Big Ones and Little Ones

Following on from yesterday’s bit about the super vacuum cleaner it also reminded me of a thought process that I was considering earlier this week. The link will become clear soon, follow the thread and you should get the jumper at the end of it. (You’ll need the jumper – it’s nearly winter!)

A dear friend of mine (ah ha, back to that one again, but it’s all about relationships right?) sent a prayer request on a pressing issue and that triggered an immediate response of mine which had all the right words of piety in it. The text ended with me riffing off the top of my head (reads better than following the leading of the Holy Spirit, doesn’t it?) and stating the same words that Paul uses in Romans 12:21 – Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. As ever it’s well worth checking the context of the verse as will become clear.

As I hit the send button on the text I actually started thinking again about the nature of evil. What is it? Is there a difference between evil, ungodly and wrong? Is there a difference between evil and ungodly? What is it?

The thought lingered with me throughout Monday and led to an engrossing conversation I had with another dear friend of mine. (That’s four different dear friends, if you’ve been counting from yesterday. Here I was thinking I didn’t have any!) I was talking with her about the nature of evil and what it is and we went up and down life experiences, general reasoning and scriptural support for the various positions being put across. She was a tremendous help in giving a different angle on what I was thinking about. Sadly, however, she failed to convince me of a growing conviction I have about the nature of evil. That is this: evil is that which goes against God.

Now in case you think my dear friend was refuting that, I quickly add, that’s not the contention I put to her. The far reaching consequences of that, however, will see God describing things as evil that we wouldn’t. I mean let’s face it, when the word evil is mentioned we have certain images, behaviours and accompanying words that spring to mind. To bring it across these are usually linked to graphic, horrific and physically moving definitions. You can fill in the gaps with your own views of evil, I won’t list them here. My friend was helpful here by giving a definition of evil as the extreme opposite of good. That definition is supported as you’ll notice by a deduction of that Romans 12:21 trip which gives us the two battling sides. Now by ‘battling’, I’m being a bit naughty, I know, for how can evil even think it has a chance against good, when it always wins? Oh yeah, it always wins – not all experiences may give that impression, but the entire tapestry of history at the end will show who wins and it be not evil, and evil be trounced good and proper by … errr … good.

So having that definition in mind, it should help us further to see what God would consider evil – apparently when we play favourites and discriminate on material basis, that’s evil. Don’t take my word for it – read James 2:4 for yourself. Now come on, the reasonable thinker will think, we’re hardly calling that an atrocity. That’s hardly something to be considered by the term ‘evil’. Bad, sure. Socially unacceptable, fine – but evil? That’s taking it a bit far isn’t it? Well evidently if Jesus is to be taken seriously, we’re actually not taking it far enough, because the whole deal of the Sermon on the Mount is about Jesus highlighting just what evil looks like when He riffs out the clarity of what we’ve heard it said and what he says to us. Calling someone a fool isn’t just naughty or ill-considered. Fantasising sexual encounters with one who is not your spouse is not just harmless play.

What’s my point? What does that have to do with the vacuum cleaner? Well we have this tendency of establishing big sins and little sins. We safely categorise deeds as being little white ones or dark, nasty, ugly ones. As we do this we fail to realise that these little white ones (which are not that clean) get embedded into our psyche, a psyche that’s already in need of re-wiring. Then the little ones become engrained and before you know it, while you’re looking to demolish the ‘big ones’ the little ones have such a hold on you that you can be justly accused of the very things that God Himself considers to be evil. As I said, don’t just take my word for it – check the book for yourself. As these little ones remain a part of the system, unseen and unconsidered just like our vacuum cleaning experience of yesterday, we will miss it and suffer for it.

Therein lies the problem of sin – it’s not just the big, obvious, blatant, stomach-churning ones, it’s the little ones that don’t even get so much as a slap on the wrists. It’s the little ones that even get promoted as positive values to pursue by various outlets. It’s the little ones that are passed on in playgrounds, offices, churches, leisure centres and homes from mouth to ear, heart to heart and perpetuated with no realisation and thus no repentance. Yeah, sure fight the major injustices, but unravelling that thread will show just how interconnected that is to those small ones that tend to go unnoticed. Not only will they need to be exposed for what they are, but they will need to be dealt with. There is only one Man for that job.

For His Name's Sake

Shalom

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Da World Of Sport With Da Man CD

Dear Liverpool – Please Relieve Rafa of his Responsibilities

That’s just about it. Liverpool dumped out of the Cup at home by a team with the worst away record in the Championship. Once upon a time a result like that would cost a manager his job eventually. It’s not as though it’s his first season and he doesn’t know the game. It’s not as though he doesn’t have the players. It’s not as though he doesn’t have the team. I really think some of the supporters who are having a go at the owners are missing the point big time. Pitch performances have nothing to do with the owners, it’s down to the players and the management. It has been evident for a number of months as well as over his tenure that Mr. Benitez has not quite grasped what it takes to make a successful football team in the English Premiership. He cannot complain about lack of funds or support. He is being churlish to expect support after the boardroom issues this season.

