This morning I watched a segment on one of the morning shows featuring bridge phobias. There are people scared of driving over bridges. One woman has a business where she simply drives people over a specific bridge (5 miles long). She averages about 11 folks per day. Crazy.

One man, who was a Vietnam vet, had been scared to drive over bridges for years. Eventually with the help of a cognitive-behavioral psychologist, he is now a bridge-phobialess driver. She drove him, drove with him, behind him, until he could drive by himself.

The problem, the psychologist pointed out, is that phobia’s are irrational. They don’t make sense and they are incredibly debilitating. People cannot simply stop being scared of certain things by an outside command or simple explanation. For some it takes repetitive events with a ‘coach’ alongside them to make any progress.

A simple command, “Do not fear” does not work for a phobia, and it doesn’t work to move a Christian forward to face any fear or phobia in his life (making new relationships, evangelism, taking any risks). However God’s command to His people in Isaiah 41 “Do not fear…for I am with you” brings to mind the ‘missing link’ in the equation. Jesus’ coming leaves no doubt that God is with us (Emmanuel).

So he is more than the psychologist. He issues the command, has proven that it is true and our phobia’s are false, and still promises to be with us every step of the way. One step at a time. Fear is debilitating, but faith is more powerful. And God gives us that faith, but sometimes I think he won’t give it to us, until we get on the bridge.

A few days ago someone called me to tell me he was engaged. I was excited for him and his good news. But about 15 minutes after we chatted, I felt even more excited. Not so much because his joy had infiltrated my joy (it also happened to be my birthday!), but because he had chosen to call me personally and share the good news with me.

It made me feel honored that I was part of his ‘engagement calling circle.’ Friendships and deeper relationships are things worth starting and cultivating. For some folks it comes quite easy, while for others it is painstaking. But deeper relationships among family and friends make life a lot more enjoyable.

I think the dude from Ecclesiastes stumbled upon this point:

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!

I once took-now brace yourselves, but this is true-etiquette class in high school. One of the things which I distinctly remember about the class was the marriage of the salt and pepper shakers. At this time I apologize if you were expecting words of wisdom from 80’s rap diva’s Salt N Pepa, I know my title and picture were a bit misleading. When someone asks you to pass the salt, you always pass the salt and pepper shakers together. They are married, and should not be separated.

It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, but sometimes, I actually ‘follow the rules,’ and pass both of them together. But salt can exist fine without pepper. While they may be ‘married’ in some etiquette perfect world (perhaps like Plato’s world of Forms), they really don’t necessarily ‘go’ together.

Unfortunately many people operate with the same thinking in regards to going to church. Being a Christian and actually going to (and yes even committing to one and serving) church, actually have no necessary connection. You can be a Christian and not go to church at all, go once a month, once a year. The two go together like Salt and Pepper: its nice to keep the two entities together in their marriage, but certainly it is not necessary. Just do it when you can, I guess.

But Jesus and His Church are married; and it is a marriage stronger than salt and pepper.
Christians need to abandon the salt and pepper shaker model of church attendance/ commitment, and actually believe that Christ and His Church (each local body is a manifestation of The Church) are indeed married.

When I was in college, I got along very well with my roommate. We really had only one instant where we talked about going to the “Roommate Zone” (like a talk show where people dealt with roommate problems at Furman).

I had a 6 CD changer, with of course, 6 of MY CD’s. My roommate listened to bad music, and so I didn’t give him a ‘spot.’ The CD player would play only MY music, and MY music only. One day he mustered up enough chutzpah, with the aid of some fellow hallmates, and demanded he get 1 CD in the player. How dare he! How dare them!

I was angry, but finally caved. He got his one ‘booty’ (R&B) CD. Looking back it was pretty selfish of me. Actually VERY selfish of me, and I’m somewhat embarrassed.

