Monthly Archives: January 2013

One Way?

31 Thursday Jan 2013

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I recently stumbled across a newer version of the Midnight Oil song, “Beds Are Burning.”  80’s music burned itself on my teenage brain and this was one of my favourite songs. Actually, I tend to be partial to a good protest/social awareness song.

Media evokes and provokes. However, producers seem to want us to believe that media can only produce good. Think of all the money raised by “We Are the World.”

Now if you have the audacity to suggest that some of the media that is produced has a negative effect – even just the effect on a child’s worldview that may not be our collective best interest – you will be accused of being hysterical, uninformed, simplistic.

Is it really possible that media works only one way, for good and never for evil?

Get What We Pay For

29 Tuesday Jan 2013

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By the time you read this Oprah will have had her interview with Lance Armstrong and he will have admitted to drug use as part of his training and competing in cycling. Is this really a surprise?

It’s highly unlikely that any elite athlete today hasn’t tried or regularly used some form of enhancement. Even a cursory review of the history of performance drugs reveals that many drugs were made specifically for sport. This doesn’t diminish their natural talent, gazillion hours of training, and other sacrifices to be the best of the the very best. Drugs don’t make an elite athlete; they help make elite athletes more elite.

While I don’t support drug use, the reality is that the consumers (you) want bigger, faster, stronger and they want that year after year. We buy the shoes, shows, and whatever else their bigger, faster, stronger is used to sell us.  Along with this, we don’t want to know how they do it; we want them to lie to us so we can believe in a reality that doesn’t exist.

It’s hypocritical to be shocked and angered when an athlete is found to have used drugs. We are just getting what we are paying for.

Waster

24 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by in Inspiration, Spirituality

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I believe in recycling and do so whenever I can. I don’t like to waste. However, I’m not that good at following all the rules. My newsprint gets mixed into my white paper. I often don’t take labels off cans and bottles (aka never).

I have heard people talk about God as this hyper-efficient, highly structured, being. God is a god of order they say. Truly, we can see order in the universe and other natural structures. However, I suspect people also mean he is like them – rigid, inflexible and conservative. If he recycled he would follow every rule and he would ensure nothing gets wasted. There is some truth in all that and yet there is this other way God acts.

When it comes to loving others God is completely wasteful. He just pours it on, hold nothing back and expects nothing in return.  The impact this waste has on people is transformational. I want to be a waster like that.

If It Works

22 Tuesday Jan 2013

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Do you yell at your kids?  I have three older teens and I find it challenging to not yell at them. I don’t think there’s a better way to turn them into other-centred, loving, responsible and engaged human beings?  If it works, why change it?

The problem is, yelling at my kids doesn’t seem to work at all.  Maybe there is a short term burst of action but things go back to “normal” fairly quickly. Sometimes my yelling not only doesn’t help, I think sometimes it makes things worse.

What if prayer works? I could pray that they become all they were created to be; that they catch and embrace their passionate purpose. I could pray that their hearts are won by God, for truly they will only be other-centred, loving, responsible and engaged human beings when he has their heart. Coincidentally, that’s also what it will take to get them to do chores, homework, even turn off the lights when they leave the room. And while I pray for them, I’ll pray for myself and my own heart, for my heavenly Father has certainly given me the gift of three children so that I might discover my own helplessness and need for his grace.

Users

17 Thursday Jan 2013

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“[Some think that ] If we can make ourselves believe something, then God is obligated to do it. Prayer, in this sense, becomes a means by which we can exercise sovereignty over God by our ability to convince ourselves that something we want is true.”*

Do you have a person in your life who only talks with you when they want something from you? Nobody likes to be used.

Often the way we pray makes us users. We want systems and formulas to make our prayers more effective; we want to do the right things in order for God to hear us and do what we want.

We miss the point of prayer. Prayer is all about relationship with God. Like a couple who are falling in love talking about everything and anything so they can get to know each other, deepening and strengthening their relationship.  Are you ready to move from user to lover?

*I have lost the source for this quote but I keep looking for it.

Faith is for Idiots

14 Monday Jan 2013

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When I used to be a religious atheist I used to look down on people who talked about faith in God. How can you have faith in something you can’t see?  It seemed to me that having faith meant parking your brain at the door.

What is faith? In the ancient Greek language the word translated into the English word faith is also translated interchangeability as belief and trust. We believe and trust  all sorts of things.  When you are driving down the road you trust that that painted yellow line down the middle will prevent the person coming towards you won’t cross over it and run into you. We also have some faith in family and friends – trusting they will do what they say they will do. These faith experiences come from experience and knowing the person.

How can you have faith in God? The same way your faith grows in another person; you have to get to know God.  How do you do that; how do you get to know an infinite and invisible being? The Bible claims that Jesus is the exact representation of God, Jesus is recorded saying that when we see him we are seeing God the Father, and the claim that Jesus is actually God is all over scripture. Try getting to know Jesus through the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John); reading through the account of his life. Put yourself into the story, imagine yourself walking beside Jesus, listening to him and doing what he says to do.  You will be surprised how your faith will grow.