Soul Renovatus

On "trying" to be green...

OK, I can't resist now. I know I've talked about this before, but I must get this off my chest.

I am really tired of this debate/discussion/lecture of how much science is wrong toward global warming, pollution, you fill in the blank.  Beyond all of this is a problem I think Rob Bell said well in last week's message at Mars Hill, in the end it comes down to postures of exploitation and entitlement.  When we start talking about the environment, some of my friends and acquaintances start picking on the science of what's being said about all of these environmental issues.  Which I see as an excuse for them not to do something about it. 

I mean c'mon people what is the harm in recycling?  Do you honestly think that if there is a possibility of reusing something that we should take advantage of it?  If there was a possibility of using less, shouldn't we try to do something about it?  How much energy do you really waste keeping your lights on?  PLUS, it saves you money!!

I just so frustrated that people don't want to talk about that, they just want to talk about how wrong the science is, which honestly, who knows one way or the other?  It really comes down to as my wife says, "Your attitude on the type of lifestyle you want to live and thinking you don't need to change."  That's entitlement my friends.

And that's really what it boils down to.  It doesn't matter if you have a theological perspective that the world's going to hell in a hand basket, we are promoting to our children and future generations that wasting resources and accumulating more stuff is what life is all about.  While I am not against wealth, I am against notions that we shouldn't be constantly in process on we can live more simply, taking care of this earth God has given us, because we love our children!

Most of the time I find that those who want to argue for a wasteful lifestyle (especially Christians) have no real contact with those who are considered "the least of these" among us.  Please, I'm not trying to be self-righteous here, I am FAR from where I want to be in regards to this issue, but my wife and I have been sitting down asking some pretty big questions and starting to do something about it.

I see people drink bottled water all of the time.  How much of our landfills are filled with these bottles?  Do you know you can actually recycle them?  What would happen if more people started caring?  Not only would our landfills be less full, but there could be some good uses out of those bottles.

I'm not going to go down the rest of this road with examples because I'm sure you've heard them all before. But no matter where you are on the issue, I can't honestly see the harm in recycling and living with less.  If you really want to use the "good steward" argument, American Christians really suck at taking care of the earth.  What we steward well is our culture's religion of consumerism, consumption, and production.  It leads to death in so many ways, and there are things we can do to change it.

Rant over, I'm going to bed.

A reason I hate Michigan...

I had to get a Michigan Drivers License.  I think you know where this is going...

So, a little background.  My life was born into an identity crisis.  I was born in Guam, a little US Territory island in the South Pacific.  I was there 5 months.  My mom went into labor on the plane flying to the US and there ya' go.  I almost died.  That's another story.

What came out of it was 3 official birth certificates, for 3 different days.  Oddly enough, my name was spelled differently on 2 of them.  The official one from the government of Guam was spelled "Michal," while the other two were "Michael."  Unfortunately, I don't know where the 2 with "Michael" are.  They're lost.  The only I have is with Michal.  Now, if any of you are semi-familiar with the Bible, you know that Michal is not a boy's name.  It is David's first wife (the name means "barren.").  This is not something I am proud of at all.  I think my parents thought it was a cool biblical name and took it, even though they didn't read the context of said name.  You can make all the jokes you want about it, but not for 2 weeks considering the experience I'm sharing with you now.

So I go to the DMV...you have to have 3 big proofs of ID and 2 proofs of current residence.  No problem right?  First off, I thought I needed 2.  So I had to go back home and get a marriage license.  I got my number in the pre-flow line and waited for TWO HOURS.  I get up there, and she says, "We can't accept this because your name is spelled Michal." 

I said, "Well, here's my social security card, it's spelled Michael. I used this same birth certificate in Pennsylvania and they didn't have a problem with it."

"Well, I'm sorry sir, you have to find two other pieces of ID with Michal on it or one other with Michael," she quipped monotonously.

"Are you serious?  I waited 2 hours for you to tell me this?"  Apparently Ohio, Pennsylvania, and the Federal Government didn't have a problem with this (I have a passport), but you do?"  I was growing a little impatient.

