Musings

Palestine and Israel

2009-06-16T08:04:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I recently went on an awesome trip to Israel and Palestine. While there I was able to go and visit with a friend of mine, Elias Gahreeb, who is a Palestinian Christian, that lives near Bethlehem. It was an eye opening and life changing expereince. Let me explain.
I have neverr before understood what it meant to be an oppressed people. I still cannot comprehend or imagine living as an opressed person, but I think I have a better understanding.

Imagine if you will owning a home, that has been in your family for thousands of years. Living in a land for many generations, then suddenly having soldiers come in and force you to leave your home. You are not given any restitution or any kind, nor were you given a new home. A foreign entity had to come in and build a home for you, so that you could have a roof over your head. More than tweny years later, you still live in this temporary home and now that same foreign government, is building a 30 foot tall cement wall within sight of your house. This wall is between you and family and freinds. You cannot cross this wall. The occupying government will not allow you to cross this wall at any point. In addition, many of your family and freinds lost thier homes, so that this wall could be built. Again, no restitution was paid.

In addition to these oppressive situations, you are now told that you cannot go to the hospital that your children were born in, nor can you visit family and freinds a few miles away. The occupying government moves new people into your community and expands the area these new people can live. The occupying government creates new roads, but will not allow you to use them, because you are not one of thier people. There is also an even more powerful government and people that constantly back up this occupying government. This other government gives the ocuppiers money and military support.

Perhaps this seems outrageous to you. You may even think this has the beginning of a wonderful fictional story, but it is exactly what is happening in the Middle East today. The Palestinian people are being abused and oppressed by Israel and we in the United States of America support the oppressors.

Here is one examples. Today in what is called the West Bank, there are many Jewish Settlements that have been built. Granted there has been no new settlements in several years, but these illegal settlements are expanding. Less then a block from my freinds home, a settlement just finished and expansion and are building a wall around the settlement. This particular expansion was done for "security purposes." My friend had freinds and neighbors that lost thier houses due to this expansion. Because of the anti-Palestinian policies of Israel, a good percentage of these people had no job or very little money coming in. Now they are homeless as well. Would we stand for the United States of America's government coming in and taking over someone's house. I think not. Yet we whole heartedly support Israel.

In addition, when Israel was made a country, they uprooted many people who had lived there in peace for thousands of years and made them move. They did not offer them citizenship, or a voice or a choice. The soldier came in and took thier property, that had been in thier families before Jesus walked this earth. Many of these were Christians and all of them were Palestinians.

I imagine Iwill write more on this at another time, but I think we as citizens of the United States of America need to really examine who we want to support in this battle. I believe that Israel has the right to exist and to be secure. I do not believe they have the right to oppress a certain ethnic group. My brothers and sisters in Christ that live in the West Bank are advocates of peaceful resistance. I agree with this. There is no call to violence, but there is a call to stand for justice and peace. This call is from God. I will be praying for the people of the West Bank and my brothers and sisters in Christ. I will pray for peace and justice in the land my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ walked.

Salaam,

Dane

Two Parades

2009-04-06T07:44:00.000-07:00

This is a story I wrote for Palm Sunday. I hope you enjoy it.

Even though I was very young, I can still remember that day clearly. At the time it was confusing and I did not understand, but the memory is crystal clear. I suppose I really should introduce myself, though, I am Benjamin Ben Yaacob. Benjamin son of Jacob. You have probably never heard of me. I have not written any books. I lived my life in the time of Jesus. I was one of the faceless ones in the crowads that hung around Jesus. Well, I did not hange around Jesus and follow him every where. I was too young to do that, but I did see him twice within a few days of each other.
The first time I saw him was at one of the gates into Jerusalem. My father had brought me with him to celebrate Passover at the temple, where the lamb had been brought to be sacrificed. We were poor people, but every year my father would make the walk from our home near Jericho to the temple. This year, my little brother was sick, so my mother had to stay home with him, so it was just my father and me. We arrived a few days early and stayed with a cousin that lived in Jerusalem. The cousins name was David.
When we arrived at my father’s cousin’s house he was very excited. He said that some of his friends had been talking about this Rabbi named Jesus from Nazareth. The rumor had it that he was coming to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. He was supposed to arrive tomorrow. David said that some of his friends believed Jesus as the Messiah. Others said that he was Elijah come back to herald the Messiah. David was not sure, but he knew that Jesus was something special and he wanted to see him. My father said that he too would like to see this Jesus for himself. The next morning we got up and went down to the gate that Jesus was going to enter Jerusalem through. I was expecting only a few people there, but the crowd was huge. There were men, women and children there. Some were talking about how Jesus had raised a man named Lazarus from the dead. Others were talking of how he had healed so many people. There was even two people there, that I heard claim to have been touched by Jesus and healed. Many of the people had cut down Palm Branches and were waving them in the air.
I have to admit, that I was a little scared, but very excited as well. There were so many people there and I was very little. I was afraid that I would get lost, so I held tightly to my father’s hand. I tugged on his arm once and asked him, “Father why are there so many people here and what are they excited about?” He said, “Many people believe that this Jesus is the Messiah, that when he comes into Jerusalem he will overthrow the Roman government and set us free.” I was young and was not real sure what being the Messiah meant, but I knew the Romans were bad and if Jesus was going to fight the Romans, then I liked Jesus.
You see ever since I can remember, the Romans have ruled over my people. They were pagans and did not worship the Lord as we did. Also, they were always coming around and collecting taxes. These men with big roman soldiers would come to our house and demand money. Most of the time it was more than we actually owed, but father had to pay it or they would put him in prison. My friend Yosef, his father could not pay his taxes once and the soldiers took him and his family away. I never saw Yosef or his family again, so I really don’t know what happened to them. I bet it wasn’t good whatever it was.
Anyway, we waited there for a little while, I listened to the crowd talk about Jesus. There were several people there, my father called Zealots. These were people who believed we needed to fight the Romans and win our freedom back. They were some of the loudest calling Jesus the Messiah and telling stories about him. Then a murmur went through the crowd, Jesus was coming. Some people ran in from outside the gate and announced that he was coming. A Chant went up from the crowd: “ ‘Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!Hosanna in the highest heaven!’”
The people were shouting and praising Jesus. Many of the people were waving the palm branches they had cut earlier, some were laying them down on the ground forming a sort of carpet for Jesus to walk on. I was having trouble seeing, so my father put me up on his shoulders. Other children ran out into the street. Then Jesus came through the gate, but he was not walking. He was riding on a young donkey. At the time I just thought it was incredible that he was important enough to ride and not walk, but later I was told that this was a part of a prophesy that the King would come riding on a donkey. Most of the crowd must have recognized this, because the shouts got louder and crowd roared. I was so excited, I started shouting to : ‘Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!Hosanna in the highest heaven!’
Then I saw a few men on the edge of the crowd that were not shouting. In fact, they looked rather angry. As soon as Jesus got through the gate, they approached him. “Father,” I said,” who are those men?” He shook his head and said, “ those are some big shots from the temple. They fear Jesus and do not believe that he is the long awaited for Messiah.” I wasn’t sure how anyone could fear this loving and gentle man, but I understood that they did not like Jesus, so I did not like them. One of them asked Jesus to make the crowd stop. They understood very clearly that the crowd was proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus refused to tell the crowd to be quiet. In fact he told them that if he did, then the stones would cry out.
What a great day. Jesus went straight up to the temple and entered the temple. Some of the crowd followed him, but my father and David decided to go home. They talked excitedly about what had happened. Even at such a young age, I knew that something wonderful and awesome had happened here today. This parade was a celebration of the king coming to Jerusalem.
There was a lot of talking about Jesus that Passover time. I heard that Jesus had kicked the money changers and sheep sellers out of the temple. My father said good, because they were all thieves, robbing good people who were trying to do the right thing. He and David talked a long time about this. Father said that even though the thieves were back the next day, the act was symbol of how Jesus the king was going to purify Israel.
It seemed to make sense then, but we kept waiting for Jesus to act again, but nothing happened. He and his disciples were at the temple everyday. Jesus taught about the kingdom of God and loving all people, but it seemed many were waiting for something more. My father kept saying it was time for action, but Jesus would never take any action.
I don’t remember how many days later it was, but several days later David came and my father just came home from the market and they were talking about Jesus again. They said that last night Jesus had been arrested. They wanted to go see the trial, so the they grabbed me and went down to the temple. The crowd had already left the temple and someone told us that Jesus was being judged by Pilot. When we over to the Praetoriam, we stood outside with the rest of the crowd. None of us wanted to go inside, because it was very close to Passover and we did not want to be unclean. Pilot came out several times and it almost sounded like he was trying to talk the crowd out of punishing Jesus. He had Jesus whipped in front of all of us, but led by the chief priest the crowd started yelling that they wanted Jesus crucified.
Finally Pilate gave in and sent Jesus to be crucified. The brought a big cross out and put it on Jesus’ shoulders. He was very weak from lack of sleep and the beatings. He struggled a lot with that big cross. I looked around at the people. They were yelling and cursing, some were even spitting on Jesus. A Few people broke through the crowd and punched or hit Jesus. Then I noticed something peculiar. These were the same people who had welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem. Over there I saw a man who had put his coat on Jesus’ donkey. There was another man who had begun the shout of Hosanna. There was one who had laid palm branches in front of the king. Now he is shouting vile names. I don’t understand, please Daddy hold my hand. I am scared.”. Jesus was so weak he could not walk with the cross anymore. It didn’t matter how many times the soldiers hit him or whipped him, he simply could not do it. After quite some time the soldier pulled a man out of the crowd and told him to carry Jesus’ cross.
Oh what a horrible parade this was. They were taking Jesus outside of the city to kill him. I couldn’t figure out why these people were being so mean to Jesus. What had he ever done. He preached about love and forgiveness, but I saw nothing but hate in the other people. Jesus never said anything. No matter how they taunted him or hurt him, he said not a single word.
I was crying, I was so scared. At last, my father picked me up and held me close. He was crying too. He understood as well. They were killing the Messiah, the king of kings and Lord of Lords. I kept thinking something was going to happen, something or someone would save Jesus, there had to be hope, there had to be.
Nothing happened, though. He was led to The Skull and he was nailed to the cross and crucified. Jesus was put to death like a common criminal. What were we to do now.

