We read the following paragraph last night, and it struck me as an interesting observation on how we perceive the world around us. It follows another traumatic period for Oliver, where he was sure he would lose to disease one of the only people who were ever kind to him, and she especially so. After she recovered, these were Oliver’s (and the author/narrator’s) thoughts:

Oliver rose next morning in better heart, and went about his usual early occupations with more hope and pleasure than he had known for many days. The birds were once more hung out, to sing, in their old places; and the sweetest wild flowers that could be found, were once more gathered to gladden Rose with their beauty. The melancholy which had seemed to the sad eyes of the anxious boy to hang, for days past, over every object, beautiful as all were, was dispelled by magic. The dew seemed to sparkle more brightly on the green leaves; the air to rustle among them with a sweeter music; and the sky itself to look more blue and bright. Such is the influence which the condition of our own thoughts, exercises, even over the appearance of external objects. Men who look on nature, and their fellow-men, and cry that all is dark and gloomy, are in the right; but the sombre colours are reflections from their own jaundiced eyes and hearts. The real hues are delicate, and need a clearer vision.

The lines I emphasized were the ones that we also highlighted last night after reading them. It’s interesting to think that the world we perceive around us is more a creation of our own heart and mind and eyes than it is “reality”. (Philosophically of course, it’s difficult to then distinguish what is “reality” and what is, in fact, our reality. Whether “real” or not, it is all that we can perceive, although it is possible to change based on our change of heart and mind, I suppose.)

It reminds me a bit of what Jesus said, as told by Luke:

“No one lights a lamp, then hides it in a drawer. It’s put on a lamp stand so those entering the room have light to see where they’re going. Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don’t get musty and murky. Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room.”

Luke 11:33-36 MSG

You’ve heard of rose-colored glasses. Much the same idea. The world is as we see it, and we see it as our current condition allows us to see it. Fascinating to me that we are both affected by our surroundings and circumstances, and equally able to “affect” them, even if only in our own perception of them.

May you see the real, delicate hues of your world more clearly today.

Related posts:

1. Mac Trojan: Real Threat, or Website Traffic Generator?
2. Progression
3. Genius

There were cars pulled off to either side of the road, and people out checking on the wellness of all parties involved. I rolled down our windows to assess the situation and see if assistance was required, and/or if we could actually be of any help (with our van full of groceries and very tired tiny people). As we passed one fairly smashed up vehicle, we could hear the driver crying: though not hysterically, she was definitely audibly shocked by the preceding events.

There were a half-dozen people around her, tending to her, with one man on a cell phone, so, being satisfied that she had enough aid, I continued forward. To our horror we saw on the opposite side of the road a fairly large fire coming from a vehicle that was completely engulfed in the flames. Those who were out next to the vehicle (whether they were the passengers or had arrived to the scene after the crash, we don’t know) all seemed fairly calm, despite the burning vehicle. We surmised—quickly at the scene, and then later down the road—that likely that meant the occupants of the burning vehicle were either safely removed, or it was much too late.

And this has me pensive tonight, as indeed I could see in the countenance of all our children. (Well, except the babies. They were just crying for want of sleep…) Life is so, so fleeting. Had we been to that very spot but a few minutes (at most) earlier, that may have been us in either of those two vehicles. We had been complaining (ok, again, perhaps I had been complaining) of many frivolous things leading up to our encounter with disaster: mostly tiredness, some incredulity at the rate with which money can leave our hands, and sundry other insignificant things.

But we may have been witness to the end of someone(s) lives tonight.

Again, upon further reflection, I said out loud to everyone in our vehicle, “Life is very different than they were expecting it to be tonight, the people in those cars.” All nodded. I commented to our oldest son as he was helping me unload, “That was pretty scary, wasn’t it.” He again, agreed with a hearty and thoughtful, “Yeah…”

One other thing observed tonight—in the positive—was how great we (people) are at responding to disaster and emergency. Complete and total strangers, whom I am certain had other things to get to (though, perhaps not) were stopped on the side of the road offering assistance, compassion, and just human comfort to people whom they may never see again: but treating them like family.

There is an amazing quality of our souls that shines brightest in disaster.

