Physician, heal thyself

A recent article from the Pew Research Center outlines a survey that suggests there's a downward trend in the United States of those who are religiously affiliated.  According to the survey over the last ten years there's been a steady decline in the number of people who consider themselves to be Christian, attend any type of church or pray with any regularity.  Many of the pastors I listen to in Colorado on Grace FM will say the church is under attack, that the government is trying to shut them down and believers are being oppressed.  I don't doubt that there are external forces warring against the church.  Certainly Satan is at work trying to destroy all that God has created.  But let's not be deluded into thinking that there's some nameless, faceless phantom out there that is trying to destroy us.  The enemy of the church is far closer to home than we realize.

I think for some they'll look at those survey results and say, "See? We're under attack by people who hate Christians!"  There may be some truth to that but for me, when I look at those results, I can't help but think we, as Christians, are responsible for much of that decline.  Sure, there are outside forces pitted against the church today but I believe our problems are just as much like a cancer as they are an external affliction.  It's a sure sign of a lack of humility to assume all the problems facing the church reside outside of the church.  During one of his sermons, a local pastor said that a recent survey identified church pastors among some of the most untrustworthy, along with lawyers and politicians.  I personally haven't seen this survey but I'll take him at his word.  He saw this as another attack from some outside forces trying to bring down the church.  I find it doubtful that a reputable organization would just create a bogus survey just to attack someone or something, but who knows, I'm sure it's possible.  But surveys typically call out the perceptions of a slice of the population on any given topic.  My question is, if a portion of the US population consider pastors to be untrustworthy, what makes them feel that way?  Wouldn't a self-assessment be in order?  You can't refute survey results unless you have some information that defends your position.  The "nuh uh" defense will never win an argument.  

So let me get the ball rolling with this self-assessment.  Christians will recall that Jesus gave us two commandments.  Just two.  The first, love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.  The second, love your neighbor as yourself.  Sounds simple enough.  Not like the ten found in the Old Testament.  Ah, but that's the catch.  Those Ten Commandments are actually rolled into those two commandments Jesus gave us.  But I digress.  So now we have to ask ourselves, are we living up to those two commandments?  If we're being honest with ourselves the answer should be a resounding "NO!"  Speaking for myself, I fail at both on an epic scale.  Sure, some days are better than others but it's a constant struggle to fully live by those commands.  Now some of you might say I'm off base, that for the most part you do a pretty good job living up to those two commandments but consider this - Does the desire for that promotion supersede our calling to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength?  Does our desire to win an argument take precedence over the command to love our neighbors as ourselves?  When we speak, are we doing so in a loving manner or are we abrasive because, well, "that's just how I am"?  As we plan our lives are we seeking God's endorsement or His guidance?  If it came to being accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict us?  Remember, just calling ourselves "Christians" doesn't necessarily mean we are one.  I can say I'm a loving husband but if I beat my wife then all evidence would point to the contrary.  If you say you're a loving Christian but you blow up your Facebook and Twitter feed with hate speech towards a certain person or group of people, then again, all evidence points to the contrary.  

The decline in the Christian church can be summed up in a single word, hypocrisy.  Sure, I've heard pastors say in response to that claim that we Christians are flawed and are prone to sin and I certainly agree.  But we can't stop there.  We can't just sit there and say yes, we're hypocritical at times and we sin occasionally, as if that's enough for the casual observer to simply overlook.  We have to recognize that this hypocrisy is the greatest indictment against the church and we are all complicit.  We can't just shirk this off as if this is some simple little indiscretion that can be repented over.  We need to own the ramifications coming from this truth.  If we only publicly call out things like so-called government overreach, supposed CRT in grade schools and the like and not say a word about the vile behavior of public figures who proudly claim to be Christian, then WE are the perpetuators of this hypocrisy.  If we publicly speak out against abortion but go radio silent over the oppression and marginalization of an ever increasing population by big business and corrupt politicians, then we are contributing to this hypocrisy.  If we want to be in the habit of commenting on secular issues then we need to be ready to comment on all of them.  Human reasoning will deduce that anything we don't condemn we therefore condone.  So if we aren't speaking out against, say, the bad behavior of so-called Christians then we are actually condoning it.  For example, congressperson from Rifle, Colorado is fond of calling herself a "good Christian mother" but spends the majority of her time on social media spewing hate speech.  Much is said in church over the oppressive demands of having to wear a mask but not a word about the so-called Christian who promotes hate.  This is just one example of the hypocrisy that has lead many to say, "if that's Christianity, I want nothing to do with it."  

