Think About It

A popular scripture on sin is Paul’s observation, “… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God …” (Romans 3:23). This is one of those complex concepts – should we take comfort in the fact that we are all sinners and feel like that when we sin we are in good company or should we feel the sting of the realization that we are all a bunch of mess-ups? In all honesty, I think the answer is “yes” to both of those concepts. While most of us have embraced this from an individual perspective, I think a broader concept can be seen. Not only have all people (individuals) sinned, so have all peoples (nations, genders, religions, etc.). None of us – no matter who we are or where we’ve come from – is innocent; we all have issues that need to be resolved. It doesn’t matter if we are Asian or American, black or white, male or female, we all have enough sin problems to need the help of Jesus. It is hard to be arrogant and bigoted when we have to accept the blame given to everyone. L...

Every so often I will see something and my mind will immediately go back to something that was engrained in me when I was small. It might be a thought, a rationale, a word or a concept. I may not have thought of that particular idea for a long time – I might have even outgrown the belief that was instilled in me, but there it is popping out of somewhere deep inside me. I may not act on it, but it’s there. As I thought about this phenomenon the other day, it reminded me of the importance of raising our children correctly and properly. Deep seeded thoughts are established early and may not be properly evaluated by the immature brain. Even in the years to come, we may have to work twice as hard to overcome what we were exposed to in those early years. Thousands of years ago, the wise man Solomon reminded us, “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6). Even though each one of us will eventually make our own choices abo...

When I was a youngster, I liked to go fishing. Let me reiterate that fact that I liked fishing – the going part got a little tedious. Before we could go fishing we had to pack the sandwiches and the cooler (because there wasn’t a McDonalds on every lakeshore) … we had to fill the car with the tackle we needed … if we were lucky enough to be taking a boat, we had to load it and gas it up … we had to stop and get bait … and if it was the first trip of the season, we may have to stop and pick up a license. It seemed like “going fishing” took a lot of the fun and excitement out of the fishing. Yet, without all the preparations, we wouldn’t be able to be successful. Now, you might be wondering what this analogy has to do with this life – well, that’s exactly what I am talking about. Most of us would love to be successful in life, but we don’t necessarily want to invest in the things that make us successful. Take the noble task of helping people. Most of us like to assist people in ov...

Why can’t things be easy? Why can’t life just flow along without any rapids? In essence, why can’t things just go the way that I want them to go? The other day I was thinking about this as I reached into my desk drawer for another allergy pill. I like springtime, but I don’t like the way I feel throughout a lot of it. I sneeze, my eyes water and, when the pollen is really flying, I think my joints ache. As I reached into drawer I was fussing about why things couldn’t be better, then I realized that even though I had allergies, I live in a time when – for the most part – a small pill will correct most of what annoys me. Sure, I am impacted by the season, but when I follow a simple routine, it’s almost unnoticeable … or at least manageable. Let’s not get so focused on our problems that we forget to recognize the solutions. Various aspects of our lives may be less than perfect, but we have ways to deal with them so let’s appreciate the answers rather than focusing on the quest...

When was the last time you thanked your preacher? Now, since I work fulltime with a church, I want to make a disclaimer that this is not written to my group. The congregation I am with is very supportive and I am not looking for a backhanded way to generate appreciation. However, it has become increasingly difficult to recruit people into the ministry – and one reason is that people perceive it as being a thankless job. Ministers don’t typically do it for the money or the recognition, but appreciation is very welcome. Since they are often out in front, it is easy to provide them with too much credit – but with declining numbers, it is also too easy to saddle them with too much blame. We live in a time when good people are being dissuaded from entering the ministry and others are leaving because they feel like failures. While we can’t fix everything that is negative about the preaching profession, one thing we can do is support our ministers. The Apostle Paul challenged believer...

What are you doing to make a difference? It is easy to sit back and complain about what isn’t being done. There are a lot of experts on what is wrong with the things, but have you noticed that criticizing stuff doesn’t make it any better? Even the most educated detractor can’t – strictly by complaining – make anything better. Condemning someone else’s actions don’t inherently make things better. Telling people what someone did wrong, won’t make it right. It takes more than words to improve things, it takes action! There is a lot of expertise in what is wrong with today’s world, what we need are people who are willing to work to make things better. We don’t need whiners, we need workers! The other day I came across a passage of Scripture that reminded me of the need to act. When the Lord was looking for people who could help shape His misguided nation, Isaiah responded, “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here ...

Are we looking for ways to simplify our lives? Interestingly, one way might come from a surprising place. What would happen if we just admitted when we were wrong? I have noticed that when I make a mistake, things can get complicated in a hurry. Typically, my first thought is to try to come up for a way to justify why I did what I did. I will evaluate mistakes from a variety of directions just to see if I can excuse why I did what I did. If I am not successful in this logic, then I have to find a way to explain away what I did – often to people who really don’t buy into my logic. When I can’t think (and talk) my way out of my error, then I invest in trying to find someone to blame. Even if it was my mistake, it has to be someone else’s fault. I may have done wrong, but someone else led me into it. If we think it is tough to explain our way out of error, it becomes even tougher to convincingly pin the responsibility on to someone else. Life is tough enough without having add l...