I have blogged in the past on several sites as well as writing articles. I have now decided to move it all to one place. Blogging may be the most narcissitic thing in my life, but I enjoy it. For an introvert like myself, there is a certain catharsis in writing that supercedes any amount of talking. This blog is for me, but you are welcome to read it and comment if you like.
Below, you will find a sampling of past articles and blogs that I have done.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Under the Hood
This blog originally posted 04/12/09 as an article I wrote for our church newsletter
I hate car repair.
There. I said it. I’m glad it’s out in the open.
Now you’ll probably want to revoke my ‘man card’ because guys are supposed to like tinkering on automobiles as if there is some mystic link between testosterone and grease. Maybe it’s genetic, but the sordid truth is: I hate car repair.
Wait, don’t take my man card yet. I have changed my own oil, I’ve put in new alternators in three cars, and even changed the clutch on a four wheel drive Jeep once. I can do it, I just don’t like it.
The thing that most bothers me about car repair is the constant maintenance. If you want to keep your car running, there are all these things that you have to do to keep your car running well. You are supposed to have regular oil changes, check the spark plugs, rotate your tires, and change the blinker fluid or some such.
What a pain. There always seems to be something that must be done. You have to remember to do it, schedule the mechanic, and then pay for it.
The funny thing is, with my new ministry job here at MVCC, I now have to deal with maintenance on the church van.
During the last couple of oil changes on the church van, the mechanic kept telling us that we had moisture in the oil. “Big deal,” I think, oil is wet, isn’t it? However, the truth is, since we only drive the church van a few miles each week and only take it on long trips about twice a year, the engine wasn’t getting hot enough to burn off the condensation in the oil. Our mechanic went on to say that, if we didn’t take the van out and really drive it once in awhile, the moisture would eventually damage the engine.
That seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it. You’d think that driving it more would wear down the engine faster and driving it less would make it last longer. However, it seems to be like a muscle, if you want to keep it healthy, you have to use it.
There is a truth here that applies to our lives. Generosity. Courage. Faith. Love. Kindness. All of the things about our humanity that we call good require us to get them out on the road and open them up once in awhile.
When you live your life wrapped up in yourself, never venturing far from your own needs and concerns, you begin to get moisture in your engine. Your goodness starts to rust. Your trust in others begins to break down. Your love begins to wear out.
Everyone knows the bitter person, the cynical pessimist, the miserable fellow who is old before his time. You just don’t want to be around these people because they seem to suck the very life from you. These are the people that failed to keep using their good gifts and they just broke down.
“So”, you ask, “how do I get these out on the open road?”
It takes action…purposeful action. You have to make the choice to say, “No,” to those things that focus on you and begin saying, “Yes,” to those that focus on others. Begin to follow the call of God in the Bible, serving others before yourself. In Philippians, it says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” Following God is not about sitting back in church pews looking forward to heaven, it is about action, bringing a little of God’s kingdom here, now.
There are many practical ways to do this. This week, turn off the television and spend some time in real conversation with your family. Go to church and ask about ways that you can serve. Take the money that you were going to use to buy that new upgraded toy that you really don’t need, and donate it to church or a charity. Buy some groceries for the family in need up the street. Take your group of friends and volunteer at Habitat for Humanity or the Phoenix Rescue Mission. These things are a little hard at first, but with practice, you will be going longer and farther than you ever realize possible, and your life will be better and healthier for it.
The good news is, as we have taken the van out monthly for longer drives, the most recent oil change showed it to be in good shape.
The great news is that you can do this with your life too.
There. I said it. I’m glad it’s out in the open.
Now you’ll probably want to revoke my ‘man card’ because guys are supposed to like tinkering on automobiles as if there is some mystic link between testosterone and grease. Maybe it’s genetic, but the sordid truth is: I hate car repair.
Wait, don’t take my man card yet. I have changed my own oil, I’ve put in new alternators in three cars, and even changed the clutch on a four wheel drive Jeep once. I can do it, I just don’t like it.
The thing that most bothers me about car repair is the constant maintenance. If you want to keep your car running, there are all these things that you have to do to keep your car running well. You are supposed to have regular oil changes, check the spark plugs, rotate your tires, and change the blinker fluid or some such.
What a pain. There always seems to be something that must be done. You have to remember to do it, schedule the mechanic, and then pay for it.
The funny thing is, with my new ministry job here at MVCC, I now have to deal with maintenance on the church van.
