2014 – The Thinking Christian Woman

The Bethlehem Report

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Dec 252014

What if Jesus was being born in 2014?

How might the news media cover events surrounding His unusual birth?

San Diego’s news radio team (KOGO, AM 600) gave its answer on Christmas Eve in a radio drama (remember Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds”?) called “The Bethlehem Report.”

With breaking news about a bright light in the Middle-East (even Late Night’s Art Bell weighs in), litigious scandal about a pregnant woman in labor turned away from a local inn, and possible police action in case of an insurrection over an alleged newborn king, The Bethlehem Report renders a well-known tale of antiquity as contemporary as today’s news.

When Christmas quiets down for you, why not find a comfy spot and click on the link to hear an archived copy of the 53-minute broadcast. I was blown away that such a godly program would be produced by the news radio station of America’s 8th largest city. Please leave a comment with your thoughts.

Merry Christmas!

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Rich toward God

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Oct 212014

Fifty-nine years ago today, baby “Wayne” (as his family called him) was born in Reid Memorial Hospital, Richmond, Indiana, home of the Purdue Boilermakers, due east of Indianapolis near the Ohio border.

It’s a rare and wonderful experience to meet and interact with a “famous” person, without knowing who they are. That’s how I met Wayne, forty years later, in March of 1995, in the Navajo Nation near Window Rock, Arizona, during a week-long stay at Hilltop Christian School on the reservation with my mother and father, Christian author and film maker, Ken Anderson. Our purpose: to collaborate with local Navajo believers on an exploratory Teen Missions video script with the working title, “Forgiveness.”

I was alone at the guest house one morning when he burst in like a prairie twister, looking for someone who wasn’t there. We talked briefly. He looked scruffy, wearing only a white t-shirt and tattered denim shorts (even though it was snowing outside). He seemed uncomfortable, nervous, distracted, and out of place. I had no idea who he was.

Over time, I learned he was a fellow Hoosier, just two years older than I, and, more significantly, that he was Richard Wayne Mullins, better known as Rich Mullins, the extremely gifted musician through whom God had produced such classics as Sing Your Praise to the Lord (Amy Grant’s first hit), Awesome God, and Step by Step (Sometimes by Step).

What I didn’t know, was that Rich was actually living in a hogan on the reservation. Though nearly 40, he was about to graduate from Friends University with a degree he pursued just to officially qualify to teach music education to the native children at Hilltop.

One evening, I sat on the living room floor at a small youth group gathering as Rich talked about writing Awesome God, and Step by Step (with Beaker), then played guitar and led us in those, and other, worship songs.

I noticed him several times that week, working on various service projects around the compound with college students who had come to minister on spring break.

The last night of our stay, Rich generously played piano and shared from his heart for about a hundred people in the school auditorium. It was my first exposure to the more innovative spiritual insights and incisive music and lyrics of this agitated, eccentric, poet-prophet. Rich seemed ill-suited in his own skin and misplaced on the planet. I found his spiritual transparency and musical talent alarming and magnetic. As a delightfully childlike treat, he divided us into sections and taught us to “make rain” using just our hands to produce simple sound effects, which, when combined, did sound remarkably like rain.

Though his music made millions, Rich gave everything away to Christian ministries and the poor, except for an allowance equal to the average American salary. Following in the bare footsteps of St. Francis, he literally accepted the same invitation Jesus gave to the rich young ruler in Luke 12:15-21, to give up everything and become rich toward God.

When I learned of his death in a traffic accident two and a half years later, my first reaction was relief. It seemed he didn’t really want to be here anyway, and now he was released to explore the boundless love of God unfettered by earth’s limitations.

Once when a friend told him that the friend’s grandmother had just died, Rich simply replied, “Good for her.”

In his own words, from the song “Elijah”:

When I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
It’ll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won’t break my heart to say goodbye

Be sure to check out Ragamuffin, the 2014 movie on the life of Rich Mullins. As of this posting, it can be found on Netflix, Amazon, and Google Play. Also, here’s most of a Wheaton College chapel concert at my alma mater, just 5 months before he died.

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The Star-Spangled Bicentennial

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Sep 142014

200 years ago today, a young lawyer wrote a love poem to a patchwork of colored wool and cotton. Could he have imagined that his poem would be sung by millions and ultimately, become the anthem of our nation?

In 1814 the United States of America was engaged in the Second War of Independence – the War of 1812 – fought over promises made, but not kept, by the British after the Revolutionary War. As part of that conflict, on August 24th, 1814, the British invaded Washington DC and burned the White House, the Capitol Building and the Library of Congress.

