Remember earlier today when we confessed putting up a front about how well we are doing and often not being truly authentic with how things are going? Well, there was serious temptation to not even post again when we heard back from the geneticist earlier. The doctor who reviewed Benjamin’s CT scan diagnosed it as Cranial Synostosis, but according to the geneticist it would be best to wait until Monday and get a second opinion from a doc who is more of a pediatric expert. So, more waiting. After a few tears, a few cuss words from me (Ben) about the fact that we can’t afford this stuff (that’s right, I am too often more concerned about the price tag attached to things than how they will affect my son) and some more time to think, we are doing all right. Pray for a reverse diagnosis on Monday.
Hospitals and Authenticity
We struggle with what is appropriate to share with folks in life. There are multiple things going on, from our desire to appear as the perfect little missionary family to our aversion to gossip and feeding the folks that thrive on it. But at the same time, we want to be authentic with the things going on in our world. If there is one thing we never want to be accused of, it’s that we put on a happy face and paint over the real issues going on in our lives. So here’s the deal. We are sitting in a waiting room preparing for a CT scan on little Benjamin. The reason we are here is to rule out Cranial Synostosis, or the premature closure of the bones in his head. If he has CS, which is an outside chance, he’ll have to have surgery. You can pray that he doesn’t have to do that, and that this is the last trip down the radiology hall here at Mission for a while. Also pray for us, and the sinful pride that has us scared that people will look at us funny (and that it matters if they do) knowing that we have a kid who is “different” UPDATE: Benjamin is the best kid ever, and didn’t even have to be sedated for the scan. He slept right through it!
Bumper Stickers
Yesterday as we were driving back from SC visiting family, we saw a car (pictured in the previous post below) that was literally covered from roof rack to bumper in what appeared to be poster boards. On the boards were hand-written all sorts of spiritualisms, various Bible verses yanked out of context, and even some strange things that appeared to be personal revelations or prophecy that this guy had received. (“I permit Issac (couldn’t make out the last name) to preach at any time to anyone…” was the one I caught most of…)
There is a serious temptation to unload both barrels of orthodoxy on Issac (the name we will give him based on that partial reading) and really pick apart all the ways and levels on which this is so unbiblical. But as I started mentally doing just that, I realized that I do the same thing, and simply dress it differently.
I am relatively certain that Issac didn’t wake up the morning of the extreme car Bible-makeover and say “You know what, I think I am going to go out there and transform my car into a parallel-parking, crankable declaration of the heresy that has infected my theology.” He was trying to help people. What if somebody, somewhere is touched by something that they read on the bumper of his car? It might, after all, be the only verse they ever read from the Bible. So it just stands to reason that instead of just having a bumper sticker that says “John 3:16” he ought to write out the whole chapter of John 3 on cards and stick them all over his car. And, since he had received what he saw as relevant personal revelation, why not go ahead and slap that on the car, too?
There are several issues going on here, and I see them all in my own heart. I’ll look at two of them here. The first and most glaring is the “drive-by evangelism” that is going on. In his case, it is literal, but I also do the same thing. This is not at all to downplay the movement of God the Holy Spirit in placing people who need to hear in “random” evangelistic scenarios. I believe in a God who regularly amazes me with the people he has cross my path. But when I set up a system that totally relies on the “random,” it downplays the fact that God more often works through relationship and other means. Far more people come to faith as a result of a friend’s initiative than the result of a stranger sharing their faith with them. So my approach to evangelism must be primarily a relational approach that is at the same time open to “random” people with whom I had no prior relationship hearing and responding, on occasion.
The other issue I saw was that Issac relied on out-of-context truth to convey his message. Like screaming “Grephical Tranglunitude!” in a crowded shopping mall, to tell a postmodern audience that they have a sin problem and need to be reconciled to God through the blood of Christ is to speak a thoroughly foreign and undecipherable language. Issac tried to give his truth a context, by putting a LOT of it on his car, but it still comes across as something totally foreignToo often our message on campus comes across as blubbering nonsense, because we fail to give our (valid) truth a context. We address needs, but not felt needs. And felt needs are the only context you can address needs in! To say “Jesus Saves” or “You need Jesus” will do no good until you at least show some desire to tend to the needs that people feel, like the need for a ride to the grocery store or the need for something to do on Friday night. (making the socials team a really REALLY integral part of any overall ministry, btw)
So while it was tempting to throw stones, it only took a few minutes of introspection to see that I’d just hit myself.
Why does that saggy thing look like a brain?
Our 7-year-old niece, while getting an anatomy lesson during Benjamin’s diaper change. Turns out it looks like a brain because one day he will think with it!
Apple trying to redeem itself
I just got off the phone with Casey, a customer support representative with Apple. He was extremely helpful and has taken at least some of the bad taste out of my mouth regarding the customer support side of Apple. The frustrating thing is that it is impossible to find a simple email to send a customer support question to. That’s all I need. I understand you are a large company that would get flooded with email. But that doesn’t change the fact that you are have customers who get really ticked when the support pages on your website all link back to the page you were just on, and claim that you can “Contact us.”
But Casey did go above and beyond, and walked me through fixing the problem, or at least diagnosing it, even though he is not technically a MobileMe support representative. According to him, they are under a pile of complaints, and are so slammed they can’t even get traction.
Again, I understand you have a lot of stuff going down over in Cupertino. But just say that out loud. Say something on the support website like “Here are the problems we are aware of, and here’s how long it will actually take you to talk about this with a customer support specialist…” Or say “Live chat at this point actually isn’t live, and that’s because we screwed this product launch up so bad it makes Vista look bug-free, we will contact you as soon as we can to let you know when all services are running as expected and advertised”
Take a page out of Twitter’s playbook. When it hit the fan over at Twitter, they said “Oh crap, it just hit the fan… we’ll fix it when we can, and we are working tirelessly,” and then updated folks on a very regular basis. Apple puts out a blog “every other day” (which translated means we are gong to say something on the 25th, 27th, and 29th of July, and then not update it ever again.) to keep people updated, but they could do so much more. We all know that you’ve got us right where you want us, and that we can’t leave for a better option, because there isn’t one… but that doesn’t change the fact that when customers pay you money (especially annual money), you should both bend over backward AND let people know that you are bending over backwards.
Welcome to web 2.0, where every Joe with a browser can get online and update by the minute how things are going. Hire someone with the full-time job of blogging about how things are going. Get a twitter account and tell us how things are going, what you are currently working to fix, and how long you estimate it will take. Then the public will cut you some slack. Stop acting like a giant corporation who has lost it’s soul. Being tight-lipped about how things are going was cool in 1998. It’s smug and irritating ten years later.
And while you are at it, give Casey a raise. He went the extra mile, offering support advice for a product he wasn’t actually trained to offer it for.