Barnabas Piper's Blog, page 95
March 30, 2016
Seeing the Business Side of Sports for What it Is
Adam LaRoche was a solid major league first baseman for more than a decade. After a rough time with the Chicago White Sox last year he hoped to bounce back this season. But a couple weeks ago LaRoche abruptly retired for personal reasons. A few days later we discovered that team management asked him to stop bringing his teenage son to the clubhouse, which he previously had permission to do. LaRoche decided he had to choose between baseball and family, so he chose family.
Stephen Curry is basketball’s most popular player right now. He is an exceptional shooter with a winning personality. That’s what everyone sees. This week, ESPN’s Ethan Sherwood Strauss reportedthat Curry had signed an endorsement deal with Under Armor instead of Nike. It was a fascinating, detailed look at the shadowy and lucrative business dimension of sports that most fans aren’t privy to.
What do these two stories have in common? Very little on the surface: different sports, different kinds of players, different cities, different issues. But as I read them I saw a common theme: Sports is just a job for professional athletes.
. . .
We see the uniform of our favorite team, and those colors are full of nostalgia and commitment and pain and celebration. We are fiercely loyal to that laundry. But players are loyal to their own personal needs: a paycheck, family commitments, professional fit, growth opportunities.
Our perception of sports leads to certain unrealistic expectations, especially that players would feel the same way we do. We want them to be as loyal and passionate and committed, but they aren’t. Nor should they be. We have romanticized professional sports to such a degree that we’ve lost perspective. We’ve forgotten or ignored the daily realities of being a pro athlete.
If you are employed, you are a professional. You work. You have a routine. You make decisions. Management moves affect you positively or negatively. You have good days and bad days, motivated times and times you drag. You leave one employer for another for a multitude of reasons. So do pro athletes.
. . .
The best sports fan is a fair sports fan. Be one of those. Have reasonable expectations.
. . .
Read the full post HERE.
March 23, 2016
Where Writers Find Ideas
How do writers find our material? This is different than asking where we get our material. Where is a matter of interest, walk of life, or even working a beat – politics, sports, theology, current events. How is a question of observation, interest, and connection.
Writers find their material everywhere. At least good ones do.
Anne LaMott describes in her book Bird by Bird how she carries note cards around with her to record . . . stuff. She records phrases and scenes and ideas. She jots down a few words or a quote or an observation so that she has record of something that sparked. That’s how writers find their material – something sparks.
But even that doesn’t really answer the question because then it becomes “well, how does something spark?” The answer to that lies somewhere between “you just have what it takes” and “you work your tail off to make it happen.”
Good writers are good thinkers and good thinkers are good noticers. They see things others miss or they see the same things in different ways. Is noticing a natural talent or a nurtured ability? Yes it is!
If you find yourself drawn to write it’s likely something drew you – something you just have to say, the sense that you see things others miss. It’s certainly not the money and fame. (If it is, get into the “platform” business. You can repackage and regurgitate others’ ideas ad nauseam, take credit for them, and make some decent coin.) That sense is likely an indication that you are a noticer, one who see what others don’t. Either that or it’s an indication of a ravenous ego. Time will tell.
So then the question turns to what you will do with that ability. Anne Lamott doesn’t need my affirmation, but I think her method is spot on. You soak up life around you. You jot it down in a notebook or on your phone or on a napkin. Then you see what connections your brain makes when you look at it. Sometimes the connections aren’t there, and that’s when you take a leap. Take an idea, run with it, and jump. Sometimes you land on a connection. Sometimes you fall flat. That’s ok because every fall is a lesson for next time and so is every connection.
Noticing and connecting is a mental muscular function. Just like there are natural athletes there are natural writers, so some people will simply be better at this than others. But natural or not, it takes consistent training to build that muscle. Look everywhere. Watch strangers walk by and imagine their stories. Listen to conversations at bars and coffee shops and see what they tell you. (Eavesdropping is another tool in a writer’s tool box.) Listen for a phrase that strikes you as beautiful or stupid or profound. Turn up the radio and listen to DJs and news and music. Watch children play and adults flirt. It all has the potential to spark something, but unless you write it down it will be gone by the time you sit down at your computer.
The good news is that there is no limit or lane for a writer. The bad news is that there is no limit or lane for a writer. Our subjects surround us all the time. All we need to do is pay attention, figure what matters out of what we saw, and communicate it in a way that matters to people who missed it the first time. No big deal, right?
