Here is the final scene from a TV classic: "The Wonder Years":
I have been thinking recently about how life does not always turn out the way we envision it. When we are kids, we dream of scoring touchdowns, hitting home runs, catching the bad guys, or whatever fantasy we have. As we age, those dreams change, often becoming more realistic. However, life rarely turns out the way we thought. The key is to just enjoy where we are at a given moment in time.
Here is the classic. Linus tells us the meaning of Christmas. This is timeless
I used to think Linus, on the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, went a little overboard when he decried the commercialism that surrounds Christmas. I now think our philosophical, blanket carrying friend was right.
This year, we are confronted with buying the perfect gift for everyone in the family. To top that, my in-laws are taking the family on a cruise for Christmas, which means we will floating around the Caribbean on Christmas Day, so the gifts need to be small. We have to tote them on and off the boat.
The thing that gets me is that we have to spend money to buy the exact gift someone else wants. There is no thought or surprise in gift giving anymore. We have to make sure we buy the right color, size, edition, style, or whatever. It's not enough to say, "I want a shirt for Christmas." We have to say, "I want the blue polo shirt with a white pinstripe, size XL." Ugh.
If we just not buy anyone else exactly what they want, we could buy what we want. I understand the notion of gift-giving at Christmas, but it is out of control. Do we really have to buy anything. If we do not get what the other person wants, they are disappointed. If they do not buy the exact thing we want, we are disappointed. If we leave it to chance, we get a bunch junk we really do not want. (Three years in a row, I received a hooded sweatshirt from the same person. It was a nice gift, but I really only needed one.)
I just want to focus on the birth of the Savior this year without the insanity of the hunt for the perfect gift.
Well, my first foray into graduate will be in the subject of "Twentieth-Century European History." Come January 9, 2008, I will be a graduate student. There are only five books required for the class, with a cost of about $140 for them.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who waste a little of your precious time reading my rantings and ravings.
Thanksgiving is a truly unique day. Most of us forget to buy something for our feast, so someone has to trek to the store to buy it. Usually that winds up being a man. I was in that position a couple years ago. Never in my life have I seen so many confused looking men wandering about aimlessly in a store. Take a man to Home Depot or Best Buy, and he can find anything, but not a grocery store. I witnessed (and participated) lost looking men with little sticky notes with forgotten items looking here and there for their treasure. I also witnessed something else unique. Men were actually asking store employees for help.
Happy Thanksgiving.
When the word "confrontational" comes up in reference to Christianity, we often think of street preachers who confront passersby with such questions, "If you died tonight would you go to heaven or hell?" Confrontation has, in many circles, come to mean a form of evangelism. Once someone is a Christian, the confrontation stops.
I believe this is backwards. We need to be non-confrontational and non-judgmental with those who are not followers of Christ. Once someone becomes a follower, then we confront them, with love and grace.
This past weekend, my wife and I were out of town for a getaway. We attended a church, where the pastor stepped on numerous toes during the message. He was stepping on the of the church members. He blasted them for gossiping. He did it in a loving and corrective way.
Too many churches seek to coddle the Christian and confront the pre-Christian. When you look at Jesus' ministry he was very confrontational with the religious elite, but with the woman caught in adultery and woman at the well he was not.
Let's confront the problems within the Church, and quit slapping each other on the back with an "I'm-okay-you're-okay." We are not okay. Each of us is a broken person who need Christ daily.
As I prepare to head back to school, come January, I am in the process of deciding which class I should take. I am seeking my master's in American history. Our financial situation pretty much dictates one class at this time, which is fine with me. I want to get my bearings without being overwhelmed by the demands of grad school.
I am just not sure what class to take. There are five American history classes offered in the Spring semester. However, only one fits with my work schedule. The deal is, the professor teaching the class has absolutely horrible reviews on ratemyprofessors.com. And by horrible, I mean horrible. I realize that all profs will have some negatives (you can't please everyone), but this guy's negatives run about 10 to 1. The words boring, unclear, and rambling occur over and over.
The other option I have is that I can take one of the two classes outside my concentration (i.e. something that is not American history). Again, I only need two classes. I am not sure that I want to burn one of those right out of the gate. At the same time, the Twentieth-Century European History is one of the electives that I had seriously considered.
I want to get off to a good start.
