The Power of the Gaze: "When Captives becomes their own Captors. TheElf on the Shelf represents more than a holiday tradition."

“This architectural apparatus should be a machine for creating and sustaining a power relation independent of the person who exercises it; in short, that the inmates should be caught up in a power situation of which they are themselves the bearers.”-Michel Foucault

       Preface: I recogonize I am biased in my own gender as well as flawed and broken relying on God for continued growth and transformation.    

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) is probably most known as the father of utilitarianism.  This philosophical view is based on the notion of maximizing the most utility that brings about the most good for the most people.  Implicit in this view is the idea that the means by which the greater good is accomplished is justified by the end results.  Some have reduced this school of thought this way, “The ends justifies the means.”  Bentham’s lesser known contribution to western philosophy and social construction is his architectural model for the emerging penitentiary industry of the 18th century entitled the Panopticon.  For the sake of keeping this essay somewhat brief and manageable, I want to provide a succinct explanation of Bentham’s Panopticon.

Panopticon

The Panopticon was Bentham’s vision for creating an efficient facility for the purpose of supervising criminals in a penitentiary.  Bentham’s contribution came during a transition from the practice of penal colonies (i.e. Australia) and penal ships (putting the insane and convicted on a ship to house them away from society) to fixed structures or facilities to house criminals.  This shift in penal philosophy was more than just the logistics of domiciling the convicted, it was Bentham's unique worldview that criminals could be reformed.  In order to bring his panopticon blueprint to reality, it required making a sales pitch to various countries that his new prison model would be both efficient to manage and productive in reforming the criminals.  This is where Bentham’s genius is highlighted.  In order for the panopticon to be efficient and cost effective, it needed to be managed by few individuals.  The architectural renderings of centralized guard houses with prisoner cells located in radius to the center created a vantage point where one person could essentially view the entire radius, or at least give the appearance of supervision, while never leaving the guard room.  Through other 18^th century technology, Bentham’s plan even had a model of tubes that connected the cells to the guard shack allowing the guard to listen into each cell.  All the while, the guard shack was designed with tinted windows so that the people being watched were never fully aware the shack was manned. 

            
From this 18^th century model, which never made it to construction during Bentham’s life, comes our modern day school and prison architectural renderings.  The idea of keeping the power holders in centralized locations and those under surveillance on the periphery is the ubiquitous model of construction today.  Transcending the architecture of facilities, Bentham’s panopticon exposed a psychological effect that is still relevant today.  When individuals are housed or kept under constant surveillance, over time, they will begin to self-monitor.  The self-monitoring initially is to appease the power holders so as not to get into trouble.  This self-monitoring appeasement later turns into a subconscious self-monitoring where, essentially, the persons under surveillance becomes their own captors.  They subconsciously self-regulate to meet the initial demands of their captors without even realizing they are perpetuating their own captivity.

            
Some two hundred years later, French philosopher Michel Foucault picks up Bentham’s Panopticon and identifies his physical structure as a philosophical construct that can be employed by power holders to effectively and efficiently keep individuals that are powerless under oppressive control.  The genius of this model is its efficiency.  Rather than needing an expensive police force to control large groups of people, implementing panoptic practices of constant gaze and the appearance of constant surveillance effectively and psychologically changes the minds and practices of people so that they begin to police themselves.  For a simple example of panopticism, the use of traffic cameras achieves this goal.  In our city there are cameras that are actually working and from time to time send me a ticket in the mail when I make an illegal right hand turn on red and then there are other “dummy” cameras that keep me honest.  The infrequent tickets are just enough to alter my psyche so that when I see a camera, real or not, I conform my behavior to the wishes of the camera owners. 

Another example of panopticism are the elevated boxes that are located in large parking lots that are designed to give the appearance that there are either individuals or cameras in the structure “watching” over the area.  The idea is to deter criminals because they are under the impression they are being watched.  These mobile police cranes get moved around town to give the appearance that they are effective in deterring crime. 

The panoptic lesson is if you wish to manage an individual or groups of individuals create an environment with the perception of constant gaze making sure that from time to time there are actual moments of surveillance, and the individuals under surveillance will self-regulate their behavior in compliance with the power of the gaze.

