NMKY

There is little to no redeeming value in today’s post. It’s just 2:15 of pure genius video. All of it is funny, but I nearly spit Coke Zero all over my monitor with about 1:25 left to go and then again with 0:19 left. Enjoy.

When Faith and Crazy Collide

Ergun Caner has an article in the most recent issue of Christian Counseling Today that is pretty good: “Addicted to God: When Faith and Crazy Collide.” Caner senses that a growing number of young Christians are finding themselves “God-crazy,” obsessing over limited aspects of their faith, exhausting themselves in Spiritual activities, and in general living an unbalanced spiritual life.

I thought a particular section of his article on reality television was particularly compelling:

A casual [spin] of the television dial will quickly discover a pattern in [today’s] youth-oriented television: the saturation of reality television. Such networks at MTV, VH1, Entertainment Television, and Bravo have found great success in programs that pit average citizens against one another. The formula seems to be simple: confine a number of young adults in one area, get them to compete against each other, and record all the treachery and malevolence for a ratings bonanza.

The larger the disparity between the young people, the greater the drama becomes. Put young men and women in a house alone, and their raging hormones will cause an explosion. Take two students from stereotypical backgrounds, such as a white supremacist and a Mexican, and make them roommates and the collision in inevitable. …Between the yelling, crying, screaming, and slandering in the average program, it resembles the most exaggerated and outrageous Greek tragedy.

Translate this into the world of Christian youth, and one can see the troublesome implications. Young Christians, intent on serving Christ, do not develop a balanced and devoted walk. Instead, they mimic their television counterparts and travel from one intense drama to the next. They cease to have [average] days—normal, usual, without crisis. Each and every experience either makes them rapturously happy or suicidal. Every semester, Christian college campuses are replete with the dramas of breakups, engagements, and relationship struggles that reach epic proportions.

Too many young people never establish normalcy in their Christian walk. There is no standard center. Instead, they fly from crisis to crisis, mountaintop to mountaintop, without a core set of normative response mechanisms. They only know how to react and respond in times of drama, because it has been modeled so effectively for them—especially on TV. They become addicted to drama, and a bit insane.

I’m interested to know if anyone has seen this trend at CBC or in the lives of other college students they know. If so, what should be done to correct the problem?

The Goal of Higher Education, Part 3

This is my last post on the topic (for now). Here are some great quotes on the nature and goals of education. Hope you find them as interesting as I do.

An education isn't how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't. – Anatole France

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence. – Robert Frost

The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life. – Plato

Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. – B.F. Skinner

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. – Aristotle

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance. – Will Durant

Passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek and to accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position. – Russell Bertrand

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers. – Voltaire

The Goal of Higher Education, Part 2

Don’t believe me that the goal of higher education should be to teach students how to think? I personally believe that U.S. Americans should watch this clip.

The Goal of Higher Education

Click here for an interesting article by Gary Ledbetter – The ‘Imperative’ of Higher Education.

At its core, the article is discussing what should be the core goal of a college education. Should it be to prepare students for a future career? No, according to Ledbetter. Should it be to build character in the students? Again the answer is no. Should it be to help students find an identity? To acquire knowledge? To gain new experiences? No, no, and no.

A college education should train students to think.

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote this about higher education. “To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction.”

I don’t know if I would discount career training or character building as much as you might sense in Ledbetter’s article. But I agree that highest priority ought to be given to helping students learn to think well. I don’t yet know how good of a job I do of that as an educator. Sometimes that is harder work than just stuffing data into students' heads, hoping they can spit it back out on an exam.

One of my favorite classes at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary was Systematic Theology, taught by Dr. David Kirkpatrick. I remember walking out of that class often pondering to myself, “I don’t know how much I just learned in that class, but I sure had to think a lot.” In fact, several years later, I shared this with Dr. Kirkpatrick. I’m not sure he took it as a compliment, but I meant it as the highest of compliments. I wasn’t aware of how much knowledge I was acquiring (thought it turned out to be quite a lot in that class), but I was well aware that I was thinking hard about difficult topics. It was a GREAT class.

I’d like for students to be able to say the same thing about my classes someday.

Praying for the New School Year

I mentioned in my last post that I’m proud to be at an institution where the RA’s care enough about students to come early before students move in and do a prayer walk around the dorms and rest of the campus. I’m guessing they prayed for many things that day.

I began to wonder what I would have prayed for that day had I participated. Then I realized that my prayers for CBC and my students are often rather generic. I should be more specific, I think.

As a way of discussing what we are all looking forward to this year, I’d like to hear what you are most likely to pray for. What is most important to you? What do you most want to accomplish at CBC this year? What do you most want God to do in your life this year? What do you most want God to do for CBC this year?

What are you praying for this school year?

Random Bits II

I don’t know how many RAs of college dorms around the country do a prayer walk around the campus, praying for the incoming students before school starts. But I’m glad I’m at CBC where they do.


It is very sad that a website like this one has to exist. If/when you visit, consider this website more of a personal one than a news journal. It is sad nonetheless.


