Tactics
By Scott Harrup | May 9, 2012
During “buddy time” with Austin this morning, he and I watched a 10-minute YouTube segment of the Modern Marvels episode “The Guns of the Civil War.” A key premise of the documentary: Civil War weapons technology out-paced Civil War battlefield tactics.
Officers on both sides of the conflict applied field strategies from the Napoleonic era (perhaps best summed up as the Revolutionary War “Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes” mindset). Attacking forces advanced en masse against the enemy. Those defending a position created as much firepower as possible. Sheer numbers were the determining strategy for victory.
Compared to today’s automatic weapons, Civil War firepower was primitive. Most soldiers used muzzle-loading Springfield rifles that could only be fired about three times in a minute. But a key element from the Napoleonic era — the effective range of the weapons used — had changed radically and turned the older tactic into a death trap.
Muskets of previous generations fired lead balls through smooth-bore barrels. Rifles had spiral grooves inside the barrel that sent conical minié balls spinning toward targets with greater accuracy at much greater range. Where a musket maintained accuracy for about the length of a football field, a rifle could triple that distance.
If your musket-minded commanding officer ordered you and your fellow soldiers to march shoulder to shoulder across an open field toward an enemy equipped with rifles, you had better write your last letter home. When I was 11, Doug Bast, my dad’s cousin, took our family on a tour of his museum in Boonsboro, Md. I’ll never forget one display — the skeletal limb of a Civil War soldier with a minié ball splitting one of the bones.
This morning’s little Civil War meditation got me to thinking about how today’s technology imperfectly meshes with our life-negotiating tactics. For example, a friend and I recently discussed the number of businesses that interact with consumers through Facebook. My friend refuses to set up a Facebook page, and it inconveniences him when he can’t take advantage of Facebook-based deals. We both mused how today’s Facebook interface mimics the “novel” Internet presence of the 1990s. It’s just one more trend in an ever-evolving communications paradigm.
I view e-books somewhat like my friend views Facebook. My Kindle, purchased a few years ago, sits on a low, dark shelf, its batteries almost perpetually drained, about 100 book files gathering virtual dust. Perhaps to my technological detriment, I still find more than 99 percent of my reading among my shelves of “real” books.
Most time-bound idiosyncracies amount to so much inconvenience, but some techno-stasis merits concern. If I remain blind to my children’s evolving world, I might fail to protect them from new dangers. Today’s parent must deal with more than the standard mass media barrage. How might tweets from a sports hero, young actor or pop music icon create a negative influence? Which web sites and online games get passed among mobile devices on 21st-century playgrounds?
The church world faces a similar challenge. How can pastors and small group leaders remain relevant while faithfully communicating a timeless gospel? Which ministry tools du jour hold genuine merit, and which represent fads that drain spiritual life rather than promote revival?
It might seem insane that Union and Confederate soldiers marched across battlefields straight into enemy fire. But they were victims of a behind-the-times leadership model. This generation needs to be able to trust parents, pastors, teachers, and any other mentors not to make the same mistake.
Topics: History, Family Life | No Comments »
Day of Prayer
By Scott Harrup | May 3, 2012
Perhaps, like me, you find opportunities to pray every day. But I take special notice of each year’s National Day of Prayer. Today spotlights not only our God-given privilege to pray, but the freedoms of faith expression we continue to enjoy in this nation. Today is right up there with Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving in my book.
I also enjoyed visiting with friends this morning at the 9th annual Disability Prayer Breakfast held at Bethel Assembly of God here in Springfield and sponsored by Through the Roof, a supportive ministry for the disabled and their families. We shared food, Scripture, prayers and encouragement.
Everyone attending the breakfast faces unique physical challenges, or has loved ones whose needs are close to their heart. What a great opportunity to build a solid prayer life.
Of course, every life challenge gives us the same opportunity, as does every blessing. Whether we’re rejoicing or recovering, each day can be transformed when it is our personal Day of Prayer.
Topics: Faith | No Comments »
Y, 2Ks
By Scott Harrup | May 1, 2012
No, this is not a misspelled meditation on the turn-of-the-millennium hype that kept computer programmers writing software patches around the clock to avoid a prophesied techno-meltdown with the arrival of two lowly zeros in the date. Rather, I’m referencing the other most famous combination of a Y and two Ks.
