This week I want to expand on last week’s post. The gist of my last post was that the flood and the ark were a “mass extinction event”……..a “return to factory settings”. God intervened in a massive…….some would say a catastrophic……way and cleaned up his creation. He eliminated a large number of creatures……..and a large number of people that just didn’t fit in with his plan for his creation. He preserved a small number of people and “kinds” of animals that fulfilled his vision for his creation. This wasn’t a punishment. It was God simply redirecting his creation in order to get it headed to where he had intended it to go from the beginning. God engineered a “return to factory settings” in the form of a “mass extinction event”. He sent the flood…….destruction……and the ark……salvation. This historical event is described, in detail, in Genesis.

And that brings us, mankind, to where we are today. The first book of the Bible describes in real terms God’s first “mass extinction event”. The last book of the Bible describes in largely symbolic terms…….apocalyptic literature…….God’s last “mass extinction event”. The middle of the Bible deals with the world we live in. The middle of the Bible tells us how to live and thrive in God’s creation. It tells us what we must do…….to meet God’s expectations…….of us and of his creation.

So, what about the coming “mass extinction event”?

Revelation is a notoriously difficult book to interpret. It could be literal, but most scholars say that it is largely symbolic. The details of the end of this world cannot be clearly interpreted from Revelation. Especially, the timing of the end cannot be predicted. But, three things are clear:

The end will be unspeakably horrible.

When it is over, there will be a new world that satisfies God’s original plan…….God’s plan, not yours, not mine.

This new world will be populated with people who satisfy God’s expectations of mankind. And what are those expectations? Love God……love everybody else. Those who do not satisfy God’s expectations will be sent somewhere else…….and it will not be pretty.

This “mass extinction event ” will be the second coming of Christ.

And what that will look like……to you……is completely in your power.

Use your power well.

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8, ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16, ESV

I have struggled with Darwinian evolution for my entire life. I have often said that Darwinian evolution will be responsible for more souls in hell than any other idea in human history. My understanding of Darwinian evolution has “evolved” over the years:

Intelligent design explains it all….evolution is not true.

Evolution explains it all….intelligent design is an allegory.

God used evolution to acheive creation.

If you must choose between the Bible and “The Origin of Species”….choose the Bible.

On the issue of life, our culture has split into two camps: Intelligent design and Darwinian evolution.

Either……Or.

That is pretty much where the argument stands today. Each side thinks that the other side is naive, foolish, just plain stupid, or……worst of all……damned.

My Bible reading today is Genesis…….the history of the flood. Noah, his family, and a bunch of animals get into a big boat and survive a catastrophic flood. Then, they climb out and repopulate the earth. I believe that every word in the Bible is important. There is one word in this passage that is critical…….”kind”. The animals in the ark consisted of pairs of each “kind” of animal. Understanding the ark requires an understanding of this one word…..”kind”. Fortunately, the Bible defines it for us:

“every bird according to its kind, everything with wings.”

Genesis 7:14, ESV

So…..in Genesis, a “kind” is a representative of a class of animals. The seven pairs of birds on the ark were representatives of all winged animals. And there is the rub. How do we get from 14 winged animals on the ark to the ten to twenty thousand species of birds on earth today?

Enter Darwin.

The Bible and Darwin both have something to say. They are both silent on other areas. The Bible gives a comprehensive explanation of the origin of the universe, of the creation of life, and of the rescue of “kinds” on the ark. It is silent on how we got from a quite limited number of animals on the ark to the incredible variety of life on earth today. Darwin provides a comprehensive explanation of the variety of life forms that we see today. He is silent on the origin of the universe, the origin of life, and the flood.

What if……instead of either/or……..it is a case of both/and?

What if, the ark wasn’t full of dinosaurs? What if the lizard “kind” was a pair of iguanas? What if God turned evolution loose after the flood to create the awesome variety of life that we see today from a much smaller number of “kinds” that survived the flood. What if millions of species, including the dinosaurs, perished in the flood? This reconciles the small number of “kinds” on the ark with the amazing variety of life today. It also fits the fossil record.

