We Can Fix It

No one wakes up in the morning hoping to read a story about how four teens from Norman North High School sexually assaulted two boys on a bus returning from a wrestling match.  It's shocking and deplorable and what's worse yet is the wrestling coach who was supposedly on the bus as well did nothing to stop the assault.  It forces us to ask just what in the heck has happened to us as a country or even as a community.  Where have we gone wrong?  

We are raising a generation of children wherein many have no code of honor, who have no sense of respect for human dignity, and are addicted to immediate gratification and we, as adults, we as the Church, have allowed it to happen right under our noses.  Look, there is no doubt that your humble Gorilla is the chief of all sinners and is the embodiment of Romans 3; I'm simply pointing out the fact that we are all responsible.

What really puzzles me is how the Church continues to grow numerically, but seems to be increasingly impotent to create change for the better in our neighborhoods.  It doesn't really make sense, does it?  Church youth groups are filled to overflowing in many megachurches but what is the aggregate result?  In Michael Scott Horton's book, "Putting Amazing Back Into Grace," he quotes philosopher Paul C. Payne who said:

"Today, the world doesn't take the Church seriously because today, the Church isn't serious."

Sadly, he's right.  The Church wants to project an image wherein their pastorate and staff look as though they are Abercrombie models wearing only the latest in fashion and following cultural trends.  It somehow makes them "more relevant" to the world when the world is waiting for the Church to start taking their mandates seriously.  When a church staff's average age is 35 years old and whose life experiences are limited to summer church camp and memorizing feel-good passages of Scripture, it's something that we need to fix and we can fix it.  We just have to have the testicular fortitude to speak the truth to these American Eagle Outfitters fashionistas who know more about Coldplay than they do orthodox theology.  

But I digress...

The Oklahoma legislature has their God Squad who have decided that this should be a proving ground for their brand of dominion theology and have usurped the role of the Church as a whole.  While claiming to be representative of the Church, they have decided that the new church will be Government itself.  These self-same legislators gnash their teeth and rend their clothing because the so-called liberals are using government to push their agenda, but isn't that what they themselves are doing?

The hypocrisy stacks up so fast around here that you need wings to rise above it.  We can fix this problem as well very easily.  We simply stop voting for these Pharisaical boobs and send them to their churches where they belong.  Maybe they can learn the honor and responsibility of the former office they held from that vantage point; but I predict it to be highly unlikely.

Speaking of honor and duty, today is the anniversary of the murder of United States Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield.  These are men who stood for something larger, something more important than themselves.  Each and every day while deployed, lives were put on the line to make the ultimate sacrifice if necessary so we can grow out churches, so we can spoil our children, so we can raise a generation of self-centered, petulant brats who not only don't know who Chris Kyle was nor do they know what a Navy SEAL does every day of their deployment.  

We can fix that problem too.  We have to be vocal, we have to be informative, we need to poke fun at ourselves and not take ourselves too seriously, but take our message very seriously.  There is honor in serving.  There is honor required in being a part of a team.  There is honor and dignity required of the parents of athletes and academics alike and it is the parent's responsibility to send those kids out the door every day with a taste of the bigger picture.  We can fix it all; we just have to want to do something about it.

Of course, this is just my opinion and I could be wrong, but I seriously doubt it.

"Gorilla"

 

 

Tiny Houses, Huge Dividends

"The homeless in our country are an invitation to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb," I was once told.  At first, I thought I understood that premise but it didn't take long for me to realize the magnitude of the problem of poverty had reached such epic proportions.  There have been such an uptick in the number of homeless that municipalities are passing regulations to keep the homeless off of the street corners and preclude them from panhandling. Some city leaders across the country have pushed to make it illegal to feed the homeless in public.  Yes, you read that correctly. It's rather indicative of our society as a whole; we want to cover up the darkness that lies all around us that we could shed light upon.  

