Musings on Saving the World…One Cup of Clean Water at a Time

Imagine living in a place where clean water is nothing more than a hope. Imagine having the luxury of small amounts of clean drinking water but dirty, non-potable water for bathing, washing clothes and dishes. Imagine having to pay a small fortune for an amount of clean water barely large enough for your family to drink on a daily basis. A sad reality is that a huge portion of the world lives these realities every single day.

Now imagine how much water we waste during the course of a normal day. I have done a personal inventory and I’ll be the first to admit I’m a first class water waster. I tend to turn the shower on and let it warm up to my favorite temperature before jumping in. I’m prone to wash my car with a leaky water hose and I end up with as much water on me as is on my car. (When) I wash dishes I often leave the water on between rinses. I’m sure there’s more but I’m suddenly too embarrassed to go on. I’ve been to the Third World and witnessed kids drinking from ditches. I, of all people, should know better.

So here’s my plan for Water Awareness and Repentance: I commit to becoming a better steward of the precious commodity of clean water. I also commit to ramping up my awareness of the shrinking supply of clean water across the world. I also, also commit to sharing my resources so children won’t have to consume nasty water. In other words, I am going to contribute to the JCBC Annual Missions Offering, knowing that a portion of my gift will be applied to clean water initiatives. And, I commit to never, ever looking at a glass of clean water in the same ways again.

Please consider joining me in this recommitment to being better clean water stewards. JCBC will be buying a clean water system and installing it in the Third World Dominican Republic if our annual offering is strong enough. If should not be a word in the lexicon of JCBC. We are the church that met challenges at the epicenter soon after the Haiti earthquake. We meet missional needs from the Mexico-Texas border to around the corner at No Longer Bound. We roll in after hurricanes and tornadoes. If is not a word we embody.

So give, and together and collectively let’s save a segment of the D.R. with clean water. Then we will save somewhere else. That’s what we do. We are JCBC!

Michael McCullar



MM

The 11-Month Solution

Me, being of sound mind and body (except for the one bad knee), solemnly resolve to not go to the Gym in January!

Now that’s a doable New Year’s Resolution. This one has success written all over it. How am I doing thus far? Excellent. I haven’t even slowed down when driving by my Gym. While everyone else is dropping like a rock I’m riding the wave of resolutional success. How am I doing it? How am I so strong? Fortitude, uber-commitment and an intense case of claustrophobia. There are so many people in my Gym in January it’s hard to breathe. By mid-February, half of the January crowd will be long gone and then it’ll be safe to go back. Yes, it’s an amazing plan. Thank you for noticing!

The Internet states (and it has to be true if it’s on the Internet!) that between 80% and 90% of all New Year’s Resolutions fail within four weeks. Four weeks. One month. Do the math and you’ll see the grim reality of a 7%-8% success rate for the remaining 48 weeks. So, let’s fix this bog-of-failure by tossing out January. What? You heard me. January is out.

I, being totally out of the box and veering off the reservation of conventional thinking, do hereby grant you permission, even encourage you, to erase January from any and all of your previously stated New Year’s Resolutions, and to thereby have a do-over beginning February 1.

Feel better? Feel more successful already? Great, but there is a catch: Grace must naturally be followed by an altered life. Erasing January is an example of grace. It’s a do-over. Another name for this would be a fresh start. Grace must lead to an amazing feeling of thankfulness. True thankfulness must lead to a different approach to life, people or in the case of Christians, God. Try to imagine the eleven full months remaining in 2013 as a time to live out your thankfulness to God for His Amazing Grace.

I believe 80%-90% of resolutions could succeed if they were, for the lack of a better word, baptized. So let’s do just that. Let’s spiritualize and effectively baptize our hopes and goals for personal improvement; and, see February-December as the most amazing months in our existence. You know, we might be on to something here!

Michael McCullar

Having A Holly, Jolly, Mixed-Up Christmas

Once upon a time there was a man named Scrooge. His best friend name’s was Grinch. They weren’t very nice guys. They hated holidays in general, but they really hated Christmas. Too much joy and fa la la la la good tidings and such. One very cold December they talked a kid into sticking his tongue to a freezing pole. Actually they triple-dog dared him and when that didn’t work they promised him $5 to do it. The kid needed the dough to buy his little brother Tim a fiberglass crutch. While he was stuck to the pole they ran off laughing and scoffing and didn’t give him any money. Trying to scheme something else dastardly to do Grinch said, “I know a kid named Cindy Lou, let’s go scare her.” Scrooge said, “Who?” Grinch said, “Yes.” A mixed-up Scrooge replied, “Cindy Lou who?” Grinch, who was growing green with exasperation, said, “Yes, that’s what I said, Cindy Lou Who.” Scrooge shouted over a group of passing carolers singing Do You Hear What I Hear? “No I didn’t hear what you said for all of the fa la la la la noise and I don’t want to scare a little girl with so many rhymey names! I have a better idea. I know a kid who’s home alone. Let’s go scare him.” “Yes,” replied Grinch, “That will be fun. Isn’t this a wonderful life, Scrooge?” Scrooge didn’t hear Grinch because he was being chased by a dog. He yelled back to Grinch, “Help me Grinch, it’s Chuck Brown’s dog again!” Grinch didn’t hear Scrooge because he was running in the opposite direction. He too was scared of Chuck Brown’s dog. They had had a run-in with that dog Halloween night in a pumpkin patch.

