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Ahead of the British Grand Prix, should Lewis Hamilton stay at McLaren or leave for Red Bull?
Lewis Hamilton could have a big decision to make about his team for next season. Might he consult the Bible in making that decision? Photo from Oranje on Flickr.
With the British Grand Prix at Silverstone coming up, one story doing the rounds is about Lewis Hamilton possibly leaving McLaren for Red Bull; today, the BBC have an interview with Nigel Mansell where he argues that Hamilton should stay at McLaren.
Assuming the decision is there for Hamilton to make, how should he choose whether to stay or go? What things should factor in his decision? Is it a choice between loyalty and success? Will he weigh up anything other than the money involved?
Well, Hamilton, who says he is a Christian who attends church regularly and whose faith is important in his racing, could well turn to his Bible when chewing over these decisions. There are all sorts of stories, proverbs and bits of advice in there that he might consider; here’s just a handful of examples:
If you love money and wealth, you will never be satisfied with what you have. This doesn’t make sense either. The more you have, the more everyone expects from you. Your money won’t do you any good – others will just spend it for you. If you have to work hard for a living, you can rest well at night, even if you don’t have much to eat. But if you are rich, you can’t even sleep. Ecclesiastes 5.10–12 (CEV) – and there’s loads more in the rest of Ecclesiastes 5…
It is a disgrace to be greedy; poor people are better off than liars. Proverbs 19.22 (GNB)
If you do your job well, you will work for a ruler and never be a slave. Proverbs 22.29 (CEV)
Try your best to live quietly, to mind your own business, and to work hard, just as we taught you to do. Then you will be respected by people who are not followers of the Lord, and you won’t have to depend on anyone. 1 Thessalonians 4.11–12 (CEV)
Loyalty and faithfulness are big themes of the book of Ruth, like when Ruth says to her mother-in-law Naomi: ‘Please don’t tell me to leave you and return home! I will go where you go, I will live where you live; your people will be my people, your God will be my God’. Ruth 1.16 (CEV)
What do you reckon? Might the Bible play a part in this decision? Or is it dumb to even think about looking to the Bible about such things? If so, why?
#whenbrokepplgetmoney – some stories and some wisdom
#whenbrokepplgetmoney is currently trending on Twitter – with most of the tweets being not exactly complimentary about what typically happens in this situation:
Here’s a couple of ages-old stories about people going quickly from rags to riches; (they’re from the Bible’s Old Testament so they’ve been around for thousands of years):
- Joseph goes from being thrown in an empty water hole and sold into slavery to being in charge of the whole land of Egypt, second-in-command only to the Pharaoh. His story runs from Genesis 37 to 50 and it’s probably worth reading the whole thing – it doesn’t take long.
- In Elisha’s time, things at one point got so bad that women were doing deals to cook and eat each other’s sons. He prophesied, though, that overnight food would become plentiful and cheap. Unbelievable as that seemed, a group of lepers shortly stumbled upon an enemy’s abandoned camp, full of food, drink and treasure. Check out how the sudden turnaround in fortunes played out in 2 Kings 6 and 7.
Picture from technokitten on Flickr
The Bible also includes ‘wisdom’ and poetry books, and letters to churches – here’s a couple of one-liners (ish) in there about the newly-wealthy:
Be not afraid when a man becomes rich,
when the glory of his house increases.
For when he dies he will carry nothing away;
his glory will not go down after him. (Psalm 49.16–17, ESV)Wealth gained hastily will dwindle,
but whoever gathers little by little will increase it. (Proverbs 13.11, ESV)I have seen something terribly unfair. People get rich, but it does them no good. Suddenly they lose everything in a bad business deal, then have nothing to leave for their children. They came into this world naked, and when they die, they will be just as naked. They can’t take anything with them, and they won’t have anything to show for all their work. (Ecclesiastes 5.13–15, CEV)
Warn the rich people of this world not to be proud or to trust in wealth that is easily lost. Tell them to have faith in God, who is rich and blesses us with everything we need to enjoy life. Instruct them to do as many good deeds as they can and to help everyone. Remind the rich to be generous and share what they have. This will lay a solid foundation for the future, so that they will know what true life is like. (1 Timothy 6.17–19, CEV)
The Apprentice (s7 ep1): ‘hard man’ Lord Sugar’s Biblical rant – “why didn’t you spend all your money?”
Did you see the first episode of the new series of The Apprentice a week or so back (Series 7, Episode 1)?
I’ll try not to spoil it in case you’re still waiting to watch it on iPlayer – but, in short, the challenge was to make as high a return as possible from an initial investment of £250 in fresh fruit and veg – and one of the teams got in trouble for not using all their available money (they only spent £170).
Photo from ....Tim on Flickr
Lord Sugar was none too impressed with this:
I did say I’ve given you £250 and I want you to go away and spend it and bring me back loads of money. If I’d wanted y0u to go and spend £170, I would have given you £170.
