Defining this Blog

What's this log about? What are its goals? Who is the intended audience(s)? You tell me. I don't know.

I started writing because I like to. It's helpful to me. Cathartic.

But I don't want this blog to be about me. If it's helpful to me, great. But I want it serve a purpose for someone else.

So who?

I asked Josh for his comments and suggestions on things I write. So far he's not given many. When I pressed him about some specific things I'd written, he suggested that I 1) not write anything I wouldn't want my kids to read. After all, once something's on the Net, it's taken a life of its own and one cannot know who will see it or when. Good advice. Thanks, Josh.

He also suggested that I, perhaps, just write what I want at this point and see what direction things take and how the blog evolves; perhaps comments from readers (if I ever have any) will influence my direction. More good advice.

So, for now, I think I will just write about whatever I wish. Except that I do want this blog to serve one primary purpose: should the postings here ever be read by my children, I want them to find wisdom for prosperous living. Not just economic prosperity, but spiritual, emotional, relational...the whole human experience spectrum.

Pretty ambitious, I know. But I don't always communicate effectively with my kids orally. On balance, I'm better conveying my thoughts in writing. So I want this blog to represent a legacy that I can leave my kids. A collection of important things I want to share with them and teach them. An expression of my love for them and my blessing to them.

So, there you are.

Now it will be interesting to see how (or if) I accomplish my goal.

The Proximity Effect

A co-worker has recently gotten involved in local politics. It is one way she decided to re-engage in life and the lives of others after years of virtual hermithood. She's been all excited about it -- meeting new people, working for a cause, adding to her own sense of purpose and value. After only a few weeks, she confessed that, up close, politics is very different from how it appears from a distance. "Dirty," she said as she grimaced and gestured as if discarding a five-day-old soiled diaper into a wastebasket.



The other morning I was driving to pick my kids up to take them to school. I was running on the cusp of being late and, wouldn't you know it, I came upon an elderly lady in a Pontiac going 35 to 40 miles per hour down a road posted 45 mph and over which traffic usually flows 55 mph. I found myself emitting the negative waves toward her. I complained to the others in my head about how annoying elderly drivers are, how it was inconsiderate and more than irritating that she would bring her slow self out on the road in the middle of the morning commute.



Suddenly, I caught a certain glance, and the lady reminded me of someone else: an elderly lady from a former church whom I love very much.



Shame rushed over me. I realized that, were the driver my friend, I would not have fretted in the least. Instead, I would have had felt compassion and extended understanding. I would have been thrilled to see my friend out and about and still independent.



Simply because I didn't know the lady in front of me, I was impatient and filled with anger and even animosity.


These two episodes illustrated for me the powerful influence of proximity. How close or how far we are from another person, a given situation or an issue typically plays a major role in our response to that person, situation or issue.


The more I live, the more I realize how biased, emotional and otherwise colored our perspectives are on most everything we view. We don't look through eyes that illuminate and clarify; we see through all the variety of filters accumulated in our very personal and unique experience.


We like to think that we're objective and rational and reasoned and fair-minded. But I wonder: can we be?

Are we made capable of such qualities...truly, in reality? Or are we designed to respond based on experience...using history to inform and shape, sometimes dramatically influence, our perception of today and even tomorrow?

One thing I know is that the closer we are to something, the greater our sympathy and the greater our concern and even love. My theory is that this is a function of God's design. He's made us to want to know more than we do; to have more than we do; to experience more than we do. He wants relationship with us. And not just any relationship, but the closest of all relationships. He wants to be our Number One as we are his Number One creation. The Bible says he wants to have fellowship with us...continually.



Fortunately, God does not treat us the way we treat one another. He loves each of us. Not only that, he loves us perfectly. Not according to what we do, but simply because we are. We are his and he loves us for that reason alone.

I, for one, am so thankful for God's unconditional, never failing, ever constant love. It gives me security, assurance and comfort in an insecure, uncertain and painful world.


To love others, not because of what they do, but simply because they are: that is the standard for us to shoot for. Jesus said that is the greatest commandment: to love God with all our hearts, minds and souls, and to love others as much as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39). He didn't include any conditions or limitations. He didn't say, as long as God blesses you or protects you from trouble. He didn't say, as long as your friends go along with what you want, or your spouse makes you feel loved and respected, or the lady driving in front of you goes fast enough.


Our calling is to love as God loves us. To love everyone that way. People we're close to as well as the stranger we've never met. People with whom we identify and feel comfortable, and those who repulse us, confound us, fill us with anxiety and unease. I've become convinced that we can only love God as well as we love others -- all others. I believe that's what the Bible means when it says the one who claims to love God but hates another is a liar (I John 4:20).


So what am I? I say I love God. Am I a liar? How well do I love him? All I have to do to answer that question is to examine how well I love others. All others.


It's a tough calling. It's part of what makes God God and us not.

Thank you, Father, for loving us so much better than we love others. Help us to love as you love. Amen.