March 21, 2016
New Happy Rant: Multi-level Marketing in the Church, Hate-Watching Shows, & Books that Influenced Our Writing
In this episode of the Happy Rant, Ted, Ronnie, and Barnabas discuss the following:
Have all the multi-level marketing schemes and sales messed up church? What would a women’s Bible study be without someone selling essential oils?
Why do people hate-watch shows? Do the hosts?
What books most made the hosts want to write and influenced their writing?
We haveNav Press as a sponsor for this episode and they bring you The Cry of the Soul: How Our Emotions Reveal Our Deepest Questions About God by Dan Allender and Tremper Longman. The Cry of the Soul shows how our negative emotions are not problems to be managed but actually reveal something in our hearts – something of what we believe about God and what we yearn for. In an age of rising anxiety and a desire to kill off negativity, this book explores the Psalms to show a powerful paradigm to help people not just handle their emotions but draw closer to God through them.
Like every week, we want to offer a big thank you to Resonate Recordings, the fine folks who make us sound
listenable. If you are looking for great people to help your church put out recorded sermon audio or help you with a podcast they’re your people.
Feel free to hit us up on Twitter at @HappyRantPod or on Facebook or via email at HappyRantPodcast@Gmail.com with any topic suggestions or feedback. We love hearing from listeners!
To listen you can:
Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Stitcher.
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.
Episode #79
March 17, 2016
The Most Curious Question: Who Are You?
If you can’t answer this question it’s a good starting place for applying curiosity. Do you know your strengths and weaknesses? Do you know what you love and what you hate? Do you know where you draw energy and what enervates you? These are important questions for understanding how God designed you uniquely and what trajectory might be best for you.
Such questions can’t be answered in isolation very easily. We judge ourselves both too harshly and too graciously. We have more blind spots about our own lives than anything else, so we need help. We need help from peers and mentors, so ask them what they see in you. What stands out? What is strong? What is weak? We need help from experts, so take two or three evaluations like Strengths Finder and Myers-Briggs. Take a spiritual gifts test such as the one in Discover Your Spiritual Gifts by C. Peter Wagner. None of these will define you, but they will help you understand you. Each provides a piece of the puzzle as to why you are the way you, where you will thrive, and what you should do next.
While you’re exploring the basics of who you are take inventory of two things, what you enjoy and who you know. Make a list of the things you would do if you had free time, what books you would read, places you’d visit, movies you’d watch, activities you’d participate in, foods you love and foods you’d like to try. Write down the things from your past that leave the fondest memories and that you’d like to do again. Then start writing down friends and family. Write down interesting people you’ve met. Write down people you notice, even if they’re strangers or who have caught your attention through their work.
Each of these is a potential connection point for you and each tells you something about yourself. You enjoy those things for a reason. Those people are in your life or your mind for a reason. As you take these inventories different ones will rise to the top. Take note! They may be your starting place.
Finally consider how you work and learn. Take what you know of yourself and/or what those evaluations revealed and think about how you do your best work. How do you absorb information? How do your process it? Is it through hearing, seeing, reading, or hands-on experience? Do you work best with others or in isolation? Do you enjoy bouncing from thing to thing or honing in on one project or subject and seeing it through?
Some of you will have little difficulty with these questions and tasks. You already know your Myers-Briggs personality type and could describe the perfect work environment. Others will feel like I just assigned a capstone project for graduating from college. It’s all so much. This says something about your respective personalities, and that’s something to note too. I’m not trying to give an assignment but rather to give a list of steps to take to help you understand yourself well enough to know what direct your curiosity should be pointed.
Choose Your Curiosity Wisely
All these questions and inventories aren’t some sort of algorithm. They will not offer some curiosity horoscope telling you what you can expect. They simply help you understand what you’re good at and what you enjoy, and that is enough to shape your sense of curiosity. In fact, by inventorying what you love and who you know you have a treasure trove of material at hand already. You do not need to be an expert in everything, and even if you wanted to be you couldn’t. Nobody can.
