Lin-ks and conversations about race
Yesterday afternoon, after church, a few of us got together to watch the Knicks game. And what a game it was--on yet another big stage, this time against Dirk Nowitzki and the defending champion Dallas Mavericks, J-Lin stepped up and performed.
28 points, 14 assists, 5 steals (to go with 7 turnovers).
What an afternoon!
Taking a step back, it's also been fascinating to see how the world and the media has responded to Jeremy's emergence, particularly where it relates to his ethnicity. Just as Barack Obama's coming into the spotlight triggered a number of race-related reactions (and continues to do so), so also has Jeremy Lin's presence in the spotlight. While some--like my friend John--have welcomed J-Lin's ascent, others like Floyd Mayweather and Rex Chapman have demonstrated a glaring lack of sensitivity.
But it's started conversations. It's gotten people talking. It's made people realize that, (at least where it pertains to this episode) when it comes to Asian Americans, there's still a lot of uncertainty and awareness about how to talk about issues of race and ethnicity. It's challenging people's assumptions about Asian Americans (and helping them realize those assumptions in the first place!). As Rick Quan writes,
he is starting to change not just the way general managers and pro scouts look at Asian-Americans playing sports, but also the way our society thinks about them.
So ... we'll see what happens.
In the meantime, Angry Asian Man regularly posts collections of Lin-ks. Enjoy:
And to close, another article on his faith, with this line:
“He knows that everything that he has is a gift from God,” [Lin's pastor, Stephen] Chen says. “Even the hard times.”
Amen.
Words of Wisdom from the Legend, Bob Sabath
Bob Sabath (photo: Sojourners)
Bob Sabath is a wise, wise man. I had the privilege of working with him and getting to know him a little bit when I interned at Sojourners a couple years back, and I've always appreciated his groundedness--and his grounded spirituality. So it's without reservation that I tell you to go read his latest piece--"Poorer, Poorer. Slower, Slower. Smaller, Smaller"--as he shares his thoughts on a journey of forty years engaged in the work of justice. Here are some clips:
In Bill Plotkin’s model of the eight stages of human development in Nature and the Human Soul, institutions can, at most, be stage four, which in his view is still an adolescent level. In his opinion, only 15 percent of Americans have crossed into mature, initiated adulthood, and in general we are stuck in a pathological-adolescent culture that lacks the wisdom of initiated men and women elders.
An institution’s job is to encase the renewal insight in a preserving shell that can carry the renewal seed to a future generation — and not to die to their organizational identity, which is required to begin Plotkin's stage five.
If we are lucky, we outgrow the organizations that we ourselves give birth to and become "joyfully disillusioned" with the very institutions that we help to create. And if we are wise, some of us will grow by staying within the very organizations that we ourselves have outgrown.
...
It takes a contemplative mind to see one’s own inner contradictions, the failures and inherent betrayals within our own lives and the institutions that we help to create. Those who take this journey of descent into their own sacred wound understand that what is flawed in them is somehow intimately connected to the unique gift that they have to offer to a broken world.
Praying the Lord’s Prayer
John Stott:
To pray [the Lord's Prayer] with sincerity ... has revolutionary implications. Our priority becomes no longer the advancement of our own little name, kingdom, and will, but of God’s. Whether we can pray these petitions with integrity is a searching test of the reality and depth of our Christian profession.
(Through the Bible Through the Year)
My Valentine’s Day History, a.k.a. A Few Thoughts on Love
For some, Valentine's Day is a day to treasure, a day to celebrate, a day to spend time and money on a loved one.
For others, Valentine's Day is a day to forget, a day to despise, "Singles Awareness Day."
For me, how I reacted to Valentine's Day used to depend on my relationship status: if I was dating someone, I couldn't wait for it; if I wasn't, I'd much rather we jumped from February 13 to 15 and skip the day altogether. One year a long time ago, I actually broke up with someone on Valentine's Day, which was not only extremely poor form but also combined the two reactions in one.
