Want to Know What Goes On At An Annual SBC Meeting?

Every year the Southern Baptist Convention meets for two days to hear reports from various SBC agencies, make recommendations, worship, etc. If you are interest in what goes on there, you can see streaming video of all their sessions on Tuesday, June 10th, and Wed., June 11th. Go to: http://www.sbcannualmeeting.net/sbc08/default.asp
Here is what you'll see.

Click on "Watch Live Streaming Video" to, well, uh, "watch live streaming video!" (I know you didn't need the picture, but I like using my screen capture!)

Hamlet, Horatio, and Harvey

I officiated at the funeral of a 93 year-old church member last week. Harvey was a retired postal worker, and a WWII veteran. He participated in the Battle of the Bulge. If you don’t know anything about that, shame on you. It was Hitler’s last ditch effort to win the war. He was defeated, but only after almost 20,000 soldiers were dead, and almost 24,000 were captured. (For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bulge)

Harvey’s daughter asked me to read a quote from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” It is said to the dying Hamlet by his best friend, Horatio at the end of the play . Basically, the story is a tragedy (some say one of the most influential and powerful tragedies in all of English literature) in which Homer, a prince of Denmark (I didn’t know my town had such a rich history!) takes revenge on his uncle, who poisons Hamlet’s father, takes the throne, and marries Hamlet’s mom.

On this journey through themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption, everyone including Hamlet ends up dead except Horatio, Hamlet’s best friend and the voice of sanity throughout the play.

Horatio’s final words to his dying friends were the sentiment Harvey’s daughter wanted included at the conclusion of the service: Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!" - Horatio (V.ii.370-371) After some research (including an emergency email to my former English professor!), I found some important context to the quote that altered my concluding words at the funeral. For even more information on Hamlet, go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamlet

You see, Horatio wanted to join Hamlet in death, but Hamlet wrestles the poison away from him, bidding Horatio "to live and to help put things right in Denmark!” Here's Hamlet's quote:
"If thou didst ever hold me in they heart,
Absent thee from felicity a while,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain
To tell my story."

Okay, here goes my ruthless slaughter of great literature: Hamlet seems to be saying to Horatio, "if you really love me, even though you will be sad, and live in the reality of a life which is difficult and painful, you need to remember me and tell my story so people will know what really happened."

I ended the service saying that we are part of Harvey’s legacy, and part of being someone’s legacy is to continue to “tell their story.” The last thing anyone who dies would want is for his or her death to be the emotional/spiritual death of those who are left behind. A better choice is to be grateful for all the love and lessons left behind by someone, and then to continue to share with others the positive impact the person has had on you. Maybe we all need to read a little more Shakespeare!

Making Your Own "Demotivator" Poster

While doing the previous post, I stumbled on the "make-your-own" demotivator site at www.despair.com. Just upload your picture, type in a description and you can download it to your computer (you can also buy an 11x14 print for $13). I fooled them and made a "positive" poster!


PS...you can buy some really cool stuff at this site for the pessimist in your life. One of my favoriates is the "Half-Full" coffee mug! Oh, and I tried to buy this shirt for myself, but it was out of stock!

Does Anyone Get Paid for Fulfilling The Beauty of Their Dreams?

If you’ve been to a graduation lately, you probably heard someone talk about “realizing the power of your dreams,” or some other “dream-related” sentiment. I couldn’t resist posting this poster from www.despair.com which produces parodies of all those motivational posters you see in offices. Here are some of my "dream-related" favorites:

Back to graduation speeches talking about the power of our dreams. I want to get up there and say, “Wait! What if your dream stinks? What if your dream is selfish? What if your dream settles for a life of shallow consumerism, and you miss the life God wants to give you?”

Before any of us give our life to the power of our dreams, we really need to make sure we’re dreaming the right dream!

The Church – Cruise Ship or Battleship

When I saw this video, it immediately reminded me of a message I heard almost 30 years ago at a lay renewal conference I attended just a couple of months before going to seminary. Dr. Findley Edge, a religious education professor at Southern Seminary spoke on the subject: “The Church: A Hospital or a Hotel?” He said, “a hotel exists primarily for the pleasure of the paying guests.” Is that what Jesus died for? I think Dr. Edge would have liked this video…

The following video is a little more humorous, and hopefully not true of any churches, though some might be tempted to give car washes and ponies to get people to join!

For more videos like this, go to:

http://www.youtube.com/user/IgniterMedia

Commencement Address – What Were They Thinking?

Our local private school’s senior class requested that I be their graduation speaker. What were they thinking? They had to sit through two “sermons” since their baccalaureate was the night before with a full-fledge sermon. I knew that the chances of their remembering anything I said were slim to none. Since I don’t enjoy the prospect of fading into commencement oblivion so quickly, I decided to cheat a little bit.

