Because it's Tuesday
It's the day after Monday, and the news is about to come on telling you something you probably don't care to hear about any more about.
So, here...
Femto Photography and Seeing Around Corners: Why Following Jesus Is about Risk
By Derek Penwell
In July, 2012 a scientist from MIT, Ramesh Raskar, gave a Ted Talk on an amazing new innovation in photography. Femto photography films at one trillion frames per second. What this allows scientists to do, for example, is make a time lapse video of the movement of light (which is pretty dang cool on its own merits!). You can watch a burst of light projected from a laser as it shoots through a Coke bottle!
[Note: I realize that’s two exclamation points in two consecutive sentences—a grammatical practice upon which I generally frown, except to say things like “Happy birthday!” or “Congratulations on your Bassett Hound’s successful completion of agility training!”—but this stuff is pretty phenomenal! Oops. Sorry.]
The practical applications of this new technology are even more astounding. For one thing, when a burst of light is shot from a laser, it diffuses when the photons strike an object. Various photons are then reflected back to the source. Using heavy computational power, the scientists are able to stitch together the individual photon speeds to produce a 3-D model of the thing that the light hits.
The ability to produce 3-D models of things struck by a burst of light gets really interesting, however, when you realize that the reflection of light doesn’t have to come from an object in a straight line with the laser. Meaning … you can project the light around obstacles, and the computer will take into account the extra angles of reflection, and still construct an accurate 3-D image.
In other words, it allows you literally to see around the corner—to construct a 3-D image of something you can’t even see! [Again, sorry.] It’s almost like seeing into the future—getting an accurate vision of something before you ever get there.
I like the sound of that idea. It’s not flying or retractable adamantium claws, but it’s still kind of like a super power.
I understand the attraction of seeing around the corner; it’s a great metaphor for predicting the future, of telling you whether a thing will be worth doing.
But here’s the thing: In real life the only way you’ll know if a thing is worth doing is after you’ve already done it, when you look back on it—which is to say, after the toothpaste is already out of the tube.
“Should we let our daughter go on that trip to Europe?”
“Should I pay the electric bill so we don’t freeze, or should I fill my blood pressure medication so I don’t have a stroke?”
“Should I take the new job with exciting potential, or stay in the job where I’m most comfortable?”
“Should I tell my parents and friends I’m gay—risking their love and support, or should I keep it to my myself—risking my sanity?”
How do you know until after you do it?
That’s life. We have to make all sorts of calculations about what to do without enough information about what it will look like when it’s finished, or whether having done it will prove advantageous or harmful.
How do you know until after you do it.
That’s also what life following Jesus looks like. Seeing around the corner would certainly make church planning more effective, for instance. It’d be nice to know whether something is going to work before you had to take a chance on it. Face-saving is what it is.
If you don’t know what you’re getting into when you plan something, you risk failing. And failing is unacceptable to many churches.
Congregations in decline almost always understand church planning to be a matter not of achieving success, but of avoiding failure. Consequently, they tend to stand before decisions trying to do the advanced calculations necessary to see what lies around the corner, refusing to act boldly for fear that something might not work.
“Should we do this?”
“I don’t know.”
“Because if we do, it might not work. We’d be out all that money, plus things like this tend to make Janice mad.”
Flourishing congregations, on the other hand, weigh a decision against past experience, then make a decision. They’ve gotten comfortable with the fact that they will never have everything nailed down before taking the leap. They’ve made peace with the knowledge that everything they try has a pretty good chance of washing out. But they’ve learned to accept the prospect of failure as the cost of doing business.
Flourishing congregations realize that there’s no way to ensure something will work on the front end. They understand that they’ll never know if an idea was a good one until they look back on it, assessing it in the rearview mirror. But the inability to look around the corner to see what’s coming doesn’t prevent them from turning corners they think faithfulness calls them to take. They understand that a life spent following Jesus is an adventure, not a tour.
Before we get there, we’d like to know that where we’re going is where we want to be.
