Category: thinking and stuff

Due Diligence

I read an article from a few days ago on a conservative website this morning, and it kind of stirred me up a little. The article was regarding a 2 hr muslim Jumah prayer service to be held at the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

That didn’t really seem fair, because that article (and a few others I read) also mentioned a Catholic Cardinal had volunteered to give a “Christian” prayer and been denied.

This may have been true 4 days ago, but upon further research this morning, I found that Donald Miller (he wrote Blue Like Jazz) was giving the benediction, and that same Cardinal whose offer of prayer had originally either been ignored or denied (depending on what you read), was now giving the closing prayer.

While not the same as a 2 hr prayer service, it is also not the complete absence of Christian prayer it initially seemed. It is perhaps also of note that the Muslim event is technically near the event (in a park), while the benediction and closing prayer are in the actual convention.

But since I’m mentioning things worthy of note, it’s also certainly possible the offer from the Cardinal was accepted only after a shitstorm of controversy was generated by what initially seemed like more liberal pandering to Muslim complaints of anti-Islam bias.

Does anti-Islam bias exist? Of course it does. Islamic and liberal activists in the media and private sector will not let you forget it.

What is seldom heard is that anti-Christian bias also exists. It exists every bit as much and is just as bad as bias against the Islamic religion.

Here’s my point. I nearly flew off the handle when I read about 2 hrs of Muslim prayer at the DNC with no Christian counterpoint. The apparent unfairness of it all was maddening.

When I looked deeper, I found out there was a lot more to it than what things originally seemed to be.

There’s much danger in blind acceptance of anything you read, especially in today’s political climate. All I’m saying is before you rush to judgment, make sure you’ve done your due diligence.

And watch out for the plank in your eye.

By the way, I deliberately did not insert links to what I read today.

Looking it up is part of your due diligence

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Prone to Wander

Jon Acuff had a great post yesterday on his blog about why people think Christians are fake. Check it out and then come back.

Ok, good. You’re back.

In his piece, Acuff talks about a worship leader changing the words to “Come Thou Fount” when he performs it. I agree with Acuff’s point in the post. The words this leader changes are in my opinion a beautiful description of a sinner that knows where they’ll be given their natural proclivities, and offers what matters most to the God he loves to hopefully mitigate his chance of wandering.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for thy courts above

Like Mr Acuff, I would love to be able to say that when I became a Christian, I stopped making mistakes. It would be great if I could say that with the advent of Christ in my life came the departure of sin, but that isn’t what happened at all.

Rather, I still mess up. All the time. I get angry, or sometimes lustful. Or maybe I curse, or use the Lord’s name in a way it was never intended. Sometimes I am neither loving nor helpful to the least of these.

And I doubt, and wander.

But I love God, and I acknowledge that only through he can my heart be sealed from it’s natural proclivities.

So when people do things like change lyrics or words because they feel it indicates a more positive message or maybe because they feel they don’t wander anymore, it conveys the message that with God comes an absence of struggle with the things of earth.

That’s not true, and people need to hear that. So that when they still want to do dumb stuff after beginning a relationship with Christ they don’t just think they’re doing something wrong and walk away from the only thing that can deliver them.

I think we need to be real with our worship and our testimony. Heck, sometimes when you’re a leader, the song is your testimony.

Pretty pictures of a life without struggle don’t show Jesus to people. If I wanted that I’d move to Texas and hang out with Joel Osteen.

We need to show people there is hope for deliverance. We do that with honesty about our lives. We share in the struggle. We let people who don’t know Jesus (and also people who do) know they aren’t alone in their tendency to wander. All have sinned and fallen short.

I know I have.

Come thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing thy grace

Todd Akin, and Good From Bad

You can’t turn on your television or look at most websites these days without hearing about Rep Todd Akin’s dumbass 17th century remarks about women conceiving from rape. Clearly, Mr Akin doesn’t possess any depth of knowledge about basic human biology.

I get that. I just think most people would belay their tongues while being interviewed, unlike the unfortunate Mr Akin.

Idiot. I’m a conservative, but that type of stupidity doesn’t deserve anyone’s vote.

