Clarity (Not John Mayer's Song)

Last night I posted the following comment to my Twitter account in two subsequent tweets:

"Ok. Sick of reading all these posts. Especially from Christ followers. Steve Jobs did less for eternity than MANY others...(continued) Steve Jobs did far less for America than MANY soldiers. I love my Apple stuff, but come on...let's stop idolizing his death."

The comments brought a firestorm of retweets, responses, and comments to both my Twitter and Facebook accounts. Instead of replying to each individual thread, I am responding in this one blog post to try to clarify my comments.

First of all, I sit here writing this reply on a MacBook Pro that I love. The tweet I sent came from an iPhone 4 that I could not wait to buy when my wireless carrier finally started offering it. Sitting on the table next to me is my iPod nano that I also love. (“Why use the iPod if you have the iPhone?” you might ask. Because I’m weird like that.) One particular tweet I read stated, “It is fitting that a great many of us would learn of His [Steve Jobs] death on the very devices he put in our hands.” How true. Steve Jobs without a doubt influenced the way I function day to day. In my opinion, Apple products are light years ahead of other technologies when it comes to user friendliness. Steve Jobs certainly played a major role in that. I am unbelievably grateful for Steve Jobs, his company, and the products they have allowed me to enjoy. My comments of what Jobs did far less of by no means were trying to belittle what he DID do.

True, many people were not posting about it over and over and over again. Most posts were a single line acknowledging his death. My comment was simply stating my displeasure of perpetual posts hoping Jobs could rest in peace. Honestly, I did not know about Jobs’ religious views until last night. It wasn’t until after I became aware that he was a professing Buddhist that I became frustrated with professing Christians hoping Jobs could rest in peace. That is why I used the words, “Especially from Christ followers.” It was as if Christians were suggesting some sort of “escape clause” to the whole wages of sin because what he contributed to the world. The fact is, unless Jobs professed Jesus Christ to be Lord (which by professing Buddhism he certainly did not seem to do) he is not resting in peace. The fact that Christians could or would suggest otherwise befuddled me.

I’d also like to say that I was not suggesting that social networking sites become the marquee for honoring fallen soldiers or martyrs. Comments like, “Repost this if you’re thankful for all the soldiers who gave their lives for you,” or, “Like this status if you’re sad about Christians being persecuted around the world,” frustrate me equally as much. Again, it’s not because I’m not thankful and not because I don’t grieve. These comments sometimes frustrate me because of their seeming insincerity or flippancy. True, Jobs did more than some. But it’s also true that he did less than others.

There were other comments and replies calling my theology into question and calling out the hypocrisy many Christians. I could write a dissertation in dialogue and response to those comments. However, I do not want to debate theology. I want to give clarity to the fact I by no means insinuated disrespect to the dead or their family and friends. I hope I’ve made that clear.

Thanks for all the lively comments. Such honest debates and discussions are healthy when done in the spirit of iron sharpening iron.

-Patrick

P.S. - I think I'll take a break from Twitter for a while ;)

Fish For What?

I was looking back in things that I’ve journaled earlier this year and thought I’d share this with you. After reading Matthew 4:12-25, something stood out to me: There was no hesitation in Andrew and Peter’s obedience. Likewise, when God calls us to something there should be no hesitation in our obedience. “I’ll teach you how to fish for people” must have been a strange proposition. Who fishes for people? How do you do that? That’s crazy! Has God ever offered you a strange proposition? Has he ever called you to do something that seemed a bit odd? If he has you can probably attest to the greatest of God if you chose to obey Him. If God has never called you to do something strange, just wait...He probably will. But what God calls us to isn’t really as important as our response to that call. Will we “follow him at once” without delay? Ask God to grant you the ability to obey him without hesitation.

-Patrick

What An Easter

The Story of Haddon's Arrival and Other Miraculous Events That Day.

Ok... To say that the past month has been busy, a bit hectic, and life changing might be an understatement. That is why there is such a large gap between now and my last blog post. The biggest part of the recent life change is the arrival of our first child, Haddon. Now that we are somewhat settling in to parenthood, I thought I’d take a moment to tell you about his arrival. This might be a bit lengthier than my typical blog. But I think the content merits the extra time. Here’s the story of Haddon’s arrival:

As I sat in the front of the church serving the Lord’s Supper, I was constantly checking my phone for updates from home. My wife, Aimee, had opted to skip the Good Friday service because her contractions were becoming more intense and consistent.

Looking back now, it was all so symbolic of what we were remembering and celebrating that weekend. My wife was experiencing pain just as Christ was experiencing pain that lead to life (I’m certainly not comparing labor pains to the pains of death that Christ bore on the cross. I’m just saying it was symbolic.)

Skipping the long arduous part of the story from Friday and Saturday, it’s now Easter Sunday. After getting very little sleep overnight in the hospital, we were awakened by the changing of shifts between nurses. The words, “How ‘bout we get a baby today?” were what had been waiting two days to hear.

