29. August 2010 by BruceSmith.

Dream State: embracing God’s fantastic adventure for your life

Our world is under the spell of a broken dream, a distorted reality.  Somehow, someone, has snuck into our minds and hearts, and implanted an idea which has gone viral and now eats away at our very souls.  As the movie, Inception, suggests, an idea, once fully formed, has stunning power.  That idea, false or true, can set “realities” in place which dictate how one’s life is lived. 

In our present world we are told that all we see, feel, desire is real…sex, money, anger, revenge, violence, unending pleasure, …these are the things which will fill the void, we are taught.  “This is what we all need more of!”  “This is the way to happiness!”  Everywhere we turn we are encouraged to taste, feel, embrace, take in, all and any thing our inner drives point out to us.  

Thousands of images are implanted into our minds daily through, song, video, dvd, rumor mills, soaps, billboards, packaging, t-shirts, and everywhere else we turn.  Live the dream!  Stay in the dream!  This is what’s real!  The clear message is, you can escape all the pain living in this dream, only the weak feel the difficulties of life.  So, the refrain goes.  This distortion of reality, sadly, has invaded the halls of our churches today as well.  Sermon after sermon, and book after book is written telling us that as God’s “blessed” people, its all good all the time, and anything else is a lie or outside of God’s plan.  Such a view, ignores the realities of life in the real world, and worse, is a complete contradiction of the words of Jesus who said, “In this life you will have hardship”.  Called to make the “hard” decision of going counter-cultural, we have come to believe, if its fun, its all good, relax, don’t be so uptight, don’t over-think everything, lighten up.  We abdicate joyful and committed purposeful living for the inept promise of a “good time”.  We are, indeed, called to enjoy life, called by God Himself to live life to the full, but the world’s roadmap to fun looks dramatically different from His.

This is, of course, nothing new.  This false reality is the one first pitched “in the beginning”, or shortly thereafter, in the garden.  It was there that Eve dove headfirst into the original deadly dream.  Believing that she had the right to build her own life, her own reality, she took the bait, and in doing so, led Adam to follow along with her.  Together, they set the stage, and built the architecture, for a world that has remained under the ether far too long.  Ever since, human beings have sought meaning and fulfillment in the wrong things, and have tried to avoid the realities of a broken world.  

Malcolm Muggeridge, in dealing with the reality of this lie suggested that the deceiver, and false dream casters, call out to us and “goad us to believe a lie when we see with and not through the eye”.  Because of the intoxicating nature of the dream’s false promises we are tempted to believe that the hot little thing in the daisy dukes and tight shirt is worth our pursuit, no guidelines attached.  We are told the payoff is worth the compromising of our integrity.  We are assured that the title on the door is of ultimate significance, and so, we sacrifice our families and the lives of any who would get in our way.  We are told that fame, for fame sake and all its perks, is worth anything we must give up to obtain it; our logic, our families, our health, our minds, our souls…to be famous, in the present cultural atmosphere, is salvation.  The adulation of lazy minds and thoughtless souls, somehow, has become the Holy Grail, the new American Dream.

Like the Satan figure in Milton’s Paradise Lost, we come to view the marvelous gifts and promises of God as an affront to our own independence, and so we sacrifice our souls on the altar of self-worship.  All that is good, we turn our backs on, and that which is bad we redefine as fantastic.  In pursuit of that fantasy we bury ourselves forever.  Decision by decision, we continue to dig our own emotional, relational, physical, and spiritual graves.

We must wake up, and quick, as individuals, as a culture, and as a global community.  As we go deeper, as we remain asleep in the lies sold to us, our distortion grows, the trap snares us further, our burial in guilt is deeper, the shame overtakes us, and the emptiness grows.

The longer we remain in our addiction to escapism, the more grave the explosive reality and the carnage of our lives becomes.  Either we shake ourselves from this nightmare or else we shall die in a broken dream and face an eternity of increasing madness and darkness of soul.

Shockingly, even as our worlds cave in around us, and the pain and destruction is undeniable, we seem unwilling to let go of the patterns, psychosis, and pathologies of the past which imprison us.  A broken relationship with a parent, a dream of a happy marriage betrayed, a broken professional dream, an unfulfilled longing…in our unwillingness to own our part, amidst our fear to face our own failure and guilt, and to place it before God, our denial of reality locks us into a downward spiral….lower and lower we go until we forgot what truth and goodness look like.  We, like Adam and Eve, buy into the lie that’s its easier to hide than to look the truth in the face and deal with it.  We forget the message of grace and embrace the fantasy of self-preservation.  Asleep to the reality that we cannot control our lives, we slumber in our self-trickery, and ignore what everyone else around us sees so clearly.  

There is good news.  There is an escape.  We can be brought out of this state of madness.  Our only way out is to find balance again.  We must have something sure, a totem, a monument of truth, something worthy of our affection.  We need a frame of reference for true reality in a world drugged by the deceptive fantasy of falsehood.   Only the CROSS OF CHRIST serves as that place of balance and stability.  The historical reality of the Christ event is the one sure thing which points the way to sanity in a world smothering under a cloak of deadly illusion.

Chesterton has suggested, “Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.”   The key to our coming back to reality and living the fantastic adventure God has for us is to see the world as it is.  We must see what is around us through the eyes of God rather than with the lens of desire.  The majority cultural opinion will always lead you away from the call of God for your life.  As the scriptures tell us, “Wide is the road that leads you away from God and toward destruction.  Many will take that road to death.  Narrow is the road that leads you to God and the plan He has for you, and few will travel on that road.”

If we are to live a life big enough to inspire our hearts in a world gone mad with an endless thirst for the cries and passions of those who cannot see, we must allow our hearts to be captured by the life-giving truth of the biblical story.  When we sit before the God-inspired stories within its pages, it is there we find our balance.  The word of God gives us this vivid promise, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, the things God has prepared for those who love Him.”  Now that’s a dream state to crave!

In place of the craving for some Freudian compulsion to be loved by those who never can love you properly, God offers you His perfect love.  In place of the unquenchable longing to be touched by another, any other, God extends the compassionate and pure touch of His hand, a hand and quality of affection which will only protect and nurture you.  No other love can handle your heart in reality.  In place of the overwhelming weight of guilt and the crushing blow of failure, God offers you forgiveness AND newness.  In place of a thought-life controlled by shame inducing desires, God extends to you the promise of the ongoing transformation of your mind in Christlikeness.  In place of a rabid sense of reactive rage and destructive insecurity, God offers you a heart of tenderness and understanding, even compassion, towards those who know not how to treat you.  In place of spiritual immaturity and distortion, He offers ongoing growth, depth, and clarity.  In place of your bitterness and thirst for revenge toward those who have pained you deeply, God grants you the peace of mind, and rest of spirit, that only comes from outside yourself.  As the scriptures say, “God keeps them in perfect peace whose minds are continually focused on Him”.  In place of confusion and self-pity amidst your unfulfilled desires, God offers you the superior knowledge that His ways are not our ways, and that He is able and willing to redeem all things in your life.  He reminds us that nothing happens outside of the gaze of God, and that He regularly transforms tragedy into triumph in the lives of His kids.  He whispers the assurance given to Jeremiah, “I have plans for you, plans not to harm you, plans for your good, plans for a hope and a future.”  And in place of a search for life in the shallow waters of cultural pursuits, shallow waters that will eventually drown you, God offers you a life-long swim in the ocean of lasting fulfillment, purpose, and heart enlarging adventure.  He is the vacation for the soul we all desire.  He is The Dream and the Dream Giver.  He is the source and the ultimate destination for all true and lasting dreams.

