Mike Avaltroni

The View From Here

Mike Avaltroni — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 22:53:15 -0700

I am writing this blog while high. There, that should get your attention. It’s not what you think. I’m currently 25,000 feet in the air, on a plane, headed to Nashville without my family. A few things worth mentioning. First, I’ve come to the realization that my first flight EVER should probably have come on a plane that I can stand up in. I didn’t realize that they made planes this size that didn’t go around in circles at the amusement park. Second, the sense of adventure is completely gone once you’ve experienced the joy of a night home with your family. If this was six or seven years ago, I’d be excited about having a few days away from New York, living it up on an all expenses paid trip to a city that I’ve been to and really en joy. Instead, this trip reminds me of our honeymoon (which was partly in Nashville) and how I miss being here with my wife, how I’ve missed three drop offs at school, several games of Candy Land Castle, a bathtime or two and all the rest of the things that I’d rather be doing than bouncing through turbulence in the modern day version of the Spirit of St. Louis.

Another thing that I’ve come to realize while sitting here with 47 of my closest flying buddies is that, having never flown before and it being 10:30 at night, I have no idea where we’re going, or if what we’re experiencing is normal or the beginning of the end (not of the flight, mind you.) With every ascent, bump and bounce I’m watching the people around me and waiting for a reaction. When I see no look of concern, I assume that I’m free to type for another second before having another concern. In a brief moment of clarity within the friendly skies, I’ve come to realize that this is a lot like Christian life. Often, the road is bumpy and the path ahead is dark and running through unknown territory. Much like tonight, we rely on those who have been there to tell us it’s going to be ok. The big difference is that God is not like this 48 seat airplane. While the ride is sometimes bumpy and tumultuous, the end result is great joy and treasure, and the landing is always safe in His everlasting arms. Now, back to watching my neighbor’s faces as we’re asked once again to buckle our seatbelts. This must be normal, right?

Blessed Are The Oppressed

Mike Avaltroni — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:34:21 -0700

I was recently listening to radio (and a secular program, to boot), and came across a story for the first time about five religious men who were persecuted for professing the name of Jesus. Where, you may ask, did this take place? Not in any third world dictatorship, nor under a communist regime, but in fact in the state of Virginia. Six chaplains working for the state police were fired by Governor Tim Kaine for speaking the words “in Jesus name” to close a prayer. From the ChristianNewswire site, “Virginia Governor Tim Kaine is defending why his administration forced the sudden resignation of five Virginia State Police Chaplains because they prayed publicly "in Jesus' name." Police Superintendent Col. W. Steven Flaherty single-handedly created then enforced a strict "non-sectarian" prayer policy at all public gatherings, censoring and excluding Christian prayers, then accepted the resignation of five chaplains who refused to deny Jesus or violate their conscience by watering down their prayers.”

There are more than a few interesting things that struck me about the story. First, isn’t the function of chaplains to freely pray with and over those that they serve? Second, where was this story in the mainstream media? I saw no reference to it on any secular news outlet, website or other source. Third, it got me to asking the fundamental question to myself, which I now pose to anyone else who reads this story. Are you ready to pay the ultimate price for professing the name of Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? We have been somewhat spoiled by the abundance of religious freedom enjoyed by our nation since its inception, and anyone who has grown up in the United States has grown up immersed in Christian ideals and surroundings. Are we ready for a time where we’re no longer welcome in the “mainstream” of society? Are you prepared to lose your job for talking about Jesus? Are you prepared to go to jail for refusing to accept the ideals that clash with what you know to be true and honoring to God? How far are you willing to take your faith?

If you think that this is too far-fetched an idea, I encourage you to look around you and see what seemingly small steps are being taken to push the boundaries of persecution toward people of faith. The firing of these five men is merely one small example of what’s going on all around us. The Congress is considering equal opportunity laws for broadcasting which would state that every broadcast outlet that elects to broadcast a Christian conservative viewpoint would be required by law to air the contrasting viewpoint for an equal time. The American Civil Liberties Union fights to push for the removal of any Christian references (like a cross) on publically funded monuments, but the same group is completely silent when Christians are denied their right to free speech.

