Thoughts on "Global Happiness" and "GWB"

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

This morning is almost too beautiful to allow for any work or task-oriented concentration. When I returned from my long trek with Scout I made coffee, threw open all the windows, and tried to map out my day. So far all I have achieved (and it's already 8:40) is a lot of listening to birds singing, leaves rustling in the breeze, and the distant noise of traffic.

This is both the privilege and the price of working at home.

• The privilege is this amazing workspace, fresh coffee in my own kitchen, the ability to take my laptop onto the back porch, a huge galumphing labradoodle standing beside me with a toy hanging from her mouth before flopping down with a huge sigh,  and choosing my own hours.
• The price is pretty much the same: this fabulous home, gourmet coffee, the back porch, playing with Scoutie, choosing hours that - yesterday - included an afternoon on the golf course I can see from the porch.

Looks like I'm "Cutting-Edge":
It would appear that I'm in the kind of position that is now valued by the British government. Statisticians in the UK have been asked to "measure the nation's well-being." Prime Minister David Cameron was quoted as saying "It's time we focused not just on GDP (Gross Domestic Product) but on GWB - General Well-Being."

"Our happiness levels have been stuck for the last 60-years," explained "Action for Happiness" co-founder Richard Layard of the London School of Economics. "There are a lot of ways in which [the quality of human relationships] has been neglected in favor of higher income."

In one very revealing article, the Associated Press reported "surprising results" from a global happiness survey that put Third World nations ahead of "much richer" European and North American societies.

Wow! What a damning one-sentence assessment of the shallow arrogance that drives our consumer culture! But I shouldn't be surprised, we spend billions of dollars annually for the sole purpose of convincing people that the only route to satisfaction in life is via the unbridled acquisition of consumer goods... and then we create elaborate lifestyles in order to justify the expenditure and perpetuate the myth.

Ignorance and Deception:
I'd like to say that this report holds out the promise that secular society is on the brink of stumbling into the foundational principles of faith, and that people will undoubtedly recognize the timeless teachings of Jesus in this Action for Happiness agenda.... I'd like to say that... But I'm doubtful, because so much of the public face of Christianity seems to have been moving in the opposite direction. The Good News that Jesus taught is - all too frequently - hijacked by religious people intent on using Christianity to prop up the status quo.

Consequently, instead of a message of liberation, and an invitation to discover joy beyond the strictures inherent with amassing personal wealth, Jesus has been re-cast as a middle-class suburban consumer who blesses the faithful with material goods and then wraps himself in the American flag.

We've been charged with the responsibility to share the Good News (Matthew 28). But I'm beginning to wonder exactly what message many who espouse the word "evangel" are evangelists for?

Sign me "Already Happy" - DEREK

Living in the Beauty of Our Potential

I have a good life. I don't think a day ever goes past that fails to contain - at least on some level - joy, and peace and blessing. There is always reason to be thankful, reason to celebrate, reason to look forward to tomorrow with anticipation.

But there are certain times, certain experiences, that underscore the joy part of the equation with such assurance that I find myself full beyond capture and I simply overflow with it.

Yesterday morning I experienced one of those moments in church. I'm not a high-caliber musician by any definition, but I do know enough chords on my guitar to play - quietly - as part of the 8:30 worship Praise Band. I stand - with the other two guitarists - just behind the keyboard and the clarinets, and at a 45-degree angle from the trombones, horn and trumpets.

Halfway through one song ("You are Holy") a rich, complex harmony emerged from a layered mix of guitar chords, voices, and instrumental finesse. Surrounding our offering from the stage, I could hear and feel the voices of the congregation fill the room with praise. I could hear myself singing without reservation, and all the sounds worked together to produce a few minutes of such great beauty that I felt saturated with peace.

I don't believe my experience was supernatural. I'm more inclined to suggest that it was in fact natural - but natural to capacity. What I mean is that God created us with the capacity to experience love and peace and community with an intensity and a quality that most of us fail to engage 99.9% of the time. Inviting God into the details of my life has the effect of releasing the potential that's been there all along.

That's why I have a hard time (and I've said this before) separating my "spiritual life" from my "life". The idea of salvation - to my understanding and in my experience - has as much to do with releasing the potentiality of "Kingdom Life" in the here and now as it does with securing a spot in Heaven after I die.

Like I said, I have a good life. My goal is to live at capacity, because I believe we were all designed with so much more in mind than the torpid mediocrity of the uninspired.

My personal experience has been - consistently - that I am more likely to live in the beauty of my potential when I am in relationship with God. God, simply put, has (and continues to) put me in touch with life, love, beauty, peace, goodness and grace.

