Have at It! - It's the only Way!: December 2005

NEW YEARS CHALLENGE

We are just about to begin a New year. What does this mean for you? For some of you it will mean new resolutions that you can't keep. And for others, it will mean resolutions that you will keep. Either way, we all have something within us that desires change. We all want something different in life... and for some of you you're right where you want to be and you're completely happy with your life. GOOD FOR YOU. I mean that... that's great! There aren't many people in this world that are happy with where they are in life and so, Congrats to you if you have managed to achieve your goals. For the rest of you restless souls, I want to challenge you for the new year. I want you to take a look at your lives and truly evaluate it. Are you fulfilled? Are you where you should be at this stage in your life? What is it that makes you 'tick'? Regardless of how well off you might be, do you always want more? Are you never satisfied with life? Come on people, REALLY look at your lives and be honest with yourselves. Are you always trying to fill your life with meaning by using drugs, having sex, drinking... many other things that just won't bring your life real meaning?Again, my challenge to you is to look at your pathetic lives... mine included... because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is a hope and peace and a love that will bring the ultimate meaning to your lives. His name is Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. I know you're probably rolling your eyes right now and if you're still reading, thank you. That means that you are a very wise person and are seeking truth and meaning for your lives. So, back to my challenge: As you've probably guessed, the first part of it is to examine your lives. Use the above questions if you have to. Search your hearts to see where you draw your hope and meaning from and evaluate it to see if it really means anything. The Second part of my challenge to you for the New Year is to examine and TRULY evaluate who Jesus was and what He means and what He could mean to you. He will change your life. He will bring you hope. He has a plan for you that He wants to fulfill in and through you. So, if you dare, find someone you know who is a strong born again Christian, or if you don't know someone, seek them out, talk to them and get some answers. See for yourselves the meaning that Christ will bring to your lives. He never promised an easy life and never having hard times in life... but what He does promise is that He will be with you to the very end!
You have been challenged. Take it or leave it...whether you believe it or like it or not, your future depends on it.

My Humor

What is service?............it is serving ice.

What is supervision?...........it is what Superman has.

What is a supervisor?.............(come on, you better get this one).....you got it, it's what he wears.

Our Compartmentalives

What do you do if you want to look, or at least feel, intelligent? Apparently, you document and catalog every action you take. Or at least that has been our response. Mankind left to himself is the opposite of wisdom. Our pursuit of intelligence, wisdom and success couldn't be more far off. In our effort to appear wise, we choose the most foolish, down-right illogical, approach to almost every scenario. What do we do with the human mind and heart that need our help? We try to fit it into some program. What do we do with the environment and nature when it requires attention? We try to further control it with our boundaries. What do we do with anything in our existence that is a problem? Do we get rid of it? No, that's too easy, too logical. We actually end up protecting it by trying to harness it with our programs and boundaries. We are too proud and arrogant to declare defeat, to humble ourselves and say, "yes, in fact, we made a mistake." In our drive to tolerate everything, we have done damage to the important things. We thought we could compartmentalize our lives by taking what's bad and giving it its own land to graze on. But we cannot keep it penned up; it spills over into society; we try to write it off as "isolated incidents," and with our ADD and delirium we do a good job of deceiving ourselves, but the "isolated incidents" are increasing. Our society thought that we could compartmentalize our sin, giving sin its own area to exist in the shadows, allowing ourselves to co-exist, but we were dead wrong. Las Vegas' slogan epitomizes our society's wishful thinking, that we can contain our sin, that we can harness it, that we can control it. How foolish are we? How blind are we? What goes on in one corner of our lives, does not stay hidden. It affects all of us; it affects all of society. Come on, even Newton recognized this in his third law: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. We can no more contain the effects of sin and corruption than New Orleans' levees could contain the floodwaters of a mighty hurricane. "What goes on here, does NOT stay here."

ba-Humbug!

I don't like Christmas; I don't agree with Christmas; I don't want to celebrate Christmas. Boy, don't I sound like the grinch?! But I don't mind, for I'm wholly satisfied in my convictions. Other people don't need to feel the way I do; they are free to feel the need, or desire, to celebrate. Granted, when I see all these people, who push Christmas, stressing out, I find it very hypocrital, or at the least, very counter-productive. I say it's a waste of energy, time, and money - not to mention narrow and shallow. For where does this leave Christ the rest of the year? To pull him out again, even moreso briefly, to hang him on a cross, and say thank you one more time? Christmas, to me, just represents one more cultural - church very much included - attempt at compartmentalizing our lives...this time, Christ, our Savior. Christmas is the Great Commericialization of Christ - and guess what?...we bought it - this time, i'm talking soley about the church.

Santa & Superman

Santa and Superman represent our culture's mythological representation of who their ideal vision of God, the Father, and his Son, Jesus, should look like. Man does not accept the Father and the Son as they are, and so, in turn, has come up with his own version of what he would like in a god he could serve. Take Santa, he represents our ideal picture of who God should be. He doles out judments based on whether we've been bad or good. There is no relationship, no intimacy, just gifts and happiness. Take Superman, he represents our ideal picture of who Jesus should be. While Superman seeks to save and protect us like Jesus, he does not however, seek to judge our lives or get involved with us intimately. We can love a god and savior who is only there to serve us, and expect nothing in return. How foolish and shallow we are!