A Global Thing a Local Way

A Global Thing a Local Way:

Two Poems

First Poem By Wendell Berry

There is a day

when the road neither comes nor goes

and the way is not a way

but a place.

Second Poem by Zack Eswine

Not knowing the names of trees

i walk among them.

The rustle of leaves giving space for wind,

offering place for rest,

making its case for home.

I, resisting,

Stare—

at them,

through them,

beyond them,

restless in my own progress.

Flesh and leaf,

the rootless and the rooted.

Unlike my people,

who have long known the names of trees

I, like a distant cousin

or pitied friend must attend

this family reunion

to which I am strange.

Strange because Eden’s familiarity

was snatched from the open

palms of the firstborn grandchild.

Or was it that my palms were dressed by fists

on the morning of school’s first day?

No matter, I have long outrun tables where

stories lived easy in the bodied rest

of conversation that spilled over into

“goodnight,” or “see you in the morning”—

Tilled over into sunrise hands and bloods

touching actual soils and roots.

Unaccustomed to this lingering

I am wrestled inward, exposed

amid a family of barks long surrendered to remaining.

Like the cool which illumines my breath

In snow-frosted woods

I see before my eyes a deep discontent.

It beckons a man to never be where he is.

I stare at the ground looking for roots.

Blog Theft: Joy in the Journey

This blog entry is stolen from Kim's Blog about her family's endeavors with food:

I have little joy right now. One of the main reasons is because my boys have such little joy. Yesterday was a particularly hard morning. Tyler wouldn't talk to anyone (my dad and step-mom are here) and he was falling apart at everything. Grayson, too, was very fussy and melting at the drop of a hat. I made 5 new recipes yesterday and had a pretty bad stomach ache most of the afternoon.

The ironic thing is I started my morning out in God's Word with motivation to rely on God's strength and desire to "make it a good day." I read a devotional about finding joy in your relationship with God and I was struck by the opportunity I have to commune with him in the midst of this trial and struggle. But, I was impatient and crabby and moody and not pleasant to be around. Not exactly on the road to make it a good day.

But, then the afternoon came. My sweet dad came home with a precious little plaque as a surprise present for me. He could tell I needed something. And, my step-mom spent the rest of the afternoon/evening in the kitchen washing dishes as I dirtied them up. We put on music and danced and talked. Even if we were quiet, it was so wonderful just to have someone in the kitchen with me. I really found joy in the community of my family.

This morning I made the connection. I AM NOT ALONE. As I stand in the kitchen for hours, God is present. And, HE CARES. I often think this much life is so trivial that I can only commune with God on the big things. I read this from Oswald Chambers this morning:

"Wherever God has placed you and whatever your circumstances, you should pray, continually offering up prayers to Him. And He promises, "Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do . . ." (John 14:13 ). Yet we refuse to pray unless it thrills or excites us, which is the most intense form of spiritual selfishness. We must learn to work according to God’s direction, and He says to pray."

Pray. Commune with God. That is the end...not the means to the end. I get so focused on when we are going to all feel better, be healed. That is what I want to pray for...and I should pray for that but I can not let the healing be my love. Jesus is my love and it is possible to find joy in journeying with him.

-Kim Janous

House Group

This is originally to be found on Greta's Blog

At our church we have these things called housegroups. They are basically a small group of people that get together about once a week and do various things. Our group has shared our life stories and now we are watching a series about the bible that takes us through the actual places where biblical events take place, amazingly NOT boring and each time I watch one I am astounded at the depth of the bible and how much there is to learn from it. Anyway, tonight after we got home from housegroup which my kids by the way LOVE, I was thinking about how opposite it is from the way that the world tells us we should live.

