Book Review - King of Torts - John Grisham

Oh, the temptations of materialism.
A young lawyer stumbles into a few incredibly lucrative class action lawsuits.  Initially, he is both awed and disgusted by the flagrant waste, luxury, arrogance, and greed of the other class-action lawyers.  But rather quickly he is sucked into their way of life - including a private jet and a vacation home in the Caribbean.  However, a few bad decisions and a little bad luck lead to the total unraveling of his little empire.
On the surface, King of Torts is just a quick read about the follies of the superrich and the easy-come-easy-go nature of wealth.  Dig deeper, though, and open your own heart a little, and Grisham's scalpel begins to probe our own hearts as well.
How often do our own desires increase in proportion to our increasing income?  For those of us who have experienced financial growth or increasing income, we know the experience of buying luxuries we thought were frivolous when we had less money.  We may have even looked down on those who "wasted" their money on such things.
Materialism doesn't always have price tags in the millions.  It doesn't even have to be double digits.  The little stuff can be just as materialistic as the big stuff, and we can just as easily get sucked in to consuming more and more, with more and more recklessness.
The other little moral of this story is patience and prudence.  Slow and steady discipline usually wins the race over the big all-or-nothing gambles.  Just spend a little less and save a little more, and you'll be amazed at the financial security that slowly develops in your life.
I love it when entertaining fiction also speaks truth into my life.  Well done again, Mr. Grisham.

How Do You Know If God Is Saying, "Yes," "No," or "Wait"? (Talk Back Series)

Talk Back Question:  I believe that God answers all prayers, and no prayer is left unanswered and unheard.  However, how do we know God's answer - if it's a Yes, No, or Wait?
[This question can in on a Talk Back card at our church. Answered by Matt Banner and Josh Broward.]

It sounds like you already have a strong faith in God, and a true belief that God hears and answers our prayers. But all Christians struggle with this question of how to discern God’s voice and how to know what God is saying.

It would be really easy if God just spoke to us in loud, booming voice and told us what was going to happen. But, unfortunately, that has never happened for me. It takes, time, patience and maturity to learn how to discern God’s voice. But Jeremiah 29:12-13 says "Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart." First, we must make sure that we are seeking God and praying to Him sincerely.

Next, we must be sure that we are praying for God’s will and for things that are part of God’s guidance in our lives. It’s okay to ask for jewelry or a new wallet, but these are things that we are asking for in our own selfish way and not things that are for the glory of God. John 14:13 says “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.” This is not simply invoking Jesus’ name to get what we want, but instead, it says we should ask for things in the same way that Christ would ask and in the same spirit that Christ would pray.

Thankfully, there are many guides to help us figure out how God is answering us.

1. Scripture ~ The Bible is the inspired Word of God and often when we read the Scripture, we will remember or read something that helps us know the answer.
2. The Holy Spirit speaking to our heart ~ Sometimes, we can feel God’s Spirit in our lives and in our prayers.
3. Godly Counsel ~ Talking with people you know and trust in the church can help you see where God is leading
4. The peace of God ~ Sometimes, when you are really struggling with an issue or decision, your heart will become calm and peaceful, and you know what to do or where God is leading.
5. Circumstance/Timing ~ The actions and events around us can confirm what God is saying and sometimes those circumstances are the answer.

God sometimes speaks to us using two or more of these ways. It is important to seek out God’s answer as much as possible.  But we must also be aware that we are imperfect beings and we will make mistakes.  If we sincerely seek God and pray to God, then we can discern God’s voice.  

But sometimes, the only way to know the difference between "No" and "Wait" is to ... wait.  Sometimes, "No" and "No for now" sound exactly the same and require the same basic response from us.  We just have to release the issue to God and allow him to make his plan clear over time.

Retro Poem #2: Initiator

Because you chose me,
   I choose you.
Because you first loved me,
   I now love you.
Because you have always been faithful to me,
   I want to be faithful to you.
Because you rejoice in me,
   I rejoice in you.
Because you long for me,
   I long for you.
Because you will not turn from me,
   I will not turn from you.
Because you remain in me,
   I remain in you.
Because you are patient with me,
   I will be patient with you.
Because you will not force your will on me,
   I will not force my will will on you.
Because you suffer with me,
   I suffer with you.
Because you initiate,
   I respond.