The irony of it all is that Christians are portrayed in mainstream media as being intolerant, bigoted and closed minded. Somehow, it seems that the appropriate response on many fronts is to treat Christians with intolerance, bigotry and closed mindedness. At the current rate of “progress”, the new America will be one that is founded on the belief that Christianity has no place in our land. Are you prepared to speak up, even if it costs the highest price? Jesus Christ makes issues us the greatest challenge to emulate his calling. "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Mathew 24:9-13).

Signs of the Times

Mike Avaltroni — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:01:35 -0700

Turning on the news the last several days brings nothing but gloom and doom. For the first time in about 80 years, nobody seems to have any answers to keep the American dream afloat. Indecision, pessimism and catastrophe seem to be the themes of the day. The scariest part is that nobody seems to know what’s next. What does it all mean? How did we get here? The reality of it all is that over the last several weeks, America has seen its god die. And it has died a painful, violent and ugly death. For years, we’ve lived in the reality that our proverbial pockets were endlessly deep. Few things were consistent, except that we lived on the constant high of “you want it, you got it”. Now, we’re questioning what’s left. Much like in the days of Elijah, we shouted for the god of the American dream, and our calls have come back unanswered. We’ve called out, and there’s no response. So, what’s left? Do we keep calling, with the hopes and desires that American politicians will come to the rescue? If our hope is placed here, our demise is certain. Do we wait for the rules and laws of capitalism to take over? What happens if we’re too far gone? Shouldn’t we see this as the end of the era of the America we knew? Maybe we should, and maybe we should be thankful to God for the opportunity that this new era presents.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

They are brought to their knees and fall,
but we rise up and stand firm. (Psalm 20:7-8)

A new day is rising in our nation. The god of money and power is dead. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is alive and well and right here waiting. Maybe we’ll finally open our eyes as a nation and place our hope in the only thing that won’t crash and burn. Maybe we’ll see our friends and neighbors begin to live for something that won’t fade away. Maybe we’ll finally once again allow God to bless America.

Promises

Mike Avaltroni — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:50:06 -0700

I’ve been missing in action lately. It’s all for good reason, though. Last Thursday was a true milestone in our family’s life as we closed on our first house. This has meant that paperwork, phone calls, deliveries and now painting have consumed my every spare moment. The truth about this house we just made our own is that it represents much more for us than the “American dream.” This is actually all about the faithfulness of God. Over five years ago now, we made a deliberate decision to drop everything and follow His path for our lives, and we did so straight into financial ruin. My wife and I were two people who were never so sure that we had been called to detour our path from financial security and into a path of inner city missions. We were so absolutely confident that we would be provided for. God made the promise, so we ran hard after His calling. It didn’t work out like we planned. Nobody wrote us a check and we didn’t get bailed out from some dire financial straits. I learned what it was like to be buried in debt. Yet, God’s promise is something we clung to. Psalm 37 says, “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.” Sometimes that was all we had to cling to, because every piece of evidence pointed to impossible odds of ever being financially stable. All along, we held fast to the fact that when we serve in obedience, he is faithful to provide and care for our every need. So, five years after it all began, when I signed the final papers that said we now own a house, I reflected back on every struggle, every difficulty and every challenge realizing that He was always ready and waiting for the perfect season to deliver and rescue us. And, for this reason, in spite of every trouble and heartache along the way, I would walk the path again in an instant. After all, even in the most tumultuous of moments, I was walking safely the whole time with Him.

Is Anyone Listening?