"Well, I can give you a rush pass so you don't have to wait in line." 

That seemed to be the end of the conversation.

So I go back home, grab my passport, and remind them that the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT doesn't have a problem with my name and that I have actually put Michal as an alias just in case they did.  Nooooooooo...doesn't matter to the stupid Wolverine state does it?

So I finally pay my dues, get the picture (which is a perfect expression of how I felt that day), and then got one last piece of news that really just summed it up.

"You'll get your license in the mail in a couple of weeks."

Wow.  Ohio and Pennsylvania?  Instant license.  No mail. Walk out the door with it.  Michigan?  They have to make sure that I'm actually Michael James Lamson, because now apparently I'm a terrorist. I mean they didn't even know I was from Ohio.

So I will say it...Michigan, you suck.

On global warming and being green...

OK, first off let me say that I have done NO research on this issue.  This is not an expert, or albeit, well-informed commentary on this issue.

However, I want to spit off some feelings after watching the Oscars last night and Al Gore and friends winning for best full-length documentary.

I know there's a huge debate either way on global warming, but I am concerned with some of the dialogue I witness in regards to this.

I hear more more conservatively-minded friends argue how global warming is just hogwash and a tactic of fear.  Another one of those "liberal" agendas.

I think Al Gore said it well last night, "the climate crisis is not a political issue, it's a moral issue."  Whether you agree with global warming or not, I would like to extend that thought to all environmental issues as well. 

As a Christian, we have been entrusted by our creator to be good stewards of the earth that God has given us (go back and read Genesis 1-2), so any issue of the earth being threatened environmentally should concern us.  I haven't watched An Inconvenient Truth, but I plan on it soon.  On the Oscar.com site, there is a link about suggestions for being more "green."  Go read it.  Regardless of what you think about global warming, they are good suggestions (and honestly not hard ones at that).

But I know why many conservative Christians get heated about this, because they believe that the world is going to hell in a hand-basket anyway, and why care about what happens to it?  This is the inevitable consequence of sin.  Where is the hope in that?   It's the gospel of despair in another form.

Although I've only skimmed it, Stephen Bouma-Prediger's book For the Beauty of the Earth is a great book about this issue.  God said that the earth is good, so why do we think otherwise? 

To not care about this planet that we call home in my opinion is not being Christian, or even more than that, human.  Do you think those at the Oscar's cheer because it's just another political agenda to hold on to?  To some I'm sure that's the case, but to others there is something about taking care of this place that deep down means something more.  We should applaud their efforts and join them.

Again, I am not an expert on the issues, but just needed to spit my thoughts out here.

Welcome to the Blizzard of '07...

Let's just say we have a blizzard here in Grand Rapids today. 

Whiteout conditions...and I missed a 70 car pile up earlier.  I about hit 4 cards today sliding around.

I'll try to post some pics.  Right now it's 8 degrees with a wind chill of -12 degrees.  Tonight the wind chill goes down to -30 degrees.  There's about a foot and half to 2 feet on the ground...and that's a lot for West Michigan...considering it's been within the last week.

It's so cold out there I can't feel the snot running down my nose until it hits my tongue...

I'm glad to be home...:)

Our new adventure to Mars Hill...

I feel like my blogging has just taken a back seat for the last 3 months.  There has been a reason why, and now I can share the story.

God has called us to be part of Mars Hill Bible church in Grand Rapids, MI.

My wife and I have followed Mars for several years, keeping tabs on what they are doing around the world.  So we decided this year that we would take a vacation in May to go up to Grand Rapids and spend a week in the life of their church.

Of course, I'm sure they get these requests all of time, and we were told we could not meet with any of the staff while we were there.  They told us just to show up and meet people at the Sunday service. 

So we did, and what happened afterward is mind-boggling still to this day.

