Surviving a Crisis | Work | Success | Family | Faith | Pain | Fear | Science and Theology
Surviving a crisis
I will never forget my sudden encounter with the Lancaster tornado in the middle of I-35 on April 3, 2012. Dallas weather is chaotic in spring. Even checking the WAPP weather app in advance couldn’t save me from the EF2 tornado. I was returning to Dallas from Waco around lunchtime. Suddenly the sky drew black and cars pulled over. It was midnight at noon. No time to do anything but run to the ditch and pray. I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. Lucky I was in the ditch and lucky for my car the storm moved east instead of due south. I will never forget watching that tornado throw tractor-trailers sky high like Tonka trucks.
The final grade in life is not decided by the severity or number of storms you encounter. Grades are based on how you survive them. Everyone in this world is a survivor.
Next time you are in a crowded airport, realize that you are surrounded by survivors. The best survivors understand the world is filled with adversity. They anticipate problems. When the storm appears, they center themselves for a moment and then adjust quickly. If things go south, they respond rather than react. Surprise doesn’t throw survivors off course. They know how to wait for the worst to be over. Even trouble has to take a break and they know how to take a break with it. Problems can overwhelm when they come in multiples.
Here is a short list of my methodology for problem solving in a crisis.
• Don’t panic. This is the hardest part. Wait for the initial shock to subside. Then you can see clearly to the next step. This is what the Army, Navy and Air Force teach their fighter pilots in Dunker training. They are strapped in and dunked to simulate a panic crash in water. They have a short time to figure out how to unstrap and get out alive. Watch it here.
• Maintain a central reference point. Don’t focus on the crisis itself. Focus on the next tiny step.
• Face the crisis squarely. Attack it creatively.
• Be bold in telling yourself “this problem once solved will be simple.” Never thought I’d say that about this tornado.
• Good problem solvers know they don’t need the final solution during the process. They are comfortable with ambiguity. They are patient.
• Assumptions are usually wrong because folks often look at a problem from only one or two angles. Every problem has at least twice as much information if not more available than we usually see.
• Remember what the old cowboy told the lost scout. “Ya didn’t go fer enuf”. Stunning how often folks come close to solving problems but they quit right before pay dirt. From a theological perspective, remember what Jesus’ brother James had to say. “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” (James 1:5)
WORK
My first introduction to work was a summer job at a calendar factory. Can you believe I got fired for taking one day off? Seriously though, summer jobs teach young folks an early success formula. Be on time and always give your 100%. Unless you are donating blood. And that’s what some companies want you to do! This is what drives people to go in search for the Triple Crown of Reward, Flexibility, and Satisfaction.
We are running hard to be free from the oppressive nature of many jobs. Is this realistic in a competitive modern society? It can be achieved with wisdom. “How blessed is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding. For its profit is better than the profit of silver, and its gain than fine gold. She is more precious than jewels; and nothing you desire compares with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace.” (Prov. 3:13-17)
Wisdom brings lots of financial and personal rewards even when the odds of the race are not in your favor. Odds like flat pay and insane bosses. Wisdom is the framework of judgment used to find a job or build a career that aids your race for the Triple Crown. Wisdom will lead you down a path to satisfaction.
But, wisdom requires discipline. It also begs for the obvious, a recognition of the Creator’s role in dispensing insight through His Word. Insight that is not available in the natural world. “This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.” (Josh. 1:8)
Meditation on God’s Word along with reading and thinking through the concepts behind your career requires discipline. This is where lots of folks are disqualified from the race. Strategies and ideas in your career demand the discipline of thought and analysis. But, supernatural inspiration and help exists in the Word of God. Wisdom acknowledges this supernatural source and listens. “Thy words were found, and I ate them, and thy words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I am called by thy name, O LORD, God of hosts.” (Jer. 15:16) Wisdom listens to God.
Wisdom also has methods. For one, it is patient and projects and compares likely scenarios from competing decisions before proceeding. Second, it understands time and timing. Wisdom knows when to stop and when to go. Third, wisdom abides with choice counselors. “Where there is no guidance, the people fall; but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.” (Prov. 11:14) In short, wisdom understands the treasures lurking in many different relationships.
