Being Fully Human

Last Saturday/Sunday night, my cousin who was visiting from San Fransisco and some ministry friends of mine got together to participate in the L.A.T.E ride for Friends of the Parks. Basically, it's a 25-mile midnight bike ride in downtown Chicago through neighborhoods like Greektown, Wicker Park, Humboldt Park and the Lake Shore area. 10,000 bikers came out at 11pm, and the ride started around midnight to 1 am. When all was said and done, I got home at 5 am, just as the sun was about to peek over the horizon!

The event stands out to me for several reasons. First, not only was it the latest I had been up for a while, but it was definitely the latest that I had been out in the city ever. I was reminded of what a different world the city was as we were driving in around 11:30 pm and I saw tons of people walking around looking for the next place to go.

Second, it was a spontaneous activity with two good friends. It was refreshing to be able to just hang with some ministry colleagues who are friends, not just associates. This kind of memory-making is so rare, and I was grateful to my wife to have permission to share this with my beloved cousin as well as two friends.

On another note, as we were biking through the city, I was reminded of the kind of values and culture that drives night life in the city. There were so many people bar crawling and looking for the next good time. On several occasions, we biked passed people who were clearly wasted, and I'll never forget the countenance of one of the girls. Her face was blank and her eyes were zoned out. She obviously had too much to drink and was not in control of her own faculties. What hit me the hardest was how inhuman she seemed to be. I have no idea who she is or what she does, but I know that she must have creative potential, social capital, and dignity as an image-bearer. However, she exhibited none of that in her drunken stupor. She was like an animal unable to even communicate with her fellow humans (who happened to be on bikes).

I was deeply affected by this because of some of the reading that I have been doing as of late. I've been working through N.T. Wright's book, "After You Believe," (review forthcoming), and one of the things he says is that the formation of character and the instilling of virtue into the human soul is actually part and parcel of the process of becoming human. That is, it forms the process of becoming the kind of image-bearing, royal priests that we were created to be. When we are mastered by anything else, we become dehumanized, and this woman in her drunkenness showed me a picture of that. Who knows how she got where she was or even why? With all the compassion in my heart, I saw an image bearer who, I'm sure even to herself, would be ashamed and embarassed about the hours she spent in the twilight of Sunday morning as less-than-human.

I guess sin does that. Sin masters us by taking our cravings and making them have the final say. Sin robs us of our dignity and does so in the most undignifying way - by causing our own self-destruction. To paraphrase the Puritan pastor John Owen, sin always wants to take us to the furthest extreme.

At the end of the ride, I sat on the sidewalk and just looked at my friends. Our relationships operate on a different scale than the bar-hoppers we rode past. Our idea of pleasure and enjoyment have different measures than the drunkards pleading to try and get in the next club. I was reminded of what I am called to as a minister of the Gospel. My commission is not to just warn people to avoid that lifestyle. It's to rescue people from that kind of meaningless, fruitless search - to show that there is a way to be fully human that isn't fearful, dangerous, and can actually be accomplished!

Now that's good news.

Reflections on a Birthday Boy

Today marks my son's third birthday. It's been an incredible journey thus far, and as one parent warned me, "just when you don't think it can get any better, it does!" In many respects, my life with my son has been a foretaste of what I think the new heavens and new earth will be (except without the occasional tantrums, crying, disobedience, selfishness, impatience, and the like). Jonathan Edwards once gave a sermon called, "Heaven is a World of Love". One of the most inspiring points of his sermon was that heaven would be a place where just when we didn't think that we could experience any more joy, the next day would bring even more fullness, even more ecstasy. My relationship with Calvin has been largely this sort of progression. By his simple and plain observations of the world, his straightforward commentaries, and his hilarious outbursts and retorts, I find joy and excitement in the nooks and crannies of life that adulthood has told me to overlook.

At the same time, Calvin has shown me the depths of my selfishness and ongoing desire to reign and rule my own life (and my own empire). When he was an infant, waking up early in the morning to change his diaper exposed the self-centered settledness of my own schedule, my own preferences, and my own conveniences. Even now, there is a constant tension as I struggle to let him express his own personality, to train him in godliness, and to not conform him to my own expectations, dreams, and hopes. He shows me my powerlessness, and he shows me my need for a Savior.

Donald Miller wrote in the book, "To Own A Dragon," that perhaps the closest thing to agape-type love on this earth is the love that a parent has for his child. Even the relationship between a husband and a wife was at some point conditional - based on looks, interests, personality - all these things made the two attracted to each other in the first place. However, the love that a parent has for a child is unconditional. No matter what the child does, no matter how he looks, no matter how cranky the personality, he's my kid, and I love him (remember that Seinfeld episode about the "ugly baby"?).

Space doesn't even allow for how my son has influenced my relationship with Sarah. Seeing her grow more and more beautiful as a mother is breathtaking in and of itself. 

