A BIG SMALL MOMENT: SURPRISED BY PRAYER

Often in life, small moments loom large.  I wrote about that idea in a blog a few weeks ago with a particular reference to Phil Needham’s new book, When God Becomes Small. In that blog, I shared four small moments that still loom large in my memory and return often to me with joy and inspiration.  Not long ago, a super memorable small moment came in a prayer that caught me off guard.  I was delightfully surprised at the time.

I was out to dinner in Long Beach, California with graciously hospitable friends.  They picked me up at my hotel and took me to an Asian restaurant” nearby.  At the table, the waiter of Mexican heritage began the usual drill: he told us his name, asked what would we like to drink, recited the specials on the menu.  He took our orders and just as he was walking away, one of my hosts said to him “In a few minutes, when the food arrives, we are going to pray before we eat.  Is there anything you would like us to pray about for you?”  I was surprised by the question as much as our waiter was.  This was likely a first for him. It was for me.  But it was quite wonderful.  After he had placed the order and brought the food, he answered the question explaining the health situation of his mother and asking that we pray for her.  One of the hosts said a beautiful prayer.  The waiter was clearly moved.  So was I.  It only took a small moment, but had a big impact.

It was a very big “small moment” for me.  Just then a powerful insight became so apparent.  We can acknowledge the presence of God at any time and minister to others anywhere.   I was struck by how naturally the moment unfolded. I attribute that to the maturity and passion of my hosts for things of the Kingdom, and for their obedience to the Great Commandment to love a neighbor.

A few days later I was sitting in a restaurant in Buenos Aires, Argentina having lunch with another lovely couple, two Argentine Salvation Army officers.  The waitress came to the table and started the drill (water, menu, specials).  I asked her if there was something we could pray about for her when we said our prayer over the meal.  We surprised her and seized a moment of glory and grace. Try it sometime and somewhere.  Take a small moment and make it bigger.  Then give thanks to God.

TRANSFORMATION: More than a fad?

People pay big dollars for a college/university education and deserve more than the latest fad.  The buzzwords and phrases of the latest fads come and go.  Remember B.F. Skinner in the 1960's and  behaviorism with partial reinforcement theory?  Then there was quality assurance, and management by objectives, values clarification, and service learning.  Lately, its been student outcomes and student engagement, competence and character, and most recently transformation.  

This latest focus on transformation is a favorite with Christian higher education, but even the secular universities, public and private, tout it.  The pitch is this: spend $100,000 to $200,000 on a four-year undergraduate degree and be transformed.  The only problem is no one, not even the Christian universities and colleges, are defining transformation.  What is it?  What can you expect sending your son or daughter to a school to be transformed?  Or if you are an adult learner going back to school to finish a degree, what is the transformation you can expect?

My hunch is that in the secular settings, transformation is all cognitive and results in the promise of a sufficient degree of intellectual, theoretical competence in a chosen field with some field experience thrown in.  This is no small thing.  Hopefully, knowledge makes possible wisdom and prudent decision making.  Nevertheless, intellectual transformation is the same old theory and practice with the enhancement of a secular worldview.  All universities aspire to develop graduates of competence and that’s what you get along with whatever social credit the institution’s reputation will occasion.

In many Christian Higher Education institutions, transformation means much the same with the added embellishment of affirming one’s Christian faith.  In large part, the transformation is a cognitive one of intellectual competence with a Christian worldview.  After all, isn’t that what universities and colleges are all about?  The difference between these Christian colleges and secular ones includes the serious offering of biblical and theological studies in the college’s core curriculum and some devotional exposures that are faith affirming.  In both secular and Christian settings, what is transformed is one’s right of passage made possible through the award of a degree.

I admit this sounds jaded and cynical.  It comes from sixteen years as a professor in large secular universities and twenty-four years as a dean, vice president, provost, and president of a college and university.  However, my personal views also include my faith that it is possible to conceive of transformation as far more than a cognitive exercise in theory and practice.  Higher education can transform more than the head, more than cognitive competence.  It can transform head, heart, and life.  Transformation can be for the whole person: cognitive, affective, and behavioral in way that brings it all together.  This would be a higher form for higher education and not just the latest fad.  More on this later.  What do you think?

SOMETHING IS SERIOUSLY WRONG! COMPLACENCE AND COMPLICITY?

Something is seriously wrong!  The continual atrocities of Syria’s’ government against its own people seemingly go unaddressed by the world.  Million’s of Syrians have been displaced and over 100,000 killed by their own government.  North Korea’s leader Kim Il-Un has been cited by the UN for crimes against humanity.  North Korea’s unending torture of its citizens and intentional reduction of its population through starvation and murder continues.  Over 100 Ukrainians were killed in the street just the other night by government troops.  Most recently, Venezuela’s government has taken its repression of its people to a new level with intentional murdering of protesters by government collaborating militias.  All of this is happening and the world appears unresponsive or paralyzed in addressing the gross injustices of these oppressive regimes.  Where is the civilized world in responding to the evil, perverse, blatant sin of these malevolent governments and despicable leaders? 