We take full advantage of the power of panopticism with our girls this time of year with the “Elf on the Shelf” method.  We introduce the elf and tell our little girls that he is Santa’s helper.  Put in panoptic terms, the elf is Santa’s gaze.  Through parent trickery and slight of hand, we have them convinced the elf moves about freely at night to new locations. This practice keeps the idea fresh in the minds of our kids that the elf is actually conducting surveillance.  Side note, this is a pretty twisted practice that probably has its roots in B-rated horror movies from the 80s where stuffed animals came alive and tormented their owners.  And yet, this cheap method of artificial surveillance, when practiced frequently enough, provides parents the benefits of achieving behavior modification.  Our children learn on their own that the elf, or in Casion terms, the Big Eye in the sky sees everything. 

Allow me to take a slight philosophical left turn with Bentham’s panopticon and Foucault’s panopticism and draw the analogy with the power of the male gaze in our culture.  It is painfully obvious that our sexualized culture is ubiquitous.  And it is terrible to think that the first place our girls begin to experience the power of the male gaze is in school.  Schools in this country are the public spaces that undergird practices of male gaze that over time plant seeds of male surveillance in the minds of our young girls.  This, coupled with media that constantly portray female value as being directly connected to male approval, constructs a worldview for girls in our culture, at a young age, that they get their attention through their looks and their utility to a male.

I am not pretending to have the solutions for all of the ways our western society creates innocuous systems and practices of sexualizing our kids, I am, however, taking a more keen eye to these institutions and media conglomerates (Disney) that are actively telling my girls that their identity and value are connected to how a male will perceive them.  Remember, the psychological power of the gaze, in this context, have our girls self-monitoring their own fashion, sense of value and purpose, and body image to meet the expectations of those behind the gaze.  Unfortunately, in my opinion, the power holders are men.  As a result, it is impossible to escape the sexualizing gaze that finds safe haven in nearly every aspect and institution in this country. 

To put this in even more direct language, we have set up systems and institutions that specialize in trafficking our girls for the purpose of appeasing the male gaze.  Over time, our young girls grow up and self-traffic with the misguided idea that our society's definition of beauty and utility are actually their own views of beauty and utility.  When this power is left unchecked, we grow up girls that become moms that perpetuate these panoptic principles in their own parenting with their daughters.  When insecure moms are still struggling with their own sense of identity and utility because they are still living to appease the power of the gaze, they end up passing their adult insecurities on to their daughters.  

The ultimate expression of the power of the gaze is the generational self-monitoring and behavior modification that takes place by moms with their daughters. Caveat: I am not suggesting that we take the puritanical approach to parenting.  To suggest that our girls and young ladies cannot wear fashion that is culturally relevant is an easy way out.  Of course, wisdom and discretion is important for both genders as it relates to just how much of our culture we embrace.  Also, to get the guys off the hook by saying to our young ladies, "Just stop wearing those kinds of clothes" is not acceptable.  I recommend the Job 31:1 approach, "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman."  This is a great opportunity for parents to talk about disciplining our eyes, minds, and hearts to look upon others in ways that glorify God and affirm value of others.

Conclusion:

How does one negotiate a male-gaze dominated society?  It starts with a healthy and frequent dose of God’s truths spoken frequently to our girls.  The identity, value, and purpose of our girls are not connected to their ability to appease the gaze.  Rather, our children are infinitely valuable because they are made in the image of God and Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection gives them hope and value.  Put differently, the power of the Gospel has the ability to free our girls from the generational bondage of insecurity that manifests in dysfunctional relationships and in some cases sexually broken relationships. 

         
 For the sake of redundancy on exposing the power of panopticism, well-intentioned parents don’t even realize we are doing the work for the enemy by maintaining the very beliefs and practices of our hyper sexualized culture in our homes by allowing networks like Disney to innocuously shape the minds of our boys and girls to a set of values and norms that are NOT grounded on God’s truth.  As a result, the long reach of Disney is engaging in a  battle for the minds and hearts of our kids as well as successfully converting our children into consumers.  The consumerism of our children is another essay for another time. 

Disclaimer: My intention is not to pass judgment on families, Disney, or schools.  This social commentary is intended to be introductory material to the power of the panopticon that shapes our minds and hearts and converts us into our own captors engaging in practices that tighten the very shackles that keep us locked down in a confinement of insecurity, purposelessness, and, in some cases, a low view of God’s will to bring hope and happiness.