Let me explain what I mean. I think the world tells us to be self-sufficient, strong, independent and self-made. What we do in housegroup is become vulnerable, ask for prayer and help, share burdens, become intimate, create bonds and become other centered, we also laugh tons. When I get sad or angry I tend to isolate, numb myself with television and books, become quiet. Here is the thing about doing that, it prolongs the pain I am going through and harms my relationships with the people I love and care about. Housegroup is a hard place to hide out in and I love that. I am not saying that housegroup is all peaches and roses, it can be difficult. Fitting together a dozen different personalities not to mention their offspring can be quite tricky, feelings get hurt, communication through email can become quite ridiculous, misunderstandings abound- you get the picture. However I truly believe that God likes it like that. He wants us to learn, work through problems, grow and be challenged to call upon him. Me, alone watching Law and Order does not help me grow. Me in a room full of people does. I like living differently than the world tells me I should and I love raising my children to learn about living with people not just next door to them.

-Greta Coalier

The Child-like Source of Jesus' Neighbor Love

Most of us have been loved with a mixture of the following kinds of categories:

1. Little room to grow. Mistakes are ultimate. Potential should be reached immediately.

2. Performance based acceptance. Do good and you are. Do bad and you are.

3. Left to ourselves to scrounge about with hit and miss regarding what is wise and what is foolish in the world.

4. Invitation to distance and superficiality instead of real intimacy

5. Unjustly punished or never rightly or lovingly corrected

We've experienced love in this way. This means we've been mentored to love in these ways. Our attempts at neighbor love are therefore saturated with these assumptions.

But in the mystery of the Trinity (one God, three persons), the Son experienced a very different kind love categories.

1. Though Jesus was the Messiah, He was given room to grow. He was allowed to be 2 before He was expected to be 12, 12 before He held the expectations of being 30. The Father did not rush the carpenter son. Timing mattered. (Luke 2:52)

2. The Father accepted the Son, spoke to the Son of His love and how pleasing the Son is to Him. Identity is based on intrinsic value and covenant. (Luke 3:21-22)

3. The Father taught the Son to discern the Father's voice. The Son was wisely prepared to recognize tempting voices when they came and to act accordingly. (Luke 4:1-13)

4. The Father heard the Son's heart. The Son poured out his Heart to the Father. (Luke 11:1ff; Hebrews 5:7)

5. The Father forsook the Son. (This is unique to Jesus. He bore what a rebellious child must bear when love finally says, "enough, you can have what you want even if it distances us and harms you). Jesus took what we warranted. His substitution (for those who deserve distance and punishment) and sympathy (for those undeservedly treated).

Perhaps Jesus loves his neighbors so well, because He himself in the fullness of his humanity was so loved.

His ways are not our ways.

Thanks be to God!

The TV "On Tap"

Do you think it is our fault that Jon and Kate broke up? The last person I asked said, "Probably."

In the movie Contact aliens send an encrypted message from the star system Vega that does a few things. 1. It shows us an image of Hitler speaking, 2. It shows us how to build a machine to send someone to communicate with the aliens (Jodie Foster in this case, sorry Tom Skerritt).

The Hitler aspect is simply a reference to the 1936 Olympics and the first television signal strong enough to get into space. It is a little unnerving to think that that is the first "signal" we sent!

Tonight we are going to try and have a conversation about television at "On Tap". Where and when and why and how... What do the shows we watch say about us? It should be a fun discussion, and I hope you're able to join us.

Wait just a second there Professor: What I love about Office Space

I often ask our blog authors to write about what it means to love the things they love and to be a Christian. I think it has been a helpful and difficult question for us. I remember the day I asked Jason, and I was struck by my own lack of answer as we talked about jazz. My wife and I watch Mad Men on Sunday Nights. I can go on and on about the acting, the conversations between Jon Hamm and John Slattery, etc. But, I had no idea what my affections with it have to do with faith in Jesus.

Fast Forward to this evening. I had a long day, and recently I have been piecing together one of my old favorite movies, Office Space, after everyone is in bed. The first time I watched Office Space I thought it was funny, but knew that I immediately wanted to watch it again and pay attention to things like body language and tone. I did; it was twice as funny. Please take three minutes to watch the Bobs and their faces (the corresponding scene with Bill Lumbergh is even funnier, "I'll handle this..."). I hope you laugh.

Tonight it dawned on me. As the hilarious scenes roll by, I realize I love watching because the actors in every scene are acknowledging the sheer absurdity of life. Someone owns it in every scene.

