Drunken Mystic

Dr. George Tiller, a man who was a spokesman for abortion and performed many late term abortions himself, was shot and killed while serving in his church building today.

It was all over CNN in the McDonald’s as we were driving back from Florida today.  I sadly mentioned it to Becca, at which point she said, “Well, that’s the answer.”  I can’t really type in her sarcastic tone, but it was there.

Hopefully they catch the guy who did this and put him away for a long time.  What he did is as much murder, and sin, as the thousands of abortions Dr. Tiller performed.  Like my mom used to say, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.”

I’m not gonna speculate on the perpetrator’s heart or motives, other than that they were seriously misguided, which is a mild statement compared to the truth.

Like I said last week, the true path to humility is realizing that Dr. Tiller, while a murderer himself, was capable of being redeemed by the same Jesus who gave us grace and saved us from certain spiritual and eternal death.  It is unfortunate that Dr. Tiller was physically attacked by “pro-life” activists, and that is what will make the news, even more unfortunate that Dr. Tiller was not given more time, patience, and “long-suffering” to repent.

Many, probably thousands of true pro-life activists prayed for the man, of that I am sure.  CNN just doesn’t happen to report on that.

Peace.

I’m not all for special days celebrating things on one day that you should honor all the time … like your mom, your dad, the death and resurrection of Christ … and prayer.

But I also try not to let my idealism get in the way of a good opportunity, and if this brings people together to seek God across denominational lines for common purposes, then that’s kinda cool.

And getting together to pray is way better than protesting something, even if that thing deserves to be protested against.  God is better able to change things than my political voice, or even our collective political voice.

The New Age type stuff that comes out of the day of prayer, even somewhat encouraged by the most recent Bush administration, doesn’t appeal to me, and is more dangerous than healthy.  Although I’m also not sure it is a good example by the current administration to just not celebrate it at all.

So my encouragement is, yes, get together to pray.  All the time.  With those who truly seek Christ out of a genuine heart of repentance, despite their denominational background. 

Peace.

Reading an AP article the other day where Obama announced he was going to take over student loans from banks.  And they wouldn’t be loans anymore … they’d be funds given to individuals to go to college.

His reasons?  Well, number 1 was the one that got me.  Banks were the “middle man” and “inefficient.”

The “inefficient” comment got me.  Sorry.  Laughed out loud.  Because we all know that the governmnet is SO efficient.  (more of that Irish sarcasm)

Oh, and viewing banks that make amazingly available low-interest loans as “middle man” shows Obama’s fundamental viewpoint.  What are the banks getting “in the middle” of?

The government providing free education for all, that’s what.  Let’s follow the line here and see where it takes us.

Educationally, if everyone gets a college degree, it no longer becomes an indicator of success.  Extending the American public school system into the collegiate level on a broad scale (we’re really close now, anyway) only makes the college degree the new high school degree.

To look at the cost of this will be astounding.  As the government fully pays for college education, what will happen to the cost of education?  It will go up … which will create more people in need of assistance, and the monopoly on education will make the cost so bloated as to be even more ridiculous than it is now.

While some might validly criticize student loans and banks for inflating the cost of education, as insurance companies have surely done the same with health care, do we expect the gubmint to do a better job?  The government never controls and cuts costs when they take something over.  The budget always inflates.

All of this on taxpayer money.

Which brings me to Obama’s 2nd reason.  He says a college education is the only hope for a higher standard of living in today’s economy.

While I have nothing against college education, this is propaganda and flatly untrue.

First of all, most of the “poor” in our nation have a standard of living that would be the envy of 95% of the world NOW, not to mention the history of the world. 

Second, statistics show that the average income levels of college graduates and non-college graduates shows little difference.  Now, this is an average, which is due to college graduates initially getting a better paying job, but their upward mobility is naturally capped by pyramid-style bureacracies and their own safe and institutionalized thinking.  They get “good” jobs but take less risks.

Non-college graduates have not been institutionalized.  They start their own businesses more, work as actual producers instead of service oriented jobs that produce little (many of which have to generate propaganda of their own to justify their continued existence and growth).  Non-grads start on a lower tier, but there is essentially no ceiling for the guy that starts his own business out of recognizing actual demand, responsibly manages it and takes the necessary risks for something greater than he has now.  He might even feel bad for the college grad and give him a job … fixing his computer.