It has been rather similar to Chelsea’s traumas last season which helped Jose Mourinho on his way out. The difference here is at least Chelsea stayed in contention and remained competitive. This Liverpool side have looked pathetic for quite some time and the Barnsley result is not surprising. I’m not bothered about the Champions League, I hope we’re beat there as well so that the best thing for the club can take place and to ensure some level of stability we sack Benitez perhaps in the summer (although his position is untenable if we’re knocked out now). The issue isn’t the owners, I don’t care if it’s DIC, Hicks/Gillett, Mothercare or the Gang From Why Don’t You – the issue is management.

A bit like the Houllier syndrome we like to give the brother a go and see what he can achieve. Four seasons, a Champions League, an FA Cup, some other irrelevant trinkets, league places – 5th, 3rd and 3rd and this season is a struggle to finish in the top four. Not once in his time at the club has there been a serious challenge for the Premiership and even Arsenal have afforded the odd season out of contention to come back in again the following one. There’s just been no excuse for what at the end of the day has been a lack of progress in the club. I don’t buy the concept that the brother needs more time having bought new players in to see them grow, cos you need to see them grow in a team capable of challenging for the trophies. That he has not created such a scenario in the four seasons of his time there is an indictment on his time at the club which must be appropriately dealt with.

Who to succeed him? Dunno. It’s not patently obvious, but whoever does succeed will need to be given the three seasons to establish his mark on the team. At the end of the day on paper we have a squad of players that should be doing a lot better than it is, if we get the right guy and he knows the Premiership score (i.e. not another ‘he did well in the French/Spanish/Italian/Iranian league surely he can do a job here!’) there’s no reason why we cannot put in a good effort next season and build on some of the positive stuff Rafa has done. Of course that’s what we should do. What we will do is probably give Mr. Benitez more rope with which to hang himself and the club and if he does quit rather than get sacked we’ll be more attracted by the lustre of another top continental coach or worse an unproven former national coach and perpetuate the folly of false horizons we’ve endured over the last eight seasons or so.

Dear Athletics Community – Get A Grip And Learn To Forgive

From a wrong that needs to be righted to another situation of patently wrong treatment. In my mini-God-chat segment at the latest awesome comedy workshop we have here on Thursday afternoons I mentioned the Dwain Chambers scenario. The media coverage of it and the sentiments that have been coming from the athletics community has been rather sanctimonious. Don’t get me wrong, Chambers evidently is not portraying himself in the best light either, but he doesn’t have much choice as he has been condemned already. If I have this right a guy is caught bang to rights using banned substances to gain an unfair advantage in a sport. A punishment is handed down for a sentence he must serve. He completes the sentence and returns to the sport but is treated like a pariah based on comments made in May 2007 about the place drugs has in the sport and an apparent flippant attitude to the issue. Not only that but because of the disrepute it puts on the sport it is seen almost as if it’s the unforgivable sin – to err is human to cheat is blasphemy.

Reading this article also gave an interesting perspective on the attitude that others take on the issue. What was really insightful was the guy who basically said he used to think that people deserved a second chance but has since changed his mind. It’s a similar stigma that’s attached to convicts looking for a job it is as if they are forever tagged and labelled for the crime. You were a thief, there’s no way I could ever trust you to be reformed and able to be a faithful banker. You were locked up for violence, there’s no way I could ever trust you to be reformed and able to work in security. Now from a worldly perspective this is the idea of being just, after all a leopard never changes its spots – once a criminal always a criminal. To an extent from a theological perspective it can be an attitude we have to non-believers – once a sinner, always a sinner. Thus they can never be trusted to do anything of any merit and should be shunned.

The problem with this attitude if taken to its natural conclusion is that we’ll never trust anyone. Tell me Dame Kelly Holmes, to pick a critic from the pack, has not made a serious mistake. Well why hasn’t she been black-listed from participating in any relational event as a result? What makes ‘the sport’ so sacred, hallowed and different to the rest of life? It’s more or less a professional industry now isn’t it? The reality is that it’s prone to people looking to do what it takes to cash in on what’s available by whatever means necessary and if you can get away with it …

I think it’s exactly this kind of sanctimonious, holier than thou attitude that Jesus addresses in Matthew 7:1. A key aspect of Christian ethos, for me, is to believe the best in a person (rejoicing in God’s image) and address any faults with the desire to build someone by bringing them to Christ, not knock them by banging on about how their faults disqualifies them. That means rather than condemning and writing off someone as a no-hoper, by the grace of God we discern the best course of action to restore someone to the fullness of what they’re called to be. We are not quick to shun someone from community on the basis of a fault but do what we can for the integrity of the community to find routes to restoration of the individual and the collective. If one part hurts we all hurt and look to address the hurt rather than alienate and ostracise someone. Of course there are times where for the health of the community and integrity of the mission someone will have to be excommunicated – but that comes after a thorough-going process of appealing to the party in question to repent and be restored. In other words the attitude truly has to be one of arrogance and rebellion for it to merit that final step of separation.