As a Christian I am daily struck by life as it is, life as it can get (bad), and life as I dream of it being/becoming. I feel powerless, but I am not. Some days I wish I were! In my conversations I wish I could be free like Peter Gibbons. But, his freedom is a kind of prison. The reason I know that is because I believe the Bible to be true, Jesus who he says he is, and the explanations of what it means to be human valuable, credible, and satisfying to my deepest being. And, because Peter and Michael forget to put the decimals in the right places.

Office Space is about many things - like most stories it is very much about character transformation. But, it is also an obnoxiously accurate commentary on many things about white middle class America. I don't want to think too much about that - I want to watch Office Space and laugh. But, I am aware that it reminds me of desires I have for myself, anxiety I have about the way the world and relationships work, and the incredible call of the Gospel to go into this world and affect reconciliation and peace. Some days I am like Peter - bumbling through my own character growth, some days like Tom Symkowski - "I had an idea once", and I'm sure some days I am like Michael Bolton, "Why should I change, he's the one who sucks".

Have a good Wednesday.

-Matt Blazer

Music Monday: On the Road

My family just completed a road trip to Michigan, a seven hour drive. This road trip was unlike any I have taken before in that entirely different sounds emanated from the car’s speakers. The speakers that once loudly unfurled a wave of brain awakening rock and roll now eked out one corny children’s song after another, after another, after another. Monday, October 12, 2009. The day the music died.

It didn’t die completely though. My daughter likes Grizzly Bear, Phoenix, she likes some Radiohead, she likes Arcade Fire and Feist…she just likes Dora the Explorer more. Significantly more - much to my chagrin. Life is about compromises though, and seven hour roadtrips with two year olds even more so. Thus, I was left with a choice. I could try to block out the noise, play the sounds and thoughts I like in my head and have some peace. Or I could enter the fray, let go of my inhibitions and sing “The Wheels on the Bus” with my family while trying to do the motions without suffering a fatal automobile crash.
Yesterday I chose the latter. I don’t always. I wish I did more often.

I take a little bit of pride in considering myself a music snob, but I shouldn’t. I am simply hard to please. It isn’t just music either. My point is that there are many areas in my life that pride prevents me from fully participating with my family, with my community, with my church, and with God. I think that if you are honest with yourself you will find the same thing. It is so easy to come to the conclusion that a particular area of service in your community or church is simply not your gifting when in reality you are perfectly capable of the task at hand. It is for me at least.

The platitude says “The heart is willing but the flesh is weak.” I think that more often my flesh is willing but my heart is weak. Singing children’s songs at the top of my lungs is a small step in the right direction for me in this area. Joining an area of service with great needs at Riverside has been a big one. What is something your pride has kept you from doing in your community?

- jason

"Why did you tell all these lies?"

If you haven't seen this interview with CNN Correspondent, Anderson Cooper, please do so when you get a moment (or read here). I was baffled by this story. Essentially, it is of a man who 'whips up' a protracted story about being a veteran of the US Armed Forces. The FBI caught on to him, and has charged him with a 'Stolen Valor' charge. I found myself asking the same question Mr. Cooper does, namely, "What in the world is going on here?"

Now, to be fair, I need to say/own a few things. Though he admits that he is not a 'pathological liar,' he does admit that there is an 'undiagnosed mental illness' present. And while I don't think that I would ever be able to concoct such a story (I'm just not that creative), I do think that I am capable of something like this. This gentleman and I really aren't all that different, when it comes down to what is at my core.

Yesterday, I spoke about how all of us--whether we claim to follow Jesus or not--have anchored deep within us a "question that won't go away." I mentioned how this question centers on wondering about our dignity, worth, and value. Moreover, how can we actually know that we do. Now, I'm not talking about a self-help model (à la Stuart Smalley) that aims at making us feel better in the moment, such that we don't weep when somebody tells us they don't like our powder-blue cardigan. I'm talking about the 'deep motivation' that makes us do everything we do; I'm talking about the stuff that makes us get up in the morning. So, like the psuedo-Marine in this story, I've posed in sundry ways to get attention, feel accepted, and so on. Here's the short list: I started playing music to feel cool in High School; I wore Croakies in college precisely and only because I thought girls liked dudes that did (I know: stud-ly, right ladies?). My point is this, I watched this story and my gut reaction, surprisingly, was "Yeah, I get it. I know why he'd fabricate a tale like this."