Embrace the Dream State God offers you today.  Remember His promise, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, …all that God has planned for you in Christ Jesus”.  That state of mind, soul, and spirit, cannot be shaken.  The world may attempt to deceive us, the walls make shake a bit, and the enemy may shoot his daggers our way seeking to apply his plan of inception.  But we are assured by God, the onslaught of the enemy, and all the attacks of hell itself, cannot, will not, prevail.  He is for us, it matters not who may be against us.  Let’s get after His adventure.

Bruce Smith

optimuslife.org

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27. August 2010 by BruceSmith.

In The Grip of the Game

The grip.  I just like the way that sounds, don’t you?  Grip.  Say that out loud.  Say it again!  Not all words feel like they sound.  This one does.  When you say, “Grip”, you just understand the word.  The grip is about having a handle on things, getting things set in order for what is to come.  Whether its a carpenter’s tool, a pickle jar, a tennis racquet or life, the grip is of utmost importance.  

Bigger than our grip on the racquet handle, the grip of the game upon us, is most central to our success.  What any lifelong tennis enthusiast will tell you is that, at some point, the game “hooked” them.  At that moment, when the game really runs through your heart, lungs, veins, and soul, its then that the game is really on.  We cannot expect to get our grip on the game set properly until and unless the game has its grip firmly locked onto us.

I’m sure you are already ahead of me and have found the connection of the metaphor to life itself.  Life, the game of life, like tennis, is an enthralling proposition.  So many people spend their lives trying to master this game, getting an upper hand, locking onto things, protecting reputation, winning at all costs, and fail, somehow, to recognize that the secret to life, winning at life, is loosening the grip and allowing the Giver of Life to grip onto us.  

One thing that those who truly appreciate the game understand is that the game is bigger than the player.  Those who grip onto life and to self too tightly wind up squeezing the life out of themselves and all those around them.  Troubled people everywhere, on the court of life, place a vice grip on everything within reach, trying desperately to avoid loss of any kind, and in the process they bring the very loss they fear.  As any accomplished tennis player knows, you have to play to win, you cannot play not to lose.  Play loose or play to lose.  There is a big difference.  

In life, those playing not to lose are easy to spot, just as they are on the court.  These players are tight, angry, distressed, locked down, and wound up to the hilt.  Psychologically, perhaps because they have experienced the pain of loss in the past, they cannot handle the idea of losing again, and so, they fall into the deceptive but alluring pattern of protective play.  Its a trap.  This kind of grip placement can only lead to a game of errors, bad decisions, and utter defeat.  Once the joy of the game is gone a person cannot play free.  The really sad part is that once locked into that cycle its very hard to get out.  Once a tennis player tightens up and begins to protect, they are done.  It becomes a downward spiral that is really hard to watch.  Whether it stems from bad coaching, no coaching, a refusal to embrace coaching or anything else, the result is the same–loss.

If you have ever seen a player in the grip of the game, regardless of the score, you have a sense of what I am talking about.  Its not that the competitor does not realize challenges are there, rather, he is so in love with the game and its process that he will find a way to enjoy the ride, and play to the full, without regard of the outcome.  To give one’s best, to play the game as it ought to be played is enough.  

To play free is to understand what Eric Liddell, the Scottish Olympic runner and missionary understood and expressed when he spoke of his calling to be both a minister and an athlete, “…when I run, I feel His pleasure”.  Those in the grip of the game, in the grip of the Game Giver, know what it is like to swing out, to play for the win, and to enjoy every stroke.  Similar words were spoken by Saint Augustine who wrote that we were made for relationship with God (the Game Maker), and that we cannot hope to find any rest or lasting joy in the game of life until we find our rest in Him.  If we separate our outcome form the ultimate reality of the game or if we elevate ourselves and our security above the game and its Creator, we lose by default.  No win-loss record can compensate for such a life.

If we are to have the desire and power to fully pursue this game, tennis or life, we must first have this restful hunger, love, and desire to play the game as it ought to be played.  Its not enough to do it our way.  We must feel His pleasure over us, and rest in His care for us, if we hope to get the most out of our game.  The opinion of those watching in the stands does not ultimately matter if we are pursuing the game as its intended.  Despite all the opinions and schools of thought that exist about the game, the true game, the way it was meant to be played, is absolute and knowable.  Its a beautiful game, and when one sees it played like it was intended, its easy to recognize and say, “That’s how the game should be played! That’s how I want to play!”  A knowledge of His grip on us is the only thing that can provide this.  The game, His game, is bigger than us and bigger than our results, and that’s just fine.  The game He desires to open up to us is beyond anything we could imagine.  The joy that comes from playing for an audience of One is thrilling.  We were all intended to play free, to swing out, to know the bliss of the beautiful game.  Living in the grip of the game is an undeniable pleasure.  Enjoy living in that reality.

Bruce Smith

optimuslife.org

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26. August 2010 by BruceSmith.

The Tennis Player’s Guide to the Universe

Tennis is game of speed, and of touch, and of strategy, and of strength, and of agility, and of stamina, and of emotion, and of placement, and of power, and of technique, and of balance, and of intelligence, and of heart.  In those ways, and many more, tennis is much like life.  The game can be thrilling, heart-breaking, exhilarating, exhausting, adrenaline charging, poetic, frustrating, joy inducing, and sublime.  The game of tennis offers us a striking metaphor for life in the real world.  This game can move you to tears, tears of elated bliss, and tears of brutal pain, loss, defeat.  One can go, quickly, from salivating over the potent of victory into the throws of depression over unexpected, unfathomable, and unseen loss.  The game is heaven.  The game can be hell.

Anyone who has played the game of tennis knows how addicting and repelling the game can be.  I have known “great athletes” who have come to the game after mastering others sports, only to wind up exasperated by the challenge of becoming proficient in the game of tennis.  The Beautiful Game, as it has been called (at least by me), offers the accomplished player much on a psychological and even spiritual level, and yet, can utterly perplex a soul used to mastering a more average or common sport (as all others are).  Tennis will take the common athlete and reduce him to tears, sending him away cowering, sniffling, and crying to his mommy.  This is a game for true athletes. Only those with gladiator hearts should venture between these lines.  Studies have proven, in fact, that aside from full contact sports, tennis is singularly, the most physically demanding and destructive upon the body.  Many shall aspire to become great at this game, but few shall travel successfully upon this road.  The sooner you accept this the better off you will be.  Accepting this truth is what prepares you for reality and for the tough but satisfying work ahead.

What is so compelling about this game to me and to many others, aside from the physical and mental rewards, is the vastness of experiences on the court, experiences which have such a direct connection to the game of life on so many levels.  This game, like few others, perhaps because its so mano a mano, is a striking mirror to the reality of life in the world, yea, even life in the universe.  Deep spiritual truths unfold for us within this simply drawn box upon the terra firma.

In the rambling prose which follows my hope is to help you understand just how magnificent and complex the game is.  As you continue to read, my aim is to confront you with truths which will challenge you, inspire you, and embolden you to take up the game with a renewed vigor.  For some, this may actually be your first true attempt to pursue this grand game.  Others of you, having experienced the game before, and having quit or lost your drive for excellence, I hope, will find a renewed understanding of and passion for this game.  