I wish people in churches today could ‘share spots’ in the CD ‘players.’ I think that more often than not, folks want THEIR music ONLY in church. But sometimes, when there is a diversity in worship styles in a single service, we are given the opportunity to ‘share spots.’ We get some songs we like, we get some songs we don’t like. But ‘sharing spots’ is expressing love. We will not get ALL of our songs, but we will get some. And others will get some too.

A husband decides to woo his wife, so he takes her out to dinner and gives her a list of the things he loves about her. “All those things are true. Do you see that?” The wife nods. “Well then, you know I love you.” The wife doesn’t swoon. “But everything on this list is true! If you believe the items on this list, then you should be able to accept that I love you!”

This excerpt is from Donald Miller’s Searching for God knows What, which I finished reading a few months ago. But I was reminded of this quote when reading an article about him in “Christianity Today.”

In Searching, Miller critiques formulaic methods on how to become or grow as a Christian. The problem is presented in the above husband-wife interchange. People can just assent to or agree that certain things are in fact true; but this does not lead to love. It just leads to people stating true things about God. I think the Pharisees did that a good bit, and Jesus ‘wasn’t having none of it.’

But we are given the command to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
This does not mean that we reject propositional truth like “Jesus rose from the grave and accomplished salvation for all those who trust in Him.” But rather we read these truths like they were on the next page of a great book. A book, a story, that the Author has included us in.

And so we read the truth like this: “Jesus rose from the grave and accomplished salvation for all those who trust in Him!” These aren’t boring truths that are merely factual, but they are truths woven into the narrative of redemption, and every bit as evocative (emotion) as provocative (thought). The end result of knowing more truth about God is a greater love for Him. Otherwise we just become like the husband in the parable.

There are few weeks that I could classify as “my favorite” weeks of the year. Certainly the week before Christmas is up there, but so is the Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week.” Last night I watched an actual ‘new show’ (many years they just run the same shows, but weirdo’s like me still watch them again) on the tragedy of the USS Indianapolis.

Sunk by a Japanese sub in the Fillipines near the end of WWII, the Indianapolis carried a crew of nearly 1200 people. 300 people went down with the ship, while the rest of the crew floundered in the water 5 days until rescue. Unfortunately there were less than 300 survivors when all was said and done. The wounded were eaten by sharks while exposure to the elements and lack of water killed the rest.

Can you imagine how scary it would be floating in the open ocean? The uncertainty of living through the night with sharks feeding on the dead and wounded, and perhaps coming for you? I can think of no greater nightmare than this. No greater uncertainty than this. How do you think you would respond?

Before he died, the priest comforted and strengthened morale with his prayers. Many others went insane, beat each other, and even kicked a shark attack victim off their raft. But one thing that struck me from the special last night was that people who “weren’t religious, began to talk and ask me questions about God.” Some people ‘found God’ out there on the water.

Everyday life is really no less precarious. Regardless of how secure we feel, tomorrow is never certain. Our certainty and confidence of ultimate rescue, no matter how bleak or how mundane (every day is a gift), is ultimately found in Christ.

I’m reminded of this Heidelberg Catechism Q and A.

1 Q. What is your only comfort in life and in death?

A. That I am not my Own,but belong body and soul, in life and in death-

to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood,

and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil.

He also watches over me in such a way

that not a hair can fall from my head

without the will of my Father in heaven:

in fact, all things must work together for my salvation.

Because I belong to him,Christ, by his Holy Spirit,

assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and

ready from now on to live for him.

I hope this is what I would think of if I were floating out on the open ocean. But I hope that I think of it even now, while I’m not.

I must admit that I have never read any of the Harry Potter books or seen any of the movies. And I know that puts me into the 1 percentile category of people breathing on the planet. But I was watching the interview with JK Rowling on “Good Morning America” or “The Today Show” and was intrigued by this panel of young lads and lasses asking her questions about her novels.

Meredith Viera mentioned something to Rowling about several characters dying off in her books. And then she asked Rowling if she ever thought about killing off Harry. How she responded was very interesting and quite telling. She said something to the effect of, “I thought about it a bit, but realized how many people would be utterly devastated.”