During the last couple of oil changes on the church van, the mechanic kept telling us that we had moisture in the oil. “Big deal,” I think, oil is wet, isn’t it? However, the truth is, since we only drive the church van a few miles each week and only take it on long trips about twice a year, the engine wasn’t getting hot enough to burn off the condensation in the oil. Our mechanic went on to say that, if we didn’t take the van out and really drive it once in awhile, the moisture would eventually damage the engine.
That seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it. You’d think that driving it more would wear down the engine faster and driving it less would make it last longer. However, it seems to be like a muscle, if you want to keep it healthy, you have to use it.
There is a truth here that applies to our lives. Generosity. Courage. Faith. Love. Kindness. All of the things about our humanity that we call good require us to get them out on the road and open them up once in awhile.
When you live your life wrapped up in yourself, never venturing far from your own needs and concerns, you begin to get moisture in your engine. Your goodness starts to rust. Your trust in others begins to break down. Your love begins to wear out.
Everyone knows the bitter person, the cynical pessimist, the miserable fellow who is old before his time. You just don’t want to be around these people because they seem to suck the very life from you. These are the people that failed to keep using their good gifts and they just broke down.
“So”, you ask, “how do I get these out on the open road?”
It takes action…purposeful action. You have to make the choice to say, “No,” to those things that focus on you and begin saying, “Yes,” to those that focus on others. Begin to follow the call of God in the Bible, serving others before yourself. In Philippians, it says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” Following God is not about sitting back in church pews looking forward to heaven, it is about action, bringing a little of God’s kingdom here, now.
There are many practical ways to do this. This week, turn off the television and spend some time in real conversation with your family. Go to church and ask about ways that you can serve. Take the money that you were going to use to buy that new upgraded toy that you really don’t need, and donate it to church or a charity. Buy some groceries for the family in need up the street. Take your group of friends and volunteer at Habitat for Humanity or the Phoenix Rescue Mission. These things are a little hard at first, but with practice, you will be going longer and farther than you ever realize possible, and your life will be better and healthier for it.
The good news is, as we have taken the van out monthly for longer drives, the most recent oil change showed it to be in good shape.
The great news is that you can do this with your life too.
Keepsakes
This blog originally posted Wednesday, May 13, 2009 at 1:41pm
It’s moving time again. Should be a time of hope and excitement. Moving to a new place, close to the church, close to work, close to my daughter’s school. It’s a larger place with everything we needed and prayed for and then some. Like I said, it should be a time of hope and excitement.
Should be…
Instead, I find myself in an introspective mood.I open boxes that have been packed away in closets for years. Boxes that we have moved more than once in our life’s journey without opening them. I told my wife that we should just throw them out without opening them. We haven’t needed what is in them up to now, chances are, we won’t ever need what is in them.
She was firmly against this. “What if there are some documents in there that have private information on them. We could be in danger of identity theft.” Sometimes I can’t figure out who is more practical, her or me.
Truthfully, I think she is just afraid to throw out what might be sentimental later, but she has figured out over the years how to speak my language.
So. I open boxes and begin to sort.
In reality, I am not opening boxes, I am performing exploratory archeology on my own life. What are these wonderful artifacts that are so valuable as to warrant carrying with us through the years.
I find my junior high yearbook. (shudder). I thought all evidence of those early teen years were destroyed years ago. How did that survive. I’ve worked so hard to repress memories of acne, awkwardness, hair in new places, nocturnal emissions, deep desires for things that I don't really understand, and strange body odors. (shudder, shudder)
I dig deeper and found an old award from Bank of America. Evidently, I was a very valuable employee to them at one point in time according to the Lucite and metal award. Not valuable enough to avoid layoffs, but worth enough to get a trophy that I store in a box.
Digging even deeper in the box, I find a checkbook from an old bank account closed more than a decade ago. Maybe my wife was right about the identity theft danger. Of course, there is no money in there now and there wasn’t much back then. Not sure why I still have it.
I found several ceramic coffee cups, pens, notepads, and other geegaws from trade shows and sales visits over the years at PTI. I even found one of the PTI coozies that someone had thousands of printed for us (it took years to get rid of all of those). I am sure this stuff was supposed to convince me to purchase something from these companies or to have loyalty in some form or another. Now it is just junk taking up space.
