Archive for July, 2004

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Published
by
Mike
on July 12, 2004
in General
. 5 Comments

Reentry

“Several times a year I disengage from American culture, either on a visit to a foreign country or on a hiking trip into the wilderness. Each time, on return, I experience a jolt of reentry, a psychic adjustment similar to what astronauts must go through physically upon return to earth. I turn on a television sitcom and listen to the innuendoes and sarcastic put-downs and the canned laughter that follows. I watch the commercials promising sexual conquests if I drink a certain beer and professional esteem if I rent from a certain car company. The first day back, modern culture betrays itself as a self-evident lie, a grotesque parody of the day-to-day life I know. The next day my reactions moderate. A few days later I am breathing the air of lust, consumerism, selfishness, and ambition, and it seems normal.” - Philip Yancey

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Published
by
Mike
on July 11, 2004
in General
. 5 Comments

Having finally been eliminated from the tournament on Friday night and having one of our few open nights since baseball began in late March (preseason, regular season, city tournament, all-star practice, all-star tournament), what did we do last night?

Yup. Went to see the final little league game in District V. I sat in the stands full of “what ifs”: what if I’d called a curve instead of a fastball, what if we hadn’t had so many errors, what if I hadn’t tried to send a kid home on a passed ball, etc.

Anyone ever struggle with the “Whatifs” in life? The “whatifs” I had last night were the ones about how things could have been different. But there are also the whatifs that obsess on what may be waiting around the next bend. Perhaps you’ll enjoy this Shel Silverstein classic:

Last night, while I lay thinking here,
Some Whatifs crawled inside my ear
And pranced and partied all night long
And sang their same old Whatif song:
Whatif I’m dumb in school?
Whatif they’ve closed the swimming pool?
Whatif I get beat up?
Whatif there’s poison in my cup?
Whatif I start to cry?
Whatif I get sick and die?
Whatif I flunk that test?
Whatif green hair grows on my chest?
Whatif nobody likes me?
Whatif a bolt of lightning strikes me?
Whatif I don’t grow taller?
Whatif my head starts getting smaller?
Whatif the fish won’t bit?
Whatif the wind tears up my kite?
Whatif they start a war?
Whatif my parents get divorced?
Whatif the bus is late?
Whatif my teeth don’t grow in straight?
Whatif I tear my pants?
Whatif I never learn to dance?
Everything seems swell, and then
The nighttime Whatifs strike again!

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Published
by
Mike
on July 10, 2004
in General
. 11 Comments

On the bright side, two good things happen today: (1) my little all-star team gets to go swimming, and (2) I get my vehicle back.

The bad news, of course, is that both are possible because we lost last night and are eliminated. We ended up 5-2 and tied for 3rd in Texas District V.

Once again we held the other team to 7 runs (which came largely from our ten errors, if you count passed balls where runners scored), but this time we only scored 6.

So here in a little bit, I’ll actually have my jeep again. Out comes the big equipment bag, the bucket of balls, the water cooler, the folders with team phone numbers, the extra rule book (an obsession which I attribute to my C of C heritage), and my glove.

The part I’m trying not to think about is this: that may be the end of my little league coaching career. Christopher was DUE in August of 1992, but he came a month early. Had he been born on time, we’d have one more year of little league.

There’s still more baseball ahead, of course: junior league and senior league. But I doubt if I’ll coach at those levels. So, that may be it.

Of course, John and Elizabeth Edwards had their last child when he was 47 (my age) and she was 50 (WAY over Diane’s age). Hmmmmmm . . . .

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Published
by
Mike
on July 9, 2004
in General
. 16 Comments

From Philip Yancey:

“. . . I went to the local supermarket and looked over the magazines as I stood in line at the checkout stand. The progression of magazine titles over the past few decades tells a story of narrowing interests: from Look and Life to People to Us to Self, from Ladies’ Home Journal and Good Housekeeping to Shape and Cosmopolitan. Every magazine on the rack featured a beautiful woman showing off her curves in workout gear, a bikini, or other revealing clothes. Does America have no men?
“I looked around at the women standing in line. This being the U.S., a majority were overweight. They wore glasses, had moles and imperfect skin, dressed sloppily, slumped at the shoulders–qualities absent from the magazine cover girls. We all know the lie being sold by the magazines, yet still we buy the promise that straight teeth, an ideal shape, and glossy hair will satisfy forever.”

No wonder our teenage girls are obsessed with looks and often have low self-esteem from not measuring up!

These old words spoken by God to Samuel still speak a fresh word of insight: “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

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Published
by
Mike
on July 8, 2004
in General
. 11 Comments

The all-star team I’m managing won again last night. We began with 18 teams in Texas District V, and now we’re down to four. We continue tonight. We began practicing June 15. That’s a lot of gatorade!

