There’s been such a media frenzy these days over the Tiger Woods affair and break from golf. If you’re like me you’re wanting for this media onslaught to fade. But I think there’s a valuable lesson in the demise of Tiger Woods.

When you’re considered an all time great, an unstoppable force and a hero to millions you can of course let that go to your head. What often happens with successful people is that they let their success in one particular area (like sports or business) extend to the rest of their lives. So if you’re unbeatable at golf you might think you’re unbeatable in every area of life. And when you start believing this lie, the time is ticking on a spectacular fall.

King David in 1 and 2 Samuel exemplifies this well. David was known for his auspicious start as a giant slayer. The David vs. Goliath allusion must be the most over-used in all of sports. But from that point on, David was known as a national hero. He couldn’t walk through a street without applause and paparazzi snapping mental photographs. Gradually and almost invisibly David’s interior life began to erode. We find him in 2 Samuel 11 waking up on a lazy afternoon while all the other men were off to battle. He spots a beautiful woman bathing and commits adultery with her even though she is the wife of one of his generals who is risking his life for him. But David thinks, “I am the great king, the giant slayer.” And so his life spirals out of control and leads to murder, exile and humiliation.

Ironically David’s greatest moment wasn’t his slaying with Goliath. David’s greatest moment was when he  penned the words of Psalm 51. Toward the end of this prayer of confession he says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (vs. 17). David’s greatest moment wasn’t his victory but his defeat. It was only then he realized not just the extent of who he was but the greatness of the grace of God. It’s in our victories in our lives that we should be most cautious because it can give us a false view of ourselves. But it’s in our brokenness that we should most delight as it brings us nearer to an understanding of God’s great grace.

One of the great lies that we have to deal with is the lie that we’re in control. We’re always in need of self-examination and gospel humility. I think these two illustrations help us to see that well.

Last week I watched the movie, “The Blindside” with my wife at the new downtown theatre.  I’m a sucker for sports movie. I can watch the most mediocre sports film and think it should be an Oscar winner. On the other hand I can watch the best romantic comedy and get angry. So it’s no surprise that I was really taken with the story of “The Blindside.” It’s about an abandoned child in the inner city that is adopted by an upper-class white family who eventually turns his life around and makes it to the NFL. I was so taken with the story that I just finished reading the book it was based on by Michael Lewis. The film is relatively faithful to the book except for the nuances of football that it leaves out.

I really loved how the movie and book explores the idea of race and culture in America. It wasn”t overly heavy handed in coming to conclusions. But it’s a fascinating journey to see how an African American kid coming from the poorest side of town tries to transition into a white Christian world. So often in our society we live on the “blindside.” We don’t want to see how glaringly unequal the opportunities we have are based upon what side of the town we grew up. We don’t realize that we often live in our own socially-economic and often racial bubble. The Tuohy family woke up to this reality by adopting Michael Oher and raising him like a son.

One of the under developed themes in the movie and book is the role of Christianity. The Tuohy’s were Christian and at the end of his High School years Michael also became a believer (something the movie omits). In interviews they said their faith played an important role in desiring to take in Michael into their home. It’s a wonderful testimony of a life that connects faith with practical and powerful acts of mercy.

One thing that defines Los Angeles is the freeways. People commute miles upon miles to and from work, social activities and even church. But our freeway culture has a lot of negative consequences. First it’s harmful to our environment. Thomas Friedman in his book, “Hot, Flat and Crowded” says its like every few miles you roll down your window and throw a big bag of garbage onto the freeway. That’s what you’re doing to the environment when you drive. But secondly our freeway culture makes us increasingly disconnected. We’re disconnected from our home because we’re rarely there. We’re disconnected from other people because we hardly see them. This commuter culture makes genuine community very difficult.

One of the great visions for our ministry is to have a church where people can live, work and worship in the same geographical location. By living this vision you would simultaneously 1) gain more time from not commuting 2) do your part for the environment 3) make inroads to forming a genuine community with people you live, work and worship with. When our ministry started out this seemed like a distant reality. Even though many people worked downtown, very few people would even consider moving downtown because of its crime or lack of amenities. But in the last couple years we’ve seen a great number of people moving downtown. Currently downtown is the primary place where people in our ministry live and more and more people are considering moving. Now more than ever we can start to glimpse what a really deep, local and intimate community can look like. Can you imagine needing help or counsel and just knocking on the next door?

The next step I guess would be people selling their cars and donating it for kingdom work! If Downtown got zip cars or pay-per-drive cars I think this could be a reality in the not too distant future. But in the meantime there’s still so much work to do to make Downtown a truly beautiful community for all people. Now that we have people downtown it’s time we start deepening our community to be all that God envisions for us.

The picture above is by Tony and has a city growing into a tree. It was done for our anniversary service a couple year’s ago. Here’s to making that picture a reality.

When you think about Los Angeles it’s astoundingly divided among racial lines. The city can almost be defined along racial boundaries. There is South Los Angeles which is historically black. There is East Los Angeles which is primarily hispanic. There is West Los Angeles which is largely white and Jewish. Within miles the city has a multitude of ethnic enclaves as Koreatown, Little Armenia, Little Tokyo, and Filipinotown. But beyond the diversity lies a history of racial tension and division.

