Marc’s Musings

Watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secretsyesterday with the kids. I like the movies. Not as good as the books but still quite good.

I loved Dumbledore’s comment to Harry in the infirmary at the end:

Harry, it’s not your abilities that make you what you are. It’s your choices.

Harry had the ability of a dark wizard to speak parseltongue (speak with snakes). But he chose to be in Griffindor at Hogwarts.

I’m a huge believer in using our natural abilities. But I once was told, “God’s giftings cannot take you any further than your character will keep you.”

It’s far too easy to rest in our abilities. “Hey, I’m just good at that. I always have been. And I always will be.”

But it’s such a great reminder that we need to keep making good choices. Are we doing our stuff to be seen by others? That’s not a good choice. We should be excelling in ways that are seen by others. Jesus clearly states that with the parable of the talents. But he also warns us to not do things in order to be seen by others.

If we’re praying for healing for one of our co-workers, we choose to do so simply because God wants to heal. Not to be seen as “God’s man for the hour.” Jesus makes the miracle, not us. We’re just the servants.

Jesus is the one that made the water into wine. The servants just brought the wine to the master of ceremonies.

I once had it described as getting a birthday gift delivered from UPS. We don’t hug and kiss and praise the UPS driver for bringing the package. He’s just the messenger. We save our thanks and adoration for the person that sent the gift.

So may it be for us.

May we excel at our natural abilities. But may we also be ever pressing in to the One that will give us the wisdom to make good choices on an ever consistent basis.

And may we daily deliver Jesus’ miracles to the people around us!

I read this in The Barbarian Way: Unleash the Untamed Faith Withinover a year ago. It’s still incredibly inspiring!

With insects most of us know that bees are called swarms, and ants are called colonies. Among ocean life, I was aware that whales are pods, and fish are schools. Cattle are herds, birds are flocks, and if you watch Lion King, you know a tribe of lions is a pride. If you grew up in the country, you might know that crows are murders. Maybe the most unnerving one is an ambush of tigers.

I was surprised to learn that a group of buzzards waiting around together to feast on leftover carnage is called a committee. Just this one insight is worth the price of the whole book. This explains so much of what’s going on in churches – a lot of committees waiting around to live off human carnage.

Groups of flamingos are called flamboyant, which for some reason reminds me of TV evangelists. And groups of the less glamorous owls are known as parliaments. They do seem sort of British.

But my favorite of all is the group designation of rhinos. You see, rhinos can run at thirty miles an hour, which is pretty fast when you consider how much weight they’re pulling. They’re actually faster than squirrels, which can run at up to twenty-six miles an hour. And even then, who’s going to live in dread of a charging squirrel? (Sorry – that was a bit off the point.)

Running at thirty miles an hour is faster than a used Pinto will go. Just one problem with this phenomenon. Rhinos can see only thirty feet in front of them. Can you imagine something that large moving in concert as a group, plowing ahead at thirty miles an hour with no idea what’s at thirty-one feet? You would think that they would be far too timid to pick up full steam, that their inability to see far enough ahead would paralyze them to immobility. But with that horn pointing the way, rhinos run forward full steam ahead without apprehension, which leads us to their name.

Rhinos moving together at full speed are known as a crash. Even when they’re just hanging around enjoying the watershed, they’re called a crash because of their potential. You’ve got to love that. I think that’s what we’re supposed to be. That’s what happens when we become barbarians and shake free of domestication and civility. The church becomes a crash. We become an unstoppable force. We don’t have to pretend we know the future. Who cares that we can see only thirty feet ahead? Whatever’s at thirty-one feet needs to care that we’re coming and better get out of the way.

We need to move together as God’s people, a barbarian tribe, and become the human version of the rhino crash. The future is uncertain, but we need to move toward it with confidence.

I’m reading through The 4-Hour Workweek.

I really like it.

One of the many tweaks I’ve put into action is a reminder that pops up three times a day. It’s really helped me keep focused today.

The reminder says:

Am I inventing things to do to avoid the important?

Mark Batterson has some great meeting tips for pastors.

I too have sat through more than one MLM-just-disguised-as-getting-together-to-hang-out. (When I was starting out in Amway, I was responsible for some of like that. It always left me feeling really slimy. So it became a matter of integrity for me to let people know I was talking about a business opportunity.

Anyway, I think these tips are great for people meeting with pastors too!

Today was the Republican Caucus in Maine.

I did it because I believe democracy is a privilege and I don’t want to take it for granted.

I wanted to avoid it because pastors that primarily define themselves in terms of their politics are people I generally try to avoid.

But today’s caucus was delightfully painless. Over 50 people turned out. That’s huge for Waterville. The caucus people remembered was four years ago with maybe 30 people attending. So more than 50 was wonderful.

And the entire thing was over in 45 minutes!

Ron Paul won with John McCain and Mitt Romney in a tie for second. (Guliani even got a vote! C’mon!!)

More importantly, Emily and I weren’t nominated for any positions! Yay!

I got all the joy of being civic-ly engaged, without any of the “buyers remorse” of being obligated to more volunteer positions.

A good time all around.

Just heard this on Garrison Keillor’s The Writers Almanac:

“Any idiot can face a crisis - it’s day to day living that wears you out.”
–Anton Chekhov.

So true.

I’m going to commit to trying to not be an idiot today.

In an earlier post, I gave the times for the Republican and Democrat caucuses in Waterville.

In this great article from the Morning Sentinel, the reporter describes the process for caucuses.

Looks like I’m in for an interesting time!

Here are the caucuses for Waterville:

Republican
Feb 2 at 10 a.m. at the City Council Chambers downtown

Democrat
Feb 10 at 2 p.m. at the Waterville Public High School

As far as I can tell, approximately 6 people in each party are active.

Democracy is dependent on all people being involved.

If you live in Waterville, Maine please, turn out.

If you don’t live in Waterville…well you can always dream you did.

This quote reminds me of what I spoke about on Sunday when talking about the importance of the stories we believe about ourselves.

Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think, say or do. It is more important than appearance, gift, or skill. It will make or break a company…a church…a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day…I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our attitudes.

- Charles Swindoll

I could’ve just got up, read that, and said, “Yeah. What Chuck said.”

To hear the sermon yourself, go to the Vineyard Church of Waterville sermons page.

The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.
- GK Chesterton