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Monday, May 18, 2020

Rock On, Seniors!



Woke up to reality
And found the future not so bright
I dreamt the impossible
That maybe things could work out right…
- “Shattered Dreams” - Johnny Hates Jazz

The summer of ’69 was almost upon us. It was high school graduation time and those diplomas were a first real statement of achievement. After the official ceremonies, several friends and I met on a hill outside of Sidney, Montana, to finish the night in celebration. That included the sharing of high hopes and visionary dreams.

That was then. This…is now. And no such evening awaits the graduations of 2020. Covid-19 has seen to that.

Perhaps, like me, you feel for the high school and college seniors who get no thrill of send off this year. If anything, they feel robbed. What should have been a grand conclusion to their educational journey is a date with isolation from friends, teachers, and prom night memories. Understandably, graduates are a bit angry.

As the Washington Times recently recounted, “Some have opted to drop any sort of commemoration and just focus on the future. Some have used their cars for “drive-by” celebrations. Others have planned virtual get-togethers via teleconferencing apps such as Zoom and Google Hangouts.” But it all adds up to the Year of the Surreal Graduation.

Then there are the athletes. Spring delivers high school and college basketball and hockey championships. The baseball season. Golf and track. All the hopes and those dreams that “this is going to be my year!” instead have gone by the wayside. Strike up the band for another reason for disappointment. Just make sure the band doesn’t actually meet together.

Yakirah Clay was senior class president at DuVal High School in Lanham, Virginia. Her previous active high school life kept her very busy. The virus has curtailed all that. In her words, “It’s really getting to my mind. I only have sitting in my house and then going to work.” Some grand finale, eh?

Students in Illinois will have memorable “ceremonies” in the 2020 Year of the Surreal Graduation. Schools in our state are planning drive through, drive in, or tune in options for the graduates. Obviously what’s missing are the traditional transfer of diplomas with a human touch, hugs, or handshakes.

One of the rich experiences that usually ends college life is hearing from excellent commencement speakers. Chicago Public Schools have arranged for Oprah Winfrey to give the main commencement address. According to the Chicago Tribune, the virtual ceremony in June will be offered to “all of Chicago’s high school seniors, whether they attend district, charter, or private schools.” I’ll bet the excitement is building already. (cough, cough)

The 2020 graduates are also being told to make sure and get their caps, gowns, and diplomas ahead of time. I guess that’s so you look the part at your drive through or virtual ceremony. Doesn’t it all seem a bit phony? Another COVID-19 ripoff.

My high school graduation in Sidney, Montana, was also about scholarships and excitement over where students were headed for college. This year’s graduates cannot even be sure a campus apart from home will be waiting for them. No worries about a new “roomie” for now. Or whether you’ll make the cut on extracurricular programs. Or whether your sports team will even play in the fall.

I’ve spoken at a couple of graduations. If it was this year, my address would be built around these famous words of a man named Jesus: “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.” Matthew 7:24-25 (NLT)

I wonder how many teachers ever shared those words of wisdom—teaching students how to build a life foundation on a solid rock.

It’s this Truth that gives you hope when all you seem to have…are shattered dreams.

That’s Forward Thinking. Click on the link to the right to connect via Facebook.


For more information:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/may/3/class-2020-upended-coronavirus-share-disappointmen/

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Monday, May 11, 2020

Oh, When the Saints Go … Staying Home


Those of us in the pew-filling business look for any creative way to bring the spiritually hungry to our houses of worship. Our purposes are many. People bond when they are meeting others of like minds. Sanctuaries filled with songs of worship are powerful. It is said that God “inhabits our praise.” Psalm 22:3 (KJV)

Most places of fellowship offer so much to many. There are people seeking ways to recover from life’s burdensome temptations. Young people may find an accepting group of peers and a place of safety to discuss their weak zones. Seniors find companionship in a stage of life that can leave them feeling abandoned.

