The video shown below is the devotional from June 26th, 2020. The full text of the devotional follows the video.
Calvary Chapel Rosarito – English Devotional by Gary Wiram
WELCOME
Good Morning! My name is Gary Wiram. I want to welcome you to Today’s Good News! Thank you for joining me this morning.
INTRODUCTION
This week, Today’s Good News began teaching the little book of Jude, verse by verse, day by day. Today, I get to teach on Jude 1:5. When I received this assignment, I thought, “I wonder how many at Calvary Chapel Rosarito have Jude 1:5 as their favorite Bible verse.” My immediate answer to myself was, “Probably none”. Then I thought, “After my teaching, I wonder if it will become a more popular verse. When baseball comes back, will we be seeing the guy behind home plate holding up a sign that says ‘Jude 1:5’ instead of ‘John 3:16’?” I’m pretty certain that’s not gonna happen but I pray that, in addition to learning the message of Jude 1:5, this will help us all to remember the importance of every Word in the Bible being breathed by God.
Here are those Words from Jude 1:5:
“But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.”
DON’T FORGET IT
As we read this verse, it’s important to remember that the Author, Jude, was a half-Brother of Jesus. It’s, also, important to remember that he really didn’t accept Jesus as Messiah until after the Resurrection. His purpose in writing this epistle was to exhort the early church to “contend earnestly for the faith” against apostates whose teachings were leading the people astray. To do this, in Jude 1:5, he begins to use examples from the past, when God dealt harshly with apostates. This was in order to remind the people of lessons they might be forgetting. The examples he is pointing to include how God dealt with Israel’s refusal to enter the promised land after Moses had sent 12 men to “spy out” the land. Here’s what we’re told about that in Numbers 14:29:
“The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above.”
In case you don’t remember how that turned out, only Josua and Caleb, the two spies out of the twelve who told Israel that they should enter the promised land, were the only two of that generation who didn’t fall in the wilderness. That may seem like a pretty harsh reminder but remember that Jude didn’t “get it”, that Jesus was Messiah, until after he had spent every year of Jesus’ life with him, as his half-Brother. Once he did “get it”, I’m certain he was determined that others “get it” and as we see here, he seemed just as determined that they not “forget it”.
DON’T BE MISLED
So, how does this apply to us today? Well, dealing with false teachers wasn’t exclusive to the early church. It’s been a reality throughout the church-age and it just seems to be getting more and more prevalent today. The false teachings we’re inundated with today include:
Popular leaders who teach what makes people feel good and they include just enough Biblical truth that their heresy seems believable.
Charlatans who use Christianity for their personal enrichment.
False prophets who claim to have a new revelation from God that doesn’t line up with Scripture.
Those within the church who use their leadership position to take abusive advantage of others.
And there are those who bring false doctrine into the church to divide and to destroy.
KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE PRIZE
And in today’s “all news all the time” world, there’s an overwhelming amount of stuff coming at us that, even aside from dealing with apostates, it’s extremely challenging to “keep your eyes on the prize”. In the midst of all this, Jude’s harsh reminder may be just what we need to remember that we once did “get it” about “the prize” and to remain determined to not “forget it” that what we have been told about “the prize” is summed up in that other Scripture that tells us:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
During the COVID-19 quarantine, Calvary Chapel Rosarito has been providing live streaming topical devotionals every weekday. The video shown below is the devotional from Tuesday, May 26th, 2020. The full text of the devotional follows the video.
Calvary Chapel Rosarito – English Devotional by Gary Wiram
SETTING THE STAGE
In order to set the stage for the focus of this devotional, here are two brief stories:
A teacher wanted to teach her students about self-esteem, so she asked anyone who thought they were stupid to stand up. One kid stood up and the teacher was surprised. She didn’t think anyone would stand up so she asked him, “Why did you stand up?” He answered, “I didn’t want to leave you standing up by yourself.”
Now that you’ve finished laughing or groaning at that one, let me tell you another story about the very same teacher. After getting over her embarrassment, the teacher continued with her lesson on self-esteem by asking some questions she was sure the students could answer correctly:
First, she asked: “Kids, what does a chicken give you?” One student shouted: “Eggs!” The teacher said: “Very good! Now what does a pig give you?” Another student responded with: “Bacon!” The teacher said: “Great! And what does a fat cow give you?” The student who had stood up before said: “Homework!”
Now, those may not be the most hilarious jokes you’ve ever heard but I suspect we all see some humor in them. It’s the sort of humor that I remember being most popular back in the middle of the last century when I was in high school. We referred to it as cutting someone down.
This morning’s devotional is the opposite of that. It’s entitled “Build Each Other Up”. I’ll be using selected verses, in context, from Ephesians 4:17 through Ephesians 5:7 as our Scriptural reference today.
PRAYER
Before seriously digging into this topic, let’s pray for the Lord’s blessing on this time.
Father, thank You for Your provision, making it possible for us to gather in this way, in Your name. Give us ears to hear what You want to say on this topic and give us hearts to be obedient to Your direction, that we might glorify You in the way we lead our lives. We ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
“Don’ts for the Audience
In the part of Ephesians we’re looking at today, Paul was speaking to the believers in Ephesus. He was exhorting them to be in the world but not of the world. The world they were in was the very pagan culture of Ephesus. Paul admonished them to not participate in behaviors that were commonly accepted in Ephesus.
Look at this list of the behaviors Paul was talking about!:
Lewdness – Greediness – Deceitful Lusts
Lying – Anger – Stealing – Bitterness
Clamor – Malice – Fornication
Covetousness – Filthy Language – Idolatry
Do’s for the Audience
Apparently, the average Ephesians were pretty nasty people. No wonder Paul didn’t want his sheep to turn out like them. No doubt, our Pastors want the same for us today.
In addition to the list of “don’ts” that Paul addresses, he speaks of a quality lacking in the culture of Ephesus that he does want believers to exhibit. Here’s what he says about that:
Ephesians 4:17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. 29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, Ephesians 5:5 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 7 … put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
As I said earlier, Paul was not speaking to the Ephesian culture, he was speaking to the believers in Ephesus. In doing this, Paul was actually speaking to all Christians for all time, telling us to be shaped by Christ, not by the culture.
Of course, we can’t fully imitate God but we can exhibit the qualities that His Word tells us He wants to see in His dear children. We aren’t instructed to incorporate these qualities in our lives because we just want to be among those who are counted as being good in the world. There are unbelievers who do that. I don’t know, maybe that’s just because they don’t want to be on Santa’s Naughty List. But, we are expected to live this way because, as Paul says, we have “put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” This isn’t in order that we become God’s children. It’s because we are God’s children. Accommodating behaviors that are acceptable in the culture or, worse yet, adopting those behaviors, dishonors our Christian family. We are not like those who don’t know Christ. We are different. We are set apart. That is why we encourage each other. That is why we build each other up. It’s the reason that this Scripture begins with the word “therefore”. It’s because we have received salvation and we know who we are in Him, so we should encourage one another and build one another up. And, this isn’t behavior we are only to exhibit with Christian Brothers and Sisters. We are to behave this way with everyone … even with those who we don’t like. It’s a call to impact the world we live in not by becoming good but by being who we have become. We are Saints and we must act like it.
