We create wealth by growing it, mining it, or manufacturing it.
We do not create wealth by borrowing it from the Chinese. We do not create wealth by printing more paper. We do not create wealth by appropriating it from one person to give it to another. We do not create wealth by increasing government payrolls. We do not create wealth by educating more lawyers. We do not create wealth by more regulations.
We either grow it out of the ground, dig it out of the ground, or mold it into stuff after it comes out of the ground.
Got it?
Friday, December 30, 2011
Monday, December 26, 2011
Sparrows Fall from Heaven
“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” (Matt 10:28-31 NIV)
Comforting words, those. If God is aware of sparrows falling from the sky, how much more does he know of our travails! Yet missed in this talk of God’s omniscience is a troubling fact: sparrows do fall from heaven, and God does nothing to stop it. Many sparrows have fallen in his sight, and not just sparrows. People fall too. It must grieve a loving God’s heart to see the sufferings of the ages. Pestilence and storms. Warfare and tyranny. The suffering of martyrs. Earthquakes and terror. It has all been in God’s plain view, and just as Jesus wept over Jerusalem, one must wonder if the Father’s heart is also grieved over the helpless falling of many sparrows.
I believe he does grieve, and I believe he can and does weep. “Why will you die, O house of Israel?” God asks more than once. (Ezekiel 18:31, 33:11 NIV) And yet the sparrows continue to fall. Because God’s purposes are beyond our poor power to understand, asking why can become an exercise in frustration.
The “why” is important, but something else is more so. Perhaps the better question when sparrows fall is not why, but what. What am I going to do about it? If a sparrow falls from the sky, do I curse the law of gravity? Do I resign myself to the inevitable evils of the world? Or do I nurse it back to health?
When the storms of the world strike our brothers, do we curse God? Do we languish in the misery of others? Or do we rush to their aid and help carry them? Paul calls us ambassadors for Christ (II Corinthians 5:20 ), and as such we need to be in the business of reconciliation. The “what” is to be a tool in God’s hands, to offer the comfort, the support, the cold cup of water, the shelter over one’s head, or a hot meal to the fallen.
In such times, the fallen sparrows need Christ. As his ambassadors we represent the God of the universe, and it is through us that God lights the world and reveals his love. If we want to see God’s hand, perhaps it is at the end of our own arms.
Friday, December 23, 2011
The Fathers Have Eaten Sour Grapes
Rick is from Texas, and it shows. One time he was acting a bit puny, so I asked him, “How are things going, Rick?” Rick says, “I’m lower than a snake’s belly in a wheel rut.” Expressions like that made living in Texas a bit more bearable way back when.
Here are more expressions from the Lone Star State.:
“Busier than a cat trying to cover it up on a frozen pond.”
“All hat, no cattle.”
“It’s hotter than a stolen tamale.”
“Busy as a hound in flea season.”
“She’s as jumpy as spit on a hot skillet.”
“You can’t get lard unless you boil the hog.”
The Bible has a saying or two as well, although most are not quite as earthy as those coming from our Texas friends. One that recently caught my attention goes like this: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” (Ezekiel 18:2) This was apparently common saying among the people in Ezekiel’s day, and it means that the children pay the price for the parents’ misdeeds.
This is certainly a sobering statement for those with children. What we do can and does affect them, perhaps for the rest of their lives. We can so wound their sense of security and self-worth that they will recover only with great effort. We can teach them wrong ways of living that they then emulate and thereby suffer the same dysfunction as previous generations. In a case relevant to our current national situation, a generation can borrow money by the trillions, setting on edge the teeth of their children for half a dozen decades.
This passage in Ezekiel and a companion one in the context of Jeremiah 31:29 are a reflection of several statements in the Torah (such as Numbers 14:18) that talk about how it often takes generations before the curses of family dysfunction dissipate.
Having said that, the passages in both Jeremiah and Ezekiel, when read in context, hold out an alternative future. Ezekiel continues with this: “As I live, says the Lord God, you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine, the soul of the father as the soul of the son is mine. The soul who sins shall die” (18:3-4). The passage then goes on to explain that even if someone has all the disadvantages in background, that person by changing ways can escape the natural curses that come from that background. Jeremiah’s passage says essentially the same thing.