Whether your wardrobe leans toward blue jeans or bespoke, there’s a good chance you will find YKK engraved on the majority of your zippers. YKK, or (Jeopardy enthusiasts take note “What is…?”) Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha, is the Japanese firm responsible for roughly half the zippers on the planet — manufacturing more than 7 billion a year.
In a Slate article posted yesterday, writer Seth Stevenson notes Tadao Yoshida established the company in 1934, and went on to develop processes for every level of zipper construction. Quoting a 1998 Los Angeles Times article, Stevenson reports YKK “‘smelts its own brass, concocts its own polyester, spins and twists its own thread, weaves and color-dyes cloth for its zipper tapes, forges and molds its scooped zipper teeth …’ and on and on.”
I found Stevenson’s explication fascinating, precisely because my randomly musing brain has often noted those three little letters when zipping up a jacket or even the heavy sleeping bag of which my youngest son is fond (with a zipper that faithfully jams, but only because an errant fold of quilting tends to slip between the teeth).
YKK zippers are the picture of efficiency and long life. Many clothing manufacturers wouldn’t think of substituting another brand of zipper when such a relatively small item can monopolize a garment’s functionality. To top off my takeaway, I learned something about YKK’s corporate philosophy in Stevenson’s article that could substitute for a life theme I’ve long admired.
Yoshida built his corporate giant on a simple idea that, roughly translated from Japanese, could be called “The Cycle of Goodness” and might be worded as, “No one prospers unless he renders benefit to others.”
Or, as the greatest Teacher of all time would have said (this time translated from Aramaic): “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Topics: Bizarre | No Comments »
Think and Believe
By Scott Harrup | April 27, 2012
Researchers in the social sciences appear to have come up with another way to ridicule people of faith. Or—to give the benefit of the doubt to a study team at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada—they have unwittingly given the media their latest opportunity to do so.
Yesterday’s Los Angeles Times headline is laden with scorn—“Thinking can undermine religious faith, study finds.” If you take that announcement at face value, anyone with deeply held religious convictions must avoid thinking like the plague, and all the real “thinkers” among us must be wary of any religious claims.
You can read the article here, and decide for yourself just how neutral the actual study or the reporter’s analysis was. My point is, clear thinking should be at the root of genuine faith. Faith and analytical thinking go hand in hand.
At first blush, secularists might see my claim as an impossible contradiction. My Christian frame of reference defines genuine faith as an acknowledgment of my need for redemption, as well as my acceptance of God’s offer to meet that need through the death and resurrection of His Son. How could such concepts possibly connect with analytical thinking?
But the “outrageous” nature of the Christian faith demands careful analysis. You don’t step into the arena of religious claims to truth and swallow them without evidence. Intangible elements such as sinful human nature, divine forgiveness, and key redemptive events removed from us by some 2,000 years all call for scrutiny before one takes that leap of faith. Frankly, the idea of a “leap of faith” falls more solidly within metaphysical philosophy than biblical faith. New Testament faith isn’t some blind, random leap over conscious thought. It is a settled conviction in God’s ability to save and transform a life.
What kind of evidence comes to light in support of this conviction? In my life there has been abundant human evidence. I grew up in a minister’s home, and from a young age I realized that my rational and well-educated parents operated on a belief structure that held no hint of fantasy for them. Decades of prayer and worship and interaction with other Christians had consistently rendered proof for their beliefs about God. As I grew up, I met doctors, professors, lawyers, mathematicians, theologians, and many other analytically minded people who exhibited no disconnect between their faith and their intellect.
The historic evidence takes my individual experiences and multiplies them billions of times.
Canadian research with college students working math problems, staring at statues, and squinting over illegible text may appear to separate analytical thinkers from the faithful. I’d be interested in learning how the participants defined their faith perspective to begin with. If the students were not strongly attached to a faith community, their answers regarding religious faith should be questioned regardless of the experiment’s initial stimuli.
In the mean time, I’ll keep analyzing the abundant data around me of God’s clear interaction with humanity, as well as the wealth of structured input for daily living available in His Word.
Topics: Bible, News | No Comments »
Monster?
By Scott Harrup | April 26, 2012
I’m wrapping up an Old Testament class this semester at Assemblies of God Theological Seminary. One of the textbooks, Paul Copan’s Is God a Moral Monster?, has been a wonderful read.
