Biblical Precautions: Saul

Dark of night. The basket lowered slowly down the wall as its occupant silently crouched, not making a sound. He was a marked man.

Saul was in a tough situation. He had been on his way to Damascus on a mission to arrest the followers of the recently-crucified Jesus, and following the subsequent public execution of Stephen. As a devoted Pharisee, he was notorious for his ongoing efforts to persecute and martyr the followers of Christ. He was determined to arrest them and bring them to Jerusalem for prosecution and execution. But all that changed on the road in a blinding flash of light when Jesus spoke to him and turned his life around. Instead of arresting followers of The Way (as it was called at the time), he was led into Damascus, blind, having been told to await further instructions at the house of Judas on Straight Street.

The basket creaked as it lowered further. He recalled more about this strange adventure.

Three days had passed since his arrival in Damascus. He had been blind and had not eaten anything, opting instead to fast and pray. He heard a man approaching and felt hands on his shoulders. "Brother Saul," said a voice, "the Lord - Jesus, who you saw on the road to Damascus - has sent me to you so that you can see and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Something like scales fell off his eyes and he looked into the face of Ananias, a follower of Christ who had been sent to him for this purpose. He got up and was baptized, and then he got some food.

As the days passed, the Jews and the followers of The Way were thunderstruck to find a man they knew had come to arrest them, instead boldly proclaiming in the city streets and proving that Jesus was the promised Messiah. This was the polar opposite of the mission he had so recently been pursuing and enforcing. As news got out, the Jews in Damascus smelled a turncoat and started watching the city gate day and night to make sure he couldn't leave before they could arrest and kill him. But Saul got wind of the plot, and he and his new friends came up with a plan. There was a hole in the city wall. They took a large basket and he got in it. They let it out through the hole and slowly lowered him in it with ropes.

The basket reached the ground. Stealthily, he moved away from the wall, avoiding the city gates, and returned to Jerusalem. 

Saul's life was saved due to precautions that he had to take. He would encounter similar shock from the followers of The Way in Jerusalem, but Barnabas would stick up for him. He would debate with the Hellenistic Jews, who also tried to kill him. The followers of The Way in Jerusalem took him to Antioch, and from there sent him on to his hometown of Tarsus. Barnabas would later go to Tarsus to find Saul. They would then spend a year ministering in Antioch, and Saul, also known as Paul, would go on to travel around the Mediterranean area spreading the Gospel.

Paul's life was saved because he took precautions. God protected him, but he also had to take action. Without those precautions, we would not have a large portion of the New Testament, and the beginnings of the Christian Church would have been very different.

We need to have faith. Faith allows us to boldly proclaim the Good News. Faith in God's love and protection has been a major factor down through the years in propelling the growth of the Church. But precautions are also necessary.

How many lives would be saved today for lifesaving work in the future if we would just take precautions during this pandemic? Compared to the precautions Paul had to take, we are being asked so little. Just a mask and a poke. If Paul had boldly left Damascus through the gate, he would have become a martyr before the bulk of his ministry even began. Similarly, we must eschew the idea that wearing masks and getting the vaccine shows a lack of faith. We have a mission to save lives, and we must not just assume God will miraculously protect us from our own folly. He can easily do so, but that is not how He operates every time.

Saint Paul, painting by Rembrandt, c. 1657

Bespectacled Captain America

This Independence Day, I have been pondering a bespectacled Captain America.

He is known for several things, but wearing glasses is not generally one of them (aside from one scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier). However, I think the idea of him wearing glasses is a great analogy that we need to consider. In some ways, Cap has become a symbol of our nation. He is my favorite superhero. I love how he stands for what is right, sometimes even when it flies in the face of what the authorities and respected officials say. (This goes both for Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson.)

I think many Americans throughout our history have looked at our nation through red-white-and-blue-colored glasses, seeing the ideal and missing the multiple serious issues. America needs to scrap the idealized fake glasses and adjust their prescription so we can see the very real needs we have ignored (or actively perpetuated) for far too long. Every one of us needs to get glasses. In this case I don't mean that literally (though my feelings on that are a subject for another time).

Our Declaration of Independence states, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Lincoln pointed out in the Gettysburg Address that our nation was "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Yet, throughout our history, we have done a horrible job of treating others with the equality we claim to value. 

