Toleration

We took one of our cars into the shop a few weeks ago. There were some minor, nagging maintenance issues that we had put off for too long. There had been a slow oil leak which leaked onto the manifold, sending a nasty burnt oil smell through the vents when the heater was on. There was also a hissing noise coming from the brakes, which also affected their performance. So we finally bit the bullet and took it in. Three days and over $800 later, it was fixed and returned to us.

My wife and I were both amazed by how different the driving experience was after it was fixed. The hissing was gone, as was the nasty oil smell (not to mention the accompanying guilt of putting off needed repairs!). It was also much safer, since the brakes worked as designed.

It struck me that we tend to do this same thing with our lives - we put up with one minor annoyance, then another, and another, and before you know it, the life we’re living is uncomfortable and inefficient, if not dangerous. It can be so deceptive, since changes seldom happen all at once. Are there things that you are tolerating in your life that you could easily correct? Are there things that only you can do for yourself that you have been putting off for too long? What advice would you give to someone who came to you and said they had been tolerating what you are currently tolerating? What’s one thing you can do to change this today? And tomorrow? How do you prevent them from recurring?

Johnny Cash: Still the Man (in Black)

When I was young, my dad had this giant entertainment cabinet with a turntable and radio. He had a bunch of old country and a few pop standard albums. He still has it, in fact. He and mom would put on a stack of records (Marty Robbins, Andy Williams, Jim Reeves, Up With People) and listen to them all evening. Good stuff. But the one album that captured my nine-year-old imagination more than any was Johnny Cash Live at Folsom Prison. What a record! I would listen to that record over and over, always picking up on a new nuance or sound that I didn't notice before.

I hadn't thought about it for a long time until Walk the Line came out (the fantastic movie starring Joaquin Phoenix as Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter, a role for which she won the Oscar for Best Actress). That movie takes us inside Folsom prison for the recording of the album, and reignited my imagination around the album. I just got around to ordering it last week, and it's even more amazing than I remember. I've basically been listening to it nonstop ever since. It's so raw and real, and Johnny is funny, man. He really knows how to tap into the energy of the audience. Almost all the songs are directly or indirectly related to themes of imprisonment, freedom, crime, punishment--all eternal themes, and ones he knew would strum the heartstrings of the prisoners.One thing that really caught me this time around were the original liner notes (in his own handwriting, no less) from the 1968 release. Here is a link to them: http://maninblack.net/Albums/Record_Folsom.html#Liner%20Notes (click on "Liner Notes")Take a moment to check them out. They are amazing to me.

Johnny is such a classically flawed hero. As he mentions in the liner notes (which is really more of an essay on the American punishment system) , he was behind bars more than once. He also saw firsthand the devastation of addiction to pills and alcohol, an addiction that the Carter family basically saved him from. He turned to Christianity as part of that process, and as a reformed "bad boy", his rhetoric of redemption and grace carried so much more weight than someone who had never seen the bottom of a bottle or the bottom of their souls. Johnny had seen these, and much more. He wasn't innocent. No, he was a living testament to the healing and freeing power of God. And his heartfelt compassion for the prisoners really comes through on the album. He is one of them. He doesn't put himself above the prisoners. He understands that we are all imprisoned, we all deserve punishment, we all need saving and freeing. For the record, God Bless Johnny Cash.

The Tapestry

Life is made up of many elements. As a tapestry is many threads woven together - threads of different color, texture, and length - so life contains many different threads. To tell the truth, there are a lot of threads in my life that I’d rather not be there. I really don’t like pain. I’d rather have no pain or even struggle or difficulty in my life, thank you very much. Sure, I try to be thankful for everything that’s in my life. But it’s hard to be thankful for injuries, disease, pain, and suffering. It’s tempting to say that these things serve no purpose and should be battled, eradicated from life, or that we should always run away from them or ignore them. There are times to take up arms and go to battle, for sure. And there are times to remove yourself from painful situations. But what if all of the unsavory elements in your life do indeed have a purpose? I wonder what would happen if, instead of a knee-jerk, self-preservation response, we simply asked each of these threads to speak to us? What would they have to say? What are they trying to show us about ourselves, or about reality? Are you giving your unwanted threads a chance to speak to you?