On Being Australian

Today is Australia Day.

It is earily quiet here in the city. Almost silent. But it is early in the day. All this will change later in the day.

I wrote a series of posts a few months back called: 15 Minutes Around Postcode 2000. A group of us at York Street are trying to work out who it is that we are trying to reach. And so we came up with 9 things we think characterise Sydney-siders.

Three that apply to Australia Day:

BEING AUSTRALIAN:

Sydneysiders belong to 'multiple, highly-motivated global tribes which exert influence, not control'. Like most Australians, they are passionate about being Aussie, without any substantial understanding of what constitutes the national identity (unlike many Americans). Sydneysiders don’t know Australian history; they only know some Australian stories. Traveling brings out some sort of essential Aussie-ness, and so young people travel often and regularly, with families often holidaying overseas.

RELATIONSHIPS:

Sydneysiders pride themselves in community spirit, helping fellow Aussies when in need. They value time to socialise, and they like crowded summer events (e.g. Cricket, NYE, and Australia Day). They have numerous social connections but often few deep friends. They are often sexually active, with the assumption that something is not right if they are not.

LIFESTYLE:

Sydneysiders choose pleasure over pain; beauty over ugliness; simple over complicated. They are comfortable and maybe even indulgent. They love the weekends over weekdays, knowing that Sydney is its own heaven. They have unusually good water skills, and they are into personal time, sport, sun, socialising, weather, concerts, movies, and the SMH. They care deeply *where* they live. They are green, but only when convenient.

Thought I'd repost this today.

Any thoughts?

Have a day of joy. We're having a BBQ in Mascot with 2 other families.

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Pic on FLickr by robyngeeringphotography.

Marcus Einfeld: Why 'I'm Basically Honest' is the Basic Human Lie.

Right now, I'm watching Four Corners, about Marcus Einfeld. All related to his comment "I lied, but I'm basically honest." This Post is a repeat of what was said in this sermon on Sunday. I am watching a man who needed to 'come to himself'. It is astounding. Here are my comments:

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Like many, I’ve been puzzled over the Marcus Einfeld saga. Sent to jail for a $75 speeding ticket!

In 2006, Marcus Einfeld was caught speeding. That itself is not newsworthy. But this is: He then wrote a 20 page statement saying that someone else was driving the car; a person who had been dead for 2 years. In other words, he perjured himself. He lied under oath.

Everyone has been thinking: Marcus – what were you thinking?

He is a former Justice of the Federal Court of Australia; a President of the Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission; a ‘National Living Treasure’; a pillar of society. You might even say: 'An Older Brother' in Jesus' Parable of the Prodigal Son.

So why throw that in a $75 fine? He mustn’t have been 'himself'.

And yet, I think that the Marcus Einfeld story is the human story. It’s my story. That is, I have an outward persona. And outward me. A ‘me’ I want you all to know. An honourable me. An employable me. A proud me.

And there is an inner me. A ‘me’ that I don’t tell you all about. A 'me' that struggles with pride; and various other stumbling and bumbling acts. A 'me' that my wife can tell you about. And my God too.

I’m not a dualist – a word which means that there are two selves. No – I am one whole person. But I like people to know I’m OK, while at the same time, I know that I am deeply flawed. And more, the outward me is not a lie. I’m not pretending. Just as Marcus Einfeld is not pretending about his work as a judge.

It’s just that the ‘me’ I that I present is not the complete picture.

Now, this is very important: Think about Marcus Einfeld. Is he an older brother? Or a younger brother? Is he basically, a good guy who’s served his country well? Or a scoundrel who has deserves his pigsty?

What do you think?

My take: He is an older brother who now has been given the opportunity to perhaps realise that he has been a younger brother all along.

His crime may feel small That is: he sped a little; and told fibs about it. But this week, no one really believes that.

Why? Because his lie was declared in the one place that lies can’t abide:

The court.

To let go of his crime is to say that justice never matters; that telling lies in the court is fine, as long as it is small. No. He struck at the very fabric of civil society.

Does anyone really think that his past goodness can erase the current crime?

Ben Aveling Alexandria wrote a letter in the Herald:

Bruce Hulbert writes that Marcus Einfeld is not a threat to society. In what way is actively and repeatedly seeking to undermine the rule of law not a threat to society?

It is the same with God.

You may be good; you may have been honorable. I hope so. I really do. But the one place where sin cannot abide is with a Holy God. We know that lies can’t stand in an Australian Courtroom. So why do we think they stand before a Holy God?

We are all bent on self. Incurvatus in se. But we serve a Lord. We serve a Messiah, whose love for this broken world is vast. He is not Incurvatus in se. He is bent on loving the world which does not love him back.

We just have to be honest about not being honest.

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Anyone else care to reflect on the Incident?

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Help my American Friends...

[UPDATE: We board a Qantas flight to Sydney tonight. We've just spent a few days in San Francisco en route. Dr Laurel was able to spend quality time with her good friend, Marlene. We also got to hang out with Christ Church NYC friends Liz and Jim Churm, also Nick and Stacey Bell and I drove Lunch and Cathy Payne to the airport. Good times. We fly out tonight and arrive in Sydney on Wednesday AM. Pray for us, cos it ain't easy with 2 toddlers and an infant.]