As I reflect on the scene once more tonight with you, I am simply struck by the fleeting nature of our days. Not just that we can die so suddenly, though that is certainly the main thought in my head. The title of this post is that word, “Fleeting,” because these moments that shape us come and go so quickly, and but for a slight change in time or place, our lives could be very different than they end up being. Whether it’s the hand of Providence or not (though I tend to believe it is, even in the allowance in this broken world for some great disasters, as somehow He is so great at bringing life and hope through and even from those) all I know is that it is so fleeting, so fragile.

So all we can do is live it: now, here, today. We never know what twists and turns we will face. We can’t know, and don’t need to. We know that God will go there with us (I will never leave you, nor forsake you). That in itself is quite truth enough. But we also have been placed in the lives of all those people we interact with every day (and, in reciprocity, they too have been placed in ours).

Moments like the one we saw tonight—some great, most really hard, really bad—remind us just how much of a speck our lives are on the timeline of eternity. Our very existence, so replete with richness and complexity, is equally so miniscule, and fleeting.

Don’t put off today what you think you may be able to do tomorrow. (I know I’m not the first to say that, but at the moment, I can’t recall who was…) Live life well today.

Related posts:

1. Rubber-Necking, Heroes, and We Just Don’t Get It
2. Perspective
3. Update…

One such man whom perhaps you’ve never heard of was William Wilberforce. Before recently, I only knew that there was a college in Southwest Ohio that bore his name (though I knew not why) and that only because our travels, on occasion, have taken us directly past the campus.

Not long ago, a friend told us about a movie they had seen recently, titled “Amazing Grace.” It told the story of the man who wrote the iconic hymn by the same name. At the time, I had definitely never heard of John Newton (the song’s composer) or any of his compelling life story. I didn’t even know that he was the man whom was just previously referenced.

How can that be? And what of Isaac Milner, and William Pitt, and Thomas Clarkson, and Olaudah Equiano, and a host of others who seem to have been lost to the dusty pages of history? These people had a profound impact not just on the world of their time, but the entire direction of human history to follow, up to our present day. So how is it possible that I—a pretty well-read, and reasonably learned individual—have not heard any of their story? Sadly, that may be a direct result of the (incorrect) emphases that our educational system places on some things to the tragic absence of the greater things, even more so the greater people.

But that’s a topic for another day.

Sparked by my curiosity to learn of this man whose name I had only known to adorn a giant placard at the entrance of a university campus, I found a few books using our library system: one to read together with our kids, and another (audio book) to “read” on an upcoming trip we had planned. To my surprise, I not only discovered the fact mentioned above (that it was not Wilberforce, but rather Newton who penned the song Amazing Grace which titled the movie and the audio book I had borrowed) but a whole cast of characters whom God had providentially assembled at just the right place, and at just the right time.

We need to set the context. I certainly don’t intend to retell the whole story or recreate the world which I have been temporarily inhabiting (for it seems that way, if only in my mind), and moreover I do wish that you would also read the books I recommend here, or watch the movie or both, but in order to appreciate even this very brief, cursory introduction to the lives of these men, I must remind you of—or introduce you to—the time in which they lived.

It was the 18th century, in Great Britain. The American colonies had fought for and won their independence. The people of Europe (and their colonies) were not only fighting political revolutions—with France’s yet to come—but also philosophical and spiritual ones. The “people” were finding a voice (not just in America) and they were also reclaiming spiritual and moral values: the Great Awakening.

However, the time leading up to these major cultural changes was some of the darkest, most inhumane time in all of history. Poverty and great social and economic distance between the rich and poor, diseases, overpopulated cities and high rates of death, prostitution, rampant chronic drunkenness, and many other societal ills surrounded the one that, perhaps to our time, was the most apalling of all: the African slave trade.

The book that I found for the kids tells the story of the African slave trade, from the time the boats left the harbor in England for the shores of Africa, through the horrific “Middle Passage,” to the selling of any of the men, women, and children who survived the 3-week journey, and finally completing the circle, bringing the goods from the West Indies back home to the British Isles.

It is truly unspeakable how horrendously the captives were treated. Even the fact that there was such a “trade” by their fellow Africans (who were often the initial captors and then slave traders) just leaves you doubting the existence of any absolute bottom level to which our grotesque, debase character can fall. I would prefer not to retell here all the ways that these people were treated during this frighteningly evil process, so suffice it to say, it was not human.

