Trusting God's Sushi Bar - A Thanksgiving Post

I had to leave Asia to learn about God's sushi bar.
Let me explain.
After almost nine years in South Korea, my wife and I felt called to move back to the USA - in part so that I could pursue a PhD.  In addition to leaving behind a great church and great friends, we were also leaving a lot of stability in terms of finances and day to day life.  We traded two steady well paying full-time jobs for one steady part-time job and whatever else we could scratch together.
We expected that our small business hosting international students would flourish and provide us with significant margin again.  However, having three extra kids in our house for a few months was much more work than we expected, and we haven't been able to transition to longer term students.
The net result of that is two fold.  1) I can't even start thinking seriously about a doctoral program until we are more stable.  2) Sarah and I have scraped together a wide variety of part-time jobs to pay our bills, and, surprisingly, to regain margin one millimeter at a time.
In the past 10 months, I have earned income from at least 13 different sources, and Sarah's count is at least 5.  I have done some of the normal pastor things: my regular job at Duneland Community Church, a wedding, and a guest sermon.  I've also done some free lance writing for Northwest Indiana Times, Holiness Today, Standard, and Grace and Peace Magazine.  I have been blessed with the opportunity to teach writing as an adjunct professor at Olivet Nazarene University, and I'm 80% of the way through the approval process to teach as an adjunct at Indiana Wesleyan University.  Those are all within my normal skill set and experience base.  However, I have also done some environmental testing for a small business owner in our church, and I'm also the website administrator for the Northwest Indiana District of the Church of the Nazarene.  Both of those are out of left field.
I had to laugh when people at a pastors conference asked if I am bivocational.  I'm bi/tri/quad-vocational.  Categories don't fit what I'm doing right now.

Liberating our Families

Chan and Tin worked most of their lives in the rice fields of Thailand.  After working all year on the farm, there was barely enough money to feed the family.  They struggled year after year in desperate poverty.

One day a recruiter for a company called Global Horizons came to their village promising high paying jobs on farms in America.  In one month in America, they could earn what they make in a full year in Thailand.  It was the opportunity of a lifetime to change the lives of their children and their whole extended family.

There was just one catch.  To enter the program, they had to pay a recruitment fee of almost $15,000.  They mortgaged their farms and their houses.  They talked their relatives in to mortgaging their farms and homes.  Tin’s loans ranged up to 80% annual interest, but Chan’s loans reached 152% annual interest.

When they got to the airport, Global Horizons forced them to sign a host of new documents - including a visa renewal fee of $8,000.  When they reached America, the recruiters confiscated their passports “for safekeeping.”  This meant that they had no identification and no way to prove that they were in the USA legally.

At first, there was plenty of work and on-time pay.  After a few months though, the work began to run out and the pay started coming later and later.  Often, they sent 100% of their pay checks back to Thailand so that their families could make the payments on their loans.  That meant they often didn’t have enough to eat, so they caught wild animals for food and gathered wild vegetables from forests.  They usually lived in overcrowded housing without enough beds for each person.  Sometimes the toilet wouldn’t work for weeks at a time.  They often lacked kitchens, washing machines, and sufficient heating. To limit their contact with outsiders, their handlers told them that Americans are greatly prejudiced against Asians and that leaving their housing grounds would be very dangerous.  

Surely this couldn’t really happen in today’s world, right?  They are free people.  They could just change companies, right?  Wrong.  Global Horizons was their legal sponsor and guarantor.  If they quit, they would lose their visas and be sent home to Thailand ... and their families would lose everything.  

Sabbath Revolution (Isaiah 56 & 58)

Let’s step back in time 500 years to the year 1512.  Look up with me into the sky?  What do you see?  You see the sun moving across the sky, from east to west.  Move 12 hours forward to night time.  What do you see now?  You see the stars and planets moving across the sky, again from east to west.  What is the most stable, most durable, least movable, physical thing you know?  The earth.  It was patently obvious to everyone 500 years ago that the earth is the stable center of the universe, and the sun, the moon, and all the stars and planets revolve around the earth.  This was so obvious that there was no argument.  Just look up.  How could it be any other way?

Then, there was this pesky astronomer named Nicolaus Copernicus.  He looked up and looked up and looked up, and he just couldn’t make sense of what he was seeing.  The patterns of movement for the sun, the planets, and the stars just didn’t make sense.  Finally, just before he died in 1543, he published an “earth shattering” book called: On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres.  He argued that the whole world had been wrong.  

