In the meantime

The Hand of Providence

Today at lunch my colleague and friend Drew Porterfield and I met Drew's brother Paul for lunch downtown at the CNN Center.  Paul is with the Greater Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and their headquarters is between the CNN Center and Centennial Olympic Park, ground zero for the tornado that struck downtown two weeks ago tonight.

Walking through the areas devastated by the storm, one is struck with two thoughts:  First, two weeks on, the area still looks like a war zone.  A lot of progress has been made, to be sure, but it still takes your breath away to see the damage. Second, it is nothing short of a miracle that only one life was lost. Someone was obviously watching over the thousands of people in the area that night.

Looking at security camera footage of the event, you realize it was all over in about 30 seconds. But those were 30 violent and deadly seconds.  In half a minute, the roof of the Georgia Dome was damaged, all the windows in the crosswalk connecting the Omni Hotel to the CNN Center were blown out.  The CNN Center's facade and roughly half the windows facing Marietta Street took a direct hit.  All of the windows in the Chamber of Commerce's rotunda imploded, some panes being driven deep into the wood paneling inside the building.  Two of the huge Olympic torch monuments in Centennial Park were blown over.  The historic Baptist Tabernacle building, now a popular concert venue, sustained major damage.  A brick building next door to the Tabernacle was demolished.  As it left downtown, the tornado blew out hundreds of windows in the Georgia Pacific and Equitable buildings and the iconic Weston Peachtree Plaza hotel.  As a bizarre parting shot, a billboard across I-75 a half mile from the Weston was mangled like a toy erector set. The twister then roared through Atlanta's historic Cabbagetown section, uprooting old growth hardwoods which crushed several houses.  Again, there were only minor injuries.  That same Someone was watching over the folks in Cabbagetown, too.

There were around 80,000 people in the main downtown area that the tornado struck, more than half of those in the Georgia Dome for the SEC Basketball Tournament.  A clutch three-point shot threw the game in progress into overtime, keeping thousands safely inside the Dome when the storm hit.  There was virtually no warning, no time to prepare, yet the thousands in the Omni and Weston Hotels escaped for the most part unscathed.  When it was all over, only 30 people were injured, and none of those injuries were life-threatening.

The sole fatality of the Atlanta tornado sadly wasn't found for over a week, and wasn't identified until two days ago.  Gregory Lee, Sr. was a homeless man known the frequent the area.  He was killed when a brick wall collapsed on him as he sought shelter against the building.

They say there has never been a tornado to hit downtown Atlanta before March 14.  The timing for this one was bad - there was a huge crowd in the area at the time - but the Hand of Providence was on those in the area protecting them. There really is no other explanation for why there wasn't a catastrophic loss of life in downtown Atlanta two weeks ago.

Thanks, Team!

This blog is usually populated by articles, devotionals and essays... wordy observations on current events, politics and spiritual matters.  To be honest, I am somewhat envious of blogs I read where the posts are short, succinct, and full of useful information, great quotes, and links to die for.  But I digress...

This post is going to be different.  Just a short word of thanks to an incredible, talented and dedicated group of folks... my Web Team from Multicast Media.  Today we went to Dave and Busters to hang out, eat and play games together.  We call this sort of thing "Team Building" in the corporate world, but it was just pure fun.

The Multicast Web Team is made up of world-class designers Jay Blizzard and Avery Bush, HTML/CSS/XML guru Marshall Grant (also a fine designer in his own right), Web Producer and general jack of all web trades Jason Spradlin, and Content Editor Milan Ford. DMMS and Channel whiz Leah Spradlin telecommutes from Tifton, GA and couldn't be with us today.

Thanks, team!  You - collectively and individually - rock!

I Was Wrong... Again

If I had a dollar for every time I have been dead wrong about matters political over the last year, I could buy a nice used car.  It happened again Sunday afternoon.  In the midst of a discussion about the recent unpleasantness among the two Democratic candidates, I made the statement that I was convinced the worst was over and that you would see the two camps starting to make nice.  I based this opinion on reports over the weekend that senior Clinton staffers had threatened to jump ship if her continued campaign was going to be focused on trashing Barack Obama.

Boy, was I wrong. Instead of turning down the heat, both campaigns ramped up the attacks on each other in what is starting to look like some sort of scorched earth strategy. 

In a blatant effort to change the subject from her "misstatement" (spelled "l-i-e") about dodging sniper fire in Bosnia, Clinton re-introduced the subject of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a story which had begun to fade from the headlines.  The Obama team, for their part, seem to have decided they can and will play hardball with the best of them, and they proved it today by issuing a statement calling Clinton out on her Bosnia embellishment and jumping on the Rev. Wright bandwagon.

