Think About It

Since my college football teams don’t usually play the early games on Saturday afternoon, I haven’t been watching the national pregame shows lately. Last weekend, since my team was featured in one of the early games, I tuned in and what I saw was disturbing. No, it wasn’t the announcers this time, it was the fans’ display that dismayed me. The homemade signs that were shown behind the set were, at best a display of bad sportsmanship and, at worst, just out and out rude! I am familiar with good-spirited ribbing between fan bases; but it seems to have been elevated to a new level (or maybe I should say has deteriorated to a new low). After being discouraged by what I saw early in the day, I was completely dismayed by the behavior at a nationally televised game later that night in which the fans delayed the game and put people in jeopardy by throwing trash onto the field when a call didn’t go their way. I understand being a huge supporter of a team – and even disappointed when thin...

The other day I was looking for a quote … well, not really a quote, but someone I could quote. I realize that at my age it is tempting to keep referencing my influences and the voices of inspiration from days gone by; so I decided to do a little research and I made two interesting discoveries. First, many of the more quotable people are those from history and, second, I had never heard of many of the people that were listed as voices of reason in modern society. Is it just me or does it seem like there are fewer and fewer trusted voices in the modern world? As I thought about this, I wondered what it takes to be a voice of reason – both on a national scale; but maybe, as importantly, in our own spheres of influence? Here are some suggestions: 1. Speak the truth – but do so gently . We need accuracy and we need it delivered in a way that people will accept it. Let’s be honest, but be humble at the same time. 2. Find a platform that reaches people. Have we become too reliant...

I will admit it … I am a techno geek. I like the latest gadgets and am a sucker for something new and better. I am fascinated by a smarter phone, a faster computer or a newer tablet. I like going to the electronics store (aka the big boy toy store) and have been known to walk out with stuff I don’t need just because it is cool! Practicality and functionality are often overshadowed by something that is shiny. Looking at all the new stuff on the shelves and the rising value of electronics companies, I don’t think I am the only one with this urge. While buying the latest and greatest stuff is fun, there is one place where that might not be in our best interest – religion. Now, I am not saying that we shouldn’t grow and develop in our spirituality, but we must be cautious that we don’t lose our way by chasing some idea that is categorized as new and improved. Sure, if something is better for us spiritually or makes the church grow closer to God we should evaluate it, but let’s not...

One of the more interesting side-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has been how it has taken the focus away from other societal issues. Coming into pandemic a lot of attention had been focused on the opioid crisis that was addicting and killing too many people. The drug issues didn’t magically go away, rather they were just pushed to the back burner once COVID appeared. Other health issues such as cancers and heart disease were overshadowed by this new virus. I don’t know that people are generally healthier than they were before March, 2020; we just don’t hear as much about them. The reason I bring this up is to remind us to be cautious with over-emphasizing one problem while overlooking others. As we have seen, this can be done with societal and health issues, but it is also present in morality as well. In each era, certain sins capture our attention and seem to demand our action; however, that doesn’t mean that other offenses are left behind. It may be popular to condemn one...

Periodically, when someone thanks me for doing something for them I will say, “It’s the least I can do.” … then, I will follow it up with a simplistic attempt at humor, “And let it be known that I typically do the least I can do.”. In reality, I hope this is a sophomoric attempt at humor and not a true accurate assessment of my character. The last couple of years have changed us and it remains to be seen if those changes are temporary or permanent. One of the things that I have noticed is how easy it is to excuse inactivity. While I am sure there are some things that haven’t been accomplished because of legitimate reasons, I also believe it has become very convenient to excuse our ineffectiveness. If there is something we don’t want to do, we have a built-in excuse for not doing it. Unfortunately, inactivity breeds inactivity and pretty soon it becomes more difficult to do what we should be doing. Again, I am not condemning inactivity caused by legitimate limitations, my conc...

As I was walking out of a convenience store the other day, I saw a T shirt that really caught my attention. Written on the shirt were these words, “We need darkness to see the stars”. Wow! I have known the truth of this principle in the natural world. On more than one occasion I have accompanied by star-loving wife out into the darkest part of our county to enhance the visibility to the night sky, but it never really dawned on me that this is true in our moral and spiritual worlds as well. It is tempting to lament the darkness of the bad times, but one of the “blessings” of this phenomenon is the ability to see the lights that can permeate the darkness. Whether it is the actions that people do or the people themselves, goodness shines brightest when set against the backdrop of evil. I don’t know that we should hope that things will be bad, but when things get bad it helps the good we do to stand out. One of the common themes of the Gospel of John is the coming of the Light (...

          Are we guilty of overpromising and underdelivering?  It is easy to see why people lack trust – we have been let down too many times.  It doesn’t take much effort to promise the moon, but it can become difficult to deliver on our claims.  It is much more popular to be full of promises than effort.           I would like to think that this problem originated in our society, but the truth of the matter is that it has been around for a long, long time.  During Jesus’ day He chided His contemporaries’ unreliability by calling them out for making false vows and demanding, “ But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.” (Matthew 5:37).            So how can we be people of our word?  Here are a few thoughts: 1.  Carefully think about what we are about to promise .  N...