As long as we Christians continue to be conditioned to believe that the threat to the church only comes from outside the church, then the more we will continue to contribute to its demise.  As long as we continue to believe we have no ownership in this problem, it'll never be resolved.  Perhaps if we focused more on Jesus, more on how we should love God and love our neighbors and behave as if we do, then we may see an uptick in those survey numbers.  Perhaps we need to spend less time making people afraid of the world and encourage them to stand strong in the power of the Holy Spirit.  There is power in the Word and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.  If we are truly in the Word then nothing in this crazy world should scare or concern us.  If we are truly in the Word then we'll know that all these things MUST come to pass so railing against them is to rail against the Word.  But if we truly put our trust and faith in Jesus and devote ourselves to loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves, are we not doing God's will for us? 

Link to the Pew Research Center article:  

https://www.pewforum.org/2021/12/14/about-three-in-ten-u-s-adults-are-now-religiously-unaffiliated/?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email&utm_placement=newsletter

Choices...

I know that as Americans our freedoms are emblematic of who we are as Americans.  Freedom of choice is the bedrock of our governing system.  Sure, one can argue that we don't actually have a lot of the freedoms we should but for the most part we are free to choose.  And choose we will.

When it comes to COVID, the vaccine and our personal right to choose I'll admit there's an ugly, authoritarian part of me that says, "to hell with your personal liberties, you WILL get the vaccine."  I know, I know, that's not right and I admit I need to work on my impulsive nature to want people to do the right thing.  My best friend, who's a doctor and Army veteran, reminded me that this really does need to be a matter of choice and I do, ultimately, believe that.  But he is also quite animated when it comes to ignorance, pettiness and selfishness of those who refuse to get vaccinated.  From a medical perspective, there is virtually no reason not to get vaccinated.  In fact there's a social and moral obligation to get vaccinated because this virus affects ALL of us.  

Certainly anything "mandated" contradicts our personal freedoms.  But we all know mandates exist.  You can't drive 80 mph in a school zone, or at least you shouldn't.  And when it comes to vaccine mandates they've been in our schools for decades.  But there really is a dilemma when it comes to the idea of mandates.  For example, most who say a mandate should be in place forcing a woman to bring a pregnancy to term are the same ones that say there should be NO mandate when it comes to the vaccine.  Aren't both mandates technically about saving lives?  I mean one could loosely argue that choosing not to get vaccinated is the same as having an abortion because ultimately someone is going to die.  Yes, a straw man argument, but when you think about it, a woman only aborts a single child.  An asymptomatic carrier can potentially infect and ultimately kill hundreds of people.  This is not an argument for or against abortion but those who are against abortion and against the vaccine can't really defend their positions without contradicting themselves.  Soooo, is this a matter of choosing which lives should be saved and which shouldn't?  If that's the case, who determines that and whoever that might be, what gives them the right to make that determination?  Now we're dabbling in subjective morality and that opens a whole other can of worms.

Perhaps my failure is assuming too much when it comes to the choices of my fellow citizens. Of course real freedom of choice means having the freedom to choose poorly, selfishly, ignorantly, stupidly.  I don't consider myself a smart man but when I see something so incredibly obvious it shocks me to see others who don't, or as I suppose, choose not to see.  One would've thought that the Information Age would usher in another Age of Enlightenment but it's only served to sink our collective ignorance to greater depths.  There is far more false information out there than true.  And given the lazy, self-serving, self-indulgent nature of our citizens, the idea of spending any amount of energy to get to the truth is tantamount to trying to scale Mount Everest with an elephant on your back.  Fears over the vaccine are unfounded, plain and simple.  There's tremendous amount of information to corroborate that.  And for my fellow Christians who think the vaccine is the mark of the beast, for goodness sake go read the Bible.  But most Americans are too willing to accept things they hear on face value rather than taking a couple of minutes, a few mouse clicks, to get to the truth.   

