Mile High Rev

REVved - BIG Day

Major news day today. 

Judge Sam Alito confirmed as Supreme Court Associate Justice despite the petty partisan buffoonery of Sen. Kennedy & Co.   Of course, this action also means the end of the line for Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the court's first female justice.  She deserves recognition for her faithful service to the nation, however you feel about her decisions.  Apparently, President Bush's second term has come to mean more than any of us dreamed - the appointment of Chief Justice Roberts and the appointment of at least one Associate!  That's huge. 

Coretta Scott King died, leaving an unforgettable legacy as the spouse of our generation's most notorious civil rights activist.   She maintained her grace and composure through the years.  The President fittingly honored her at the start of the State of the Union Address tonight.  I always felt that Ms. King navigated her role as the widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., with quiet elegance and strength.

State of the Union Address tonight by President George W. Bush.  I heard this morning that the President rehearsed it 30 time prior to tonight.  (Imagine that much time to hone a sermon...I'm drooling.)  Among many favorite lines, I'd have to say his very direct rebuttal to the Iraq war critics stood out to me - "Hindsight alone is not wisdom and second-guessing is not a strategy."  I wanted to shout, "Amen!"  I've become so weary of all the second-guessing that characterizes both the political realm and the church world.  In fact, today I mused that some of my critics would do everyone a service by discontinuing the second-guessing and demonstrating their ability to improve on all of my weaknesses and failures...that they seem so eager to regurgitate to anyone who will listen.  But I digress.  Way to go Mr. Bush!

A final thought.  A friend provided me with a great analogy today.  It applies in so many spheres, but particularly in church life.   I've heard it before, but today, it hit the mark.  Many of the situations in church life are like an iceberg.   The majority of people just see the tip jutting out of the water.  They obsess over what they see, and assume that it's the total picture.  But, what they DON'T see is so much larger.  (Way.)  And in most instances people will never see the whole iceberg.  It's tempting to invite them to put on scuba gear and swim with them beneath the water's surface, pointing out the huge underwater mass.  But you never do.  You just hope that people will trust those who've seen the whole thing.  And if they've been told there's an iceberg down there, they will believe it. 

Like I said, BIG day.

REVealing - Attending A Homeowner's Association Meeting

Last night, Mrs. REV and I headed over to the Golden Hotel for our Annual Homeowner's Meeting - a first for us.  We've only lived here for two weeks, but when we saw the signs advertising the Annual Meeting, we agreed that it might be very informative to go to such a meeting.  I've been to thousands of church-related meetings in over 30 years of vocational ministry, but never to a secular and obviously non-religious oriented homeowner's meeting.  What an education.

The meeting was led by a woman from a management company who manages the property in our development.   As she got up to start the meeting of around 60 homeowners, I whispered to Mrs. REV, "Do you think she'll open with prayer?"  Jan smirked at me and said, "I doubt it."

The tone in the room was clearly not positive.  From the opening of the meeting, it appeared that the leader was on the defensive and the homeowners were upset.  The leader could have picked up on this, but instead of yielding to the pressure and softly responding to it, she decided to go on the defensive and go head-to-head with anyone who asked a tough question - and nearly everyone who spoke up asked a tough question.

The first item on the agenda was a report about Jeffco Open Space that borders the property in our development.  I felt sorry for the guy from Jeffco.  People kept advising him on how to set up his map and to speak up and to address matters that were outside of his particular field of expertise.  He struck me as a guy who loves nature, gets to protect animal habitats, and finds it difficult to work with the public...but knows he has to...so he does his best.  He was quite well-informed, but I could tell he was deeply relieved when his presentation was done.  I loved hearing about the raptor habitat, herds of deer, coyotes, foxes, and the ubiquitous prairie dogs who inhabit our region.  I tried not to use the word "snake" with Jan as we were moving in, but this guys blew that - "There are rattlesnakes around, and you need to be careful."   At least the guy knew his stuff.