We all know that, of course. Slavery is bad. It’s evil, reprehensible, incomprehensible really. But too often (at least this is true for me) we are able to keep it at such a distance that it doesn’t turn our stomach. It’s just not very “real” to us, since it doesn’t happen around us anymore. We don’t see the ugly reality of it in our everyday lives. At one point in Wilberforce’s life, he brought a group of influential, wealthy Brits to one of these slave ships so that they could not only hear the stories, but actually smell the putrid death that these ships bore. The people needed to really understand what was happening.

(As a footnote, one thing that I was reminded of by the tactics employed by Wilberforce and his companions—frequently referred to as the Chapham Saints—where they used any method they could to vividly, graphically bring the world of the slave trade to the very eyes, ears, and noses of their otherwise ignorant countrymen, is the modern atrocity in our country (and others) that we politely refer to as “abortion.” Some pro-life tactics are similar, attemping in any way they can imagine to bring the gruesome images and stories front-and-center to an otherwise ingnorant populous. To this point, however, I’d say with much less popular success.)

So with a financially successful (not to mention culturally well-entrenched) mercantile system powered by slaves, Wilberforce more than had his “work cut out for him.”

What made him so different is that he, young as he may have been, was decidedly up to the task.

But first, there is John Newton. Newton was a renowned slave ship captain. He actually had been a slave himself as a youth, but after having his freedom purchased by a sea captain, he found himself as the captain of his own ship: a slave ship. (One wonders how in the world he reconciled that, given his own past.) After a harrowing experience at sea where he nearly lost his ship, his crew, and his own life, Newton found (or was found by) God. His conversion obviously profoundly affected his life, and he left the slave trade to become a minister.

(At this time, the Church of England was the established, recongnized church, but it had no real spiritual basis. It was an empty link to the past, a declawed cat. Whereas it had previously had much more authority, it now represented in a way the current spiritual condition of many of the people: dead. There were, of course, still many people experiencing life-changing truth in the Gospels. These people, who were wanting to live their lives under the influence of Jesus’ teachings—not just bear the name Christian—were called “Methodists” (not yet a Christian denomination, however) and because of their sometimes serious, sometimes outrageous mannerisms, they were said to have a melancholy madness. So, the term “Methodist” was a derogatory term to most.)

As a boy of eleven or twelve years of age, Wilberforce was sent off to live with his aunt and uncle, who were among these “Methodists”, unbeknownst to his mother, who would not have allowed it, had she known. It was this time that ended up shaping the entire course of his life, though he wouldn’t really know that till much later. His aunt and uncle (along with John and Charles Wesley, who were themselves leaders in the spiritual reformation taking place) attended the church where the reformed John Newton was preaching. So for a couple years, Wilberforce not only was surrounded by people who were living lives grounded in their life-changing relationship with Jesus, but undoubtedly he was also likely introduced to the horrors of the slave trade, hearing Newton’s teaching every week, or more.

This was another astounding realization to me. In our current time, it would be a ridiculous notion indeed to suggest that any person could have no awareness of the slave trade from our country’s past. However, had Wilberforce not met this former slave ship captain, he, like many of his fellow Britons, may not have even been aware there was any slave trade at all! Because all of the trade happened far away from their island, many were entirely ignorant of the whole horrific process.

But, the thing that made William Wilberforce a great man was just this. He was certainly born into a wealthy family, having many opportunities simply from his birth. He was also, by all accounts a gifted speaker, and singer, being given by God a voice like very few others. He was afforded the best education available in England, and his best friend was the Prime Minister. By all accounts, he had everything going for him.

This is when he chose to be great.

Instead of advancing his own career in politics or any other endeavors, he chose to fight—at great cost to himself politically, socially, and even physically—for people whom he had mostly never met, and whom many people had learned to consider less than human.

But not Wilberforce. He knew to his core that it was wrong. And he would not stop until it was no longer happening.

He did not. Though defeated year after year in the parliament, Wilberforce and his Clapham Circle continued to introduce bill after bill, backing it with great oratory and educating the public to its disgusting nature. Each year they got closer and closer, but it literally took 18 years of unflappable determination before the parliament agreed to abolish slavery in 1807.

It wasn’t until 1833 that the parliament passed an act to free all slaves. That was the same year William Wilberforce died. He was able to see the final fruits of his labor within his own lifetime. Though, certainly it was only the start of a new and better reality for not only England, but all of humanity.

