Amused to Death

Is entertainment terminal? It can be.

According to recent reports in the media, every hour watching television or surfing on the Internet shortens your life due to inactivity. It’s also bad for your mental health.

“Now hold on just a minute! What’s wrong with watching television?”

Americans are obsessed with entertainment. No longer confined to TV or computer screens, we can be entertained on our smart phones and iPods, as well.

Now don’t get me wrong. Entertainment is not a moral issue in itself. But if aliens observed the average person, they might conclude that we worship our TVs, computers and smart phones.

Most of us cannot imagine living without them.

For many, watching television is like a spiritual experience. With eyes fixed on glowing screens, we’re mesmerized into a trance-like state. Entertainment helps us forget work, the world and our woes. It anesthetizes us against our pain.

According to Nielson Media Research, Inc. the average American watches 36 hours of video per week on a TV, computer or mobile device. In addition, time spent on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter has doubled in two years to nearly six hours per month.

In his classic book, “Amusing Ourselves to Death,” Neil Postman observes that electronic media shapes our view of politics, news, religion and education--every aspect of our world. In fact it would be accurate to say that video IS reality for this generation.

That makes it possible for electronic media to manipulate our opinions as never before. Television creates and destroys heroes and gods right before our eyes. Want proof? How about “American Idol” and recent coverage of Tiger Woods and fallen politicians like John Edwards?

To be amused means, “to not think.” And as Postman’s title suggests, we are “amusing ourselves to death.” We’re so distracted that we no longer take time to think. And if we’re not thinking, are we really alive? (Remember Rene Descartes? He said, “I think therefore I exist.”)

We no longer think about our lives or about things that matter in the long run. Oh we SAY that faith is important to us, but we gradually move God down our priority lists until he slips off the bottom, unnoticed and unmissed.

In his recent book, “Holier Than Thou,” Ergun Caner, President of Liberty Seminary writes that “an unexamined life is not worth living and unexamined faith is not worth believing.”

People who don’t think about life and faith aren’t concerned about their biggest problems. But God says, “Come now, let us reason together. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow.”

Karl Marx once said, “Religion is the opium of the people” –sort of a spiritual sedative. But God says that faith is for thinking men and women.

The Bible reveals how God loves us and made a way to care for our biggest problems through faith in Jesus Christ. He offers forgiveness of sin, answered prayer, guidance and provision for our needs.

Of course if you don’t think you have a problem, you can’t fix it. That’s why entertainment can be terminal. It distracts us from seeking solutions to our most serious problems.

So turn off your TV and computer. Put down the cell phone. Pick up a Bible and start reading. You’ll discover God has answers to the problems you were too amused to think about.

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!

Too Much Love

Is it possible to love something too much?

Answer: Yes. In fact, loving something too much could be the source of all our problems.

“Now hold on, just a minute! How can too much love cause our problems?”

Last week I found the answer to that question in an unexpected place. I was reading the “Confessions” of St. Augustine and discovered he had amazing insight into our human nature.

“St. Augustine? Didn’t he live 1,500 years ago? So he’s old and dry—right?”

Well, you’re half right. He did live more than 1,500 years ago, but he’s as relevant as today’s newspaper. Why? Because, while clothing styles and technology have changed, people have not.

Before he was a “saint” Augustine was a rebel. He loved beautiful things—beautiful women and beautiful, delicious food. But in his pursuit of beauty, he found that he was never satisfied. Plus he kept doing things he despised and his relationships constantly broke up.

He tried to figure out what was wrong with him and he came up with a theory. His theory was that all of our problems come from what he called “disordered loves.”

Love is disordered when we love something of a lower order more than what is of greater worth. For instance, a good steak dinner is a wonderful thing. But it is not worthy of greater love than a person. Nor is a person worthy of greater love than God.

In his “Confessions,” St. Augustine makes a startling observation: “A man has murdered another man—what was his motive? Either he desired his wife or his property; or else he was afraid of losing something to him; or else, having been injured, he was burning to be revenged.”

Augustine said that a murderer kills because he loves something too much. He loves romance, wealth, his reputation--or something else--more than God. That’s why he kills.

It happens because our thinking is distorted by “disordered loves.” We love, we rest in and we look to things or people to give us the joy and meaning only God can give us. And when we look to something other than God to make our lives worthwhile—that thing has become our god.

“So what’s the solution? To love less?”

Not exactly. Near the end of his “Confessions” Augustine finally tells us how his soul was healed. And it’s fascinating! It has to do with the way we’re attracted to beauty.

