What's Wrong With the Middle Ground?

A friend of mine has this wise saying about not sitting on fences because you'll get splinters in uncomfortable areas. This latest health care bill has me asking some questions about the middle ground? What's wrong with it? Why do we have to be Democrats or Republicans? Why can't we support the president (of either party) but still question his ideas?

What’s wrong with believing that the poorest people should be covered by health care but not believing that the government should go into debt to provide it for everyone, including people who could already afford it if they were just wiser with their money?

What’s wrong with believing that we should open up more immigration from South America but still protect our border from terrorists and drug gangs?

What’s wrong with believing that the US should quit arresting people for using or possessing marijuana but believing that we should strongly prosecute heavy drugs?

What’s wrong with believing that the right to bear arms is a fundamental right of citizens but still believing that wise restrictions on full-auto and heavy calibers is reasonable?

What’s wrong with believing that congress should enact no laws regarding the establishment or prevention of free exercise of religion but still believing that it is ok for a politician to vote based on their moral and religious beliefs?

What’s wrong with believing that we must protect ourselves as a nation, but not believing that it is acceptable to use torture in any form?

What’s wrong with believing it is a good idea to give youth accurate sex education without believing that we should be telling second graders about oral and anal sex?

What’s wrong with believing that I should keep more of the money that I worked for but not minding paying some taxes if they are going to be used for the common good?

What’s wrong with believing that civil rights belong to everyone but still recognizing that you don’t have a ‘right’ to do anything you want?

What’s wrong with believing that each of us should work hard to shoulder our own load without expecting the government to do it for us, but also believing that there should be state agencies there to help the extreme cases who do need help?

What’s wrong with supporting our soldiers and military but not believing that the war in Iraq is right?

What’s wrong with believing in personal responsibility but also believing in community support?

What’s wrong with expecting politicians to do the right thing and not believe that they should do everything that falls in the party line?

What’s wrong with expecting politicians NOT to resort to bribery, corruption, and coercion to get a bill past and believing that an idea will stand or fall on its own merit?

What’s wrong with believing that democrats should remember that they represent everyone and not just other democrats and what’s wrong with believing that republicans should remember that they represent everyone and not just other republicans?

What’s wrong with expecting politicians not to mortgage my children’s future by buying things that they can’t afford ?

What’s wrong with being independent of political parties and voting for the candidate that you believe will do the best job?

What’s wrong with standing up for the hard thing that is the right thing to do even though it means my family doesn’t have an easy out by depending on the government?

What’s wrong with believing that politicians should be honest and actually read and understand what they are voting into law?

What’s wrong with believing that the U.S. Constitution was well written and should actually be followed by our elected representatives?

Can someone tell me what's wrong with this?

Really a Hero

One of the high school girls that I work with was assigned to write a paper about a hero. She chose to write her essay on Tiger Woods. I barely suppressed my gag reflex as I asked her why she chose him. She said that he had done great things. “What, other than play golf,” I asked. She said, “Well, he gives money to help kids go to college.” Evidently that makes him a hero. I asked her what other kids in her class were doing theirs on. The top three on the list were all entertainers.

This is not my definition of a hero.

To be a hero requires sacrifice.

If a billionaire gives a million dollars to charity, then he isn’t a hero. Effectively that is no different from me giving fifty dollars to charity (based on last year’s salary calculations). Mark 12:41-44 tells of Jesus watching people give an offering. The poorest of the poor gives a large percentage of what little she had. The rich gave a small percentage of their wealth. She is a lot closer to a hero than they were.

I am not denigrating Tiger’s generosity by any means, I merely point out that he doesn’t rise to the status of hero by doing it.

Entertainers aren’t heroes either. Rarely are they even worth emulating in any way. They don’t sacrifice for others. Generally, any sacrifice that they do is only to further their own career or boost their public image.

Tiger Woods is not a hero. He is just an exceptionally good golfer who happens to give a little back. Charles Barkley had it right when he said, “I’m no role model.” He isn’t. Athletes, Movie Stars, politicians and other ‘stars’ aren’t role models and they aren’t heroes. Narcissism, Adultery, Abuse, Self-aggrandizement, Drug Use, Drunkenness, Obnoxious Behavior, and other such bad behavior is not worthy of the word hero.

I would define a hero as someone who sacrifices for others. A firefighter who risks his life to run into a burning building to save children. That’s a hero. A soldier who jumps on a grenade to save his comrades. That’s a hero. A police officer who takes a bullet in the line of duty, protecting us. That’s a hero.

There are other heroes in my book. Teachers who spend their lives making low pay because they have a passion for teaching children. Those are heroes. Youth ministers who invest their lives in kids. Those are heroes. Aid workers who spend their years digging wells to provide clean water in Africa. Those are heroes. Doctors and Nurses who give up their vacations to treat medical diseases in South America. Those are heroes. Missionaries who rescue pre-teen girls from sex slavery and give them a future. Those are heroes. Volunteers who go to hospice to hold the hands of an AIDs patient as they die. Those are heroes.

We need to redefine our concept of hero and I can only hope that the teacher who originally gave this assignment will spend some time discussing what makes a hero.

A suggestion for Tiger - My friend, perhaps instead of spending all that time on the golf course or in the bedrooms of a bunch of young ladies who aren't your wife, you might take your family and spend some time serving the homeless at a local shelter. Just an idea. And, Tiger, if you want some more suggestions or help in this matter, give me a call. I'll buy you lunch and we'll come up with some ways to do some real hero work. I'd feel better about the hero thing then.

