The internet lit up recently with story after story about a Seattle pastor who used over $200,000 of his megachurch’s money to buy his way on to the New York Times best seller list. It’s bad enough for any author to attempt such a deceit, but it’s more painful when it’s a person making claims about representing Jesus. The criticisms of such behaviors get “enhanced” much like the prison sentence of a person using a gun for a crime or belonging to a criminal street gang. Continue reading Five Reasons for Integrity
An homage to Escher…and Jesus
Sometime life is Escher-like,
Stairs that seem to go up or down don’t.
Architecture breaks all the rules,
And walls morph.
Upside down is right side up;
People passing each other
Are going up and down
As if there are no gravitational laws. Continue reading An homage to Escher…and Jesus
Pay your bills, or else!
The story is too awful to consider.
A rich man decided to call in the debts of a slave who was so buried by them he couldn’t pay them back in even 10 lifetimes. Yet in a twisted sense of justice the master says, “Pay your bills or else.”
“Or else I will sell you, your wife, your little children and all of your possessions in order to recover some of what you owe me.” Presumably this would be the end of their life as a family, and the slave could only imagine what terrible things were in store for his pathetic little family. Continue reading Pay your bills, or else!
The F-word
Growing up in a straight-laced family had its benefits: conscientious parents, good enduring friends, hospitality, stability, and protective morality. Hard work and integrity were DNA-like in their influence. The thought of disappointing others was as compelling as the fear of going to Hell.
But the same things that functioned as a moral compass could also morph into something ugly. Call it legalism or self-righteousness, it is the tendency to become superficial in regard to the big, nuclear virtues like love, compassion, and faithfulness. Jesus called it “straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.” Continue reading The F-word
It is what it is.
Our free society provides for equal access to trial by jury for every citizen of our country. It’s one of the ways we preserve individual freedoms and insure that a dictatorial, arbitrary form of government does not take over.
Courts are anal about assembling juries that are as fair as possible. Potential jurors are asked various iterations of “Do you think you can render an objective verdict?” The ones that say “no” or that the court perceives to have too many external, prejudicial influences are excused. Continue reading It is what it is.
We want to sit at the head table.
“You let people walk all over you.” A friend recounted how an advice-giver told him to “get a spine.” Seemed like good advice. Being everyone’s doormat is not a good thing.
Although… Power is funny because it doesn’t always give what it promises to its possessor. Continue reading We want to sit at the head table.
Wrestling Matches
Wrestling with God
Began in my maturity
When knees and hands all arthritic
Beg me not to engage in such sport.
As a young man it did not
Occur to me that wrestling
Was permitted against a foe like God
Who could toss me around like a rag doll. Continue reading Wrestling Matches
Twelve Plus Two
A dreaded jury summons came with the bills and adverts for the Land’s End sale. Pangs of guilt also came because jury service should be an honor rather than a nuisance – a privilege of living in a democratic society.
The badge number is sixteen-0-two. From now on four digits are our names to preserve anonymity. Names get changed a second time after the panel is seated. Only one or two digits now – one through fourteen. Continue reading Twelve Plus Two
Red Sky in the Morning
Shakespeare said it. “Like a red morn that ever yet betokened, Wreck to the seaman, tempest to the field, Sorrow to the shepherds, woe unto the birds, Gusts and foul flaws to herdmen and to herds.” (From Venus and Adonis.)
So did Jesus. “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ (Matthew 16:2,3) Continue reading Red Sky in the Morning
The Apprentice
Before a teacher left his village on a long trip he entrusted his two best apprentices with the responsibility of insuring that progress in education continued in the small community. The village had rudimentary needs, and there was much work to be done in the teacher’s absence.
The first apprentice was meticulous in his lesson preparations and in doing things exactly as the teacher did them. Rules were strictly enforced. Lesson books were carefully followed. Lunch was always served at exactly the same hour. The apprentice left for the day precisely 10 minutes after the students left. He was keenly aware of the exact obligations of the job. Continue reading The Apprentice
MonoLogue 