There is another side of the flood/ark. The ark contained a small number of species compared to what we see today. In a post flood world, Darwin’s theory primarily describes the creation of new species……not the replacement or modification of existing species. That means that “survival of the fittest”……the improvement of existing species……the accidental creation of new species…….is a minor aspect of Darwinian evolution. Because this eliminates the need for a new adaptive mutation to work its way through the entire planet, replacing a weaker species, this is a much much faster process. This eliminates one of the biggest problems with Darwin……the fact that there just hasn’t been enough time.

The flood and the ark clearly represent a global reset.

In your cell phone, there is an icon that says “return to factory settings”. Touch the icon and your phone returns to the condition it was in when you bought it. All of the layers of apps and shells are deleted. So are all of the pieces of malware that you have accumulated. So also is all of your data. We tend to think of the ark as the preservation of life. We don’t consider that the flood destroyed an enormous variety of life forms. We understand that the ark preserved many “kinds” of creatures, including a righteous man and his family. But, the flood also eliminated a vast population of bad people. The flood also eliminated a great many species that God saw no value in. In modern parlance, the flood was a “mass extinction” event…….a “return to factory settings”. A great many species, perhaps most species, were eliminated. The ark preserved a small number of good “kinds”. The flood wiped out a large number of “bad” species. Today, we find evidence of them in the “fossil record”…….but they no longer roam the earth.

I think that the failure of our understanding of Darwinian evolution is that we push it beyond its limits. We use it to explain everything. We extrapolate the post flood development of new species to the creation of all species from non-living molecules…..a topic on which Darwin was, in fact, silent.

The failure of our understanding of Darwinian evolution is that we use it to eliminate the need for a creator, God. Instead, we could see Darwin’s theory as a tool, used by God, to expand his creation. Perhaps God uses evolution to give us the vast variety of life forms in the post flood earth.

It is not the theory of evolution that damns us. What damns us is that we use the theory of evolution to eliminate our need for God.

And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis, 1:25, ESV

“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?

A warning about the created judging its creator,

Isaiah, 45:9, ESV

I generally try to cook complicated topics down into a few simple concepts. It is a whole lot easier, in the crush of daily living to remember…….and act on…..a few simple concepts rather than to follow 625 laws.

So what are the core ideals of Christianity…….concepts that we can…….that we must…..focus on and obey?

Love
Humility

I have tried to fill out the list. But, everything I find actually grows out of those two tenets.

Love is easy to identify as a core value.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Jesus summarizing Christianity in four sentences.
Matthew 22, 37-40, ESV

Love is easy to identify as one of the core values of Christianity.  But, to act on that love……all day, every day……is hard. Fact is, none of us can consistently pull it off. But, at least, we know what the goal is. We know what is expected.

Humility, on the other hand, is much less obvious.  Even worse, humility runs counter to our basic instincts.  It is fairly easy to love. I love my wife. I love my family. I even love my dog. But, if I am being honest,  humility is not always at the top of the list of considerations in my relationships.

So…….today, I want to explore humility…..in the context of our relationship with our creator.

Humility,  at its core is the understanding that the other entity in a relationship is superior to me……to us. The concept is simple. The application of it, however, is tough. Humility……actually, the lack of humility…….is the main reason that secular humanists reject Christianity. Even worse, lack of humility is a failure that plagues many, if not most, people who identify as Christians.

First, the non-believer……the secular humanist. He denies the existence of a “higher power” outright.  Any data point that implies that there is an entity on a higher plane than mankind…….he rejects outright, typically without investigation. He then assembles a construct that tells him that he is the apex being……the top of the pyramid. He martials science and observed fact to support his position at the apex. He fills in any gaps with extrapolations, assumptions,  and theories…….whether there is any proof to support them or not.

Then, the person who identifies as Christian. He  checks the boxes, gets baptized, goes to church, participates in the food drive, etc. But, when he reads the  “owners manual”,  if he reads it at all, at the end of every line, he asks, “do I believe this?…….do I agree with with this?……do I approve of this?” In a word, he gives himself the power of a “line item veto” over the word of God. How can he do this? Simple.  In his heart, he does not accept God’s sovereignty…….God’s absolute sovereignty…….over his life. Rather, he assumes the position of absolute sovereign. His failure is a failure to subordinate himself to his creator. At its core, this is a failure of humility.

