Robert Bruckart

The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short. – Abraham Maslow

Several weeks ago, one of my longstanding mentors asked me if I had read The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. He proceeded to tell me how this book revolutionized his life. It had instilled a morning routine. A routine that started at 5 AM and included a myriad of personal development activities that felt like Christmas. Christmas? I simply don’t believe it. To be honest, I was a little bit annoyed. Because the truth is that LinkedIn is overflowing with life coaches and motivational speakers who proudly (and loudly) wake up before anyone else, run a zillion miles, and then finish it with a power smoothie – all before work.

And frankly, that’s exactly how Hal Elrod’s begins his book. You quickly learn that he’s an ultra successful salesman. Who seemingly lives the perfect life. At some point, Hal’s journey is derailed as he is hit by a drunk driver, where he endures intense trauma and begins a journey of courage, resiliency, and strength.

The Miracle Morning is centered upon the following two principles:

1. Accepting total responsibility for every aspect of your life and refusing to blame anyone else. The degree to which you accept responsibility for everything in your life is precisely the degree of personal power you have to change.
   
   In Hal’s specific case, while the drunk driver was at fault for the crash, he was responsible for improving my life.
   
2. And an idea championed by Jim Rohn (Hal’s personal mentors), who said that our levels of personal success will rarely exceed our level of personal development, because success is something we attract by who we become.

Personal Development and The Millionaire Hour

There is no secret that affluent people simply read more books. For many years, I would listen to the Dave Ramsey Podcast, where he would have a session called “The Millionaire Hour”. Dave methodically asked each guest about their favorite book.

For many years, I would shadow read the books mentioned during Dave’s Millionaire Hour. The books were extraordinary. And that reading alone changed my life. While Hal’s topic of “personal development” essentially includes reading, writing, and exercise, I can say that reading alone is probably the greatest proponent of personal development for his clients.

Review

While I would consider The Miracle Morning a book worth reading, the key concepts were somewhat disappointing to me. And that is largely due to the fact that it reads just like a book a motivational speaker would write. That very tired transcript includes the topics of vision boards, ultramarathons, and a questionable lack of sleep.

Perhaps it’s my age, but I feel like The Miracle Morning falls into the trap of imbalance that so many life coaches and motivational speakers entertain. This topic is seen obvious in the discussion of sleep, where there is a subtle desire to sleep less as if it is an offense to an overactive ADHD lifestyle.

Key Takeaways

All that being said, The Miracle Morning touches upon ideas that will undoubtedly add value to my life. Those include:

• Purpose
  This lifestyle of “go go go” only makes sense if it is connected to a greater vision or purpose. While this is an obvious point, it reminded me of Proverbs 29:18 (Where there is no vision, the people perish…) In fact, I would argue that a lack of vision or purpose can be deadly. The Miracle Morning caused me to question my purpose. If you are waking up every morning with the enthusiasm to “conquer the day” – that only makes sense if you are tied to a greater vision or purpose.
  
• Running
  Running has become a part of my life since I took cross country in the grade school. And like Hal experience, running has a way of calming my mind and body in a wonderful way. The Miracle Morning touches upon how running affects your body emotionally (“Motion creates emotion.” – Tony Robbins), and consequently, the relationships that surround you.
  
  Throughout my life, I’ve met several runners who asked me to make a “lifetime commitment” – to run every single day of my life. While I have not made that commitment, that idea continues to surface in my mind. There is no doubt to me that people who regularly run sleep better, are emotionally more stable, and overall healthier.
  
• Energy Management
  Several years ago I had a close friend who was starting a business. He would work exceedingly long days while in the mode of executing his business plan. It was excruciating to watch. At some point, he transitioned to working part time. At one point he told me that he was shocked at how tired he was leaving work everyday. He emphasized this point, saying that I didn’t recognize how much energy I gave work on a daily basis. To combat this fatigue, he changed his schedule where he would work on his business in the morning, with his part time job in the evenings.
  
  Having incorporated The Miracle Morning into my routine, I’m amazed at how much more energy I feel simply by having a glass of water after waking up. It’s the subtle things. And likewise, after exercising. It occurred to me that the morning are some of my most alert and attentive hours of my day. Securing that time for myself – for personal development – is a wonderful gift.
  
• Affirmations
  My personal leadership style is one of vulnerability. And while I have found this a wonderful catalyst for building teams by making them feel safe, it hasn’t gone without criticism. I’ve met others who dislike my open and honest leadership style. And who have told me I need to be more restrictive, controlling, and confrontational.
  
  I mention this because I personally struggle with a mental narrative that is not so nice. And while that mental narrative has been one of the reasons of my success in its relentless and consistent message (the unending desire to be better and greater at my profession), the reality is that I have moments where I feel stupid. Or like a failure.

For the first time in my life, after reading The Miracle Morning, I crafted a personal affirmation. And this might possibly be one of the most powerful acts of love I did for myself this year. By simply visualizing who I want to be, and affirming my strengths. By hearing it out loud… I have begun to change as a person. In some sense, I took control of this mental narrative.

Personal affirmations are incredibly powerful. They can change your life. And this was a missing puzzle piece of my personal development routine.

The Hidden Lesson

The Miracle Morning explores upon the potential gap and asserts that each of us as a responsibility to make the most of our lives. Regardless of our limitations and disabilities, the human spirit, the impetus, is for us to overcome. To achieve. To succeed.

And this brings us to oddity of the book. While Hal Elrod touches upon a variety of powerful ideas, but I feel like he fails to capture the most important idea hidden within the confines of The Morning Miracle.

That idea starts with the acknowledgment that most people hate waking up early in the morning. They live lives they don’t love. In essence, their lives are characterized by a mediocrity that maintains the potential gap (i.e. you have not yet reached utilized all your talents and abilities). And this could not be more perfectly illustrated with the “Snooze Button”, which essentially is a signal that says you don’t want to wake up. That you prefer the warm confines of your bed.

The Miracle Morning poses the question – Is that the life you want to live? A snooze button life?

The Miracle Morning isn’t really about a personal development routine. It’s a wake up to the life you want to live. It’s about getting out of bed not because it’s difficult to get out of bed – or trying to be stronger than others. But being called out of bed in order to have the opportunity to pursue a vision or a dream of a life you earnestly desire.