A mixed-up story line? A jumbled plot? A confusing combo of players? Welcome to Christmas in the 21^st Century. In our hurry-up, make-a-buck, speed-of-light-living-world the baseline of Christmas is easily missed. It’s as if all of the Christmas stories and movies are tossed together. You’re thinking of pagans right now, aren’t you? Of course many non-believers miss the point; that’s why they’re called non-believers. Truth is even Christians are skilled at missing the finer points of Advent and Christmas. How? Speed mostly. We know better. We have the story memorized. We know O Holy Night by heart. None of us mean to slog through Christmas without feeling the love, yet we sometimes allow all of December to slip by without having a fresh encounter with God. When Christmas becomes mixed-up with the-busy-life there can be only two possible outcomes: Life wins; or, Jesus breaks through the noise and the wrapping paper and changes our lives. It really is all about a baby born in a manger on a cold winter’s night so all people can find salvation, peace and purpose. Yep, even Scrooge and Grinch and all of the other mixed-up people in the world.

Share the love and the straight-up message of Christmas this year…and change the world!

Michael McCullar

Jesus Was Married. NOT!

The latest hot find in the historical and archaeological world concerning Jesus suggests Jesus was married. Yes, we are back on that bus again. This go-round Dr. Karen King of Harvard Divinity School is the caretaker of a fragment of papyrus written in Coptic that has Jesus saying, “…my wife…she was able to be my disciple.” Ain’t that sweet? But is it true? Sadly truth is in the eye and ear of the beholder. I can’t read Coptic, Egyptian or Klingon. Coptic is Egyptian written with the Greek alphabet so suffice it to say it’s edging toward Latin in the dead language category. Dr. King teaches a course at Harvard on basic Coptic so she would be an expert. I consulted with the in-house language experts at Tyndale House (a Biblical studies group with lax enough rules to allow me in) and they concur that the newly-discovered text reads exactly as Dr. King states.

So what do we do with this? Say oops to the world and rethink our entire faith structure? Feel even sorrier for Catholic Christians who would be even more impacted than us? Or, read deeply into Dr. King’s thesis and see that even she doubts this has anything to do with the actual and historic Jesus. Let’s go with the latter option. The fragment has been authenticated and several scholars see it as being written in the third century. So it’s real and its revisionist history. Someone wanted Jesus to have been married (as was the case in the Gospel of Thomas) so they wrote that he had a wife (guess who?) on a scrap of papyrus and somehow it has survived until now.

So despite what Access Hollywood, National Enquirer or What's Happenin' 'n Jerusalem reports Jesus was not married to Mary Magdalene or anyone else. He was single in matters of matrimony, vision and purpose. Trust me on this, Paul would have told us if Jesus had been married. I can’t read Coptic but I can read Paul!

Michael McCullar

Here’s to You Ms. Diller & Dr. Miller

Calvin Miller, educator, preacher and writer, recently died. Dr. Miller was a unique writer who knew few equals. He led two of our Spiritual Renewal Sundays and brought his own brand of insight, humor and theological reality to our church. I read one of his first books in the early 1980’s and was hooked on his style. He was sort of a poor man’s J.R.R. Tolkien or C.S. Lewis.

Phyllis Diller also recently passed away. Ms. Diller, comedienne extraordinaire, was 95 when she died. She was a fixture on the clean by today’s standards television variety shows of the sixties and seventies. She was self-deprecating as a form of comedy and certainly dressed the part. In reality she was an award winning actress, concert pianist and gourmet cook. To say you can’t judge a book by its cover is complete understatement in the case of Phyllis Diller.

Who left the biggest footprint? It’s probably not a fair question but there’s little doubt Ms. Diller would win that competition. For people in my generation she was the first superstar comedian who held her own against the Bob Hope’s of the world. She paved the way for all female comedians who followed. Dr. Miller? In my book he wins due to the way he was able to write, articulate and live his faith. I am a better and stronger believer due to his work. In my life at least, he leaves the biggest mark.