Why?  What’s so important about this game?  Why should anyone have such an interest?  Your very soul is at stake, that’s why!  The pages which follow are your guide to tennis, and to the universe.  

Getting a Grip

I was introduced to the game of tennis through my step-father when I was about ten or eleven years old.  A good athlete, intrigued by how graceful and athletic the game appeared to me when I watched my step-father, Don, play, I quickly became enamored with a sport which seemed to offer more than any I had played before.  I was a strong soccer player in grade school, an all-star baseball player, and even a good basketball and football player despite my being undersized.  Sport had always come easy to me.  Tennis, with the mix of athleticism, artistic expression, mind-games, quickness, and power, hooked into me like a drug.  Once I started it was game over.  While I continued to play and even excel at other sports over the years, everything else gradually lost its allure in light of the glorious splendors the game of tennis offered me.  Today, after a junior career and a college career in the game, and having just passed “mid-life”, I love the game more than ever despite the fact that it has left the body with many an ache and pain.  What I have gained through playing this game cannot be overstated.  What must be stated, is that all the years of training, all the hours on the court, all the injuries, all the mental torture, and all the wins and losses–they have all been worth it.  My life, and indeed my soul, has been enriched by the game.

The game which originated, perhaps with the ancient Egyptians (or some form of it perhaps), and which has given me so much, and gives so much to so many others around the world now, began, for me, with a handshake, a handshake with my step-father, Don, who had some seriously calloused mitts from playing and teaching for so many years.  As he shook my hand that first time on the court and locked his piercing blue eyes onto me, it was as if he were saying, “All that follows from this point begins here in this handshake”.  For some reason, I got it.  And because I got it, embraced it, and built everything upon that foundation, that grip, the game has unfolded for me in lovely ways.  Today, when I have the opportunity to teach, that handshake, that grip, is right where I start.

The grip is everything.  Its the foundation.  Get the grip right, and you have something to work with.  Its the foundation of all the other techniques in the sport of tennis, AND life.

When a student of the game approaches me for the first time and wanders onto the court I bring them directly to the net.  I have with them a sort of Vince Lombardi moment that goes a bit like this, “Inside these lines the game will unfold.  But if you want to really play this game as best you can, you have to remember today, your first day.  What I am about to tell you may be the most important thing you have ever heard, really.  First, this game WILL get a grip on you.  That is the central truth of tennis.  The game will hound you down, it will capture you.  And, YOU need to get a grip too.  The whole game is dependent upon your grip, and as you will see over time, the grip has many variations, intricacies, uses, and reasons for being.  The grip is your foundation.  This is where we start.”

At this point I ask the sojourner to stand facing the net, and me, and hold out there hand as if to shake mine.  As they do so I place the racquet into the palm of their hand so that the racquet’s strings are vertical as they point the racquet toward me.  “Like a good handshake”, I say, “The grip on the racquet must be strong, sincere, but ready for adjustment at any moment”.  This is the starting point.  Now it’s on!

There is, of course, an entire universe of teaching which must take place from this point forward, but for now, the grip must be understood, embraced, and mastered.  Once the game has its grip on us, and once we have mastered the grip(s), things we never thought possible take place in us and for us.  The grip of the game transforms us from spectator to performer, performer/devotee.  

As simple as this may seem, the truth of the grip is a bit more vast than we may first assume.  That being so, sufficient time must be spent on this foundation before we can even begin to hit, run, and play.  We need to spend some time here in order to get the grip right.  So, here we begin.

…to be continued!!

Bruce Smith

optimuslife.org

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22. August 2010 by BruceSmith.

Beyond Circumstance (happiness) to Significance (purpose and meaning)

Would you rather?…  Are you familiar with those little books which ask that question?  Would you rather, be Lord of the Universe and have no friends, or be a pauper and be surrounded by friends?  Hmm.  Or, would you rather lose an arm or a leg?  Or, would you rather be smart and have a bad job or stupid and have a great job?  Would you rather marry a supermodel who was a miserable person, or an ugly girl with a great personality?  Would you rather…?  Would you rather?

The questions of life, even the hypothetical ones, are often very interesting.  Some questions, of course, matter much more than others.  Some direct us to deeper things than others.  But questions do matter.  So, I propose one for you, one that, really given thought, matters tremendously to each of us.  In fact, the following question, like few really, and its answer, has the power to define our lives.  So here goes:

Would you rather, be happy or have a purpose?  

The question may appear benign at first, and surely, we would all rather have both.  So where is the rub?  Is it possible to have both?  Maybe.  Maybe sometimes.  Probably not all the time.  Rarely, actually.  And here is why each of us must answer the question.

Happiness, that state of measurable elation, ease of emotion, and feel-goodness, has to do with circumstance, things which take place outside of us or our control largely. When things are going our way, we are happy.  When the sales never stop, the kids always obey, the love life is spectacular, fun is unending, the body is strong, and everyone likes us (or at lest the right people)…we are HAPPY:))  Who does not want those things, right?  In and of themselves, they are not bad, obviously.

Significance is another thing all together.  This is the option which deals with something beyond circumstance or happy situations.  Significance is not situationally dependent, rather, its based upon meaning and a sense of contentment and direction amidst all of life’s realities.  A person may have good experiences or bad experience, even profoundly tragic experiences, and yet still have significance and purpose.  This is the state of mind that understands and embraces that life is bigger than events we like or desire, events which make us “happy”.  Life can actually take on a more profound sense of purpose apart from the preferred situations we seek.

The happy person, by the definition given here, must have situations go well for them in order to maintain that sense of elated and measurable feel-goodness.  The person living for significance and purpose, however, even amidst the terrors of life, can yet thrive internally.  The hedonistic pleasure seekers who dominate so much of our popular society and attract so much of our appreciation, may be well paid, well maintained, well pampered, and well connected, yet too few actually have a sense of significance and contentment if the papers and reports (and self testimonies), and obvious life realities are correct.  

Significance seekers, living for something beyond the next “good” time, can, like the German theologian and pastor Deitrich Bonhoeffer, who was thrown into prison and ultimately killed for his biblical stand and fight against Hitler, experience a profound sense of purpose, rest, and passion for life, even in the face of demonic evil and horrifying circumstance.  Those living for a higher calling can go to the grave proclaiming, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is GAIN”.  Such assurance of a bigger life beyond the grave, sustained by an intimate relationship with God on this side of the veil, offers something happiness never can.  

It is too true that many who spend their lives looking, desperately, for happiness, often wind up bankrupt of soul.  They tend to destroy themselves emotionally, relationally, physically, and spiritually.  The list is, sadly, all too long.  Some examples serve us well however.  

You may know of the following woman, who like many modern women today, looked for happiness in all the wrong places.  She was beautiful, dressed to kill (or to attract), she was sultry, the definition of “sexy”, she was wealthy, famous, in and out of relationships, and bed, with the most desirable of men, she was heralded a star, her fame was beyond all her contemporaries, …AND, she died at the behest of her own hand, miserable, lonely, depressed, broken, empty.  Marilyn Monroe, who seemingly had all the “happiness” many crave and aspire to, died an ugly death, one not too different from Anna Nicole Smith and so many other “stars”.  Like the flaming shooting stars which dot the western skies on a coal black night, people who live for the lights of our world catch the eye for a moment and then are burned up into oblivion before anyone can really see exactly what or who they are.