Mexico, the Truth.

2009-03-13T12:41:00.000-07:00

As many of you know my wife is the International Coordinator for Volunteers in Mission. Thus, she helps organize, supports, makes travel arrangements and finds places to stay for literally thousands of short term missionaries a year. One of the major places that she sends people to is Mexico. This year there has been much talk in the media about how dangerous Mexico is and how there is a warning put out by the state department for spring break 09. Thus, my awesome wife has had several teams that were going to Mexico cancel. EAch of these teams she has put many hours of work into by budgeting, finding them places to stay, helping with travel arrangements and a variety of other things. These cancelations are to say the least frustrating to her.

Here is why these cancellations are frustrating. First of all, every year the state department puts out a warning about going to Mexico. The main reason for these warnings are because many Spring Breakers go down to Mexico, to drink and drug. Thus, they hang around with a bad crowd and put themselves in compromising situations. I would hope that none of those going on mission trip would be in these areas.

Secondly, the areas that are dangerous in Mexico are really isolated areas. Juarez, Neuvo Laredo and a few others are problem areas. Oklahoma VIM does not send teams to these areas. Hence, to not go to Mexico because of these areas, is like saying I will not come to Oklahoma City, because there was a series of murders in New York City. It does not make sense.

Generally for me the bottom line is this. Are you going to trust Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck more than the people who live in Mexico. You see VIM is in constant contact with the people of Mexico in the areas that we work. These people have to live there and know whether or not it is safe. In addition, VIM Oklahoma would never send a team into a dangerous area. Perhaps we should also be more trusting in our VIM staff to know what is going on. The afore mentioned radio hosts do not have a corner on information and in this case, there information is incomplete. I will assume it is incomplete, other wise they are simply lying and fear mongering.

Every night on the news, I see a murder in Oklahoma City, yet my wife still goes there every day and I travel there when needed. Because our media cannot delineate between parts of Mexico does not mean we need to fear all of Mexico. It certainly should not keep us from fullfilling God's call to help others.

Dane.

Rascism: A Solution

2009-02-18T07:34:00.000-08:00

This last Sunday at one of my churches, I received a lesson on rascism from one of my parishioners. It is important to understand, I hear many rascist terms used around the community. It is not that many people are KKK or skinheads, it is what I call a rascism out of ignorance or fear of anything different. The people I hear these rascist terms from simply do not know anyone of a different race and so put them all as "Those People." I am not defending rascism out of ignorance, I am merely stating that this is they type of rascism in my community.

In one of my churches, we have an older gentleman, he is in his eighties, I believe. He has been a high school teacher and also taught on a college level. If you looked at him, you would not think that he had much of education. He does not fit the mold of college professor. He looks like the typical Oklahoma Redneck that one sees on television interviews, except I believe he has a full set of teeth. Anyway, during our special music time, he decided to tell a story. It went something like this:

When I was about five years old, we were having a celebration in Perry and I had to go to the bathroom. I could not read, so I just went in the first bathroom I saw. After I did my business, this other young fellow came in, he had curly black hair and was real dark in complexion. He looked at me and said, "You can't be in here, this is the colored bathroom." At that age I did not know the difference, but that was the first time the difference had been pointed out to me.

I remember when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. We had men and women of all races and skin colors signing up for the military. White served beside black and red served beside brown and all races put their life on the line, so that we can live in freedom today. I think that seeing those men serving side by side no matter what thier skin color helped me and our society begin to understand that there can be no seperate but equal, but all must come together in order for the ideas of the United States of America to really stand.

I want to be clear, these are not quotes, but I think I captured the gist of what Virgil was saying. He pointed out that February is Black History month, as well. I reflected much on what he said. Whether or not you agree with or voted for President Obama, it is pretty amazing for people to see "seperate but equal" restaraunts, drinking fountains, bathrooms, etc. and now to see an African-American President. I think our nation has come a long way.

However, we still have a ways to go. Rascism is not dead. As I said earlier, I still here deregatory names for certain races bandied about as I am in my community. I am also very quick to ask people not to use those in my presence. I can put up with cussing, I can put up with dirty jokes, but hate speech I cannot tolerate. Hate speech is exactly what any racial slur is.

Something I find interesting is that when "those people" become us, then the racial slurs are no longer used. In other words, when a relationship is formed with another person of another race, then they become one of us, instead of those that are different and therefore suspect. I believe the key to overcoming rascism is relationships. Relationships that are accomplished by acknowledging our differences, but focusing on what we hold in common. We are all God's children, not matter what color our skin is or what language we speak. That alone should be enough to overcome our differences.

Dane

Dr.Phil and the Family

2009-01-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

The first thing I need to say on this post, is that I am not a Dr. Phil fan. If you think he is the best thing to come around since sliced bread, well I will pray for you. My primary reason for not liking Dr. Phil is that in his books, he essentially says we need to get rid of all moral authority because it has bound us and keeps us under its heavy weight. However, he then proceeds to become the moral authority. He sets himself up to be the readers only friend or at least the only one on his or her side. I have difficulty with this, because there are a lot of people on my side. God is one of those on my side and God is the only moral authority I need.

Anyway, I happened to be home one day when my wife was at home as well and she was watching Dr. Phil. I admit it, I watched it with her. Understand this Dr. Phil is not a therapist, he is a consultant, he has no liscense in any state and it is unclear he was ever a liscensed therapist. This particular episode of Dr. Phil featured a family who was having a great deal of difficulty with thier oldest daughter. If I remember correctly there were two children the oldest being a daughter and the youngest a boy. The youngest in the family was barely mentioned. The mother and the father were both on the show and the mother was the first to talk. She talked about how her husband was too hard on thier daughter and that some of his discipline was extreme. For example he would make her stand in the corner with her arms outstretched for up to four hours, he would send het to bed without eating and various other such things. The father explained that he believed discipline should be strict and did not think that this was over the top.

This conversation took about five minutes and then they did this little film footage thing about the daughter. It showed how she had run away from home, would disapear for a few days, how she cussed out her mother, yelled at her father and other such things. This took about ten minutes, then they went to commercial. They came back and Dr. Phil started asking the father questions about his relationship with his daughter. The questioning lasted quite a while and then Dr. Phil met with the daughter and talked to her about her actions and such. Lastly he came back to the couple and talked more about the daughter, with a brief thirty second line to the mother about her need to realize that she is too passive. All in all 99% of the show was focused on the daughter, the identified patient.

Here is my problem, the daughter is the identified patient, but it seems to me that she is acting out the problems in the marriage and the family system. Therefore it is the family system that needs to be focused on, not just the daughter. In my opinion, Dr. Phil actually exasperates the problem, because he keeps the focus on the daughter. It was briefly mentioned that the mother felt that the father was too controlling and emotionally distant. It seems to me that the first issue to take care of in the family system is the stress between the mother and father. In other words, they have an issue (or more likely issues) between themselves, but rather than handle that issue, they have chosen to focus on the daughter. Hence, unconsciously, the daughter has been taught that if she acts out, then her parents get along better. The reality is though, it just gives them and excuse not to handle thier problems. The more they focus on the daughter, the less they fight. They can have a common enemy to fight in the daughter. Thus, they have a false intimacy, not a true sharing of each other. You see if one coaches or counsels the daughter into being healthy, the parents are going to put unconscious pressure on her to return to the "normal" roll of the trouble maker, because this keeps them from fighting. However, if the whole family is looked upon as a system and whole family coached, then a truly healthy family can begin.

I believe that this focus on the individual is a problem in American culture. Do not get me wrong, I do not blame the parents, nor do I take away individual responsibility. Each individual in a system needs to change, because they have all added to the problem. However, individuals exists within emotional systems and each one of these puts pressure on the individual to act a certain way and play a certain roll. We have to be aware of our connection to other people and how our actions affect them. We tend to think of individual rights, what I do is my own business and nobody else will get hurt. This is wrong. Whatever we do affects other people, we are all connected. We need to remember this and think about our own actions and how they affect others.

Dane

How to be a Hero

2008-12-11T10:38:00.000-08:00

It has been about two months since I posted. It is not that I have not had plenty to say in those two months. I have just been incredibly busy. The older my children get, the mor they want to do with sports and other school activities. Then there is church activities, planning church activities, preparing sermons, visiting in the hospital and nursing home, and the hundreds of other things I choose to do. In the midst of all of this we had 29 people at our house on thanksgivng, 16 of those stayed for two nights. Now don't get me wrong this was awesome, but it took a lot of preparation as well. However, I chose to do these things. Notice I said choose, I do not have to do anything. I do have to accept the consequences of what I do not do, but I do not have to do anything. I choose to do all of the things I do. For me this is a freeing thought.

Anyway, the other day I was listening to a Cowboy Storteller. His name is Micheal Johnson. I was give a set of his CDs by one of my parishioners. It has veen fascinating and insightful. In this particular story, he was talking about a school he had visited. They were doing some sort of meeting with all of the teachers and the leader of the meeting had them divide up into groups according to when they graduated from high school. Then he asked them for the groups to come to a consensus about thier generations heroes. Johnson's group graduated in the fifties and they all talked about many heros they had, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and many others. Men who could fight when needed, but did not always turn to violence. Men who were tough and caring. When it came time to share with the rest of the group, it was difficult for his group to share because they had so many. Then it came time for the group that graduated in the nineties to share. The speaker for this group said that they had come to the consensus that they had no heros for their generation.