There are few men like this. With so many obstacles, failures, and lack of support, it would have been easier to just give up and live a quiet life alone with his family. (He married and had six children.) But great people do what is right when no one else will. No matter the cost.

These are the people we need to be.

Related posts:

1. A Few More Thoughts on William Wilberforce
2. No Needy People Among Them…
3. This Present Darkness

Greatness isn’t the work of a few geniuses, it is the purpose of each of us. It is why we were born. Every person you have ever met is a genius. Every one. Some of us have chosen not to develop it, but it’s there. It is in us. All of us. It is in your spouse. It is in all of your children. You live in a world of geniuses. How can we settle for anything less than the best education? How can we tell our children that mediocre education will do, when greatness is available?

The above quote (with my emphases added) is from A Thomas Jefferson Education, by Oliver DeMille. Jen has read through it, and some companion books, and I have become familiar with it via an audio CD we have that presents some of the principles from this “leadership education” philosophy.

We really like it, and I really liked that paragraph you just read above.

I think this all the time, and it’s why we home school. That doesn’t mean we school at home. We don’t. It means that born into everyone—which includes all of my children—is the unbounded potential for greatness. All we have to do is love, observe, and help steer toward that greatness. Some think that approach to be idealistic, and perhaps too simplistic. But it seems to be working so far.

My goal as Ian, Alex, Kirsten, Julia, Emma and Cameron’s Dad is to help them see their greatness (AND the greatness of everyone else around them) and to help them know the foundational truths of life, the most important things which will be their character, their anchor… then the rest is up to them realizing the greatness that God has built into each of them. The “sky” is truly the limit.

(Although, that may be too limiting…)

Looking forward to finishing this book, and sharing more thoughts from Mr. DeMille.

Related posts:

1. Big Family Shortcuts
2. Desegmentation
3. A Subtle Difference

I’ve been thinking about it for a while, following conversations and interactions with friends and acquaintances. I’ve also noticed it even more generally in our culture, the way we all interact with each other. I think it probably supersedes our culture, and is even more of a human nature issue.

But you need to know, I’m different.

I don’t really know why—oh, I’ve spent plenty of time thinking on that subject as well, to no avail… but this is not about how strange I am (at least, not really) it’s more about how I feel about you, in general—all I know is what I am about to tell you.

You don’t owe me anything.

When I do something for you*, I don’t expect you to reciprocate. (In any fashion, and certainly not in like manner. We are all different, after all…) If I make you a meal, I’m not looking for one in return. If I watch your kids while you get a break with your spouse, I am not keeping track of how many times you have done the same for me. If I help move something, or fix something at your house, I’m not expecting any sort of compensation or reciprocal manual labor.

I’m just not.

I think it’s our nature (and our experience) to expect there are strings attached, but I can say with complete honesty and certainty that there are never strings attached to anything I do. I am not trying to get anything from you. I have no expectations. Only, perhaps, that we might enjoy a bit of life together. (And continue to do so.)

I hope it’s OK that sometimes I project that on you. Sometimes it’s rather difficult for me to even think that you might entertain the thought that I have any level of expectations or requirements of you. That there are any obligatory social etiquette codes that I am presuming you will meet.

I’m just not. So relax. Enjoy any invitation I extend to you. Please accept and receive gratefully any gift or service I would offer to you. (But, I won’t be offended if you don’t, even if you don’t say, “Thank you.”)

I just want you to feel worth being loved.

See, we read in the new testament that, “We love because he first loved us.” And, I think in context that meant that we love God because he first loved us. But I think it also means that we can love each other because of how we have been loved. Not because it’s owed us, or in any way merited … other than the fact that we are loveable. We’re worth being loved, being treated kindly, being given gifts of any kind. Just because we are.

And that is how I see you.

I don’t need anything from you, except just to enjoy the no-strings-attached relationship. You can ask me for anything you need, and I’ll try to help you out. (I’ll also say no if I can’t, so don’t think that I’ll feel any obligation to say yes—or be in any way guilted into complying against my better judgement.)

Jen asked me this week how I “serve.” She said it seems like an important thing to a lot of believers, and she, having a notion of what that looks like—and we, not often looking like that notion—wondered what I thought about that, how I lived that out.