I loved the show Justified when it was on. It centers around a brash, gun slinging U.S. Marshall assigned to the state his youth, Kentucky. Along with a number of fantastic characters and plot lines, one of the sneaky antagonists of the story is the locale – specifically the coal mines of eastern Kentucky. They are hideouts for outlaws, stashes for stolen goods, booby traps for unsuspecting suckers, and access points to bank vaults (mild spoiler alert). Throughout the show the mines are spoken of with fear and respect because of the shafts that run hundreds of feet into the ground. They are narrow, just three or four feet wide, and have no visible bottom.
An expert is a lot like that, minus the threat of death and the proximity to outlaws. Expertise is a deep, narrow look into one subject. It drills way down into the depths and mines all it can. It doesn’t diverge from its subject and it rarely intersects with another area of interest or learning. Make no mistake, this is a kind of curiosity because it is constantly asking “what else?” and “what’s next?” And we need experts. We need those who know all that’s humanly possible about different topics.
This kind of curiosity suits some people just fine, but most of us, I think, are not so focused. For most of us we will find our curiosity aroused by the things that cross our paths on a daily basis. We simply need to be attentive, to notice. Noticing is hard work. It means listening well for what is interesting or what strikes a funny note or informs us of something new. It means watching for the beauty, the funny, the odd, the new, the surprising, or the interesting. It means wondering as we watch and listen. Why did that happen? What’s her story? Where did that come from? How did that happen? Noticing is a muscle and the more we do it the stronger it gets. Flex it, notice, and then latch on to whatever grabs your attention and be curious about it.
All of us, expert and notice alike, must be thinkers. Curiosity has a reputation as a childish trait because we stopped using our minds. We stopped looking at life, the mundane and normal, as something worth our brain waves. We react to it. We absorb it. We walk through it as if it’s not there. But we don’t think about it. That thinking is curiosity. It’s what we looked at last chapter in all those areas of life. Nothing is out of bounds so long as our curiosity honors God and loves others.
For all of us this thinking, this intentional curiosity, is that which connects us to ideas and those ideas to real people. It’s what connects person to person as we ask questions and hear each other’s stories and learn from one another. Curiosity is that which finds God’s truth in all created things and beings and figures out how it fits in lie and the greater world. It rejects the premise of “mindless entertainment” and actively rebels against passively walking through life. Whether we are inclined to be the expert or the notice, we take to life actively, full of questions, seeking to find and show truth and beauty.
This is an excerpt from the book I am currently writing, The Curious Christian (working title) that is due to be released in early 2017.
March 16, 2016
Unreasonable Revulsion of Our Rivals
Two groups of people face off. Each sports a color representing their team. Members of both sides are loyal but for varying reasons. For some, it’s geography, where they grew up or currently live. For others, it’s simply following in the footsteps of their parents. Some made a conscientious decision because of specific values. Some are loyal mostly out of spite to the opposition, while others are there for little definable reason at all and just seem to have stumbled onto the team.
Both groups are rabid in their defense of their side, even to the point of abusing anyone not on it. They abhor opponents for little reason other than they are the “rival.” Such rabidity often crosses the lines of decency, but so long as they are draped in team colors such behavior is deemed acceptable.
Neither side can really converse with or engage the other side. Every conversation is a nonstarter. No common ground exists. Interaction is instant conflict.
Am I describing Carolina-Duke, Packers-Vikings, Red Sox-Yankees, or Michigan–Ohio State? Or am I describing two teams that wear red and blue respectively and are currently filling up every news broadcast and Twitter feed in the country during this election season? It could be either or both. The similarities are striking.
My point is not to question anyone’s affiliation to a team or party (except the Yankees—I question loyalty to the Yankees). Rather, it’s worth noting the absurdity of how political rivalry resembles the shenanigans that go on at Cameron Indoor Stadium or Fenway Park. It’s one thing to revert to slobbering and snarling over a game; it’s another thing entirely to do so over the direction and future of our country.
. . .
Are we even able to credibly articulate our loyalties? In sports, one needs little reason to root for a team, and that’s OK. But there’s more riding on a political affiliation. It’s not enough to have been “raised Republican” or to live in a “Democratic-heavy district.” Those work for football and basketball, but not politics.
Can we find a way to be diametrically opposed and still maintain respect and dignity for our opponents? In sports, this is a matter of perspective, putting the person above the game, but can we do it as easily in politics? Can we put a person above their stance on tax reform or gay marriage or abortion? Can we treat them with dignity regardless?
Most importantly, do we define ourselves by that to which we’re loyal? Do we find our identity in it? Is our hope and happiness wrapped in the color we wear?