Or, to quote one of my favorite Hebrew writers: God's Spirit makes us loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled. There is no law against behaving in any of these ways. And because we belong to Christ Jesus, we have killed our selfish feelings and desires. God's Spirit has given us life, and so we should follow the Spirit. But don't be conceited or make others jealous by claiming to be better than they are. (Galatians 5)

With a thankful heart - DEREK

"Eau-de-Dog" Issues... and Why Life = Change

Ah, the best laid plans... So the carpet people did show up; and they did a really good job on the bedroom; and they were really nice guys. The only problem turned out to be some worker at the factory, who managed to shave a good foot off the length of the family-room berber, thus leaving us five inches short of a new room! Now it'll be a week until we get the house all put together again.

However - and emerging out of its recent feng shui slump - our bedroom really does look amazing. We took the opportunity to paint the walls, changed some of the layout, and re-purposed a few items of furniture from elsewhere in the house. Rebekah has a natural flair for decorating and completed the kind of makeover most HGTV shows would doubtless pay to feature.

Scout, meanwhile, spent the day frolicking with her friends at the beauty parlor. The old carpet, had - let's face it - serious Eau-de-Dog issues, so it made good sense to get Her Royal Pooch-ness sanitized at the same time. It's easy to tell she turned out just fine.

I've decided that owning a home is pretty much the same as painting the Golden Gate Bridge. The moment you think you're finished, then sure enough something new crops up... or you discover that the first remodel you did has faded, or worn out... or you have to double back and re-do a project you can't believe you missed the first time around.

I know people who try to move every five years or so just to avoid that kind of process.

Come to think of it, I know preachers who deliberately relocate every five years or so because a similar dynamic is at play. It's either the church building, the work that's required to forge through some challenge, or a new layer of depth in relationships - and it all begins to look too daunting to deal with so they move on (looks like this is an entry I'll need to re-post at my "Preacher's Husband" blog!). 

But life is process, and it's the process that provides so much of the depth and definition that make it beautiful.

Here's a short story to illustrate. Several years ago we met two couples who both lived in very nice homes in the same neighborhood. 

• In one house the floor-plan rambled, involved at least five different flooring surfaces, and the design was constantly subject to tweaking. Decorating evolved around wildly varied styles, obscure pieces of art collected while traveling, antique family pieces and photographs etc. There were books everywhere, and there was no way to predict what the next room might look like based on the one you were in. Change was ubiquitous and there was always a drop-cloth and a tool-box in play somewhere.
• The other home had been recently gutted in response to a divorce. The man remarried, remodeled, and then went to a huge furniture store with his new wife. They purchased complete rooms of furnishings, including pictures for the walls and designer-coordinated home accents. The house was gorgeous; everything matched; it was a showcase... It had no soul.

Bottom line; if you want everything ready done and pre-finished... if you want to wake up every day with no problems to solve and no mess to clean up... if you want sterility and predictability and no bumps in the road to distract you from, well, whatever it is that you'd do in such a life... Then you're welcome to it. 

But such a life won't have much to do with the dynamic, creative, challenging interactive dance we're caught up in. And I don't think you'd like it all that much after a few days.

- DEREK 

Stuff - and what lives under the old carpet...

Just to be clear, I'm not in any way suggesting that I'm aging - much... or that my joints hurt more because I just celebrated my 55th birthday... or that I'm even remotely concerned when it comes to moving large pieces of furniture around the house... or that my knees are still hurting from that soccer game I played March 26...

OKay, now we've got that out of the way, does anyone have a couple of Extra-Strength Advil they can spare? Or maybe some Aleve? Because something happened when I was moving that sofa yesterday and my back is killing me!

All this pain is probably the result of the new carpeting that's being installed this morning (if, that is, they ever show up!). The price looked suspiciously good, then once we asked a few questions we realized there are extra charges for just about anything you can imagine. Extra to take up the old carpet, extra for removal of the old carpet, and extra again for moving the furniture - each charge computed per square-foot of flooring. On top of that, another hefty dollar amount is assessed for each piece of furniture they think is heavy (coach, piano, bed etc.)

So Rebekah and I decided to move all the furniture ourselves, and then pull out the old carpet and roll it up for removal. The one in our bedroom was 14 years old! The carpeting on the family room was last changed around 2001. We may think we live clean, uncluttered lives, but don't tell that to the old carpet! Good grief that was some nasty stuff! Kind of a bio-archeological dig.

