The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

II Timothy 4:18 (NIV)

The Golden Gate Bridge began construction in 1933, with an estimated cost of $35 million dollars. In those days, the estimate was that there would be one construction death per one million dollars spent. Therefore, planners assumed that about 35 men would accidentally die during construction of the bridge.

The builder and designer, Joseph Strauss, decided that this project would not cost the lives of 35 men. He decided to install a safety net underneath the bridge to catch any unfortunate construction worker who may fall. Not only was this a great humanitarian concept, it led to greater efficiency. Workers could now concentrate more on the job of welding, riveting, and all the other tasks of building a bridge. The project came in under budget and ahead of schedule. Eleven men did die during construction- ten in one unfortunate situation where an entire platform fell and the net could not hold that weight. Nineteen other men fell into the net and were saved. Overall, the net indeed saved many lives.

I used this analogy with a client the other day about God’s provision for us. He wants us to feel secure in his love because he has paid the price for our salvation. We don’t need to hang onto our relationship with him- He is holding us!

Prayer: Thank you for the plan to hold us, rather than our meager efforts to hang on to you, Amen.

Have two goals: wisdom—that is, knowing and doing right—and common sense. Don’t let them slip away,                                                                                                                                        Proverbs 3:21 (Living Bible)

I was recently reading about Abraham Wald, a Jewish scientist from Hungary who had been  expelled from Nazi Europe in World War II. As we have seen often, when political thinking gets involved in science, foolish decisions are often made. Indeed, Wald played a part in helping to defeat Nazi Germany with his mathematical prowess and brilliant logic. The irony, played out more than once in World War II, is that brilliant scientists expelled from Nazi Germany because of their Jewish heritage, helped to defeat that same evil power.

Wald was tasked to solve the problem of finding the most vulnerable parts of Allied bombers so that more armor could be added to protect planes and crews. The placement of armor had to be strategic, since armor was heavy, and planes needed to be as light as possible.

Wald was given access to information about where returning bombers had sustained the most enemy damage during their bombing runs. He saw where most of the damage occurred, and he surprisingly suggested that armor be placed mostly in the areas where the most damage had not been sustained.  

He explained that they were studying planes whose damage, while at times extensive, had allowed them to return safely. The planes which were hit in the areas other than these spots had not been able to return home. The concept he formulated was “survivorship bias”, meaning that all factors needed to be included in the analysis, not just the damage to the surviving aircraft. The planes that had not survived also needed to be in the equation.

I found the solution to be fascinating, and at the same time, almost obvious- an idea that we might easily overlook. We often have unknown biases when we study problems. Wald had the insight and logic to utilize this concept to save many bomber crews.

What appears to be clear to us, can also be missed because of hidden bias. Information that we do not consider might be the most important things in the equation.

Prayer: Thank you for the gifts that you give to us, especially the ones we do not see, Amen

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:‘Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.  Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.  Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper                                                 Jeremiah 29:4-7

I always really liked the passage cited above. It was a message sent by the prophet Jeremiah, who was in Jerusalem, to his fellow Israelites who were in exile in Babylon.  They had been carried away from their beloved homeland into exile in Babylon. Think about, from their mindset, being transported from “the holy city” to the center of the pagan world. They were exiled from their homeland into the “profanity” of Babylon. They were depressed, and even hopeless.

Jeremiah gave them a strong message, one of hope and encouragement. He told them to work for the betterment of the hated Babylon. He said that they should settle down, plant gardens, marry off their daughters, and generally make Babylon a place of prosperity and hope. In so doing, they too would prosper.

This was a profound and amazing message to those pious Israelites. They were to mingle with those heathens in Babylon, and actually work to make it a better place! What a shock this must have been for those pious followers of the true God to mingle with and associate with, even work alongside, those worldly heathens!

I believe that message is still applicable today in modern society. No, not a mindset of isolation from a broken world (after all, we are all broken), but an opportunity to display God’s love for his creation right where we are.

I have always felt that the job of the church is to make our community a better place- for everyone. The local church has a unique ability and calling to mobilize the resources in its congregation – both people power and financial power – to make its home community a place of healing and hope. As the community prospers, so does the church. In this way, a possibly skeptical community can see the love of God portrayed right in their own back yard.

We preach the gospel by living it.