One of the great wake-up calls for racial tension was the race riots in 1992 after the acquittal of the police officers responsible for the assault on Rodney King. Estimates of damages range from 800 million to a billion dollars. Many of the Korean American stores were targeted during the riots. The riots brought national attention to the tangled racial tensions in Los Angeles.

But 17 years later not a lot of dialogue and reconcilliation has happened. There continues to be tension amongst Hispanics and African Americans in the growing turf wars in what was once predominately black areas. Korean-American have largely left South Los Angeles but continue to hire many Hispanic workers for their businesses. Meanwhile people in the upper-middle class have fled to the suburbs which although is in some sense ethnically diverse, are often economically homogenous.

One of the questions that I continually ask myself is, “What is the churches role in bringing racial reconciliation?” When you think about the four main ethnicities that are entangled: (African American, Hispanic, Korean-American and White) they are all parts of communities that are heavily faith-based. Shouldn’t the church model racial reconcilliation both within the church and between churches? What would that look like? What community projects could be done between churches seeking to bring needed peace?

Wouldn’t it be an epic testimony for the church, the Bride of Christ, to show an unbelieving world the peace that faith can bring?

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Matthew 5:9

These are some very dark economic times. We’re hearing a lot of news even in our congregation of layoffs and the lack of job security. These seasons teach us that we can’t find security in anything under the sun. Jesus talks about not storing our treasures where moth and rust destroy and thieves steal. We need to place our treasures in places immune to the ups and downs of market forces, the corruption of Wall Street and the greed of institutions.

However gloomy these times are I think it’s a tremendous opportunity to minister to people. It seems that only when things are tough are people willing to take a hard look inside and take a serious look above them. One of my favorite quotes come from G.K. Chesterton who writes, ”One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.” Only in the deepest of valleys can we see the greatness of God. Only when everything around us totters can we understand that God is a rock and fortress.

So as markets decline can we suggest that our spirits can strengthen? These dark days are opportunities for people (myself included!) to experience glory.

I grew up thinking that drinking alcohol was like drinking Satan juice. It was just bad the church told me. I can see that they had a point. My father would often drink a bit too much and tell me the same rambling stories of coming to America. What possible good can alcohol bring? But during my post-college years I was turned on to the abuse of legalism and the freedom of Christian living. Let the drinks flow! But with this “freedom” comes inevitable excess.

G.K. Chesteron once said that the drunk and the abstainer are both mistaken, they both regard alcohol as a drug and not as a drink. I think this really hits the nail on the head. Alcohol functions as drink and not drug. It’s wonderful as something that enhances our tastes and moods but destructive when it leads to drunkenness and dependency. Most of sin is not about outright evil but taking a good thing and abusing it. Both liberal and legalist miss the point of this drink.

Jesus puts alcohol in perspective. He CREATES alcohol as his first miracle in the gospel of John. Clearly Jesus is no prohibitionist.

He does it in the context of celebration. Alcohol can be used rightly in the context of community and especially celebration. But with all these things lies moderation and self-control which Paul summarizes by saying, “Do not be drunk on wine but be filled with the Spirit.” Alcoholic spirits should mesh with the Holy Spirit.

But finally Jesus uses alcohol as metaphor to explain the coming of His kingdom. Some whiskey can pack a punch but good wine can be divine. The flavor and beauty of wine can lead us to some transcendent moments. It’s but a faint hint on the beauty and joy that awaits God’s people when they have Christ as their King.

I’m in favor of a soulful life. A life filled with seeing all of life in it’s beauty and brilliance. A life that doesn’t need excess to truly experience. A life that sees good things in its rightful place under the reign of God. Maybe when Christians live more soulfully we’ll be more attractive to a soulless world.

At City Light we’ve recently been celebrating the Lord’s Supper every other week. When you look at the early church, communion was regularly celebrated. But often communion today seems like an afterthought. It has become an archaic practice with little meaning to the modern believer.

We live in a fast food culture. We want things to taste good, be cheap and not take a lot of time. But the problem with this fast food culture is that it leaves us nutritionally deprived. This seeps into our church culture as well. We want our church to have a great service, a rocking praise band and an entertaining speaker. It needs to be fast (who can stand a long boring sermon!), fast-paced and carry with it very little commitment to anything other than Sunday attendence. But this as well will leave us spiritually deprived.

Communion, when properly practiced, offers us a feast in a fast food world. It tells us to slow down in an “In-N-Out” world. It shows us that our greatest hunger is the hunger to be connected with our King. It fills our senses and stirs our imagination. Communion raises our eyes to heaven to see the beauty of our Savior, this we savor. But communion is also a family meal. Meals are central times for families to come together. We congregate around food as we share our own stories. In communion we remember that we are a forgiven family, connected by the life and blood our King.

But communion is but an appetizer. Nobody would imagine that a little piece of bread and a shot of wine would qualify as a meal. It isn’t in itself completly filling. Communion points us forward to the fulness of the heavenly banquet to come. Here we eat in part, then we will eat fully. Communion helps us anticipate the fulness of the feast to come. All of this lends support for a regular and rich observance of communion in our churches today.