His mantra?

“You are not the boss of me!……nobody is.”

I believe that this is the single greatest failure among professing Christians.

So…..What is the solution?

Love Jesus…..God……and act on that love every day because you recognize his absolute sovereignty……his absolute authority over every facet of your life.

Love and humility. This is Christianity.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul describing God’s love for us, Romans,  8 38-39, ESV

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

Daniel explaining man’s relationship with God, Daniel 4:35, ESV

I generally try to cook complicated topics down into a few simple concepts. It is a whole lot easier, in the crush of daily living to remember…….and act on…..a few simple concepts rather than to follow 625 laws.

So what are the core ideals of Christianity…….concepts that we can…….that we must…..focus on and obey?

Love
Humility

I have tried to fill out the list. But, everything I find actually grows out of those two tenets.

Love is easy to identify as a core value.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Jesus summarizing Christianity in four sentences.
Matthew 22, 37-40, ESV

Love is easy to identify as one of the core values of Christianity.  But, to act on that love……all day, every day……is hard. Fact is, none of us can consistently pull it off. But, at least, we know what the goal is. We know what is expected.

Humility, on the other hand, is much less obvious.  Even worse, humility runs counter to our basic instincts.  It is fairly easy to love. I love my wife. I love my family. I even love my dog. But, if I am being honest,  humility is not always at the top of the list of considerations in my relationships.

So…….today, I want to explore humility…..in the context of our relationship with our creator.

Humility,  at its core is the understanding that the other entity in a relationship is superior to me……to us. The concept is simple. The application of it, however, is tough. Humility……actually, the lack of humility…….is the main reason that secular humanists reject Christianity. Even worse, lack of humility is a failure that plagues many, if not most, people who identify as Christians.

First, the non-believer……the secular humanist. He denies the existence of a “higher power” outright.  Any data point that implies that there is an entity on a higher plane than mankind…….he rejects outright, typically without investigation. He then assembles a construct that tells him that he is the apex being……the top of the pyramid. He martials science and observed fact to support his position at the apex. He fills in any gaps with extrapolations, assumptions,  and theories…….whether there is any proof to support them or not.

Then, the person who identifies as Christian. He  checks the boxes, gets baptized, goes to church, participates in the food drive, etc. But, when he reads the  “owners manual”,  if he reads it at all, at the end of every line, he asks, “do I believe this?…….do I agree with with this?……do I approve of this?” In a word, he gives himself the power of a “line item veto” over the word of God. How can he do this? Simple.  In his heart, he does not accept God’s sovereignty…….God’s absolute sovereignty…….over every aspect of his life. Rather, he assumes the position of absolute sovereign. His failure is a failure to subordinate himself to his creator. At its core, this is a failure of humility.

His mantra?

“You are not the boss of me!……nobody is.”

I believe that this is the single greatest failure among professing Christians.

So…..What is the solution?

Love Jesus…..God……and act on that love every day because you recognize his absolute sovereignty……his absolute authority over every facet of your life.

Love and humility. This is Christianity.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul describing God’s love for us, Romans,  8 38-39, ESV

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

Daniel explaining man’s relationship with God, Daniel 4:35, ESV

Separation…….from Jesus……from God.

We all experience it. In the “Screwtape Letters”, C.S. Lewis describes our separation from God to be the ultimate goal of sin……..of Satan. We need to take a good hard look at separation. We need to study it closely because every last one of us is separated from God to one degree or the other. One of the goals of Christianity……one of the goals of this blog……is to diminish the amount of this separation from God in our culture as a whole. And we must begin with ourselves. We can’t really help others with their separation problem without understanding and battling with our own separation problem. This is a good working definition of hypocrisy.

