How we doin…

I am in Zechariah right now, and today I have read chapters 7 and 8. There are some instructions regarding the MOTIVE behind fasting (and all other ritual) but asking the people, “was it really for me that you were fasting?” Then God assures the remaining people that he is going to turn things back around for them, because things which seem impossible simply aren’t for God. He is going to restore great things for Jerusalem.

BUT…

He gives them some pretty specific instructions throughout.  They are to judge fairly, show mercy and kindness to each other.  They are to care for a pretty particular group of people: the widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor.  They are not to be scheming against one another. (7:8-10)

This care is a call that God gives to his people throughout the Bible.  We are constantly told to care for (and particularly NOT to oppress) the widows, the orphans, the foreigners, and the poor. I am prompted to ask my country, my society, my church, my family, and ultimately MYSELF, “How are we doing at that?”

Though I may not personally oppress these people, I have mostly sat idly by while those groups are oppressed on a daily basis.  Me, a pastor! On a daily basis, these specific groups of people (and others) are oppressed, and not all of those cases are outside the U.S. Not all of those cases are outside of Sacramento.

IS MY IDLE INDIFFERENCE EQUALLY OPPRESSIVE?

God continues in chapter 8 to tell his people what they are to live out. “Tell the truth to each other. Render verdicts in your courts that are just and that lead to peace.”

How are we doing there?

“Don’t scheme against each other.”

How we doin…

“Stop your love of telling lies that you swear are truth.”

How are we doing?

“SO, LOVE TRUTH AND PEACE.”

Stuff

Stuff on stuff! We have spare rooms, closets, and garages full of things we will never use.  If that isn’t enough, some of us have storage units separate from our house that we pay for full of more stuff we never use.

Why?

I simply do not understand it.  We never have enough, sure; we all hear that message all the time.  But I just do not understand why we keep getting more and more things.  More stuff! We work hard for the money to buy more things we never use.  Further, if we never use this stuff, do we even NEED it at all?

Of course not!

I don’t need half the things in my garage.  I have not even used a lot of it in years.  I am a consumer.  I am a wealthy American consumer.  I work hard to get things I not only don’t use, but don’t even need.

All of it only clogs up the huge house and garage and storage space, and a lot of it will only sit there for years without ever being used.  Yet still, its not enough.  I keep wanting more things.  There is always something on the want list.

Why?

I came to Habakkuk today, and chapter 2 says, “Wealth is treacherous; the arrogant do not endure…like Death they never have enough.”

The word ‘wealth’ in the Hebrew has a connotation of ‘wine’ to it.  Consumerist wealth is like being a drunk who simply cannot have enough.  Always just one more drink! Its only one more drink until you’re faded out of control and begin acting like an idiot; before you become an addict who simply cannot get enough.

How arrogant am I!

Could I live a life of enough? Of need alone?

Could I sell everything I have so that I could only keep the things I use and need?

Writing Exercise #2

A quick quiz of my quirks:

My brain lapses in the details and the ‘big picture’.
Luckily they rarely lapse at the same time.

Writing Exercise

As I am reading this book, there are writing exercises throughout.  Here is the result of one exercise I did recently.

Birthmarks are interesting topics of conversation, but I generally shy away because it would seem I have no birthmarks.  The only mark I have had since birth is no mark at all, but a small mole behind my right ear.  Can a mole be a birthmark? If so, I have a birthmark, which needs shaved as often as my face. Perhaps I have more to say in a birthmark conversation than I had imagined.

Back Then

I’m not sure if it was an icebreaker or just a random question, but I remember someone asking, “If you could live in any era of time, which one would it be, and why?” I recall most of the answers being in the 70’s or earlier; a lot of people said the 50’s.  Though that is pretty interesting, I am more interested in the common ‘why’ answer.

“Because times were simpler then.”

So many people, myself included most of the time, look back on images of the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, and wish we lived ‘back then’ because times seemed more simple and civil and pure.

I’m very interested by this for a couple of reasons.  First, was it really that much simpler then? I realize our world and culture today are very saddening and deteriorating, but there had to be things within each of those eras that brought great pain and sadness.  I realize we live in a time right now when the poor become poorer and the American Dream rapidly becomes a nightmare.  I realize we live in a culture that grows increasingly isolated from the sense of community it once knew, but Jesus has told us that the poor will always be with us, and he said that even before the 50’s (give or take a couple thousand years).

The second reason this desire to live ‘back then’ intrigues me is because there is a sense of hopelessness in that desire.  We have come to a point where we look at our culture today and compare it, discouragingly, with cultures of old, and we end up wishing things were like they used to be.  We grow discouraged with the pain and isolation of our culture today and we enter further into the pit of discouragement by saying, “Remember when things were better?” Dan and Debbie Downer are alive within the hearts of those who wish they could live in a different time.

The realities are undebatable.  Our culture HAS grown more and more isolated and individualistic.  The poor and homeless population (even in the richest country in the world) grows exponentially.  The moral code of our nation and world diminishes with each year.  The threat of a nuclear war seems nearly imminent.

It’s easy to look at these realities with a hopeless eye, and an understandable option is to wish for earlier days.  There is hope though.  Many of those realities can be seen with hope, which is projecting a positive onto the future instead of obsessing the negative into the future.

1 Peter says that we are the hope that can be in this world that gropes and thirsts for hope.  It may seem far too emanating to think that I could personally change the destructive fabric of our culture, nation, and world, but I AM fully capable of hope.  I can be the difference between isolation and community in my neighborhood.  I can be the hope of respect, dignity, and resource for the poor I see each day in my neighborhood, on my may to work, anywhere within my sphere of influence.

I can be the hope for change around me, and I do not have to pass that responsibility on to politicians who have come to control the people as opposed to being FOR the people.  And I can definitely be hope for change TODAY instead of hopelessly wishing for YESTERDAY.

Douchebag Cafe

Recently left by me as a comment to a friend’s blog:

YES on all accounts.  I know exactly of the type of place you speak.  There are several in Sacramento, and I frequent them all to be honest.  In fact, the one I frequent most, called “The Naked Lounge” has been written about in the local news and review magazine.  They were doing an article on all the local coffee shops and when it came to describing this, my favorite one, they said, “Everyone knows this is place to go if you want the best cup of coffee in town with a side of douchebag.”
I concurr. In fact, I have told friends that “Naked” (as the locals, including myself, would shorten it to call) should have an decal on their door that simply reads:
“The Naked Lounge: where everyone is better than you.”
Ah, but I absolutely love my best cup of coffee in Sacramento, and if that must include a side of douche, so be it.

Hurt Statement

When I am hurt by someone, true compassion and Godly forgiveness would ask, “What has hurt this person so much that they would react that way,” instead of “this person has hurt me and now I must react” and then seeks to love and care for that person.