It is the place where couples make promises of commitment before God and witnesses. A place where souls are washed in a basin of baptism that confirms their commitment to follow Jesus. It might well be the place where the final words are spoken by family members, friends, and a preacher to a honor a soul recently departed. Even then, the church can be home to sweet reunions and words of hope.

Oh yes. Church can be a most wonderful place to gather. But not now.

It is unfortunate—at least in my view—that some ministry leaders feel risky gatherings are worth any price. Even to the point of death. COVID-19 has proved its potent message: don’t mess with a deadly virus.

Just a few days ago, a usually reliable and responsible group named the Liberty Counsel called on churches nationwide to open and meetings to resume on Sunday, May 3. They named this occasion ReOpen Church Sunday. The date was selected to kick off the annual National Day of Prayer week. That day was celebrated last Thursday, May 7th. 

Admittedly, the organizers were asking congregations participating in ReOpen Church Sunday to mind their spiritual manners. That would include appropriate sanitization and respectable social distancing between families. Grace was also given for the particularly nervous nellies among us who would push for reduced seating inside the sanctuary.

Even more grace was extended for the weaker of faith (in jest, my friend) by suggesting parking lot services for those choosing not to go inside the building. Last, but not least, online services were suggested “for those who are unable to attend or who are in a higher risk category due to age or predisposed health conditions.”

The Liberty Counsel initiative flew in the face of our Illinois Governor who has put the kibosh on any church gatherings more than 10 attendees. So much for those who plead for their First Amendment rights. So not every pastor was willing to go along.

Out came the legal weapons. Most Beloved Church is located in the northwest Illinois village of Lena. Their pastor decided to sue, hoping to block the portion of the Gov’s stay-at-home order that bans public worship services. His church planned to go right on a-meetin’ come hell or, well, the state troopers.

He got his wish. Sort of. J.B. (as in Pritzger) loosened up a tad and said a group of ten congregants was okay. But only if they didn’t sing, “Kumbaya.” <grin>

As for my place of worship? No Sunday-go-to-meetin in our congregation. We have a fair share of at-risk seniors and a whole lot of common sense folk who figure our streaming worship services can pass out blessings with the best of them. And we present a whole lot more Gospel than a not-to-be-mentioned Houston motivational speaker (I hesitate to call him a pastor).

It’s my pleasure each week to record the Sunday announcements…on Saturday. They take my temperature as I walk in the door. They wipe down every surface I might touch with some bleachy stuff. Each week, I ask our Facebook Watch Party parishioners to wave at each other. Socially distant, of course.

Jesus Himself said, “For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.” Matthew 18:20 (NLT) And right now, Facebook Watch parties seem like a very safe gathering place.

I hope the day comes soon when our church doors are wide open and the saints can march right on in.

But until this virus gives up, I think the saints are fully capable of worshiping at home.

That’s Forward Thinking. Click on the link to the right to connect via Facebook.


For more information:

https://www.lifenews.com/2020/04/20/christian-group-calls-for-all-churches-nationwide-to-reopen-on-sunday-may-3rd/

https://thesouthern.com/content/tncms/live/

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Monday, May 4, 2020

Stressed Out Millennials



You’ve heard the song “Stressed Out” by Twenty One Pilots, right? Catchy tune. Memorable lyrics, like…

I was told when I get older all my fears would shrink
But now I'm insecure and I care what people think

And then that chorus…

Wish we could turn back time, to the good old days
When our momma sang us to sleep but now we're stressed out

And what seems to drive the fears and insecurity of these youngins’? It’s captured, in part, by this lyric: “My name's Blurryface and I care what you think.”

Tyler Joseph, the lead singer, is 32 years old. Welcome to Millennial-World. He has tons of companions. One of them, most likely not an acquaintance, is Laurie Penny. She’s 33. Laurie’s an English journalist and columnist who has written for a broad range of publications. Including Wired Magazine. That’s where I came across her talent.

