Why I love the fall

I used to be a summer guy. Summer is about hotdogs and swimming pools and vacations, and for most of my life, I lived for the summer. But lately, I find myself tolerating the summer and looking forward to the fall. Growing up, the fall was all about ugly trees (we don't experience that "beautiful leaves changing colors" thing very often in Oklahoma), those awful peanut butter candies wrapped in black and orange wrappers that the cheap families gave out on halloween, and the beginning of nasty weather (as if the blazing heat and rampant tornadoes of an Oklahoma summer are the definition of good weather). 

So here I am on the first day of fall coming out of the "I think I like fall more than summer" closet, and though it feels good to get it off my chest, it still feels a little strange, because I have been trying to figure out how I got here. Summer never did anything so awful to me, but like a person who accidentally eats something that have sworn to hate for decades and finds it somewhat appealing; I have become a lover of the fall. Now I still don't like those nasty peanut butter candies and I still have an underlying dislike for all things orange and black, I am a Sooner fan after all; but I find myself embracing the season. As I have been thinking about where my new found fall-love came from, several things have emerged. First of all, it is the best sports season of the year. I mean is there anything better than college football and October baseball? I definitely don't think so. But its not just the great sports that have changed my seasonal palate. I think the real reason that I have grown to love the fall is the presence of the mundane and the routine.

I know what you are thinking, the presence of the mundane and routine...isn't that a little anticlimactic? Yes it is. It most certainly is, and that is what I have come to love abo

ut it. One of the reasons so many of us have loved the summer is because it is representative of a season of freedom from our mundane and ordinary lives; but if we are not careful, we will begin to think that a couple of months of free-spirited living which so often accompanies summer is the norm and the ten or so remaining months of the year are some sort of sub-par depressed season to be endured. People very often hate routines and spend all of their time thinking about the next upcoming break, because they have terribly designed routines, from which they feel they need to break free.

One of my favorite books is called "Ordering Your Private World" by Gordon MacDonald. In it, he shares a story about the establishment of his routine that I think will be beneficial for us, so I have included it here.

I carry with me the memory of a time when my missiology professor at Denver Seminary, Dr. Raymond Buker, approached me at the end of a special convocation where I had read a paper on some moral issue that was burning in the hearts of the student generation of that day. I had cut two of his classes that day to prepare the paper, and it had not gone unnoticed.

"Gordon," he said, "the paper you read tonight was a good one, but it wasn't a great one. Would you like to know why?"

I wasn't sure I really wanted to know because I anticipated a bit of humiliation coming my way, but I swallowed hard and told Dr. Buker that I would like to hear his analysis.

"The paper wasn't a great one," he said as he thumped his finger on my chest, "because you sacrificed your routine to write it."

I think often of this story as I seek to architect my life and build my routines. Routines are not our enemies. We can become people who embrace the seasons of life with joy and vitality. Let me give you a couple of things to consider that just might help.

1. Build the Sabbath into your routine. This one sounds simple enough, but in truth it is quite difficult to do. The Sabbath is the most broken commandment of the ten and there is not a close second. Neglect of the Sabbath is the most socially acceptable way to rebel against God. No one is going to call you out for breaking it, because almost no one else is obeying it. I recently asked a couple of people when was the last time that you took a day to rest and reflect on the Lord...he replied sometime in the nineties. The Bible says we are to have those kinds of days once a week. 

2. Prioritize the important over the urgent. There are things in life that appear to us important, but are really just urgent things that fake importance. Things like email and phone calls fake importance because they ring and vibrate, but many times they are not important, they are just immediate. You have to learn to live in such a way that you spend your time on the important things. This is not always easy, because many of the most important things in our lives, like devotion, prayer, strategic planning, and goal setting are all things that require our attention and the neglect of none of them will cause an immediate backlash. 

3. Build fun into your routine. If you do not make specific effort to build fun into your routine, you will sin to have fun. You have to find things that you enjoy and build in time for them in your routine. One of those things for me is college football. I do almost nothing on Saturdays in the fall, because I watch college football all day. It energizes me and I prioritize it, because it is something I enjoy.

4. Live according to your priorities. Making priorities is worthless unless you are willing to follow them, which is emotionally difficult at times. To live according to priorities means that several things are going to suffer from lack of attention. In truth, several things in your life are going to suffer from lack of attention anyway, and living according to priorities does not alleviate the fact that things are still going to suffer, it just allows you to be the one who determines which areas of your life suffer. 