Camp Songs and Theodicy

Jesus loves me, this I know. For the Bible tells me so.

Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong.

The perennial church camp song, sung by kids for so many generations.

We sang this at Kids Camp this last week and it started me thinking.

In youth and childrens ministry, I have seen all kinds of horrible things that have been done to kids and heard even more second hand stories. Physical abuse, mental abuse, sexual abuse. Kids who have watched their parent’s marriage torn apart and are drawn into the fighting. Children of drug and alcohol abusers who had to learn all too young how to take care of themselves. Children who have to help their siblings hide from a stepfather’s unwanted attention. Children abandoned by parents. Children drugged into oblivion so they don’t act up.

I faced some of these very situations this last week.

My heart aches each time I look into the face of a sweet child and see adult-like pain.

If the line from the song, “Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong,” then how can He let this happen?

This is an old question that has long been batted around by believers and non-believers alike. In fact, there is even a term for it: Theodicy. But, the reality of holding a child in pain brings it home in a way that academic arguments never can.

God allows us to live in sin as part of our ability to choose Him. That makes sense. If He fully protected us against our own sin, then we can never fully choose Him in love. I get that. I understand the difference between a computer programmed to say, “Rodger is awesome” versus my daughter giving me a hug and saying, “Daddy, I love you.”

Recognizing that God allows us to suffer the consequences of our own sin doesn’t make it hurt any less to realize that He also allows us to suffer the consequences of other people’s sin.

And that brings us to the child in pain.

Jesus says, “It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.”

He also said, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

Therein lays the answer. God’s solution to the problem of these children’s pain comes from us. For now, we are the ones to welcome them in His name. Facing this in ministry, my only comfort comes from the fact that there are loving Christians in the world who take Christ’s love for little children as a personal call. They are His hands as they put their arms around a weeping child. They are His hands as they call CPS to help break a child free from an abusive situation. They are His hands as they adopt a child or take them in foster care.

Jesus loves me, this I know. For loving Christians show me so.

Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but through Him his servants are strong.

It just ain't that hard

This blog originally posted Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 4:38pm

Everyone who can read this needs to sit down with their Grandparents (and if possible) great Grandparents to find out how they survived before we got the idea that the government was supposed to provide for us.

Our government actually has very limited powers and responsibilities laid out in the Constitution. Over the last fifty years, we have allowed our elected representatives to usurp more and more power. We have excepted these abuses because they have bribed us with our own money and money stolen from others. If the government would just pay for my college, help me buy a house, give me health insurance, etc, etc, etc; then I can truly be happy.

Yet, when the harsh reality looms that we just don’t have the money to pay for all of these things, along with all the other pork barrel spending that gets added in to every little bill that goes through, what do we do? We mortgage our children’s future by deficit spending and we raise taxes now. The simple truth is, no business or household in this country can run for long on deficit spending, but somehow we got the idea that the government can. If my family’s monthly bills don’t leave enough money for a luxury cruise, then we don’t go on one. If the luxury cruise is important to us, then we save and save and save, then maybe take it a few years from now. Or, we cut some other luxury so that the money can go towards the goal. Pretty simple.

Our government doesn’t even try to work this way anymore. Why? Because they can bribe us with money that isn’t theirs and isn’t ours.

I was having lunch with one of my students this week and he suggested that it was a good idea to tax ‘rich’ people so that we can have these things. Now, this is a normally intelligent kid and I love talking with him, but somewhere, somehow, he has been taught that it is ‘fair’ to steal from one person so that he can have what he wants. Somehow, that is fair?!?!?! Ask any preschool teacher, if it isn't your toy, you shouldn't take it from the other little kid just because you want it. Now, go stand in the corner.

Where did we lose the basic concepts that this nation was built upon – hard work, saving for what you want, living frugally, being generous with your own money, helping your neighbor, questioning our Government, and following God? Understand, this is not about our current president. He is just one more in a line of leaders who are moving farther from our founding fathers.

The truth is, the biggest danger is not democrats or republicans. Both are responsible for the mess we are in. The worst thing about the current situation is that, again we have the majority of congress and the president both from the same party. Anytime we have this situation (either democrat or republican), spending goes through the roof. Who is responsible for the biggest government debt in history? George Bush. Who is on track to blow this record away? Barack Obama.

Want to fix the country? Give me a very large box of red pens and the budget (along with any other spending bills). I'll make the hard decisions. I'll balance the budget very quickly. (and probably burn through a lot of red ink in the process.)

We need to reset. We need to go back to the beginning. I thank God for the grace to have been born in a nation like ours. The U.S.A. is a wonderful idea and it can work as long as we hold to the original ideas of limited government, individual responsibility, and patriotism based on what’s best for the nation and not what’s best for my party.

Stop voting for someone just because they are Republicans or Democrats. Stop voting for someone based on whether they bring money to your state or not. Stop expecting the government to pay your way. Work Hard. Spend Less. Live on less than what you earn. Cut up your credit cards. Give generously to Church and Charity. Think of others before yourself. Learn from your failures. Pick yourself up and try again. Take personal responsibility for your own mistakes and problems. Save for your future. Vote intelligently. Get Involved. Throw the bums out again and again until we get someone in there who does it right. Let's turn this country around.

It just ain't that hard.