An Excerpt out of the James Bond Version (JBV)

Ephesians 6:10-17

Lastly, exhibit the elegance of the Lord, basking in his glory.  Conform to His dress code to stand out from the wretchedness of the devil.  The battle is not a non-stop thrill ride, but a game of thrones against the reach and corruption of the mastermind himself.  So dress appropriately in the formal attire of God that you'd be neither shaken nor stirred.  Button down the shirt of truth, carefully pressed by the iron of discernment and zip tight the fly of righteousness.  The cuff links of faith will guide your hands to right action, even when the bullets are flying.  Decorate your collar with the bow tie of salvation and polish bright the shoes of peace, for they will reflect the shine of the Lord unto your path.  Now lastly, adorn the suit coat of the Spirit, pocketed with every resource of Christ... Jesus Christ.

Spiritual Rythm

In 3D Ministries book Building a Discipling Culture they walk through eight pivotal Life Shapes that if understood and applied can in turn shape our lives closer into the mold that God designed for us.  The Semi-Circle is the one which caught my attention today.

The Semi-Circle is representative of a pendulum that swings to and fro between Work and Rest; the rhythm of life that God introduced to us in Genesis.  The left side of the pendulum is Rest and the right, Work.  From left to right, the four points which it passes are Abiding, Pruning, Growth and Fruitfulness, but the sway does not actually go in that order.  Rather, out of Rest, our time spent abiding in Jesus, comes growth, and only from growth can we bear fruit.  One end of the pendulum to the other.  On returning from fruitfulness we enter back into the phase of Rest, first through pruning and finish the swing back at abiding.

The beauty of a pendulum is that with each swing it re-energizes itself, always returning to the point from which it was dropped without losing any momentum.  But being human we are subject to friction and, if left to swing alone, will inevitably return to a stale state of equilibrium.  Unlike a pendulum, the momentum can never be sustained by our selves.  In John 15 Jesus says "Apart from me you can do nothing."  In many sense however, this is unfortunately not true.  I believe we're capable of all kinds of things when we are not abiding in Jesus.  But what I realized as I was studying this Life Shape today was that without Abiding, without beginning at the top of the swing there will never be enough momentum to get us around to the other side where we see fruitfulness in our lives.  Without Jesus, its like we're running back and forth between some state of work and rest- growth and pruning if we can call it that, but the work is painful and the rest is unsatisfying.  We laugh, we cry; we experience pain and joy; we learn, we grow, we succeed for a while, and then we crash and burn.  "If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned." 

But the magic of the Semi-Circle is a picture of grace itself.  As I stated above, Jesus provides us the energy to bear fruit.  But it requires the same energy to climb the left side into abiding that it did to reach fruitfulness, and in our sinfulness we will always lose momentum.  On our own the feat of returning to the top feels quite hopeless.  But when Jesus tells us to abide in him, to remain in him, this is an action that's to be lived out out in every phase of our lives.  When we actively live in his word and let him shape the reality of our lives, we are renewed as people and He draws us back to the beginning and releases us once more into the rhythm of life.

"I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so it will be even more fruitful.  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  Remain in me and I will remain in you."  John 15:1-4

Tim Harford on Trial, Error and the God Complex

Below are the notes I took from a TEDtalk given by Tim Harford.  It's his commentary on economics and why failure stimulates success.  I found it incredibly interesting and you can watch his video at the link below.

http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_harford.html

• The God Complex - No matter how complicated the problem, you have an absolutely overwhelming belief that you are infallibly right in your solution.
• This method is so tempting because of the complexity of the world.  We retreat and tend to oversimplify data through graphs and analysis and decide that "we get it" when we don't.
• Trial and Error - Variation and Selection.  A systematic way of determining what's working and what's not.  This is far more common in successful institutions than we care to recognize.
• The most saying figure about the American Economy: 10% of American businesses disappear every year.  A huge failure rate.  Far higher than the failure rate of Americans.  10% of Americans don't disappear every year. This leads us to conclude that American businesses fail faster than Americans, and therefore American business are evolving faster than Americans.
• This incredible performance of Western Economies didn't come from placing some incredibly smart person in charge, it's come through trial and error.
• You say this sounds obvious?  [Enter commentary about education and politics]
• When ideas in public opinion begin being taken through a process of trial and error instead of treated with the God Complex from the people in power, testing them out, abandoning the ones that fail and building on the ones that work, then I [Tim Harford] will admit that it's obvious that Trial and Error works.

