Federal Government

Politics generally annoy me, and I believe that National politics has become something it was not intended to be.  Regardless of party or leanings, the attention to it is unsustainable .  News has turned into political news first, and then killings, shootings and school board meetings.  Our celebrities are increasingly political while some kids are growing up desiring to make politics a career like sales or engineering.  I believe the intention of National politics was to find a local, capable and well-respected person and all but make them go to the Capital (State or National) in order to provide excellent representation.  In many cases, these people did not want to go because of their responsibilities at home and in their business.  They went dutifully and not in laud, pomp and arrogance…many certainly did not “campaign” to go.

So why all of the attention?  Here is a theory, “so wherever your money is that is where your heart it also”.  Without sounding like a prude moralist, just look at the graph and the quote below and see if this might match up.  Just know that “for much of its history, the federal government cost every citizen about twenty dollars a year (in current dollars).  Now it costs every one of us…

“…consider the growth of federal regulations.  According to a 2007 Wall Street Journal article, ‘It took 169 years (basically 17 decades) from the founding for the federal code of laws to reach 11,472 pages – and only four decades more for that number to quadruple.  In 1960, the Code of Federal Regulations numbered 22,000 pages; today that number has grown by more than 700%’”.

The problem is not “them”, it is we who popularize them.  Paris Hilton would have no celebrity basis if we did not fascinate ourselves with her.  Nancy Pelosi, Obama and Palin have no celebrity basis if we do not fascinate ourselves with them.

Minutia

Leviticus is bloated on details of daily living.  Truly, it seems more to be a treatise on public health and hygiene than otherwise; which may very well be the intent.  This is the point in my Chronological Bible Reading Plan that I periodically gloss over in the eyes, revert back to ninth grade and feel like I am reading (or not reading) Dickens’ Great Expectations all over again (9th grade English is the only class I ever failed…just 9 weeks).  Dickens’ Great Expectations left me feeling neither great nor expectant, and sometimes Leviticus makes me feel that way.  Why all the leprous minutia?  Why all the detail about sores and lesions and clean and dirty?  Why all the detail on public health and hygiene and relatively little detail on the New Testament Church?

I guess just because God cares about the minutia just as much as he cares about everything else.

Role of the Priest…Pastor?

The role of the modern day pastor has, for many, turned into something that it may have never been meant to be.  If I asked you, “what is the role of the pastor?”, here are some of the potential responses…

• marketer
• small group leader
• local diplomat
• counselor
• public speaker
• logistics coordinator
• visionary
• “man of God”
• overseer
• decision-maker
• preacher

Here are some of the issues that the modern-day pastor think about when they awake on a Sunday morning…

• childcare
• volunteers
• music
• setup/teardown
• parking
• street presence/signage
• visitors
• sound/lights
• video
• preaching/teaching
• visitor follow up
• security
• giving
• room size
• weather

The priest/pastor in the Old Testament had many tasks (animal sacrifice, atonement for sin, etc.) but they fundamentally all came down to one mission…

^“You must distinguish between what is sacred and what is common, between what is ceremonially unclean and what is clean. And you must teach the Israelites all the decrees that the Lord has given them through Moses.” -Leviticus 10:10-11

Distinguish and Teach.

Random but interesting

Fastcompany is part of my regular reading, and is the only magazine that I read.  As we have three children zooming into various stages of life, it is fascinating to learn how they could communicate (for now).  The big number that jumps out?…the number of teens utilizing social networking (73%) vs. those teens on micro-blogging/twitter (8%).  A little shocking that adult blogging is only 15%.

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Everybody goes online, everybody has a cell phone, and kids hate blogging and Twitter, according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

The findings show that the Internet isn’t just prevalent in our lives, it is our lives. Ninety-three percent of teens ages 12 to 17 go online, 75% of them own a cell phone, and 66% say they text. In fact, 58% of 12-year-olds now have mobiles, compared to 18% just five years ago. Sixty-two percent use the Internet to access information on news and politics, and some teens are even using the Internet as a guardian: 17% say they go online to research information about drug use, sexual health, and other topics that are awkward to talk about with real people.

