THINKING ABOUT THE LAST 46 YEARS

A new creation in Christ

It was 46 years ago this month that I found out that Jesus is a real person. When that happened I turned from my own way of living & surrendered my life & future to Him. 

Since then, my life has never been the same since then. I’d like to share just a few of the things He has done to prove Himself to me. (Not “prove” in a scientific sense; that’s really an Enlightenment construct that has only been known for a few hundred years & that only a small minority of the world has ever used to measure truth. I mean in more of a sense of verifying His truth & affirming my obedience to Him.)

He has transformed my values & desires. I can remember as a rebellious & hard-headed teenager, my desire was nothing more than to become a professional musician. I was committed to doing whatever I thought would make me happy. My reality & priorities revolved around ME. Since then, my desires have revolved around finding & fulfilling God’s plan for the life He had entrusted to me. Granted, I have not always done that perfectly, but the “True North” of my life was radically changed.

BC me

He has made my life complete. 46 years ago, I was an emotional mess. Along with being self-centered, I was afraid. I remember seeing a counselor who recognized this & encouraged me to get help. I didn’t do it because I was also apathetic. Although the world is becoming more & more disfunctional & broken with each passing decade, my experience of His presence & peace continues to deepen.

He has guided my experiences & relationships. I’m thankful for all the friends He has brought into my life as a result of the processes & experiences He has led me into. They have all enriched me beyond description. My wife Deborah & children Allen & Jen; so many Christian & non-Christian friends in America & throughout the world. Everyone in their own unique way has been used by God to bring blessings to me. I pray He has used me to do the same for them.

He has taken me places I never expected to go. How could an 18-year-old ever conceive of doing the things I have been privileged to do & the places I have been blessed to live & serve in the last 4 ½ decades? He opened my eyes to the world. He allowed me to participate in ways I couldn’t in my wildest dreams imagine.

Today I’m just taking some time to think about these things & to thank my God.

THE “YOU DIDN’T BUILD THAT” MYTH

Remember the age-old question about what came first, the chicken or the egg? A few years ago then-President Obama made an often-quoted statement about what came first in the process of things being produced in the private sector. The implication was that without government, nothing of value will happen.

Because of the way he framed his statement, it makes sense. But only if you don’t take time to think critically about how things work in the real world.

I’d like to respectfully disagree with his notion, based on a couple of very basic ideas.

First, government does not have the ability to produce anything of economic value. What do I mean? Government does a lot of things. For example, it legislates & enforces laws; it adjudicates cases that involves those laws; it may regulate activities (& the list goes on & on, seemingly to infinity). But one thing is absent in all this: the actual production of anything of economic value.

Second, while government cannot by its nature produce wealth, it can manipulate wealth & its creation or use. How does it manipulate it? By the only means at its disposal – coercion. I believe this is why people sometimes grimace at the thought of taxes. Subconsciously they resent that the salary or profit that they have worked so hard to produce is penalized thru a portion of it being taken away.

So, why do I differ with Obama’s statement? Because he says that whatever part government plays in the creation of wealth is primary in the process. No, government has whatever economic resources it has because someone has already produced it.

Mr. Obama, I DID build that. If I didn’t, you couldn’t tax it.

SURVIVAL MODE

Over the years I’ve heard people contrast David & Saul in a lot of ways to. One of those ways is to see what each of them did when confronted with threats to their well-being or plans.

Have you ever seen someone who doesn’t know how to swim flailing in the water trying desperately to keep from drowning? That’s a lot like a disciple facing something that appears to threaten what he wants or believes God wants for him & responding based on what he thinks is necessary to keep that idea alive.

When we are in survival mode, it affects how we make decisions (or act). Survival mode makes the continuation of our life as we know it or hope it to be, or our dreams, plans, & desires, etc. the basis for what we do.

I believe that God allows situations like this to arise in our lives. It’s a part of the normal growth process for disciples & spiritual leaders. It reveals what we are made of, & helps us to see if we are living in survival mode.

Going back to David & Saul, there are times when David almost failed the test, but he generally seemed able to avoid doing things out of a survival mentality. But the need to preserve himself seems to have been one of the areas that contributed to Saul’s inability to overcome his impulsiveness & unreliability.

The Lord is working in me at this time to overcome the survival mentality. We are going thru some challenging seasons personally & in our ministry. (By the way, we really appreciate your prayers!) What are some things that can keep us from falling prey to this mentality? 

Here are a few things that I have learned:

·        “Trust & obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust & obey.”

·        Be aware of your motives for what you do; the Holy Spirit can clear up a lot of the smoke & mirrors that we create.

·        Don’t make your understanding of God’s will so dogmatic that you’re not open to getting a clearer understanding.

·        Accept that many things are more important than your plans & desires, as noble as they might seem to be.

·        Don’t compromise in areas of Christian ethics & lifestyle that the Bible makes clear, for the sake of what you want.

Remember, in the final analysis, survival is not the goal; faithfulness to God & His plan is!

WHAT HAPPENED TO MR. SMITH?

Did you ever see the movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” with Jimmy Stewart? It was made in 1939 & its appeal was based on the idea that politicians, especially professional ones, are prone to corruption & should not be trusted.

Such a sentiment is not new. Neither is the one behind the call to “Drain the Swamp.”

One of our Founders, James Madison, recognized that men are not angels. Based on that reality, those who labored diligently to produce the Constitution, which prescribes the structure & operation of our Federal government, set it up to include 3 branches. They expected that, human nature being what it is, each branch would compete with the others for power. (Contrary to what some seem to think, a Special Counsel is not a fourth branch.) In doing so, each branch would essentially hold the other branches accountable.

For much of my lifetime, it has been fashionable in popular entertainment to describe business & corporate leaders as the most corrupt class that exists. The accompanying implication (often unspoken) has been that those in government are more honest & altruistic than those in business. I don’t believe that is true. No one is an angel, but elected officials who only occasionally answer to the electorate are much more prone to corruption that those in the private sector. (In addition to elected, there are hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats who make up the monolith we call the Federal & state governments & are known to no one.) Unlike those in government, those in the private sector must face the “real world” every day to survive economically & legally.

We have mid-term elections coming up soon. Pray for godly people who recognize the challenge of corruption to be placed in positions of authority & responsibility. Then put feet on your prayers by voting for those candidates.