Numb?

I have written before about how much I enjoy the Winter Olympics. And, for the most part, I thoroughly enjoyed them once again this time around. There’s something deeply delightful about being cozied up with your family, on a winter’s eve, watching these great triumphs on snow and ice.

But one thing (among a few) that saddened me this time around was how often I heard God’s name, on broadcast television, being taken in vain. During both the broadcasts and the commercials, the holy, holy, holy God could be heard, over and again, being used as an exclamation, rather than in true reference to the Almighty. It was disturbing and disheartening … not only because people used God’s name that way, but because we have apparently reached a point, culturally, where it is no longer even considered shameful to do so (or to broadcast people doing so), even on the once somewhat-sanitized airwaves of broadcast TV.

On one hand, I’m not at all surprised. So much other sin, these days, is portrayed (and sometimes celebrated) on television … and tolerated (and sometimes enjoyed) by viewers. Why should I expect the broadcasters, the advertisers, or their viewership to care about the 3rd commandment? And yet, on the other hand, NBC did issue an apology, at one point, when microphones picked up an athlete using the ‘F’ word. Apologies were also issued for certain socio-cultural gaffes made by on-air personalities. And yet God’s name was blasphemed left and right … with the network and other responsible parties apparently recognizing, neither that such language is inappropriate and foul, nor that the reason it is so is because of the greatness of the One whose name is being misused!

Why am I pointing these things out? Not to be a culture warrior, lambasting NBC, or the television industry in general. And neither am I trying to gather stones for us to cast at our culture or our neighbors. Nor, even, am I writing in order to address the redemptive task of graciously engaging our neighbors on such matters, and pointing them away from sin and to Christ. In this space, rather, I’m simply concerned to urge that we Christians beware not to be taken (or to allow our families to be taken) along for the cultural ride.

Did you watch much of the Olympics? And did you pick up on what I am pointing out? And do you notice (and cringe at) the misuse of God’s name on so many other channels, shows, and other forms of media? Or have you become desensitized to this grievous offense against God (and/or others like it)?

I’m not saying that being insensitive to the misuse of God’s name by others is the same thing as engaging in blasphemously yourself. But surely our numbness to His being dishonored is a grief to the heavenly Father. And furthermore, unless we awaken from such spiritual sedation, we may soon find that we (and our children, who learn from us) will not only begin to be numb to offenses against God, but also to fall into them ourselves!

And so it’s worth asking – not for the sake of throwing stones; and not just for the sake of kindly helping take specks out of others’ eyes; but for our own sakes – it’s work asking if we even notice the way God’s name is bandied about, so carelessly, in our culture. It’s worth asking, too, if we’re bothered by such misuse of His name (and, indeed, if we’re bothered enough so as to shut the TV off when it’s bad enough; or to turn certain portions on mute; or to pause and discuss with our children the sadness of what we just heard or saw). And it’s worth asking these sorts of questions about any number of other offenses against God that are considered normal in our present cultural milieu.

Let us not be numb to the dishonor of our God!

The Olympics, the Nations, and the Gospel

The games of the 23rd Winter Olympiad are just a few days away. And the Strassner family loves the winter Olympics! Every four years, we huddle together in front of the television for those 2-plus weeks, delighting in the artistry of phenomenal athletic skill brushed across the brilliant white canvas of winter scenery. I can’t wait!

One of our family traditions is that each of us chooses a different country (in addition to the USA) for which to cheer. And, since we want to actually see the teams and athletes for which we have chosen to cheer, we choose countries that tend to do well in the Winter Games. This year we’ve got Norway, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands – eight of the top ten medal-winning countries from 2014 (the others were Russia and the USA). 

But how fares the gospel in these eight countries? That’s the question that occured to me recently. For answers, I turned to the 2010 edition of Operation World (a must-have Christian resource, by the way). And the statistics I turned up were striking. Of the eight countries for whom we are cheering, none of them (as of the 2010 statistics) is more than 8.4% evangelical. In France, evangelicals make up only 1% of the nation’s populace. In Austria, the percentage is half that! And even in nearby Canada, there are less than 8 evangelicals per 100 people! This is striking. In fact, of the 26 nations that won medals at the 2014 Sochi Games, only four (the USA, South Korea, Australia, and Finland) have evangelical populations that number above 10% (percentages, again, according to Operation World). 

