A Cold Wind Blows...and yet I Run

Last year on Wednesday January 13th, I performed my usual ritual of driving through Chick-fil-A on my way to work to pick up a yummy chicken biscuit.  It would be the last I ever had. If this were the opening to a SyFy movie it would be because I was carted off by aliens for some unpleasant probing. In reality it's because of something that happened on the way to Huntsville.

This morning I crawled out of bed at 5:40 am after a single snooze cycle for the purpose of going to the 'Y' for a run around the track and some weights. Did I mention that it's freezing outside? If it's going to be this cold I really need it to snow. And yet I woke up and got myself all bundled up for a run. First I took Lily for a run around the block. Then I went on to the gym for some faster sprints and weights. My wardrobe include 3 layers: long johns, shorts and shirt, sweat pants and jacket, along with gloves and a sock top. I really should get some cold weather running gear for the 3 times this winter when bundling up will be required.

The point of all this is not to complain about the weather or brag about my running prowess, but rather to note the change in my mindset over the last 52 weeks. But then I look at yesterday morning when I slept in and realize I still have a long way to go.

1 year ago tomorrow also marks the anniversary of the last soda I had. At work I would have anywhere from 4-6 per day usually Coke Zero or Diet Dr. Pepper. The fridge here is still fully stocked with such things but I resisted and now have no urge to pop one open.

So what happened on the way to Huntsville that day? On my flight, I watched the documentary "Food Matters" (currently available on Netflix instant streaming and DVD). That was the tipping point. I realized that I could take control of my health and the way to do it was to take control of what I put in my body and what I put my body through.

And so I run. And try really hard to not put anything in my mouth that will be harmful and to put in lots of helpful stuff. Last week I started a health journal where I write down everything that goes in (I'll stay away from what comes back out), what exercise I do, and how I'm feeling. It has really helped me stay on track as can be noted by the weight loss column. I had been stuck on a plateau for a couple months and have really started to see better results in just the last 10 days.

If I had to label the focus for my family for last year it would be "Healthy Living". I'm not big on new year's resolutions. The only one I ever make is to not make any resolutions which I break on the first day and keep the rest of the year. What's my focus for this year? I don't know yet. There is still a lot of work to be done on the health front, but looking back at the end of the year I hope I can say that I focused on spiritual and family relations.

In other news, I quit World of Warcraft for good and am loving my rediscovered freedom.

Happy New Year!

3 down, 6 to go

Annual employee performance review forms that is. It's always hard to evaluate someone's performance especially when you're considering the entire year. Essentially I have to boil all that down to a number between 1 and 5 that will then be used determine their raise for the following year.And their performance throughout the year determines my raise so I want to keep them happy and productive.  It's a symbiotic relationship between management and people who actually do the real work. I'm growing into my new role as manager more and more. I'm not sure whether I really enjoy it as much as slinging code, but I'm getting better at it. I try to continually remind myself that my job is to enable others to do their jobs better. I don't get to do some of the fun stuff, but I do get the reward that comes with orchestrating a successful project completion. I try to stay out of their way and be a buffer from the agonizing administrative details of contracting, proposal writing, and other necessary but painful overhead. And I get some satisfaction from doing that effectively.

So at the end of this year, looking back on the work that everyone is done I can relax and do my best to see that everyone remains happy and productive in the coming year.

Now back to those review forms.

Facebook, the Portal to the Internet

Maybe it's just that the game Portal is on my mind but Facebook seems to have some resemblance to GLaDOS (the psychotic/sociopathic AI guiding you through the game): using us as lab rats in their social experiments, making money off the research, promising cake but we all know about the cake (pssst. The cake is a Lie). The main difference is that Facebook doesn't make you a neat gun.