Even though we can look “up” and see what seems like the sun moving, it isn’t.  We’re the ones moving.  The earth and all the planets actually revolve around the sun.  It’s like when you’re sailing down a river and the trees on the bank look like they’re moving.  This started the Copernican Revolution which completely changed not only our understanding of astronomy but also our understanding of the world and our place in it.  Copernicus was one of the chief sparks of the scientific revolution that is still happening today.

But what most people don’t know is that Copernicus was not the first person to propose this theory.  Someone else beat him to it - by almost 2,000 years.  In the 3rd century BC, Aristarchus, an ancient Greek astronomer, suggested that the sun is fixed and earth is one of many planets revolving around the sun.  Almost without exception, he was shamed and condemned for promoting scientific foolishness and theological heresy.  What would have happened if people had doubted what seemed “obvious” to “everyone” to consider the possibility that the universe might work in more mysterious ways?  How would our world be different?

Let me describe another prevailing world-view.  More work = more productivity.  More activity = more happiness.  More study time = better grades.  Better grades = a better life.  More status = more satisfaction.  More success = a better life.  More stuff = a better life.  More pleasurable experiences = a better life.  Basically, quantity = quality.   Success, status, stuff, and pleasure are the keys to a good life.  And the more the better.  This is the prevailing view of our world.  It is “obvious.”  Just look up.  Just look at the stars and the rich people and the geniuses.  They’ve got it made.  It’s obvious.  

Is It Acceptable to Study on the Sabbath? (Talk Back Series)

Question: Is it acceptable to study on the Sabbath?

[This question can in on a Talk Back card at our church.]

Unless we want to be really legalistic, we can’t say that studying is NEVER allowed on the Sabbath.  But let’s think about the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20: 8-11.  God says, "Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.  You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God.  On that day no one in your household may do any work.  This includes you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, your livestock, and any foreigners living among you.  For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy."  

This passage - along with loads of others - talks about "keeping the Sabbath holy".  God created the world and everything in it in six days, but on the seventh day, he didn't work.  He rested. 

One thing we need to consider is whether or not studying is actual work.  In our sermon series on Sabbath, we have talked a lot about making sure that we don't do anything on the Sabbath that we consider to be work.  For students, school and studying is basically their job.  They work hard at it - harder in Korea than in any other developed nation.  We all need a break sometimes, and the Sabbath is the break that God knew we would need.  If students are studying on the Sabbath, are they really getting a break?  Are they really able to take time to de-stress, not worry about grades or test scores, or just have fun with their friends and family? 

In the 10 commandments, God said that not only the parents or adults who have a job are to rest from their work, but even the children, servants, animals and foreigners should observe the Sabbath.  No one was excluded from the command to rest. 

Sabbath Laws? (Nehemiah 13:15-22)

Jerusalem had been destroyed.  The best and brightest Jews had been carried off into slavery in Babylon.  The prophets said God sent Israel into exile because they neglected their covenant with God, especially the Sabbath - the sign of the covenant.  Jeremiah tried to prevent the exile.  He warned Israel: 

“If you obey me, says the LORD, and do not carry on your trade at the gates or work on the Sabbath day, and if you keep it holy, then kings and their officials will go in and out of these gates forever.  There will always be a descendant of David sitting on the throne here in Jerusalem. ... But if you ... refuse to keep the Sabbath holy, and and if on the Sabbath day you bring loads of merchandise through the gates of Jerusalem just as on other days, then I will set fire to these gates.  The fire will spread to the palaces, and no one will be able to put out the roaring flames.”  (Jeremiah 17:24, 27)

Later, while Israel was still in exile, Ezekiel explained that bad Sabbath practice lay at the root of Israel’s troubles for many generations.  Listen as God speaks through Ezekiel:

“I gave them my decrees and regulations so they could find life by keeping them.  And I gave them my Sabbath days of rest as a sign between them and me.  It was to remind them that I am the LORD, who had set them apart to be holy.  But the people of Israel rebelled against me ... They wouldn’t obey my regulations even though obedience would have given them life.  They also violated my Sabbath days  ... I swore I would scatter them among all the nations because they did not obey my regulations.  They scorned my decrees by violating my Sabbath days and longing for the idols of their ancestors.  I gave them over to worthless decrees and regulations that would not lead to life.  I let them pollute themselves with the very gifts I had given them ... so that I might devastate them and remind them that I alone am the LORD.”  (Ezekiel 20:11-26)

For the prophets, there were some clear connections here that may not be obvious to us.  First, Israel’s relationships with God was a blessings/curses covenant.  Obey the covenant, and God will bless Israel.  Disobey the covenant, and God will curse or punish Israel.  Second, keeping the Sabbath was the sign of keeping the whole covenant.  Not keeping the Sabbath was like abandoning God and God’s covenant.  So then, third, for the prophets before and during the exile, there was a clear connection between keeping the Sabbath and experiencing God’s blessings or curses.  