The issue of how to deal with the homeless in Oklahoma City really has reached an impasse wherein we see symptoms being treated but the disease itself left unchecked.  While it is true that we will always have the chronically transient in our midst, there are a great many homeless men, women, and families who just need a break to succeed.  In Seattle and other cities, the faith community is doing exactly what it should be; meeting need and caring for the least among us.

A Lutheran church used property they owned to build a tiny house village where homeless individuals can have a sense of home with their tiny house that can be locked and has utilities.  The residents will pay $90/mo for utilities and there is a centralized shower and restroom facility being built on the grounds as well.  It is an innovative approach that is going to meet with phenomenal success.  The big surprise of these tiny houses is that they each cost around $2,200 to build and that is chump change when you consider the cost of facilitating massive numbers in a public shelter.

Take a look at this video and ask yourself if our communities are doing enough.

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There are no two ways about it; we are always going to have the poor among us and the true test of our character is what we do about it.  Shame on elected officials who want to hide the problem and consider the homeless to be a nuisance rather than an opportunity to live out what we say we believe.

Of course this is just my opinion and I could be wrong; but I seriously doubt it.

Gorilla

Never Say Never

Over the course of the last 51 years on this big blue ball, I have often predicted with some authority what I would and would not do, experience, or see and every time I am proven wrong.  When we make such declarative statements, it's as though we are challenging the Creator to prove us wrong and without fail, He always does.  We far too often forget that we are finite wherein He is infinite and not confined by time and space as we know it.  We break vows, promises, and our "word" and it stands as a dark column in the midst of our lives; awaiting our attempts to overcome the beast we ourselves have created.

In the Jewish fast of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) wherein we are to examine ourselves and abstain from food or drink for 25 hours so we're "not distracted" by material objects.  Within that observance is what's called the Kol Nidre wherein we are required to write down all of the vows we have taken and burn them, showing us in a tangible way that our vows and declarations are nothing when contrasted with the ultimate vow of redemption made on our behalf.  

Basically, the lesson is to never say "never."

I have had times when I made the strongest of vows not to do something and sure enough, I find myself doing that very thing.  It's like the whole duality of man conundrum Paul talks about in Romans 7 and is a perfect reflection of the belief in the doctrine of human potential.  At no time in the lives of Americans is this failed doctrine made manifest that during election campaigns.  Every single one of the candidates for POTUS has made promises and vowed to the American people that they will or will not do this or that.  Take it within the context of the Kol Nidre and it becomes evident that it is little more than intellectual masturbation; it may feel good but it produces no results.

Candidates lie; it's what they do.  Their consultants coach them to lie with the least amount of angst and to communicate in such a manner that those lies look like truth.  Look around you for a moment.  Think about every elected official whom you have voted into office and bring to mind the promises they made to accomplish something.  More than likely, they have done nothing but made enough noise to get you to think that they've fulfilled their promises but in truth, they are clanging cymbals, banging gongs with flare and fire, resulting in abject emptiness.

I am no different so don't think that I am excluding myself from the insanity.  I have failed to keep marriage vows, have been divorced a bunch, have voted for people whom I declared I would "never vote for again," and I have failed to keep the Commandments...the list goes on ad infinitum.  If we're honest with ourselves, we know that we have all failed to meet even our own standards.

Here are just a few things I proclaimed as truth, only to be proven wrong:

I said that I would never play in a country band, and I did.

I told myself that I would never be in a relationship again, and I am.

I convinced myself that I would never again return to Oklahoma, but here I am in Oklahoma.

I screamed to the heavens that I would never again bother with politics, yet I'm all over it.

I never thought that I would be ghost writing romances, but that's what I am doing.

I was sure that I would always be a proponent of the death penalty, but now I am not.

Never say never, friends because our "never" is where new challenges, excitement, and expressions of faith grow and flourish.

Of course, that's just my opinion and I could be wrong, but I seriously doubt it.

Gorilla