Social networking is up to 73% of “wired” teens, or those who use the Internet often, compared to the 55% of teens who used the sites just three years ago. However, blogging is down, with only 14% of wired teens saying they blog, compared to 28% three years ago. Commenting on blogs is also down to 52%, from 76% in 2006. And while Twitter may be hot with the older crowd, only 8% of teens ages 12 to 17 say they use the microblogging service. The highest percentage of teens on Twitter is 13% of high school girls ages 14 to 17, but compared to the one-third of adults ages 18 to 29 who update or read a microblogging service, the numbers are low.

Among adults ages 18 to29, laptops are the computer of choice, with 81% accessing the Internet on a wireless computer and two-thirds owning a laptop or netbook. Ninety-three percent of 18-29-year-old adults now have a cell phone, and 93% go online. And with the rise of social networking–72% of young adults have profiles–comes the fall of blogging again, with just 15% maintaining a blog, down 9 percentage points in two years.

Meanwhile, blogging is on the rise for adults over 30, who increased to 11% from 7% in 2007. And 47% of adults now use social networking sites, up 10% from a year ago.

The More I See, The Less I Care…

…about things that have little meaning.

This post has the potential of sounding arrogant and distant; that is not the intent.  The goal is get us all thinking beyond what is our immediate proximity and begin to think glocally (simultaneously local and global).  Since beginning our work in Nigeria, some of the things that I spend time on here at home shifted.  It hit me this week (yesterday actually) that I have all but forgotten the Super Bowl was this week.  Do you realize that, domestically, the Super Bowl will achieve a >90 million television viewer rating?  That is almost a third of the country.  No President comes close to that in the State of the Union speeches.

In the same absent mindedness that I displayed for last weeks State of the Union, I have carried over to this week with the Super Bowl.  It is simply not as important in my life as it used to be.

Why?  Ashley and I have been trying to spend a lot of quiet time with each other and our children…not always perfect with school, games, scouts, etc.  But we are drowning out some of the other stuff; and it’s a thrill!  The more I see of Ashley and the children, the less I care about football (insert other things).

Why?  I’ll be heading back to Nigeria in March and have the privilege of taking three guys with me (you’ll read about them in coming weeks); a plumber, a lobbyist and a civil engineer (sounds like the beginning of a good joke); and it’s a thrill!  The more I see Nigeria and my friends there, the less I care about television (insert other things).

Why?  I’ll be teaching a group of College students at USCB in a couple of weeks and doing all we can to develop a longing for Christ; and it’s a thrill!  The more I see of the students and the campus, the less I care about checking email (insert other things).

What are you involved with locally that allows you to care less about things that make little impact for the Kingdom of God?

What are you involved with globally that allows you to care less about things that make little impact for the Kingdom of God?

Daddy Daughter Date Night

This past Friday, Ashley and her marketing crew at Chick Fil A put together a Daddy Daughter Date Night that was pretty spectacular.  There were about 225 Dads and Daughters who went out on a date on Friday Night.

What did I learn about Brayden?  She wants to be a Veterinarian; which is astonishing if you know anything about me and my general apathy for pets.  When I did some investigative questioning and asked if pet surgery and blood bothered her, she replied, “well really I just want to cut their hair”.  So what did I learn?  My little girl wants to be a Specialty Vet with a focus on Cosmetology.

Princess, I am happy with your vision so far and was thrilled to spend an evening with you!

Everyone, if you have a free 5 minutes, please enjoy the video…

Importance of Cultural Preservation

If we were to all morph into a like culture/language/customs, it would be terribly unfortunate.  Cultures bring variety and expertise to the global society.  Malcolm Gladwell argues that “being good at math (insert any discipline) may also be rooted in a group’s culture”.