You may also know the following man.  He, a billionaire, a man who had politicians in the palm of his hand, a captain of industry, a playboy, a world player, a controller of his own destiny, a world traveler, a collector of trophy dates galore, and the man who could stop a room when he entered it on his reputation alone.  Howard Hughes, the image of success, the aviation mogul, died, alone, addicted, empty handed, insane by any legitimate standard, unkept, hideous, and in torment of soul.  His life ended in disaster.  He was an empty crazed wreck despite having all a man could acquire.  All the happy perks, amassed at a dizzying pace, left him, like Monroe, utterly UNhappy, and without any sense of significance.  

In a world most accurately defined by change above all, we must have something more than more happy happenings.  Good, bad, and all points in between will come and go continually from here to the grave.  People close to us will not meet our ultimate needs, kids will disappoint us, spouses will betray us, money will come and go, jobs will be won and lost, health will be tenuous, houses will be knocked over by storms (physically, financially or otherwise)…stuff changes, things happen.  It must be more than “happy” we seek if we are to have a deep sense of meaning and significance along the journey.  

Deitrich Bonhoeffer, brilliant as he was, and well-connected, as his family was, could have taken many routes to success in his life.  The bright young German who attained a PHD in his early 20’s could have taken professorship, tenure, residence in the United States, and many other happy pursuits.  His father was the foremost psychological mind in Germany, his mother came from aristocracy and was brilliant in her own right, one brother was an imminent attorney with political connections, and another brother a physicist of world renown.  Talk about the makings of the highway paved to happiness!  He could do whatever he wanted. And he did.  But not like most.

Deithrich, constrained by grip of God, forsook all the avenues of ease, and placed himself front and center in the fight against the demonic onslaught of Hitler and his legion.  Following God first into ministry, and fighting the attempts of the Hitler regime to deceive the Christian public of Germany by co-opting the church into the Third Reich, Bonhoeffer eventually went on to lead a revolution in the German church, protecting her from the waves of diabolical danger as Hitler sought to make himself a god of the German people.  Eventually, compelled that God called him to action, Bonhoeffer accepted a role in one of the many attempts to assassinate Hitler.  Close as they may have gotten, they did not succeed, and Bonhoeffer was eventually killed by the Reich for his efforts on behalf of his country.  All those who knew him along the way spoke of how gracefully and powerfully he confronted death, extended compassion to others, championed truth, and walked in intimacy with God.  His writings have now reached millions around the world and have been translated into numerous languages.  He is a super-hero amongst modern Christ followers.

Ease, happiness, good circumstances, these Deitrich did not have.  Living his last days in prison, separated from family, hearing reports of the death of friends and family at the hands of the Reich leaders,  and separated from his new fiance, Deitrich, yet, lived a life of utter significance and purpose.  His writings from prison, like those of the apostle Paul’s, speak of the ability of God to bring forth joy and contentment amidst the most difficult of circumstances.  

It all comes down to the pursuit of the will of God, as Deitrich suggests.  The will of God, above all else in life, and a full pursuit of living fully for God’s will for us, no matter what circumstances that places us in, is the the only thing which will or can provide for a life of significance.  The will of God equals significance.  

Nothing has ever taken its place, nothing else can ever fulfill the human heart, nothing else can make us truly happy deep within.  As Bonheoffer has suggested, the question is not, “What will make me happy?”, but rather, “What is the will of God?”  The latter question, answered for you, will set you up for a life bigger and more fulfilling than you ever thought possible.  Really.  

Bruce Smith

optimuslife.org

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18. August 2010 by BruceSmith.

Siren Song

The scriptures tell us that beauty is fleeting, and that a Godly woman is to be praised. Our culture could not be more opposed to this truth. Scriptures also tell us of the value of our minds and of the glory of innocence. Again, culture leads us elsewhere. 

We are bombarded with thousands of calls every day to hear the call of the seductress and the seducer. From tweener movie stars to pop icons and more, the siren call allures. 

So pervasive is the call that far too many have just surrendered, even many in our churches. From dress codes to entertainment choices to social interaction standards, we are in desperate need of a renewed biblical vision. 

No, Christianity is not about rule following. But it is about transformation. “be renewed by the transforming of your minds”. This suggests that turning our minds off and giving too much time and attention to the siren calls is a mortal danger. The battle begins with the mind. We must use it. We must think and not merely fun ourselves into spiritual imbecility. We are far too prone to enjoy the easy and accessible option.

Is it that important you ask? Jesus gave a metaphor, using hyperbole, to make the point, “…better to cut off your hand if it causes you to stumble… Better to poke out your eye if it causes you to sin”.

Far from our view of cultural appeasement, Jesus spoke of the dangers of moral “balance”. He said we must be hot or cold to the things of God or He would vomit us out of his mouth. 

A story illustrating how vigorous our self direction and thoughtfulness ought to be comes from the Greek literary figure Odysseus. Knowing of the captivating beauty of the sirens who would sing out from the rocks as sailors passed by, he instructed his men to fill their ears with wax so as not to be tempted by the beautiful singing and thereby deceived as they gave in and sailed toward the death inflicting beauties.

Further still, known for his cunning intelligence, and aware of his own hunger for beauty, he commanded his men to tie him to the mast of the ship so that he could not lead them all to destruction as he gave in to temptation upon seeing and hearing the sirens calling out.

It took every knot to keep him down as they passed and he struggled to get free burning up with passion to have what would have literally consumed his flesh and soul and that of his men. 

Christian or not, we live in a world where sin is made to look good for us. Death is presented as an attractive option to us all. We are not told it is death of course. We are told it’s just fun or what we need or want or are entitled to. We must see the siren call for what it is, a trap. 

God has given us much to enjoy. His call is one of delight and adventure. He knows what will fulfill us. His sex menu is far more pleasing to the spiritual palette. His call to truth so much more sublime than deceit. His call to modesty so much more precious than the cultural presentation of skin deep persona. His call to love and forgiveness far superior to bitterness and rage and revenge. 

There is no song like that of Gods love song to us. There is no man or woman whose physical or emotional pleasure or company can offer what God alone can give. Lasting beauty is not found in a man or woman who crave to be seen and known for physicality. True lasting goodness is found in the plan of God for our lives.

Where are you today? Is your mind turned on to the truth of God? Do you hunger for the protection of His plan in you and in those you love? Are you willing to fill your ears with wax and tie yourself to the mast for His sake? Will you place yourself around others who will help you tie the knots tight?

I am not suggesting that rules will bring you peace. They will not. But as we gaze upon the beauty of Gods word and plan we come to see more and more that His ways are a sublime delight, His thoughts higher than ours, and His precepts like honey to our mouths. As we listen to the lyrics of scripture our passions come alive for more of Him. No visage can compare. The call of the siren falls on deaf ears when those ears are atune to the voice of God more and more.

As the story goes, because he tied himself to the mast and restrained he and his crew, and as the myth bespoke, the sirens, unable to feed upon wanton and lusting souls, died. Sin is that way for us. The more we turn away the more it’s power over us dies. 

Our entire lives are impacted by the vigor with which we pursue Gods ways. Our minds lead the way. Think deeply. Take time to think. You will come to enjoy it. Remember, the truth sets us free. Truth is absorbed through contemplation not amusement. There is plenty fun to be had. 

The strength of our relationships, our families, our churches, our culture, is determined by our collective pursuits. Beware the woman standing in her door calling you in, says proverbs. Though she may look good on that billboard, in that video, in that get-up, … Her call leads to death. The woman of God is to be praised. 

