Life is short.
It can take a while to feel like it’s rolling, then all of a sudden you’re up to your eyeballs in it, and can feel the slope rolling away. And all that is assuming that we had any clue of how much time we had in the first place.
Mark it down: Life is short. So make it count.
This sweet visual was made in Amsterdam. Language barrier or not, you’ll catch on!
These are unique days.
Between jet-hopping and mouse-clicking, one can interact with every view and value under the sun. Ancestors who were confined to the the village or the house where they existed from conception to death would be stunned. In fact, it is stunning, even to those of us living in this age. Never in history has the human mind had so much to sift and sort. In past days, the avenues for exploration were so inaccessible to the average person that it was simply expected that one’s worldview would remain largely unchallenged by outside voices because such voices may have been a million miles away, even if they were waiting just over the next hill.
Beyond the vastness of ideological terrain to explore, there is also a conviction today that the true failure is to not explore. Closed-mindedness is critiqued; narrowness is just plain nasty. And for today’s experience-hound, travel is the trophy to be hoisted. A worn passport is the diploma of choice for many, and I can personally attest to logging miles as one powerful, albeit luxurious, ingredient toward personal growth.
In my previous post, I alluded to the blog of my friend Nic, who has amassed a shocking number of air miles in his young years. He mentioned travel’s enormous impact on his spiritual journey, and I can hardly agree more.
I recall when I returned from Zambia in 1997. At 20 years old, I was living a dream of visiting Africa. After a month in the countrysides of Zambia and Zimbabwe, I returned home to Canada, a week late for my third-year of college. On the first evening home, I was asked to share about my trip at a church’s Young Adult gathering.
I recall being utterly garbled, hardly able to string two sentences together. So overloaded where my processors by the intensity of that trip, combined with the contrasting deaths of Mother Teresa and Princess Diana that had dominated headlines on our way home, that I could hardly determine which way was up.
This has been travel’s consistent impact upon my life: Disorientation and destablization. At some point, we do reconstruct “life as we know it”, but its design cannot go unaltered. Revision and renovation are forced upon those trained by travel.
Even without leaving home, Steve Jobs felt this truth. The cover of Life magazine (July 12, 1968) featured a disturbing photo of two children from a war-torn region of Nigeria. More than one million people died there during that period, from Civil War or famine. At age 13, Steve found it impossible to reconcile the picture with the lessons drawn from his local Lutheran church. Steve’s biographer, Walter Isaacson, describes what happened next:
“Steve took it to Sunday school and confronted the church’s pastor. ‘If I raise my finger, will God know which one I’m going to raise even before I do it?’
The pastor answered, ‘Yes, God knows everything.’ Jobs then pulled out the Life cover and asked, ‘Well, does God know about this and what’s going to happen to these children?’
The answer he received was less than acceptable, and that conversation marked the last time Steve went to church.
It tells us that it is possible for an unusually sharp mind to step back from God as a result of his interpretation of new information.
Before Steve Jobs was born, Bob Pierce was in China on an evangelistic effort with Youth for Christ. Witnessing extreme poverty and overt persecution in the late 1940’s, Pierce felt the same weight that Jobs or any traveller today can feel when confronted with such realities. But where Jobs was driven from faith, Pierce was pressed in farther, in the process, birthing the organizations World Vision and Samaritan’s Purse before his death in 1978.
It tells us that it is possible for an unusually sharp mind to step toward God as a result of his interpretation of new information.
And you know what? Either movement can feel like the losing of one’s faith.
More on that in the next post.
My friend Nic wrote this post several months back: Losing Faith.
I confess that it’s had me spinning some knotted thoughts in a mental back room since then. A few of them revolve around the lost faith Nic describes. More of them center upon the faith that I have lost along the way.
So mark this post as a starting point.
If you wonder what one pastor’s faith-losses look like, come on back. If you know of others who are questioning or seeking or searching for how faith ties into real life, send them a link.
Now that I’ve put out the invitation, my back burner has officially been moved to my front burner!
Next post: The Faith I’ve Lost.
Saturday escaped me, but the Six-Pack is rolling out before this weekend passes me by, all the same!
The best ministry-minded or faith-focused articles I could find this week? Here they are, with some grace space for a bit of who-knows-what.
If six options stuns you, start with my two *Picks of the Week*, and pick up steam from there.
For a steady stream of such links, follow me on Twitter ( @JasonBandura ) to the right of this post. Sharp quotes and solid articles are tweeted 3-4 times daily.
Today’s edition:
1) Providential Accidents
Edward Fudge was writing about the doctrine of hell long before it became trendy. Here is an interview, with Scot McKnight, on his path and findings.
2) 42 Successful People Share the Best Advice They Ever Received
The Business Insider offers this pile of wisdom, much of which your mother may have shared with you back before you were paying attention.
3) Three Ways to Go Further, Faster (*PICK OF THE WEEK*)
Michael Hyatt offers the single most important move he’s made toward gaining on, and accomplishing, some of his life goals.
4) Why are Some Words More Persuasive than Others?
Lifehacker offers this piece on the psychology of language. Fascinating read for any communicator who cares about getting their point across as effectively or powerfully as possible.
5) The Most Overlooked Key to a Growing Church (*PICK OF THE WEEK*)
In this short piece, Rick Warren reminds of a simple, easy-to-forget characteristic that should never be forgotten.
6) John Wesley’s Secret to Making Disciples
Gary Thompson‘s post shares the list of questions that used to guide Wesley’s “accountability groups” before the term even existed. Could this still work today to mature followers of Jesus?
Blessings on you, my friends. May the week ahead be filled with God in ways that you can sense. Tune yourself in, and walk on!
YOUR TURN: Add a line below to direct other readers to the best stuff above or to highlight the piece that gave you something worth keeping.
Your input makes this post better!
[You can subscribe to this blog via RSS or email, in the upper right corner of this page.]
You have troubles.
I know you do. Me too. Life rarely feels how we think it should, and the hurdles to overcome seem to never end. If you could use a breath of air this morning, spend a few moments with my friend Cody.
Then get out there one more time!