Ultimately we can't assume people will do the right thing.  Getting the vaccine IS the right thing.  Not just for ourselves but for the people around us.  But yes, we are free to choose.  And with the authority to choose comes the responsibility of accepting the consequences of those choices.  That could mean no longer having access to schools, theaters, restaurants, airplanes or any number of public places.  Perhaps that might even mean limited access to health care.  I mean, if you think this virus is no big deal and you don't need a vaccine, then if you get infected with COVID what makes you think you should be entitled to medical care or at least, why should you be prioritized over those with other health conditions?  I know that sounds harsh but I'd prefer not to make it easy for people to be stupid but I guess that's their right.  

I know this is uncomfortable for many to hear but this is the time where we have to think beyond ourselves.  Perhaps we need to go back to the words of John F. Kennedy and, "Ask not what your country can do for you.  Ask what you can do for your country."  But I have to remember that Kennedy was a Democrat and given our current political climate many will say it's a call to socialism.  <insert face palm> Oh well.  I guess when it comes to COVID, we should consider the words of Captain Kirk when it came to the Klingons, "Let them die."  And no, I don't believe that.  

Stewards of Freedom

You hear "freedom isn't free" and typically that's a reference to the fact that the freedoms we enjoy in this country came and continues to come from the sacrifices of those who put themselves in harms way to protect our freedoms, namely the military.  But I think as a nation we've forgotten that the phrase "freedom isn't free" isn't just about military sacrifice but also about our personal responsibilities as citizens of this country.

As I'm fond of saying, "Authority (freedom) and responsibility, you can't have one without the other."  We've all had that run-in with an obnoxious person who bellows, "You can't tell me what to do.  I'm an American and it's my Constitutional right to do (fill in the blank)."  Let's forget the fact that the Constitution doesn't say we can blast our stereos all hours of the night or that we can take up two parking spaces at the grocery store.  But do we have the freedom (authority) to do whatever we want?  Can we go into a crowded theater and yell "FIRE!"  Are we free to drive as fast as we want regardless of the traffic?  Of course not.  Many of you will say, "we have laws against such things."  And you're right, we do.  But have you ever thought to yourself, "why do we need laws telling us how to behave?"  Why indeed.  

It's understood that although they were very specific about freedom of faith, our founding fathers formulated our Constitution and subsequent laws under a Judeo-Christian ethic.  It's a universal standard, not established by any one person or party, but by a greater objective truth.  Over time there have been numerous additions to our laws that govern behavior, whether it's related to how we conduct business or how we conduct ourselves in our neighborhoods.  These laws aren't arbitrary. They all stem from an incident where one person's notion of personal freedom comes in direct conflict with the intent of the existing laws.  You can trace the genealogy of the ordinance "Inoperable vehicles are not authorized to be parked along neighborhood streets" to the command, "Love your neighbor as yourself".  When you think about it, each law that follows the command to "love your neighbor as yourself" is a response to an action by a person who refused to embrace the intent of the original command.  

But it says a lot about us when we look at the laws not in terms of how we should fulfill them but rather how we can get around them.  The Original Laws, as I call them, were put in place to help us see how important it is to put our faith and our neighbors before ourselves.  Unfortunately in today's culture it's quite the opposite.  Today we look at laws not as a means of uniting us to our communities and country but rather as a vehicle to serve ourselves.  We believe that anything that is not specifically forbidden is therefore allowed.  Far too often we hear people say, "there's no law telling me I can't do that."  So when our Constitution grants us freedom of speech without qualifying the word "speech" does that mean all speech?  Does that include knowingly spreading lies or hate filled rhetoric?  Most all of us know deep in our hearts that lying and expressing hate speech is wrong, but are we at the point where we need to document that?  Regardless of where you fall in politics, the unfortunate truth is that these last four years have shown us there is no restriction and no accountability to what someone can say.  The unfortunate truth is that many are enjoying the freedoms of speaking their minds but willfully turning their backs on the responsibility they have for accepting the consequences of their words and actions.  

Today we are seeing individuals being removed from social media for willfully spreading lies and hate speech.  People are protesting about the infringement upon our rights to free speech and expression that have lawyers running circles trying to determine the legalities of these actions with no clear path forward.  Because of our unwillingness to live according to the spirit of our laws, what I suspect we'll see is the emergence of new laws that will govern what and how we can express ourselves which is nothing what our founding fathers had intended.  I hear people complain about government over-reach and the violations against our personal liberties.  We need to understand that the erosion of our personal freedoms in this country is a direct consequence of our own abuses of them, not the workings of some mythical satanic cabal.  The more laws we need to put on the books to govern our behaviors, the more our freedoms will erode away.