Mike Avaltroni — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 18:10:06 -0700

An interesting article was forwarded to me recently by Stan Jantz regarding the newly built SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) radio telescope funded to the tune of $30 million by Microsoft. The head researcher, Rick Forster, is working on this project in collaboration with UC Berkeley, which in case you don’t know, is one of the leading research institutions in the world. Why the huge investment of time, money and resources? Because, according to Forster, "It's nuts to think we're alone. It's just a matter of looking in the right direction, at the right time, at the right frequency, with the right algorithm.” Just to recap, a leading scientist receives $30 million, notoriety and accolades for having a hunch. Important to note that at this point, no substantial evidence whatsoever has been found to indicate that there’s life out there in the great beyond, and nothing suggests that anyone out there is trying to dial in on planet earth. But, because some scientists have a hunch, let’s all go and hitch our wagons to the next great prize. Frankly, I’m not necessarily opposed to this philosophy of “let’s check it out and see what happens.” Some great and powerful discoveries have been made in this very way. My real question is why don’t the same rules and respect apply to the science of intelligent design?

If we’re willing to give respect and the benefit of the doubt to a bunch of scientists who saw Bugs Bunny battling Marvin the Martian and thought there was some legitimacy to the whole concept, why are intelligent design scientists seen as the pariahs and laughing stock of the scientific world? If the rules of the game are that intelligent design has no legitimacy to be explored and studied because it’s founded on things we’ve never seen, then I want a recall on the $30 million that Microsoft put forth for the “Aliens are Everywhere” project. Do you know how many copies of Windows we needed to buy to make this project a reality? Also worth mentioning is the fact that SETI was funded by taxpayer dollars to the tune of $12 million+ per year through the mid-1990s, and when funding was cut, a laundry list of top scientists, including prominent evolutionist and hostile opponent of Intelligent Design Stephen Jay Gould signed a petition to keep this funding alive.

Once again, to reiterate that I am not picking on this group, there is a whole pile of research that could fit the same mold. Maybe one day they’ll find some gentle, large headed character out there that rides a bike and loves Reese’s Pieces. (You know, they should make a movie about that!). It simply seems that if we’re going to apply a standard that science is only good and legitimate if it can test the here and now in some tangible manner, then let’s apply the standard across the board. However, if we believe that science sometimes takes on the form of exploring some things that go beyond this realm, then let’s apply that to everyone, everywhere at all times. It’s unfortunate and rather hypocritical to think that everyone gets a free pass except for the “Christian crazies” who poison the waters of science with their religion. It seems rather odd that one group of “faith based dreamers” represents the elite, published and tenured faculty at Harvard, UC Berkeley and the like, while another group has become the outcasts of the scientific society.

Paying A Price

Mike Avaltroni — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:34:06 -0700

Paying A Price

I’ve been thinking about the cost of obedience, and how following your calling in life sometimes means giving up a little bit of yourself, your hopes and your dreams. I’ve been studying the word “perfect” and its Biblical relevance, and I believe that the more I read and understand, the more I realize that perfection comes in those moments that we die to our own desires to give into the plans and calling that God has for our life. I think that perhaps I can only draw on a very personal example to illustrate my point.

I know a woman, beautiful inside and out, who was successful in everything she set her heart and mind to. She grew up in an environment of chaos, yet somehow figured out how to succeed at life and all that she took on. She was successful as a student, a business woman and a missionary, yet none of these seemed to be completely able to express who she was. She loved to write creatively, and decided to pursue graduate training in a creative writing program. She was accepted into a highly competitive graduate school to pursue a Masters of Fine Arts through a low residency online program. I wasn’t aware at the time, but I learned that this is the highest degree in this field, and equivalent to a Ph.D. She was successful in starting this endeavor as well, completing her first year of study before taking time off to expand her family with a baby boy. Now a mother of two, she was faced with the decision of returning to school and enrolling in the labor intensive thesis writing portion of the degree. When discussing what to do, she simply said, “If I begin school again I’m doing this for me, but it will mean a sacrifice on my children and in raising them.” And with those words, she chose her calling over her dreams. The reality of her choice…it stems from knowing who she is and knowing that God has called her for this season to be a mother to two children who will grow up knowing they are loved, attended to, cared for, watched over and embraced by the arms of someone who was always there at each step of their lives. It’s not always rewarding, it’s not always glamorous and in fact, it is sometimes treacherous. It doesn’t allow you to add letters after your name, enhance your marketability or give you anything to add to your professional resume. In fact, by modern American standards, being a “stay at home mom” is less than respected in the eyes of many. She changes a dozen diapers a day, cleans the same 8x8 space over and over again, reads stories, cooks lunches and provides love and guidance. The reality is that she knows that her job is to raise up a new generation of children who will live their life sold out to the same great calling that has guided her to this place. It simply can’t get any more important than that.

