Walking Down the Aisle of a Local Walmart---Forlorn

The frightening part of it is the drooling hate, the random raging anger---the I-don't-give-a-hoot-about-you part of it. Our Jesus said very simply and definitively we are to love our neighbor. But, so many folks out there, worldwide, are willing to hurt you, without flinching. It's as though you are merely worthless flesh to be stepped on to get someone somewhere else.

I saw it yesterday in as simple an event as walking down the aisle of a local Walmart, less deadly but just as symptomatic. The oncoming customer willing to walk straight through my physical being, shoving me, if necessary, out of the way---acting as though unaware of my presence and the whole incident. An uncaring-ness superb! What else would one expect in a society that nonchalantly ignores the killing in abortion, overlooks so easily the plight of the homeless, shows no interest in the distorted lives of many veterans? Oh, sure, listen to the hypocritical righteousness of our wonderful "liberal" brothers! Their high-sounding talk. Stare insistently into your cell phone and walk on by. Ignore the real-ness of the world. I am so guilty!

I surely know that Jesus is right . . . but, it is so herculean to love people who are so completely invested in the horrendous dung prolific in our world! He knew what He was commanding us. And He knows that we cannot live that way---that it is not within us to love that way. So, where are we?

We are lost and alone! Jesus commanded us to love others as He loved us (John 13:34). He told us that if we cannot love those we know, we cannot love Him (1 John 4:19-21). He said we should count others more significant than ourselves and should be as concerned about their interests as our own (Phil 2:3-4). He went so far as to say we should love those who misuse us---anyone can love those who love us (Matt 5:43-48). So . . . we are lost and alone. He knows we cannot love that way. Jesus, you ask too much of me!

I know that you promised to be with us . . . yet, my faith is often too small to find you nearby. Sorry. I look into the swirling fog of hate and murder . . . and I cannot find you. I pray. You said that faith the size of a mustard seed (Matt 17:20) would allow me to move a mountain. I cannot even move myself to one small good deed. I am so forlorn and faithless and weak!

I pray for strength from You, for just a shadow of faith, for a recognition of opportunities to love, for an understanding of Your will in this most sinful world. Your intercession through the Holy Spirit is all I truly have. My entire hope. And, yep, I come back to what I first recognized when I accepted You as my Lord and Savior. I have and I am nothing without You. There it is! Everything good in my life is completely dependent upon You!

That's where we are, folks. Totally and hopefully dependent upon our God. Chaos all over our own countryside. Chaos all around the globe. Love each other, pray, smile and cry, cherish family and friends, learn to have faith in a good and all-powerful Friend who does His best work behind the scenes. Be true. Be persistent. God bless! Don't despair!

Islam and God-Less Liberal Cream Puffs

It seemed to me ex-Pres. Bush (the one dancing in the blue suit) might have had one too many before the memorial service for the five slaughtered Dallas policeman. Or, perhaps, he deliberately took this last opportunity to make Michelle Obama's life as miserable as possible as she seemed to have found herself in the most awkward position she had ever known---holding hands unwillingly with a smiling, swaying, older white male at, of all things, a funeral. And, Pres. Obama holding tightly to all his old-time ideological training just had to mention gun control once again . . . one more time---his sense of decorum is so feeble. There's so much he just doesn't get.

Now, abruptly, my easy, pleasant, old-white-man's evening is interrupted by first, the news of 30 dead in Nice, France---then, later 73 dead, who knows how many in the final count. In my musing on this, black deaths and white deaths roam freely about. Dead gays in Orlando. Blacks killed being arrested lie dead. Cops killed in the line of duty lie dead. Americans are so used to violent death nowadays. And the blame gets thrown around haphazardly and randomly like the treacherous voices that speak to the insane.

Speaking of voices, there will be in the hours ahead so many talking-head voices (75, now, they say) spouting endlessly opinions and tiny bits of egoistic truth, while doctors and nurses, doing the real business of life, are busily attempting to stop the bleeding and stabilize their patients. Talk is such a cheap commodity. I hear just now that "the civilized world must wipe out ISIS like the rats they are." I wonder what this emoting will sound like tomorrow morning. Time tends to soft-pedal the intensity of our emotions. We tend to look for less aggressive ways to solve our problems when given time to re-consider. Isn't it time, though, finally to stop compromising?

Our leaders are so impotent now, as our country has adopted a value system driven mainly by tolerance and general approval of anything and everything. Civility and Godly love have vanished as protocols for behavior. The definitions of courage and manhood have been "grunged" into complete blurriness. 

I, for one, am sick of all the apologizing that I hear from our leaders. If we are to survive as a civilization, we must obviously admit and deal with our faults and weaknesses, but more importantly we absolutely must protect our values. Fight for them, if necessary. Islam must conform to us, liberal cream puffs must be removed from policy-influencing positions---yes, we must "cling to our guns and our religion." And if that doesn't suit you, tough! Domestically and on foreign shores, we must resolve to quit allowing ideological bullies to control our lives. 

Not the Janitor in a Culture of Narcissists

". . . no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God" (1 Peter 1:21).

You know, there's great drama in the failure of the human will---great literature and art and music have chronicled that spectacle over and over again. And there's emotional majesty when weak and anemic man overcomes. But, really, ultimately, who cares? I mean, really, who? Many in America now would say we all simply die and disappear into mindless, emotion-less dustiness . . . and live their lives on that premise---a subjective position that suggests that nothing is important other than our personal experience of life, hence, allowing for the many irresponsible, contorted behaviors of this day and time.

It seems today that tolerance and approval and minding one's own business are expectations for any and every situation. And, if one cannot operate under that protocol, then one is simply a bigot, hyper-opinionated and unworthy of further note. This mindset, this sentiment, seems most dramatic in cultural matters. One is either 'all for' or 'all against' something.

I don't find myself fitting comfortably into the acceptable pattern. I believe, as the apostle Peter suggests, that all true inspiration for living man comes from some form of intercession by the Holy Spirit. To aggravate the matter, I believe that death is not a finality---a permanent dustiness. Good grief!

The first Jesus-disciples---common men and women---were completely and intensely convinced of His resurrection. Upon His return, they "saw" Him; they "heard" Him; they even "touched" Him---they experienced Him firsthand! So convinced were they of His non-death that they would give up their lives if it be necessary. I, too, believe in that resurrection---too often, I fear, however, in a simple, nonchalant, secondhand religious correctness.

Like Peter, I believe that prophecy and any genuine and ultimately significant truth comes through the Holy Spirit of God, not through human understanding. Therefore, in Him is my faith and trust---not in the human will in any ultimate form or shape. You? . . . believe whatever you choose or must---live however you wish. You are your own person, and I've been commanded to love you no matter what your sin(s) may be. I try, but often, very often, I'm afraid, I fail to be accepting and forgiving and compassionate for you. "When the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about me" (John 15:26).

That amazing helper is mystically present in our lives once we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. If you haven't, I invite you to invite Him into your life on that basis. Then, you'll become one who really "cares." The Spirit will then indwell you.

As a Christian, my main assignment is to tell other persons about the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I am commanded to love God and to love my neighbor. A tributary effort is to have a positive effect, then, on my culture. But, I am NOT ordered to be the janitor in a culture of narcissists---a fact I must remember, to protect myself, to avoid stress, frustration, and general distress. So . . . I pray that you will be accepting of me, as I will be of you as a person. But, never expect me to be approving of your self-focused, sinful actions.