I was taken aback slightly as I just don’t ever think about it really. I guess I’m not in the soup kitchens on the weekend, nor going on short term mission trips to help erect or repair buildings. But I don’t feel like I am ever not serving. It’s just who I am. “Consider others better than yourselves,” is a phrase I repeat often to my children, hoping they will—through my further instruction—learn the value of esteeming others more than themselves. It’s what Jesus did, who he was and is.

It’s the heart of a servant.

So, I’m really not (in any way) trumpeting ME … rather I want you to know that if you have any personal interaction with me, I have absolutely no requirements of you. I love you. I can say that because you are a Creation of the Creator and I know how much he loves you (because I know how much he loves me!)

I hope you’ll accept that from me, and enjoy being loved.

Whew! Glad I finally go that off my chest!

See y’all soon!

Related posts:

1. Feeling Loved, and Lovable
2. Love
3. Perfection

How can we really think this way? The language this woman uses to describe her “problem” (which was … until two months prior to the speech you see in this video—from the “Digital Inclusion Summit” on March 9, 2010—her family only had dial-up internet in their home, because they could not afford broadband) makes it seem as though they were in dire straits, and in danger of losing their lives…

Like these people.

Friends of ours uprooted their lives in Australia to live in Thailand, helping the Karen refugees of Burma just have the basic necessities of life as they flee from people who want to kill them!

But we want to have free (to us) broadband internet in our homes. And it’s unfair if we don’t.

Wow.

Related posts:

1. Tech News for the day
2. The Important
3. Foreigners

If you weren’t immediately turned off by the title, I’d imagine that at least a handful of readers are now completely done with this post, and—quite likely—done with GregsHead.net entirely.

That seems to be the current climate in our country, especially in the political world, and especially surrounding the man Glenn Beck.

What I don’t get is why we decide certain people aren’t worth listening to, without really listening to them. I had a conversation with a friend not long ago who said something a bit “off the cuff” about Beck, and, me being an actual long-time listener to his stuff—and, thinking this friend to be a thinker, rather than just a spewer of recycled words—I decided to initiate a dialog with him about some of the misconceptions about this much-maligned media personality.

I am not writing this to defend Glenn Beck. You’re likely an adult, and you can decide who and what you want to listen to, and agree or disagree with. That’s certainly not in question.

What I am so puzzled by is (and I’ve mentioned this often here) why we say things—often at least skewed, if not untrue—about other people (or other “sides”) instead of listening to each other. We just are not listening to each other.

And sometimes, it’s just because of a name.

I started listening to Glenn’s radio show before the 2000 presidential election. A few things caught my ear. First, I did agree with most of what he said, and even though he was a Republican then, he seemed more independent thinking, not just a Republican party supporter. (I am not a supporter of any party.) Second, his stuff was really just funny then. It was pre-9/11. Third… he told a story about his daughters that was intriguingly close to how I think as a parent.

And so, I began to listen.

The strange part is, until just recently, Glenn Beck was fairly irrelevant. He was just a funny guy on the radio. But then, as he has changed over the years, and his focus became more on “educating” the American people on the parts of history we’ve not been taught, or been taught perhaps differently than actually happened… all of a sudden, it became not only unpopular to say you are a listener or a fan of Glenn Beck, but it’s downright evil! You must be stupid!

Really?

Here’s the thing. Sometimes I wonder why people think what they do. I bet you do, too. Obviously, mostly when they see something completely differently than I do. “How can they think that???” I wonder. Well… because they have brains, and they have put the pieces together slightly different than I!

The biggest problem in our country currently—probably in the entire world, actually—is that we do not allow others to be different. I mean, we say we do… but we really don’t.

If so, it would be OK for people to like Glenn Beck.

Glenn has been talking this week about the attacks on him. There are attempts to boycott his advertisers, discredit him, etc, etc. Even the president called him out by name. There is also a process in the works to limit and filter content on the internet in our country. (See “Net Neutrality” page at Wikipedia. Primarily a technology thing, but opens the door for censorship.) In a lot of ways, people want to “shut up” Glenn Beck.

Same goes for the Tea Party Movement. (Which is often associated with Glenn Beck.) But I actually know many people who, if they are not part of this “movement”, are sympathetic to it. (Even some who don’t listen to Glenn Beck!)