What a sad comment. I thought about it for a momenet. I graduated in 1988, so I am a little older than this group, but who are the heroes of today? My first thought was of my dad, for me he is a hero. He worked hard and did a great job of raising us three boys. My mother was there to raise us as well and she is a heroine to me. They provided for me a "Leave it to Beaver" type of home life. That makes them heroes to me. I hope I am doing just as well for my own children. There are others that are heroes as well, but they are not always well known.

Although, there are some sports stars that do not mess up, it seems that the ones who the media like to talk about are always doing stupid things outside of the game. The media does not cover the good Christians that do not cause controversey, this does not make good news. Then there are the movies stars. Again there are a few like Christen Chenoweth, who have kept their Christian faith and do good things, but again the media does not cover them much. Instead we get too much information about those that are into drugs or alternate lifestyles. We hear about the mess ups, but not the true heroes.

So I thought who are my heroes. Certainly I would include Martin Luther King, Jr, Rosa Parks, Diedrich Boenhoefer, Nelson Mandela, and many others who helped to change the world for the better. You see I do not think that it is a lack of heroes that we suffer from, we just have to look harder to find the heroes around us.

There are everyday ordinary hereos, like the single mom struggling to raise her children, the father who never misses a ballgame, the teenager who walks over to the lonely student and invites them to join the crowd, the teacher who takes extra time with his or her students in order to help them, the man or woman who set an example in word and deed for others. These are everyday heroes.

Then there are heroes who do extraordinary things and seem to change the world. They are there, but they are not usually recognized in thier life time. I guess my challenge to all of us is instead of looking for heroes, be a hero. Stand for Christ and his love, reach out to the lost and show them the way. Dare to touch the untouchable and love the unloveable, then we become true hereos. Maybe we will gain world recognition, or maybe we willl just be one person's hero. iether way we change the world,when we are heroes.

Dane

Reality Check

2008-10-07T07:30:00.000-07:00

About two weeks ago I returned from a mission trip to Mexico. My wife, myself and ten other people went to Rio Bravo, Mexico and we helped to build a food pantry and disaster relief center. The first floor was already on, so we built the walls for the second floor and created the supporting pillars for the building. It was some wonderful work. It was also hard and difficult, but awesome as well.

We returned from this trip, though, to the news that the House of Representatives had voted down the bail out bill and the dow was down over 700 points, which was the biggest single day loss in the history of the dow. I watched the news for the first time in a little under a week and heard how horrible it is and how this could spell the financial ruin of the United States of America. I am also fully aware that many people may loose their homes because of poor decisions that they made. Incidentally, these are mostly on the two coasts and Oklahoma has very few such loans. Just like the banks are going bankrupt because of unethical and poor business practices. According to the media, it seems like everything is going down hill and we should be in a panic about the economic future of the United States of America and about our personal economic future.

I know that there are some people who are going to be hit hard by these economic times. I pray for these people and if there is some way I can help, I will. I also know that three out of the last four times the stock market dropped similar to this, within two years it recovered. However, I have a great deal of difficulty talking about hard economic times after being in Mexico. In fact, it makes me wonder if most of the United States really knows what economic hard times are.

If you have ever been to Mexico you probably know what I am talking about. Now, we did not go to the tourist areas, if Rio De Jenero or Accapulco are your only tastes of Mexico, then you have as much idea of what Mexico is like as someone who visits New York City knows the United States. You have only seen the tourist side of Mexico, the real people live quite differently. There are many people who have squatted next to the city dump and built house out of cardboard or cinderblocks that have been thrown away. They came here to live, because they had no other place to go. Thier back yard is stagnant pond in which trash is dumped. The average income is about $150. Their is a straight %15 income tax for all people. In order for your child to go to school, there is about $50 a semester fees that have to be paid. Gas is the same price as ours. If you build a new home, you have to pay for the wire and if needed a transformer so that your house can have electricity. The water out of the faucet is not safe to drink, so most people have to buy purified water. The streets have pot holes big enough to swallow a mid sized car and these streets are in the city. When it rains you have to know which streets are safe and which are not, or you could get stuck in the mud in the middle of a large city. The Oklahoma Conference of the United Methodist Church works with the Methodist Church of Mexico and build houses for some people. These are 12'x16' one room houses. These are smaller than some of our bedrooms and smaller than most of our Sunday School classrooms. yet the people who receive the houses are very proud of them. They are simple cinderblock and cement constructions, but they are much better than living in a tent or a cardboard house.

All of this brought out to me, how much we take for granted. I am fully aware that we have poor and needy people in the United States as well. We also have a middle class that enjoys complaining and panics at such news as we have had of late. Instead of panicing, we need to look around and count our blessings. We have so much to be thankful for. Even if things are as bad as some of the media says they are, we are still more blessed than many of our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world. When you flick a light switch the electricity usually comes on. Most of us have drinkable water and are not wondering where our next meal is going to come from. We are blessed beyond imagining and we need to be thankful for what we have.

The next time you turn on the the television and see a panic report about economics, think about what I have said about Mexico. Then take some time and count your blessings. You will find that there are more blessings than you thought.

Tested Optimism

2008-09-08T08:57:00.000-07:00

I am a very optimistic person. Especially when it comes to other human beings. I think most people are good and honest. Most people want to help other people out, but generally do not help because of fear. Of course the fear comes from a few people who act out and ruin it for the rest of us. My optimism was recently tested, though.

I was in Enid, OK the other day shopping at a local grocery store. I had finished my shopping and returned to my pick-up. I put the groceries in the back and sat down and tried to start the pick-up. It would not start. The battery was obviously dead. I opened the hood and looked under the hood, trying to fake it that I actually knew anything about motors. Reality set in and I jiggled the battery cables and tried again. Still no luck. I always carry jumper cables, so I patiently waited on someone to come out of the store, so I could ask them for a jump. A man came out and was getting into his van, so I asked him if I could have a jump. I emphasized that I had my own cables and all I needed was a simple jump. He said, "I can't do that." I was stunned. It would only take five minutes at the most, but he could not do that. I turned and walked back to my pick-up shaking my head. I asked three other people, who simply said no. I was getting a little discouraged and a lot angry at this point. Finally a man pulled up, with long greasy hair, wholy and filthy jeans, an untrimmed goatee and several tattoos. He looked like he had not taken a bath for at least a week. Thinking that the most he could do is say no, I asked him if I could have a jump. He did not even hesitate and said sure. He pulled over and we used my cables and he gave me a jump in less than five minutes. I thanked him profusely and we went on our way.

I know that I am over weight, but I think I look pretty respecable. I was dressed in a nice button down short sleave shirt and a good pair of jeans. I do think I look like an axe murderer and had I seen someone in a similar condition asking for a jump, I would have done it in a second. I could not believe that four people would not help. Perhaps they were busy and on a tight schedule. Maybe one of them had hooked up cables backwards some time and blew up a battery or perhapse they were afraid I would sue them if something went wrong. Either way, this event made me angry and really tested my optismism about human beings.

I know that we humans only get angry when something important to us is threatened, so on the way back for Enid, I had to ask myself "What important thing to me was being threatened?" Certainly I was running late and did not have time for my vehicle to break down, but that was not what was threatened. I fully believe that what was threatened was my view of humanity. I believe in the basic goodness of humanity. However, what good person would say no to giving a car a jump, in the broad daylight of a rather busy parking lot. Especially, when it was a decent looking human being like myself.

That is why I was angry, though. Perhaps I am spoiled living in an area where neighbors still know each other and will go out of thie way to help somone. Perhaps I am overly optimistic about people and our culture in general. Maybe I work around church people too much and have forgotten what a secular society is like. Has our society and culture grown so fearful that we are afraid to get involved with anothe human beings problem, even when they are simple? Are we truly afraid to help other people?

Maybe this was just a bad day, but it has affected me tremendously. I hope that I will not cave in to the culture of fear. I hope and pray that I will be able to show Christ in a situation like this. I think I would.

What's the difference? Matthew 25:31-46

2008-08-14T09:37:00.000-07:00

The other day I was preparing a sermon on Matthew 25:31-46. This is the passage where Jesus talks of God seperating the righteous and the unrighteous like a shepherd seperates the sheep from the goats. I was reading several commentaries and looking at the passage myself. This passage has always disturbed me because of it seemingly talking of judgement according to works. None of our works will be good enough, so I believe that we who are Christians will be judged according to the righteousness of Christ. Suddenly it hit me. I was missing the whole point of this passage. The parable was not about judgment, instead the parable was about being able to tell Christians from non-christians by thier actions. Let me explain.

Over the past two years I have gotten to know a bit about goats. I have limited expereince with sheep, but I know enough to know that sheep act differently. Now the goats I have been around the most are boar goats and they deffinetly do not look like sheep. However, I have seen some goats that could be mistaken for sheep. I am not sure what kind of sheep and goats where in the Middle East at the time of Christ. There seems to be some argument over what they looked like. Most commentators do agree that sheep were white and goats black. The fact of the matter is even they looked identicle sheep and goats act differently.

Goats are very playful and love to climb. Sheep do not like to climb and are not very playful. Goats are curious and sheep are afraid of everything. Goats are smart and if there is a way out of pen they will find it. Sheep are not very smart and will starve to death if they find themselves in a corner that they cannot turn to the right or left, they will thirst to death or starve to death because they do not have a reverse gear. Goats eat brush and weeds, sheep eat more grass. Sheep will eat themselves to death, goats will eat till full and stop. In essence, in my oppinion goats are smart and have personality, sheep are just dumb (Okay this is oppinion, but this is my blog). The bottom line is that sheep and goats act differently. Just as those of us who are Christians should act differently than the rest of the world.