We were sitting in the first service, and at the end we were asking God to help us connect with some people to talk to.  We wanted to hear the stories of things behind the scenes, of what really makes this group of people tick.  We ran into Keith, who was sitting 3 chairs down from us.  We introduced ourselves and vice versa, and Keith asked what we were doing in GR.  We told him we were on vacation at the church, which he was puzzled about.  We have a friend who used to live in the area, and connected us with the church (he was a youth pastor in Grandville at another church), and we told Keith about this.  He asked us what his name was, and we told him we're pretty sure you don't know who he is.  He asked anyway and so we told him.  Ironically enough, he did know him, quite well, as he was a former pastor at his church!   Keith then introduced us to a couple of other staff members, and by the time the service was done we had appointments with two staff members (Keith is a staff member too!).

Later that day we were grabbing some literature and ran into someone named Tim, who was raising money for inner city kids to go to camp.  We found out he was a real-estate agent.  We talked about Mars and his story, and went on our way.  Throughout the day, we kept running into him in random places.  We would chat every time we saw him for awhile.  It was just so weird.  At the time we thought nothing of it.

The next day we talked with one of the Community Life assistants that I had corresponded with through e-mail.  We wanted to put a name with the face so we popped in to say hi.  2 hours later we left.  She told us not to get wooed by Rob Bell's teaching and the size of the church.  We told her we really didn't care about that (don't get me wrong, we love Rob's teaching, but we wanted to hear what was making the church tick).  She was greatly encouraged. So were we.

The next night my wife went to a women's worship event at the church building.  I was trying to look for her through the crowd, where a woman was standing asking me if she could help me.  I told her our story and she said she would sit with Julia.  After the event was over, the woman came out (her name was Amy) and said, "You're wife told me your story, I gave her my card.  If you need anything give me a call."  I was thinking..."What story did she tell?"  I had no idea what she was talking about. 

Julia was sharing our journey and where God has been leading us these last 4 years or so.  The woman asked what Julia did for a living, and she told her that she was an accountant.  Amy then pulls out her business card and says, "My dad and two brothers are CPA's, if you need anything, give me a call."  Julia tells me this and was thinking, "REALLY weird."  So then we staring at each other, rewinding the last 3 days or so, and I finally asked, "Do you think God is trying to tell us something here?"  We were serious about it...it was more confusion than anything else.  We continued talking that night and praying about God was trying to say.

The next morning there was a "Covenant Members Meeting" at the church building.  They were restructuring membership and talking about the vision of the church and where it is going down the road.  We had nothing else to do so we showed up.  We were still talking and praying that morning of why this place was special to us, and asking God if He was trying to tell us something more.  We asked if He would make clear after the meeting of the direction He was leading us with all of this.  We started talking about what we thought they were going to say, and prayed right before the meeting started, "God, make this crystal clear to us."  Right after we pray that, Tim, the real-estate guy, sits right in front of us!  We just looked at each other and him for awhile.  I tapped him on the shoulder, and chatted for a little more.  Rob Bell and Don Golden (the lead pastor) get up and explain who Mars Hill is and where they are going.  They said everything we had talked about the night before and morning of the meeting.  Most of it almost verbatim.  By the time the meeting was over, I was bawling and overwhelmed.  I couldn't believe it...God was actually telling us to move to be part of Mars Hill.

There is more to the story, but it's already been too long.  I am not taking any staff position (obviously), and we don't know of all of the reasons we are going, but we know He has called us.  And when He calls, we go.  We are in process of moving there at least by the end of September.  There is much more I can talk about, but I'll have to space it out with future posts.  For now, I just wanted to share the story with you and ask for your prayers as we continue to follow God's lead.

Follow up to Bono post...

Just thought I'd post this because I thought it was a good response.

I originally posted on Doug Pagitt's blog regarding a question I had about Christians role in politics. Here was part of the post:

"How much energy to we spend trying to convince governments of doing something radical on the issues Bono is addressing? I mean...what if the church stepped up and did it (and I know they haven't, but there are some that are trying). I'm not slamming Bono at all (please!), but wondering if going through the route of directly intervening (or through certain humanitarian organizations) instead of continuing to beg governments for money and policy changes."

