Hello America! Announcing The Expeditionary Man Bike Tour

California, here we come…along with Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and South Carolina!

Now that plans are official, I wanted to officially announce a unique author tour that my family and I are going to be taking this summer.

The Expeditionary Man Bike Tour is a cross-country bicycle trek that will start on June 28, 2008 in San Diego, CA and finish up 2,500 miles later in Charleston, SC on July 25, 2008. Along the way, I will be speaking at churches and community events about the key message of my upcoming book—The Expeditionary Man: The Adventure a Man Wants, the Leader His Family Needs (Zondervan, available in stores in June 2008).

My 15-year-old son Jared and I will be biking each mile of the coast-to-coast tour. My other two sons—Jordan (17 years) and Justus (13 years)—will be riding part of the days and serving as part of the support team. My wife, Kim, will be driving the support vehicle. (Bless her heart—that’s 2,500 miles at 15mph behind us! )

In addition to speaking at various events across the country, my vision is that the tour helps symbolize the promise of family unity in a hurried world as well as the hands-on leadership role that every father is called to.

Download map (.pdf)

The official web site for the bike tour (whythebike.com) will be up and running in March. However, in the meantime, you can visit the tour’s Facebook Page for more info.

Finally, if you live near where we will be traveling through and would be interested in hosting a church event, I’d love to hear from you. Please contact me at rich_at_digitalwalk.net (substitute @ for _at_).

A God of Positive Promise: Unplugging U2’s “Yahweh”

Part 7 in the U2 Unplugged Series

“Don’t let the bastards grind it out of you.” This motto, popularized by a general in the U.S. Army during World War II, symbolized the harsh reality of a soldier in the midst of a bitter war. Be tough. Be persistent. Or the enemy is going to outlast and defeat you. This teeth-clenching, us-against-the-world attitude is reflected in U2’s “Acrobat” on the 1991 Achtung Baby album. Bono sings “Don’t let the bastards grind it out of you” in the song’s chorus. In doing so, he expresses the mindset of defiance and self preservation that we can find ourselves falling into during hard times and when the world, even God, seems to be against us. Gut instinct says this attitude is exactly what you need to survive in this hostile world.

Thirteen years after the release of “Acrobat”, U2 sings a much different tune with “Yahweh” [Lyrics] [iTunes], the final track on their How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb release. If “Acrobat” is all about self-protection, “Yahweh” is nothing less than a step-by-step guide to abandoning yourself. Where “Acrobat” raises a fist at pain, “Yahweh” actually embraces it. This spiritual journey – from a self-absorbed “acrobat” to someone willing to give everything to God – mirrors the path that all people must take once they decide to live for Jesus Christ. We all start out preoccupied with ourselves, but God brings us to the point where we are asked to give it all up for Him.

In “Yahweh”, U2 sums up the heart of what being a follower of Jesus Christ is all about. The song is a broad, open-ended invitation for God to take over every part of your life, even when pain and suffering floods in around you. According to U2, you can make this offering with hope and confidence because of one reason: God is who He says He is; He is Yahweh.

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The Courting of an Untamed God: Unplugging U2’s “Wild Honey”

Part 6 in the U2 Unplugged Series

O Love ever burning and never extinguished caritas, my God, set me on fire.

– St. Augustine

Romantic tension is an essential plot device found in most any film, whether it is a romantic comedy, thriller, or action adventure. Consider Indy and Marion in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Rick and Ilsa in Casablanca. You’ve Got Mail’s Joe and Kathleen. Or James Bond and his fling-of-the-moment in the latest 007 adventure.

Romance is an integral part of the films we watch because moviemakers know it sells tickets. We want romance portrayed on the silver screen, just like we want it in real life. It’s part of how we are wired. We long to pursue someone we admire or crave to have an admirer woo us. We yearn to go beyond ourselves and share something special with someone we are attracted to.

The concept of romance is usually reserved to describe a passionate relationship between a man and a woman. In the song “Wild Honey” [Lyrics] [iTunes], however, U2 spins convention upside down. Using romantic imagery, U2 explores the nature of God’s untamed relationship that he’d like to have with you and I. Not only does “Wild Honey” cause you to revisit your understanding of what romance is, but also the very nature of God’s love.

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The Club Vertigo Letters: Unplugging U2’s “Vertigo”

Part 5 in the U2 Unplugged Series

Temptation has an ultimate source: the Bible calls him Satan or the devil. In the postmodern world, however, we usually downplay or dismiss the role of Satan in our lives. After all, in a world of rugged individualists, we rather like the idea that we are masters of our own fate.