When you see beauty you’re drawn to it. If a beautiful person goes by, you can’t help being attracted. You want to talk to him or her.

Augustine said that the solution to all of our problems and disordered loves is for us to see God as beautiful. To adore him. Not just to believe in him in some impersonal way.

There is nothing more beautiful than the reality of an absolutely perfect and happy being, leaving the delight of heaven and sacrificing everything for the sake of undeserving, ungrateful rebels like us. But that’s exactly what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross!

Grasping the truth of such a God, Augustine is moved to say, “Rightly then is my hope fixed strong on him and this will heal all the diseases of my soul.”

Like Augustine, if we get just a glimpse of the beauty of what Christ has done for us, it will heal all the diseases of our souls. Jesus Christ will capture our hearts and we will love him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Here’s the bottom line: The solution to all of our problems is to love Christ more than anything else. It is impossible to love him too much.

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!

Successful Failure

Are you a successful failure?

“Now hold on just a minute! How can you be a failure if you’ve succeeded?”

Good question. For a clue to the answer, ponder this observation by Tim Kizziar: “Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.”

Imagine being magnificently successful at the inconsequential. That’s a successful failure.

The Bible says that sometimes we’re like sheep. Sheep have perfected the art of successful failure. When a sheep sees a tasty tuft of turf on a ledge, it goes for it, regardless of the risk of falling. The sheep gives no thought to the consequences of its pursuit of momentary pleasure.

The sad result is that, unless rescued by a shepherd, the sheep often plunges to its death. It may have successfully eaten the grass, but in the long run, the sheep failed at living.

Jesus once told a story about a successful farmer. His harvest was so bountiful he had to build bigger barns to hold it. Delighted with his success, he planned an early retirement.

While he was gloating, God said, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” Jesus added, “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

Now fast forward about 60 years to a group of church-goers who boasted, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.” But Jesus said to this church, “You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”

Jesus advises them to give up what they thought was important and valuable and exchange it for what really matters. To pursue spiritual riches from him instead of material possessions from this world. If they do, he says they will end up succeeding beyond anything on earth.

What is Jesus saying? He is saying it doesn’t matter whether you are religious or non- religious—either way, if you pursue a life based on materialism, it will ultimately disappoint you. You may think you’re a success, but it ends up being a failure forever.

However, if a person follows Christ and trusts in him, if that person serves God and pursues righteousness, he or she will be successful forever. And I’ll take ‘successful forever’ over a successful failure any day!

God encourages us to consider our ways. To think about the road we’re traveling in life.

Where is your journey taking you?

Jesus’ perspective on life is very sobering. He said, “Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Which group do you want to be in—the successful failures or those who are successful forever? If you’re on the wrong path, swallow your pride and admit it. Otherwise you’ll end up like a sheep on a ledge. And the end of that path isn’t pretty!

The good news is that God allows U-turns. If your life up to this point has been marked by the pursuit of the trivial, if you’ve been going nowhere fast—turn around!

Jesus says to us, “Follow me. Believe in me. Trust me.” He is the only Shepherd who can rescue you from the dangerous ledges of life. And if you follow him and trust in what he did for you on the cross, he will change your successful failure into “successful forever.”

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!

Yearbook Wisdom

One of the things I treasure most from my youth is my high school yearbook.

It’s a treasure to me, not only because I was on the yearbook staff and designed the cover, but also because of what it contains. My yearbook is a kind of time capsule, capturing and preserving memories from one of the most important years of my life. I have spent hours with it.

The same is not true of my college yearbooks. While I occasionally pick them up, I keep going back to the one from my high school days.

Not only are there pictures of high school friends and happy events, it is also much more philosophical than the college books. Why? I’m not sure but I have an idea.

Maybe it’s because we were exploring who we would become. We were asking, “Who am I? Why am I here? What will I do with my life? What is the meaning of my life?”

Now that I’m a grandparent and getting closer to the end of life’s journey, I think more about the road I’ve taken. And I wonder how my classmates’ journeys have turned out.

“Now hold on for just a minute! Are you going to get all nostalgic on us?”

Probably. But bear with me for a minute. Hear me out. There might be a pearl of wisdom here to ponder. It’s amazing what can be learned from the musty pages of an old yearbook.

When I graduated from high school, it was common for a class to pick a Bible verse as their class motto. On page 126 of my yearbook is the one our class selected: “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom; and with all your getting, get understanding.”

