Life in the Way of Jesus

Early this week one of my pet peeves was awakened. I heard an interview with a scientist who said something I’ll paraphrase below.

“Everyone is a scientist. Have you ever wondered how water turns to ice? How the ocean creates waves? How David Hasselhoff is employed in such a manner that his work can still be found on a television set? These are all scientific questions.”

It’s not that I disagree with that statement or have any real problem with science (especially relating to the Hoff, that’s one for the scientific method.) My beef is that it feels wrong to hear someone say ‘everyone does what I do, and hardly any of you do as good a job in that field as myself.’ It shows a view of people through the safest lens possible, which is the lens connected to your own success. Unfortunately it can result in a narrowing of how one views people, an unnecessary simplification that does no justice to the multitudes present in each person and their story.

Now, some would say I’m guilty of the very thing that pets my peeve (which is most likely the root of all pet peeves if we’re honest) because I think everyone is a Radiohead fan.

It is my contention that you already love them or haven’t listened enough, or correctly.

(How arrogant is that? I know, seriously. What’s with all these parentheses?)

It’s human nature to view the world through the things that have become most important to us. This lens gets murky when it pulls us closer to self-righteousness or isolation. The spiritual consequences of that narrow orientation towards other people, and God, can be significant. We can start to think everyone is, or should be, more like us.

Churches can do this quite easily. Most of the time a church wants to do the right things like worship God, make good decisions that benefit others and introduce people to Jesus. Occasionally things that aren’t Jesus sorts of things start to feel really important, and our lens slowly gets that murky when we’re not paying attention.

That’s why our commitment to life in the way of Jesus is so crucial at Evergreen. The person of Jesus is the only person in history who wasn’t, and isn’t, marred by the lame things we can find in our world and our selves. This means continual presence to Jesus in prayer, in scripture, in community is literally central to everything we do. It’s central because the other options aren’t very appealing for all that long and frankly church without Jesus is barely more fun than an awkward blind date with your ‘friend’s friend.’

It’s not just big picture church sorts of things that Jesus touches on though. I constantly hear discussions at Evergreen about how this Jesus guy has changed major things in their lives but also littler things. How one talks to a barista to how one listens to music or votes are all places that the good news of Jesus touches on. The lens of Jesus gracious work frees us up to see people more clearly, to see their gifts and really encounter the depth of their story and this changes people.


We constantly remind each other that the good news is good for everyone who senses that the world is somewhat broken and that there’s something to be done about it. It’s good news for regular folks who kinda hate themselves, or love themselves in that lame way that makes everyone else stop loving them. It’s good news for misguided music enthusiasts, scientists, actors who drove talking cars.

We think Jesus has something good for everyone, something better than what we can conjure up on our own, something that makes us better and allows us to view and love the world more freely. Maybe that makes everyone, myself included in need of Jesus. I find that more compelling than being defined by my mediocre armchair science.


The instructions of the Lord are perfect, reviving the soul.
The decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart.

The commands of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living.
Reverence for the Lord is pure, lasting forever.

The laws of the Lord are true; each one is fair.
They are more desirable than gold, even the finest gold.

They are sweeter than honey, even honey dripping from the comb.
They are a warning to your servant, a great reward for those who obey them.
Psalm 19:7-11

Really?!

Karli, who is both my wife and a midwife, tells a great story of a woman coming in for a prenatal appointment. The midwives ask the newly expectant mother about her dietary habits including how much water she drinks. The woman sort of proudly replies with a specific amount of ounces. Typically the answer is more general so they asked how she knows the measurement.

“That’s how much I pour into the coffee pot every day.”

I’m now thinking of those “Really?!” segments on Saturday Night Live…

The thing is that the logic, however flawed, is there. I can picture her thinking, “lots of water goes in that pot and it’s one of the two main ingredients, why doesn’t that count?” Most of us know that coffee tends to have the exact opposite hydrating effects of good old-fashioned water on the rocks. Maybe people assume that if you’re born in Portland you’re slurping mouth temperature coffee at the Belmont annex in your first 24 hours but that’s actually pretty rare. We weren’t born with that knowledge, we know because at some point someone told us.

One wouldn’t think that this well known information about coffee could get by an adult but somehow it did. Maybe it had never actually been important to this adult before becoming pregnant, but in becoming pregnant this issue now became vital to her own health and the health of the child.

