Belief

Beware of black and white, this-or-that arguments - e.g. “you’re either a conservative or a liberal,” etc. There is almost always a third way - and usually a fourth, fifth, or sixth way. The third way usually involves critical thinking, and a rejection of group think (i.e. the prevailing ideologies of the day). This is true of politics, religion, and everything else people like to draw lines in the sand over.

People who are given a narrow form of faith in childhood, are the most likely to loose their faith in adulthood. Once they have left the protective confines of home and are exposed to the broader world with all its ambiguities and unknowns, a faith based on having all the right answers becomes untenable for them. They’ve been set up to fail. Black and white faith is very fragile in a world full of shades of gray. That’s why people who hold such a faith have to work so hard at not listening to any other point of view. Their beliefs are so fragile that any wandering thought could potentially collapse the entire system.

Our faith cannot be in ourselves. It cannot be in our ability to be righteous. It cannot be in our ability to know all the answers. A human based faith is pathetically weak and will let you down sooner or later. The only faith that makes sense is that based on God. He is the only one that is truly righteous. He is the only one that truly has the answers. And we are not him. Faith based on anything but God is idolatrous...and idols are easily toppled.

Discontent

I was in a book store recently and noticed there was a whole section of books under the title of "Life Change." I thought that sounded interesting, and as I looked across the shelf I found books on moving, changing careers, changing lifestyles, and of course, the ubiquitous get-rich-quick books. "Wow," I thought, "people must really hate their lives. How else could there be such a huge market for this stuff? Why would people spend so much time and money trying to change their life situation unless they were discontent with their life as it currently is." But then I had a second thought, "Is any of this stuff going to help those people? Is attempting to change this stuff really going to cure their discontent?" After reflecting on the question a bit, I've come to the conclusion, maybe...but probably not.

Allow me to explain. First, I am no stranger to change. Due to commitments first to the military, then higher education, and now to church planting, I have moved a total of nine times in the past thirteen years. Once across town, once to a different city, five times to a different state, and twice to a different country. I've had huge swings in income level from one year to the next. I've worshiped with dozens of different churches. This is not theory - I know transition. Here's what I can tell you about transition: it sucks. It's really, really hard and not much fun. Changing situations almost always requires some level of starting over; finding your way around a new neighborhood, learning new job skills, making new friends, etc. And those things take lots and lots of mental and emotional energy.

But here's the flip side, transition can lead to good things. Some of our most rewarding experiences can come after very difficult transitions - like transitioning to parenthood. Emily and I were married for seven years (to the day!) when Enoch was born. We had a pretty solid life routine that we very much enjoyed. Enoch totally disrupted that, in fact he demolished it! A screaming, crying, pooping, eating, screaming, crying, pooping, eating being that demanded our constant attention and didn't give two beans about our life routines. He turned our lives upside down and we have no regrets having him - he's wonderful. It was a hard transition, but totally worth it. That's why I say "maybe" in answer to the question "could transition cure discontent?" Transition can bring good things. Likewise, if you have a boss that has a personality disorder and takes pleasure in torturing you, finding another job could genuinely increase your overall well being.

But here's why I think that those books probably won't help most people; because most of the transitions they are advocating leave out a very important component - us. What if the source of a person's discontent isn't their job, their location, or their situation, but rather, it's them? I once heard a radio interview with a guy who had spent decades traveling all over the world trying out different locations, different cultures, and different religions looking for peace and happiness. This interview really struck me, because his conclusion at the end of it all was that no matter where he went, he couldn't get away from himself. Think about that for a minute. No matter where you go, you can't get away from yourself. This implies that if you aren’t happy in your current situation then you’re not likely to be happy in another. Now this obviously does not apply to someone who is in genuinely terrible living conditions – war zones, concentration camps, etc. In those situations change means a great deal. But most of us aren’t in those situations. We’re just bored, restless, or generally pessimistic. You're unhappy making fifty thousand a year? Well, you'll probably be unhappy making one hundred thousand a year. You're unhappy in Philadelphia? Well, Seattle probably won't be much better. You can't stand being a nurse? Then good luck with your new teaching job, because you're going to need it.

But just remember *warning: impending cliche* the grass is always greener on the other side. It's true. Before you decide to move to another pasture (a new town, a new job, a new church), make sure you’ve truly made an effort to be content with what you have. Otherwise, you may just find yourself jumping from one unhappy situation to the next without understanding the true source of your discontent.

For me, I've found that there are four key areas of satisfaction in my life: friends, community, work, and spirituality. If I focus on getting these four things right, I usually find a great deal to be content with. Realistically, you will not always have all four together (fully), but you should try to put yourself in situations where they can all occur. And you have to work on them, they don’t just happen. You have to make friends, build community, find enjoyment in your work, and choose to live your life with a higher calling. That’s the banana-split of life. (Hobbies and pets are the whipped cream and cherries on top.)