5. Learn to say no...and then say it often. This is perhaps the toughest of these five suggestions, because saying yes helps us assuage our guilt. What do I mean? Every time someone asks you to do something and you do it, you feel a little less guilty, and every time someone asks you to do something and you say no, you feel the twinge of guilt. People who cannot say no have serious and fundamental Gospel issues in their lives. The underlying reason that they cannot say no, is because in their world Jesus isn't the savior...they are. We call this a "messiah complex," where people feel that they are so important that they can never let Jesus do the work he says repeatedly in Scripture that he will do.  

May the Lord bless us all as we build routines that honor him.

Some People are Stupid

It's just another Friday night here in Oklahoma. We are expecting rain tomorrow, but all in all it has been a pretty good day here. I emphasize here, because tonight the Texas coast is bracing for what looks to be a pretty major hurricane. Ike is supposed to make landfall at Galveston, Texas in a few hours, and the talking heads are expecting a 20 foot storm surge, which if they are right, and we are praying that they aren't, is going to be a catastrophic event for coastal Texas, and Galveston in particular. This is of particular importance to me, because I have a lot of friends in the Houston area and I have been thinking about them and praying for them for the last couple of days. Almost all of them evacuated, and the ones who didn't live quite a ways inland. 

Galveston is a city on an island in the gulf that is basically one long street named Seawall Blvd. Seawall Blvd. got its name, because it runs immediately beside the 17 foot high seawall built to protect the island from just such an event as they will experience tonight. For those not aware of the history of Galveston, the seawall was built in response to the most devastating hurricane in US history, which struck the island in 1900. In fact, the Galveston hurricane is the 

deadliest natural disaster ever to strike the United States. That hurricane killed more than 8,000 people. For perspective, Hurricane Katrina killed just over 1,800 people. I have great compassion for the people killed in that hurricane from 100 years ago, and how could you not. They had no radar, and thus no warning. The water rose, the winds raged, and the city was destroyed. 

Now we are a long way from 1900, and you cannot look at a TV or computer without seeing a map of North America with a huge red swirl spinning toward Galveston. The people of Galveston were told to evacuate or face "certain death." Certain death...that is the direct quote. Now you would think this would motivate everyone and the only people left on the island would be dumb network reporters who get paid to hug telephone poles in torrential rains and gale force winds and try to yell into their microphones and compare this storm with the last one for their loyal viewers. But even with the warning of certain death, many people have chosen to stay and ride out the storm. Those deciding to ride out the storm have been mandated to write their name and social security numbers on their arms in black markers so the authorities will be able to identify their bodies in a couple of days. 

These people enjoying a couple of beers have decided to stay in Galveston to watch the storm. They are not alone. Fox news is estimating that more than 90,000 people in the mandatory evacuation zones of coastal Texas have decided to stay and ride out the storm, despite the severe warnings.

So why take time to write about an impending hurricane on a blog devoted to missional thinking? I am glad you asked. Many of those staying to ride out the storm are giving theological justifications when asked why they chose to stay. Some of the trite answers that I have heard already are: "I told them I believe in a man up there, God...he will take care of me," "I am just enjoying the serenity really...you never know what the aftermath might hold, but right now it is really peaceful...and besides, worrying is a sin," and my personal favorite, "whats gonna happen is gonna happen." Now for the record, I hope the weathermen are wrong. I hope it is a gross overestimation and that no one has to be identified by the sharpied names and numbers on their arms, but what if they are not? What if it is not a case of "the weatherman who cried massive storm surge?" What if everyone of those people who made such dumb statements are washed up on shore on Monday afternoon? Are we to feel sorry for them? 

I for one will not shed one tear for a person, who knowing the danger chose to stay and ride out the storm and then didn't make it. In truth, it is a just end for those who choose to stay having been confronted by overwhelming reason to leave. And so it will be for those who after numerous times of being confronted with the Gospel, make the foolish choice to reject it. And though it will be trendy to blame God for the catastrophic damage inflicted upon coastal Texas, it will be a baseless claim. The claim will have no merit, because the same God who brought the hurricane also brought about the means of rescue from its devastation. The God who created hell also created an avenue of rescue when he sent his son to suffer and die for his children. And so the question goes, "how can a loving God send people to hell?" In truth, he doesn't. He simply lets them have exactly what they asked for...a chance to freely reject rescue, face the storm alone, and live, or die, with the consequences.