I found an interesting sidebar coming out of the current trouble between the New Orleans Saints and the NFL commissioner. The trouble involves a bounty program whereby Saints players targeted star players on opposing teams to injure them, or at least sideline them for a few plays. Getting paid to hurt the other guy is frowned upon by the NFL and has resulted in heavy fines against coaches and the Saints organization.
The sidebar involves the impending fines against Saints players and the moral lesson you and I may take from it. To determine punishment, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is consulting with the NFL Players Association. Such a consult makes sense–one rightly secures the opinions of stakeholders when making important decisions unless he or she wants rebellion down the line. The full article, “Cold Front,” is found in the April 9 issue of Sports Illustrated.
The author states that league officials formerly offered the NFLPA a look at their investigative findings before holding a press conference. Goodell went another direction. He consulted NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith after making his investigation public. Smith is upset. Should he be?
Goodell’s benefit, had he told Smith first, is to negotiate punishment against players behind closed doors, and then present a decision backed by all the governing parties. On the other hand, Goodell’s method clearly establishes who, at least in this case, wears the pants, tight as they may be.
An ethical dilemma concerns informing stakeholders as a use of power. Is one obligated to give partners inside information before informing the media, or is it more ethical to tell everyone at the same time? Does it cement or undermine one’s power to withhold information from stakeholders? Are there exceptions?
Perhaps you formed a quick response. How does it affect your thoughts knowing that Jesus told those closest to him what was going on before he told those not so close? What if, instead of a business partnership, this was a family matter–when does one “tell the children”? Or the parents?!
Welcome to Resurrection life. Happy Easter!
Lest any of us think he or she is immune to a crash, Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino offers a lesson. His team is favored to win the National Championship. Last time the Hogs did that was 1964.
Last week, Bobby ran his motorcycle into a ditch. Injuries followed as you might imagine. Oh, but it gets better. He had a lovely blonde passenger, not his wife. ESPN’s account of his little scandal is found here.
I doubt Arkansas will fire Petrino (he’s winning). I do not doubt that they’ll fire the girl (this is how things work in the real world). I also doubt that Bobby’s wife and children consider him a winner right now. Nor do I think they will appreciate the media attention and that their man is now sermon fodder.
It’s Easter week–Good Friday actually. A time when most of us think of flowers, bunnies, and happiness. The Christians shout “Jesus is Risen,” and others ask for more chocolate. We forget that today marks the celebration of the darkest and most important three day run in human history. Good Friday is the day that the most prideful, worst being (Satan) was hammered into submission by the most best and smartest man in the world (Jesus). The pride of the devil goes on–it continues to destroy lives. And the humility and kindness of Jesus continues to offer a better way. We do not have to be destroyed by our hubris.
Years ago, I heard a formerly famous guy talk about his fall from a high place (he had an affair with a younger model as well). When asked what caused it, he said, “Pride.” He said that three things happened to ditch his happy life.
1. No real friends. He got lonely at the top, and his fake friends did not hold him to the high standards that real friends require. Good time buddies will not hold you to high standards.
2. He quit reading the Bible and praying. He quit spending time with God, which is self-explanatory, don’t you agree?
3. He focused on his pleasure. The next ride. The next party. The pretty girl that held his gaze. You get the idea.
I sincerely hope that Mr. Petrino and his wife can find God’s grace and reconcile their marriage. Resurrection happens. Moreover, I hope that the young woman finds Christ and faith and that she learns to make sense of her desires. It will also be great if the University of Arkansas shows moral fiber. Institutions with high integrity do not tolerate poor judgment–they hold the standards high as an example to the young people under their care.
Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18). Truer words were never spoken.
Filed under: Spiritual Grounding
If you think this coming Saturday holiday is about nothing more than watching basketball and drinking green beer, you are missing much of the point and most of the fun. St. Patrick’s Day, one of the world’s oldest and dearest holidays, is Saturday. Major cities will host major parades, and bars will dye cheap beer green and sell all-you-can-drink for a pittance. The Irish will be simultaneously lauded as cultivators of civility and denigrated as promoters of vice. We are certainly both, and I am purposefully, proudly, and fully Irish.