But exile didn’t last forever.  Eventually, Israelites started to return home.  With the leadership of godly governors like Ezra and Nehemiah, there was a great organizational, structural, moral, and religious revival in Jerusalem.  But then, Nehemiah was called back to Babylon for several years.  We don’t know who the governor of Jerusalem was at that time, but he wasn’t very good at running the city according to God’s rules.  When Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem several years later, he had to begin several reforms all over again.  Listen as Nehemiah describes with shock what he found:

But in those days, I saw men of Judah treading out their winepresses on the Sabbath.  

Sabbath Liberation (Deuteronomy 5:12-15)

       Meet Chan and Tin.  They worked most of their lives in the rice fields of Thailand.  After working all year on the farm, there was barely enough money to feed the family.  They struggled year after year in desperate poverty.

One day a recruiter for a company called Global Horizons came to their village promising high paying jobs on farms in America.  In one month in America, they could earn what they make in a full year in Thailand.  It was the opportunity of a lifetime to change the lives of their children and their whole extended family.

There was just one catch.  To enter the program, they had to pay a recruitment fee of almost $15,000.  They mortgaged their farms and their houses.  They talked their relatives in to mortgaging their farms and homes.  Tin’s loans ranged up to 80% annual interest, but Chan’s loans reached 152% annual interest.

When they got to the airport, Global Horizons forced them to sign a host of new documents - including a visa renewal fee of $8,000.  When they reached America, the recruiters confiscated their passports “for safekeeping.”  This meant that they had no identification and no way to prove that they were in the USA legally.

At first, there was plenty of work and on-time pay.  After a few months though, the work began to run out and the pay started coming later and later.  Often, they sent 100% of their pay checks back to Thailand so that their families could make the payments on their loans.  That meant they often didn’t have enough to eat, so they caught wild animals for food and gathered wild vegetables from forests.  They usually lived in overcrowded housing without enough beds for each person.  Sometimes the toilet wouldn’t work for weeks at a time.  They often lacked kitchens, washing machines, and sufficient heating. To limit their contact with outsiders, their handlers told them that Americans are greatly prejudiced against Asians and that leaving their housing grounds would be very dangerous.  

Surely this couldn’t really happen in today’s world, right?  They are free people.  They could just change companies, right?  Wrong.  Global Horizons was their legal sponsor and guarantor.  If they quit, they would lose their visas and be sent home to Thailand ... and their families would lose everything.  

Well, then, they could complain.  They could talk get help from the police, right?  Oh, you mean, the same police who arrested them as illegal aliens because they didn’t have proper identification?  They thought that if they went to the police, then they would be sent home - either by the police or by Global Horizons ... and their families would lose everything.

Well, then, surely, they could at least go on strike and protest for better working conditions, right?  Managers continually reminded them that if they complained, they would be sent home to Thailand.  Then, they would have no way to repay those huge loans ... and their families would lose everything.  The U.S. Justice department decided that Chan and Tin were “victims of human trafficking.”  They were officially, legally, modern day slaves ... in the United States of America ... in 2007.

They aren’t the only slaves.  The US government estimates that there are somewhere between 4 million and 27 million slaves in the world today - at this moment.

  This is a horrific tragedy, and the Church of the Nazarene and many other Christian and secular organizations are actively working to stop human trafficking and to protect those most vulnerable.  

However, today I ask you to consider that the problem of modern slavery is far more widespread than we have ever imagined.  I think you will begin to understand as we read our Old Testament lesson for today. 

Sabbath Series 1: Quantum Sabbath

Quantum physics is rocking the scientific world.  At first, people thought that quantum physics describes what happens on the subatomic level - how our world works in its teeny, tiniest parts.  The sheer exploration of electrons and protons was shocking enough, but in the past decade, physicists have been discovering “that quantum behavior persists on a macroscopic scale.”  

I don’t really understand most of what is going on in quantum physics, but there is one point that makes a lot of sense to me: entanglement.  This is when two or more objects are mysteriously tangled together.  According to our normal reasoning, they shouldn’t effect each other, but they do.  “Even when the entangled particles are far apart, they still behave as a single entity, leading to what Einstein famously called ‘spooky action at a distance.’”  Sometimes, things are connected even when it looks like they aren’t.  

This doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to us when we’re talking about the super-microscopic level of what happens inside atoms.  Most of us don’t understand and don’t care about that.  But what physicists are discovering is that quantum physics are everywhere in our world - working even with larger objects.  There is “spooky action” all over the place.  Things are connected even when it looks like they aren’t.