My interpretation of his conclusion:

When it feels so much better to stand and say that "I'm a God, I understand everything, I don't want my opinions challenged or my conclusions tested," if we can understand that uncertainty, fallibility and being challenged hurt but such vulnerabilities allow for good mistakes - then we won't have to fear failure and will in turn evolve to a greater potential.

Discipline

"If you're intentional about developing maybe unnecessary disciplines, you'll be more disciplined in developing discipline itself."

Discipline is defined as to "train oneself to do something in a controlled and habitual way" or "the controlled behavior resulting from such training."

I don't want to speak on the "important" disciplines or indicate that any one be mandatory or necessary in particular.  But instead, the importance of being intentional in discipline itself.  Garry Kasparov, known for being the greatest chess player of all time, said, "Its not enough to be talented.  Its not enough to work hard and to study late into the night.  You must also become intimately aware of the methods you use to reach your decisions."  I like this quote because it asks us to analyze our habits and our methods and I think that lines up with how we view our discipline.  I think many habits are on some level disciplines.  Maybe under developed or even developed and treated as discipline though completely unnecessary, but discipline regardless.  I believe the great advantage of an unnecessary discipline is that as it becomes unmanageable or too time consuming, it can be forfeited guilt free to make room for something new or to narrow the focus of a greater discipline.  But all the while serves as practice in discipline itself.

A quick list of habits I've on some level kept, abandoned or merely dream't of include:

• working out
• bed time
• communication habits
• diet
• down time
• work rhythm
• writing
• prayer
• reading
• serving
• spending

I think discipline has its proper role to play in all of these.  Negligence would be the absence of any form of discipline, but on a spectrum the extreme could maybe be obsession or idolatry.  Moderation and deliberation of course are the key to keeping them in their place.

I don't think anyone looks back on their life in regret of being too disciplined.  To realize they've squandered time on something they once believed to be important is almost guaranteed, but even then it probably wouldn't have been mistaken for discipline.  I think of the workaholic whose devoted his life to weighing the often unbalanced expectations of his family and his job.  When goals are set by expectations we lose sight of the disciplines involved in reaching them.  We focus on doing whatever it takes to meet them.  Negligence and idolatry living together in perfect chaos.  Rather, when a goal is driven by a dream we still have that innocent passion to drive us.  The mere hope of one day living in that place in which we dream of.  I've heard Dave Ramsey say, hundreds of times, "the difference between a dream and a goal is a plan" and a plan requires discipline.  I don't know that anyone has ever written out a plan to become successful that included rejecting their family.  But a lack of discipline continues to lead people to just that point.  

I've recently come to the understanding of the importance of making a plan.  A long term plan spanning 6 or more months, or simply a plan for the day.  It clarifies your goals and creates actionable steps to meet them.  But even without having a plan I've found that asking a simple question will help keep me on track in weeding out bad habits and in developing disciplines.  That question, "Would I include this on a plan to help me reach my dreams?"  Is this something that's going to, when practiced and maintained, build me to be a stronger, better person and lead me to success?  Jim Rohn said, "Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event.  We do not fail overnight.  Failure is the inevitable result of an accumulation of poor thinking and poor choices.  To put it more simply, failure is nothing more than a few errors in judgement repeated every day."  Discipline will keep our judgments on track.