The rest of the meeting was a study in chaos, ill-preparedness, obfuscation, stone-walling, blaming, passing the buck, defensiveness, and clumsy human relations.  The builder representatives didn't show.  The management company representative needs a Dale Carnegie course.  The election of board members consisted of people nominating themselves and giving goofy 2 minute or less speeches about their "qualifications."  Ballots were awkwardly passed out, proxy votes were haphazardly collected without proper qualification, nobody seemed to know what to do, while one man debated the by-laws regarding whether the terms for board members were one year or three years.  We found out that some homeowners are paying one monthly fee (for the exact services we all get) and others of US are paying 30 dollars more per month.  It was very hard to sit there and participate in something that was so poorly planned and executed.  The anger of the homeowners was never assuaged.  One lady said that in the past year, she came to four HOA meetings that were "never held" because they were canceled because the board members didn't show up.  Management representatives denied it. 

7 Random Observations:

1. There is a great need for anger management training in our culture.

2. There is a fine art to listening to people's questions and providing satisfactory answers.

3. The world is filled with people looking for someone to blame.

4. Some people in leadership roles aren't leaders.

5. Some people can't admit they are wrong even when confronted with evidence of the fact.

6. Self-promotion is part of the fabric of our culture.

7. If I have something else scheduled on the same evening as the next homeowner's association meeting, that would be fine.

REVved - Live on 'Oprah,' TRUTH Matters

It’s quite a story.  Oprah had an author on her show, touted his book, and brought him overnight fame.  Subsequently, she learned that his memoirs are a lie.  Live on 'Oprah,' a Memoirist Is Kicked Out of the Book Club - New York Times  Here’s why I’m “revved” over this situation.  Oprah is using absolutist language.  “It’s a lie.”  And implicit in her statement is the absolute moral standard that there is something wrong with lying.  Of course, I agree.  What I’d like to ask Oprah right now (and I agree with her outrage over this man lying to her) is, “Why was it wrong for this guy to lie?”  You know what my answer would be – God says, “Thou shalt not bear false witness.”  I wonder what hers would be?

Whatever she would say, I like what she said on Thursday – “It’s a lie.”  That’s as absolutist as you can get.  Perhaps the queen of daytime TV is not as post-modern as many of us have thought?

REVrant 10.15 - Kerry and Kennedy Threaten Alito Filibuster

Anyone find this surprising?  Kerry and Kennedy Threaten Alito Filibuster  Embarrassing? Yes.  Surprising?  No way.

REVrant 10.14 - Milk Discrimination

Regulars here know that my favorite beverage at Starbucks - given my lactose intolerance - is a Tall Soy Chai No Water Latte.  I've consumed more of these than I care to admit.  Each time I order one, I note that after calculating the price, there is an additional charge of 40 cents per beverage (Jan's and mine), totaling 80 cents added to the bill.  For some reason, tonight, it bothered me more than usual.   So, I asked the barista, "Why is there an additional charge for soy milk?"  "I don't really know," she said.  "Does it seem fair to you," I inquired.  She surprised me with her honesty - "No, it really doesn't."  "I was just thinking the same thing."  Then she added a statement that is such a commentary on our culture - "You know if you contacted the home office and used the term 'milk discrimination,' they might do something about it.  They really don't like to be accused of 'discrimination' for any reason!"  So, I'm sitting here tonight wondering...should I contact Starbucks and confront their "milk discrimination?"

REVelation - The Bible Attracts a Crowd

There is a fascinating exhibit in the Florida International Museum that I would love to see.  It tells the story of the Bible’s evolution from ancient Hebrew to modern languages and from clay tablets to written books.  There’s never been a book like it…whether you believe it is God’s Word or not.  Kudos to the museum for including an exhibit such as this one.  Cool name for the exhibit, too – “Ink and Blood: Dead Sea Scrolls to the English Bible.”  Now, is anyone going to be surprised to learn that some people have already complained about it?  It’s apparently “too evangelical” for some people’s tastes.  Come on…it’s a preserved ancient document unlike any other in the history of the world – chill on the whole criticism deal!  I hope it comes to Denver.  Faithful, curious drawn to Bible story