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Published
by
Mike
on July 7, 2004
in General
. 28 Comments

I’ll leave the political analysis to Tim Russert. But here’s the part of John Edwards that resonates with me–the part that has drawn me to follow his career for quite a while.

He and his wife, Elizabeth, were married less than a year before we were. They have three children: Cate (22), Emma Claire (6), and Jack (4).

But there was another one: Wade. In 1996 he was killed at the age of 16 on a NC highway. That kind of devastating loss changes you: it either sucks you under and defeats you or it forces you to ask serious questions about what matters in life.

This is for sure: the loss never leaves. It is a part of who you are. Even when the wound no longer bleeds, there is a scar that can’t be missed.

A friend of Edwards said that after the death, he was less interested in his accomplished career as a trial lawyer. He showed an “emerging desire to paint with a broader brush.”

Edwards rarely speaks about his grief in public. So I may never know much about the things that interest me most: How did his faith (Methodist heritage) survive the loss? What did he learn about God . . . prayer . . . community? Why did they decide to have more children at their age? (He looks 40 but is 51.) What has been the ebb-and-flow of grief over the past eight years?

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Published
by
Mike
on July 6, 2004
in General
. 0 Comments

One of my elders, Joey Cope (no relation), is the director of ACU’s Center for Conflict Resolution. So far he hasn’t responded to my suggestion that we could team up for a conflict resolution company called Cope & Cope: I seem to have the gift of creating it, and he has the gift of resolving it. Good team.

He writes a column called “Distinct Impressions.” Here’s a great piece this week (used by his permission).

“Corner” takes on a lot of meanings.

If someone is “in your corner,” you have a friend, an advocate, an encourager. If a car “corners well,” Consumer Reports writes it up as an automobile with great handling and stability. If I had continued to practice law full-time, I might have had a “corner office” by now. More windows, more prestige.

During the birthday parties of my youth, a “corner piece” of cake ensured the maximum amount of icing. In building, the “corner stone” sets the direction and layout of the structure and provides strength essential to construction integrity.

The “corner store” is a thriving business because it is located at the intersection – a place of maximum traffic and exposure. In the commodities arena, “cornering the market” is control of a financial goldmine. When our project makes significant progress, we congratulate each other on “turning the corner.”

We suffer when we feel we’ve been “cornered.” Just something ugly about being forced into taking a position or making a stand we weren’t prepared for.

The corner I’ve come to detest is the “critics’ corner.” That place where those who perceive themselves to be smarter stand and call out to the rest of us, “I wouldn’t have done that.” Or point out that since a particular event didn’t have the best outcome, additional evidence is now available to show that “everybody but me is a complete idiot.”

Critics are a constant. They’ve been around since the beginning of the world. Satan criticized God for the whole knowledge-of-good-and-evil business. Adam criticized Eve for causing him to sin. He even took a potshot at God for giving him Eve. Eve criticized Satan. We have all suffered as a result.

It’s not unusual these days to praise an individual one day for a particular act and to condemn her the next for not doing better. There just seems to be something unusually sweet about tearing apart the achievements, the plans and the dreams of others. Destruction of good intentions is a high stakes game. The winners bask in euphoric revelry while the losers suffer shame and discredit.

Criticism is a sin.

“But wait a minute!” you say. “Isn’t there a difference between destructive and constructive criticism? Isn’t there a time to stand up and be counted?”

We must make stands. We must be counted. Is there a difference between destructive and constructive criticism? Only in the eyes of the one who criticizes.

I have friends who take great pride in their skills of criticism. I have those friends because I’ve walked among them often and been honored by them because of my own heightened skills of verbal dissection. I’m even known in some circles for my supremely developed sarcasm – and known for nothing else.

I have been a frequent and exuberant participant in the “critics’ corner.” In a day when “coming out of closets” is common, I want to go on record that I’m trying to come out, too. Not out of a secret place. Instead, I want everyone to know that I am trying to leave the prominence of the corner where critics stand.

There will be those who will criticize me for this. Undoubtedly, I will have moments when I will sink backward into the old ways. My only hope is that I can look past the edge and listen to the voices of those who would encourage me.

As I try to climb out of this pit of a corner, it is my hope that many will join me in looking for higher ground. There is a place of true standards and accountability. A habitat where people can lovingly disagree and work together to find answers.

We don’t have to wait for heaven. It’s simply a different corner. One where my concern for you matters as much as my concern for me. I really want to be in God’s corner. I want to be at peace.

Join me?

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Published
by
Mike
on July 5, 2004
in General
. 26 Comments

Miscellaneous notes on this 5th of July:

1. Happy 50th birthday to rock and roll on this anniversary of Elvis’s first record.

2. From Eugene Peterson: “Pastoral work is fundamentally creative work. The section of the Creed in which we set up ecclesistical shop is the third, beginning with ‘I believe in the Holy Spirit.’ If this is so, if we in fact believe in the Holy Spirit, then we must not at the same time try to moonlight as efficiency experts in religion. We cannot nurture the life of the Spirit in a parishioner while holding a stopwatch. We cannot apply time management techniques to the development of souls.”