Christians should be spending time feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, visiting those who are in prison, helping the sick and clothing the naked. None of this will get a person ahead in the world. In addition when you help the helpless, they can do nothing for you in return. Jesus says that the Christian should be hanging out with the outcast and helping those on the edges of society. In other words, people should be able to look at your actions and know that you are a Christian. This is the challenge of the passage. Can others see the difference that Christ has made in your life? My prayer is that by the grace of God others can see the difference.

Cultural enabling (Taking Responsibility for your own actions)

2008-07-09T17:36:00.000-07:00

Enabling is endemic to our culture. I truly believe that enabling has become or is fast becoming closely tied to American culture. What has been the latest thing to cause me to think this? The Mortgage Bailout plan that just passed the Senate. The bill is a bailout for people who got into a subprime rate adjustable mortgage and now cannot afford thier payments. Therefore, they are about to lose thier houses. Now the government is stepping in to enable these individuals and allow them to not expereince the consequences of thier actions. (If you want more information see http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CONGRESS_HOUSING?SITE=TXDAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT or other articles)

First, I should explain what I mean by enabling. Enabling is usually used in reference to the person or persons that are helping the alcoholic or addict to use their preferred substance. For example, a man goes out and gets drunk on Sunday night, so he is sick with a hangover on Monday morning and cannot go to work. In addition, he passed out on the floor and threw up all over himself. His wife found him in the morning and did not want thier children to see thier father this way, so she dragged him into the bedroom, cleaned up his puke and then called his work to tell them that he had the flu. The wife is enabling and is an enabler. It seems to me that our culture as a whole seeks out enablers to keep our destructive behavior going.

In the case of the mortgages, some people made mistakes in not thinking about long term affects of an adjustable rate mortgage. It is sad that they may lose thier house, but it is a consequence of thier bad descisions in the past. Now it seems that many in our government are wanting to save them from these consequences or enable them to do this again. Many of these people willingly signed these papers and had full disclosure. They made a mistake. I am aware that some people were not told the truth by thier mortgage company and these mortgage companies should be made to take a hit. However, the current government bailout would also allow them to avoid the consequences of bad and unethical business practices.

Even the case of some proponents of abortion on demand, we are wanting to avoid the consequences of our actions. If you have sex, it does not matter what kind of birth control you use the consequences could be a baby or a STD. Abortion as a means of birth control attempts to avoid some of those consequences. It is enabling poor behavior.

We as a culture and as individuals need to stand up and take the consequences of our actions. God teaches us this. I mean God forgives us for ous sins, but many times we have to take the consequences. If I lie to my wife and lose her trust, God and my wife can forgive me, but I still have to earn her trust back. I still have to rebuild the relationship.

It seems to me we do not learn if we do not suffer the consequences. If the government is going to bail me out whenever I make a poor financial decision, then why bother making good ones. I do not have to think about the consequences, because someone else will take them for me.

I hope and pray that congress will realize that they are enabling. I for one will do what I can to take responsibility for my actions. I also hope ai teach my children the same thing. Responsibility is not always pleasant, but it is nesecary.

True Leadership

2008-06-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

Three weeks ago the Oklahoma Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church met in order to hear reports, celebrate ministry and organize for the coming year. As has been the case for the last four years Annual Conference really was wonderful. We had some powerful worship and I expereinced wonderful fellowship with many of my fellow Clergy persons who I had not seen or seen very little in the last year.

I did find it interesting, though, that our largest debate for the whole week occurred around our standards for clergy housing. Particularly the debate was whether or not smoking should be allowed in parsonages. If I timed it correctly, this debate went on for about an hour and a half. In essence this was not a theological discussion, nor was it a missional discussion, it was simple house keeping. However, isn't it these simple issues that we get side tracked on too often. The discussion of the smoking in parsonages reminded me of a church I served whose biggest controverseys were the color of a new piano and the color of the church carpet. How do these issues help us to "Make disciples for Jesus Christ." Ultimately, if someone is allowed to smoke in a parsonage or not, does not really help us make disciples. I heard all of the arguments, if we are going to reach out to the unchurched, they may want to come to my house and smoke. If I follow another pastor that smokes it will wreak havok with my allergies. I am allergic to cigarrette smoke, so I am painfully aware of this problem. I also have parishoners and friends outside of the church that smoke. I have always asked people to step outside to smoke if they are in my home. This is not being rude, it is simply the way it is. I have yet to have any of my smoker friends to get upset with me for politely asking them to step outside. In other words while these are nicely theologically sounding arguments, in reality they are easily adapted one way or the other. (I am aware that this ban on tobacco technically goes for chewing tobacco as well, but I am not going to ask someone to spit thier chew out if they visit me, unless they are spitting on my floor. In fifteen years of ministry, I have not had anyone spit on my floors!).

A truly theological point was made at Annual Conference in a simple gesture, though. When our awesome prison ministries was giving a report, there was a young woman who came forward to speak, her four children came with her. They all looked to 10 or younger and on the platform they could not be seen. Our Bishop, Bishop Bob Hayes, got up out of his chair and allowed the children to sit in his chair, where they could be seen and be more comfortable. This simple action hit me profoundly and I started crying. I think this action embodied what it means to be a servant leader. Allowing a child to take the most important seat in the house. Allowing the child of a single parent, ex-con, who is trying to get her life back together to be the honored guest for a few minutes. What an awesome picture of Christ like service. I applaud the Bishop.

I do not know if this act was an intentional symbolic act of the Bishop Hayes. I do not really think it was. Because one of the things that made it so profound was that he did not appear to think about it, the act was a deep part of who he was. The children needed to be seen and what better place to be seen than in the Bishops chair. I believe that such acts come naturally to our Bishop because he is a true servant leader.

May God bless our Bishop and all the other servant leaders of our Annual Conference. May we take away from Annual Conference not disagreements, not smoking or non-smoking, but that we are called to be servant leaders and to live our lives in the way Christ showed us how to live.

Politics, Respect and Disagreement

2008-06-11T11:28:00.000-07:00

I was listening to talk radio just a few minutes ago and I really started to get irritated. It was mentioned by the talk show host that John McCain had come out immediately after Hillary Clinton withdrew from the race and said that he had great respect for Ms. Clinton and perhaps even has a freindship with her. Both canidates have been very respectful to each other and have complimented each other quite often. (For more information on thier freindship and respect see
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/06/mccain-clinton.html). This particular talk show host, though, was calling this a negative. He claimed that McCain was merely trying to court the Hillary Clinton supporters and it would end up turning off most of the true conservatives. My question is When did it become wrong to respect and even be freinds with someone who disagrees with you?

I have always prided myself in the diversity of my friends. I have friends who are gay, straight, liberal, conservative, middle of the road, don't know what they believe, right wing nuts, left wing nuts, open minded, closed minded, to the right of Attilla the Hun, virtual socialists, Jewish, Islamic, Christian, red necks, cowboys, city slickers, fundamentalists, literalists, and just about any other title you might think to give someone. I enjoy talking a debating our various areas of disagreement with each of them, because they are respectful toward me and I respect them as well. Do I think I am right? Absolutely, or I would have changed my mind, but that does not mean I have to be mean spiritted and arrogant about what I believe.

You know, it seems to me that Jesus hung out with a divergent crowd as well. One of his disciples was a zealot, another a tax collector, he had some fishermen and at least one disciple that was known by the high priest. Then there is the people he talked to and created a relationship with, there were Pharisees, prostitutes, tax collectors, women of questionable reputation, crippled people, sick people and the unclean in society. If Jesus could be friends with such diversity, then maybe we could be freinds with those that disagree with us as well.

I gained a new respect for Senator Ted Kennedy when I heard one fellow congress person make the comment that he could argue a point vehemently with you on the senate floor, he could be passionate in his disagreement with you, but when the senate dismissed he would pat you on the back and greet you as an old friend. That is the way it shold be.

Perhaps if the church could be better at respecting and loving those we disagree with, then the world just might take our example. There is nothing wrong with disagreement. We each disagree with each other in one way or another. What is wrong is hate speech and failing to love one another. Christ preached against these things. We as Christians should stand up and demand more respect and civility in our politics and in our culture. I pray that we will.

Moving Day

2008-06-02T07:30:00.000-07:00

I alway become somewhat reflective during this week of the year. For us as United Methodist pastors it is moving week. By Thursday at noon for all the churches changing pastors, the former pastor is to be out of the parsonage and the new pastor moving in. I am not moving this year, but I have several freinds that are. Moving Day as I remember it is hectic, exciting, nerve wracking, patience trying, happy, sad, angry and about every other emotion that can be described. Moving day is a time of endings and new beginnings a time of mourning and a time of excitement. It is an awe-filled, awefull day of mixed emotions and rushing. It is a wonderful day as well.

I know there are some pastors who are looking forward to moving day. Perhaps he or she realized that they had taken their soon to be former church as far as he or she could. He or she knew it was time to move and thier District Superintendent had been attentive and listened to what they wanted and the move is to a place they wanted to be. For those of you whose move occurred under great cicumstances, my prayers is that the move will be everything you hope and dream. I pray that your church or churches are even more wonderful than you thought they would be. I pray that this new beginning will be a growing oppurtunity for your church or churches and for you. I pray that the Lord will richly bless your ministry and show you how to enable your church or churches to make disciples for Jesus Christ. God bless you.