Research:
The current top suggestion in Google search for "how do I" is "how do i delete my facebook account".
Portal: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal_(video_game)

Random news (aka what Twitter and FaceBook do to my will to blog)

Sean is about to turn 11.
Just celebrated 14 years married to a wonderful woman.
Ironman II was almost as good as the original.  All the haters are just annoying.
The Lich King just won't die.
My iPhone has a small crack in the plastic on the back.
Preacher at church is resigning.
Brother graduated from college and is looking for gainful employment.
First outdoor pool trip of the year resulted in 4 sunburned peeps.
No travel in the month of May?!? That's unpossible!
Lost about 40lbs since January.
Something I'm eating/doing is making me nauseated most mornings.  Or maybe I'm pregnant.

Parenting win

I had an interesting parenting experience yesterday.  The kind where you actually feel like you may get some pearl of wisdom imparted to your kids.
Sean and Joshua each wanted to play the computer.  We had told them "No" for a while but finally decided to let them have their 30 minutes of play time.  So I asked them "Who wants to play computer first?"  They were standing near each other and Sean rushed forward not quite pushing his brother saying "I do!"  I replied "Sean can play first for 30 minutes, then Joshua can play for 40 minutes."  Sean looked shocked.  Needless to say, he wasn't happy about it. He threw a fit so I then let Joshua go first with his 40 minutes.  Now Sean was really not happy.  He then tried to apply it to all future times where he could get more time by going last.  I told him it didn't work like that.

Then the lesson started.  I explained to him Jesus' words "The first shall be last and the last shall be first."  When we rush to be first we don't often end up with the best.  You could see the wheels turning in his head as he didn't want to believe it or accept the application. Only time will tell if it sinks in, but it was one of those times where I actually felt like a wise parent.

Cultural Transformers

I listen to a lot of podcasts covering a wide variety of subjects.  Some are pure fun and some are informational for personal or professional development.   One of my favorites that I’ve listened to for several years is Dave Ramsey’s radio show.  Recently while listening I started thinking “This guy is really crazy.  He wants these folks to go totally against the cultural financial norms.”  Dave is certainly more dogmatic in his teachings than someone like Clark Howard.  Clark (or Mr. Howard if you want to irritate him) tells people how to work the credit system to keep a good credit rating and credit score, useful advice for living in a culture that values and relies on credit for its daily sustenance. If you’ve listened to Dave for 10 seconds you know he couldn’t care less what your credit score is. Dave refers to Bank of America as BoA (as in constrictor) and often says “If you play with snakes, you’re going to get bit.” While Clark teaches you how to play with the snakes safely so as not to get bit, Dave teaches you to stay away from the snakes.  Clark teaches how to play the game.  Dave refuses to play the game and goes off to have his own fun playing a new game (based on old principles) and tries to get everyone to come and play with him.  I learn useful things from both of these men and am not trying to pit them against each other.  But the difference in philosophy is one to consider in many areas of our lives including religion, health, morals, and work.

This goes right along with my previous post on change.  When something in our lives is not going as it should how should we work to change it? The world is full of quick remedies and partial solutions. Get rich quick schemes, the lottery, fad diets, 30minuteworship.com, and protein power drinks are thrown at us from every form of media. The verse comes to mind:

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of the world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds” Romans 12:2

How did Jesus live? Did he ask the Pharisees what they thought, study the culture and try to find the best way to live in it.  Did he go off and live atop a mountain, take a few people with him, and wait for his purpose to be fulfilled?  Or did he live his life counter to the culture, working with individuals to change their lives.  He didn’t try to change the government policies.  He wasn’t bullied by threats or name calling.  He stood up for his convictions, and everyone knew where he stood.  He worked to heal people’s hearts and spirits, not just their physical maladies.  And when they left him, they were changed and inspired to spread the change to all around.

We have options for living our lives:

1.  Embrace the culture and it’s values
2. Fit in to the culture and maintain your values
3. Separate from the culture to protect your values
4.  Work to change the culture and infect it with your values

You can thrive in various aspects by 1, 2, or 3.  But only through 4 can we be fulfilled and truly Christ-like.  The wisdom of the world won’t get us where we need to be.  Fortunately God gave us a healthy dose of common sense as well as a bunch of proverbial wisdom to go along with it.