An example?  Bill Gates is an extreme, but he had to drop out of colelge to acquire the gobs of money and ride an economic revolution to great wealth.  Obama, and many in the public school system today, would have told him he was making a big mistake.  And Bill Gates is not alone or unique.  Many business owners don’t have a degree from a college or university.  And they are doing fine.

But if you’re someone who believes the government is the answer to EVERYTHING, as the current power party and administration is, then institutionalization makes sense, and institutionalized minds are necessary.  Which is why Lenin and Stalin poured untold resources into the Soviet educational system.

I lived in Korea for four years, and they highly value education.  A college degree is seen as the way to success, and is therefore very common.  So is unemployment for these college grads.  In fact, at one point, the hightest instance of unemployment in Korea was among those educated in universities.  Why?  There weren’t enough jobs according to their degrees, and they were overqualified for the jobs that opened up.

Guess what?  We need ditch diggers, farmers, construction workers, mechanics, factory workers, and other skilled labor.  The whole world needs these things.  It is a very lofty, Ivory-Tower view of the world to think that “success” must come from greater education.  Why not, instead, change our view of success from being college educated and working in a service oriented job to finding honest work that provides enough to meet your needs?

Oh, wait, that’s my true Christianity getting in the way again.

Peace.

Here goes another post on Rose Creek Village.  I’ll have to just wait for the negative google-ers to find the article and comment … should be interesting.

I’ve been meaning to write this for some time … just way busy with music and spring break and everything … but here it is.

A couple weekends ago, Becca and I and the kids were going to a wedding in Memphis to see an old friend from Korea get married.  Rose Creek Village is about an hour away … maybe more.  So we thought we might be able to spend some of the weekend there.  They gave us a room and we stayed there Friday night and Saturday night, spending time with villagers on Friday night, Saturday morning, and Sunday morning.

On Friday evening, when we arrived in the village, we were escorted to the house we were staying at, and there were children playing outside.  Micah got out of the car and, without a word, walked right up to the kids and started playing.  They were sweet to him and they had fun while we went inside and got settled.

Becca and I have been doing the “living with other believers” thing for almost two years now.  It has been awesome.  But we’ve had our struggles, as well, especially some things recently.  So we had an agenda in going to Rose Creek, to ask those experienced in living with other believers some honest questions.  And knowing Rose Creek as I do, we got honest answers, some of which encouraged us, many answers challenged us.

Micah fell in love with the kids there.  Jaron and Tristan and others.  He didn’t want to leave one house … but then loved the next one and didn’t want to leave there, either, as we visited around the village.

One of the main things I appreciate about Rose Creek is their willingness (humility?) to admit their mistakes, both present and past.  But they are also courageous and willing to try things most people wouldn’t even consider.  That being said, they’ve learned a lot, and they are still learning and experimenting and trying to get out of their own boxes.

This shows a lot of wisdom to me.  First that they’ve struggled through things and found much that is good and pure, and second that they are still struggling through things, new things.  It is organic.  It is life.

I love kids anyway, but I love how the kids are in Rose Creek.  Oh, not that they are perfect kids (we were privy to a little child discipline while there …), but that they are conditioned to share, not to take.

When we were leaving on Sunday morning, packing up, Micah said, “I want to take my cars with me.”  I looked, and he had a matchbox car carrying case with some play cars in it.  This was at the house when we arrived a day or two before and Micah loved playing with it.  I told him, “that’s not yours, buddy.  You’ve got your own cars.”  So he left them at my behest … which I must say was quite impressive.  Then as we were driving out of the village, we passed a couple men and their boys on their way in … people whose house we were staying in.  One of the boys asked, “Did Micah get the cars I gave him?”

I felt like a heel.  Of course, Micah didn’t need any more cars … he has plenty and we need to get rid of the blob of toys accumulating in our house … but the fact that Micah was right.  They were his cars.  And even more important that the other boy wanted to give Micah something that Micah enjoyed.

