Jeff Adams

In discussing the perils of having to hide from certain friends on FaceBook, a friend and I had a synergistic moment. What would it look like if the Psalms were written in the context of today’s communication technology and social networking? Maybe it would look something like this. The contrast is particularly stark with the KJV.

(Psalms 27:9) Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.

= God! Don’t Un-Friend me!

(Psalms 69:17) And hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.

= Need help! C me in chat room NOW!

(Psalms 102:2) Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily.

= When u c my name on Caller ID, ANSWER!

(Psalms 143:7) Hear me speedily, O LORD: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.

= Sending email with details. Get back to me ASAP.

(Psalms 126:2) Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them.

= LOL!!! Can’t wait to post what you did for me!

Not quite as elegant as the Queen’s English, but I’m just saying that God also understands our language. You might be able to come up with some better examples.

British Petroleum is not on my list of favorite companies. They do not impress with what little I have seen of their policies and corporate attitudes.

Today, BP chief executive Tony Hayward announced he would step down effective October 1. This is the man who was quoted as saying in the face of the worst oil spill in US history, “I just want my life back.” No matter the context, those words infuriated the families of eleven people who died in the initial explosion and the thousands whose lives have been horribly affected. The man who jetted back to Great Britain for a yacht race while others scrambled to contain the oil leak has said that he was “demonized and vilified.” Hopefully, the over $18 million severance package he walks away with will comfort him somewhat as BP stock falls and thousands of Gulf residents deal with the horrible economic repercussions.

Few would argue that Hayward’s words were wise, regardless of whether or not they were taken out of context. As one who has made his share of major gaffes, I don’t want to be overly critical of making a stupid statement at precisely the wrong time.

What I am reminded of is the amazing practicality and truth of the Hebrew proverbs. Hayward’s statement has single-handedly motivated me to set a goal next year of reading a chapter of Proverbs every day. I have done that before and anxiously await doing it again in addition to my regular Bible reading schedule.

Here’s an example of an applicable proverb.

The heart of the righteous studieth to answer: but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things. (Proverbs 15:28)

Our words weigh much more than we imagine. Though I have been guilty many times of violating this principle, this current event impresses upon me anew the importance of measuring my words.

I want to be careful, however, not to simply focus on the negative of keeping my mouth shut when my words would be inappropriate. My prayer is that God would guide me to use my words for the benefit of others. Again, there is a proverb for this.

A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it! (Proverbs 15:23)

OK, whew! Give me a second to catch my breath. I need to finish processing this. Let’s see. Germany walks all over Argentina 4 to 0. I was just sitting down to take it all in when Germany scores in the third minute! It was crazy!

Then, Paraguay holds off the Red machine of Spain until the very end before going down 1 to 0 with great dignity. They left everything on the field.

All I can say it that I’m glad they give us a couple of days off to catch our breath, think, process, eat, drink, etc. Oh yeah, time for some fireworks here in the USA. The real fireworks start again Tuesday.

What a rich mixture of cultures in the World Cup! And, the multi-cultural setting of South Africa is icing on the cake. Culture fascinates me! Just a few days ago I mentioned our last new member reception with at least half a dozen cultures represented in my living room.

What does the Bible have to say about cultures? What do cultures have to with The Mission? That’s on our agenda tomorrow morning as we celebrate the 4th of July and press on in our study of  The Mission.

Dutch meet Brazil

I’ve tried to be good and refrain from too much commentary on the World Cup. Sorry, but I just have to vent a bit. I’ve been in a state of shock since the Dutch beat the Brazilians today. Don’t get me wrong, the Netherlands plays some great football, but Brazil is always a safe choice to go all the way to the finals. This Cup has had some strange twists. I have some wonderful Brazilian friends and I send all of you my condolences. But, I have to admit a bit of pride. Ik  ben Nederlands op de Zijde van mijn moeder (I’m Dutch on my mother’s side).

Now, here is my dilemma. Of the countries remaining, I love them all. I have close friends in all of them. I would sincerely be thrilled for any of them to win. Can’t they just all win? A good case can be made that they are all winners for having made it this far. Indeed, just to make it to the tournament after two years of elimination rounds is elite status in itself.

I find it hilarious to see some of my Latino friends changing their Facebook profile photo almost daily with the colors or flags of the countries they want to win. I just saw a German flag pop up on a Salvadoran’s page today. That must mean he wants Germany to beat Argentina so that Spain won’t have to face Argentina, or something like that. A German friend’s profile had a German flag painted on her cheek. Today, a new photo showed off the German flag colors as hair extensions. I don’t usually have much time to read the status updates of over 1200 FaceBook friends, but I confess that I’m addicted to seeing the pain, the anguish, the joy and elation of fans in response to their teams.

Look, the USA has the Super Bowl, March Madness, the World Series and all of that. This is the moment for the rest of the world to go crazy.

Here’s one of my greatest World Cup moments of 2010. A friend was in attendance for a Royals vs. Cardinals games here at the K on the same Saturday that the USA played Ghana in the World Cup. When KC plays St. Louis, our stadium overflows with excited fans. That day, my friend reported that he was amazed how many baseball fans were watching the World Cup on their smart phones. Additionally, the Cup game was being broadcast on the TV monitors in the concession areas of the stadium.  When the US scored, he said you could actually hear a small roar in the stadium. No way that would have happened 20 years ago. A faint hope burns in my heart.

I’m not sure if you know who Seth Godin is, but I enjoy reading his blogmail (He wrote Linchpin among other works). Here’s a thought he had recently that got me thinking.

What would happen if you were prohibited from working more than five hours a day? What would you do? How would you use those five hours to become indispensable in a different way?

For those of us who are full-fledged or borderline workaholics, that’s quite an interesting thought. No matter what we say, we seem to convey the idea that we are invaluable by virtue of the fact we work so many hours. The more we work, the more tempting it is to imagine that we are successful. There’s nothing wrong with hard work, of course, but are hard work and long hours alone the measure of our effectiveness?

The problem with using time as your lever for success is that it doesn’t scale very well. 20 hours a day at work is not twice as good as 18, and you certainly can’t go much beyond 24…

Hmmmm. So how would you spend your time if you could only work five hours a day and no more?