While in flight, I have two questions for you.

I'm asking because a couple I know from Chicago are going to spent 6 weeks in Australia and New Zealand. They want to know what to visit. I told them that I'd type out some ideas on the flight. But better still, you can help them, and save me the typing.

All you shy people and lurkers can now comment. How hard is it to answer these two questions while we are incommunicado?

1. What are the classic places for 2 Americans to visit?
(Like Sydney Opera House, Rotorua etc)

2. What is your personal favourite place?
(Like a restaurant, a garden somewhere etc)

i.e. Where do you take your visitors?

If you can provide a link, that's even better. But not required.

Go on, you shy people, just comment.

I'll pick up your comments on the other side...

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Pic on FLickr by KyussQ.

So you met an American Girl? (How to do Long Distance Relationships)

A young man I knew an eon ago Facebooked me for advice. He is Australian, and he is dating an American. They are followers of Jesus. They are keen for advice from someone who has been through the the whole trans-Pacific relationship thing. I met Dr Laurel in January 1998 in Atlanta GA, and married her in May 2000. I am excited for this couple.

But if there are others reading this, I want you to know for the record: I do not recommend the trans-Pacific relationship. We managed it by the Grace of God. If I may sound pagan for a moment, for a relationship like this to work, all the planets have to align at once. And that is not easy. But God is sovereign over the affairs of men.

Anyways, that being noted, I put this together and emailed them (I have tried not to include things that belong to every couple: prayer, love, good communication etc)

1. Enjoy this time and each other as a gift from God.
   
2. And yet overseas relationships necessarily take more time. It’s good to allow for that. So don’t make blithe promises you can’t keep. The Pacific Ocean is a serious body of water and a large barrier to overcome.
3. Make the most of your time apart: It’s certainly easier to be pure, and also you are forced to express yourself almost exclusively in written words. (Less so now with Skype. Pity.)
4. And yet, the best way to plumb the depths of your friendship is certainly face to face. You want to maximize that as much as you can. Don’t believe that sending an email is truly relating. The verse I'm thinking of is 3 John v13-14.
5. Don’t believe the illusion that to marry someone from another country is ‘exotic’. It quickly ceases to be, and starts to be very, very normal. And the exotic thing is at first an attraction, but it can end up very quickly being a destructive illusion.
6. Be aware that if you meet someone overseas, then it often has an ‘unreal’ element to it. Your guard is down, you are on vacation, or you are working in a new environment. People see you as different, and you usually have a lot to talk about. But back down on earth, things are far more ‘normal’.
7. Home is always and only where you live as husband and wife. Never talk about ‘home’ as being the country of your origin or where your parents live. If you see home as being ‘back with the parents’, then it will harm your relationship. That’s in Genesis 2:24.
8. I decided in my heart that wherever we lived at any one time was the place we would live until we die! (Or until God changes our mind). The reason for this is that if I say: ‘We’ll be here for 3 years’, then we’ll always pine for another place, and we will be less likely to put down good roots. I found that easier to decide in my heart than my wife did.
9. Become international, by which I mean: don’t see yourself as particularly Australian, or as an American. That will only put distance between you both. I say this especially to Australians, who like to make loose and unfair distinctions between Australians and Americans. So American jokes are out. To me, it is far too insecure anyway.
10. Your marriage does not mean that you have legitimate travel for the rest of your lives! It means that you will basically travel only one dark path: LAX to SYD. For us, it excludes the rest of the world. We can never spend money going east of New York City. It is almost irresponsible for us to do so.
11. Get involved quickly in a church: both feet, and don’t hold back.
12. Make your vows in one country, and a have decent celebration in the another one.
13. You will face difficult choices if God gives you children: One of you will live further away from Grandparents than the other. There is not much you can do about that, except by persuading one set to move, or by moving to a third country denying both sets of parents. But living near grandparents may be very good and helpful for you (and for them), but it is not the Golden Calf. You’ll just have to talk about that with each other and with your parents.
14. Obey all rules of immigration and do it quickly and thoroughly. Start on the path of dual citizenship as quickly as you can.
    
15. If God gives you kids, register their birth quickly at the consulate of the nation that the child was not born in. Make sure that their dual citizenship is secure early on.
    
16. Keep in touch with friends from both sides of the Pacific.
17. Your true home is not your simple address. As Hebrews says: 'Long for a better country prepared by God.'
    

So, have you been in a relationship like this? Care to offer any other advice? Or critique mine? Which points are wrong or right?

You may be helping my new friends if you care to comment. And feel free to forward this post as an email to those you know in a similar situation.

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Pic on FLickr by KyussQ.

Should voting be compulsory?

OK, we are knee deep here in the United States with a Presidential election that has 2 years to run its course. So it’s hard to get excited about a state election in NSW in Australia.