Maybe one day there will be an ecclesiastical version of Femto photography that will make discipleship a surer thing. On the other hand, if discipleship is an adventure, whatever such an innovation might produce, it won’t have much to do with following Jesus.
It's almost Friday, y'all.
So, here's Brian Williams's rapping Rapper's Delight.
On the Killing of Jordan Davis by Michael Dunn
We cannot protect our children because racism in America is not merely a belief system but a heritage, and the inability of black parents to protect their children is an ancient tradition.
Great reflection in the wake of recent high profile cases involving racial violence.
These things have always been happening. They will continue to happen.
They'll always make us feel angry, helpless, confused. And, there are no easy answers. But, by reminding ourselves what kind of a world that we and the generations before us have created, we're given a sobering picture on just what problems need solving.
the LGBTQ Community won this week
After a scare in Kansas on Tuesday, it seems this week turned out to be a pretty good one.
For one, Kentucky now recognizes same-sex marriages performed outside the Commonwealth.
Virginia took it a step further, ruling its own ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional.
And then, Ellen page said this at the Human Rights Campaign Time to Thrive event:
Aww yes.
How Sports Illustrated Botched The Michael Sam Story
As most of you know, Michael Sam, heralded football player of the University of Missouri, came out publicly last week. If he is drafted (which he is expected to be) he will become the first openly gay active player in the NFL. It's truly a huge step in the right direction toward acceptance and inclusion for LGBTQ people not only in sports, but in the broader culture.
Right after the story broke, Sports Illustrated dropped this little number. It was full of anonymous commentary from skeptical "NFL Executives and Coaches" that painted a negative picture of not only the road down which Sam is headed, but questioned his wisdom in coming out at all.
I read the SI story on its release and have been stewing on it for the past few days. Then I found out that Stefan Fatsis of Deadspin put all of my frothy feelings of snark and disgust into words for me:
The most laugh-out-loud quote crammed a closetful of stereotypes, bigotries, and dated locutions into one paragraph. It's not that NFL front offices are "against gay people," this source assured Thamel and Evans. It's that "some players" will "look you upside down" if you draft Sam. (Don't blame us football people! Blame the players!) "Every Tom, Dick, and Harry in the media is going to show up, from Good Housekeeping to The Today Show." (If Red Smith or the Saturday Evening Post send a telex requesting a press pass, don't give 'em one!)
If given LITERALLY a million years, I could not have said it better. Absolutely beautiful.
#SochiProblems says more about us than Russia
Anyone who has been following the Sochi Olympic Games on social media has seen the hashtags, the cheap jokes, and the insensitive jabbing surrounding a pretty clear mishandling of such a large and public event by Russia. But, as with most things on the internet, our berating may be saying more about our ignorance and aloofness than about Russia's incompetencies.
“When Western writers point out Sochi Olympic blunders while also mocking the way Russians speak English, they only diminish their own street cred and fuel backlash. If Americans focus on shallow cultural differences, like what they think are funny sounds that Russians make, they'll continue to believe all Russians are like Boris and Natasha from Rocky & Bullwinkle.”
While I'm not above laughing at a mistranslated sign, we should be sure to keep in mind that these are real conditions in a real place where real people live.
Google trolls Russia
Besides the US version of its homepage, Google is also running it in other countries, including the Russian version of Google.com and its results pages.
Don't be evil, y'all.
Naked Face
But I never had the satisfaction I expected to feel when I was temporarily part of the girl crowd. Instead, I was uneasy with the change. What if I got used to seeing this every morning? Would I start to hate my face in its natural state, and put on makeup even when no one was looking?
Great story. Worth a read on your Thursday evening.
Where to watch the debate (Bill Nye & Ken Ham)
If you're interested in watching the debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham in tonight, it will be streaming live at DebateLive.org.
I (Geoff) will not be, because I'm already cringing.
So, you know, let me know how it goes...
Bill Nye vs. Creationism
"While Nye acknowledged that he probably won't be able to change any creationist's mind, he said it made sense to challenge creationism in a public forum."
Indeed.
Welcome to Kentucky, Mr. Nye. Good Luck!