It brings me to the point…sometimes God’s calling for our lives isn’t glamorous, doesn’t give us accolades, doesn’t get us recognized by the world. In the grand scheme of His kingdom, all of that needs to be secondary to where He desires for us to be. Then and only then can we live our lives perfectly in His will and according to His desires. He knows our sacrifices, honors our choices and stores up treasures in Heaven for those who follow.

Happy Mothers Day to my wife, who has placed one dream on hold to live out another and who continues each day to teach me the lesson of Christ’s perfect love as she dies to herself and lives selflessly to love and serve her family.

The Intelligent Designer

Mike Avaltroni — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:23:14 -0700

It’s been awhile since I’ve had the opportunity to sit down and write, namely because everything in life has been so uncontrollably busy. Finally, I’ve got a moment between things on my to do list to reflect on something I’ve been thinking about. Two words: intelligent design. Not the kind that talks about where everything comes from, but rather, the kind that gives me a glimpse at the God I serve. To explain what I mean, I’m going to offer a little background on what’s been keeping me busy. We’re getting set to complete the purchase of our first home. That’s a big deal, but at face value, no bigger a deal than any of the millions of first homes purchased in every city and state in America. Maybe with a little more insight into the story, you’ll see why I’ve been pondering the Intelligent Designer and His perfect plans.

I’ll simply say one thing about the past several years. Living a life in Christ is by no means easy, and I would be lying if I told anyone that everything always works out like a Disney fairytale with a happy and perfect ending. I can guarantee only one thing, and that is that God’s ways are always perfect, sometimes unpredictable and never without a glimpse that He is always in control. The story of our house begins almost 6 years ago, when my (soon to be) wife felt an overwhelmingly strong calling for her to quit her well paying job to become an inner city missionary at our church. This calling was completely counterintuitive to any common sense argument. I was still in graduate school at the time making no money and we were planning our wedding. God confirmed His calling by revealing independently to each of us the date she should leave her job and exactly how the next steps in our life were to progress. We followed, albeit with some hesitation and anxiety, and the next several years were…not exactly what we expected. We didn’t have a financial windfall, money didn’t rain from the sky, we didn’t have a rich benefactor offer us financial freedom. We had expenses, credit cards, bills and a great deal of difficulty in paying for anything. Over the course of the next several years, we accumulated a tremendous amount of debt, we struggled to pay bills, often paid our Visa with a Mastercard, and literally lived paycheck to paycheck while falling short each month. We were left with very little except an overwhelming assurance that we had followed God’s plan for us. I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that in spite of financial hardship, He provided every meal, every expense, and we never missed a payment on anything. Every time we needed money, someone (without any knowledge of our situation) would show up and offer a gift, or an unexpected check would show up in the mailbox. We saw some wild means of God’s provision.

