Fandom and Identification

During the NFL playoffs, Diane and I wear our Packer T-shirts on gameday (like today!  #GoPack).

We identify ourselves as followers of that specific pro football team. I also have Packer gear in my office, stickers on my car, autographed items by Packer players and ... wait for it ... season tickets to all their home games at Lambeau Field.  Not to mention that in my chest freezer I have two boxes of genuine sod from Lambeau - real Frozen Tundra!  Man, I identify with that team.

What it made me wonder about is how do I identify myself as a follower of Jesus? The Scriptures teach that identification with Christ is an essential element of a faith that leads to salvation.  Theologians like N.T. Wright have devoted entire books to the concept of a believer's identity being tied up with Jesus Christ, it is that important that we do so.  

So, what evidence is there that I identify with Jesus and depend on Him for salvation?  I certainly have the gear (Bibles, study materials, t-shirts, and mugs) at home, in my office, in my car... never did get Jesus' autograph (or a piece of the True Cross), but nevertheless, there is evidence.  There's even ... wait for it ... a Masters' Degree in Theology from Bethel Seminary.  I suppose I could go up there and cut some sod from the campus lawn and put it in my freezer as further proof...

Beyond the gear, I do also sprinkle my emails and conversation at work occasionally with tangential references to Scripture and the stories Jesus told.  I've preached sermons, sang inspirational songs in worship, led Bible studies, helped to grow up new believers into a more mature faith, given funds to people and organizations that advance the Kingdom of God, etc.

Still, I hear in the back of my mind the Apostle Paul saying to the Corinthian church:

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."

This reminds me that the gear means nothing, the acts of devotion mean nothing.  What is telling is my heart attitude, which no one really sees.  The outward appearance of fandom can easily mislead others; we can even deceive ourselves into thinking we identify with the object of our devotion because of all the things we do.  As God said to Samuel when he was looking for a replacement for King Saul, "the Lord sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”  May my heart be true, though all else be outward show.

Genetics and the Doctrine of Original Sin

With the proliferation of DNA testing into criminal justice, paternity and prenatal testing, and ancestry research, it was only a matter of time before knowing what's in your genome became affordable and within the reach of "regular people" (like me).

About a year ago, I sent in my saliva sample and $99 and got back a .csv file full of crazy stuff, like this:

#Genetic data is provided below as five TAB delimited columns.  Each line 

#corresponds to a SNP.  Column one provides the SNP identifier (rsID where 

#possible).  Columns two and three contain the chromosome and basepair position 

#of the SNP using human reference build 37.1 coordinates.  Columns four and five 

#contain the two alleles observed at this SNP (genotype).  The genotype is reported 

#on the forward (+) strand with respect to the human reference.

rsid chromosome position allele1 allele2

rs4477212 1 82154 T T

rs3131972 1 752721 G G

rs12562034 1 768448 G G

rs11240777 1 798959 G G

rs6681049 1 800007 C C 

Page after page of this stuff is what was used to determine that I am less Western European (particularly Saxon and Bavarian) in ancestry than I had thought.  Instead I have more of an Eastern European ancestry (think Prussian and Austro-Hungarian empires), with a chunk of British and Scandinavian heritage mixed in.  Okay, then.  So much for my parents' and grandparents' stories..

That process was pretty interesting.  But even moreso was what happened when I joined Livewello.com and sent my genomic record in to look for mutations (favorable and unfavorable) that might be useful to know about, like for instance knowing that I have a genetic predisposition to reject the effects of Metformin (a common pre-diabetic medicine) because I have a gene mutation that blocks its absorption into the bloodstream.  But on the other hand, I have genetics that help me to resist substance addictions, and lack mutations which would tend toward Alzheimer's and Dementia.  Woo!  I'll be the life of the party in the nursing home!

I told my local endocrine specialist about the anti-metformin gene and she just shrugged and said "nothing I know anything about", and went right on with her normal treatments.  But then, why should she be expected to know about this emerging field, when it's not what she was trained in?

So, over Christmas, Diane and I drove to Austin, TX to see our daughter.  While there, I visited a clinic which specializes in genetic disorders (especially of metabolism) to see what they could tell me.  Yikes!  I feel like the Apostle Paul when he said "Oh wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?" Page after page of bad news.

Well, not THAT bad.  It's just that in dealing with inflammation of all sorts, processing key nutrients, weight management, and production of energy, I have genetic deficiencies that spell an uphill battle to ever be "normal" in those areas.  I've known for years that I have tendencies toward certain health problems, like my parents and siblings did, but never anything that conclusively points to why.  Now I know - a lot of it is genetics.

And yet, even though genetics determine your strengths and weaknesses, they don't doom you to a particular lifestyle.  There are things you can do to delay onset of conditions, to supplement chemically what your body doesn't do well, etc.  You still have control over how you deal with genetic predispositions, even though they make make it hard to be in perfect health.

Here is an excerpt from the geneticist's report explaining a little of the interpretation of gene mutations:

So, today I got to thinking about the doctrine of Original Sin in light of all this recent discovery of inherited gene mutations, and I came to the conclusion that Original Sin is like having a metaphysical genetic mutation (as opposed to a physical one) which gives a you genetic predisposition toward estrangement toward (or rebellion against) God.  All of humanity is at least heterozygous (+/-) for this Sin gene; we all have a difficult time being obedient to God, or even just to our own conscience (a proxy for God in those who don't know God).  Some of humanity, I think, are homozygous (+/+) for the Sin gene and by nature have a much more difficult time refraining from doing what is morally wrong.

But, having the genetic predisposition doesn't mean we are helpless and doomed to an immoral life estranged from God.  There are things we can do to ward off temptation, to supplement with prayer and reading in the areas where we don't handle things well, to reach out to God for help fighting against this genetic defect passed down from Eve to us (like mitochondrial DNA).

Fortunately, there was One who was born without that Sin mutation (-/-) and who stands in our place today, offering to us a metaphysical version of "gene splicing" to remove our unfavorable mutation.  His operating room is in the Hereafter, but eventually we who believe will be cured and live a life in Eternity free of the struggle against Sin.  Thanks be to God!