We've been serious about de-cluttering for the past several years. We have - best estimate - only 50% of the "stuff" we used to. And we were never in any way people who hoarded to begin with. However, and this was something we realized when we rebuilt the kitchen in 2009, even 50% of a limited amount of stuff is still an unbelievable amount.

The contents of the family room (you can see the empty space in the photo above) are variously stashed in the kitchen, the living room, the back hallway, and the back porch. I can guarantee that some of it is going directly to the trash, some of it to Good Will, and some of it to the black hole of the garage. There will be even less clutter when it's time to reassemble the rooms tomorrow.

In the meanwhile. I'm reminded of Christ's timeless words from the Sermon on the Mount:

• "I tell you not to worry about your life. Don't worry about having something to eat, drink, or wear. Isn't life more than food or clothing? Look at the birds in the sky! They don't plant or harvest. They don't even store grain in barns. Yet your Father in heaven takes care of them. Aren't you worth more than birds? Can worry make you live longer? Why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow. They don't work hard to make their clothes. But I tell you that Solomon with all his wealth wasn't as well clothed as one of them. God gives such beauty to everything that grows in the fields, even though it is here today and thrown into a fire tomorrow. He will surely do even more for you! Why do you have such little faith? Don't worry and ask yourselves, "Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to drink? Will we have any clothes to wear?" Only people who don't know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need all of these. But more than anything else, put God's work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well. Don't worry about tomorrow. It will take care of itself. You have enough to worry about today."

The Grandaddy Letters - Volume One

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

Okay, folks, today marks the official first entry in what will doubtless become a series of posts loosely categorized as "The Grandaddy Letters". Yes, that's right, Rebekah and I should be entering the wonderful world of grand-parenting somewhere around the middle of October! This great moment of possibility has been arranged courtesy of Naomi and Craig Campbell, in Moodus, Connecticut.

Adoption Process: Some of you know that the Campbells have been looking to start their family for some time now. Last year they made the commitment to enter the adoption process. They found an agency to work through, filled out the paperwork, went through the initial interviews, and even made arrangements to cover the fees. They started setting up the baby's nursery and were well into their preparations for the first home inspection when things took a different course...

Rebekah and I have always been behind the idea 100%, and we already had contingency plans in place so Rebekah could drop everything and travel to Connecticut in the event things happened in a hurry. Adoption is essentially a pregnancy of indeterminable duration, it's a gestation that can last anywhere from a a month or so to three years.

But now (and it's a story I've heard time and again with parents once they make the decision to adopt) Naomi has her own due date to work with. So the happy couple can map the baby's progress, one milestone at a time. The first sonogram, the first audible heartbeat - and a whole series of "Did you know that the baby is developing (fingers... hair... synapses... elbows... an attitude... reflexes... musical talent!...) this week?"

What I'm loving most about all of this is the level of joy and excitement coming from Naomi and Craig. They are continuing to experience their life together as a wonder-filled gift. It's an attitude - an orientation toward living - that will not only serve them well as a couple, but will turn out to be the best gift possible for their new family.

I can't count how many times Rebekah and I have told couples who need some encouragement that taking care of one-another is the most effective strategy possible if they want to provide their children with the best kind of home. Not a better paying job, not a fancy big house, not expensive toys or fancy schools or competitive travel sports teams.... But a mother and a father who are crazy about one another, who nurture their relationship, who enjoy life together as a family and who anchor themselves in a caring faith community.

Like I said, I know this is not the only note about this ongoing miracle that I'll be posting over the next few months. But I'll close today's missive with one more word for our Connecticut family. They certainly have their priorities in order, but you can never get too much good scripture at times like this!

Don't ever worry about piling up goodies according to the values of this culture. Such things will only deteriorate over time, and they could be gone in a heartbeat. But instead, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven. Your Creator knows exactly what counts over the long haul, what stands the test of time, and what will result in the kind of peace and satisfaction most people only dream of. It's a fact: where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (The Matthew 6 passage - my paraphrase)

Peace - DEREK

Redemption is the Core Principle of Good News

How about this for an interesting ad campaign? "LIFE STINKS!" The tongue-in-cheek product tag evidently resonates with a lot of people because the folk at Bed Bath & Beyond told me the stuff is selling off the shelves.

The idea of the spray bottle thingie is to neutralize offensive odors, so people don't notice them any more. The product, to the best of my understanding, doesn't actually eliminate bad smells. Instead, it masks the smell so that we won't know it's there.

This approach would be similar, I guess, to dressing cockroaches up in little camouflage jackets or issuing them with invisibility cloaks. They'd still be there, nasty as ever and walking all over our stuff - it's just that we wouldn't notice.