God’s Assignments
Here are three areas of building up that every believer has been assigned by God:
We are called to build up ourselves, spiritually. Jude tells us not to be like the ungodly world. Instead, Jude 1:20 says, “But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,”
We are called to build up the church. 1 Corinthians 14:12 tells us, “… since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel.”
We are called to build up each other. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 says, “Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, …”
How To’s
God wants us to learn to use our time with our brothers and sisters in Christ to encourage them spiritually, to motivate them in their times with God and in prayer, to discuss ways to more effectively share Christ with others, to serve them and help them.
God created us to be a part of a vibrant community of people. If that community is healthy, then one of the priorities will be to build others up. A loving group of people wants to see each other grow in their faith and their gifts and we rejoice when we see them accomplish it. Paul’s challenge to each of us is to be someone who builds others up.
It’s really not that hard to build up others. Mostly, we just have to be watching for opportunities to do so. Often, it can be done by saying something as simple as, “Keep up the good work, you’re doing a good job” or “I’m glad you’re here today, you add so much to our group”.
Proverbs 11:25 – Tells us that doing this pays dividends. It says, “The generous soul will be made rich, And he who waters will also be watered himself.”
Intentional Edification
As we recognize that God calls us to build each other up, He also directs us to not do the opposite … That is tearing each other down.
As we read earlier in Ephesians, ”Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted,”.
Our words are powerful. They can build up or tear down and they can switch from one to the other in an instant. Our words also reflect what is going on in our hearts. Paul is exhorting us to become people who build others up. We do that by looking out for the needs of other people. We listen for where people are struggling and determine to meet those needs. We are mindful of new Christians, and we make sure that we encourage them and protect them from anything that might weaken their faith. We watch what comes out of our mouths because we realize that we are an example.
Those with selfish hearts look after their own interests. They don’t look to the needs of others but only to satisfy themselves. They are like the Ephesians. Unwholesome talk reflects the sin in our lives. Loose talking and coarse joking can affect a young believer’s faith. Exaggerating for effect can lower the opinion others have of us. We need to eliminate these from our lives. To do this, start by asking God for forgiveness of what we have said. Then, take our eyes off of what we want and start to look at what others need.
Use your words to build up. Encourage and exhort one another to Godly living. Speak words of wisdom and care into the life of others. When we build others up, we bring significant benefits to our community of believers. It blesses those who are being built up, it provides an example for those who are watching, and it does a work in our hearts that we might not expect, we find a subtle joy in helping others out.
Proverbs 17:22 tells us about that in saying, “A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.”
We have all heard the saying “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” That is not true! Words do hurt! Words can either build up, encourage, motivate or they can hurt, tear down or leave someone with lasting scars. As people of God, we need to be very careful about what we allow to come out of our mouths. Words spoken out of our mouths are very important for the simple fact that they speak what is in our hearts.
Luke 6:45 tells us, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
Long before we had computers, God taught us …
Garbage in, Garbage out.
Final Analysis
What are we speaking? Words that build up or words that tear down? Let us all examine ourselves by listening to the words that proceed out of our mouths. The wrong words can destroy and the right words can mend. Words spoken out of the mouth of those who confess Christ should be wholesome words which edify the body of Christ and glorify God our Father. We need to ask ourselves, “Is God receiving glory from the words that we speak?”
Let me encourage all of you with a few closing words …. You are a child of God. He loves you, He sincerely does. He is there for you. He cares. He is listening. He is for you. He wants to wrap you up in His arms and encourage you. He wants to build you up. He wants to strengthen you, especially in those places where you feel weak. His desire is for you to have all that is possible for you. Seek Him today and look for opportunities He gives you … to build up others.
A health worker at a COVID-19 testing site in Inglewood, CA.
DEEPLY WOUNDED – PRE-COVID-19
The world is becoming increasingly eager to get past the COVID-19 nightmare, to return to “life as usual”. In doing that, we tend to think of the things we miss and that, when we have those things back, life will be wonderful again. As a result of that myopia, we forget … there was much about “life as usual” before COVID-19 that wasn’t so great.
The pre-COVID-19 U.S. was miserably split. Nothing exemplified this more than the rift between those who support President Trump and those who oppose him. But, the U.S. population was just as divided on social issues such as; Gun Control, Abortion, Religious Freedom, Climate Change, Traditional Marriage, Immigration, Reparations, etc. While remaining the world’s leading superpower, this ever increasing discord was making the U.S. a deeply wounded giant … perhaps, even, mortally wounded.
SOCIAL HEALING DURING THE CRISIS
California Governor Gavin Newsom Praises President Trump
In spite of holding opposing views of their President and of numerous political issues, the vast majority of Americans have worked harmoniously in facing the COVID-19 crisis. One of the best examples of that, among U.S. leaders, came from California Governor, Gavin Newsom, paying compliments to President Trump. Newsom and Trump hold disparate views on most issues. So much so that, prior to the Coronavirus Pandemic, it would have been most likely to hear them express unflattering opinions of each other. And yet, Governor Newsom has been very complimentary of President Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis, saying, “… I have to be complimentary. Otherwise, I would simply be lying to you, misleading you …”
Thankfully, seeing Americans work together with one accord, in facing the COVID-19 crisis, hasn’t been limited to its leadership. Many Americans have joyfully embraced the kinship they’ve rediscovered as they came together in battling this pandemic. It’s been obvious that, as a positive side-effect of the current crisis, this affinity has created an ideal environment for the healing of the great wound brought on by America’s deep divisiveness on social issues. But, there has remained a foreboding undercurrent indicating, that, when the U.S. returns to “life as usual”, that could mean the population returning to being miserably split. While many have been treasuring the sense of good will and the considerable potential for healing, it seems that a stubborn group of spoilers have remained who are all too willing to keep picking at America’s great wound.
AGGRAVATING THE WOUND
Surgeon General Adams – Love and Protect Your Elders
Obvious examples of this are Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Maxine Waters, Jerry Nadler, etc.; who, even during this crisis, continue to lurk in the background, awaiting the slightest excuse for trying to bring down President Trump. But, the saddest and most troubling example of this, for me, was the criticism leveled at Surgeon General Jerome Adams by TV Host Claudia Jordan. Jordan’s criticism was aimed at Adams’ use of certain terms of endearment in encouraging Americans to be especially protective of their elders vis-a-vis the Coronavirus. The terms the Surgeon General used included “Abuela” and “Big Mama”. According to Jordan, his use of these terms was offensive to African Americans and Latinos. It should be noted that Adams is African American and in defending his comments, he noted that his Brother-in-law is Puerto Rican.
