Three Priorities: The First Priority Revisited

I have declared three priorities for living the rest of my life. 

In explaining the first of those priorities, "encouraging fellow members of the Body of Christ," I described an underlying desire:

to live out my faith in unity with other believers who live within walking distance.

Since then, a couple of things have happened with that formulation. The first is that the underlying desire began to feel more like the priority. It echoed in my mind; I found myself reciting it. I think this is partly just because it had a nice cadence:

to live out my faith 

in unity with other believers 

who live within walking distance.

But it also felt more compelling, by virtue of being more specific. Suddenly I wasn't talking about all members of the Body of Christ everywhere, and therefore about no one in particular. Suddenly, I was talking about the particular members of the Body of Christ who live within a particular distance of my house.

That felt meatier to me than,"encouraging fellow members of the Body of Christ."

Then, even as that desire-description sank into my soul, it began to change its flavor. It didn't become rancid, but it did become less digestible. I wasn't fully absorbing it, it wasn't becoming part of my marrow. Somehow, something was off; it seemed too much like smoke and not enough like fire.

"To live out my faith..." Ah. What does that mean, and how does it make me different from anyone who seeks to live out their faith, whether that faith has anything to do with Jesus Christ or not? I needed something more distinctly Christian, something that someone who does not believe themselves to be in Christ would not say.

And John's Gospel came to mind, with Jesus' assertions about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit living within those who believe in Him. And the desire-description was transformed into:

To express the life of the Godhead

In unity with others inhabited by the Godhead

who live within walking distance.

Whew - now that's a mouthful. And a brainful - the idea of being inhabited by the Godhead may be the pinnacle of megalomaniacal delusion. 

Unless it's true. In which case, I cannot think of a higher priority than expressing that life. 

So the statement of my First Priority has changed, from "encouraging fellow members of the Body of Christ" to "expressing the life of the Godhead in unity with others inhabited by the Godhead, who live within walking distance."

I look forward to doing that.

A Shift In Being - To Be A Neighbor (2 of 2)

In recent years, my work on "My Homewood" and "Homewood Nation," and with the Save Race Street Committee, have led to the fulfillment of a goal - to live in such a way that people ask me why I do what I do.

I worked out an answer which I have used consistently, with slight variation. I have told people that I have two reasons:

1) I have a King, and He has issued a command - not a suggestion, not a request - to love my neighbor. Working together with some of my neighbors for the good of all is a way of doing that.

2) I am a homeowner, and I want to increase the value of my house.

I gave that two-part answer (leaving out the second sentence of the first part for brevity) just a few days ago to Lauren Davidson of Pittsburgh Magazine, for a profile that they are publishing in the June issue.

After speaking with her, I remembered Jesus' conversation with "an expert in the Law," in which he told the parable of the Good Samaritan. Most people focus so much on the parable that they overlook the conversation, which is a shame, because Jesus does something pretty mind-blowing here. He responds to the question, "Who is my neighbor?" by refusing to answer it. Luke says that the very reason for the question was that the questioner wanted to justify himself - by having Jesus say who his neighbor was, he would then know who was not his neighbor, and therefore, whom he was not obligated to love.

Jesus sidesteps that completely, refuses to answer the question, then....trumps the Law itself. He basically says, "Forget about loving your neighbor. Just be a neighbor  - to whomever you encounter." Be the one who draws near.

****************

Dr. John M. Perkins said it years ago: "The highest calling of God is to be a neighbor." That immediately stuck in my memory, but I didn't get it for a long time, until I noticed the conversation surrounding the parable of the Good Samaritan.

I want to be the one who draws near. I want to become a great neighbor.

Three Priorities For 2014: 2.5 - Why Build Businesses?

I promised to share some big-picture thinking about business. First, a little story:

One day back in the early 1980s, I visited a car dealership in Louisville to apply for a job there.

I don't remember the name of the dealership, or of the man who owned it. I do remember him standing before a group of prospective hires and talking about how much it meant to him to know that his business was helping his employees to put food on the table for their families.

When I left that meeting, I didn't have the job I had sought; but I did have something else:  the desire to own a business.

I think that's where it began for me, this quest to build an enterprise. So the first thing that I want to say about building businesses is that for me, building a business is not primarily about making money, for at least three reasons.

