Squiggly Image

"Oh, this one's going to be hard..."

Years ago, my family was playing a game of Pictionary with some friends from church, and it was my son Christopher's turn to do the drawing.  Pictionary is a guessing game that is similar to charades, where one person draws pictures to provide clues to a secret word or phrase that others must guess correctly as quickly as possible.  As an example, if the word is "chicken", the person who knows the word will try to draw a chicken, while the others blurt out what they think is being drawn until someone says "chicken!".  Sometimes the word or phrase is easy (most people know how to draw a chicken), but others can be practically impossible, and requires all the creativity and imagination that one can muster.  It appeared that my son would have to pull out some trick out of his sleeves for this one.

Tension filled the air as the timer went off.  Suddenly my son's eyes brightened as he approached the large piece of paper.  He drew what looked like a canoe.

"A boat!  No, a ship...a dinghy...an aircraft carrier!"  I started to yell mindlessly as the little vessel started to take shape.

He shook his head, and kept drawing.  Now he started to draw what appeared to be a person on the boat.

"Man on the boat...a sailor!  No, pirate?  Captain Hook?"

No luck so far, and the timer ticked on.  What could it possibly be?  Meanwhile, my son started to put some squiggly hair on the person's head, and drew a hat on top.

"George Washington!"

My son stopped drawing and fist-pumped into the air.  "Yes!  You got it!"

The air stood still for a second before everyone else in the room let out a collective gasp of shock and awe.  It seemed beyond understanding how I could correctly guess the words "George Washington" from the drawing of a person with squiggly hair and a hat standing on a boat.

"It wasn't that hard to figure out.  Chris was drawing Washington crossing the Delaware!"

It just happened that my son and I recently saw a reproduction of that famous 1851 Emanuel Leutze painting.  Chris' rendition of the man on the boat was not much closer to George Washington than Peter Pan or Alice in Wonderland, but a little intuition led me to the proper conclusion.  It was, albeit an imprecise one, an image of the first President of the United States of America.

In a way, we are all somewhat imprecise images.  On the sixth day of creation, when God created man, it was written,

So God created man in his own image
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them (Genesis 1:27)

Sometimes it's hard to imagine that there is much in us that reflects God in any way.  We are blemished, selfish, arrogant, shameful and without self control.  Some of us are tall, short, fat, skinny, funny looking or without fashion sense.  A well known pastor has often said that if you don't think that God has a sense of humor, just look at all the people around us.

Yet, despite all our shortcomings, each of us still bears God's communicable attributes.  God is beautiful and creative, and we enjoy the beauty of His creation.  God is righteous, and our conscience tells us what is right and wrong.  God is the source of life, and we value life and admire those who save lives.  God is community as a triune Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and we are made not to be alone, but to live with those we love.

May we always remember to live our days as if we are created in God's image, though we may appear only as little squiggly lines when compared to our Creator.  May we also value each and every person, regardless of what we see, as someone who also bears His image in an unique way.

The Bucket List

The clinic corridor was buzzing with curiosity as a small crowd gathered around two doctors who just returned from a three-week vacation to South Africa. The doctors, a pediatric cardiologist and a pediatric oncologist, decided to take a once-in-a-lifetime trip together, during which they spent many hours in the various wildlife preserves, saw innumerable large mammals, and tracked down the “big five”, i.e., the elephant, the lion, the leopard, the rhinoceros, and the Cape buffalo, with their guide in open-air Land Rovers. The excitement reached a climax as they recounted how they got dangerously close to a rhinoceros that nearly charged at them, and a voice in the group chided the surviving travelers for putting the clinic at risk of losing two doctors on the same day. Another pediatrician, who also took a similar vacation a few years ago, exclaimed that every person needs to take this trip at least once in his or her lifetime, and the returning adventurers heartily agreed. In other words, an African safari is on their “bucket list”.

