Ip Man 2 and the Christian Worldview

I just watched "Ip Man 2" on Netflix. I really enjoyed the movie. But it got me wondering, "So how does the Christian worldview compare with Ip Man's worldview?"

In the film, the main character has the unusual Chinese name Ip Man. He's the kung fu grandmaster who eventually trained kung fu legend Bruce Lee. It's an exciting film, culminating with a bizarrely conceived Chinese-Western boxing match. Ip Man using martial arts, and Mr. Twister using Western boxing techniques, duke it out. I'll leave it for you to guess who wins. Definitely an adrenalin rush.

This movie has all kinds of great themes. It has a modest, respectable hero who, even though he can beat up a whole gang attacking him with knives and staves, discourages fighting and goes out of his way to care for people around him. It has good vs. evil, where the evil is unambiguously so. It has reconciliation, discipleship, death. And the good guy usually prevails and the bad guy usually gets his comeuppance.

And you can't help but think that the Chinese-Western boxing match is a metaphor for two worldviews.

I am a Christian. I am the man I am because of God's hand on my life. Jesus Christ allowed himself to be murdered in order that he might reconcile people like me to God. (I know, it's not obvious how murdering Christ brings about reconciliation. But it does, and it's magnificent! If you're interested, I'll gladly talk to you off-line about that.)

I admire Ip Man. He faces challenges with an unflappable demeanor. He has this air of moral rectitude. He stands for God and country. Nope, strike that. He stands for country and traditional culture. Is that bad? On the surface, the answer is "obviously not."

But isn't it interesting that the fantasy worlds constructed by Hollywood (and Hong Kong, in this case) in film after film never have a sovereign God? In this respect, art miserably fails to imitate life.

Hear me with the right tone here. I am not whining. I'm not asking for men to give God a fair chance. I'm announcing emphatically that God condemns them for omitting Him from their thinking and their lifestyle. (See for yourself: Jeremiah 29:17-19; John 3:18-19; Psalm 14:1-3; Mark 16:16 )

In Chinese film, there's a sense of deity in the culture and heritage of the people. In American film, there's a sense of truth, justice, and the American way. Both are inadequate, incomplete substitutes for a godly life. Hear the whole story from a biblical prophet (Micah 6:8):

He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?

In the Hollywood constructs, they're all about the "justice" and "mercy" stuff. It's the requirement "to walk humbly with your God" that causes them to stumble. Every single time. Observe:

1. It's a requirement to walk humbly with your God. It's a requirement levied by God Himself. As the old joke goes, "They're not The Ten Suggestions." The prophet said, "God has shown you what He requires of you." We're not ignorant. "I'd prefer not, thank you very much," we politely demur. But no matter how nicely we say it, our serene sense of entitlement to do our own thing is stubborn rebellion. (When we see our children do it, we recognize it for what it is.)
2. The requirement is about a walk. That's symbolic language for a lifestyle. God's not interested in merely a weekly performance, but in your whole life.
3. He requires us to walk humbly with God. In America we get "humble" wrong. To us, humble means "modest" or "self-deprecating" (instead of ostentatious). It means puny or poor ("a man of humble means"). These are side effects of true humility, which is a sense of bowed, reverent submissiveness to God. When someone is really humble before God, their life habits will likely be modest. But modesty by itself misses the core of humility.
4. When we get a better sense of God's God-ness and our smallness, humility comes more easily. After all, we are flesh and blood creatures who can be stopped cold by bombs and cancer and hunger. And God? God merely spoke and just about everything we attribute to the Big Bang happened. On top of that, He got involved. He was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself.
5. And when the one true God becomes your God, you've got Him right where He wants you.

So Ip Man's worldview, though noble, misses the mark of the divine requirement. And when you get that wrong, you're on the path to destruction. So when the credits roll at the end of the movie and the hero stands triumphant, realize that that's not really the end of the story (see Hebrews 9:27).