One week later, Francis Scott Key, a 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, rowed out in a little boat to a British Naval vessel anchored off Baltimore to negotiate the release of Dr. William Beanes who had been captured during the Washington raid. The two were detained on ship for over a week to keep them from warning the Americans of the planned attack on strategic Fort McHenry.

For 25 horrific hours, 16 British warships relentlessly bombed the fort, stopping only when ammunition finally ran out. Key and Beanes paced the deck all night. At dawn on September 14, 1814, exactly 200 years ago today, they strained through the mist and smoke to answer the question burning in their hearts, “Is our flag still there?”

The stirring sight of that grand symbol of victory and freedom marked a turning point in the war (just 3 months later, the British signed a peace agreement), and inspired Key to scribble the first verse of his love poem on the back of a letter.

The 36 x 40 foot garrison flag Key saw by the dawn’s early light was sewn in the summer of 1813 under the direction of widow Mary Pinckersgill by 4 teenage girls: her daughter, two nieces, and an African American indentured girl. The commander of Ft. McHenry commissioned the flag, knowing that his fort, guarding Baltimore harbor, would be a likely British target.

Despite most myths about Old Glory – including the famous tale of Betsy Ross – which arose many years after the first war of independence, the American flag did not play a major role in the Revolutionary War. The American flag was created primarily to identify ships and forts. Revolutionary patriots used other symbols—the eagle, Lady Liberty, George Washington— to define their national identity. The War of 1812 inspired a fresh wave of patriotism in the hearts of a generation too young to remember the Revolution which occurred 30 years earlier. Key’s declaration that “our flag was still there,” fused the physical symbol of the nation with universal feelings of patriotism, courage, resilience, national identity, unity, and pride. And by giving it a name—the Star-Spangled Banner—he transformed the official emblem into something tangible that Americans could rally around.

Congress made “The Star-Spangled Banner” our official national anthem on March 3, 1931 – 116 years after it was written.

New York stockbroker Eben Appleton inherited the original Star-Spangled Banner upon his mother’s death in 1878. The publicity it received in the 1870s had transformed it into a national treasure. Appleton freely lent it out for patriotic occasions. The flag’s deteriorating condition eventually led him to keep it in a safe-deposit vault in New York. In 1912 he gave the Star-Spangled Banner to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History (check out the interactive flag feature at this site) with the wish that it would always be on public view. A previous post, His Star-Spangled Banner Over Us is Love, highlighted some of the stirring, godly content of our national anthem.

Young Francis Scott Key probably didn’t aspire to write our national anthem, he was simply responding to life as God presented it to him. Each day, the Thinking Christian Woman can ask herself, “What can I do today for Christ and His kingdom that will bless others and stand the test of time and eternity?”

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Goldilocks and the four bookcases

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Sep 102014

Pictured two bookcases for the newly-finished attic to hold journals and such. Not important enough to spend money on, but a want none-the-less, so I asked the Lord to provide them in a way that would glorify and please Him, if it was His will for me to have them. (remembering back to things like the gardening table in Convicting Blessings – a webfession)

Within a week, I was driving down the alley and saw one perfect bookcase in one block, then two more about a half block on down, and finally a fourth! Came back later with the wagon and picked up the best two. “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

The thinking Christian woman knows that the Lord doesn’t always answer with a “Yes.” He always answers, but sometimes the answer is “No,” and sometimes “Not now.”

This time, it was as if He was saying, “Take your pick my love, or take all of them! I came to give you abundant life!”

I am giving Him glory for being such a sweet, attentive, and faithful friend, and for giving me more-than-enough (abundant) bookcases!

There’s NO God like Jehova!

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Stop…Sigh

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Jul 182014

By guest blogger Sara Clarke

Yes, I texted at a stop sign, letting family know I was heading home.

“Driving. Stop sigh. Home soon.”

Autocorrect pointed the way to a godly pause built into every commute. I don’t have to continually carry cares. Every red octagon can be a reminder to stop, sigh, and cast all of my cares on Him because He cares for me (1 Peter 5:7).

The Thinking Christian Woman can use these common visuals as opportunities to breathe (sigh) her cares to her Lord, who loves her so!

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Maleficent – Not the story you’ve been told

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Jun 212014

Taking Disney Captive to Christ – No. 5

Maleficent opened in theaters three weekends ago as a tantalizing twist on a timeless tale; innovative, visually stunning, well-acted, provocative…and dangerously wrong!