I was captivated by her struggling life story, trying to sort out the meaning and value of productivity in the COVID era. I also felt sorry for her and any of her millennial ride-alongs who share her pain. She offers far too many pull quotes to summarize. If my blog stirs your interest, I recommend you read "Productivity is not Working" in its entirety. The link is below.

A few of her observations must be noted. She writes in her opening, “How shall we stay productive when the world is going to hell?…How should we self-optimize when we’re suddenly having to meet our deadlines with our roommates, kids, and inner critics screaming in the background?” Do I hear an “Amen?”
,
Poor Ms. Penny feels the trap of productivity. For the last ten years of her life, when asked about her well-being, she offers a run-down of her work performance for the day. She’s not alone. “When I check in with friends and family far away, I usually get an update on how productive they have or have not managed to be since we last spoke,” says Laurie.

She continues, “Frantic productivity is a fear response…for 21st-century humans in general and millennial humans in particular, as we’ve collectively awoken from the American dream with a strange headache and a stack of bills to pay.”

I don’t know how wide of a swath her friendship circle cuts. But Laurie has seen and heard enough to believe her generation sees “relentless work” as the way to deal with crisis. Sad.

Then she offers a startling personal view on “religion.”

Referencing the Great Plagues of the 14th century, which wiped out half of Europe, Ms. Penny believes the Black Death also undermined the power of religion. She writes, “As broken communities surveyed the mounds of corpses, wondering what sins could possibly be proportional to this sort of punishment, they started to lose faith in God—and the Medieval Church began to lose power as an organizing force in everyday life.” (People always blame God for pain. Never the Evil One.)

Will this virus, which has been the major contributor to the current economic disaster in America, fuel a new loss of faith? Maybe, as she suggests, not in the church, but in modern capitalism? Laurie Penny wonders, “If frantic productivity is a fear response, the opposite urge—to tear it all up and declare deadline bankruptcy—feels like blasphemy.” Further she opines, “This is exactly the sort of crisis that gives people ideas about overturning the social order.” Excuse me???

The prophet Jeremiah warned the once self-sufficient people of Israel this way, “You are proud of your fertile valleys, but they will soon be ruined. You trusted in your wealth, you rebellious daughter, and thought no one could ever harm you.” Jeremiah 49:4 (NLT)

Wrong-O. COVID-19 has brought us a hard lesson. Wealth cannot save us. Productivity cannot save us. Government power cannot save us. Only God can intervene to save us.

Wish we could turn back time, to the good old days
When our momma sang us to sleep but now we're stressed out

Ain’t it the truth.

That’s Forward Thinking. Click on the link to the right to connect via Facebook.


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Monday, April 27, 2020

The Harvard Education Battle



In the COVID-19 era, we all hear statements made, or conspiracies postulated, that make us laugh. Not because they are really funny. It’s because they are so absurd.

In my combined years of communications and marketing work, I’ve come to realize how important credibility really is. Once you lose it, it’s hard to get it back.

One of the really dangerous results of making absurd statements occurs when you are a de facto representative of a respected organization. Like Harvard.

Long held in admiration along with the other Ivy League schools, when a Harvard professor speaks—it should be worth listening to. But not always. In fact, I find it to be less and less over the years.

A most recent example is the article written by Elizabeth Bartholet. She’s the Wasserstein Professor of Law and faculty director of the Harvard Law School's Child Advocacy Program. My, that’s a weighty position. Her article titled, “The Risks of Homeschooling” was recntly published in Harvard Magazine, a generally respected journal.

There's quite a graphic on the magazine cover. A cursory look at the image highlighting the article shows what readily can be perceived as a child behind the equivalent of prison bars at home. Several other children are happily pictured at play outside the house. What’s also telling is the written inscriptions on the side of the home. They appear to be book titles for Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and…wait for it….Bible.” (Please gasp here.)