I also know there are others moving in a less than idealistic manner. Perhaps you really did not want to move. You have freinds or family that you do not want to move away from. Perhaps, your appointment was not quite in the geographical location you were hoping for. Perhaps you feel like your District Superintendent did not listen to you or God in making this appointment. Perhaps you feel as if the system has messed you around once again and are getting rather tired of it. Perhaps you are burned out, but do not know what to do. For these pastors I say a special prayer. I have been there before. It is not fun. However, we must never forget that God works in our system sometimes despite the circumstances, but God is always working.

I would encourage those of you in the latter category to first and foremost remember, it was not your church that messed you around. The system may or may not of messed you around, but the church you are moving to, certainly did not. It is not their fault you asked to be in the OKC or Tulsa area and are actually six hours away from civilization. They do not need to have your anger taken out on them. The new congregation needs you to love them unconditionally. They need to feel the love of Christ from thier pastor, not be beaten up again as some congregations have been. I do say special prayers for you. I pray that you will find the healing you need. I pray that you will rediscover the love of God and I pray that God will lead you to be the strong leader that this new church deserves.

My prayer for all of you moving is that this will be a new beginning for both you and the church or churches you will be pastoring. My prayer is for travel mercies and for guidance from God. My prayer is that the love of Christ will be shown to you and you will show the love of Christ as well. I pray your new community will become home very quickly and that you will be the pasoral leader that your new church has prayed for. All of you moving, please remember, that I am praying for you and your Church or churches. God bless you and keep you. Amen.

Good Job, Not!

2008-05-15T11:18:00.000-07:00

I recently attended my daughters grade school track meet. It was most interesting to sit back and watch the children. However, something happened there that disturbed me. I observed the children running and like with most track meets, it was very obvious that some of the children wanted to be there and others did not. My own daughter, got first in the obstacle course, second in the frisbee throw, third in 100, fourth in the sack race and fifth in the long jump (there was only five, she does not like the long jump and did not want to do it.). The children that did not want to be there really did not try. Some did things like run with thier hats on and spend more time making sure it stayed on, others simply did not try and one or two virtually walked thier races. Most of the time there were parents and teachers that waited at the finish line and each child heard good job, when they finished. I have a problem with this.

I know that some experts tell us to tell our children good job so that they will have a healthy self-esteem. I think that telling a child good job, when obviously they did not do a good job is equally if not more damaging. It was painfully obvious that many of these children did not do a good job and did not even do thier best. They were more interested in joking around or simply getting out of school, than actually trying. To tell these children good job teaches them two main things. The first is that they do not have to try to get a reward, so why try. The second is that the parent or teachers have very low expectations of them, so again why try.

Human beings as a whole are lazy. We will do the least amount of work possible to get the result desired. Hence, these children learn that thier reward will come whether or not they work hard. The world as a whole does not function this way. Hence, when they get older and are out in the real world, who is going to tell them good job, when they really stink at what they are doing. More specifically it is not when they are doing something they do not have the ability to do, it is when they are doing something they have the ability for, yet do not do it to the best of their ability. Telling a child good job when they really did not try simply shows they will get a reward no matter what. This is not preparing them for the real world and gives them no sense of accomplishment. Therefore, this practice actually damages self-esteem.

The secon teaching is even more damaging. The real message seems to me, that my expectations are so low of you that I am going to tell you good job even when you did not do a good job, because you did what I expected. It tells the child that you do not expect any more out of them. Again the message is why try. The message is I can't do it, so why try.

One other thing such insincere statements do is break down the trust of a child in his or her teacher or parent. They usually know when they did not do a good job and when they did. When we tell them good job, they will stop believing and may even wonder what else we say that is not true or sincere.

I realize the current trend in our society and culture is to promote self-esteem. However, let's be real. Are we promoting false self-esteem at the price of preparing our children for the real world? Are we rewarding mediocrity or less in the name of self-esteem? It seems to me we are.

For those of you that are curious. I told my daughter she did a good job on all of her events except the Long Jump. On that one we talked about why she did not even try. She said she did not want to do it and the teacher made her. I said okay and we went on. She knew she did not do a good job anyway. Why would I lie to her and tell her she did.

Evangelism is Simple

2008-04-16T09:45:00.001-07:00

At one of my churches we have a Wednesday evening program. It is a meal with an adult Bible Study and a Children's Ministry. We have had a wonderful lady coming to this when she was able. She had attended Sunday morning twice, which most people had remembered, because she brought her five children with her. Her family is a blended family. She told me she wanted to talk to me about a decision she had made. I said sure. After the program was over and we were leaving she told me that she wanted to join the church. Then she told me why.

That very afternoon, she had called a wonderful lay woman of my congregation to open the church for her, because she was fixing the meal for the wednesday evening group. The other lady came and opened the door and they visited for a while. Then the member of my church said to her, "What would it take to get you to church on Sunday Morning?" The non member was flabbergasted to say the least. She said that all she needed was a wake up call. Of course the other woman was more than willing to do this. Then the member of the church said, "You have a lot you could add to our church and I want you to be here." She said at that moment, she knew that this church is where she belonged. It had been sixteen years since she joined any church. In fact, it had been long enough, that she was not even sure where her membership was. I thought what an awesome concrete example of evangelism.

In her simple question, "What would it take to get you to church on Sunday morning?" there were many profound truths given. One, is we want you here at this church. We want you to come on Sunday morning. Do you know how many people do not feel wanted or needed anywhere. I believe if our churches could simply communicate the fact that "you are wanted" then we the kingdom of God would be growing here on earth. another profound truth is that you are accepted as you are. The church woman did not ask this visitor to change. She actually said come as you are, We love you and want you to be here.

The next thing my wonderful lady did was let the other woman know that she had much to add here. We want to find a place for you. In the small church especially, it is like a family. When joining a family it is often difficult to find your place or your roll. Here she extended the welcom and said we have a place for you! What a wonderful Christ-like response.

It seems to me that many times we make evangelism too complicated. We think we need this or that program or if we would just study that book or read this author than we can do evangelism. However, I believe that most of evangelism is about having a relationship with another person and then being willing to say come and join our family of faith. We accept you. We love you and we have a place for you. Many people spend a lifetime looking for a place to belong. The church should be such a place.

I am not against evangelism studies or programs, but when it comes down to it evangelism is accomplished through relationships. Living a life in relationship to Christ and to others. Inviting and asking what can I do to help. Giving people unconditional love and showing them how to love others in the same way.

You see, Evangelism really is simple, yet profound.

What I Learned from the New Kid

2008-04-09T14:00:00.000-07:00

We have a new addition to our household. We have a new kid. No, not a baby and to be honest he really isn't in the household. The new kid is actually in the back yard. As most of you know we have show goats and we have a one week old kid that we are bottle feeding. Peanut, as we call him, was two days old when he came to live with us. He has a twin brother as well. Our neighbor raises goats and peanut is actually his goat. You see he and his brother were born just minutes apart, but for some odd reason Peanut's mother, who my children call petunia, rejected him. She will feed his brother just fine, but walks away when peanut tries to nurse. For the first two days Peanut's owner held the mother down and made her let him nurse. She was not happy about this. I am not a goat expert, however, I have learned a thing or two about goats in the last year we have been raising them. Even people who have raised goats for more years than I have been alive, though, do not know why goats sometimes do this. The wierd part is that on occasion goats will adopt another goat's kid, but on other ocasions they will reject thier own. Weird!!!

I was commenting on how strange this was, but it was just another difference between the animal kingdom and human beings. My son asked me what I meant by this and without thinking I said that human beings do not reject thier babies. My 11 year old son said, yes they do!! He has been reading "A Child Called It" which is about one of the worst cases of child abuse ever reported. It is written by the survivor of said child abuse. Anyway, I had to admit that I was wrong sometimes children are rejected by thier parents. Sometimes this is overt, in child abuse, abandonment and other such things. Sometimes the state has to come in and take the child away to keep them safe. However, sometimes human beings covertly abandon thier children, but simply withholding the love that they need. In this case the state does not step in and take the child away, but the child is still in need of surrogate parents.

We are serving as a surrogate parent to the little kid. He needs milk, not too much and not too little and as a goat he also needs socialization. Sometimes we are called to be surrogate parents to children whose parents are not or cannot meet thier emotional and spiritual needs. As Christians we need to be open to these oppurtunities when they come around. Perhaps there is a child in your community who would come to church, but his parents do not want to take him or her. Perhaps if they were given a ride, then they would find a place of full acceptance and love. we all need to be loved unconditionally.

Being a surrogate parent or as I prefer a spiritual parent to another child is risky. You can come to care for them very much. They may not know how to respond to unconditional love. They may reject you, they may reject God. They might get hurt along the way and you might feel the hurt they feel at home. That's okay it is well worth the risk.

Perhaps we should all look for the children around us who need to know unconditional love. Perhaps we should also look for the adults that need this as well. Either way unconditional love and acceptance is a gift from God. We as Christians need to share God's gift with others, especially the abandoned children.

Are You Thirsty?

2008-03-12T10:03:00.000-07:00

I have been reading Thirst: God and the Alcoholic Expereince by James B. Nelson. I have not finished the book yet, but something he said in the first few chapters really got me to thinking. First of all he talks of addiction as a spiritual disease, as well as physical and emotional. Nelson writes that most people seem to have no problem referring to recovery as a spiritual experience, but leaves the spiritual stuff out of the disease of addiction.
To further explain this, Nelson writes of thirst. He defines thirst as any craving or strong desire. Nelson also speaks of all of humanity having a thirst for God. We do not all recognize this thirst, but it is there. The problem is we try to quench this thirst with other things. For the addict, their substance of choice becomes thier god and they are continually trying to quench thier thirst with it. Physical issues, emotional issues and environment affect this choice, but the choice is made. Therefore, the spiritual issue for addiction is to turn this thirst to the only thing that can cure it which is God or a higher power as the twelves steps put it.
I want to be very clear, I do not believe that Nelson is saying and I am certainly not saying, that all the addict needs is Jesus. However, I am saying that part of the treatment for this disease is spiritual in nature.
However, I began to reflect on Nelson's use of the word thirst. What is it that I thirst for? I believe we all have this thirst for God and we all try to replace it with other things. Even as a Christian and having been a Christian for many years, I often let other things get in the way of relieving my thirst for God. Sometimes I act as if other things, church work, family, games, etc. will fullfill the true thirst in my spirit. It is those times, that I feel that my spirit is dry and I am in a desert. God is always waiting to quench that thirst, though.
Do we really live as if we thirst for God? Do we act as though we really even desire God at all? Many of us live like the alcoholic, the addict, the sex addict, the gambling addict or whatever it may be. We live trying to replace God with something else. However, we are designed to live in relationship with God and there is not substitute that will satisfy the thirst. May we endeavor to quench our thirst with the cooling spirit of God. May we also not wait till we are so dry, but continually partake of the living waters. Amen

Flying the Friendly Skies?