We may be free creatures, but we fool ourselves if we believe Satan has no influence in our lives. The Apostle Paul speaks in Romans of a spiritual battle taking place all around us. He stressed that our fights with temptation aren’t against what is going on in front of our eyes, but against spiritual forces that we cannot see or touch.

There are two dangers when you think about Satan, observed author C.S. Lewis. One is not taking him seriously enough and the other is taking him too seriously. With that in mind, Lewis penned his classic book The Screwtape Letters, a fictional account of a senior devil named Screwtape giving advice to the junior devil named Wormwood on the art of temptation. The age-old popularity of The Screwtape Letters stems from the fact that the book reads much like a sneak peek inside the playbook of the opposing team, a rare window into a nasty world in which Satan is called “Our Father”, people are “patients”, and God is considered “the Enemy”. Lewis believed that when you better understand the tricks of the opposition, you can better equip yourself as you head into spiritual battle on a day-in, day-out basis.

The song “Vertigo” [Lyrics] [iTunes] speaks about the kind of influence that Satan has over us and how temptation creeps into our lives when we don’t run from it. However, the song also offers insight into how we can overcome temptation – looking for the love of God in the midst of our sin and surrendering our wills to Jesus Christ.

With a nod of the cap to C.S. Lewis, consider a look at the major ideas expressed in “Vertigo” in the spirit of The Screwtape Letters. (Before reading below, you may wish to glance over the lyrics briefly to better understand the overall flow of the discussion.)

Dear Uncle Screwtape,

I was quite surprised to hear of your recent demotion and reassignment as an entry-level tempter within my department. How the mighty have fallen! Maybe now you will realize that senile, old timers like you must make way for the up-&-comers from my generation. It’s all in the name of progress, my dearest uncle. Progress.

Temptation has come a long way since you were responsible for your own patient on the front lines. I wanted to write you some words of advice to help on your first assignment. Consider it “payment-in-kind” for the series of letters you penned early in my career.

Your first order of business when you begin to tempt your patient is to lead him into darkness and confusion. Turn his head into a jungle, so to speak. The human mind is “ground zero” for waging attacks on the soul. I know a research report was recently circulated in other departments that claimed our efforts should target a patient’s emotions and feelings. I won’t argue with two points of the paper: Humans can’t rule their heart, and their feelings are much stronger than their thoughts. But the rest of the research is total nonsense. The so-called experts fail to realize that if you are going to win any battle for emotions, you must first initiate your attack on the patient’s mind.

Many fashionable theories being floated around Hell these days recommend staying away from the mind altogether, claiming that the Enemy has an unfair advantage on that front. After all, he can read human thoughts, while we are left guessing what the patient really thinks. My belief, however, is that the Enemy’s advantage is overrated. As best we can tell, he never seems to exploit these mind-reading abilities like he could. Instead of using this inside information to coerce and manipulate, the Enemy continues to give the human scum the freedom to make their own decisions.

Yet, here lies our opportunity, my uncle, since most humans live a life of no restraints, doing what they want to do when they want to do it. Granted, a few profess allegiance to the Enemy and give token opposition to our attacks. But, when you turn up the pressure, you can get the majority of religious patients to compromise their faith well before they will let go of their self-interest.

Christians, for example, love to talk about grace and forgiveness – that is until they are the ones called upon to forgive someone who has hurt them. Once they are confronted with this cold dose of reality, they inevitably realize that Our Father Below was right all along – that the world really is a zero-sum game made up of winners and losers. I recall your words to me from long ago: “‘To be’ means ‘to be in competition.’” The Enemy’s flawed idea of grace makes it clear that he has no grip on how the universe actually works.

The human mind is our battlefield, Uncle Screwtape. Bombard your patient’s head with temptations. Many of your arrows will not stick. But if you can get just get a couple to take root, then you’ve accomplished your goal. With a firm foothold in a patient’s mind, you can launch a full force invasion on his emotions. He’ll never know what hit him.

Your endearing teacher and nephew,

Wormwood

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The Finish Line Obsession

Several years ago, I rode my bicycle cross country, traversing 3,400 miles in about a month. Symbolically beginning the journey, I dipped my rear tire into the Pacific Ocean and then straddled my bike and started pedaling eastward. Riding 10-12 hours each day over the next four weeks, I had but a single, all-consuming goal: to dunk my front tire in the Atlantic Ocean to complete the crossing.

