I’ve never had a good label. I just don’t fit most places I find myself. Men’s gatherings have always been tough because I’m not your typical guy; I don’t like sports, golf, guns, hunting, or cars. I stick out in the secular world because, in addition to being a Christian (and, therefore, “in this world but not of this world” as it were), people notice that I don’t cuss and I don’t drink. Ever. I’m not opposed to people drinking (provided it isn’t to excess), it just has no appeal to me. I certainly don’t fit into either end of the political spectrum. Being pro-life and anti-death-penalty kind of puts you at odds with both parties (and that is just 2 of the issues).
More and more, though, what has been bothering me, is where do I fit in the Church (note the big “C”)? Theologically, I am certainly evangelical. I believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, the Trinity, the physical resurrection of Christ, that Christ is the only means of salvation. I’m even pretty hard-core about predestination. Beyond theology, though, I don’t fit well within that mold. For starters, I am not Republican. Beyond that, as you have seen in my evolving blog posts of the past year or so, I have some additional views that do not fit well within the traditional evangelical church. I believe Micah 6:8 is just as true as John 3:16. I believe that the Church has dropped the ball on responding to social justice issues. Bono has done, and is doing, some terrific things to raise money and awareness, but where has the Church been that a rock star was the one to step up and take that mantle?
I believe we have a responsibility to be environmentally concerned and active as we are the stewards of this environment. I believe, as those ordained to rule over the animals, that we should be standing up for the protection of the animals under our domain. We are not to rule as despots, but as God’s ordained co-regents. I believe every human, not to mention every Christian, should be absolutely sick at the thought of almost 30,000 children dying preventable deaths every single day. Alas…
But I am nowhere near the liberal/social gospel label and not quite in the emergent circle, either. I still believe eternal life is more important than temporal life; I just don’t believe temporal needs should be forsaken as we prioritize eternal life. Saving a life now is a temporary (though valuable) win, when compared to the soul that gets to experience eternal life in God’s glory. That does not mean we are excused from meeting the needs of all in need. Only 1 came back to worship Christ, but He healed all 10 of their leprosy. We should be driven not only by our hearts breaking over the vast need, but also by our hearts overflowing with thanksgiving and God’s love. We should be delivering aid not just out of our love for the broken, but in the name of the Lamb who was broken.
Interestingly (at least, I think it is interesting), it is fairly traditional evangelical concepts that brought me here. The idea that we will be held accountable for how we use what we have been given. The idea that we are to be stewards of God’s resources. The idea of prioritizing God over self. So how did I end up on this road with so few traveling companions?
A common question in our church culture is “What is your shape?” Well, what if you are polymorphic? A new label has been emerging over the past couple of years: progressive evangelical. I think it fits. I wonder if I do.
1 month since by last blog entry? Sheesh. Well, things have been a bit busy around here, so this is my catch-up entry.
Bailey
First of all, Bailey is heartworm negative! Huge thanks to God on that one. When we took him in for his neutering, they did a follow-up heartworm check and the heartworms were completely gone! They even did a different test for confirmation. So, Bailey is now healthy, and quite the handsome dog. He is listed on Petfinder now, waiting for his forever family to find him. He and Anna are still having great fun together and he is such a sweet, sweet boy.
Job Change
After more than 10 years, December 31st was my last day with INA. On January 11, I began my new job as a senior security consultant with FishNet Security doing security assessments. To borrow a line from Sneakers, people pay us to break into their places to make sure people can’t break into their places. I am very excited about getting started (my first engagement hasn’t started yet), and I think this position and this company are great fits for me. Some of the highlights:
I’m working from home. Everyday. That means I get an extra 1-2 hours of sleep in the morning, I get to have lunch with the family, and I’m “home” 1-2 hours earlier each evening. Just eliminating the commute gives me at least an extra 2 hours each day. Of course, the downside is I don’t get snow days.
No more on-call; no more overtime. When I’m done with work, I’m done with work. I may have to work at nights some, when a client doesn’t want testing done during business hours, but that will be instead of normal hours, not in addition to.