(spoiler-alert! this article reveals plot details)

As a Literature major at Wheaton College in Chicago, I studied Folk Literature under Gary Rundquist, and learned that “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” is a centuries-old fairy tale in which an evil and envious fairy named Maleficent curses the infant Princess Aurora, sentencing her to die by finger prick on her 16th birthday. Good fairy Merryweather ameliorates, but cannot undo, the curse; Aurora will not die, but only sleep for 100 years, or until awakened by true love’s kiss. The whole kingdom will sleep as well to spare them the agony of her absence.

Before we go forward, let’s be clear on a fundamental literary reality: fiction does not always equal falsehood, and non-fiction does not always equal truth.

Though fictitious, the main purpose of fairy tales is to convey universal moral truths in an entertaining and memorable fashion. A fairy tale consists of a simple narrative dealing with supernatural beings, told for the amusement (mostly) of children (but also for adults).

Throughout the ages, names have been extremely important in fairy tales, as they are in the Bible. “Maleficent” means, “being, and wanting to do, evil; harmfully malicious.” This is her name. This is who she is. She is not a human woman. She is an evil fairy; a supernatural character.

In Disney’s latest iteration, Maleficent starts out pure and innocent, then becomes evil because of mistreatment, only to redeem herself and become good again. But there is no truth in that tale! Supernatural characters, such as fairies and trolls are literary representations of the very real spiritual powers and principalities at work in our world. Some are good. Some are evil. But none are both beneficent and maleficent.

In the works of J.R.R. Tolkein (ie. the Lord of the Rings trilogy), all supernatural characters are either good or bad, while human characters are both good and bad – in keeping with clear Bible teaching.

The only supernatural beings who ever supposedly started out good and chose to become evil are the pridefully rebellious archangel Lucifer (better known as Satan or the Devil) and those angels who followed him in the fall (demons). “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (Revelation 12:9) As harsh as it might seem from our limited earthly perspective, there’s no going back, no redemption, for them.

Fairy tales have always been malleable; stamped with a timeless literary admonition “Bend, but do not break.” Most of the fairy tales we know – Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, etc. – have existed in a variety of forms, some much more violent than their modern counterparts, while retaining a central moral message.

Disney’s uplifting and powerful 1959 animated classic got it right; clearly portraying that virtue, truth, and righteousness will overcome the forces of evil.

Prince Phillip (the Christ figure in the story because he puts his life on the line for Princess Aurora and the whole cursed kingdom – greater love has no man…) is outfitted for the deadly battle by the good fairy Flora, who says, “Wait, Prince Phillip. The road to true love may be barred by still many more dangers, which you alone will have to face. So arm thyself with this enchanted Shield of Virtue, and this mighty Sword of Truth, for these weapons of righteousness will triumph over evil. Now come, we must hurry.” (His shield clearly bears a cross)

During their fight, Maleficent further reveals her true nature by invoking the powers of hell and transforming into a gigantic, fire-breathing dragon. This same creature appears nightly on the Rivers of America at Disneyland during the Fantasmic show. It is a frightening sight. Here’s how the scene plays in the 1959 animated feature:

[Prince Phillip cuts through the forest of thorns and rides toward King Stefan’s castle]
Maleficent: No! It cannot be!

[transforms herself into a whirlwind and appears in front of Phillip, blocking his path]
Maleficent: Now, shall you deal with ME, O Prince – and all the powers of HELL!
[laughing, she transforms herself into a huge dragon; Phillip charges]

Prince Phillip defeats the dragon with his weapons of righteousness (see Ephesians 6), and, having proven his selfless love, overcomes the curse and awakens (resurrects) the princess and the kingdom.

In the 2014 retelling, Maleficent does not turn into a dragon, but rather orders her crow to play that part (perpetuating the charade that she is good deep down inside). In 2014, Prince Phillip is superfluous, not fighting for Aurora, and not wanting to kiss her because he just met her (a good point to make, but out of context with the deeper meanings of the classic story). Once he does kiss her, she remains asleep. Apparently there is no such thing as true love to break the spell. But wait, the much-maligned Maleficent’s matronly forehead kiss does wake Aurora! And so, the one who suffered so, and whose evil is therefore justified, the one who cursed Aurora to death in the first place in a fit of rage, becomes the blessed one who resurrects her. Isn’t that nice?

The End. Clap-clap-clap.

