There is a lot of rhetoric going around these days about helping people, who’s responsibility it is and whether the government should be involved in this process or not. But one has to ask if we don’t use every resource at our disposal to help those who are in need are we really helping?
Over and over I see posts on Facebook or stories on the news where self-proclaimed Christians are continually fighting against programs aimed at helping those less fortunate. In some cases they are fighting against programs that they themselves get value from!
So how do we help the less fortunate? Do we only rely on the mechanism that is the Church to do it all or do we make the decision as a people that any avenue we can leverage should be used?
I for one have never read anyplace in the bible that says “what you do for the least these you also do for me, except if it comes in the form of a government program in which case you are automatically a socialist”. In fact I believe there is a statement by Jesus where he states you should in fact recognize the earthly authority of the government (Mathew 22:15-22).
Some would argue that “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s” is not a black and white command for people to respect government authority and to pay the taxes. However, Paul the Apostle also states in Romans 13 that Christians are obliged to obey all earthly authorities, he further states that there is “no authority except from God”, and as such if you, as a Christian (following a generally believed ideology of the Conservative party) fight against the government you are in fact acting against God’s authority.
So before you are so quick to say that Christians should all be against government involvement in helping support and provide for those less fortunate I would encourage you to read Romans 13.
We experience crossroads of all types at all stages of life. Recently life has presented me various decision points that I am sure everyone with any life experience has had to deal with. Job situations that have forced me to make difficult choices on the direction I would like my career to go. As a parent my wife and I are being face with a number of crossroads for both of our kids as one begins to take steps towards a life of independent decision making and the other starts to enter in to her teen years.
All of these crossroads require some degree of faith. You have faith that you have raise a son to make smart choices. You have faith that your decision not to take that job opportunity was the right one for now. If you have made your decisions and followed your beliefs then you have faith that things are on the course that they should be.
So if you are approaching your crossroads with faith and with belief take heart. I think you are reading the road signs correctly and choosing the correct path at the crossroads…
So I have been neglecting this blog for a few months now as I started to get a new endeavor I am working on off the ground. It has been a little bit of a struggle and slow going. If you are interested in checking it out go to http://www.personalityataltitude.com for the company website and http://meblog.personalityataltitude.com for the blog I have been working on getting off the ground for it.
In the mean time I had to move this blog to a new address because the other one broke. Lost all the articles so I had recreate them, thank goodness for back-ups, and create this site again from scratch.
I plan on reapplying myself to not only my Personality @ltitude endeavor, but also to getting fresh content posted here.
I recently had the honor, I say honor because I really haven’t been able to determine a better word to use, to share a story before the congregation of Cherry Hills Community Church in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. The story was of my journey from being a skeptic about Christianity, to being a Christian.
After over an hour of conversation and interview that was caught on tape, the video that is provided here was created. It is by no means the depth of my story or the totality of my journey. It is however, an encapsulation of a journey many are on, or have been on, since the beginning of time. The journey from doubt to belief.
Through out the bible even those closest and most beloved by God doubted. The disciples continually questioned Jesus all throughout their time with Him. All the while they watched as He performed miracle after miracle, and yet at every challenge they doubted. Is it any wonder that if those that were able experience God and His glory first hand doubted that we today still have doubts and questions?
This is not a pronouncement that all of questions have been answered and now I can believe. More accurately it is a acceptance that I do have questions, and that more importantly God calls us to question. For it is through these questions that we learn, and grow, and come closer to understanding him.
So I hope you will share in my story. And if it prompts you to doubt your doubt… Well that is really the point.
I had an interesting experience this past weekend. I took a very short over night trip with my family just to get out of town for a couple days over the weekend before our lives become crazy with hockey for the remainder of the winter. One of my daughter’s hockey teammates invited her to Vail to skate on Sunday so we thought we would make a day of it and that became an overnight of it. But I digress…
So we show up at the Dobson Ice Rink in Vail, Colorado at around 11:00AM to get ready for the girls to skate. What we found at the rink was utterly amazing to me. On the ice where 13 of the best young (and a few not so young by professional sports standards) NHL hockey players the league has to offer on the ice skating in an off-season skills camp. For professional hockey players!
Hello all, so thanks to those that have been reading my thoughts since I started posting them here. I just wanted to let everyone know that I am in preparation for a trip to Haiti to assist in the earthquake relief efforts. So I will be posting to a blog that I have created specifically for that trip until the middle of June when the group I am with returns. So until then please follow what is going on over at http://haitiblog.atencio.org. It is my hope that I will not only be able to blog while I prepare for this trip, as I started doing last week, but that I will also be able to blog from Haiti about the experience that the mission team will be having.
So please head over there and check out what is going on. Then come back here in late June as I am sure I will have plenty to say!