I'll cut it short. I mentioned how Christianity answers this "question that won't go away" by saying that in Christianity we find a dignity, worth, and value that comes from no other place. C.S. Lewis calls this "fame with God." And when this "question" is answered by Him, the "old ache [within]" begins to fade. What do you make of this...?

IPhone Sabbath Revisited

I should first say that I just learned how to turn my own IPhone off.

I should secondly say that I am not allowed to create a rule about the Sabbath. The reason is not that I am a hypocrite, but that Jesus said many things about the Sabbath and they involved less rules - not more.

The Sabbath command appears all over the Bible. And the heart of it is this: take a day off, rest, be with your family, learn that there is a different rhythm to life than the one you see at work and at Schnucks. (Genesis 1, Exodus 16, Exodus 20, etc.)

What does this have to do with your IPhone? If you are a stay at home mom, I can see using your IPhone twice as much as usual on your Sabbath. If texting breathes relational life into your heart, then you should text even more on the Sabbath. But, the way to know if it is a good Sabbath practice is to pay attention to your family. Does texting (or emailing, or using your favorite APP) give you renewed energy to be with your loved ones (the sabbath, of course, applies just as much to single people as married ones)? Are you more relaxed when using these 'time-savers', and genius pieces of technology?

I am on a couple of list serves with multiple men. Most of us have stressful jobs. Posting to the list serve on the weekend might breathe life into some of these men. I say 'might' because creating hard and fast rules on the Sabbath misses the point of Jesus' teachings on it (Matthew 12 for instance).

In Matthew 5-7 Jesus revisits many Old Testament laws and re-imagines them in a broad way. The Sabbath is not included. The Apostle Paul treats the Sabbath similarly in a couple of his letters. The point, then, is not to turn off your IPhone (especially if you don't know how), but to pay attention to what email, texting, the internet, video games, tv, books, food, etc. do to your heart and the rhythms of your life. You are supposed to take a break once/week. You are supposed to slow down, be present to your heart (which hurts if you are used to moving fast), be present to your family, eat, and to play. So, play with your IPhone frequently on the Sabbath. But, do it while paying attention to what it does to the rhythm of your day - which is supposed to be slow.

Disease as Art

As I wait on some posts from our more famous authors (Currently Josh Hogan and Dr. Eswine are fighting for the most hits/post), I will continue to steal compelling posts that I find from other sites.

The reason I am doing this is that I want to think more and better. I want to integrate my Christian Worldview into everything I see.

I came across the art of Luke Jerram through a series of other blogs. His medium is sculpture, his vision is to present disease in a beautiful medium. I encourage you to not only go and look at his work , but also to read the testimonials. It is very powerful to read a man with AIDS describe his reaction to the art that displays what is killing him. It is disorienting to say the least. I cannot fully imagine how disorienting it is for the men and women who see his work and are being affected by any of his diseases.

Our church sponsors an Art Gallery, and even though we already sponsor it, we continue to wrestle with why it is important. One of the many reasons is that: I think it is healthy and good for men and women to be exposed to art. As a cultural form it often deconstructs that which is evil and destructive, and constructs a vision for a world that is not quite as big of a mess as we currently occupy. Luke Jerram's art is an interesting hybrid of those two ideas - displaying the destruction (for whatever reason) and also offering that there is beauty even in these heinously evil diseases.

I hope you have the time to look at his work - even through the internet.

What does this map say about the US: Culture Exercise

This is a map of the United States with lights representing McDonalds franchises.

In the United States, the furthest you can get from a McDonalds is 141 miles.

What does this assume about our world (the fact that the furthest you can get, in America, is 141 miles away)?

What does it assume about the way the world should be?

What does it make possible (easy question) ?

What does it make impossible, or at least more difficult?

What new culture is created in response to this phenomenon?