1) My wife and I don't need much income to live well. Our house, car and college educations are paid for, and we don't have kids. Beyond that, we don't have extravagant tastes. She is more frugal than I am, but even my wishlist doesn't go beyond a bodacious home theatre and a Tesla Model S.

I do NOT want a yacht. I DO want one of these. Truly.

2) Having piles of money sitting around has never appealed to me. I would rather have assets that generate income, than simply have a pile of money. And if I can create those assets without money, or acquire them at a discount for cash, or use my money to leverage other financing to acquire them - in other words if I can accumulate assets that have more value than the money I spend for them - so much the better.

3) Making money is at most one-third of the benefit of building a business. I consider the possibilities that a well-run business has for blessing the world to be downright magical. The magic of business is the potential for creating value for more and more people in more and more ways. Money (and other value) for the owner(s), money (and other value) for employees, money (and other value) for vendors whose goods and services the business uses...and on top of all that (or before all that), value for customers.

When I left the showroom of that car dealership, I was inspired by the possibility of helping people to put food on the tables for their families. I still find it inspiring to think of becoming a job creator (however much the term has fallen into disfavor), and of creating value for dozens, hundreds, or thousands of people beyond that.

Heck, make that, millions of people. Because a successful TV show, movie, or video game - or even a YouTube video - will in fact entertain and/or enlighten millions of people. Thus, Luminaria Productions.

And on a smaller scale, the rehabilitation and resale of 20 or 30 or 50 homes in Homewood will create value for dozens or hundreds of people. Thus, Homewood Capital Partners.

And helping people to gain affordable attorney access so that they receive full benefit from our legal system - well, that can be valuable to anybody I know or can talk to, who doesn't already have it. Thus, Legal Shield.

In sum, I see building a business as a way of giving more to more people than I could ever do otherwise, and thus a way of fulfilling Jesus' instruction and promise, "Give, and it shall be given unto you" - not to mention the cultural mandate of Gen. 1.28.

More briefly still: Why build businesses? Because business is holy.

That's my view. What's yours?

***************
Three Priorities: The Complete Series
Three Priorities For 2014 - And Beyond
Three Priorities For 2014: 1 - Encouraging The Body Of Christ
Three Priorities For 2014: 2- Growing Businesses.
Three Priorities For 2014: 2.5 - Why Build Businesses?
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Legal Shield
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Homewood Capital Partners
Three Priorities For 2014: 2 - Growing Businesses - Luminaria Productions
Three Priorities For 2014: 3 - Redeveloping Race Street
Three Priorities For 2014: Closing Thoughts

For My Own Good: Exploring Sabbath

The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” 
He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.”
Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
- Mark 2:24-28

I believe that when Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man - i.e., given for man's benefit - He meant it. And that we would do well to pay attention.

Last week, I began an experiment to explore the idea of sabbath.

Because the sabbath is for our benefit, I didn't want to enter the experiment with the idea of striving to fulfill an obligation. I wanted to enter it with the idea of receiving a gift.

The gift? A period of time - one "day" out of seven - during which I don't try to make anything happen. I don't try to change the world. I don't try to increase my wealth. I don't try to achieve goals. I dedicate the time to rest, recreation, and the celebration of God and His plentiful gifts. 

I put the word "day" in quotes earlier because I decided to take my sabbath from sundown Saturday to sundown Sunday. Besides being Biblical, that makes it easy to begin my workweek on Sunday evening with the work of preparation so that I can hit the ground running Monday morning.

The sabbath intention has given me a new pleasure: the sabbath anticipation. The sun is sinking as I write; I look forward to this night more than I think I have ever looked forward to a Sunday morning.

To spend an entire evening and day luxuriating in the presence of the Lord - not just worshipping, but enjoying Him in everything during that time, and crafting the time toward the end of enjoying Him...YUM!

I've been thinking about what activities are sabbath-appropriate. The first answer that came to mind was the phrase, "rest, recreation and celebration." Reading, listening to music, watching movies, and physical play all come to mind.

The most surprising answer that has emerged is, "playing with Linux." I have long wanted to install Gentoo on a machine, just to see how it works. Or to follow the instructions in "Linux from Scratch" to build my own version of Linux. Or to create virtual machines under Ubuntu on one of my netbooks, to run Windows 95 (or 3.1!) software.

All of those possibilities now seem sabbath-appropriate to me under this rubric, which popped into my head as I thought about playing with Linux: "useless learning."

