I’m mad at bunch of people.

The guy who robbed a family member.
The roofer who ripped off my son.
The guy who threatened my granddaughter.
The girl who bullied my granddaughter.
All of those who use handicapped parking but have no meaningful handicap.
The road rage guy who yelled at my wife.
The guy who charged me $1500 for 15 minutes of shabby work on my chimney.

And many more…….

My list is long; but, I know people who have lists much longer than mine.

Consider the people on my list…..and on yours. The things that they have done are deplorable…..no question about it.

In our society, we are constantly told to hate the people whom we are mad at. Every day, on our phones, on our computers, and on our TVs, somebody is demonizing their “enemy du jour”. Just like in junior high school……… they are trying to recruit you and me to hate the person that they hate. I see people who are otherwise very nice people…….friends of mine……doing this just about every day on Facebook.

But, here’s the problem.

God loves them all. Yes…..he even loves the guy parked in the handicapped spot……..whose only handicap is that he is lazy.

Even worse……..he loves those on the opposite end of the political spectrum. Hold your nose……..God loves Donald Trump……….God loves Nancy Pelosi.

So…….how do we handle our anger…..how do I handle my anger? I think that we need to try something that goes against our more base instincts.

Don’t hate someone because a politician or “talking head” told you to. They are trying to manipulate you to accomplish their goals. We should have left this behavior behind in junior high school.

Learn how to disagree without demonizing the other guy. Believe it or not he pretty much wants the same things that you do. When someone tries to recruit you into their hate……just turn away.

Remember that the only thing that you can control is what you say and do. People will hurt you. They will do bad things. Politicians will do things that you don’t like. This is never going to change, whether you wade into the mud slinging or not. Let it go and move on. When the other guy does something bad…… do something good. Go high when they go low.

If you do these things you will be in harmony with one of the two great rules of Christianity ………love your neighbor. This is the road to inner peace. Even more importantly, it is the only path to lasting joy.

This bears repeating.

LOVING OTHERS IS THE ONLY PATH TO LASTING JOY.

You can do this. You can love the other guy……..even if he hurts you……..even if she disagrees with you over something very important………abortion, gun control, the wall, the president, congress, you name it. This will drive the politicians and “talking heads” crazy.

And it will put a smile on God’s face.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”

Paul, NIV

I have been struggling with last week’s post just a little. It is very likely that some of you have had an abortion. And, for what it’s worth, I include both fathers and mothers here. It was not my intention to accuse you or hurt you.

So……..what if I had an abortion decades ago? What does that mean for me today? What lies ahead?

As a Christian, I believe in eternity past and eternity future…..that is……paradise. These two eternities are separated by a tiny sliver of time that we call our life. Our life seems very important and very big from where we stand today. But……if you look at the big picture……..our life is actually tiny. It is only important to the extent that we have one critical decision to make. To accept God…….or deny him. That is the only important decision because it is the only decision that we will ever make that has eternal consequences. I suspect that much of what happens to us during our life happens to prepare us for that decision.

So…….what in the world does this have to do with abortion?

Your child existed from the instant of conception………and probably long before conception. Your child is in paradise right now…….and you will meet her after your brief time in this world. What will that meeting be like?

First off, let me deal with what it will not be.

She will not walk up with tears in her eyes and say, “how could you have done that to me!”

What will happen is this:

She will run to you with open arms and shout “Mommy…Daddy, I’ve been waiting for you!” There will be a group hug, tears, laughter…….and then eternity spent at peace in the one place that you were created for.

So…….if you look at the big picture…….the eternal picture, your abortion changes the outcome very little. The only rub here is not whether your child will enjoy paradise, that is a given…….it is whether you will enjoy it with her.

And this all hinges on that one critical decision…….to accept or deny God.

I just watched the movie “Unplanned”. This is not an uplifting “feel good” movie……no matter which side of the debate you fall on. I think that we can all agree that it is a “hit piece” aimed at Planned Parenthood. There is some bias in it……the Christians are kind and gentle and the management at Planned Parenthood range from callous to evil. To me, those are not the key issues.