As we got home, I got a message from Shammah (one of the leaders there at Rose Creek whom I have met, email and read his blog) that he would be in the ATL for a high school reunion the very next weekend.  He and his wife, Hannah, stayed downtown at a hotel but visited with us Saturday lunch and Sunday morning.  We had such a good time just getting to know them better … and being their host, as well.

(As a side note: the wedding was awesome, too!  It was great to see some of the old crew on Saturday.)

Overall, we really appreciated the encouragement and the wisdom and the challenges shared by those at Rose Creek.  To those we spoke with, Ben, Beth, Gideon, David, Ariel, Shammah, Asher, Nathaniel, and a host of others … we thank you.  There aren’t many around us trying to do what we are doing, living closer with the Body of Christ, even in the same home.  It was good to hear from those who won’t tell us to just move out when we get frustrated or struggle with something.

So often when people think of more community, they either focus on the advantages (with the resulting, “that would be awesome!”) or the challenges (with the resulting, “I could never do that.”)  Honestly, it is both.  There are amazing times of joy and family with the Body of Christ … and you also experience a dying to yourself to live with other people with different views on dumb things like where to put the paper towel roll or what kind to get or even if we should use paper towels at all because of the environment.  But we, as humans, in our flesh, find these things very important and it is how we deal with these issues that show character … and expose things we’d rather just not want exposed.

This isn’t even getting into more weighty matters of how we discipline children or how marriages work (or don’t work) or a host of other very personal, way more important matters.  But if we’ll allow the balance of community to have its work, we will become better husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, etc.  Someone might actually have some wisdom that helps us.

Rose Creek has been through all of this.  At times it was wonderful.  At times it was very difficult.  And those times still exist for them.  Which, in a way, encourages me.  Feels real.

And if anyone ever wants to visit Rose Creek, just find them on the internet and contact them and go visit.

Peace.

when it is snowing outside … in April.  Not conclusive proof either way … just sayin’.

Peace.

well, you should.  This link kept me laughing all morning.  Literally.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/tauntaun.html

Peace.

Read the classic, Imitation of Christ by Thomas Kempis recently.  I really enjoyed it.  Kempis is fiercely adamant about a very simple concept, all you need is Jesus.  Everything is about a death to who we are and life to Christ in and through us.

Parts of it are quite prophetic, and Kempis actually expresses some thoughts as if they come from God Himself.  I really appreciated the honesty and depth to which Kempis went to dismantle everything in our flesh and the world.  Most books I tear through — this one made me stop often and really meditate on what he said.

It was difficult to read in the 4th book, which is largely centered around communion and his teaching on transubstantiation, which is problematic for me.  Also, as he was a monk, the book is very individualistic and isolationist in his mentality, which has its place, but he takes it to an extreme at times.  There is also a very “I am a worm” mentality that becomes unnecessary to me at a certain point.

Overall, though, highly recommended.

Saw Slumdog Millionaire last night.  I had heard good things, and I love India, so I really wanted to see it.  Saji and I went to a later movie.

Wow.  Rare that a movie in which I have high expectations still affects me that deeply.  So I say, wow.  Haven’t seen all the other movies nominated (and won’t), but Slumdog deserved whatever it got from the Academy.  Beautifully shot and directed, shockingly real and disturbing, well-acted with amazing music, it is kind of a modern-day fairy-tale with Karmic underpinnings.

Have to admit, having visited India and involved in Pastor Daniel’s Mercy Home ministry makes me that much more connected to this story of kids who had to survive on the street.

Also highly recommended.

Will probably see Watchmen this weekend.  Stay tuned.

Peace.

Sorry, it’s been a little erratic.  Which, they say it is bad manners to apologize at teh beginning of a piece of writing for not writing.

Sorry.

But seriously, lots going on.  God is moving and joining and sifting and … well, doing what He usually does.  Only I’m kinda in the middle of it all wondering what to do or if I should do anything … God has to help me a lot.

Of course not only is God moving around some good things in our community, but I’m a husband and a father as well, not to mention my attempts at recording and songwriting.

So sometimes the blog articles don’t get written … or they get written and not typed up.

Going to try to get back to some teaching that’s been on my heart to share.  Keep your eyes out for a Mooney Report coming, as well.

Also, as you’re reading up on my ramblings, check out my bro Steve’s new blog.  Authentic Identity.

Peace.