An Average Joe

Who am I? I'm just your average middle-class American. You know the average Joe that everyone is talking about. The ones the polititians claim to be working to protect and the ones that the Occupy movement claims to represent. I'm just one of the many desperate souls lost in the sea of the 99%.

So what does this mean for me? What is life really like? Well, let me tell you, it's a lot of work.

I have to work 40-50 hours per week just to bring home enough money to feed my family and put a roof over their head. It's crazy. It just sems like there's no time to do anything but work to pay the bills.

You see, the expenses just keep stacking up. Everyone needs food, water, and shelter right?

Food. I have no idea how to grow vegetables, hunt, or raise livestock so I pay someone else to do those things. Then packaging and preserving seems to be a lot of work, so I'll pay someone else to do that part too. I've head that some of their methods for doing this involve lots of chemicals and may pollute the environment, but I'm sure the government will crack down on that soon. At least I hope they do. At any rate, groceries aren't the only way to get food. I can always pay someone else to prepare the entire meal for me. That's such a great option. No fuss. No cleanup. Just sit down and let someone else do the work. Now that's something I could get used to.

Water. Everyone absolutely must have clean water so I pay someone to gather, purify, and deliver that water right into my house. But you know the funny thing? I don't actually like the taste of it so I pay someone else to add a ton of synthetic ingredients to it to sweeten it up and I just drink that.

Shelter. I have a lot of stuff and I love to have my friends over so I need a lot of space. Every chance I get I move to a bigger place because more and more stuff seems to be building up in my home. Then I have to pay someone else to give me the energy to heat it in the winter and cool it in the summer. I just can't stand the temperature swings of the changing seasons. But it's not all bad, I get to use that energy to light my house and stay up late into the night instead of being told by the sun when to go to bed. Then I pay someone else to create a drug to get me to sleep at night. Then there's coffee. Some may call it a luxury, but I call it a necessity. After staying up late by the light of my house, I can barely get going the next day without my favorite cup of joe.

And that's just the basics of food, water and shelter! There's still the cost of movies, music, internet, and video games for my entertainment. And since I have to work so hard to pay all these bills, I absolutely have to have a vacation every year. Wait, make that 2 vacations. No wait, make that a summer full of mini-vacations, plus one big one, plus another one in the long winter months just to get me through. And I get bored with my surroundings so I'll have to shell out some extra change to go somewhere new and exciting. Good thing I can always pay someone else to give me more money if I run out.

Who am I? I guess I'm actually the very rich, and very blessed 1%. And now I need to figure out what I am going to do in response to the real 99%.

http://www.globalrichlist.com/

You Can Still Come Back

Sin is one of those aweful things that not only causes a rift between the sinner and his God, but it tends to plant the seed of doubt and shame as well. For me, sin has often left me in a state of ovoidance toward God. I have this perception that He is mad at me or that He doesn't want to hear how I've failed yet again. But I am learning more and more that the God we serve is far more forgiving than I think.

1 Sam 12:20-22

20 “Do not be afraid,” Samuel replied. “You have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. 21 Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless. 22 For the sake of his great name the LORD will not reject his people, because the LORD was pleased to make you his own.

Samuel strikes right at the heart of the matter. Yes, you've sinned. But don't let that keep you from moving forward. Recognize your sin, ask forgiveness, repent, and move on. Or in the words of my old boss, "Own it, fix it, and get over it."

This verse is very reassuring to me as a sinner who often needs to come back to a loving God. I am grateful that his grace extends to me and to anyone else who will ask for it.

Active Listening

So lately I've been wondering how in the world to get people to listen. Not an easy thing to do. Marketing people try a whole host of strategies. Humor, Sex, Volume, Trickery, Bait and Switch, Lavish Promises, etc. Then there is the media who try to sensationalize things and drum up juicy stories that are sure to whet our appetite for more, more, more.

But in reality, I think it all becomes such a great cacophony of noise, that in reality nobody is listening anymore.

So now that all of these idiots have gone and made so much noise about useless products and non-newsworthy sensationalized stories, what is the church to do? When we actually have a message worth hearing, how do we get people to listen?

Not only that, how do we communicate within the body? How do we get the attention of the Church and direct them to the very real problems in the world? How do we get people to care when their ears have gone deaf from the noise?

