Just a little Christian

I'm a Mormon. Sometimes we're accused of being not-Christian. I don't think those accusations are accurate. I think a more accurate accusation might be that we're just a little Christian. Let me explain.

Last Sunday, the topic in one of the classes was the Atonement. The instructor shared this story...

He's preparing for a Tough Mudder race. He hasn't exercised much in the past and he's started lifting weights. He talked about how sometimes, when you're lifting weights, you have a spotter. The spotter, on that last set when you just can't quite lift the bar all the way to the top, sticks out his finger and gives just an ever-so-slight nudge to the bar to help you get the bar to the top.

The Atonement is, he related, like this example of lifting weights. You struggle to overcome sin and become perfect and grace is that little extra nudge that bridges the gap between your effort and perfection.

Hence the title of this post, "just a little Christian."

I think, with this attitude, you don't need Christ all that much. After all, you're almost perfect doing it on your own and he's just helping a little.

For the record, I didn't just sit there. After he paused, I raised my hand and said, "I think maybe it's the other way around. The atonement and grace are really all the heavy lifting and our effort is the ever-so-slight nudge to the bar. After all, as I recall, it was Christ who sweated blood. I don't recall ever working that hard."

The instructor did agree that I have a point.

So, maybe we're sometimes just a little bit Christian.

I was asked, this past Sunday, to give the benediction on the main service this coming Sunday - Easter Sunday. The more I think about it, the more I wish I didn't know in advance. It's easier to give a prayer without warning. You just say the usual stuff. With time to think about it, I'm worried I might decide to say something more, well, controversial. Could you imagine what would happen if I were to say something like:

"Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity to meet on this holy day. Perhaps more than any other day of the year, we direct our thanks to the for the gift and sacrifice of your son, Jesus Christ. We're so thankful for his sacrifice. Thank you. Now, that said, we're in serious need of help. We've, for the most part, rejected many of your commandments. We don't treat each other all that well. We're supposed to proclaim peace, but somehow we've become a warlike people. I could go on and on. We need help. Would you please help us to wake up to our precarious situation? Would you give us the strength to admit where we're wrong and make changes? Please forgive us! In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I don't know. Somehow, I don't think that'd go over well. We don't do well at calling out our unworthiness.

Anyway, to anyone reading this, I wish you a most joyful Easter. Peace.

A Christian Perspective on Navigating TSA Security

OK, the title of this post is a little presumptive. And, what comes next is not a slam on people who consider themselves Christian and submit to the TSA.

Right now, when you go through the TSA screening, you have 3 possible screening events:

1. Go through the old style metal detector.
2. Go through the new body scanner.
3. Get a full-body patdown (hereafter “grope”)

There may be instances where you’re planning, and in the line for, a metal detector, and you get pulled aside for extra screening: meaning either a scan or a grope (this has now happened to me twice). Depending on the airport, you may or may not have a metal detector option (there are less and less of these as more scanners are put in). If there are only scanners, you can “opt out” and be subjected to the grope.

Of the three options, two are abhorrent to Christians: scan and grope. The scan is bad on two accounts: it creates a pornographic image and it blasts the person with harmful rays (and please, don’t tell me the government has assured us it’s safe. Governments lie. Just ask my relatives who were downwind of the nuclear tests or the 9/11 first responders – both of whom were assured it was safe when the government knew it was not). Both of these factors are abhorrent to Christians. Your body is a temple and should be treated with respect.

The grope is the state exerting it’s will upon you by, and I hate to be crude here, “feeling you up.” This event done by a stranger would land that person in jail. It’s completely unconstitutional. Also, do not, for a second, think that this is about safety and security. It is not. It is about submission to the state.

If you need to fly, you must recognize that you may end up being forced into one of these two unacceptable options. What do you do?

Here’s what I’ve done.

Background

Several weeks ago, I was groped for the first time. It was a horrible experience. My genitals were “pushed” (not sure of a good way to describe this). Not to the part of being painful – but certainly more than a caress. This was NOT about security. The guy groping me knew, before he mashed my genitals, that I wasn’t carrying anything. He did it anyway. This was about the state dominating me.

After the experience, I thought about what to do. I determined that I would buy a speedo, wear it to the airport, and should I be forced to go to the grope, I would strip to the speedo, let them examine my clothing all they wanted.

Yesterday, I was going through the metal detector line and was pulled out for the scanner. I opted out and was sent to the grope. On the way to the grope, I started disrobing. I got my top off and was going for my pants when all hell broke loose. Next thing I know, I’m surrounded by cops and several TSA agents. Obviously the speedo solution is not acceptable to them. In the next few minutes I was threatened to be deported from the airport, arrested, or both.
Here are some things I’m thinking about right now.

The cop in charge was abusive and was using provocative language, statements like “What are you looking at?” (my answer was, “a tyrant , I suppose.”) He’s the one who threatened to escort me from the airport.

