Month: April 2014

WWJDIHWIYS

Tim, a good friend of mine, sent me a text message early this Easter morning.  It read, “Happy Easter!  Wonderful service this morning.”  An obvious good natured jab at my previous blog post, Is It Sacrilege, where I considered the idea of not attending church on Easter Sunday, and my reasons for why I might not do so.  My response to Tim was, “Happy Easter!  I’m sure it was.  Also a wonderful time with family.”  Counter jab.

Since deciding to stay home on Easter morning, I’ve had that oft asked and occasionally overused Christian phrase running through my head.  You know the one I’m talking about;  What would Jesus do?  Actually it’s a little known fact that the original phrase used to be;  What would Jesus do if He were in your sandals?  However, WWJDIHWIYS was too long to print on a bracelet, and not as catchy, so someone wisely shortened it to WWJD.

Here’s the thing about that question, sometimes it’s really easy to answer, and sometimes it’s not.  For instance, last fall when I was raking leaves that had fallen off of my neighbors trees into my yard, I toyed with the idea of going to the garage, firing up the blower and sending those leaves back onto the property from whence they came.  But before I did that, I asked myself what Jesus would do, and I got the correct answer right away.  So, instead of grabbing the blower I grabbed a lawn bag and picked up the leaves.  That was an easy one because I just couldn’t envision Jesus getting ticked at his neighbor over a few thousand leaves, after all, they’re pretty light.   But this attending Easter service thing falls into one of those grey areas and to be honest I don’t have any idea what Jesus would do in this case.  Would He be like my friend Tim and attend church, be treated to a few trumpet solos, numerous Halleluiahs and a fine sermon?  Or would He be like me, stay home, enjoy watching my grandson develop his newly found talent of single handedly spearing his breakfast casserole with a plastic spork, then to thunderous applause from his mom, uncle, and grandparents, demonstrate his skill at perfectly guiding his sippy cup into the sippy cup holder on his high chair, and finally, as a family, say a prayer and read Matthew’s account of the resurrection?

Tim chose church and I chose home.  I don’t know if one of those choices was better than the other, and I certainly don’t know which of those choices, if either, Jesus would have made.  Maybe He would have done all of those things simultaneously just because He can, but Tim and I didn’t have that option, so we had to make a decision.  We both did what we felt would honor Him, and I’m hopeful that He approves of both.

What choice did you make this Easter?  Are you happy with that choice?  Did you take a moment to thank Him for the sacrifice He made for you?  If you did, then I think you got it right.  After all, That’s what Jesus would do if He were in your sandals.

Is It Sacrilege?

Sacrilege: violation or misuse of what is regarded as sacred

Last week I mentioned to my wife that I was considering, for the first time in 20 years, not attending Easter church service this Sunday.  The way her eyes bugged out as she looked up from her morning bowl of oatmeal told me one of two things, either this information was coming as a complete shock to her, or I had suddenly sprouted a full head of golden locks and now resembled the 1990’s version of Fabio.  I didn’t think the Fabio thing was likely but just to make sure we were both on the same page, I nonchalantly reached up and checked my scalp by scratching an imaginary itch.  As I suspected, she was merely surprised about my Easter comment.  “Are you serious?” she asked.

I didn’t know, was I serious?  After all, I went to church this week, last week, and most weeks before that.  I plan on going on Good Friday and possibly Maundy Thursday.  I intend to be there the Sunday after Easter and those that follow as well.  So you might ask, as I asked myself, why in the world would I go almost every other Sunday and then not attend on one of the holiest of days?  Am I angry with God, or my pastor, or my church?  No, that’s not the case, in fact at the moment I’m not angry with anything.  Am I experiencing a crisis of faith?  Not at all, I’m actually more into His word than I’ve been in quite some time.  What is it then?  The simple truth is that quite often I don’t enjoy the Easter “show.”  While I love that dozens of people who normally are not church goers will be in attendance to hear God’s message of salvation, I personally don’t look forward to what occasionally feels to me like choreographed excitement.  The ritual, at times, feels awkward and somewhat strained, it’s one of the things that kept me away from church for so many years.  On Easter, above all other Sundays, I feel as if I’m expected to show enthusiasm,  shout “He is risen!” or risk appearing unappreciative of the sacrifice He made for us.