Bucket lists, that is, lists of items to check off before one dies (kicks the bucket), have become quite popular nowadays. There are books on places to visit before you die, restaurants to eat at before you die, and in a recent issue of an endurance sports magazine, I even saw a bucket list of events for hardcore runners...let's see how many I can check off:

Boston Marathon – check...did it in 2007

Comrades Marathon in South Africa – 56 miles...probably doable if I don't get too old...maybe in a few years?

Western States Endurance Run – 100 miles in the mountains? I'm not good with directions, so it will probably turn into 150 miles...forget it....

Seriously, you can't always take these lists too seriously.

Do I have a “bucket” list? Well, not exactly, but I do hope to someday see Alaska, be on a cruise, go to Europe, have grandchildren, and finish a triathlon. However, experiencing the awesome, majestic presence of the holy God would be on the short list if I have one. It was certainly highly endorsed by king David long ago:

One thing I ask of the LORD,

this is what I seek:

that I may dwell in the house of the LORD

all the days of my life,

to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD

and to seek him in his temple

(Psalm 27:4)

Better is one day in your courts

than a thousand elsewhere;

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God

than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

(Psalm 84:10)

Would I rather be in the house of the LORD, or be charged by an angry rhino in South Africa? One experience is bound to be life-changing, while the other is potentially life-ending. There is no comparison.

Running Unhindered

Runners tend to be a competitive lot. They want to outrun their friends, outrun their training partners, outrun their adversaries, and hopefully set PRs, or personal records, i.e., the fastest times ever for themselves at a particular distance. As I prepare for my 21^st marathon in a couple of weeks, I recognize that my PR days for the 26.2 mile distance (actually, 26.21875 miles, but who's counting?) are essentially over, as I am gradually getting slower with age, and that it takes many hours of training each week simply to maintain my current level of fitness. However, I continue to seek every possible advantage on race day to hopefully shave a few minutes or seconds off my time. I try to stay well hydrated during the days leading up to the race, watch what I eat, try my best not to get sick by washing my hands extra diligently, and get extra sleep. Most of all, I try to run as light as possible.

Studies have shown that most people will run noticeably faster if they lose excess weight, at least up to a certain point. If you don't believe this, try and run around the block with a couple of 10-pound dumbbells in your hands, and you will definitely not run as fast. I am about 5 ft 7 inches in height, and I normally will try to wake up on race morning weighing in at about 135 pounds, fully hydrated and carbo-loaded. This is my ideal racing weight based on experience, since excess weight will slow me down, and any further weight loss likely will mean that I am dehydrated and/or depleted.

Not only do I avoid carrying excess weight inside my love handles, I also try to carry as little weight as possible on me during races. I wear a quick-drying, lightweight polyester singlet (kind of like a tank top), the shortest, thinnest pair of shorts that doesn't get me arrested for lewdness, no-show socks, the lightest pair of running shoes that I can wear without causing injury, and my car key. I may not be fast, but I at least try to look the part. On the other hand, you can always spot the back-of-the-pack participants who plan to walk their 26.2 miles. They dress in layers, carry large bottles of sports drinks, pin several packages of energy gels and bars to their waists, are armed with cell phones and cameras, and are busy eating bananas and bagels to fortify themselves for the journey. Many carry backpacks. It is hard to be fast while collapsing under all that weight.

Similarly, our spiritual journey is often compared to a race, and in our pursuit of God's plans for our lives, we often weigh ourselves down with cares that hinder us. These may be material possessions (a larger house equals a bigger mortgage payment), misdirected passions (as an extreme example, there is a man whose sole purpose in life is to visit every Starbucks Coffee store), anxieties (oh, no, the Dodgers missed the playoffs), and fear. Each of us carry unnecessary burdens, and will feel relief by casting away some of these cares. In my case, I have discovered that this journey through life has become considerably less hectic after I intentionally neglect to check Facebook updates, receive live e-mail inbox notifications, follow up-to-the-minute stock market reports, and keep up with all the celebrities who are in drug rehab, and I only bother to check up on my beloved UCLA Bruins football team AFTER the games (they are playing lowly Washington State as I am typing this...if the Bruins lose I'll having something else to write about). The resulting freedom is quite liberating.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Hebrews 12:1)