Years ago my husband John had a saying, the origin of which I am not sure. When he wanted to indicate that he was bored, or being lazy, he's say, "Ya, I'm sitting around just watching the curtains mold!" Now where he got that interesting quip is beyond me, but I was reminded of it today. I threw my back out two weeks ago and have been less able to be out and about. During this time I've been reading, watching TV, on the internet, and watching the curtains mold. Perhaps it's just a result of too much time on my hands, but I've been pondering some big ideas, for example:
• why is it that some people thrive on change and imbalance, while others crave
stability, "sameness", and routine?
I know people who are bored by routine, while I thrive on knowing the tasks that need to be accomplished and feel the satisfaction of checking items off the list as I go -- yes, I am a list maker! Something soothing to me about that predictability.
I know people who love change -- my oldest son being one. He loves living in new places, seeing new faces, the challenge of the unexpected, and traveling lightly through life. I, on the other hand, love the stability (in my mind anyway) that is represented by lack of change and sameness.
Now I'd never admit to being a boring stick in the mud, or rigid in my desire to experience a predictable life, but apparently if the shoe fits..... Is it just that I'm getting old enough to notice this by virtue of the fact that I can't move as fast as I used to? Or is it that I'm getting more introspective as I get older? Never mind that I forget what I want to do between points a and b. Or is it that I'm becoming more like this as I get older and therefore it's a relatively new development on the personal scene? Well, baby boomers, how about you? Are predictability and stability more on your mental radar of late, or should I see the mental health care people?
Friday, May 14, 2010
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Unsound Bites
Toward the end of April two of our Pastors began a sermon series called, "Unsound Bites". The title for this post is "stolen" (or at least borrowed, with no intention to return) from them. Pastor Keith started explaining that the media is known for putting sound bites out into the airwaves, and into the minds of listeners. Supporting the notion that those listeners are often passive in their analysis of what they're hearing, it was suggested that slogans, jingles, and catchphrases float through that media - linguistic ether to actually form opinion and frame ideas.
Americans have a long history of contributing to the sound bite library. For example:
"The only thing we have to fear is...";
"Ask not what your country can do for you...";
"Houston, we have a....";
"Elvis has left the....".
(I'm sure that all of you can complete the preceding sound bites, but just in case you can't, the concluding parts are:
"...fear itself";
"...Ask what you can do for your country";
"...problem"; and
"...building".)
There are "religious" sound bites floating around too. Some that my pastors have explored are: "God loves the sinner but hates the sin", "God won't give you more than you can handle?", and "Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship". In the religious realm we know that these sound bites are catchy and memorable, but are they true? I'd like to add another idea that floats through our culture with such frequency that it has developed a ring of credibility. "Why are Evangelical Christians so intolerant?". If you haven't said this, you have probably heard it. But have you investigated it’s veracity?
I suppose the defensive response to this might be, "Do you know all Christians?", or "Are they intolerant about everything, or just some things?". Well, one area where Evangelical Christians are accused of being intolerant would be in their assertion that Jesus is the only way to Heaven. So, the question is: "Who" made this claim? Many people think that this is just the arrogant boast of religious fanatics, who are the equivalent of spiritual Neanderthals. But is that so, or merely a commonly held opinion? It seems that it might be good to know what Jesus said about himself.
In John 14:6 Jesus said, " I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me". He also claimed that he had the authority to forgive sins (in Mark 2:1-12), stated that he had existed before Abraham of the Old Testament (John 8:58), and said that he would live forever (Matt. 28:20). In John 8:24, he even said that if a person didn't believe in him they would die in their sins. These are but a few of the many claims that Jesus made about himself. If you don't believe me, I suggest you read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the New Testament. As a new believer I remember reading the one time atheist, C.S. Lewis', Mere Christianity, and finding his startling evaluation of the idea that Jesus was a good man, and a prophet, but not God. His thoughts unfolded like this:
"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
And so it seems to me, we must make a decision about Jesus. If he is not God and said such things, he is either a liar, or a lunatic, but he is most decidedly not good. We would be fools to live our life for him and entrust our eternal destiny to him. But, if he is indeed God in the flesh, we must respond personally to that claim. That is admittedly difficult in this day of moral relativity, where many believe that there is no such thing as right or wrong, and many people buy into the idea that one religion is as good as another. Never the less, we are confronted with these claims of Jesus. So, we must get off the fence about him! If he is whom he says, then what we believe about him, and how we relate to him, are the most significant, life-altering choices of our life. Isn't it fortunate that the same Jesus gave an invitation saying all who are weary and heavy laden may come. He will give us rest. If you'd like come to him, I'd be so excited to share how you can do that.
Americans have a long history of contributing to the sound bite library. For example:
"The only thing we have to fear is...";
"Ask not what your country can do for you...";
"Houston, we have a....";
"Elvis has left the....".
(I'm sure that all of you can complete the preceding sound bites, but just in case you can't, the concluding parts are:
"...fear itself";
"...Ask what you can do for your country";
"...problem"; and
"...building".)
There are "religious" sound bites floating around too. Some that my pastors have explored are: "God loves the sinner but hates the sin", "God won't give you more than you can handle?", and "Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship". In the religious realm we know that these sound bites are catchy and memorable, but are they true? I'd like to add another idea that floats through our culture with such frequency that it has developed a ring of credibility. "Why are Evangelical Christians so intolerant?". If you haven't said this, you have probably heard it. But have you investigated it’s veracity?
I suppose the defensive response to this might be, "Do you know all Christians?", or "Are they intolerant about everything, or just some things?". Well, one area where Evangelical Christians are accused of being intolerant would be in their assertion that Jesus is the only way to Heaven. So, the question is: "Who" made this claim? Many people think that this is just the arrogant boast of religious fanatics, who are the equivalent of spiritual Neanderthals. But is that so, or merely a commonly held opinion? It seems that it might be good to know what Jesus said about himself.
In John 14:6 Jesus said, " I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me". He also claimed that he had the authority to forgive sins (in Mark 2:1-12), stated that he had existed before Abraham of the Old Testament (John 8:58), and said that he would live forever (Matt. 28:20). In John 8:24, he even said that if a person didn't believe in him they would die in their sins. These are but a few of the many claims that Jesus made about himself. If you don't believe me, I suggest you read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the New Testament. As a new believer I remember reading the one time atheist, C.S. Lewis', Mere Christianity, and finding his startling evaluation of the idea that Jesus was a good man, and a prophet, but not God. His thoughts unfolded like this:
"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on a level with a man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
And so it seems to me, we must make a decision about Jesus. If he is not God and said such things, he is either a liar, or a lunatic, but he is most decidedly not good. We would be fools to live our life for him and entrust our eternal destiny to him. But, if he is indeed God in the flesh, we must respond personally to that claim. That is admittedly difficult in this day of moral relativity, where many believe that there is no such thing as right or wrong, and many people buy into the idea that one religion is as good as another. Never the less, we are confronted with these claims of Jesus. So, we must get off the fence about him! If he is whom he says, then what we believe about him, and how we relate to him, are the most significant, life-altering choices of our life. Isn't it fortunate that the same Jesus gave an invitation saying all who are weary and heavy laden may come. He will give us rest. If you'd like come to him, I'd be so excited to share how you can do that.
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