iPhones May Be the Closest We Could Ever Get to Green Lantern Rings

At the risk of sounding culturally irrelevant (not a large risk, mind you: I bought the new Coldplay album the day it came out...on iTunes!), all these new phones scare me.

Mostly because I fought email addiction in college. And won. But it was bad for a while, folks; we're talking every-two-minutes-or-less checking of the inbox. Perhaps you've experienced this or it's sister Facebook addiction where you click that 'friends' button every two minutes or less just to see who "is hating the 100-degree heat,' or 'is trying to study,' or, a personal favorite from Anonymous: "stepped on a baby kitty and hopes that it doesn't go retarded!! poor baby"

Really?

My inclination to all things electronic has become even more apparent to me in marriage. The other evening my wife and I were watching a movie during our weekly date night at home. I was into the movie, I was digging the alone time with my baby...and then the email notification on my Mac (2 points for relevancy) went off in the other room. Like a trained seal I sprang up from my couch, my wife, and Robert Duvall to see what kind of message comes into my email on Thursday evening.

It was a Facebook update (the forces combined!). Someone commented on my photo. Naturally I was compelled to respond IMMEDIATELY, lest I be considered culturally irrelevant. (Who wants to see a response the next day? "That joke was soooo last night at 9:45")

It made me start thinking about how tied to technology I have a tendency to be. I have started making some slight changes (see linked article below) and it hasn't been easy, but my wife's been patient with me through the process.

Now can you imagine this scenario if I had email/facebook on my phone?!?!? I could do anything! Anytime! Anywhere! I wouldn't have even had to get up and walk to the next room.

Kinda like a Green Lantern power ring, which gives its user great power over the physical world and can accomplish almost anything its user imagines. This ability is increased

or limited only by the the wielder's will power, imagination, and savviness with the ring. The ring can give instant analysis of any situation, object, substance, or threat. It connects its wearer instantly with any other member of the 7,200-strong Green Lantern Corps. It allows the wearer to fly. It even has to be charged every now and again or it'll run outta juice. (Now, the power rings are even starting to come in other colors of the "emotional spectrum"...like blue for hope, or red for rage).

I'd never stop using a Green Lantern ring if I had one.

And I know would take some Green Lantern-strength willpower to tear myself away from a phone that can connect you to anything or anyone. So for now I'm playing it safe and trying to be wise in readying myself to recognize when a technology is taking over my relationships or ministry.

And maybe, just maybe, I'm holding out for the iPhone that enables its user to fly. Now THAT I'll stand in line for!

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Pray for us all as we continue to exert control over the miracles of technology, ever vigilant against those miracles becoming strongholds used by the eneamy to distract us from Christ and His Kingdom work.

Here is one Christian philosopher's helpful ruminations; I commend them to your consideration and discernment.

Student of the Human Heart

"If we will observe the relationships that go on between human beings, we will receive a graduate-level education."

--Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, p. 74.

The study of "non-verbal" books, as Richard Foster would call them, has been a theme of my life. I am fascinated by the human condition; that is, why we do the things we do, our facets, our personalities, our fallen state, our contradictions, our desires, our inherent need of a Savior, etc.

Foster is correct in that being observant of the lives surrounding us as well as those found in history and literature provides incredible insight. Great wisdom can come from experience tempered with a Biblical worldview.

I find support of this type of study in the wisdom of Solomon. From Proverbs 24:30-34:
I passed by the field of a sluggard,
by the vineyard of a man lacking sense,
and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns;
the ground was covered with nettles,
and its stone wall was broken down.
Then I saw and considered it;
I looked and received instruction.
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man.
(emphasis mine)

In the same vein, the book of Ecclesiastes is Solomon's own confessional autobiography in which he shares his personal reflections on life and all he has observed and experienced; the godly and the fallen. Great impetus for us to make the study of the human heart a top priority to practice.

I am reminded as I write of an earlier blog very much in spirit with this. Linked here are a few meditations of mine on how learning from others' poor examples has allowed me to avoid some pitfalls of my own: Mistakes Not Taken, Scars Not Received

Following the Leader

The Institute for American Values released a study on June 11 entitled Is Religion an Answer? Marriage, Fatherhood, and the Male Problematic. The findings conclude church involvement and devotional activity “increase the odds that fathers will get and stay happily married to the mothers of their children and foster higher levels of involvement and affection with children.”

This should come as no great shock to the Christian male or family. The Family of God SHOULD naturally foster through its ministries –from baptisms, to Father’s Day sermons, to men’s ministry – a moral responsibility that calls men to sacred character.

The “Male Problematic” as defined in the Institute’s report (father’s shirking spiritual leadership and responsibility) has been plaguing us since Norman Rockwell painted his famous and prophetic, “Sunday Morning” piece for the cover of the May 16, 1959 edition of The Saturday Evening Post.

I sense many of you are with me in my stance that I’m not going to take this slouching and hiding like the central figure in Rockwell’s painting. No longer. Not this generation. Not this church. Not these men.

As the Body of Christ at NBC, it is the heart of our leadership to see men grow into who they are made to be by their Creator: strong leaders who stand on Scriptural principle, who are spiritually fit and able to fight for their church, their families, friends, and their God. Part of this training up of sturdy men, husbands, and fathers is facilitating a place where men can be who they were meant to be.

This Fall promises to be exciting for the Men of NBC. Our Men’s Ministry Council, comprised of myself, Ronnie Staats, Jared Starr, and Austin McKnight, are meeting, praying, and sensing a very strong and unified direction for the NBC Men’s Ministry.

We have adopted a quote from our Pastor’s recent Father’s Day sermon to wave like a banner over our men’s ministry: “As the man goes, so goes the family; as the man goes, so goes the church.” The response to the invitation that June morning for men to commit anew to serving God and leading their families was very powerful. Seeing that many men at the front of the church, kneeling before God, praying together… it was a glimpse of spiritual champions fed up with emasculated manhood. It was a final confirmation that the Spirit is indeed moving in the hearts of our men. Personal conversations with some of you men have only led to a stronger sense of this in recent days.

Beginning in September we will initiate Men’s Fraternity, a radical call to help one another explore the critical issues we all face by standing side by side, back to back, and doing spiritual battle together. Trying to go it alone doesn’t work so we’re going to challenge one another in the coming year to walk with other men in following God’s leadership in our devotional lives, families, friendships, and church. I think it’s really just the beginning of something quietly epic.

This might not be for everyone though; as with any true and great spiritual undertaking it will require sacrifice and vulnerability. In Men’s Fraternity we will tackle issues regarding wounds of family and loneliness, among others. Through time together and in small groups of 4 to 5 men, we’ll call one another to drop the pretenses of the “male problematic” to get real about the baggage our mutual enemy uses to make us ineffectual in the fight off faith. Through fellowship, accountability, brotherhood, and unity, we will walk together to spur one another toward love and great deeds, a Biblical view of manhood guiding and igniting the warrior’s spirit granted each of us by our great King.