We are not sovereigns but rather stewards of freedom.

When will it stop?

I’m dishearten and quite literally depressed over this whole situation.  From the senseless killing of a defenseless man to the displaced violence and rage that soon followed.  Somehow this naïve boy growing up in the sixties and seventies truly believed that things would get better, that we would eventually learn to stop hating and learn to respect and care for others.  I mean, we put a man on the moon for crying out loud.  I honestly felt that we as a people would grow out of this arbitrary hate that some people have for each other.  But the events over the past week have proven otherwise.  

I’m at a loss as to how to approach this.  The problem is far more complex than I think anyone wants to admit.  Yet again another incident of color that is tearing the fabric of what holds this country together and I confess I feel I’m becoming beat down by it.  The names and dates may be different, but the actions and responses are all the same.  White man kills a black man and communities explode into wanton violence.  Once again, we are polarized into whites and blacks, the haves and the have nots.  What I see is a prevailing narrative that on one hand glorifies victimization of one race while shaming and marginalizing another.  I see this constant narrative that the problem of racism falls squarely on the shoulders of one race rather than on the community of races we have in this country.  Long before George Floyd, long before Rodney King, there has been racial tension not just in this country but throughout the history of mankind.  The history of mankind is a history of oppression of one people over another.  The ability to hate is afforded to everyone regardless of social status or skin color.  

As expected, social media has become flooded with memes and posts depicting not only the victimization of blacks but also chastisement of whites.  This latest outrage over a racist cop killing a black man has continued to re-energize the notion that the foundation of this social problem rests upon “white privilege”.  There’s been a recirculation of a video with the warning “All whites need to see this”, of a coach lining up his students for a race but before it starts, he asks a variety of questions where a “yes” answer allows two steps forward.  The questions are specific to our current social norms and of course most of non-white students are left standing at the original start line while the white students have a significant head start.  The whole point of this video is to point out white privilege and how whites are given an unfair advantage over non-whites.  I have to be honest a number of the questions that coached asked really didn’t sit well with me.  “How many of you grew up with a father and mother?”, “how many of you didn’t sometimes go without food?”, “how many of you didn’t have to help pay the bills?”  Trust me I know and empathize that having to endure these things as a child is tragic, but I guess what I need help in understanding is how do the choices made by someone in one community become the fault of someone in a different community?  I know that just writing that question will lead some to think I’m turning my back to the plight of the less fortunate but I’m not.  Quite the contrary.  You can’t be quick to judge my sincerity in expressing sympathy, compassion and willingness to help without first addressing the very real questions of how some communities come to faulter so badly.  If you don’t know the problem how can you possibly know the remedy?  This is a far more complicated problem than haves and have nots.

I struggle with this whole definition of “privilege”.  The dictionary describes it as a special right, advantage, grant or exception given to an individual or group of people.  The thing I struggle with is the word “given”.  For all that I’ve done and accomplished in life I never had the notion that they were “given” to me.  I distinctly remember blood, sweat and tears throughout many of my endeavors.  But listening to the rants today, it seems everything I have has been given to me and given to me at the expense of others.  Granted I didn’t face many of the stumbling blocks that non-whites have faced.  I was fortunate to have both parents raise me.  I was fortunate that public schools were available to me.  I was fortunate that I didn’t have to grow up with a fear that local police officers were looking to terrorize me.  But just because I didn’t have to suffer through those hardships doesn’t mean I didn’t have some of my own.  And just because I didn’t have some of those hardships doesn’t mean I’m callous to those who did.  But I also don’t see how my good fortune, as it were, is somehow the cause of the adversity others have had to face.  I know that’s not necessarily the case but when incidents like the George Floyd incident come up society is quick to make the case that the cause of police violence towards blacks is due to white privilege and given my upbringing, I AM that white privilege.    

