Off-roading and stuff

One of my friends is Travis Sayler. He's a former youth pastor who just pulled what we in youth ministry call "the big sellout." That is, he became a senior pastor. But anyway, he shares my tastes in outdoor adventure and quirky humor. So we get along fine. Last week, we were at a pastors' convention, and we cut out one afternoon to go offroading in his X-Terra. My offroading experience previously was restricted to old Toyota Land Cruiser trucks in Brazil and Haiti, and these weren't really offroading in the technical sense; it's just that the roads in question happened to be less passable than your average pond.

So anyway, offroading. We were on a very primitive logging trail in the Missouri hills. There were sharp rocks jutting out trying to spear the tires, and the soil was really loose, crumbly stuff that would send you sliding downhill if you tried to cross a slope at the wrong angle. We got stuck for a bit once, much to the consternation of Travis' wife Daphne. But a good time was had by all. I'm just glad we were in his vehicle and not mine.

Still reading Wild at Heart, and the challenge to my soul is considerable. Incidentally, I think I'm probably "hearing" God more clearly than I ever have in some ways. It's really quite a rush.

Some stuff that scares me a bit

I've been reading John Eldredge's book Wild at Heart. I started reading this book with even more skepticism than is usual in my overly-skeptical, sometimes-cynical life. But I have to confess that I've been won over for the most part.

One of the thoughts this book has germinated is the concept that a man has a need to be a warrior. And God created us that way. (And if I were you, gentle reader, I'd be a bit skeptical right now. But I won't take the time to try to argue away your skepticism - just get the book yourself and you'll figure out that it does make sense.) And the thought that has stuck with me over the past week or so is that, as Eldredge says, "...a warrior has a vision, he has a transcendence to his life; a cause greater than self-preservation... This isn't just about being willing to die for Christ; it's much more daily than that."

I recently finished reading a book called Brave Men by WWII correspondent Ernie Pyle. It was published shortly after the Normandy invasion, before the end of the European war. It chronicles the author's time attached to various military units from the early North African campaign, through the invasions of Sicily and Italy, up to just after the Battle of the Bulge. He talks about many different aspects of the war, but one of the most compelling chapters is about the front-line infantry units. The troops are uniformly haggard, unsmiling, and exhausted. They have lost all idealistic notions about the war. They no longer fight for the glory of truth, justice, and the American Way. They have seen too much death for that. And yet, despite this jaded, seemingly pessimistic outlook; they consistently, continually perform acts of astounding heroism. Why? They're unable to answer, except to say things like, "It just made me mad that all those other fellows were pinned down and getting picked off," or, "It just seemed like it might get us home quicker," or, "I knew any of these boys would have done the same for me," or, "It had to be done, and I was the one in a position to do it." I wonder what those warriors would have said a few years later if asked the same question. I suspect that the more introspective would have said something to the effect that, "Deep down, I knew it was right, it was proper, it was good. I knew that ultimately what we were doing there was worthwhile."

Back to Eldredge for a quote that hit me center mass:

"For years all my daily energy was spent trying to beat the trials in my life and arrange for a little pleasure. My weeks were wasted away either striving or indulging. I was a mercenary. A mercenary fights for pay, for his own benefit; his life is devoted to himself. 'The quality of a true warrior,' says Bly, 'is that he is in service to a purpose greater than himself; that is, to a transcendent cause.' ...That is the secret of the warrior-heart of Jesus."

That scares me a bit because I believe that God is calling me to step out and take some risks. My nature is to be one of the many soldiers who die with a fully loaded rifle, who never fire a shot, who hunker down and freeze, who play it "safe" until the enemy finds them and takes them out. In my ministry I tend to just do enough to keep the church board, the pastor, and the parents happy, while making sure the students under my ministry have a good enough time to keep coming back. What scares me is that I know God is calling me to more than that. So much of the time I feel like a cowardly hobbit, but God wants me to be Aragorn.

I don't have this all figured out yet. It's occupying much of my prayer and thought right now. I'll let you know when I get there.

In other news, my mom's cookies are this amazing:


And I'm having some tonight.

Allergies, quack remedies, and high-calorie religious TV

One of the things for which I'm afraid my family is famous is our food allergy. My dad and I and, to some extent, my sisters, are allergic to tree nuts (not peanuts, though - thank God!), bananas, and the melon family (watermelon, honeydew, canteloupe, etc.). We also have athsma.

I had a chiropractor recently tell me he could fix that. I was a bit skeptical, but excited. To make a long story short, he didn't fix it. And I got pretty sick. (At this point in the story, Aaron and Tim, my former roommates, are laughing uproariously. They used to put nuts in my food on purpose so they could watch me run to the back door and spit. Sadists.) Chiropractors are great for fixing the odd aches and pains, but the wonderful results others have had with "holistic" medicine fixing chronic breathing disorders and allergies have yet to be seen by me.

Cindy and I were listening to the radio while driving across the Mojave Desert in June. There was a Christian station that was airing a talk show. On this show were several "holistic medicine" doctors who were just complete wackos. They said it was a "well-documented fact" that acetimenophen (Tylenol) killed more people than any other commonly taken medicine. They said you shouldn't take Tylenol or aspirin or ibuprofen. They seemed to class these, together with all other drugs made by the pharmaceutical industry, as heinous poisons. And they were trying to equate their "holistic" medicine with Christianity somehow, while associating Tylenol, etc. with the liberal humanistic establishment.

It was a perfect example of how religious media often tries to subvert Christianity to serve its own special pet interests.

And while we're slamming religious media (the easy way out for a cynical person like myself, I admit), read this about how women who watch religious programming are more obese.

Next post will be something more cheerful, with a bit about cookies. I promise.