Fatal Silence

"Elijah went before the people and said, "how long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.

"But the people said nothing."

1 Kings 18:21

"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'Iam rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked."

Revelation 3:15-17


Our silence is often deafening and our silence may cost us our lives.

It is not so much the silence from our mouths, but the silence in our lives. Like the Israelites before the epic battle between Elijah and the prophets of Baal, we would rather wait and see how things play out. If the whole God-thing does quite work out the way we hoped for, at least we will still have the old group of friends to go back to, or a good savings account (or retirement plan) to fall back on, or a good job, or my family... or myself.

With our mouths we profess God as Lord of our lives, but we always seem to have a plan B in our back pocket. We have gods that we are unwilling to part with until we see proof that God is enough. With our mouths we say we will give up everything to follow Christ, but we are quick to add our doubts that Jesus would ever really call us to sacrifice, to let go of gods that have held our focus for so long - surely that is for someone else.

Surely He would not ask me to quit my job, or live on less, or give more than what Dave Ramsey would have me give.
Surely He wouldn't ask me to live in poverty, or in a third world country, or in a different house (especially a smaller house), or away from my family, or in an undesirable neighborhood.
Surely He wouldn't ask me to give up my vacation, or my weekend or my boat, or my car, or my tv, or my smartphone.
Surely he wouldn't want me to take foolish risks with my safety and comfort and security...

And to ourselves we think that these are not gods, and yet we have no intention of letting them go.

The more we assume that we would would never be asked to sacrifice, the more our silent choice rings in the ears of God. We can deny their godship in our lives all we want, but perhaps our inability to let them go is a contradiction. Our empty words of devotion fall from our mouths and collect in a useless pile of rubble - fool's gold for the ignorant who believe that mere words are proof enough.

He knows our deeds and hears our silence.

Searching for a Leader in Education

Our school district is beginning the search for a new superintendent of schools. To gather input, the school board sent our a survey to all staff in the district. I thought I would include one of my responses (slightly modified for this format):

The world of education has become obsessed with collecting, compiling, analyzing, and meeting about data. Kids have become numbers and data points and we have come to see them as “in” or “out” – above the line or below it. We talk about dealing with the whole child but almost every meeting, every initiative, every discussion and every “new” idea is wrapped in data and student scores. I know data is quite fashionable in education right now, but, as happens too often, our pendulum has swung far in one direction to the near exclusion of treating the student as a person. I believe in high standards. I believe in challenging students. I also believe that another meeting, more PLC time, a different assessment tool, another data point or an additional teaching strategy is not going to change the results of a student whose life is in turmoil. I did not get into teaching because I was passionate about data, assessments and moving students from level 2 to level 3. I became a teacher because I earnestly believed that I could have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of students. I believe that is why most of us went into education, but we have lost sight of that. Our checklists and agendas distract us from what we first thought was most important about education. We give it lip service and then ignore it at every turn.

It would be refreshing to have a leader who is more consumed with understanding students than understanding numbers. Our leader, our superintendent, models, for the rest of us, what is most important. Our superintendent sets agendas and goals and dictates the focus of meetings and collaborative time. Saying that we are all about the whole student is vastly different than demonstrating that we are all about the whole student. It is more than words. I would greatly value a superintendent that understood that, embraced that and encouraged the rest of us to pursue that – above data and above the latest, greatest trend. I desire a courageous leader that will make a stand for the best interest of students and parents, even if that means less stuff to put on a resume, and even if it means bucking what is popular in the world of education and even if it means standing up to teachers or the school board or other staff for the sake of what is right for the community. I would like a superintendent that puts greater weight in common sense than in a PhD. I would like a superintendent that believes staff should have personal integrity beyond the contract language and demonstrates that by the standards of integrity expected amongst staff (including coaches who, for some reason often seem to be excluded from expectations of being role models for honesty, integrity and character). 

In short, I hope for a leader who passionately believes that teaching students means more than increasing test scores - a leader who understands that educators are role models who shape lives, and, as a leader, is compelled to encourage others to live and work that way.

Pray For Us, Not Me

“This, then, is how you should pray:

“Our Father in heaven, 

hallowed by your name,

your kingdom come, 

your will be done,

   on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, 

   as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

   but deliver us from the evil one.”