Sermon Podcast: Where Jesus May Be Found
Jesus announces a new order of things in which the anawim—a Hebrew word applied to those who are the very lowest in society, the huddled masses, the wretched refuse, the homeless, the tempest-tossed, the folks who live out next to the garbage dump of life—a new order of things in which the anawim occupy the places of honor, finally get to sit at the big people’s table, no longer handed the crumbs and the leftovers.
Jesus proclaims a new realm—unlike the kingdoms of this world with which the Tempter enticed him out in the wilderness just a few verses prior—kingdoms where some have and others are left holding the bag, where a few get to steamroll their way to the front of the line and everyone else gets flattened, where some have food, and others are left to starve. Because the reign of God does not exist where some are welcome and others are not.
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What I Learned about Leadership from Being Stuck in an Airport
By Derek Penwell
As I sit in the Dallas airport, 25 hours into my version of the airport story from hell, I cannot help but think about the way something as simple as a flat tire on an airplane can put a serious kink a person’s faith. Apparently—and I did not know this—the FAA doesn’t consider Fix-a-Flat a suitable repair for a damaged airplane tire … at least that’s what the kind woman at the American Airlines gate told me when I walked up after seven hours to make suggestions about how we might possibly, “if-it’s-all-the-same-to-you,” move this along.
I’m going with a group to Mexico to do work on water purification, which is neither here nor there, except to draw attention to the competing impulses of a group that both urgently wants to get down to Mexico to do what we’ve been planning to do, while still remaining committed to the prospect of sidestepping the temptation to act like turds. They’re actually doing great, but nobody could blame them if they did spike the sphygmomanometer.
The thing about being stuck in airport is that not only is it exhausting staring at the same patterns in the industrial carpet for hours on end, but the uncertainty can tax even the strongest spiritual constitution. What lies ahead is uncertain, with just enough hope to keep you from wandering away from the gate and down to the bar to lay in liquid stores for the duration. And so you sit—miserable to be where you are, but with not information to provide you with the incentive to go somewhere else.
Which misery sounds like a lot of congregations I know. Life in declining congregations often mirrors the nightmare of being stuck in an airport. They don’t know what the future holds, and nobody can give them enough information to act on, so they sit on their hands, vacillating between the anger that nobody knows anything and the fear that whatever it is that nobody knows will materialize without warning and cause the whole journey to veer off into the ditch.
But the other thing I learned about being stuck in an airport is that good leadership can be the difference between communal thriving in a less than optimal situation and a spiraling descent into a band of mutant circus geeks on the prowl in search of the heads of airline personnel.
Here’s what I learned about leadership in a declining congregation from being stuck in an airport for 26 (now) hours:
- Being calm is contagious. If the person in charge is wound too tight, everyone gets anxious. Tranquility sells.
- Anxiety over things you can’t change isn’t merely a waste of time; it also robs you of the joy of the adventure. You can expend a great deal of energy worrying about things you have no control over, which leads to anxiety (see above). Anxiety causes the mind to race, limiting options and impeding creativity. But just as importantly, it blinds you to the fact that adventures are adventures precisely because of the challenges … not despite them.
- Being a jerk to people who can’t do anything about the situation doesn’t change anything but the atmosphere. Not only does being an overbearing fussbudget fail as a strategy for making things better, it also helps to create overbearing fussbudgets of others (see above). Remember: You have to live in the climate you create.
- Laughing makes everything a little less crappy, and can help bind a community together. In addition to the fact that laughter helps to relieve the tension of a difficult journey (see above), it also helps to draw people together. Any adventure is not only better with companions, it also makes survival that much more likely … just ask Frodo Baggins, or Harry Potter, or Jesus—although survival in Jesus’ case apparently required stretching out on a stone slab for a couple of days—which is sort of like airport furniture, if you think about it.
Being a part of a congregation in decline (or stuck in an airport) isn’t, generally speaking, high up on anybody’s list of things to do before they die. But if you stick around long enough, chances are pretty good you’re going to find yourself staring adventure in the face. You might just as well do it with a little grace and style.