Life does not stink!
First off, I need to say I reject the view that "Life Stinks". I agree that life is hard sometimes (indeed, often), that there's a lot of pain in the world, that the experience of living at times can be overwhelmingly difficult for many people, and that struggle frequently defines experience more clearly than ease or peace.

But acknowledging struggle is not the same as embracing nihilism (nihilism, according to Merriam-Webster, is the viewpoint that existence is senseless and useless). I could never understand the popularity of the bumper sticker (a few years back) that read "Life sucks - and then you die!" Nihilism - like any other belief system - must be adopted by deliberate choice and then reaffirmed - daily - via a succession of smaller choices. It's a fundamental orientation that could not otherwise be sustained.

Fact is, whatever belief system we choose to adopt, it's important to think about what we adhere to daily; to stoke the fires so to speak. Faith in God, for example, requires regular attention and maintenance. Neglect erodes at the foundation of anything we build our lives around.

Faith. Love. Family. Friends. Justice. Paying it forward. Positive thinking. Good Health... There are a lot of things that we say we value. So what? What are we planning to do TODAY that will affirm and sustain the things we insist we believe in?

Back to the spray bottle:
I'm not sure that I'm all that interested in simply masking what stinks in life, or in pretending that it isn't there. I tried that approach for several years, and I found out very clearly that denial is not a useful model.

Instead, I believe that it's preferable to work for actual healing, and restoration, and real change that means something at the heart of who we are. I believe that redemption is the core principle of Good News, and I believe both personal and corporate faith has the power to work those kinds of miracles!

No, life does not stink. I honestly believe that life is radically beautiful!

If you agree with me, then do something about it already!

- DEREK

You, LORD, are my shepherd. I will never be in need. You let me rest in fields of green grass. You lead me to streams of peaceful water, and you refresh my life. You are true to your name, and you lead me along the right paths. (Psam 23)

Churning my brain between chores...

Today is one of those "mixed bag" Saturdays. We've isolated about ten big things to accomplish, and have maybe enough time to tackle three or four. So we'll probably end up doing a small portion of maybe 15!

One recurring theme all day - for me - will be playing with my new camera. Yes, birthday money finally tipped my "camera savings stash" over the edge and I purchased my Nikon D-3100. I've been putting money aside for the past few months and trying to decide between three or four potential candidates. I went with the Nikon because I'm familiar with the brand and that's going to help my (slow) technical learning curve. I'm already saving for the compact telephoto....

One big change will be shooting at 14 mega-pixels. So I'm looking into photo storage in "The Cloud" so I don't overburden my hard drive with images.

But it all takes time and time is not something I'm exactly flush with at the moment!

Another priority today is emptying two rooms of furniture, pulling up the carpets and doing some painting in anticipation of Thursday's new carpet install.

Then there's the yard! Yes, we have shifted our focus to more of a maintenance mode. Or, as Rebekah put it, "We've given the garden back to God!" But there's still a lot to do out there, and it's all growing like crazy again now we've had the good rain.

Serendipity:
One huge serendipity was supper in South Tampa last night with an old friend from Pensacola. Blaine John was one of the youth (middle-school) when we arrived at Trinity Presbyterian in 1982. His family were an important part of church life, and Blaine was one of those young adults (it happens all the time) who found his future completely re-written because he went on a mission trip (Africa).

Today Blaine is a specialist in pediatric cardiology; a specialist with sub-specialties - if I remember correctly - in neo-natology. Blaine and his lovely wife, Jennifer, met us at "Bin 27", one of those remarkably flavorful bistro-type restaurants where everything is just a little bit better than awesome! She's an OT therapist, and they have three beautiful children.

Blaine and his family are making a positive difference in the world - they're doing positive, critically important, work, and they're raising some great kids. It is very good to see people grow up to engage their full potential. I've seen a lot of that in the past couple of weeks, and the stories I'm listening to give me a lot of hope.

I honestly believe that most of the issues that conspire to make the world such an unstable place at the moment would be largely resolved if people would simply embrace the fullness of life we were designed to experience, to live as if hope and promise and redemption were not only possible but a present reality.

My humanist friends would argue that all I'm talking about is a quality resident in all people, and that releasing human potential is a matter of social evolution. I wouldn't argue with the idea that we're all capable of so much more, and that growth is always possible. But, I also believe that the spiritual aspect of what it means to be human cannot be ignored if we want to live complete lives. It's not optional, and it's not "after market", because the spiritual element was created as an essential part of who we are. Spirit is fundamental, and involving God in our redemption turns out to be the most natural thing in the world.....

Just churning my brain between chores on a Saturday -
- Grace and Peace - DEREK