So……. what does separation from God look like? I think that there are many different “flavors” of separation from God:

Never heard of Jesus
Never give Jesus a thought
Science worship
Hate Jesus
Don’t have time for Jesus
Disagree with the teaching of Jesus
Agree with Jesus….but just can’t keep up
Love Jesus but fail……every day

Never heard of Jesus. This is extremely rare. Far more common is mistaken understanding of his teaching. We can fight this by modeling love, studying the Bible, and gently teaching others.

Never give Jesus a thought. This is very common, even among those who identify as Christians. We just get busy and stay that way. We were meant to have an ongoing conversation with our creator……you can call it prayer. It should feel like an exchange with an intimate friend, someone who knows everything about you……because Jesus does. If you are thinking about something, God is interested.

Science worship. We test everything that comes into our consciousness against the tenets of current scientific thought. We ignore the gaps in this knowledge. We accept all of the assumptions and theories of science, including those that have no factual basis (the origin of life, the origin of the universe). Anything else, anything that science cannot explain we reject as myth whether it is true or not.

Hate Jesus. This is pretty rare. It is best described in Dawkin’s book. “The God delusion”. This is very scary. Because in order to hate God…..you must first recognize his existence.

Don’t have time for Jesus. This is a cousin to never giving him a thought. You recognize Jesus as God, but you are busy…..distracted. You go to church on Sunday, sing the songs, put a couple of dollars in the tray, and then say goodbye till next week. This is arguably the most common form of separation. You are a nominal Christian. But, you are missing out on the true power of Christianity.

Disagree with the teaching of Jesus. You start building your character by asking the wrong question. You ask, “do I approve of the teaching of Jesus…..of the Bible?”….. when you should be asking, “Is Jesus true, is the Bible true?” Because, if it’s true, then the fact that you don’t approve…….is irrelevant.

Agree with Jesus, but can’t keep up. There is a lot of stuff in the Bible. Let’s face it, it’s a huge book. The only way to learn this faith……the only way to “keep up”…..is to read the “owners manual”. And that is hard. If you don’t read the owners manual for your car, it’s not surprising that you haven’t read the Bible. There is an old saw.

How do you eat an elephant?……one bite at a time.

Read a little bit every day. Start with the book of John.

Love Jesus……but fail every day. Welcome to my world. Christianity is about love. Sounds simple, but it is not. In your thoughts and in your acts, you will fail every day. Don’t be discouraged. You are a human……not Jesus. Do the best you can and try to improve.

“The saints are just the sinners who fall down……and get up” Bob Carlyle

So……where are you? What flavor of separation do you live with?

Can you improve?

Can you do your bit……to lower the level of separation from God in our culture?

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul, Romans 8: 38-39

the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy (God). It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards will do the trick.

A demon explaining sin, C.S. Lewis, “The Screwtape Letters”

I don’t know.

I don’t know.

I don’t know…….and neither do you.

I build my life on the tenets of Christianity. I build my life on the Bible and on the teaching of Jesus.

At least I try.

The Bible, in broad strokes, says that the world and time are in motion. That motion is not circular……it is linear. Time had a beginning and it will end. The world and time are not sustainable……they were never intended to be. There will be an end and it will be ugly. There will be an end for you and for me, individually. There will be an end……for everything. And we know very little about what follows the end. There is a part of us that will continue after the end, whether that end is our individual death or a global apocalypse. The part of us that goes on after death will experience either eternal joy…..or eternal pain.

Which?

And there is the rub. Who decides?

The decision does not fall to you. It does not fall to me. It does not fall to the preacher blasting us with fire and brimstone…….death and damnation.

God decides.

In the end……it’s all about God. It’s not about you or me. It’s not about our appetites or our identity.

I can only speculate on how God will make that decision. But, I believe that he will operate in a manner consistent with his identity and with his plan. He will decide based on who he is and on what will fulfill his long term goal.

What is God’s identity?

Love

What is his long term goal?

Relationship

So…..here it is…….my best guess.

God will populate paradise based on love and relationship………his love and his desire for relationship……our love and our desire for relationship.