Put differently, people can and do get caught in multi-generational habits that are difficult to escape. We often are victims of circumstances beyond our control. Poverty can be a family bequest, although one that we would neither want to bequeath nor accept. Such is the way the world works. We need to admit that, and we need to accept that the sour grapes that parents eat can be hard to escape for the generations that follow.
But it is also true that there is a way to escape from the cycle. Such dysfunction does not need to last for generations. The natural course of events might lead to generation after generation of the same mistakes being made, but fortunately we do have some measure of control over our own destiny.
Jeremiah’s passage speaks of the need to reform our hearts in order to escape the past. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (Verse 33) Change your heart and change your life. Do that, and as they might say in Texas you’ll be happy as a clam at high tide.
Here are more expressions from the Lone Star State.:
“Busier than a cat trying to cover it up on a frozen pond.”
“All hat, no cattle.”
“It’s hotter than a stolen tamale.”
“Busy as a hound in flea season.”
“She’s as jumpy as spit on a hot skillet.”
“You can’t get lard unless you boil the hog.”
The Bible has a saying or two as well, although most are not quite as earthy as those coming from our Texas friends. One that recently caught my attention goes like this: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” (Ezekiel 18:2) This was apparently common saying among the people in Ezekiel’s day, and it means that the children pay the price for the parents’ misdeeds.
This is certainly a sobering statement for those with children. What we do can and does affect them, perhaps for the rest of their lives. We can so wound their sense of security and self-worth that they will recover only with great effort. We can teach them wrong ways of living that they then emulate and thereby suffer the same dysfunction as previous generations. In a case relevant to our current national situation, a generation can borrow money by the trillions, setting on edge the teeth of their children for half a dozen decades.
This passage in Ezekiel and a companion one in the context of Jeremiah 31:29 are a reflection of several statements in the Torah (such as Numbers 14:18) that talk about how it often takes generations before the curses of family dysfunction dissipate.
Having said that, the passages in both Jeremiah and Ezekiel, when read in context, hold out an alternative future. Ezekiel continues with this: “As I live, says the Lord God, you shall no longer use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine, the soul of the father as the soul of the son is mine. The soul who sins shall die” (18:3-4). The passage then goes on to explain that even if someone has all the disadvantages in background, that person by changing ways can escape the natural curses that come from that background. Jeremiah’s passage says essentially the same thing.
Put differently, people can and do get caught in multi-generational habits that are difficult to escape. We often are victims of circumstances beyond our control. Poverty can be a family bequest, although one that we would neither want to bequeath nor accept. Such is the way the world works. We need to admit that, and we need to accept that the sour grapes that parents eat can be hard to escape for the generations that follow.
But it is also true that there is a way to escape from the cycle. Such dysfunction does not need to last for generations. The natural course of events might lead to generation after generation of the same mistakes being made, but fortunately we do have some measure of control over our own destiny.
Jeremiah’s passage speaks of the need to reform our hearts in order to escape the past. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” (Verse 33) Change your heart and change your life. Do that, and as they might say in Texas you’ll be happy as a clam at high tide.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
The Gift of George Bailey
George Bailey was the Jimmy Stewart character in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life. Stewart played the frustrated building and loan manager who wished he had never been born, until he was given a glimpse of what his corner of the world would have been without him.
A few years back I left an employer of many years for an opportunity elsewhere. Some clients were people I had worked with for more than two decades on their personal financial affairs. During that time I walked with them through valleys and over mountaintops. I saw them though weddings and divorces, widowhood and acceptance. I guided them through goal setting and goal reaching. I helped people dream and helped those dreams become reality. I eased their paths and helped them to see that financial wellbeing is not a goal in itself but a means to freedom. I held them steady through trying financial times and through the emotions that accompany our major life events.
When caught in the middle of two decades of laying bricks one at time, we can fail to catch a glimpse of the building we are building. But the personal notes of thanks, the tears of farewell, the disbelief that “you’re leaving me”, and the expressions of hope that I would continue to work with them helped me to understand that the daily frustrations and often tedious work has borne some fruit. The odd thing about it was how I did not see the fruit at the time, but only after the fact. The daily act of living obscured the big picture of life, and only after stepping back and looking could I see that I had made a difference.
George Bailey had learned a lesson, that the lives he had touched with his own were better for it even if it was not apparent at the time. Elijah didn’t know that four thousand of his countrymen were on the same side of the cultural divide as he in spite of his perception that he was all alone.