Pop Poetry V4:

There's a song on the radio right now that for me is a total "toe-tapper" if you will. Rock & Roll has a great beat and a fun, easy to sing along with melody. After hearing the song a couple of times and wanting to sing more than, ah nah nah nah nah, I listened closely to the lyrics and was surprised. This upbeat song is packaged as a happy, go-lucky pop song, but to me the lyrics speak volumes about our culture and the emptiness so many of us have experienced looking for love and hope in the wrong places.

The American culture has reeled me in to the belief that I should always be on the look out for the next best thing. Live for experiences, for a feeling, for having what is good and fun and comfortable. Use people to get to a place or experience I want. If it doesn't work out, move on. Appearances are everything, don't miss a beat, even for a minute. I'm tempted to be cynical about love, cynical about hope, cynical that anything real and true and good exists in this world, especially when it comes to human beings.

This song reminds me that the only place I can find true love and hope, the only thing that can heal my cynicism, is God. This may sound too simple, or maybe I'm looking too deep here. You read the lyrics and tell me what impression they give you...

Rock & Roll by Eric Hutchinson

He’s been waiting
around for the weekend
Figuring which club to sneak in
Fancy drinks and fifty-dollar cover charge
Lately it’s been a big hassle
Heineken and New Castle
To make sure he’s fitting in and living large
Disregard the lies that he will tell
and what he’s probably like 'cause
It's not hard his charm is gonna
Get him through the night

If he wanna rock he rocks
If he wanna roll he rolls
He can roll with the punches
Long as he feels like he’s in control
If he wanna stay he stays
If he wanna go he goes
He doesn’t care how he gets there
Long as he gets somewhere he knows oh no
ah na na na na na na na na na na na
ah na na na na na na na na na na na

See her heavy make up and cut t-shirt
Every girl out wants to be her
But they look the same already why adjust
Reading the magazine secrets
Forget the topical regrets
'Cause If she comes home all alone the night's a
bust
It’s a must the swivel in her hips
And the look she gives
It’s all her trust
if only in the morning She knew where she lived

'Cause If she wanna rock she rocks
If she wanna roll she rolls
She can roll with the punches
Long as she feels like she’s in control
If she wanna stay she stays
If she wanna go she goes
She doesn’t care how she gets there
Long as she gets somewhere she knows oh no
ah na na na na na na na na na na na
ah na na na na na na na na na na na

And in a wink they’re on the brink
From drink to drink and at the bar
With cash to blow
From shot to shot it’s getting hot
Advance the plot to see how far
It’s gonna go
All depends so ditch the friends
And grab a cab
Another chance for cheap romance
Doesn’t count cause the room is spinning
Nothing to lose tonight they both are winning
And they fall in love as they fall in bed
They
sing

If they wanna rock they rock
If they wanna roll they roll
They can roll with the punches
Long as they feel like they're in control
If they wanna stay they stay
If they wanna go they go
They don’t care how they get there
Long as they get somewhere they know oh no
ah na na na na na na na na na na na...

-Natalie Wilson

The Cost of Neighbor-Hatred is Truth

When Jesus started treating Samaritans as neighbors, many of his own crowd turned on him. Why? Because at that time, "Jews had no dealings with Samaritans." (John 4:9) What was Jesus' problem? Jesus' dealings with Samaritans jolted everyone. Some Jews disowned Jesus, called him a sell-out, and declared him mentally unstable. (John 8:48). On the other side, some Samaritans refused basic kindness to Jesus and rejected him outright (Luke 9:51-56). Even the best of Jesus' followers justified their desire to call down fire from heaven and declare Jesus' neighbors as their enemies (Luke 9:54).

Many of his own people now doubted his patriotism and loyalty. Many Samaritans despised him with suspicion and cynicism. He was misunderstood by his own followers. Why then did Jesus persist? Why confront the walls dividing both cultures in this way? His answer? Because according to Jesus, to do otherwise would distort what is true about God. "I do not have a demon" he said. "But I honor my father . . ." (John 8:49).