The rest of the world seems incapable of doing the right thing.  Righteousness is absent.  Evil prevails.  The USA is fatigued coming out of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which have drained not only its financial resources, but its moral resolve to intervene.  Other countries appear to be just looking the other way following the rule that if you don’t see it, it isn’t really happening.  Nevertheless, the suffering that is going on continues to be documented in the social media and washes like a tsunami through the Internet.  One Twitter (by Senator John McCain) documents 55,000 pictures of crimes against humanity by the government of Syria.  Similar photos flood the Internet regarding Venezuela and the Ukraine now along with testimonies of North Koreans who have escaped to freedom.  These great sins of commission are in our face daily.  How can they be so easily ignored?

Something is seriously wrong in the church in North America (US and Canada) as well.  Where is the righteous response from the church?  Where is the concern not just for Christians in these countries, but also for all humanity?  For God so loved the world, but the church appears complacent with little sign of even prayer for what is happening.  Where is the line between complacency and complicity?  Is the church guilty of a great sin of omission?

The inscription carved in stone over the US Archives reads, “The Past is Prologue to the Future.”  In the past the genocide of Jews and others by the Nazi’s went largely ignored, and by German citizens denied.  The US entered the war at the bequest of Britain and not because atrocities were happening to Jews.  Following that war, it is estimated that Stalin wiped out 50 million of the Russian people, the Khmer Rouge purged 5 million, and there are other examples from the 20^th century of the same.  It seems like following wars, when there is war fatigue and media disinterest, great atrocities go unaddressed by the world.  History is repeating itself.  When atrocities go unaddressed, it is not only the victims that suffer; humanity suffers the loss of its moral rectitude and sense of mercy and justice.  Social media is making it increasingly difficult to ignore things now.  Unlike German citizenry in the 2^nd World War, we can not feign ignorance and denial anymore.

This is a call for Christians to seek God’s engagement and response to these governments who are promoting terror and horror on their own peoples.  Prayer has preceded every great movement of God.  It is time to pray seriously for God’s intervention in the evil which is so obviously eroding a global sense of justice, righteousness, and shalom.

SMALL MOMENTS LOOMING LARGE

Some moments in life loom large, are unforgettable, and are flashbulb moments.  We treasure them and return to them again and again like playing the video or you tube tape over and over.  They give us joy and bring an easy smile.  Here are four small moments that I savor again and again over the years:

     1)   Aaron’s leap of love - My son is now 31.  When he was about 3 or 4 years old, I was sitting in the living room.  He came at full speed around the corner, dove into my lap, crawled up and wrapped his little arms around my neck, and whispered in my ear “I love you, Daddy!”  O the joy of the moment was real.  It was an unsolicited expression of a little guy’s pure love for his father.  I love revisiting that moment.  It reminds me of how God our Father must feel when we dive into his lap and say to Him “I love you, Abba, Father!”

     2)   Dr. Koop’s Take on Prayer – About the same time as Aaron was 3 years, Irene and I were out to dinner with a dear friend, Dr. C. Everett Koop, the US Surgeon General.   We affectionately knew him as “Chic” (Chic Koop).  Over dinner, Irene asked him an interesting question, “Chic, what is prayer like in your life?”  He paused and said, “At this time in my life, prayer is the Trinity letting me in on the conversation.”  This was the response of a mature Christian whose prayer life was largely listening to God.  I’ve never forgotten the enormous lesson in a short sentence.

     3)   Laughing like my college roommate - When I was a student at Asbury College I roomed with Dick McClain, now the president of The Mission Society.  Dick had a unique laugh.  It was a kind of behavioral signature.  One morning getting ready for class, I laughed out loud at something said and suddenly realized that I had appropriated Dick’s laugh.  I sound just like him. Later in life I heard someone say, “You become like those you hang out with!”  I remembered laughing like my roommate.  It’s a good memory, because I like the idea that the more I “hang out” with Jesus, the more I will be like him.

   

4)   Aaron at the tomb – One of the great decisions in my life was to take both my daughter (Micah) and son (Aaron) to Israel (twice each and separately).  On the second time there with Aaron he was in his mid teens. We were literally exiting the empty garden tomb where it is said Jesus was buried and resurrected.  Aaron put his arm around my shoulder and said to me “It’s all true, isn’t it Dad?”  My heart skipped a beat rejoicing. It was a small moment that loomed large in my heart and still does.

I recently began listing the small moments in my life that loom large.  I receive great joy in revisiting them.  The common thread that ties them together is the grace of God so lavishly poured out in my lifetime.  The joy lies not only in the past remembering these small moments, but God’s gracious provisions of small moments is what I can look for in the present, and look forward to in the future.  Thanks be to God.  I hope to share more small moments that loom large in future blogs.  Stay tuned!