Even the Apostle Paul needed to be brought back to the reality that what he was doing was making a difference. In the city of Corinth he preached the gospel in the synagogue, but was so frustrated by the apparent lack of interest that he exclaimed, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles." (Acts 18:6 NIV) Yet immediately after that outburst, we’re told that he went “next door to the house of Titius Justus.” So in spite of Paul’s consternation, someone had responded to his preaching! And immediately after that Crispus, who was the chief ruler of the synagogue, his whole household, and many others also believed and were baptized.
Paul’s frustrations with his apparent lack of fruit were more of a problem of perception than reality. Jesus Christ himself had to tell to Paul in a vision to stay on in Corinth and to keep on working “because I have many people in this city.” (v9 – 10)
It’s easy to get frustrated with the nuts and bolts, but the world without you would be an incomplete place. You touch more lives than you know. Whether you are trying to get the gospel to the world or just doing what you do to make a living, what you do makes a difference. Casting your bread on the waters will always come back many fold. Some day you’ll know that what you do makes a difference. Just ask George Bailey.
A few years back I left an employer of many years for an opportunity elsewhere. Some clients were people I had worked with for more than two decades on their personal financial affairs. During that time I walked with them through valleys and over mountaintops. I saw them though weddings and divorces, widowhood and acceptance. I guided them through goal setting and goal reaching. I helped people dream and helped those dreams become reality. I eased their paths and helped them to see that financial wellbeing is not a goal in itself but a means to freedom. I held them steady through trying financial times and through the emotions that accompany our major life events.
When caught in the middle of two decades of laying bricks one at time, we can fail to catch a glimpse of the building we are building. But the personal notes of thanks, the tears of farewell, the disbelief that “you’re leaving me”, and the expressions of hope that I would continue to work with them helped me to understand that the daily frustrations and often tedious work has borne some fruit. The odd thing about it was how I did not see the fruit at the time, but only after the fact. The daily act of living obscured the big picture of life, and only after stepping back and looking could I see that I had made a difference.
George Bailey had learned a lesson, that the lives he had touched with his own were better for it even if it was not apparent at the time. Elijah didn’t know that four thousand of his countrymen were on the same side of the cultural divide as he in spite of his perception that he was all alone.
Even the Apostle Paul needed to be brought back to the reality that what he was doing was making a difference. In the city of Corinth he preached the gospel in the synagogue, but was so frustrated by the apparent lack of interest that he exclaimed, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles." (Acts 18:6 NIV) Yet immediately after that outburst, we’re told that he went “next door to the house of Titius Justus.” So in spite of Paul’s consternation, someone had responded to his preaching! And immediately after that Crispus, who was the chief ruler of the synagogue, his whole household, and many others also believed and were baptized.
Paul’s frustrations with his apparent lack of fruit were more of a problem of perception than reality. Jesus Christ himself had to tell to Paul in a vision to stay on in Corinth and to keep on working “because I have many people in this city.” (v9 – 10)
It’s easy to get frustrated with the nuts and bolts, but the world without you would be an incomplete place. You touch more lives than you know. Whether you are trying to get the gospel to the world or just doing what you do to make a living, what you do makes a difference. Casting your bread on the waters will always come back many fold. Some day you’ll know that what you do makes a difference. Just ask George Bailey.
Was Jesus a Socialist?
I’m getting really tired of hearing people claim that Jesus was a socialist. One writer, Ned Lawrence, lists the following ten reasons why Jesus had to be one:
1. Jesus owned nothing.
2. Jesus argued for the dissolution of the family and the establishment of communes.
3. Jesus loved all people regardless of ethnicity or class.
4. Jesus revolted against the imperial government, established religion and finance capitalism (usury).
5. Jesus taught that we should act as one body, one blood.
6. Jesus taught that his kingdom (i.e. nation state) is in the heart and not below the feet.
7. Jesus taught that we should fight for Justice and 'turn the other cheek' to petty morality.
8. Jesus was a laborer and a teacher.
9. Jesus practiced healing and forgiveness.
10. Jesus taught that you can't be an imperialist and a disciple at the same time.
Aside from the fact that some of the “reasons” are demonstrably false (Jesus does not argue for the dissolution of families and the establishment of communes), much of what the author says has nothing to do with socialism vs. free enterprise. Is he saying that if one believes in free enterprise, we do not want to see the sick healed? That one can’t believe in free enterprise and still be a laborer or teacher? Or despise big government and see the evils of what he calls “finance capitalism”?