With a month to go before the Pennsylvania Primary and more than three months before the convention in Denver, one wonders if there will be anything left of the Democratic Party when it's all said and done. The traditional Democratic coalition is at least at this point lying in tatters.  Hillary's bringing up the Rev. Wright topic again today is bound to infuriate the African American community, a group that Bill and Hillary have already alienated by their behavior since the South Carolina primary.

Also today, Clinton surrogates continued to insist that the former first lady is sitting pretty and attacked the news media for - almost as one - saying her chances of being the nominee are now next to nothing.  Their claims ranged from the silly to the ridiculous.  In the silly category are the claims she is more electable or that Obama's lead is not legitimate because Florida and Michigan are not counting.  The ridiculous was today's assertion by a Clinton crony that she is really ahead because if you add up the Electoral College votes in the states that she won she has more than Obama.

I won't bother to comment on the idiocy of that logic since there's no guarantee that the winner of the primary will go on to win that state in the general election.  But does it strike anyone else as supremely ironic that Democrats took such issue with the Electoral College process in the razor-close 2000 and 2004 elections and now when she needs a straw to grasp and it can be twisted to make her appear to be on top, Sen. Clinton has no problem embracing that same Electoral College?

Then again, it is no more outlandish or disingenuous than Sen. Clinton's sudden concern that the poor voters of Florida and Michigan not be disenfranchised.  She was not concerned with their plight months earlier - before she needed those votes - when she and all of the other candidates agreed that neither state would count.

Contrary to my prediction on Sunday, it appears it's going to continue to get get nastier and sink lower out there.

He Leadeth Me

We've all had this experience at some point in our lives: We are in an area that we are not familiar with; an area where if left to our own devices, we would get completely and thoroughly lost.  As you know if you have ever experienced it, it is a frightening feeling to not know where you are or where you need to go.

What a relief it is when we are with someone who is familiar with the area! We don't worry when we are following someone who knows the way, because we have confidence that they will lead us to the right place.

The last time this happened to me, I was in Texas in a small town I had never been to before.  I needed to find a Radio Shack store to buy an adapter we needed for the evening's live broadcast.  As my luck would have it, the person who was telling me how to get to the Radio Shack store was the only person in all of Texas who talked fast with no hint of a drawl. This guy talked about 500 words a minute with gusts up to 650!  As he rattled off the directions at a speed that would make an auctioneer proud, one of the locals standing there must have noticed my "deer in the headlights" expression. 

"Don't worry.  It's on my way home," he said to my great relief.  "Just follow me and I'll lead you there."

I drove through the streets of that city without fear, because I was being led by someone who knew the way.  I was careful to keep my eyes on him, because I knew if I didn't, I would lose my way.

So it is with following Jesus.  I can go through life with the calm assurance that He knows the way and that He is leading me.  And I will be careful to keep my eyes on Him so I won't lose my way.

He Leadeth me! He Leadeth me!  By His own hand He Leadeth me!
He faithful follower I would be, for by His hand He Leadeth me!

Barack Obama on Race

On Tuesday, Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama took a significant political risk in making a major speech on the subject of race. The speech was given in response to the controversy over incendiary comments made by Sen. Obama's former pastor of twenty years, Dr. Jeremiah Wright from Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ. Clips of Rev. Wright's sermons have been played endlessly over the last week.  While at least one of the clips was badly taken out of context - Rev. Wright was quoting someone else, not speaking for himself - his words are deeply offensive to most Americans, and apparently to Sen. Obama as well.

Obama chose - against the advice of his advisers, apparently - to make the speech on the issue of race an attempt to turn the controversy into an invitation to the nation to engage in a frank conversation about race relations. Obviously there were political realities in play in the process, but all but the most cynical agree that the Illinois Senator feels strongly about the issue on a personal level.

By all accounts, the speech was well written and masterfully delivered. Now, for the past 48 hours, news programs have dissected the speech and they have continued to play the sound bytes of Rev. Wright over and over again. The race genie is out of the bottle and it is getting pretty silly, even by American political campaign standards.  Just today, Sen. Obama, speaking off the cuff to a Philadelphia radio host, used the phrase "typical white person." Within hours, Talk Radio and the blogosphere blew a collective gasket.  Lost in the din was the fact that Sen. Obama was talking about his own grandmother when he used the phrase, and he was actually trying to validate the fear that some whites feel around black people.  He was trying to say that good, decent people of both races hold racial stereotypes.

It is a shame that Sen. Obama's speech could not have been given in a different setting and under different circumstances.  It was a ground-breaking, maybe even historic speech, but it is being buried under all of the yelling and screaming.

First of all, it was refreshing to have a politician talk to us like adults; He seemed to be talking to us, not at us.  Second, it was his own words.  There were no speech writers involved.  Obama is said to have been up till 2:00 am Tuesday morning writing the speech.  Third and by far the most important, Obama acknowledged the proverbial thousand-pound gorilla in the room: racial stereotypes and prejudices exist among otherwise good, decent people of all races.