No textbook will resonate with every reader on every theological point, but Copan’s basic premise should hold true for the great majority of his audience — that even the most difficult passages in the Old Testament, when examined fairly and with a high view of the Bible as God’s inspired Word, will demonstrate God’s undying love for humanity.
This is too brief a summary to go into the intricacies of Copan’s scriptural and historical analysis, but I was reminded again and again as I worked through the book that God’s interaction with my life, as with anyone’s, is supremely benevolent.
Scripture honestly presents life’s pain, as well as the painful questions of men and women through the ages. That inspired and frank record — one that allows the reader struggling in faith to echo those same questions — makes the Bible an amazing reservoir of compassion we can access when life seems to bottom out.
Yes, there are monsters all of us face in life. But they should send us running into God’s embrace, not fleeing Him in mistaken fear.
Topics: Bible | No Comments »
Tiny Huge
By Scott Harrup | April 19, 2012
What is about the width of a human hair yet covers 71 percent of the planet? I discovered the answer, without actually asking the question, while reading a short online Popular Science article.
The answer: the ocean’s microlayer, the interface between the atmosphere and the saltwater surface. Turns out, it’s an entire ecosystem all its own, with gelatinous polysaccharides covered in bacteria that attract grazing amoebas.
I’m amazed at the abundant life all around us. Our planet teems with evidence, large and small, of God’s creative work. And, in this case, the evidence really is both large and small. A whole world of activity spread thin over millions of square miles of ocean.
“For this is what the LORD says — he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited — he says: “I am the LORD, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:18, NIV).
Topics: Bizarre, Bible | No Comments »
Fearless
By Scott Harrup | March 29, 2012
Speaking at the March 2012 TED Conference (a twice-yearly gathering in California and Scotland to promote technology, entertainment and design), Google executive Regina Dugan asked the question, “What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”
Dugan recently joined Google after leading the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for three years. At DARPA, Dugan claimed, “Scientists and engineers defy the impossible and refuse to fear failure.” She cited those attitudes as the driving force behind the agency’s ever-expanding array of technological advances.
According to Dugan, when you remove the fear of failure, impossible things suddenly become possible. She referenced milestones from the history of aviation to support her thesis, and cited two DARPA projects as contemporary examples — a glider able to achieve Mach 20 when dropped from a rocket into the atmosphere, and a tiny robotic hummingbird able to fly in any direction and to hover.
So, how would you answer Dugan’s question?
My answer tweaks the original question. I prefer the wording, “What would you attempt to do if you knew God would not let you fail?” I base my question on Jesus’ statement in Matthew 17:20 — “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” (NIV).
For that principle to take hold in our lives with positive effect, I believe we must carefully evaluate how Jesus defined faith. Faith is not some personal force we can use to manipulate God. The larger context of biblical faith — the kind of faith that Jesus lived and taught — is the idea of faithfulness, or active obedience to God in every area of life. That’s faith in action, a daily expression of love for God and a settled trust in His redemptive grace.
When we live in that reality — aligning our lives with the purposes of our all-powerful and loving Creator — the possibilities are limitless.
What would you attempt to do if you knew God would not let you fail?
Topics: People | No Comments »
Foreseeable?
By Scott Harrup | March 14, 2012
A recent Associated Press article headlines with “Goodell: No expansion in ‘foreseeable future.’” National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell is quoted in the Feb. 4 article opining that the league’s current 32 teams will not become 33 teams anytime soon.
Despite the common reference to a “foreseeable future,” just how much of the future is really foreseeable? Truth be told, none of it.
If athletes were able to peer just around the corner from this instant, much of professional sports would be rendered chaos. Every boxer would be reading where the next punch was about to land. Every pitch in baseball would be telegraphed before reaching home plate. Every twist or turn of an NFL receiver would announce itself a second early to a waiting defensive back.
We live with the constant paradox of complete and utter blindness to the future and an unrelenting need to plan for it.
What to do?
God’s Word invites us to plan prudently, but never to deviate from our faith focus on God himself. Here are some examples of each type of counsel.
Plan prudently…
“Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisors they succeed” (Proverbs 15:22, NIV).
“The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty” (Proverbs 21:5).
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?” (Jesus’ teaching in Luke 14:28).