For me, the key issue is………is it true?

The story revolves around a PP manager who leaves the company and becomes pro-life. I think that it is an accurate portrayal of her struggle. But, that is not the heart of the film. It includes graphic scenes of a complication that occurred during an abortion. But, that is not the heart of the film……complications occur in any medical facility. There are people portrayed as kind and people portrayed as evil……just like everywhere. That also is not the heart of the film.

The heart of the film is a 30 second video clip that shows an ultrasound of an early first trimester fetus being sucked into a cannula. You can see the baby flinch just before the end. I was a physician by trade for almost 40 years. There have been 60 million abortions in the U.S. And yet, I had never seen a video like this.

This portrayal of the fact of what an abortion is…….is the heart of this film. It is shocking. It is disturbing. It is profoundly sad.

And it is true.

Pro choice advocates do not want this truth to circulate. That is why it took 60 million abortions and 40 years before a video clip like this one was made public. Pro choice advocates would prefer to conduct this conversation on the grounds of civil rights.

But hiding this truth is dishonest.

If you are pro-life, you need to see this heartbreaking movie.

If you really don’t care one way or the other you need to see this movie to educate yourself.

If you are pro-choice, you probably won’t watch it. But, ask yourself why? If the truth disturbs your beliefs…….if the truth disturbs your desires…….which do you discard? In a word, if you choose not to watch this movie…….you are discarding the truth in order to defend your desires. This calls for courage, self examination, and honesty.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you”

Jeremiah, NIV

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful.”

David, NIV

My prayer is that the women who are considering abortion will choose to let their babies live…….that abortion clinics will become irrelevant money losing anachronisms.

If you would like to view the video clip, here is a link to the you tube page.

Please understand…….this is graphic, disturbing, and sad.

What is evil and why is it important?

We live in a world where we are told every day that we must be tolerant. We are told that the range of human behavior is very broad and that we should accept and embrace people, ideas, and acts that are different from us. For the most part this is good counsel. We should not reject an idea or person simply because they are different. But, I think that we have become victims of “tolerance creep”. The idea of tolerance has spread to mean that we should tolerate just about everything. And this is wrong.

Tolerance in itself is neither good nor bad. It all depends on just exactly what we are tolerating. Tolerating evil is not good. We tolerated Hitler in the 30’s and got WW 2 for our mistake. The people at NAMBLA say that we should tolerate adult men sexually abusing boys. This type of tolerance is misguided.

We should not tolerate evil. But, to do this we must be able to accurately identify evil. This is no small task. Every day someone gets on our TV, our cellphone, our computer and tells us that someone or some idea is evil. Why…….because THEY don’t like it. The sad truth is that there are thousands of lists of evils floating around. Some of these lists are good and some are not. Paradoxically, some of the lists of evil being sold to us are so bad that you could argue that the list itself is evil.

How do we navigate this minefield? If our list of evils is too short, we risk being recruited into somebody else’s evil. If our list of evils is too long, we become angry and judgmental……and we alienate those around us.

We can make up our own list……..but, unfortunately, we are basically dishonest……..every last one of us. The sad truth is that anything that we really want to do is going to be absent from OUR list of evils. Our list then becomes nothing more than a tool for beating up the other guy. One guideline that I can offer……..if you are exploring a list of evils and it doesn’t include something that tempts you, then you are either a saint or the list is suspect.

Or…..we can adopt somebody else’s list. This calls for discernment. The most widely sold lists in American culture come from our political parties and the media talking heads that speak for them. I distrust these lists from both the right and the left because they are typically being promoted by someone with a political agenda (Hannity, Acosta, etc.).

I have tried out many lists in my life. My home grown lists have been failures. So, I have looked around. I have come to the conclusion that the most widely accepted and reliable list of good and evil available today is the Bible. I believe that the Bible is the most reliable moral code available to us. It offers the most comprehensive understanding of good and evil available to us today.