Here are some suggestions, but I'd like some feedback in order to flesh this out further.

1. Limit your exposure. Determine how you are going to get fair, balanced, accurate, and comprehensive news coverage and leave all other options untouched.

2. Create a focus area(s). Find a very small set of issues that matter to you and/or you can/want to do something about and read everything you can about them.

3. Get involved in the areas that matter to you. In the end this is what matters. After all, no news story can ever portray the truth you can find by getting involved.

4. Talk with others about the things that interest you. Word of mouth is still the most powerful way to spread a message.

5. Keep it all in perspective. We are ever and always on Kingdom business. Our involvement in the world is Christ's work in us. We need to be fired up with His passion and His perspective. We need to spend lots more time in Prayer and in the Word than we spend elsewhere.

Un-Safe for the Whole Family

I have a dream about a radio station that would be anything but "safe for the whole family" - which happens to be the tag line of our local Christian radio station. I have a lot of issues with our current "christian" radio stations - both the music stations and the talk radio stations. If I were to design my ideal radio station it would look a little bit like this:

Programming
It would have a healthy balance of music and talk.

MUSIC: The music would would be guided by lyrics only. We might divide genre into different segments of the day but that would be the only consideration for "style." Songs would only be allowed if they had a strong Biblical message. Songs such as "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield would never be allowed.

TALK: Talk would be solely about kingdom issues. It would feature local opportunities like rescue missions, adoption agencies, foster homes, elder care, etc. It would also include global opportunities such as World Vision and IJM. It would also feature reports from missionaries, local individuals and groups getting involved in ministry, Christian organizations of all sizes, and testimonies from changed lives.

Commercials
Funding. This is not my strong suit. But I am against any commercials that promote consumerism. If anyone is going to pay us for airtime it's to promote a kingdom cause. So for example, World Vision could buy a spot to encourage sponsorship. Or the local rescue mission could buy a spot to encourage people to donate their used cars. But no commercials for the latest deals at the local grocery store.

Also prohibited are political ads of any kind. Regardless of party affiliation and regardless of the issue, no ads for candidates or ballot measures will be allowed. Should a website or other resource be available for a clear and balanced review of an issue or the candidates, listeners will be directed to there for more information.

News
News would not just be news, but local, national, and world-wide updates that encourage prayer. We would seek out news stories from under-reported areas. Rather than get people up in arms about Health Care, we would work to inform people of the atrocities in Darfur. News would be a call to action and a call to prayer. We would also try to balance the news with praise and celebration stories. Stories about the kingdom of God advancing in a life, a city, a country, or a region. We would give fuel for people's worship.

Politics
When we talk about the humanitarian needs across the world, you may occasionally trip upon a political issue. However much I detest the thought, we cannot escape the reality of our political world. Rather than ignore it, I want to provide a balanced view of it. There are wonderful Christians on both the right and the left of our political world. When the need arises I would like to provide fair and balanced DISCUSSION about the issues. No arguing, no fighting, no backstabbing accusations. Just simple and honest views on both sides of the issue at hand. And to keep all political views in check realizing that in the end the kingdom issues are of far more importance than those of the world. In an ideal setting, this portion of the programming would take up a very small fraction of the radio time.

In the end such a station would be anything but safe. It would promote a radical, action oriented, faith-trying, daring type of Christian walk. I've had enough of safe. How about we step out in faith instead.

Scum

So you would think that after answering 9-1-1 calls all day I would simply turn off the news, turn off the radio, and shut myself off to the world and forget all of its ugliness. But I found myself driving home the other day listening to yet another story of evil and corruption in the world. This one really caught my attention though.

The story was about a public official who really got himself into hot water. This guy’s political career begins to unravel when he gets word that his son has raped his daughter (ie brother raped sisister). Rather than try to assist authorities in bringing justice, he tries to keep it on the DL. That is until one of his other sons can’t take it anymore and kills his brother.

Now with one dead rapist for a son and another son in hiding, he again tries to ignore the situation to preserve his public image. After a while his son (the murderer) starts a smear campaign that basically ousts his father from office.

In an act of revenge, the father’s “friends” go out and kill his son. Now if you are starting to take pity on this guy now that two sons are dead and his daughter suffering from being raped, wait till you find out what a shining example of manhood this guy set for his children.