Take to heart what the prophet proclaimed and make it your life's purpose to walk humbly with God. More than decency and morality, that's the essence of the Christian worldview (see Matthew 6:33).

Why are Christians not as radical as we should be?

My Sunday School class has been working our way through the Radical book by David Platt. Today we explored the question, "Why are Christians not as radical as we should be?" Or rather, "Why are you not as radical as you should be?" Before you read our list (and a couple more I've picked up), what reason would you give? What's holding you back from being more radical for Christ?


1. Uncertainty about the future - what would really happen to me or my family if I were to sell my house and move to Sudan or to the housing projects? What about our safety, my kids' teeth? What if I get sick, mugged, or eaten by cannibals?

2. Repercussions from family and friends - they'll ostracize me and reduce even further their chances of hearing the gospel and trusting Christ to be their Savior.

3. Pearls before swine - "I've been pretty open in the past and found that sharing my faith is generally a waste of time. They don't want to hear it."


4. We are so integrated into our society - the things society values and needs are the very same things I feel I need.

5. Being radical requires a major intentionality, especially in the face of an already demanding routine. So, when a wife and mother is already spending her whole day running her household, she don't have time to add on other activities.



6. We don't really see the greatness of Christ. If the kingdom were more real to us than what we can see... If, deep down, we really believed that Christ rejecters will experience eternal regret under the wrath of the God they'd spurned, we would be willing to lay it all on the line.


I believe that last one is really the key. Our vision of Christ needs focus. He is great (e.g., Heb 1:1-8). He does love us (Jer 31:3 John 3:16). He is with us forever (Heb 13:5 Mt 28:20). And he gives us the opportunity to be radically His. Let's roll!

It's all about the waiting

The traffic light at the end of our street takes two minutes to change. Doesn't matter if any cars are coming. That light makes us wait an unfair amount of time! And I have a life to live! Things to do! Places to go!

And now, during this extended medical treatment, I have learned a lot about waiting. Waiting to be seen. Waiting for results. Waiting to improve. I routinely wait around for a few hours a day. And that's just the way it is.

Of course, I become restless, and need to fill that time with something. Chatting. Reading. Watching TV. Facebook. Praying. And so I am gradually become acclimated to a lifestyle of waiting.

It must be good for me.

The 15 Verses Project

There are two things that really bolster the strength of my soul: my friends and the Scriptures. Here's an idea that brings them both together. I'm calling it "The 15 Verses Project." It's really simple, each friend videos someone (or themselves) reading a 15-verse passage from the Bible, starting with the book of Luke, and posts that video on facebook.

Details:

1. Select 15 verses in a row from the book of Luke. If the section of the chapter is shorter than 15 verses, just stop at the end of the chapter.
2. Passages should begin on even 15-verse boundaries. That is, Luke 1:1, Luke 1:16, Luke 1:31, Luke 1:45, etc. Sometimes, that means that your reading will start in the middle of a paragraph. That's perfectly OK.
3. You can read it yourself, have a family member read it, or make it a dramatization involving several. Be as creative as you please.
4. Choose whatever setting you like: home, office, car, park, Burger King, etc.
5. Be respectful of the God whose Word you are reading.
6. When you upload your video, title the post "15 Verses Project--Luke x:yy-zz", where x is the chapter you picked, and yy-zz are the starting and ending verses. For example, 15 Verses Project--Luke 24:16-30 
7. When you upload the video, tag me in it so I'll be notified.
8. Don't be surprised if multiple people pick the same passage. That's OK (Prov. 16:33)!

Feel free to do more than one 15. In no time, we'll have the whole book of Luke online, suitable for sharing with other friends. If we pass it on, we could eventually have the whole Bible available. How cool is that?

And in the near term, I'll receive the great blessing of hearing the greatest story ever told as creatively produced by my friends and my family. I can't wait to see it!

