How Much I Don’t Know

    Have you ever stopped to think about how much you don’t know? Take for example the making of a video game. I enjoy playing once in a while, but inevitably there is a point each time I do where I blink in wonder at what I’m witnessing on the screen. How did they engineer that? It’s so lifelike! Or, if you like an example from nature, how in the world do nutrients make it from the ground all the way up to the crown of my sixty foot cottonwood? Complexity abounds.

 

  We could go on and on about microchips and cellular division and RNA replication, etc. But what blows my gourd more than anything else is how God is pulling the events of history into a singular direction for our good and his glory. I’ll admit, there’s a whole lot I don’t understand. But, that won’t always be true. 1 Corinthians 13:12 says, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

    There are really smart people in the world. They stand on the shoulders of the smart people that came before. For all of our combined genius, however, we still suffer from the same old problems that have plagued the world since the fall in Genesis three. If we compare ourselves to the animals around us, of course we will feel smart. But, I’ve been on Canadian lakes as the stars twinkle through the aurora borealis. I believe all creation testifies to the unsurpassed genius of its creator—a Creator that makes the daVinci’s and Hawking’s of the world look silly in comparison. 

    So the next time I’m scratching my head about politics, car mechanics, world poverty, or the artistry of fireworks I don’t want to give up pressing on for understanding in this life. Science and engineering are fascinating. Yet, there will come a day when the mysteries will be revealed. Heaven, in my understanding will be one day of mystery solving after another. I’m looking forward to a constant state of having my mind blown. But, for now I’ll keep staring at my cottonwood and taking breaks to throw a turtle shell at one of my boys in Mario Kart. 

What’s a Teenager to Think?

     I hear that 1968 was a troubling year to be a teenager. The Smithsonian Magazine called it, “The Year that Shattered America.” Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. The Vietnam war made LBJ a devil in the eyes of young people across America and around the world. Protesters outside the Democratic National Convention were dispersed with teargas. 

     Today we are a nation that can’t decide whether to honor, graffiti, or ignore the past. We can’t decide whether we want the rule of law, either. If it means police brutality, we don’t. If it means the end of riots, we do. What would Charles Dickens say? On another note...

    Will there be another George Floyd?

    Teenagers, like so many of the rest of us have to work incredibly hard to find a firm place to stand. There’s no one way to describe it. Confusion abounds. If you’re poor, you see it one way. If you’re rich, you see it another. Black students will see it different from white. What about Latinos? I don’t hear much talk about immigration at the moment. The world teens are inheriting is male vs female; woke vs asleep; liberal vs conservative; capitalist vs socialist; Democrat vs Republican; Christian vs Secularist; city vs country; country vs hip hop; cat vs dog, and dog eat world. There are even people who believe the earth is flat and that the Apollo space missions were a hoax.

     Increasingly, a student looking at the smorgasbord of ideas gets the hunch that she is expected to see everything on a scale. She must either choose all the options that are associated with the left or the right. There is a widening chasm between them, similar to the all or nothing approach that rent the country in two over slavery. If she thinks this is unfair and tries to find a middle position she runs the risk of being labeled a defector from one camp or the other. We need her, more than ever, to have the courage to step into the middle and listen...really listen.

     Politics used to have reasonable boundaries. It used to be that dinner conversations with polite friends would avoid the topics of religion or politics. What now can we talk about today that excludes them? Are we nearing the point where choosing a dog or cat for a pet means we are liberal or conservative? Can Republicans be vegan? 

     If I were a teenager today, I would look long and hard for the most stable thing I could find in the sea of ideas. With storms and turmoil all around, I would look for something that has stood the test of time. Not everything new is better; not everything old is either. Just because some voices shout louder and longer doesn’t make them right. If an otherwise trusty car has a faulty headlight don’t scrap the whole thing, learn to fix or improve what’s broken and keep it on the road. 