Too many times (especially in the church) we focus on #3, separating ourselves from the culture for fear of letting it infect us.  We teach our kids “do not taste, do not touch” (Col 2). We stay within the confines of our church buildings without venturing out into the communities that we are supposed to minister to.  We must separate ourselves from the ACTIONS and WISDOM of the world, but not from the people.  We don’t live the way they live, but we must LOVE the way that HE loved.  Jesus never once shunned attending a gathering for fear of what he might hear or see.  But when he was there, he would infect those around him with his compassion and love.

In, not of. Transformative, not conforming. Loving and living in a culture that doesn’t like us or understand us and yet that is our mission. I have several mentors from afar that I thank God for their transformative message:

• Dr. James Dobson for his tireless work to protect and strengthen our families.
• Dave Ramsey for his encouragement to “Live like no one else, so that later you can live like no one else”.
• And most recently Dr. Josh Axe for his simple yet healing message of eating the foods our bodies were meant to eat and living all around healthy lives.

These men and their organizations refuse to conform to the conventional wisdom and values of the masses. They live according to a different set of rules and refuse to play the game the world wants them to play.  Instead they demonstrate great love, great compassion, and great wisdom open to anyone who will listen.  Sound familiar.

Personal Challenge:

I was just reading the book Re-Create by Ron Luce and he challenged me to challenge my children to become transformers of culture rather than conformers to it.  Now I need to figure out how to impart that mission to them. Shouldn’t be too hard; I bet they’ll like the idea of being transformers.

How to Have a Healthy Marriage

I started thinking as Kathryne commented that we’ve been really happy recently in our marriage as to why that was.  I’m sure there are lots of reasons but I think one of the causes of this is the fact that we’re working together towards a common goal.  Not a general goal like “raising children” or “having a good marriage” but a very specific goal of transforming the way our family eats.  It’s the same kind of feeling I remember having right after we started working on our plan to get out of debt.

Something about having a specific, near-term goal and working together to achieve it seems to bring us together.  There’s nothing really deep or surprising about this.  Mainly I just want to record this for posterity so that next time we seem to hit a bump in the road we won’t have to rediscover this highly effective tool.

Change

Kathryne and I were talking a bit today about the changes in our lives in the last few years.  We used to live as pretty normal American Christians.  Plodding along in live doing the things we do, going with the flow, following the wisdom of the masses.  The main problem with that is the wisdom of the masses is not very wise.  This is summed up quite well when the Apostle Paul writes:

 ¹⁸For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written:
   "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
      the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." 1 Corinthians 1:18-19

Three (3) years ago we started attending a class at church entitled "Discovering God's Ways of Handling Money" put together by a ministry called Crown Financial Ministries. What we discovered was that the way we were living was, to put it bluntly, STOOPID!  Or in the terms of Proverbs: foolish.  And yet to all those around us we looked perfectly normal.  The problem is that normal in America is broke, overweight, deeply in debt, chronically diseased, and generally not happy with life. The class forced us to examine our financial situation, and gather more information on how to do things the right way.  The results were quite dramatic as I described in detail earlier.

We were greatly focused on our finances which added an intensity that accelerated the whole process. The problem with focus is often that other things suffer.  So while our relationship with regards to money was improving we also saw the need to work on other areas of our relationship with each other as well as our relationship with our kids.  So we've read many books over the past few years on these subjects and attended several seminars to help in these areas.  The signs are not as outwardly visible as with our finances but we see them in small things in our lives.  In a couple weeks we'll be attending the Focus on Marriage simulcast seminar put on by Focus on the Family.  In addition to books, we often listen to the Focus on the Family free podcast which brings us their daily radio program right to our computers to listen to at our leisure. The interviews and speakers they bring in are amazing.

There's one more major change we're currently undertaking that I'm not quite ready to write about in detail.  But I do want to consider what are the circumstances under which change occurs. Not just temporary change, but lasting change.