I read an interesting article on CNN this morning (here) by a Chicago lawyer named Shauna Prewitt, who was raped while in college and conceived a child.

The article goes into some depth about how rapists who “father” children with their victims are legally able to sue for visitation rights in many states. To me, this is a wrong of such staggering profundity if defies both description and comprehension.

I have no idea whether or not Todd Akin will continue in his quest for Senatorial glory. I believe he’s likely not the only person with such a ridiculous opinion, and hopefully his remarks were little more than a few misspoken words.

In any case, good can come of this whole debacle. We can start talking about both rape and the consequences resulting from it, and people can “unlearn” so much of the nonsense they’ve come to believe.

Rape is a terrible crime, and the rape itself is just the beginning of what the victim will have to face. There’s also embarrassing and even humiliating legal battles. Judgment from people based on stupid and errant thinking regarding who is to blame. And the always enjoyable PTSD- post traumatic stress disorder.

That is a real and terrible disorder. During my tenure at my old church in San Diego, I was part of a prayer ministry that dealt with a great many people with sexual brokenness issues, and quite a few that had been raped. PTSD affects lives in so many ways and has so many far reaching consequences.

As a society, we need to talk about that kind of thing. We can go miles toward dispelling falsehoods and errant beliefs about rape just by creating dialogue.

It’s somewhere to start. Perhaps some good can come of Akin’s remarks after all.

Satan Wants My Squeaker

I had this dog for a while who would utterly destroy all his squeak toys. It didn’t matter what they were made of, it typically only took him a few days to get at the toy’s squeaky little heart.

He would do it through small wounds, generally, and just work the toy over. He’d pull out little bits of stuffing from each tear in the material and deposit them on the living room floor as he worked to get at his ultimate goal–the messy death of the squeak toy.

When he finally got there, he’d crush the squeaker between his jaws and then just lay there and enjoy the carnage he’d created.

This morning I was thinking how much my faith is like one of those dog toys.

I’ll get wounded from time to time–small tears in my fabric. A little stuffing will come out, sometimes more than a little. Yet because my heart is still squeaking, I convince myself my wounds are only superficial. It’s only a cut or two.

I tell myself the cuts are no big deal, and since they don’t (really) threaten my life, I don’t need to worry about them.

The world–and life–are the cause of the tears in my fabric.

The world can’t get to me because of my faith, or because my wounds really aren’t that bad.

My wounds are not mortal.

And then the truth came.

1. It isn’t one singular tear in the fabric of my faith that will be my undoing.

2. It’s the collective whole of my wounds and the blame apportioned for their cause that can draw me away from God if I let them.

3. It’s separation from God that will kill me.

4. The tears in the fabric of my faith are caused by doubt, and by whispered lies from the enemy about God, and myself, and my wounds.

Another truth that came to me today is that for every lie we’re told and believe there is a corresponding truth from God.

We can fight the lies with truth, and it is that same truth that heals the tears in our fabrics–in my fabric.

It’s normal to doubt. Doubts mean you take your faith seriously, and provided you don’t allow them to overrun your faith, they can help you in the end. That is, if you seek the truth with a disciple’s heart. Doubt can only overcome you if you let it–if you do not fight.

Make no mistake, there is an enemy to fight. He prowls around like a lion (or perhaps an angry dog), looking for something to devour (1Peter 5:8).

That something is you. And me. It’s tough to hear, and even tougher to talk about. People want to hear platitudes, and that everything is good and beautiful and that they are saved from harm by faith.

That’s true, but not the only truth.

Our enemy–and I do mean Satan–can and will stop at no height or depth in his quest to separate us from God. He tears at the fabric of our faiths, and our lives. He burrows deep in our guts, attempting to get at our hearts.

He can’t unless we let him. We don’t have to.

We can fight.

We can pray the armor of God daily, and we can seek the Lord’s truth in and for our lives.

Otherwise, the world is the least of our worries. We’ll end up like this poor thing, but for eternity.

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I Have Decided

People talk a lot about what it means to be saved. They discuss the semantics of it, and different ways they believe it can and cannot be achieved.

Many doubt there is even such a thing as salvation at all. In order for salvation to exist, there must be a thing or perhaps circumstance we are delivered from. In order for mankind to be delivered from sin, sin has to exist.