Again, setting aside the fact that Sen. Obama is a candidate for President, he is uniquely qualified to give the speech he gave. His father was black and from Kenya, his mother was white. He was raised in a single-parent home by his mother with lots of help from his grandparents.  He has had to live in two worlds.  He has personal insight into both of those worlds.  When he spoke of black anger, he has seen it firsthand.  When he spoke of white resentment, he has seen that firsthand also, in the life of his grandmother.

At one point in the speech, Sen. Obama said we faced a choice: We could continue to wallow in our prejudices separately, or we can come together and talk about it; we could continue to play the clips of Rev. Wright over and over, or we can acknowledge our anger and resentment and start the process of repairing the breech.

Sadly, if the past 48 hours are any indication, we have chosen to wallow and play the clips.  And nit pick.

On another note, Sen. John McCain showed again today that he is a class act and an honorable man.  He fired a staff member today who was passing on a link to a YouTube video that linked Sen. Obama and Jeremiah Wright to Malcom X and the Black Panthers.  This is the second time McCain has publicly taken action to correct a supporter or staffer who was playing dirty.

One wonders if Sen. McCain can maintain this high standard if he ends up facing Sen. Clinton in the General Election.

Lessons Learned

My pastor is fond of saying that God never wastes an experience. Last week I heard a powerful testimony of the truth of that statement.

While at NRB in Nashville, I had the opportunity to talk with a friend who is the Communications Director for a well-known, high profile church. Over the last couple of years they have faced some really, really tough times. I was encouraged to hear from him that things had stabilized there.  It was even more encouraging to hear how the pastor and staff at the church viewed their experience.  There were several things he said they had learned:

God has a purpose behind our troubles.  He said that through all of this they became absolutely convinced that God brought this into their lives and ministry to teach them a lesson.  With that in mind, they were able to look past the hurt and anger and concentrate on finding out what God was trying to teach them.  It is a very hard thing to see your tormentors as part of God's plan.

We should welcome criticism - even when it's not what you want to hear. It is so important to be willing to take an honest look at yourself, even if that look is provided by the mirror of harsh criticism.  My friend told me that the church commissioned an outside survey to discover how they were viewed in the community.  The results were not flattering.  They learned that the community viewed them as arrogant.  The temptation was to reject the conclusion and marginalize those who brought it.  Ultimately, to their credit, they embraced the results - even though it was painful to do so - and they began taking positive, strategic steps to change that perception.

So often when you talk to people who have gone through a deep valley in ministry - or in life - they are bitter, angry, and tend to lash out at those who have opposed them.  It is a sign of deep spiritual maturity and insight when they instead reflect on what God's purpose was for them through that trial.  It speaks well of someone's walk when they view those who intend hurt toward them as agents of God's instruction.

As I reflected back on my conversation with my friend I realized that all too often I try to have it both ways: I seek to learn lessons from the trials I've gone through, but I also reserve the right to harbor bad feelings toward those that God used to teach me those lessons.  Those two things are incompatible.  When Joseph confronted his brothers who had tossed him into a pit, sold him into slavery and convinced his father that he was dead, Joseph was fully aware of God's hand in those circumstances so he could say to his brothers in all honesty, "You meant it for evil, but God intended it for good!"

That is where I want to be. I want to be able to see opposition, criticism and trials as instruments of God in my life to more fully manifest the character and attributes of Jesus in me, and in so doing to be totally free from bitterness, anger and resentment.

Wonderful Words of Life

Driving back from a conference this past week, I heard a remarkable story on the radio.  An American believer took a trip to the Soviet Union back in the 1980s and was allowed to bring four Russian language Bibles with him.  He gave away three of them, but toward the end of his visit, he still had one Bible left.  Visiting a state-approved Baptist Church in Moscow, he saw a young man who obviously possessed the joy of the Lord.  Shaking hands with the young man, he pressed the Bible into his hands in such as way as to avoid detection by the KGB agents watching over the church service that day.  When the young man realized what he had been given, he smiled broadly in thanks.

The man had no way of knowing how God had just used him.  The young man had a brother named Theodore who was a devout Christian, and who had just reported for his mandatory tour of duty with the Soviet army.  He had written his brother begging him to find a way to get a Bible to him.  The young man shipped the Bible to his Theodore hidden in a shoe box.  For the next few years, that Bible was hidden in the soldier's boot and read each night, allowing him to grow in his knowledge of and relationship to the Lord.