That blatantly is not the case with this scenario concerning Chambers which only highlights how different a Christian response to the incident should be than the self-righteous stance of the athletics community. Not to say that this Christian response is the reality, but it’s what I read in my Bible and I get the impression it’s at the heart of what a loving Christ-like community is all about – correcting, rebuking, disciplining for the sake of restoration, reconciliation and wholeness.

Now if you think there’s a disparity between my take on the Chambers issue and the Benitez catastrophe I hope it’s clear where the difference is. We’re called to make judgements every day and those have to be based on principles of what’s the best in every situation. I think it’s been right to give Rafa four seasons to see if he can bring the club closer to the Premiership. I think it’s evident that he’s unable to do so and there are no signs of promise that ‘given more time’ he’ll crack it and allow the captain from Anfield to parade the trophy before the long-suffering faithful. So it’s in the best interests of the Liverpool Football Club community to relieve the brother of the responsibility and give someone else a go. With Chambers, you’ve given the brother a punishment for a crime, he’s done his time and the brother is not even given a chance to prove himself which is patently wrong.

Oh by the way, for the sake of my mate, Ray Feeney, I congratulate the Potters on their current good run of form that sees them at the top of the Championship. I live in Stoke City (actually in Stoke itself, so there) and can see some benefits in the team doing well. I don’t necessarily subscribe to the hyper-materialist approach of financial and economic prosperity as a sign of God’s blessing, but I rejoice nonetheless with my mate in the side’s current success.

Anyhow, it’s not often I get to blog at this length so I’ll savour the moment and wish you well.

For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
da man cd

Family Introduction and Social Injustice

In continuing my endeavour to give an appropriate context in which to assess me allow me to give you the basic statistics on my family. As you may have gathered elsewhere, I am a happily married man – she’s happy, I’m married. (Cue drum roll and cymbal crash and audience laughter.) But seriously, I am blessed to be married to the most beautiful woman in the world and as such it would be remiss of me to even consider posting a photo up on this here blog. You see, one of the things me and the wife share is a love of Columbo. One of the classic things about Columbo is that you never see his wife, and so in tribute to the great detective, you ain’t gonna see mine either … unless you’ve already seen her … in which case that’s your blessing, but I shall not divulge the nature of her physical beauty for such a wide audience to behold. Were it just the physical beauty that would be in itself of interest, but nay, my beloved should have a character and personality that far outshines her physical beauty. Ahhh she is such a wonderful woman that sometimes I shake my head and smile in gratitude at the goodness of the LORD.

Anyway, that be the wife, whose name is … the wife. We are also blessed to have a beautiful daughter who goes by the name Deborah. She will be a year old on 29th December, so please mark that in your calendars and remember we only need cash for her at this time as a birthday gift. Cheques should be made payable to Christopher Dryden and preferably have more than two digits to the left of the decimal point! Deborah is a delight and is my first child so I’ve had a really … interesting time getting to grips with the challenge of fatherhood. I’m in two minds as to whether to conduct a full analysis into the varying smells and sights of a baby’s faeces here on this blog, but as I’m aware of the delicate stomach that may be attached to the eyes of the reader I shall leave it for request only. Needless to mention, however, isn’t it fascinating? It is to me. Thankfully there’s so much more to Deborah than the solid output from her daily digestion and I’m sure you’ll find that out as time progresses.

The final part of the close family cast is Kevaughn who is the 12-year-old son of the wife. I am not his biological father, but while he remains with us I accept virtual parenting responsibility for him. He calls me Dad, I call him son, we get on alright. He’s a bright, enthusiastic, bubbly kind of boy – really intelligent and creative and a future chief executive of his own airline, so I’m playing my cards right now, so when I need a Business Class seat on a trip to New York, I know where to go! Who says being a parent doesn’t have its perks?

So that be the main cast, there are the rest of my family as well to introduce, but I’ll do that in another entry.