Long before any of this took place, he had an affair with a married woman. She got pregnant so he tried to cover it up. When that was unsuccessful, he murdered her husband and married her to make it look like a legitimate child.

So what’s the name of this scum bag? King David.

Just when I thought the world couldn’t get any worse, God points out that in reality it’s worse than I’ll ever know. Even the heroes of my childhood Sunday School classes are rapists and murderers.

On what planet are men like that heroes? In what Universe should I set up these figures as examples for my children? Heck, I don’t even want to tell my children these stories. A 5 and 3 year old don’t need to know about rape and murder.

But they do need to know about grace. They need to know that no matter what, God’s grace can and will save. If not for that, we have nothing. And without grace, we have absolutely no hope for a broken world. And should they learn nothing else in life, I pray that that message takes firm roots and goes to the core of their being.

Tech Saavy

As I look around my house, I can find a number of things to occupy my time. And in keeping with the 21st century, most of them are electronic. I have a computer complete with e-mail and facebook. I have a TV, DVD player, VCR, Wii system, N64 (old school baby), Radio, CD Player, MP3 player and a virtually endless supply of media that can be run through these devises.

What’s more, I can think of things I still want. I want an FM transmitter that allows me to listen to my MP3s in the car. I want a larger TV so I can see the score on Fox sports from any seat in the house. I want a full cable package that includes my beloved Mariners. And the list goes on.

But life has a funny way of conspiring against you at times. Not only did we receive another great challenge from the pulpit this weekend to “unplug”, but I’ve also found myself personally fed up with technology this past week.

I guess it started a few weeks ago when I started working nights. Do you know how boring it is to sit up all night in a quiet house? And TV, the internet, the radio, my CDs, etc are no cure for the boredom. In fact they make it worse. I have seen enough commercials advertising juicers, ab workout machines, and male enhancement products to last me a lifetime.

But what’s worse, the time that my family and I are awake together is often invaded by technology. We’ve gotta check our e-mail and facebook to see what’s new. We’ve gotta try our hand at beating each other in the latest Wii game. Or we just simply need to pass the time watching yet another Mythbuster’s episode or beloved movie.

Sometimes I wonder what people did 100 years ago.

Especially on nights that I just want to “veg.” I’m too tired to do much of anything. I just want to “zone out” for a while and let the day’s stress melt off of me. It’s a great excuse for watching TV. But what did people do 100 years ago when they were in a mood like that? I have 3 conclusions. Either they slept, they talked, or they sat in silence. (4th option may be that they read a book, but hey, who’s counting). No matter which of the 3 (or 4) options they selected, it’s got to be better than anything technology can afford.

I think my wife and I would talk more if we didn’t have technology.

In fact, I think I would do a lot more of other things as well. I would sit and think more. I would walk more. I would play with my kids more. I would be more creative. I would definitely read more. I would spend more time with friends. I would minister to others more. And I’d probably even get more done around the house.

Truth be told, I don’t think technology is a sin. But I think gluttony is. And I have become a technological glutton. God help me.

Entangled

Sometimes “Christian” radio drives me crazy!! I was flipping channels when I came across a local radio personality complaining about how the Democrats are using the alleged torture to gain political advantage. (A charge I do not deny) However, in the process of doing so the radio talk show host actually defended the act of waterboarding saying that “some members of our own armed services are waterboarded as part of their training. If it’s so wrong, they should sue their own government.”

WHATTT!!!!!!!????!?!?!??!?!

Have we become so enmeshed with the Republican party that we forget our moral standards? Seriously?

I agree that the Democrats most likely knew about the torture tactics long ago, and that some of those who are calling for the investigations likely knew about this long ago. However, we can decry their political posturing without going so far as to DEFEND torture tactics.

Then as if that was not enough, she went on to make an example of Janet Napolitano (Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security) for commenting that crossing the border isn’t illegal per se. The talk show host then sardonically stated that she should read up on the laws that she is entrusted to enforce.

Are we sure that we want to jump up and down and scream about the masses of people entering our country illegally while tacitly supporting torture tactics? Is that the Christian posture we really want to have in the world?

Sometimes I wonder if we’ve lost our ever-loving mind.