Things that make me feel old:
- having to buy reading glasses at 35 years of age
- mentioning an episode of Seinfeld in class and getting blank stares
- admitting I have only sent about 6 text messages in my life

Things that make me feel young:
- spending time with my CBC students
- playing with my two boys at home
- holding hands with my wife


I only have ONE rating on ratemyprofessors.com. But I do have a chili pepper. That’s just weird.

Random Bits

Michael Vick stole two pit bulls from Jonathan Lee Riches.
He sold these pit bulls on Ebay.
Then he used the proceeds from the Ebay auction to buy missles…
…from Iran…
…because he has pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda.
If you don’t believe it, read this lawsuit filed by Jonathan Lee Riches. He is asking for “63,000,000,000.00 billion dollars.” Not only that, he wants Vick to stop “physically hurting my feelings and dashing my hopes.” I don’t even know how to do that.


Strep throat is awful. Z pack antibiotics are amazing.


I’m proud of my Southern Baptist heritage. But political controversy always seems to be brewing in the convention. I keep up with some of these controversies on websites like SBCOutpost and others. As an outside observer, I am inclined to believe Ernest Benn when he wrote of politics in general; “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.” At any given point, I think parties on both sides of a controversy could be guilty of this.


Some of you may remember that my 5 year old son Parker can bench 220. He has now declared that he wants to be a Ninja Warrior when he grows up. He has found a new favorite show. These clips will give you an idea of what it is all about. I especially enjoy the subtitled commentary. I wish I had some trousers that symbolized my superior strength.

Another Church Shooting

Many of you know I was a member of Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth when in 1999 a gunman entered our church killed seven people.

I’m very sad today for the families of a church in Neosho, Missouri. Someone entered their church and killed a pastor and two others.

Please pray with me that the people of that church will know God’s voice when they hear it and that they will know the peace that passes all understanding.

What Should We Pursue? (Part 2)

I’ve finished reading a book by Bill Hybels that I think provides a contrast to the theme we find in John Piper’s.

In Holy Discontent, Hybels describes the times in our Christian lives when we should NOT be happy. In fact, according to Hybels, rather than pursuing happiness, we ought to pursue and fan the flames of discontentment. There are things in our world and in our lives that should bring us discomfort, anger, and unhappiness. After all, there are things that make God angry and unhappy. When we join with Him in those reactions, He can ignite in us a vision for redemption and restoration.

It may be that if we were to put Hybels and Piper in the same room and told them to come to some consensus about the importance of happiness in the Christian life, they would be able to do so rather quickly. But consider Hybels words (all from Holy Discontent) in relation to Piper’s from part 1.

Here’s the money quote:

"The trouble with contentedness is that, when lived out in isolation, it can be lethal! If you’re not careful, you will become lulled into a state of satisfaction, safety, and serenity, and you’ll altogether neglect the needs in the world that should elicit deep discontent when you see them going unmet." (pg 29)

These are good, too.

"Still today, what wrecks the heart of someone who loves God is often the very thing God wants to use to fire them up to do something that, under normal circumstances, they would never attempt to do." (pg 25)

"The most inspired, motivated, and driven people I know are the ones who live their lives from the energy of their holy discontent. They have a constant awareness that what is wrecking them is wrecking the heart of God." (pg 27)

"Get close to your holy discontent because when you feed rather than flee it, God will birth new visions in you to become part of the solution." (pg 71)

"Determine now that you will never insulate yourself from what wrecks you. Instead, increase your exposure…and then hang on to your hat, because real living is going to rock your world…." (pg 74)

On this issue of happiness, Hybels’ words resonate with my spirit more so than those of Piper’s. Of course, the validity of a viewpoint is not based on how well it resonates with me. Validity is based on how well it resonates with the totality of Scripture. And I’m still searching.

The Christian Pursuit – Final Exam

One question; graded on a pass/fail basis.

“Other than knowing Jesus, what is the one most important hallmark of the Christian life?”

You may choose only one answer from the list below or you may write in one answer of your own.

Enjoying God
Holiness
Righteousness
Suffering
Compassion
Obedience
Sacrifice
Wisdom
Worship
Service
Humility
Freedom
Theological understanding
Faith
Hope
Love
Other: _____________________

Extra credit will be given for supporting your answer with Scripture.

What Should We Pursue? (Part 1)

Many of you will recognize the name John Piper. He may be most well known for his book, Desiring God. You may not be aware of the subtitle, however; Mediatations of a Christian Hedonist.

"Christian Hedonism" is a controversial label, to be sure. In using it, Piper contends that we should pursue happiness above all else.

"By Christian Hedonism, I do not mean that our happiness is the highest good. I mean that pursuing the highest good will always result in our greatest happiness in the end. But almost all Christians believe this. Christian Hedonism says more, namely, that we should pursue happiness, and pursue it with all our might. The desire to be happy is a proper motive for every good deed, and if you abandon the pursuit of your own joy you cannot love man or please God - that's what makes Christian Hedonism controversial." (Piper, 1995)

To be fair, Piper acknowledges there is only one way to achieve lasting happiness. Even Christian Hedonists “recognize that obeying God is the only route to final and lasting happiness.” (Piper, 2006)

In the end, Piper is right that we should find joy, fulfillment, and contentment in Christ. But my reading of Piper is that he is overstating his case to make a point. Consider two more quotes.