Since then, Valentine's Days have included (in no particular order):
- Going snowboarding for the first time with a bunch of friends.
- Being sick in bed all day.
- Babysitting my friends' adorable kids so my friends could go out for dinner.
- Going on a phenomenal date.
- Being in an evening class for grad school.
- Staying in and watching the primary election results.
Some have been spent with a girl, some have been spent with friends, and some have been spent alone. Some have been awesome; some have been decent; being sick just made the day a non-event.
And over the years, I've come to see the day as ... well, any other day. What began the shift in my perspective was the realization that my relationship status was not the definitive characteristic of my life. It was then that I was able to let go of the idea that I just needed the right person to come along and make everything better and be the perfect date, and was subsequently able to better embrace life, to take hold of opportunities to love more boldly and more fully. And, I suppose, also to begin to understand the concept of love a little better.
Growing up, my dad used to say that people don't just "fall in love," as if they have no choice in the matter; and when I was young, I had no idea what that meant. "But I feel this way about this person; I'm crazy about her; whenever I see her I get goosebumps, and my heart skips a beat, and ... and ...," I'd protest. Our culture tells us that love is only a feeling, an emotion, a chemical reaction. As C.S. Lewis writes:
Another notion we get from novels and plays is that "falling in love" is something quite irresistible; something that just happens to one, like measles. And because they believe this, some married people throw up the sponge and give in when they find themselves attracted by a new acquaintance. … But is it not very largely in our own choice whether this love shall, or shall not, turn into what we call "being in love"? No doubt, if our minds are full of novels and plays and sentimental songs, and our bodies full of alcohol, we shall turn any love we feel into that kind of love: just as if you have a rut in your path, all the rainwater will run into that run, and if you wear blue spectacles, everything you see will turn blue. But that will be our own fault. (Mere Christianity, Book III, Chapter 6.)
Love--biblically understood--is something different, something much more. If the two greatest commandments in Scripture are "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength" and "Love your neighbor," then Tim Keller makes a good point when he observes, "Emotions can't be commanded, only actions" (The Meaning of Marriage, 103). If God is love, then we know that love involves sacrifice, it involves rescue, it involves putting everything on the line for the good and well-being of the object of your love: "For God loved the world in this way: he gave his only Son so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16) and "There is no greater love than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13).
Love is more than just emotions, more than just chemistry, more than just buying chocolates and flowers, more than just making dinner for a loved one--though it may involve all of those things in the context of a romantic relationship.
For many of us, though, we need to relearn what love is, as defined by God--what love really means, what love really looks like, what love really feels like. Loving God may mean having to let go of something very dear to you that stands between you and God. Loving your neighbor may mean putting their good before your own in a way that is not the culture-prescribed method of doing things. But in doing these things, we learn a better way--maybe not better in the eyes of the world, but better in the eyes of God and better in the way that we were created to be. In doing these things, we behave--and more importantly, become--more like Jesus.
It's risky and it's dangerous--in the context of romantic relationships in particular, we all know how hard it is to be vulnerable or to commit to something or to let someone in or to be hurt by someone--but the alternative of not loving is far worse.
Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket--safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. (C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves, 123.)
An Interview with Rob Bell
Skye Jethani of Christianity Today got to interview Rob Bell again recently. I've always shared some affinity for Rob, both in our shared Fuller heritage and in the way that he loves to re-frame thoughts and notions that we've become desensitized to in ways that challenge us and stir us up again.
Here's a great quote from the interview, which pertains particularly to our church's current Mustard Seeds series:
Stop using the word 'missionary' and stop sending people out to the 'mission field.' Or keep the word, but also commission public school teachers, and dentists, and CPA's, and construction workers, and those people who take your money at the toll booth. We're all disciples, all ground is holy, every interaction and conversation is loaded with divine potential, anytime, anywhere. Ordain everyone, call everyone a minister, invite the whole church to be on staff.
You can read the full interview here.