Years later, after the fall of the former Soviet Union, Theodore came to the United States to study.  He shared his testimony at a small church one evening and told about his "miracle" Bible, holding up the tattered remains for the congregation to see.  After the service, the church's pastor asked to see the Bible and found a name written in it.  Within a few days, he had located the man who had given the Bible to Theodore's brother years before in Moscow.  He called him and shared the remarkable story of what God did with that Bible.  A few weeks later, Theodore got to meet and thank the man whose faithfulness and generosity made it possible for him to grow in Christ even while serving in the Soviet Army.

Today, Theodore is a pastor who works to plant Russian-language churches in the United States and makes regular trips back to Russia to equip and encourage pastors there.  His life was forever changed because of a simple act of obedience and the transforming power of God's Word.

God tells us that His word never returns void, but always accomplishes the purpose God has in mind for it. (Isaiah 55:11)  The story of Theodore is a powerful reminder of how God works through His Word to change lives.

When I got home, I counted how many Bibles I own.  There were 32 of them in my study, my office or by my bedside. Some of them, like my father's Bible, have great sentimental value to me.  But none of them are as precious to me as Theodore's was to him.  Sadly, I realized that I take the freedom to own a Bible, and the Bible itself for granted.  I tried to imagine what it would be like to only have one copy of the Bible, or having to hide it in my shoe so it would not be confiscated.  Then I imagined what it would be like to not have a copy of it at all.

Through the years, many have given their lives so that I could have the right to own the Bible and to read it for myself.  How dare I take that right for granted!

How about you?  Do you take your Bible for granted? Let's resolve to read it, study it, live it, and hide it in our hearts with the same fervor and gratitude that Theodore did his one copy of the Bible.

Your word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.  (Psalm 119:105)

The Mind of Christ

Driving in to work this morning, I was listening to a praise and worship mix CD.  One of the songs on there was Luke Garrett's The Mind of Christ.  Hearing it again (it has been years) reminded me of the significance of the lyrics, and how well crafted the song is. 

I have not been able to get the song out of my head today.  That is a good thing.  Usually the song that won't leave you alone is "Acky, Breaky Heart" or something like it.  This song has continued to inspire - and I must confess, convict - me throughout this day.

I wanted to share the words with you...

 

To receive when others reject, to treat each one with true respect,
To shield when others throw stones, to be with one who's all alone,
To think and choose to see the very best, to live like this is nothing less than to possess

The mind of Christ, my highest goal, the Lord's delight, the desire of my soul
The Father's heart will always guide my life,
If I will have in me the mind of Christ

To build up when others tear down, to seek the lost until they're found,
To give grace where its needed most, rejecting pride when others boast,
To sacrifice my all without regret, to live like this is nothing less than to possess

The mind of Christ, my highest goal, The Lord's delight, the desire of my soul
The Father's heart will always guide my life,
If I will have in me the mind of Christ.

 

1994 Careers-BMG Music Publishing, Inc. (Admin. by BMG Music Publishing), P.E. Velvet Music (a div. of The Harding Music Group), Seventh Son Music, Inc. (Admin. by Glen Campbell Music Group), Final Four Music (Admin. by BMG Music Publishing)

My Kind of Pastor, Part 2

Ray Bentley is pastor of Maranatha Chapel in San Diego.  He's either not a morning person, or he is someone who has pity of those of us who are not.

When the time changes each Spring, Pastor Ray moves the church's morning worship services forward one hour that Sunday to offset the initial pain of the whole "Spring Forward" thing. 

Pastor Ray even has a name for this program at Maranatha Chapel: Raylight Savings Time.

I love it.

(Check out the previous winner of the In The Meantime My Kind of Pastor Award, Chris Elrod.)

What Will It Take to Bring Us Together?

This past Saturday morning I was eating breakfast in the lobby of our hotel in Nashville.  I couldn't help but overhear an interesting conversation from a couple seated at the table behind me.  The woman, a nurse, was relating an experience she had on September 11, 2001.  On that terrible day, she found herself with a patient, a doctor and a member of the hospital's custodial staff. They were all in the patient's room, watching the events play out on television.

She observed how the tragedy united that group despite their significant professional and cultural differences.  The doctor, the patient, the custodian and the nurse were suddenly all just Americans.  "The walls came down between us," the woman said to her breakfast companion.

I didn't attempt to join the conversation, but it certainly caused me to think as I headed back to my room how often it takes a shared crisis, problem or challenge to compel us to drop barriers and relate to each other on an equal footing. 

What will it take for the church to have a similar experience?  What could make the significant cultural and non-essential theological walls come down?  The inescapable conclusion is that it would take a 911-type tragedy to unite us.

But it is hard to imagine a tragedy worse than this: Thousands of people within the sphere of influence of our churches and our people die without Christ each and every week, while we are content to do our own thing in our own setting, oblivious to their plight.

It is a spiritual 9-11, and it is for the most part under our radar, while a myriad of issues that are trivial when seen through the eyes of eternity consume our time, energy and resources.