I would LOVE if racism was completely removed from our culture.  But let's just talk about white racism.  If white racism was completely removed would things actually get better?  If there were no more white racists would that mean in the black communities there would be no more drugs, no more gangs, no more black-on-black violence, no more looting, no more single mothers?  Would the removal of all white racism encourage others to take advantage of the opportunities they do have and pursue a better life than what they currently have?  Would the elimination of white racism foster a greater sense of generosity and a willingness to help others?  I’m not convinced that the removal of one thing will necessitate the emergence of another.  First and foremost, racism needs to be destroyed but that's only one battle.  There's still a war to be fought.  Yes, we need to weed out the bigots in our precincts, boardrooms, loan offices and classrooms.  Yes, we need to help promote diversity and inclusion in every aspect of our lives.  And yes, we need to constantly examine ourselves for any evidence of even the smallest nuggets of bigotry in our hearts and minds.  But this isn’t “we” as in a mandate just for white people.  I mean “WE” as in ALL races in this country.  We are all guilty and are accountable for the racism we see permeating this country.  

I admit, I’m tired, weary and not just a little depressed over this whole thing.  I saw and experienced racism firsthand as a child growing up in Maryland and Virginia.  I've seen the hate in people and I personally know what it's like to be afraid for my wellbeing because of the color of my skin.  But I grew up listening to artists like Marvin Gaye asking, “What’s Going On?”, hopeful for a better tomorrow.  But tragically, after 50 years nothing has really changed.  We’re all still asking what’s going on but finding no answers.  

I’m saddened because I’m not allowed to grieve.  I’m not allowed to grieve over the treatment of my fellow citizens and the loss of the ideals to which I thought this country was built upon.  My heart breaks when I see shattered innocence on the faces of young children who truly fear for their lives.  Instead I’m bombarded by self-appointed social vigilantes who feel it’s their duty, actually their right, to pile on the guilt and shame of being a part of a social class that unfortunately has produced the likes of a number of bigoted police officers.  Some say that social media has done much to help bring awareness and enlightenment to this issue of racism but if the past week is any indication I think all social media has done is fanned the flames of anger, bitterness and contempt, with no real intention of actually addressing the problem or providing real solutions.  Interesting that neither Martin Luther King Jr. nor Malcom X had the luxury of social media but that didn’t stop them from getting their messages out, convicting the consciousness of an entire nation.  But today, social media is swarming with part-time social evangelists.  Normally their online lives are consumed with posts of their kids, their recent vacation or their latest outfit.  It’s only when a social injustice gets airtime that they lift up their phones and keyboards and engage in a war of rhetoric.  They rant all the same things that others are ranting about and will berate those who aren't shouting as loud as they are.  The extent of their activism is nothing more than the regurgitation of the latest meme or trying to come up with the next viral hashtag.  Activism isn’t just restating the problem over and over.  It’s actually about activity working towards change.  And perhaps some might say they don’t have the time, that they’re too busy with work or raising a family and that’s all well and good.  But, again, activism isn’t about retelling of the injustice or pointing fingers.  It’s about influencing positive change.  And one way a person can do that is by starting with themselves.  Look deep into yourself and be honest enough to admit that you have some prejudice in you.  Trust me, we ALL do.  You can’t go through life without developing some prejudice based on the experiences you’ve had.  That doesn’t make you fundamentally bad, but it does mean you need to be cognizant of your thoughts and beliefs that could be skewed and therefore you need to be ready to make adjustments to what you say and how you act.  

We’re a nation with a short attention span, easily distracted by the next shiny, new thing.  In a week it’ll be a new political scandal or the decision to further relax the COVID restrictions.  Sadly, this incident will drift away into the recesses of our collective minds only to be dusted off and raised to the forefront when another person is killed by a white police officer.  But until then, we’ll go back to posting our vacation photos, food likes or self-aggrandizing selfies.  The convictions we possessed for that one day in May will be overtaken by our new wants and desires.  Once again will go back to being that nation bent on keeping ourselves at the center of the universe, guided by our own subjective moral code, accountable to nothing or no one, unless it gets us more “Likes” or “Followers”. 

Locked and loaded...

At the risk of jumping into the firestorm of gun control, let me first say I'm not here to say I support the gun lobby, nor am I here as a left wing proponent of total gun abolishment for our citizens.  I'm that guy, right smack dab in the middle of this insanity, who's had enough.

To be honest, I'm REALLY tired of the 2nd Amendment folks saying it's their God given right to bear arms.  Yes, I get it, it's a right, per our Constitution and I'm very much behind all that.  Hey, just for full disclosure, I own a gun and very much enjoy having it.  Not just as a means of recreation but also as a little sense of security, given this day and age where home break-ins are more and more prevalent.  But gun people, rights require responsibility!  As I've said before, when it comes to authority and responsibility, you can't have one without the other.