I don’t know why, but something about that proverb connected with me and I never forgot it. It seemed to me as if God himself was challenging our class to do more than “go for the gold.”

Over the years, as the class of 1969 had its reunions, I watched many of my classmates succeed in their careers. Some received accolades for their accomplishments. Others acquired possessions and retired early.

But the question calling out from our old yearbook was, “Did you get wisdom?”

Through our schooling we received knowledge. As we pursued our dreams we acquired families, possessions and awards. But did we get what God said is most important? Wisdom.

Wisdom means learning to use knowledge and possessions and not love them. It also means learning to love our friends, our families and our God and not use them.

The Bible reminds us that, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” It asks, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.”

The fear of the Lord includes a loving reverence for God. It involves submitting to him and the commands of his Word, the Bible. Hopefully it will lead us to Jesus Christ who came to make a way to have a relationship with God through faith in his death and resurrection.

Remember that, as time goes by, aging is mandatory but wisdom is optional. Get wisdom.

No matter where you are in life’s journey, stop for just a minute and ask yourself, “Do I have wisdom?” It’s never too late to go back to the source of wisdom.

The Bible patiently instructs us. It says, “Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Let the wicked man forsake his way. Let him turn to the Lord and he will have mercy on him, and to our God for he will freely pardon.”

So there you have it--timeless yearbook wisdom that, if followed, will bring you to God.

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!

Good Grief!

Grief is intensely personal. And usually it’s overwhelming.

Last November was grief upon grief in my life. All in the same week a good friend buried his father after a brief illness, a local family buried their teenage son and then, unexpectedly, my mother passed away. The next week a dear friend buried her brother.

It was such an intense month that I needed a little time before I revisited my grief. This week I took the time to walk that way again and process my grief a little more.

“So hold on just a minute. Where’d you get the title for this column?”

From the comic pages--but stay with me for a moment and it will make some sense.

Without knowing it, Charles Shultz’s character, Charlie Brown, teaches us something valuable about grief. One of Charlie Brown’s favorite exclamations is “Good Grief!” And as a fan of the comic strip, I have often quoted him.

As I thought about it, I tried to remember where else I’d heard that idea besides Charlie Brown. It was in the Bible.

The Bible says, “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart.” Then it adds, “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.”

In his book, “Crazy Love,” Francis Chan writes, “We’ve all been shocked to hear about or watch someone we know pass on from this life. Even as you read this, faces and names are probably coming to mind. It’s good to think about those people in your life, and also to think about death.”

Why? Because as Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted.” If mourning drives us to God, then grief has a good effect--because, in the end, we all need him.

Mourning helps put our life in perspective. It makes us think about life’s brevity and whether we are spending our life on things that are worthwhile. Grief also makes us think about our relationship with God. In him we find eternal consolation.

It was only as I turned in my grief to the one the Bible calls “a man of sorrows” that I found comfort for my soul. When Jesus died on the cross, we’re told he “carried our sorrows.” That means he took the full force of death and separation from God so we wouldn’t have to.

Other religions leave you to face death and God on your own merits. Only Jesus Christ offers to walk with you through the valley of the shadow of death so you will “fear no evil.” Only Jesus Christ offers to stand by your side at God’s judgment and claim you as one of his own.

Through faith in Christ, the Bible says we receive the free gift of eternal life. And once you know your eternity is secure, you’re free to focus on serving God and others.

If you are grieving today, let your grief make you better and not bitter. Consider your life in the light of eternity. Most of what you do in life will be forgotten when you’re gone, but in Christ you can make an impact on this world with eternal results.

Listen to one of my mother’s favorite proverbs and ponder its truth: “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

So the next time you hear someone exclaim, “Good grief!”—stop and think about why it’s true. Then ask them if they know what they just said. If not, fill them in. You just might be doing them an eternal favor!

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!

The Judas Syndrome

Are you close to God? Judas was.

If you’re not familiar with the Bible, Judas was the man who betrayed Jesus and turned him over to his enemies. Judas’ role was crucial in the arrest, conviction and crucifixion of Christ.

According to the Bible, Judas followed Jesus as a disciple for three years. But even though he was close to Christ, his heart was far away.

For most of those three years Judas seemed to be a model disciple. Even his fellow disciples didn’t suspect he was a traitor. But one day he turned against Jesus.

When Jesus didn’t become the kind of leader Judas thought he should, Judas chose his own plan over God’s plan. In one of the Bible’s saddest stories, Judas’ life met a tragic end.

