Reflection

Well, It's New Year's Eve Day. And for me, the closing of the year brings a time of reflection. I use a series of questions to examine the past year and make plans for the new year. To answer the questions I review my calendar as well as my previous year's journal.

Here are a few of the questions:

*Overall, was this past year a good year or bad year for you personally? Professionally? Spiritually?

*What was your greatest accomplishment this past year? What did God accomplish through you?

*What are your three best memories of this past year?

*What are your three worst memories of this past year?

*What did you learn this past year?

*What one new fun thing did you do this past year?

*Best book you read this past year?

*Biggest roadblock you overcame this past year?

*What are you looking forward to in the coming year?

*What are you least looking forward to in the coming year?

*If you could do one thing in the coming year, what would it be?

*What one thing could you do to improve your relationship with God this next year?

I pray you will join me in a time of reflection and commitment to obedience as we follow God and become more and more like Jesus Christ.

The danger of playing with tigers

On Christmas Day, Carlos Sousa, age seventeen, was killed by a tiger. Where? Inside the San Francisco Zoo! The 350 pound Siberian Tiger crossed a thirty foot wide dry mote and leaped over a twelve and a half foot wall to get at the boy and his friends. So much for a relaxing day at the zoo. And Merry Christmas!

There is a good chance that the boys were taunting the animal in captivity--which I realize is a bad thing. However, shouldn’t the tiger’s enclosure be strong enough to keep the tiger in? I know one thing for certain—the next time I’m visiting the zoo with my family, we’re going to treat the wild animals with the utmost respect!

In lieu of the recent attack, I have been giving my own life some serious thought. Are there any metaphorical tigers prowling around? Any walls too low that would allow them to escape and do serious harm to myself or others?

The Bible says that Satan prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). Satan is not a tame lion and he is very hungry. He is also very intelligent. He’ll wait till you get close to the “wall.” He’ll search for a sign of weakness. He’ll pounce when you’re alone and unprotected. That’s why it’s so important to put up appropriate walls. That’s why only fools play with animals that can devour them.

So, when it comes to the wild animals in your life . . . do you keep them in their appropriate cages? When a married person at the office says something inappropriate to you . . . do you put up a high wall? When you struggle with an addiction . . . do you make sure there is adequate distance between you and whatever it is that you struggle with? If spending is a problem . . . have you cut up your credit cards? If visiting questionable sites on the internet is a challenge for you . . . have you installed accountability software?

I know, I know, it’s supposed to be safe to go to the zoo. Isn’t it fun to see how close we can get to the caged animals? At times we might even risk taunting them. But make no mistake, there is a lion that is waiting for you to get just close enough . . .

A very goodnight

Another Christmas Eve is coming to a close . . .

We held 9 services at our three RiverTree campuses. More than 5000 people heard the Good News of Jesus Christ. One of the highlights for me this year was when my nine year old daughter read the Christmas story from Luke 2 in our six services at the Portage Street campus. I don't know that I could receive a better Christmas gift.

After the services we came home. A quiet remainder of the night. As per our tradition, we sat in front of the fireplace to read the Christmas story together. Tabs asked, "You mean the one I've been reading in the services?" "Yes, the same one." Instead of reading the story, she offered to recite it from memory. (The Christmas story she read from Luke contains 14 verses.) We sat in front of the fire and she told us the story, word for word, from memory. There are moments that transcend . . .

Julie and I put Tabs to bed and then returned downstairs. I started the music to True Companion by Marc Cohn--our song. I asked Julie to dance. And we danced. Just like 15 years ago on Christmas Eve when I asked her to be my wife.

So now it's off to bed. Big day tomorrow. Family. Gifts. Love. Jesus.

So, Merry Christmas to you all . . . and to all a very goodnight.

Rudy Guliani et al

It was recently released that Presidential hopeful, Rudy Guliani, billed New York City taxpayers for security expenses while on weekend trysts with Judith Nathan, his then-mistress and now wife. Whenever he snuck out to Nathan's condo in the Hamptons, Guliani brought along a security detail of several New York City cops, who were fed and put up at hotels. The expenses for the cops--totaling tens of thousands of dollars--were, conveniently, billed to obscure city agencies and kept from public knowledge, until now.

I am reminded of the words of Henry Blackaby from his book, Spiritual Leadership: Leaders can accomplish marvelous feats in the public eye and be praised as heroes. But the real heroes are the ones who go home at the end of the day to a family that loves and respects them.