Human Trafficking Texts in the New Testament: Acts 16 and John 4:Literary and Theological Connections

Our family was invited to attend church with some good friends this morning.  We enjoyed our experience getting to see a lot of people we get to see everyday at school.  In our Bible class this morning, the text was Acts 16.  My friend did a great job leading the conversation.  This gave me a great opportunity to retrieve my knowledge on Paul’s second missionary journey.  It is true, at least in my experiences that when reading the Bible new observations and connections frequently occur.  This morning was one such experience of a new observation and connection.

Paul’s encounter with Lydia the seller of purple and the slave-girl with the spirit of divination in Acts 16 is a text that has anchor points that usually take my attention to some of the obvious themes in the text (Paul’s first convert in Europe, Paul and Silas put in jail for causing an uprising, and late night singing that led to a jailbreak), but this morning my mind wondered down a slightly different path investigating more subtle details of this narrative.  I guess when I say “more subtle details” it is because I was taught this text multiple times with a focus on the latter themes that developed a particular lens or a model of prior knowledge (intentional Bayesian brain reference) that allowed me to continually read over some details and only focus on others.  This morning I found myself focusing on the lesser details that may actually be the more significant details than Paul and Silas’ song induced, divine jailbreak. 

So, Acts chapter 16 gets off to a distracting start, especially, if you have just finished reading chapter 15.  The few verses leading to chapter 16 is Luke, the writer of Acts, describing the relational split between Paul and Barnabas.   Probably providential, Paul decides to take Silas and pick up Timothy on the way and head in a different direction than Barnabas and a young John Mark.  Paul has his Macedonian vision redirecting his itinerary to Europe.  While in Europe, the sequence of events seems to loosely parallel a few events from Jesus’ ministry.  It is important to know that my mental anchor or “prior” was reading again the ways the slave-girl was being trafficked by the men in her life.  This is much more than a jailbreak text!

By way of an exegetical disclaimer, I am not suggesting that my thoughts and literary parallels in this essay are either original or necessarily required in reading Acts 16.  With that said, the scene in Acts 16 conjures up literary and contextual parallels with Jesus’ ministry and events in John 4 and Mark 5.  I will be toggling between Acts 16, John 4, and Mark 5 for the remainder of this essay.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Lydia Seller of Purple

Paul gets a divine redirection from a vision to travel to Europe.  We find out later it is because God has two particular women in mind for this redirection.  Lydia is already a believer, but God opens her heart and she and her family are baptized.  Undoubtedly, Lydia is already an influential and wealthy woman.  However, prior to Paul’s encounter with well-respected Lydia, he has a juxtaposing encounter with another kind of woman. 

The text says the slave-girl was under the spell of an evil spirit as well as the trafficking control of the men of power in her community.  What is interesting is the spirit of Python controlling this woman immediately identifies Paul, “These men are servants of the Most High God.” Apparently, the slave-girl persisted in following Paul and Silas around identifying them.  After much frustration, Paul casts the spirit out of the slave-girl.  This created a major

Oracle of Delphi

problem since this girl was bringing economic gain to the male power holders in the city.  As well-connected, powerful men often do, they conspire with the rulers of the city and have Paul and Silas beaten and thrown in jail. 

Side bar conversation, this is actually a great text on the power of God over the established powers of evil.  Time and again in this story, the power of God overwhelms the power of evil.  While it is exegetically consistent to identify this text as a baptismal text with Lydia and her family in the opening scene obeying the Gospel and being baptized and the closing scene a baptism of the Philippian jailer, there is another sub-narrative taking place as it relates to race, class, and gender.  The gender piece is of particular interest to me.  I will discuss later in the essay.  Also, don’t miss the metaphoric connection between the Philippian jailor’s attempted suicide, physical self-inflicted death, which leads to his baptism (spiritual death of self).  Theologically, baptism is not a work per se.  It is a spiritual suicide of sorts with the individual making the profession to no longer allow self to govern but to submit to the Savior for liberation from the enslavement to sin.