Testimony from "Help is on the way"

I was introduced to Christ and the Scriptures when I was 8 years old. Throughout my life, I’ve learned to wrestle with the Scriptures and turn to the Lord for the hard questions. I receive guidance and peace as God speaks to me through His Word.

There's a difference between believing something and walking through it. As of today, my future is a big question mark, followed by an exclamation point. I am going through a relapse of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. This time around, it’s not responding to the chemo, so the medical team has come up with Plan B. I don’t know if I’ll survive it. I don’t know if it will take care of the cancer. That’s the question mark.

Not only is my future a question mark, it’s followed by an exclamation point. God is on His throne. He's Lord of heaven and earth, and there's not one dust mote that's out of his control. Jesus said that I'm in His hands, and He's in the Father's hands. And He said that He is with me always, even to the end of the age.

God has been gracious to come alongside me and minister even more grace to me than I've ever experienced before. I'm so glad to have brothers and sisters in Christ who have creatively and generously loved us with their availability, their prayers, their counsel, encouragement, and practical helps.

I can’t think of Scriptures that promise that everything will come up roses in this life. In fact, Jesus said that in this world we’d face tribulation, but, he also said, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

So I’m trusting that God has me safely strapped in for the roller coaster ride of my life. And someone said the best way to ride a roller coaster is with your hands in the air, lifted up to the Lord.

Three weeks of radiation

The idea is that, since I have one spot that is chemo resistant, we should kill that spot and minimize the burden of disease before going into the stem cell transplant process. There are several things that need to be balanced when getting radiation therapy. Things like:
1. Using enough radiation to actually kill the cancer, with enough margin around the tumor to account for invisible cells and motion from my breathing
2. Pinpointing the radiation so that it treats a minimal amount of healthy tissue.
3. Keeping the dose to known safe limits for surrounding organs. The pancreas is pretty tough. Kidneys are very weak. Intestines almost as weak.

After a 90-minute consult with the radiation oncologist, we again learned even more about cancer treatment than we ever wanted to. In sum, here's what I'm undergoing.

First, a CT scan to see where my organs and the cancer are. This isn't a full CT scan like I've had in the past. It's just enough to map out my body and figure out how to set up the radiation treatment. With the CT scan, I also get my own custom beanbag. I lay down on the beanbag, and then they sucked all the air out of it, turning it into a rigid shell that is perfectly conformed to my body. When I began treatment a week later, I lay down in that rigid beanbag so that my body can be as precisely positioned as possible.

First day of treatment involves getting several X-rays, making sure I'm positioned right in my beanbag, and marking my skin in strategic places with sharpie so that they can line me up exactly the same way every time. There are these harmless laser beams from the ceiling and the sides of the room that they line me up with.

The actual machine they use to zap me with is a Varian Trilogy machine like the one in this picture. The two arms on the side are used for low-energy X rays. The big round head above is where the treatment rays come from. The whole thing can rotate, so that head can shoot me from above, the side, and below. The machine weighs about 9 tons. It's got a lot of lead shielding inside. And the treatment room is in the basement of the hospital in order to contain the radiation.

I show up, take off my shirt and lie down in my beanbag, arms lying on the bed over my head. They usually scoot and twist me a little to get my body lined up with the lasers, and then they leave the room. The machine rotates and shoots me from the left side for 45 seconds, then from the right side for 45 seconds, then from the top for 15 seconds.

So on Monday through Friday, I'm staying in an apartment across the street from the hospital so I don't have to drive back and forth to Huntsville 5 hours round-trip. Thankfully, the Vanderbilt Stem Cell Transplant (SCT) center is providing that accommodation for me. That's probably where I'll stay during the SCT as well. I'll try to remember to take some pictures to show you.

As of this writing, I've had 8 of the 15 radiation treatments with minimal side effects. I'm able to drive home on the weekends. I'm able to walk and ride my bike. I'm able to work from the apartment. I don't have any real nausea. I have my appetite.