All I can do…….all you can do…….is to pursue those ideals…….and trust in God’s love and in his desire to have a relationship……with me…..with you…..with every soul……unborn, living, and dead.

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him”

Paul, 1 Corinthians, 2-9, ESV

Well…..maybe.

Imagine a sunny August afternoon. You are in an inner tube floating down a beautiful river. You have a 6 pack of beer. There are about a dozen of your friends, also in tubes. Everybody is laughing and cutting up. The plan is to float down the river, drink the beer, have a cook out, watch the stars come out, and then camp for the night.

Life is good…..couldn’t get any better.

Now add in the fact that the river is the Niagara river and you are a mile upstream from Niagara Falls. If you stay in the tube, finish your beer, and just enjoy the day……you are going to go over the falls and die. That is the path that you and I are on. The outcome is inevitable…….if you do nothing but enjoy the ride. But it doesn’t have to be. You can paddle to shore, finish your beer and wave at your friends as they float past. But, in order to escape the coming disaster, you must act. And time is short.

Life is like that. You have a default destination…….a place where you will wind up……..if you do nothing but enjoy the ride. And that place is not good. In fact it is unspeakably bad. Hell. We all have some evil in us. Some have a lot…….some a little. But, rest assured, the evil in me……and in you…..is enough to damn us. In a word, you can be as good as you want, you can do as much good as you want……..but it won’t be enough. Mother Theresa was not “good enough” to earn paradise. Neither are you and neither am I. Most Christians……in fact, most humans…….. believe that good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell. That is not true. That is not what the Bible teaches. That is not what Jesus teaches. “NOT FAIR” you say! Welcome to the river.

I don’t know the details. But, I believe in a burning hell. I believe this because Jesus believed it. When a guy dies and then comes back to life…….you have to take what he says seriously.

And what Jesus says is this. Paradise is yours for the asking. But you must act. You must recognize the divinity of Jesus and accept his gift of salvation. That’s it…….that’s all.

Or

You can stay in your inner tube, down another beer, and enjoy the afternoon.

But know this……there are going to be a lot of people in paradise who are not nearly as “good” as you are, people who take the deal, paddle to shore and wave at you as you float by.

“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house— for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

Jesus, explaining hell. Luke 16: 19-31, ESV

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus, explaining salvation, John 14:6, ESV

I’m 71 years old. I have spent about 60 of those years accumulating stuff. And I have been pretty good at it. So has Cindy. Old stuff, new stuff, useful stuff, frivolous stuff. I have piled my stuff up in my house…….literally surrounded myself with it………you might say that I am buried in it. And I must say that I have really enjoyed my stuff. Most of it is tools and toys. I love working…..and playing…..with my stuff.

Lately, however, my relationship with my stuff has been changing. The experts who study life expectancy tell me that I have about 13 years to live. And if the next 13 years are anything like the last 13…….. they will be gone in a flash. This has led me to an epiphany. I can control my stuff. I can decide what to do with it and who gets to use and enjoy it. I have legal pieces of paper that prove that my stuff is mine. It belongs to me.

And yet

In a few short years, none of that will matter. I will die and all of my stuff will be distributed to other people……most of whom I don’t know…….most of whom I have never met. My stuff and I will be separated…….permanently and completely. Then it hit me. This big pile of stuff is not mine. It never was. I was simply a temporary custodian.

So…….what’s the point?

The point is that my relationship with my stuff has been fatally flawed for the last 60 years. And in about 13 years……give or take……that error will be rectified…….suddenly, perhaps brutally. It will be corrected without my input……without my permission……regardless of what my stack of papers says. My death will trigger the ultimate……100%………”estate tax”.

And so, I begin the work of redefining my relationship with my stuff. Some of this work is easy. The attic and the crawl spaces of my house are packed with stuff that is just this side of trash. I am hauling it to the dump…..one truckload at a time. Some of this work is emotionally very hard. It goes to the core of who I am. It goes to the heart of what I value. It is an indicator of my identity.

What it comes down to is this. In about 13 years, I will die. The only thing that l will take with me is my relationship with the guy who created me. That will be the only thing that will matter. This huge pile of stuff that I call “mine” will instantly become utterly and completely irrelevant.