Obviously, this is a huge document. Nevertheless, I recommend reading it cover to cover. Check out a smart phone app like “bible in a year”. Meanwhile, to get you started, here is the “Cliff notes” version:

Love God
Love your neighbor
Don’t lie
Don’t steal
Don’t murder
Honor your parents
Sex is for husbands and wives
Don’t covet
Rest on Sunday

God, NIV (abridged)

Master this list and you are well on your way to living a good life and escaping evil.

FWIW………mastering this list…….is a lifetime undertaking.

I try to boil things down to basics. What is the basis, the ultimate foundation of Christianity? To put it another way. What is the single stone that everything else is built on?

There is the physical world…..and there is the non-physical world…….the spiritual world. The physical world is easy. We can reach out and touch it. We can measure it. We can manipulate it (for better or worse). The spiritual world is tougher. Most of us believe that there is something beyond the physical……though we vary widely in the details. But, a growing number of us belief that there is no spiritual world at all…….you die and you’re dirt. The difficulty is the point at which the physical world and the spiritual world intersect. It is really important that we get this right. Our decision to accept the spiritual world or reject it…….or, worst of all……ignore it altogether, will have consequences that will extend far beyond our brief 80 years.

What exactly is at the intersection of the physical world and the spiritual world?

Christianity teaches that at the intersection of these worlds is Jesus…….a being who is fully human (physical) and fully God (spiritual). This is pretty radical. Obviously, this changes everything. What is it that proves that Christ is both man and God? There is solid evidence that Christ lived. There are historical accounts of his crucifixion. I think that the vast majority of people, both Christians and skeptics, can agree on that. We accept that Christ was a man……that he operated in the physical realm. But, is he God? That’s where we get into trouble.

So…… the crux of it all is the resurrection.

This clearly crosses the line from the physical world to the spiritual world. In the physical world, the resurrection simply is not possible. The resurrection proves that Jesus operates in both the physical world and the spiritual world. More importantly, the resurrection gives Jesus ultimate authority. In a word, it means that we have to take what he says seriously. And what he says is the basis of Christianity……love God and love your neighbor.

The resurrection either happened……..or it didn’t. There is no middle ground. Either there is a spiritual realm as Jesus said……or there isn’t. And we have to pick a side…….ignoring the question is to deny the spiritual realm by default. The consequences for you……and for me…..are extreme. We have to get this binary choice right. And the simple fact is that most of us don’t take this critical decision seriously. We spend more time working on our “play list” than on this foundational question.

The resurrection happened. It is a fact…….and it establishes the divinity of Jesus.

Hundreds of people witnessed Christ after the resurrection. They talked to him, touched him, ate with him.

11 ordinary practical working men, men who were there, died gruesome deaths rather than deny the resurrection.

There are multiple texts that support it.

The primary reason for denying the resurrection today is that we don’t want to deal with a supernatural God who tells us what we can and cannot do. A human boss is bad enough; but……for many of us, a divine supernatural boss is intolerable.

So there it is.

There is solid testimony that the resurrection happened.
The resurrection proves that Jesus is God.
When Jesus speaks, God speaks.

We need to pay close attention, because what Jesus tells us to do is far more important than what we want to do.

Fortunately, what he tells us to do is easy.

Love God and Love your fellow man.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light .”

Jesus, NIV

I was recently in a hotel. A man walked up to the front desk. He was extremely angry because the free breakfast that he had received was not what he had expected. He berated the clerk, dropping the “f” bomb repeatedly then became verbally abusive to others in the room. His wife stood by and said nothing. I got the sense that this was a fairly routine performance for her husband. He was pretty much the poster child for anger. He was not a happy camper.

I began to consider anger and how it affects us in living the life that we want to live.

So, look at the list below. Pick one thing from the list. Pick the thing you want the most…the thing that you would give up all of the others to achieve.

Wealth
Health
Power
Happiness
Respect
Love

I bet most people would choose happiness. Everything else on the list is a stepping stone toward happiness, but not a destination in itself. To look at it another way, what good is wealth, health, power, respect, or even love……..if it leads to unhappiness?

I often tell people that I have the most valuable skill set on the planet……..I have learned how to be happy. And yet, there are a great many people who are not happy. Being happy, it turns out, is not a common skill. Why?