REVved - Captain Sakic Scores Two on Tuesday

Nice to have hockey take our minds off the bitter loss to the Steelers on Sunday.  And even nicer – to see that Joe Sakic scored two goals after a month long dry spell.  Congratulations, Joe!  It’s good therapy to shift the focus from football right now.  Avalanche & NHL

REVolting - Not Funny

I can’t imagine what this student must be feeling.  I think I know what the teacher in the “ethnicity class” was going for, but it obviously didn’t work.  Pa. student humiliated over Broncos jersey  It’s sad that here are so many great teachers out there, and this one gets in the paper.

And of course, the humiliation of a Bronco fan anywhere is unacceptable!

Hat tip – Mackenzie Barton

REVoked - NBC cancels ‘Book of Daniel’

It appears that NBC has cancelled the TV show, “The Book of Daniel,” after airing only three episodes.  NBC cancels ‘Book of Daniel’  Congratulations to the executives at NBC for making a prudent decision.  As I’ve blogged previously, there is no way the network would have considered airing a show featuring the promiscuity, drug dependency, homosexuality, and alcoholism of the family of a Jewish Rabbi, Islamic Mullah, or Buddhist Monk (I know they don’t marry, but they do come from families!).  Neither would they have cast YHWH, Muhammed, or the Dalai Lama as a buffoonish sandal-wearing hippie who is invisible to everyone but the religious leaders, and who drops by for casual chats and regularly gives a goofy thumbs up.  The outrage at such disrespect for the world’s major religions would have been a nightmare for the network.  Yet somehow they thought they could get away with this cartoonish caricature of the family of an Episcopalian priest.  Thankfully, they didn’t.

REVered - "Two Very Kind Women"

It was the first Bible verse I learned.  I don’t recall my age at the time, but the verse stuck.  As a little kid, I recall saying it over and over, “Be ye kind, one to another…” – Ephesians 4:32.  (King James Version, of course.)  For some reason, I’ve cherished that verse like few others in my memory bank all these years.  

Look at the context Paul uses to present the concept of “kindness” in the NIV version of Ephesians 4:31–32 – “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”  I can’t help but think of the Apostle Paul’s succinct assessment of love in I Corinthians 13:4 – “…love is kind.”

I think everyone has a pretty good idea of what it means to be kind.  At the least, you can tell from the context that “kindness” is incompatible with rage, anger, bitterness, brawling, slander, and malice.  Being kind is being “gentle” or “tender hearted.”  If you’re a Christian, one of the best evidences that you’re filled with the Holy Spirit is that you’re “kind,” or as Paul puts it in Galatians 5:23 – “gentle.”  It’s not that difficult to be kind, unless you’re mad.  When you’re mad, you come across as mean, not kind.

My Mother was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known.  Today is her birthday.  She’s celebrating this birthday in heaven…her second one there.  She’s 82 today.  I really miss her.  January 23 has been a special day my whole life, because it’s the day my mother was born.  She was orphaned in her early childhood, raised by cold and stoic relatives, widowed twice, and accepted a rigorous calling to humble Christian ministry that continued until her dying day.  And despite all of that, she was so kind.  What a treasure for me to be raised by such a tender hearted woman.  Thanks, Mom.

I married a woman who matches my Mother in the kindness category.  I’ve seen and experienced the same kindness that I grew up with in my marriage from day one.  God led me to a Wife with a heart very much like my Mother’s.  Jan has been tender and gentle encourager for 32 years.  It would have been unbearable to have married an angry, brawling, bitter woman.  Thank God, I didn’t.  I married a kind, gentle, tender lady who has endured all kinds of storms in life and remains my gentle and kind companion.  As I see her extend kindness to people (including me), I pause to thank God that I am linked to a person of gentleness.  Thanks, Jan.

On the occasion of my Mother’s second birthday in heaven, I honor the two kindest women I have ever known!  My Mom and my Wife!