Imagine my surprise when I had a dream one night about a year ago, and in this dream I saw us living in a house. The recurring joke with my wife is that I never remember my dreams, and when I do, they are usually boring and ridiculously unimportant. However, in this particular dream, I recognized the location and vividly remembered the intricate details. Of course, I had no reason to think anything of it, since years of financial hardship had evaporated any hope I had of investing in a house, particularly in New York City, where the real estate market is exorbitantly expensive. Then it all began to happen. Supernatural things began to take place in our financial situation. The housing market began to downturn. Opportunities at work began to arise. Mortgage rates began to decrease. Suddenly, we were in the real estate market and began shopping for our first house. I wish I could say I was surprised that the house I saw in my dream had a for sale sign in the window, and I wish I could say that I was surprised when we bid $65,000 below the list price and our bid was accepted, but I wasn’t surprised at all. You see, I realize that God is an Intelligent Designer, and six years ago, when He called us out of a comfortable situation into a wilderness, He had each step of the journey planned. He knew the trials that lied ahead. He knew how He would provide. He knew where we would love, what we would eat, how we would get every need met. God is intelligent design not just because of the complexity of our DNA, but because of the complexity of every detail of our lives. He has given me (and every one of us) a story filled with the miraculous, and I can simply stand back in awe of the God I serve, willing and ready to follow His calling.

The God of Order

Mike Avaltroni — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 11:05:50 -0800

I was doing some research for my pastor as part of a sermon illustration. In searching for discussion on the forces of instability within an atom, I began to realize something that I have never fully appreciated. There are a tremendous amount of forces at work seeking to rip apart the universe and all that is within it. Take, for example, the atom in all its simplistic glory. The atom, built like a cell, is made up of positive charges in the nucleus, surrounded by negatively charged electrons in holding containers known as orbitals which surround it. Of course, we all know the cliché that opposites attract, and this is never more true than in the case of oppositely charged forces. The atom should be inherently unstable, with the positive and negative charges constantly pulling one another to create a destructive collapse of the atomic structure. What we see instead is these charges somehow insulated by one another through the presence of neutrons that exist in the nucleus in some perfect arrangement—one which science itself knows very little about. In addition, protons and electrons themselves should be repelled by one another in the very same way that similar terminals of a magnet repel each other. In fact, the strength of the force of these attractions and repulsions are quite significant. To put it into perspective, when the balance of these charges is imperfect, an atom will attempt to release either a positive or negative charge, and will do so in the way of a nuclear explosion. The nuclear process of radioactivity is the result of this balance being altered, and the outpouring of energy that results is monumental when this imbalance is unleashed or harnessed.

My reason for bringing this out is to look at how life, in its simplest atomic form, is unstable and ready to fly apart at any given point. It is only through perfect tight-rope walking balance that things exist in their stable state. This example is merely the tip of the iceberg. The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that the randomness and disorder of the universe is constantly increasing. Systems desire to go toward increasing instability as part of the natural law of the universe. Physical evidence of this is seen in the Big Bang theory, which suggests a universe with a finite beginning and a constantly increasing motion and energy state. What this all suggests is quite profound. When we look at the perfect balance and order of nature, the function of the simplest to most complex biological, chemical and physical systems, we are forced to ask an overarching question. If we look at the complexity of how things exist, their many parts and pieces that interact, intertwine and interplay with each other, what holds it all in place? This is why the simplistic debate of evolution versus creation does little justice to the fundamental question of design within the universe. We can look at evolution and draw from it what we like, but no scientific query will ever be able to establish the how and why of what holds things together. If there are nearly infinite numbers of things working to pull the universe apart, and here we are today in a perfectly stable state, then there’s only one logical conclusion. Something must be holding it all together. I’m pretty sure, some book mentioned something about this… “He is before all things, and in Him, all things are held together” (Colossians 1:17)

Overwhelming Complexity

Mike Avaltroni — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:21:22 -0800

Sometimes the need to simplify science for the purposes of teaching, illustration and basic understanding is the worst thing we can do. I am a huge proponent of simplifying, putting things into everyday terms, making them easy to understand. Society demands this, with people desiring to learn things in sound bites, rather than taking the opportunity to delve in at full force. The science community suffers from being too “intellectual” in many realms, and most people tune us out when we start to talk technical and begin to look at the complexity of biological, chemical and physical systems that surround us. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about starting simple. I love to teach General Chemistry classes to freshmen for this purpose. However, there’s a difference between starting simple and staying simple. I believe that a need to stay simple has done a great disservice to science, and I’ll go as far as to say that it does a great job at hiding the beauty and complexity of God’s created world.

