To help us white folks “get it” with respect to some of the racial tension, please see what my long-time friend Clarence Shuler has to say:

Clarence is a nationally known, well-received, Bible-based speaker who does marriage retreats as well as racial reconciliation conferences. Here’s some of what he wrote recently:

Pastor Andy Stanley did an outstanding job of discussing the racial tension in America. I’m so Blessed by Andy and other pastors, who have the courage and wisdom to pause their regular sermon series to discuss in detail the racial tension in America as it really is and what our biblical response should be. Andy challenges Christians to take action. Here’s the link to God’s incredible word through one of His servants. – Clarence Shuler, July 2020

I recommend you listen to Andy’s sermon in its entirety – it’s less than 30 minutes. Here are a few of my takeaways. Again, I recommend you listen to the sermon.

• Facts aren’t fair, facts don’t care. No change has occurred by citing facts. e.g., most white people are afraid of black men. It’s not fair. Most black people are afraid of police. However, the difference is, most white people’s fear of black men is NOT based on personal experience, while black people have personal experience with being stopped by police, often for no reason, as I’ve written about before.
• Facts don’t move us forward; experience does.
• Preaching this subject is easy if you are in an extreme left or an extreme right church. But very little gets done from the extremes. It’s the messy middle where things have to be worked out.
• How do people who don’t look like me perceive me? How SHOULD people who don’t look like me perceive me?
• Jesus calls us to a new standard: love one another as I have loved you. And his followers were very diverse. E.g., Simon the zealot and Matthew the tax collector. Love requires bearing each other’s burdens. Galatians 6:2: Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
• Proximity does not equal friendship. Do I have black friends? 
• It’s not enough to be non-racist; we must be anti-racist.

Here is a bit more of Clarence Shuler’s perspective. Remember, he lives it day in, day out:

Andy Stanley suggests standing in the pain of someone before offering to do anything. 1 Corinthians 12:26 says, “If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.” If we don’t take the time to try to understand a wounded person or group of people, then, how can we reflect the love of God to an individual or a group? 

Sadly, some pastors are promoting their political views, with no grace, and in the process are demeaning certain cultures and races. Some are blaming everything on the depravity of man, which is an easy way not to deal with the messy, but biblical issue of injustice. These pastors may be impeding Christ-followers from imitating Jesus in regards to responding to injustice (Proverbs 31:8-9 & Luke 4:18). Godly leaders must address injustice. God does in the Old and New Testament. – Clarence Shuler, July 2020

Clarence also sent a link to an 11-minute video of black believers talking about their experiences and making recommendations. I found it to be a good application of Andy Stanley’s suggestion to “stand in the pain of someone…”

After I listened to Andy’s sermon, I was reviewing some scripture and this one seemed to reinforce some of what Andy said:

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of … love… (2 Timothy 1.7)

As I was preparing remarks for my friend Colonel Don “Crusher” Craigie’s memorial, it occurred to me that it’s important to remember that God values warriors. Consider:

• God is referred to in scripture as a warrior: But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior… (Jeremiah 20.11, NIV)
• One of the last pictures we have of Jesus is as a warrior.

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. (Revelation 19.11 – 14, ESV)

• Many of God’s key men were warriors:
  • Abraham led his men on an armed mission to rescue Lot. (Genesis 14.11 – 16)
  • Joshua was a general who led a series of campaigns to capture the promised land.
  • Gideon (and most of the judges) led the Israelites to conquer their oppressors.
  • David, of course, was a warrior demonstrated first in his defeat of Goliath. (1 Samuel 17.31 – 49)
  • A significant chunk of scripture is devoted to Davd’s mighty men. (1 Chronicles 11:10 – 12:22)
  • The first recorded Gentile convert was Cornelius, a Roman centurion. (Acts 10)

My friend Colonel Craigie was a warrior, and it was my honor to serve with him.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. (Ephesians 6.10 – 18, ESV)

It’s been a year of losses, maybe because we’re getting older, but my good friend Don (“Crusher”) Craigie, Colonel, USAF, Retired, wasn’t that old. He was in the Air Force Academy class of 1966, just two years ahead of my graduating from Clemson. Don passed away yesterday, July 22, 2020, after a long illness. June and I had tried to visit shortly after Father’s Day, but he was too sick to receive us. He fell shortly thereafter and was in one hospital or another until his earthly end came.

Don came to Space Command in late 1984 as the Air Training Command representative. In 1986, he and I headed up the development of Undergraduate Space Training (which still lives after over 30 years). Here’s a snippet of the official history that I just discovered with Don and me in the same sentence:

The Training Development Office, referred to above, was in Building 845 at Peterson AFB. At the time, there was another unit there, headed by Lt Col Rhip Worrell. People referred to us as “Crusher, Ripper, and Dr. Bob.”

Don was one of the rare senior officers who could both get things done AND was a nice guy. Most are good at one or the other. Don was both mission-oriented and people-oriented. A strong believer, Don was active in his church until the end.

