“So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”  Psalm 90:12

A while back I read Gordon MacDonald’s, “Ordering Your Private World,” an insightful read on getting order and balance between the private and public spheres of our life.   The basic premise is that if the inner spiritual world of a person is in order, the outer and much more public world of activity will also fall into place exactly as it should.  Sounds obvious and simple to some, but it’s not that easy.

I decided to re-read some key sections, particularly on ”time management.”   John Maxwell insists that time cannot be managed, because God, as the Ancient of Days, owns and transcends the time.  See Daniel 7:9, 13, 22.  Time can only be prioritized.  So, we don’t own it, do we?   It’s God’s time — not mine … or yours for that matter.

MacDonald uses the term “recapturing time,” and I believe this concept is some of the best practical guidance on “redeeming the time” I have seen.  “Redeem” from the Greek root word means to take back … to ransom from.  From whom?

I’m a lot like someone MacDonald describes — more intuitive actually than analytical, not disturbed by ambiguities or what can’t be seen beyond the natural.  But this different kind of vision also comes with some challenges, viz., prioritizing the time — and not letting anyone or anything steal it or waste it.   

More inner order is in order ….

They shall prosper that love thee.

For an excellent and objective (well, as objective as I’ve seen) history on the West Bank/Gaza Strip conflict, see this from the Council on Foreign Relations.

The conflict by most interpretations actually predates the mischief of the British.  See Genesis 16:12, where Ishmael and progeny shall “be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.”

Nevertheless, keep praying for “Shalom.”

(BTW, good to be back.)

I love dogs.  Look at Charlie and Bella here – my brother Paul’s two Labs.

One of Paul’s goals in life is to become that person his dogs think he is.

We could come to God as a Lab does to its owner and have very decent if not perfect joy, I think. 

My building does not allow pets, but that lawyer sub-personality I’m asking God to remove or use for His glory had the notion of finding some psychiatrist to write me an RX that says I need a “therapy dog” to function day-to-day, and therefore under the Americans with Disabilities Act a landlord (nor any restaurant, bank, office building, etc.) cannot prohibit my dog from dwelling with me or accompanying me wherever I go.

What would Jesus do?  What would my dog do?

Because my personal life is so damn exemplary these days, I’m hardly political, nor is this blog (pace Jenny Holzer).

But I observe the political as it relates to faith, culture and American society, and Barack Obama is impossible to ignore.  I see Obama buttons and bumper stickers even at mega-churches.  I’m hip, trendy and a classical liberal, so I have to consider voting for Obama, right?

Obama’s vague and nebulous campaign mantra of “Change” is clever, but even the articulate can’t be expected to articulate all of his implementation strategies for his policies in 15-second sound bites.  Obama has a lot of the same attributes as John F. Kennedy, and he looks great in a $2,000 suit.  Will he make a good president? 

Obama sets out to make history if he wins the election.  A tad grandiose for someone with his limited track record, but he has appeal, especially to women (but see below). 

Okay, politics aside, what has given me a check in my sprit from the outset about all this Obamania is how many supporters look to Barack Obama as someone who can atone for the sins of America, the Bush Administration, and every other perceived evil that the dissatisfied, the discontent and the disaffected can think of or, rather, feel.

The most literate, insightful and discerning analysis of this Obama phenomenon I’ve read so far is Michael Knox Beran’s article in City Journal, “Obama, Shaman.” 

Excerpts: 

“The danger of Obama’s charismatic healer-redeemer fable lies in the hubris it encourages, the belief that gifted politicians can engender a selfless communitarian solidarity.”

“[Obama] … phrases his vision in the tranquilizing accents of Oprah-land.  His charisma is grounded in empathy rather than authority, confessional candor rather than muscular strength, metrosexual mildness rather than masculine testosterone.”

“But Obama-mania is bound in the end to disappoint.  Not only does it teach us to despise our political system’s wise recognition of human imperfection and the pursuit of private happiness; it encourages us to seek for perfection where we will not find it, in politics, in the hero worship of a charismatic shaman, in the speciousness of a secular millennium.”

Read it yourself and let me know what you think.

It’s been a beautiful summer and it’s almost over.  I feel refreshed in my spirit. 

I took a break from posting here even though I worked hard on other things.  Spirit, soul, body.

I also traveled.  To Vermont to visit the Wilson House.  To Manhattan for my dear sister Nano’s 50^th birthday party. 

To Dayton, Ohio, a Silicon Valley of its own, to visit my brother with my other brother and 90-year old Dad.  I met some very fine people and several new friends in these and other places, too.  