I spend a lot of time trying to learn things toward the end of accomplishing goals. I think I need a time when I give myself permission to learn stuff just for the fun of learning it.

And for me, that seems sabbath-appropriate, totally in keeping with the original mandate to cultivate the potential of creation (Genesis 2:15), a mandate which necessitates a great deal of play.

I also think that the sabbath intention will make it easier to fulfil what might be considered a corollary: to work my butt off for six days a week.

I would like very much to make all the money I need in a four-hour workweek, but - as the head of Luminaria Productions LLC, as the head of Homewood Capital Partners LLC, as a Legal Shield representative, as chair of the Save Race Street Committee and of Block Watch Plus - doing all that I see may require a 60-hour workweek.

And here's the thing - I think that I can do a 60-hour workweek, and enjoy it, with the right set of practices. And I think that one of those practices is sabbath. I think that over time, having sabbath to look forward to (or to look back upon) will help to keep me energized and motivated. We'll see!

Do you observe sabbath? If so, what sabbath practices have helped you to enjoy God, or have energized and motivated you for a week of work?

Racism (or something like it) in the media - 1

I don't often think about race on my own.

When I say "on my own," I mean that most often when I do think about race, it is because some external circumstance has called it to mind.

That happens more often than I would dare count. This week it has happened twice regarding the realm of media.

The first time was Sunday, when I saw the cover of this week's issue of Newsweek:

I tweeted my response: "Really, Newsweek? In 2012, a blond, blue-eyed Jesus? Really??"

That's all I could think of to say in the moment. The more I thought about it, the more I came to view the Newsweek cover as not just passe, but as scary. Newsweek, you see, is in the business of being smart. No news organization does well by being perceived as stupid. They are smart enough to know that the image of a blond, blue-eyed Jesus lost credibility and cultural currency at least 30 years ago, and even a half-century ago for some Americans.

But they chose that image anyway, knowing not only how culturally out of step it is, but also knowing full well how unlikely it is on a purely historical basis that any 1st Century Israelite looked anything like this.

This is the kind of thing that makes people charge the media with racism. And in this case, I would add, an arrogance that goes beyond racism, that says, "We know this is wrong in multiple ways, and we don't care."

It also made me keep my money in my wallet. The cover title, "Forget the Church - Follow Jesus," was interesting enough so that I might have read the article. But I wasn't going to spend my money on that image. No way.

The second time this week that a media outlet made me think about race was just a little while ago, when my friend Kilolo Luckett emailed me the link to an article in Details magazine about East Liberty. It's a slick little piece titled, "The Rust Belt Revival: What's Happening in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania."

The article made me think about race because Details has apparently discovered an East Liberty with no Black people. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Within a relatively short space, it presents five photos of people and places in East Liberty without a melanin-rich person in sight. (And by the way, that also includes  - or rather, excludes - anybody who looks like they might be Indian, Middle Eastern...you know, anything but...well...white.)

Most astonishingly, it does this while presenting a chunk of text titled, "Hip-Hop's Next Hit Makers." And who would those be? A couple of white guys who, the article seems to make clear, are the real force behind Wiz Khalifa's success. (No, no, no, Wiz is not pictured. What did I just tell you?)

In similar fashion, the article opens with a look at the Waffle Shop, which opened in 2009 - but the Shadow Lounge, which I believe has been around for at least a decade, is relegated to a footnote.

Do I need to say that the Waffle Shop's proprietor is white, and the Shadow Lounge's, Black?

I don't want to believe that the folks at Details are racist, but I also can't believe that they are immensely stupid. So what can you call it when a high-end magazine does something like that? If it's not racism or stupidity or both, then what the heck is it?

The only other word that comes to mind is delusion. The only way that I can think of for something like this to happen, without the people behind it being either racist or stupid, is if they truly perceive the world as a place in which black people either do not exist or exist so tangentially that we do not matter. And if, in fact, one has largely lived in such a world, such a delusion may be natural - even inevitable.

So, with that stretching of the imagination, I give Details something of a pass. Meaning that while I won't buy the current issue (not that I usually do), I also won't get overly mad at 'em (certainly not as mad as I would if I were a hip-hop fan, and especially a Wiz Khalifa fan).

But if a local outfit that knows better the truth about East Liberty (I'm looking at you, Post-Gazette and Tribune-Review) touts the Details article as a good thing, I'm gonna have a conniption.