The Bible is a book about having a successful relationship with God and other people. This is why Jesus’ most extensive sermon on relationships in (Matt. 5-7) is a treasure trove for success in the workplace. Think about it. What kind of people are the most enjoyable to work with? Naturally smart folks? Not necessarily. People, for the most part succeed in personal life and business not because they are naturally smart, but because they are well liked. Whether negotiating a contract, selling a product or serving an employer, wisdom will guide your behavior and judgment.
Do you want the Triple Crown? Reward? Flexibility? Satisfaction? Make wisdom, Biblical wisdom, the centerpiece of your life.
Success
Milton Berle used to say that no man is a success until his mother-in-law admits it. Every woman is a success unless she says otherwise and don’t you forget it! Success is an uncanny ability to make your tomorrows greater than today. It is an unending progressive improvement of what is true today about your character, abilities, quality of life, confidence, maturity, knowledge, wisdom and more. Your future is not guaranteed as your life hangs in the balance of many things out of your control. But, the present moment is guaranteed and it is valuable. A successful person knows this. A successful person designs life with the idea of growth as a priority every day at every time in life.
Here is a compendium of my conclusions about keys to the general qualities of success.
After 35 years of working in the business, dental, and medical professions as a financial advisor, I suggest four lessons worth remembering.
• Successful folks view setbacks as momentary events and not lifelong epidemics. The worst lie to hang your life on is to confuse a single event as a theme for the rest of your life. In his rookie debut for the Cincinnati Reds, Jim Greengrass hit four doubles and won the game 9-8. Hardly anyone remembers the name “Jim Greengrass.” Conversely, Hank Aaron’s rookie debut was horrific. He went 0-5. Dismal performance. But, Hammerin’ Hank ended up in the MLB hall of fame. Hank Aaron held the MLB record for career home runs for thirty-three years uninterrupted. Failures are isolated incidents.
• Have confidence in your strengths and rely on faith for your weaknesses. Golf is the teacher here. Successful Hank Aaron said, “It took me 17 years to get 3000 hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course.” Just get on the green any way you can and after you’re there don’t do anything to mess it up.
• Stick to your core business or core calling. Enjoy your unique ability and be comfortable with your limitations. Don’t chase satellite ideas. I’ve seen many people waste time, money and energy on satellites. That same time, money and energy spent on the core could lead to success in a shorter period of time.
• Understand the supreme importance and supreme value of a first decision in any new relationship, business, or venture. Take time with first decisions. All other decisions follow the lead decision. This insight will keep you going in the right direction and it will keep you off roads you shouldn’t travel.
Family
Family is who you circle the wagons with in storms and break out the beach chairs with rainbows. Trials and triumphs. God has given each family member freedom to insert what they wish into the family weather scene. Not everyone is in the same weather pattern at the same time. We have wonderful family memories by water. Our home swimming pool. The beach in Gulf Shores. The beach at Lake Athens. The beach in Cancun. While raising three creative and vivacious children I often searched deep within for the key to sail through all the weather patterns and deliver our family safely to shore. The key is one word. Love. “Love is patient. Love is kind.” (1 Cor. 13:4). “Forgive as the Lord forgave you and . . . put on love.” (Col. 3:13-14). Easier said than done? Yes, and so God came to show us.
My favorite moment in all of the Bible happened at a breakfast on a beach.
This moment happened for all of us. All of the theology of the Bible is captured and displayed in this one pivotal transforming moment. The breakfast is recorded by the Apostle John in his gospel in John 21 and referred to by Simon Peter when he spoke before a Roman Centurion, his family and a large gathering of many people (Acts 10:24-41).