(Written in 2001)

Dangerous Dreams - Genesis 37

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.


Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.
   
  In this poem, Langston Hughes portrays dreams as essential to a good and satisfying life.  But what happens when the dream itself is disruptive?  What happens when dreams collide?  What happens when the dream seems so impossible that it causes more pain than hope?
    Langston Hughes understood something of the pain of dreams since he wrote as an African American in the beginning of the 20th century in New York.  Langston Hughes would have resonated with the Joseph story.
    Last week Matt talked about God’s promise to Abraham to give him a son.  God worked a miracle, and Abraham’s wife Sarah gave birth to Isaac.  Isaac had two sons – Jacob and Esau.  After Jacob got himself two wives and two concubines, he had collected 10 sons, by three different women, but none with Rachel – his first love. 
Finally, when it seemed like all hope was lost for Rachel, she became pregnant and gave birth to Joseph.  Joseph became the golden boy, the child of his most loved wife, the child of his old age.  Let’s read the story in Genesis 37.

 1 So Jacob settled again in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived as a foreigner.  2 This is the account of Jacob and his family. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he often tended his father’s flocks. He worked for his half brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. But Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things his brothers were doing.
3 Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph—a beautiful robe.  4 But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn’t say a kind word to him.
 5 One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever. 6 “Listen to this dream,” he said. 7 “We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!”

Time Lapse Theology (Isaiah 40:1-11)

    That was called “Cheonan By Night,” and it is a time lapse video by our own Andy Phelps.  One of the things I love about this video is the contrast of stability and change.  If we could expand the length of this video to 24 hours, we would see even more change.  The ebb and flow of people and traffic and light would change. 
    If we could expand the video to a month, we could see more coats and scarves emerging.  We could see the huge Christmas tree being installed.
    If we could expand the time frame to a year, we would see the streets packed for a few frames with the Cheonan Dance Festival.  We would see the changing of the seasons.  We would also see Yaoori change to ShinSeGye
    If we could expand the time frame to ten years, we would see the art plaza remodeled and the addition of the flower spear.  We would see the renovation of the river, construction projects, changing fashions, and businesses moving in and out.
    If we could expand the time frame to one hundred years in the same location, we would see Cheonan arise out of the rice fields and pine forests.  We would see North Korean tanks roll in during the Battle of Cheonan.  Even earlier, we might see occupying Japanese soldiers and cars replacing horse drawn carts.
    If we could expand it to one thousand years, what would we see?  Maybe kings on their way to the OnYang springs.  Maybe invasions by the Mongols or the Manchu. 

Love in a Fearful Land - Review

Here's another Nouwen book.   It's fairly short with a generous dose of photographs, so I finished it on the bus ride before the retreat officially began.
Love in a Fearful Land is the story of two Catholic priests in Guatemala.  Father Stanley Rother a missionary priest from Oklahoma City was assigned to a poor Mayan village in the mountains of Guatemala.  He learned their language and served with steady integrity and compassion for 12 years.  He invested his life in helping the people understand God and become more self-reliant and healthy.  Eventually, this nonpolitical commitment to serve his community was viewed as political resistance to the corrupt and oppressive Guatemalan military regime.  (For more on the political situation in Latin America in the 1970's and 1980's see yesterday's post.)  After being threatened in a variety of ways, he was finally killed in his bedroom in 1981.
Three years later Father John Vesey felt called to replace Stan as the priest of this little town - despite all the risks.  Vesey asked his good friend Henri Nouwen to come and pray for him as he adapted to his new assignment.  When Nouwen was leaving, he asked how he could help.  This book is the result.
What I learned from this book is pretty similar to what I learned from Gracias!.  Sometimes doing even simple and obviously good things leads to conflict and persecution.  Once again, I felt grateful to be in a place where there is no threat of physical persecution.  And once again, I felt encouraged to persevere with humility and patience.
In this book, Nouwen is not at his best, but as he explains, he is coming off a drought of a year and a half of writers' block.  Also, this is not his standard topic.  However, even in the midst of the martyrdom and difficulty, this book is a glowing depiction of simple love in Jesus' way.  By telling the story, Nouwen calls us to the same simple and persistent love for all - no matter the cost.
The Josh rating: JJJ.