Kouzes and Posner, in their book, Credibility: How Leaders Gain And Lose It, write: The ultimate test of leaders' credibility is whether they do what they say.

And Dan Cooper, writing about the integrity of CEOs, states: There is an inefficiency in the market place because the market place doesn't value this characteristic of character. And all we're doing is taking advantage of that mispricing in the market and trying to make money off of it. We don't approach our investment from a moralistic standpoint, but we believe that the world and the market place doesn't fully understand the value of character. Really, at the heart of it, is that being good wins.

Simply put, when Jesus develops leaders, He is far more concerned with who a leader is on the inside than with all of his worldy accomplishments on the outside.

So Rudy et al . . . just keep in mind a few more words of Jesus: "What good does it do for a person to gain the world but in the process lose his soul?"

Ten year old Mary

Julie and I are now licensed for foster care in the state of Ohio. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that we would be headed down this path.

Because we are licensed care givers, we will occasionally receive a call for respite. Respite care is simply to take a child into our home for a short period of time to give the foster parents a much needed and deserved break.

This past Tuesday we received a call. A 10 year old little girl needed a home from Tuesday night through the following Monday morning. We'll call the little girl Mary (not her real name). As you can imagine, this is a very busy time for our family. Tuesday night through Monday morning seemed like an impossibly long time to open our home and care for a troubled child. Not to mention, she lived 45 minutes away. We would have to drive her to school each morning and then pick her up in the afternoon. She had her school Christmas program on Thursday evening as well. We thought that we could easily turn this one down.

Until we began to pray about it. And then, independently of one another, both Julie and I came to the same conclusion: If following Jesus really is about caring for orphans in their time of need, then how could we even think about closing our home? We called our caseworker and told her we would be happy to have Mary in our household.

Tuesday afternoon our caseworker returned our phone call to tell us that Mary would only need respite care from Friday afternoon through Sunday evening. Strange, but we were disappointed.

Friday came, and in the middle of the afternoon our caseworker called us once again. Mary would not be coming to stay with us after all. The caseworkers felt it in her best interest to place her in residential care at the Christian Children's Home of Ohio. CCHO is an amazing place that provides cottage group living to troubled children. Ten year old Mary will be there at least through Christmas.

What does a ten year old have to go through to act out so intensely that she can't live in a "normal" caring home environment? She has been placed in and removed from three foster homes in the past year. I find myself praying for Mary's healing. Praying that she will find a forever family.

Julie and I both realize that this journey will be filled with challenges, pain and much, much prayer. We are also absolutely convinced that this is exactly where God wants us. It is very, very close to the heart of God.

Light

I attended my daughter's third grade Christmas production this morning. Actually, I'm not sure I am being politically correct in using the word "Christmas." As enjoyable as it was, it saddened me to see how hard the school had to work to take Jesus out of the picture. I'm sure that many of the teachers and administrative staff were just as sad. The kids sang a lot of songs about snow and snowmen, sleigh and jingle bells, even caring and sharing. But gone were Silent Night, Away In A Manger and there was no Little Town of Bethlehem.

I'm sorry to see the change from when I grew up. But I also understand. We live in a post-Christian society. It makes my job as a Jesus-following parent all that more important. Tabitha knows what Christmas is all about. She is a light in her school. That's what Jesus asks us to be.

Honest assessment

Last week, Julie, Tabs and I were driving from from the airport in sunny Florida to the condo where we would be spending a week in Fort Lauderdale. During our drive we passed a mental health clinic with a neon sign over the door. As we drove past I said to Julie, "Did that sign really say that?" She started to laugh and replied, "At least they're honest!" The neon sign flashed: "We're all here because we're not all there."

I started to think about the church and my life personally. I'm part of the church--we're all part of the church--because we need Jesus and we need each other. It is not hypocritical to admit that we're all a mess. That without Jesus and without each other we would have no hope. We're all here because we're not all there. Thank God that He provides a plan and a place--a people, for healing and restoration.

Beach reads

A week ago we boarded a flight out of Akron Canton Airport with the temperature at a frigid 22 degrees. A few hours and thousands of miles later we landed in Fort Lauderdale to a balmy 88 degrees. For the next week I spent a great deal of time reading to the sound of the surf in between visits with my brother-in-law Ryan. I just returned from one last nighttime walk in the sand. Tomorrow we'll land once again in Ohio to walk in the snow.