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman at the Well

In some ways, this parallels Jesus itinerary change in his travel from Judea back to Galilee by targeting Samaria in John 4.  From both the text and extra biblical evidence, we learn that Jews when taking that same route circumvent Samaria.  But in Jesus’ case, he has a particular woman in mind that compels him to break from the social and cultural norms of his day (Jews do not associate with Samaritans, especially, Samaritan women) to bring salvation to a lady that was trafficked by the men in her community. John’s description of Jesus’ conversation reveals this woman’s potential social utility among the men in her town, “The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus *said to her, “You have correctly said, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; this you have said truly.” 19 The woman *said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.”

Back to Paul’s encounter with the slave-girl in Acts 16:16, we read in the text that this was a woman that was trafficked by the men in her town for economic gain.  She was inflicted with a spirit of divination as described by most major translations. After consulting the original language, the literal rendering should be “the spirit of Python”.  Thanks to my Bible scholar friend Dr. Curtis Elliott, he provided some useful context that the spirit of Python was closely connected to the priestesses that supported the pagan temples and priests of the Oracle of

Delphi.  These priestesses were ladies who possessed a prophetic spirit that was deployed after the temple frenzy of animal sacrifices and sexual orgies. 

Similarly, the Samaritan woman in John 4 quickly identified Jesus as a prophet.  Later in John 4 the woman proclaims, “27 At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?” 28 So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and *said to the men, 29 “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?” 30 They went out of the city, and were coming to Him.”

Here are a few literary and theological connections to consider between the texts:

• ·      In both passages, there is a divine itinerary redirection. 
• ·      In both passages, the central character is a woman forced into a social caste system that renders her marginalized by the men in her community. 
• ·      In both passages, the women make identifying proclamations that reveal the presence of God. In both passages, the messenger of the Good News (Gospel) brings salvation to the ladies usurping the power structures of human trafficking. There are overt sexual overtones in the Samaritan woman and covert sexual connotations with the role of the slave-girl and her potential utility to Delphic temple practices with her spirit of Python.
• ·      In both passages, the messenger of the Good News is admonished and or punished.  Jesus is admonished by his disciples for his elicit encounter with a “dirty dog Samaritan women,” and Paul and Silas are beaten and put in prison.
• ·      Cure ball connection, in Mark 5 the man possessed with a legion of demons immediately recognizes Jesus and identifies him as “Son of the Most High God.” Jesus casts out the demons and sends them into a herd of swine.  Notice the literary connection between the slave-girl in Act 16 identifying Paul and Silas as servants of the Most High God and the demoniac identifying Jesus as the Son of the Most High God.

Conclusion:

The literary connections are interesting, but the theological connections are most important.  In all three passages, we see the power of God to bring about freedom from enslavement, value to the marginalized, destruction of systems of human trafficking that serve to lessen and devalue, and hope for the weak over the strong.  These are the same themes that resonate today.  It would seem that humanity has advanced beyond the systems of gendering for the purpose of trafficking and enslaving over the course of 2,000 years, and yet, we see some of the evil power structures at work today.  The difference, today we seem to be a bit more sophisticated in masking these systems.  Further, unlike Jesus and Paul, the Christian community today struggles with both identifying these evil power structures as well as not syncretizing with such structures.  This last statement requires some explanation.

At least in our culture, we continue to directly and indirectly support systems of economy that specialize in sexualizing our girls.  While today’s places of trafficking are not ancient pagan temples with priestesses serving as prostitutes and engaging in orgies of sin; instead, they are every major NFL stadium across our country.  I am thinking of the NFL environment in my own city that prominently features pole dancers and plenty of libations to keep the crowd in frenzy status.  The experts that specialize in fighting human trafficking tell us one of the biggest sporting events in our country for trafficking is Super Bowl weekend.

Thankfully, the message of the Bible still resonates today.  The same God that put on human flesh to rescue humanity from sin’s slavery continues to provide the same salvation given to two unlikely ladies in our text.  Similar to both ladies featured in Acts 16 and John 4, in the kingdom of God, gender is not an excuse to enslave, dehumanize, or marginalize.  While sin’s bent is to possess for the purpose of re-imaging humanity away from God’s original design, Jesus entered our world to restore humanities image to holiness and relationship with the Creator.  It is no coincidence Satan corrupted and confused Eve and Adam in the Garden for the purpose of trafficking humanity for sin.  That original spiritual trafficking continues today.  There is only one source of salvation and liberation. Jesus, Son of the Most High God!!