My entire day is changed by simply reserving 1 hour (the best hour) of time to myself, for myself, every single morning. I no longer wake up with the feeling that I need to rush to work as soon as possible. I invest my time how I want, and then go to work when I am ready. And that time is connected to a vision and purpose that is exciting and powerful. This is how The Miracle Morning can transform your life. It is a way of reclaiming your time. To be willful and deliberate in your desire to wake up and succeed.

For some unknown reason, I have a strange habit of reading post apocalyptic science fiction novels during my vacations.  It started a long time ago when I went on an extended trip with my in-laws.  During one particular trip, I read 2 or 3 novels. I remember being completely immersed in a world desolate and void. A world in which society violently returned to utilitarian values. In these worlds, society returns to value food, clean water, and shelter. At the same time, things like paper money, luxury automobiles, and oddly enough, women’s high heeled shoes become almost worthless. I enjoy reading these books because they remind me of the intrinsic worth of objects without regard to the hype and marketing value surrounding these objects. Designer jackets and clothes become no more valued than bargain clothes are the nearby Goodwill.

Station Eleven is a wonderfully written post apocalyptic science fiction novel by Emily St. John Mandel. But the book is different in the sense that it doesn’t dwell on society’s breakdown. It touches upon a virus named the “Georgia Flu” which rapidly travels from Moscow. In a matter of days, society comes to an abrupt halt. Electricity stops in a matter of weeks, water after that. And then the novel fast forwards to a society haunted by a person nicknamed the Prophet who believes the flu is a modern version of the Angel of Death. In that regard, he comes to believe that he represents a sort of “light” to spread across the world. In reality, he is a terrible leader who kidnaps and terrorizes people who cross his path. 

The idea of a “Prophet” in Station Eleven is a little disheartening. Very quickly I felt like I was reading a variant of The Walking Dead, where tribal leaders battle nearby city-states for resources. I was actually glad he book didn’t dwell on the concept of a prophet leader too much. The book largely follows a group of actors dubbed “The Traveling Symphony” which perform acts of Shakespeare in a world where “Survival is Insufficient”.

The idea of Station Eleven surrounds a comic book. The new society regards the comic book as gospel. And they largely don’t understand the accomplishments of humanity. Have we ever been to the moon? Have we ever colonized another planet? I love how the book reconciles that so much of society is lost within 1 or 2 generations. Children play around planes grounded indefinitely. So much of school touches upon things like vaccines, antibiotics, and insulin of a treasured past life.

One of my favorite parts of this novel touch upon Clark, who formerly worked in as a management consultant whose job was to evaluate executives. In one scene, he interviews a woman about her boss. Clark begins the interview with:

“I’m sorry I’m late”, he said to his interviewee, who shrugged and gestured him into the visitor’s chair.

“If you think two minutes counts as late, we’re not going to get along very well.” Was that a Texas accent? Dahlia was in her late thirties or early forties, with a sharp-edged haircut and red-framed glass that matched her lipstick.

Clark went into the usual introduction and preamble about the 360º they were doing, her boss as the target, the way he was interviewing fifteen people and it would all be anonymous, comments split off and categorized into separate reports for subordinates, peers, and superiors with a minimum of three in each group, etc. He listened to his voice from a distance and was pleased to note that it sounded steady.

“So the point,” she said, “if I’m understanding correctly, is to change my boss?”

“Well to address areas of potential weakness,” Clark said. Thinking of Dear V. Again as he said this, because isn’t indiscretion the very definition of weakness?

“To change him,” she insisted with a smile.

“I supposed you could see it that way.”

She nodded. “I don’t believe in the perfectibility of the individual,” she said.

“Ah,” he said. The thought that crossed his mind was that she looked a little old to be talking like a philosophy undergrad. “How about the improvement of the individual, then?”

“I don’t know.” She leaned back in her chair, arms folded, considering the question. Her tone was light, but he was beginning to realize that there was nothing flippant about her. She was remembering some of the offhand comments her colleagues had made about her in previous interviews, when his questions had come around to the team. Someone had called her a little different. Someone else, he remember, he used the word intense. “You’ve been doing this for a while, you said?

“Twenty-one years.”

“These people you coach, do they ever actually change? I mean in any kind of lasting, notable way?”

He hesitated. This is actually something he’d wondered about.

“They change their behavior, “ he said, “some of them. Often people will simply have no idea that they’re perceived as needing improvement in a certain area, but then they see the report…”

She nodded. “You differentiate between changing people and changing behaviors, then.”

“Of course.”

“There’s the thing,” Dahlia said. “I’ll bet you can coach Dan, and probably he’ll exhibit a turnaround of sorts, he’ll improve in concrete areas, but he’ll still be a joyless bastard.”

“A joyless…”

“No, wait, don’t write that down. Let me rephrase that. Okay, let’s say he’ll change a little, probably, if you coach him, but he’ll still be a successful-but-unhappy person who works until nine p.m. Every night because he’s got a terrible marriage and doesn’t want to go home, and don’t ask how I know that, everyone knows when you’ve got a terrible marriage, it’s like having bad breath, you get close enough to a person and it’s obvious. And you know, I’m reaching here, but I’m talking about someone who just seems like he wishes he’d done something different with his life, I mean really actually almost anything – is this too much?”

“No. Please go on.”

“Okay, I love my job, and I’m not saying that because my boss is doing to see my interview comments, which by the way I don’t believe he won’t be able to tell who said what, anonymous or not. But anyway, I look around sometimes and think – this will maybe sound weird – it’s like the corporate world’s full go ghosts. And actually, let me revise that, my parents are in academia so I’ve had front-row seats for that horror show, I know academia’s no different, so maybe a fairer way of putting this would be to say that adulthood’s full of ghosts.”

“I’m sorry, I’m not sure I quite— “

“I’m talking about these people who’ve ended up in one life instead of another and they are just so disappointed. Do you know what I mean? They’ve done what’s expected of them. They want to do something different but it’s impossible now, there’s a mortgage, kids, whatever they’re trapped. Dan’s like that.”

“You don’t think he likes his job, then.”

“Correct,” she said, “but I don’t think he even realizes it. You probably encounter people like him all the time. High-functioning sleepwalkers, essentially.”