Someone fetch my rope, 

Bruce Smith

Optimuslife.org

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9. August 2010 by BruceSmith.

At Play Upon a Sea of Peril

Recently, while vacationing with my family, I had the chance to do something I had never done before.  I went parasailing.  Being pulled behind a boat, on a thin rope, 400 feet in the air, as it turns out, is pretty exciting (and a fairly effective way to get your motion sickness really kicked into high gear).  What was the most unexpected thrill, however, while floating beneath the gargantuan parachute, was the sight below.  For a couple of days we had been swimming and playing in blue-green, albeit algae filled waters, and enjoying the sugar white beaches with little concern.  That would all change with one joy ride over populated beaches full of families and sun seekers.

What changed our care-free vacation into something a bit different, as I mentioned, was the view from above the sunny playground.  Up there, able to see the full picture, more than sun and fun opened up to us.  As we were being bounced around by the wind and waves and watching unsuspecting children and families blissfully enjoying their vacations, we noticed something startling.  Sharks.  Lots and lots of sharks.  Not just any sharks it turns out.  They were Bull Sharks, which are known to be the most aggressive and most likely to attack a human.  This little sight seeing tour, quite unexpectedly, turned into a sober awakening for us.  For the remainder of the vacation we wrestled with how and when to play in the gulf.  We became mindful of reality.  

What struck me most while suspended in the air and watching how close the sharks were to the people was the lack of ability of the swimmers to see or even consider the danger that was merely a few feet away.  They say, “Ignorance is bliss”, but in fact, as we began to see, ignorance of some things is pain waiting to happen.  As we yelled down to some who were all too close to the danger, they just smiled, laughed, and waved at us.  They thought, it appeared, we were joking about the flesh eating beasts just out of their eyesight.

What we learned, just after our parasailing expedition ended, as we went back to the room to get ready for dinner, and while watching Shark Week which ironically was running on television, is that Bull Sharks like shallow water (4-6 feet), and they like it murky (like the algae filled waters near the shoreline where we were).  We also learned that splashing sends sound waves their way and attracts the sharks toward the activity.  In a nutshell, what we witnessed was a pretty scary scenario, one that could not have been much worse really in terms of the perfect environment and situation suited for disaster.  And no one had a clue!!  Thousands of people were as content as can be playing upon a sea of peril.  Some I’m sure were aware that just a couple of years ago several attacks took place right there.  Out of sight out of mind, I guess.

It did not take long for the metaphor to sink in.  As I pondered the tragic irony of the situation, I was struck how similar the situation is to life in the world on a spiritual basis.  First off, one would think that people are hired to keep track of the dangers in the waters where thousands of people are playing.  But no one said a word the entire week about the sharks in the water.  It is not a stretch to assume that it just does not “pay” for this kind of dangerous information to get out.  Taxed by the economic realities and the oil spill in the gulf, I’m sure the tourism industry in the area does not need word to get out about the number of sharks in the area right now.  This is too true of life in the world.  Too many have too much invested emotionally, relationally, and financially to warn us of life outside the boundaries of God.  Keep watching the mind-numbing television every night, don’t read, don’t think, don’t process.  Just join the crowd!  And pay for our ads, movies, shows, and lifestyles as you do!  So, they say.  And we don’t even hear it.  We’ll tell you what’s cool, sexy, fun, and meaningful!  We’ll tell you how to blend in and get attention.  We’ll tell you what to wear and how to wear it.  Just be quiet and enjoy the ride.  Don’t process the entertainment, just take it in!  Its all just good fun, don’t worry.  Don’t let the puritans in church tell you how to live, we got this!  And so, rather than protect one another, we feed each other to the sharks.

Another spiritual reality which comes to mind is the correlation to how we pursue fun amidst danger in our world today.  We live in a cultural sea which craves and encourages fun and ease, and worry free living.  If it feels good, ignore the perilous possibilities!  Everyday, for example, we are bombarded with thousands of images, literally, telling us that the way to life is found in the waters of sex, drink, night clubs, and freedom from moral constraint.  Don’t worry! we are told.  Everyone is having fun!  Just don’t look down.  I wonder how many of our own family and friends are living inches away from the devouring reality of sin lurking amidst the murky lifestyle they now find themselves in.  Convinced of the safety in numbers, they lie wide open to the attack of the enemy at every turn.  One more step and they may find life utterly different.  Are we willing to scream from our view from above and warn them of dangers swarming around them?  Whether they laugh at us or not, are we willing to try?

What we fail to realize, and what I was made aware of on our flight, is that we are so exceedingly close to ruin, and yet, so unaware of the truth.  We go about splashing and lunging, and diving, in the culturally accepted seas of fun, and never pay any mind to the reality that God is screaming at us, “Danger!  Turn back!  Find shore!”  We are told that sexual expression is a matter of taste, that two consenting adults can do anything they want, and that modesty and self-control are puritan ideas promoted by uptight losers.   Its about us, our desires, not what God wants or offers.   All the while, God, who has the highest and clearest of all views, cries out toward us to save of from dashing ourselves upon the rocks.  He does all He can to remove us from the dangers which lie below, unnoticed by the crowd inebriated with fun.  He sees the blood-letting which is drawing the demonically inspired feeding frenzy well under way.  

What we must recognize is the truth behind Jesus’ statement, “I have come that you might have life and that to the full”. (Jn 10:10)  He is indeed the living water for all those struggling in the waters of cultural acceptance and mind-numbing moral laziness. Just as all those distracted swimmers were blind to the dangers nearby, dangers able and willing to dismember them or worse, we find ourselves, too often, willfully unaware of the reality of God’s truth.  Just as Adam and Eve ran from His truth, failed, and thereby brought themselves shame, we also, perpetuate the cycle.  We pursue a deadly form of self worship, and we worship a deadly form of lifestyle, all the while hoping it will bring us the peace and rest and meaning we have always craved.  It will never work.  The cultural lifeguards have abandoned their call to keep watch, and they merely tell all us swimmers to join in the fun and ignore the danger.  “Relax”, they tell us, “Lighten up”, its all no big deal.  Nothing bad can happen here.  But if we read the papers, we must recognize someone is lying.  

If we, any of us, have any hope in finding a life worth living, we will have to come back to the scriptures and search the only charts which can properly direct our course.  The warning flags are there and are there for our good, our protection, and our ultimate joy.  Safety and true pleasure are actually found as we look toward the flags God raises for us.  We must not view His warnings as mere prohibitions to all that is fun, rather, we must recognize that He who sees all and knows all, is the very source of our good.  In pursuing Him we find life, peace, rest, a vacation for the soul.

Where has your life brought you?  How have the choices turned out for you?  Are you drowning?  Have the shark bites taken their toll?  Are you feeling dismembered?  God alone is your hope, your way back toward a life worth living.  Are the patterns, many of which initially promise a taste of fun, actually serving to imprison you?  Is the adrenaline rush you seek in one relationship after another really working?  Or is it that quest actually leaving your heart feeling feasted upon? 

There is a way forward.  There is a shoreline where all things are safe.  Swim there as hard and as fast as you can.

Bruce Smith, 

Optimuslife.org

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11. July 2010 by BruceSmith.

Despicably Contrite!

