There is a theological term known as the noetic effect of sin. What it means is that sin doesn’t just influence and cloud our hearts; it reaches to all regions, particularly our minds. You can read about it in Romans 1:21 “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

In other words, because of sin, we are dumber than we were in our original state. And we often display it. Today, I witnessed a beautiful display of this at Siesta Key.

I was told by many that Siesta Key was the best beach in the area. So with my brother-in-law in town, we all headed down south a bit. After enjoying some sun, surf, and an inordinate amount of seaweed, I began reading a good book.

Unfortunately I was interrupted by a few couples next to us feeding seagulls. You can’t just feed one. That’s why they called that 80’s band “Flock of Seagulls.” Seagulls from all over Florida flocked to the Ritz crackers like, well, like you would expect them to flock to a free mail. We had to stop reading and use our books to protect ourselves. Fortunately we stayed dry.

There are two types of people in this world: those who feed seagulls at the beach, and those who don’t like it when people feed seagulls at the beach. If you are the former, please consider that feeding seagulls might just be a noetic effect of sin. Or I might just be a spoiled Florida native who has witnessed one too many seagull feedings. But I don’t think so.

Have you ever done something that is perhaps, stupid? Done something major without thinking? Its amazing how irrational we become when we’re obsessed with something.

Northern Colorado’s back-up punter, Mitch Cozad, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for stabbing his on-field rival, the starting punter, Rafael Mendoza. What was this dude thinking? How glamorous is the kicking job at a sub 500 non competitive, unheard of, college like N. Colorado? Perhaps a springboard to the NFL, or CFL, or NFL Europe?

Jim Rome pondered the question: “Mitch, how did you think it would ‘go down’ after you stabbed him?” What did he think would happen after he stabbed the guy?

Even worse, he was engaged. I don’t know when he got engaged, but the incident happened nearly a year ago. Engagement might not have been the best idea for either party.

I’ve learned over the years, mostly by mistake, that seeking counsel on major decisions in life limits the irrationality that ALL of us in some way possess. From things like whether or not to stab a rival punter, to marriage and divorce, to jobs, to where to go to church or college, counsel can really make a difference. Joan Rivers used to say, “Can we talk?” Not a bad idea to limit our irrationality, even if you don’t have any stabbings on the brain.

If you want more info on this bizarre story, click here.

Last night we had our weekly college bible study. At some level, I was incredibly thankful. We actually had 9 folks there! We had 2 the previous week which led us to watch Space Balls instead.

However the lesson was pretty much a complete bust. Discussion was nill. Most of it was simply my fault-I was unprepared because I had spent 3 hours helping a young lad get ready for ordination exams when I needed to prepare. I thought preparation from the previous week would be sufficient. It wasn’t. Not even close.

The subject matter, legalism, should have been more dynamic. But it just wasn’t. Perhaps the makers of the study should be faulted, but probably not. I should have just changed the questions.

There were times in the study when I just wanted to pause time. Pause time and leave. Not dig my head in the ground and eat worms. Just leave. The largest and last meeting of the summer, and it was just hard. I was frustrated for a number of reasons and I’m sure it showed.

Some nights you “just don’t have it.” Things flop. You can be over-prepared or under-prepared.
Sometimes there are clear mistakes you can learn from. At least I learned that preparation from a previous week does absolutely no good the next week.

Yet there is a sense of freedom that can only be experienced in failure. We’re free to flop. We can mess up. We can take steps of faith and mess up. And that’s alright. My security can’t lie in the fact we got 9 college kids to come. My security can only rest in the unchanging truth that I’m still a child of God. And who knows, maybe I wouldn’t have treasured that truth as much if I didn’t flop last night? So I guess I really shouldn’t be afraid to flop. You neither.

Sunday was a sad day. It marked the conclusion to the series of shows about the family Chondrichthyes, the cartilagenous fishes, or sharks to the layman. But “Shark Week” shall return one day next year, and we shall all be better for it-though perhaps a little more fearful of the water.

One of the shows was a special on Tiger Shark attacks. One woman, Marty Morelle, swimming in front of her house, was thrashed and shaken viciously by a marauding Tiger Shark. The story centered around her death, and how her demise sparked a mass killing of Tiger Sharks. But eventually shark studies increased, and it was determined that one shark attacking a beach goer on one beach could be 40 miles away the next day. So the scientists and Hawaian powers-that-be denounced the need and efficacy of senseless shark killings (several swimmers were killed soon after Marty, proving that this only harms the eco-system and doesn’t prevent further attacks).

The decision to save large sharks is somewhat comforting, I guess, because large sharks eat smaller sharks. Smaller sharks eat fish. Too many smaller sharks will lead to too few fish. And that’s obviously bad.

But I found the conclusion of the show even more comforting. The husband had struggled dealing with the loss of his wife. But he could find refuge in God’s ultimate plan of working everything out for the good of those who love Him. Yes, that is exactly how the show concluded. He read the verses from Romans 8, and then the show ended.

Kudos to the Discovery Channel for ending the show like that. They didn’t have to. Their normally atheistic worldview or liberal and aloof God “came alive” that day through His word. His word that comforts His children even in the mess of tragedy.

I thought this conclusion was also quite fitting. Even though the shark ate most of her body, she will one day be getting another one. And her husband knew it.

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.