Salt and Light - It Is The Hope for 2013

Last night I watched 40 best feuds or some such ridiculous entertainment show about celebrities.  Reality shows received a lot of coverage and I hadn't watched any of those particular shows.  Women pulling each other's hair and showing their hiney as they wrestled on the floor in short dresses, couples shouting the most hurtful things at each other - completely abusing the trusting moments where they were trusted with that knowledge of their partner's vulnerabilities.  It was sickening. 

I can't understand the "entertainment" value of watching people be treated cruelly or exposing their cruelty toward others. 

I can't understand how anyone harms a child or their wife.  No compassion, empathy, moral compunction.

It twists me up inside when I become immobilized by that hopeless feeling that I can't change this... and then I get mad, and I read something like the quoted passage below and I feel energized.  I want to energize you.  I want us to go do this thing together...

"Our Christian habit is to bewail the world's deteriorating standards with an air of rather self-righteous dismay.  We criticize its violence, dishonesty, immorality, disregard for human life, and materialistic greed.  "The world is going down the drain," we say with a shrug.  But whose fault is it?  Who is to blame?  Let me put it like this.  If the house is dark when nightfall comes, there is no sense in blaming the house, that is what happens when the sun goes down.  The question to ask is "Where is the light?"  Similarly, if the meat goes bad and becomes inedible, there is no sense in blaming the meat; that is what happens when bacteria are left alone to breed.  The question to ask is "Where is the salt?"  Just so, if society deteriorates and its standards decline until it becomes like a dark night or a stinking fish, there is no sense in blaming society; that is what happens when fallen men and women are left to themselves, and human selfishness is unchecked.  The question to ask is "Where is the Church?  Why are the salt and light of Jesus Christ not permeating and changing our society?"  It is sheer hypocrisy on our part to raise our eyebrows, shrug our shoulders, or wring our hands.  The Lord Jesus told us to be the world's salt and light.  If therefore darkness and rottenness abound, it is largely our fault and we must accept the blame. - John Stott  "Human Rights and Human Wrongs"

Can You See Me Now?

Last month I heard a news story where a school district plans to either finger print children, or hang a bar coded tag from a lanyard around their necks.  This so that as they enter and exit the bus - they can scan themselves or their assigned bar code and the driver is alerted if it's the wrong stop.

When did we stop looking at children as people and start believing it was better to "process" them like bar coded products on a delivery truck?  Why is it considered "realistic" to accept that their driver won't pay attention to the little person walking right past them and off the bus?  Since when did apathy and laziness cross from unacceptable to inevitable.

Have we become so emotionally detached from other human beings in our daily lives that we only see the efficiency in this and are oblivious of how a child must feel to just slide his card past a digital product to get off the bus?  It must be very lonely to be a child today.

We really need to reconnect with community - the community with arms and legs, toothless smiles and button noses.  The Like buttons and Tweets are tools training us to be less engaged with real people.

How often do we ignore a real person in order to look at our phone?  How often do we ignore our kids to see what someone "more important" or "more interesting" is doing on Facebook?  What if we reverted to that time when that was considered rude?  What if we actually paid attention to the people around us, instead of the status updates by our third cousin's funny friend in that digital device?

What crimes could we prevent, what value could we bestow upon our kids if we just lifted our eyes out of the palm of our hand and looked at real people more often?

I'm a Nut That Fell from the Republican Tree

I vote. It's difficult to imagine ever reaching a point where I won't, however I've come a long way from my earlier political identity – so who knows? Talk radio was an addiction. I wrote numerous opinion pieces online and to the local paper's editor. I've discussed political points of view with my dad until my mother revoked my freedom of speech and said we were done. Dad's face was beet red and she was worried one day he'd have a heart attack from the frustration. (Dad and I don't vote for the same people.) 

Though I'm not a democrat, I no longer consider myself a republican either. My dad isn't quite sure what's wrong with me these days. Truth is, I see the enemy at work in the political scene, through Christians, distracting us with our passionate political ideology.

