Things I Think..
1. Tiger Woods is the latest chapter in America’s love of redemption stories…it is one of our last noble characteristics as a nation…
2. Between Tiger and “Game of Thrones” we almost looked like we had some things in common on social media…but we also had an equal measure of those who didn’t like Tiger and those who wanted everyone to know they’ve never seen “Game Of Thrones”.I’m ambivalent about Tiger and I’ve never seen it GoT either, but I was happy to rejoice with those who were rejoicing…
3. There are now as many Americans who claim no religion as there are evangelicals and Catholics…but we still don’t think we have a problem…
4. The next great split in the church is on the way in the person of Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. He is a gay man who also claims to be a devout Christian…if his numbers keep climbing the question of whether gays can be Christians will be the rage of 2020…
5. The devil’s masterplan to help us split into smaller and smaller irrelevant groups hostile to each other is working brilliantly…
6. You can dislike what Tiger Woods did to fall in the first place and still find his comeback intensely inspirational…nuance is not a criminal offense…
7. We don’t just disagree on things these days…all of our disagreements are now framed as being morally superior to the opposition…we think very highly of ourselves…
8. Watching the James MacDonald scandal unfold I’m convinced both that he’s a scoundrel of historical proportion and that a slim majority of his fleeced flock will still support him…
9. I’ve never been one that proclaimed the judgment of God was nigh…but I wonder if the leadership vacuum at every level of society means its already arrived…
10. Am I the only one who is sorely tempted to lock the doors and let everyone fight amongst themselves? I’m wondering if they have those “survivor” rations for cats too…
Fixed the comments…sorry for the screw up…
Oh my, you may have invented a whole new line of products for Amazon: survival gear for pets. I picture strap on guns, catnip in camouflaged tins, and so much more. And imagine the books that can feed into it…
Shall we issue a special survivalist edition of Book 1 : Cats, Kids, and Christ?
#1 – yes
#2 – n.c.
#3 – time to be prayerful…. Wisdom needed
#4 – gays CAN be Christians, but if they are they cannot celebrate their problem
#5 – if it is, it better give us pause as the devil’s work is, in spite of him, only working out the plan of our omniscient, omnipotent God
#6 – amen
#7 – what is it about God hating pride that we don’t understand?
#8 – no different than the islaam reverence for muhammad, is it? Religion is – IMHO – toxic
#9 – something to ponder, indeed
#10 – hard to develop the skill of standing IMHIO…. yes, their survival rations are called mice . ?
See, i read them all, Michael – thanks for taking my mind off of the significance of Notre Dame burning to the ground this week
1. It’s never too late.
2. That’s what social media ought be…places of connecting on common ground. If there is little or no common ground, things typically spiral rather quickly. I actually unfriended (such a strange term) several Facebook acquaintances who I have nothing in common with, which meant our online convos were typically more contrarian than charitable.
3. The future looks…
4. This should not surprise anyone.
5. My plan is biblical: resist the devil and his schemes.
6. If you don’t like tales of redemption, how can you claim Christianity?
7. Disagreement is now sport.
8. To their shame and sadness. And mine for at one time thinking JM was helpful to the church.
9. Whatever is coming, we will certainly deserve.
10. Well, my dream is to move to a little beach town in Mexico…
#1 = I find that America / Americans hold to just as many and just as high noble qualities as anytime in our history.
#3 = would you feel better if they went back to a time when you lied about your religious beliefs for social and communal standards? In days past your were scorned if you admitted to a non church allegiance – today it has no scorn attached.
Is this any different than when single women “went away” when they became pregnant and no one knew, where today, the pregnant 16 yr old is honored to stay in school.
I wonder if Jews wring their hands over such polling numbers?
#5 = has the devil’s master plan changed?
#10 = I can’t remember the last time I had such a high outlook on life and others. One advantage to living where I do is half the population for half the year are snowbirds / visitors from all parts of the US (well at least the frozen parts). To be surrounded by such a crowd takes me out of my bubble gives insight to what people do and think. These are people of hope and people who give hope. I think I do the same for them.
Addendum to my #1 – I should also mention that we also hold the same low and ignoble characteristics we Americans have always held.
Myself and those close to me have to fight despair over the state of this country and the terrors that await the young ones after we’re gone.
It does keep me focused on the kingdom to come…
It’s too bad that you choose to live in such despair instead of hope. Even though we are not separated by too many years, perhaps 10, that may be the difference. I lived immediately post WW2, the Cold War, bomb shelters, duck, roll and cover, race wars, assassinations, Watergate, hippies, antiwar bombings, price controls, studio 54 and all things immoral by previous generation standards – all things and our parents thought we were going to hell in a hand-basket.
They lived, we lived, my kids lived and so far my grandkids are thriving – especially the 2 spending spring break here this week and #8 coming on Thursday.:-)
One bit of advice – on the macro you cannot change a thing – make things good for you and those close to you. (but then you may not agree)
Michael @5:47
I think i have mentioned here that we had a serious wildfire go through here last year – it was surreal and very tiring – one neighbor brought in a moving van and emptied their house. We reached mandatory evacuation, took what we could in our cars – the firefighters had helped us set up sprinklers strategically – and my daughter and i checked into a motel in town expecting everything to be gone when we returned. They held it at the base of the hill, about 200 ft . from our houses. Since then it has been one test after another….
My point is?
Those firefighters knew what they were doing and so do we as Christians. Your site here is one angle of response… While i can’t totally agree with MLD (what else is new?), he is right that we can go through, as Paul said, for the joy set before us. All we can do now, as these may indeed be a return to the days of Noah, is make certain Christ still has a voice here. Make sure our families know where we stand….
And if it isn’t the chaos of the final days? Well, praise God for more souls yet to find their salvation!
Or so it seems to me, tired soldier…. But don’t know, do i..?
I wasn’t a fan of Tiger Woods back when he won the first 14 major titles—I respected him, but wasn’t on the band wagon. I was pulling for him through the Masters and celebrated his victory this time because it was a redemption story–one that will serve to illustrate the bigger redemption story moving forward.
I am becoming clearer too on my shifting theological convictions and practices too–which is not a sign of the apostasy, but regeneration after a season of fallow ground and winter rains. Hope, faith, and love remain.
fil,
Sometimes we only find our truth on the edge of apostasy…hope,faith, and love indeed remain.
in my tradition, staying away from the perceived edges was promoted at all costs. Fear was the capital that worked wonders at holding us huddled in the safe zone. Little wonder no one really questioned why fear was the tool of preference while scripture spoke so eloquently about freedom and deliverance from fear. Hmmm. Intellectual and practical liberty was given tacit approval while the whole time it was not truly embraced nor practiced.