The beauty of this early morning breakfast is the vivid reversal of sorrow that takes place in the presence of a resurrected human being, Jesus Christ. Just days prior, seven of Jesus’ closest followers are overwhelmed with recent catastrophic events. The kind of events no one should witness or live through. So, they go fishing all night close to shore. They hear a man calling out if they have caught anything. When told no, he tells them to try again, and they catch so many fish their nets are breaking. John recognizes Jesus and Peter jumps in the lake swimming to shore. When the others arrive, there is a fire of burning coals with fish on it and Jesus says, “Come and have breakfast.” Forget about how these men ran and betrayed him at his trial. “Come and have breakfast.” Here is Jesus Christ risen from the dead cooking breakfast for all the men that deserted him at his time of greatest need.
Love is patient. Love is kind. Whenever I was an imperfect dad, which was all the time, I thought, “I’m cooking dinner for the family.” Sometimes it was breakfast. Whenever I didn’t get it right as a parent for my kids, I thought, “I’m having dinner or lunch or breakfast with them just to be present.” No response needed. No response necessary. Come have breakfast. It’s what the God of heaven has done and does for me and you. My life changed many years ago when I realized who God is. He’s standing on a beach. Waiting for us. Cooking our breakfast. That’s love. The kind of love that transforms everything that’s wrong with this world or everything that might be wrong in our lives, our families. No response needed. No response necessary. Everyone imperfect bonded together by love. Nothing can separate a family bonded by love.
Faith
“… is the conviction of things not seen.” (Heb. 11:1) This applies to scientists who stretch beyond scientific method into philosophical speculation in the attempt to complete their uncompleted theories. Nothing wrong with that exercise except when the speculation is called science instead of philosophy. Such is the case for Stephen Hawking’s Grand Design theory of which there is no experimental verifiable proof, which is why he has not won the Nobel Prize. Much has been written by scientists and academics on the atheistic philosophical assumptions of Hawking.
In the same way, faith in God is criticized by atheists for lack of material proof. But, the Bible tells us that God is not reduced in size to the dimensional restrictions atheists search in. “And Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, ‘Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things; and He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist.’ ” (Acts 17:22-28).
Hugh Ross, who earned his PhD in Astronomy from the University of Toronto, compares the gap between the nature of man and the nature of God to the gap between us and the two-dimensional figures on our computer screens.
We are three-dimensional creatures. Could the two dimensional screen people be aware of us when we bring our finger close to the screen? No, because they lack the third dimension of depth which contains all the brain cells and molecular structure that goes with it. Look at the vast difference one dimension makes! Ross discusses in his book “Beyond the Cosmos,” how the latest work in super symmetry and string theories leads one to understand the Creator’s existence in extra dimensions. Ross argues that God’s existence and operation at a minimum is in the eleventh dimension, (Ross, Hugh, Beyond the Cosmos, Colorado Springs, Co.: NavPress, 1996, p. 77).
What can be performed from an eleventh dimension or higher is much greater than can be performed in three or four. Jesus Christ was God coming from his domain at the right hand of the Father into our restricted dimensional world. “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” (John 14:9). In a chance meeting at a water well, a Samaritan woman asked him, “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:12-14) That’s eternal joy and satisfaction only God can give.
The New Testament is the written record of Christian faith. How can we be sure of its truth and accuracy? I left off the first part of Heb. 11:1 at the start. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” One of the “seen” and sure facts about Christian faith is the voluminous nature of early New Testament documentation. The testimonies of witnesses who came face to face with Jesus Christ before and after his death, burial, and resurrection are recorded in thousands of manuscripts. Dr. Daniel Wallace is Senior Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. He serves as executive director of the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM). “As far as Greek manuscripts, over 5800 have been catalogued. The New Testament was translated early on into several other languages as well, such as Latin, Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Gothic, etc. The total number of these versional witnesses has not been counted yet, but it certainly numbers in the tens of thousands.
At the same time, it should be pointed out that most of our manuscripts come from the second millennium AD, and most of our manuscripts do not include the whole New Testament. A fragment of just a verse or two still counts as a manuscript. And yet, the average size for a NT manuscript is more than 450 pages. At the other end of the data pool are the quotations of the NT by church fathers. To date, more than one million quotations of the NT by the church fathers have been tabulated. These fathers come from as early as the late first century all the way to the middle ages.” See the rest of the interview here.