Brokenness, the quality of heart sought out by God for any that would venture forth in faith, as prescribed in Psalm 51:17, is likewise to be accompanied by a recognition of our own inward “despicability” and the corresponding perception of the grotesqueness of sin.  The pronouncement of any who have come to recognize the true nature of their state of being before a holy God is, “Despicable Me!”

Yes, I have seen the movie.  Funny, witty, sharp, and with an unsuspected nod to theological reality, the movie is a good reminder of how drastic our need for character change really is, and how completely our inward motivations and desires can actually be changed when we see life in a different light.  Its a humorous but insightful reminder that we can get wrapped up into and warped by patterns which settle so deep we begin to actually need them to survive no matter how fatal the flaws may be.  Until we can see the fatality of our twisted character and the depth of depravity clearly, we cannot hope to truly operate in life-giving ways.  The starting gate of character change is contrition.  A severe and fundamental turning, changing inward reality and desire from the old to something entirely new.  Contrition sees the truth: The true nature of our sinfulness is difficult to overestimate in light of the potential Christlikeness God calls each of us too.  We all miss the mark, widely.  And when we see it, everything changes.

No to mislead anyone, we must all be aware that our character nor our performance will ever measure up to the standard of perfection set by Christ.  We are all saved by grace through faith and this not of ourselves.  None can boast that they are so good that they measure up.  None can claim moral elitism.  There has not been a human to come anywhere close to the mark of God’s goodness to which we should all aspire.  Grace, abounding grace, is that which draws us, wins us, and keeps us all.  Its all Him.  And this simple truth is what should drive us to want less of ourselves, and more of Him in all our attitudes, reactions, speech, desires, and character. 

Grace, alone, through and through, is the generosity of God which extends unmerited favor to all despicable sinners such as me, and you.   We walk forward everyday in the reality of the newness and hope of grace.  This understanding, and the goodness of God, and the sweetness of holy character is what compels us to contrition.  Contrition, as defined throughout church history, is that character which motivates a person to recognize failure, to run the other direction, literally despise the former sin pattern, and to hunger for a new way of God’s choosing.  An actual change takes place within which effects how things work out in one’s life.  Its a change felt and seen by all onlookers.

This can relate to relational pursuits, attitudes, parenting behaviors, business tactics, motivational strategies, interaction in traffic, response to offenses, misunderstandings, you name it.  As we become more keenly aware of the self-damaging, relational damaging and societal damaging effects of missing the mark of God’s call we begin to want something better, something other.  Self interest, protection, and twisted motivations for all our actions lose appeal in light of the serene quality of Godly character.  Damaging insecurities, ego driven compulsions, and all manner of restless drives and protectionism begin to fall away when we finally come to long for ongoing Christlikeness to be built in our hearts.  In light of the beauty of grace we lose the fear of admitting our weakness, and run to the source of renewed character.  Understanding contrition, amidst the backdrop of God’s lovingkindness, propels us to long for more change on a continual basis.  We don’t fear the next step God has for us because we know our best interest is in His mind.  We begin to long for the next revelation of God that will instill greater character within.  We want to see where the next place of growth will be.  In so doing, we realize we are becoming more fully human in the truest sense.

Contrition, a settled rest in leaving past patterns, and a hungering for greater goodness, can define us as we understand that God is not there to batter us when we fail, rather, He longs for us to see reality in order that we might find more of Him and live out the fulness of what He has in store for us.  He is protecting us in showing us the light.  In illuminating the darkness of our hearts He is bringing us the help we need.  

Contrition knows that without a turning from damaging actions and inner drives, we cannot know how inwardly sweet life can become.  Anyone who has tasted and seen that the Lord is good as the Psalmist writes, finds it hard to quench the appetite for more of this life giving goodness.  Like honey to tongue is the sweetness of Godly character in a once despicable heart.  Like the sun breaking through the blackness of a storm-driven sky, so is the brightness of compassionate care, a tempered spirit, a grace-filled response in a world filled with harshness and fear. In contrition our hearts come alive in 3D reality to the promise that God’s ways are better than our ways, that Godly character trumps human reaction, that spiritually led activity wins out over any attempt we make to forge our own way forward in this life.  

May we all embrace a bigger view, a better way, a more loving thirst for Christ-filled living.  Anything less is, well, despicable.

Despicably me, 

Bruce Smith

optimuslife.org

soulstormsite.com 

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7. July 2010 by BruceSmith.

A Broken and Contrite Heart…the starting point for the life God wants for you.

Brokenness.  Are you willing to have it?  Sounds bad, doesn’t it?  In reality, as is the case with horses, but more so for us, this brokenness is what we must have in order to be made into the likeness of Christ, which is God’s basic goal for us.

With regard to the “breaking” of horses, Wikipedia summarizes it this way:

Horse training refers to a variety of practices that teach horses to perform certain behaviors when asked to do so by humans. Horses are trained to be manageable by humans for everyday care as well as for equestrian activities from horse racing to therapeutic horseback riding for people with disabilities.

Historically, horses were trained for warfare, farm work, sport and transport. Today, most horse training is geared toward making horses useful for a variety of recreational and sporting equestrian pursuits. Horses are also trained for specialized jobs from movie stunt work to police and crowd control activities, circus entertainment, and equine-assisted psychotherapy.

There is tremendous controversy over various methods of horse training and even some of the words used to describe these methods. Some techniques are considered cruel, other methods are considered gentler and more humane. Some training techniques may appear violent to people unused to horse behavior, but in practice may not be as harsh as they appear.

As the Wikipedia summary suggests breaking in a horse serves many purposes.  The end goal being the development of a temperment, performance, habits, way of being, which can be utilized for good.  The breaking in of a horse is for specific and strategic reasons.  If the horse and/or the owner are to experience the fullness of community and relationship, let alone excellence and development of potential, the training or brokenness MUST occur.  Its where all that is good begins.  If the horse or the owner resists a full and proper breaking they will be destined to a lifetime of frustration and a brokenness of intimacy, communication, and relationship.  This is the tipping point for all that is to come.

Horses, like all animals, rely on instinct.  In the case of the horse, the fight or flight instinct is built in.  With proper “breaking” and communication between the horse and the human, this instinct can be held in check and the horse can be cultivated to walk in a different way. Once a horse is broken and trained by a caring and committed owner, that horse can experience, receive, and contribute in ways it never could have before.  Horses have been trained to perform athletically, to aid in warfare, to heal the psychologically impaired and physically disabled people, to provide for and experience mutual companionship, and to otherwise contribute to the wonder we call life.  

I have owned a couple horses over the years, and my children have been around and competed on ponies at various times.  When harmony has been rich between us and the horses we owned or competed on, it was an undeniably splendorous experience.  In those moments when a horse did not cooperate or was not trained effectively enough, people got hurt or were very frustrated.  Undertrained horses, despite potential, are dangerous.  Overtrained horses wind up useless and hurt.  The key is a proper breaking and ongoing training.  The horse and the owner must be mutually committed.  Horses are amazingly graceful, powerful, and otherwise regal creatures.  They speak of the handiwork of God.  Its hard to look at a horse, to know a horse, to experience a horse, without understanding there is a designer behind this incredible creation.  

So, what is the point?  What in the world am I writing about the breaking in of horses for?  What possible connection can there be to this and life in the real world of humans?  The scriptures suggest to us that our position before God is quite akin to that of the horse in relation to a good owner.  At some point all metaphors or analogies break down, but this one, understood for what it is, offers us a great tool for learning what God is up to in our lives, especially when we have come to an understanding of faith late in life, and have need of patterns being broken.  Its a matter of what’s deep within.  Like a badly healed bone, deep patterns must be broken to be set right.  Its hurts, but its a must.