Ok my reader sitting there at your computer, please don't be offended, but now I'm going to get personal. Do you relate to this discontent? Have you been thinking, "If I only had _______, then I'd be happy"? If so, let me share some advice - the most rock solid I can give. The most important thing – the most important! – is to live a life you can be proud of by loving God and loving people. That's it. Everything else is a distraction. Make sure you really examine your motives for change. What do you really want? More stuff? A nicer house? To be “better” than someone else? That's the true source of your discontent. I read an essay once that I think hit the nail on the head; I can't remember the author but the basic idea was this: Worship money and you’ll always feel poor. Worship career and you’ll always feel stuck. Worship the body and you’ll always feel ugly. Worship the intellect and you’ll always feel dumb. But worship God, and you will find peace. So the next time you feel discontent, before you try anything else, try worshiping God.

I'm a Bad, Bad, Blogger

I'm sorry. I haven't updated this blog in over a month. I'm not a very good blogger. Most blogs that have regular readers post at least once a week, but I struggle even to meet that number. I'm amazed that anyone still reads this thing (thanks to all 20 of you). I could say it's because I'm busy with work, but the truth is everybody is busy with work (unless of course you are unemployed). Even most retired people I know get busy with work.

I know a blogger who writes lengthy, well written, thought provoking blog posts almost every day. It gives me a blogger inferiority complex just looking at his blog. And he has a full time job and a family. How the heck does he do that?!  I think the answer lies in the fact that he is a university professor with a PhD who is engaged in ongoing research. That's how I think the people with really good blogs do it. Good bloggers are people who, through years of practice, have developed a special amount of self discipline when it comes to writing. Writing takes an incredible amount of discipline. Writing takes more discipline than exercising - which most of us, myself included, struggle to do on a regular basis. I struggle with exercise because I have a lazy body, and I struggle with writing because I have a lazy mind. I would rather read someone else's blog than work on my own, it's just easier.

I'm like the apostle Paul, what I want to do I don't do, and what I don't what to do, I do. In this case, what I want to do is steady reliable blogging, but what I do instead is sporadic blogging.  So what should be done about this problem? I read once (in a blog) that an older more experienced writer gave a younger writer this advice about writing a book, "Aim for one or two crappy pages a day. Don't try to write well, don't try to be thought provoking, just aim for a steady flow of writing - even if it is complete garbage." His point being that if you can just get into the habit of writing, the good stuff will eventually come out, and you can always edit the bad stuff out later.

So that's what I'm going to try with this blog. I'm going to try to have one crappy blog post per week. Even if it's only a paragraph on getting moles removed, or making compost from banana peels, I will have a weekly blog post.

That's my goal. Now if I can just stick with it...

Holy Plutocracy Batman!

Plutocracy: (n.) Government by the wealthy. <usage> a country or society governed in this way; an elite or ruling class of people whose power derives from their wealth.

This is just incredible. Look at these charts showing the wealth distribution changes since 1979:

Inequality

After you look at that, you might want to read my series on plutocracy in America:

Democracy: Are We Living in a Plutocracy?

In The Pocket of Billionaires

I've stated before on this blog, that I believe the U.S. has moved sharply in the direction of a plutocracy (rule by the rich). Corporate interest are extremely involved in politics and have an inordinate amount of influence on American political policies. Here's an article about a prank call to a governor that I think says it all. Can you call up your state governor for a twenty minute chat to discuss strategies that will help you become richer?
Corrupt Governor

Toxic Gulf

I've never believed these reports by BP or US government organizations that say that the Gulf is doing great after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Both parties have great economic and political incentives to skew the evidence in a way that makes things look better than reality. It simply is not plausible that you can release 53,000 barrels of crude oil per day into the gulf for nearly three months straight and not have major environmental impact. That's an estimated 4.9 million barrels. And let's not forget that it was mixed with methane gas - probably the equivalent of about 2 or 3 million barrels. Does anyone believe you can release 7 to 8 million barrels of toxic sludge into any environment without creating some catastrophic problems?

Well, an independent study of the gulf disaster has finally come out. It was done by the University of Georgia, and guess what they found? Just what you'd expect, lots of sludge and dead animals. Wow, that's shocking...

Here's an article about the study's findings:
Toxic Gulf

Not Inspired

I only post on this blog when I feel inspired to rant about something and I'm just not feeling that right now. Sorry. Check back at some point in the future and maybe I'll have written something. It might even be worth reading...no promises though.