So to start, how are we defining "arms"?  For me that's a HUGE issue in this whole war on guns thing.  Personally, I think of it as owning a pistol or a rifle.  But for others it means owning military grade assault weapons.  For the last few decades politicians and lobbyists from both sides of the aisle have spent millions fighting for an against a ban on guns, or a ban on certain guns, or a ban on guns with the letter "U" in it.  Whatever.  I just don't get it.  Be honest, gun people, why do you think you need a military grade weapon?  I really can't think of one logical reason for it.  You aren't going to hunt with it and I suspect in some places it would be considered illegal if you tried.  And besides, I don't think there would be much left of Bambi if you shot her with several rounds from a .50cal machine gun.  I don't believe we have any state or federal militias that would require you to have one.  I know there are those out there that insist the "government" is coming after them so they need to be able to protect themselves.  Ah, yeah.  Kids, let me tell ya, if there was money to be made in taking away everyone's guns, the politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike, would be all over it.  So relax.  And besides, I have it on good authority the zombie apocalypse won't happen for some time.  At least I'm pretty sure.  So seriously, stop pissing about background checks and limitations on the types of guns you can have.  The more I hear about how someone needs an assault weapon the more I think it's an issue of what's lacking between their legs.

Now no matter how many mass shootings there are we ALWAYS attack the issue from a single vantage point and that's more gun control.  We definitely don't need more gun control but we sure need better.  I'll leave it at that.  But until we realize there is more to these incidents than the availability of guns we'll continue to watch our children die and people rage with nothing being done.  To coin AL G's phase, the "Inconvenient Truth" of the matter is that we also have to address the mental health issue that's the constant in nearly everyone of these horrible acts of violence and that's the point I think the gun control lobby misses.  Until we have the courage to create enforceable laws and programs that prohibit "at risk" individuals from having guns, we'll continue to see carnage on our public and school grounds.  So, my friends on the left, I know it sounds like I'm suggesting we sacrifice our personal privacy and freedoms but really I'm not.  Folks can go on living in deep, dark caves, ensuring their privacy, however, getting back to my "responsibility" comment, if an individual feels they have the authority to own a gun, then they have the responsibility to be transparent.

So what's the solution?  Just off the cuff, perhaps there's a national data base that captures names of individuals that doctors identify as being "at risk" of owning weapons.  Ok, I think half of you probably screamed "NAZI!", but hear me out.  There are no specific details provided in this database.  Just a flag, perhaps in an existing national database, that says "yes" or "no" to the question "Is this person able to buy a gun?"  Now, between you and your doctor(s), you can have assessments and discussions about your mental health and the doctor can make an assessment as to whether or not you're fit to own a weapon.  The doctor would be required by law to tell you that they intend on putting your name on this "no buy" list and you as the patient would have X amount of days to contest it before your name actually goes on the list.  I would expect there would be methods to adjudicate assessments as well as ways to get your name off the list, but the details I leave to career lawyer/politicians to figure out.  I know, I know, it seems heavy handed and a major invasion of our privacy but if an individual today can be denied a drivers licenses due to medical or mental health reasons, why not owning a gun?  

So you folks on the Right, you can't keep going on squawking about your rights to own a gun without owning up to your responsibility of being transparent and being reasonable in what you think you should be allowed to own.  And you folks on the Left, stop squawking about gun control without owning up to the fact that mentally disturbed people are the constant in every one of these shootings and it has to be dealt with just as much as changing laws.  We can't fight only the battles we feel like fighting.  This is one battle we ALL need to be on the same side.

Choices...

I gotta admit, I was a little apprehensive about getting back on social media but I felt my hiatus had run its course and I kinda wanted to see how things were among my circle of friends and family.  I have to tell you it was a bit disappointing.

To be honest I was still on social media but I had created an alter-ego with very few friends or family and I seldom engaged in much of anything going on across the internet.  So for the most part I was off the radar, or as some would say, I was in stealth mode.  I eventually reverted back to my actual name and was overjoyed to find I was able to reconnect with many of my old friends.  The reason I left social media was the same reason many other people have left – constant bitterness, anger, pettiness and bullying.  Now I pretty much attributed that to the elections but when I resurfaced I found all those same negative attributes to still be flowing in abundance.