The bible says, in Psalm 51:17, that God desires a broken and contrite heart.  God wants me hurt and miserable?!!, you ask.  No.  Properly understood, what the passage is saying is that God wants us stripped of destructive and frustrating patterns which keep us from all He has for us.  He wants us ready for NEW, for fullness.  

As is the case in the horse, and more so, as we are called the crown of His creation (animals do not have the same gifting of God spiritually, intellectually or otherwise), we are fearfully and wonderfully made. And similarly, we have these deep, dark, and destructive instincts or patterns built into us in our sinful condition.  We tend to pursue the wild side within us, and find ourselves in a world of chaos emotionally, relationally, and physically.  We tend to react harshly and violently to those who care most for us not realizing they are seeking our good.  We tend to run FROM our Master (God) rather than gracefully offer ourselves TO Him.  We tend, like the unbroken horse, to herd with those of similar untrained disposition, thereby seeking comfort amongst the masses of an untamed culture.  Amidst the herd of wild ones we seek to assure ourselves that all is o.k. and we have nothing amiss in our spirit.

What we can learn from the process of “breaking” a horse is manyfold.  As is the case with these beautiful creatures, we also, were created with a unique sense of wonder.  We too have a singular personality.  We too were made to “run”.  We too were fashioned to have a spirit full of life and energy.  And we too can stand for a significant share of training in order to fully become what we were created to be.  The problem is, our craving for a wild and untamed heart, free from the burden of direction and rules, has us bound to patterns which keep us captive and separated from God and others in true intimacy.  God wishes to mold us.  He, like the horse breaker, has many strategies to reach each of us uniquely.  Its an easier process for all when we cooperate, seek His ways out, and submit ourselves to His hand.

When the bible suggests God wants us broken before Him, we must be assured this is a good thing.  God treasures a son or a daughter who has allowed God to break them of the addiction to self and the bondage to the ways of the masses.  When God seeks to break a man or a woman of greed, lust, sensuality, and moral independence, He does so because He knows he or she will never have a full life without this breaking.  When God seeks to break you of your rage and tactics of intimidation which keep you from true heart to heart connection with Him and others, He is offering you a gift.  When God seeks to break you of your fears which chain you to emotional distortion, He is seeking, in reality, your release from captivity.  When He instructs us to walk in modesty, wisdom, patience, gentleness, and self-control, He does so because its for our good and the good of all others, and contributes to our connection to Him.  Obedience to the Master protects and ensures goodness.

Observers of various “breaking” techniques, whether with horses or people, will often question the veracity and intention of the trainer.  Some will say, “That is cruel!”  Others will say, “How will that accomplish any good!”  But they say these things because they neither know the heart of the trainer or the true nature of the beast being broken.  Take Jonah being thrown into the sea, and into the belly of a whale by God for instance.  Or Joseph being thrown into a pit.  Or Abraham being called to give his son up.  Or Paul being struck blind and given a thorn.  Just as a master trainer/breaker of horses has intimate knowledge of the nature of horses, so too, our Designer, God, has perfect knowledge of who we are as humans, and what we need in order to be made into the likeness of Christ.  God will have no less for us.  He will never back off that goal for us.  It is up to us to cooperate and allow Him to break us free from the Old Self which rears its head day in and day out.  God alone knows what we each need uniquely and fully.  He knows how, when, where, and with what circumstances to break us free from our untamed heart.  He will use every tool and implement to get our attention.  He will have us fully or we will remain frustrated and pinned in spiritually.

I ask you, today, directly, “Have you chosen brokenness?”  “Are you still fighting His full agenda for you?”  “Are you willing to allow Him to break your heart and soul into pieces and remake you in His image in order that you might experience life on a wholly different level?”  “Are you fighting God’s call to move more in His direction?”  “Are you fighting with others who are trying to lead you, by God’s design, to more expansive pastures?”

If your heart has not been broken free of the ways of our world, the passions of culture, the quests of the masses, the messages of media, whether you are in church or not, you must see yourself for what you are.  If you cannot look in the mirror and honestly assess that God has had free reign in you, you need to start over.  You must give him the reigns today.  If you have always lived your life refusing the bridle and the bit God has fashioned for you by grace, you are destined for more breaking, the kind you don’t want.  If God is calling you to more, He WILL have his way.  Its up to you to allow your heart to be softened to His touch.  He wishes to retain your uniqueness, while directing it in ways that offer you and others more.  He made your personality and wants to allow you to become all He created you to be.  Don’t fear Him turning you into a  robot.  His goals are much bigger and life giving.

There is no moment like that one in which you sense the gentle and loving caress of a God who cares for you, treasures you, and longs to affirm you.  Like the moment when a horse, finally broken after a fit of independent rage, surrenders herself to her master, and receives the soothing and comforting touch of care, so it is in our souls when we let go, release our clutches on our lives, and offer every thing we have to the God who died for us, and who offers us life to the full every day.  

He is seeking you out.  He has called you by name.  His caress is life producing.  His care for you is unmatched.  He has great feats ahead for you.  Come lie down in His pastures.  

Bruce Smith

optimuslife.org

soulstormsite.com

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5. June 2010 by BruceSmith.

You Blew it!  …now own it

John Wooden, the great basketball coach at UCLA, just passed after 99 years of leadership.  One of his memorable quotes sets the stage for today’s blog.  He said, “Who you are as a person is much more important than what you are as a basketball player”.

On the front page of the USA Today, this morning, I read the story of a blown call, a major league blown call, literally.  In all of baseball history there have only been 20 perfect games ever pitched.  20.  That is staggeringly few in light of the years and number of total games–do the math.  That, and other factors related to this story, make this story of a blown call something to talk about…and learn from.

To set it up, and to properly understand the magnitude of the event you need some facts.  So here they are.  The Detroit pitcher, Armando Galarraga, was a rather average pitcher to this point.  His career, with some high notes, was never anything to bring accolades from the sporting world.  That’s what made his perfect game so deeply spectacular and meaningful from his vantage point.  He would move from unknown to the history books in an instant, one of a very small elite group in all of baseball history.  We can get that.  We can understand having a dream and being right there.  

The umpire, the one who blew a call and cost Galarraga his chance for history, was a veteran, a good one.  He has gotten so many calls right in his time, even close ones.  None, as it turns out, would be more important, and have more consequence, than this call. Jim Joyce’s “safe” call, with two outs in the ninth, now, itself, goes down in history for the severity of the error and the drastic consequences for baseball history and the integrity of the game.  

Joyce, the veteran, and Galarraga, the previous unknown, have each handled the situation with grace and inspiring courage.  Typically, this would have been the opportunity for tirades, outbursts, insults, attacks, interviews, venomous character assaults, and many other ego driven realities.  Likely, for many, it would also have turned into an all hands on deck defensive strategy by the one who blew it.