2008-02-04T11:54:00.000-08:00

I just recently returned from a trip to Austin. It was a simple over night trip in which I flew there on one day and back on another. I flew with one of the many airlines that do not assign seats anymore. I had a brief stop in Dallas, and was attempting to board my next plain. My letter was B and I was number 60. If you have flown one of these airlines, then you know that they board by A 1-30, then A 31-60, then B 1-30, B 1-60 and then C. Well as you can tell I was the last of the B's. In addition there must not have been very many C's because I was the fourth to the last person to board the plane. It was a pretty full flight and everybody had set on the window seats and the asle seats leaving the middle seat open. I aproached entered the plane and began walking down the aisle to see if any seats were open. Immediately, I began getting dirty looks from most of the people already in thier seats. The ones that were not giving me dirty looks simply were not looking at me. I began to realize that nobody really wanted me to sit between them, because I would make them uncomfortable.Being the Babybuster (or Generation X, I prefer the term Baby Buster) that I am when I did not feel welcome, I really wanted to just leave and get another plane. Of course this was not possible, so I found a seat and sat down with the two freindliest people I could see.
However, this event did make me reflect on the church and how we make people feel welcome or don't. Whenever there is a new person that shows up to church, do we stare at them or simply refuse to see them? If we do it is probably because a new person makes us uncomfortable. They are different than us. Perhaps their skin color is different, of the clothes they wear, or thier socio-economic class, deep down in our hearts we don't want to welcome them, because they might make us feel uncomfortable. Even if they look similar to us, they might have different ideas, or want different music or maybe even make the biggest mistake of all and sit in my pew. It is way easier to simply ignore them or give them dirty looks or make them not feel welcome, then we do not have to be uncomfortable.
It seems to me that Jesus was not afraid to let the stranger into his fold. He hung out with tax collectors and Zealots. He actually seemed more comfortable with some of the people that we would not welcome into our church! Perhaps we need to remember the "Freindly skies" when we have new people show up for church. We should welcome them with open arms, even if they make us feel uncomfortable.

The Golden Compass

2007-12-13T11:29:00.000-08:00

I recently received an E-mail concerning an upcoming movie called the Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman. It read something like this:
"You may already know about this, but I just learned about a kids movie coming out in December starring Nicole Kidman. It's called The Golden Compass, and while it will be a watered down version, it is based on a series of children's books about killing God (It is the anti-Narnia). Please follow this link, and then pass it on. From what I understand, the hope is to get alot of kids to see the movie - which won't seem too bad - and then get the parents to buy the books for their kids for Christmas. The quotes from the author sum it all up. I'm going to tell everyone about this movie."

I am generally not moved by such e-mails, because they are not usually true. However, I am an avid fantasy novel reader and my son Blake is becoming one as well. Therefore, I was interested in finding out more about the Dark Material trilogy. I looked up Snopes http://snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp and then decided to read the books myself, before making a decision on the movie. At this time I have only read the complete first novel and am about three fourths of the way through the second book.

The first book is a children's fantay novel about a young girl who finds herself caught up in events that will and do shake her world and indeed all the worlds of the universe. The preteen girl is the messiah of her world sent to bring about wonderful changes in the world. However, she must never know that she is the fullfillment of prophesy because if she does then she will fail. Each person in Lyra's world has a daemon, which is essentially his or her soul or spirit that exists outside of his or her body. Until one becomes a teenager or reaches puberty the daemon can take any animal shape. However at Puberty the daemon chooses a shape that reflects who the person has become or what their true nature is. There are these particles called Dust, that appear to be some sort of elementary element. The church, which is the Magisterium, thinks the Dust is connected to original sin and wants to destroy it. Lyra comes to believe that Dust is good and seeks to protect it. In the mean time, in its search to destroy dust, the church is running experiments on children. They are seperating the children from the daemons. The usually causes the child to die or at the very least makes them somewhat apathetic and totally lack curiousity.

Phillip Pullman has made several anti-Christian statements. He is an atheist that would like to kill the church and God. I find it very interesting that he is at war with a being that he proclaims to not believe in. Anyway, the books are obviously written as a critque of the church, religion and Christianity. The church in the book are the bad people. The church seeks to stop progress, is made up of hypocrits and wants to stifle creativity. I think Pullman beleives this. Hence, I do not like the philosophy or theology of the books. However, in the first book this is not obvious, but the second it becomes clearer and clearer.

With all of these facts on the table, here is what I think. I fully believe that Pullman wrote these books as an attempt to persuade children that there is no God or at the very least that if there is a God he deserves to die. Because of this fact, I will not spend my money on this movie or on the books (I got the books from the Library). I will finish reading the books to make sure that this oppinion holds till the end. However, neither will I forward the afore mentioned e-mail or mount a campaign to boycott this movie. You see I believe that boycotting and forwarding this e-mail gives the movie free advertising and entices people to go and see it. It makes them curious, so it actually works the oposite.

To be quite honest, some of Pullman's critiques of the church are quite accurate. The Church universal has been guilty of stifling progress, of killing the spirits of people and other such things. Perhaps we need a child Messiah to bring us back. This is exactly what God did in Christ. God sent a child to save the world.

Am I scared of this movie? Do I believe it corrupt my children or other children? The answer to both of these questions is no. I would not be afraid of my children reading this book for two reasons. The first is that this is a fictional book and the philosophy or theology occurs in a fictional world. My children know the difference between reality and fiction. The second reason is I would be aware of what my children are reading and talk to them about it. I know that not all parents will do this, but this is a better solution than boycotting.

In addition, I also believe that this book does not threaten God. There has been many other people than Mr. Pullman that have tried to kill God and God is still alive. In fact, I think that two thousand years ago on a hill called calvary, the church, the very people God had claimed as his own, tried to kill God. It did not work then and will not work now. God can take care of himself, I think I will let Him.

In summary, I do not plan on going to see this movie. I will finish the books and if my children want to read them, I will let them. However, I will discuss them and show them how what Mr. Pullman says is wrong. In the meantime, I am not going to worry about this. I am too busy loving others and doing the work of God.

The Importance of Being Recognized

2007-11-13T08:23:00.000-08:00

I was reading a freinds, Kevin Watson, blog the other day and it really got me to thinking about truly meaningful conversations. I am not talking of "How's the weather?" or if you are from my part of the country "What does the wheat (corn, milo, hay) look like?" I am talking about deep conversations where we can share who we really are and what we really feel or think. On the same day, I was also reading Raging with Compassion, a book I highly recommend, and this particular section was on the Christian act of recognition.

Swinton loosely defines recognition, not as simply seeing someone and calling them by name, but seeing someone and recognizing who they really are. In other words, I am not talking about something like Cheers, where everyone simply knows your name, but when people know who you are and accept you as you are. Such a place is where everyone needs to be. Each person may or may not realize this need, but it is a deep seated spiritual need.

As Christians, we are called to create these spaces and be the people that recognize first each other and then the rest of the world. It seems to me that many people spend much time trying to make other people into their idea of what people should be like. Sometimes this is done overtly with attempts to manipulate and control other people. Other times it is done covertly, but simply thinking everyone thinks or believes like me. Either way it does not allow a person to have his or her own identity.

It seems to me that God allows us to be who we are, even when he does not like what we are doing. Jesus called the people to follow him as they were. He never said, "before you come follow me you must grow your hair out like mine and by some clothes that are like mine and agree with me in all things." No, Jesus simply says, "Come follow me." Why can we not simply recognize people for who they are and know that if there are needed changes God will put that upon thier hearts.

The bottom line for me is that there are very few people out there that will allow us to be ourselves. Many people are scared of recognizing us, because that is way to intimate. However, we all need people who recognize us, because that is the beginning of deep and Godly conversations. I hope that I can learn to truly recognize people and show them the love of God.

The Power of Words

2007-11-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

I think it is interesting how many people hear or read things very differently. For example, not every week, but quite often when I preach a sermon, someone comes up to me and says, "I really liked that sermon. The part about(please fill in the blank from your own imagination) was really good." I will usually thank them for the compliment and go away wondering when I said that. I mean, it is usually a great point and sometimes something I wish I had said, but not a part of the sermon I remember. I know that many other pastors have had the same thing happen to them. You see this is what I call the power of words, particularly living words.

Living words are words that are put forward in an effort to be the Word of God for that day. They are more than mere words, for these words must be surrendered to the Holy Spirit and spoken through the the Holy Spirit. In order to be the Word of God, we, the speaker, must give up control. Let's face it, though, some of us do not like to give up control. Oh, we pray the prayer, "God may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be truly pleasing unto you this day." We even mean it, we want our words to be pleasing to God. But we still want them to be our words, we want the credit for them when they come out good. We want to be able to predict our congregations reactions, control them and even manipulate them into doing what we want them to do. However, God has other plans, other meanings for His Word.