So what are the implications?

First, I need to begin working on my relationship with my creator………God. I am headed for a face to face conversation with him. And I need to begin that conversation now……because if I don’t start now…….it could be really awkward. This conversation will occur…….whether I recognize God or deny him. It will be the most important conversation of my life. And I will not be in charge……of the conversation or of any decisions or consequences that flow from that conversation.

Second, I need a new attitude toward my stuff. Because, it really isn’t mine……..it never was.

These two things are true. This is crystal clear to me at age 71. But, it is also true for you………even if you are 21.

for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

Jesus explaining “stuff”, in Luke 12:15-21, ESV

Do you ever find yourself in a place that you don’t want to be in? Maybe you got lost on the way to someplace important. Maybe catastrophe struck and your plans were wrecked. The result was that you found yourself in a situation that you didn’t choose. It could be a big improvement over what you had planned. More often than not, however, you find yourself in a situation that you would never have chosen. You might even call your new situation a disaster. In our secular world we call these things “bad luck”. Some eastern philosophies would blame it on you…….”bad Karma”. Today, I want to explore bad things that happen to good people, because they do happen…….every day.

Take a minute and call to mind the worst thing that ever happened to you. This could be tough. Many of us have lots of “disasters” to sort through. It could very well be the death of someone important to you. Maybe it was the job you didn’t get, the school that rejected your application, the marriage proposal that was rejected……or worse, the marriage that failed. For a lot of men my age, it was a low number in the Viet Nam war draft lottery (my number was 17). At the time, it looked to me like my world was ending. My long range plan was reduced to shreds in a matter of seconds. It looked like I would trade medical school for the jungles of Viet Nam. Instead, I spent 6 years in the National Guard and never saw the jungle.

If you are a secular humanist, then you can write all of this off to bad luck……or Karma. But……if you are a Christian……. things get far more complicated. I believe that an intelligent creator made everything here, including me, for a purpose. That purpose is usually hidden from me. Believe it or not, God does not consult me…….ask for my approval……before he acts. I believe that the creator, God, has his hand in everything that happens, good and bad. I believe that God is working out his long range plan every day. It is unbelievably complex, and I am oblivious to the vast majority of it. Furthermore, I am usually not at the center of God’s plan. My part is usually that of a minor supporting actor. So, from time to time, God sends something into my life that I just don’t understand……something that I just don’t like…….something that compromises my goals and foils my appetites for the foreseeable future. I call this a disaster, because from my limited perspective, that is what it looks like. I ask God “why?” and I rarely get an answer that I can use.

So……how do we handle it……..when God sends what looks like a disaster into our lives?

Deny God:

This is patently absurd. God is either real or he is not. The fact that we disapprove of his work today is irrelevant. He either is or he is not. God does not ask for……God does not need…….our approval.

Get mad at God:

This is even worse. We recognize that God is large and in charge…….and we then throw mud at him…….to teach him a lesson. We believe that we can punish God by witholding our favor. Good luck with that.

Feel sorry for ourselves:

We focus on the things that God sends us that we don’t like…….to the exclusion of his blessings. We do this because we believe that our plan is better than his plan. We do this because, in practice, we believe that we are the center of the universe. This often works it’s way back to anger at God. It never improves the situation.

Or.

We can trust God. We can lean into his love for us. We can rely on his promises…….that it’s all going to be OK in the end……..that if it’s not OK now, then this isn’t the end. And this is very hard. It is very easy to love and trust God when you get into a top college. It is much harder when, that blessing is ripped away and replaced with the possibility of a one way trip to a jungle on the other side of the world.

In the end, God demands two things from us:

Love and Trust. Love for his person and trust in his plan.

And there’s more:

There is a very real possibility that the “disaster” that you are facing is God placing you in the path of someone who needs you. Perhaps, the disruption that you are facing is happening because God has a job for you to do…..a job that would have never crossed your desk if you stuck to your plan. So……when disaster strikes…….listen. Listen very hard.