Here is another list:

Anger
Jealousy
Vengeance
Greed
Laziness
Lust

These are things that we actively choose to do that lead us away from happiness. I would go so far as to say that the things on this list are incompatible with happiness. And yet, for the most part, they are things that we make a conscious decision to pursue. In effect, by choosing to pursue the things on this list, we are making a concious decision to be unhappy. The guy in the hotel that morning made a concious decision to be angry and the result was that he became unhappy. I can’t be sure, but I bet he is often unhappy.

Are there better choices that we can make…….choices that will lead us to happiness?

Here is the final list:

Kindness
Generosity
Love
Truth
Faith
Hope

Here is a list of things that we can choose to pursue that will lead to happiness. I am convinced that the surest road to happiness in this life is to love and actively care for your fellow man. And the converse is also true……….the surest road to unhappiness is anger.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things and the God of peace will be with you”

St. Paul, NIV

So…… what do I do when somebody attacks me or treats me badly? My first job is to protect myself and the best tool for protecting myself from angry people is distance. This includes angry bosses. After I put some distance between me and my attacker, then I should consider that my attacker must, almost by definition, be unhappy. It’s hard to do……..but there is room in my heart for a little sympathy for people who habitually make bad choices that cause them (and the people around them) to be unhappy.

What do you do when you find that you are angry……that you are hanging out on list #1? Just remember……….every minute of your life that you choose to be angry is a minute of happiness that you have intentionally thrown away………and you can never get that minute back.

It’s hard to beat St. Paul’s advice.

Think of words that you might use to describe God.

Big, strong, just, angry, fierce, friend, father, avenger, protector, redeemer/saviour, punisher, creator, teacher, destroyer, guide, rescuer, distant, absent, judgemental.

In the Bible, God shows us a lot of faces. Many of them are quite different from one another. Each face shows us a different facet of God’s “personality”.

I think that how we react to God, how we relate to him, is deeply colored by the face of God that we see most often…..the vision of God that we carry with us every day.

If the face of God that you carry with you every day is an angry, fierce, distant, judgemental, absent, punisher……. then it is not hard to understand why you would not seek him out. It is easy to see why you would distance yourself from him. This is the face of God that Dawkins sees in his book “The God Delusion”.

Many people find this vision of God so disturbing that they go one step further. They either ignore him completely……or they deny his existence.

On the other hand, if the face of God that you keep in front of you is a friend, protector, teacher, guide, rescuer…….a loving father, Abba, then I would expect you to pursue him.

This dichotomy, I think, is at the heart of the division of our culture into primarily secular and primarily religious camps. It is why these two groups have such a hard time even talking about God. They choose such different “faces” of God that it is almost as though they are talking about different Gods.

So….. which of these faces of God is the truth? You probably have already guessed…….it is not as simple as it seems. Each of the descriptions in the second paragraph has roots in the Bible. Each of these descriptions of God has some truth in it. How do we sort through them? More importantly, how do we use them to guide our actions………our thoughts……our lives?

What we are talking about here is relationship and what that relationship looks like from our side. I believe that relationship is the primary driving goal of our lives. It is the thing that we value the most. It is the thing that is the main determinant of whether we are happy or sad. I believe that the desire for relationship is at the center of our lives. It is “written on our hearts”. It was put there by our creator for our use……and for his. How we act on our need for relationship is the main thing that will determine the success or failure of our lives.

The most powerful relationship in our lives is the parent/child relationship. From the child’s side……..dependence, respect, honor, love, obedience, service, even worship. From the parent’s side…….love, self sacrifice, teaching, nurturing, protecting, promoting, and if necessary dying for your child. The fact that the parent/child relationship looks just like the human/God relationship is no accident. I believe that this incredibly strong instinctive relationship was built in to us by our creator. So……if you want to understand your relationship with God…….look at your relationship with your parents and your children. Some parents and some children do not do this well so you may have to look around a bit.

So…..what does this have to do with the “face” of God that we carry around with us?