What was it in this statement that made Clark want to weep? He was nodding, taking down as much as he could. “Do you think he’d describe himself as unhappy in his work?”

“No,” Dahlia said, “because I think people like him think work is supposed to be drudgery punctuated by very occasional moments of happiness, but when I say happiness, I mostly mean distraction. You know what I mean?

“No, please elaborate.”

“Okay, say you go into the break room,” she said, “and a couple people you like are there, say someone’s telling a funny story, you laugh a little, you feel included, everyone’s so funny, you go back to your desk with a sort of, I don’t know, I guess afterglow would be the word? You go back to your desk with an afterglow, but then by four or five o’clock the day’s just turned into yet another day, and you go on like that, looking forward to five o’clock and then the weekend and then your two or three annual weeks of paid vacation time, day in and day out, and that’s what happens to you life.”

“Right,” Clark said. He was filled in that moment with an inexpressible longing. The previous day he’d gone into the break room and spent give minutes laughing at a colleague’s impression of a Daily Show bit. 

“That’s what passes for a  life, I should say. That’s what passes for happiness, for most people. Guys like Dan, they’re like sleepwalkers,” she said, “And nothing ever jolts them awake.”

Conversations like these make Station Eleven a novel worth remembering. Emily St. John Mandel fills the novel with scenes from the corporate life that are odd yet still beautiful. In the discussion above, I loved how the interviewee was described as a woman with lipstick that matched her glasses. And her description about her boss being sufficiently miserable. These moments convince me that Emily St. John Mandel once lived this world, or is a supremely emphatic author. 

Later on in the book, Clark is sitting with a friend  (also a former executive) while discussing some of his reports. 

“Subordinates,” Garret said. “Okay, so under ‘Communication,’ here’s the first comment. ‘He’s not good at cascading information down to staff.’ Was he a whitewater rafter, Clark? I’m just curious?”

“Yes,” Clark said, “I’m certain that’s what the interviewee was talking about. Actual literal cascades.”

“This one’s my other favorite. ‘He’s successful in interfacing with clients we already have, but as for new clients, it’s low hanging fruit. He takes the high-altitude view, but he doesn’t drill down to that level of granularity where we might actionize new opportunities.’”

Clark winced. “I remember that one. I think I may have had a minor stroke in the office when he said that.”

“It raises questions,” Garret said.

“It certainly does.”

“There re high altitudes, apparently, also low-hanging fruit, also grains of something, also drilling.”

“Presumably he was a minor who climbed mountains and factionalized an orchard in his off-hours. I am proud to say,” Clark said, “that I never talked like that.”

“Did you ever use the phrase ‘in the mix’?”

“I don’t think so. No. I wouldn’t have.”

“I hated that one especially.” Garret was studying the report. 

“Oh, I didn’t mind it so much. It made me think of baking. My mother would buy these cookie mixes sometimes when I was a kid.”

“Do you remember chocolate-chip cookies?”

“I dream of chocolate-chip cookies. Don’t torture me.”

Garret was quiet for so long that Clark opened his eyes to make sure he was still breathing. Garret was absorbed in watching two children playing on the tarmac, hiding behind the wheels of the Air Canada jet and chasing one another. He’d become calmer over the years but remained prone to episodes of unfocused staring, and Clark knew by now what his next question would be.

“Did I ever tell you about my last phone call?” Garret asked.

“Yes,” Clark said gently. “I believe you did.”

Garret had a wife and four-year old twins in Halifax, but the last call he’d ever made was to his boss. The last words he’d spoken into a telephone were a bouquet of corporate cliches, seared horribly into memory. “Let’s touch base with Nancy,” he remembered saying, “and then we should reach out to Bob and circle back next week. I’ll shoot Larry an email.” Now he said the words “Circle back next week” under his breath, perhaps not consciously. He cleared his throat. “Why did we always say we were going to shoot emails?”

“I don’t know. I’ve wondered that too.”

“Why couldn’t we just say we were going to send them? We were just pressing a button, were we not?”

“Not even a real button. A picture of a button on a screen.”

“Yes,” Garret said, “That’s exactly what I’m talking about.”

“There was not, in fact, an email gun. Although that would’ve been nice. I would’ve preferred that.”

Garret made his fingers into a gun and aimed it at the tree line. “Ka-pow!” he whispered. And then louder, “I used to write ’T-H-X’ when I wanted to say ‘thank you.’”

I did that too. Because, what, it would’ve taken too much time and effort to punch in an extra three letters and just say thanks? I can’t fathom it.”

Station Eleven is a book that lightly touches on the actual collapse of society in the wake of a deadly virus. Instead, it spends worthwhile time diving into the odd moments of life in and out of the corporate office. And dwells around a famous actor and his first love and first wife. One of my favorite parts of the book consist of the fact that the Georgia Flu does not discriminate. Some of the most beloved characters die in seemingly ironic ways whereas ancillary characters survive by something as happenstance as not touching a contaminated surface. In this way, Station Eleven touches upon an array of colorful characters that are forever changed as society responds to a deadly flu.

When I was a young child, I remember watching Lost in Space with my brothers and my mother. The TV series was engaging, exciting and family friendly. Recently, I discovered a Netflix remake of Lost in Space (2018), which I have been watching almost every night with my daughters.

Last night, we watched the episode where the Robinson’s were marooned on an alien planet. They struggled in every aspect of their lives, from farming to simply breathing. My oldest daughter turned to me and said, “Wow, they must have sinned so much to be there.”

I paused the show.

I’m sorry, but God doesn’t work like that. Life is not about being punished for the number of sins you commit. God isn’t some divine record keeper who is busy writing your name on the checkboard and adding checkmarks every time you make a mistake. The Robinson’s were not marooned because of a great number of sins they committed.

There is a difference between the Old Testament God and the New Testament God. The Old Testament God was sometimes cruel, vengeful, and authoritative. And while I’m not criticizing any of those decisions, actions, or outcomes – Jesus came into the world and spoke about love, forgiveness and acceptance. He spoke about a covenant of love, kindness, an respect.

Instead of imagining God as a record keeper of your offenses, I want my children (and you) to consider God as a record keeper of all the reasons he loves you. I told my daughter (and I’m telling you), that I think the greatest challenge you will have in your life is accepting love. From God. From your family. From your friends. And from yourself.

