Should We Fire God?

Just recd advance copy of "should we fire God" by @nlcfjim. Can't wait to read it!, originally uploaded by cherylsmith999.

That’s the question posed by my friend Jim Pace’s new book—it’s also the title! Should We Fire God? Finding Hope in God When We Don’t Understand. Jim was kind enough to send me an advanced copy, but unfortunately I was unable to write a review in a timely fashion. The good news for you is that you can now buy a copy in bookstores and not have to wait. It was released about a month ago (April 8th).
I really enjoyed Jim’s book, and saw a number of ideas presented that I found to be particularly intriguing. In fact there were a couple that I wished he would have expanded upon. They were so intriguing to me, and I feel like there is much more to be said about the ideas than his book was willing to delve into. One of these ideas shared briefly was the idea of mirror neurons. What are mirror neurons?
Well, these are neurons that fire when we experience empathetic pain with someone else. Have you ever seen another person getting injured and felt a shudder run through you? Maybe you watched someone get hit playing football, or saw someone prick their finger with a needle, and you winced. It is something beyond empathetic pain though—it’s as though our nervous system is registering another person’s experience as though we were injured. What this means is that we are much more connected to the suffering that we see in the world than we would like to think or realize. While Jim doesn’t delve much deeper than that, I kind of wonder if we reach a point where we wall off some of our emotions because we get so overwhelmed by the suffering around us—maybe it’s a coping mechanism for attempting to deal with the massive degrees of hurt we experience in this world.
Anyhoo, enough about mirror neurons . . . for now. I want to tell you a bit more about Jim’s book. I will keep it brief though. If you are looking for a deep philosophical book—this probably isn’t it. But, if you have a background in the Christian faith, and can appreciate insights from both the scriptures and from real life as people work their way through difficulties that are both overwhelming and make little sense, then you might want to check out this book. Jim led his faith community through one of the most heart-rending campus tragedies I can imagine. He leads one of the largest campus churches in the country, and this church is in Blacksburg, VA. In April 2007, a young man shot dozens of people one morning at Virginia Tech, and an entire nation wrestled with the question “Why?” And Jim was charged with answering questions from the media during this trying time.
Beyond that, he was challenged with the even greater and more important task of walking with his faith community through an ongoing period of mourning.
Jim writes not from the ivory tower of theology or philosophy, but rather from the hard school of experience. I believe that this is the greatest asset of Jim’s book. He’s writing as someone who has had to think through some really difficult stuff about God and about human nature. In fact, in some of the closing chapters, Jim brings in another interesting thought. Maybe one’s desire to fire God has a lot to do with one’s own cognitive biases as well as other less wonderful things that we have chosen to invest our time and energy in.
Give it a read if you are wrestling with a question about the goodness of God.

Remembering A Year Ago

I realize it has been over a year, but I didn't get around to blogging about this, or much of anything last week. Around this time last year, evil made it's face known to blacksburg, VA. Thirty-three people were killed, and many more injured in one of the worst shootings (as if any shooting is good) in American history. Reading my friend Matt's book brought the story home much more vividly.

I remember watching footage on television. Television puts some distance between us and the events that shake our world. Interviewers from every major network were having conversations with survivors and prominent people in the Virginia Tech community. My friend Jim was on Larry King Live talking about the response of the faith community during the event. My friend JR flew in from Los Angeles, and last week, put together a very extensive blog entry reflecting on his experience with the tragedy.

Looking back from a year later, I still have a myriad of emotions. You see, I was distant from the shooting. I had friends there, sure, but I wasn't there. My friends had to walk through this tragedy though. The day after the shootings, I was on my way to a conference which was supposed to have some of my friends from Blacksburg and other places at it. On my way, I got a phone call from my sister. My mom was getting taken to the hospital. It was supposed to be a precautionary measure. I drove for a few miles and then turned around to be with my mom and family. My buddy Brian Shope was in the car with me and he helped me make my decision.

When I think about the tragedy at Blacksburg, I also think about my mom, and her fight against cancer. Looking at my blog entries from a year ago, it was cool to see how family just surrounded and cared for my mom.

The same thing happened at blacksburg too. Blacksburg is a lot like the town where I live, Morgantown. There is a sense of family and community there. And one year ago, that family walked through one of the most challenging moments of their history. And one year later, they remember. They remember where they were, what they were doing and how their life was changed.

So do I.

May we all take some time today to cherish the friends and family we have, and to remember a year ago.