Gracias! - Review

Last week I took a spiritual retreat up to the mountains of northeastern South Korea (just below the border).  While there, I picked up a Nouwen book out of the monastery library.  Nouwen has been my most common spiritual director on retreats down through the years.
Gracias! did not disappoint.  It was full of profound cultural and spiritual insights which I needed to hear.
Gracias! tells the story of Nouwen's six month sojourn in Bolivia and Peru in the early 1980s while he was attempting to discern whether he was called to serve in Latin America.  If you think back about your world history, Latin America was a mess in the 70s and 80s.  For hundreds of years Latin America was ruled by European colonialists and their grandchildren.  Native Americans and people of mixed ethnicity were poor, uneducated, and deeply oppressed.  The fair skinned ruling class wanted to keep them that way, but around mid-century, the poor slowly decided that they didn't want to stay poor.
The Catholic Church - by far the largest religious group in Latin America - took a "preferential option for the poor" and assisted them in developing their lives through education, health care, better farming, better saving, social organization, healthier diets, etc.  Gustavo Guiterrez was developing and teaching his now famous - Liberation Theology - at this time.  As the poor gained knowledge of their human rights and hope that enabled them to shed fatalism, they began to push for reforms.  As the reformers were first ignored, then punished, then brutally persecuted, reform slowly merged into revolution.
And - given the power dynamics of wealthy nations, USA vs USSR, democracy vs communism - all of these issues in Latin America were set in the light of communism versus everything else.  80-90% of Latin America was poor at that time, and anyone who sided with them or helped them risked being labeled as communist, leftist, destabilizing, disruptive problem-makers.  The result was mass persecution of the Catholic Church whenever and wherever it openly assisted the poor.  People began to disappear.  The martyrs began to be counted by the dozens, then hundreds, then thousands and tens of thousands.
It is in this milieu, Nouwen was considering a life among the poor in Latin America.  A brave question and a brave sojourn.
I learned or relearned three important lessons through Nouwen's reflections.  Some of the most meaningful parts of the book came in his reflections of Gustavo Guitierrez's lectures which Nouwen attended several times.
1. Reform takes time.  I consider myself a reformer, a progressive, someone who is participating in the larger reform of the Church of our time.  I deeply want us to return to our Biblical and Christlike roots as a church, which will - yes - include much more service to the poor, but also much more love for all our neighbors and much more intense commitment to understanding and following Jesus in every possible way and reform in our structures and styles of doing church.  I have struggled with others' resistance, apathy, and lip-service to this reform.  However, observing the Latin American struggle from the distance of space and time encouraged me - oddly.  Their struggle - far more painful than ours - persevered as was largely successful, though it is still incomplete and ongoing.  If they can persevere in the face of persecution and death, I can persevere in the face of complaints or walk-outs.  Also, some of the people in the liberation theology group advised Nouwen that this all takes a great deal of time, that progress is slow, and that it must be done at the pace of the people not the pace of the reformers.  I felt a strong call to perseverance and patience.
2. True reform is deeply spiritual.  Gutierrez lectured on the spirituality of liberation and explained that without maintaining a deep connection with God, we lose the both the heart of love and the will to persevere.  Gutierrez advocated spending time in the "useless" work of prayer and meditation.   Nouwen observed that many of the reformers around him were hostile, angry, and militaristic (at least in words and mindset if not in action).  But the "old fighters" called these young bucks to peace, to patience, to connecting deeply with the Spirit of God, and to working patiently with the people even if that means suffering with the people as the people develop their own desire to further the reformation.  I felt a call to go deeper in my own spiritual life - even if that means less time for "tasks" and "productive" things.
3. Gratitude is central.  Nouwen was deeply struck by the inherent gratitude of the Latin American people.  They view everything as the gift that it is.  Life is a gift.  Food is a gift.  Work is a gift.  Home and family are gifts.  Every good thing we have is a gift from a gracious God.  As a reformer, as someone who deeply wants our world to be better, often I can focus on what is lacking the good that we need but is not yet.  Often I can look at our world as one large bundled collection of problems and deficiencies.  This is an extremely distorted view.  Yes, our world is broken and needs healing.  But even amid our brokenness, God is at work, and God has blessed us with innumerable good gifts.  Despite the dents and the dust, these gifts retain their glorious goodness, and I am - we are - called to celebrate these many gifts at all times and in all places.

The Josh rating: JJJJ.