I’ve died 8 times so far.

We settle too quickly for too little. Our faith becomes a religion, and after awhile we are bored. Or disappointed. Or restless, knowing that surely there’s more. It’s time to be hard to please. It’s time to be dissatisfied. Are you ready to quit fooling about? Me too.

Yeah it’s true I’ve died 8 times. Back in 2009 I suffered a cardiac arrest, which is different from a heart attack. Your heart quits beating and just quivers, then you die a brain death from lack of oxygen, about 7 minutes later. Doesn’t hurt, but it’s deadly. It happened to me on my front porch with my grandkids. I coded or flatlined 6 times that day, and the docs tell me I’m a 1% survivor. 94% die immediately. Of the other 6%, 5% have significant brain damage. So I’m a one percenter, though there is some discussion on brain damage.

Emergency stent procedure fixed me up, until spring of 2018 when a routine EKG looked weird. They did three more stents, but about five weeks later while shooting sporting clays, I had a heart attack. The hurts like hell kind, this time. Number 7. This was followed by open heart surgery, four bypasses and a new pig valve. That led two months later to a “lung attack” during which I spent over an hour suffocating to death, followed by four more days in the hospital. Number 8.

Why do I tell you all that? So you’ll know that I’m glad to be here! And that my family and I have suffered. And not just because of my physical health. Same as you. Now I’ll add another page with my Vita if you want to check out my bonafides. But as you can imagine, dying eight times has altered – improved? – my perspective and attitude.

I’m dissatisfied. I’m not much interested in religion anymore, though I’ve been a religious person. My wife Jo and I started our marriage in 1976 with two years as missionaries. Then while an engineer and having three kids, we helped start a church. Then off to seminary, for two masters degrees and eventually a professional doctorate. Then helped plant an “American evangelical” church and pastored it for 25+ years, adding five grandkids along the way. So I know religion pretty well. And I’m not interested anymore.

I’m interested in Jesus of Nazareth and his way – I just think we’ve grossly missed his point. I’m interested in the Bible – which we grossly misunderstand since we don’t read it like Jesus did. I’m interested in destiny, mine and yours.

I’m especially interested in work. Our sacred work. In a new (old) theology of work. In kingdom economics. In repentant and reformed capitalism. In doing business that increases the common good. In nonprofits becoming for-profits – so that both kinds of organizations are focused on profits of all kinds of capital, not just money, throughout the value chain.

I’m interested in what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “religionless Christianity”, right before he was hung by the Nazis. So I thought I’d write about that.

You can email me here. I’d love to hear from you.