The professor makes some interesting and disappointing personal assessments. She claims homeschooling deprives children of a “meaningful education.” How so? In her view, it prevents our sweet darlings from “contributing positively to a democratic society.”

What bothers the academic in part is the lack of proper authority. “We have an essentially unregulated regime in the area of homeschooling,” Professor Bartholet states. She added, “If you look at the legal regime governing homeschooling, there are very few requirements that parents do anything.” This apparently led her to a conclusion that parents should not have complete autonomy over their children.

Blah. Blah. Blah.

Fortunately, there are more rational and clear thinkers who come out of Harvard. Many of them…formerly homeschooled. A person like Melba Pearson.

Melba graduated from Harvard with honors. As she says, “Harvard was the very first school I ever set foot in. The first 12 years of my education, I was homeschooled, from kindergarten to 12th grade.” And she was proud of it. Until she saw the demeaning piece from Professor Bartholet. A piece to which she responded.

As to limiting parents' rights to teach their own children, Melba argues, “This is a blatant rejection of free thought, suppression of democratization of education, and attack on the freedoms and rights the citizens of our country fought long and hard to win.” (So there.)

She also finds the thought process behind the homeschool critique horribly at odds with a more recent Harvard “crusade of ‘diversity,’ ‘inclusion,’ and ‘acceptance.’” In her four years at the Ivy League school Melba saw a number of protests, rules, regulations, and initiatives promoting “diversity, inclusion, and tolerance.” Somehow, these “values” get lost in certain academic circles.

And let’s not forget the fourth “r” that becomes so offensive at certain higher places of learning. You know, reading, (w)riting, (a)rithmetic and...RELIGION! That’s probably at the core of much of the opposition to homeschooling.

Proverbs tells us “Teach a youth about the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6 (HCSB)

Yes, teach a youth the way he or she should go. Or maybe…not go. Like to Harvard, if they keep such outlandish ideas as Professor Bartholet’s alive.

That’s Forward Thinking. Click on the link to the right to connect via Facebook.


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Monday, April 20, 2020

God and the Virus



Uh oh. The esteemed governor of New York has stepped into a mudflow of reactions to a recent assertion about God. After his state has been bitten badly by a vicious virus that holds no prisoners, Andrew Cuomo pushed his un-Catholic like view to center stage. What did he say??

In his own sort of God-forsaken words to reporters the Gov proclaimed, “The (virus) number is down because we brought the number down. God did not do that. Faith did not do that. Destiny did not do that. A lot of pain and suffering did that…That’s how it works. It’s math. And if you don’t continue to do that, you’re going to see that number go back up.”

He’s probably right, of course. I mean the part about people who choose to act foolishly in the face of COVID-19. They must face the consequences. Then if they do get zapped by the virus, many will be pleading for mercy from the God whose wisdom they so easily rejected.

If Andrew Cuomo took his faith to heart, he’d be on his knees every day. After all, look at his brother’s family. Just a couple of weeks ago, CNN broadcaster Chris Cuomo announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus. Adding more pain to his personal misery, he then announced last week that his wife, Christina, had also tested positive. Chris shared, "It is the one thing I was hoping wouldn’t happen and now it has.”

Like I said, now would be a good time for the Cuomos to plead for Divine intervention.

People really only want limited intervention from God. We want it when it suits us. And we don’t when it doesn’t.

The question becomes: what role does God have in the tragedies of life? And the answer is: the same role He has in the glorious victories we find in life. This plays off an important understanding of God’s sovereignty.

People of the Christian faith, and particularly of what is known as Reformed Theology, believe God is sovereign in creation, providence, redemption, and judgment. As a writer for Ligonier Ministries explains, “Nothing happens without God’s willing it to happen, willing it to happen before it happens, and willing it to happen in the way that it happens.”