Your band of traveling companions will thank you.
Is "evil" a thing?
'Indeed recent developments demonstrate that evil remains a stubborn concept in our culture, resistant to attempts to reduce it to pure "physicalism." To read the mainstream media commentary on the Breivik case, for instance, is to come upon, time after time, the word "evil." Not just that the acts were evil, but that he, Breivik was, as a Wall Street Journal columnist put it, "evil incarnate."
But what exactly does that mean? The incarnation of what?'
Evil was, like, so last decade anyway.
If Jesus were a folksinger
“I have sung for Americans of every political persuasion, and I am proud that I never refuse to sing to an audience, no matter what religion or color of their skin, or situation in life. I have sung in hobo jungles, and I have sung for the Rockefellers, and I am proud that I have never refused to sing for anybody."
Before someone decides to condemn me for calling Jesus a Commie (which I'm not, although a case could be made), it should be understood that, while Seeger's political affiliations didn't always align him with good company, his intentions, and methods were always genuine and, in my estimation, beautiful.
Pete Seeger's vision of the world was one in which we all cared for each other—greatest and least. He believed that we are all accountable for the world where our brothers and sisters live, breathe, play, and love.
What's more, he was unwilling to remain silent about such things. Seeger's politics got him publicly silenced. But his message of peace, love, and goodwill transcended him as a beacon for those marginalized and hopeless. He was a voice for those who had none. And, despite being banned from the airwaves for many years, he has become one of the most iconic and revered activists and humanitarians of our time.
Sounds pretty familiar.
If asked how to pay tribute my guess is Pete would say, support a cause, join a movement, sing a song or just go chop some wood. -@ajsfour
— Newport Folk Fest (@Newportfolkfest) January 28, 2014Monday evening, he passed away. The phrase "a great loss" is being used by folks who admired him and his life. I'm inclined to humbly say that they may be missing the greater point. For 94 years, Pete Seeger lived. And the world is better for it.
I bet Jesus was awesome on the banjo.
Priests and Protests in Kiev
Amidst burned buses, tear gas and barricades, however, there is another sight that stands out on the frontline: The strong numbers of Orthodox priests who have turned out, not to protest, but rather to pray.
Absolutely stunning.
There and Back Again: The Fellowship of the IKEA Meatballs
So, the youth room, depleted of its furniture, needed to restock. What better place to go for youth room furniture than IKEA?
On Sunday afternoon, the brave souls set out for West Chester, Ohio: Land of... things from Ohio... and the nearest IKEA to the Louisville Metro Area.
3 lamps, 2 tables, a number of oddly shaped pillows, a shelf, a couch, and roughly 45 "Swedish" meatballs later, they returned a tired yet successful fellowship from the Northern Lands of Cincinnati.
With all of these new additions, and the big screen coming back from it's short retirement, the new youth/media room is will soon be back in business.
Notes on the week.
Lots of things to think about this week...
We remember the life of a great human being:
We anxiously watch our leaders deal with decisions of liberty, security, and privacy:
And we await relief and resolution for our friends in the West Virginia:
It has been a heavy week.
It's weeks like this that I like to sit listen to Louis Armstrong and ponder.
Just ponder.
Have a wonderful weekend, and peace be with you all.
Letters from a Birmingham Jail
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
Everyone should read it. We all know the quotes. But, man oh man, how much better is the whole thing?
Happy Birthday, Dr. King.
Career advice for an 18 Year Old
"So what do you do on this scary, lonely, exciting path? That’s totally up to you — you are empowered to figure things out on your own."
It seems like at 18 (or 21, or 35, or 60), everyone is telling you how much time you have to figure things out. I never bought that anyone really meant that when they said it. I don't begrudge them. It's the "right thing to say" in those obligatory moments of insight an wisdom asked of us without consent as though we know what the $@&! we're doing.
Leo Babauta's response hits less on the "what to do" as on the "who to be" of the question, which is the part I've always been a bit more intrigued with.
Also, he's awesome.