While the destructive efforts of Pelosi and company are pretty easy to see through, it’s counter-productivity like theirs that feed the foreboding undercurrent evidenced by Jordan’s criticism of Surgeon General Adams. There is much to admire about Jerome Adams, not the least of which is his achieving the high position of Surgeon General. I would argue, however, that the love he showed in caring for his Grandparents’ generation demonstrated an even more admirable quality. Why, then, did Ms. Jordan find his comments to be so offensive? I believe it was, clearly, the result of preconceived notions and looking for any excuse to justify being offended.
CONTINUING THE HEALING
I’ve heard it said that, when a hammer is the only thing you have in your toolbox, everything can look like a nail to you. That may be a fitting explanation for how Claudia Jordan arrived at her conclusions about General Adams’ comments. If we truly aspire to attain a more wonderful “life as usual” following the COVID-19 crisis, attitudes like this must be discouraged. Certainly, once the COVID-19 crisis is past, we need to look back on how we dealt with it. But, in doing this, we should be looking to fix the problem, not to fix the blame.The primary objectives of this review should be: (1) How to avoid such occurrences and (2) How to be better prepared for such occurrences.
No one manages any crisis perfectly. But, metaphorically, I view President Trump and his COVID-19 Task Force as an exceptional team fielded by a skillful Quarterback. And, continuing with that metaphor, the last thing we have needed during this crisis and going forward, is one or more Monday-morning Quarterbacks. That is a sure-fire way to deepen the wounds of the pre-COVID-19 U.S., rather than to heal them. If there’s any justification for fixing blame here, it most rightly belongs to those who chose to keep Monday-morning Quarterbacking during the COVID-19 crisis when they could have been contributing to finding solutions for the crisis rather than exacerbating it.
DON’T REOPEN THE WOUND
In order for the U.S. to emerge from this COVID-19 nightmare to a more wonderful “life as usual”, its citizens must take full advantage of the opportunity for healing afforded by the good will that has been present during this crisis. Furthermore, once this crisis passes, the healing needs to continue and the reopening of wounds should not be tolerated. To accomplish this, every American must first discipline themselves to be as harmonious in working with their fellow-Americans as they have been during the crisis. Candidly, doing so afterwards will be more challenging than it is presently. Striving together for survival of the Coronavirus has made it easy to define common ground. Following the crisis, however, finding common ground on deeply divisive social issues may seem more elusive. The key here will be to maintain the present attitude of good will in earnestly working together to find common ground. That shouldn’t mean compromising deeply held personal values. But, it will require listening to the views of those who see things differently than you and doing so without holding an attitude that they are somehow mentally and/or morally inferior.
Calvary Chapel Rosarito – English Devotional by Gary Wiram
During the COVID-19 quarantine, Calvary Chapel Rosarito has been providing live streaming topical devotionals every weekday. The video shown above is the devotional from Thursday, April 23rd, 2020, on the topic of Forgiveness. The following, is the full text of that devotional.
WELCOME
Good morning and welcome! I’m very blessed to be with you for this morning’s devotional. If you don’t know me, I’m Gary Wiram and I’m not a Pastor here at Calvary Chapel Rosarito. But, you may be familiar with me and my Wife, Ruth, from seeing us around church. Ruth leads the Monday evening Bible study for English- speaking ladies, called Sister Sojourners. You may have seen me as part of the Connections Ministry in between services on Sundays. And you may be familiar with both of us as the Leaders of the Seniors Ministry known as Legends.
INTRODUCTION
Many of our recent devotionals have focused on topics aimed at helping to get us through this challenging time of COVID-19. This morning I want to offer exhortation to take advantage of this time by dealing with a topic most of us find challenging even during normal times. That topic is Forgiveness.
The aspects of this topic that I want to address this morning are:
God’s forgiveness for us.
Our forgiveness of others.
Forgiveness for the unforgivable.
As we begin, let’s pray for the Lord’s blessing on this time.
Father, thank You for this opportunity to look to You to see how You can make beauty in our lives from the ashes of this current crisis. Give us ears to hear what You want to say on this topic today. And, give us hearts to be obedient to Your direction. We ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
It seems that it’s a Calvary Chapel Rosarito requirement to include a joke in every teaching so I want to start with this:
Pastor Carlos recently got a pet parrot. Unfortunately, it had a bad attitude and used fowl language … Fowl language, get it?! A Parrot, a Bird, Fowl! … Anyway, Carlos tried everything to change the bird’s attitude and clean up its talk but nothing worked. Finally, in a moment of desperation, he put the parrot in his freezer. For a few moments he heard the bird squawking, kicking and screaming and then, suddenly, all is quiet. He opened the freezer door. The parrot stepped out and said, “I’m sorry that I offended you with my language and actions. I ask for your forgiveness.” Pastor Carlos was astounded at the bird’s change in attitude and was about to ask what changed him when the parrot continued, “By the way, may I ask – what did the chicken do?”
GOD’S FORGIVENESS FOR US
Seriously, I want us to begin by taking a look at God’s forgiveness for us. Of course, understanding God is completely beyond us. And, certainly, God’s forgiveness is too big and too complex for us to fully grasp. But, looking to His Word can help us to get a sense of it.
John 3:16 is probably the most well known of all Scripture, even with unbelievers. It tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Although it’s beyond me to understand why God so loved the world, at least I understand that His love for the world is why He provided for our redemption.
And, Ephesians 1:7 Tells us, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,”
I suspect we’ve all been taught the difference of Grace from Justice and Mercy. Justice is getting what we deserve. We deserve spending eternity in Hell. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. I guess that would be not going to Hell but maybe just ceasing to exist when we die. Grace is getting what we don’t deserve … eternal life in Heaven with God.
Forgiveness is a key element of God’s Grace. It is a gift, as the Scripture says, “according to the riches of his grace,”. This gift is solely from God’s love for us. There was no other pathway to Salvation without it. There’s nothing we could do to earn it and we certainly don’t deserve it. It’s a gift.
And, it is a gift that cost God a great price, a price that is also beyond our understanding … “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,”.
Those three little words, “through his blood”, don’t seem like enough to fully define the price that God paid for our salvation. A more detailed description would be to say God the Son chose to leave His glory in Heaven, to come to earth, to take on flesh and blood and to live fully as a man only so He could sacrifice that flesh and shed that blood in order that we might have eternal life.
He gave himself for us. As Romans 8:32 tells us, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
We need to remember that God’s forgiveness is conditional though.