Sadly, Judas’ kind didn’t die out with him. There are people today with the Judas Syndrome.

“Now hold on just a minute! What’s the Judas Syndrome?”

A person with the Judas Syndrome appears to be close to God but has never believed the Gospel. They may even attend church regularly, read their Bible and tithe.

They may appear very moral but their righteousness is self-righteousness. They may also appear loyal and faithful but they believe God owes them for their service.

When God fails to bless them or do what they think he should, they get angry. They’re religious only because they find God useful for their own purposes.

It’s a mistake to confuse our agenda for God as faith in him. That’s a spiritual dead end.

So how can you tell if someone has the Judas Syndrome? Most of the time you can’t. Like Judas, it only becomes apparent when they turn against God, his leader or his plan.

Jesus himself predicted there would be those who follow him outwardly but not in their hearts. He said, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

Now some may think it’s their duty to find and identify people with this tendency. That would be another mistake. The right response, according to the Bible, is to “examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.”

Here’s the problem. The Bible tells us that God’s standard is absolute perfection. None of us has ever--or could ever--meet that standard. So the bad news is that we all will die because the Bible says that death is the universal penalty for falling short of God’s standard.

So what should you do? Believe the Gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ. And then apply it to your life every single day.

The Gospel is that Jesus lived the life you should be living and died the death you should die. So if you will come to God and accept Jesus’ death in your place, God will accept you as his child and credit you with the righteous life of Jesus Christ. It’s pure mercy and grace.

Then, as you rest in Jesus’ gift of grace, you are freed from the drudgery of duty and can follow Christ and his teachings out of a heart overflowing with love, joy and peace.

The Christian no longer lives in fear of failure to perform. Because God accepts us in Christ, we can serve him in joy.

Those with the Judas Syndrome however, still operate under the performance principle. Instead of joy, their hearts are full of fear—the fear of failure.

The solution is not to stress out but to reach out to Jesus in faith. Something Judas never did.

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!

Humanitarian Crisis

Their voices call to be noticed. Guarded smiles give way to stories of missing parents. Eyes plead for love. Who will pay attention?

Where are these children? Not in some foreign land ravaged by catastrophe. They are here in our schools. I met them last week while visiting my grandchildren.

“Now hold on just a minute! What kind of depressed area did you visit?”

Actually, it was a nice middle class neighborhood school. The children were well dressed and fun to be with. But after listening a while, there was heartbreak behind the happy faces.

Last week my friend-wife and I took our annual holiday trip (delayed by a December snowstorm) to visit our grandchildren. One thing I look forward to every year is visiting their school and having lunch with them and their friends.

Usually the conversation around the lunch table is just small talk. But often one of the children will interject an unrelated comment. Like the Kindergartener who blurted out, “My mommy died so my grandma did my hair.”

Did I misunderstand, I wondered? So I asked, “Did you say your mommy died?”

Her friend answered for her, “Yes, her mommy was shot.” How heartbreaking!

Another student’s parent was in prison. How unfair to the child! And every year I hear similar stories. A staff member told me that there are many children like this in school.

Several of the children I met were starving for love and attention. So much so that one of the cafeteria helpers told me that whenever a child wants a hug, she gives them one. And almost as if on cue, a child ran up to her with arms stretched out for a hug!

Perhaps you can identify with those children. One or both of your parents were absent. Or maybe they were there but they were emotionally absent.

Other parents are there too much. Intrusive in their children’s lives, they try to live their dreams through their children. Controlling, abusive, harsh and unloving—parenting is easy to mess up and examples abound.

When I hear stories like that it reminds me that the perfect parent doesn’t exist on this earth. We all try our best to ‘do it right.’ But if we’re honest we’ll admit we failed many times.

That’s why I used to tell my children, “You didn’t come with an instruction book and I’m doing the best I can!”

When you meet a hurting heart like those children with whom I had lunch, what can you do? Point them to Jesus. The God of the Bible offers what our souls crave, what our hearts need and what our minds have longed for.

Jesus said that children are special to God. He takes note of their pure faith. God said he would be a father to the orphaned. And he promises, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

The Bible tells us that God is love. And he is especially drawn to the unloved and people that others reject. He doesn’t play favorites and he graciously blesses all without finding fault.

Isn’t that the kind of relationship your heart longs for and has wished for?

So forgive your parents for their failings and come to your Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away.”

If you will say, “Father accept me, adopt me--not because of what I’ve done but because of what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross,” then the Bible says you will become a child of God.

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!