What this means is that, if and when you watch the Winter Games, chances are (first of all) that you’re going to be watching a great many men and women whose athleticism marvelously demonstrates the image of God in man … but who do not know that God, and who do not know “the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” Pray for them. Pray, too, for their countrymen who have travelled to see them (and who are part of the same statistical milieu). Pray for Christian athletes, coaches, and officials to be witnesses for Christ. And pray for the witness of local South Korean believers, of missionaries in the area, and of others who may come in on short-term mission trips specifically to share the gospel with those in town for the Games. The statistics indicate there will likely be plenty of folks who need evangelizing.

The statistics also mean that, if and when you watch the goings on in PyeongChang, you are also going to be seeing the regalia and hearing the names of a whole host of nations whose countrymen, back home, desperately need evangelizing as well! America is the most evangelized of any nation that won a medal at the last games … and you know how much we need the gospel here. So what must be the need in a place like Austria, or China, or Slovenia (0.1% evangelical!), or Japan? Think of this when you watch the games. Root for these nations, as it were, in prayer! And maybe someone who reads these lines will even be moved to go to one or other of them, carrying the gospel, and pursuing a prize even greater than Olympic Gold!

The Most Amazing Olympic Feat

Have you been watching the Olympics? Our family always enjoys the pageantry, the competition, the backstories, and the nightly reminders of the wide world beyond our own shores. Yes, there are portions we tune out, and elements we find disappointing … such that we are not unthinking apologists for all things Olympic. But there is much to learn, and much of God’s common grace on display, when we give a fortnight to the summer and winter games every other year. What astonishing abilities God has implanted into the human race! And what straining effort these men and women put forth in order to hone those abilities!

I still marvel, in wintertime, at how anyone can leap, twirl like a top a foot or two off the ground, and land safe and sound again on a single blade of metal, strapped to the sole of his or her foot … and do so over and over again, for several minutes, all on a gigantic sheet of ice! And it boggles my mind, in the summer, to see gymnasts whipping themselves in circles, like the arms of a windmill, hands attached to a horizontal bar … then not attached (while they contort, mid-air, in all manner of directions) … and then somehow attached again, so that they can slingshot just a little more before landing, like a cat, squarely on their feet!

But do you know what is the most amazing Olympic feat I have seen yet this summer? Not the world records in the pool (which I thoroughly enjoy). Not the marvel of two men diving, summersaulting, twisting, and entering, straight as toothpicks into the water, all in near perfect unison. No. The most amazing thing I have seen was two of said divers, David Boudia and Steele Johnson, calmly explaining on national TV that, while the pressure they felt leading up to these events was significant, and while winning a silver medal was fantastic, yet they were not overruled by either the stress or the success because, as Boudia put it, “our identity is in Christ.” Johnson used the same words, too, when he said that “my identity is rooted in Christ and not what the result of this competition is.”

Yeah, I know. Much easier to say such things when you’ve just won the silver medal, rather than when you’ve finished in the bottom half of the standings. And easier still to say such things as a privileged Olympian, rather than a cancer patient, or a father in the unemployment line, and so on. But I got the feeling that the two men were sincere … and that they probably would have spoken in the same way even if they’d belly-flopped on the world’s biggest stage. In other words, they didn’t come out, as we’ve grown accustomed to athletes doing, and give a hackneyed theology of success founded on a superficial reading of Philippians 4:13 – ‘We won this silver medal because we "can do all things through Him who strengthens" us.’ That would be true, of course. For all of our successes are from God. But it just sounds, sometimes, like the athletes who say such things believe that God is primarily concerned with our success. And you wonder what they would have to say if they had not achieved the ‘all things’ that they were striving for. But Boudia and Johnson hit the bullseye when they spoke, not about their success, but about their identity … and particularly when they noted that their identity was unrelated to their success, or even their efforts toward it!

That is real Christianity: Not the idea that God will always cause us to succeed (as either we or the world define success); but the fact that, whether we succeed or fail, what defines us is that we belong to Christ; that we are sons and daughters of the King, irrespective of how (un)important, or (un)successful we may be.

And I say it was a mighty feat, indeed, that these two highly successful divers seemed to get that! Because we are all prone to what Boudia called “an identity crisis.” We are all prone to think that our identity is defined, as he put it, by what we do. And that is dangerous. Because most of us won’t do what we do on an Olympic level! Most of us are just plain average at what we do – spiritually, vocationally, and otherwise. And someday, if we live long enough, we won’t be able to do a lot of things anymore at all! And what then? Well, if Boudia and Johnson are sincere about their true identity, then even when their diving days are done, they’ll still be the same David and Steele that they were on Monday night. Because, by their own admission, even on the night at which they won Olympic silver, they were not mainly world class divers, but rather Christians, identities rooted in Christ! And, oh, how good if we ourselves can speak (and truly identify!) in the same way!