1 John 1:9 tells us, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
“If we confess our sins” … Repentance of our sins is required by God’s conditional promise. That won’t be a part of our eternal lives because there is no sin in Heaven. But, while living in this sinful world, we need to repent and to do so continually.
OUR FORGIVENESS OF OTHERS
Next, I want to address our need to extend Forgiveness to others.
The Scripture we refer to as The Lord’s Prayer, says, “… forgive us our (sins), as we forgive those who (sin)against us.”.
Forgiving others isn’t natural for us but it is tied to our forgiveness from God. Thankfully, as we are forgiven, we are supernaturally given the capacity to forgive.
If, however, we fail to be gracious with that gift, we risk having our grace withdrawn. That is illustrated well in Matthew 18:21-35, the parable of the unmerciful servant. This is the story of a servant whose master forgave a debt he owed that was so great he couldn’t pay it. But then he was unwilling to forgive a small debt that was owed him by another servant. As a result, when the master who had forgiven him his debt learned about this, he turned the unmerciful servant over to the jailers to be tortured.
In addition to facing the challenge that forgiving others isn’t natural, it’s not uncommon for us to find ourselves dealing with having someone repeatedly commit the same sin against us. What in the world do you do about that?! Well, Jesus himself answers that question in a conversation he had with Peter. The account of that, in Matthew 18:21-22, says, “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” Peter thought he was being very generous in forgiving someone seven times. That seems pretty good to me too. But Jesus completely blows that out and we need to remember that his 70 times seven doesn’t really mean 490 times. It means there should be no limit to our forgiveness, as is the case with God and our forgiveness.
FORGIVENESS FOR THE UNFORGIVEABLE
And if that’s not hard enough, there are those times in life when we have sins committed against us that we view as being unforgivable. We know, from Mark 3:28-29, that for God the only unforgivable sin is grieving the Holy Spirit. So, when we think of forgiving the unforgivable, what we actually have in mind is something that seems unforgivable by us. And, without the supernatural help of God, we may be right.
“… this my Son was dead and is alive again.”
The story of the Prodigal Son may be one that, if we put ourselves in the place of the Prodigal Son’s Father, illustrates circumstances that would be unforgivable by us. And yet, the Father in this story did just that. As you know, this is the story of a young man who demanded his inheritance in advance. He took off with it to “a far country” and after it was gone, in order to survive, he went to work feeding pigs. A Jewish boy couldn’t sink much lower than that. In this story, we aren’t told how the Father felt about this Son when he first left. Maybe, at first, he thought the Son’s sin was unforgivable. We know from Luke 15:24 that he considered him dead. Regardless of that, after the Son had wasted his inheritance with his prodigal living, God brought a famine to drastically change his circumstances and his attitude. So, he returned home, just hoping that his Father might take him in as a servant. If the Father’s attitude needed changing too, apparently, that had happened. He saw his Son returning when he was “still a great way off”. It seems the Father was watching for and praying for his Son’s return. And when the Son returned, the Father celebrated by saying, “… this my Son was dead and is alive again.”
With sins of others that seem unforgivable to you, maybe you think, “The story of the Prodigal Son is a nice Bible Story but I’m dealing with issues of real life.” If that’s you, let me share with you a real life story. Much like the miraculous forgiveness that resulted from the famine that God brought about for the Prodigal Son, this is a miraculous story of forgiveness that was brought about as a result of this COVID-19 nightmare.
This story involves two people who I’ve known since they were a very young married couple. They haven’t been a married couple for a long time and like me, they’re no longer young. But I’ve stayed in touch with them closely enough over the years that I can appreciate their miraculous story. Here are the highlights … or low-lights, depending on your point of view:
These two were both raised as Christians but they weren’t walking with the Lord when they met.
They married when they were very young and they had a baby almost immediately.
Their marriage only lasted a few years. They were just in their twenties when they divorced.
For most of the time since then, any relationship they had with each other was hateful. No doubt, they both could have told you numerous reasons to justify the bitterness between them.
However, they both maintained good relationships with their child, as well as their grandchildren.
Although they both recommitted their lives to the Lord, it has been obvious that they weren’t able to embrace forgiveness for each other.
But, they were aware of each other’s return to walking with the Lord and with that, they shared a concern for the salvation of their offspring. That concern was greatly heightened when the COVID-19 nightmare hit and it caused them to reach out to each other.
In doing this, they thought that if, for the first time ever, they jointly reached out to their younger generations about the importance of faith at a time like this, it might just be what was needed to get their attention.
So, they agreed to do that by sending a jointly composed message to their child and their now-grown grandchildren.
Since then, they have used Facebook Messenger to keep the seven people involved tied together and to share encouragement daily.
It’s too early to assess the results of this with their younger generations but it’s clear that, through this, God miraculously accomplished what had eluded these two accomplishing on their own … their forgiveness of each other.
Since I’ve known these people for so long, I probably think that’s cooler than you do. But, for me, watching this happen has been incredible.
You’ve probably heard it said that forgiven people should be forgiving people. As they say back in Indiana, where I grew up, sometimes that says easy and does hard. When I find myself struggling with this, I find it helpful to play the lyrics of an old hymn called Take Up Your Cross in my head. It goes like this:
“Have you really given everything For the One who gave His all for you? Count the cost, take up your cross and follow Him!”
My encouragement to you today, if you’re troubled with having someone in your life that you haven’t been able to forgive, is this: Stop letting your limitations keep you from getting this done. Turn to your Father in Heaven for His provision. Even if it takes a miracle, He will get it done and He will bless you in the process.
Thank you for sharing this time with me this morning. I pray that it was a blessing to you, as it has been for me. I, truly, look forward to the time when we will, again, be able to do this six feet apart but face-to-face.
And, for now, I’d like to close in the way that we close each of our Legends gatherings. It’s with what is known as the Aaronic blessing.
The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make His face to shine upon Thee, And be gracious unto thee, And be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, And give thee peace.
As it appears the COVID-19 crisis in the U.S. is slowing, perhaps flattening or peaking and on the verge of declining, there has been a lot of discussion around when and how the country should return to “business as usual.” President Donald Trump says deciding when to reopen the country is “the biggest decision I’ve ever had to make.”
Of course, this has been accompanied with the typical chorus of Monday-morning- quarterbacks who are ceaseless Trump opponents. I plan to address that in an upcoming article. Disregarding that for now I will offer my views trusting that the American people who, led by the Trump administration, had achieved the greatest economy in world history prior to the COVID-19 nightmare, will likewise make the best decision on reopening the country.
A Smarter New Business Model or a Return to Greedy Business as Usual?
It seems like a no-brainer to agree with President Trump that it’s desirable for U.S. business to reopen as soon as possible. The key question remaining though is “When?”. For now, I’m trusting that the President is getting this right, being courageous while taking into full consideration the advice of the task force he has put together.