Check out the clip on iPlayer (you only need to watch a couple of minutes): http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b0113fwd/?t=38m16s
What do you think about this feedback from Lord Sugar? Was he right to get angry with the team for holding back some of the money he’d given them? Should they have spent it all, as per his instruction, or was it smart to try and hedge their bets a bit?
How about this: did you realise that this scene almost exactly mirrored someone else’s words from hundreds of years earlier? From the teachings of Jesus, in fact. According to Matthew 25 (CEV), he told this parable to describe something about what God is like:
The kingdom is also like what happened when a man went away and put his three servants in charge of all he owned. The man knew what each servant could do. So he handed five thousand coins to the first servant, two thousand to the second, and one thousand to the third. Then he left the country.
As soon as the man had gone, the servant with the five thousand coins used them to earn five thousand more. The servant who had two thousand coins did the same with his money and earned two thousand more. But the servant with one thousand coins dug a hole and hid his master’s money in the ground.
Some time later the master of those servants returned. He called them in and asked what they had done with his money. The servant who had been given five thousand coins brought them in with the five thousand that he had earned. He said, “Sir, you gave me five thousand coins, and I have earned five thousand more.”
“Wonderful!” his master replied. “You are a good and faithful servant. I left you in charge of only a little, but now I will put you in charge of much more. Come and share in my happiness!”
Next, the servant who had been given two thousand coins came in and said, “Sir, you gave me two thousand coins, and I have earned two thousand more.”
“Wonderful!” his master replied. “You are a good and faithful servant. I left you in charge of only a little, but now I will put you in charge of much more. Come and share in my happiness!”
The servant who had been given one thousand coins then came in and said, “Sir, I know that you are hard to get along with. You harvest what you don’t plant and gather crops where you haven’t scattered seed. I was frightened and went out and hid your money in the ground. Here is every single coin!”
The master of the servant told him, “You are lazy and good-for-nothing! You know that I harvest what I don’t plant and gather crops where I haven’t scattered seed. You could have at least put my money in the bank, so that I could have earned interest on it.”
Then the master said, “Now your money will be taken away and given to the servant with ten thousand coins! Everyone who has something will be given more, and they will have more than enough. But everything will be taken from those who don’t have anything. You are a worthless servant, and you will be thrown out into the dark where people will cry and grit their teeth in pain.”
Does that surprise you? What do you think this story/behaviour tells you about the characters of Lord Sugar – and God?
LA Noire – how much can you tell about someone from their face?
There’s a lot of excitement about Rockstar’s forthcoming game LA Noire – not least because of the rather nifty facial motion capture technology it’ll be using. The innovation at the heart of the gameplay seems to be that you use this detailed facial expression stuff to figure out if people are lying or not – and, in turn, crack a series of crimes. Check out the ‘tech trailer’ for a bit more:
LA Noire’s creators are keen to point out that, before this technology, a game couldn’t tell you enough to even have a gut reaction about whether people were telling the truth or not (imagine trying to get a ‘tell’ from little 8 bit Mario!) There’s a lot of information communicated in the details of face and eye movements, they say – and so if you can’t see those details on your screen, you can’t even hazard a guess about a character’s intentions.
What would the next level up from this be, I wonder. Can you get any more insight into what’s going on in someone’s head? How do we make these judgements in real life? Well, one thing’s for sure: we make them imperfectly. Not even the best interrogator will see through someone’s cover story 100% of the time, right? That thought reminded me of one of the recurring claims about God in the Bible. Apparently, he can go at least one better than watching people’s faces to figure out what’s going on with them:
For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart (1 Sam 16.7, ESV)
some of the scribes said to themselves, ”This man is blaspheming.” But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, ”Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? (Matthew 9.3-5, ESV)
…you, you only, know the hearts of all the children of mankind (1 Kings 8.39, ESV)
I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness (1 Chronicles 29.17, ESV)
If we had forgotten the name of our God
or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
would not God discover this?
For he knows the secrets of the heart. (Psalm 44.20-21, ESV)
I think the ‘are they lying?’ feature alone will make LA Noire a great new game – trying to gauge and react to what another person is thinking invariably holds a certain kind of fascination (see poker, Jeremy Kyle, any gumshoe detective novel). Check out some of these intriguing (and perhaps surprising) stories of just that from the Bible:
- All of Jonah (it’s only short): God tells Jonah to go to a place called Nineveh and prophesy to the people there – but Jonah doesn’t fancy it and tries to run away from God, hiding below decks in a boat. How do you think that plays out?
- 2 Samuel 11-12: King David wants to sleep with Bathsheba, so ‘sneakily’ arranges to have her husband killed. Also, take a look at his prayer when he realises that God knows exactly what he’s done: Psalm 51.