That’s a hard pill to swallow for many people. That’s because they believe if THEY were God, they would do it differently. Or in their minds, better. Absent from their understanding is the concept of the beauty of free will. A God who forces all of our choices to match His perfect will is a God we learn to hate.

Does God ever “interfere” with free will? Of course He does. In the same way, He intervenes in our rescue more often than we see or know. I’m absolutely sure God has protected me from stupid decisions along life’s way because of His mercy.

But it doesn’t always happen, does it? Tornadoes come. And kill. A virtually unknown virus from a few months ago turns much of the world into a panic. Car accidents. Drug overdoses. Cancer. You name it. No, God does not always intervene for the outcome as we hoped He would.

Yet there is a constant. God IS good. All the time. As the Psalmist wrote, “Taste and see that the LORD is good. How happy is the person who takes refuge in him!” Psalm 34:8 (CSB)


Jim Daly, the president of Focus on the Family, wrote his own commentary on what Governor Cuomo had to say. He ended it this way: “As one with deep faith in God’s overarching sovereignty in our world, I believe there is so much we cannot see – mysteries and movements that mean everything – yet that remain hidden to our earthly eyes. In these uncertain times, how encouraging it is to be reminded that, as the old song says, “He’s got the whole world in His hands.”

And He does. Trust me. You wouldn’t want it any other way.

That’s Forward Thinking. Click on the link to the right to connect via Facebook.


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Monday, April 13, 2020

The Annual Cash Covet



Once again Parade Magazine has blessed us with a glimpse of what workers around our country earn for a living. That is, when they are employed. Some of the faces on the front cover of their weekly magazine feature may have recently found COVID-19 to be their demon of unemployment.

I’ve always found this survey to be interesting. In a way, it’s comforting to realize that not everyone is making absurd incomes like entertainers, sports figures, and CEOs. On the other hand, it might well be the first step to the dreaded sin of paycheck envy.

Let’s look at some numbers from Parade’s, "What People Earn: Our Annual Report."

Rush Limbaugh tops the front cover list grabbing an estimated $87 milliion annually for political gabbing. Luke Bryan, country singer, earned less than half that at $42.4 million. Outlander stars Sam Heughan and Caitronia Balfe each pull in $100k per episode of a show I’ve never seen. Nice work, if you can get it.

Now back to the real world. JoAnne Engelhardt earns $13,794 a year as a theatre critic. But how does that happen? She’s obviously horribly paid or is part time. Julie Stripland is a high school band secretary. At $22,614 she’s paid less annually than a full time $15 per hour employee! And Rick Resnick, a Chicago tour guide, is being taken for a ride at $34,500!!

Aside from our curiosity on what the job market serves up, why our fascination with knowing this information? I’m sure at parties it’s a good conversation bit to say, “Can you believe what that Limbaugh makes?” (Or any major CEO of a company.) To which the reply is usually, “NOBODY is worth that kind of money!”

People are not really paid what they’re worth. Some are paid WAY too much. Some are paid WAY too little. How do we really measure the value of the services being rendered in this time of sheltering-at-home?

Some nurses and doctors are doing life-saving work. Some young folks are filling up grocery delivery carts for pickup. Some Starbucks employees, while already getting paid whether they work or not, have decided to show up and get extra pay so we can indulge in lattes. All of them are currently involved in “risky business.”

There is one more aspect of income comparisons that we find a more sinister plague on our soul. That of the earlier mentioned paycheck envy. In this wicked twist, we somehow conclude that the abundance of wealth has made the high rollers a happier lot. More possessions and financial success mean the freedom to buy what we want, travel to exotic locations, and live like kings and queens.

It hits us closest to home in our own workplaces. That’s when we find out how income inequality may have burned us. A coworker makes more. A promotion goes to the undeserved with a fat raise. A better job offer comes to a younger and less experienced employee. We quietly seethe.