There are some insanely talented people in this company. I mean, I’m working with guys who present at BlackHat, for crying out loud. That might not mean much to many of you, but it basically means I’m working with some of the best and brightest in the business.
They are committed to regular training of their consultants. On the horizon (probably Q2) is BackTrack training and OSCP certification.
There will be a good bit of traveling involved, but working at home and having flexibility in my time (so I can go to story time at the library with Anna on Mondays) should actually give me more time with the family. My first engagement will be a 5-month project with a very, very large retailer here in Arkansas and I will be in Bentonville Monday through Friday for a couple of weeks. Other than those 2 weeks, though, the project will be remote so I will have very little travel for those 5 months. Score!
House Change
We’ve been toying with the idea of moving for a couple of years now. We are only 2½ years from having this one paid off and I was really looking forward to that. But, since I am working from home full-time now, I really need a dedicated office (instead of an office/guest room), as I need additional room and privacy (and the home office tax deduction won’t hurt either). Combine that with the tax credit for existing home owners, and this seemed like the perfect time. We’re going to be selling the house ourselves and hope to have it listed by Feb 1. I’ll post the URL for the house and more details once it is officially listed.
If you know anyone looking to buy a house, please let us know.
As everyone knows, the US had a scare on Christmas day when a Nigerian attempted to detonate explosives on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Obviously, that this man got on a plane with explosives is a huge security failing, but it was inevitable, as is another incident at some point.
A basic concept in security is whitelisting versus blacklisting. With a whitelist, you list the things you want to allow and, if something is not on that list, it is not allowed. Blacklist, on the other hand, is a list of things you want to disallow and, as long as something isn’t on that list, it is allowed. The problem, which is well-known and documented, is that black-listing is always incomplete. You can never fully “enumerate badness” (as John Strand refers to it). From a defensive position, you have to successfully defend against every single possible attack. From an offensive position, you only have to find one workable attack. As a defender, there will always either be something you miss or something new that comes out before you can respond to it.
That is not to say that blacklisting should never be used. The agencies are absolutely correct to ban explosives from planes. But they (and Congress and the public) need to recognize that black-listing will ultimately result in false-negatives (something that did not get flagged that should have been flagged). The outrage should not be at the failure of the airport screening—it has long been established as misdirected and ineffective. The outrage should be directed at the failure of human component in not investigating reported threats. This man’s own parents reported him to the embassy as a possible threat as he may have become radicalized. He then purchased an international ticket with cash and boarded with no luggage.
When I was in high school, I spent a week with my folks at Colorado Trails Ranch. Before our first horseback ride, they had an orientation session with Dick Elder, who ran the ranch. The one thing he said that still sticks in my mind is, “A horse knows what he knows. Period.” The idea being not to expect the horse to understand every little gesture, motion, utterance that you make. The horse knows a few commands and a horse knows what it wants (and you on its back does not necessarily fit into that category). The same thing applies to scanners and xray machines. “They detect what they detect. Period.” The screening didn’t fail because he didn’t pass through with something that should have been detected by the scanners in place. He passed through with something that was not on the blacklist.
The response to such a failure in the blacklist should not necessarily be to expand search and discovery methods. In this case, deploying some solution (let’s say, millimeter wave screening) might have resulted in this one individual being caught (if it had been deployed in Amsterdam or Nigeria). Surely the same cost deployed to investigation of reported threats could have not only stopped this man, but also confirmed or cleared many others of the 500,000+ currently on various lists.
There is nothing even remotely new or novel in this. All of this is well-known. It just isn’t widely recognized it seems.
Jennifer decided she preferred the name Bailey over Bacon. I resisted until I realized I could call him Beagle Bailey. I like that! So, Beagle Bailey it is.