The truth is, wife and I forgot to let the Australian Electoral Commission know that we are out of the country. This means that as far as the AEC is concerned, we are not doing our civic duty by voting today. In Australia, my US readers might like to know (to their horror), voting is compulsory (with the threat of a fine). You heard it, compulsory. With a fine.

The idea that 24% (+/-) of potential voters elect the leader of the free world is unheard of in the Antipodes.

Now, to those who don't know, my wife is American. So she don’t have to vote in the country of her birth. But she married me, and she lived in Sydney for the requistite time. And so she became a (dual) citizen of Australia to the resounding sounds of Waltzing Matilda.

So today, in NSW, she is missing her first compulsory election.

She and I didn’t vote. We couldn't vote.

So here is my question: ought we to be fined (in principle)? Should voting be compulsory? Arguments for? Against? And I am very happy for American perspectives as well…

The Wall St Journal on The Cricket World Cup

Click HERE .

The article includes these words:

For too long now has cricket been dominated by Australia's unyielding and highly tactical aggression. It does not play an ugly game, but its methods and mien are seldom beautiful. Australia's cricketers care not whether they are loved, except by their own fans, who, having drunk deeply of the same cultural cup as their
cricketers, celebrate hardnosed methods. But if there's one good thing that might come out of an Aussie victory, it would be this: Americans might understand, at long last, that cricket isn't played by a bunch of petunias.

Would any American care to comment on this spectacular game? Do you like it? Why? Why not? Do you get it? What don't you get? And would you like to donate some $199:95 to the "Justin Misses His Cricket Fund"? ":)

And would any subject of her Majesty care to comment on why this game is so good?

5-0

Australia won the Ashes over England with a 5-0 whitewash. The last time that an Ashes series was a whitewash was Warwick Armstrong's 1920-21 post-World War 1 test team. England was decimated by Australia then, as today. Even Bradman’s Invincibles (Post World War 2: 1946-7) drew one of their tests against England.

Of course, cricket history is something Michael Jensen can tell us about...

MPJ?

My faith was nurtured in this building.

Vale St Barnabas' Broadway [The building, not the church]. A great place goes up in flames.

My faith was nurtured in this building. My faith, as well as the faith of thousands of others.

I was a member there from 1990-1991. I was part of the start-up of BAD [Barneys After Dark youth ministry]. St Barnabas sent me to be an MTS trainee to Newcastle Uni. When I came back to Sydney to go to Moore Theological College, I served and was served at Barneys from 1995-1996. I then took the ministry position at St Ives. Among many, Rob Forsyth taught us well.

I'll miss that space.

Hebrews 13:7

Anyone got any good memories from St Barnabas? Good sermons? Events? Any present or past member of Barneys wishes to speak up, you'd be most welcome...

And, of course, if you have never been to St Barnabas, but wish to say something, feel free.

So... the next chapter is up.

Love, Justin.

Redemption from the Bosom of the Pacific

A post by popular request.

Indeed, my Pajero [Montero for our US visitors] was almost lost to the bosom of the Pacific Ocean. The photos above capture the moment. I went 4WD-ing on Stockton Beach, Newcastle, in 1999 with the Year 12, 2000 Christchurch St Ives leaders [Clarkey, Simon, Emma, Helen, Kylie and Deb].

We were driving right along the beach front – like they do in the 4WD advertisements. I did not see the place in the beach where all the water was draining out into the surf. But when the Pajero hit that point, the car simply stopped dead. Then my wheels spun in the ‘quicksand’ as though my car was in neutral.

“It’s all good”, I tell myself.

Even as we dug for an hour [well – Clarkey did most of the work], and even as the ocean was swirling in around my car, and even as an experienced 4WDer said to me: “Mate, that car will be dragged away to sea within an hour”, I kept saying to myself: “It’s all good.”

It was only once I had come to terms with my loss that a tractor [from a nearby sand quarry] came to my rescue.

It's rare to feel so good.

And it only cost me a case of VB instead of $$$$$$$$.

I like redemption.

Love, Justin.

PS Emma C – your comment on my previous post is correct: due to the whole issue of being above reproach, Clarkey, Simon and I did indeed sleep on a traffic island in our swags. Tidy.

Remember your Youngers

Above are the guys I took for Bible Study from 1998-2000 at Christchurch St Ives in Sydney. The picture was taken at my final Sunday at St Ives on December 4, 2005.

For the record, here are the leaders who led the whole Year group from Years 10-12:

The guys were in Year 10 when we started our Friday night Bible Studies together. Jimmy Cooper and Nathan Tasker had led the guys from Year 7-9, and Simon Chaplin and I led them from Years 10-12. We finished in the Whitsunday Islands in North Queensland in December 2000.

I wish now to remember my youngers. We have a lot of ‘remember your elders’, but not a lot of ‘remember your youngers’.

These guys are faithful guys. Almost all still trust Jesus. Many of them serve in Sunday Schools and church youth groups. It was my privilege to lead with some of them at 645 Church at Christchurch.

Is there anyone who is younger than you [whom you may have lead], but you wish to honour? Comment away.

Love, Justin.

PS Love the beard on Hughesi...