The original Patrick was a Christian missionary born in England around 385 who died March 17, 461. At 16, he was kidnapped from England by a raiding band of Irish Pagans. They were hunting slaves, and Patrick, the poor, poor boy-o, was the catch of the day. As he worked the fields, Patrick recalled the Bible stories and verses his father taught him, and he came to know God personally. His writings tell of a dream wherein God told him a ship was coming to aid his escape.
Patrick was saved from slavery, but he did not stay free. He voluntarily returned to Ireland to tell the Irish about Jesus the Savior.
He never chased out snakes, but he did chase out the Snake. He (and a few other English missionaries) saw the conversion of nearly the entire Irish population. His methods were astonishing, and worth imitating today.
Patrick did not preach the Bible at the corner. He did not make large signs or try to argue people into heaven. He was anything but obnoxious. He served others by listening to their needs and helping out. He was constantly in trouble with the official Catholic Church back home, which in my book makes his holiday all the more worthy.
Patrick set up his camp on the outskirts of the native village, and did what he could to educate people. The Irish had no written language, so he taught school. He and his brothers and sisters in ministry translated great writings from Greek and Latin to English, from the Bible to Plato, and preserved them in churches, schools, and libraries. While Europe was hiding the Bible, abandoning the great thinkers, and going dark, Ireland was turning up the light. As a result, Patrick and his fellow missionaries changed history and likely saved classic literature as well as souls from being lost forever.
In the process, Patrick started over 300 churches (some scholars think it may have been double that!), and he built an orderly society out of debauchery.
He also drank beer, which brings us back to the current green holiday. Wearing green was originally wearing blue and changed as people pinned a shamrock to their clothes in memory of Ireland and the Trinity, or so they say. The beer we can trace more easily. Patrick had a close friend that was a brewmaster – by close I mean the guy was not allowed to wander about. He was too important!
Patrick’s theology included the salvation of the material as well as the spiritual. He believed, as do I, that God redeems the body, soul, and mind – all that makes us human – from the darkness into His light. Michael Metzger points out that a good Irish beer, like a good Christian, has a good head on it, and I could not agree more.
May I be so bold as to offer you a few suggested toasts for your holiday?
- Here’s to Patrick, a fine example of a Christian minister, may his tribe increase.
- Here’s to green, may our earth see more of it.
- Here’s to the shamrock that demonstrates the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and grows wild pretty much everywhere.
- Here’s to beer (and wine) that the Bible says God invented to gladden our hearts!
- And here’s to people who think!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
PS I was once in Ireland for Easter and attended two very different and revealing church services. One alive. One on life-support.
It’s probably good that Jesus came when he did and not today. If he had come today, he’d have uttered his famous phrase, “Follow me,” and disciples everywhere would swipe their smart phones and try to look him up on Twitter. They’d search @SonofMan, @Messiah, @Redeemer, @Savior – dude has a lot of names.
They’d come up empty. I looked up several of those names on Twitter. None of them led me to anything interesting or the least bit wise. Bogus posers, not one was @GodAmongUs.
Evidently, Jesus does not tweet. Honestly, I wish he did. Sifting through the amount of information available on the big four: relationships, career, money and wellness to try to enlighten you toward happiness would be so much easier. I’d simply set up an app to retweet Jesus.
Think that’s cheating? Think I’d soon lose my job if I just parroted whatever @theKingof Kings says to do to find #healthyrelationships, #careersuccess, #financialindependence, and #holisticwellness. Ha! Wrong, you are.
Preachers do it every week, admittedly, some better than others. People still fail. I’ve been doing pretty much that for the last two+ decades – parroting Jesus, not failing – and I still have job security. Know why?
Because most of us (me too) hear something @theLord says and we hesitate. We think it’s too hard. We realize it’ll cost us too much. So instead of loving as he loved, we manipulate and our relationships suffer. Instead of acting with integrity, we scheme and our career suffers. Instead of living below our means, we buy stuff we don’t need to impress people that don’t care, and our financial independence suffers. Instead of caring for our bodies and minds, we hurry through junk food lunch, worry about tomorrow, and ruin our health.
Therefore, I have job security! And, #IMHO, Jesus has too few followers.
