In their book Veneer, Timothy Willard and Jason Locy argue that contemporary American culture often values image or appearance over depth of character. They write, “Embarrassed by the scars of our humanity, we try to hide our brokenness. We use a veneer to cover ourselves, hoping others will perceive us as having greater worth, as being more beautiful and perfect than we feel inside.” As a specific example of this “veneer” or image we try to project to other people, they point to the history of a common article of clothing–blue jeans.

They observe:
“When Levi Strauss first introduced jeans to America, his sales pitch was simple: durable pants for working-class folks. Strauss didn’t give much attention to fashion—jeans were a work garment for gold miners in the West. No one really cared what they looked like; they just needed to function.
But over time, things changed. A certain subculture of teens adopted jeans as a symbol of rebellion. They appeared in movies and magazines, worn by Kerouac, Dean, and Brando. They were worn less for their ability to handle a hard day’s work and more as the anti-something.
Then, in 1980, a fifteen-year-old Brooke Shields slid on a pair of boots … [and] posed in a pair of Calvin Klein’s. With the flash of a camera, designer jeans became a must-have for women.
When Calvin Klein ran his first of many controversial ads, he didn’t pay attention to how his jeans held up in the fields; he just cared about how they looked. He understood that people were looking for ways to express themselves, and that if an identity statement could be made with his jeans, more people would buy them. Today, we seldom buy jeans for their durability; we buy them to tell the world something about us.”

What would you say makes for good character and contentment?  Is it the ability to choose the correct veneer or is it the development of the person, internally and spiritually?

Over the past couple of weeks, we have learned from soldiers’ behaviors printed in the LA Times, public corruption in our school system, secret service agents in the islands with parties and prostitutes, GSA workers in Vegas, that eventually, a failure to develop character shows up.  The truth is, we should be outraged, but we really aren’t, since this has become so much of the order of any newsday cycle. And, because the characters of these actors and (forgive me) characters allow us to compare ourselves to them and feel better about ourselves, we fail to be outraged, perhaps because something is missing in our own development.

There was a time when the military and secret service, and to some degree, government workers, were held in high regard, for their discipline and integrity. Those days may be over, simply because the veneer has been stripped and the true rot of the wood underneath, tells us an exchange was made without our knowledge. Rather than continue the traditions of their forebears and uphold the virtues of dignity, integrity and discipline, these new actors have used reputation as a veneer to cover over their own lack of substance, and, have developed a reputation no one really wants – it is one of strict self-interest, damn everyone else.

But back to us… None of that in the ills of society should be allowed use to make ourselves feel better.  When we compare ourselves to the dregs, we will always look a cut above to ourselves.  But where does that kind of comparison land us?  Behind our own construction of veneer, that tells us we don’t have to pay attention to our own development.  That is indeed what the wrong comparison does, lands us behind the seeming security of a veneer that once removed by circumstance or decision, we find ourselves like the emperor.

See you soon, in the place where the God of all life shows himself to be exactly who he says, and calls us to be who we currently are on our way to perfection.
Pastor Mark

Christian author Jeff Manion has written a wonderfully insightful book concerning the transition the children of Israel made from Egypt to the promised land.  He asserts that we learn most of our lesson in what he calls the “land in between.”  It is his term for the time between one decision and the culmination of the decision.  It is the time between the “here” of leaving Egypt and the “there” of the promised land.  Listen to his words concerning the reality of complaints in the process:

“The heart drifts toward complaint as if by gravitational pull—after all, complaint seems a reasonable response to a sequence of disappointing events. Generally, you don’t have to extend an invitation for complaint to show up. It arrives as an uninvited guest. You return home from yet another frustrating day to discover that complaint has moved into your guest room, unpacked its luggage, started a load of laundry, and is rooting through your fridge. Even as you seek to dislodge complaint—as you move its bags to the curb and change the locks—it crawls back through the guest room window. Complaint resists eviction.

“Before we know it, complaint feels right because it is familiar. With every struggle, we become the Israelites murmuring in the desert. We miss the faith lessons. God desires to prepare us and build things into us, but we are hunkered down in our pattern of response. We need to wake up and notice what is happening! How do we evict that spirit of complaint?

“I have heard it said that “bad movement pushes out good movement” and “good movement pushes out bad movement.” We can discourage complaint’s residency in our lives by inviting another guest to move in with us. That new guest is trust. When we choose to trust in the face of deep disappointment, complaint has less space to maneuver. While attempting to unpack for an extended stay, it discovers that trust has taken all the drawers in the guest room and already occupies the empty seat at the table. Trust evicts complaint. Trust and complaint are incompatible roommates. One inevitably pushes the other one out.”

I find his words to be true whenever I read the Exodus, and unfortunately I find them to be true personally.  Participating in trusting relationships often help us overcome our lack of trust in others and more importantly, in God.  This week in worship, we will be talking about the reality of Christian complaint and what we might do about our proclivity toward that.  Then, I pray that we can reinforce our trust in God and believe God about our lives and our futures, especially as things like new election cycles loom in this “land in between.”

See you soon,
Pastor Mark

It was on the playing field in 9^th  grade, when Mike Ludeke, tired of being ridiculed by a coach who wanted more out of him, walked off the field.  We needed Mike, but he was tired of being whacked on the helmet by Coach Green’s whistle when he didn’t score every time he carried the ball.  You see, Mike was bigger, more muscular and far more developed as an athlete than the rest of us at that point in our “careers” as school-boy athletes.  Coach wanted everything he thought Mike could give and if his gift did not make for a score, coach would berate him.  Right then and there, Mike stripped off his equipment leaving helmet and pads lying on the ground.  “That’s fine, that’s just fine, Ludeke.  We don’t need a quitter.  We need winners and winners never quit!”

The remainder of the team knew it was a lie.  We needed Mike, desperately.  Coach must have known it too, since about halfway back to the locker room, coach embarrassingly began to call to him, saying, “I will let you come back if you turn around right now.  Don’t get to the locker room or it’s over Ludeke.  Oh, come on Mike, come on back.”  We knew Mike wouldn’t come back unless we talked him into it.  So, the three captains and me (Mike and I had been friends for 5 years) walked over to Mike’s home after practice and talked him into coming back.  However, Coach Green had to promise to never hit Mike on the helmet with a whistle, ever again.

“Winners never quit!” was a pretty good maxim for the playing field and to provide inspiration in the toils of the gridiron.  But since those days, I’ve come to appreciate some quitting in life, and when I practice this kind of quitting, I am a winner always.  Just as Coach Green learned from a 15 year old boy that beatings don’t improve morale or performance, quitting can make us winners in areas of life where it is important.  Imagine a world where we quit complaining, because in its essence, it is a symbol of our own inaction and faithless-ness in God.  Imagine a world where we quit making excuses that we cannot light a light instead of cursing the darkness.  Imagine your life if you could quit comparing yourself to another so that you feel no need to improve, or you feel the need to find fault with another so you don’t have to have them be inspiration to you.  Imagine your life being free of fear, simply because your belief in and your believing God allows you to live that way.

That is part of what this series is about.  Having the courage to quit things that don’t help us win, and winning by quitting.

Pastor Mark