Purpose-Driven Creatures

When I look back today on that bicycle trek, I don’t much think of that finish line anymore. Yes, I appreciate actually making it all the way across, but what I truly relish are the experiences, many of which were difficult, that I had on route. I recall that dreadful first night in the California desert thinking I’d never survive another day; the 12-hour straight, high altitude climb up the Colorado Rockies; and the ride across the Kansas plains in a 40-mph crosswind, in which I struggled just to stay upright on my bike. At the time, I didn’t savor these events much, given my preoccupation with the finish line. But, paradoxically, these hard times are the memories which linger in my mind as the years go by. For it was in these tough moments that I was stretched, pulled, and tugged – ultimately growing as I persevered through them.

I think our Christian walk is much the same way. We are purpose-driven creatures living in a goal-focused society. We are consumed, even obsessed by finish lines. Yet, as I study the Scriptures, I am learning to realize that God does not give much importance to end goals like we do. Yes, God is concerned about our aspirations, but I suspect He is far more interested in the growth that occurs in our lives in pursuit of these ends compared to the actual goals themselves.

Pitfalls of Finish Lines

In reading Paul’s epistles, it is clear that the overarching ambition of a disciple should be to become more like Christ today than we were yesterday. However, in real life, we allow ourselves to become preoccupied with far more practical, down-to-earth finish lines. These can be grouped into two categories.

• Unfulfilled desire is one kind of finish line. Examples of this include a better job, a larger home, an early retirement, or savings for college. While striving for these goals is not bad, the pitfall with this type of finish line is that it often becomes a distraction to our walk with Christ. We become preoccupied with that “future something” rather than being content with the present. But in so doing, we end up doing exactly what I did on my bike trip: ignoring the opportunities God was providing along the way in my quest for an end thousands of miles away.

• Resolution of uncertainty is a second type of finish line. When we face a major decision, significant life change, or insecurity, our natural tendency is to simply want the ambiguity to be over and done with, so we can get on with our lives. The pitfall in this case is that resolution becomes the security for us rather than trusting in God in the midst of the process.

In our walk with Christ, we need to stop thinking of the time before the finish as an ordeal to withstand while we await the outcome. Instead, the pursuit needs to be seen for what it actually is: God’s gift to us as believers. For it is in precisely these times that we choose whether we are to become more like Christ or more like the world; whether we will find more of our security in the Lord or in our own crafted solutions; or whether we will choose contentment today or hold out for a prize at a later time.

Learning To Embrace The Race

In my quest for making a living as a full-time Christian author, I have faced 4.5 years of uncertainties and constant challenges to provide for my family. I find myself naturally yearning for all of the questions I have to be answered. I constantly need to remind myself of four practical steps that all disciples should take to “embrace the race.”

First, recognize the growth opportunity. Whether I am faced with a big decision or are focused towards a long-term goal, I first need to discern the Lord’s hand in my situation and realize it as an opportunity to grow in Christ.

Second, trust Him. It sounds simple, but trust is surely the biggest obstacle to getting rid of this finish line obsession. If I earnestly believe God is leading me along towards the finish line, insecurity and uncertainty will be removed. Oswald Chambers offered a great outlook on trust when asked about how he was dealing with an unsure situation in his life:

I do not know [what the outcome will be]. However, He knows and I know He knows, and I know that I’ll never think of anything He will forget, so I just go steadily on as I have always done, and He will engineer the circumstances.

As Chambers says, we have a God that engineers circumstances. But until I fully believe that promise and live it out in faith, I will never be able to take my eyes off of the finish line. Without this level of trust, I will inevitably feel compelled to manufacture the result rather than relying on God to do so.

Third, get perspective. Uncertainty and goal quests have a tendency to become all encompassing, causing me to lose perspective. Yet, in the midst of the race, I need to step back and look at the situation in light of eternity. When I get to heaven, I don’t suspect that I will dwell too much on my earthly finish lines. Instead, I think I will be relishing the journey I made towards those ends, for that was when I grew the most in my relationship with Christ.

Fourth, commit to the only finish line of importance. I need to get focused on my true aim in life as a disciple – throwing out, one cell at a time, my sin nature for a Godly nature; this commitment should also transform my prayer life. So, when I pray, I need to pray not just for the outcome, but for the race as well. Praying for contentment and trust on route regardless of the outcome is a true litmus test of where a disciple’s heart is. If all I really long for is the finish line, then perhaps I am really using God purely as a means to that end. But if I properly balance the end goal with my pursuit of it, then I can fully experience the growth God intends for me in the midst of this race.