He does have some respect, and that’s a good start. He’s not mad at anyone and neither am I. He knows we’re just trying to make it through life and that most of us are trying to figure things out. He wishes we’d accept more help, and stop hesitating to ask for it when it’s right in front of our closed eyes. He’s still sending out his message of love, acceptance, success, health, and happiness. He’s still keeping all his promises and not disappointing anyone. He’s still showing us how to love others.
I’m still trying Twitter. Sending out helpful articles on the four subjects mentioned above @jacksbuzz. Let me know if it’s helpful, and thanks for following.
Guatemalans go to church a lot. If I had to guess why, I’d say it’s because there’s not a lot else going on, at least not in La Libertad. That, or perhaps the cultural practices of Roman Catholic churches (daily mass) have rubbed off on the evangelicals. Either way, they go a lot and they schedule their going at times odd to us.
Church is a daily thang
Our crew was invited to several services, all in the evening. I recognized several American Christian hymns sung in Spanish (fun to try to follow), and a few that may have been indigenous. The services followed a recognizable pattern: four songs, offering, mini-sermon, special offering, another mini-sermon, more singing, main sermon, more songs, hugs. In one case, they were raising money for the school so we had a third offering (don’t hate, this is how they do church in another country).
Hugs? Yay-uh! The Guatemalan church folk love to hug, and the kids, ladies, and a couple of the guys will even kiss your cheek. Awesome. I must not have gotten enough hugs as a kid (no offense mom, I’m just speculating), because I like ‘em.
Anyway, Sundays are a little different schedule. Church is so good, they go twice! They have a morning service then they come back for Sunday School from 2:00-4:30 in the afternoon. Uh. Yeah. I was expecting some culture shock, but when I was asked to deliver the Bible lesson between two and nap-thirty, I got a little nervous. I envisioned the rare privilege of putting people to sleep in two tongues, a task usually reserved for my Pentecostal brothers.
When our group heard of this spectacular opportunity (Jack is giving the Sunday School lesson – whoop!!), 60% decided to go climb a mountain instead. 11,000 foot vertical with no path, no guide, no water, no shoes, snow, 80 pound packs, stalked by man-eating burros. OK, the packs were only eight pounds. They said they’d leave at 5:00am and be back in time for the message (wink, wink). Didn’t fool me.
Didn’t fool Brian either. But he, Trina, and Donna all had injuries that prevented them going up the hill to the place where locals claim the devil tempted Jesus. Wait, what?
I feigned concern over teaching for 2-1/2 hours. Really? Cake. I can teach all day, kids. Start in Genesis, work toward maps. Gladly I asked the second most important question a speaker can ask, “How long do I need to entertain these people?”
45 minutes.
It turned out that Sunday School follows the regular format of songs, pre-pre sermon, more songs, pre-sermon, several offerings, main teaching, hugs. Glory! I can handle a 45 in my sleep, or in their sleep for that matter.
Then I remembered I’d have a guy translating everything into Espanol, so that cuts it in half. Good thing I dropped that Rosetta Stone training, huh? This was, actually, a problem.
Anyone that ever met a preacher plying his trade knows that we are experts at dragging things out. If airline pilots were preachers, the crash rate would go up faster than Lady Gaga’s knickers — few of us can land the plane in the allotted time. Most preachers cannot make a sensible point (this is why people avoid church like a shirtless guy yelling at himself walking down the middle of the street, which we saw immediately before the service began). In reality, yakking for 2.5 hours is easy for a preacher. What’s tough is speaking for 20 minutes.
Twenty minutes only allows one, crystal-clear point. One dagger to the heart of a matter.
I chose love as the matter, and I chose to hit the target in fifteen minutes to allow ten minutes for questions. “Let’s delight our guests,” yes ma’am that was in my head.
Love as a topic seemed fairly natural in this church because they are lovey. The hug part, remember? So I taught on love, and I expected hugs.