• First, you have to recognize the need for change.  When we recognized our mountain of debt and it's impact on our lives, it served as a great impetus for us to make look for more information on how to get better.
• Second, you have to gather information.  Often it is information that is the impetus in #1.  But you can't just gather any information, you have to gather the right kind of information from knowledgeable, non-biased sources.  Examining the motives of your sources of information is key in this. Gathering information on getting out of debt from your credit card company is going to be suspect.
• Third, and this is the hardest one, you have to make a COMMITMENT TO CHANGE your actions. James 1:22-25 says:

 ²²Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

Many people I've talked to recently know the information needed to effect positive change in their lives, but they're not willing to add or remove the necessary actions from their lives.  Whether it's how you spend, how you serve, how you parent, how you love, how you eat, or anything you do you will have to change your actions and make sacrifices in order to change your life for the better.  And when you make those sacrifices, you may just realize that the sacrifice is not that great and where you are is so much better than where you were that you kick yourself for not making the change earlier.  I know my legs are tired from doing just this.

One final verse, Romans 12:2 

²Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Debt Free and Lovin' It

A few of you know bits of the journey my family has been on to pay off all of our debts and get our financial house in order. It is a journey we started about 2 and ½ years ago just before we moved to Austin and just after starting a new job at PFI. For our first ten years we had lived paycheck to paycheck. There was too much month left at the end of the money. We were classic consumers using our plastic cards for whatever we wanted. Occasionally through the years we would try this thing called a budget. We would write some stuff down on a yellow pad, average out our expenses, and juggle things around till it seemed to work out. But that never lasted long.

We played the game of surfing our credit cards around to lower interest and payments. We used those nasty checks to make up for monthly shortfalls. We refinanced our house for a remodel and some extra lifestyle. Upon leaving an employer we cashed out a 401k to pay off some debt and buy some more stuff. We leased a van, and paid way too much for a small car for way too long. Basically, most of the stupid stuff that people tend to do with money, we did. We had nothing in savings and were 75k in debt (not including the house). I often wondered “How can I make this much money and have nothing to show for it?”

Then in March of 2007 we started taking this class at church about what the Bible says about managing money. Something in us clicked and we made a decision to grow up and start managing our money properly. But first we had to figure out what “properly” was. We went searching for more information and found a plan that worked for us. We had tried doing things our way and failed miserably so we looked to the wisdom of others. It was not easy, but I can honestly say it was worth it. Now $75,000 and 30 months later we owe not a dime to anyone. We have money in the bank, and a game plan for continuing to build our financial stability. We are teaching our kids these things in the hopes that they will not have to follow the path we did and end up in a much better place.

I am putting this out there to let you know it can be done and to provide some encouragement if you find yourself in a similar situation. I am not trying to sell anything and I am not a financial planner or advisor by any stretch of the imagination but I can tell you what worked for us (and millions of others around the country) if you happen to be interested.

Trinity Oaks Reunion

This weekend I had the joy of attending a reunion for members of the Trinity Oaks church of Christ in Dallas. I attended TO from 1983-1986. We moved away after my 5th grade year. That's a pretty short time and a long time ago so I don't have a lot of really clear memories from church. Mostly just flashes and a few names of people. But there are certain things that stick in my mind as "firsts" so I wanted to share them here.

• First service in the church: I remember Arthur Hensarling would organize some of us young guys to pick up the attendance cards each week. Arthur was like a local grandfather to us kids. I'd get so excited when for Christmas I'd get a $2 bill from him in appreciation for collecting the cards (or at least that's what I associate it with in my memory). He also had the first car phone I ever remember seeing.
• First learned to sing: Now I knew how to sing so when I say "learned" it's not a matter of ability. During worship I would not be singing and I guess my dad was sick of it. I remember one night when he took me out of worship to the "cry" room and had a little talk with me. I don't remember what he said or did (I don't think electrodes were involved), but after that I seemed to have a greater appreciation for singing in worship or at least was on the right road of faking it till it became real.
• First started thinking of baptism: It was at TO that several of my friends and classmates began to make the decision to be baptized. I held off for quite a while as I didn't want to just follow the crowd and do it because they were doing it. I think I ended up waiting too long but eventually came to the proper decision.
• First church politics: Now 5th grade is a bit young to be exposed to such things, but I remember one fund raiser for school selling M&Ms at church. I went to the youth minister and his reason for not buying any from me was that then he would have to buy from all the kids who asked. I guess they weren't paying him the big bucks that youth ministers are getting these days.
• First major wilderness experience: My dad led a group of 4th-8th grade boys on a week long canoe trip on the Minnesota/Canada border. I remember rowing to the chant of "Coke" across the final lake before the pickup point. My dad always recites this line about "We're talking mist, we're talking fog". It was a great experience which we later repeated with a group from the church in Phoenix.