Prayer: Lord, help us to become an instrument of your peace and healing, Amen

God said to Moses, “I’m going to rain bread down from the skies for you. The people will go out and gather each day’s ration.                                                                                                                                                    Exodus 16:4-5 (The Message)

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.                                                                               Isaiah 55:8-9 (KJV)

Yesterday I talked about bread as a basic sustainer of life. Today, I look at manna. You may remember that in the book of Exodus, there is a story about how God provided for his people with manna in the desert.

Manna. Yes, it’s a thing. Most of us are familiar with the stories in the Bible that God miraculously provided food for the wandering Israelites as they trekked through the desert on the way to the “Promised Land”. Many people are understandably skeptical of this amazing provision, but it turns out that scientists have actually identified what they believe is the food that nourished the Israelites. They call it Manna.

Actually called mann-Rimth, the Rimth shrub is the Bedouin name for the Haloxylon salicornicum. The secretions we call “manna” are also called “honeydew”, which is the product of the digestion of insects as they munch on these plants which are found all over the Middle east.

I found it quite interesting that there is, potentially, a very logical explanation of a miracle. Can God provide things for people in ways that we cannot explain? Uh, yes. It happens all the time. I do not know the particulars of how this all happened, but the general point of what the Bible tries to say is that God is able to do things which are inexplicable to us. People actually eat manna today, and it does provide nourishment with a sweet taste like coriander seed- so the consumers say.

So, I don’t get particularly hung up on the details of how God provides. I just know that he does, and we don’t always understand it.

Prayer: Lord, you work in ways that are higher than ours, we just accept that your plans are for our good, Amen

Then Jesus declared, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty                                                                                            John 6:35

Our pastor is doing a series on the Lord’s Prayer. Today, he discussed the passage, “Give us this day our daily bread…” It was a good reminder that we are dependent daily for spiritual food. His listeners in that day were keenly aware that their physical food was day to day. Food had to be procured daily, and people were aware of the need for their “daily bread”.

Jesus is called “the bread of life”, that is, the real meaning of living is found in him and in his teaching, the way of life he calls us to. He invited his disciples at the Last Supper to eat his body (the bread) “broken for you”. He meant that we need to fully incorporate him into us so that we can have life also.

We can understand that “we are what we eat” to quote a famous line. If we fully consume the message that Jesus gave to us, we will become what we eat- we will be more like Jesus.

Prayer: Lord, help us to understand the full meaning of Jesus as the bread of life, Amen  

Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God, for he has given you the autumn rains because he is faithful. He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before.                                                                                                                                                            Joel 2:23

As we prepare to enter another season (in the northern hemisphere), Autumn, I read this passage about Autumn rains and Spring rains. When these passages were written, they were written to an agricultural and herding people. They completely depended on the seasonal weather patterns that would make or break their crops.

Today, we feel that we are somewhat insulated from such dependence because we have a global economy, and we can import grains and fruit from around the world. Of course, we are still dependent upon the weather! Droughts and floods and natural disasters can devastate parts of the world with famine and starvation. We are dependent upon the weather systems that the Creator put into place at the beginning of the universe.

Yes, those patterns have changed, and they will continue to change as part of a dynamic planet. While we have found ways to accommodate, and have even invented ingenious ways to get more food production from an aging planet, we are still quite dependent upon those rains that were discussed in the ancient book of Joel.

So, we rejoice when it rains, reminded that we are still dependent on God’s providential plans.

Prayer: We look to the heavens, and rejoice in your creation, Amen.     

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

Mark 9:35

On December 4^th, 1783, General George Washington bid farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern. This bears remembrance because it signifies Washington’s desire to leave the military and not take over a young country that was his for the taking. Other world leaders marveled that Washington would willingly give up power that he had so painstakingly gained over years of suffering with the ill-equipped soldiers he led.

I have always been amazed at the humility of leadership of Washington, who truly was a servant-leader model. He chose to empower the young country he had helped to found by ensuring that civilian, not military powers would govern the fledgling country.

It reminds me of the leadership Jesus endorsed. That we would use whatever power we have for the benefit of those whom we serve.

Prayer: Lord, give us the strength to use our power with humility, and for the benefit of others, Amen

After this a lot of his disciples left. They no longer wanted to be associated with him. Then Jesus gave the Twelve their chance: “Do you also want to leave?”

 Peter replied, “Master, to whom would we go? You have the words of real life, eternal life. We’ve already committed ourselves, confident that you are the Holy One of God.”