Specifically, I taught on the meaning of John 13:34-35: A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. ~Jesus
Jesus giving a new command? So, is this the 11th commandment? Yes it is. He had a hand in writing the first ten, so giving us a new one is well within his range. So, we have 11 Commandments to memorize? Not exactly.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all remembered Jesus reducing the Ten Commandments to two (see Matt 22): Love God, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. The second one makes you (or me) the measure of how we love others. In the new commandment, Jesus makes himself the measure, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
Jesus changed the game. He moved the standard from neighborly to sacrificial. Sacrificial love is tough. It costs me something. It’s painful because I have to share your pain, and you may reject me. I have to listen to your junk and try to understand, and I have to love people in spite of their sin, corruption and my eager desire to judge them and smugly think I’m better, which I’m not. I’m just not. I can’t do sacrificial love, the new standard is too high.
And that’s exactly why Jesus raised the bar. He raised it to a level we cannot hit — a level where we need him to give us a boost.
In later chapters, Jesus tells us we can do nothing without him (John 15:5). He adds that the world will misunderstand and hate us for being so loving. Then he tells us how to do it all. He says that he will send the Holy Spirit to help us. Help us what? Help us love each other as he loved us.
Next time you meet a mean, judgmental Christian, tell her to read the new commandment. Then smile, try to give her a hug. She probably needs it.
Filed under: Spiritual Grounding
This morning I met with one of Ben Breedlove’s former teachers. He’s the kid that made the viral video–the one featured on national news, Today Show, all that. His video is stunning. His funeral was yesterday.
My daughter knew Ben’s sister, and I know a lot of the same people that know his family. I wish I’d known him. I like meeting very strong, brave people that change the world in highly specific ways.
The lady I met with today (Natalie) is a highly specific, world changer. She works with Africa New Life. Ben’s family has asked that all memorial fund donations be sent to ANL and not American Heart Assoc. or any of the usual places one sends a donation when a high school kid dies.
Natalie told me Ben never got to go to Africa. His physical heart couldn’t handle the strain. (I bet you a dollar that he’s on a guided safari with the Owner right now. Ben in his white suit, holding a cold Tusker. But that’s just my runaway imagination at work.) His spiritual heart evidently saw a bit more than most of us get to see.
Anyway, because Ben’s family “wants kids to be cared for by Christians” and they “want people to know Jesus,” they asked his admirers to give to Africa New Life.
I’m in.
Over 1.3 million people have seen Ben’s 7 minute video. You can watch it on YouTube.
I expect I’ll have more to say all this toward the end of January. This is only the beginning of a colossal story…
Happy New Year
Filed under: Career Success, Giving Back/Community Impact, Life Choices, Spiritual Grounding
A friend sent me this article on the key to happiness at work. I think it’s worth the five minutes it takes to read, but here’s a summary in case your food is coming. “To be happy, accept life as it is.”
It’s really not a bad article and I agree with many of the author’s ideas, and also those of the author she quotes (there are a lot of threads in this little garment). What I don’t like is the reliance on Eastern mysticism that claims happiness is found at the end of a road that’s moved a long way from caring.
Acceptance sounds great unless you unpack it. Where does all that acceptance lead?
“Accept the world as it is, and go about your day,” says that to be happy, one should distance himself or herself from the realities of the world. Let go of caring and embrace the junk. The writer calls the junk lemons, but he doesn’t mean lemons. He means junk. See the junk? Accept it. Stop caring and happiness is yours.
But wait, doesn’t caring lead to loving and isn’t love all about caring deeply? If God is distant from the cares of the world, then God does not love…me….or you! Taken to its logical conclusion, this author’s idea warns us off from loving anyone. That makes me unhappy, and I am sure you agree.
Moreover, what would change if no one cared? Nothing would change. We’d still be afraid of our children getting polio.
I wonder how that “accept what you see” idea sells in places like the Mathare slum in Nairobi? For that matter, how’s it sell to that burger cashier who is thinking it’s worth her time stay in school and to persevere toward her dream of advancing in the world? Should she just accept her $10 per hour and leave it at that or do you hope she achieves more? Yeah, me too.
Perhaps a better way to be happy is to look for what needs changing and realize that God is with us in the struggle? Most of what needs changing starts with me. And most of me that needs changing is my attitude! (Haven’t we heard this somewhere before?)
