Pastor Dave's Blog
Insert object of disdain here...
Posted by: Pastor Dave Lee | Thursday October 2, 2008
File under: Perspectives & Pleas
You see them everywhere. Window decals of Calvin urinating on the object of someone's disdain. I think those stickers illustrate a very interesting human tendency to create polarities and choose sides. Think Mac vs. PC, Nikon vs. Canon, Cubs vs. Sox, Ford vs. Chevy trucks (sorry Dodge truck fans), just to name a few. And while I've defintely taken my stand on one side of several of those rivalries, I have to admit that the real differences between the two things being compared can actually be quite few.
So what is it in us that makes us so passionate about our preference for one thing over another, even when they are really not that different? I mean, have you watched a Cubs fan and a Sox fan go at it lately? And even between things where there are substantive differences, such as Democrat vs. Republican, the passion with which people stick to their sides does not always seem to arise primarily from issues. I wonder how many people on either side of the political aisle could clearly and intelligently articulate their party's or their candidates stand on all the key issues of the day.
As I've reflected on why we feel so strongly about the sides we take, I think maybe some of it has to do with a deep human need to belong to, or identify with, something. That affiliation is certainly more rewarding when your side wins some sort of contest (World Series, election, etc.). But even when your side is losing, it seems important to us as humans to care passionately about something, whether that fierce loyalty makes logical sense or not. Just talk to any Cubs fan and you'll begin to understand. Sometimes our present loyalties are rooted more in our history. We love what we first knew, or what someone important to us taught us to love. We can arm ourselves with a list of reasons why, but in the end it is not so much about reasons as it is about how we see ourselves or who we want to be loyal to.
This has led me to consider how much the loyalty that I feel toward Christ and Christianity arises from a fresh and informed conviction day after day, or it is just a mindless defense of the side I've chosen. Am I a Christian simply because I was born into a Christian family and took for myself the faith of parents I deeply love and respect?
And I certainly hope that I can lift up the beauty and virtue of Christ and his way of life without having to resort to the conversational equivalent of having Calvin urinate on something or someone else's treasure.
Now, if I could just apply that same line of thinking to the way I feel about Apple computers, maybe I'd have more friends. :-)
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The Gift of Giving
Posted by: Pastor Dave Lee | Sunday December 16, 2007
File under: Perspectives & Pleas
About a week ago I received a letter from someone named Matt Dalio of the Dalio Family Foundation. He was writing to encourage me to join him in a growing movement to make Christmas gift giving more charitable.
He lamented the runaway consumerism and materialism that marks the Christmas season. He wanted to find a way to nurture the beautiful practice of gift giving while without fueling the shopping craze.
His suggestion was that we ask our friends and family to give a charitable gift in our name instead of buying something for us. He suggested going to the web site www.redefinechristmas.org to find out more.
That site points to another site called www.justgive.org that makes it so easy to give an online donation to over 1 million registered charitable organizations. I searched and found that our good friends at GRIP were registered!
It may be a bit late for this Christmas, but maybe it would be a beautiful way to promote the true spirit of Christmas next year by starting early and getting the word out. Hey, I figure that means more time at home with loved ones instead of out at the mall amidst the craziness. Sounds very appealing to me...
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We Remember What We See
Posted by: Pastor Dave Lee | Thursday October 4, 2007
File under: Perspectives & Pleas
My brother Steve always jokes that I have a terrible memory. Quite often when he hears me give a sermon illustration using a childhood memory, he’ll call or write to give me the historically correct version of the event I was describing. I’ll be the first to admit that his memory is far better than mine. He actually remembers the sounds and smells of the airport the day we landed in the United States for the first time!
It may be true that my memories are not always historically accurate. They may only be my subjective version of what happened and not the factual truth. But it strikes me that it is my perception of what happened and not just the events themselves that shape who I am. Even if the actual facts may be lost to me forever, my version of history stays with me, becomes my autobiographical reality, and continues to exert its influence over my life.
It may be cliché to say it today, but attitude matters. All memories—in fact, all history—is arguably subjective. Historical events pass through a filter of selective retention and we remember what we want and how we saw it. We like to say that the events of our lives shape who we are. I would argue that it is our attitudes about those events that shape who we are.
Our attitudes even shape our memories. A family could experience financial ruin on a single terrible day, and one sibling will recall it as the day that they lost all hope in the future while another will remember it as the day she realized how much she’d taken her blessings for granted. Two siblings who live through the same historical event approach it with different attitudes and emerge with radically different memories.
How has your attitude shaped the memories you hold onto? How historically accurate are your memories? What difference would it make today if you realized the shaping power of attitude?
Addendum - 10.05.07
I was recently reading a friend's blog and he had this quote that I thought really spoke to this present post: "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." -- Anais Nin
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