Trailers for the film tease audiences with, “you know the tale; now find out the truth.” One can almost hear the hisses in Eden, “Did God really say…?” (see Genesis 3)

Maleficent 2014 is dangerously wrong because it is beautiful, heart-wrenching, compelling, and as such, deadens our discernment to the reality that maleficent supernatural beings will always seek our harm, are never to be trusted, given hospitality, or even pitied, but rather are to be called what they are and opposed to the death with weapons of righteousness.The Thinking Christian Woman is not ignorant of the Serpent’s (Dragon’s) disguises and devices (2 Corinthians 2:11). The Thinking Christian Woman knows that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ…” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)

Maleficent 2014 opens with the tantalizing words, “this isn’t the story you’ve been told.” What it never admits is that we have not been told this story because it has no lasting value, no central truth, no life-giving lesson.

Maleficent 2014 attempts to exalt itself against the knowledge of God. The goal of this article is to bring it captive to the obedience of Christ.

Whether you have seen the movie or not, I would be interested in your thoughts. Please feel free to leave a comment.

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The People’s Race Car

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May 012014

You’ve heard of “March Madness”? Well, today begins what is known simply as, “The Month of May” at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, initiating the arduous process of preparing 33 contenders for “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” on Sunday, May 25. This year, after decades of domination by corporate sponsors, the 98th running of the Indy 500 might include a largely fan-funded entry, #67, driven by Josef Newgarden, owned by CuttersRT (named after the bike team in “Breaking Away” – an homage to Indiana limestone cutters), and teaming with Sarah Fisher Hartman Racing.

Newgarden, an Indy resident, is an up and coming young driver with great potential. While he is working hard to be ready, here’s also his lighthearted look at “The Life of a Race Car Driver”.

If #67 qualifies, it will be the first ever crowd-funded (crowd-sourced) Indy 500 entry. For as little as $100, sponsors, like me, can have their names written right on the car.

(btw – “racecar” is a palindrome – same forward and backward)

The last time I joined 300,000+ fellow race fans at the 500 was the first time Honorary Hoosier Jim Nabors sang “Back Home Again” at Indy. Nabors announced that this year, (42 years later), will be his last Indy 500 performance. I plan to be there singing along with him, from my seat on the front straight-away.

It’s so exciting to anticipate watching #67 fly by and knowing that The Anderson Family is written somewhere on it: The People’s Race Car.

Even better, the Thinking Christian Woman knows that God has engraved His people on the palms of His hands! (Isaiah 49:16). Jesus the Christ bears huge iron spike scars on His palms today, because of my sin. By His love, I’m engraved on His glorified body. He is:

The People’s Savior!

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The Director’s wife

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Apr 082014

Mom died six months ago today, after nearly 95 trips around the sun. Though strong, opinionated, and talented, for 68 of those years she poured her life into the dreams and goals of her husband – Christian author, speaker, film producer and director, Ken Anderson.

“Mrs. A” as many around the film studio and the world called her, was a humble, but not common, thinking Christian woman. Shortly after her death, I found a hand-written note in her devotional, written on her 59th birthday:

“Dear Lord – Help me to be a method actress in the greatest film of life. I don’t ask for the lead part. Put me anywhere in the film. I only ask that I can give You 100% of all that I have. If all the hard parts seem to come my way, I thank You for the compliment – it means I could handle it for You. Help me to remember that You never send an actress more trouble than she can handle. Help me study the script (Bible) so I’ll know the lines. And when the director calls “cut” for me because of illness or old age, help me to accept the “wrap-up” and final scene with grace, showing love and kindness as You did when You left the setting of Heaven to come here to earth, to live and die, so that I might live forever in scenery yet unknown, leaving those who remain on set. – Mrs. A”

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Thank God for the Oscars (coming out of the prayer closet)

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Mar 302014

Quick! Without googling…what is Oscar holding in the golden Academy Award of Merit statuette, and what is he standing on? And, for extra points, can you name the Midwest city where Oscars are made? I’ll look for your answers in the comments!

Since 1929, nearly 3,000 Oscars have been handed out, but precious few recipients have publicly acknowledged God for their achievement.

Slate.com has tallied to whom thanks has been given most often at the Oscars since 2002, and the AP has apparently tallied acceptance speeches for the past 30 years, and God still comes out next to last (14 mentions out of 270). Only Abraham Lincoln, who was thanked by Daniel Day-Lewis last year, comes in lower on the list than God. This third study goes back 60 years and says God has only been thanked 11 times, so there’s some discrepancy in the numbers, but the same outcome.

