rant: this really isn't another political post

Cute, eh? Of course, only because we're all so burnt out on political ads. It was reported that the highest amount of money ever was spent on ad campaigns for this election, and almost every one seemed like a jab against another in order. Apparently we believe you make youself look better by making another look worse... which gets back to the childhood kind of thinking.

I recently found this website that allows you to manipulate an ad to show how easy it is to make a candidate sound great or awful. Even MTV decided to let its airwaves finally allow political ads - something that they've never done up until this particular election. Hmm.

In light of all of that (and on the heels of my last post), I have a bit of a rant...

I have a hard time when Christians are quick to demolish others with their words, fists, and fingers (whether they're pointing, or, well, being used as a profane symbol). Not that anyone asked me to do that, but man... what if instead of just avoiding that we chose to run in the other direction more often that we do?

There comes a point when you have to stand for the essentials, but I don't believe that means the goal is to destroy or belittle others in the process. It's easy to promote yourself by being against things... it's harder (yet more authentic) to promote what you are for and let that be enough. I've seen this in way too many churches, including new ones that try to establish a draw by talking about all the things they aren't - "We're not like those guys over there," they'll begin, "because they are stuffy and we are hip."

Unfortunately, this isn't anything new under the sun. Some of the early church fathers missed the boat when Catholics and Protestants spent a lot of time making snarky pictures of each other to make their points. Ironically, it was often the same picture... like a "fraid not," "fraid so" mentality.

Although both sides claimed to be the true church of Christ, their little sketches seemed to be less about reconciliation and more about manipulation... in many cases it was less about God and more an almost political struggle of who was right. I'm sure the goal started out well, but quite a few historians have cited these pictures as being more about control than theology - they had all the appearance of morality, yet by hardening their hearts they were actually denying its power.

Obviously, I write that as a Christ-follower who lives a "perfect" life and never puts anyone down.

*cough, cough*

Um...

But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. (Jude 1:17-19; KJV)

If that is you or I today, may we begin a new way of living starting now. It would seem God has provided a Way that embraces Truth and Grace and Love at the same time... not one at the expense of another. Yes, Jesus did say that He came to bring division... but that's His job, and it seems everwhere else I read in the Bible of someone causing division in the Church on purpose there are harsh words provided.

Conservatives? Liberals? Moderates? Writers? Rappers? Actors? Comedians? Pastors? Priests? Skinheads? Televangelists? All have something in common - they all believe that have a distinct version of the truth... but it takes the individual to really care and really readjust to what the truth is beyond what he/she thinks it is. Maybe it's easy to be a bully and a critic - to deconstruct instead of reconstruct... some may even gain a national radio audience off of it, but that doesn't make it right.

Again, I'm not perfect in this... but I won't use that as an excuse to try.

I am secure in that insecure journey, for I no longer feel the need to prove myself. I'm just tired of all the work that we can spend belittling others instead of joining God where He is working and celebrating that together.

Whether that's a "denomination," "village," "friendship," "network," "association," or a streak of "independence."

the problem with indifference, if you care to know

Chuck Yeager, the famed test pilot, was flying an F-86 Sabre over a lake in the Sierras when he decided to buzz a friend’s house near the edge of the lake. During a slow roll, he suddenly felt his aileron lock. Says Yeager, "It was a hairy moment, flying about 150 feet off the ground and upside down."

A lesser pilot might have panicked with fatal results, but Yeager let off on the G’s, pushed up the nose, and sure enough, the aileron unlocked. Climbing to 15,000 feet, where it was safer, Yeager tried the maneuver again. Every time he rolled, the problem recurred.

Yeager knew three or four pilots had died under similar circumstances, but to date, investigators were puzzled as to the source of the Sabre’s fatal flaw. Yeager went to his superior with a report, and the inspectors went to work. They found that a bolt on the aileron cylinder was installed upside down.

Eventually, the culprit was found in a North American plant. He was an older man on the assembly line who ignored instructions about how to insert that bolt, because, by golly, he knew that bolts were supposed to be placed head up, not head down. In a sad commentary, Yeager says that "nobody ever told the man how many pilots he had killed." (From "Yeager" by Chuck Yeager, Bantam, 1985)

a small portion

I found this quote a few weeks back and enjoy seeing it through the eyes of my faith. This is a secular explanation of sacred calling.

"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.”

- Robert F Kennedy

a perfect search for the imperfect leader

In these days of political debates and "candidating to be a candidate," I am greatly puzzled at our snarky attitudes about anyone in power.