Justice

I've been wrestling with the concept of Justice heavily for the last two weeks, and ever since I took my stance God has been doing what he does best in the hearts of those who seek him.  In watching the evening news one night, story after story came on of what's become routine violence in our city, and upon seeing the mugshot of one of the violators I made a post on Facebook saying, "Just watching the news...  I think we should bring back public hangings of any convicted violent offender"  Knowing that was a controversial statement, I was expecting to get all kinds of flack from liberals and Christians alike, but instead I received nothing but positive affirmation and some light humor in response.  Boosting my esteem I continued to give the statement clout that week, almost obsessively, like I was writing a thesis paper in my head.  But really, I felt like I needed to defend myself.

You see, I've grown in this hatred for criminals.  This caste in our society that disregards the right to life and to live in peace that the rest of us deserve.  We all have enough trouble in our lives without having to worry about those who'd prey on us.  So I really just want to be done with them.  I want the deterrence that comes from capital punishment, I want the immediate justice that comes from execution, and I deep down really believe that at the point when you've decided to threaten somebody else's life, you've forfeited all rights to your own.  A philosophy that explains why all's fair in war, I guess.

But then came Easter.  Our church kicked off a new series that began Easter weekend and continues through mid-May.  The series title - Neighbor.  Its a play off the Coexist bumper stickers, but you'd need to see the graphic to get it.  The point of the series is that to coexist in tolerance is not wrong, but its not enough.  Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself is the single most important thing in life, second only to loving God.  And by the cross Jesus showed us first hand what it means to forgive your enemies.  It takes only a mild understanding of the context of the parable of the Good Samaritan to see that our enemies are among the neighbors Jesus speaks of.

So in giving the Easter sermon, Dan began by talking about the word 'Revenge' as the catchphrase that most of us have slapped across our hearts.  That if we were to boil down our individual attitudes toward the rest of the world and condense it into a one word slogan, a bumper sticker for our lives, Revenge would pretty much sum it up.  There were a thousand words he could have used.  But, he said revenge.  And Revenge was my word.  Not as in, "Yeah, Dan you're right.  That's what my bumper sticker would say."  But from that internal dialog I'd been having all week, Revenge was my word.  It may sound dark and I'm not saying its right, but I knew that revenge is what I wanted for that caste mentioned above.  That they've done wrong, and so they should pay.  So, needless to say, God had my attention.  Later in the service a testimony was played by a man named Darryl Burton, a man who spent 24 years in prison for a homicide that he did not commit.  Wrongfully accused with zero evidence but a corrupt eye witness testimony, he served the time and by the grace of Jesus grew to "love" the evil system and people he was supposed to hate.  So for me, through many other conversations and devotional times God has continued to address this subject and how it works on my heart.

So I think Osama Bin Laden's death is rather timely.  Was I really supposed to love him?  Am I now off the hook?  What is love?  If I'd ran into him last week, was I supposed to bring him home and feed him (until the Feds arrived, of course!) and tell him how deeply I regret his actions, but that there's nothing I want more than to extend grace and forgiveness?  What about for the rest of the criminals in my city?  The Samaritans, Jesus would say.  I really don't know.  I think Jesus' parable of the weeds found in Mathew 13:24 is clear as daylight though.  Jesus says God will send the harvesters to do his business.  But what I know, for now, is I'm glad to be living in the United States, I'm glad we do have a justice system and a military, and I absolutely believe they hold authority under God.  Stealing from Aaron Parish Black's input on a heated wall debate, our nation and society have a duty to act in ways that we as individuals cannot.

Pray with me as I ask God that his heart would continue to work in mine, that I would learn to love the way he loves, that I'd recognize my neighbor, forgiving those who've wronged me and that my heart would break and I'd be the Good Samaritan to the victimized.

Dave Ramsey's 7 Steps to Financial Peace

1. $1,000 Emergency Fund
2. Pay Off All Debt, Except for House
3. Fully Funded Emergency Fund of 3-6 Months Expenses
4. 15% of Income Invested for Retirement
5. Save for Kids College
6. Pay of the House Early
7. Build Wealth and Give!

It's just that easy!  Let me know if you need any more help!