Year / 2010

by Greg

Blessed Are Those Who Want Everyone To Be Treated Right

God blesses those people
who want everyone to be treated right more than to eat or drink.
They will be given what they want!

Our family is reading through the book of Matthew together currently, and we came to chapter five today. Many may know that chapter five is where you find the words Jesus spoke which we commonly call “The Beatitudes.” (The fact that I did not know how to spell the word without the help of the spell checker should be a good clue that I do not refer to those words by that somewhat religious title.)

Many of us have read them a thousand times. “Blessed are the…” for “they will be…” They are upside-down, topsy-turvy, kingdom of God truth. They kind of make sense, and kind of don’t. Those who mourn are “blessed?” Those who are persecuted are blessed? God frequently reveals that truth (and reality) are not what we (in our wisdom) think they are.

But what caught my eye this time was what I quoted above.

First of all, we’re reading from a Bible that is called “The Promise.” It’s the Contemporary English Version, which has been nice in that the wording is closer to the way we would speak than some translations, however, we’ve noticed in the first five chapters that there is a bit of a religion “lean” to some of the words they chose to use. There are frequent “notes” that refer to alternate translation options for a word or a phrase, and often the “alternate” is either more the way we have heard it before, or seems to fit more with the context of the book and of the whole message of the new testament.

Matthew 5:6 is one example. You may have heard this verse before, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” When you hear the word “righteousness,” what comes to mind? My mind is filled with images of personal piety and holiness, law keeping, and obedience to religious obligations and laws. That’s not really in line with the rest of what Jesus said… “Do your best, and if you’re really good—like, you want God’s perfect righteousness more than food or drink—then, and only then, you’ll be satisfied.”

Don’t think that’s on par with the rest of what I read.

However, if you go with the alternate translation, “God blesses those who want everyone to be treated right,” then you are a bit more in line with how Jesus lived and taught. Even old testament scriptures convey a similar message. Jesus summed it up in the words we call the “Golden Rule,” … “Treat other people the way you want to be treated.” (My paraphrase.) Basically, the true meaning of justice. Not revenge, eye-for-an-eye justice. But, wanting everyone to be treated right. Treated fairly.

So then I noticed the context. (It is always about the context!) Starting with the verse before, Jesus says: God blesses the humble, then those who want justice more than anything, then those who are merciful. Huh… sounds familiar…

“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God?”—Micah 6:8 (Amplified Version)

Or, in the words of Steven Curtis Chapman, “Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly with your God.” (From “The Walk” – Signs of Life – 1996.)

Wow. Look at that! Seems to fit with what God had said centuries earlier through Micah. And really, if you strip away the religious obligation and attempts to please the deity that accompany the word, “Righteousness” just means doing what is “right”, doesn’t it? So, rather than wanting personal, religious “righteousness” more than food or drink, Jesus said that Kingdom people hunger and thirst for justice—especially for others.

Sounds right to me.

Two thousand years of religious interpretation of Jesus’ words can be a tricky thing to get past sometimes. But when you strip it all away, it really is quite simple. And it really is good news.

Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.

by Greg

Olympic Hockey: National Personalities?

Ryan Miller - Team USA
Team USA, on the strength of Ryan Miller’s shut out, and Zach Parise’s two goals, advanced to the Olympic “final four” yesterday. It was a fantastic day of hockey! The Canadian team looked super impressive, beating up on the Russians, 7-3… but making it look even easier than that. (And Russia is loaded with NHL all-stars!) Actually, all of the teams—not just the Russians—are loaded with NHL all-stars.

(Except for the United States team. Fascinating.)

Team USA has had superb goal tending—much like the Buffalo Sabres—and are the only undefeated team left in the tournament. They are also “scrappy” and physical, and they just play like they won’t accept losing. Aside from the Canadian players, it was interesting to see the “personalities” of each nation’s players. The United States players are as I described above. Mostly second and third-line players who are the “heart and soul”, the “grit” of their teams. You can’t win without them. (But usually, you can’t win if they are your whole team… So, we do have Patrick Kane and even Zach Parise, who are more “skilled players” and natural scorers.)

Then there is the Russian team. If you look at their roster, it’s just staggering how much fire power they have. Alexander Ovechkin is the leagues top goal scorer. And right behind him—sometimes in front of him—is Evgeni Malkin, and right behind them in the scoring column is Ilya Kovalchuk. All three are members of the Russian team, along with a handful of other amazing, all-star players.

But what I noticed about these guys was, they almost looked inept. They were definitely not the offensive machines that they are each night in the NHL. Yes, Canada had a good defensive scheme and some pretty talented defensemen (and a talented goalie) but, they face that from most teams in the NHL.

What they were missing was their teammates.

They needed the guys who are on Team USA. The grit guys. They needed the guys on Team Canada, the guys who set up their scoring. They need the skill and experience of the Fins and Swedes… the savvy veterans who set up their amazing scoring plays. Sadly, even their goalies (who are equally amazing) just looked silly, as all these highly skilled scorer try to play defense in front of them.