. . .
Read the full post HERE.
March 14, 2016
New Happy Rant: Andy Stanley on Small Churches, Settlers of Katan Evangelists, and Binge-Worthy TV Shows
In this episode of the Happy Rant, Ted, Ronnie, and Barnabas discuss the following:
Andy Stanley said parents who take their kids to small churches are selfish, and we just had to take that on.
For some reason a game called Settlers of Katan is a Christian cult classic, and yes that is an oxymoron. What’s the del with this?
Which shows have we enjoyed binge watching recently?
We haveNav Press as a sponsor for this episode and they bring you Bound to be Free: Escaping Performance to Be Captured by Grace by D.A. Horton. Bound to Be Free uses Scripture to recalibrate our hearts so we can walk in the freedom Christ has provided from sin and from the encumbrances that weigh us down. Horton is a master of using culture and every day life to point where sin has mislead us and instead point us to Christ.
Like every week, we want to offer a big thank you to Resonate Recordings, the fine folks who make us sound
listenable. If you are looking for great people to help your church put out recorded sermon audio or help you with a podcast they’re your people.
Feel free to hit us up on Twitter at @HappyRantPod or on Facebook or via email at HappyRantPodcast@Gmail.com with any topic suggestions or feedback. We love hearing from listeners!
To listen you can:
Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Stitcher.
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.
Episode #78
March 11, 2016
If Pastors’ Kids Had Their Own Conference
After I wrote The Pastor’s Kid a couple years ago I kept hearing from different PKs wondering if there was a conference for our kind. I don’t know of any, but the more I thought about it the funnier the idea became to me. A conference for PKs – here’s how that would look.
If PKs had their own conference . . .
. . . their parents would sign them up to volunteer at it.
. . . if they showed up late someone would call their parents.
. . . they would all try to sit at the back.
. . . half of them would be clamoring to lead worship.
. . . the rest would refuse to participate.
. . . everyone would show up with tucked in shirts or ankle-length skirts and immediately untuck or change.
. . . if an they skipped a session someone would call their parents.
. . . it would double as the sword drill national championship.
. . . males and females would sit on opposite sides of the arena without being told to.
. . . after the every session ended they would hang around for an hour complaining about being bored and hungry out of sheer habit.
. . . they would all listen tensely waiting for the speaker to use them as an example in his message
. . . no pastors could be invited to speak since the audience stopped listening to them years ago.
. . . all the quiet corners would be filled with people trying to sneak a smoke.
. . . when the smokers were caught security would immediately call their parents.
. . . at meals they would all try to find the “kids table.”
. . . at every evening session half of them would recommit their lives to Christ.
. . . they would all play truth-or-dare in the back of the bus on the way home.
March 9, 2016
Recency Bias in Sports, our Politics, and our Churches
Oscar Robertson, one the best players in NBA history, isn’t impressed with Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry. Or at least he isn’t impressed with how opponents defend him. Curry’s scoring feats have been well-documented, and he’s been on an unprecedented tear this season. But Robertson, a star in the 1960s and ’70s and the only player in NBA history to average a triple-double, is convinced teams in his day would have been able to stop or slow Curry down.
This seems like curmudgeonly criticism of a star player until you remember what is being said about Curry by fans and the media: He’s the best since Michael Jordan. … I’ve never seen anyone like him. … He’s the best shooter we’ve ever seen. … He’s so good he’s bad for basketball. When terms like “ever” are being used and comparisons are being made with one of the game’s greatest, especially at the expense of an entire era of players (pre 3-point line), it’s not so surprising an old-timer would take exception.
This debate is a microcosm of American thought. We see it in politics with “Make America great again” as the counterpoint to the message of hope that brought Barack Obama to the White House. We see it in the church with the traditionalism of “We’ve always done it this way” competing with the drive for change and new methodology.
It’s a battle between recency bias—the propensity for thinking that what has happened most recently is what matters most—and historical bias.
Recency bias can’t learn anything from history because it ignores it. Historical bias can’t learn anything from history because it ignores progress and change.
. . .
When we focus only on the present or only on the past, we encumber ourselves with blinders. Every era has (or had) aspects that are better than every other era, but we cannot take one era with us into the next nor can we live in a bygone era.
. . .
Read the full article HERE.