Next, I stumble on something truly historic. A green plastic army man toy from my youth. Now those were the years. No bills, no responsibility, and you could buy green army men for 99 cents a bucket and hold grand scale battles in the backyard with violence that rivaled Stalingrad or Passchendaele.
Here now is the little orange New Testament that some missionary was handing out in front of my high school one day. I wasn’t Christian then and only opened it briefly to highlight the 23rd Psalm. At the time, I only knew about that Psalm and the two quotes, ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged,’ and ‘God helps those who help themselves.’ Turns out, I was wrong about one of those. I never read that Bible, but I carried it in my backpack like a good luck amulet through most of my senior year. Maybe God would look kindly on a guy carrying a Bible around and find me a girlfriend, or at least help me pass algebra.
Wow, a pack of Zig-Zag papers. We won’t go into why I had those, suffice it to say that I don’t use them anymore. That chapter is long ago closed.
There is much more in the box: an old watch that doesn’t work, a broken pocket knife, a first place ribbon for some forgotten contest, a report card from high school, a set of ‘Spanish for Beginners’ cassette tapes from the library that I long ago was billed for, a leather work glove (just one, mind you), some marbles, and some old school reports.
Sigh.
Almost all of the box is garbage and there are still a dozen boxes like it to go. Most of this stuff, though a part of my life at one time, has no bearing on my life now. And yet… there is almost a talisman-like feel to some of the items, a mysterious force that entices me to put them back into the box and hang on to them.I know it isn’t just me. I have seen the houses of friends and relatives. What is it that makes us keep these insignificant mementos like the detritus that flows alongside a ship in harbor?
You see, I know the truth of it all.
The most valuable treasures in my life are those that don’t fit in a box.
How do you package the first time I held my daughter and prayed over her? How do I box up the first embrace with my lovely wife? What about the bittersweet memories of first kisses, crushes, and stolen moments.Where do I store memories of my Uncle Bob teaching me how to shoot and camp, of playing poker and filling a room with cigar smoke with Rick and Joe, of being baptized in Christ?
It’s these liminal moments that make the best treasures. Those times where you cross a threshold into a new state. Things will never be the same now, something has changed. These treasures, though rich and important are not always pleasant.
They include the first time you lose someone close to you through death, your first broken heart, the first time your child is in the hospital, the first time you were fired.These are the important things in life. This is what matters.
I know that on my deathbed, I will not be asking for someone to give me more junk; I’ll be asking for just a few more moments with my loved ones. Yet, I hang on to the junk.
Writing this isn’t getting those boxes sorted.
On second thought, maybe I will through them all out.
It’s moving time again. Should be a time of hope and excitement. Moving to a new place, close to the church, close to work, close to my daughter’s school. It’s a larger place with everything we needed and prayed for and then some. Like I said, it should be a time of hope and excitement.
Should be…
Instead, I find myself in an introspective mood.I open boxes that have been packed away in closets for years. Boxes that we have moved more than once in our life’s journey without opening them. I told my wife that we should just throw them out without opening them. We haven’t needed what is in them up to now, chances are, we won’t ever need what is in them.
She was firmly against this. “What if there are some documents in there that have private information on them. We could be in danger of identity theft.” Sometimes I can’t figure out who is more practical, her or me.
Truthfully, I think she is just afraid to throw out what might be sentimental later, but she has figured out over the years how to speak my language.
So. I open boxes and begin to sort.
In reality, I am not opening boxes, I am performing exploratory archeology on my own life. What are these wonderful artifacts that are so valuable as to warrant carrying with us through the years.
I find my junior high yearbook. (shudder). I thought all evidence of those early teen years were destroyed years ago. How did that survive. I’ve worked so hard to repress memories of acne, awkwardness, hair in new places, nocturnal emissions, deep desires for things that I don't really understand, and strange body odors. (shudder, shudder)
I dig deeper and found an old award from Bank of America. Evidently, I was a very valuable employee to them at one point in time according to the Lucite and metal award. Not valuable enough to avoid layoffs, but worth enough to get a trophy that I store in a box.
Digging even deeper in the box, I find a checkbook from an old bank account closed more than a decade ago. Maybe my wife was right about the identity theft danger. Of course, there is no money in there now and there wasn’t much back then. Not sure why I still have it.
I found several ceramic coffee cups, pens, notepads, and other geegaws from trade shows and sales visits over the years at PTI. I even found one of the PTI coozies that someone had thousands of printed for us (it took years to get rid of all of those). I am sure this stuff was supposed to convince me to purchase something from these companies or to have loyalty in some form or another. Now it is just junk taking up space.
