Think About It

One of the things the last two years has allowed me to do is to become lazy. Now, before I get too far into this discussion, I have to admit that I didn’t need much of an excuse to grow idle, but the lack of accountability of the last few months has made it a lot easier to do and to excuse. If I don’t want to do something, I have a readily available excuse – and if someone confronts me about it, I can always blame it (one way or another) on my personal response to COVID. Whether it is not interacting with people (which can be explained away by “social distancing”) or not being as productive as I used to be (everything takes longer to get done these days), I have a built-in excuse for not living up to my potential. While this has become convenient, it isn’t (necessarily) true and it is often a comfortable excuse for laziness. Sure, early on, we might have been able to explain-away certain things, but as we enter our third year of this mess, the newness is wearing off. We need to ...

One of the fun things about the Winter Olympics is watching competitions that we don’t always get to see. Let’s face it, neither curling nor the biathlon are sports most of us watch on a regular basis. Yet, when the Olympic Games come around, we will sit and watch the world’s best compete. Some of these sports are not as popular as others, but one thing is for certain, the gold medals in these events shine as brightly as those won in any sport! As I was watching one of the lesser-known events the other day, I got to thinking about how not all of us have the same talents, but we can all be the best we can be in our calling. When the Apostle Paul reflected on diversity in the church, he observed, “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son...

John Stuart Mill is credited with this observation in an 1867 address to the University of St. Andrews, “Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.”. Sir Edmond Burke is often credited with a briefer version, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”. This has been on my mind recently because of the amount of violence I am seeing – not only in my community, but in our nation as well. Whether the information is anecdotal or based on factual trends, it appears that our communities are becoming more dangerous. While it is one thing to realize this, it is something altogether ...

In our time together yesterday, we took a look at how we must understand that it isn’t enough to just stop doing evil, we must be willing to replace it with good. Cleaning house is a good first step, but unless we fill the void with something productive, we run the risk of becoming worse than we before. There are times when it is important to stop behaviors to move toward growth, but unless we follow-up with something appropriate, our old ways might return – and they might even be worse than before. Several years ago, communities followed the “broken windows philosophy” which advocated that we needed to get rid of the unsightly elements of our dilapidated areas. While this makes sense – people are less likely to commit crimes or acts of immorality in clean and kempt areas – there is a limited window of opportunity to do something positive with these areas or they will begin to resume deteriorating. Just as this is true in our physical structures, it is the same in our social areas...

Matthew 12 tells a rather interesting story. Jesus mentions the fate of an unclean spirit that is cast out of an individual, but can’t find a place to rest. The spirit decides to return to its host and finds the previous dwelling place cleaned up and empty. This gives the spirit the idea to reoccupy the man. As Jesus summarizes this parable, He notes, “Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.” (Matthew 12 45). This is not one of the best-known stories of Jesus, but I believe we can learn something from it. While it is good to periodically “clean house”, we need to replace the evil with something better. It isn’t enough to get rid of a bad habit or internal struggle, we must make the effort to fill it with something positive or things might actually get worse for us. Unless we do somethin...

Throughout my life, I have struggled with controlling my weight. Now, while I am sure there are some people who have legitimate issues with weight gain, mine is very simple – I eat too much (especially of the bad stuff) and exercise too little. Honestly, it is as simple as that. In reflecting on this observation, you might be asking yourself, “Well, why doesn’t he do something about it?”. Interestingly, that is my question as well. I know what I need to do when planning out meals or thinking about going to the gym; but then I pass by Cold Stone and think, that sounds really good right now or I think about needing to go to the gym, but snuggle down deeper into my nice warm recliner. My problem isn’t knowing what to do, it is mastering impulse control. It is going beyond rational thought and making the right choices. While this is a challenge in weight control, there is another place where many of us struggle with it – sinful temptation. When we think logically about the temptati...

Not long ago, a friend of mine called me and asked a rather interesting question. The crux of the query was if I believed that people were influenced by their opinion of the afterlife. In other words, do some people avoid things because they are afraid they are going to go to hell if they do them … or maybe it’s the contrast, do some people do things because they hope it will ensure them the blessings of heaven? As I thought about those concepts, I have to admit that I wasn’t as convinced as I should be. In fact, my first thought was that I didn’t think most people really gauged what they did by the eternal impact it would have. In retrospect, I have begun to wonder if we have done a disservice to people by not talking about the ultimate consequences of our actions. We do a good job of encouraging people to do the right things because it makes this world a better place to live. We have even shaped some people’s behavior by making them afraid to do things because there might be n...