"The Games"

I admit it. I absolutely love the Winter Olympics. Like, to the point where I try and schedule my life around these couple of weeks – making sure I get to see the downhill skiing, the speed-skating, the luge and skeleton, and pretty much any other sport that is performed on a cold, white surface (and which I don’t follow in the least during the rest of the four year cycle between winter games!). Somehow nostalgia from my childhood, and my affinity for geography, and the joy these cozy evenings bring our children has me all aflutter inside (and humming the Olympic theme music!) during these two weeks in February. In a few days, when it is all over, I will feel palpably melancholy at the thought that we must now wait another four years to enjoy it all again.

But in the meantime, I get to roll out the obligatory ‘lessons from the Olympics’ blog post. And, though predictable, maybe it will still also prove helpful! So here goes. A few lessons from “the games”:

The first is simply this (from 1 Corinthians 9.25): “Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.” Listen to the athlete’s stories to which NBC sometimes breaks away – the years of hard work, dedication, sacrifice, lifestyle choices, etc. It’s convicting isn’t it? Shouldn’t we be all the more serious about striving for spiritual victories and eternal rewards? O that we Christians, like these athletes, would “run in such a way that [we] may win” (1 Corinthians 9.24)!

The second lesson from the Olympic Games comes from 2 Timothy 2.5 – “If anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.” Watch the Olympics enough through the years, and you will find this true. Occasionally an athlete is disqualified from an event, or stripped of his or her medals, for breaking certain rules. And so these Olympians must be scrupulous about compliance – even when it is difficult and the short cuts are tempting! And again, as those seeking eternal reward, ought we not be all the more so – careful and thorough in our obedience to the laws of our God, even when doing so brings about “hardship” (2 Timothy 2.3)?

Finally, the Olympics – and especially the opening ceremonies – remind me, just a little bit, of the throng that will be gathered someday in heaven, “from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues” (Revelation 7.9). Just look at all the colors and flags and skin tones and cultures parading into the Olympic Stadium … and you will see a tiny glimpse of what heaven will be. God is a global God! He is gathering Kazakhs, and Dutch, and Japanese, and Swiss, and Norwegian, and Jamaican, and people of every other stripe into His kingdom – so that the church of Jesus Christ, even now, is far more diverse than the Olympic village! And in heaven we’ll finally see them all in one place, under one great banner of Jesus Christ! What a parade of nations that will be!

Until then, we have the privilege of going out and gathering these varied nations and cultures together by means of the gospel. And that is a task that deserves Olympic-level effort, discipline, hard work, and obedience to God’s command. Let’s go out there and give it!

Unmasking China

The Olympics have passed us by for another four years. And, if you are like me, the impression left by Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, Nastia Liukin, and those 15,000 absolutely amazing Chinese Chinese Opening Ceremony performers have already begun to fade.

But there were other stories; stories I hope you do not allow to fade; stories that had to do, not so much with athletic achievements or entertainment, but about the realities of life in China. A few reporters actually dared to take the watching world behind the Chinese scenes, reminding us that not everything in Beijing was exactly as it seemed. The city – for better or for worse – put on its best Chinese New Year’s mask, as it were. Phony (but beautiful) buildings were erected. Computer generated streetscapes were beamed in for the televised marathon, hiding slums and poverty. A little girl was pulled from the stage at the eleventh hour for having crooked teeth. Everything had to be (or at least look) perfect.

I suppose we could have a debate about what one should think about these various facades. Was it a political move, making China appear to be far more progressive and open than it really is? Or should we simply smile at the pretend buildings and the straight teeth and say ‘that’s entertainment’? I’ll let you be the judge.

But one thing cannot be ignored by those of us who are followers of Jesus. Despite how things looked in Beijing, China is not as open and free as the IOC, the Chinese organizers, and the vast majority of American news outlets would have us believe. There are still great injustices, particularly toward our brothers and sisters in Jesus. Here is just one excerpt, from the Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail:

It's been a brutal Olympics for China's non-registered church. Just a snapshot of the crackdown happened in Beijing, where all major house churches were forced to stop meeting during the Games and most of their leaders were arrested or put in seclusion. That excludes the names on nearly a dozen pages of documented Chinese church arrests and assaults publicized by Canada's Religious Liberty Commission just before the Olympics.

That’s the reality we must never forget. For all the talk about the world coming together at the Olympics (no matter where they are held); and for all that there is to admire, learn from, and rightly enjoy about an event like the Olympics – we must remember that the world that we see on television is often very different from the reality … especially for the persecuted church. Pray for them.

China and the Olympics

Here is one story that fits the moment.