The Smell of Coffee

I'm sure you know this, but coffee smells better than it tastes. OK, calm down, I'm still an advocate of drinking the stuff. However, there is no doubt that a huge part of the enjoyment of the bean beverage is the aroma. Walking past a coffee house and smelling the freshly ground blend presents a promise of enjoyment that the liquid barely, and often doesn't, deliver on.

However, I am rarely resentful when I taste a disappointing cup of coffee. I understand that I was already consuming the enjoyment while percolating in the scent-drenched coffee shop as I waited for my order.

I have come to understand that much of the joy of life is found in the anticipation of things. Does Christmas day really live up to the giddy thrill that the sentiments of the Christmas season cultivates in our soul as we count down the advent calender? Does driving a brand new car fully fulfill the enticing, anxious excitement of exploring the endless possibilities while searching the local auto mile for your next mechanical alter-ego?

The intangibly evident smell of coffee is a metaphor for finding the true quality of the good life. Tangible materials leave a void in the human heart. The intangible raises us into a tension of expectation and anticipation that could be called hope and faith.....and it keeps us wanting to stay alive.

I have often wondered why God takes so long to answer prayers.

When we pray and believe, we are exercising faith. The bible says faith pleases God (Heb. 11:6), and that it is required for us to live by faith (Hab. 2:4), as opposed to having short occasional bursts of faith. When God answers our prayers, we take delivery of our answer and the dimension of faith ceases. That's why God waits until the last moment to answer, because it extends the exercise of our faith, in which He finds so much delight, to the maximum.

Like coffee, the anticipation of things longed for is almost sweeter than the realisation.

The Crumbling Dream of Global Democracy

I, like the increasing majority, read my news online. I am disturbed by my callous indifference to the latest report of terrorism in the Middle East. Afghanistan, Pakistan,..... today it was Iraq.....over a hundred dead in a suicide bombing. As a South African I have developed the ability to assimilate shockingly tragic news without flinching, because you hear the same type of report again and again.

But c'mon, it's absolutely crazy over there!

This last terror attack was motivated by the desire to disrupt democratic elections in the near future. It's amazing how people with a religio-cultural fervour do not want the masses to have their say. (or they don't believe in the accuracy of the process.)

The question rises in my mind: Is democracy going to win out in the end? Is the future of our planet democratic? Is democracy the best form of government for all the people of the earth?

My choice would be to spend the rest of my days in the center of the democratic universe: America. I, like most Westerners, have a healthy mistrust of office holding leaders. I have confidence that I won't abuse my own personal liberty. I am also prepared to accept the challenge of living amongst those who abuse their liberty and as a result create related socials ills. (materialism, greed, pornography, drug abuse...)

The American invention of democracy was in reaction to the collision between the European rights of kings, nobles and lords and the awareness of the rights of the individual sparked by the enlightenment and renaissance. The notion that I don't have to be a faceless peasant at the bidding of the local lord or an expendable pawn in a prince's army emerged out of a distinctly European experience.

Admittedly, world exploration and colonization exported these mindsets around the globe, but as the influence of the West diminished in places like the Orient, Middle East and Africa, it emerged that the villages of our world still valued the paternalistic leadership of elders and wanted to restore strength to their chiefs and kings.

You see, the awareness of the individual is not a given in every culture. I have observed the unity of the African community. (My apologies here if the weakness of my African anthropology proves offensive.) The village acts as one, if the chief is strong, then the community is strong, so the chief eats first and the women and children last, and nobody objects.

African democratic processes often miss the spirit of a private, secret ballot, because no other decision is made that way, why should we vote as individuals? Who gives me the power to decide to empower our traditional decision makers? I often feel that traditional African communities enshrined a desire for democracy in their communities simply on the basis of their majority over the controlling colonial communities. Where it not for the debt and trade links to their previous colonial masters, I think they would abandon the insanity of democracy altogether.

Is the middle east not in a similar struggle against our democratic idealism? Even moderates would probably be more confident in benevolent autocratic religious leaders than submit to the uncertainty of constitutional elections.

Biblical prophecy seems to predict the rise of a strong global autocratic leader with the power to reign in civil liberties and enforce conformity to sinister policies in the pre-apocalyptic period. Whether democracy is the mechanism used by such a leader to gain control is unclear, what is clear is that the spirit of liberty and democracy evaporates during the time of their rule. Further predictions indicate that this sinister power isn't broken by free and fair elections, but by the arrival of a liberating army under the command of King Jesus Christ.

Democracy will be dead and the all the people of the world will live in peace and justice. Go figure.

Reigning Cats or Dogs?

We have two kittens, now about 5 months old. The girl is "Sam" and the boy is "Luigi" or "King Louis the 16th"(which had a ring to it, despite the tragic circumstances of said king's demise), depending on which side of the Italian/French border you prefer. In spite of such fascinating names, the cats are inevitably referred to as "the boy cat" or "the girl cat."

It has been said that "dogs have owners, and cats have staff." Nothing epitomizes this maxim more vividly than watching my son Michael's voluntary servitude to whatever might be the kitten's pleasure. Bob Sjogren, in his book "Cat & Dog Theology" expands on the comparison between cats and dogs to describe the importance of adopting an accurate perpective on the meaning of life.

Bob argues that you get "dog" and "cat" people. Dog people view life as follows: "He loves me, died for me and he answers when I call his name, He must be God!" Cat people think differently: "He loves me, died for me and he answers when I call his name. I must be God!"

For Cat Christians, the ultimate reason behind all existence is their own benefit and blessing. Nothing makes sense or is worth fighting for if it doesn't ultimately promote my interests. Cat Christians will endure terrible hardship at times, but all with the understanding, that in the end, their endurance will be vindicated with an even greater reward.

Cat Christians will even wear the trendy "It's not about me." T-shirt if they believe it presents an opportunity for God to trust them with "next-level" blessing.

What if it pleases God's glory to throw you under the wheels of the truck instead? What if you are the martyr whose blood will become the seed of the church? What if your uncanny suffering is destined to stand as a testimony to unseen accusers as recorded in the book of Job?

What about the generations of Israelites that would die languishing under Eqyptian slavery waiting for Moses to be born? Where was their big redemption? How about the missionary who watches her children die of malaria before her own life expires after battling tubercolosis? Is her faith somehow deficient? Can every Christian expect to come back with a knock out punch in the 15th round after falling behind on points? Like ants crossing a stream, some have to die to build a bridge for others, and ensure that progress continues. How often has the kingdom of God been halted in it's expansion to indulge the comforts of a self serving Christian?

I know that insane leaders and cruel tyrants have used this very logic to motivate the sacrifice of followers to their corrupt ends. However, if our Savior's defining hour was the cross, why should we be such strangers to hardship if we claim to be His followers?

I suffer from a severe case of Cat Christianity. Like lymphoma, it keeps manifesting everywhere. Drilling down to the core of my motivations is harrowing. Why after so many years in God's kingdom do I lack nobility of spirit?

Emergent writer, Brian McLaren, wrote about a root cause of self serving Christianity. He says that many Christians have a fundamental flaw in their make-up. They got into this thing because they wanted to escape hell. This begs the question: at what point should " I don't want to burn in hell." evolve into " I want to lay my life down for God's glory, no matter the cost"? People who desperately want to escape the flames are the least willing to run into burning buildings to save others.

Fear filled preaching about hell has triggered a self preservation motivation for getting saved. We need to saved from selfishness and self absorption. We aren't called to simply escape hell and go to heaven, we are called to be reconciled to our God, live for His glory, and serve others with the ministry of reconciliation, no matter the cost.