When last we left you, 2 weeks ago, we had just rescued him from the side for Hwy 113. We took him to our vet the next day and got some eye drops to treat his eye gunk, some ear drops and ear wash to treat the yeast infection in his ears, and some oral antibiotics to protect him as his wounds healed. The idea was to keep just until he was healthy enough to go to the AAL ranch and be put up for adoption because it is way too soon after losing Russ for us to foster again. Turns out God disagrees. Again. You see, we also found out that Bailey is heartworm positive. Crap.
So, we told Donna that we would sponsor and foster him as he goes through his treatment. We really need a happy ending on this one. He goes in tomorrow to get neutered and to start on his heartworm pre-treatment. In 2 weeks, he’ll get his first injection to start killing the heartworms. A month after that, he’ll get his second injection. A month after that is the soonest he would be able to be up for adoption. That’s a minimum of 3 months that he will be with us.
So far, he is doing really well. He was already house-broken and we have him pretty well crate-trained now. He has no trouble being around Anna and she enjoys his licky-kisses (just as she did with Sasha). He is very affectionate and gets way too worked up at every reunion; he probably isn’t used to people who will always come back for him. He is pretty calm, especially for a beagle—though we are starting to see some of that beagle personality come through. Overall, though, he is a sweetie.
I’ve heard this song many times on KLOVE. We’ve sung it several times in church. There is even a YouTube of Kris Allen singing it, superimposed with shots of Little Rock.
You’re the God of this city
You’re the King of these people
You’re the Lord of this nation
You are
You’re the light in this darkness
You’re the hope to the hopeless
You’re the peace to the restless
You are
Chorus:
Greater things have yet to come
Greater things have still to be done in this city
Greater things have yet to come
Greater things have still to be done in this city
If you are among the many who have heard or sung it, what city and nation were in your mind? If you are like me, it was your own. We sang it in church again today, but it struck me differently. I was struck by how egotistical we are when we sing this about our own city. I like Conway, I really do, but there is nothing special about our town. We have no special claim to God being the God of our city, nor does the US have a special claim to God as God of this nation. What about the cities here? Or here? Or here? Or here?
Re-read those lyrics, but this time, imagine singing them in a third-world country. Imagine singing them as infants starve to death around you. Imagine singing them as children die from the diseases contracted from contaminated water. Imagine singing them as fellow believers are imprisoned, tortured, and killed for their faith. Imagine singing them surrounded by little girls forced into prostitution. In fact, such was the original intent of the song. The Northern Ireland band Bluetree wrote the song while they were in Pattaya, Thailand and were broken by the poverty of the city.
How did I lose that? How deep is my conceit that I missed the message of hope and restoration for a hurting people by replacing it with my own shortsightedness?
Today, Jennifer, Other Jennifer, and I spent the afternoon at the All About Labs ranch in Little Rock for a work day. We raked, we hauled gravel, we filled holes, we took LOTS of pictures of dogs. There were about 15 people out there for the work day, which was fabulous! It is good for the soul to be out there and see all of the dogs playing so happily together. I’m sure Jennifer will be posting some picts later.
On the drive home, wouldn’t you know it, we came upon 2 dogs, a beagle mix and a chihuahua mix (maybe?), walking along (and on) Hwy 113, just south of Bigelow. I think all three of us simultaneously thought the same thing: “Are you kidding me?!” Of course, we had to do something. We pulled over and the beagle came right up to us. He was dirty, has a few sores, his right eye was gunky and matted, and no collar (of course). The chihuahua was very skittish and we couldn’t get him to come to us. He eventually went down a driveway that was at the top of the hill. I followed him and knocked on the door of the house, but there was no answer. A truck in the driveway had a contractor’s name and number on it, but there was no answer there, either. He had a collar, but no tags on the collar. (Why, people? Why?!?) As I approached the door of the house, the chihuahua was kind of hiding behind the corner of the house. We’re really hoping he lives there since we weren’t able to get him.
