I hate the internet. If I didn't love it so much I'd get rid of it.

For an old guy, I'm reasonably well plugged in electronically.  I do a lot of communication via email, I scan and post on Facebook, blog, and help maintain a modest website.  These STTA communiques are an example of how I use the "net."  I say that to make the point that I'm not a Luddite when it comes to the cyber-world.  It is a useful tool.  I hope to continue to make good use of it and learn to take better advantage of the access it affords me.

Sometimes, however, I hate the internet.

It is a medium that allows the most ignorant among us to speak with as much volume as the most knowledgeable.  

Its anonymity encourages us to say things--cruel things--that we would never say if we were looking at a flesh and blood human.

In almost any discussion there is "that person."  You know the one who says outrageous things.  The one who makes it very clear that they are entitled to their own opinion, and often strongly makes that opinion known by an assembly of their own facts.  Usually, when I am "that person" in a real discussion, one of my friends will reel me in, and calm me down.  I'm thankful that my wife has developed a look that tells me when it is time for me to be quiet.  I am writing this and I'll send it to thousands of you--OK my mailing list is only about 200--with just a couple of keystrokes.  No one is looking over my shoulder. 

Combining the Internet's reach with our innate desire to win often produces a toxic situation.  "I know I don't really have anything to do with this situation, and I don't know anyone involved, but this discussion involves something about which I feel strongly, so I'm going to put in my two cents." and change.  We use harsh words and hyperbole to make our absolutely right and totally righteous point, forgetting that somewhere on the other side  of a cellphone, or a computer screen is a real person, with real blood in their veins, shedding real tears over the situation that for us is just a worldwide game of "Gotcha."  

Yeah, I got-'em all right!

An important lesson to learn is that sometimes one needs to realize that he doesn't know enough, can't know enough, and shouldn't know enough to get involved. Sometimes an unfortunate conflict between people is just a disagreement that never should have happened, and which ought to be worked out, lovingly, patiently, charitably, and with appropriate repentance and forgiveness.  It is not a wagon on which I can pile all my baggage to make my point. 

Before I post, I need to ask myself, "Should I just leave this alone?"

It's Something to Think About.

   

Some Thoughts on the Death of Fred Phelps:

Something To Think About, Sad! 3/22

Almost everything that was said about the late Fred Phelps was wrong.  I suppose that is appropriate.  His life was wrong. Fred Phelps was often called "Pastor Fred Phelps," or "Fred Phelps, Pastor. . . ."  He was not a pastor.  The word "pastor" really means shepherd; the model Pastor is our Lord, Psalm 23, and John 10.  Perhaps there was a level at which Phelps had that caring-for-the-flock mode, but it never showed in his pubic persona, and, since that image was one he clearly cultivated, he should not be known by a title that doesn't fit. Some called the leader of Westboro Baptist Church, so called, a Fundamentalist.  Again wrong.  Hatred is not a fundamental point of any faith that is remotely Biblical.  I was nurtured in Christian Fundamentalism, and while some have veered off into the realms of hatred--though I know of no one to the extreme of Phelps--hatred is not one of the Fundamentals.   Phelps was often called a Christian, as though his venom characterized faith in Christ.  I am unable to see someone's heart, and I claim no special knowledge, but it is hard to make the claim that  Phelps was a Christian, in the sense in which the Bible uses the term.  He certainly failed to model the poverty of spirit, meekness, brokenness over sin, and self-focused--as opposed to others-oriented judgment that Jesus said marked His disciples.  Jesus said that it was love for fellow Christians that would mark us as His disciples.  Phelps drove many people away from the Lord and His truth.  His only converts were to a convoluted system of hatred, not Christianity. We need to know, though, beyond any doubt that the preacher of hatred's death is cause for mourning.  He is a creation of God, made in His image.  The great potential of that heritage was distorted and wasted.  He is one for whom Christ died.  As I already said, I intend no judgmentalism, but I saw no signs that God's grace had touched his cold, hard heart.  It is sad.  I won't protest his funeral.  I mourn his wasted life.  I hope the news will report that nothing happened.  I pray that folk will lovingly, kindly, respectfully share the Good News, that one need not see their life wasted. Over nineteen hundred years ago, there was another man who breathed out "threats and murder."  He called himself the "chief of sinners."  God saved him, and changed him.  Saul the persecutor became Paul the missionary, the ambassador for the One Who gladly was known as the 'friend of sinners."   Fred Phelps died this past Thursday.  I mourn that I saw no evidence that he opened the door to God's life-changing grace.  Don't wave a sign, not at the cemetary, not online.  Bow your head and pray. It's STTA. Explore the Good News here.

Could you really not see something that big?

Something To Think About, a Missing 777: 3/13

I've heard several people ask in recent days, "How do you lose an airplane?!"   "How do you lose an airplane?"  It's a question I've heard several times over the last few days.  My friends are referring to the tragic disappearance of a Malaysian Airlines flight in route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. You can read the news stories that are fraught with stolen passports, radio silence, and course deviation.  If somebody did something wrong, it wouldn't be the first time somebody tried a cover-up, but getting back to the original question, it could be that something as big as a modern jetliner really is lost.  A Washington Post article reports: "Despite the impression that people get when they use Bing and Google Earth and Google Maps, those high-resolution images are still few and far between,” said John Amos, president of SkyTruth, a nonprofit organization that uses such images to engage the public on environmental issues. The pilots of Flight MH370 never communicated distress. No one activated an SOS signal. No debris or fuel slick has been found. The plane’s flight recorders may be on the seafloor, buried in sand." Another story I read read gave the search area as being the size of the nation of Hungary. We forget that not too terribly long ago whole armies and fleets of ships remained hidden from enemy surveillance. Just because something is big, and apparently obvious, doesn't mean that it will be found. Jesus used an interesting metaphor that involves this "I can't see it." tendency:  "Why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye* when you have a log in your own?  How can you think of saying to your friend,* ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?"  (Matthew 7:3–5, NLT) When I think about how often I've missed the obvious in my own life, it makes the story of the lost airplane a whole lot more believable, and more importantly, it causes me to realize the importance of the prayer of Psalm 73 with greater clarity. It's STTA. Explore the Good News here.