There is a now famous saying that President Harry S. Truman had on a little plaque on his desk- “The Buck Stops Here”. The saying is perhaps a bit trite nowadays, but the principle is still relevant. Back in those days, the early 1950’s, the idea resonated bit more than it does today. We had just come through the great conflict of World War II, and military type thinking was still much more accepted. Radical responsibility said that the leader took full ownership of anything that happened under his/her watch. If there was a mishap, a failure, a problem, the leader took responsibility for it, even if the specifics of the problem were not directly attributable to the leader.

President Truman had to make some very difficult decisions. He had to decide upon dropping the atomic bomb on Japan. He had to decide proper actions on a national steel strike. He had to decide on firing General Douglas MacArthur when MacArthur defied orders. Truman made some important, and often unpopular decisions, but he owned them and accepted the consequences. 

Perhaps this is harsh, but it points out the ultimate nature of responsibility. The leader does not get to blame underlings or others for failures that happen on his/her watch. Blame is not projected onto others, and the leader cannot act like a victim. Real leaders accept that they are ultimately responsible for the organization they lead and, by extension, the lives of those people in that organization.

People can follow a leader whom they trust. People can trust leaders who accept responsibility, and those who own the consequences of their decisions. Casting blame onto others for failures is not an option. Yes, leadership is hard, and often unfair. But that is the cost of leadership.

Prayer: As Peter replied to Jesus, you are the only leader who has the words of life. Help us follow, Amen.

…casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ                      II Corinthians 10:5 (NKJV)

One of the things that I sometimes discuss with my clients is the idea of a “grievance narrative”. I borrow this term from Dr. Fred Luskin who wrote the book Forgive for Good. I think we all fall into this kind of narrative to some extent, but chronically doing this leads to a victim mentality. A quick little example-

You wake up and you stumble into the bathroom half awake; then you bump your toe against the tub. A few minutes later, you drop the soap in the shower, and then upon getting out of the shower, you find that there is no towel handy. You say to yourself, “Wow, this is going to be one of those days!”

Pretty simple and innocuous stuff, but you have given yourself permission to say that this is going to be a bad day. You start to look for things that might go wrong, or that you perceive to go wrong, and you begin to build a little grievance narrative. That is thinking like, “this is just another example of how bad my day is”, or “I have been wronged by the universe”.  

On a more serious scale, some people fall into this thinking on larger issues, and begin to build a case for entitlement to a bad mood or negative outlook. If this thinking is not internally challenged, we can go down the slippery slide of victimhood, anger, and entitlement to lash out at others (or sometimes ourselves). We need to pause, take our thoughts captive and ask, “Is this just my negative thinking at work here? “Are things really as bad as I am telling myself?

Indeed, there are many ways that we can pause and challenge our thinking process. Usually, we can break that negative slide and bring more rational thinking into play. At the very least, we have put a stop to the beginnings of a victim mindset.

This process of “stacking” bad news can happen very subtly, but it can cause problems. We need to learn to take each event that happens on its own, and not build it into a grievance narrative of bad prospects.  

It also helps to look at ourselves with a sense of humor. Nothing like laughing at ourself to bring us back to reality!

Prayer: Lord, give us the nudges to examine our attitudes, Amen

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.                                                                               James 3:13

“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts”   

John Wooden – coach and philosopher                                                                                                       

As I was reading this passage from James, I was struck by the timeliness of this ancient wisdom. In a time such as we have in the United States today, there is a need for “humility that comes from wisdom”.

I heard a podcast interview with a scholar today who is noted as a bit of an expert on the causes of the Holocaust. He has done a lot of research, and after much reading, and even insightful exposition of the causes of that horrific exercise of violence and racism, he notes that he still cannot understand all of the immense historical and cultural factors that led up to it.

The interviewer also noted that often, people who have the least information on a subject often portray great confidence and certainty of their own conclusions. That circled me back to the passage for today. James mentioned that only the truly wise person has the humility to know that they don’t know it all.

Albert Einstein, that great, brilliant physicist, admitted that he could not come to terms with some of the ideas of quantum physics, even though he could be considered the “grandfather” of quantum physics. Einstein looked for explanations of the causality of the universe, and he believed that there had to be better explanations than the “uncertainties” that quantum physics requires. He had a quote that he used often- “God did not roll the dice” when he created the universe.

Even Einstein had the humility to know that he did not possess the answers that only God knows. It feels like there is a good lesson there…

Prayer: Lord, gives us wisdom, but first give us humility to use it well, Amen