Although Trump is a much smarter business man than I am, I’m not so confident that U.S. business will experience the “V-shaped economic recovery that the President says he expects. Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who is a part of the President’s task force, has a different view. He says, “I have no doubt in my mind that we’ll come back and be stronger than ever. But it’s not going to happen immediately.” I’m more in agreement with Cuban’s position and even more so, I agree with him that taking “baby steps” in reopening U.S. business is a superior approach.
Cuban says, “People aren’t going to just venture outside. They’re not going to go to large gatherings. They’re not going to feel confident right off the bat. There’s going to be a lot of trepidation. And that concern is going to lead to people holding back on spending money.” I agree with this reasoning. I believe we should expect U.S. business to rebound more gradually. In addition to that, I think U.S. business should capitalize on its current downtime and coming gradual recovery by preparing to move to a smarter new business model.
In order for U.S. business people to get an understanding of the the smarter new business model I have in mind, I would first ask them to take a look at their current volume of customers. For the most part, that is at or near zero. With that in mind, it’s understandable that businesses whose customers have been absent would want to crowd in as many customers as possible as soon as possible. But, though greed may be natural, often, it isn’t smart. In addition to understanding what Mark Cuban says about customers “… trepidation … And that concern is going to lead to people holding back on spending money”, they should recognize that, through their greed, they could reignite the pandemic and return their customer volume to the bottom. In order to illustrate what I see as a smarter new business model going forward, let me exemplify the way I see it applying to a couple of specific market segments.
This market segment has been hit very hard by the COVID-19 nightmare. No doubt, many restaurant owners long for the days when their dining rooms were filled and crowds of people were sitting at the entry way, waiting for seating to become available. As I said earlier, it’s understandable for businesses to want to regain as many customers as possible as soon as possible but having those longed for days as their goal doesn’t seem to be smart. It seems to me that finding a way to reopen in a way that minimizes trepidation and moves towards a new way to maximize the customer base is much smarter. Here’s how that could look:
All employees wear masks and gloves and minimize direct contact with customers.
Dining rooms are set up in a way that provides appropriate social distancing.
All seating is handled via reservation. If immediate seating is unavailable, customers can set a reservation for later or order meals to be picked up or be referred to a partner restaurant.
Ordering and paying can be done electronically from dining room tables using systems that are already available.
Hand sanitizing available at each table.
Instead of having servers bring meals to the tables, at least at first, meals could be picked up and brought to the tables by the customers themselves.
Since I’m not a member of the National Restaurant Association, I don’t really know all the ins and outs of the food service industry. I do know that there are many more aspects of reopening that restaurateurs will need to consider. And, I know there are restaurant types that can’t fit this model. A good example here is buffet style restaurants like Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes. Additionally, there are restaurant types like Sonic who are kind of ahead of the game because they already offer service to diners in their parked cars. With all this understood, I think the above outline can serve as a good starting point for the majority of restaurants.
I have tickets to a Dodgers/Angels game in July. I bought the tickets early when Spring Training was still going on and the game was nearly sold out then. Although I’m still clinging to the thread of a hope that I’ll get to go to this game, I have to admit that I don’t relish the thought of sitting elbow-to-elbow with over 45,000 others, to standing in line with them for food and beverage and especially to sharing the restroom facilities with them. If a rabid Angels fan like me has this sort of “trepidation” about spending time on the hallowed ground of Angels Stadium of Anaheim, I’m confident that many others feel likewise about going to the Big A, as well as other sports and entertainment venues. Here’s my suggestion for how to improve on this, using the Big A as an example.
First of all, the “big bucks” for MLB come from TV. So, step one should be to start getting some televised games played, even if they are in empty stadiums. Although I’ve heard of the possibility of starting a season with all games being played in one state – e.g. Arizona – that has low COVID-19 stats, I don’t favor that idea. Certainly that could be done because fan seating capacity wouldn’t be a factor and that would make more than enough suitable ball fields available. My guess is that one aspect that makes this idea appealing is that it minimizes the exposure of teams to different environments in traveling, dining, housing, etc. My sense is that these considerations can be controlled sufficiently using MLB stadiums while limiting the range of related environments. And, this would set the stage for ways to, again, have fans in attendance.
So, what is the best way to get back to having fans in attendance at the Big A? Whether I (or you) like it or not, I think this has to begin with limiting the crowd size. In addition to that not being ideal for fans, no doubt, it’s not desirable for the businesses that rely on the Big A for their revenue. But, I would remind them, having some fans in the stadium is a great improvement over the number of fans in attendance today … ZERO! Certainly a venue with a seating capacity of over 45,000 has ample room to accommodate schemes that offer appropriate social distancing for the fans.
While my suggestion may work well for the Angels and Angels fans, what about those other businesses that rely on the Big A as the source of their revenue? The truth is that there are some whose businesses will no longer fit the new smarter business model necessitated by the COVID-19 experience. I believe, though, that most of these other businesses can make changes that allow their businesses to survive and eventually, to thrive.
First, lets look at businesses that are necessary for getting fans to and into he stadium. Tickets can already be purchased online. Ticket-taking can be done at the parking lot gate with an adjacent pedestrian portal. Security screening would be a challenge but, as a start, fans could be prohibited from taking anything in to the stadium besides their clothing.
Once fans have found their way to their seats, what about food/beverage and restroom use? Certainly, phone apps can be developed for each stadium that would allow fans to order and pay for food and beverages that could be delivered to their seats. Restroom use isn’t quite as simple but I’m sure appropriate schemes can be developed for managing the number of people allowed in a restroom at a time and appropriately spacing fans who are waiting in a restroom line.
Just as I said about the Restaurant and Food Service industry, I don’t really know all the ins and outs of the Sports and Entertainment business. Certainly, there are many more aspects of reopening that their executives will need to consider. But I do think my ideas here offer some good examples of creative ways to get our Sports and Entertainment venues reopened.
Other for-Profit and Nonprofit Organizations
Surely, the suggestions I’ve offered won’t map to the needs of all organization types. But many of them are in a similar position to the market segments I’ve addressed, to “make lemonade out of lemons.” Another obvious one is the airline industry. For a very long time, their customer base has been begging for more legroom. Here’s a great opportunity to get people flying again and to give them the product they’ve been longing for at the same time. Anyway, getting this right for all market segments is going to require a great deal of creativity on the part of our “Captains of Industry.” I do hope, though, that instead of taking the approach of greedily trying to return to the old business as usual as quickly as possible, they will take a smarter approach to building a new business model that is far superior in the long term.