"As Christian Hedonists we know that everyone longs for happiness. And we will never tell them to deny or repress that desire. It is never a problem to want to be satisfied." (Piper, 2006)

"Christian Hedonism teaches that the desire to be happy is God-given and should not be denied or resisted but directed to God for satisfaction. Christian Hedonism does not say that whatever you enjoy is good. It says that God has shown you what is good and doing it ought to bring you joy (Micah 6:8). And since doing the will of God ought to bring you joy, the pursuit of joy is an essential part of all moral effort. If you abandon the pursuit of joy (and thus refuse to be a Hedonist, as I use the term), you cannot fulfill the will of God." (Piper, 1983)

And finally, when asked about the relationship between holiness and happiness, Piper contends that one cannot be truly holy unless he is truly happy. (DG Staff, 2006)

(Italics are original. Boldface is my emphasis.)

I’m not sure what to make of all this from Piper. In the end, it may not be fair to have to choose ONE aspect of the Christian life that is more important than another. They all influence each other and are interrelated. But I do wonder…… if I did have to choose ONE thing to promote as the ULTIMATE goal of the Christian life, what would it be? Piper has given us his answer. I’m not sure I agree.

Part 2 is coming later. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Spoiler Alerts

I’ve got some thoughts rolling in my head for some blog posts that should be up next week. In the meantime, read this blog entry taken directly from Al Hsu. I enjoyed reading it.

It’s always interesting when a cultural artifact becomes a cultural phenomenon. There was not a lot of initial promotion for the first Harry Potter book, and expectations were modest. But somehow word of mouth buzz moved the series past a tipping point and Harry Potter became something larger. No longer was J. K. Rowling an unknown author laboring in obscurity. Now she's an international media celebrity, wealthier than the Queen of England, with millions of fans around the world clamoring for every word and detail about Harry.

This makes me wonder – what would it look like if we saw comparable levels of Harry Potter mania directed to the Christian story? It’s not like crowds are awaiting the next Bibleman DVD, or staying up all night to read Miroslav Volf’s newest book. Or Isaiah or Jeremiah, for that matter. Can you imagine people packing the streets of Ephesus in eager anticipation of the publication of part 2 of Luke/Acts? Or release parties in Corinth celebrating the receipt of Paul’s second epistle to them? Dress up like your favorite super-apostle!

I wonder if there have been times in church history when the gospel narrative was this gripping a cultural phenomenon. People probably wouldn’t be this crazy about Harry Potter if they had all grown up in a context where they had heard the Harry Potter stories so much that they no longer seemed fresh. The challenge for us in a post-Christendom era is that people have become anesthetized to the Christian story. They’ve heard it already, or they think they’ve heard it already. And it doesn’t capture their imagination the way today’s imaginative narratives have. In a world of Harry Potter, Star Wars, 24 and Heroes, it’s hard for the Christian story to compete.

Those of us who have been reading the Harry Potter novels as they were being published were able to experience something special that future generations of readers won’t – the anticipation and suspense of waiting several years between each book. From now on, new readers can read all seven books straight through if they want to. But for the past decade, Harry Potter readers have been part of a global community that has experienced the dramatic tension of waiting for the next installment.

I wonder what it would look like for the gospel story to be more suspenseful. I think one of the most significant aspects about the experience of reading the final Harry Potter book is that we didn’t want to hear spoilers. We had come to know and love the characters so much that wanted to journey with Harry and his friends. We needed to experience and discover for ourselves what they were going through. We didn’t want to find out in chapter two of book one how it was all going to turn out. Instead we read seven books and thousands of pages, staying up into the wee hours of the morning, because the journey is every bit as important as the ending. Indeed, without experiencing the adventure of the journey, there wouldn't have been as much dynamic power to the ending.

Are Christian “gospel presentations” less like the adventure of a Harry Potter novel and more like spoilers that tell you what happened but take all the suspense and delight out of the journey? Maybe Christians have been so intent on getting to the point and bottom-lining things, for the sake of saving souls, that they’ve taken the mystery and surprise out of the narrative. We jump to the end. God loves you, Jesus died for you, pray this prayer, yada yada yada.

It’s well-intentioned but self-defeating. We don’t get to know the characters, and so we diminish the experience and the power of the biblical narrative. Often we are so concerned about getting people from here to there that they don’t experience the journey enough to really make the faith their own. We have short-circuited the narrative imagination. What a loss.

Harry Potter reminds us that it's not just what we say, but how we say it. We can recover the imagination, a sense of wonder at a world of mystery and discovery. We can invite people to join us on a long-term experiential journey that’s full of twists and turns but nevertheless infused with hope. And we can enjoy the community of friends and mentors that accompany us along the way.