Granted, there are some people out there who are just joining the latest trend or fad. Whatever “side” that may represent. But I’m guessing, based on the people I know on both (or all?) sides of the political spectrum that nearly all of us have good reasons for what we believe. They may be misinformed in some cases, but I’d say mostly we’ve had some reason or opportunity to form a worldview and a set of values and principles with which we align ourselves. Our choice. Not a “party line.”

(NOTE: I am not applying this to the politicians in Washington. I’d say people with principles and actual well-thought-out beliefs in DC are the rare exception, rather than the norm!)

We have a tendency to lump people together. Especially those who do not think like we do. (Though, sometimes we assume someone who thinks similarly on one issue, will think as we do on all issues, too.) It’s just not true. We are individuals. There may be some—even many—similarities, but we are not automatons merely following our marching instructions. None of us. Your side, or their side.

So let’s allow people to express themselves… for real. Not just say that we do. If someone thinks differently than you, let him speak. There is a notion that people are not smart enough to filter through all the “stuff” out there … and so those who are saying things that are completely opposed to what we think should be “silenced” … but perhaps that is the scariest thing we could say. Once we silence one voice, who’s to say you’re not next?

I’ve said here a bunch of times that this blog is not a political blog, and that’s really true. But lately I’ve just been amazed at how divisive the name “Glenn Beck” has become and it made me think that we’re still not listening to each other.

And so I ask you… why not? Are you?

I hope so.

And, if you are turned off by the name Glenn Beck, and have never actually listened to Glenn’s show, perhaps you could listen for a few days. (One day would not be enough, I don’t think, to get past any prejudice that has been built up.) Or you can read his very short book “Common Sense“, get a copy from the library or a friend. Then, if you still don’t agree, rock on. But we just can’t make judgements without listening. Without doing proper research. We all deserve a chance to be heard.

And we all need to just listen.

Related posts:

1. Free Preview of Glenn Beck’s Insider Extreme
2. Glenn Beck is a Lying Sack of Dog Mess
3. Listen. Just Listen.

At times, life plays along, and for the most part, our plans are accomplished.

Most of the time, it doesn’t seem to work out that way for me.

It’s usually nothing catastrophic, or life-changing, though sometimes it can be. More often it’s something unexpectedly breaking, or even just a series of “reschedulings” and cancellations by others around you (or even by you) that throws your whole plan out of whack. Doesn’t everyone have a copy of the script?!?

Today I’ve been fixing stuff again. Stuff that’s supposed to “just work” on its own, but sadly, picked today to stop playing along. It’s costing time, money, and plenty more time.

On the other hand…

I woke up today, and so did all of my family. My house is still here (and at least “sort of” in my name). My in-laws are visiting, which the kids love, and is allowing both Jen & I to get some more work done. God continues to provide money for us to buy what we need.

AND, my air conditioner works. (That’s actually no small thing for my third-story office on an 80-degree day!)

All in all, life is grand, even when it doesn’t follow the plan. (Hmm, if that were a bit more succinct, it could be on a t-shirt or something…)

Here’s hoping today that you remember the “unexpected” will almost certainly happen to you. If not today, then this week. If not this week, well… then you’ve probably already learned to expect the unexpected.

Related posts:

1. A Day Of Unexpected
2. The Unexpected
3. Mastering Money or Money Is Master?

We just sent in our census form today, which had me thinking about the role we have given our government (or perhaps, that it has taken) in our lives. Coupled with the passing of the big government health care legislation on Sunday which has caused even “regular folks” to be vocally expressing their opinions … I’m just feeling saddened at the current state of our country.

The title of this post comes from words spoken by Barack Obama just a few days before he was elected president of our country. Listen to the short clip below.

These days the words are being used to suggest that government-run healthcare is the first step toward that transformation. That we are a nation on the fast track to a tyrannical dictatorship. The people (and the states) are ceding more and more control to the growing-bigger-and-bigger federal government.

And there is some merit to that line of thinking. We are the “land of the free” as our national anthem reminds us, and the government established by our constitution is meant to be very limited (especially the federal government) and managed by many checks and balances. So the more power we grant the federal government over our lives, the more we potentially move toward a system that would allow for a dictator. (A centralized ruler (or rulers) over the people, rather than representing the people.)

However, that is not what my title refers to.