The plan is to complete the radiation by Tuesday, 4/26. I'll get a week off. Then they'll start the preadmission for the SCT on Tuesday, 5/3. Once that starts, I'm stuck in Nashville until I'm well enough to go home--about 35 days.

On a side note: I've found brothers and sisters at Belmont Heights Baptist Church, an easy bike ride from the apartment. It's great to be part of God's family.

Everything you ever wanted to know about apheresis

In apheresis, you are hooked up to a machine that processes your blood, extracts the part they need, and then gives your blood back to you. It doesn't hurt a bit. I have a catheter that hooks into my jugular vein. The catheter has three lines coming out of my chest: one for "in", one for "out", and one for "misc." They attach the "in" and "out" lines to the machine and the machine does the rest.

The machine reminds me of an old Star Trek-like computer with knobs twisting and clear plastic tubing everywhere. All the tubing is brand new, installed from a sterile "kit" by the nurse for each patient. (It would be unimaginable that they would somehow be able to clean and sterilize that tubing for multiple uses, so they don't.)

The way apheresis works is the machine pumps out a little of my blood at a time and sends it to a centrifuge under glass (under the small black 'countertop' in the photo). As the centrifuge spins, it separates my blood into layers, based on the weight of the blood components: red cells are the heaviest, then stem cells, platelets, white cells, and plasma. There's a skimmer that selects the layer they want to extract (in my case, the stem cells). They position the skimmer in the centrifuge based on the color of the product. They use what looks like a paint pallet card to recognize the right position for the skimmer (the white card above right-hand side of the 'countertop'). After they're done extracting from that blood, it leaves the centrifuge and gets merged back together and sent back to my body. After initial setup, the process is very automatic. They just let it run and run. The machine is not quite as loud as a sewing machine, with lots of clicking, and my stem cells end up filling about a fourth of an IV bag (the right-most IV bag hanging over the machine). In the course of a single four-hour session, all my blood is circulated through the machine almost five times!

They have me lying in a bed with cable TV and remote control, very good wi-fi, and a nurse at my beck and call for everything. I need to hold pretty still or I may pinch a line or cause pressure to drop. As a result, I was treated like a Persian prince. Using the bathroom? portable urinal, followed by careful hand-cleaning.

One thing the nurse had to do was feed me a lot of Tums (like 25 or so). There's some chemical they use in the apheresis process that breaks down in the presence of calcium. If they don't feed me extra calcium, the chemical uses the calcium in my body, which results in tingling in hands, feet, lips, as if they had fallen asleep. The Tums makes the tingling stop almost instantly.

Another thing the nurse had to do was make sure I stayed warm. The blood that comes back from the machine is a little cooler than the blood I sent to it. As a result, I needed a few blankets and hot packs to stay warm.

Leilani was in the room the whole time, just being there and taking care of the little things.

For autologous stem cell transplant for lymphoma, the goal is two million stem cells. Don't ask me how they count them. After the first day, they got almost half of that. Today was my second day. The nurse said that the rest of my blood counts were a little down this morning from yesterday, so she expects that I'll have to come back again tomorrow to reach (and exceed) that amount.

Here's what we did yesterday and today (so far):
Wednesday
7:30 Arrive at clinic to receive Neupogen shot. Wait an hour for it to maximize its effect. Eat something at the cafe or whatever.
8:30 Go to the apheresis room, draw blood for labwork, and get hooked up to the machine.
12:00 Lunch while on the machine
1:00 Wrap up. I'm tired, though I haven't done anything.
4:00 Get phone call with collection results. Did they get enough? If not, come back tonight for a Mozabil shot.
9:00 p.m. Arrive at the hospital for the Mozabil shot.
9:30 p.m. Receive the shot. Wait around an hour to make sure you don't react poorly to it.
10:30 p.m. Go home from receiving the shot.

Thursday

7:30 Neupogen shot.

8:30 Apheresis room, draw blood for labwork, and get hooked up to the machine.

12:00 Lunch while on the machine

1:00 Wrap up.