Showing posts with label action. Show all posts
Showing posts with label action. Show all posts

Thursday, May 28, 2009

On Hope

This blog originally published Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 6:00pm

In a recent blog, I was tagged by several people for what they saw as a lack of hope. So, I thought I would address the issue of hope.

There are two kind of people in the world: those that divide the world into two kinds of people and those that don’t. I am in the first bunch. I always seem to be dividing things into two categories.

For example, there are two kinds of hope… There is the hope that God provides. This is the hope of resurrection and new life. This type of hope is a gift to those that believe in Jesus Christ. This is a wonderful hope for those who believe.

The other kind of hope is the hope that God gives the world. This is the hope that comes from God’s Kingdom. It is a hope for all. And, it is this message of hope that is so very important, the hope that may lead some to believe.

The first hope comes with faith in God and Christ His Son. The second hope comes from community action by God’s people, the ones who have been changed by faith.

Now, it seems to me that the church has historically focused on the first type of hope. I for one am not a pie-in-the-sky, waitin-for-heaven type of Christian. I'm a man who believes that actions speak much louder than words. I believe that the Bible is quite clear in its message that God’s Kingdom is here and now. Jesus began it, the apostles spread it, we are called to continue it and someday, Jesus will return to complete it.

There must be some reason that God doesn't take us away from this world when we believe, and this is it - He wants us to bring hope. A little of God’s Kingdom travels with each and every believer who goes out and touches the world around them. It is this little bit of the Kingdom that brings some little light of hope in a dark world.

Christianity is rapidly growing everywhere in the world but in the United States and Europe. Here, it is declining. We have to ask, “Why?” These people need God just as much as the rest of the world. It doesn’t take much effort to see the spiritual darkness, moral bankruptcy , and emotional desperation around us. It all comes down to a lack of hope. This is the reason that the people of our culture self-medicate with entertainment, toys, ambition, and syncretic spirituality. They are looking for hope, but just don’t know where to find it.

Yet, you might say, “But there is a church in every neighborhood, so the lack of Christianity is not the problem.

Well, kudos on getting the first part right. We are swamped with churches.

But, I firmly believe that, though there are many churches, and many people in the churches; there is a terrible lack of Christians in churches. There are a lot of people sitting in churches who have missed the message of action.

The lack of hope in this world is due to a lack of Christian action. When believers move, amazing things happen.

God’s word spreads.

Hope grows.

I know several wonderful Christians, who, though life has not been easy for them, have taken God’s call to action seriously. Instead of focusing on themselves, they reach out to others. They make a difference. They spread hope.

I also know many others who call themselves Christian. Maybe they attend church this week and maybe they don’t. Maybe they donate a pittance to church or charity and maybe they don’t. These are the people who complain about the music in church instead of recognizing the worship is for God, not them. These are the ones who bounce churches, because they ‘aren’t being fed’ (more on that topic another time). These are the ones who rarely if ever do anything to bring God’s Kingdom here and now. There is much that could be written about these Christians, but fortunately, they are few.

The last kind of Christian is the real problem. This is by far the largest group. They are the rank and file pew-sitters. They don’t maliciously ignore God. There’s no ulterior motive behind their apathy. They just don’t have time for Him and His work. They are so polluted by the same busy-ness, the need for entertainment, the same ambitious drive for more stuff; that they have little or no positive effect on the world. They could bring God’s Kingdom, but they are just too busy. They never hear God’s call to turn their faith to action because they never turn down their iPod. They don’t kill hope, they just let it slowly die.

Where self-centeredness is high, hope is low.

Whether you like James’ epistle or look at it as Luther’s ‘right epistle of straw,’ the truth is that scripture calls us to put our faith in action. We are to be a light among men. We are to act justly and to love mercy. We are to care for widows and orphans. We are to do good deeds to bring praise to our Father in Heaven. We are to invest the talents He gives us. We are to spread hope. Hope.

Hope comes from us, from God’s people moving. The positive message here is that the few people who do act, accomplish some amazing things. They bring hope to lives by being a friend to the elderly, by adopting unwanted children, by helping a friend paint their house, by babysitting for a single mom, by giving to charity, by volunteering, by helping the homeless, by sharing from their larder with someone who is hungry…They bring Hope by doing.

There just aren’t enough of these people out there. We need more.

This is a call to action. This is a call to wake up.

If you are that Christian who is always too busy, this is for you. The simple message from God’s word is that He actually expects something from you. No, we can’t earn God’s grace, but that doesn’t mean He wants us to sit on our duffs, warming pews, but having no other effect on the world.

In case you missed the message, I am talking to you. As the song, 'Madly' says; "Let what we do in here, fill the street out there."

Let's get off our duffs, get our hands dirty, and get to work.

Bring the hope.

Peace in Our Time

This blog originally posted Monday, April 13, 2009 at 2:10pm

My daughter attends a Montessori school where they worship the idea of peace. They believe that, if we just teach the children, then one day we will have world peace. They have a peace pole, a peace garden, and lessons on peace. While I was on campus the other day, I heard one of the teachers telling a young boy, “There is NEVER any reason to hit someone!” Now, the boy in question was just playing with another boy and they were bopping each other in the shoulder for fun. (Boys…It has something to do with that Y chromosome.) Nevertheless, this teacher, whether she meant to or not, taught these boys a very dangerous lesson in life.