If the face of God that we carry with us shapes our relationship with God…….then we had better choose our “face of God” carefully. If you want your relationship with God to be angry, confrontational, judgmental…….if you want to push God off into some remote corner of your life where he won’t cause you any trouble……focus on the face of God that Dawkins chose in his book. If, on the other hand, you want a joyful, peaceful, successful, loving parent/child relationship with your father, your creator, choose the “face” of Jesus……gentle, loving, forgiving, self sacrificing…….the face of God that wants success and happiness for you……over the long haul.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

God, NIV

In a way, you are choosing whether you want to be joyous or angry……..because, like it or not, you can’t be both.

As I watch the world…….and the people around me. I see a lot of conflict and misunderstanding around the topic of religion. This comes from a lot of different sources and I can’t deal with them all here. I believe that a lot of this conflict stems from a misunderstanding……. either intentional or not…….. of our relationship with God.

I once saw an interview with Robert Deniro. Somebody asked him if he believed in God. He said something like “I don’t know….but I’ll tell you this……he’s got some explaining to do”. This was probably just a snappy “throw away line” and may not reflect Mr. Dinero’s theology. But, it does reflect the way that many people see their relationship with God. A lot of us act as though we get to approve or disapprove of God and what he is up to. We act as though we have a veto over God’s rules and over his plans. We act as though he needs our clearance before he acts. In a word, we act as though we are a higher authority than God.

We give him a daily “to do list”……we accept the things that he does that we like and toss out anything that he does that goes against what we want.

You will hear lines like, “I can’t accept a God who would let my child die”. Or….”I don’t believe in hell”. Or you talk to otherwise solid Christians who pick through the Bible……they accept what appeals to them……and they discard anything that they don’t like……anything that restricts their behavior………anything that goes against their political party (left or right).

I think that understanding our relationship with God may help us to better fit into our place in the cosmos. It might even bring us some inner peace as well.

So how do I stack up against God?

He is big……I am small.

He knows everything…….I know a little.

He loves everyone all of the time….l love some people some of the time.

He operates on an eternal time frame…… I’m limited to 80 or 90 years (I hope!).

He created me……..I create furniture.

He desires joy for all of us…….I often desire pain for those who harm my family and friends.

He can and will forgive just about anything (if you only ask)……I can forgive small things some of the time.

He is perfectly just and cannot be approached by evil…….I am fairly comfortable functioning in a world that is full of evil.

He always does what is right……….I often do what is wrong.

In short…….God is ultimate love, power, knowledge, justice, righteousness, and mercy. He is eternal. I fall short in every one of these areas.

In light of that, here are some guidelines that I try to follow when I read the Bible……..pray……..or react to God and the things that he is up to.

God is vastly superior to you and me……be humble.

God has a good plan………don’t critisize or second guess him.

God loves you……..trust him in the good times and in the bad.

God is eternal……be patient…. he will “fix” things in his good time; but, on his terms……not necessarily on your terms.

God is merciful…..when you fail, get up, brush yourself off, say I’m sorry, and move on.

God is generous…….he has something fabulous waiting for his people…..waiting for you……..be happy.

I am a smart and capable guy. By many measures I have had a “successful” life and a “successful” career. But, when I approach God……if I am being honest…….I approach him as a weak, naked, ignorant child who will die very soon.

Humility not hubris.

3 different approaches to managing the world

Republicans:

Lower taxes
Small federal government
Strong army
Secure border, limits on immigration
No abortion
Right to own guns
Strict original interpretation of the constitution
Limited entitlements
Protect the environment when financially feasible
Against recreational drugs
Sex in marriage is between one man and one woman
Nationalist (America first)
More business friendly

Democrats:

Higher taxes
More expansive federal government
More open borders, few restrictions on immigration
Right to choose
Gun control
Flexible interpretation of the constitution
Generous entitlements
Protect the environment even if it is costly
Legalize marijuana
Sympathetic to LGBT
World government
Less business friendly

Christianity:

Love God
Love your fellow man
Help the poor, the prisoner, widows, orphans, and children
Treat the “soujourner” (visitor, transient, alien) well
Give 10% to the Church
Spread the good news (sell paradise)
Be kind……even to those who attack you
Be honest in what you say and do.
Do not be sexually promiscuous
Do not envy others
Take the day off on Sunday
Take care of the planet and everything on it.
Obey the law and pay your taxes
Avoid intoxication

Each of these approaches does many good things. Each of them is in conflict with the other two.