My understanding is, that once you begin the screening process, you cannot stop until the process is complete. I “think” by threatening to escort me from the airport, he actually committed a federal crime. He offered to assist me in committing a crime. Next time, should that happen, I’ll politely ask for his card and the cards of the other people there. I’ll the explain that I’m going to call the authorities and inform them of his crime and ask that charges be filed.
While I was there, the TSA agent several times made a comment suggesting that walking around in a speedo was indecent in a public place. Of course, swimming pools would have to be outlawed if this were really true.

I have to fly again today. I don’t think the metal detector is an option in RDU. I’m not getting scanned, so, I’ll have to opt out. From my first experience, I understand that I have a right for a private screening. I’m asking for that. Once I get to a private area, off come the clothing. In private, there’s no charge of public indecency. We’ll see how that goes.

I’d like to come back to the title here at the end. I was thinking about my coming screening experience this morning. I think a key to doing this is to keep the commandment to “Love your Neighbor” (or to “pray for your enemies”) in mind while going up against the state and it’s minions. On several occasions now, I’ve said to the TSA guy groping me, “Bud, you’re a bright guy. You can’t tell me that you couldn’t get a better job than this.” The last guy actually said, “Thank you” after I said that.

Good luck with your experiences. Let me know what happens.

New Job

I resigned my position with Humana and accepted a position with a company in Minneapolis, MN called Savvysherpa. It’s a small company, less than 100 employees.

We’ll be moving to Minneapolis sometime in the spring - the precise time depending on if/when we sell the house. I’ll be commuting back and forth until that happens.

In a way, I feel like I’m coming home. My uncle lives just NE of Minneapolis. My dad grew up 90 miles SE of here. Other distant cousins live here. I was walking around this week and the temps were single digits (both plus and minus). I had a warm coat and the necessary gear. It just felt refreshing to me. My uncle and I went cross country skiing. The temps were in the high 20s. People were greeting each other and commenting on what a nice day it was. I’m looking forward to getting the family move here.

My uncle lives in the coolest development ever. It’s called Jackson Meadows (you can learn more at www.jacksonmeadows.com). It’s a peaceful place. The architecture is beautiful – just a great environment all around. I’d LOVE to move the fam here – but a bit too pricey and a bit too far from the office.

Louisville was good. Looking forward to Minneapolis

San Antonio

Woo hoo. In San Antonio again. My says in San Antonio combine a couple of my favorite things. First, the Embassy Suites breakfast. Second, Pappasito's Cantina.

Had a nice flight here this morning. For the second leg, ended up sitting next to a guy from Anchorage, Alaska. The guy is living the dream. He has a plane, flies to remote locations to fish and hunt, he just loves it.

Love it here.

I head back Tuesday.

4:00 AM

It’s 3:45 AM. I’m in a hospital downtown Louisville. It’s a hospice hospital. In the room down the floor is a man in my congregation. He is sleeping; his mother is sacked out in a chair next to him. He’s been dying of cancer for about 18 months now. He requested that members of his congregation come be with him.

I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like for him. His oldest son is serving an LDS Church mission in Nevada. He has 4 girls at home.

4:30 AM. Kirk woke up and I’ve joined him. His mother-in-law went home. His life now seems to be mostly a roller-coaster of pain. The ups and downs are dictated by the timing of the pain medication.

He prayed with his mother-in-law before she left. I guess that’s a sign of faith, to be laying there, in pain, and praying for help. I wonder what sort of help God gives to people in his condition. It doesn’t seem that he takes the pain away. Now only drugs are doing that. Does he give you peace? Does he just watch? Maybe the pain and the anxiety are just the table stakes for being here – and you just have to go through it? I don’t know. What do those prayers mean?

Kirk is about my age.

We were talking… He can’t lift his legs any longer. He said the cancer stole his muscles. He showed me his arms – the muscle is all gone. There’s just skin, tendons, and bones. When he was healthy, Kirk could move the world.

Park Rangers are like the Police: stay away

To hike the Narrows, you need a permit. The group size is also limited – to something like 12 people or so. In our hike last Saturday, as I mentioned in an earlier post, me, my dad, and my brother-in-law finished very late. We were part of a larger group – with people on two permits. At the beginning of the hike, we separated into a bunch of smaller groups and, like I said, when I got out, there were just 3 of us. My sister and a friend waited at the end of the trail, so when we left the park, there were 5 of us.

Earlier that evening someone in that earlier group called the park ranger to tell them that we were still in the canyon. So, when we finally got out of the park, there was a ranger waiting for us. We climbed off the shuttle and he came rushing up to us. Not because he was concerned about our well-being, but because he wanted to give us a ticket for being in too large a group.

This guy was a real jerk. First of all, all he had to do was to look and see that there were only 5 of us. And, given that someone else had called much earlier in the day, he could easily deduce that other people had finished much earlier (there’s no cell reception in the narrows). Next thing we know he’s threatening to give us a ticket for being in too large a group (there were only 5 of us so we were way below the limit). In the end, he just wrote a warning.