Quantum behavior is counter-intuitive.  It “eludes visualization [in graphs and charts] and common sense.  It forces us to rethink how we look at the universe and accept a new and unfamiliar picture of our world.” (Vlatko Vedral, “Living in a Quantum World,” Scientific American, June 2011)

Social scientists are beginning to apply this quantum entanglement theory to family systems, organizations, and cultures.  Psychologists are applying entanglement theory to the inner workings of our minds and hearts.  Astronomers are exploring the possibility of quantum relationships in the largest parts of our universe.  We are quantum people in a quantum world.  Things are connected even when it looks like they aren’t.  

This forces us to rethink how we look at our universe and to develop a new picture for how our lives work in the world.  Sometimes we call this quantum phenomena irony.  How many of you have heard your mom or aunt say to some single woman, “You’ll meet Mr. Right just about the time you stop looking for him”?  There is some kind of quantum connection there between finding and not looking.  

Today, we begin our series on the Sabbath, with the basic premise that there is a quantum connection between our practice of Sabbath and the rest of our week.  Even our calendars experience quantum entanglement.  Good Sabbath practice leads to good weeks and good years.  Bad Sabbath practice has a “spooky action from a distance” that drags down our moods, our health, our spirituality, and our performance in school and work.  Some things are connected even when it looks like they aren’t.  

1 : 4 : 7 - Genesis 2:1-3

             I quit.

             A few months ago, I started a sermon by restating Paul’s struggles in my own words.  Several people thought I was resigning.  Before I left for Christmas vacation, I started a sermon by claiming that I was an alcoholic and all kinds of other things. 

             But this time, I’m serious.  I quit.

             I quit because God quit.

             And you should quit, too.

             Because God quit.

             Our Old Testament Lesson for today is Genesis 2:1-3.

¹ So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. ² On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. ³ And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.

            

             The word translated “rested” here is “Sabbath,” and it literally means “ceased” or “quit.”  God quit.  On the seventh day, God quit.  On the seventh day, God quit all his work.  And his blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation. 

             God quit, so we quit. 

The Overload Syndrome - Review

I thought I was reading The Overload Syndrome for other people.
I realized I was wrong in the introduction.
People are stressed ... exhausted ... overloaded.  
"I feel like a minnow in a flash flood."
Margin is the space that once existed between our load and our limits.  Margin is the space between vitality and exhaustion.  It is our breathing room, our reserves, our leeway.  
We push the limits as far as possible.
We spend ten percent more than we have - and it no longer matters if one is talking about time, energy, or money.
Without margin, we are self-protective, painfully uninterested in an opportunity to serve our neighbor.  Without margin, we tread water and hang on by our fingernails, trying to survive an other day.  Without margin we are chronically exhausted, chronically late, chronically rushed.  Without margin, we are overloaded.
What about you?  Have you lost your joy and passion?  Do you suffer from work dread?  Are your relationships strained from stress?  Do you wish you could check into a hospital just to sleep?
Understand that you are not alone.
I am not alone.  You are not alone.  Many of us - if not most of us - are overloaded.  This book has been part of the beginning of my healing process.
You need to read this book.
The Josh rating: JJJJJ.

How Overwork Happened to Me

I have preached against overwork for years.  I've condemned others (vocally and internally) for consistent overworking.  I've prided myself in my "structural preventions" for working too much.  In our house, we have a weekly sabbath, family night, and date night.  I arrogantly believed that these protected me from the increasingly common problem of overworking.

"Pride comes before the fall" (Proverbs 16:18).

As a pastor, I expect to work 50-55 hours a week.  If we expect church members to work 40 hours a week, attend worship services, hang out with church people, and volunteer, then it's fair to expect pastors to put in about the same amount of time.  I've thought for years that my structural barriers kept me at around the 50 hour mark, and that difficult weeks wouldn't push me too far overboard.

Difficult circumstances and a new baby have forced me to reexamine my schedule.  I was shocked when I counted my hours in a normal work week.  My normal - not so difficult week - totals 57 working hours.  That put a quantifiable explanation to my feelings of fatigue, depression, overload, imbalance, and inability to catch-up at home.  No wonder I've been tired.  No wonder I can't seem to do any of the things I've been wanting to do at home.  No wonder I haven't been doing any art.  No wonder I feel stressed and anxious.  I'm chronically overloaded!

How did this happen?  After preaching against overwork and being a staunch supporter of simplicity, how did I end up a victim of one of my own greatest enemies?