Now onto the main course of today’s entry. I love reading. More than almost anything else I can thing of, I enjoy reading. So I endeavour to have reading material with me wherever I go, even when I’m depositing waste in the biological method (go to the toilet for the less literate of us). Today whilst I made me usual 50-minute walk from the local town centre to the place of my abode I read something that struck me as good blog material. It’s from a book called Bono on Bono: Conversations with Michka Assayas. At this point I hope the lawyers will allow me this direct quote without fear of litigation, indeed this could be seen as part of their marketing strategy to reach a huge audience … or not. Anyway the quote is as follows:

“What’s always bothered me about the fundamentalists is that they seem preoccupied with the most obvious sins. If those sins, sexual immorality and drug addiction, come out of unhappiness, then I’m sure God wants to set people free of that unhappiness. But I couldn’t figure out why the same people were never questioning the deeper, slyer problems of the human spirit like self-righteousness, judgementalism, institutional greed, corporate greed.”

This quote is part of the talk that Bono has on his first encounter with the televangelists of the U.S. It struck a chord with me on the real tragedy of Christianity today. By the way for those not in the know, Bono can be described broadly speaking as a Christian. I’ll leave it at that, as I don’t know that much more about the guy, but that I’m fairly convinced of. What really came across as so true in this quote was just how obsessed we as Christians can be over certain sins rather than others. Rather than spreading and preaching the liberty with which Christ can set us free, the view is easier seen of judgement being passed down on the ‘losers’ of this world. No compassion, rather condemnation. I know of which I talk as I am a member of church, I do consider myself to be a follower of Christ and I am more than aware of some of the areas in which the body to which I belong sometimes contradicts the heart of the Christ of whom we are meant to be followers.

It’s such a challenge. On the one hand there’s the legalist nature of Christians which is sometimes masked as observance of God’s commands. On the other hand there’s the licentious compromise of the values of God that is disguised as grace. The walk is so narrow … and yet that’s exactly Christ’s point. The way is meant to be narrow, it’s meant to be challenging. Following Christ is not there for us to be popular, but neither is it there for us to be irrelevant in the world we live in. As long as we don’t share the love and righteousness of God through Jesus Christ we fail to deliver the true gospel message.

What, however, particularly irks me concerning the contradiction is what Bono alludes to in terms of Christians being quick to condemn sexual sin and slow (if movement is made at all) to speak out against a world that legalises greed and covetousness through that great word CAPTIALISM. I mean look at that word – capitalism – capitalise, to take advantage of, to grow greater and better than others, the amassing of capital. It’s no coincidence that the poor in society are left behind because they’re not high up on the agenda when it comes to capitalism. Now before anyone accuses me of being a socialist or communist, or anarchist, or whatever I can state clearly now that this is not the case. I am in the process of writing something on political ideologies and a Christian alternative that I hope to complete at some point before I die, God willing. The point remains, however, that a just society must put as a priority looking out for the welfare of those who are the ‘least advantaged’ in society. Just as Christ came to save the lost and bring liberation to those captive, so a just society looks to bring liberty to those who are captive to economic situations. I’m not talking about encouraging people to scrounge off the state, but I am talking about encouraging people to know that they’re not on their own that they are part of a community and society that passionately cares about them fulfilling their own call for their own sense of worth and the improvement of the community.

That’s why I get so excited when I consider how our gifts can be used in society to radically bring change to the lives of people through the power and love of God. I get excited because it’s not just something that makes me feel good inside, but it’s something that gives me a passion to reach out to others. It’s something that makes me want to stand up for what’s right in God’s sight. It’s something that makes me more compassionate for those who are yet to realise who they really are.

I don’t apologise for going on like this. Hey, this is my blog, I am entitled to go on a bit within reason. Yet I understand only too well that this is where the problem is for so many believers. When we speak out for right in God’s sight, the first place that it must start with is ourselves or we bring disrepute on the very word we proclaim, and yet as believers we don’t have a choice. We have to live out all that we hear God say and see Christ do. For me it is such a struggle, especially as God reveals to me who I am, but it’s a worthwhile lifelong struggle to be able, through the grace and power of God, to stand up and make my life count for something bigger than me. That others can benefit from. That others can grow from. That others can be challenged and blessed by.

That’s me for the day. I was going to write about the Sabbath, but I’ll leave that for another entry, so you can look out for that. In the meantime, have a great weekend, if I don’t write to you before the end of that. Ah ha, that’s something I almost forgot. Beware the Jephthah Factor. I know that not everyone lives up to their word, but I’m endeavouring to be one of those people who do. The real gift is to know when to open your mouth to establish your word, when to keep your mouth shut, and what to say when you open your mouth, or else you may find yourself regretting having ever opened your mouth in the first place. If you don’t know what I mean, check Judges 11.

Right, that about does it for today. Until whenever, Shalom.

l8r

da man cd