Over the years, as a youth minister, I have had quite a few kids from this school come through our program. While there is much to admire about the school, this veneration of peace at all costs is an unwise philosophy, and they inculcate the children with it. Even driving into the parking lot of the school, you see bumper stickers that say, “Visualize World Peace” or “Imagine a world where the military has to hold bake sales to buy battleships” or, “You cannot simultaneously prepare for and prevent war.”

They are basing their belief system on a false assumption – “People are basically good inside.”

That sounds nice, and I am sure many of us have heard it or even believe it ourselves. The only problem is that this concept is patently false.

Before I became a Christian in my early 20s, I searched through various religions and belief systems trying to find out, which, if any, were right. This was a primary issue that caused me to disregard many belief systems. You see, it was easy for me to look at the people around me, the events in the world, and truthfully within myself to see that people are NOT basically good. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Humans are basically selfish, destructive, and petty little creatures that are occasionally capable of beautiful acts of goodness.

Take a moment and stew on that.

It may not be the nice or upbeat, but it is the truth.

In fact, it was ultimately Christianity, and only Christianity that gave an answer to this: The fallenness of mankind. Mankind is a broken creature that, only by the grace of God has the ability to rise above our selves towards something greater. Anyone who has ever worked with toddlers knows, you don’t have to teach selfishness, brutality or cruelty. We lie, steal, cheat, and abuse from the start. You must teach goodness.

This brings us back to the teaching at my daughter’s school. I applaud them for teaching the importance of peace. I agree, war is bad, violence is awful. However, violence is not always the worst thing.

Sometime, violence IS the answer.

I cannot imagine them lecturing a perpetrator on the error of his violent ways as he is kidnapping their child. Let that teacher say, “There is NEVER any reason to hit someone,” as she watches her daughter being raped.

Sometimes, violence IS the answer.

Have we learned nothing from history? Hitler was not stopped by talking. It took the blood sacrifice of millions of young men to end his evil. Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong Il, Mahmoud Achmadinijad, and their evil associates are good examples. As the quote in Cool Hand Luke says, “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate, some men, you just can’t reach” Sociopaths do not listen to reason, they do not respect talk, they don’t care about peace – the only thing that will get their attention is force and the willingness to use it.

Sometimes, violence IS the answer.

Between 800,000 and 1 million people were hacked to death in the Rwandan genocide.

The diplomats talked.

Thousands were killed in Srebrenica and other cities and towns during the ethnic cleansings in the breakaway republics of former Yugoslavia.

The diplomats talked.

Saddam Hussein gassed Kurds in Halabja.

The diplomats talked.

Murders, rapes, and killings go on in Darfur, Sudan today.

The diplomats still talk.

Peace has never come through talking, alone. Peace has only ever come through fighting for it, or using the threat of violence to bring the errant parties to the table.

Peace will only come to our world, one of two ways. When Jesus Christ comes back to judge the quick and the dead – there will be final peace.

Until then, peace only comes by those who wish to do good being willing to use violence to defeat those who are evil.

Alternately attributed to George Orwell, Rudyard Kipling, and Winston Churchill there is a quote: “good men sleep soundly in their beds because rough men stand ready in the night to do violence on their behalf.”Whether it be a soldier, sailor, marine, airman or a policeman, Thank God for those who ironically bring peace through violence.

Rodger S. Loar 13 April, 2009

Will the band play on?

This blog originally posted Tuesday, April 7, 2009 at 2:50pm

If you haven’t seen the movie, “The Matrix,” I strongly urge you to go see it. Put your thinking cap on and take some time to process it. Watch it with someone who likes to discuss ideas. Science fiction may not be your thing, but trust me, this is worth your time.

The movie tells the story of a guy who realizes that there is something more to the world that he is living in, that something about it isn’t right. He meets a group of people who help him to wake up to the fact that the world that he thought he was living in isn’t real and that he is actually living in an ugly world that is at war. The syncretism and pop-philosophy of movie has been much discussed, but the one part that I firmly believe that the creators got right, is the concept of two worlds existing simultaneously.

The first world is the one that we put on like a set of ultra-hip sunglasses and an iPod. It wraps around our eyes and blocks our ears, letting us see and hear only the most pleasant things, while filtering out the harshness of reality.

It is the world of entertainment that we cover our eyes with.

It is the world of toys and fun and busy-ness.

It is the world of Myspace and March Madness.

It is the world of Mortgages and Soccer Moms.

It is the world of corporate ladders and promotions.

It is the world where the things that Paris Hilton or Brittney Spears do matter.

It is the world where the coolest car, the nicest house, the most money, make a difference.

It is the world where you care what team won the game last night.

It is the world where you want to know what is going to happen tonight on “Lost,” or “House,” or “American Idol.”

It is the world of desperate dissipation that we grip tightly over your eyes so that we don’t see that other world… The real one.