If we’re honest most of us have some similar level of ignorance as well towards some things. Maybe we know certain things about Jesus, which we read in a book written by someone or listened to stories told by someone. Much of the information, the experiences, the stories of what God has done and is doing is seen because we share it with each other. If we forget that what we know isn’t the same as what everyone else knows we’ll rarely tell our story, we’ll have a hard time seeing our experience as valid in the midst of other seemingly more dynamic stories. But what is simple and obvious to you (drinking tons of coffee will not hydrate you, and if pregnant will cause your fetus to talk like Robin Williams) may not be obvious to others.

If the Psalmist is right, that the ‘love of God fills the earth’ or as one other translation put it, “the love of God is everywhere” then we will always find new nooks and crannies with God’s fingerprint. Things that you thought you understood may look completely different than when you last encountered them, ideas about God that seem cliché or old news aren’t always old news to everyone else.

Conan O’Brien made a joke on Tuesday night about Larry King’s first opportunity to cast a vote was in the “Jesus vs. Barabbas” debate. I wondered how many people even knew who Barabbas was.

The world is wide open for the good news of Jesus reconciling work to be expressed in new and old, high minded and simple ways. You experienced it on some level because someone somewhere resembled Jesus and you were intrigued. Before that maybe you didn’t care or just didn’t know.

I’ll bet I know what that pregnant woman was talking about for the next few days, “Did you know that coffee isn’t the same as water?!”

Really.

Great Short from SNL This Weekend-Hosted By Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser)

My favorite moment is right around 1:10 when he smiles...

I Am

Currently listening to the Blazers beating the Celtics on the radio. I highly recommend listening, it's the same kind of enjoyment my grandparents had when listening to a sports event. Sitting near a radio is a beautiful thing.

Picturing Garnett get dunked on was SO satsfying! Go Outlaw!

The One Where The Snow Teaches Me a Lesson

"Planet of Visions" by Krafwerk

7 days ago Karli and I got a call from her parents wondering if we wanted to come over for the evening to play cards during the snow storm.

7 days later we haven't been to our house causing an extreme case of homesickness. This week's been full of unexpected plan adjustments and compromises. This week I've slept in 3 couches 2 floors and 2 beds, one of which was just a box spring made up to look like a real bed. My back isn't convinced that it was a real bed.

"Three Peaches" by Neutral Milk Hotel

We were finally able to leave my in-laws yesterday after 6 days to go up to my parents to celebrate Christmas in WA with family from out of town. For a time it was looking like my parents wouldn't be able to get out of their neighborhood and I was about to run forrest run up to WA just because I couldn't think of anything else to do with my frustration.

Making it to my parents has been nice but the cabin fever and homesickness is just growing. Its so good seeing family and sharing Ania with them, she acted out the entire story of Jesus' birth complete with each of us playing a part. I was one of the "Wise Mans."

"Stay in Touch" by Waterdeep

Its strange to have this joyous time of the holidays colored by this strange abandonment of control and uprooting. Usually they're a more centering time where one can recharge by connecting with their home base in one sense or another, taking time off work and resting. We've had some rest, we're taking time off work, we're with family and yet Karli and I couldn't want to be in our home any more than we do.

I love home. I love my little family. I love my neighbors. I love that I can walk to get a double espresso at 5:30am. I've spent enough time in these places with nothing but sprawl. Its not hard be here without being outside at all, the literal and figurative garage door openers seem to have replaced literal and figurative front porches.

"Meeting In The Aisle" by Radiohead

There's a sea change that appears to be going on with us during this time away. Where there was still a sense of 'home' being other places, now that we've spent more time than we want to in those places I think we're realizing that home is moving further away from there into this thing we're creating in our little 3 way Leonardo community. Maybe part of 'home' for an adult is no longer looking to somewhere else for so much of that centering but rather creating it yourself, for your family and yourself to benefit from.

"The End Of The Ugly" by Sonic Youth

I thought I had moved past thinking of my parents' house as home, but there was still a piece there that I held onto. I was still asking it to do something for me that I needed to start doing for my self and my family. Perhaps having a kid stunted that growth a little as going to grandparents homes are a bit of a break for parents.

I just know that something is growing in me that I hope to see growing a lot more, its something that makes me feel responsible for the well being of my family before anything else. Before my rest, before my work, before my self preservation I'm seeing that creating space for rest, work and preservation is part of getting those; now that I'm a husband and daddy.

"Winter Wonder Land" by Animal Collective

At the same time I can't really offer anything I don't have, i.e. being a place of rest for people is impossible if I'm not engaging in the rest of Jesus. Its a paradox that won't go away anytime soon and I don't mind for the most part. Its good tension, reminding me that my connection to Jesus and the world around me is influencing everything I touch, and everything I influence is touching and affecting my connection to Jesus and the world around me.

