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Sunday, September 28, 2014

The Most Religious People I Know

  
Atheists Demand Cross Found in Rubble be Removed from 9/11 Museum
Atheists Say Nobody Needs Christ in Christmas
Atheists Demand Monument to War Heroes be Removed   
Atheists Unveil Monument to Atheists Near the Ten Commandments
Atheists Demand Right to Give Invocations at Government Meetings
Atheists Demand Governor Scott Walker Remove Scripture Tweet
Atheists Demand City Remove Cross in Tennessee

It was fascinating stuff.  Although I am not a supporter or an advocate of their cause, I must confess a reluctant respect for their commitment and devotion to their beliefs. According to the Pew Research Council, 1.6 % of Americans identify themselves as atheist. Their tiny numbers have not stopped them from producing a sea change of educational and societal transformation in recent years.  

A few things struck me as I shifted through the plethora of information I uncovered.  Nearly every headline I came across contained the phrase “atheists demand.” I found this odd. I finally concluded that the typical atheist must be so convinced by what they see as the righteousness of their cause that they feel it acceptable to demand others give in to their minority views.

 The number of stories detailing their undertakings astounded me. There were hundreds of articles describing similar demands by atheist groups in different locations. This led me to wonder about how atheists spend their time. They certainly seem to have more of it than most people. I wondered if they had families, other hobbies, or if maybe there might be rampant unemployment in atheist circles.

 Last but not least, I couldn’t help but notice that these people get awfully worked up over an issue they believe to be a fairytale. 

The question is: why?

 I do not believe in Snow White, Superman, Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. And it does not bother me that some do.   I do not feel the need to enact legislation limiting a parent’s right to spread those legends or fight for freedom from belief in such things.

I pondered all this for quite some time and finally concluded that atheists are actually the most religious people I know. Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines a zealot as: 

A person who has very strong feelings about something (such as religion or politics) and who wants other people to have those feelings: a zealous person.

The Oxford dictionary put a slightly different but noteworthy twist on that definition:

A person who is fanatical and uncompromising in pursuit of their religious, political, or other ideals.

Webster’s defines religion as:

An interest, a belief, or an activity that is very important to a person or group.

It’s not an overstatement to say that most atheists are fanatical in their opinions. Atheists are, by their own admission, intent on converting every person on Earth to their beliefs. They go to great effort and expense to proselytize the unbelieving. They are passionately dedicated to the pursuit of their vision of a godless world. Sounds an awful lot like a religious zealot to me. 

Again, the question is: why?

It’s really very simple. Atheists are invested in their belief system for the same reasons Christians are invested in theirs. It’s a faith thing. Atheism is all about faith; it’s just that their faith is in nothing rather than in something or someone. Atheists have more riding on their faith than the average Christian does.

If Christians are wrong about their convictions, then Christians have lost very little at the end of their lives. They might miss out on an opportunity or two to indulge their baser nature but little else. If atheists are wrong and Christians are right about God, life, and life after death, then things will not go well for the atheist in the hereafter.

Until recently, I found atheists to be maddening. I was offended by their dogged insistence that everyone believe as they do. It irritated me to no end that a tiny minority of the population was working so hard to control the type of information everyone else can access. I was appalled by their endless demands and their apparent disdain of fun, revealed by their loathing to all things connected to Christmas.

I have had a change of heart. I no longer see atheists not as irritations, but rather as role models for the type of dedication I would like to have to my own faith. I have come to realize that if I can somehow channel their enthusiasm while maintaining an attitude of love and spirit of graciousness, I too might just make the kind of cultural impact that atheists have made.

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised~ 1st Corinthians 2:14 NASB













Sunday, September 21, 2014

Five Mistakes Even Good Mothers Make


Having a young child in our home for the first time in nearly a decade has driven me to do and think about things I haven’t thought about or done in a very long time. Things like chore charts and discipline methods, dance lessons, parent teacher nights, Disney movies, themed birthday parties, homework, sleepovers (ugh), and the social politics of fifth-grade girls (more ugh).    

  I read parenting books compulsively and am far more attuned the parenting I see going on around me. I will shamelessly ask anyone I meet who has adopted or fostered an older child for advice. My hope is that I will glean some wisdom and insight that will empower me to maneuver this latest challenge God has placed in my life.

One question I typically ask Mothers of older kids is:

Is there anything at all you wish you could do over?

 Even the Mothers I have admired most confess at least a few things they wish they had done differently. After countless conversations I have concluded that even the best mothers would like a second chance in at least some areas. Following are five mistakes even the best Mothers make:  

Failing to become a student of your child

Many of the older Mothers I have spoken with deeply regret not understanding who their kids really were and imposing their own goals on their kids. The number one responsibility of a Mother is to assist her child in knowing and understanding him or herself. Kids need to be aware of their strengths as well as their weak spots. It is not a Mother’s job to decide what a child should do and then guide them toward her goals for their lives, but rather to observe her kids and help them to dream dreams and form goals based on their own unique talents and abilities.