Before the nurses could finish the morning preparations, they had to rush out. One nurse told us that a young lady was being flown in because she was having seizures. She told us that because of the seizures, the baby’s heartbeat could not be found.

As the nurse left, Aimee and I began to pray for the day. Along with prayers for ourselves, we prayed for the young lady and her baby who were being flown in. When the nurse came back in we asked her if she would relay the message that we had been praying for the seizing mother and child. The nurse politely obliged but responded, “The baby didn’t make it. They are headed to surgery to remove the baby so the mother has a chance.” Again, as the nurse left, Aimee and I began to pray for this family that we did not know.

About fifteen minutes later our nurse returned with a stunned look on her face. She said, “You’re not going to believe this, but when that lady made it into surgery, the baby’s heartbeat started again! The baby and the mom are in critical condition but they are going to make it!” It was all we could do to keep from weeping. It was as if God was saying that Easter Sunday morning: “Today we celebrate LIFE! Only I give it.”

Later, even with family and medical staff in room with us, Aimee and I joined in worship with our home church via its webcast. People may have thought we were crazy as we sang aloud with our church: “You are stronger! You are stronger! Sin is broken, you have saved me. It is written: Christ is risen. Jesus, You are Lord of all” Whether they liked it or not, the halls of UT Medical Center’s labor and delivery floor echoed with the praised of Christ the King.

A few hours later, one of the most miraculous things I have ever witnessed happened. At 3:06 pm, Haddon Patrick Trawick entered the world. At a stunning 9lbs1oz and 21¼” long, he was beautiful (I am undeniably bias).

That night as we recalled the events of the day: We heard about a baby who was declared dead being delivered and now living. We saw the church we love filled with the people we love celebrate God’s life-giving power. We now held in our arms the child we had prayed so hard for in the months and years before. Words could not and still cannot describe what all God did that day. We are left able to say nothing more than…What an Easter!

-Patrick

Workaholism

As some of you may know, I’m currently in the process of finishing my Master’s Degree. It’s been a long journey, but I’m finally beginning to see glimmers of light at the end of what seemed to be an endless educational tunnel.
I was recently given an assignment to read the book Practicing Greatness, by Reggie McNeal. I had a hard time getting past some convicting statements he made in the first chapter.

"Spiritual organizations are notorious for blessing workaholism, for instance...Some leaders don’t know why they are unwilling to break their work rhythms, to take time off, even though they know their lives are way out of balance. They don’t like the ‘blues’ they feel when they are withdrawing from adrenaline, so they maintain or generate artificially high stress levels, just to make sure their body is still pumping adrenaline into their system.” (page 19)

Unfortunately this eerily described the way I often function. But I’ve also noticed that this is very similar to the way many people function in ministry or not; in leadership or not. McNeal’s projected results of such “workaholism” are frightening:

“…the hollow leader – a person with no sense of self, a person who works only from the expectations of others. Since such leaders have no inner core, no authenticity, they merely play a role of being a leader.” (page 33)

If you find this describes your work rhythm, I encourage you to make sure to cut out times for serenity. Don’t feel guilty for spending time with your family, enjoying some sort of God-honoring hobby, being unreachable or unavailable to your job from time to time. I’m in no way encouraging laziness or procrastination. But rather a “gut-check” of the healthy, God prescribed work-rest balance of life. That’s all for now.

Work hard, play hard.

-Patrick



McNeal, Reggie. Practicing Greatness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2006.
ISBN: 0-7879-7753-5

The Repeated Resuscitation of a Blog

Towards the end of my tenure in Mobile, Alabama, I tried to become faithful in blogging on a regular basis. At the time I wasn't sure why. It was just the popular thing to do, I guess. However, not long after my inaugural blogging season, we made a move to East Tennessee. And needless to say the time-consuming projects of moving, building a house, getting settled into a new job, getting to know a new church, and so on and so forth, make it difficult to make time to share thoughts on a blog. But as time passed and time-consuming projects settled, I made attempts to resuscitate my blogging habits. Unfortunately, these attempts were to no success.

However, now nearly two-years settled, I sometimes feel the need to share thoughts longer than the 140 characters that Twitter allows (Not that anyone cares to know those thoughts). But I felt as though a "cold-turkey" re-appearance in the blogosphere would seem odd. So I thought, "I'll start it up at the first of the year." But then I thought, "No, everyone starts their blogs again at the first of the year." So then I thought, "I'll blog about SuperBowl commercials to ease my way back into blogging." Again, I thought, "No, everyone shares their opinions about SuperBowl commercials. That's not a good way." Once more I thought, "Well, I'll start blogging on the first of a month...say....April." Finally I concluded, "No, that's being obsessive compulsive. Start blogging now."

So this is my repeated resuscitation of a blog, randomly, in late March. I do have some pretty cool thoughts, things I've read, and other stuff I want to share in the future so stay tuned...

-Patrick