Here is an article from National Review Online. Apparently there is a move to revise the life and meaning of Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth president of the United States and savior of the Union. This comes as his the anniversary of his 200th birthday approaches in February 2009. The Gettysburg Address will, apparently, get a good editing. "Four score..." Who knows what that means anymore. "That this nation, under God..." What about the atheists, etc.
All this crap is nothing more than the further distortion of America's past. Sure, our forefathers were far from perfect, but the also were not evil incarnate.
Before the Gettysburg Address gets butchered:
I have been reading H. W. Brands biography of Theodore Roosevelt, T. R.: The Last Romantic. Teddy Roosevelt suffered from asthma as a young lad. This is a malady that afflicts both my wife and son. On page 23 of the book, Brand gives words from young Teddy's diary, recorded while the family was vacationing in Europe, "I was sick of the Asthma last night. I sat up for 4 successive hours and Papa made me smoke a cigar." Earlier in the book, Brands notes that smoking was a sort of folk remedy for asthma in the late 1800s.
When my wife was younger, and early in the struggle with her asthma, and a doctor told her that if she ever smoked she would be dead. Smoking is a common trigger for asthma.
It is just a demonstration of how attitudes change. What if you did that now? Social Services would be all over the case.
Last night, I noticed that our phone was not working, and consequently neither was our Internet. So, after checking the connection at the box on the outside of the house, I call the phone company on my cell phone. The first thing they ask you to do is to punch in your number. So, presumably the computer has now stored that information. Then they asked you a series of ever-increasing-in-frustration questions about the problem. Good, the computer has stored all that useful information. When I actually get to talk to a real live person, the first question they ask me is, "Can I get your phone number?" Wait a minute, did the computer fail to give you that tidbit? Then the next questions: "What is the problem?" Why did I bother punching and punching in number after number?
Do companies give us this never ending list of "press 1 or 2," just to keep us busy?
The Worst Call Ever! The Most Infamous Calls Ever Blown by Referees, Umpires, and Other Blind Officials is a book by Kyle Garlett and Patrick O'Neal. If you have ever questioned an umpire or a referee's vision, intelligence, or integrity, this is a must read. You will find a pantheon of blown and missed calls from all corners of the sports world. Many of these calls had direct impact on national and world titles. It is a great read.
The one exception I take to this book is that Kent Hrbek did not pull Ron Gant off the base in the 1991 World Series, and therefore was no a blown call. For your view pleasure following is a video evidence to support that.
Ever since the Philippian jailer asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" people have wondered what salvation is and how it works.
Salvation has always been a somewhat mysterious thing for me. My dad has a picture of the church where he was saved. He can point to a day and time when it happened. I am not so sure about my own story. I told the Ministerial Board (when I was going through ordination) that I was saved in Vacation Bible School. That is not incorrect, as it is one of the many times I repeated the "Sinner's Prayer," after have the fear of Hell put in me.
I have a basic understanding of what most mainstream theological traditions believe about salvation, but it is oversimplified. The thing is that oversimplification are often quite accurate.
As I said, I repeated the "Sinner's Prayer," periodically through my childhood and teenage years. I want to take a look at it all through various lenses of interpretation.
First, my Calvinist friends would say that I was only saved once, because once you have been saved that is it. You are done. So, I could have been saved the first time I said the prayer. All the others were meaningless because I was already saved. The thing is, though, it may not have been sincere the first time. It does not really count until it is sincere. Even though, I was sincere every time I prayed it. Why else would I bother?
Second, my Catholic friends (and even a large segment of Protestants) would say that I was not saved until I was baptized, which occurred in the Spring of my freshman year in high school. I, again, cannot remember the date. (I imagine that I have a certificate, or something, lying around the house.) All the prayers and everything really did not mean anything until I was put in the water. And, I was immersed for those who discount sprinkling and pouring.
Third, my fellow Arminian-Wesleyans would insist that if I was saved, I must have back-slidden, again repeatedly. We can be saved, then back-slide, then get saved, then back-slide, then get saved... You get the picture. I always hoped that if I died, I died while I was saved, not back-slidden. We push the boulder up the hill, only to have it roll down.
To be sure, I am not questioning whether or not I am saved. My point is this: what do we really know about salvation anyway? Do we really know anything about the mechanics of it? Does everyone have to be saved the same way? I mean, if a boat sinks, some people are rescued by helicopter. Some are rescued by swimming to shore (assuming land is nearby). Some are saved by other ships. Some are saved by life rafts. Some are never saved. Does any theological tradition have a monopoly on the understanding of salvation, to the exclusion of everyone else?