Too many Americans, rather than emulating Steve Rogers, have instead emulated John Walker. In the name of freedom, we have abused, enslaved and murdered our black brothers and sisters, at times in horrifyingly graphic and inhuman ways. We have committed genocide against countless Native men, women and children. We put our own citizens of Japanese descent in concentration camps. We look at Hitler as an example of the evil of genocidal tendencies, and forget that in some cases we are just as guilty. Attacks against Asians have been on the rise. Our LGBTQ community has suffered terrible abuse, discrimination and murder. Antisemitism has been a huge problem here. The same nation that proclaims on the Statue of Liberty, "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" has arrested, detained, put in cages, and done worse to those immigrants we claim to welcome. Families have been torn apart at the border. We have done a horrible job in the way we treat the homeless. So many thousands in our nation have died because too many Americans didn't take the COVID crisis seriously, and in many cases still refuse to get vaccinated. Shootings continue and we don't do nearly enough to stop them because our guns are too precious to us. We skip the "well-regulated" part of the 2nd Amendment and go straight to the "shall not be infringed" part. Lethal conspiracy theories such as QAnon and Plandemic continue to spread. Even some people who are awake to these horrifying facts and are fighting them lump all police into one harmful "all cops are b******s" stereotype. (I understand that a profession is a choice while being a specific race isn't.) The police urgently need reform because many of them are responsible for some of the above atrocities, but lumping every last one of them all into one group of "b*******s" is not helpful and has led to grievous harm against the police. There are so many more examples with countless groups of people. This hasn't even scratched the surface.

Too long we have neglected to adjust our prescription and have succumbed to harmful stereotypes and feelings of superiority. We all need to examine ourselves daily and consider whether we are part of the problem. Once we do that, we can start becoming part of the solution. I know I am guilty of racist and other discriminatory thoughts and actions at times, and I am working on changing that. I have learned so much from respected friends and research and am striving to become a more loving, accepting and welcoming person.

ALL HUMANS ARE CREATED EQUAL. Not just the white humans. Not just the straight humans. Not just the male humans. EVERY SINGLE HUMAN IS EQUAL AND DESERVES RESPECT AND LOVE.

The implications don't stop there. Equality is just one of many areas where we need improved vision to see clearly. However, if I go into all of them, this would be a very long blog post.

Without help, we all have fuzzy vision. Get glasses. Make sure your prescription is accurate. Wear them and never take them off. Biases and many other problems can't be cured by laser surgery. They need to be tackled head on daily in the heart of every human, and we can't afford to let our guard down. Listen to each other. Love.

Seattle Update

Two friends from other parts of the country asked me today what is actually going on in Seattle right now. The following is an e-mail that I wrote to them, with my understanding of what is going on, as of June 16, 2020:

There's a lot going on right now, both good and bad. 

There were mostly peaceful marches for multiple days in a row. Violence did break out at times, and the blame is on both sides. Some of it was the police provoking the protesters. At times, protesters got violent. Police used tear gas, pepper spray (at times taking off people's COVID masks and spraying it directly in their face), flash bangs, and other weapons. Anarchists and white supremacists and various other groups also got in on the insanity. HOWEVER, the violence was the exception. Most of the time, the protests were peaceful. 

A group of protesters set up a part of downtown that they named the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ). It has been going several days now. The police voluntarily (with encouragement from the mayor) closed their precinct office there. I believe that closure is temporary, but not sure. Initially, CHAZ was blocked off, but some of the blockades have been moved to allow access for businesses and people who live there. Some media falsely reported that it is a haven for terrorists and anarchists. Fox News photoshopped an armed man supposedly standing guard, but removed those pictures when they were called on it. They also posted a picture of a fire in the Minneapolis protests, falsely claiming it was in CHAZ. It is actually closer to a street fair and has been mostly peaceful.

* Protesters have made a large "Black Lives Matter" mural on the street, with a different artist decorating each letter

* There is also other art and graffiti there, mostly remembering the black people who have been killed by police and urging people to "say their names"

* Booths have been set up with free food and hand sanitizer and other items

* Some businesses have actually been able to operate their full hours because they are protected. (At the height of the marches, and also due to coronavirus, they had very limited hours for a while there.)

* The bad part is that 911 has been much less responsive in that area

Rumors were going around, partly due to the word "autonomous" in its name, that CHAZ had seceded from the nation and was selling itself as an anarchist utopia. To clear up confusion, they changed the name the other day to Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP). 

Their aim is to work with police and others to make improvements to the way black lives are treated by the police. I've heard conflicting reports on how far they intend to go on "defunding" the police, but it is generally not a complete elimination like it sounds. They want to take some responsibilities away from the police because they feel we are asking too much of them. For example, the police are expected to do the job of social workers, medical personnel, and more. The police aren't equipped to do all that.  They would like that revamped so that actual social workers and others who are better equipped to help with those specific tasks can do them more effectively. They are also looking to change the way police respond to crises, depending more on de-escalation techniques rather than shooting first or using tear gas (which is actually illegal to use in war, so they understandably don't appreciate it used to quell protests).

There's a lot more to it, but that's the gist, and my understanding. 