I just found it really intriguing to see how a country could have a hockey “personality.”

It’s certainly why the Russians lost. For the most part, every NHL team would want any of those top 6 or 7 guys on the Russian’s team… but with a few guys sprinkled in to help them thrive.

The four remaining teams seem to have a bit better balance. (Though, as I mentioned, Team USA is the most unbalanced, with hardly a “star” player on the roster.)

Really fun hockey being played these days. The semifinals are tomorrow. USA vs Finland, and surprising (but talented) Slovokia vs the homeland favorite, Canada. A rematch of USA vs Canada (which team USA won 4-3) would be a fantastic Gold Medal game … but all four of the remaining games should be fantastic. Can’t wait!

by Greg

Feeling Loved, and Lovable

I got to spend the evening with our oldest son, Ian. We try hard to get each of our kids one night with Dad and nobody else. They’re called “OK Nights” (for “One Kid” Nights) and they usually happen once a week, if we’re on a good pace. So, doing the math, each kid gets their OK Night about once every 5 or 6 weeks.

Tonight was Ian’s turn.

What was fun and different about tonight is that Ian is getting older. He really is. He’s more of a person, which… feels weird to say. Of course he’s always been a person, and actually, it’s really cool to see the “person” that our one year old daughter is, too. But it’s just a little different with Ian. I think maybe it’s the struggles. They’re just different. He’s learning who he is, too. And he’s tender-hearted, compassionate, and sensitive to begin with, so when he gets swept away in the deluge of needy tiny people each day… well it’s just harder to actually get to learn who you are!

So after a great night of just being together, with no schedule, no demands, and no distractions from my attention, I asked him this:

“Ian, I know you’ve heard me say that I think God is teaching me that the greatest thing we can know is that we are loved, and especially that we are lovable. And since you know that… I just wondered, how can I help you feel that? How can I help you feel loved, and especially lovable?”

What I love is that there was only a slight hesitation and then he very openly told me. That was fantastic. I love the openness that we have engendered in our family!

We talked about what it means to know you are loved, to feel loved, and to feel lovable. They are similar, but different. He had some pretty cool answers, too. First was of course, any time we can do an OK Night he feels loved and lovable! 🙂 But there was more, and since it was an open and personal conversation … the details will not be shared here. 🙂

I will say this: I hope you feel lovable. I’m really not sure how you get there. I can quote some scriptures… “We love because he first loved us,” and, “[adopting us as his children] gave [God] great pleasure,” and, “[God] will rejoice over you with singing,” and plenty more. We know it, but… it doesn’t matter until we know it.

So do you? If not, what is it about you that you don’t think is lovable? What part of you is beyond anyone’s love? We’re all pretty good at being selfish. Some of us are good at loving, really loving, but mostly we’re better at protecting ourselves from real or perceived hurt. And we don’t really live because of that.

“[Jesus] came to give you life, and life to the full.”

“God is love.”

“… and the greatest of [faith, hope and love] is love.”

Love completely transforms us, and even the world we know around us. To be loved. To love. To know we are lovable.

May you know that right now today, and every tomorrow.

by Greg

(Over) Ambitious Reading List

Many Books to ReadI seem to read books in spurts. I’ll go a long time without making time to read anything more than email and the daily news. But then, I’ll hear of or see a book or two… and get inspired to make the time to read them.

Now is such a time!

Between books I want to read for my web business and a few personal interests, I have been busy searching our library catalog and, well, check out this stack of books currently next to my reading chair…

Guess I better get reading! 🙂

by Greg

Parking Ticket

My dad sends me a lot of email forwards. (Does your dad do that, too?) I get a lot of email so, often I won’t have time to read all of them. If they are shorter I will scan quickly (or if he sends just to me, not a group) and there are a few that are definitely entertaining or intriguing or otherwise worth the time.

The following was from this morning’s forwarded email, and political jabs aside, I just thought it was a funny story. Don’t know if it’s true, but it’s funny anyway. 🙂 Enjoy!

Parking Ticket

Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their days interesting. Well, for example, the other day my wife and I went into town and went into a shop. We were only in there for about 5 minutes. When we came out, there was a cop writing out a parking ticket. We went up to him and said, “Come on man, how about giving a senior citizen a break?”

He ignored us and continued writing the ticket. I called him a Nazi turd. He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having worn tires. So my wife called him a poophead. He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then he started writing a third ticket. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more we abused him, the more tickets he wrote…

Personally, we didn’t care. We came into town by bus and saw the car had an Obama sticker… We try to have a little fun each day now that we’re retired.. It’s important at our age.

—author unknown
by Greg

Fan Boy?

Get a Mac Ads

On the half-hour drive home from celebrating our daughter’s 6th birthday, we somehow remembered the famous Get A Mac ads that Apple has so brilliantly done for the past several years. I think it started with our oldest son and I quoting from one of them. Well, from there we remembered that the complete library of those ads is in fact stored on our iPod, so when the kids were asked if they’d like to watch them there was a resounding, “YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

So they did. All the way home!