We need to choose. But, unlike the angry talking heads on TV…..unlike the politicians on the extreme left and right……. it is not “pick one side and destroy the others”.

Rather, I think that we need to prioritize these three approaches. In other words…….what are you…….first and foremost? Christian…….Democrat…….Republican. Look at the three lists and ask yourself which list best matches the world that you want to live in…….and the person whom you want to be. When you get involved in an argument about the things on the three lists………which list do you defend………which list(s) do you attack?

As for me……I want to be a Christian first……..and only after that……a Republican or Democrat. When a politician tries to sell me an idea, I want to measure it against list #3 first. Only after that should I consider lists #1 and #2. Far too many of us use only list #1 or list #2. Far too many of us get angry with others because they choose a different list.

I would love to see a third political party.

Imagine a voting booth where you can vote for individual candidates……….or vote the “straight ticket”.

Which “ticket” would you choose?

Republican. □

Democrat. □

Christian. □

So…….first and foremost……..what are you?

I believe that there are fundamental…..foundational truths in life. These are universal……they do not change……..they are eternal. Knowing them is the key to happiness. Violating them causes us pain.

These truths are so critical that they are “written on our hearts”…..we were born with them………they were put there by our creator to guide us. If you cast aside your desires, your politics, your emotions, your physical wants and needs………if you strip away everything that our culture, your computer and your TV tell you and carefully search your heart you will find these truths. It should be no surprise that the greatest truths in life are built into us……programmed into us.

In our busy lives, these universal truths often get buried beneath layers of ideas that our culture feeds us. The ideas that the culture sells us may very well have some truth in them. They are certainly pounded into us every day by an endless stream of politicians and other “talking heads”…….but, they are not universal……. and they are not eternal. The ideas that the culture feeds us are like a fashion that comes and goes. In a word, the moral framework that our culture accepts…..the rules that our society insists that we follow……are constantly changing. No wonder we have trouble keeping up……no wonder we get into fights over which rules to follow. Every day we get beat up because someone says that we should follow the latest rule instead of following the rule that was “fashionable” last year.

In my search for peace, I have tried to seek out the foundational truths of life…….and I doubt that I have been completely successful. But, here it is………my list of universal truths:

There is something………a form of existence……after physical death. In a word, there is an element of spiritual immortality in each of us.

We are driven by love…..the need to be loved and even more so, the need to love others. The love of a parent for his/her child is the purest earthly example of this love.

Pure good exists. There is some good in all of us. But there is also a reservoir of pure good that is external to us.

Evil exists. It is everywhere around us…….it also lives inside all of us……..it lives inside me. But, there is also an external reservoir of evil.

The good that we do……..and the bad that we do……… will return to us…….either before……or after we die. We have an abiding trust that there will be justice……..in the end.

We know that on the spectrum from good to evil, we are somewhere in the middle. We want to be good…..we want to avoid evil……..but we just cannot get all of the way there. In a word….we know that we are flawed. We need outside help.

We have a drive to promote ourselves as well as a need to help others.

So…..there they are……..the fundamental truths that are built into all of us. We often ignore them. Sometimes we run from them. But…….. if we search deep in our hearts……..we know that they are real…….that they are true.

Life….death….immortality…..love……good…….evil…….justice….failure

In the Bible, we see these ideas codified.

Creation…….death……..paradise……..love………God…..Satan……judgement……mercy

This is why the Bible is the most enduring piece of literature in the history of man. It touches on the fundamental truths that we sense deep in our hearts. It gives us a moral compass that is stable……..one that just works better than the current…… and transient …….moral fashion of our culture.

That is why I trust the Bible. That is why I use it as my moral code.