In this Beauty for Ashes series, I’ve been offering views on how we might leverage the current quarantine of our old “normal” to renew the health of several critical elements of our society. So far, I’ve addressed the importance of restoring the stability of our society’s foundation … the faith found in our houses of worship. And, I’ve taken up the urgency for us to restore the health of our families, as the strength of our social fabric, resting on that firm foundation. The aim of this edition is our education system, the mechanism that serves as the transmission, delivering that strength to the major functional elements of our society.
If it’s not broken …
Marshall Elementary School Math Teacher, Carrie Newton
Far too often, our teachers are blamed for the decline of the education system in the U.S. Typical claims along these lines are that the current crop of teachers aren’t as capable as the teachers we had “back in the day” and that they are overpaid and under worked. Although my career was in business, I spent most of the last decade of my working life in public schools. My experience with teachers during that time was pretty much opposite of these typical claims. Certainly there are exceptions but no more so than you would have found “back in the day.”
A great example of this is Carrie Newton, Math Teacher at Marshall Elementary School in Vancouver, WA. For close to five years, I worked in a classroom next door to Carrie’s. During that time, I wrote an article about her entitled “Train up a child in the way he should go …” If reading that article doesn’t convince you that Carrie exemplifies the superior quality of our education system’s teachers, check out the Math Queen movie above. This is from the YouTube channel that she created in order to continue her students’ math education during her school’s current COVID-19 related shutdown. If you’re concerned about the quality and dedication of teachers in our present education system, one of the best things you can do is to recognize and encourage teachers like Carrie Newton.
If it doesn’t serve its community …
I retired from working in a public school, at the end of the 2018 calendar year. So, I no longer have a direct view of what those who are in charge of running our public schools are doing during their current downtime. From my limited view, it appears that they are facilitating online learning. They’re making sure that every student has online access by distributing iPads or Chromebooks, etc. And, they’re equipping their teachers with the resources they need to deliver their curriculum online. Additionally, it appears that they are working hard to assure that student-families who were relying on meals provided by the schools continue to get the help they need along those lines.
Of course, it’s great that the above-mentioned steps are being taken. But, this downtime offers an opportunity to make sorely needed changes that are much more far reaching. Chief among these is the need for our schools to meet the needs of their community. Generally speaking, the U.S. education system is one-size-fits-all. And, mostly, it reflects the inbred views of national/state/local/district boards of education, determining the heavily politically orientated curriculum to be delivered. The result is that, by and large, employers find the pool of their prospective employees to be ill equipped to meet their performance requirements.
So, if that’s the case, what is a better approach? My recommendation is, if a top-down one-size-fits-all approach is failing, consider a bottom-up custom-fit alternative. Here’s what that means:
Many school districts are structured so that a high school serves a specific geographic area in a community. That high school has several middle schools that feed it and those middle schools each have several elementary schools that feed them. My thought is to set up each of these geographic school entities as a private company. Instead of being part of a school district that makes the decisions for the administration they place in each of their member schools, each of these would be independent, with their administration being composed of representatives from that geographic area’s employers, student-families and educators. Furthermore, funding for each of these entities would come from within that geographic area. Of course, this would take some time to wean off of the current methods of funding. But, it would be an incentive for communities to strive for being assured of getting what they pay for. According to a 2018 article entitled Report: Public School Bloat, Depressing Teacher Pay, Wasted $805 Billion Since 1992, it looks like there’s plenty of money that could be made available for us to work with.
Growth in Education Staffing
It’s a silver-lining, no ifs …
In the Firm Foundation edition of Beauty for Ashes, I noted how the lack of faith-based upbringing negatively impacts our schools. This, as a result of students showing up with little understanding of what they’re there to accomplish. Added to that is the fact that many of these young people lack the development of appropriate behavior habits for a learning environment. Presently, our public schools attempt to address the results of these lacking qualities under the heading of Student Discipline.
My observation from my decade of working in public schools is that this is one of the greatest contributors to the declined status of our current education system. Essentially, what our schools are attempting to do with this is to do the job that families are failing to do in the upbringing of their children. Sadly, the approach our schools are taking with this is failing too and as a result of having to wastefully expend their resources on this, they’re failing at what we’re counting on them to do in the first place … to educate our kids.
One step to resolving this dilemma is for families to return to their Firm Foundation, as outlined in the preceding edition of this series – i.e. to return to being dedicated to caring for each other, their children, their preceding generations and subsequent generations. But, for our schools to eliminate the challenges they currently face as a result of this dedication being greatly lacking in today’s families, they can’t simply assume that their student-families will adhere to this needed caring dedication. They must insist on it.
In order to do this, our schools must first define expectations for student-behaviors. These behaviors must be defined to maximize the efficiency of the resources that the school invests in their students’ education. Likewise they must minimize any distractions from their students’ education. Then, a requirement of student enrollment should be that their families sign off on their agreement to the school’s mandatory expectations for student behaviors. Non-compliance would result in the removal of the student from the school and for the families to take over full responsibility for that students education.
Although having our schools insist on student-families taking responsibility for their students’ behaviors at school is an appropriate step for resolving the dilemma that our schools currently face with Student Discipline, it is an idealistic notion. It begs the question, “What is a better way to manage the behaviors of the current crop of students being sent to our schools by today’s families? Most often, this question results in endless debates pitting today’s methods for Student Discipline against the related practices from “back in the day.” Since I was a public school student “back in the day”, early on in my days as a public school employee, I fell into the trap of this debate. Here’s how:
The school district where I worked did use an approach to Student Discipline that ultimately concluded with expulsions but they were never absolute. An expelled student would, simply be sent to another school for a time. This included being sent to special schools set up, specifically, for students who will not/can not behave appropriately. The steps leading up to expulsion included suspension, various forms of detention, being sent to a “buddy room” and various forms of in-class discipline, including the use of a “resolution room.” Actually, “resolution rooms” or “quiet rooms” have a legitimate function in classrooms for kids with special needs. Mostly, they are meant as a place to put a student to keep them from harming themselves and/or others. When I first heard the term “resolution room”, I thought it was just another step in dealing with Student Discipline that had no real consequences. My reaction was, “We, also, had resolution rooms back when I was in school. Ours looked like a hallway and it looked like the Principal was out there with a paddle. I only visited there once. That’s all it took for me to get the message.”
With that, you may assume that I’m recommending a return to corporal punishment. That was effective and it is Biblical but I don’t think it would be realistic for me to expect today’s society to accept it. However, it is true that the approach to Student Discipline by today’s schools is failing and it needs to be replaced by something that is effective.
Ironically, I believe that the COVID-19 crisis has handed us a great solution. None of our students are in classrooms right now. That includes the students who will not/can not behave appropriately … the very students whose behaviors waste the resources that schools invest in their students’ education and whose behaviors greatly distract from other students’ education, as well as their own. Right now, any education being provided through our public schools is being delivered online.