I appreciate the prayers and concerns. Seattle needs prayer. The mayor (Jenny Durkan) and governor (Jay Inslee) are trying to figure out how to handle this, as CHOP is technically not permitted, but they also want to listen to the protesters' legitimate concerns. 

I hope that helps! 

Steven

Blasphemous Lies Racists Tell

Sometimes the Devil's most heinous lies are so heinous because they have just enough truth in them to be believable. 

For example, 

All Lives Matter

Of course they do! Nobody is denying that! All lives have infinite worth. But that is far too often used to deflect from the issue at hand, that black lives are still undervalued and shot down (literally and figuratively) at a much higher rate than other lives. We are commanded to speak up for the people in need (for example, Proverbs 31:8-9, Proverbs 12:21, Psalm 82:2-4 and Psalm 12:5, among others) and to deflect from that is to a abdicate our sacred duty and blaspheme the name of God. Yes, I said BLASPHEME. Jesus told a parable (Luke 15:4-7 and Matthew 18:10-14) about a shepherd with a flock of 100 losing one sheep, and temporarily leaving the flock to find the one lost sheep. Not because the other sheep didn't matter, but because the life of that lost sheep did. To abandon that one sheep because "all sheep matter" would have been a death sentence for the lost sheep. Jesus reached out to Samaritans. He reached out to beggars. He reached out to tax collectors. He reached out to the downtrodden. Their lives mattered to Him. Now far too many of His professed "followers" are acting like Pharisees and saying that it is wrong to reach out to a specific group that He died for because "all lives matter."

Or how about this? 

Blue Lives Matter

Once again, nobody is denying that the lives of police are valuable. But once again, this is used to deflect. I believe most police are good at their job, but we have seen so many examples of bad cops causing major harm, and a disproportionate number of arrests, attacks, beatings, tear gas, rubber bullets, shootings, etc. have been done by the police against blacks, who have often turned out to be innocent. In some ways, "Blue Lives Matter" as a response to "Black Lives Matter" is worse than the other example because so much of the violence against blacks is perpetrated by the police. It is implying that the lives of the attackers are more valuable than those of the victims. 

Yes, all lives matter. Yes, blue lives matter. But don't you dare commit BLASPHEMY against the God you claim to serve because you are too racist to realize the harmful implication you are communicating to our fellow valued and needed humans that black lives don't matter. 

Nobody is saying that only black lives matter, or that they matter more than the lives of cops. That seems to be what so many hear, but that is another lie from the pit. Black Lives Matter is about speaking up for those who have been hurt, killed, put down, and so much more, because of the color of their skin. It has nothing to do with favoring anybody. Blacks deserve equality. 

BLACK LIVES MATTER!

Lament for Astrid

Astrid, my beautiful Astrid

From the first test drive, I was in love! 

Your shining silver coat

Your wonderful gas mileage

You were always there

I could always depend on you

To get me where I was going

My pride and joy

My own beloved car

I couldn't ask for a greater automotive child 

You were my own

I loved you so

We went through so much together

My sweet, strong car

On that final ill-fated trip

You got us far

You worked so well

And when disaster struck

Divine strength guided us

Between the trees

Glancing off, not hitting head on

Coming to rest

Airbags deployed

Injured, but alive. 

Beloved Astrid,

You saved our lives

But lost your own

I thank God

For His Divine Strength

His Astrid that He gave me

Five years I will never forget

Five years with my first car

Dependable to a fault

Now, my beautiful car,

Your time is done. 

Rest in peace. 

More Musical Clickbait

I don't like clickbait any more than I did when I wrote the previous blog about musical clickbait. But I still like to make fun of it. Here are some more headlines for you. (Note that not every headline is 100% accurate. That is intentional.)

They land in a small town in Canada. But they weren't expecting THAT MANY planes at the airport or THAT welcome! We're CRYING!

His therapist told him to write himself a letter. You WON'T BELIEVE what happens when people read it! Share. Like. Spread this EVERYWHERE!

Ex-nun helps decorated naval captain and his seven children DEFY orders from his superiors!

I've been wrong all this time! THIS is why the Lord created men!

You won't believe how this con man seduces this librarian!

38 planes that landed in Gander that day (and 21 that landed in St. John's)

She decides to marry her boss. What happens next will make you sing!

Her ambitions as a writer are ASTONISHING!

They put out the call for help. When Brooklyn responds? I'm SHOCKED!

Displaced by a TORNADO, she uses THIS WEIRD TRICK to get home!

They just ease on down the road to reach their goal!

Jealous uncle USURPS the throne! What happens next? Hakuna matata!