Thinking bad behaviors are cute

Intense competitiveness, smart mouthing, nitpickiness, precociousness with the opposite sex, melodrama and enhancing the truth can be oddly charming on adorable little children. Those same actions become less charming and even offensive when you’re dealing with an older kid or an adult. The next time your little cutie gets cozy with the boy or girl next door, saunters out in a skimpy ensemble, demands they win for the hundredth time, tells you a whopper of a tale, or says something saucy, try and imagine what that behavior might look like on a fourteen-year-old. Any seasoned Mom will tell you that it’s easier to break a habit in a child than in a teenager.

Disregarding the spiritual

 Every human being has a dark side. It’s our nature. Belief in the God of the Bible has helped keep the ugly side of humankind in check for eons. Taking your kid to church and teaching them to apply Christian principles to their lives will go a long way in helping to keep narcissism, greed, violent tendencies, and self-interest from spiraling out of control in future years.

Not finding out what they really think

Even the best Moms can be guilty of telling kids what to think rather than finding out what and why they think what they think. When we push our views without listening to theirs we drive wrong thinking underground where the wrong thinking becomes embedded in their character. Ask questions to discover what your kids believe about issues. Don’t jump to correct every little thing they say or they will shut down and stop talking. Instead, ask them further questions about why they think what they think and then gently help them see the eventual end game of a faulty belief system.

An unwillingness to change your mind or admit wrong

 Admitting we got something wrong and changing course in front of our kids is one of the most uncomfortable and humbling things in the world. We have to do it on occasion because it is extraordinarily prideful and foolish not to. It’s not as if they won’t figure out on their own that we don’t actually know everything. Kids desperately need role models who are willing to humble themselves, apologize when wrong and change course when necessary.

One truth I am relearning is that good parenting is not really about being perfect (thank heavens). Good parenting is about loving our kids enough to help them discover who they really are and what they might be good at. It’s about modeling grace and humility. Good parenting is about looking ahead at what present behavior might eventually become and loving our kids enough to educate them about the God who loves them even more than we do. 

A good person gives life to others, the wise person teaches others how to live~ Proverbs 11:30 NCV








 

   












    




Sunday, September 14, 2014

Love is Not Enough



It’s been a depressing week. Nothing truly awful occurred; just a whole bunch of petty little first-world problems that conspired together to wreck my week. I’ve been sick, my husband has been out of town, and we’ve had car problems, problems with the dog, scheduling issues with our kids, and on top of everything else it’s September and it still feels like July in Tucson.

My blue mood intensified on Tuesday while I was searching the Internet for an article. I could remember what the article was about, but not the title or who wrote it. So I spent the better part of an hour undertaking the modern equivalent of searching for a needle in a haystack. I never did find what I was looking for, but I did come across a rather bitter tirade written by a former Christian turned irate atheist. Among other things, his diatribe contained a list of prominent Christian leaders who have failed morally in the last decade. The length of the list was appalling.

But it got me thinking.  

Why do Christian leaders fail?

They shouldn’t. If there is any type of leader on earth who should be able to hold it together it’s a Christian leader. And yet the last three decades have given the world some really outstanding examples of leadership failure within the Christian community. Jim and Tammy Faye Baker, Doug Phillips, Bob Coy, Ted Haggard, and Tony Alamo are just a few of the more notorious examples of Christian failure the world has witnessed in recent years.  

 This is an issue all Christians should think about for a couple of reasons. First:

All Christians are leaders.

Parents lead children, managers and business owners lead employees, employees and students lead their peers, and teachers lead students. If you are a believer in Jesus and you aren’t leading someone in some way, you are doing something terribly wrong. There is no leader on earth who is immune to temptation. We need to understand why leaders fail so we can avoid moral failure in our own lives and preserve our influence in the world.

  Christian leadership failure hurts everyone.

Failure damages the person who fails; they lose their incomes, influence, reputations, and sometimes even their families. Moral failure devastates followers, shatters trust and tests faith. Moral failure makes it challenging for all Christians to spread the gospel. It is difficult to convince those on the periphery of the faith that Jesus has the power to change and empower people when Church leadership can’t uphold some very basic principles of the faith. Tragically, moral failure hurts unbelievers most of all, giving them a handy excuse to never ponder the claims of Christ, ensuring that they will spend eternity without Him.    

Popular theories of why moral failure occurs are many and varied, but a list of contributing factors usually includes:

Lack of accountability
Isolation of the leader
Stress
Pride
Too few boundaries
Too many temptations
Fatigue and depression     

All of these issues can and often do contribute to leadership failure, but there is more to it. One thing is clear: moral failure is not always about a lack of love for Jesus. I cannot speak for every Christian leader who has fallen. But I can tell you that every Christian I have ever known who has failed morally has loved God deeply and passionately.