The more I think about the various arguments being passionately conveyed by both “sides” of the role of government issue—and, sadly, we’re still not hearing each other—the more I realize that we are in desperate need of a fundamental transformation.

I’m not sure what now-President Obama meant when he said those words. Some say he meant—means—to transform America into a socialist/marxist state that would seek “social justice” by the forced redistribution of wealth, using the tax system to accomplish such a goal. The “power to the people” mentality, which I think is rather oddly named in that the “power” comes as “handouts” distributed by the actual “power”—the federal government.

Perhaps he meant that he truly wants to see those who have been in poverty and in want for so long, even generations, to finally taste the “success” that many of their fellow countrymen have tasted. To have the resources at their disposal that their neighbors have. Perhaps—and I have no reason to believe otherwise—it is truly motivated by a genuine desire to see everyone have the material comforts of life that it seems we could all have in this bountiful, prosperous nation.

However, if that’s true, making that happen via a large, centralized government just isn’t the way to do it. Not at all. An institution is not capable of truly providing those things, nor should it be. Neither is it a good idea to just “distribute the wealth” to people who have done nothing to “earn” the “fruits of their labor.” See… there is value in work. Yes, some people get lucky and get a ridiculous amount of the material resources and wealth. There is certainly an element of luck involved… but it is (almost) never without hard work to get into position to be the recipient of that “luck”.

Free handouts do not help anyone. At least, not really. Temporarily perhaps, but not really. In fact, I’d argue they almost do the opposite.

We can—and it seems we are going to try to—solve our nations economic and social issues through a powerful federal government, enacting all sorts of legislations and programs—and taxes—to accomplish those ends… but in the end, we’ll still be in need of transformation.

The real transformation that America needs—the true “fundamental transformation”—needs to happen in the hearts and minds of individuals, and families, and neighborhoods, and communities. It starts with you.

We are a selfish, lazy, greedy people. We are materialistic and discontent. We lack any understanding of God and his transforming love, and it shows. Divorce, litigation, crime, greed, lust, and so many ways that we attempt to take advantage of each other that I can’t even list them here. Not to mention the dissolution of families: mom, dad, and kids as one loving unit.

We are a broken people.

And human nature requires that we look out for ourselves first. That creates and furthers all of this brokenness. And it can only be fixed—healed, restored—by the Healer. Jesus is truly the answer. He spent his days in his physical body on this planet healing all sorts of hurts. And I believe he continues to do so today.

And I believe he is the only source of fundamental transformation that will have any affect at all on our nation.

Until we allow God back into real life, back into our real lives, we can argue all we want over who is going to provide for whom. But it’s not going to matter. There will always be rich, and there will always be poor. There will always be the powerful, and the powerless.

The founders of this country knew the truth that God created each of us to be free (even though that was not the culture they lived in at the time) and they laid their lives and their fortunes on the line to prove it. They succeeded, and their freedom produced the most prosperous nation the world has ever known.

But today, Barack Obama is right. The United States of America is desperately in need of a “fundamental transformation.” But that is not going to happen on a State or Federal level … at least, not until it happens in our hearts.

Then we will see a true, fundamental transformation of America.

Related posts:

1. Is This America?
2. US Government Now Running the Auto Industry? Ludicrous!
3. Group Think

Nike: The Human Chain

I’m not 100% sure of the title of this commercial, but I saw it several times during the Olympics and really liked it. The commercial is very visually creative (and cool) and I like the song. Especially the line, “It’s not where you’re from, it’s where you’re at.”

We just started reading Oliver Twist tonight (the boys and I) and the first chapter describes how he was born into pretty bleak circumstances. Mom died at birth. No dad. No idea where Mum was from. And to top it off, he was born at a “workhouse” (amongst those at the bottom rung of the social ladder.)

So I remembered that line from this song. It’s not where you’re from, it’s where you’re at. I told the boys of the line from the Bible, “Man looks on the outside, but God looks at the heart.” It’s pretty easy for us to decide who someone is by their appearance, or their life circumstances. It’s easy, but it’s wrong. And often incorrect.

Enjoy the commercial video… it’s cool. And remember, it’s not where you’re from, it’s where you’re at.

Music: Ali in the Jungle – The Hours

Related posts:

1. The Hours – Ali In The Jungle
2. Fan Boy?
3. One Day