Next, I stumble on something truly historic. A green plastic army man toy from my youth. Now those were the years. No bills, no responsibility, and you could buy green army men for 99 cents a bucket and hold grand scale battles in the backyard with violence that rivaled Stalingrad or Passchendaele.
Here now is the little orange New Testament that some missionary was handing out in front of my high school one day. I wasn’t Christian then and only opened it briefly to highlight the 23rd Psalm. At the time, I only knew about that Psalm and the two quotes, ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged,’ and ‘God helps those who help themselves.’ Turns out, I was wrong about one of those. I never read that Bible, but I carried it in my backpack like a good luck amulet through most of my senior year. Maybe God would look kindly on a guy carrying a Bible around and find me a girlfriend, or at least help me pass algebra.
Wow, a pack of Zig-Zag papers. We won’t go into why I had those, suffice it to say that I don’t use them anymore. That chapter is long ago closed.
There is much more in the box: an old watch that doesn’t work, a broken pocket knife, a first place ribbon for some forgotten contest, a report card from high school, a set of ‘Spanish for Beginners’ cassette tapes from the library that I long ago was billed for, a leather work glove (just one, mind you), some marbles, and some old school reports.
Sigh.
Almost all of the box is garbage and there are still a dozen boxes like it to go. Most of this stuff, though a part of my life at one time, has no bearing on my life now. And yet… there is almost a talisman-like feel to some of the items, a mysterious force that entices me to put them back into the box and hang on to them.I know it isn’t just me. I have seen the houses of friends and relatives. What is it that makes us keep these insignificant mementos like the detritus that flows alongside a ship in harbor?
You see, I know the truth of it all.
The most valuable treasures in my life are those that don’t fit in a box.
How do you package the first time I held my daughter and prayed over her? How do I box up the first embrace with my lovely wife? What about the bittersweet memories of first kisses, crushes, and stolen moments.Where do I store memories of my Uncle Bob teaching me how to shoot and camp, of playing poker and filling a room with cigar smoke with Rick and Joe, of being baptized in Christ?
It’s these liminal moments that make the best treasures. Those times where you cross a threshold into a new state. Things will never be the same now, something has changed. These treasures, though rich and important are not always pleasant.
They include the first time you lose someone close to you through death, your first broken heart, the first time your child is in the hospital, the first time you were fired.These are the important things in life. This is what matters.
I know that on my deathbed, I will not be asking for someone to give me more junk; I’ll be asking for just a few more moments with my loved ones. Yet, I hang on to the junk.
Writing this isn’t getting those boxes sorted.
On second thought, maybe I will through them all out.
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.
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
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
Merry Minuet
This blog originally posted Thursday, April 9, 2009 at 9:02am
Written in 1950s - still great today.
Here are the lyrics:
They're rioting in Africa, they're starving in Spain.
There's hurricanes in Florida, and Texas needs rain.
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls. The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles. Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch.
And I don't like anybody very much!
But we can be tranquil, and thankful, and proud, For mans' been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud. And we know for certain that some lovely day
Someone will set the spark off, and we will all be blown away.
They're rioting in Africa, there's strife in Iran. What nature doesn't do to us, will be done by our fellow man.
Kingston Trio 1959
Great Song
Written in 1950s - still great today.
Here are the lyrics:
They're rioting in Africa, they're starving in Spain.
There's hurricanes in Florida, and Texas needs rain.
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls. The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles. Italians hate Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch.
And I don't like anybody very much!
But we can be tranquil, and thankful, and proud, For mans' been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud. And we know for certain that some lovely day
Someone will set the spark off, and we will all be blown away.
They're rioting in Africa, there's strife in Iran. What nature doesn't do to us, will be done by our fellow man.
Kingston Trio 1959
Great Song
Somebody needs to show this to Congress
This blog originally posted Wednesday, April 8, 2009 at 1:49pm
http://www.hulu.com/embed/J4vJO8oTo5zAO0QrO_sbLQ
http://www.hulu.com/embed/J4vJO8oTo5zAO0QrO_sbLQ
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?
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?
A lost generation
This blog originally posted Thursday, March 12, 2009 at 10:08am
I really liked this, so I just had to post it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA
I really liked this, so I just had to post it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA
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.
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.
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