 Lack of love is not the problem. Lack of fear is.

 Love is a soft squishy emotion that is easy to push aside when other emotions like greed and lust are riding high. Fear of God has got to become a central part of our belief system. If it doesn’t, we will undoubtedly fall victim to the first appealing temptation that comes along during a moment of stress or weakness.

Fear of God has gotten a bad rap in the last few years. The expression conjures up images of edgy Christians biting their nails and cowering in corners. It’s really a deceptive image of fearing the Lord. Fearing God is not about being afraid. Fear of the Lord simply means that we really believe that God will bring the consequences He has promised in His word to those who violate His commands.

A fear of the Lord must be cultivated in a person’s life. It begins with remembering that not all of God’s promises are pleasant and that God does discipline those whom He loves most.

The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a person from the snares of death~ Proverbs 14:27


Sunday, September 7, 2014

Why the Epidemic of Bad Leadership is our Own Fault

Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. 
Yet they look for the Lord’s support and say, 
 “Is not the Lord among us? Micah 3:11  

Western civilization is obsessed with the concept of leadership.  This fact was driven home recently as I passed through a Barnes and Noble bookstore. I wandered into the leadership section and found what appeared to be an unending supply of books on what I foolishly thought at the time was every possible aspect of leadership.

I was intrigued by the abundance of choices and I wanted to see if I could find more. So I did a quick Internet search. There I uncovered a plethora of far more specialized titles on the subject.

 I found books on the art of leadership, primal leadership (no, I’m not kidding), women and leadership, the history of leadership, future-focused leadership, leadership and ethics, courageous leadership, principal-centered leadership; leadership styles, and the perils of leadership. In subsequent searches I found 152,000,000 conferences and 465,000,000 articles for leaders and would-be leaders who lack the time, energy, or attention span for an entire book.

The absurd abundance of resources begs the question.

If we are so obsessed with leadership, why are there so many genuinely terrible leaders out there?

There are teachers and youth leaders who have sex with students; parents who abdicate decision-making to their kids; managers who mistreat employees; CEOs who swindle stockholders; legislators who lie; and pastors who steal, manipulate and spiritually abuse their flocks. Powerful but bungling politicians wring their hands and appear flummoxed as innocents die and the world spins out of control.  

This clear contradiction between the leadership we have and the availability of resources on the subject makes absolutely no sense, at least on the surface. After much thought I have concluded that we are at fault for the leadership we see all around us for four reasons.

Most of us don’t vote

 Every election year, 40 percent of the Americans who can vote choose not to. Sadly, this number includes many Christians who irrationally believe that it is better to vote for no one as opposed to the lesser of two evils. A vote for no one is not a noble decision to abstain from two bad choices. It is actually a default vote for the greater of the two evils.    

We value the wrong things in leaders

The vast majority of today’s leaders are well groomed, well educated, have adorable families, tell cute jokes, and own iPhones. Sadly, many are lacking integrity, wisdom, knowledge and a valid skill-set. They look good on television but couldn’t lead a brownie scout out of a long corridor with a flashlight and a map. This indicates that most of us value style over substance and do not wish to look beyond the surface when electing or hiring a leader.

We are tragically and willfully ignorant

A good chunk of today’s populace is uninformed on nearly every critical subject. This includes history, politics, the Bible, economics, and most current events that don’t involve a celebrity or natural disaster. This means that when the vast majority of people do cast a vote they are relying on either their opinions or their feelings. Their feelings are often based on what the ladies on The View tell them to think, surface issues (see above), misleading campaign ads, or the opinions of their equally uniformed friends. It’s appalling and wrong and it needs to change.

We want the wrong things

 Tragically, many Americans seem more interested in receiving free birth control, expanding the “right” to abort the unborn and smoking marijuana than in foreign policy and implementing sound economic principles. Most Christians have little interest in free birth control, expanding abortion or smoking marijuana. Nonetheless most of us do choose to stay ignorant of any issue that causes us to feel sad or helpless. We would much rather focus on our cool churches, individual families and messages that empower us to feel positive about our lives but teach us nothing of substance. Few are concerned with the integrity of leadership or the teaching of hard or unpleasant biblical truth.  As long as these facts continue to be true, we will have terrible leaders who give us exactly what we want and ignore the stuff that really matters.

As long the majority chooses to wallow in willful ignorance, care about all the wrong things and refuse to get involved, we will continue to get exactly what we deserve: leaders who tell us what they think we want to hear and do nothing good. It’s not too late to move things in a more optimistic direction. Midterm elections are in November. There is still time to get registered, get educated on the issues, get your butt to the ballot box and pray like crazy. What this world needs right now is some intelligent, informed Christians on their knees praying. 

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land~ 2nd Chronicles 7:14 NIV