So clearly there are a lot of unhappy people in the world.  I get that.  Faith in our government and our society has dropped to an all time low.  It seems most every day we hear of another pillar in our society come crumbling down in the midst of some scandal.  Throughout the 2016 elections as well as the years that followed, the pure hate that was and is prevalent throughout social media points to a realization that people have lost their joy in life.  Perhaps it’s hate mongering by the media or perhaps its constantly seeing good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people.  After all this consternation it finally occurred to me that WE are still expecting our happiness to be provided to us by something or someone.  I think we need to be honest and accept the fact that we’ve been conditioned to expect our happiness to be provided by our elected officials and community leaders.  Folks, this isn’t a rant over party affiliations, political or social dispositions or playing the blame game. This is an appeal to our humanity.

As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”  The preponderance of posts on social media is negative in nature.  I guess I don’t understand.  Are those folks who constantly spew hatred and rage really of the mind that the more angrier they are on social media the better our world will ultimately become?  Gotta tell ya, I know I wasn’t all that great at math but this really doesn’t add up.  I suppose someone might look at me and say, ”This guy has his head in the clouds.  Another religious fanatic.”  Oh well, not much I can say or do about that except to plow through with my convictions that it is better for me, for you, for our country and for God that I devote myself to being a more loving, generous and compassionate person.  I know we all get angry at times and I’m one of the biggest offenders.  But consider this, our thoughts lead to feelings and our feelings lead to action.  I can’t help but feel that if our actions are motivated by anger then we’re likely to produce negative results.  But if our actions are motivated by a loving heart, the results will most likely be a positive one that lifts up rather than tears down.  Remember, each day is a new day to do things better. Each day is a new day to feel blessed and fortunate to have another chance to be something positive in someone’s life.  Each day is a new day to choose to see the beauty within the muck and mire.

Folks, I do get it. There’s a lot of crap going on in our communities, our country and throughout the world.  I can’t really control much of any of that.  But I do have some say in how I approach each day and I do have choices that no person or government can overcome.  For me, for now, through God’s good graces, I choose to try to be a good person.  I choose to put my heart towards those who are struggling to find joy in the midst of circumstances that have knocked them down.

Join me, won’t you?

Nuggets...

Complaining of our circumstances without doing anything about it is like being that guy in line who can’t decide what he wants. Just order and move on.

Over time those wonderful memories begin to fade and eventually become like dreams that we sometimes wonder whether they actually happened. Were it the same for pain.

Don’t pray for something to leave you without praying for something to fill you. Remember power abhors a vacuum. Praying away despair without praying for joy only brings back despair in greater abundance.

In the great race of life, it’s not how you look when you finish but rather by the grace and character in which you lived it.

Have you served someone today?

The greatest treasures are found not in the things we obtain but in the depths of the generosity of our own hearts.

If you believe in a universal balance in life, just remember when you choose to take you make someone have to give.

Authority and responsibility, you can’t have one without the other.

Life is like a bacon and egg breakfast. While most people want to be the chicken only a few will stand up to be the pig.

If you never doubt your convictions or beliefs, I submit you have neither. Doubt instills a desire to pursue our beliefs beyond our own capacity to understand.

Praise in public and punish in private. To do anything else breeds resentment, distrust and discouragement.

If it’s not worth resolving it’s not worth discussing.

If your faith creates barriers between you and others then all you’ve really done is build a wall between you and God.

Replay your favorite songs over and over, not your greatest disappointments.

No matter what you might think or believe, you are NEVER alone. 

Everyone believes in something, even the belief there is no God. Because no amount of science or reason can prove them.

A smile is one of the most powerful weapons known to man.

Greet with praise and a kind heart those who do the small and seemingly menial tasks, because it’s upon their shoulders that our society rests.

When I tell you I’m a Christian please don’t hear “I’m going to heaven and you’re not because you suck and I’m better than you.” All I’m really saying is “I’m a flawed, broken person that is struggling through my sinful nature, that I believe Jesus died to redeem us, that I’m on a constant journey to understand and grow my faith and that I’d love to have you come along with me if you’d like.” Really, that’s all. 

Whether positive or negative, any experience that doesn’t come with a lesson probably isn’t worth remembering.

Remember, when we pray to be more courageous, compassionate and loving God will create situations that will require us to be just that. Careful what you pray for. :-)

Sent from my iPhone