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When Nikki and I first got married, we bought a sturdy oak table and chairs. It isn’t formal.  It’s a kitchen table--and ruddy. It’s very thick, country looking, strong, and 25 years old. The finish is peeling everywhere, but I don’t want to refinish it. There’s a spot on it where Jill marked it up. Another spot is where a friend, Dennis Jeffares, came over and I microwaved some stuff and put a hot dish on the finish and stained it. Every stain and nick on that table has a story of a life decision. At that table, a young Vietnamese girl discovered who God was. At that table, a young prince wept upon hearing about the murder of his uncle. At that table, my kids studied--until 2 days ago. At that table, we ate supper every night and talked to our kids about what was going on. At that table, my son told me when he was developing his own thoughts that he wasn’t sure he believed in God, as I did. His faith wound up stronger as a result of his doubts. When I look around that table, I see family, friends, and musicians--even world leaders--who have sat there as we made conversation. More life has happened around that table than any piece of furniture we have. That table is a picture album to my mind of stories, phases, decisions.  Nope--we’re not going to refinish that table any more than I’d draw a beard on my Mom!

Wednesday night, our daughter Jill came home and told us, “Well, this is the last supper I’ll be home as a high school student.” She was grinning ear to ear--excited to get out on her own. My heart ached inside knowing my life would never again be the same. My daughter is graduating and will be leaving home. She’s a class act! I don’t feel old enough to have an empty nest, but I do.

The next morning as I’m watering the plants outside she walks out. She has to go take a final and will be back in an hour. I realize this is the last morning she goes to school. I walk over to her, put my arms around her and pray for her. She left--and I wept. I have loved being a Father. I’m going to have to learn to be a different kind of Father.

I went back in the house, did my stuff and then headed outside to run. As I ran, I thought about Jill, my life, and everything going on. As I got near the house, about an hour later, a car passed me and honked and then pulled in our driveway. It was Jill. It was like God was saying to me, “She’s not gone. She’ll always be a part.” I sure hope so.

Father, you’ve given me 3 awesome winners. May they find an awesome Father in me as they progress in life. Help me define “fatherhood” at this stage.

Anyone who says postmodernity isn’t the driving force in the West is outright living in the past. Anyone postmodern who says the whole world is postmodern hasn’t seen that much of the world. Sure, there are pockets everywhere, but it’s not the prevailing global philosophy. You have to separate the materialism and styles of the west that do spread globally from the philosophy that’s global. I think postmodernity is the philosophy of an affluent society that has become disillusioned with it’s own failed promises from modernity. Most the world just isn’t that affluent.

Center shift #1 the church in Jerusalem is a gathering place for all the followers of Jesus to hang on. Antioch takes the role as the center of the church driven more by laymen in vocations engaging society, thereby bringing transformation.

Center shift #2 in the church took place when the church split from Constantinople, the edge of the Middle East, to Rome, the center of Europe. Transportation drove it. Communication and culture also drove it. You wind up with a theological debate between the East and West over icons--but, it was really about how the cultures in which faith was emerging had different lenses in how they saw life.

Center shift #3 in the church took place during the reformation in Europe. Between Columbus opening a connected global world through ships that led to trade and colonization and the Gutenberg press, travel and communication team up to give a totally different global view and reality. The result--the church splits.  The old stays there, but the new paradigms are not just theological they are also the impact of technology upon thought.

Center shift #4 Peter Jenkins has aptly shown us, though we’ve been feeling it, that the West is no longer the base of Christianity. We speak of church planting movements as if we have them in the States. Hello China! We want Eastern results in our Western churches using Western templates--not sure it will work. So, while the West is defining the whole world as postmodern, a tendency we will no longer be able to do, how will the East define the rest of the world? It’s time for new theologians.  We need some new Luthers and Calvins and Zwingliis. Their names will probably be Lukito Sumatra, Phuc Dang, Akmed Mohammed, and others. They see the world through a different lense. How will they define theology and the church? What an incredibly exciting thing to think about. But, how will the Western church respond to them? Ignore them? Or, perhaps as in other center shifts, split from them? I want to move into the future with them. I think postmodernism is good for the Western church, because we don’t know what is, yet. God has us in the lurch and our tongues tied, so theirs can be loosed! We’re just too loud--even when we’re wrong.