Most of my clear memories from Dallas revolve around my bestest friend Brian Davis who I have recently had the joy of reconnecting with thru Facebook. We met for lunch for the first time in over 10 years this summer and it was like we never were apart. The memories just flowed back. It was great to see him and his family at the reunion. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll ever find that Papa Smurf car.

Several of the people at the reunion I had encountered at Harding. But some of them I hadn't seen in 23 years. It was great to reconnect with them. I didn't spend much time at TO, but I could tell that those who had through the years were touched in great ways through their love for God and each other.

Is our worship too formal?

I had the privilege and pleasure of writing a blog post as a guest on a local church blog where one of our members often posts in "response" to one of his earlier posts:

http://fbgtxchurchofchrist.org/blog/2009/08/is-our-worship-too-formal/

Thanks Bob for the invitation. Make sure to read some of the other stuff there too. It's thought provoking.

Murphy Strikes

Murphy struck our cars yesterday. The rear hatch on the van had its hydraulics fail yesterday. So Kathryne had to take it to the Toyota dealership to get that fixed. We're letting David and Becky borrow our van for the month and we drove to DFW and back last night to meet up with them and give them the van, 4 hours each way. On the way home from DFW the tire on my car went flat...at 1am...1 hour from home. So we're on the side of the interstate with trucks wooshing past. I put on the spare and it was low on air too. Thankfully I had an air compressor in the emergency kit to air it up and get us home around 2:15am. I discovered that changing a tire on the side of the interstate at 1am is much better than any caffeine at waking me up.

The kids slept in the back seat through the whole thing.

So after driving 8 hours to and from DFW I was trying to go to sleep in my nice comfy bed. As I started to doze off, I was dreaming that I was driving. In my dream, I started to fall asleep while driving.

Now I'm sitting in Goodyear getting my tire fixed. Well, getting it replaced. They just told me it was really messed up on the inside.

Beliefs

Ran across this wonderful way of stating the basics of Christian belief in God.
Some Things I Believe...Part 1
If we talked like this more often rather than using fancy words and dogmatic statements we would be much more "salty".

We want to Chase the Cheetah

Kathryne had a great post on her blog about
http://kathrynesthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/02/credit-card-first-not-car.html

Tonight I also sent an email to Dave Ramsey (our financial mentor) about the same thing. He was talking about this a lot last week on his show.
Here are some links I found about the story of what Chase is doing:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29099482/
http://www.ledgerdelaware.com/articles/2009/02/09/news/doc49905449860ef355591420.txt
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/02/chase_class_action.html
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/credit/2009-02-08-chase-interest-rates-fee_N.htm

Here's the text of the message I sent. I wonder if he'll read it on air...

I heard you talking about Chase's slimy actions regarding their credit card fees and interest rates. Our last item on our snowball is our Chase credit card of about 16000. We're currently working on saving up to pay on or van fleece of about 14000. Next paycheck we would be able to pay off our van but given our disgust with Chase, we've decided to pay them off instead. We're not even sure if we're in the group that would be affected but are doing this on principal. We also have our primary checking and savings account with them and will be looking to move those away shortly. I know we're breaking the "rules" of the debt snowball by not paying off the smallest first but you always say that this is about behavior and their behavior has been atrocious. I hope you'll forgive us this minor deviation.

QBQ

Ever had a coworker (or friend or schoolmate or family member, but in this case coworker) who was quick to point out problems or tasks that needed to be done but would never think of trying to handle it themselves. "It's not my job", "I've got other stuff to do", "When is management going to take care of this?", etc...