It is the season, the season of resolutions, the season of making a life change. Maybe with the new year you have vowed to change something about your physical health. Maybe you have decided to change something about your spiritual health. It is a good time to take a look at finances and decided to trim some spending fat here and there, tax time is just around the corner after all. Like so many people it is possible you have set a new goal for yourself to run in that race, get a new job, get A job, find your soul-mate, or recommit to the love of your life.
Life change comes in every shape, size, flavor, color and degree of difficulty. And what better time to take on that life change that at the change of a new calendar? At least that has been what we have been sold for years now. But the truth is meaningful life change very rarely lines up with the change in the calendar, or an age, or a season of life. Real life change happens unexpectedly, and speaks to us from within.
I have for various reasons been in a couple of different book stores over the course of the last few weeks. Every store has the same display at the entrance “Find the new you in 2010!” I am amazed at the number of books that have the sole purpose of fixing all that is wrong with us as individuals, families, communities and as a country.
I have been trying to figure out a good post for the Christmas holiday. Then I cam across this C. S. Lewis quote, from a book that is on my very long list of books I really want to find time to read:
“”[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.”
— C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)
This is the season that celebrates all God gave us in His visit to our planet in the form of His only son. I a very short time on earth, Jesus did a great deal of work. Most appear to agree that Jesus was alive for about 30-35 years. At age 35 I can safely say that I had not done even a small percentage of Jesus had accomplished, but then again I am not the human embodiment of God either.
So as I give thanks and celebrate the birth of Jesus, Emanuel (translated to “God with us”), I consider the quote above. I am thank God for the gift of his only son, and the gift he gave me in the offering of salvation.
May God be with all of you and provide you with blessings as well.
In my previous post I talked about a number of things related to spirituality and the misconception that it is perfect or even can be. This generated some very interesting Facebook discussion between myself and a few others including a very good long-time friend (Gary Medina), which I think will spawn another post here at some point. One of the lines I used in that post was sparked by the book I recently read called “Messy Spirituality” written by Michael Yaconelli, which was the topic of the post. The comment I made was “As Christians we are each just trying to do our best and give our best to follow Jesus.” This is a part of life that continues to baffle me, what do we mean by “our best”?
The point I will try to get to is not specifically about spirituality, but the point in Mr. Yaconelli’s book is that you can’t possibly give 100% of your effort to Jesus all the time because you are not built to do so. If you say you do I would contend that your are back in that “fake it until you make” it version of religion (thanks for that quote Gary!). See if any of this sounds familiar to you… You get up in the morning and your tired and cranky and snap at your spouse for something meaningless, that doesn’t sound like Jesus sanctioned behavior. You get upset because they messed up your order at the drive-through AGAIN, not the right answer to WWJD (What would Jesus do?). Everyone, yes everyone, has at least a split second thought that is not Jesus-like the second someone in front of them on the road does something less than intelligent (Just put the phone down and drive moron!).
So I have been reading a book recently called “Messy Spirituality” written by Michael Yaconelli, I believe I mentioned it a short time back. The book has forced me to take a sideways look at the differences between religion and spirituality. The following posting is my first collection of thoughts sparked by this book. Expect more at some point, but only room for one big thought in this brain at a time.
Spirituality is not a formula; it is not a test. It is a relationship. Spirituality is not about competency; it is about intimacy. Spirituality is not about perfection; it is about connection. … Spirituality is not about being fixed; it is about God’s being present in the mess of our unfixedness.” Michael Yaconelli – “Messy Spirituality” Pg. 22.
When was the last time you hear the words “mess” and “unfixedness” used as descriptions for someone’s relationship with God. Well if you were like me you didn’t know that the word “unfixedness” even existed, but that aside these are not words that I have expected to hear used to describe spirituality or religion or more specifically Christianity.
His only son. I a very short time on earth, Jesus did a great deal of work. Most appear to agree that Jesus was alive for about 30-35 years. At age 35 I can safely say that I had not done even a small percentage of Jesus had accomplished, but then again I am not the human embodiment of God either.
book is that you can’t possibly give 100% of your effort to Jesus all the time because you are not built to do so. If you say you do I would contend that your are back in that “fake it until you make” it version of religion (thanks for that quote Gary!). See if any of this sounds familiar to you… You get up in the morning and your tired and cranky and snap at your spouse for something meaningless, that doesn’t sound like Jesus sanctioned behavior. You get upset because they messed up your order at the drive-through AGAIN, not the right answer to WWJD (What would Jesus do?). Everyone, yes everyone, has at least a split second thought that is not Jesus-like the second someone in front of them on the road does something less than intelligent (Just put the phone down and drive moron!).
ity”