I’m closer to God, my friends, my family.  I am blessed. 

And I’m back.

To kick off the 91.25 Days of Summer, I bought a straw hat so natty I had 50-year-old women flirting with me in the store!

Legendary Wall Street investor Bernard Baruch advised we buy off-season.  But I’m feeling blessed, and God wants me to have this hat.  Now.  To be content with such a thing!  I love summer, as it’s from God. 

My boss admonished me take a real vacation because we’re on summer calendar at work.  So I will.  This summer.  And I’m wearing the new hat.

He was the son of a South Buffalo sanitation worker, a lawyer, aide-de-camp to powerful men, an executive and a journalist.  In this day of increasing distrust of mainstream media, he had credibility.  He was tough minded but fair minded as well.    His style was disarming and more than a few politicians I am sure made the error in judgment to underestimate him.

On election night he explained on a dry-erase memo board the Byzantine electoral college plurality system state-by-state like a sportscaster at the Super Bowl and everyone understood.  He had a homespun and unpretentious way about him he probably got from his father, “Big Russ.” 

In Big Russ and Me Russert relates a story where he wanted to buy his father a new car — a Mercedes, Cadillac, Lexus — anything his father wanted.  And Big Russ said he wanted just a much more modest Ford Crown Victoria basically because anything more would be … well … just not Russert! 

Read The New York Times obituary here.

As alluded to on these pages previously, the Evangelical Church may not be that cultural, social and political monolith many even within the Church (and certainly most without) might perceive it to be.

Look for An Evangelical Manifesto: The Washington Declaration of Identity and Public Commitment to be formally released on May 7^th. 

There’s lots of commentaries out there already (a draft has apparently been released), but here’s a summary of what the document is all about and who’s behind it.

Read it if you can.  I might have to wait until after mid-May semester finals to even touch it, but I’ll be sure to opine and generate discussion on the whole matter.

From the anointed and eminently practical Neil Anderson:

1.     Why should I say I can’t when the Bible says I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength (Philippians 4:13)?

2.     Why should I lack when I know that God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19)?

3.     Why should I fear when the Bible says God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7)?

4.     Why should I lack faith to fulfill my calling knowing that God as allotted to me a measure of faith (Romans 12:3)?

5.     Why should I be weak when the Bible says that the Lord is the strength of my life and that I will display strength and take action because I know God (Psalm 27:1; Daniel 11:32)?

6.     Why should I allow Satan supremacy over my life when He that is in me is greater than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4)?

7.     Why should I accept defeat when the Bible says that God always leads me in triumph (2 Corinthians 2:14)?

8.     Why should I lack wisdom when Christ became wisdom to me from God and God gives wisdom to me generously when I ask Him for it (1 Corinthians 1:30; James 1:5)?

9.     Why should I be depressed when I can recall to mind God’s lovingkindness, compassion, and faithfulness and have hope (Lamentations 3:21-23)?

10. Why should I worry and fret when I can cast all my anxiety on Christ who cares for me (1 Peter 5:7)?

11. Why should I ever be in bondage knowing that there is liberty where the Spirit of the Lord is (2 Corinthians 3:17)?

12. Why should I feel condemned when the Bible says I am not condemned because I am in Christ (Romans 8:1)?

13. Why should I feel alone when Jesus said He is with me always and He will never leave me nor forsake me (Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5)?

14. Why should I feel accursed or that I am the victim of bad luck when the Bible says that Christ redeemed me from the curse of the law that I might receive His Spirit (Galatians 3:13-14)?

15. Why should I be discontented when I, like Paul, can learn to be content in all my circumstances (Philippians 4:11)?

16. Why should I feel worthless when Christ became sin on my behalf that I might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21)?

17. Why should I have a persecution complex knowing that nobody can be against me when God is for me (Romans 8:31)?

18. Why should I be confused when God is the author of peace and He gives me knowledge through His indwelling Spirit (1 Corinthians 14:33; 2:12)?

19. Why should I feel like a failure when I am a conqueror in all things through Christ (Romans 8:37)?

20. Why should I let the pressures of life bother me when I can take courage knowing that Jesus has overcome the world and its tribulations (John 16:33)?

Mark Beeson has many gifts, including an amazing ability to appreciate God’s creation — in all its beauty and complexity.  And not in some new age, pantheistic way, either.  Read his commentaries and deep inspiration and insight.

Dr. Beeson is also a very good photographer and scientifically inclined with his precise taxonomy.  Check out his site and some of the awesome pics as well.