A Purpose Driven Life--Day 162/Day 11/Day 22

Yesterday, Adam mentioned the famous book by Rick Warren called "A Purpose Driven Life." I came across it today in our small collection of books. It asks that you only read one chapter a day to soak it in. It also suggests that you read it with a partner so you can discuss things. Even though Kim had already read part of it some time ago, I asked her if she'd mind starting over so we could read it together. She agreed to and we signed the covenant at the beginning of the book. I'm looking forward to the next 40 days of reading it with her. I will add this counter too.

I wanted to get something for Kim for sweetest day and Gabrielle and Noah went with me. I got a haircut and Gabrielle got her bangs trimmed. She looks really cute. We went to Meijers where I chose to get her a book by Beth Moore much like the book she had gotten me by Max Lucado. We ended up spending three hours around town. Kim called to make sure we o.k. :)

Colton decided not to go to his football game so he could go to a Red Wing game with a friend. He had never been before, and he really enjoyed himself. While he was gone, we played poker with some friends. The cards were cold for me most of the night, but I enjoyed having friends over. We enjoyed ourselves as well.

It was a good day and I'm looking forward to tomorrow. I'm going to the adult Sunday school for the first time. Hopefully that goes as well as everything else has for me at church. Kim is staying home with the kids, but hopefully she'll be able to go in the future even if that means I stay home and she goes.

I found out what the name Ten Shekel Shirt came from. They have an interview with a band member on their site tenshekelshirt.com that said:


Q. What does the name of the band mean?
A. We get this question a lot. And we’ve heard some good guesses. I think my favorite was about a guy skinny dipping in Israel who had all of his belongings stolen except for a cheap, ten shekel shirt (10 shekels = $3 USD .) Although this is not what the band was originally named after it does make for a funny mental picture if you can imagine a guy trying to cover himself up with only a small shirt as he runs frantically throughout the Holy Land.

The real deal goes like this. It’s kind of long and heady so bear with me. We named the band in part after a sermon I heard in the 90’s called “Ten Shekels and a Shirt” and in part because the combined words were quirky and original. For those of you wanting to know what the sermon was about I’ll summarize it and give you my updated perspective. The famous sermon was preached in the 50’s and passionately suggested that missionaries would get off track if they allowed anything other than God to take the central place in their work. He used the biblical example of a Levite in Judges 17 and 18 who sold-out for ten shekels and a shirt. I still agree with the general concept here. It doesn’t take a rocket theologian to see that the church has oft been corrupted by the love of money and selfish ambition. But then the preacher makes the tragic mistake, along with much of the 20th century evangelical church, as he attempts to separate two things that are inextricably linked – love for God and love for oppressed neighbors. Jesus never divorced those two concepts. In fact he said things like, “whatever you’ve done for the least of these (poor, homeless, hungry...) you’ve done for me.” And the bible as a whole could not link those actions more intimately. In the original Hebrew and Greek languages the words used for righteousness (which is about a right relationship with God) are the exact same words used for justice (right relationship with oppressed people.)

In the sermon the pastor talks about misguided humanists trying to “improve on the justice of God” by helping suffering people. That’s an extremely dangerous and silly notion. I’m not sure how I missed that during my first listen. I don’t think God rebukes anyone for loving others. He works through many different kinds of people...surprisingly even me on rare occasions. Any time there is a true act of love, compassion, mercy or justice, God is present. He is right there, actively working through the mess of flesh and bones and emotions that we are, no matter our dogma or creed. I get a kick out of Jesus' story of the “Good Samaritan.” The good guy in the story isn’t one of the “chosen people.” In fact he is some foreigner with a different religion.

Good Sam didn’t proclaim that he was only doing this for “God’s glory” as the sermon suggests we do, he simply saw someone in need and helped him. Thankfully the church and humanitarians are beginning to respect each other again and make some significant progress together. I could go on and on but I’m sure some of you are waiting for the exciting punch line, like the sharks in “Finding Nemo” waited for Marlin the clown fish to complete his joke.

So there you have it, that’s where the name originally comes from. Now I expect all of you to remember my theological dissertation when thinking about our band name, or if you prefer you can choose to think about the poor chap still running around Israel wearing only a ten shekel shirt.