Those things may be true, but as part of a team, everyone is responsible for the work of the entire team. It's the silent "I" in "Team". We often hear that it's not there, and in the sense of the fame and glory of the Team there should be no "I" present. But when it comes to who is responsible for the success or failure of the team, it is each individual's responsibility to their very best.

This is the premise of the book QBQ: The Question Behind the Question? It's a book about personal responsibility and accountability. If you haven't read it or it's sequel Flipping the Switch, then I highly recommend them both. But be ready for a challenge to your sense of security in the status quo.

This is more of a venting blog than anything else. But maybe someone will decide to pick up the books (or borrow my copies) and change their view of work and life forever.

Death* and Taxes

did taxes last night and actually owe a bit of money :( have the money saved up to cover it :) delays paying off the van 1 month :(

*No death, just taxes
**No IRS agents were harmed in the writing of this post

Video of the year

I don't usually like to post just links to videos, but this is truly hilarious and being the big Star Wars fan I am i figured this would be appropriate. Plus i really needed some laughs today and this provided them.

"Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it)" http://vimeo.com/2809991

Happy Birthday Dad

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the day my father was born, otherwise known as his 60th birthday. That’s 60% of the way to 100. If his age were a test score he would still have an F. Only 10 more years to a D-. Since he often remarks on my lack of blog postings and how much he enjoys the writings of his children, I figured the perfect gift for such an occasion would be a blog post dedicated to him.

I learned a lot of things from my dad: fishing, canoeing, bowling, song leading, basketball, baseball, English, history to name a few. If I were to speculate on one thing he would be most proud to have passed on it would be my proper use of the subjunctive mood in my writing.

I remember my sophomore basketball season when he travelled to every one of my away games. Some of my best memories are of the canoe trips along the Minnesota/Canadian border where we fished, hiked, swam, bathed in waterfalls, drank bug juice, watched for planes dipping their wings signaling it was OK to build a fire.

Some things I most certainly did not pick up from my dad are his love of westerns, musicals, and deviled eggs.

Growing up, most teenagers think their parents will never understand them and the parents feel the same way. Having become a father myself, I have a much greater appreciation for the time, effort, and enormous sacrifices that go into being a parent. I also better understand the personal inadequacies and insecurities that challenge both fatherhood and manhood. Sometimes it’s all a parent can do to hope that their kids grow up to not be a serial killer or thief much less a well adjusted, productive member of society. Somehow my dad managed to not screw up 4 times over resulting in 4 Christian families. May we all be so lucky and blessed.

Finally, I have no idea how many of my diapers my dad changed, but my hope and desperate prayer is that in the next 60 years of his life I never have to change one of his.

Happy birthday, Dad! Here’s to the next 60.

He Paid a Debt

"Speak where the Bible speaks, and be silent where the Bible is silent". This oft used motto is a baseline for doctrine and practices in churches of Christ and came out of the Restoration Movement in the 1800s. And yet on the subject of money, we are often very silent where the Bible speaks very plainly. Money is one of the top subjects in scripture. There's a ton of financial advice in Proverbs and Jesus spoke of it often. In church we rarely speak about anything other than the giving aspect of money. And the times we talk about being a good steward and giving unto Caesar are in the context of giving (because the giving is never enough). Here's a long list of scriptures that speak about money and finances.

One area where the Bible plainly speaks is on the subject of debt. The Bible never says that debt is sinful, but it strongly condemns the use of debt as a bad way to do business. Depending on the translation, words like "foolish", "stupid", "lacking in sense", and "slave" are used to describe debt, the use of debt, and the relationships it creates.

Here are a few of the scriptures on debt:

Proverbs 22:7

"The rich rule over the poor, And the borrower is servant to the lender."

Proverbs 22:26-27

"Do not be one of those who shakes hands in a pledge, one of those who is surety for debts; if you have nothing with which to pay, why should he take away your bed from under you?"

Proverbs 17:18

"It's stupid to guarantee someone else's loan."