That’s part of what makes the ceremony held a month ago today so special; a whopping 2 award winners thanked God!

Darlene Love was bold and clear and musical with her God-honoring acceptance “Lord God I praise You, and I am so happy to be here representing the ladies of ’20 Feet from Stardom’, and I sing because I’m happy. Oh I sing because I’m free, cuz His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.”

Matthew Mcconaghey (Best Actor) seemed to shock the audience who didn’t know whether to clap or not when he said, “Now, first off, I wanna thank God, cuz that’s who I look up to. He’s graced my life with opportunities that I know are not of my hand or any other human hand. He has shown me that it’s a scientific fact that gratitude reciprocates. In the words of the late Charlie Laughton, who said, ‘when you got God, you got a a friend, and that friend is You!”

The Thinking Christian Woman knows that God is very keen on gratitude and acknowledgment.

God is worthy of our thanks (Psalm 106:1)

In everything give thanks (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Do everything with thanks (Colossians 3:17)

God guides those who acknowledge Him (Proverbs 3:6)

Lack of gratitude toward God can lead to dire results (Romans 1:18-32) and can even be fatal (Acts 12:21-23)

And though we may never win an Oscar, we each have the sweet opportunity to encourage Jesus and His Father by remembering from Whom all blessings flow, as in the story of the 1 leper out of 10 who thanked Jesus for the healing (Luke 17:11-19).

At their best, Oscars can acknowledge achievement in a given field, but must not venerate the recipients. Everything we accomplish is a result of God giving us the breath of life (Acts 17:25), gifts, and opportunities to use those gifts (Deuteronomy 8:18).

Every desirable and beneficial gift comes from heaven. The gifts are like rivers of light flowing down from the Father of Light (James 1:17).

In the “light” of that truth, what can you thank God for right now? Each time we humbly thank Him, He shines on us, in us and through us to light the path of life before us. And the Oscar goes to…

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“All right, good night”

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Mar 152014

“All right, good night” – the last verbal communication from the flight deck of a Malaysia Airliner on a red-eye from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. Missing for over a week now, MH370 is one of the most mysterious and compelling aviation disappearances since Amelia Earhart’s 1937 attempt to circumnavigate the globe, in a Purdue University-funded Lockheed Model 10 Electra, ended somewhere over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island.

Most air disaster investigations narrow over time, but the search for Flight 370 has expanded, due, in part it seems, to mistrust, misinformation, and lack of cooperation among neighboring nations in a highly sensitive region of the world. With twists and turns too numerous to mention here, coverage of events and speculations surrounding the missing aircraft, and the 239 souls on board, read like a nail biter screenplay.

Recent revelations include facts indicating the Boeing 777, one of the safest commercial crafts in the air, seems to have flown over multiple countries on its diversion path to oblivion (being forgotten or unknown). Oblivion, that is, only if it is found. The very real possibility exists that MH370 might never be found, which is possibly the only way it will maintain its mystique.

As Patrick Smith observes in his Ask the Pilot blog, “It’s the very missing-ness of the plane that the public finds so captivating. If and when the wreckage is discovered, I have to wonder if suddenly people will stop paying such rapt attention.”

My fantasy is that MH370 landed somewhere and released some of its passengers and crew, who are temporarily being held against their will for some reason. I have prayed for them and their families, and for God to be magnified through all this.

But regardless of whether we humans, with our many fears and frailties, ever solve this mystery, one thing is certain:

God is aware of every intimate detail involving Flight 370. He knows what happened, moment-by-moment. He knows the thoughts, feelings and intents of the crew and passengers each mile of the way, and He sees where the plane came to rest. There is no hiding information from Him. The deep mystery of Flight 370 holds no surprises for Him.

I find comfort in this as I face the unanswered questions in my own life. Proverb 15:3 assures that, “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good,” and Proverb 15:11 affirms that, “Hell and destruction are before the Lord; so how much more the hearts of the sons of men.”

The question of why things like this happen, why there is suffering in the world, is worthy of consideration beyond the scope of this blog post.

But for now, even as hundreds of searchers, from 14 countries, in 43 ships and 58 aircraft at last count, scour both land and sea looking for any scrap of evidence, God’s word promises, “…you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul,” (Deuteronomy 4:29) and, “…you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13)

As much as I want searchers to find Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, I want every spiritual seeker to find the one true God immeasurably more. Journeying into the unknown with God is the only way for anything to be “all right,” and for anyone to have a “good night.”

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