Later that evening, we were reading the bedtime Bible story. My daughter read the following passage:

And I repeat, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has nothing to do with punishment.” I continue, shut your eyes and envision you are dancing in a summer rain. That rain is God’s love. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. And sometimes good things happen to bad people. Life is not fair, and God works in mysterious ways.

All that being said, it’s alarming and disappointing to think that my children think they deserve punishment because of sin. That is no way to life your life. Instead, consider that you deserve love for the simple reason that God loves you. That is all.

Several weeks ago, I held a Bible study where the topic of rules became a central talking point. In some sense, with the celebration of June as Pride Month, we were discussing the dichotomy of the LGBTQ+ community with Evangelism. As a strong advocate of the LGBTQ+ community myself, I’m continually dumbfounded by the reality that many of my friends of that community feel entirely unwelcome by the Christian church. And while I struggle to define that element of feeling unwelcome, the reality is that I also feel it. My family church, for better or worse, is composed largely of atomic families resembling children with 1 father and 1 mother. And while I believe our head pastor would welcome anyone from any background into the church, somehow, I feel like the congregation that’s developed around the pastor is simply not as welcoming.

One of my Dad’s favorite sermons touches upon Mark 2, where Jesus purposely communed with those who needed him.

He went out again beside the sea and all the crowd gathered around him and he taught them. And as he passed along, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And when the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with tax collectors and sinners, they told his disciples,”He eats with tax collectors and sinners.” And when Jesus heard it, he told them, “Those who are well do not need a physician, rather those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, rather I came to call sinners”

Mark.2:13-17

Throughout my life as a Christian, the topic of rules seems to continually surface. Sometimes I see rosters recording church attendance as badges of merit. Or hours of community service. Or amounts of money tithed. There are churches that forbid music because someone thinks that it takes away from the reverence of worship. There are other churches that are formed exclusively around music because it invokes a passionate sense of worship.

As a father, I often joke with my children that “rules are meant to be broken”. and while my wife quickly corrects me with a more reasonable and rational understanding of rules, as a Christian, I am dubious when someone distills salvation down to a set of rules.

One of my favorite versus in the Bible is the greatest commandment, in Mark 12:30, when Jesus says:

³⁰ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’³¹ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these.”

As a Christian, this is both frustrating and illuminating. Frustrating because I, like everyone else, loves rules because they can be checked off and forgotten about. If salvation could be acquired by following a set of simple rules, I ardently believe that we would follow these rules and do no more. Instead, the mandate of God is to love one another. It is to love yourself. And this might include inviting LGBTQ+ people into your church.

Far too often I see churches reduced to social clubs or charity events (as Dietrich Bonhoeffer mentioned when he visited in America). And in some sense, I understand. I love rummage sales, water days, bingo nights, and silent auctions. But I also realize this is far too comfortable. Sometimes God calls me to be uncomfortable. I think the Christian faith calls us, at times, to be uncomfortable. And sometimes being uncomfortable is about forgetting the rules.

Sometimes I have a dream of standing at a pulpit in front of my church. But as I look out over the pews, I don’t see perfect families. I don’t want to see perfect families.

I see broken families. I see parents who struggled through the treachery of divorce. I see orphans. I see drug abusers. I see poverty. I see the mentally ill. And I certainly see members of the LGBTQ+ community.

I see the rule breakers.

I love the rule breakers.

I love people who are not afraid to be themselves. To love one another. To love themselves. And people who have the courage to take up the cross.

While I’ve probably heard far too many sermons about asking someone to leave your church community, I see far too few sermons about the undeniable, persistently reaching love of God. The danger is that while we build these perfect church communities, we might find Jesus in the wilderness ministering to the sick as any physician would do.

Several weeks ago, I received an forwarded newsletter from Mountain Goat Software that essentially stated that the higher you move up in any organization, the more difficult it is to distill your job responsibilities to a discrete checklist. The newsletter described this paradox by contrasting the examples of delivering newspapers to running an organization as the CEO. While delivering newspapers is discrete and well defined, running an organization entails responsibilities such as “making money” and “creating a great culture”.

When I was in school for my MBA, I was warned by several professors about checking your value statement in an organization. In other words, if you were at a dinner party and someone asked you “what you do”, would you be able to say something like “putting out fires” or would you struggle with something such as “cost accounting in excel”. In this manner, we were taught about making sure our roles in the organization aligned to the value of the overall organization.

In larger organizations, misalignment is easier to cultivate, and you could find yourself in the unfortunate position where you are performing a redundant job task. Or job tasks that provide incredibly little value.

The fundamental truth is that there is value in work. And there is more value in work that is purposeful and powerful in an organization. Stay away from terms such as “creating a great culture”, but instead provide discrete examples of how you might create that great culture.

When my organization first embraced Agile, there was an uncanny attraction to crafting user stories in the format of:

As a _____, I would like _____ so that _____.

At first this format was annoying. As a what? Every unit of work was required to be framed in the context of the benefit it added to the organization. And while it was somewhat frustrating, it required us to align our work. Who was the user story benefiting? At first the teams started specifying the pilot as the user, which was powerful in the event that the actual pilot was the recipient of this work. Later on, teams would specify other developers in the organization as the user when specifying user stories that required refactoring and/or technical debt. By framing our stories this way, we first encountered a cultural phenomenon where technical debt user stories were dubious, because the value was less obvious. In the end, the value of technical debt user stories was better realized.

Jeff Bezos has a famous Day 1 philosophy where he champions mantras such as:

• Focus on results and not process.
• Make decisions quickly.

which describe the cultural change that happens as organizations slowly shift to stasis, or more recently described as the “march to mediocrity”. While Amazon has come under fire for policies that try to incentive high performance, the reality is that there is no surprise that large companies become easily disrupted by new technologies.

As a manager and professional myself, I am dubious of job descriptions such as “create a great culture” or “make money”. Far too often I encounter employees whose value can be reduced to simply taking “meeting minutes” or “checking email”. Yes you could argue this is a part of creating culture, but the most powerful organizations adopt a day 1 philosophy where job duties are aligned and clearly pertinent to the overall goals of the organization.