     

Blank Page Syndrome

     Until I wrote this sentence my page was blank. Now there are twenty-two words and two periods to ease my writer’s mind. I learned just now by Googling “fear of the blank page” that there is such a thing as Blank Page Syndrome. The site discussing it had all the markings of a serious mental health publication—is it right to call a website a publication? If there is such a thing as Blank Page Syndrome then most students would say they’ve contracted it at some point during their education. In a nation where we can’t seem to see past our differences, we can add one thing to the list of humanity’s common characteristics. We all can get, if we haven’t got, a serious mental condition related to writer's block. Perhaps the solution to all the pontificating voices in comment sections and editorials is to step back and admit we’re all sick in the head from time to time. I might be right now; who knows?

     The more I admit that I can be downright loony and others might have at least one decent thought a day the less uppity I might be the next time I see an opinion I don’t like.
     As a daily reader of the Bible, I am well acquainted with its stance on universal syndromes and uppityness. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We’re all broken, but like to try to feel less broken than the next broken person. According to the Bible, if anyone of us wants to know where we stand, we stand together at the bottom of the pile looking up. In Christian theology, we have the word “depravity” to explain the situation we are all in together. It’s a fine mess.
     There’s another word in Christian theology called, “gospel.” It means good news. At the heart of the gospel is the fact that we all stand condemned for just reasons, but Jesus Christ “endured the cross” that we might not be condemned, but have life! It’s free and available to all. The only catch is it comes to us through repentance and belief (Mark 1:15).
     I was in Barnes and Noble on Monday and they gave me a free coffee for being brave enough to pump sanitizer and enter. On my way to the desk, I passed the self-help section with titles like The Power of Positive Thinking, You are A Bada**, and The Self Love Workbook. If you need a personal cheerleader to tell you how great you are then look no further. Perhaps those authors can help with Blank Page Syndrome. If all of that sounds faddish or gimmicky there’s a dwindling section in the back where you can still purchase a copy of the Bible—a more time tested resource. If you do, you will not find any ooey gooey drivel about loving yourself. You will, however, discover that there is a God who loved the world enough to send his Son to offer himself as a substitute for us so we don’t have to stand condemned anymore. Now that's something to write about.

Racism, Riots, and America, the Beautiful

     When Katherine Bates wrote the words to “America the Beautiful” she had no idea it would become so popular. In poles, many prefer it to our national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” It’s easier to sing and not so warlike. I wonder if she would have written the fourth verse the same if she were still alive. It goes like this,

O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years, Thine alabaster cities gleam, Undimmed by human tears! America! America! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea!

     Recent events have looked like anything but brotherhood in gleaming cities. Today we learned that Derek Chauvin has been charged with second-degree murder related to the death of George Floyd. It’s unclear whether this will soothe the anger that boiled over into rioting in cities all across America and even around the globe.
   

 When it comes to politics there seems to be an assumption that those who are on the Left must be heard shouting against racism and that those on the Right must be heard condemning the riots. Those on the Left try to paint those on the right as racists and those on the Right try to paint those on the Left as anarchists.
     If all we see in each other are terrible characterizations the gap between “us vs them” will only widen. I can see that happening quickly and it’s alarming. More and more aspects of our lives are becoming politicized and as new issues arise the two parties scramble to be on the “right side of history.” Stereotypes are also more deeply entrenched than ever. If I’m a Republican, am I allowed to believe in global warming? If I’m a Democrat, am I allowed to think that it’s wrong to kill human life in the womb?
     I see a metaphorical table in the middle with seats set around. People are in the stands. The two-party teams are facing each other on the field. Angry participants on either side have dug trenches and strung razor wire. Exploding bombs and missiles are in the air, being hurled by both sides in the newspapers, on newscasts, and on social media. Strategists with headsets look for the most damning words in each article or video, rip them out of context, and hold up these bloody scalps for the rest of their righteous party to gawk at. “See,” they tell themselves and each other, “What more proof do we need?!”
    Some try to make it to the table to have personal conversations—to speak honestly and to listen generously. Those who find a seat notice quickly that they all look very different from each other, and they don’t talk with the same grammatical precision. Yet, perhaps we might hear them slowly join in a song with a familiar tune:

O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife. Who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than strife! America! America! God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!

     I think Katherine Bates saw this country with eyes wide open. Perfect? No. Something to embrace? Yes. I think she would call us to strive to make things better without losing sight of America the Beautiful. There are still open seats at the table.

Galatians 3:28; John 7:24; John 13:34; James 2:8-9