There is no way to fully know what our world’s “new normal” will look like when the COVID-19 crisis settles down. Perhaps online learning through our public schools will remain as a much more significant factor than it did before the crisis. Maybe public schools will return, as much as possible, to the in-classroom learning we’ve been accustomed to. Regardless, I see online learning as an effective way for our public schools to replace today’s general approach to Student Discipline. It can take the place of a “buddy room” or detentions or suspensions or expulsions, including permanent expulsions when necessary. In any case, it would greatly diminish the burden of this very detrimental issue from our schools and move that responsibility to where it belongs … on to the student-families and the students themselves.
The goal of this Beauty for Ashes series is to take a look beyond the COVID-19 crisis to consider how it can serve as a vehicle to make positive changes in our society. In the time immediately preceding this, the world’s current crisis, there were several social issues sorely in need of change. But, typically, time and other resources were too limited to address those needs. Now that many of our “normal” activities have been put on hold, we have more time available to make plans for making those changes.
The first article in this series focused on Families. In that writing, I pointed out that our families, resting on the firm foundation of our communities, was once the strength of our social fabric. With this edition of Beauty for Ashes, I am targeting the importance of restoring the stability of that firm foundation … the faith found in our houses of worship.
Legendary baseball broadcaster Vin Scully provided a healthy perspective on this in a recent TV interview. With this, he offered an optimistic view, despite the coronavirus pandemic. “Now that I have some leisure time and we’re all locked in at home, I read an article and it was talking about what happened to Americans in World War II,” said Scully, a devout Roman Catholic. “It was such a terrible time. Three-quarters of Americans belonged to a house of worship. Today … half of Americans are involved in a house of worship, prior to this pandemic,” he added. “So there’s your answer … Although they might not be able to go to a house of worship, probably more Americans will be praying since World War II. More people will be coming back to the faith,” Scully went on. “And now that this terrible thing is upon us, people might very well get back to the center. And it’s a better world. We’ll see … “
The Universal Value of a Firm Foundation
Some may dismiss Scully’s views and optimism as melancholy, with distorted memories of how things were “back in the day.” What they fail to recognize is that everything good in the world has faith in God as its foundation. The bad in the world, that I and many others have viewed as increasing at an ever accelerating pace, does not share that foundation.
Our families, as pointed out by the first article in this series, are an obvious example of this. Traditionally, faith-based families have consisted of a man and woman, married for life, who were dedicated to caring for each other, their children, their preceding generations and subsequent generations. Moving away from that faith-based foundation has led to countless social ills for our families and individual family members. One of the most significant factors here is that the children of these fractured families no longer have appropriate role models for parenting.
The lack of faith-based upbringing, of course, permeates all of society and impacts it in a negative way. As an example, we have students showing up in our schools today with little understanding of what they’re there to accomplish. Added to that is the fact that many of these young people lack the development of appropriate behavior habits for a learning environment. Of course, these negative factors just get passed along into the workplace and to every other area of their lives, as our children reach adulthood.
Although many who lack faith in God may fail to recognize it, the root of all the world’s moral standards are faith-based. Specifically, they closely conform to the Ten Commandments of the Bible. The first four of the Ten Commandments pertain to man’s relationship with God. So, generally, non-believers have little problem ignoring those. However, the remainder of the Ten Commandments regard man’s relationship with his fellow-man. These are:
Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet.
Sadly, these once certain aspects of our society’s foundation have become more and more of a slippery slope.
The Call to Restore Our Firm Foundation
My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell speaks as President Donald Trump listens during a briefing about the coronavirus in the Rose Garden of the White House.
MyPillow founder Mike Lindell, at a White House coronavirus briefing, encouraged people to pray during the COVID-19 crisis. He pointed out that prayer was needed after religion has disappeared in public schools. He went on to say, “God has been taken out of our schools and lives, our nation has turned its back on God. I encourage you to use this time at home to get back in the Word. Read the Bible and spend time with your families.” Not surprisingly, a largely non-believing press corp has heaped ridicule on Lindell for expressing these views.
First, let me speak to those, whether believers or unbelievers, who doubt Lindell’s implied consequences of his saying “our nation has turned its back on God.” To that I say, consider what God has to say on this topic in Isaiah 59. With that said, my hope is that the conditions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic will make it clear that, if anyone is deserving of ridicule in this, it’s the non-believing press corp, not Mike Lindell. And, with that, it is my prayer that the world will respond to the wisdom of his advice.
Today, our world is a long way from what just a short time ago we thought of as “normal”. And, when the COVID-19 pandemic is more under control, we shouldn’t expect our world to return to that “normal”.
Right now, we may tend to focus on what we’ve lost from the old “normal”, as well as what we anticipate losing in the new “normal”. But, it’s not all loss now and it doesn’t have to be after the current crisis has passed. A good example is that in the middle of this crisis, “miraculously”, we suddenly found it possible to get our homeless off our streets.
In his video, entitled Silver Lining of Coronavirus Pandemic, Radio Talk Show Host Dennis Prager points out that life has never been meant to be pain-free. He contends that toughening us up to this fact of life is a silver lining to the COVID-19 related crisis. My goal in this reawakening of Here I Raise My Ebenezer is to take a look beyond this to ways this crisis can serve as a vehicle to make and/or maintain positive changes in our society.
In the time immediately preceding the world’s current crisis, there were many social issues sorely in need of change. But, typically, time and other resources were too limited to address those needs. Now that many of our “normal” activities have been put on hold, we have more time available to make plans for making those needed changes, as well as plans for maintaining positive changes that have been forced by the current crisis.
During this time, I intend to use Here I Raise My Ebenezer to address several of these issues. With this writing, I’m focusing on a crucial social element that is near and dear to my heart … our Families.
Our families, resting on the firm foundation of our communities, was once the strength of our social fabric. The quarantine of our old “normal” offers us a unique opportunity to renew the health of this critical element in our society.
Strengthening Healthy Families
For better or worse; the closing of businesses, schools, entertainment venues, etc., along with social distancing and limiting the size of gatherings, is forcing us all to spend more time with those with whom we live …. in most cases, that means our families. In the best-case scenarios, this means we get to spend more time investing in those we love and our relationships with them. In my opinion, an overarching facet of this should be to develop new habits in doing this so that we won’t easily or willingly give them up when the pressures of returning to whatever our new “normal” is begins to encroach on this rediscovered treasure.
Strengthening Troubled Families
Of course, there are many families with challenges in place that would dampen the interest of some to invest any time in other family members. My prayer is that individuals who fit this description will take the same approach with this that I recommend for everyone for helping the world get through this time of crisis … be determined to be part of the solution, not part of the problem, by doing something good for others.
