Quote of the day: Risk

I found this while I was doing a search for a work project. Hope you enjoy it:

“To love is to risk not being loved in return.

To hope is to risk pain.

To try is to risk failure,

but risk must be taken

because the greatest hazard in life

is to risk nothing.”

Lead by Love...and The Beast

This past Saturday I was exiting Target, happily leaving with a birthday present, two multi-packs of perppermint Orbit gum (my fave) and a new hair dryer when this woman stopped me. She handed me a pamphlet which I later recognized as a Christian track. She didn't say anything to me, so I simply took it and threw it in my shopping bag.

When I got home, I took the pamphlet out of the bag and decided to take a closer look. The result was both disturbing ... and kind of hilarious, so I thought I'd share some of the pictures in this track with you.

"The Beast"

Here is the cover:

It's hard to see here, but all three of these people (including the baby) have "666" imprinted on their foreheads and the woman in this picture is crying. Wow.

Let's imagine for a second that I was a non-Christian, happy Target shopper twenty-something. Would I really want to read this disturbing looking booklet?!?

Here's a page from the inside:

Okay, aside from the cheesy artwork, does this picture above really represent "Life as it is today"? I'm thinking no. But wait...there's more:

Yes, the world may be messed up. But when was the last time you really saw someone shouting, "I have the power...Lucifer is Lord!" in the middle of a restaurant? Anyone?

And if a non-Christian was reading this, do most of them know anything about Noah besides the fact that he had a big wooden boat? Why would they even care whether or not "Today's conditions are the same as it was in the days of Noah"?

And yet one more picture:

Yes, these are real verses from the Bible. But the pictures are really scary. And then there's my favorite part--the mini commercial at the bottom for another lovely track by the same company who produced this masterpiece.

Lead by Love

Joking aside--this approach to witnessing bugged me and here's why:

• It was impersonal.
  
  The woman who handed me this track didn't know me or care to try and get to know me. She didn't even say, "Hi. What's your name?" before handing me a disturbing piece of literature that attempted to change my worldview and eternal destiny.
  
  
• It's irrelevant.
  
  Yes, this booklet includes things based on Scripture. But the presentation (a tacky black-and-white booklet) and representation of today's society don't ring true with 99.9% of people. And to a non-Christian, a lot of it looks kind of far-fetched and kooky (there are other drawings of wolves wearing clothes, angels and flying scorpions).
  
  
• It was designed to motivate out of fear.
  
  The key pitch of this booklet is, "The world is evil and scary. Accept Christ so you can go to heaven." That might be true--but is it an approach that connects with most people? It is an approach filled with hope and love?
  

It would be easy to judge the woman who handed me "The Beast" and her style of witnessing. But I'm sure there have been times when I've been impersonal or irrelevant to someone, too.

This experience made me again realize the importance of leading by love, as Jesus did. Caring about people, listening to them and getting to know them. Exemplifying hope, love and compassion. Because something tells me He wouldn't walk up to a stranger, hand them "The Beast" and walk away.

What's in a Name?

A lot--if you asked Coke, Kleenex, Google, Madonna or Beyonce.

These short names have defined industries or pop culture. They've shaped our vocabulary as a society (When was the last time you thought, "I need a facial tissue" or "I need to do an Internet search for..."?).

Names also meant a lot in the Bible. Think about Abraham, Sarah, Peter or Paul (or look them up if you're interested.)

But what about you? What does your name mean? (Check it out).

I started thinking about this topic again yesterday when our worship team, just for a random act of fun, decided to share our middle names with each other. And then our team leader for the day challenged us to look up the meaning of our names.

My First Name, Pre-teen Brat Phase and Meaning

So I'll rewind a bit ... when I was growing up, I didn't exactly love my first name. I thought it was simply the product of my parents' former hippie days (sorry, Mom and Dad if you ever read this--you know I love you, but it's true). If you didn't know, my first name is a combination of their two names--it's like if Brad and Angie actually named their baby Brangelina.