Trust me, I’m not mocking God, I’m both too respectful and too fearful of Him to do that.  And to be sure, my hesitance about participating in Easter Sunday this year does not mean I’ve allowed doubt about His rise from the grave to creep into my mind.  My faith is built on the truth of His resurrection, and I’m secure in that belief.  However, I don’t revel in belting out a perfectly timed “Hallelujah!” on cue as if I’m an actor in a play,  just as I don’t wildly cheer when my favorite football team makes a first down with 15 seconds left in a game they already lead by 25 points.  In both instances I understand that the outcome has long since been determined, I’m confident that we’ve won, the excitement I experienced when I first realized that came long ago, and can’t be recreated no matter how loud I shout.

So here’s the plan;  My son will be home from college this weekend.  He, along with my mother-in-law, wife, daughter, grandson and I, will have our Easter meal on Saturday so that he can head back to school early Sunday afternoon.  When we wake on Easter morning we won’t rush, we won’t wolf down a dry slice of toast and cold cup of coffee so we can make it to church early enough to find a parking place.  We won’t race through the house looking for our “Sunday best.”  “Sue, where the heck did you put my tie?  What do you mean which one?  The one with the cross on it!  The one I wear every Easter!”   We’ll wake up at our leisure, and sit down to a relaxed family breakfast.  We’ll  band together, a small group of believers, say a prayer, discuss what the resurrection means to us, and thank Him for this wonderful moment in time.  We probably won’t shout, “He is risen” but we’ll all be confident in the fact that He once did.  And when the day is done, maybe I’ll discover that I missed being, where for the last 20 years I’ve always been.

Whatever your feelings about Easter, whether you agree with me or not, I wish you a happy one.  For truly, “He is risen!”  “He is risen indeed!”  “Hallelujah!”

 

Think Twice Speak Once

In case you hadn’t heard the story, a baseball player on the New York Mets named Daniel Murphy, took 3 days of paternity leave last week to be with his wife as she gave birth to their first child.  The leave caused him to miss the first two games of the 162 game 2014 major league baseball season.  Though he’s entitled to the time and his employer seems to have no problem with his decision, there are still people in an uproar, mainly sportscasters who are generally paid to be controversial and critical about things that have nothing directly to do with them.

For example, on the Boomer and Carton sports talk radio show, co host Craig Carton decided that 3 days off to support his wife following the birth of their child, was far too long for Murphy to spend away from his team.  Carton said, “To me, and this is just my sensibility, assuming the birth went well, assuming your wife is fine, assuming the baby is fine, 24 hours you stay there…(then) you get your ass back to the team and you play baseball”.  I think his use of the word “sensibility” is an interesting choice.

Mike Francesa another radio “personality” said, “Whaddya gonna do, sit there and look at your wife in the hospital bed for two days?”  God forbid Mr Francesa, sit with your wife for a couple of days after she just gave birth to your child?!?!  You’re right that would be crazy!!

And Boomer Esiason a former NFL football player even went as far as to say that Murphy should have told his wife to, “have a C-section before the season starts. I need to be at Opening Day, I’m sorry.”   That makes perfect sense doesn’t it?  “Hey Honey, be a dear and have unneeded major surgery so that I won’t miss the game next week will you?  Pleeease?” 

If you think I’m way out of line in being somewhat critical of these three guys, imagine for a minute that Daniel Murphy isn’t the second baseman for a professional baseball team, imagine he’s a forklift driver at ABC Manufacturing Company.  What would you think of Danny the fork lift driver saying to his wife,  “Hey Babe, could you schedule a C-section for yourself tomorrow?  I know it’s not necessary but I have a big semi trailer coming in on Thursday that I just have to unload and I don’t want the birth of our first born to get in the way of that.  I’m sorry”  

I used to believe this type of thinking could be dismissed as generational.  Young men in their 20’s or 30’s, certainly no older than that, attempting to sound macho, trying to make sure everyone knows that they’re the man of the house.  The flaw in my theory is that Esiason is 52, Carton is 45, and Francesa is 60, they’re not kids.  How have grown men come to the conclusion that there are things like a baseball game, or any job for that matter, that are more important than family?   The logic, if it can be called that, confuses me.

To be fair, Boomer Esiason has since apologized, but I’m cynical. It feels like the type of apology we hear far too often these days.  The social media apology.   The one where a celebrity tweets, or says something they think is witty or funny or provocative, only to realize that a majority of people didn’t think it was clever at all, just the ignorant ramblings of an over privileged, clueless personality.  That’s when they go into damage control.  An apology is issued not because they’re sorry for what was said, but because they’re sorry about how it might affect their career. It sometimes seems that hardly a day goes by anymore without there being an article on MSN or Yahoo about some twit apologizing for a mindless tweet.