I’m sure this guy was upset that he was pulled away from his favorite TV show. Instead of caring about the people in the park, we were an annoyance to him.

It’s just another example of the principle I teach my kids: Only in the direst of emergencies do you ever call the police. Once they show up, you don’t know what kind of havoc they’ll cause. They’re just as likely to shoot you as they would an intruder. Call someone you trust. If you’re ever out doing something and you come in contact with the police, don’t talk to them. Don’t say anything.

The Narrows

This past weekend I hiked the Zion Narrows with my sister, brother-in-law, and father. I must first begin by noting – I forgot how stunningly beautiful the entire Zions National Park area is. The Narrows hike is roughly 16 miles. You start in a field with a stream running through it. By the time you’re finished, you’ve hiked through areas where the walls are 800 feet high (or more) and where in some places the canyon walls are no more than 10 feet wide. The rocks are all sorts of colors, from pinks, to reds, to browns, to blacks. You’ll see trees growing out of cracks you’d be hard pressed to cram 2 fingers into. From beginning to end, it’s an amazing experience.

My dad is almost 70 – and as a result, he’s a little slower than most hikers. We started at 8:30 AM and finished at 10:00 PM. I’ve hiked the Narrows twice before. This was the first time I hiked at night. For an hour or so, we had bats flying all around us. They would skim the water and fly right by you. Very cool. After the sun went down, we were able to hike with the moonlight lighting the canyon rim. Ah, what a great time.

I didn’t get a chance this time, but need to visit again and climb Angels Landing. I want to do it with the fam. We’ll have to rope them together for some parts. Can’t have a wee one taking that one big last step.

What a great hike!

Dusted

Riding home from work tonight, 2 guys passed me LIKE I WAS STANDING STILL. Uugghh. Maybe I need to start passing on dessert more often...

So, If I’m denied an entrance at the pearly gates, I might respond, “Well, can I just go to Fairplay, Colorado then?”

For our family vacation this year, we visited Colorado. We left on Thursday afternoon and drove to Denver. From Louisville, it’s 1100 miles or so. We drove straight through – arriving in Denver around noon. Elane and I were toast, so we just hung out at the Sheraton (south of downtown off I-25) that night. On Saturday, we drove to the Deer Creek area, just west of SW Denver. It was a beautiful. SW Denver is a beautiful area.

Sunday, we attended church somewhere south of the loop and then took Highway 285 to Fariplay. It was nice, headed into the mountains, while everyone else was driving back. We camped in the Fourmile campground just SW of Fariplay. It’s beautiful back there. We were there Sunday through Thursday.

One morning we did a hike up Mt. Sherman (14,125 or so). The entire family started the hike and probably made it to 12,500 or so. Looking at how fast we were burning through water, Elane and the younger ones went back to the car. I continued with the 4 oldest. We made it to the saddle. Then Joshua and I continued to the Summit. I didn’t have a camera with me!!! so there’s no record of the summit. : )

On Thursday, we drove to Dillion and camped there until Saturday. On Friday, Hyrum, Allison and I climbed Quandry Peak (14,265 or so). I was very impressed with how they did. Hyrum was really cruising. Allison did great as well. Quandry is a tough hike. The final push is just a straight climb up a fairly steep slope. Nothing technical, just a grind. On the way down, we came across 4 – 5 mountain goats. At times, they were within 10 feet of Hyrum and Allison. They thought that was the highlight of the hike.

I had several people stop me and ask Hyrum’s age. One guy asked how long he’d been hiking. I looked at my watch and said, “What time is it?” There were a lot of people climbing Quandry that day. I’m envious of the ones for whom this was a day hike.

We ended up camping in Dillon in the same spot we camped last year – site 53, in the campground just off the Dam Road.

Then, there was the drive back… We left Saturday at noon and drove all day. It’s the hardest thing I do, watch the mountains disappear in the background. We drove to somewhere in Kansas and spent the night. Sunday, in the car again, all day. We arrived home at 12:30 in the morning.

The kids were great in the car. They’re packed like sardines in there.

I’m drawn to the mountains. It’s hard to explain. I think there’s something to climbing those big peaks. I think there’s something to my kids being able to say they’ve done it. When you’re climbing that mountain, it’s only you. You can look down from the top and see that you did something impressive. I hope it helps them.

I think a portion of my heart resides in Colorado.

High in Colorado

Ah, just finished a glorious week in Colorado.

Details to follow. Just a few of the highlights...

• Did a beautiful hike in a canyon just west of SW Denver (Deer Creek I think)
• Summited Mt. Sherman with Joshua (Hyrum, Hannah, and Allison made it to the lower saddle)
• Summited Quandry Peak with Allison and Hyrum.

It rained every day - and I wasn't prepared for that.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.