Anyone.

I am too young to remember anything different, for it seems like from the time I've been able to turn on the TV there have been critics about anything and anyone in "Washington D.C." - which sort of sets the stage for general cynicism all around. (Maybe that's why The Daily Show and Colbert Report have had appeal to me over the years.)

Yet I hear that in my parent's and grandparent's generations there was an era where those in office received respect from those they were entrusted to lead. Can you imagine that? Instead of distrusting our political leadership, we put all our marbles in that basket.

(Yes... I'm aware I said that phrase wrong. Think about it.)

Somewhere around Nixon a clear shift occurred, but even before then there were rumors that JFK had a thing for Marilyn Monroe.

Of course, that was unfathomable for many.

And yet...

• It led toward the country not being so sure Johnson was being up front about Vietnam....


• not to mention Nixon after he resigned because of Watergate...


• and Ford went under fire for pardoning him...


• only to find that Jimmy Carter was the target during the whole hostage crisis that no one was sure he handled right...


• which Ronald Reagan took car, but certainly stirred up some more doubt of Presidential leadership when rapid inflation happened (not to mention Iran Contra)...


• and then George Bush was the "new hope" (please note subliminal, double-edged "Star Wars" reference), but after the Persian Gulf we all wondered if the next World War was about to happen...


• but it didn't, because as Clinton entered the scene we had great confidence in his charisma... and he did speak well... even during his impeachment trials...
  
• so when George Bush won (did he?) and the country was divided (is it still?), we sprung back for a brief moment... about 911 minutes... only to run back quickly in opposite directions.

I wonder if we've just been ready to criticize George Bush from the get-go because we've trained ourselves to do so.

And I wonder if the next President even has the chance to be the hero every voter hopes he/she will be.

(Yes, I included "she" - doggone it.)

I also wonder sometimes if the real issue with our critique of the Presidents has only increased as more and more news outlets have given us more access to them. Some of the "great leaders" like Washington and Lincoln probably had a whole lot more faults than we know about because CNN wasn't around (even though Larry King may have been).

In my opinion, we will never truly have the perfect president we all try to vote for every year. We know this, of course, and yet perhaps it's the illusion of our vote actually making this happen that pacifies us.

Which, again, causes us to doubt anyone in positional authority. Maybe this is why...

• Water cooler gossip easily happens about the boss.
• People wonder "what's really going on" with televangelists.
• When someone dies, families fight with the executor of the will (especially if it's a family member).
• Church congregations might second-guess goals set by committees or staff teams until they gain momentum and are "safe" to get behind.
• Parents in the athletic stands yell at the ref/ump/coach.
• No one wants to buy a used car from a used car lot.
• Even news stations are views as too slanty one way or another.

Perhaps all of this hints at our need and unconscious wanting for a Savior who is, in fact, quite perfect.

After all, there was a time when kings and presidents didn't exist... and God did.

I hear that it was described from His vantage point as "very good."

when in rome...

In the final days of the Roman Empire, wealth and power were the only things that the emperor and his "yes-men" coveted. Useless conquests took place, one after another, all so that he might build his own ego through the acquisition of people and palaces.

What about the good citizens of Rome?

Did they rise up and claim the foul? Did they march on the national monument? Did they get celebrities to launch an internet campaign? Did they have a Popeye moment and proclaim, "I've had all I can standz, and I cant's standz no more!?!?"

No.

They went to the colliseum.

They chose to watch in person the mindless violence we pay $10 to see in a movie.

And in the end... they stood idle while evil and selfishness destroyed their world.

In our lifetime each of us may be faced with a similar situation of clarity. Destructive forces are at work all around us, from our neighbors who sit on the brink of divorce while we watch from our porches to pornography being available to kids via a few quick keystrokes. Those are the easy ones to spot, not to mention the greed, hate, bitterness, sexual brokenness, and lust that swell beneath many of our lives.

What if apathy wasn't an option? What if we had to choose a side? To either be all out or all in about the things God cares about?

Because I don't like choosing sides.

And yet... we have to, don't we?

Otherwise by our indifference... we've chosen a side.

So the question is will you leave your footprints on the history of time as a proactive redeemer of the way things are created to be? Or will you let such ideals be washed away by the tides of more charismatic men and women?

There is a cross... and on it held a man named Jesus. It was a stake in the ground that had meaning and continues to do so even today.

Embrace his invitation to let your life shine like the stars in the universe.

With the cross comes ownership.

Please decide.

"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth... Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:15-16,
20)