Stop losing sleep at night worrying about what others are thinking.........“The Stories We Weave In Our Minds Are Almost Always More Dramatic Than Reality Supports

We have all had the experience of walking into a crowded room or down our high school hallway at one time or another and notice a group of people that appear to be talking about us.  Uncertain if we are actually the subject of their conversations, we begin to imagine in our heads or at least start putting together an elaborate story of what they must be sharing.  Countless are the high school drama episodes I have mediated over the years that have their origins with, “She was talking about me behind my back!” or “I know that sub-tweet was about me.”

In many of these cases, the offense is rarely as bad as the social victim has imagined in their head.  In fact, the narrative constructed by the “person talked about” is almost always way more creatively negative than what actually is the case.  Of course, this often times leads to greater conflict and a deeper sense of hurt that requires more time to sort through to bring about conflict resolution.  While some may think this particular social tendency is gender specific, the cases over the years in my experience are about even.

There is something about a good story that draws us in and captivates our imagination.  In fact, if the story isn’t good enough we will intuitively make the story better by adding our own “sizzle.”  I suspect the relationships that fall into the neutral position do so because of one or both individuals in the relationship have construed their own narratives in their head that exasperate the initial conflict.  Unfortunately, there requires very little if any evidence for us to construct a narrative or interpretation of a social experience vis-à-vis “I heard my name being mentioned in a crowded room when I walked in,” for us to hold that narrative in our brains.  

In these cases, our brains are not great at doing social-CSI to uncover the facts of a particular social interpretation for validation prior to making up our own neural narrative (story making).  All we really need is a sound bite or two, a perceived stare, and some ambiguous body language and we have a full-blown drama script directing our actions.  To add insult to injury, the individual or individuals that are the characters in our story making that get our well intentioned stare-back, cheeky comment, and closed-off body language begin to develop their own dramatic story and there you have it a two-week long relational fracture that in some cases never really gets resolved and lead to inflammatory social media posts. 

There is power in a good story.  It is no coincidence that some of the best public speakers that hold our attention and bring us back for more are also great storytellers.   The reason we are attracted to a good story is because God made us with a brain that performs storytelling daily. 

Dr. Gazzaniga

In the 1980s, Dr. Gazzaniga added to decades of research on split-brain patients by identifying specific left and right hemisphere brain function.  Before going much further, it is important to dispel the neuromyth that some people are right brain or left brain dominant people.  The fact is we are both right and left brained dependent.  Connected by a large nerve bundle of white tissue, the corpus callosum facilitates the massive web of neural networks allowing the right and left hemispheres to talk to each other to perform important tasks.  Through the attempts to unlock the neurological mystery of epilepsy, brain researchers explored the practice of cutting the connecting corpus callosum tissue splitting the patients brains.  What they discovered is that they were able to localize the neural storms caused by seizures to one side of the brain providing some relief to the patients.  However, the predicted brain damage of the split-brain procedure did not render the impact originally imagined. 

The first patients in the 1950s that underwent this procedure experienced very little slippage in I.Q., perception, and brain function.  Over time through clever research methods, researchers discovered that split-brain patients were unable to perform certain tasks.  For example, the “Fork” experiment revealed that when the patient was given a picture of a fork using only their right hemisphere, they were unable to connect to the language center of the brain located in their left hemisphere.  The right hemisphere, which “saw” the fork, was unable to generate the language independent of the left hemisphere needed to “say” fork.  Ironically, the right hemisphere had control over the patient’s hand to “draw” fork upon command.  From this set of research, it was concluded the left hemisphere was the intellectual-word bank and it could be severed from the right side of the brain without significant I.Q. slippage.  And the right side was determined to be the visual-spatial expert, the artist.  The two worked in concert as “co-pilots” to accomplish our everyday tasks. 

By the 1980s we learned even more through split-brain research to better understand our biological bent for story telling.  Benedict Carey, in his book How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens, tells the story of Dr. Gazzaniga’s research.  Carey describes one of Gazzaniga’s experiments this way, “He flashed a patient two pictures: the man’s left hemisphere saw a chicken’s foot, and his right hemisphere saw a snow scene. (Remember, the left is where language skills are centered, and the right is holistic, sensual; it has no words for what it sees.)  Dr. Gazzaniga then had the man choose related images for each picture from an array visible to both hemispheres, say, a fork, a shovel, a chicken, and a toothbrush.  The man chose a chicken to go with the foot, and a shovel to go with the snow. So far, so good.”