Matthew 6: 9-13

I have read this prayer hundreds of times, but I have disregarded a subtle, yet important  aspect to Jesus’ instructions. It took this quote in, When the Church Was a Family, to see it:

“Before all things, the Teacher of peace and Master of unity did not wish prayer to be offered individually and privately as one would pray only for himself when he prays. We do not say: ‘My Father, who art in heaven,’ or ‘Give me this day my bread,’ nor does each one ask that only his debt be forgiven him and that he be led not into temptation and that he be delivered from evil for himself alone. Our prayer is public and common, and when we pray we pray not for one but the the whole people, because we, the whole people, are one.”

-- Cyprian of Carthage, North Africa, c. AD 250

I have had this verse memorized since I was a child. I can say the words. I understand the parts. But it has never occurred to me that this prayer is not just a prayer for me. The model prayer is not a prayer for me to pray about me, it is a prayer to pray for my family, my church family, my Christian brothers and sisters. It is incredible how easy it is for us to make the most important of things simply about us individually rather than about us as a group - us as a family. 

This seems like such a simple, subtle idea and yet the ramifications are huge. Jesus taught us to pray, not with the focus on us as individuals, but instead with the focus on us as a group, as a family. Our prayers should be focused on the benefit of the group, not on us as individuals. How easy it is to be selfish, even in our prayers, and not even realize it!

The Gospel Is Not Red, White and Blue

If you listen carefully to some of the rhetoric distributed frequently by Christians, you might be led to believe that capitalism, democracy, independence and patriotism are fundamental principles consistent with Biblical, Christian teaching. Especially amongst “conservatives” there are frequent pleas (even demands) that we express our undying, unwavering, unquestionable loyalty to our country. Independence is often applauded and encourage in the spirit of capitalism as if God himself were commanding us to “pick ourselves up” and “make it” on our own and earn our own way. Our constitution is sometimes talked about as if it is held in as high esteem (sometimes it sounds like it is held even higher) as the Bible (although those that do so have probably read as much of the constitution as they have the Bible, which isn’t much) as if that is proof of the absolute rightness of democracy. 

Unfortunately, none of those ideas seem to have any real basis in scripture as far as I can see. Capitalism, which is built on the idea of consumerism, is in direct contradiction to the more important idea in scripture that we be sacrificial givers and live humbly. By the way, our sacrificial giving is often encouraged to be directed towards the poor and disadvantaged (the Bible does not ever discern between those who are deserving of our compassion and those who are not based on their work ethic or independent spirit). Of course we would not expect the Christians of New Testament times to express patriotism to the Roman government, but neither does Jesus teach us to express loyalty to any government. In fact if patriotism were so important, it seems we would have expected Jesus to do the very thing that the Jews so much wanted him to do - establish a new theocracy with the Jews as the ruling class (I don’t remember him doing that). 

As far as independence, the New Testament church and the teaching of Paul never celebrated independence. In fact we are taught that we are completely dependent on our Creator and He wants us to be dependent on one another. That was the model of the church in Acts, which the church in America is nowhere close to. And it was the church that Jesus and the apostles were most concerned with in their teachings, not the government. Any mention of government is almost incidental, general guidelines about being obedient and to pray for our leaders. If you really looked to the Bible for an example of how a government should be run it would be a theocracy, guided by prophets (not a king). I don’t think that would go over very well today. 

So why do we “Christians” continue to promote capitalism, democracy, independence and patriotism as if they are sacred tenants of the Christian faith? It seems that we are often so blinded by our American culture that we can’t even see the truth of scripture. Then again, part of it may simply be ignorance - it is hard to see the truth of scripture if you don’t read it. Many who have the biggest audience and claim Christian faith (especially in world of politics and political commentary) really have no idea what the Bible says on any of this. They know law and loopholes, but they would be hard-pressed to explain the expectations of the One they claim to follow. If they do read the Bible, they have read it through the red, white and blue lenses of American culture and can’t see beyond their self imposed filter. Unfortunately, many others, who listen to the influential politicians and commentators, consume the propaganda with little thought, rather than reading and studying scripture for themselves (take a lesson from the Bereans).

America is not a bad country, but it is not God’s country either. Our life of privilege and wealth does not make us God’s favored nation any more than it did for Egypt or Babylonia in the Old Testament or the Roman Empire in the New Testament. If we fear the demise of our country because of a lack of military power, or economic strength, or patriotism, or the independent, capitalistic spirit, then we are demonstrating our lack of faith - not faith that God will “save” our country, but faith that whatever happens, God will be pleased when we demonstrate our loyalty to Him and Him alone. Even more, if we believe that the survival of our country is more important than the advancement of the Kingdom of God, then we have made our country an idol.