This past weekend, my daughter was looking through my collection of bedside books and found “Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters – 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know” by Dr. Meg Meeker. She pulled out the book, and waved it in front of me while slowly mouthing the word “secrets”. I smiled. She had my secrets, and asked me what they were. In response, I told her to open up the book and read them to me. She opened to the Table of Contents, and read aloud:

1. You are the Most Important Man in Her Life

2. She Needs a Hero

3. You Are Her First Love

4. Teach Her Humility

5. Protect Her, Defect Her (and use a shotgun if necessary)

She stopped reading, looked up at me – and repeated – “Use a shotgun if necessary? Are you serious?”

I nodded.

“Yes, if I had to… I would use a shotgun to protect you. Is that weird?”

There was a moment of silence. And in that moment, I felt like she was fathoming the nature of my love.

Then she said, “But you would go to jail.”

I responded, “Yes, unfortunately I would go to jail.”

“You would do that for me?”

“If I had to. And I really hope you wouldn’t make me!”

When I describe love like this, the word “fierce” comes to mind. God’s love is described as a jealous love. It is possessive. We are his, and that is a very good thing.

In that moment of silence, I also fathomed the depths of God’s love for me. A shotgun? Is that necessary? In 1 Peter, the Apostle Peter wrote:

⁸ Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

1 Peter 5:8

I once participated in a word study specifically for the word “devour”. The word “devour” (καταπιῃ) is translated as “gulp down” or “swallow” – to imply total destruction. The “roaring” lion implies hunger. The devil, your adversary, “he who is a defamer and calumniator; who accuses God to men, and men to God, and is therefore styled the accuser of the brethren; he is the saints’ avowed and implacable enemy.” (John Gill’s Exposition of the Bible)

When I consider this, that my children, by their very existence, are preyed upon by their adversary – our adversary – a shotgun is necessary – very necessary. This is the nature’s of God’s love. Consider your worth, for you were bought at a price (1 Corinthians 6:20).

References:

• https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/1-peter-5-8.html
• https://biblehub.com/commentaries/1_peter/5-8.htm

Addendum:

I’m including some screenshots of Kevin Carden Photography, who marvelously captures the spirit of this post. Lean into your children. Give them the swords and shields to fight our adversary, who continually preys upon our children and our community.

Several days ago, I encountered a post by Chantel Soumis on LinkedIn where she discussed the lessons she learned from writing her obituary. I know this sounds strange, but several months ago my wife and I (finally) completed our wills with the assistance of a local lawyer. We’ve been putting that task off for months (if not years), but then I read about the tragic helicopter crash that claimed the life of Kobe Bryant. I later learned (and I don’t know if this is true), that the life insurance policy precluded both Kobe and his wife riding in a helicopter together. I was stunned when I heard that, realizing that someone had the wisdom to consider the inherent risk of helicopters.

Writing my obituary was not easy. I quickly rushed to list my accolades and accomplishments, and was confronted with the simple question, “Does this matter?” And while I’m certainly not subscribing to nihilism and anarchy, I kept going back to the question of whether someone else would simply care about the number of degrees I attained or the accomplishments of my profession. Sadly, I don’t think so. For example, I love my parents. I’m unquestionably proud of them. But will I forget their educational accomplishments? I might. All of this starts scratching a bigger question – what do you want to be remembered for?

I’m not one to have a lot of requests for last wishes. If anything, I would prefer for my family to peacefully resolve all remaining assets (as opposed to divisive politicking that I often see surrounding families that leave large, unclaimed inheritances). While I’m generally don’t have strong opinions concerning funeral arrangements, I also understand that we, as humans, need closure. And in that sense, the funeral is sometimes for the families as much as the deceased. But all of this goes back to the obituary. Out of all my writings and works, imagine for a moment that the most read work will be my obituary. What do you want to leave people with?

I started with the local paper. Oftentimes I see phrases like, “passed on” or “went to be with his Lord and Savior”, or more simply, “died”. There is a part of me that wants (and needs) to communicate my faith and relationship with Jesus. In other words, my first iteration of my obituary stated quite plainly that was a born again Christian. But then does that matter? Am I turning my obituary into a sermon? I’ve met plenty of Christians who were not “born again”, but still maintained deep and moving faiths.

Vulnerability

In marital counseling, vulnerability fosters intimacy. And similar to Chantel’s 4th lesson, writing my obituary made me realize that I am simply afraid of death. I could also say I’m afraid of life (if that makes any sense), but the fact of the matter is that I don’t want to die. There is no question I’m a creature of comfort, and if I found a magical elixir that caused immortality, I’d probably take it.

In Tuck Everlasting, Angus Tuck is famously recognized for disliking immortality and dreaming of dying and going to heaven. While I can certainly appreciate that sentiment, death is unknown, and the unknown can be scary. Secondly, my obituary brought up the question of what age I think I’d live to see. I drafted an optimistic 90 years old, but honestly 2020 has been a historic year, and I’ve lost more friends than I could have ever imagined.

What if I die at 60? What if I die at 40? All of this brought a sense of urgency of what I’m living for. As someone once said, “Get busy living, or get busy dying.” This recognition of time and aging brought me to the second revelation.

Purpose

The obituaries in my local paper are also heavy on the deceased’s lifelong accomplishments such as a noteworthy career in the military or a specific domain. Some people were famous doctors, others were famous engineers. Some were housewives. But is one professional better than another? Again, does my profession and professional accomplishments matter? And more importantly, am I working in a domain and field that I am proud of? Do I want to be remembered as a software engineer and manager? While I love my profession, I don’t really feel like it’s all I want to be remember by. This brings me to my last point.

Relationships

When I read through my obituary, there is only 1 aspect of it that I feel is important, and that is my relationships. I am proud of my marriage, my wife, and my children. And I think that my legacy is unquestionably the relationships in my life. I’ve been fortunate to live among my endearing friends and family, to be born of such dedicated and loving parents, and to be the father of obedient and outstanding children.

I often joke with my wife that I want engraved on my tombstone, “I wish I spent more time in the office.”, but in all seriousness, writing my obituary helped me realize what contributes to my lasting legacy.