I told the class that they probably wouldn’t remember much of what I said, so I made each of them a “cheat sheet” for life. Have you ever tried to reduce life’s most important lessons to five or six ideas? It’s hard. I laminated 4 x 6 cards and told the graduates to hang onto them as one day, they may understand their importance. At the very least, they got a “cool” bookmark with a redwood seed containing the actual genetic code to grow the tallest living thing on the planet.

I’ve blogged about the “seed” idea being used to simply remind people as they feel the tiny little bump under the plastic, that if God is smart enough to cram all the information needed to grow the tallest living thing on the planet, He’s smart enough to be trusted with our lives. So, what lessons would you include on your cheat sheet? Here are the ones I came up with…click on each for a larger view. If you want to make your own, you can order the seeds from: http://seedrack.com/09.html

Scroll down to "Coastal Redwood." They are $3.29 per 50 seed packet.

Denmark: Small? Sure! Boring? NEVER

If I had to come up with a theme for the past two weeks it would be a “Whirlwind of Significance!” Since my last blog I’ve attended…

• Two high school graduations (I spoke at one of them.)
• One high school baccalaureate
• One Graduate Recognition Sunday (See Photo!)
• Two weddings (Helped officiate one; took pictures at the other. The picture is of Charlie and Crystal. This was the first wedding I've been involved with that included a fire truck!)
• Numerous hospital visits

Also, in the past week:

• One church family welcomed a new baby
• Another had to say good-bye to someone who passed away Saturday

When I was called to this church over 21 years ago, the search committee feared I might become bored in such a small town. Over the past 21 years I can not recall one moment of boredom.

Then again, if your life has relationships with God and other people as first priorities (not that I’m always successful at keeping my priorities in their correct places), boredom really isn’t an option is it?

Love - Acting in the Best Interest of Another

It's been a quarter of a century since I sat in a religious education class at Southwestern Seminary, but I still remember something my professor, Rick Yount, said about love. He defined it as "acting in the best interest of another." This definition is emphasized again and again in Scripture, but one of my favorite passages is 1 John 3:16-18: 16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

John reminds us that true love shows itself by our actions, and that we are to "act" toward others according to their needs and for their benefit, not out of our own convenience or self-preservation. Christ is, of course, our ultimate example of sacrifice for the benefit of another, but it is interesting that following this ultimate example, John gets VERY specific and VERY basic in how Christ's love manifests itself in us every day as we respond to human need.

Two of our most urgent physical needs on an international level have to be the earthquake victims of China and the cyclone victims of Myanmar. Here is the link (for my fellow Baptists..or anyone for that matter) to our International Mission Board's global response efforts to which you can donate:

http://www.baptistglobalresponse.com/main/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=39

Earthquake survivors are seen here in tents among the rubble of collapsed houses in Shuimo, in Wenchuan county in southwestern China's Sichuan province, Sunday, May 18, 2008. A friend sent me this link for helping the earthquake victims (and especially the children) of China. This charity is based in SC by the way. The link:

http://www.christianworldfoundation.org/cwf.htm

Do You "REALLY" Care?

I'm asked from time to time, "what do you say to someone who is experiencing a major tragedy?" I think all of us can gain some insight into loving people through difficult times by understanding the origin of the simple word, "care," as set forth by Henri Nouwen.

“The word ‘care’ finds its roots in the Gothic ‘Kara’ which means lament. The basic meaning of care is: to grieve, to experience sorrow, to cry out. I am very much struck by this background of the word care because we tend to look at caring as an attitude of the strong toward the weak, of the powerful toward the powerless, of the have’s toward the have not’s. And, in fact, we feel quite uncomfortable with an invitation to enter into someone’s pain before doing something about it…The friend who cares makes it clear that whatever happens in the external world, being present to each other is what really matters. In fact, it matters more than pain, illness, or even death…Therefore, to care means first of all to be present to each other.” Henri Nouwen

When someone you love is hurting, hurt with them. You'll be hard pressed to find any combination of spoken words that beat that.

The Principles of Florence Nightingale

I was doing some research for my commencement address that I'm scheduled to give next week and found this quote from Norman Cousins.

The Principles of Florence Nightingale

The first principle: the world is run by those who show up—be where the action is.

The second principle: you get more done by working with others than just yourself.

The third principle: count what counts.

The fourth principle: you don’t have to be seen to be heard.

The fifth principle: plan to get dirty.

The sixth principle: when there is darkness, light the way.

The last principle: answer humanity’s call.

“The tragedy of life is not death, but what we let die inside us while we live.” Norman Cousins

I think there's some wisdom here for all of us... for more info on Florence Nightingale go to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale