October 13: Train Your Brain Day

 October 13:  Train Your Brain Day

Each day, one “muscle” shapes everything we do and how we experience the world around us. It isn’t an actual muscle, but it is easily more powerful than even the strongest muscle. Our mind can make us sick, or make us well, it can drive us to see deception and paranoia in the actions of others, and it helps us make sense of the world around us. Train Your Brain Day recognizes the power of the mind, and how training it can change our lives dramatically. 

Science tells us that we use only a small percentage of our brain.  Have you imagined what a fully functioning, untouched-by-sin brain could do?  Could we move objects with our mind, dematerialize, or even fly?  While still the stuff of science fiction, the fact remains that we need to train our brains now with one goal in mind.  Transformation. 

Romans 12:2 gives us clear marching orders.  “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” 

Would you like to know God’s will for your life?  In the broadest sense, we already do.  1 Thessalonians 4:3, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, and 1 Peter 2:15 all make clear that God wills for each of us to become like Christ, to give thanks in all things and to do good works so that others might believe.  But our daily walk is another matter.  What job should I take, who should I marry, what major purchases should I make, what school should I go to?  Questions like these and a thousand more abound.  How can we discern God’s will in these things? 

By training your brain.  Simple, but not easy.  Two things are critical.  First, we must implore God’s Spirit to help us break the habit of thinking like the world, and instead, thinking like Jesus.  “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).  Only God’s Spirit can properly oversee our brain training. 

Second, we must treat God’s word for what it is—sweet honey, precious stones, pure gold.  I know.  I struggle as well.  But we must commit time every day to reading, listening to and studying the word of God. Under the supervision of the Holy Spirit, it is unparalleled in re-training our brains to think and feel and act like Jesus Himself.  So today, recommit to training your brain.  Do so, and your spirit at least, will fly.

October 12: Columbus Day

October 12:  Columbus Day

The first celebration of this holiday occurred in 1792, when New York’s Colombian Order, Tammany Hall, held an event to observe the historic landing’s 300th anniversary. Although during this time period it was celebrated unofficially, it did not become a federal, official holiday until 1937 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. 

Since then, our nation has been engaged in what is known as “revisionist history.”  Rather than attempting to describe historical events in context, based on the writings of those involved, we have begun to rewrite history.  The outcome has been a disaster.  We have begun to judge all historical figures and events by today’s standards.  In other words, unless people living hundreds, sometimes thousands of years ago, embraced today’s standards and values, they are deemed less than human.  Slavery is a classic example.  As evil an institution as ever existed, slavery was practiced by every civilization and every people since time began.  Today, we recognize this terrific sin for what it is.  

This is no way absolves those from the past!  They will be held responsible before God for the choices they made.  But as cultures evolve and as nations live out the true meaning of their ideals, things change, often for the better, as in this case.  To hold the founders of our country to a standard that did not exist in their own day is historical irresponsible.  A classic example is the current 1619 Project.

This practice is no more pronounced than in the treatment of Christopher Columbus.  He is currently portrayed as a genocidal, racist maniac who willfully and gladly enslaved and decimated vast numbers of indigenous peoples.  As Christ-followers, it is critical that we learn from the past.  It is incumbent upon us to carefully exegete history. 

This means that we have one primary responsibility, and it’s a tough one.  When you study history, rely as much as possible on primary sources.  That means, read what Columbus himself and his contemporaries wrote.  This is true for the study of all history.  That can be tough because writing styles, idioms and figures of speech often leave us wondering what we have read.  But we must rediscover this fundamental method for the study of history.  

Accounts of the past, written by those who did not live it, are always biased.  Always.  This is why it is critical that we look to the past as recorded by those who were there.  The same can be said for our study of God’s Word.  So, this Columbus Day, Google the writings of the man himself.  What you will find is quite different than what you read in today’s history textbooks.    

October 11: World Coming Out Day

 

October 11:  World Coming Out Day

God is a sexual being.  Say what?  No, He does not have genitals.  But it is no accident that when God determined to create a being made specifically in His image, this is what we read:  “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,^[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” ²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27)

Up until that point, EVERY creature was created male and female.  Why make a point of that in this context?  Because being male and female, in relationship to one another is at the very heart of what it means to be created in the image of God!

Now, flip ahead to Genesis 3.  Where does Satan specifically attack humanity?  He approaches Eve, and Adam is standing right there!  He attacks our understanding of our roles, and our relationship to one another as men and women.  There has been Hell to pay ever since.  Satan’s vicious and hate-filled attack on God’s creation is centered on sexual confusion and brokenness.  That is by design.

Further proof of the centrality of our sexuality is found in 1 Corinthians 6.  There we read:  “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18)  Sexual sin is not “worse,” but it is more profound.  It is an assault on our very nature, the heart of being in God’s image.  It is especially destructive and hurtful, unlike every other sin.  Again, this is by design.  Satan delights in our pain and confusion and suffering.  This is in large part why we celebrate sexual brokenness of all kinds.  Coming Out Day was created by Rob Eichberg and Jean O’Leary as a result of the March on Washington DC for Lesbian and Gay Rights on October 11, 1987.

There is no question that the vast majority of sexual sin has been perpetrated by heterosexual males.  But all sexual sin, including homosexual behavior, bestiality, transgender confusion, adultery, pornography, etc. are an assault on who you were created to be.  As believers, we must continue to extend compassion without compromise.  Welcome those from the LBGTQ community into your churches.  Do your homework.  Read, become engaged, and above all, offer the grace that God offered to you in the midst of your own sexual brokenness.  But never embrace or promote the idea that sexual brokenness, in any form, is good or to be celebrated.  That is not love, it is a cowardly concession that only promotes more brokenness, pain, and suffering.

October 10: World Homeless Day

October 10:  World Homeless Day 

I work with the homeless almost every day.  Like so many things, my perspective has been shaped by my experience.  Over the years, I have come to love and respect those who are/were homeless like never before.  My heart also breaks for them.

That the poor and homeless have a special place in God’s heart is undeniable.  Both the Old and New Testaments urge us to care for them.  “Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?” (Isaiah 58:7)  “And one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” (James 2:16) 
Actual care and genuine help are difficult, nuanced and challenging.  It is not about a handout or even a place to stay.  Immediate needs must be met.  Food and shelter are critical, which is why every church should have a good working relationship with food pantries and shelters.  Does yours? 

The greatest need is to identify what brought them to that point.  My experience has been that addiction issues, financial irresponsibility, even mental illness are often root causes.  There are those rarer occasions where someone or a family is taken unawares by circumstances beyond their control.  But most often, the homeless are that way because of poor choices or because of undiagnosed illnesses.

What can you do?  First, understand.  Roll up your sleeves and get involved with your local shelter.  Serve.  Get to know these people.  They are just like you in so many ways.  They feel and hurt and long for love as we all do.  Second, do your homework.  Learn the real statistics.  Read books like Toxic Charity and When Helping Hurts.  Do the most good for the most people in the best way. 

Most importantly, do all you can in the name of Jesus.  Religious do-gooders abound.  We don’t need more.  Homelessness is first of all an issue of the heart.  Hurts need to be healed,  habits need to change, and hope has to be real.  All of those are only truly possible when our hearts are changed by the power of the gospel.  Make a commitment today that your church, wherever it is, will step up to care for the homeless in new and more effective ways.  And never take having a roof over your head for granted again.

October 9: Curious Events Day

 

Where do crop circles come from?  Is the Loch Ness monster real?  How many galaxies are there?  How did God actually create our universe?  Why do children instinctively pick their noses?  Please don’t misunderstand that I think all of these things are on par with one another.  Obviously not.  But they all beg the question:  Why are there so many seemingly unexplainable things in our world? 

I want to challenge you with something today.  Pick one unusual or curious event.  It can be part of popular culture (Bigfoot, The Bermuda Triangle) or it can be something more germane to our faith (The bodily resurrection of Jesus, creation), and then do some homework.  Study.  Investigate.  Carefully check sources.  Read some books or memes or articles.  There are some very good reasons why we should devote some time to this.

First, it will sharpen our critical thinking.  Oh, how we desperately need this in the household of faith!  We are lazy thinkers, lazy prayers, and lazy apologists.  We need to learn how to navigate the maze of information available to us, and distill it down in to useable, bite-sized pieces that we can share and disseminate. 

Second, there is a reason why humans are naturally curious.  God, and sin.  Our curiosity is a “leftover” from The Fall into sin, recorded for us in Genesis 3.  We were made to look into things, to investigate, to follow the leads.   EVERY GOOD THING THAT GOD MADE WAS DESIGNED TO DRAW US TO HIMSELF AND THRILL US WITH HIS GLORY.  One of the great tragedies of The Fall is that our natural curiosity was corrupted.  Rather than seeing all things as a means to the end of glorifying God, we pursue them as ends in themselves.   One of the great joys of Heaven is that we will continue to investigate and learn, but all our learning will end in the greater glory of God and our greater joy in Him. 

So, give it a shot today, even for the next month, or year!  Dedicate yourself to plumbing the depths of some curious event, something about which the jury remains out.  Do so prayerfully, asking God’s Spirit to re-awaken in you some vestiges of the minds of our perfect first father and mother, Adam and Eve.  Let it whet your appetite for the day when the second Adam, Jesus, will invite us into a world where every search ends in God's glory and our perfect good.  Be curious!

October 8: International Podiatry Day

 

October 8:  International Podiatry Day

I have bad feet.  It’s called “neuropathy” and it is a symptom of my diabetes.  I have virtually no feeling in my feet, which is not good.  Pain is there to alert us that something is wrong.  I am also an incredibly sound sleeper.  So when my dog lovingly tried to remove an infection in one of my toes by chewing the end of my toe off, I didn’t feel a thing.  That happened twice.  I’m not making that up.  I have pictures! 

The International Federation of Podiatrists is behind International Podiatry Day. The federation has existed since 1947 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing podiatry worldwide. It has 26 member countries sharing research, practice and knowledge between them.  Needless to say, I see my podiatrist often.

If you’re still reading and haven’t rushed to the bathroom yet, a word from scripture about feet.  Quoting Isaiah 52:7, Paul in Romans 10:15 asks
“And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”  Beautiful indeed. 

On this day, engage in a little spiritual podiatry.  Go ahead and take a look at your feet.  Seriously, put the book down and bare your feet.  Now I want you to pray over them.  I want you to ask the God who made you to anoint your feet in a way that changes everything.  Ask the Father to make your feet beautiful in the sense of Isaiah 52.  Bring the Good News of the Gospel with you today.  Let every place your feet touch become holy ground.  Let Christ emanate from you in unmistakable ways.  Walk to a friend or neighbor or colleague or family member and share the good news.  I hope you will never view October 8 the same again. 

October 7: Random Acts of Poetry Day

 

October 7:  Random Acts of Poetry Day

We have all had the experience.  Usually a song, but sometimes poetry alone, moves us.  “You have to hear this!” we say to our friends.  Our moods are impacted or confirmed, and poetry wends its way into our hearts with a subtle power that often surprises us.  Why is that, and what place poetry for the believer?

Words have meaning.  Despite the current trend to cheapen or even deface the meaning of words, they still say something.  We know it when a bit of prose or a pithy comment or a lyric smacks us upside the head.  God has placed eternity in our hearts, and we long to fill that void with meaning and purpose.  Often, words will do, but only for a season.  The ache returns.  The longing resurfaces, and the search continues for words, even A word that can provide relief. 

Poetry does something that declarative statements and lectures cannot do.  I have 5 sons.  I recall the first time I heard Mark Schultz’s "He’s My Son." I still listen to it periodically today, even though all my sons are married and out of the house.  It is the cry of a father’s heart to heal his son.  I pray it every day, but there are times when only that poetry will do. 

The point is this.  Avail yourself of poetry.  If possible, take a crack at writing some.  At the very least, look for and lean into words that capture something or express something that resonates.  When this day passes, remember that there is A Word that is more than poetry.  It is life.  That Word, spoken to and received by the heart will fill every void and satisfy every longing, for good.