###

Every time I re-read my obituary, I remove something and make it more concise. It generally follows 4 sections. The first outlines relationships and important dates. The second and third outline educational and professional accomplishments. And the last section reveals my faith. Given how crazy 2020 has been so far this year, I certainly recommend writing your obituary (or trying), as well as completing a living will. Your family will thank you 🙂

Several years ago, I decided that since I consider myself a Christian, I should consider reading the entire Bible (all 66 books). And when I announced this endeavor, one of my close friends cautioned me that reading the entire Bible can confront my faith in a very deep and personal way. I didn’t really understand what he meant, and brushed off the warning as nonsense. While I have always been an evangelist at heart, I realized that my mind is overflowing with “bumper sticker” Christianity. I know all the famous versus, but my knowledge was shallow and probably too focused on the New Testament.

I’m going to admit, reading “the entire Bible” wasn’t as enchanting as it sounds. I started with a yearly planner which gave me daily snippets. I’d routinely read those snippets, and then some more. But most of the readings were dry and somewhat boring. There were moments where I connected with the story of God and Jesus, and that could be described as simply magical. But the vast majority of the readings were more of a task of “reading the Bible” rather than “absorbing the Bible”. I’d rarely stop to conduct a word study, and would move chapter by chapter through the days and weeks. Yes I understood what I was reading, but I also knew that sometimes you can and should spend weeks on specific versus. All that being said, I once attended a church where the pastor spent 6 months on the book of Ruth – which is 5 pages in my Bible.

Additionally, I’ve always been a little bit of an outlier in the sense that I believe the Bible as a literal translation. Not figurative. That means I do believe in a 7 day creation. Even if we, as humans, can’t explain it. And so throughout this endeavor, I would question that deeper belief of literal versus figurative. Who composed these 66 books? Are they divinely inspired? Are they divinely authored? And so while I continued to read, I started to dread the fact that I might encounter something absurd that would confront these beliefs. Maybe the Bible was a collection of confusing and absurd stories that somehow were fraudulently arranged to speak to a conjure story of God’s love. Maybe it wasn’t divinely inspired. And this proposition went deeper, because maybe the Bible is not a work of God, but a work of fallible men and women. This line of thinking pointed to the fact that maybe the Bible isn’t what we think it is, and maybe God isn’t who we think he is. Maybe we are accidents in a Godless, forsaken world.

That dread persisted until I came across II Kings. Now before I go into this story, I need to say something. If the world is divided into 2 teams – Team God and Team World – I’m standing with Team God. And while this wasn’t such a controversial statement when I was younger, it certainly has become more controversial later in life. And that being said, if God says, “People who shave their beards are going to Hell..” I will explain to my non-Christian friends that members of the Dollar Shave Club are standing on thin ice. If God says, “Sexual-deviants are going to Hell.” I will explain to my sexually deviant friends that they need to take a long look in the mirror. And if God says “Abortion is wrong.” I’m going to say abortion is wrong.

When I was younger, these virtues were so commonplace that they could have been printed on wallpaper. Nobody argued that murder or lying was bad. But somehow, things changed. Now I find myself surrounded by social media opinions that are far too eager to explain to me that my stance on abortion infringes upon women’s rights. Or that lying can be good in some situations. And while I understand the complexities for many of these arguments, I think the best Biblical story that comes to mind is when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, Issac.

As a father of both a boy and girls, my love for my son is unique and special in a way beyond words. And if I’m standing with Team God, and God tells me to sacrifice my son. Firstly, I really hope and pray my faith is never tested in that manner. But secondly, and this is important, if (and that is one GIANT IF) God asked me to do that, I’d firstly check my medication, and then consult with numerous mental health professionals. The reality is that I don’t know if I have that type of faith, if you want to call that faith. But this is an interesting story, because in this case, you can interpret this figuratively, and it is still a severely significant story. And this story reminds me that sometimes, standing with Team God, things might seem crazy. But regardless, it’s important to stand with Team God. God is in control. Even if it doesn’t look like it, to us.

But the story of Abraham and Issac doesn’t compare to this tiny, largely uncharted section in Kings II that derailed my utopian interpretation of the literal Bible. That is, specifically, when some bratty kids are making fun of Elisha. What happened?

From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking up the path, some small boys came out of the city and harassed him, chanting, ‘Go up, baldy! Go up, baldy!’ He turned around, looked at them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two female bears came out of the woods and mauled 42 of the children.”

II Kings 2: 23-24

When I encountered that scripture, I had to read it several times. 2 female bears? 42 mauled children? What? Why? And this is where I stopped and really began to confront my understanding of a literal versus a figurative Bible. Why was I reading this? Who wrote this? This was like starting to read the Gettysburg Address and then coming across the phrase “lol”. It seems so out of place it’s kind of comical. But it’s not when you’re having an existential crisis concerning the literal and figurative meanings of the Bible, this is exactly the scripture I dreaded.

Several weeks ago, my current pastor mentioned latitudes on social media during his sermon. During that discussion, he remarked that the older he gets, the less he thinks he knows about life. I couldn’t agree more. When I was younger, life was certainly “less complicated”. And while I still stand firmly on the Bible and Team God, I also recognize that I’m truly unqualified to judge others. I’ve become much more patient, and slower to judgement. And the oddity is that when I was younger, I was more inclined to preach and teach others about the teachings of Jesus. Now I’m less inclined because I understand life is complicated. Sometimes bumper sticker slogans just don’t help the situiation.

Arrogance

The book of Job is one of my favorite books in the Bible, largely because it is so absurd. This book changed my faith in a deeply profound way, because when you really stop and take a moment to consider the narrative – you realize something that, for years, I found deeply disturbing and offensive. That is precisely in Job 1:8 when God says to Satan:

“Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

Job 1:8

I find this disturbing, because in the following chapters, Job endures deep pain and suffering. And all of that pain and suffering is traced back to the single verse above. Satan accuses Job for being blameless and upright exactly because he is so blessed (think prosperity gospel?). And because of this, God grants Satan power over all his belongings. And so the test begins.

Throughout my faith over many years, I continue to keep returning to this section of the Bible. I’ve told many people that it’s easy to be a Christian when times are good. However, I’m more interested in myself when times are tough. Who stands up for Christ during perilous times? I am reminded of watching Ben-Hur as a child. At one point in the movie, the adversaries ask “Who is Ben-Hur?” from a crowd of prisoners. In response, everyone from the crowd announces they are Ben-Hur. I know this sentiment goes strait back to my bleeding evangelist heart, but I am constantly bothered by the fact that salvation certainly can elude those who consider themselves saved. The other day I came across Matthew 7:21 and that verse just haunted me for hours.