He goes on, “cultural legacies matter…what if coming from a culture shaped by the demands of growing rice also makes you better at math?  Could the rice paddy make a difference in the classroom?”  -Outliers pg. 231-32

Add to that, could the cattle herder from Africa be excellent at biology?  Could the urbanite from Prague be gifted for politics?  Could the kid from the lower-east side be gifted in literature? 

Your background matters, not just your parents or grand-parents, but your great-great-great-great grand parents.  They matter.  Be cautious to flee from who you are and the culture that you have been raised; instead, that may be the very culture that creates in you the opportunity to be a world-class physicists or educator.

The Nations

Ashley and I were having a lengthy discussion the other night at our kitchen table with a notepad and pen.  We were drawing a literal map of where we have come from since beginning college.  The list is dominated by people who have influenced us through their time and teaching.

A common theme that arose through our time in Columbia, Fort Worth, Augusta, Keller, Burleson and now Bluffton.

Brennen Manning asked a question at a conference in the mid-90’s “what is it that makes you cry?”  In other words, what is the common theme of your passions?  There is usually one or two things that will cause you to pause from whatever you are doing and pay attention, give your money, call for action, risk being called a fool, take time off from work, leave your father and mother and brother and house, and risk losing promotions from work.  There is usually one or two things that will create fullness and weeping simultaneously.  There is usually one thing that will cause you to explain away the rationality even though it could not seem more irrational…even to you.

For us, and this is confirmed by the people that have invested in us, our passion is the nations (all peoples uniquely segmented out into their respective cultures).

“And now the LORD says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him; and that Israel might be gathered to him—for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and my God has become my strength—he says:”It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations,that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” – Isaiah 49

Our passions sit squarely on this goal of God…

“Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!  Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth.”

We want our children, our friends, our church and my colleagues to be infected with this passion.  What makes us cry (with laughter and heartbreak)?  The Fulani, the Pashtun and the Turk.

What makes you cry?  What grabs you?

Understanding Islam

When you have a moment, go to www.whydoyoufearme.com and sign up for this free webinar from my friends at Center for Global Strategies.  This will be a good opportunity to understand Islam (from a Middle Eastern perspective) to help remove various pre-judgements that we tend to rule with when we hear of Islam, or meet a person who worships Allah.

If you are predisposed to tag any Muslim follower as a “terrorist”, then it would be a good idea to take part in this webinar.

Enjoy.

Digital Avatar

You have the ability to communicate with thousands of people in seconds and with incredible frequency.  It is embarrassing to admit, yet it’s true, we did not own a cell phone until I was a graduate student.  Bag phones were “latest technology”, laptops were confused for suitcases, and twitter was a term reserved only for the punk kid in middle school.  While driving in the car I was out of contact; distant and removed from everyone.  If you needed to communicate you had to take exit 60, drop a quarter in a pay phone and wait for a dial tone.  Back then people you were in communication with were the ones that you made effort to keep in touch with.  The people that you had influence over were people that were in close geographically proximity to. 

 Fiber optics have turned the communications paradigm upside down.  As Thomas Friedman observes in his book on globalization, The World Is Flat, a major benefit gained from the “.com” bubble was the spidering communication infrastructure that was laid underground and on the ocean floor around the world.  All of the sudden it did not cost $4 per minute to call Al Haji Sali in Nigeria…it costs .10 cents.  All of the sudden it did not take two weeks for mail communication to reach Malasia, it could be sent in seconds electronically.  Then the explosion happen;

 blogspersonalwebsitesonlinenewsyahooaolskypegooglemyspacetwitterfacebooklinkedinitunes

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

 You have the ability to communicate with thousands of people in seconds and with incredible frequency.  Use technology; it is good, it is a medium that is unbelievable.  Just remember, Jesus gave a significant investment in just three friendships (Peter, James and John) and was close to another nine…that’s it.  Be wary of using technology as a way to distance yourself personally from those who Christ came to seek, save, and serve; you, me, John, Sue, Makoji and Luan.

People are people, not avatars.