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Free Ourselves or Enslave Ourselves?

Posted on March 16, 2010
Filed Under Anthropology, The State | 21 Comments

Friday, I was sitting in Starbucks waiting to meet with a friend.

I am not a coffee drinker, but I enjoy meeting with those who do. I always get a “steamer”. For the unaware, this is the child’s drink in a place of grown-up beverages!

As I sat there, three young women walked in. I glanced up only to see if it were my friend and would have gone back to my own business, but something caught my attention. As they turned toward the counter to consider their order, I noticed some writing on the back of one of their shirts. It was a quote. I started to jot it down, but decided it would be easier and less conspicuous if I simply took a picture of it. I pulled out my iPhone and then paused briefly and wondered if there was something wrong about taking a picture of someone else’s shirt without permission. But since I couldn’t recall any particular Scripture against it and since I thought it would be a little awkward to ask, I rationalized the whole thing by explaining to myself that I was just taking a shot of the inside of Starbucks and her quote was simply a part of the scene.

So, here it is.

“EMANCIPATE YOURSELVES FROM MENTAL SLAVERY. NONE BUT OURSELVES CAN FREE OUR MINDS.”

This is a quote from the famous Jamaican reggae artist, Bob Marley (1945-1981), promoter of the Rastafari religious movement.

Now, maybe I am getting to be too sensitive to the “it’s all about me” mantra that pervades our culture, but this is a sample of the broad thinking that springs from it.

Basically, it goes like this: the source of freedom…and health…and happiness…and truth, all lie within me.

This is what Maslow taught, and we as a culture have most certainly learned and bought, that the ultimate goal in life is to self-actualize, follow my heart, do my own thing, get my own way.

(By the way, do you realize that we have no clinical, scientific data that supports Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? Read more

College-Bound Vulnerabilities

Posted on March 8, 2010
Filed Under Personal, Worldview | 19 Comments

I am once again [2008, 2009] in Pine Mountain, Georgia, teaching the students at Impact 360, a 9-month, gap-year program that takes top-notch Christian high school graduates and prepares them to be impact leaders for Christ in the university and life.

I love being around these young students. They are bright, energetic, love the Lord, and are eager to learn and grow.

But I’m here because I’m concerned about the mine fields that lay ahead and want to be a part in helping them successfully navigate them.

During today’s lesson, I listed seven “vulnerabilities” that I believe characterize our current college-bound students. I asked the class if these were valid from their observations of their peers and they confirmed they were “right on”.

Here they are:
–deeply persuaded by relativism and tolerance
–tilt heavily toward skepticism
–highly sexualized by the media and gender confused (i.e. men don’t know what it means to be a man, etc.) Read more

When Social System Collide

Posted on February 25, 2010
Filed Under Marriage & Family, The State | 44 Comments

Last week, I had the privilege of spending a few days with a phenomenal family—the Romeikes. Uwe and Hanne have five wonderful children, Daniel (12), Lydia (11), Josua (9), Christian (7) and little Damaris (4).

Uwe is a pianist and makes his living teaching piano. Germany is their native country. But they are now living in Tennessee.

Why?

Because not long ago, they had to flee their beloved homeland and seek asylum here.

That may seem strange to the ears, because none of us would think that anyone would need to “flee” from Germany. But the Romeike family did—because they really had no other choice.

You see, Uwe and Hanne became convicted that they should be teaching their children—at home. The German state believes that IT should be teaching Germany’s children—and that was to take place only at the government’s authorized schools.

This obviously represents a serious conflict.

And when one comes in conflict with the power of the state, one usually loses.

That came to a head on a relatively quiet morning while the Romeikes were still in bed. The doorbell rang and Uwe looked out the window only to see, to his horror, the police and their vans. He knew why they were there, but never really believed it would happen. Read more

Tomato Soup As Far As the Eye Can See!

Posted on February 23, 2010
Filed Under Personal | 19 Comments

When our kids were little, I had the responsibility of putting them to bed.

One of the stories that I used to read to them was “McBroom’s Zoo”. If you’ve never read it, it would be impossible to explain. However, a piece of it has to do with a tornado that ripped through the McBroom’s tomato patch and ended up covering everything with catsup.

To some extent, I relived that story today.

It started out very innocently (as all of these things I get into usually do). I love soup and for my lunch I decided I would make some tomato soup. I put it in a glass mixing bowl, added the water & milk, put it in the microwave oven and prepared to push the buttons to magically convert cold into hot. That was exactly when the phone rang. It was a good friend who had some serious questions and so my mind immediately went to his situation.

Now, unfortunately, the male mind (or my mind) is fairly single track. So, not having the multi-tasking female brain, I simply punched the “three” button three times thinking that would get me 3 minutes and 33 seconds—close enough to the 3 ½ minutes listed on the can as proper heating time.

As you may have already guessed, that’s not what happened. Whatever I pushed and however many times I pushed, ended up instructing my microwave to heat for something more like 3 days, 3 hours and 3 minutes—something closer to the realm reserved for roasting a medium sized hippopotamus. Read more

Fiery Trials

Posted on January 28, 2010
Filed Under Marriage & Family, Personal | 169 Comments

The last two weeks have been filled with a lot of issues. I don’t know if they rise to the level of Peter’s “fiery trials” or not (1 Peter 4:12), but they have been close to overwhelming at times.

This is a photo from my recent “hunting” trip to the mountains. I am posting it with this blog because I am longing to turn the clock back and return to that time and experience the great joy and peace I had there.

But, we only live in the present, do we not?

First, my very, very, dear sweet uncle passed away. He was a WWII vet, earned two bronze stars. He adored my Dad who cared for him when they were all abandoned at early ages. My uncle spent the rest of his life singing the praises of my Dad, as we all did. But the reality was that my uncle was one of those rare jewels of a man as well. I will miss him terribly.

Secondly, we have been hit with several family issues: one daughter is facing a very long deployment of her husband and other daughter facing serious issues with their children.

We, personally, are walking through another heart-breaking event with our “prodigal” son—our youngest. I know there are many who struggle with this and I hope that our new TV show, Cross Examine, will deal with it within the first few episodes. There are so many emotional and physical issues associated with a prodigal, some rather severe. There are strong feelings of guilt, bewilderment, frustration, hopelessness, anger, disappointment, sorrow…betrayal. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on it, another event occurs and they all come back. Even when they aren’t triggered by an “event”, your wandering son or daughter is never really far from your thoughts and it can break into your heart and mind and emotions without so much as a warning knock.

They just surge back and hit you like an unexpected ocean wave. Read more