Although it is difficult for me, because I like control, my prayer is that I will give up control of my words, so that my words may truly be God's Word. This does not excuse me from preparing for a sermon, studing and the like. It does however, relieve me of the responsibility for changing people. I will let God handle that. I can't do it anyway. So God, guide my words and even more so, guide the hearing of the people you have entrusted me to shepherd. Let them hear your word, not matter what I say.

Faithfullness

2007-10-09T12:20:00.000-07:00

I was at home eating breakfast by myself today, when the Ellen Degeneres show came on. I seldom eat breakfast alone, but Shannon is on a mission trip and the kids were at school. Anyway, my breakfast was later than usual because I had volunteered to feed my neighbors cows so that his hired hand could go on the mission trip. I began watching the news, but before I was done eating the Ellen show came on. Since I could not find the controller and was too lazy to get up and change the channel, I watched her opening monologue.

She began by talking about these signs that have sprung up all over California. The are huge billboards that say "Life is short, have an affair" and then give a web site for married men and women to find a person to have an affair with. Ellen was horrified and "disturbed" by these signs. She went on to say that if two people are married and agree that they can have sex with other people that is okay with her, but then that is not really being married, it is a reality show on MTV. She also said that she thought the sign should read, "Life is short, be faithfull."

First of all it so awesome to here a Hollywood celebrity actually promoting good morals in our culture. Most of the time it seems to me that Hollywood is promoting an amoralistic society where everything goes and there are no absolutes. Here we have Ellen Degeneres saying that it is better to be faithful in marriage. Whether you agree with her lifestyle or not, it is good to hear her promoting faithful marriages.

Secondly, it brought a reminder to me that faithfullness to our marriage begins before we are married. When someone has sex with somebody that they are not married to, it is cheating on thier spouse to be. God calls us to be faithful in marriage as a reminder of being faithful to God as well. Well, of course it makes a happier marriage and a better life, this is true. However, according to the Bible, marriage is shadow of our relationship with God. God calls us to be faithful to God and God alone. There are multiple oppurtunities to join with other gods, but we must be faithfull.

I think faithfullness will be my word of the week. Although, I never thought I would be saying this, I think I will take Ellen's advice "Life is short, be faithfull." However, I think I will take it a step farther than what she said. I will be faithfull in my marriage. I do not have time to deal with the problems that having an affair or whatever would cause. I want to enjoy every minute with my best friend that I can. Shannon is an awsome wife and mother. Why would I want to mess that up? Also, I will be faithfull to God. Every day and every minute, I want to follow God. Life is too short to waste time on sin and the consequences of sin. Instead, I want to enjoy my time with God that I have here on earth.

I can think of many ways this mantra could apply to our lives. In our work, in school, in sports, in every activity we do. We should endeavor to be more faithful and enjoy more of our lives.

Life is short, be faithful.

What's Important

2007-09-18T14:11:00.000-07:00

In 1990 I discovered a series of books that were wonderful fantasy novels. They were the Wheel of time series written by Robert Jordan. There are currently eleven books in the series and the twelfth is promised to be the last. It is an awsome series. Robert Jordan is the authors name and I do not know for sure, but he must be very excited about ending the series and the seeing the culmination of his writing. However, yesterday he died of a rare blood disorder. I did not know him personally, nor would I dare to say I know what he was like in the least bit. However, his premature death before finishing the twelfth book has gotten me to thinking.

There are many things in life that I dream of having. Sometimes I put those dreams off because of life cirumstances or just because I can do it later. I often forget that I am not garunteed a later. Some of the things I put off are very important. Like playing with my children, enjoying life, spending time with my wife and things like that. Other things are trips I would like to take, education I would like to have and so forth. I do not know if Mr. Jordan procrastinated about his final book. It does seem to me that the series could have been much shorter and his work could have been done before he died. I do not want to die not having accomplished my dreams and not having played with my children enough.

If you read my last Blog, then you know that I have a thirty-six year old friend that is dying. Her husband talked about all the places that they had wanted to go and see, but now never would. I do not want to be that way. Now, I am not going to rush off and get into debt so that I can go whereever I want to, but I will go play with my children and take a date with my wife.

God does not garuntee that all of our dreams will be accomplished. However, I do believe that God wants us to try and accomplish them. I am not planning on dying young, but who knows what will happen. One thing I do want, though, is to not have any regrets when I die. I do not want to say that I put things off too long and now will not be able to do them.

Mr. Jordan, I hope that someone will finish your series for you. As for me, I am going to get off the computer and go play with my children. Then I might work out for a while, because one of my dreams is to thin again one day. After I work out, I am going to have a family meal and talk to my whole family. Life is too short not to enjoy it and that is what I plan to do.

My friend Danette

2007-09-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

I have a friend named Danette. She is in the process of dieing due to cancer. She is thirty-six years old (maybe thirty-seven). Her awesome husband called us last week and told us that she is in the process of making her final journey to heaven. I am sad. Actually this is a vast understatement, but I do not have the words. I know that she is going on to heaven and I want to celebrate her life, but I am not ready to say goodbye or even see you later yet.

Danette is a wonderful lady. She is a great mom, a Christian woman, an awesome wife, and an excellent friend. I remember the first time I met Danette. It was in the basement of the Chapel at Oklahoma City University. We were waiting for class to start, I believe the class was Introduction to Christian Thought, but I am not sure. I think she started talking to me first. She introduced herself with a smile and we became friends very quickly.

The thing I think of when I think of Danette is her smile. Most of my memories of Danette contain her smile. Her smile is not a false happiness smile, because you are supposed to smile. It is a smile that comes up from her spirit and radiates true joy. This joy comes from a relationship with Jesus Christ. Ever since I have known her that smile has been there. She was one of many that helped me when my mom died, not because she gave any great word of wisdom, but because she was a simple presence that asked me how I was doing and meant it. Again, she genuinely cares for people and that is what showed through. Even now, as she is on her deathbed, she is still caring for other people. Victor, her husband, told us that she called in a father and son that had not spoken to each other for a while and helped them to find reconcilation. She said the other day, that God is not through with her yet.

She is not sitting in her bed, feeling sorry for herself. Danette is not that kind of person. Instead, she is still serving God. She has spent her life serving God and even in dieing she is serving God. I am inspired. Before I found out that she was dieing, I was kind of down and depressed. I felt like certain things in my life were not going well. Nothing big or huge, but enough to be depressed. I felt like going to bed and not getting out of it. Then I found out about Danette and heard the stories. Although, I am sad still, I now know tha God is still using me. Once again Romans 8:28 is brought alive to me. "All things work good for those who are called by God according to his purposes." This does not say that all things are good, merely that God works things for good even when they are bad things.

I am inspired. I hope that I would be the same in Danette's place, but I do not know. Her faith has always been inspiring, now it has gone beyond. She has a great peace, despite her horrible circumstances. I pray that I can have that peace and that faith the rest of my life.

Thank you God for blessing my life with such a good friend as Danette. Thank you for allowing her to be a part of my life. Help me to enjoy the rest of the time I have with her, no matter how little or how long it will be. Keep her strong, keep us being left behind strong. May your peace be with us all.

What is wrong with being a "loner"

2007-09-05T09:53:00.000-07:00

Why is that anytime someone does an unspeakable crime the media charactarizes them as a loner? I was watching the news the other day and they talked about the man who shot all the people at Virginia Tech. They said he was a loner, obsessed with the columbine shooting and just plain strange. The school should have picked up on these things is what the news program I was watching implied. Then there was a man who had molested several children, he was a loner and very strange. None of his neighbors really new him. Other killers and extreme law breakers were also charactarized as loners, strange or even monsters.

Perhaps I simply understand the term "loner" differently. First of all, I think a loner is someone who is comfortable with him or herself by themselves. They do not mind doing things alone and often enjoy being alone. A true loner refills him or herself by being by themselves. A loner will often go to parties and be around people, but will find themselves exhausted afterwards. People wear out a true loner. Most loners have little room for small talk and do not need to fill the silences in a conversation with noise. Loners often enjoy silence and quiet and do not find it difficult to be silent. Loners sometimes want to be by themselves, but are not anti-social. They have a few close friends and are very happy with just a few friends. They may on occasion avoid social activities and not like crowds a whole lot. They can endure crowds, but it wears them out quickly. Others sometimes see the loner as withdrawn, unfreindly, aloof and even arrogant at first. However, once they get to know the person, they realize that he or she is not that way.

It seems to me that these people who commit such horrendouse crimes are not true loners, but people who have tried to fit in and lack the skills or abilities to truly be a part of a community. Therefore, they feel shunned and wish to strike out in some way or another. They are sick, yes, but not true loners.

I also find it interesting that we must characterize these people as monsters, as well. It is like we must remove them from the human race in order to attempt to understand what they have done. If I understand the Bible correctly every human being is a child of God. Therefore, we are brothers and sisters to these "maniacs" that do these crimes. Hence, but for the grace of God we also could do these horrible deeds. In other words, inside of each human being is the capacity for great evil. We all have the ability to be a Hitler or Virginia Tech shooter or whatever. However, we also have a great capacity for good. The Bible tells us that humanity was created in the image of God. Therefore, we were created good. That capacity for good never leaves us, it just becomes damaged when we sin. Being created good, though, because of sin, we have a propensity toward sin. Hence, we will all sin. Some sins seem bigger than others, but the result of sin is the same, death. Of course, our sins are taken away by the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ.

All this is to say, though, I think we as Christians should be very careful in how we judge these so called "monsters." We, as human beings have the capacity for equal evil within us, just as these monsters have the capacity for good. Jung called the realization of such evil inside of us as "embracing the shadow." In order to truly embrace the good within us, we also have to embrace the shadow and realize our capacity for evil. In other words, don't remove these people who commit such atrocities from the human race, but remember that the same capacity is inside of you. To truly be human, though, is to live in the image of God we were created in. We are children of God, let us embrace our heritage.