People Are Worth More Than a Click

Something To Think About, These Are  Real People: 3/12

One of the illusions--harmful illusions--of our day is the idea that people, and the relationships thatconnect us to people, are disposable.  Folk seem to think that we can treat people like automobiles or even tastes in TV programs.  Tired of your old ride?  Trade it in.  Don't like the program on TV, just switch to one of the other five-hundred channels available.   One of the criticisms of the online world is that it fosters a culture in which people are treated frivolously.   How many of my Facebook "friends" are really friends?  In reality I don't even know some of them.  Of course, I can fix that.  I can just unfriend them.  N.B.D. My intention, today, is not to criticize social media.  Rather, I'marticulating a concern.  I fear that the artificial computerized culture, which was modeled, in part, on the real world, is now influencing real world relationships.   We have been wired for relationship, not pseudo, artificial, shallow, connections, but deep, impacting interactions with other human beings.  We may think that we can frivolously enter relationships and cavalierly break them without consequences to others, and eventually ourselves, but the reality is when we do so, we do all concerned a great disservice.  Granted it is speaking about a matter of choosing leaders in the church, yet the concept is one from which we can learn:  "Do not lay hands on anyone too hastily."  (1 Timothy 5:22)  On the other end of relationships the Bible seems to always lean in the direction of forgiveness, reconciliation, and preservation. The ideal is at the other end of the spectrum from, "Click, your a friend," or "Click again, you are not." Bottom-line, let's remember that the people in our relationships--even the people on the other side of mobile device, or computer screen--are creatures of God, made in His image.  They are more valuable than a click would imply. It's STTA. Explore the Good News here.

NEXT:

Something To Think About, Somebody's In Line: 3/11

From time, in an attempt to keep up with what's going on in the world around me, I'll look at one of the lists that constantly come my-way--you know, the "Twenty most" this, or the "Forty best" that.  This morning I looked at a list that matched "old" actors with younger stars whom the list-maker thinks will take the place of the star who is on the way out.    The resemblance between some of the outgoing celebrities, and their counterpart newcomer--like Meg Ryan and Rachel McAdams--is uncanny.  No doubt, if you take time to dig a bit deeper, though, there are nuances to the new version that weren't there in the old--same basic concept, but updated for a "new" era. Long before Hollywood, Solomon commented on the syndrome:     Speaking about a young king who rises out of obscurity to replace the old ruler, the wise man said, "I have seen all the living under the sun throng to the side of the second lad who replaces him."  Solomon goes on to comment, ". . . the ones who will come later will not be happy with him, for this too is vanity and striving after wind."  (Ecclesiastes 4:14-16) It is good to have a handle on ones mortality.   It encourages humility.  Peter reminds us that our "glory" like a flower--fleeting (1 Peter 1:24). It compels one to invest in something that lasts--like the people who come after me (2 Timothy 2:2), and to focus on that which really does last, like the Word of God (1 Peter 1:25). It encourages wisdom in choices.  Like the kid looking at the array of candy in the glass case, we ought to make sure that we spend out nickel so we get the most for it. it helps one avoid fads, and emphasize substance. In the eternal scheme of things who the next pretty face, or hunky body is really of very little importance.  Whether I use my time to the Glory of God is of supreme value. Live for Jesus! It's STTA. Explore the Good News here.

What the World Needs:

Something To Think About, What the World Needs: 2/28

It's doesn't take a news junkie to see that the world is in a mess.  Words like genocide, refugee, militants, and mass-starvation have become way too familiar over the past few years.  Cities on fire, angry mobs in streets, and children with blank faces and emaciated bodies have become way too common as images that daily assault us.   Luke is a historian.  When we read his gospel and his history of the early church we get some idea of the world in which the Good News about Jesus first made an impression.  It was a world where on one occasion the disciples told Jesus about some  Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.  (Luke 13:1)  When you read some of the central chapters of Acts you can see the lines of refugees leaving Jerusalem, persecuted for their faith.     “Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.” (Acts 9:1–2)  Luke's friend Peter writes about the struggles of these displaced persons, the victims of religious cleansing, working hard to make a new life in a new place.  Peter addresses them as "Those who reside as aliens." The Roman Empire of 2,000 years ago was not unlike our world today. If we could back to that world we would observe many needs:  People needed housing, food, medical care, and education--again very much like our world. You can't spend much time in the New Testament, though, without coming to the clear understanding that above all those things, and, in many ways, as that which would lead to a solution for those problems, people needed the Lord. They still do. I'm not saying we shouldn't seek to feed the hungry and house the homeless. We should--especially when those in need are helpless children.  What I am saying is we need to make sure we don't neglect what is most important. This bad news world needs to hear THE GOOD NEWS!   It's STTA. Explore this Good News here.