People mispronounced my name and couldn't spell it. In my pre-teen mini-brat phase (does everyone have one of those?), I thought about changing it. At that point, I thought it would be cool to have at least one name that people could say and spell correctly--something simple to blend in with the sea of others--like Kelly, Jessica or Jennifer. But I didn't go through with it.

I never thought my name meant anything because I always considered it my parents' crazy creative outlet. But last year out of curiosity, I looked up both of their names to find the meaning of mine. To make a long story short, my first name means "She will add beauty" or maybe (my preferred version) "He will add beauty" (as in God will add beauty--see "Speech, Silence and Beauty" for more on that).

Connecting the Dots ...

And today, I looked up my middle name--another combo. name (yes, Mom and Dad really are that creative). My middle name, Marine, is the combination of my grandmother's names, Martha and Nadine. Martha means "Lady" (or "Lady of the house") and Nadine comes from a root word meaning "Hope."

Together? "Lady of Hope." And with my first name? (My own interpretation to actually make this work some sort of sentence) "He will add beauty through a lady of hope."

Kind of cool, huh?

Hope in Beauty? Or the Beauty of Hope?

So being the artsy and analytical girl that I am, this name search made me think about hope and beauty and what the relationship between these two ideals means.

As a culture, there are so many of us that place hope in beauty. We hope we're beautiful because ... well, it just seems to make life easier. We often put hope in beautiful people--as in, "Gosh, that guy is hot ... I hope he's a Christian, nice and funny, too" and even more seriously, we select the beautiful as our leaders. Statistically, there have been studies that show that beautiful people are popular beyond high school--they often show up in executive-level positions in corporations, they're the celebrities we watch in the media, can get paid more, etc. And as a society, we go to extremes to hope that beauty lasts--we preserve fine art, old movies, classic cars ... and our bodies through the "miracle" of plastic surgery.

But when was the last time you, me and our culture at large flipped the equation and simply appreciated the beauty of hope?

Hope may not be shiny, sparkly or skinny, but it is beautiful simply because hope is what holds us together.

Hope keeps us holding onto an extraordinary God who somehow cares about our ordinary lives.

Hope keeps us connected in relationships with each other. Every friendship, family and marriage is held together by some kind of hope. You hope you can trust the other person, that something good can come out of your relationship, that your life together will be better than it would be apart.

Hope keeps us believing that our future can be better than our past.

We hope for purpose, for meaning--that our lives will matter to someone, that somehow we will be remembered for something good.

I'm not sure exactly how to end this post except by saying that I want in some way "own" my name--to be someone crazy in hope who touches this planet with even a glimpse of Heaven's beauty. (I literally JUST remembered that I wrote the "Crazy in Hope" post back in the fall before I even knew my middle name's meaning--I think I'm seriously getting goosebumps).

And instead of putting hope in beauty, let's begin to believe that hope is beautiful.

Crazy in Hope

Beyonce may be crazy in love, but I have come to the realization that I am crazy in hope. And maybe you should be, too.

I like the phrase "crazy in hope" because I think a large portion of society thinks all of us hopeful optimistic people are...well...a little bit crazy, naive or unrealistic.

But what's worse? To be "crazy in hope" or "grounded in pessimism"? (Give me crazy any day!)

To be truly hopeful, you have to move beyond being crazy--to being courageous. It takes courage to hope because there is always some risk that you will be hurt, disappointed or heartbroken if what you're hoping for doesn't actually happen. The courage comes when, despite that hurt, disappointment or heartbreak, you make the choice to hope continually.

So, despite obstacles, I will try to be continually hopeful. I will hope for silly little things like a good parking spot at the movies or sunshine in Seattle (yes, it does happen in October!). And I will hope for the big things--for the friend who has lost her sense of purpose (at the moment anyway), the seriously ill person in need of a miracle, the right guy. And it may be irrational or against the odds--but you can call me crazy if you want to.