If sin exists, what is it, and what is the punishment for committing it?

Perhaps a very simple way to put it would be that it is something that pulls us away from God and toward the world, or ourselves, and our own gratification and glorification becomes paramount. The punishment is death.

The semantics of sin have generated endless hours of arguments, likely millions of written pages, and one dead and resurrected savior.

So what does a person have to do in order to be spared eternity outside the presence of God?

Some believe all one needs is to a be a good person. Treat people well and be nice to dogs and homeless veterans.

Others think faith in God receives the gift of salvation rather than causes it.

Then you have decision theology, which tells us one must make a conscious decision to “accept” Christ and follow his teachings to be saved from sin and its penalty.

I think that some people make it a lot more complicated than it actually is. They’ll talk about theology like monergism and that doesn’t sound like Jesus at all to me.

I think you truly do have to simply decide to follow Jesus, and then do it. It is a lifelong commitment, and it is not always easy.

I think of the old hymn, composed in India “I Have Decided To Follow Jesus. Who knows how this hymn was actually composed? I’d like to believe it’s the first version given in the above linked web page, but the truth is that even if it is not, that does not make the words any less true.

Here is a beautiful version of the song, and the story behind it.

As for me, I have decided to follow Jesus.

Something Needs to Change

I really hate election time.

Maybe I’m not being realistic, but I’d hope it would be possible to hear about hear about what ails the country and how each candidate plans to fix it without this almost feral ugliness going on right now.

It seems like people are more interested in making others afraid of the uncertainties to come and who is to blame for them rather than addressing what’s going on and how to fix it.

No candidate is completely innocent of this kind of sensationalism, though supporters of the incumbent president seem to possess a little more in the way of political vitriol than the hopeful candidate’s do.

It’s easy to see by a simple search of social media.

Regardless, this behavior does continue, and in my opinion it is not just because we allow it, but we also condone and support it.

I don’t know what the solution to that is.

Do you?

Two Songs

It’s interesting how every now and again music (especially praise & worship music) will sort of ambush you with conviction. It could be a completely new song to you, or one you’ve heard a bunch of times. It won’t matter. You’ll just get kicked in the nuts and convicted in a really powerful way.

It happened to me twice today (so far). The first was on the way to work this morning when I heard this:

Lead Me, by Sanctus Real. It describes very well what it takes to lead a family, and this morning it spotlighted the areas where I’ve been remiss.

Nut shot number one.

Later on, I had to drive back to town on an errand, and I was just kind of looking around at the fields as they went by on the way back to the office. I started thinking the countryside out here was not much to look at. Master of irony that I am, I wondered for a minute what God was thinking when he made this particular little patch of desert.

Then I heard this song:

Nut shot number two. Filled With Your Glory, by Starfield.

I realized I take the things and places God made completely for granted. There is beauty in all His creations, and if I choose to see only ashes, that’s on me. I think I need to also try and make sure the eyes of my heart are open when I’m driving. You can see better that way.

The desert is magnificent in its own way, and that people can actually (and quite successfully) pull crops from it is truly a testament to God’s glory and man’s God-given resourcefulness.

Take a listen to these songs, and maybe they’ll mean something to you, too.

How Do We Stop This?

At first I had no plans to address the topic of guns and gun control. It’s an extremely volatile and polarizing topic, but also because most of the people I know here have a pretty good idea how I feel anyway.

Then the Aurora movie theater shooting happened, and more recently the Clackamas mall shooting and of course the murder of twenty first graders and six adults in Newtown, Connecticut. I knew there would be a public outcry regarding guns and gun ownership, as if the guns themselves did the killing.

I felt compelled to address a few points, and people can make what they want of it.

The debate is nothing new, after all. People have been talking about gun control probably ever since there have been guns. For crying out loud, you used to have to leave your sidearm with the saloonkeeper while you were drinking and playing cards. Of course, they’d give it back to you when you left…

To my knowledge, it has also always been legal for United States citizens to own firearms. The second amendment to the constitution was adopted in 1791, along with the rest of the bill of rights. The second amendment has long been the rallying cry for gun enthusiasts as it grants them the right to “keep and bear arms.”