- John 21.15-19: Simon was a fisherman. Then Jesus told him he would be called Peter – meaning ‘rock – and ‘on this rock I will build my church’. But then, when Jesus was facing trial and possible execution, Simon Peter denied he knew him at all. Game over, right? But no, in so many ways, that wasn’t the end of the story. Check out the post-denial encounter between Peter and (the resurrected – but that’s another story) Jesus…
‘May the Fourth be with you’. (Can the Force be with you?)
Picture from Cayusa on Flickr
Today is Star Wars Day – with this date, May the Fourth, chosen because it echoes one of the films’ most famous catchphrases/mottos (and there are lots to choose from!): ‘may the Force be with you’.
In the Star Wars universe, this phrase is uttered regularly by the ‘goodies’ to one another. It seems to be kind of half-encouragement (‘you go do that thing you’re about to do, I think it’s great!’), half-prayer (‘I actually hope this thing that exists called ‘the Force’ is actively with you today’) and half-reminder (‘don’t forget about the Force, now’) – and, yes, I know that’s three halves.
People do this all the time, referring to higher powers or external forces in conversation (whether or not they believe in them as real things): ‘good luck!’, ‘God forbid’, ‘OMG!’, ‘karma will get you back’, ‘swear to God’, ‘I hope the gods are on your side’ etc. And the Bible is no different: full of people who continually mention higher powers when they talk to each other. Some would say that the Bible is also like Star Wars in that they’re both made-up. But what if it were true? What would it mean for people to be saying things like this to each other in the real-world, in our universe? What would it mean if they meant it – if they were talking about something they believed to be real?
The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. (Numbers 6.24-26, ESV)
May the God of peace be with you all. (Romans 15.33, ESV)
And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, ”The LORD be with you!” And they answered, “The LORD bless you.” (Ruth 2.4, ESV)
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13.14, ESV)
What would you wish of/say to your friends? Is there a higher power/Force/LORD to call on? Are the people in Star Wars nice or naive or stupid or cool or considerate or thoughtless when they say ‘may the Force be with you’? What about when your friends wish you luck or whatever? What about the people in the Bible?
Action for Happiness’s ‘ten principles’ – a second opinion?
'smiley face stickers' from South Carolina's Northern Kingdom on Flickr
Today sees the launch of something called ‘Action for Happiness‘ – which apparently ‘hopes to inspire a mass movement for fundamental cultural change’. Now, I doubt there’s many people who’d say they didn’t want to increase their happiness, so they might be on to a winner there! But how does it work? Does it work? As a starter, to help us ordinary, happiness-seeking people become happier, Action for Happiness have put together a set of ten ‘keys to happier living’.
I thought it’d be interesting to get a sort of second opinion on these principles – in this case, from the Bible. A lot of these principles could be seen as tracing their roots back to the Bible – but I think there are also notes of caution there for each one. Anyway, have a look and see what you think.
| Happiness principle | The Bible agrees! | But also cautions… |
|---|---|---|
| Giving (do things for others) | ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ – Leviticus 19, Matthew 22
‘in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others’ – Philippians 2 (ESV) |
‘When you do good deeds, don’t try to show off. If you do, you won’t get a reward from your Father in heaven.When you give to the poor, don’t blow a loud horn. That’s what show-offs do in the meeting places and on the street corners, because they are always looking for praise. I can assure you that they already have their reward.’ – Matthew 6 (CEV) |
| Relating (connect with people) | ‘Honour everyone’ – 1 Peter 2 (ESV)
‘Don’t get tired of helping others. You will be rewarded when the time is right, if you don’t give up. We should help people whenever we can’ – Galatians 6 (CEV) |
‘My friends, you were chosen to be free. So don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do anything you want. Use it as an opportunity to serve each other with love. All that the Law says can be summed up in the command to love others as much as you love yourself. But if you keep attacking each other like wild animals, you had better watch out or you will destroy yourselves.’ – Galatians 5 (CEV) |
| Exercising (take care of your body) | ‘Bodily training is of some value…’ – 1 Timothy 4 (ESV) | ‘…[but] godliness is of value in every way’ – 1 Timothy 4 (ESV) |
| Appreciating (notice the world around) | ‘Consider the ravens… consider the lilies, how they grow’ – Luke 12 (ESV)
‘The heavens declare the glory of God, |
‘Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.’ – Romans 1 (ESV) |
| Trying out (keep learning new things) | ‘Let instruction and knowledge mean more to you than silver or the finest gold. Wisdom is worth much more than precious jewels or anything else you desire’ – Proverbs 8 (CEV) |
‘”All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.’ – 1 Corinthians 10 (ESV) ‘For a day in your courts is better |
OK, this is getting long, so I’ll do the remaining five tomorrow!
Meanwhile, this whole happiness agenda puts me in mind of Jesus’ statement in John 10: ‘I came so that everyone would have life, and have it to the fullest’ (John 10.10, CEV). At first, it’s easy to think those are essentially the same thing – but, I wonder, is there a difference between ‘increased happiness’ and ‘life to the full’?’