What Dr. Gazzaniga discovered next helps explain the high school drama I described earlier. The man’s left hemisphere accurately made the connection between the chicken and the foot, and he had the words and a good explanation for making that connection.  Remember the man’s left hemisphere did not see the picture of the snow, only the shovel.  As it turns out, the man instinctively chose the shovel and it just so happened to be correct.  But when Gazzaniga asked for his explanation, the man responded, “The shovel is needed to clean up after the chicken.”  With an absence of evidence, the left hemisphere engages in story telling.  The man came up with his own story that explained the use of the shovel since his left hemisphere did not have a chance to see the picture of the snow scene.  Carey puts it this way, “The left hemisphere takes whatever information it gets and tells a tale to conscious awareness.  It does this continually in daily life, and we’ve all caught it in the act-overhearing our name being whispered, for example, and filling in the blanks with assumptions about what people are gossiping about.”  Succinctly put, our left hemisphere is more than an interpreter.  It’s a story maker.

In conclusion, the lesson learned is probably not a new piece of information.  Be careful jumping to conclusions, it may actually be all in your head.  This is not to say that there are never any cases of gossip or that the your assumptions are always wrong; however, my own experience tells me that more often than not our minds tend to weave a more elaborate and dramatic story in our head of what we are visually and socially experiencing than what reality fully supports.  In a more practical way, the last time you gave a speech and mispronounced a word or answered a question incorrectly in class causing some immediate embarrassment; resist the temptation of allowing your left hemisphere the opportunity of fixating on those events.  It may actually be the case that very few people caught the mispronunciation and most have already forgotten the wrong answer in class. 

Second application, Jesus’ ministry was full of great episodes of storytelling.  This just makes sense doesn’t it?  After all, He was present and involved when God created humanity and designed the complexities of our brains.  He already knew that we are a species that specialize in stories.  To my preacher friends, find good stories to augment your homiletics.  P.S.  A good rule to live by when deploying the art of storytelling in your sermons, make sure most of your stories are not centered around YOU!  lol

News Flash: Your Success is NOT because of You.": A modern day allegory that helps to illustrate the best love story every told.

(For copyright purposes I made this video from clips from footage provided by Ironman. The song Grace Flows Downs is performed by Christinia Nockles)


You need to watch the video prior to reading the blog. :) 


The popular worldview of Deism that flourished in the late 17^th and 18^th century espoused a view that God, the Supreme Being that created all things, got the universe and life started, set in motion the natural laws to govern creation, and then committed the ultimate act of abandonment.  Put differently, He got the earth spinning and walked away.  Interestingly, this was the dominant worldview of the framers of our Constitution of the United States.  It is a well-accepted belief that our framers were Christians.  And as much as Thomas Jefferson and others had a high tolerance for the Bible as well as citing the Bible in their works, there is very little to suggest they articulated key New Testament doctrines of salvation made possible by grace through faith, Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, or that salvation is made possible only through Jesus.  In other words, their deism allowed them to have plenty of intellectual room for the existence and role of God, but their deism lacked the personal intimate details of the same God that put on human flesh for the purpose of restoring them back into a right relationship with Himself. 

Unlike the preferred intellectual deistic worldview of the 18^th century, the Bible provides plenty of evidence that our Heavenly Father created with a purpose for relationship.  God did not leave the pinnacle of his creation, humanity, to be parented by a set of natural laws.  Instead, He created us for a love relationship.  “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.” The Psalmist describes a Heavenly Father that took a

personal interest in his own conception in Psalms 139:13-14.  The Old Testament profit Jeremiah speaks of the Heavenly Father’s love awareness of us before we were even formed in our mothers womb Jeremiah 1:5.  These two passages provide a picture of a Creator that is intimately involved in his creation.  


These are great passages to cite when families experience babies that are perfectly healthy and grow and develop without any issues.  But what about the families that experience the deep pain of miscarriage, stillbirths, or babies that will grow and live the rest of their lives with debilitating diseases?  Did God somehow mess up in the in vitro “knitting” process? Or, did God always intend, before conception, that a person would be born with significant challenges? I am treading lightly here because only by the grace of God have we been blessed with three healthy babies.  I cannot begin to understand the pain so many families have to experience. 