Once after John the Baptist finished preaching, the crowd asked how to better live out their faith. He told those with two shirts to share with the person who has none. He told tax collectors to only collect the required amount. And to the soldiers he said, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.” Luke 3:10-14 (NIV)

Apparently, paycheck envy goes way back. And if it wasn’t a paycheck, it might have been property. Or the amount of livestock owned by the neighbor. It’s all the same.

Theodore Roosevelt said that “comparison is the thief of joy.” Margaret Thatcher advised, “The spirit of envy can destroy; it can never build.” They’re both right.

While thousands are losing their jobs this week and next, now is a very good time to be thankful for the job you have. It is not a good time to be comparing.

Even in the good times, the thief of joy is always lurking around the corner.

That’s Forward Thinking. Click on the link to the right to connect via Facebook.


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Monday, April 6, 2020

Mindless Christians



Mindless Christians. I could have chosen from several other words. Thickheaded. Muttonheaded. Boneheaded. Even asinine.

Exactly what are church leaders missing in the warnings about gathering in the face of COVID-19? Mindless seems like the best choice, meaning “acting or done without justification or concern for the consequences.” Or add to this…"not thinking of or concerned about.” In terms of their congregations, that’s more dangerous.

There are a number of examples before us. Let’s start with this one. How can mindless Christians help spread the COVID-19 virus? Just sign on to evangelist Jonathan Shuttlesworth’s plan. This Pennsylvania pastor claims he is organizing an outdoor “Woodstock”-like Easter service. His reason is to form a protest over the shelter-in-place mandates.

He’s even coined a special term for it. And boy is he proud about this! "I’m gonna announce it. … We’re gonna hold an outdoor Easter blowout service. Not online. A national gathering. You come from all over, like Woodstock. And we’re gonna gather and lift up Jesus Christ," Shuttlesworth said.

No…we’re not. Not the people who still have brains, anyway. If you didn’t know better, you might think this is a Jim Jones-style call to "drink the Kool-aid." 

This next headline showed up on April Fool’s Day. (Need I say more?) “Churchgoers flock to hear Louisiana pastor despite virus ban.” There were buses and cars aplenty for this Tuesday evening worship service. The pastor decided to ignore wisdom—and the law—by holding his gatherings in spite of a ban on such.

A few of the more reasonable thinkers decided to protest the meeting. One used a bullhorn, hoping to knock some sense into the group. One demonstrator had a sign that read, “God don't like stupid.”

Off we go to Ohio next. There, the Solid Rock Church of Lebanon was determined to continue to hold worship services despite health officials in that state urging them to stop over concerns they would be virus spreaders. Neighbors of the church had actually complained about their gatherings.

Receiving less than honorable mention was the push for churches to be classified as “essential services” as the Texas governor proceeded to do. Admittedly, this is a bit tricky. But here’s some of the language related to the governor’s order: "This Executive Order does not prohibit people from accessing essential services or engaging in essential daily activities... so long as the necessary precautions are maintained” the order reads. Add this, "... The order also includes exemption for religious services conducted in churches, congregations, and houses of worship."

Fortunately, the non-ccoperatives are now in the minority. According to Lifeway Research, about 7 percent of Protestant churches met in-person a week ago. Fewer plan to meet for Easter. But wait…the Lifeway poll revealed 3 percent of churches claim they will meet in-person on Easter “no matter what!”

In an age where you can find strong evangelical worship services on television and you can live stream or send out your own recorded church services, why put God to the test? That’s exactly what it is. Jesus wouldn’t do it.

When Satan tempted him with a dare-devil challenge to throw himself off the temple to see if God would come to the rescue, “Jesus said to him, 'Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Matthew 4:7 (ESV)

The Evil One sees Christians push this “test” button too often. I’m sure he has his own choice words for it. Witless. Foolish. Empty-headed. Vacuous. Lame-brained.

Let me add one more. Sinful.

Don’t be mindless. Set your mind on Jesus. 

That’s Forward Thinking. Click on the link to the right to connect via Facebook.


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