Gun control enthusiasts, on the other hand, have often pointed to this section with a little more detail:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed

They make the point that there is no longer much call for a “well regulated militia” as our all volunteer armed forces and various law enforcement agencies take care of armed protection. Consequently, people also no longer need firearms to protect themselves at a local level.

I understand their point, and I get that the makers of the constitution were just coming off a war where the “well regulated militia” is what made the difference. These were men with little military experience and often not much training who were willing to put down their plows and pitchforks and take up the musket to ensure their basic human freedoms.

In 2008, the Supreme Court held that the individual had the right to possess a firearm for traditionally lawful purposes in federal enclaves, such as one’s home. This decision took the militia argument out of the equation.

It’s easy to understand the concerns of people regarding firearms, given the terrible acts of violence visited upon our country and others. The Norway massacre comes to mind, as well as shootings in Scotland and Israel over the past 10-15 years.

I get it, I really do. I will even admit that some sort of measures need to be taken to ensure massacres like what happened last week do not become commonplace, though I fear that is where we are headed. Yet I do not believe taking away people’s right to protect their homes and families is the way to make that happen.

It would seem, though, some sort of restrictions as to which weapons and how many of them are available to people might be in order. It’s difficult to understand why a citizen looking to protect themselves would need something like an assault weapon with a potential capacity for more than 100 rounds, semi-auto or otherwise.

Actually, it’s hard to understand why anyone would need an assault weapon at all, excepting military service or zombie apocalypse. Yet, I know people who are avid collectors and have several of them. These men and women are not the people we generally need to worry about.

Legislation only works if people allow themselves to be subject to it. Therefore even if some sort of…all encompassing ban of firearms was to take place, it would only be as effective as the people who obeyed it. And the truth is, if someone is willing to swap their lives for a killing, even if they do not have a firearm they can do a great deal of harm (such as the OKC Federal building a while back).

Of course, there’s also the fact you can’t really enforce legislation directed toward gun-wielding criminals, as well as psycho or sociopaths who might use their weapons for an other than lawful purpose. Also, I don’t think anyone could argue the individuals perpetrating these horrible crimes likely have some moderate to serious issues with mental illness.

The other thing to consider is that while it is people and not guns that kill, it is also hard to argue we’ve created a culture where violence is commonplace and life has so little meaning it has become almost almost arbitrary. Lives are legally ended before they even begin, and the entertainment industry sells violence to our children in shiny and appealing packages so that nothing is shocking anymore.

The dialog may begin with gun control, but it certainly does not end there. It is much more complicated than that. Consider this: People have also been saying gun owners who have firearms to protect their homes are more likely to hurt themselves than any intruder. This is patently false. Of course, it is much less sensational and interesting for the media to report when this sort of thing actually happens, so they often do not report it at all. Take the Clackamas shooting, for instance. A young man legally carrying concealed drew his weapon and faced the shooter, ultimately forcing him into a stairwell where he took his own life.

I believe the truth is that the only thing that stops a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun. Also that the bad people will always be armed, and do not live by the same rules as the rest of us.

I am a gun owner, and both weapons I have are small caliber. I got them to shoot at targets, not burglars. But I do have them, and I would rather have them than not. If the choice was between using them and harm to my family or anyone, really, I would use them without regret. I would put a hundred bullets into a person intending harm to a child before I would allow them to carry out their intentions.

My weapons are kept safe, and away from my kids. In any case, I know I haven’t answered any questions with this big pile of letters, but I felt the need to address a certain demographic of folks who understand neither guns, nor gun owners.

I have the legal right to possess a firearm, without being a member of a well regulated militia. Those people do, too. Whether or not they choose to exercise it is their affair. Yet I would submit that trying to enforce any sort of blanket restriction is stupid, and very similar to what the country had fought against when the constitution was drafted in the first place.

I will also acknowledge that certain points within the “gun control debate” do need to be addressed. I don’t know what the answers are, but I believe a healthy discourse between all parties is a start.

Some potential topics?

1. Assault weapons, both automatic and semi-auto.

a. Who can have them?

b. Are they needed in the private sector?

c. What for?