Keep your faith in God…
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5,6).
“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:21).
Topics: Bible | No Comments »
Mission
By Scott Harrup | March 6, 2012
David Plymire, veteran missionary, spoke in chapel today at the Assemblies of God National Offices. As I listened to his message, I reflected on the Plymire family’s years of ministry. Just two generations represent more than a century of gospel outreach.
In October 2010, the Pentecostal Evangel magazine (Out There’s sponsor), dedicated an entire issue (accessible here) to the Plymires and their years of missionary service in China near the border of Tibet. Brother Plymire’s father, Victor Plymire, arrived in China in 1908 and took the gospel into Tibet when the region was almost entirely cut off from the West. For some months, he was presumed dead.
Brother Plymire described that journey and shared his parents’ larger story in a book that has become a missions classic, High Adventure in Tibet. I read High Adventure last spring while taking a missiology class and could hardly put it down—not something you can say about most “textbooks.”
Today’s chapel message shifted between missionary history and wry observations on life. You might enjoy watching the video here.
My takeaway today? I’m privileged, as I sit at this desk in front of a computer screen, to take part in the larger mission shared by every follower of Christ. My life could not be more different from Victor Plymire’s or Brother David’s. But they and I are joined to a host of people of all ages who have lived in every age since Christ issued His command to “go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:15, NIV).
Topics: People, Books and Films, History | No Comments »
Virtual Braking
By Scott Harrup | March 2, 2012
I have a free idea for any and all budding inventors. With sufficient development, promotion and distribution, it should be worth millions. I call it virtual braking. I’m willing to trust you. If you can make this work, just send me the occasional dividend check.
Here’s the idea. Wirelessly connect a pressure plate under the carpet on the passenger side of an automobile with a retracting electric motor that controls the passenger seatbelt. Every time the passenger feels the need to apply the brakes, the tightening seatbelt will mimic the effect of rapid deceleration. You could tweak the device to give a purple welt right across the torso to foot-stomping screamers.
When we were kids, my dad would have loved this device. Dad would have had so much fun with this invention—admittedly at Mom’s expense—it might have impaired his driving. He would have laughed so hard, he’d have cried. And tears limit a driver’s vision.
Mom used to hit the imaginary brake pedal on her side of a ride so often it’s a wonder the carpet didn’t develop a slick spot. The foot mashing accompanied loud and fervent prayers.
In Mom’s defense, those prayers were warranted. We weren’t just driving down Main Street in Small Town USA or cruising the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System. Our family served as missionaries in Sierra Leone, West Africa, in the early 1970s. The roads there, especially in the region surrounding our mission compound, were unpaved and rutted and probably safe at speeds approaching 30 mph.
Dad’s speedometer typically needled between 50 and 60.
One of our vehicles was a Peugeot pickup truck with a heavy wire mesh pickup cover overlaid with a canvas tarp. Blake and I, roughly 4 and 7 at the time, would sit on the wood benches bolted along either side of the pickup bed. Dad and Mom sat in the little cab, with Mom holding Obie, who was just a toddler.
As we went ripping down the road, Mom would stomp and pray, Dad would drive like Jackie Stewart, and Blake and I would bounce around in the back like Mexican jumping beans.
There was a purpose to Dad’s motor mayhem. He believed he only had so much time during his missionary term to tell people about Jesus. The less time he spent driving from Point A to Point B, the more time he could spend at his destination sharing the amazing truths of the gospel.
As I was typing the first paragraphs of this piece, our Pentecostal Evangel office received two visitors on a tour of the Assemblies of God National Offices. I peeked around the corner. To my amazement, there stood Jonathan Glover, the lead missionary in Koindu when my parents served in Sierra Leone. Visiting our offices with “Uncle Jonny” was Brother Mustapha A. Kabba, an Assemblies of God pastor from Sierra Leone. Brother Kabba was born in Koindu, and was a young Muslim living there when our family lived there.
“I remember your father,” Brother Kabba said. “He spoke at my aunt’s memorial service. She was a Christian.”
Today, Brother Kabba is a follower of Christ as well, and he is leading others in his community into that redemptive relationship.
Which has me reflecting on those insane drives across Sierra Leone’s back roads and makes me glad for all the extra time Dad created to share the gospel at Point B.
Topics: Family Life | No Comments »