This isn’t to say Phyllis Diller wasn’t a great person, maybe even a great person of faith. I don’t know about her faith. She made me laugh and for that I’m grateful. She helped me find humor as a way to navigate life. I’m appreciative for that too. But her jokes never challenged my faith, nor did her books cause me to consider following God at a deeper level. Calvin Miller led me to want to become a writer way back when. He encouraged me with these words a few years ago: Remember Michael, we don’t do this for the fame or the money, neither will come our way, we do this for God’s Kingdom. He actually said we. I had just admitted to him I was ready to give up and stop writing. I told him I had literally tens of readers and wondered why I was working so hard at it for so seemingly little gain. He put it all into perspective for me. Impact one person and its worth the effort.

I’m not a better writer for getting to know Calvin Miller. He was not a miracle worker. I am simply a better person and believer due to his life. He leaves a massive footprint. And at the end, isn’t that what life is all about?

Michael McCullar

Kaleidoscope People

It’s much harder to be shocked than it used to be. Just when you think life isn’t becoming one giant reality television program someone does something to remind you just how ridiculous humans can be. Recently there was a pastors’ conference in a neighboring state that advertised that only white people could attend. Thankfully the group wasn’t Baptist in any shape or form; it was the Church of God Chosen, a non-affiliated church of Pentecostal persuasion. The leader of the conference is under fire from his entire town over his whites-only stance. His rationale: white people are God’s chosen people. His proof: the Bible. His diagnosis: Nuts! O.K., that’s my diagnosis of him and his theology.

I’ve read the entire Bible…the whole book…went to school to study it in more depth…even read the hard parts more than once…and it’s clear that white people were not God’s Chosen people. Do you think he realizes Jesus was Jewish? Has he been to the Middle East where people are all shades of brown and darker? The New Testament story was not centered in Sweden or Finland where the whitest white people live. Does he not realize God is color blind? God loves the Finns and Swedes and Jews all the same. What about the multi-hued peoples of America. Yep, even us, but not exclusively us, and certainly not just the melanin-impaired Americans.

Thank God today for His unconditional love and grace for all people groups. That’s really the story of the New Testament. Resist all temptation to look down at other people groups or individuals who are living life differently than we are. I’ve studied my genealogy…my family tree is like a grove of different trees…there’s red people, black people, brown people and all kinds of white people, even some crazy ones thrown in to spice up the mix. I’m a mutt. Most of us are. And God loves us anyway. That’s why they call it the Good News!

Michael McCullar

How to Imitate Jesus Without Getting Crucified

Have you ever been told that if you would imitate Jesus all would be well in your life? From pulpits to podiums to books we are told to imitate Jesus. WWJD bracelets were all the rage a decade ago. Put one on your wrist, look at it every once in a while, and viola, better life. It’s no doubt true that to seek to live as Jesus lived and to react as Jesus reacted would result in a better spiritual life. Despite the facts that Jesus lived two thousand years ago in a country far removed from our own doesn’t lessen the value of his examples. When you speak of Jesus you are speaking of God; so, emulating Jesus is to emulate supreme Godliness. Jesus was God Incarnate, which is Bible-speak for God in human form. Jesus is to be our life-example.


Now for the hard part: exactly how do we emulate and imitate Jesus? We can’t heal the sick, nor can we drive demons out of people. We can’t turn a few fish and loaves of bread into a massive fish sandwich meal for thousands of people. We can’t turn water into wine. We can’t calm gale force winds on a body of water and we certainly can't walk on water. Enough of the cant’s, let’s look at what we can do: we can see our power coming from God the Father and keep up a regular stream of communication. We can go around doing good for people in God’s name. We can love the hard-to-love and provide care for the needy. We can place the needs of those we haven’t yet reached ahead of our own.


Now for the really hard part: Jesus died. To emulate Jesus is to be willing to die for God. Losing one’s life due to being a Christian actually happens in many places in the world; but let’s face it, it doesn’t happen here. Losing one’s actual life is not required to be a dedicated follower of Jesus. This is a good thing. All that is required is to symbolically give up our hold on our life and give it to God. We symbolically die to our carnal, sinful, natural, dead-end selves and allow God to gift the Holy Spirit into our lives. So death is involved, just not the as a doornail type. After we have the Holy Spirit in our lives it is easier to seek to imitate Jesus in all the other ways…just don’t get your hopes up for walking on water or tossing out demons.


Crucifixion is not required, but a form of death is before we have a prayer of imitating Jesus. It’s so very counter intuitive but death precedes life in God’s equation. It is only in dying that we can live in the manner God wishes for us to live. Sign me up for that whole WWJD thing!