While I was running this morning, I was thinking about this. It’s true. All maps are flat.  Yet, the world is round. All universes are linear and circular at the same time. Following God is the same. We move forward and sometimes we think we’re moving backwards. We aren’t. We’re moving in a loop because we hit something that didn’t work like it should. We don’t go in reverse because we have knowledge of the obstacle, so we loop working our way around the obstacle. What looks like a reversal is a loop that allows us to master the next level. Just a thought

I think, to a large degree, the church today wants to be heard in society without earning the right. We think just because “we’re the church” we have the right--not so. Jesus had to earn the right in the eyes of men before they listened. He was already who He was--with or without humanities’ acknowledgment. BUT, people listened to Him and followed Him because of the life He lived and the way He served others. It took the service of the cross for Him to speak beyond the time He walked physically on the earth. The same will be true of us. If we truly loved people and were going to serve them and wanted to see the press get off the back of the church--it wouldn’t be that hard. Aggressively serve the poorest of the poor, the least of the least, the farthest, and then speak in love from service in the arena wherein you want a voice--without judgment.

Jesus said, “Greater joy has no man than this--that a man would lay down his life for his friends.” My son Ben graduated from NYU Monday. I’m so so proud of him. My daughter Jill graduates from High School the end of this month and starts Baylor in the fall. Ti (my exchange student son) did a presentation at TCU for his engineering class as he graduates from TCU.

Life is going to be so different for Nikki and me now. In some ways good--I hear in all ways good, but right now it’s kind of hard to see. I tried to talk Nikki into adopting a Vietnamese baby--no luck. She says, “Oh yeah, you adopt a kid for me to raise--no way, buster!” She’s right. She has been traveling with me some and we’ve been partying together like never before--it’s like before we were married and right after we were married being together. When I look at Ben, Jill, and Ti, our Vietnamese son--exchange student from a few years ago--I think it will be ok.

I’m just grateful that God has given us children that love Him and us. Kids with a focus. As I was looking at pictures of my kids, I thought to myself, “Greater joy has no Father--that his children walk with God.” I can’t say that Ti is a Christian, but he’s still a part of my family. Neither can I say I’ve given up on the idea that one day he may be.

Thank you Father for the 3 lives you placed in our care for a few short years--it’s given us far more than we ever dreamed.

I just watched the movie The Postman from beginning to end. I’d been watching bits and pieces of it over the years, but never the whole thing. It’s utterly incredible. What stood out was how relevant it is to today. It’s an old movie, but very prophetic to some degree as to what we face today and the challenges we see. Thirty years from now, I wonder which movies will be reality and which will still be just movies.

Little men who have little jobs with no passion or future and no way to channel their energy wind up becoming tyrants waiting for a war to unleash the fury they have. When they do, it’s all about intimidation. They create a language that supports their “idealism” that gives them permission to destroy others. That was Col. Bethlehem.

Running men--who just want peace and to be left alone--if their energy is channeled they “give out hope like candy in the pocket.” Nobility lies in most of us--we just don’t have a place to let it run wild. Unless you’re a follower of Christ and then, of course, if you believe all Jesus says, your life is consumed in Him and others. Not a bad place to find meaning.

Every man longs for hope--something of significance. Any man can matter. Meaning is found in how we connect--the mail, the Internet, and most important, a cup of Joe at Starbucks. It’s true, every thing in our West is unraveling and being redefined--but I love the ending of that movie. The end of post-modernism or whatever philosophy you believe has to give a man some sort of hope and meaning--or what’s the purpose?

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