Are You Asking the Right Question?

A while back I went to see a not totally lame movie called I-Robot staring Will Smith. In the movie Dr. Alfred Lanning is murdered and Will Smith’s character, Detective Del Spooner, is the investigator working the case. He finds an interactive hologram device that was created by Dr. Lanning to guide him through the investigation. Spooner asks this hologram questions and at certain points in the process the response programmed by Dr. Lanning to Spooner is, “You’re asking the wrong question. Program terminated.”

The apostles were in a discussion with Jesus one day. He had been teaching them about forgiveness. Their response was, “Increase our faith.” To this Jesus said, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, "Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you." (Luke 17:6) It wasn't so much the wrong question, it was the wrong request. Consider Jesus’ next statement,

"Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'?
Would he not rather say, 'Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'" (Luke 17:7-10)

How does this fit? I think there are several things for us to learn from this exchange. First, it is not how much faith we have, it is in whom we have faith that matters. Second, don’t expect the Lord to do in you what you are responsible for. It was not Christ’s responsibility to increase their faith, it was their responsibility to do what they were told. It is not the Lord’s place to solve our problems, it is our responsibility to solve problems according to His will. Finally, Jesus was teaching his disciples to recognize who they were in relation to him. There is a danger in being too familiar with the Lord. As we like to say, “Jesus ain’t your homeboy. He is the Lord.” And when we have done what we were told we should say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.”*

Michael Taylor

* I know that Christ makes us worthy, this does not nullify the truth they needed to hear and it goes for us as well. He is the Lord.

Gold Medal People

My family is enjoying the winter Olympics right now. We watch some of it each day I think. You wont believe this, (I wouldn’t believe it if you said it) but we even watched “curling” last Sunday. I accidentally cheered when the American rock slider guy made a great shot. I was slightly embarrassed.

I love when people demonstrate a noble heart. We were watching couples ice skating last week and a Chinese couple (Zhang Hao and Zhang Dan) was going through their routine when Zhang Hao suddenly dropped his partner while doing a high lift. She crashed to the ground and landed on her knees. She tried to get up but fell back to the ice. Zhang Hao tried to lift her but she couldn’t keep her feet. He helped Zhang Dan over to the side. The music stopped and she was about to leave the ice when something happened.

It was like she came to herself and said, “No way! I came here to compete and I will finish this.” Zhang Dan gathered herself and skated back to the center and they finished their routine. They did the lifts, jumps and footwork as planned. No more falls or stumbles. When it was over, she cried. But she finished out of sheer will. I was proud for her. They didn’t win the gold medal, even with the fall they won the silver. But Zhang Dan's heart deserved gold.

There are a lot of people in the world who are good people: Gold Medal people. Those who endure illness without complaining are of this heart. People who face chronic pain but bear it bravely are of this metal. Those who work hard at marriage when it is far from good, these are gold medal people. People who try and try and get slapped down by the cruelty of life only to get back up again and keep trying. These are the gold medal people.

No I’m not saying they’re always holy or righteous or saved. I’m simply saying that they display in their character that part of their soul that is still God imprinted. Any goodness demonstrated by a human is a reflection of God no matter the kind of person they are. There is no goodness in the world that is not God created. Even those who turn their backs on God are made in his image.

I know a few gold medal people. And may I say here that Jonathan and Carolyn Taylor (my mom and dad) are of this heart. They never made it to the Parent Olympics. Dad wouldn’t even try out. But they are godly upright people who do their best to love their kids and grandkids, serve their God, share with others and love each other in the process. So in case I never said it before, I think they deserve a gold medal for being of noble heart and teaching me to love that about others.

Michael Taylor

Where’d All the Good People Go?

I’ve become a fan of Jack Johnson’s music. Its sort of a mellow, fun, island music with guitar and a nice touch of steel drums. Very cool. He also has some words that are good and carry some worthwhile ideas. May I recommend a couple of songs; “Break Down” is a song about slowing life down and enjoying it for a while. Another song I like is a cut called, “Good People”. This is a song about seeing the television and wondering, “where’d all the good people go?”

In the chorus Johnson says,

"Where'd all the good people go?

I've been changing channels

I don’t see them on the TV shows

Where’d all the good people go

We got heaps and heaps of what we sow."

Yes there is some good on the tube. There are some good people in the world and some who are doing good things. But don’t we have too much appetite for the bad? (Look at that last line from the chrous again.) I don’t have enough cynicism in me to believe that everything is bad and getting worse. I want to fight through my cynicism and see the good people being and doing what is good. Paul wrote, “[Jesus Christ] who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” (Titus 2:14)

The phrase “what is good” appears 6 times in the three chapters of Titus. Give the book a quick read and you’ll see that “doing good” is thematic in the letter. I read a piece by Dr. George Sheehan some years ago where he described a man out for a jog on a beautiful morning. He sees a man painting on the eve of his house. So the jogger yelled up to the painter, “Do good!” Without looking up the painter yelled back, “Intend to.” To which the jogger yelled back, “God’s watching.” Again the painter responded, “Hope so.”

My encouragement is that, as Sam the Brave says in The Lord of the Rings, “there is some good in the world, and its worth fighting for.” Believe in the goodness of God in the world. Don’t buy into all the bad we hear or observe. The noble heart does good, believes good and even fights for good. I know everything isn't good. But He who is good is present in everything and He is the redeemer of all things.

Michael Taylor

George Sheehan – Personal Best 1992
Jack Johnson – In Between Dreams 2005