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ ²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Matthew 7:21-27

The world is full of false disciples. And that bothers me so much partly because “what is enough” is never really defined. If it were, we, as humans, would likely do the absolute minimum. God purposely leaves an open door. How much do you love? How far are you willing to go? We certainly understand we are saved by grace, but then you have Matthew 7:21 and Revelation 3:16 which strongly emphasize the reality that some of us consider us saved, and we aren’t. We are “lip service Christians”.

I could go on about how I attended a private school overflowing with affluent families, to be the strikingly poor boy who attended because -Dad worked there. And as an adult, I understand. Parents make deep sacrifices for their children and their children’s education. Oftentimes, charitable giving just doesn’t make the list. Secondly, the fact that coined the term “Cheasters” or worse, the “overtly religious”. The self-righteous Pharisees of our day.

For years I struggled over the fact that because of a pithy proposition between God and Satan, Job loses everyone and everything he cares about. All that being said, there is a recognition that Job didn’t deserve any of this. This is summarized in Job 3:3 when Job laments his life. This is just a glaring example that life isn’t fair. But it’s not fair because God wanted to conduct a test. Does that seem wrong? This opened up questions about the God I serve. Is this the kind of God I want to serve? At my workplace, I sometimes hear people say, “If you have a choice between being right and being kind, choose kind.” And while that sounds wonderful and is something I believe in, Job’s story is not about being kind. It’s about a deep commitment through suffering. In my opinion, it’s about being right.

I’ve often said that life isn’t fair. But it took several years for me to accept that Job emphasizes how big God is, and how small we are. All of this traces back to arrogance. We love to think God needs us. But he doesn’t. We need him. And after a long time, I can accept that the suffering of Job, for the glory of God, is justified, because it’s God. Even if it’s inconvenient, uncomfortable, or downright painful.

Blasphemous

Job’s suffering transforms him. Job ultimately confronts God, which is clearly blasphemous, but deeply moving. Job questions the God he serves, and in my opinion, transforms into a saint. One of my favorite aspects of this book is that Job’s religious friends are always ready to provide an explanation to justify the suffering. Perhaps Job sinned? What did Job do to make God angry? These are futile hopes to hold onto the ideal that life is fair and just. That God would dare do something to us, just to test our faith.

Job’s religious friends stand on theology and theory, but have no experience. They have thoughts about God, but no love of God. They believe in theology, but Job witnesses the God of their theory. This is the chasm. There is a difference between information and wisdom. And suffering often produces wisdom, even if it is downright painful and unfair.

If you watch the US markets in any sense, you know that Amazon is a powerhouse of a company that has successfully penetrates numerous markets as a part of an “internet of things” revolution. Throughout the world, brick and mortars shops fell asleep at the digital revolution, in which shopping experienced a virtual transformation. As someone who owns AMZN stock, this has been both wonderful and frustrating. Wonderful because I’ve made a lot of money; frustrating because I studied Amazon enough to know this isn’t surprising. Amazon’s core advantage is its supply chain management. Amazon can ship quickly and cheaply, and that allow them to discount their products heavily. You add strong customer service and you have a enormous company that continues to grow year after year.

I invested late into AMZN, buying at roughly $1,500 a share. That was when people were shocked at it’s growth, and there was considerable discussion about “reaching their limit”. They are currently sitting at $2,400 and I’ve realized (to date) a 50% gain. All that being said, I feel like the same transformation is (or will) take place in China. And in that sense, I seriously looked at eastern equivalents of AMZN. When people say the “Amazon of China”, they typically think of Alibaba (BABA).

This is a little misleading because Alibaba and Amazon aren’t really equivalents. Alibaba engages heavily in B2B sales, where Amazon is heavily focused on consumers. Also, head over to Alibaba and try to buy something. It’s an entirely different experience. It’s not about cool gadgets or gizmos, it’s about bulk sales. Large quantities, heavily discounted. To me, the most attractive aspect of an Alibaba is its leadership – Jack Ma. This goes back to a age old lesson taught to me in my venture finance classes. In any investment opportunity, 3 factors contribute heavily to success:

• Character Risk
• Management Team Risk
• Commercialization Risk

Character risk involves the integrity and trustworthiness of the management team. Management team risk is the greatest single attribute to the success of the new venture. Both Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors most important criteria for the success of the new venture involve the management team. Management team risk accounts for the success or failure of past start-up ventures, industry expertise, technology expertise, management expertise, as well as financial expertise. These factors can be complimented by an advisory board, but the quality of the management team is arguably the most important factor concerning the success of the new venture. Commercialization risk is composed of Development Risk, Customer Acceptance Risk, and Sales and Market Risk.

In this case, Jack Ma would be the greatest influencer of success or failure, and Jack commands a strong history of successful startups. All of this convinced me Alibaba would be the front runner as the “Amazon of China.” Like Amazon, perhaps I could invest and ride a wave of prosperity. In the end, I had an issue that caused me to hesitate. Why is Alibaba listed on the NYSE? It’s a heavily Asian centric company? Isn’t that a little weird? More so, what voting rights would I have? What would stop Alibaba from “vanishing”, in the spirit of conspiracy theories of gross fraud.

That caused me to wait. And while I waited, the money poured in. Alibaba became the “Amazon of China”, ready to take over the world. Except one day, Jack Ma announced he was leaving Alibaba – to teach…? Back to venture finance 101. Any credible investor knows that this represents huge risk. You have a credible management team, and the force which achieved success is stepping back.

At some point, I felt like the upside outweighed the downside. Amazon’s growth continues to accelerate and waffling over Jack Ma and proxy issues while Alibaba grew and grew and grew was a losing proposition. In the end, I bought Alibaba near $200 a share, and it was a wild ride.

Shares shortly dropped to $160 when Trump increased his rhetoric against China concerning a trade war. And even though Alibaba’s management team justified their growth with the fact that the vast majority of sales were internal to China – meaning a trade war would do almost nothing to bottom line sales, the stock continued to decline. At one point, I remember overhearing conversations about how the “trade war” with China would destroy the United States cheap, consumer market. This type of rhetoric deeply affects companies such as Walmart, Amazon, and others who profit heavily upon selling cheap consumer goods made in Asia. In the end, I was frustrated, so I sold my shares at a slight loss. At one point it went $220 but remains at $200 even during the coronavirus pandemic. All of this being said, I’m not optimistic for Alibaba’s future. And this brings me to another point.