A person by the name of Beth posted a response, and I thought I would put it here just for you to think about. I thought it was a great response (And thank you Beth!):

   

"I have a response to Mike - for the church to give money and skills and time and get personally involved is crucially important. Let's all go do it (I already did and it was huge for me). But especially having served in Africa now, I see that there are also issues of structural injustice and sin that just can't be dealt with without taking the governments on.

    

Take, for example, unjust trade regulations. As long as countries in extreme poverty are prohibited from selling their products to the West, and as long as we dump our cheap subsidized rice (e.g.) on them and wipe out their own rice markets (Ghana), those policies themselves will keep undermining any help the church gives. Same with debt - this has improved, but as long as the west is holding people ransom to the tune of billions of dollars (way more than we send in aid) for loans we pushed on corrupt dictators decades ago to position ourselves in the Cold War, those policies themselves will keep undermining any help the church gives. Don't we want people to have the dignity of supporting themselves, rather then perpetuating dependence on humanitarian aid?

    

When Christians first started protesting slavery in Britain, very similar arguments were made to the ones we hear now about why Christians shouldn't work for global economic justice -- it would wreak economic havoc, you're naive, the church should just care for people directly and not get involved in policy, etc. Same with MLK and civil rights, etc, etc. The *laws* had to be changed; the *policies* had to be changed, and it was largely Christians who did it. As Bono said twice -- what's needed is justice, not charity, and that's too bad, because we're so good at charity.

Noreena Hertz "The Debt Threat" and Jeff Sachs "The End of Poverty" are two great books to read to learn more about this. I'm just an amateur. But I've come to agree with NT Wright that economic injustice on a global scale is the defining moral issue of our time, and that in 100 years it will seem inconceivable to Christians that much of the church hardly noticed it as a moral issue."

Just thought it was good stuff to think about.

Bono speaks at National Prayer Breakfast...

Man. Talk about a heck of a sermon/teaching...You have to go watch this. It is extremely bold and powerful.

(HT to Tammy Jo at 32 Flavors.)

I was deeply moved in my spirit listening to him walk through the Scriptures.

On another note, it is an interesting discussion on the role of the church in this, asking national government on aid to the poor. Trust me, I see nothing wrong with it, but I'm curious...and a brother I just met, Matt Blowers, said it to me in conversation, is that should we really be making much of an effort with our governments to send aid instead of just doing it? (He didn't say that exactly, but that seemed to be the gist.)

I listened to a message from Rob Bell from last December on the war in Iraq (December 18, 2005: "Our Body and Their Blood). It was extremely powerful, as he didn't offer a commentary on whether or not we should be there, but asking questions on what should be our role is Christians as issues of justice. Should we just wait around for governments to send aid, spending all of energies there? Or should we just do it? Make efforts as a subversive movement of God to take care of it?

So what are we doing to contribute to the movement? To move past the division and embrace Jesus' call to care "for the least of these." It's awfully messy...it's awfully complex, but the Kingdom of God/heaven breaks out in these places.

I like how Rob has said that there are "no God-forsaken places in the world, only church-forsaken."

May we be the types of people who embrace this subversive movement of the Kingdom of God breaking out here and now.

Stories that sadden me...and excite me!

I just read this yesterday, and I was sick to my stomach.

Here's the link:  Pickens sets record with $165M Oklahoma State gift

I know there's a lot more to the story. I'm not against athletics at all, but I'm just thinking about other things in our country and the world where $165M could help.

I mean what do people who have went through the wake of Rita/Katrina think about this?  I mean does this stuff make you wonder?

I also ran across a blog of a church in Mansfield, OH, where I grew up during my junior and senior high school years. There a lot of places in the city of Mansfield people don't want to go to, but this place is in the midst, doing incredible things. I bawled reading their story. The church is called "All God's Children," and Jeff Croft is their pastor.  Here's a link to his blog as well.

Here's a place that seems it will never be self-sufficient. 90% of the people who attend are at poverty level, but God is fresh there, and is a beacon in a dark place.

There always looking for support, the least we can do is continue to pray. I pray that their story inspires the stories God is writing with you wherever you are.

Grace,

Mike