Thoughtfullness

2007-08-16T08:16:00.000-07:00

I have been reading a book titled, Raging with Compassion: Postmodern Responses to the Problem of Evil, which I highly recommend. I have major problems with most books on pastoral care or the theodicy question. My problem is that most of them are intellectual defenses of God or pure theory with no practical appilcation. I have very little patience with theology that is not practical or applicable to a persons life. I guesse one would have to say I am a practical theologian.

Anyway, the point here is that most books that address the theodicy question do so in a highly intellectual way. In psychology this is a defense mechanism called intellectuallism. Meaning that if we keep an event in the intellectual realm, then we do not have to really examine our feelings about the event. Therefore, we really never fully integrate the event into our life and are defended against the event. In Raging with Compassion, this is Swinton's critique of most theodicies. I think he is absolutely correct. Most ventures into the theodicy are simply psychological defenses against having to actually respond to the evil in the world around us. If we intellectualize, blame the victim (say it is because of his or her or thier sin) or call God evil, then we protect ourselves. We find comfort in our reasoning and assure ourselves it could not happen to us. However, Swinton, goes on to say that the real question is not why thier is evil in the world, but how are we as Christians going to respond to the evil.

Swinton defines evil as anything that interferes with our relationship with God. Therefore, when an evil event occurs, how do we as Christians bring the presence of Christ into this event. One of the ways that this is done, is through what Swinton calls thoughtfullness. He talks about how most people do not think about their actions. He uses the example Otto Adalf Eichman, who was a prominant member of the Nazi governmnet of Germany during WWII. Eichman was responsible for organizing the roundups and transportation of Jews to the death camps. He was put on trial at Nuremberg. He had two psychological evaluations the first came down that he was a monster and enjoyed killing people and all that. The second though, was quite interesting. This woman was actually impressed by his normality and said that he was a short sighted buraecrat whose life seemed marked by an inability to see the long term results of his actions. In other words, he simply did or could not think about the consequences of what he was doing at the time. He was thoughtless.

We in the United States of America, live in a thoughtless culture. We want things now so we put them on a credit card, never thinking about what 15% interest is going to do to us in the future. We shop for cars not on what the whole price is going to be, but what our payment is going to be. Usually not even think ing about that balloon payment on the end, that will be more than the car is worth. We also have people who can step on others to get to the top, not thinking about the long term. We have drug use for the high at the moment, never considering the long term physical consequences, or the emotional consequences for other around us.

It seems to me one thing we as Christian can add to our culture is what Swinton calls thoughtfullness. The ability to think about our actions, both in the short term and the long term, and reflect on the possible consequences of both our actions and inactions.

Stardust-the movie-- spoiler

2007-08-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

I just saw one of the best movies I have ever seen. It was called Stardust and is based on the book by Neil Gaimon. I have not read many of Neil Gaimon's multitude of books. I have read most of his book that he wrote with Terry Pratchett about the apocolypse. It is a funny and good book and I want to finish it someday. In fact I would reccomend it to anyone who likes Hitchhikers Guide or Monty Python, it is a funny book. However, my family and I went to see this movie, because I wanted to see it and it was on at the time we wanted to go to a movie. It was an outstanding movie that the whole family loved.

I would compare the movie to the Princess Bride, it is a fantasy complete with pirates and three witches. The basic story is that Tristan, who is a prince from the world across the wall, but does not know this, is desires the affection of a woman named Victoria. She, though, is more interested in marrying someone who has money and a power. Tristan and Victoria see a falling star and Tristan declares that he would get that star for her, if it would earn her love. She tells him to go for it, but he only has one week. The star fell on the other side of the wall, so he goes back and tells his father that he was going to go to other side of the wall and get the star. His father reveals to him that he is a child from that side of the wall and that his mother was a slave to a witch. In the basket which Tristan had been delivered to his father there had been a note and a candle. The candle was magical and would deliver you to wherever you were thinking about when it burned. Tristan burned it to find his mother, but he inadvertently thought about the star and went to the place the star had landed. The star was a woman instead of a rock as he thought it would be. The star agrees to go with him to Victoria and off they go. In the mean time three witches saw the star fall and one sets out to find the star so they could eat her heart and live forever. The witch that goes out is played by Michelle Pfiefer and she does a great job.
On the way they are also pursued by several princes who are competing to become the king. Each of these princes die one by one and the ghosts are hilarious. On the way Tristan and the star encounter an in the closet gay pirate, played by Robert DeNiro, which is absolutely hilarious. Tristan falls in love with the star and becomes king and they live forever happily ever after.

It is a must see movie, even if my description does not sound very interesting. Between Robert DeNiro as a cross dressing gay pirate and the ghosts, I have not laughed so hard at a movie since The Princess Bride. Also, the movie actually ended. Oh they could make a sequel in the same world, but it would need new characters and such, because it showed what happens in the end. This is almost a novel concept in todays movies.

Anyway, the story is an old fashioned fairytale, with great special effects. The vilians are evil and the good are good. The hero goes from zero to being king and realizes what true love is on the way. I laughed and my son and daughter got scared during parts of the movie. Just scared enough to hold my hand not quite watching. It was just a great movie.

Alaska Trip and loners

2007-08-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I didn't get to post anything while we were in Alaska. I didn't know that my brother in law did not have a computer. Oh well, it was a great trip. We were able to go on a whale watching cruise, go fishing, see the Anchorage Zoo, the Native Heritage Center a water fall, I forgot the name of and go to Hatcher's Pass. It was a wonderfull trip, probably one of the best vacations I have ever had.

It is always interesting to go on a trip and stay with other people. It always makes me more thankful for what I have. I love visiting other places and seing the sights. I find it even more interesting to get to know some of the local people and expereince thier culture. For example, it seems to me that most, not all by any means, but a good portion of Alaskans like to live on the edge of society and culture. I'm not talking about Antisocial people or psychotic killers that get a cabin in the woods in order to make bombs, I'm just talking about people who need little contact with other people, who are comfortable with who they are and enjoy being individuals. People that the true pioneer spirit still lives in.

Some people would call them loners. I hesitate to use this term, because it is mostly used to describe people who have just opened fire on others and then shot themselves. A true loner, though, is not a killer, but a person who simply renews his or herself by being by themselves. They are usually someone who is very comfortable with who they are and have limited energy for social interaction. When I say limited energy, I do not mean no energy. Just probably less than what most people have.

I found myself really enjoying being around people like that. Perhaps I have found a place that harbors kindred spirits. Now do not get me wrong, I am not going to drop everything and move to Alaska right away. I love where I live. However, in recognizing these kindred spirits in Alaska, I was also able to recognize why I love where I live so much. I am a loner. This is not a negative, it is simply who I am. Being a loner I still like to be around people. I can still connect to people. In fact, I have connected more to people, since recognizing myself as a loner than I did before. Despite what the world says about us loners, we are wonderful people. In my small community I see that there are other loners and they understand. We do not have to talk about it, but there is an implicit understanding of being loners and joining together, for lack of a better term. In enjoy the company of others, but loners make the deep connections that I prefer. Loners understand that time alone is not time wasted. You can have fun and be alone.

This community seems to allow time alone and also provide some social interaction. I always enjoy our card games, they are once a month. However, once a month is enough. I also enjoy paintball, which does require interaction with others, but also some individual time of hiding in the woods waiting and watching and listening.

Anyway, the bottom line is, I am extremely glad to be home. I missed my house, my bed and my community. It is nice to live in a place that I can feel like it is home. Thank God for vacations, because they make me thank God for home.

First Blog

2007-07-17T07:54:00.000-07:00

I have never blogged before. However, I enjoy writing and on occassion have thoughts that I would like to share with other people. Therefore, I am now officially a blogger. If you are checking this out because you were surfing the web and happened to find this sight, or if I have invited you to look at my blog, the I want to tell you what to expect here.

You can expect some political commentary. On occasion I may even rant and rave about politics. I am particularly disgusted by American politics at the moment and so these rants and raves may reflect that. I am also a firm believer in media bias and on occasion feel like throwing things at the telivision because of this bias. I believe there is not such thing as fair and balanced reporting anymore, so the media should simply own up to thier biases, whether conservative or liberal and then move on. I believe this bias is shown in many small ways as well as large ways.

I try to keep up with current events, although I will sometimes go several weeks without listening to the news. I prefer to watch the news to most other television shows, although I love CSI and CSI New York. I am not overly fond of CSI: Miami, simply because I do not really like that main actor on it. CSI: New York is my favorite. I may occasionally comment on a television show that I have seen, but not much, there are much more important things to discuss.

I will also comment on theology. My relationship with God is very important to me, I am a Christian and I think writing down some of my thoughts and beliefs and sharing and receiving feed back is fun. If you do not want to hear these, this is not the Blog for you. My particular interests write now is practical pastoral theology. I have little time for useless theory and intellectualism. Quite frankly, I think much of pastoral theology is an exercise in the psychological defense mechanism of intellectualism. If we can intellectualize it away, then we do not have to actually deal with the issues. You will read more on this in the future.

I also like video games and may occassionally speak of these.

I also write and have several ideas for novels going around in my head. I may write some of these out and put them on my blog. I also enjoy reading science fiction and fantasy and may write about some of the books I read.

What you will not find on this blog is deep personal stories or feelings. Neither will you find sexually explicit material, so for all of you voyuers out there, this blog is not for you. You will find personal opinions and rambling. If you are interested in that then stay tuned and you will enjoy this blog.

Also, I am taking a trip to Alaska tomorrow and I may or may not write some things about that.