Fans all across the baseball world are weighing in, sportscasters are having a field day, and the call for instant replay in MLB has been renewed.  But can what took place actually be undone?  The commissioner has said, “No.”  What took place stands, and the perfect game did not take place.  How sad.  How deflating.  How crushing for both the offended and the offender.  Can you imagine living with the guilt, the weight of this for the rest of your umpiring career?  Can you imagine living your retirement knowing the record books will never show how you shined in that moment?  Wow.  What do you share with your grandkids?  “Hey, here is the ball that would have been the ball that showed I pitched a perfect game, but…”  Or, “Yes, Jimmy, I’m the guy who blew that call 40 years ago…”

But look at the paper today.  On the heels of this epic blunder, the pitcher and the umpire met on the field again.  Can you imagine what must have been going through those two minds?!  Well, in this situation, what could have been deeply divisive and utterly ugly, has become a message of inspiration and grace.  The pitcher, called by the manager of the Detroit Tigers (that’s what I call leadership…a blog in itself) to walk out the starting lineup to the umpire, Joyce, gracefully took on the task to meet his offender and was greeted by a tearful and repentant man.  Both Galarraga and Joyce, feeling the sting of the situation in their own way, walked a journey of restoration and peace amidst all the calls of others to fan the flames of drama.  What a beautiful scene on the backdrop of a testosterone fueled field of battle.  Manhood in action does not always play out in brutality and swagger.  The measure of a man is most clearly seen in his ability to own, forgive, and walk in humble strength.  

The offender, Jim Joyce, openly admitted his fault to the world.  He said, without hesitation, that he blew the call and got it totally wrong.  He also understood what it cost Galarraga, “I cost that kid a perfect game.”  Joyce, by his fault, caused a lifelong pitcher and dreamer to get as close as one can get, then snatched perfection away from him by his own error.  But, he owned it.  Tearfully, honestly, apologetically, and authentically–he owned it.  He did not try to fool himself, his offended, or anyone else.  Simply, he owned his failure.  

The offended, Armando Galarraga, who had his legitimate perfect game stolen, literally stolen from him, walked off the mound with his head high, his heart full, and his character, love of the game, and drive intact.  He knows what he did even if the books never print it.  He knows what he earned even if it will not make it into the chronicles on the walls inside the MLB hall of fame in Cooperstown.  I played baseball as kid and teenager.  I loved the game.  I know how hard it is to accomplish such a feat.  I cannot imagine getting there and then having someone pull the rug out from underneath a person.  Yet, Galarraga walked in forgiveness, contentment, and purity.  He saw the error clearly.  He did not diminish he had been wronged.  Yet, he saw something bigger–humanity.

What we can learn from this story, this journey in sport, and its what I love about sport in general (it is such a profound metaphor for life in so many ways), are the lessons of grace amidst unfairness and hurt.  Someone was hurt in this situation.  Someone had a part of them diminished.  Someone hurt another.  Someone failed miserably.  But the other side of the story is a call to all of us to own our screw ups, and to walk in grace with others when they fail us.

When you blow it, and blow it big, don’t hide behind defensive games and positioning and violent self-protection.  If you do that those closest to you will walk, no, run away from you.  Others will abandon you as well.  It attracts no one and leads to nothing good.  It destroys you as much as it destroys all of your relationships. If you blow it, OWN IT.  Like Jim Joyce, look the camera in the eye and say, “I did this.  This was my fault.  I blew it.  I need to do better.”  That, done in honesty, authenticity, and integrity, will cause people to support and help you.  People can forgive when they see a recognition of your failure, but you must make it known.  Other people see it and get it, do you?

When you are the one offended, remember that we are all human, and that statistics are not the goal.  Life, human interaction, is not about the records keeping, its about community, relationships, joy in the journey, and about people.  If you are offended don’t measure your contentment by the revenge you get.  Don’t chase others down to share your disgust about the offender.  Don’t look for your chance to get even or get one up on the enemy.  Remember, the grace of God was extended to you amidst your ugliness.  How can you withhold grace from another?  You can and should be aware of the failure, you can be careful not to put your hand in that fire again, but you must walk forward in grace and lovingkindness.  When offended remember that it is the love of God that draws us all to repentance.  Remember that at the end of the day it does not matter who is right or wrong, it matters that hearts are in right relationship to God and to others.  

Wholeness in life, love, business, relationships of all sorts, comes from a heart of honest recognition, gracious response, and authenticity before God and others.  The quality of our character comes through amidst the tough stuff.  Who you are is made evident when the calls don’t fall in your favor.  Walk forward and greet all the challenges with poise, purpose and the love of God.  Many are watching.  Many are hoping we can raise the game to another level.

Have your blown it?  Own it.

Has your heart been blown up by the actions of another?  Walk in grace.

Bruce Smith, Optimuslife.org

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17. May 2010 by BruceSmith.

Love and Truth Telling: blog.optimuschoice.com

Life Thought: The 2nd commandment is a call to Love, not niceness. You will never win a soul by merely being a disciple of niceness. Biblical love confronts, reproves, directs, and is willing to sternly fight for truth in the heart and mind of another. If you doubt this review the life of Christ again. He often loved by rebuking, sternly contradicting errant people, and getting right to the heart of a matter. And He IS love.

Are the gospel’s stories of Jesus as compelling for us as they ought to be? Are we willing to see Jesus as He really is? The answer may depend upon how passionate we are about about embracing and walking in truth in our own lives. For is we are lovers of truth and lovers of others, we will not settle for a religion of niceness. We will not accept the idea that the extent of our call is to “nice” people into heaven. Sometimes, often perhaps, niceness, or the avoidance of controversy, is not enough.

In the life of Jesus (as he runs people out of the temple, as he heals and then sternly warns, as he restores and then rebukes patterns of living, as he ruthlessly tells spiritual leaders who they really are inside, as he tells his closest friends they are inspired by the devil, as he points to people’s duplicity and lack of sincerity…) we find a God who loves people, and a God who knows love requires allowing people to see themselves as they are. Jesus never niced peopled into heaven and He never was shy about getting right to the spiritual matter in a conversation. 

Surely Jesus was the kind of guy people were drawn to. And surely He was the kind of guy people wanted to kill because of His lifestyle, views, and teaching. He knew how to deliver a soft, kind word in the right time and place, and He knew when the occasion called for a direct glare, plain truth, and biting correction.

The life of faith, the love walk of faithful people, God-seekers, lovers of others, is a call to love and tell according to wisdom. There are times when its mercy and softness that are needed. And there are times when the protective gloves of truth must be removed and a battle for the truth of God must be fought for in the heart of another. 

Are you prepared to speak the truth? In love? Whether or not that love needed requires a bit of force? Or have you cowered into the weak corner of the religion of the nice? Is your default to run from a battle for truth with your kids, spouse, close friend? Are you willing to study, know, and apply the truth of God in your interactions? Do you know the critical doctrines of biblical revelation well enough to engage the rebellious heart and misguided mind of someone you care about? We are called to study to show ourselves approved, and we are called to be “ready” in season and out, to present a reason for the hope which is within us. If you want to know this God, how He loves others, how He reaches others, how He changes others, then spend time learning His revealed truth. He has revealed Himself indeed.

May we be imitators of the life of Christ (God in fleshly form), knowing, loving, and passionately pursuing His truth, and loving others as the situation requires. Tenderness, compassion, grace, mercy, and yes, a willingness to confront with the truth… its all part of knowing, loving, and serving Him, and contending for the lives of others.

And one final word, prayer, our lifeline to God, must be the canvas for all of it. Jesus, again, is our model. He was regularly removing Himself from others in order that He might stand in the gap for others. Its truth in love, a love of truth, and its about having a loving truthful walk with Him and those He brings into our path. 

Grace, Peace, and Truth,

Bruce Smith

optimuslife.org 

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