The beagle, on the other hand, rode in the back seat with Other Jennifer, and he has now had a bath and is resting in our crate in the kitchen. We’ve already talked to Donna at All About Labs and she will be helping make some calls to some vets to see about getting him checked out. I’m hoping our vet in Conway will be willing to help out to save us some trips to LR. Other Jennifer has a beagle named Butter so my idea was to name this one Bacon. (It’s a good Southern name, right?) Jennifer is objecting, but Other Jennifer called him Bacon when she left this evening, so I’m still hoping it will catch on.
Do you know what Jesus’s first sermon was? I didn’t and I was kind of surprised when I found out, because it is not a passage I remember hearing about very often.
16He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 18“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Jesus came to restore us. We know this. We hear this. But too many don’t realize the scope of that restoration. I didn’t until fairly recently in my life. God’s desire is not only that we be restored and reconciled to Him for eternity in Heaven, but also that the oppressed, the forsaken, the poor be restored now. I am not suggesting that we abandon evangelistic efforts in any way; I am suggesting that theological restoration should be accompanied by temporal restoration. How do you intend to evangelize a people who suffer with 25% of their children dying before the age of 5? How do you offer the Word to a people who have a literacy rate of 30%? How do you approach the 1 billion people who will go to bed hungry tonight and offer them only leather-bound rice paper?
As fallen and defiled as this world is, it is still God’s creation. As arrogant and evil as people can be, we are still His masterpieces, bearing His image. Though we should be eagerly anticipating being in God’s presence, we should not have an attitude of just turning our backs on this world and each other. Rather, our response should be to want to join with God in His redemptive and restorative plan.
Where to start? Christmas is just around the corner, how about if we start there?
I’ve said before I would really like to see a pro-life Democrat. That would probably be the politician that best translated my beliefs into a political ideology. Well, there is (trying to be) one in Illinois. Only problem is, it doesn’t look like the Democrats want him. I really like this description of his pro-life stance, and I have said something similar when differentiating a pro-life platform from anti-abortion platform.
Ben is unabashedly pro-life, but by that he means not only that we should be concerned with unborn life, but also with the quality of that child’s life after birth, with the life and livelihood of the child’s mother, with a penal system that takes life in the name of criminal justice, and with unjust wars that claim the lives of tens of thousands of civilians.
These are people with very good hearts doing very good things, but getting hit by the law of unintended consequences and a general lack of awareness among our culture regarding animal welfare, the environment, and treating food with respect.
A puppy was a “prize” at a silent auction for a local ministry. So many reasons this was a terrible idea:
A “responsible” breeder should have families committed for a litter before breeding the dog.
Highest bid is a terrible way to determine if a family is a good match for a dog. (Fortunately, in this case, the dog did end up with a good family. Update: The family is still a good family, but the dog does not get along with their other dog. The auction dog is now up for sale. See #4.)
The “adopting” family has no verification of the health of the dog or the conditions in which it was raised.
The “adopting” family does not have adequate time to discuss if they should get a(nother) dog or if this is the right dog for them.
One of the games at a festival held for some of the poorest in our town was to have kids guess if an egg was raw or hard-boiled and then swing a bat at it to determine if they were right. Again, so many things wrong with this:
It is a waste of precious food, and animal-produced food at that.
The activity was purely destructive.
It was to be ministering to these poor, many of whom would probably love a dozen eggs. Instead, food was destroyed in front of them.
The kids were possibly (likely?) getting raw egg on themselves and then eating burgers, candy, etc.—ripe conditions for salmonella or some other such nastiness.
A team raising money for the local Relay for Life was hosting a “Balloons to Heaven” fundraiser. Are there people who really don’t know about the environmental problems releasing balloons into the air can cause?
I’ve recently been having some discussions about trying to get some of these issues (and others, such as extreme poverty, clean water, etc.) in front of our church and getting the Church more active. Moreover, I would like to see this information inform all other aspects of our Christian lives. I’m not suggesting it is more (or less) important than other fruits of the Spirit, but it is something we are ALL called to. Some are called to be preachers, some teachers, some administrators, but all were given the Micah Mandate:
6 With what shall I come before the LORD
and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7 Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousand rivers of oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