Sometimes upholding the truth involves classrooms, bullet-points, creedal statements, and stating right content. But what if Jesus had said that Samaritans were worthy of neighbor-love in God's eyes, but then told the same Samaritan jokes as his friends, and made the same Samaritan despising choices as his colleagues in carpentry and his fellow-teachers and members of the Synagogue? To uphold the truth of God's convictions regarding who is a neighbor, Jesus was willing to make relational choices and endure relational hits. The result? Soon there were Jesus followers gathering in Samaria along with other Jewish regions and there was peace among these cross-cultural followers of Jesus (Acts 9).

I am wondering what this all means. It seems that to uphold the truth as a Jesus follower, one must have more than the ability to rightly recite his statements. To uphold the truth of Jesus, it seems, will require relational courage. It takes a savvy courage to recognize genuine differences of belief and practice while still affording the dignity of a neighbor.

I am seeking to hope that the One who turned sons of thunder into Apostles of love will show us this courage. He purchased it for us and will work it in us. Criticism awaits those whom He gives this courage. But so does faith, hope and love. According to Jesus, risking relationship for neighbors in this way honors God.

What does this mean for we who seek to follow Jesus in 63119 and beyond?

Meeting with your Phone

I would like to throw out a bit of encouragement as we begin our 'weekend'. Decide on a time when you are going to turn your phone off, and mean it. The 4th Commandment encourages us to rest from our work, with our family (and our livestock if you have any), and to enjoy the fact that God encourages us to rest - really oppressive this God... with his crazy rules, like "Take a day off"... :)

The first week I had my IPHONE (which I love, and you are allowed to judge me for not texting from) I let it ruin my day by checking my email as I walked back from the park with my girls. I got a bad email, and couldn't focus for the rest of the day thinking about how to reply (or not). Is it the phone's fault? No. It's my fault. So, I told my phone to stop "pushing" my email, and to only check it when I asked. The phone happily complied.

Yesterday at the zoo Caroline (Jasmine) said, "Is Aladdin on his phone?" We were at the zoo, and she was climbing on the enormous bug sculpture. So, I pulled my phone out to see if I had any emails. Caroline noticed I was no longer paying attention to her and mentioned it to me. I'm not calling this sin. I don't know if she cared at all. I am calling it a mistake. In 25 years I doubt I will think 'I wish I would have checked my email more' (insert texting for many of you). But I might regret not watching my strange, funny 3 year old, with her ever-present-tiara climbing on this enormous beetle, calling me Aladdin (Julia is Aboo the Monkey, Rachel is the non-existent Queen), forgetting she has to go to the bathroom, and talking non-stop about Rhinos.

Here is the part of the blog post where I could get into idols. I feel important when people email, it is a pleasant enough distraction to my anxiety and fear, I like having a small computer in my pocket...

But, the better reason to leave my phone in the house tomorrow (because for me Sunday is kind of a work day) is so that I am more intentional with my girls, so that I am less plugged into the Matrix, so that I can take deep breaths and not look for fulfillment in my job, friends, and list-serves. The better reason is to embrace a different rhythm to life than an IPHONE implies - one that includes a Sabbath.

Its just an encouragement: turn your phone off for a set amount of time this weekend. Decide not to check your email, or blogs, or facebook - for a set amount of time (The Jewish scholars would say 25 hours, beginning 18 minutes before sunset - 6:42 tonight - so turn the phone off at 6:24). If you have never done this before I would encourage you to plan your time without your phone, and just shoot for a few hours. Enjoy your weekend, see you Sunday.