For the last fifteen months or so, my wife has been sick. No one knows why. She started losing weight rapidly. When that happens, the first thought is the "Big-C" (cancer). She was scanned, poked, and examined every which way, and the doctors found nothing. It has been an ordeal.
Thank God, she is feeling much better the last month or so. Her weight has stabilized and headed upwards.
Over that time, it has been a rough ride. There have been a lot of questions. I will not delve into all that here, but I have learned a lot over this time. I think my wife has too.
We have learned a great deal about ourselves and each other. We have been married for over fourteen years now. I was amazed that I still much to learn about her, and what makes her tick. She has learned about me. Not long ago, she remarked, "I can't believe it has taken me 14 years to figure this out." I completely concur.
Struggle often does that to us. It forces us to look inward, and upward. We are forced to look at who we are. In doing that we learn about who we are. We learn about others. We are also forced to look upward. Sometimes, there is only God to rely on. We are are weak and broken. Those around are weak and broken. Only God's strength can sustain us, and bring us through difficulty.
Are we supposed to feel sorry for the Hollywood writers? They are on strike demanding more money. They are picketing and shutting down production on television and movies.
Is this what unions are all about? Every couple years you have baseball players (and other pro athletes) whining for more money.
This is not the early 1900s when the unions were fighting for livable wages and safe working conditions.
Are these writers living in shacks? Are they living paycheck to paycheck? Are they nearly destitute? Are their children going without shoes?
Perhaps, it is not a bad thing for the halt of the garbage that they churn out on film and over the airwaves. Just stop the incessant whining.
In inputting some of my library on LibraryThing.com, I noticed the subtitle to one of my books: "What Christians today would survive persecution?" It is a book about the centuries of persecution in Russia and the former Soviet Union.
The reality is that thousands of Christians around the world today are facing persecution. They are imprisoned, tortured, separated from family, beaten, losing money and jobs, and being killed. Visit the Voice of the Martyrs website to read a few of their stories.
Persecution does not exist in America, thank God. Despite what some whiny leaders talk about manger scenes being banned from public spaces, there is no systematic persecution in America. Some of us may have people make fun of us for being Christian. Americans freely go to church. Americans freely shop in Christian bookstores. Americans freely tote Bibles around. Americans freely affix corny Christian bumper stickers to their cars. Americans freely where Christian t-shirts. Americans are not imprisoned for their faith. Churches are not burned to the ground, at any greater rate than any other building. Bibles are not burned.
I wonder though, what would happen to the American church if persecution did break out? Just because it is not a present reality, it could be a future reality. Would so many nominal Christians recant their faith? Or, would they stand up for their faith? It is easy to be a Christian when there is no real opposition. It is quite another thing when faced with difficulty: beating, loss of a job, loss of family, loss of security, or death.
Americans are rather soft. We do not like any inconvenience. We cannot stand a little pain. We hate to wait in line. We hate to have to go out of our way for anything.
What would happen if persecution did break out in our land?
Here is a snippet from an article in the local rag: Officers were keeping an eye on a group of about five street preachers who were drawing a hostile reaction from some of the crowd. When one speaker started railing against rap music, drugs and sex, some in the crowd starting throwing cigarette butts and pens at him. "This is so wrong ... he's a false prophet and needs to get out of the street," said Tristin Pickens, an Elizabeth City State University student who traveled nearly three hours with friends to enjoy the festivities. "He can't say we are going to hell then cuss and call us whores and tell us we are going to die." A downtown business owner who declined to give his name was upset that police didn't remove the group. "Right now they are exercising their freedom of speech," Phipps said. "We're not going to let anything escalate ... that's what our guys are here for."
Halloween is a big deal here locally. Downtown is flooded annually by numerous party goers. Apparently some preachers thought it their duty to rail against the revelers.
As ministers of the gospel are we supposed to be so obnoxious that people will not even listen to us? I understand that Jesus said (in John 15:18), "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first." Our message is often one of discomfort, as the Holy Spirit deals with whatever sin exists in someone's life. Is it our job to be the Holy Spirit?
I think one of problems, as a church, is that we try to usurp the role of the Holy Spirit. We are eager to condemn sins in the lives of others (smoking, drinking, dancing, whatever). We often ignore our favorite sins (gluttony, gossip, and whatever). In addition to what Jesus said above, he also said (in Matthew 7:3-5), "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."
It's God's job to point out sin in people's lives, not ours.
