about moments before so I was convinced the source was something other than my imagination.

Anyways, in this... I'll call it a vision... I was visiting a prison. In my gut I knew who I was here to visit. I had just arrived and was being escorted by the guards to the visitors area. Everything I know about the inside of a prison comes from movies and TV shows so I have no clue how accurate this vision was to reality. The room I entered had a bunch of seating areas with glass separating the inmate and the visitor. I sat down in a chair facing the glass and something, whether it was a curtain or a tint in the pane, was restricting me from seeing who was on the other side. Once I had sat down I said "Alright. I'm ready to see him." and they removed the barrier...

There was Jesus, banging on the glass with his fist, screaming "I'M HERE FOR YOU! I LOVE YOU! I'M NOT THE ONE IN PRISON, YOU ARE! COME WITH ME! I CAN FREE YOU!"

That's when I snapped out of the vision, but the feeling having my world rocked carried over. He had been crying out for me the whole time, banging on that glass, waiting for me when I thought I was the one visiting. I thought I had him right where I wanted him; always right where I left him. We met on my terms and when it was convenient for me. Probably on Sundays and a here and there during the week if I wasn't too busy. Little did I know, I was the one in captivity and in need of freeing.

From that day on I vowed not to put God in a box. No more pretending to know everything about Him. No more cookie cutter prayers. No more manufactured miracles. Every scripture now held infinite wisdom. Every prayer was a fresh breath of life. Every person was to be approached as unique like an undiscovered treasured.

If you've ever noticed God trying to teach you a lesson, you probably know that He often delivers the message in installments. If you were at all doubting what you first heard from Him, just give it a bit and you'll start seeing signs of that revelatory motif surface in the most unsuspecting places. It's like when you first learn a new word and suddenly you notice everyone is saying it.

Yeah, that's Ben.

For me, I had a number of confirmations of the "God in a box" lesson. My good friend told me about a preacher who built a lifetime of sermons off of one chapter in Psalms; CRAZY! In my bible studies, I started to see how Jesus healed people differently almost every time; COOKIE CUTTER SCHMOOKIE SCHMUTTER! I listened to a pastor tell a joke in the middle of his prayer and then proceed to call out words of healing for the congregation; OUT OF THE BOX!

God was confirming what He'd started in me with the vision. He wanted to make sure His point had sunk in and knew I needed some repetition. I was getting his point loud and clear.

Although it's not stating it outright, this scripture was possibly the most pivotal in helping understanding the vastness of God and that I should never think things like "I've got it down" or "I am fully enlightened" or even "I have arrived"...

"Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written." John 21:25 (NLT)

I love that because it prevents me from ever thinking I know all there is to know about how Jesus worked and what he did. It builds faith in me to believe in the impossible because maybe Jesus did it and we just don't know about it.

There you have it. Rule # 3: Avoid Boxes.