All those words wasted with no reward for Christ. Political spin and the lie of harmless “passionate political discourse” do not glorify God. It isn't harmless. It's perpetrated upon the American people as a thief of the “peace that passes understanding.” It's very design is to make you afraid of the “others”, and suspicious of their intentions. And too many of my brothers and sisters are still in the fog, boxing shadows and confusing patriotism with fighting “the good fight.”

Long ago the conversation about caring for and about our poor was distorted into a debate. Now, two groups of politicians use the poor as pawns to gain political leverage against their opponent. The poor are simultaneously pitied and vilified, but make NO mistake. The poor are NOT loved.

As never before, I support the separation of Church and state – because if ever there was an unholy union – this is certainly it. Unequally yoked, pulling for different purposes and endgame, undermining all that God is by distracting God's people from doing God's work.  Instead, involving them in a pointless fight with one side fearing cold greed can rob the needy and the other side fearing the state can somehow get rid of Him.

God has called us to love, serve, feed, clothe and house the poor and destitute. He has called us to defend those treated unjustly. If Christians will be known by our love, how do we reveal that love in our political discourse? Aren't we confusing our calling with patriotism? They aren't the same. The U.S. Treasury is limited in what it can provide by the resources at it's disposal. Our God has endless resources, as everything is His. Why would we try to limit God's grace by filtering it through a government? If our conversation says that those who are responsible should be rewarded... if that's what we shout loudest into the world... where is the grace? How do you align that with faith in a God who loved us while we were dirty sinners and provided a place for us at His table though we did nothing to deserve it? 

As politicians woo the Christian community by speaking Christianese in the midst of huge public prayer meetings, we seem to forget Jesus' words, “You are not to be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the streets in order to be seen by men.” (Matthew 6:5) Many of us are NOT hypocrites, but we have been swindled into believing we're represented in the political arena. We aren't – not in any significant numbers. We are pressed into battle by a misguided sense of defending the faith via the vote, instead of fighting the good fight of living the faith.

“But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” Matthew 6:6

Jesus never called us to sign petitions, hold rallies, or protest the government to get it to do what is Godly and right.  We need to back out of this unholy battle on shifting sands of partisan platforms.

Our calling is to the lost, lonely, poor, widowed, orphaned, hungry, imprisoned, and thirsty. Personally. Not through government, but through our hands and our means. We must get ourselves into the work... not coldly hire it out to a government agency.

Today's Zombie Apocolypse

This concept 30 years ago would have impacted people like a meteor.  Today, there's a trance-like Stepford Wives sort of acceptance of being connected to the network.  We do it without even thinking about it.  Shouldn't we at least THINK about it?

30 years ago we were all concerned with how straight the part was in our hair, and mostly no one ever saw it.  Today, parts aren't so important... and everyone sees them.  It used to be rude to interrupt someone when they were talking to you... now, we say, "Wait a minute" in the middle of someone's sentence and answer a conversation taking place via text message.

We wish 50 people a happy birthday via Facebook, but don't make personal phone calls to many of our closest relatives on their birthdays.  I used to call my grandmother every other week at the minimum. Does anyone do that anymore?  I knew her phone number when I was 6 years old... I used to call her before my mom woke up on Saturday mornings. At family holidays we played with our cousins - actually interacting with them (sometimes fighting with them) - now there's a video screen they stare at.

We think we're so connected.  Remembering how different it was for me as a child, makes me sad for the "feeling" of being a child that today's children will never experience... the outdoor play, the imagination we used in building forts and matchbox car layouts from whatever we found on the ground... twigs, leaves, a rock that we scraped the roads into the dirt with.  Now someone in China makes those things, with colorful plastic and stickers all over it.  The reason it's so dangerous for kids to play outside is because there are so few of them out there.. so few of their parents sitting on the porch having a glass of iced tea and keeping an eye on the neighborhood... the shades are drawn so you can see the TV - nothing happens "outside the box."


What personal relationship aspects of your childhood do you see missing today?