Ours was not only a professional relationship but a personal one. When he was first assigned to Colorado Springs, he came solo and spent many hours with our family. We have fond memories of his lying on the floor playing with our youngest son, David, who was only four at the time. He used to take our oldest son, Mark, hunting. Later, when he was transferred to Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma, his son, Todd, who was five months from high school graduation, lived with us from January to May 1988. Todd still feels like one of ours. Don was at my combination 40th birthday and promotion to Lieutenant Colonel party, my 70th birthday party, and, as in the picture above, our 50th-anniversary party.

Our oldest son, Mark, sent this to Don’s son Todd:

He will remembered for the amazing person he was and for all the great times we had with him.

We loved him and have lost a member of our extended family. Rest in peace, my brother.

This is an account of David’s mighty men… (1 Chronicles 11.11, ESV)

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. (Psalm 116.15, ESV)

We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5.6, NKJV)

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. (1 Thessalonians 4.13, NIV)

Continuing a quick series on what people I trust are writing about racism, here’s an article by Marvin Olasky, editor-in-chief of WORLD Magazine, a Conservative Christian news magazine, dean of the World Journalism Institute, and the author of 26 books including Fighting for Liberty and Virtue and The Tragedy of American Compassion. I commend to you the whole article in which he’s responding to his conservative readership who apparently disagreed with something nice Marvin had said about Floyd George. Here are a few snippets:

I’d challenge your characterization of him as a “thug”: Floyd came out of prison in 2013 and by some accounts was a changed man over the next seven years.

Does it matter that Floyd grew up in Houston’s Third Ward in the Cuney Homes housing project…? Does it matter that he was more than 6 feet tall in middle school and didn’t get much of an education except in football and basketball, so when he wasn’t good enough to go pro he wasn’t trained in anything? … Floyd after prison volunteered with Resurrection Houston church, which held many services on the Cuney Homes basketball court. Does it matter that he apparently set up chairs and a bathtub on the court for baptisms, and went door to door with Pastor Patrick Ngwolo, letting residents know about Bible studies and grocery deliveries?

I have read about the century of racism that contributed to the Third Ward and many other wards becoming tough places. I oppose the politics and philosophy of the Black Lives Matter organization, but books I’ve reviewed in WORLD show that for a long time black lives didn’t matter, much, in the eyes of many whites. You might read Douglas Blackmon’s Slavery by Another Name, which shows the virtual post-Reconstruction re-enslavement of sharecroppers and others, and David Oshinsky’s Worse Than Slavery, which describes Jim Crow justice. Concerning recent years, Jason Riley’s Please Stop Helping Us shows How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed. -Marvin Olasky, July 16, 2020, in World Magazine.

Marvin goes on to write about what George Floyd might have become had he been given a second chance. Again, you can read the whole article here.

I think sometimes we forget that we were all saved by grace.

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2.1 – 5, NIV, emphasis mine)

[Peter said, ] “No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we [good, religious Jewish people] are saved, just as they are.” (Acts 15.11, NIV)

Then his master summoned him and said to him, “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. (Matthew 18.32 – 35, ESV)

From time to time I’ve tried to draw our attention to the racial issues confronting us. I like it when others are doing the same thing: helping those of us who are white to see the other side.

My friend and fellow-Navigator Bill Mowry wrote about what he is learning from two black friends and the prophet Amos. Here’s a snippet:

Dean [an African-American friend of Bill’s in his late 50s] would be routinely stopped as he drove through a wealthy white neighborhood. His wife, who was white, drove the same car on the same streets but was never stopped. I now saw racism through the eyes of a friend. Something seems wrong when people are treated as racial stereotypes.

Clarence was a young African-American pastor in my leadership network. In a casual conversation one day, he said that he just had “the talk” with his young sons. I cracked a joke about the “birds and the bees talk” but he said this talk was on another subject. “I explained to them to that they should keep their hands in their pockets when entering a store. People would quickly accuse them of shoplifting. Black males are not always welcomed in a lot of stores,” he said.

I never had a conversation like this with my two sons. Something seems wrong when people are treated as racial stereotypes. – Bill Mowry, 
https://alongsider.com/2020/07/09/the-walls-are-dissolving/, emphasis mine.

Bill went on to say he started to see God confront these same issues through the prophet Amos:

Then I met Amos, the Old Testament prophet. Amos didn’t specifically address racism. Instead, he indicted Israel’s practice of economic cruelty. He confronts Israel again and again for her economic injustice. Here’s one sample:

Therefore because you trample on the poor and you exact taxes of grain from him . . .you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate. (Amos 5:11-12)

Amos challenged me to consider combining issues of justice and righteousness with the Great Commission. He confronted the wall I had built between social issues and making disciples. -Bill Mowry

His whole article is worth the read.

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4.1 – 16, ESV)

A pastor friend of mine is watching the videos I shot for Officers Christian Fellowship, and he had a very insightful comment on Video #4 in which I talk about Indifference, defined by Ignatius of Loyola as:

Being detached enough from things, people, or experiences to be able either to take them up or to leave them aside, depending on whether they help us to “to praise, reverence, and serve God” (Spiritual Exercises 23). 