And she’s right. How many folks would be utterly devastated if their young hero were to be ‘no more?’ What power this woman has! Money gives people power. But so do words. She has both so I guess that makes her the most powerful person in England.

She can ruin someone’s day (although, I’d say week or two) by killing off a beloved character or make someone’s day by killing of a ‘bad’ guy. What power.

Unfortunately we have just as much power, if not more, with the spoken word to ruin people’s days, weeks, and years. But the spoken word of encouragement can be just as powerful for good, even if it is just a few ‘pages’ of spoken words. So in some ways, without the luxury of a 700 page, billion dollar book, we’re just as powerful as Rowling. So let us take caution and be reminded of Spiderman’s maxim “with great privilege comes great responsibility.”

Sometimes people need a cup of coffee to wake up in the morning. Other times it takes something traumatic, like a frog in the toilet. As I was getting the coffee ready, Amy interrupted my routine with the claim of a giant frog in the toilet.

So I calmly surveyed the situation, and she was in fact correct: it was a frog in the toilet (I don’t think her contacts were in because she thought it was something that usually belongs there at first). Then I grabbed some disposable gloves, a bucket, and a bit of courage, and made my way to the frog’s newly found residence.

As I reached in there to coax him into jumping nicely into my bucket, his springy legs propelled him onto the shower wall. Then to the mirror, and then onto my chest hair. My chest hair proved to be only a short stay as I, with gloved hands, pushed him into the bucket and tried to cover up as much surface area as I could with one hand.

I yelled for Amy to open the front door, and I threw him out. He landed softly onto the wall outside, and I headed quickly to the shower. My chest hair needed a good washing, since the frog had spent the night in our toilet. Not the best place to lay your head, or whatever it is that they lay.

I really didn’t need any coffee this morning, except to keep me from getting a caffeine headache.
And we learned a valuable lesson: look before lifting.

You may have heard of the referee-gambling situation in the NBA. The man who is now wanted by the Feds (and the mob), happens to have a house in Lakewood Ranch. Apparently, allegedly, Tom Donaghy has been involved in tampering with games during his tenure in the NBA. But even stranger than that, I played basketball with this man at the ghetto YMCA when I first moved here.

Now I have played basketball at Furman University with an NFL safety, linebacker, WNBA star, but playing with an NBA ref wanted for fixing games and scores was obviously a first. However, I didn’t notice any ‘fishy’ activity at the time. But looking back upon those games, who knows if they were really ‘legit?’ I mean, how do I know he was really giving his all (he probably was-he was a tough player who didn’t like to lose)? But why was he playing so tough? Had he bet on himself? Since pick up basketball games are self regulated, and players become the ref’s, I’ll always wonder on the legitimacy of my wins and losses (mostly losses).

This could cast a dark cloud over pick up games of all sorts, from ultimate frisbee, church league softball, all the way down to jumping rope and tetherball (which is already deemed a ‘dirty’ sport by some these days). Who knows if the mob has infiltrated our ranks? We won’t. And that’s a thought-not a scary thought, or even an educated one; just a thought.

For the Christian Ed hour this past Sunday, one of our college students led a discussion on the Harry Potter series. The idea was to discuss “Christian” themes present in the book. Regardless of whether not she intended any such “themes” or pictures (and I’m sure she didn’t), any piece of good literature will inevitably illustrate the main ‘themes’ of the Christian story: Creation, Fall, Redemption, Consummation. Whether we realize it or not, we are all somehow affected by the elements of this larger Christian story. And because of that, every good story will somehow display at least one or more of these themes. On the same note, not every book is the bible. To be specific, only one is. So it is profitable to critique a book such as Harry Potter as well, and consider some of the negatives. Then we won’t be oysters and suck in everything, or isolationists, and have NO impact on our neighbors (whom by the way we’re called to love). By the way, where was mine on Sunday, instead of at church? Reading the latest Harry Potter book.