My middle child is notorious for lying. She’s passive-aggressive, and oftentimes I’ll find things destroyed around the house after she’s been scolded. Whenever I ask her if she did it, I get this weird half-laugh, complimented with big, puppy-eyes – no it wasn’t me response. The problem is, there have been times where I found something destroyed, accused her of doing it, and later found out that it was her siblings. This is a huge The Boy Who Cried Wolf problem. And it makes me feel bad, because lying has created a scenario where there is no integrity. I can’t trust her, even if she’s right OR wrong. It doesn’t even matter anymore. This is so frustrating! Can you tell that I’m frustrated?

Okay, back to investing. Some time ago, this thread appeared on reddit investing. Go ahead, read the comments. Luckin Coffee. It’s like Starbucks. The discussion goes on. One person dropped “$5k” into it. And then you get these kind of comments:

And this is just a representation here. There was also a Twitter thread on Luckin Coffee where several people (who lived in China) said it was a complete fraud. That they had no consumers, and it’s just China subsidizing the company. Okay? To an investor, what kind of comment is that? That’s like trying to buy a car when someone tells you the car doesn’t actually have an engine, and walks away. Except these folks were right. It turns out, the CEO and COO committed massive financial fraud, and the stock plummeted and received notice from the NASDAQ about potentially being delisted.

Except, ironically, the stock surged ~50% today over rumors of a buy-out. (Robinhood traders are alive!) My issue is this. How do I know it’s even worth half of that? What assets does Luckin Coffee have? How much capital? And more importantly, how do I even know if I can trust those figures? This goes back to Venture Finance. But it’s not only Management Team Risk, it’s Character Risk. And Character Risk is the biggest gaping black hole in the success and integrity of a growing business.

How does all this connect with Alibaba? I love local business. I think localized supply chains are efficient and sustainable. And I love helping businesses that I can interact with and purchase from. Alibaba is has a nagging Management Team Risk, and the company is so far removed from the United States economy. Just like Amazon has struggled to penetrate the Asian markets, I think Alibaba will struggle to move beyond the Asian B2B market. And to be honest, I’m still rattled by Luckin Coffee. That kind of large scale fraud, in concert with the Chinese government, makes me seriously question any Chinese based investments. And I find the entire situation as frustrating as trying to figure out if my second daughter is lying. For the time being, I am going to wait. Patience is a virtue.

One of my favorite movie series is Alien by Ridley Scott. In my opinion, these movies (starting with Alien which came out in 1979) are decades ahead of their time. And more recently, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant continue the thrilling saga as space explorers discover an ancient species and it’s war with an alien race.

Prometheus is one of my favorite movies precisely because it is so religious. The main character (archaeologist Elizabeth Shaw) wears a cross throughout the movie as she struggles with the conflict of faith and science. When she is asked about God and her faith, she responds with a “I’m not sure, but let’s find out” attitude. As a Christian who believes in a God-authored creation event, I felt like Prometheus was the first movie that really challenged the “faith or science” chasm.

As someone who was schooled through both a private, Christian school as well as a public, secular school, my science classes were often strict doctrine of purposeful, God authored creation or the theory of evolution, which I would describe as the coincidental, life supporting arrangement. The dramatic difference between these 2 views is that one is accidental, while the other is purposeful.

I recently began watching a television series about the creation of the earth. In this series, the shows cover all the granular details about how the earth supports life. From sandstorms in Africa to thunderstorms in the Amazon rainforest. From the creatures in the oceans which create oxygen. All of these actors play critical roles in the fact that our planet supports life. The earth is uniquely positioned away from the sun, so that it is not too hot, and also not too cold. Our atmosphere happens to have the right concentration of gases in order to protect humans and maintain a livable climate. Our earth spins on an axis so that we have seasons. Our moon just happens to be large enough and close enough to cause tides. During the series, many of the narrators commented about the extraordinary collection of life-supporting events. And while this leaves me thinking about God’s authorship of the earth and humans, the show touches upon (in a secular manner) the fact life is special and all of this is a testament to survive.

Now let’s open up to the book of Genesis, and I will only touch upon 1 verse:

“Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.”

Genesis 1:24

How did God get the land to produce living creatures? This is something I have thought about a lot, because when I think of God in Genesis, I think of something like this:

And honestly, am I so wrong? Genesis 1 mentions the “Spirit of God” hovering over the waters. It’s poetic. It’s beautiful. But maybe, just maybe, the God of Genesis could also be depicted as this:

Because after all, if God is a zoologist, as well as a geneticist. And Genesis depicts the formation of the water, the sky, land, and living creatures. Who is to say how those creatures were created.

All of that being said, the Bible speaks to the perfect creation of God, prior to sin entering the world. And in that sense, I don’t think comparing God to David from the Prometheus movie is in any remote sense accurate. But I do think that we know very little for us to have such strong opinions about the origin of life.

Ridley Scott’s series is thought provoking, because it brings to light that meeting our creator might not be everything you thought it would be. Maybe our creator doesn’t want to meet us, as detailed in the movie. And maybe we glossed over the fact that our creator is technically, an alien species.

As a Christian, through the gift of prayer, I know that God (alien or not) is connected to each and everyone one of us in a supernatural, spiritual way. And while so often the debate of evolution versus creation is ripe with insults for the “other”, I feel like we could be so much more constructive if we took that energy and explored the puzzling relation between the physical and the spiritual. For example, how does the human body respond to prayer? Why do church-goers live longer? Or another completely unrelated paradox, if speed distorts time, could it be that God is eternal in the that he exists at the speed of light? (I wish science fiction movies touched more on the relativity of time and space.)

And so I leave you with that. God is partly “The Creation of Adam” by Michelangelo as well as the Zoologist Robot David. God who came into our earth, and organized a bunch of stuff and created life. It might have been 7 days or 4 billion years. But we do know that somehow, miracle or not, our earth supports life. From the sandstorms in Africa to the thunderstorms in the Amazon. Some people will look at the stars and marvel at the coincidence of life. Others will thank God for the gift of life.