This can only be successful, though, if both parties humble themselves and adopt the same attitude. Even then, the two parties may not be able to find all the needed answers for their troubled relationship on their own. More good news! Although many churches are streaming church services online, many of their “normal” activities have been postponed. That means there are some great counseling resources available and they don’t have to be delivered face-to-face. So, whether it’s a troubled marriage or a troubled parent/child relationship or a troubled relationship between siblings or … , there is ample time available and resources are readily available for helping to bring the needed healing. The key remaining necessary element is your willingness to invest in making beauty a reality where ashes are imminent.
Healing Broken Families
In an article entitled Land Where the Fathers Hide, I addressed a level of “troubled relationships” that goes well beyond those mentioned immediately above. For the most part, this focused on the issues resulting from one or both parents being missing in the lives of their children. The causes for this include parents who vanish simply out of selfish irresponsibility. Divorce contributes to this as well, in some cases involving the bitterness of one parent estranging the other from their children. And there are circumstances resulting from bad choices made by one or both parents resulting in imprisonment, drug addiction, etc.
As obviously challenging as these situations are, I firmly believe they can be transformed. Here too, success depends on all parties involved humbling themselves and adopting an attitude of being determined to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
In order to provide encouragement to those who have relationships that fall into this last category, I want to recount for you a real-life story that I witnessed taking place just since the COVID-19 related crisis began. This involves a couple who married when they were very young, when she got pregnant. Their marriage only lasted a few years after their baby was born. They caused each other a lot of pain in ending their marriage and since then, they haven’t had much of a relationship and most of the relationship they have had has been counterproductive. Though they now have grown grandchildren, in all that time they seemed unwilling or disinterested in finding forgiveness for each other. However, in recent years, they became aware that they had both returned to living according to their Christian faith. So, when the current crisis hit, it heightened their concern that their child and their grandchildren don’t appear to be leading their lives as faithful Christians. As a result, they reached out to each other and agreed to jointly communicate to their child and their grandchildren with a message about the paramount importance of faith at a time like this. It’s too early to assess the results of their reaching out to their offspring but it’s clear that this effort did result in one major accomplishment … their forgiveness of each other.
Real Hope for Our Families
Although I find this real-life story to be encouraging, I realize that it doesn’t map to every case involving divorce. And, cases involving abandonment, imprisonment, drug addiction, etc., can certainly be more complex. But, at the very least, this story should serve as encouragement that, as hopeless as some family circumstances may seem, hope can be found. Moreover, if we do take advantage of our current circumstances to strengthen our healthy and even our troubled families, our number of broken families in need of healing will be significantly reduced and overall, the health of our families, as a great strength of our social fabric, will be renewed.
Is it just me or do many of you wish that you could find a viable alternative to making a choice between a self-serving inept felon and a volatile ego maniacal jackass, as the next President of the United States? Of course, though sarcastic, that’s a rhetorical question. I know that very many, if not most, of my fellow Americans share a similar view. Later, I’ll offer empirical evidence of that.
Some will suggest that throwing your support to a third-party candidate is a viable alternative. That’s only half true. It is an alternative but it isn’t viable. Regardless of your third-party vote, Clinton or Trump will be the next POTUS and you will have changed nothing.
CHANGE-MAKING ALTERNATIVES?
In order to find a viable alternative to this dilemma, I suggest stepping back and taking a fresh look at our concerns about the nominees of the two major parties. Up to now, I’ve seen this assessment include:
• Choose between the lesser of two evils.
• Are they evil or just flawed?
• Are they unfit or just unacceptable?
• Are they immoral or just unwise?
• The fear of what he says versus the fear of what she does.
• For different reasons, neither can be trusted.
Frankly, I find each of these considerations to be somewhat reasonable. But they don’t really lead to a viable alternative that positively impacts the ongoing devolution in American politics. Ironically, I heard the solution summed up in a statement made by Hillary Clinton that was, as usual, meant to demean Donald Trump. She said,
“We need to stand up as a people and say that America is better than (this)!”
I wholeheartedly agree and absent a truly acceptable alternative candidate, I firmly believe it calls for an unorthodox approach to making the changes so many of us have been crying out for in American politics. It means refusing to continue to vote for “the lesser of two evils” and only voting for candidates who are truly deserving of your vote. What I’m recommending is that all of us who share the frustration expressed in my opening paragraph refuse to vote for any of 2016’s presidential candidates, while voting for every down-ticket candidate who deserves our support. I think of it as …
… A Presidential Voters Strike for Our Union.
I know that many will, at least initially, say that my recommendation is crazy, it will effect no change and that either Clinton or Trump will still be the next POTUS. No doubt, the latter is true and it’s going to take all of U.S. pulling together, finally setting aside our ever deepening polarization, to survive whichever one is elected. This Voters Strike could be the first step in that movement and I believe it can effect the changes we long for. I want to offer my logic, that I believe is fully sane, by presenting the empirical evidence I alluded to earlier. Continue reading →
Have you ever heard someone slam a politician by saying, “He’s so unpopular he couldn’t even get elected Dogcatcher”? According to Wiktionary (not a source I’d trust for something more important), the usage of this phrase is summed up as follows:
“Dogcatcher is virtually never an elected office (only one elected dogcatcher office exists, in Duxbury, Vermont); the phrase is hyperbole, using dogcatcher to indicate ‘the most lowly conceivable office’.”
TODAY’S LOWLY OFFICE
After considering that Wiktionary says Dogcatcher is virtually never an elected office, I’ve decided that the elective position I now hold has become the most lowly conceivable office – i.e. Precinct Committee Officer (PCO). If you don’t know, a voting precinct is a subdivision of either a city or county where each address in the area is assigned to a precinct and each precinct is then given a specific location for its residents to vote. Precinct sizes vary but the U. S. has an average of 1,100 voters per precinct, with each one having both a Democrat and a Republican PCO. These are unpaid elected positions meant to help the parties stay in touch with the thoughts and feelings of neighborhood residents. If a person files to run for PCO and they’re unopposed, their name doesn’t even appear on any ballot. Typically, if a person who files to run for PCO is unopposed, they are appointed to that position by their respective party. However, if more than one person files, each of their names appear on the ballots of voters living in the respective precinct.
THE LOWLY INCUMBENT
Precinct 690
Two years ago, the Chairman of the Clark County Washington Republican Party (CCRP) asked me to run for PCO in Precinct 690. I agreed to do so, with the understanding that I’d have limited time and energy to do the job. This year, due to my dismay over what has happened at the top of both party’s tickets, I came close to not filing for reelection. After further prayerful consideration, though, I decided that if I’m going to make any difference in getting my party and our country back on course, I needed to be willing to do my part. Interestingly, shortly after I did file, I learned that another person had also filed. That meant that, in my aim to make a difference, I’d have to start by campaigning. Although I won’t bore you with all the details of my campaign, I want to tell you about some of its key aspects and the ways in which I was blessed along the way. Continue reading →