All this to say, happy birthday, kid. Thanks for being the aural chamber in which the echoes of the myth reverbate with ever increasing force in my heart, home, and marriage. You are daddy's buddy!

Video games, Myths, and Idolatry...oh my!!!

C.J. Mahaney from Sovereign Grace Ministries has an excellent blog post about how to train and instruct children about our tendency towards idolatry (in this case expressed as video games). His most compelling point is that we must parent and nurture our children from a perspective of humility, not self-righteousness. One of the ways that this self-righteousness flares is when we rely on our own past experience to relate to our kids. It's an innocent enough tactic, but it can come across as very condescending. Instead of validating the struggle that a kid might be having, we rather subject to our own experience, and (usually) our own success regarding it.

For instance, Mahaney uses the example of the fear of man. Instead of saying, "here's how fear played out when I was 16," I must bring it to the present, "here's how fear is playing it's way out today." This makes the issue a present one that even I am wrestling with. It brings me to the place of the person I am counseling. It doesn't invalidate the struggle by suggesting it's just like mine was in the past. Rather, it shows that if measures are not taken to mortify this sin TODAY, then it will continue to master me later on.

On another note, I find the increased obsession with video games to be indicative of something deeper than idolatry. My sister and I were chatting about this a few weeks ago as I was preparing a series of messages on "The True Myth". I gave a four-part talk to the graduating seniors of Wheaton Academy about how every great story fits into recognizable phases. These phases are what make the journey of a hero, and these journeys are often labelled and retold as myths. I think every one of us longs to be a part of these kinds of myths, and the brilliance of it all is that the True Myth is found in the the Gospel story. (Thus, this blog is called Echoes of the Myth, and I posted the quote by C.S. Lewis on my home page.) We desperately long to pursue this myth and its reality in our lives. We want to be part of setting out on a quest, facing obstacles, training to do away with our own foolishness, finding a mentor, slaying a dragon, and returning home wise and tested.

These are all parts of myth. This is what makes certain movies/stories so compelling. The Shawshank Redemption, The Lord of the Rings, Toy Story, Remember the Titans, Avatar, Spider Man, Star Wars - they all contain mythology. Creation, Fall, Redemption, Resurrection, and Return - these aspects of the Gospel embody what resonates in our hearts as a good story, a true myth.

My sister made the astute observation that video games are fast becoming the next medium for living out this myth, and not just the fantasy-type video games. Even your run-of-the-mill sports games are about developing a character, putting him/her through tests of training, seasons, adding skill levels, beating different bosses - these all have to do with developing a hero, pursuing and living out this myth. Coupled with the fact that our hearts are natural idol-makers, could this be why video games are increasingly popular and addictive especially to our young (and not so young) men? Is it the desire to live out the myth + idolatry + frustration/fear in our lives?

Where does the True Myth, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Good News that the kingdom of heaven has broken into our existence here and now through the cross, and is remaking the world that we live in, where does this myth expose our silly little adventures and diversions for the rabbit trails that they are? How does the coming reign of Jesus and our mission to help usher in that reign set us ablaze such that we don't waste our lives in the basement of our parents' house celebrating the next level we've achieved in Rock Band 3 or Call of Duty?

And so it begins...

Well, I've been putting this book idea for long enough, and my dear sweet wife has been calling me to ask on it - challenging me to really start writing and putting some ideas down on paper. I've received a lot of feedback on a book idea that started as a point in a sermon, then transformed into a sermon in and of itself, and then into a two-part sermon series. Even this past week, someone came up to me after I had preached this message for the first time in a long time and encouraged me to publish it.

I won't give the idea away here, but I'm posting on the blog in order to ask for prayer and accountability. I find that as I start projects like this, it's so difficult to stay focused and steady. (Frankly, it's amazing that I've made as many entries/posts on this blog as I have - part of this blog's purpose was to prove to myself that it was possible for me to sustain a writing project for longer than one week.) Thus, if you're a reader, ask me about the writing project is going, send me some notes of encouragement, offer up prayers, etc. This is about more than just trying to get my name out there. I really believe God has given me a message that could really make a difference in the lives of people in a sphere much wider than I can physically travel.

So here we go!!!

Crossing

My friend, Robert Nordstrom, from OM called me to inform me about this movie showing that they are hosting at Moody Church in the city. My church has the opportunity to do a showing out here in the Western Suburbs. The topic is one that I have been afraid of for far too long - the plight of refugees fleeing North Korea. With all of the exposure I've had in recent years to plight of refugees around the world (particularly Africa and SE Asia), I've been afraid of how the situation in North Korea would affect me. It's hard enough to bear with the stories of these refugees from around the world let alone other Koreans.

Still, I can't avoid the topic anymore. It appears that the work of ministry has led me in this direction, and I need to be open to what God wants to show me through this movie. It's not a documentary although it tries as realistically as possible to describe the harrowing situation north of the border. You can watch a trailer here.



I hope if you're in the area, you'll come out and watch this movie. It will be either July 21 or 23. Stay tuned for more info.