PAIN
Pain is the most debilitating of all setbacks. Especially back pain or knee pain. Everything else grinds to a halt. Nothing matters but relief. Fear that the pain will never end haunts you like a ghost, especially at night.
The worst physical pain I’ve encountered is traumatic back pain. A 9 mm-herniated disc at C7 stopped me in my tracks for six months in 2009. I could barely walk, sit or sleep. I thought the nerve in my left arm was plugged into a light socket. Can’t even think about work much less function.
I was begging God for mercy. Painkillers were like a tack hammer on the pyramids of Egypt. The Internet told me to do spinal decompression. Hang upside down. Stretch the vertebrate. Hang upside down every night for the rest of my life? Never heard of such a thing. Found a PT who gave me a neck-stretching machine. I’ve been in a lot of odd situations, but not one where I’m on the floor with my head in a clamp pumping this machine to stretch my neck. My new heroes were the long necked Burmese women wearing all those brass rings. The PT told me I should get an opinion from a surgeon. “What’s the risk?,” I asked. “You may never swallow again.” That’s easy! Back to the neck stretcher with visions of Burmese women and their long necks! The steroid shot helped. But, religiously decompressing the neck for six months put me on the path to permanent healing which was complete after about one year. Pain was all gone after a year of consistent spinal decompression which the surgeon said would not work.
More importantly, the Bible gave me wisdom on how to survive pain. 2 Cor. 4:16-17 has helped me through a wide variety of pain episodes. “Therefore we do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Co 4:16-17) What caught my attention here was “light and momentary troubles.” Trouble like pain can only exist in a moment. Moments fly off giving way to the next moment, which may or may not have pain. Pain can end in a moment just like it begins in a moment. Relief is down the road in some future moment because most back pain and knee pain is tissue related. In many cases you can forget about the joint and focus on the tissue. This is also true of hip pain. I found this site very helpful. Always pursue nonsurgical advice first.
FEAR
Fear came in a flash during the spring of 2014 on a solo morning bike ride in Athens, Texas. What beauty one sees in the East Texas foliage along with the occasional surprise of a country dog longing for company with your leg and your spokes. Weather was ideal that day because it was partly cloudy, breezy and of course, no dogs and no cars were on the road, I thought. Finishing an S curve, I thought it strange that a small jet was landing behind me. The sound of rushing wind built to a crescendo. Never heard anything like that before. Jets don’t land behind bike riders do they? A quick glance over my left shoulder and there was a white Dodge Dually spun out in the ditch. It was everything he could do to stop before running over me.
I think that is the closest I’ve been to dead. I was stunned for days. That was too close. What’s worse than an experience like this is when the demon actually catches you and then doesn’t let go.
Five unrelated incidents happened in my life where the demon caught me and didn’t let go for a long time. That’s why I must say something about fear.
I have tasted it. And thankfully, I was rescued in all five of these scenarios. Five amazing times. None of them ended quickly. Just like the young boy and his desperate father in Mark 9:22-24. “A man in the crowd answered, "Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not. Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?" "From childhood," he answered. "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us." "'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for one who believes." Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"
There are any number of events in life that seize you and overwhelm you. I am referring to occasions where deliverance is nowhere in sight. Like an east Texas dog or a Dodge Dually, chaos strikes quickly. You are trapped unless someone or something more powerful than the threat intervenes. I think that happened for me with the Dodge. I know it did in my greatest trials.
Fear has picked distinctive occasions to knock on my door. So, I know the intensity of this boy and his father in Mark 9. But, here is my great hope for you who read what I share. There are only seven words you have to know when any overwhelming force invades your life. Just seven. And you must know who said them. Doesn’t work with anyone else. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”
On my knees alone in his presence have I thrust my life in his hands. I let Him carry me. The possibilities of Christian faith are unlimited. Unrestricted. Why? Because of “the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that do not exist.” (Rom 4:17) That’s the gospel. God signals to this world that everything wrong, sinister and scary can be and ultimately one day will be reversed if you trust Him.
Science and Theology
The following letter was my response to a 1999 Dallas Morning News column by Tom Siegfred on the origins of the universe. The News did not publish my response, but I share it here and also add these updated thoughts about science and theology.