So for those of you who may soon be escaping the cold to head for warmer climates (or perhaps you are smart enough to live there), here's my review of this week's "beach reads."

The trilogy, His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman.
I read this series so that I could respond to the myriad concerns I was receiving from parents about The Golden Compass book and movie. From a purely literary standpoint they were just okay reads. From a parent's standpoint, I wouldn't let a child under the age of 12 read them and then only if I read them as well and we discussed them together. Stars: 2 1/2

The Darkest Evening Of The Year by Dean Koontz.
Like the title implies, this book is dark. However, it is a great beach read that will keep you turning the pages. As with most of Koontz' books, good triumphs and even though it doesn't leave you with the warm fuzzies at least you can sleep without nightmares. Stars: 3

Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer.
Let me begin by saying that I am a huge Krakauer fan. I think his book, Into Thin Air, is one of the greatest adventure books ever written. I still use it to teach leadership lessons. And with that said . . . Into The Wild isn't worth the waste of time. It's not the writing style--it's the lack of story. In real life we know way too little about the main character and why he would end his life in such a meaningless way. Stars: 1 1/2

Marley And Me by John Grogan.
My good friend Marty recommended this book to me. And what Marty recommends I read. For good reason. If you are a dog lover YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK. If you don't love dogs you will probably hate it. Grogan might as well have been writing the story about Julie and my experience with our first dog Sampson. I laughed and I cried and I loved this book. Stars: 4

The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass, starring Nicole Kidman, is scheduled to open “at theaters everywhere,” this December 7th. The movie, targeted at children for the holiday season, is based on the best-selling and award-winning trilogy, His Dark Materials, by author Philip Pullman.

I read the first book in the series (The Golden Compass) about a year and a half ago at the request of a concerned parent. I found the book to be fairly innocuous and so put it down and pretty much forgot about it. More recently, I have received a firestorm of e-mails, once again from concerned parents, asking what I thought about the movie and the books. And, if you’ve seen the movie trailer, it looks pretty darn good.

Sooo, in the past two weeks I reread The Golden Compass as well as book two, The Subtle Knife and the final book, The Amber Spyglass. Let me say up front that any time an alarmist e-mail goes flying from computer to computer there’s a good chance that much of it is not true. Let me also say that it is always best to check things out for yourself before jumping on the hysteria bus.

One of the biggest concerns voiced by concerned parents is that, in the books, every adult has a personal daemon. Mr. Pullman, I would venture intentionally, uses the word to inflame concern. However, in his books, daemons have nothing to do with what most of us define as “demons.” A daemon in many other cultures and mythological stories is simply an animistic expression of a person’s true self. Consequently, if a person is evil, then their daemon will be evil. And if a person is virtuous, then their daemon will be virtuous. So let’s lay that concern to rest.

On the other hand, Mr. Pullman has done his homework when it comes to knowledge of the Bible. The story of good and evil, specific Bible characters, and the fall of humankind are cleverly woven throughout the trilogy. Unfortunately, Pullman probably knows the Bible better than many, if not most, of his readers. This is dangerous because in The Golden Compass he intentionally misquotes Scripture. And throughout the trilogy he mixes enough Biblical truth with menacing lies to be very dangerous.

One of the things that I didn’t appreciate about Pullman’s books is that you can’t read just one. There is no storyline closure at the end of each volume. If a person were to read only volume one, The Golden Compass, I would say that there would be no harm done. However, to finish the story, because of Pullman’s (I’m sure intentional) writing style, you must read all three. Unfortunately, the books become increasingly more alarming.

Pullman does several things with his series that should arouse great concern. First, he condones a lifestyle in children of deceit and lack of respect for adults. The lead character, Lyra, is praised throughout because she is such a good liar. Second, he disparages the Church. (Now, I know that we all have our issues with the Church, but let’s deal with those in adult conversation and not in blatant subversion with children). And finally, Pullman uses the last one hundred pages of his final book to propagate his own personal philosophy. A philosophy which espouses one’s own best good at the expense of any altruistic service to God.

Here’s my bottom line. Would I let my nine year old daughter read these books? No! How about when she’s thirteen? If she really wants to I would read them along with her and then discuss them together. Will I go see the movie, The Golden Compass? Probably not. I think the agenda of the author is just too insidious to support.