As scientists, we feel the need to tie up all of our packages neatly with a pretty bow atop them, mostly because we feel that’s the only way we can be understood. Unfortunately, the natural world that surrounds us greatly eliminates this possibility. Take a look at the area of astrophysics. Hugh Ross, a well known physicist, has assembled a beautifully detailed list showing all of the things that would need to fall perfectly into place to sustain and support life, and once you begin looking at the list, you quickly learn that the world is no accident. We teach our students the simplicity of life’s origins, knowing full well that this is no simple process. A total of 322 unique parameters, most of which are completely independent of each other, all must fall into perfect alignment to generate and sustain life on planet Earth. Truth be told, I probably lack the understanding to explain what half of them mean, and I will boldly proclaim my ignorance in this area of science. The trouble is that instead of talking about the complexity of these parameters, we simply eliminate teaching this kind of thing at all. Nowhere in any curriculum in any high school or college is there material that incorporates the complexity of our existence and maintenance as a planet. Astronomy courses don’t address it, physics courses don’t touch it, and chemistry and biology certainly steer clear. It seems that we’re reluctant to teach these deep, overarching concepts of complexity of life for the fear that we might have to admit two things. We don’t know everything and we can’t explain everything. I’m okay with that, and I believe that it’s okay to continually quest and search for answers. However, we can’t lose sight that the answers sometimes might be the ones we don’t want. Einstein found God with his theory of relativity, and for years, tried to disprove his own findings that the world was finite and had a clear beginning. When asked why he was so opposed to this notion, he said something to the effect of, “I hate God because I can’t outthink Him.” We need to stop perceiving a turn to the divine as the less intelligent answer, and start realizing the amazing complexity of this universe that often comes without answer. If we find a need to fall back on shrugging our shoulders at the miraculous, that’s not a defeat to science, but simply a reality of the amazing complexity of all that surrounds us.

The Limit of Science

Mike Avaltroni — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:47:57 -0800

So, intelligent design is either science or its not, it’s either substantive or meaningless, and either you follow the argument and believe it or you don’t. The feedback from the “Hot Topics” session has been incredibly encouraging, with many people, both faculty and students, expressing that regardless of their viewpoint, they thoroughly enjoyed hearing both sides of the argument. For me, that is extremely rewarding and gratifying, because quite simply, I believe that anyone making a decision (and not necessarily in my favor) should do so with all the facts, with sufficient observation and research, and not just because it says so on page 1013 of some textbook.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to share and reflect on my experiences as a Christian and God’s hand of provision and faithfulness. It was rewarding and fulfilling to look back on how faithful God has been in my life, whether it has been as provider, healer, rescuer or friend. He has been abundantly good in so many ways, and He has made Himself known to me through the ordinary and the miraculous things that I have seen and experienced. I say all this because it is quite important, even to the argument of intelligent design. This past Tuesday, as I was talking informally with a group of people after the “Hot Topics” session, I addressed what I believe to be the truth of science and faith. I love looking at intelligent design as a scientific insight into the mind of God. I love looking at the complexity and detail of life and the beauty and perfection that I see in all that surrounds me. I love looking at what we know about the universe, its vast expanse and perfect orientation. I love looking at the sub-microscopic world of biochemistry, seeing how our cells are like supercomputers with complexity that we could never come close to building in a factory or lab. However, if a scientist someday proves beyond doubt that evolution was fact, and everything assumed about the theory was correct, it would not change one thing about what I believe. Intelligent design is an exciting look inside the mind of the Creator. My life, my testimony and His faithfulness is a look inside the heart of the Creator. It is in experiencing the heart of God that I am assured that He is alive, real and madly in love with His creation.