2. Round capacity for magazines.

a. What is needed?

b. What is enough?

c. Is anyone going to shoot a deer more than once or twice?

3. What is the criteria for whether or not a person can purchase a gun of any sort? Should there be criteria?

4. What are the repercussions if a gun is used to defend a home? Are “stand your ground” laws the answer?

So many questions, and not many real attempts to find answers as yet.

It needs to start somewhere, and we need to set aside partisan rhetoric in the interest of getting to the heart of the matter and making real and desperately needed changes in the interest of saving lives and preserving freedoms.

So let’s talk, people.

Mount Ottoman

My little guy is a jumper (a climber, too, thanks to his grandma’s side of the family). We have these 3 padded ottomans in our living room we use for footrests and toy storage. John has taken to climbing on top of them and then jumping as far as he can toward the couch.

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(here he is, right before a leap)

Of course, since he’s only 1, his little legs don’t carry him very far and he usually ends up getting caught mid-air by daddy before he hurts himself.

What struck me the other day was his jump routine: he gets up on the ottoman, and then gets this expression of utter joy on his little face as he launches himself.

He leaps, completely without fear. Into daddy’s arms, knowing that daddy will catch him.

I wish I was like that, especially where God is concerned. I want to take leaps of faith and know that daddy is on the other end of my leap with his arms open. Instead, I often do the opposite.

Instead of leaping, I climb back down off whatever height I’d scaled and I never jump at all.

I need to leap, even if I’m afraid.

I need to trust God to catch me.

I need to put fear where it belongs in matters of faith, or I really don’t have the faith I claim to.

Psalm 56 says: when I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise. What can mere mortals do to me?

I need to leap fearlessly, with the faith of a child.

If I’m able to do that, I can move mountains.

No Easy Answers

I know this guy at work who says he always carries a gun when he’s out and about and isn’t at work (in case anyone who doesn’t know me reads this, I live in Arizona and you don’t need a permit to carry). I never really thought much about it prior to Friday morning, when I heard about what happened in Aurora. I was just a little surprised to hear carrying was legal here–I come from California.

I am fairly certain that in the days and weeks to come the media will feature passionate testimonies from proponents of the right to carry and those who hate firearms above nearly all other things. People will talk about how much our country has become the wild west, and in a sense, it has.

It’s different, though.

Many people now have so little regard for human life taking one probably seems almost mundane. I don’t know if it’s a cultural thing, or something brought on by overexposure to and desensitization from violence through films, music, or video games.

I don’t why this person did what he did. We probably never will, at least not in a way that makes sense.

I do know that God didn’t pull the trigger. James Holmes did. He used legally obtained firearms that were clearly easy for him to get. No one knows what would have happened if he had not had such quick and easy access to guns. Perhaps he would have made a bomb of some sort (Timothy McVeigh didn’t use a gun, and ended up murdering over a hundred people in Oklahoma City a while back).

Inevitably, someone will recommend all guns be outlawed, or something to that effect. This will be countered by defenders of the second amendment.

And all I can think about is my friend who goes everywhere armed. Sure, not everyone is as responsible with their guns as my friend, but I can’t help but think if there’d been a couple people like him in theater 9 the outcome may have been different.

Yes, as a matter of fact I do own a couple of firearms. I have no plans to shoot anything but paper targets with them unless someone tries to harm me or my family.

Yet I wonder what I would do to protect them, and would it be the same if it were strangers in a movie theater?

Would I kill?

When I think about it like that, the answer is yes I would. If someone is willing to swap their lives for a killing, it’s probably the only way you’re going to stop them from doing it.

I think about all the dead and wounded in Aurora at the hands of this dark creature, and I think if I had the chance to do something and did not do it, I wouldn’t ever be able to forgive myself.

I think in that situation, I’d have to put the guy down as quickly as possible.

I don’t think extreme gun control is the answer.

One need only look at what’s been happening in Chicago with the ridiculous murder rate, where there are many hoops to jump through if a person desires to own a gun.

Then look at Arizona. The difference is easy to see. I am not trying to say that carrying a firearm is the answer to crime. I’m only saying that something that could potentially save a life is better than removing even that chance because of some misguided political agenda.

We are in for some tough discussions in the days ahead.