I’ve found myself becoming less forgiving of people who fail to think twice and speak once.  People who don’t mind hurting with words as long as they can wave the magic “I’m sorry”  wand, and pretend they’ve made all of those words disappear.  I’m not suggesting that a sincere apology shouldn’t be accepted, after all the bible references the word forgive or a form of that word over 100 times.  However one such reference from Luke 17:3  reads, “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.”   In other words the apology should be genuine.  I like that one, I think we should all live by that one, but I like this one too;  Proverbs 21:23  He who guards his mouth and his tongue keeps himself from calamity. 

As for Daniel Murphy, thank God for men like him who have their priorities straight.  I’m his newest fan.

It’s Not A Tumah

I love television.  Some people come home and turn on the radio for company, I turn on the T.V.  What channel the set happens to be tuned to is of no importance, I just enjoy having it on.

My current favorite show is ‘The Following,’ but not because of the great camera work, or the wonderful writing, or even the exciting story line.  The truth is I watch it because I have a long standing man crush on Kevin Bacon.  There, I’ve said it.  Surprisingly, and a little disturbingly I guess, it really wasn’t as difficult to admit that as I thought it would be.  I only share this information with you so you’ll understand that I really am sympathetic to how attached people can get to actors and TV shows. That’s why when I saw an article on the web titled, ‘How I Met Your Mother finale causes fans tears and outrage’ I just had to read it.

Now to be perfectly honest, I’ve never watched the show.  All I know is that it aired for nine years, was immensely popular, and starred the guy who used to play Doogie Howser MD.  An actor who if you’re now keeping score, I do not have a man crush on.

However with my curiosity peaked, I had to know what type of sitcom episode could  possibly bring people to tears and outrage.  What would cause people to take to twitter and tweet things like;     

> The more I think about it, the more annoyed I get. Nine years on the air and you build up to THAT?

> I’m going for a long walk. I need to forget I EVER watched this show or ever liked Ted. I’m so full of rage.

> I completely agree with the angry mob. The was beyond disappointing for so many reasons.

Unfortunately, all I could really get out of the article was that someones mother had died a long time ago.  You might be saying, “Well Dale I can see where that would cause some tears.” and being a sympathetic person I would normally agree with you.  But let me finish, it wasn’t really someones mother, it was just a character on the show!  Do any of you remember when Kristin shot J.R. on Dallas?  It’s kind of like that.  It was pretend.  A pretend mother died, not a real one.  Before I go any further, maybe I should explain pretend to anyone who is outraged or in tears over the final episode of How I Met Your Mother.

When we were kids a lot of us used to “pretend” that we were professional baseball players, or doctors, or ballerinas. (Honest to God that’s just an example.  I never pretended to be a ballerina, and anyone, like my brother for instance, who says I did is a bold faced liar) Anyway, using our imaginations, boys might write stories in their heads about how we hit the winning home run.  Girls might imagine being a famous actress who was suddenly whisked away by a handsome prince only to one day become the Princess of Monaco.  Okay that actually did happen, but not to you.

Let me explain this another way;  For all of you who are allowing your grip on reality to be sucked through the TV screen, I assure you, J.R. on ‘Dallas’ wasn’t really shot, and the mother on ‘How I Met Your Mother’ didn’t really die.  See, there are these people called writers, they come to work everyday and play “pretend.”  They sit around a long table, stick pencils behind their ears, scribble on legal pads and make things up, kind of like we did when we were little.  They say stuff like, “Hey, what if we have these two scientists named Sheldon and Leonard living together in Pasadena California.  They’re nerdy guys but Leonard still manages to date one of the hottest girls on the planet.”  Then another writer says, “That’s stupid, no one will ever believe it!”  Then everyone laughs, they write it down, and it becomes a hit TV show.  See, that’s “pretend.”

So relax everyone, don’t take these shows so seriously.  Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake’s plane didn’t really get shot down over the Sea of Japan except in some warped MASH writers imagination.  To paraphrase the late great Conway Twitty, “It’s all only make believe.”

Although I do have to say, if that psychopath Joe Carrol somehow ends up killing off Kevin Bacon in ‘The Following,’ someones going to hear about it.