Response to Tom Siegfred’s Column
“Scientist, Theologians Trade Question Marks”
The Dallas Morning News 4/29/99
By Stephen N. Blaising
Reading Tom Siegfred’s story in the April 23, 1999, edition of your section on the origins of the universe reminded me of some of the serious problems with neo-Darwinism, specifically the belief that evolution alters development by changing genetic programs. That’s not necessarily the case. The molecular biologist, Jonathan Wells, in a recent survey of the data shows that more questions are raised than the ones supposedly answered. His work can be found in chapter 2 of Mere Creation: Science, Faith and Intelligent Design. Ed. William A. Dembski, IVP, 1998.
Proof of neo-Darwinism is claimed in an article by Jonathan Weiner in the May 8, 1994 issue of The New York Times Sunday Magazine, titled “The Handy Dandy Evolution Prover.” The hard-core evidence Weiner found to prove evolution was the size change of beaks on a finch species who were wiped out by a drought. His work on finch beak variation does not document or prove the changes he and other neo-Darwinists desperately seek between single-celled microbes and complex animals.
Evolutionists say the fossil record offers evidence that evolution has occurred. But fossil evidence shows that species are remarkably stable over long periods of time. New forms appear abruptly and there is no evidence of the exact steps by which simple organisms develop new complex adaptions.
What’s amusing is to consider the ultimate source of evolutionary viewpoints consistent with the theory. Featureless gas. Francis Crick, the biochemist and co-discoverer of the structure of DNA admits this in his 1994 book, The Astonishing Hypothesis. “The astonishing hypothesis is that ‘You’, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.” What would Crick’s publisher say if Crick proposed to make the following statement at the beginning of his book by stating his hypothesis in the first person singular. “I, Francis Crick, my opinions and my science and even the thoughts expressed in this book, have been derived from nothing more than an assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules.” Hence, the source of these theories is an accidental by-product of the “primordial subatomic soup.” Beyond this, we must recognize that theories like the Big Bang, the blind watchmaker and Stephen Hawking’s “theory of everything” are unproven and at this point cannot be proven because the experiments would require energy levels that cannot be produced on earth. As brilliant as he is, it is also the reason Hawking has not won a Nobel Prize in science.
Scientists differ considerably in every component needed to construct an evolutionary theory they can all agree with. Even if it is constructed, the question remains whether all of the evidence collected to date favors a universe derived from featureless gas or intelligent design.
No matter how many arguments evolutionary scientists make about observable proofs because of what they see in peppered moths, three-toed Skinks, crabs and mussels, cane toads or Italian wall lizards, I have yet to see any gorillas interviewed in a bar. I am sure CNN will take us there with breaking news.
Seriously though, the question is how can the aggregation of millions of individually unconscious neurons develop into conscious life?
How did the technicians who built and designed Stephen Hawking’s techno famed wheelchair arise from soggy grey matter? Does theism offer a more rational explanation or Darwinian evolution? Induction produces a great big pile of facts and generalizations. But, to what extent does a scientist have a preset notion or belief in advance of his or her observations?
Very little attention is brought to bear on the philosophical assumptions any scientist brings to the lab. Methodological naturalism is a predominant approach for many scientists today. It is an atheism that believes there are no limits to knowledge available by means of the natural world. Science objectively viewed is a wrestling with first order data when it exists. Oftentimes the experiment involves second order or third order data, but I digress. Everyone is interested in good data. But, it’s how we read whatever data we have that we argue about. Methodological naturalism is the philosophical lens used by many scientists to observe and read the data. It can lead to conclusions that are not scientific.
Anthony Flew was the leading atheist of the late 20th century. In his book, There is A God, written in 2007, Flew thought long and hard about the laws of nature before he changed his mind to God. He interacts regularly with atheist Richard Dawkins on his philosophical approach. Flew’s conclusion was that the laws of nature are so precise that there must be a supreme design of logic. In the end, the question is how could we have natural laws that drive featureless gas to intelligence? Where do the laws of physics come from? Featureless gas?
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