10 guys who want to BRING DOWN the Sharks (and 10 who want to bring down the Jets)

Dear Steven Sauke

Dear Steven Sauke,

Today is going to be a good day, and here's why.

I went to see Dear Evan Hansen this past Friday on its national tour. It really got me thinking about how I treat the people around me. While I endeavor not to resort to bully tactics like Connor, my integrity is far too important to me to lie like Evan or betray confidences like Alana, and I hope I don't put conditions on helping others (or encourage dishonest behavior, or neglect to keep my mind out of the gutter) like Jared, I can see myself in several of the characters.

I remember my first day in 8th grade, at a new school in a new country, standing in a hall full of strangers hugging each other and greeting each other excitedly after a summer of missing each other. It was like I was "waving through a window," too scared and shy to talk to others. But I made friends that year. Some of them are still friends today. People teased me about my old-fashioned clothes (stripes were out of fashion, but I was not to know that, having recently returned from the Philippines). Classmates teased me about not knowing common American phrases like "The King is dead." (I only found out at the end of the year they were referring to Elvis and not Jesus.) A classmate wrote on my jacket in pencil, and when I tried to erase it, it wouldn't erase. I had to get a new jacket. As I progressed through high school, my classmates and I matured, but we were still typical teenagers. (Well, I've never been especially typical, but you know what I mean.)

I think about the way Connor and Evan treated their families. 

Connor's parents and Evan's mother were trying their hardest to raise their children, and kept coming across roadblocks and complications. Connor treated his family so poorly that his sister Zoe couldn't remember one good thing about him, and though his mother Cynthia insisted there were good things, she couldn't name one. Larry Murphy tried to provide for his son and teach him, but he didn't listen or seem to care. Please, let me never inspire my own dad to lament, "I gave you the world, and you threw it away!" 

Heidi Hansen did everything she could to provide for her son, while dealing with her own pain of the divorce ten years earlier, and her ex-husband moving on and starting his own family. She worked at the local hospital and took law classes, and even though she wasn't as available for her son as either of them would have preferred, she still made time for him. But he didn't truly appreciate it. He even lashed out at her when she made time for him, and he kept important things from her in an effort to cover up his lies. She learned major things about her own son on social media. Stuff he never told her.

Larry, Cynthia and Heidi all made sacrifices for their children, and they still felt like failures at times. That's part of being human. I don't consciously lie to people, but how many times have I withheld details that would have been important to someone who loves me and wants to help?

I guard my integrity jealously. It is one of my most deeply-held values. But, as with anyone else, it can always use improvement. Too often I take my family's love and sacrifices for granted, and I don't show the appreciation they deserve. At my current job in customer care, we have to deal with the fallout of salespeople's overpromises at times. How many times have I made a promise in other areas of life, and either come up short or forgotten to follow through? How can I learn from those experiences?

My family and friends are precious to me. I love them dearly. But sometimes I come up short and need "a little reinvention" (but in a more honest manner than the context of that quote in the musical). How can I reinvent myself rather than the facts? I'm thankful I have God and respected relatives and friends to help me with that!

The Connor Project was an amazing, important idea. We need more projects like that to remember people who were forgotten, to reach out to people who feel invisible and unloved. We need to remind them that they will be found. They are loved deeply. They are valuable. But we can't found these initiatives on lies. Good may come of it, but the guilt and torture lies can unleash is harmful.

As for the performance, set, and technical details, I thought it was amazing. The things they did with lighting, the way they showed texts, essays, Facebook posts, YouTube videos, e-mails, and more, was incredible. With all the social media going on onstage, I didn't even realize until the end of the show that there were only eight people in the cast! Noah Kieserman was fantastic as Evan, and I would have never guessed he was an understudy. Particularly since it was his face in the videos onscreen replaying his speech. (It was clearly not filmed live, as there's a curtain behind him in the videos, but not when he's giving the speech.) They must have videoed all the actors and understudies doing that scene in front of a school auditorium curtain. Everyone - cast, crew and orchestra - nailed their parts. The orchestra was on a balcony above the stage, and there were seats for audience in the orchestra pit. As is evident from my thoughts above, I came away thinking about how I can be a better, more appreciative person. So much in the show is relatable.

I have the most amazing parents and brother I could possibly imagine. I have several close friends that I consider siblings. I also have a lot of amazing friends that I don't consider siblings, but still love and respect deeply. How can I express more how much I truly love and appreciate them? I have been so blessed with such an amazing family, incredible friends, awesome coworkers (who are also friends), and so much more. May I never neglect to remind them how loved, respected and valued they are.

"Even when the dark comes crashing through

When you need a friend to carry you

And when you're broken on the ground

You will be found."

Sincerely,

Me

Graphic at the top generated from https://dearevanhansen.com/newyears/