Filed under: Career Success, Giving Back/Community Impact, Life Choices, Relationships, Spiritual Grounding, Wellness
Filed under: Giving Back/Community Impact, Networking, Spiritual Grounding, Wellness
Does it really pay to give back more than one receives? Really? Or is that just something your mom told you so you’d share with your sister (not that it worked)?
I mean, let’s think this through. If the world is governed by some vague universal law that only the fit survive, then a good taker would survive over a good giver, wouldn’t she? Maybe it works if you give to get? So the winners are the ones that give a little back scratch so that they can get a big back rub in return. No, that only works on Wall Street or Hollywood Blvd.
One of my favorite sayings belongs to John Adams: “Facts are stubborn things.” The facts say that it’s far more likely for you to get more of what you want out of life if you give to others. Despite the paradox, the most productive (and most promoted) winners give more than they receive and receive as a result of their giving attitudes.
Former Harvard University professor Shawn Achor discovered the link between happiness and giving back to others. For several years he taught the most popular course at Harvard and wrote an article and started a company to expand his happiness research.
He isn’t the first to make a living off of the happiness formula. Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich) spent time learning from one of the most successful men of his day, Andrew Carnegie (yes, he is the Carnegie Hall in NYC guy, which is a very cool place to see a concert). Two of the most successful people of the last century thought that one got ahead by giving. This is not a popular notion today as evidenced by the covers of three dozen magazines at which I just glanced (I’m at Barnes & Noble).
Evidently, it is better to take and sue and strive and wrangle and fight and force oneself ahead. Sure divorces and legal hassles and all sorts of rough stuff will follow all that ahead-getting behavior; employees will hate you, children won’t come home for holidays, and little old ladies will refuse your arm to cross a street, but you’ll get ahead. Or, will you?
Maybe those magazines perpetrate a mythology that does not bear up under stubborn facts. Maybe some magazine editors need us to believe their stories offer paths to success even though they’re actually sensationalized blips and oddities. Believe it or not, dear reader, there was a day when persons with dysfunctional relationships were not celebrated as normal–a day before Us, People, Springer, and TMZ. Today, entertainment media need to pump up something that sells paper and commercial space in this digital age. They need to invent a sensational myth that You. Will. Obey.
If there’s a myth people will buy, you’ll find it on the cover of a magazine, right? Myths like, you can be skinny, happy, and filthy rich by living like Rihanna (‘scuse the bruises), Lindsey (‘scuse the cuffs), Gaga (‘scuse the egg), or Simon (‘scuse the snarky egoism). Can’t argue with success, right? Maybe the facts will help. Stubborn facts.
Smart people like facts, and I think that you are smart enough to see through the fog. I think that at a deeper level you know that life is more about helping others than it is about using others to get ahead. You know that when you lift others, you stand taller, but when you push someone down, you lower yourself in the process.
It turns out that giving back gets you more…at work. Research shows that the most giving people–the work altruists–were more engaged at work, more productive, promoted six times more often, and were generally happier all the way round (read more).
You want to be happier. That’s not a question, of course you want to be happier, who doesn’t? Here’s how: get into that upper tier of people that support others. Most of us are already there for our friends. To climb the happiness ladder, call your parents and support them with love and encouragement (that’s all it takes). To climb higher, instead of pushing buttons on your cell phone during a work break, invite new team members to join you and talk about their lives. Better, invite them to attend Community Impact and Get Fit! events with you.
By including new people, you support them, and help them become more productive, but here’s the amazing truth: you become happier. Even if they turn you down, the act of inviting and supporting others makes the inviter a happier person.
The facts today bear out what Jesus said 2,000 years ago. It is more blessed to give than to receive (Luke 6:38, Acts 20:35). Giving back makes you more engaged, more productive, more likely to be promoted, and happier.
Waking up early has good and bad points. You get stuff done, that’s pretty good. You learn to fight tiredness, not so good. I’m so used to waking the dawn that when I get a chance to catch extra winks, I awaken the dawn anyway.
On a 30 Day Challenge, “wake up the sun, get stuff done” is great. Maybe that’s why all the spiritual giants started their days early and with God in prayer, Bible reading, and meditation. All of them. Early.