Proverbs 11:15

"He who is surety for a stranger will suffer for it, but one who hates being surety is secure."

And finally there's even advice on how to get out of debt:
Proverbs 6:1-5

"My son, if you have become surety for your friend, if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger, you are snared by the words of your own mouth; you are taken by the words of your mouth. So do this, my son, and deliver yourself; For you have come into the hand of your friend; Go and humble yourself; plead with your friend. Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids. Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, and like a bird for the hand of the fowler."

Notice that it never says that going into debt is a sin. It just says it is foolish and will take your very bed from under you.

We have churches going deeply into debt for new facilities, pastors encouraging people to use their credit cards to pay their offering, churches asking members to personally sign for the church's debt, and Christians everyone living the good life on credit cards, HELOCs, and car fleeces.

Jesus came not just to pay our debt for the redemption of our souls, he came to show us the best way to live. We're more than willing to condemn others for drinking or smoking or carousing or missing church services, but when it comes to finances we rarely insert ourselves into our brothers' and sisters' lives. The weight of debt can be as burdensome as addictions and guilt of sin. It can destroy marriages and wreak havoc in every area of our lives.

What a wonderful opportunity for outreach and showing God's love and His purpose for our lives. If we teach our children, neighbors, and fellow Christians God's way of handling what he has given us then we spread not only his love, but a great deal of peace to a world greatly in need of both.

Above all, love each other deeply

Tonight in Bible class we were talking about 1 Peter 4:1-11. We talked about the suffering of Christ and suffering for the faith. Hard times can make us stronger or break us down. Here Peter is warning his fellow Christians of what to do when the hard times come. He first points to Christ as our example. Then he goes on to give some pratical advice of fighting the dark times:

7The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. 8Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

He continues with other advice such as practicing hospitality, teaching and serving. But he echoes the idea that Jesus tried to teach us. Loving God and Loving each other is the most important thing "because love covers over a multitude of sins". The covering of sins certainly refers to Christ's love in his sacrifice that brings us redemption. But in this situation, he's referring to our interactions as a body. The MOST important thing we can do to fight the hard times that the world throws at us is to love each because all the petty arguments, offenses, and differences will be abated by love. The covering power of the love is over our sins towards our fellow Christians. They criticize us, reprimand us, believe different from us, worship different than us, and raise their children different than us. How dare they be so different from us. But all my attempts to straighten them out and set them on the right path are just clanging symbols (like the kids banging on the pots in the kitchen) if I have not love.

When they do this things, believe these things, teach these things what am I to do? Am I not to correct them? We throw around the terms conservative, progressive, liberal, anti-this, and non-that. Whatever the labels, whatever the positions, whatever the doctrines, love must bind us all together. Whether I think you're wrong and don't choose to worship as you do or you think I'm wrong and don't choose to attend my gospel meeting, we must remember the words of our Lord and his servant Peter that love must be practiced above all.

I don't have to condone your actions or accept them for myself and I can certainly discuss with you where I think you may be in need of guidance. But I must not hold a grudge, spread gossip (true or not), publish nasty letters on my blog, or write you up in a Christian publication.

If my salvation is based on doing and believing the correct things throughout my life then I'm hosed. If my salvation is based on getting everyone around me to do and believe the correct things in their own lives then I'm equally hosed. I can't do it on my own and neither can you. But together when the dark times come (such as when some big man in a black helmet tries to extinguish your light from the galaxy) we can stand up under the suffering that the world throws at us. We can use our gifts "To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen."

Epilogue:
The thoughts in this article have been stewing around for a bit and our class tonight finally got me going on the track to write it all down. Some of the things rattling around in my brain are from a recent story involving the school where my mother work and my youngest 2 siblings graduated and the churches local to the area. I won't go into the story, but there are some blog entries, national Christian articles, and my brother's blog that refer to the situation. These things always make me sad. The congregation here where we attend has gone through a similar situation with lingering resentment (or fear of resentment) from some people.

Let us pray that we can love and be loved and that we will forgive others as we wish to be forgiven.