March 8, 2016
In Memory of Pat Conroy, the Saddest Story Teller
Pat Conroy died on Saturday. To some of you that name might ring a bell. To many it won’t. Conroy was an author of some note with best sellers such as The Great Santini and Prince of Tides and as such he is worthy of memory.
But Conroy was more than a mere author; he was a tortured soul trying to come to terms with his past and his personal demons. Without ever having met the man I know this to be true because he wrote it into his stories. He wrote about himself and his family. He wrote about pain, but more than that he wrote from pain.
I first encountered Conroy because I heard him mentioned on a radio show and checked out Lords of Discipline from the library. I read many novels. I love stories. I read trite, silly novels and heavy, heady ones. I try to appreciate each for its merit, to enjoy the light and the substantial alike. But this one – this one was like watching Mike Tyson fight for the first time. Just raw and powerful and intimidating and scintillating and a barbaric and unlike anything I’d come across.
He wrote angrily, but beautifully. He wasn’t technically perfect, but his stories had gravitational pull. He was master of dark humor, a favorite of mine. I moved on quickly from Lords of Discipline to The Great Santini, the thinly veiled story of Conroy’s own upbringing under the iron rule of an abusive Marine pilot. From there I consumed his other novels and was left feeling like I’d eaten a pile of the best Chinese takeout – a mouth of flavor, happy, full, and with an unfulfilled appetite.
I wanted more novels from Conroy. He wasn’t a John Grisham or Lee child who cranked a novel per year. He only wrote a few.
But I wanted more from the novels he did write. Conroy left the reader empty, but beautifully so. He wrote the dark and the unpleasant and the truly sad. And he offered little consolation. He offered man’s best efforts at happiness and love. In short he wrote his heart into his books, and his heart was sad and angry and loving and expressive.
If you are looking for a To Kill a Mockingbird or Peace Like a River kind of wholesome, rich novel Conroy’s aren’t it. His are a glimpse into the true state of the striving human mind and heart, the pursuit of happiness and quest for fulfillment. He shows how pain breaks people down and becomes a life-long haunting enemy. And he shows glimpses of the happiness and joy that can be found, ever so fleetingly, in a hurting life.
Conroy’s books are not for the thin-skinned or faint of heart. They don’t promote a world-view a Christian should love or embrace. But that’s precisely why they need reading. They are true to life, true to experience, true to the emptiness all around us. I am sad I will never get to read new words from Pat Conroy. I am sad his current work will never be completed. He shared something profound with me, with all his readers. And he deserves to be remembered.
March 7, 2016
New Happy Rant – Episode 77 – The absurdity of the Oscars, The morality of the NFL, and is it ok not to vote?
In this, the 77th episode of the Happy Rant, Ted, Ronnie, and Barnabas discuss the following:
All things Oscars from Chris Rock’s monologue to Leo’s acceptance speech to the absurdity of an academy awarding itself.
A listener question about the morality of supporting the NFL and the hypocrisy therein.
Is it ok for Christians not to vote? Is it a sin to stay home on polling day?
We have two new sponsors today – Nav Press and Moody Publishers. Both publishers recently released books by good friends of mine, excellent authors, and genuinely good men who serve Jesus well. You really ought to check these out.
Nav Press brings you Bound to be Free: Escaping Performance to Be Captured by Grace by D.A. Horton. Bound to Be Free uses Scripture to recalibrate our hearts so we can walk in the freedom Christ has provided from sin and from the encumbrances that weigh us down. Horton is a master of using culture and every day life to point where sin has mislead us and instead point us to Christ.
Moody Publishers brings you Habits for Our Holiness: How the Spiritual Disciplines Grow Us Up, Draw Us Together, and Send Us Out by Philip Nation. I work with Philip at LifeWay Christian resources and he is also a pastor at a local church. His book is a new look
at the spiritual disciplines and how they are not so much inward focused as upward and outward, not just for our good but for the good of the church and the world.
Like every week, we want to offer a big thank you to Resonate Recordings, the fine folks who make us sound 
listenable. If you are looking for great people to help your church put out recorded sermon audio or help you with a podcast they’re your people.
Feel free to hit us up on Twitter at @HappyRantPod or on Facebook or via email at HappyRantPodcast@Gmail.com with any topic suggestions or feedback. We love hearing from listeners!
To listen you can:
Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Stitcher.
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.
Episode #77