Where was God when Ricky Hoyt was strangled by his own mother’s umbilical cord while in vitro causing tremendous brain damage coupled with cerebral palsy?  The story of Ricky and his dad Dick is well documented by now.  I was first introduced to this story over ten years ago, and when I see footage of this father’s love for his son, I am still brought to tears.  For those who are unfamiliar with this family’s story, Ricky was rendered paralyzed and lacked the ability to communicate verbally.  At a young age with the help of computer technology, Ricky was able to talk to his father.  For years there were questions if Ricky even had the brain development to understand his parent’s attempts of communicating.  One morning Dick decided to take his son on a 5K jog pushing his son’s wheelchair the entire time.  After the run, Ricky communicated the message to his dad, “I have never felt more alive than when you took me on the run.”  This ignited an explosion of love in his dad’s heart that lead to intense training and Ironman triathlons and marathons for the next twenty-years. 

To me, this family’s story provides a much bigger narrative that helps to connect God’s desire to rescue us from our sin disease through the use of allegory and metaphor.  Ricky’s significant limitations provide another way of framing our spiritual limitations.  The idea that a person paralyzed with cerebral palsy could compete and finish an Ironman triathlon is the perfect definition of “impossible.”  Similarly, the idea that we could save ourselves from our sin disease through anything other than faith and God’s gracious gift of salvation is equally “impossible.”  And, yet, there remains a tendency for us to revert to a works-based relationship with Jesus.  A “boot-strap” theology that relies on individuals pulling themselves

up from their mistakes, mess-ups, and addictions, to somehow present themselves as fixed and healthy before God.  The “boot-strap” approach of Christianity may resonate with us Americans because we have a proud history of growing a nation from nothing to a global superpower.  American ingenuity is the false front that continually derails our faith dependence on Jesus.

The metaphor of Dick towing his son 2.4 miles in the ocean, carrying his son on his bike for 100 miles, and pushing his son 25 miles all in succession illustrates the way God sustains us in our life event.  Metaphorically, the footage of the Hoyt’s is the great reminder that just when we forget our spiritual limitations and lack of righteousness and begin thinking that somehow we are doing life on our own, achieving success through our own abilities, and bringing our own self-righteousness before God, we realize that God is doing ALL of the heavy lifting.  He is empowering us, sustaining us, blessing us, and most of all sharing His righteousness so that we may be presented clean and whole in His presence.  If there were ever a reminder of our human frailties when it comes to our own spiritual progress, this video is it. 

Probably my favorite piece of footage from the video below is the joy experienced by Ricky when they finish this particular event.  It is as if Ricky himself swam the 2.4 miles, biked the 100 miles, and ran the 25 miles.  The look of accomplishment on Ricky’s face gets me every time.  This scene allegorizes what I think the scene will be in heaven.  I think there will be a sense of joy and completeness when we enter the presence of our Heavenly Father who created us, rescued us, and sustained us.  The power of this video and the Hoyt story as it relates to God’s love for us is there are characteristics of our Heavenly Father that we will never experience if we never have to experience tragedy.  Please, please, please do not interpret this short essay as a thorough answer to the heart-breaking questions that some parents will ask their entire lives regarding the loss of their children.  In fact, I have my own questions about tragedies I ask everyday.  And that will never change for me this side of heaven.  But, this video may open the aperture a little wider putting on full display that when we were powerless to rescue ourselves, God put on human flesh and in His son Jesus, made it possible for us to compete in our own life event. For most people, their life event will be full of heartache, pain, and tragedy.  But rest in the assurance, that when our tragedies occur and render us powerless, there is ONE who remains all powerful to draw closer than ever before to get us through it.  The beauty of this reality is that God just doesn't get us through, but He also demonstrates elements of his love that would never be experienced if not for a Heavenly Father that grieves with us for the sake of bring about heart healing.  

As you watch this video, try to see yourself in Ricky’s position.  You are so loved that your Heavenly Father is so compelled to do anything and everything to be back in relationship with you.  And if you happen to be living under the false impression that you are flourishing because of your own sweat equity, may the scenes of this video be a gentle reminder that on your best day in the presence of God you are completely powerless to even take care of your own basic needs.  However, you have a Creator that has promised to finish your race for you if only you are courageous enough to trust and believe.  Be confident in this, “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Phil 1:6