"Every Grain of Sand" by Bob Dylan

There's a lot of good coming out of a time away from home with family, plenty of people would do a lot to get what we've got this week. Memories don't go away and extended family time is definitely a good thing, so I'm not regretful or overly frustrated. I just feel that fatherly urge to go home and huddle up, to get centered. I miss my garaoffice and my morning prayers in that freezing tundra, I miss dinner with my girls, I miss sitting on the couch with Karli, I miss Conan on TIVO, I miss bagels with Karli, I miss walking around our hood with Ania.

"O'Malley's Bar" by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

I miss home.

My People

"Takeover" by Jay-Z

I love Malcom Gladwell, not just for his amazing writing, I feel a certain kinship with him.




"Restless Farewell" by Bob Dylan

When you're a white guy whose hair always looks extra weird unless its an afro (a paradox, I know) you feel misrepresented. We've got the guy from That 70's show, the Dad on Brady Bunch, Boston, and few other notable standout characters.

Bring a guy like Malcom Gladwell onto the scene and my kind feels like we can get somewhere. The ceiling's gone up a few notches for us, we have a writer for The New Yorker now.

"I Still Miss Someone" by Johnny Cash

Who knows, maybe one of my kind will be president someday. No longer will my fellows feel relegated to be the weed smokin' high schooler, the guy who's too good at roller skating, or the square Dad. Its a societal wrong that, through the hard work of men like Gladwell, can someday be made right.

"Bicycles Are Red Hot" by TV on The Radio

Bee Ess

"Too Long/Steam Machine" by Daft Punk

I made it through my first semester back at school with straight B's, exactly what I was going for. Ahh. 18 Credits more and I'll request that you all refer to me as

C.L. Leonardo B.S.

The first month back at school nearly did me in. I was getting up at 5:30 every day to work on the bookstore, then Evergreen stuff through the day with a class thrown in there followed by studying when Ania went to bed until 11 or later every night. Doing things that way made me suck at everything. I didn't have enough energy to love on my family the way I like to, I didn't work that well, I gained weight, yelled 'choo choo!' as I hopped back on the cig train, and I didn't even do all that much better in school than when I mellowed out.

"Waltz #2" by Elliott Smith

A pivotal conversation took place at the end of September outside the Sultan right by the NW lab location. I was telling Bob about all this and he wondered how I was coping with all the stress and I said, "I guess I just try and put all my energy into studying." In reality I wasn't coping at all. He was like, "You should try to get B's and C's, and put your best effort into family and work. Work hard at school, but do B work."

Ahh.

Such good advice, thanks man! :-)

Coming back after a long hiatus to finish up senior year had me thinking that I'd get straight A's this time, that it would be different. What I didn't realize was how dumb I was back then, and how taking a freshman level class at age 26 means that I can do B work pretty easily. That leaves me room to work really well on other stuff that's significantly more important (like being a Husband who isn't buried in books or exhausted every freakin' second of the day) while still giving school adequate attention.

"Leave That Junk Alone" by Johnny Cash

Next term I'm taking a seminar doctrine course that I'm hoping to be able to learn more from than my freshman western civ course and less than earth shattering psychology course.

"The Lowest Bitter" by Les Savy Fav

That was the piece I looked forward to most in returning to school, was seeing the value in studying theology in an academic way under people who are way smarter than me. The best part though is that I'm not just believing everything I hear, I've done a lot of studying and living over the last few years that give me room to have more than a weird gut feeling when I hear something I'm not down with.

I didn't realize how much I'd learned until I sat next to 'me' at 18 years old in my western civ class. Its been a good run over the last 8 years, its encouraging to be able to look back and see progress in some areas that I was in serious need of forward movement.

"Vamos (intro)" by The Pixies

Its vital to me that at any point I'll be able to look back a year from now and see progress in some way from where I was on the same calendar day of the previous year.

"All The Right Friends (outtake)" by R.E.M.

"The Summer" by Yo La Tengo

Often I'll see good movement on all kinds of things, and that ability to constructively self criticize is a muscle I try really hard to exercise as I grow older. Its pretty hard and I'm a novice, but a few people at key points in my life modeled that really well for me and I'm really grateful.

Sincerely,

C.L. Leonardo B.S. (upon degree completion), Proud Jesus wannabe, Husband, Father, Pastor, Bookseller, Friend, Neighbor and B Student

"The Robots" by Kraftwerk