One of my favorite video highlights of this last year has Kevin Garnett screaming after he wins his first NBA Championship, “Anything is Possibleeeeeeeeeeee!” I just love the sheer passion of KG at that moment. Some conspiracy theorists suggest he was trying to say, “Impossible is Nothing” which is the slogan for his sponsor Adidas. But I find this comment absurdly ridiculous as well.

If you were 7 foot, one of the most gifted basketball players in the world, teamed up with two other All-Stars on the best franchise in the NBA, I don’t think winning an NBA title accounts for doing the “impossible.” On the other hand if you were 5′5, Asian-American, on the wrong side of 30 and led your very mediocre team to an NBA title, then I think you can safely say, “Anything is Possssssibleeeeee!” That would truly be doing the impossible.

Sometimes people misquote 4:13, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” This for instance doesn’t mean that if you have faith you can win an NBA Championship. It doesn’t mean you can be whatever you dream of. All of us have certain physical and intellectual limitations. The context of this verse in Philippians is Paul’s ministry to the church. He says in the previous verse, “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.” Paul is saying that he can face any circumstance with abundant joy and contentment.

Another way to look at it is this: God’s grace doesn’t help me to fulfill my personal dreams but God’s Kingdom dreams. We should have an “Anything is Possible” approach to growing God’s kingdom, reaching the lost, ending poverty not getting my promotion, losing weight and growing wealthy.

But to return to basketball, I’m hoping my Golden State Warriors will win the NBA title in the next few years. Anything is possible!

I was running in the evening in downtown and I came upon this huge Haloween display in a coporate building. It struck me as odd because I’ve always associated Haloween with children. But it seems that more and more Haloween has become an adult affair. I’ve read that alot of companies have chosen to move thier main winter celebration from Christmas to Haloween. A costume party is more neutral (and fun!) than a winter religious celebration. There are now huge stores dedicated to costumes for these Haloween parties. I think this follows a larger cultural trend of adults reverting to childlike behavior.

Think about the rise of Las Vegas. I can’t think of a more poular destination right now than Vegas. Every seeming batheclor party has its great destination there. But what is Vegas? It’s Disneyland for adults. It’s a place where you routinely walk by Elvis as you go to play games by plastic Roman colliseum pillars. Vegas is geared to be a fantasy world where you let your inner child roam free for a weekend. And the mantra “whatever happens in Vegas” also typifies the great pastime of children: keeping secrets.

But should all of this bother us? Yes and No. Play is serious business after all. We’re not called as Christians to be stiff, unemotional “adults”. Jesus seemed to have loved parties. He was first found getting the party started again when the wine ran dry at a wedding feast. He always seemed to show up at all kinds of celebrations and banquets. Jesus wasn’t a kill-joy. Christians should have the best parties because we have the most to celebrate. But there is one fundamental difference with us. Jesus says we should become like children (Matthew 18:3). But in saying that he had something different in mind than what we normally would consider childish. Where we associate childishness with immaturity and recklessness, Jesus is pointed us toward child-like wonder, dependence and purity.

We are to be child-like without being childish. But as I think about this it seems like a delicate balance. Like saying we are to be wise fools. That’s all a part of what it means to be cross-cultured I guess.

Politics and faith can often be a toxic combination when misapplied. With the upcoming election and the rise of the influence of conservative Christians, the need for a conversation about these issues is really important.

When you look at the Bible there seems to be a clear distinction between secular rule and Kingdom rule. The government is given the power of the sword and all believers are called to pray for our earthly authorities (Romans 13:4; 1 Timothy 2:2). The reason for our need to take interest in secular government is that it provides a safe backdrop for the drama of redemption (“that we might live a peaceful and quiet life” 1 Tim 2:2). But our true and ultimate allegiance remains to our God and King. Secular rule and heavenly rule are not deemed enemies. Secular rule provides the earthly security and peace for God’s spiritual rule to take root in the lives of His people. On the other hand earthly and heavenly rule are clearly distinct. The New Testament presupposes in many ways that our earthly rulers are not Christian. This was certainly the context of the writings in the New Testament. Furthermore when we conflate politics and faith we run the danger of thinking we can legislate our way into a heavenly kingdom.

When we vote as Christians we should keep in mind we are not necessarily looking for the candidate that most reflects our religious convictions. We should be looking for the most competent leader that can most successfully provide a backdrop in which both Christians and non-Christians can live peacefully. I would rather have a competent atheist than a incompetent Christian in this regard.

Many people say that we are on the brink or in midst of a “culture war.” I would say we are definitely in midst of one. Christians lose credibility when they vote simply based on religious conviction. Non-Christians become angry and alarmed when they have incompetent Christian leaders who are subtly seeking to legislate their beliefs. This has led to a culture war which pits the religious vs. the irreligious; the Bible belt vs. the coastal states; the “high culture” vs. the uncultured.

There are of course blurry line issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. But it seems short-sighted to vote for leaders simply based on any of these single issues.

This is probably one of the most important elections we’ll experience in our lifetimes. I hope we’ll think, pray and converse about these matters in a serious and engaging way.