I always cite Philippians 4.11 – 13 as Paul practicing indifference. Chip referred me to 1 Corinthians 7.29 – 31, which could also be taken as recommending “Holy Indifference:”

This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away. (1 Corinthians 7.29 – 31, ESV)

P.S. The videos will be posted for a while, I’m assuming. HOWEVER, there is a one-time, live Q&A session Tuesday, July 21, beginning at 7p, MDT. You can click the link to sign up for it. I’d love to see you then!

We’ve passed four months of COVID lockdown, and compared with many people, the impact on us has been minimal. We do a lot of our work at home anyway. We live on a street where we can walk without running more than a couple people. We’ve only had one acquaintance diagnosed with COVID, and she recovered. We’ve had to socially isolate, and I’ve lost a few speaking engagements, but our exposure to the really bad COVID effects has been through the news, and we don’t spend a lot of time dwelling on the news.

That said, this story grabbed me. It first started circulating about a week ago: A 30-year-old man in Texas attended a “COVID Party” – an event designed to expose people to the virus. In his case, it was a fatal mistake. One of the last things he said to his nurse was:

I think I made a mistake — I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not.

It’s a warning about COVID and a life lesson beyond COVID.

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (Proverbs 16.25, ESV)

All at once he follows her…he does not know that it will cost him his life. (Proverbs 7.22, 23, ESV)

I don’t think the Denver airport is that hard to navigate for a relatively large facility. The public has access to levels 4, 5, and 6. You drop people off to fly out on Level 6. You pick them up on Level 4. Level 5 coming and going is reserved for commercial vehicles, and that’s also where baggage claim is. When I’m picking someone up, I tell them: get your bags, go down one level, walk outside, and call me with the door number and color. The color tells me whether to come to the east or west side of the terminal. That’s all.

So I was surprised to see a post on NextDoor recently from someone who said he’s flown in and out of Denver for over 20 years and just figured out what’s going on by going on-line and engaging with a map.

There have to be lessons there. First, never assume that just because people have similar experiences to yours that they know what you know or think the way you think. Second, as I wrote a few days ago, pay attention! Yogi Berra said:

You can observe a lot by just watching.

Finally, if you’re a teacher, and we all teach someone something, it’s a good reminder that

• Telling is not teaching
• Listening is not learning
• (And now we can add) Looking is not seeing

Jesus saw a man… (Matthew 9.9, John 9.1)

I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense, and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns; the ground was covered with nettles, and its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw and considered it; I looked and received instruction… (Proverbs 24.30 – 32, ESV, emphasis mine)

Yesterday I wrote about the new director of The Navigators’ Military Ministry affirming what the “main thing” is for that ministry. I hope it’s clear to readers of this blog that I’m advocating we all have a main thing and that main thing should revolve around following Jesus wherever we are: neighborhood, work, school, church, clubs, etc., just as Jesus himself learned to be “about his Father’s business” even in Nazareth.

I wrote earlier that I was inspired by an obituary in which the deceased was described as one who “lived the great adventure of seeking God and loving people…” I have since refined my adaptation of that to seek God, love people, teach others to do the same. Here is a current version of “My Main Thing:”

There is a war going on, and I am engaged under Jesus’ banner. My joy is to advance his Kingdom. And how does the Kingdom advance? “Not with swords loud clashing nor roll of stirring drums. With deeds of love and mercy, the heavenly kingdom comes.” (From stanza two of Lead on O King Eternal)

Therefore, I will be SaLTy: 

• Seek God
• Love people
• Teach others to do the same

For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. (Ezra 7.10, ESV)

You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world…Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5.13 – 16, NIV)

I have been around The Navigators since 1967, and I am forever grateful that they taught me:

• The priority of daily time with God in the word and prayer
• The power of personal attention in one-to-one disciple-making
• The privilege of passing on what I am learning to others

In other words, as our motto says, “To know Christ, make him known, and help others do the same.”

June and I came on staff formally in 2001, and here’s what I’ve observed. A strength of The Navigators is that we are always assessing how we’re doing and thinking about how to do our ministry better. A weakness of The Navigators is that we are always assessing how we’re doing and thinking about how to do our ministry better! (This is my unofficial observation!)

The result has been a seemingly ever-increasing list of emphases, goals, areas of concern, etc. Therefore, I really appreciate what fellow-Navigator Terry Wichert, newly installed director of The Navigators’ Military Ministry, wrote to those serving in the Military Ministry. Here’s a sample:

Where will we focus? If you have had your ear to the ground these past many months, you have heard and sensed some things that are receiving increased attention throughout our Navigator work. [He lists a few of those things.] All of these are right and necessary, and we will indeed aggressively pursue these things, and others, at the appropriate time and in mission appropriate ways.

Still, that hardly answers the question—Where will we focus? 

Let me state plainly and unapologetically that our main thing will be what it has always been: raising up, training, developing, resourcing, empowering, and releasing passionate, committed, reproducing, military, first responder, and ROTC disciple-makers who will do the same for others. – Terry Wichert, Director of Military Ministry for The Navigators (emphasis his)  

Amen. With leadership like that The Navigators organization is still headed in the right direction! I will close with the scriptures that Terry opened and closed his letter with.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28.18 – 20, NIV)

The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.2, NIV)