Maybe God has an errand for you.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Revelation 21: 4, ESV

I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

Psalm 23: 4-6, ES6

People talk…..a lot. Politicians are a special case. The election is winding down……and we have heard a lot, probably too much. Unfortunately, a great deal of what we have heard is untrue. This includes the media, the politicians, and the people around us. It has reached the point where we don’t discuss politics in polite conversation. And that is sad, not to mention dangerous for our republic. Today, I want to discuss the things that people say…….that are not true.

Donald Trump promises a booming economy that will fix all of our problems, lower our debt, raise our wages, and lower our taxes. I doubt that all of this is true.

Oprah Winfrey warns of a fascist takeover that will never allow us to vote again. I doubt that this is true.

If these things happen in the next four years, I will apologize and retract this post.

So….what do we do when someone tells us something that just isn’t true?

The first step is to recognize the untruth. This is harder than it sounds because there is so much of it out there and it is repeated ad nauseum by an army of talking heads who think we are gullible. And we are pretty gullible…..especially when the untruth supports our appetites, our prejudices, and our political identity. But, this first step is essential. When anyone, friend or foe, tells us anything, our first decision must be…….”is this true?” In the realm of politics, the probability of an untruth is extremely high. And we need to know how to react.

The next step is to categorize the untruth. And this is the core of this post. It goes to the heart of the person who said it, their motivation, and how we deal with them. It goes to our relationships which, after all, is the reason that we were put here in the first place.

I divide untruth into three classes:

Lies
Hyperbole
Mistakes

Lies:
The heart of the lie is that the person who tells the lie knows it is untrue and is using it to manipulate you into giving them something that they want. Typically, a politician lies about his/her opponent in order to get your vote.

Hyperbole:
Hyperbole is an exaggeration of a situation. It typically begins with something that the speaker believes. At the core of the hyperbole, there is often, but not always, a grain of truth. The problem is that the speaker exaggerates the situation to the point where it is no longer true. Hyperbole can be difficult to spot, especially when it is built around a grain of truth that we like. Any political statement that uses the word Hitler is likely hyperbole. Most name calling is hyperbole.

Mistakes:
This may be the most common form of untruth. Someone analyses a situation, comes to an incorrect conclusion, and then shares that conclusion with you. The problem is that the conclusion is wrong. The thing that they tell you is untrue. Mistakes often manifest when a friend digests a lie or a hyperbole, believes it and passes it on. I see this every day when a friend shares a Facebook post that is untrue or even hateful. When you share a Facebook post that is hateful or untrue, you are endorsing that hate/lie. Good people do this all of the time.

So……what to do?

First, you must ask. Is this true?
Second, you must categorize the untruth because this affects your response.

The lie: The speaker knows that what he is saying is false. He is doing it intentionally in order to manipulate you. Do not allow yourself to be manipulated…..fooled. You are required to love him and treat him well. You are not required to believe him or to act on his lie. You can try to argue with him, educate him, but you are probably wasting your time, because even he doesn’t believe what he is saying. Calling him a liar is useless…….he already knows. Just love him and move on.

The hyperbole: The speaker believes he is doing a good thing, because there is a particle of truth in what he says. He may believe some of what he is saying. Still, he is trying to manipulate you. His motivation is not so evil as the liar, but your response is the same. Love him. Argument/education may work here, but it must grow out of love.

The mistake: There is no evil here. There is no malfeasance. There is no manipulation. There may be some bias in his analysis. He may be operating on a bad assumption. He could be the unwitting victim of a liar. He may be carrying some baggage that you know nothing about. The key is that he sincerely believes what he is saying. Conversation can work here. But, there is a very real possibility that you may alienate, or even hurt him. Be gentle. Love him. Above all, do not be angry or hurt. He has just made a mistake…….like the one you will make in the next hour.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”

Jesus in Matthew 7:15, ESV

An exaggeration is a truth that has lost its temper.

Kahil Gibran

For we all stumble in many ways.

James 3:2, ESV

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so. “

Mark Twain……a good working definition of a mistake.