It seems to me the author confuses crony capitalism with free markets. As another writer illustrates, nothing like this is found in the gospels: "...and Jesus Christ forcibly took the money from all of the people gathered and gave it to the Pharisees to distribute as they felt. Thereafter the people rejoiced in the good deeds done by Jesus as they lived on socialized programs run by benevolent governments.” “Benevolent governments”, I might add, that take tax money from your local auto repair shop and which is then given to General Electric to invest in a Chinese jetliner factory. Or “benevolent governments” where Harry sits down with Nancy
Let’s take one parable of Jesus that is sometimes cited as proof that Jesus was a socialist. It is found in Matthew 20:1-16. Generally, the parable goes like this: A man owns a vineyard, and goes to the marketplace looking for day laborers. He hires some at six in the morning to work the full 12-hour shift. At nine, he hires more men, hires more at noon, and even more at three in the afternoon. Finally, at 5 PM he hires more men to work. At the end of the work day, he calls all the laborers together and pays them. Lo and behold, he pays them all the same, even those who worked only one hour! Proof positive Jesus was a Socialist!
But people often forget that, in this very parable, Jesus puts these words in the landowner’s mouth: “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things?” (verse 15). If I wish to be generous with “my own things”, you have no cause to argue on the basis of fairness.
Jesus uses this very same principle in two other parables (the Parable of the Pounds in Luke 19 and the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25), but with different outcomes. In these two parables, he takes the pound (or talent, as in Matthew’s case) from the person who has one and gives it to (or more accurately, puts it under the stewardship of) the one who already has ten. “But, Lord, he already has ten!” (Luke 19:25) Ah, but the pound was the nobleman’s, so he could do with it whatever he wished!
Admittedly, these parables are all designed to teach deeper spiritual lessons, but if Jesus analogizes himself as a property owner lawfully deciding what to do with his own things, he does not come across as a very good socialist to me.
Friday, December 9, 2011
The Spirit of Insanity
The news these days is filled with stories like these:
Congress as part of green fuels initiatives subsidizes cellulosic fuels, a product that doesn't exist, mandates its purchase even though it doesn't exist, is punishing oil companies for not buying the product that doesn't exist, and is now doubling down on the subsidies in the hope that someday it might exist.
The TSA detains seventeen year old Vanessa Gibbs in a Virginia airport for trying to board a plane while carrying a purse with an image of a gun embossed on its side.
The Administration in Washington offers taxpayer dollars to Brazil to help finance offshore drilling while denying permits to American oil companies to drill in the United States.
It is illegal for a school to give aspirin to a child without parental permission (which is a good thing), but the school can refer girls for abortions without parental notification.
In Boston, a seven year-old boy defends himself by kicking in the groin a bully who is trying to choke him. The boy is expelled from school and charged with sexual assault.It’s almost like a spirit of insanity is running loose in the neighborhood, and it’s hard to believe that people making decisions about other people’s lives, as illustrated above, fail to see the disconnect from reason. What ever happened to sound judgement? Have we become like the people of Rome, who, “professing to be wise, they became fools”? (Romans 1:22)
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Where Is God When You Need Him?
Where is God when you need him? That’s the theological question of the ages, and attempting to answer it with some kind of unifying theory risks putting God in box. But there is an interesting incident about where God went and why he went there. At least in this one instance we know why he was where he was.
The tribes of Israel had escaped from Egypt
God was not amused. But he was also merciful. Instead of destroying the nation in his anger, he simply got up and left the room. “Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” (Exodus 33:3)
Put differently, their behavior was so disgusting that God couldn’t stand being around them. “You go on up to your inheritance, and I’ll send an angel in front of you, but I’m out of here.” The stench of sin was so bad that God had the Tabernacle moved completely out of the camp. If people wanted to confer with God, they had to leave the camp to do so (Verse 7).
Two lessons among many can come from this. First – and remember not to put God in a box on this one – sometimes when we wonder where God is when we need him, it could be that he’s not around because we act like we don’t want him around. But remember that box. We shouldn’t discount the possibility that he has gone off someplace, but we should also not despair. God in fact could be right there with us and we just don’t recognize it.
But here’s another lesson. If God is not in the midst of your camp, he’s just outside of it and waiting for you to step outside the camp to approach him. It doesn’t matter that you might have done some disgusting things. He’s waiting outside the camp for you. Go out there and find him.
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