The other world, the real one, is the world where choices are hard and bad things do happen. It ain't pretty. It is where your Mom is sick. It is where someone you know commits suicide. It is where a sweet little eight year old girl skips down the street to her murder. It is where a strange, lonely man opens fire on hopeful immigrants.

Genocide happens in this world over and over and over again and no one stops it. Moms and babies are hacked to death with machetes for being from the wrong tribe or religion. Men are beaten to death and beheaded for believing something different from their persecutors. Children in this world are forced to fight on the front lines of battle between drug lords or petty dictators. Beautiful young pre-teen girls are raped repeatedly in forced prostitution so that their starving families might be able to feed their brothers and sisters. Immigrants trying to find a new life, die of thirst in the desert while people argue of the ‘problem of illegals.’

Here in this world, children are born to struggling single moms and grow up knowing only crime and abuse to continue the cycle with their children. Here, elderly people languish in their own soiled clothing because family members are too busy to see them or help. Here, drugs and alcohol reap a terrible toll on the bodies, minds, and souls of their victims. Here, people die of AIDS, abandoned by their family for their lifestyle choice and by their friends out of fear of contracting the disease themselves.

Earthquakes happen. Wars go on. Lives are destroyed. Evil exists..... In this world.

In this world, hope dies a thousand deaths every day.

All this, while we close our eyes tightly, cover our ears and yell “la, la, la” at the top of our lungs so we don’t have to have our precious first world disturbed.And, if you do peek from between your eyelids and notice the other world, or, God forbid you call attention to it, there is always a man in a dark trench coat and shades, looking suspiciously like Timothy Leary there to hand you a blue pill and urge you to go back to sleep in blissful ignorance in the first world. Chill out. You take things to seriously. Don't worry, be happy.

The story goes that, as the Titanic sank, the orchestra realized they could not be saved. So they took out their musical instruments and played music as the ship was sinking.

For me, the most poignant scene in The Matrix is when Cypher betrays the others and makes a deal with Agent Smith so that he can return to the first world, the Matrix. He says, “I don't want to remember nothing, and I wanna be rich. , you know, someone important, like an actor.” He chooses a pretend life of escapism over the reality that is there.

I took the red pill years ago and sometimes I want to scream, “WAKE UP!!!”

I watch parents encourage their kids to play in every sport, to join every extracurricular activity, as if any of it matters. I watch men ignore their families to devote their lives to work so that they can get a little more money to buy toys that they will hardly have time to use. I watch women sink their lives into their children, living vicariously through them, trying to grasp the youth that they once had. I watch young people party like mad, trying to drown reality in beer bongs and unattached sex. I watch adults and teens get sucked into an online world where they can pretend to be anything they want to be and have ‘friends’ that never truly know who they really are. I watch people that I care about drowning in busy-ness and stress.

Yet, every once in awhile, the real world intrudes. The doctor says, “It is cancer.” Your Grandma calls and says she has been diagnosed with Alzheimers. The friend you had lunch with last week was just killed in a car accident. The letter arrives telling you that the bank is foreclosing.

This is your opportunity! Break out of your self-centered, entertainment-ridden, life of dissolution. Take the red pill. Wake up!!!

Your life on this earth is short. Turn off the television. Log off the computer. Throw away that magazine. Don’t sign-up for that next club sport. Put the golf clubs and fishing pole in the closet. Sell your toys and give money to the poor. Grab your family and hug them. Take the money that you would have spent on a movie or a cup of Starbucks or a new iPod and give it to someone in need. Meet your neighbors and really get to know them. Call up that friend that has slipped away because you have both been too busy. Have lunch with the lonely person, hold the hand of a sick person, read to a child, volunteer, go on a missions trip, serve someone. Go to church and get right with God.

or………take the blue pill………go back to sleep………rejoin the matrix………let the band play on………

But, I promise you this, you will be pulled, kicking and screaming into the real world eventually.

As this real world crushes you without pity, you may get a momentary glimpse, where you realize what a waste it has all been. You could have a moment to savor the taste of regret before you are extinguished. You might just receive the split-second of knowledge that neither your life, nor your death will ever matter.

We each have a choice - We can ride the edge of reality or fade away in dull self-indulgence.

Will the band play on?

Making a difference

This blog originally posted Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Current mood: touched Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities

Here we go again, another movie star in the news. I wonder what relationship trouble or drug rehab it involves this time........

But wait, something new!!! A star is actually doing something to make a difference!!!

I think it is pretty awesome to see that Angelina Jolie has begun using her fame and money make a difference in this world. This is in direct contrast from the train wrecks her sisters in fame have made lately (Paris, Britney, Lindsey, Anna). Even better, when most show business folks make political statements in oscar speeches and wear trendy ribbons to show support for the cause-du-jour, Ms. Jolie is actually getting involved.

She has donated money to children's causes around the world and has now adopted three children from third world countries (Ethiopia, Cambodia, and Vietnam). I really respect people who put their money where their mouth is.

Say, if she is willing do adopt kids from impoverished third-world countries; I'm from West Virginia and could definitely use the money. I could see my self calling Angelina Jolie, Mommy.

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