Does that make us the ultimate “Fan boys?” I think it might.

by Greg

Dealing With Frustrations In Kid Training

As I went downstairs to help catch up on our family’s laundry backlog today, I was shocked (and yet, not surprised at all) to find it in complete disarray. Various articles of clothing strewn everywhere from the steps to the washer and dryer, and then all around both of those.

“Alex!!” I thought to myself, angered and frustrated… and exasperated.

Alex is our now 8-year-old laundry helper. For some reason when he was about 5 years old he volunteered for laundry duty, and so, Mom was happy to employ his services! But, also for some reason—believe me, we’ve asked, but without success thus far—he can not do some very simple parts of it (even with clear instruction).

Now, there are many more important things we want Alex to learn. To consider others better than himself. To know that he is loved more than he can imagine by his Creator. To know that Creator. And plenty of other things we are building into his character, as with all our kids.

But at what point is this a character issue? My dad always taught me, “Do it right the first time!” I still remember it today, and I think I live it. So, I’ve been saying that with Alex on this, too, since we have had to re-wash loads of laundry more times than I can count.

The real character issue is that he seems to try to cover up his “forgetfulness” (when he doesn’t do what he tells Mom that he did do). When is it just a tiny eight-year-old boy learning to do a job that may be beyond his physical abilities right now, and when is it an issue of disobedience and even lying to cover up the disobedience. That’s what we’re trying to figure out.

Anyone reading this have any similar experience, and perhaps a solution or two that worked for you? Everyone is different, so who knows if it would work for Alex, but so far, we have not found any method of correction that has. And at this point the frustration is not just Mom & Dad’s, but also little Alex’s, too. And that’s no good.

So we keep plugging away at this parenting thing. Sometimes we learn a lesson from parents who’ve gone before us. Sometimes we learn from how our Father teaches and trains us. Sometimes we just learn “by accident”. 🙂 (We have a lot of practice!) But, we keep going, because even through any frustrations, there are not any cooler people on the planet than these six that God has entrusted to our care.

(Probably a slightly biased view, but 100% true from my vantage point.) 🙂

by Greg

Campbell: Supports The Government

Campbell of Argyll TartanI am a Campbell. My lineage traces back to Scotland, and Clan Campbell of Argyll. We have use Gaelic names for some of our kids. I used to own some bagpipes. I even have a kilt, I think.

Plenty of good Scottish heritage here!

So today, a friend (who, coincidentally, usually only refers to me as “Campbell”) told me that she and her daughter were studying Scotland this week, and not only did they find Clan Campbell in there, they found an interesting paragraph as they were reading the history of the tartans.

“While the recruits were drawn from all parts of the Highlands, in the main they tended to come from clans that supported the government, in particular the Campbells, Munros, and Grants.” [emphasis mine]

(If you know me, and/or read this blog, you’ll likely find that quite ironic as well.)

by Greg

Last Night in Pittsburgh…

Sidney Crosby (Canada) scores the winning goal vs Ryan Miller (USA)Last night the Buffalo Sabres were the visiting opponent of the Pittsburgh Penguins in Pittsburgh, PA … USA. (The country is important here.)

Prior to the game, the hosting team apparently showed a video replay of the overtime goal scored by—Pittsburgh Penguin superstar, Sidney Crosby—and, though I’m certain they anticipated a loud cheer for the hometown hero, instead the crowd booed! Ha! They BOOED!

Meanwhile, they also introduced the MVP of the Olympic tournament—Buffalo Sabres superstar goalie, Ryan Miller, who was not playing that night—to a standing ovation! What??! How great is that! The visiting goalie got a standing ovation, while the hometown superstar—arguably the most recognizable NHL player in the world?—was booed in his own building???

That is flat-out awesome.

Four more years, and the gold medal could very likely go to the United States.

Now if the Sabres could somehow manage to make a run at the Cup…

by Greg

It’s Not Where You’re From, It’s Where You’re At

Nike: The Human Chain

I’m not 100% sure of the title of this commercial, but I saw it several times during the Olympics and really liked it. The commercial is very visually creative (and cool) and I like the song. Especially the line, “It’s not where you’re from, it’s where you’re at.”

We just started reading Oliver Twist tonight (the boys and I) and the first chapter describes how he was born into pretty bleak circumstances. Mom died at birth. No dad. No idea where Mum was from. And to top it off, he was born at a “workhouse” (amongst those at the bottom rung of the social ladder.)

So I remembered that line from this song. It’s not where you’re from, it’s where you’re at. I told the boys of the line from the Bible, “Man looks on the outside, but God looks at the heart.” It’s pretty easy for us to decide who someone is by their appearance, or their life circumstances. It’s easy, but it’s wrong. And often incorrect.

Enjoy the commercial video… it’s cool. And remember, it’s not where you’re from, it’s where you’re at.

Music: Ali in the Jungle – The Hours