3. I spoke yesterday on how the Lord’s supper is a unity meal which unfortunately has been a cause of more disunity (or at least a rallying point of disunity) than almost any other Christian activity. Then, while serving communion with my wife, a visitor interrupted communion in our area by yelling at me that he was offended, that it felt like he was at a Catholic Church. I had to stop serving people long enough to ask him–kindly but firmly–to please have a seat and continue the discussion after the assembly. I told him I’d be glad to wait and visit with him, but I couldn’t ever find him afterward. He was a living sermon illustration for the point I’d made.

4. The good news is that the all-star team I’m managing has now outscored our opponents 16-14 in our first two games. The bad news is that we won the first one, 15-0. . . . You do the math on the second one! It’s a double elimination tournament, so now we play every night until we lose again. (I guess the more optimistic way of saying that would be: “Confident that we’ll return to our winning ways, we will be playing every night this week.”)

5. Today I begin part of my study break. I’m really, really, really ready. I’ve been running on fumes for several weeks. I don’t feel creative. I’m prickly. I’ve lost patience and purpose. (Don’t panic. This is an annual event for me. It’s part of my “already/NOT YET eschatology,” my “glass-is-half-empty” personality, and too much speaking on the road.)

6. I loved being able to worship in an assembly on the 4th of July where we could pray for America (and all nations of the world) without it turning into a sordid display of American civil religion. Those who cling to some belief that America is God’s special country are blind to what’s happening. The center of Christian strength isn’t in America. Don’t blame the courts, the president (present or past), liberal judges, Democrats, or Republicans. Blame weak churches that are immersed in consumerism. To find vibrant, missional churches, look to Africa and Asia! (The churches here that are a source of strength are the ones that don’t whine about what’s happening in America–they just recognize that they live in a Post-Christian environment and gladly accept the missional nature of the people of God.)

7. I refer again to #5. I’m a bit prickly. Maybe the blog needs a rest until I get a couple days into my break.

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Published
by
Mike
on July 3, 2004
in General
. 102 Comments

I really only meant to address the issue at Highland. Really. But then I was asked to at the Zoe Conference. Then those messages got put on the internet. Then tapes went out. . . . Anyway, my views on the role of women are pretty well known by now.

I look forward to the day when we will, in our assemblies, hear young women reading scripture, listen to grandmas leading prayers, and see moms (along with dads) baptizing their children.

This isn’t because I’ve sold out to our culture. It’s a case of where culture is bringing us kicking and screaming to a more biblical place–much as it did with racism.

Scripture, written in a very patriarchal world, is still seeking to lead us to the upside down world of the kingdom — a place where there is “neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for [we] are all one in Christ Jesus.”

I’m tempted to hammer out a long blog about why I believe scripture is leading us here, what I think the meaning of restrictive passages (1 Cor. 14 and 1 Tim. 2) is, what the theological underpinnings are, etc. But that’s not for a blog, is it?

Let me just say that in the baby steps we’ve taken at Highland, our church is being blessed. Others may say we don’t care about scripture or that we’ve decided to be the Abilene circus (new members have been told both of these recently by members of other churches in town). But what we’ve experienced is a fresh allegiance to scripture, a fresh commitment to missional living, and a fresh awareness of the way God’s Holy Spirit has gifted our church. It’s not been an easy move since Highland is so visible, but it’s been a God-blessed one.

Tomorrow, again I’ll be blessed to serve communion side-by-side with my wife as people from the “south congregation” come forward for communion. I’ll again have tears in my eyes as I hear her tell people, “This is the blood of Jesus given for you.” I’ll be blessed to hear a sister in Christ share in the scripture reading.

It now seems obscene as we look back to days when worship and worship leading were restricted by color of skin. (Those who led the charge to preserve the racist system had their own texts to quote, of course. Be very careful of text-quoting exclusionists.)
Someday it will be equally obscene that we let church be a boys’ club for so long.

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Published
by
Mike
on July 2, 2004
in General
. 9 Comments

From my journal 12 years ago today (7/2/92):

Dear Father,

This morning at 2:42, I got to welcome Christopher Warren Cope into this world. What a marvelous blessing–to experience this joy for the third time.

Already this son has captured my heart.

My head spins with questions about his future. What will he enjoy? Will he mind having an “older” dad? Where will he go to school? Whom will he marry? What will he do for a job? All these questions are implicit in birth.

But my only prayer, Lord, is that he be full of your Spirit. Help him be a boy and man who is intoxicated with your love, eager to follow you. Please, please protect him from the values and behaviors of this world that aren’t in line with your kingdom.

May he come to know you–the God who fully redeemed him in Jesus Christ!