-Matt Blazer

Movie Review: The Informant

Amid mediocre Rotten Tomato reviews (high 60’s), but with the hope that the movie would live up to its well crafted, but poorly representative (what else is new?) trailers, my dad and I went to see The Informant tonight. The Informant, (not to be confused with a similarly titled film The Insider, directed by Michael Mann and possibly one of the best films ever made), is director Steven Soderbergh’s most recent film, based on a true story, about Mark Whitacre, former Senior Exec at ADM who became both one of the greatest corporate whistle-blowers of all time, and also one of the biggest white collar criminals simultaneously. Though I knew little about the story, some quick Google fact checking supports most of the depiction of Mark’s life and his efforts to blow the lid on massive corporate theft (international market price fixing), while embezzling (during the time he aided the FBI mind you) more than 9 Million dollars. Regardless of how honest Matt Damon’s depiction of the character was, I will say, he, as usual, did an excellent job, breathing some life to the film. I wasn’t sure what the movie would be about, it just looked like it would be a comedy. The truth is, it really wasn’t very funny at all. Sure, there were a few funny moments, but most of the movie leaves you feeling awkward and even kind of a pity for this bizarre character who was so caught up in lies and deception that he ruined over a decade of his life, and will be, in many cases, somewhat villianized for the rest of his life.

While the film failed to meet expectations (though I’m starting to feel like this is what I can expect out of Soderbergh after all), it did do a great job of illustrating a captivating picture of the human condition. Whitacre, for instance, one of the brightest and most successful individuals of his time, was a thief, but he didn’t start out that way. In fact, if there is a theme in the movie, or rather, if there was a main character, it wasn’t actually Whitacre, but rather it was the amassed tangled web of his lies and deceitfulness that leave your mouth dropping. It’s in fact, hardly at all about the initial crime of his embezzlement, but rather his lie, which led to more lies, which led to a snowball of lies that almost seem delusional. (Remember Martha Stewart?) I guess why I felt pity, more than humor walking out of the theater, is because I’m not sure I, or any one of us are all that different than the man. Sure the magnitude of his failures are probably larger than each of ours, but the fact is, all of us lie. We lie in some way, shape or form often. Whether it’s an overt lie, a white lie (whatever that is) or a more subtle omission of information that might make us look bad… we all do it.

If you are like me, and wonder what scripture says about lying, you’ll find that it aint just one of the Ten Commandments, in fact, the bible is rife with examples of deceit and the disaster that ensues soon after. Just driving home from the Moolah, my dad and I rattled off probably a dozen different clear examples. If you have time, reference the stories of Laban and Isaac, Jacob and Esau, David and Uriah, Samson and Delilah, Cain and Able, Ananias and Sapphira, Peter, Judas, and the grand-daddy and grandma of all deceivers, Adam and Eve. After quick reflection, it’s evident that the bible is trying to tell us something about lying. Whenever God uses this many illustrations, which centralize around a single topic, we should probably take note.

Having wrestled earlier in my faith, and still sometimes today, with the feeling like God’s laws for us are somewhat legalistic, movies like The Informant do a great service in helping illustrate that God gave us his laws, not out of self-righteous piety, but to protect us, his children. For, the same reason that I grab my children sternly when they are about to run into the street, it’s clear that God loves us so much, He’s willing to create boundaries for us to ensure that we can know the true joy of living a life that he’s designed us for.

Having worked in the corporate sector for over a decade, and in fact in similar industries like ADM, it’s actually really easy to relate to the culture of greed and deceit. But we don’t escape it when we go home from work. My kids lie (not out of malice, but maybe out of a joke or even out of a little self-protection); then I think about how I lovingly can illustrate the harm they are causing to themselves and to others by doing that. I guess the best way to teach them is to model real, righteous, vulnerable honesty, even when it hurts.

It’s important to note that the bible gives us examples of amazing honesty as well. Paul for instance, was not afraid to be honest about his allegiance to Jesus, even in the wake of personal harm and eventually death. The most re-assuring example for me in scripture however, is David, because even “the man after God’s own heart” felt victim to lies and deceit. And even though he experienced a life-time of anquish and hardship as a penalty for his sin, He found redemption and renewal in his relationship with God. That’s the kind of thing that can really inspire hope.

From a movie perspective, I’d file this under “RENTER”. But be sure to do just that. It’s maybe not what you’ll expect, but it’s worth seeing, if you want to be reminded of the dangers of deceit, and see an overweight toupee-wearing version of Matt Damon.

PS – It will also give all of you free-range egg lovin, whole-foods grocery shopping, high fructose corn hatin people, just one more reason to hate the Food industry. Man… all of this writing is making me want a Big Mac and a Hostess Cherry Pie. Later!

-Josh Hogan