Author: LAH

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Saving Daylight

Here’s a friendly reminder in case you usually sleep through it—daylight saving time starts this weekend. Yup, it’s time for bags under the eyes, sleepy drivers, and excessive caffeine consumption.

In honor of our lost hour of sleep, I did a little research and came across a now-famous prank at the Museum of Hoaxes website. (If you’re unfamiliar with this site, I highly recommend checking it out!) Maybe it’s a mistake to change our clocks so close to April Fool’s Day.

With a circulation hovering around 1,200 subscribers, The Eldorado (Illinois) Daily Journal is one of the smallest daily newspapers in the United States. However, in 1984 managing editor Bob Ellis managed to play a prank that fooled an awful lot of people.

In an article that was printed on April 1 of that year, a contest was announced to see who could save the most daylight before the clocks were set back again in the fall.

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Observing Lent

What are you giving up for Lent?

This was a familiar question in my college dorm, back in the “Jesus Freak 70s.” As a child growing up in a Catholic neighborhood (my non-religious family stuck out like a group of Hari Krishnas at a bar mitzvah), I remember all my friends forgoing meat from Ash Wednesday until Easter. Fish sticks appeared on the school cafeteria menu while brown-baggers munched peanut butter or tuna sandwiches day after day.

Somewhere along the line, non-Catholic believers decided that giving up meat wasn’t the only option. We could fast anything, as long as it had some spiritual impact on our lives. Some of my college friends gave up sugar, while others unplugged their stereos. Bring that concept into the 21st century, and we might have signed off Facebook for the duration, or stopped playing video games.

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Throwing Money

In my post last Friday, I stated my opinion that the best way to help the poor and unreached in far away places is to send money.

I don’t want to minimize the importance of hands-on ministry—how being personally involved is so much better than merely throwing money at a problem. We have so much to teach one another, and the Holy Spirit produces fruit in our lives as we share our lives with others.

But we also need to reach out across political boundaries, languages, and cultures. Sometimes the only practical way to do this is to “just” send money.

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Caring for your Introvert

I am an introvert. There’s nothing wrong with that—it’s the way God made me. I enjoy people, but eventually they wear me out. I need to be alone to recharge.

I’m sure that living with an introvert has its challenges. A while ago, my wonderful husband (who is trying to understand me, despite the fact that he thrives around lots of people) found this essay online. It was written by Jonathan Rauch, and first appeared in The Atlantic in March 2003. His words certainly struck a chord with me, and apparently with a lot of other people. In fact, this article has received more responses than anything else they have ever published! After you read the original piece, you might enjoy scanning some of the follow-up responses.

If you’re an introvert, you will love this article. For all you extroverts (also spelled “extraverts”) out there, here is how to improve your relationships with the introverts in your life:

Caring for Your Introvert

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Priorities

Last week I asked if the church is doing a good job of helping the poor and spreading the gospel.

In my own experience, many churches are at least trying to help the needy and unchurched in their own cities. (Their effectiveness at this is a subject for another day.) But what about the poor and unreached in more remote areas?

It is easier—and perhaps more appropriate—to send money in this case. (I’ll talk more about why I believe that’s true next month.)

As believers, we give to our local churches. A certain percentage of the offering is then designated for “benevolence” or “missions.”  (I’ve seen “missions” mean anything from packaging dried soup mix, to helping the Hispanic church down the street, to “adopting” an unreached people group.) We trust the church leaders to spend our money wisely and responsibly.

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What Would You Say?

Warning: I’m going to ask you to think today.

What would you say to Mr. Benson?

I was relaxing, happily following a succession of links from blog to blog, when I came across Ryan Benson’s “Stump an Atheist” site. Since I used to be an atheist, I was quite curious to hear his perspective. After reading his “about” page, several recent posts, and his hilarious FAQ, I found that I totally agree with him: he is the friendliest atheist on the web.

As he says in his introduction:

Don’t let the title of this blog mislead you; I’m not on a crusade to convert. This is not a challenge to you; it’s a challenge to me. I am not a New Atheist writer; I am a writer who happens to be a new atheist.

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Church Bashing

Sitting in our Global Sunday School class yesterday, I listened while the speaker pleaded for everyone’s involvement in caring for orphans. He cited numerous statistics portraying the church as insensitive and uncaring when dealing with marginalized people groups. Then he read James 1:27: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…”

Meanwhile, I’m reading yet another book, written by a ministry leader from Asia, that scolds the American church for our misplaced priorities. Here are a few quotes to give you the idea:

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Perfect!

It was a recent Sunday morning, and I was struggling to stay engaged as we sang the same words over and over. In case you haven’t notice, many popular praise and worship songs have pretty repetitive lyrics. Praise Him… Praise Him… Praise Him… Praise… What should I make for dinner tonight? Him… That lady in front of me looks really fat in that tight sweater. Praise… How can that baby sleep through such loud music? Him… I don’t like that guy’s T-shirt… praise… huh?

Something (Someone?) jolted me back to alertness and I suddenly realized that I’d put my mouth on automatic while my brain ran in a zillion different directions. I was paying tribute with my lips, but my heart was far from God.

Frustrated and convicted that I needed to do better, I confessed my distractedness to God. I asked Him to teach me to worship Him with all my heart and soul and mind and strength. As so frequently happens, God surprised me.

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A Bit of Romantic Encouragement

As our anthropologist daughter likes to point out, the world is full of fascinating cultures. Some tattoo their bodies, other pierce their noses, and still others hang large earrings in their ear lobes (ours seems to do all of the above). Some are completely vegetarian while others survive solely on animal products. But one trait they all have in common is some version of courtship and marriage.

As I’m sure you know, Valentine’s Day is almost here. Last year during the week leading up to this most romantic of holidays, I wrote two blog posts—one for singles, and one for those in a relationship. This year I thought I’d offer some encouragement to those of you who are interested in someone but need a little inspiration on what to do next.

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In Praise of Cluelessness

I am somewhat “culturally challenged”—or, as my kids might put it, totally clueless—and it’s my own fault.

The problem, if you want to call it that, is that I have disengaged from much of popular culture. I don’t watch much TV. I don’t see many movies. We ended our newspaper delivery after the paper shrank to a few pages of information I can easily find online. The only magazine I get now is “Outdoor Photographer,” although I used to subscribe to a couple more. Ever since a generous friend gave me an iPod, I have listened to that instead of the radio. I stay current with the topics I choose—enough politics to vote intelligently, national and international headlines, local happenings, environmental issues, the state of the Church—through my iGoogle page… and I don’t have to read anything I don’t want to.

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