Wise Words For Kiddos

Another John Piper post titled "Let No One Despise You For Your Youth". It has reminded me that kind of father I need to be to my children in these current times...

1 Timothy 4:11-16
Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

This is one of Paul’s words to the younger Timothy who needed to be reminded that his expectation for what he could be were too low. I will begin with this verse, make a few comments about it and then step back and try to get the bigger biblical picture. Paul says, “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”

Four brief observations:

1. Youth Can Be Despised
Youth are often looked down on because of attitudes and behaviors that are annoying or immature. Some of the things people often associate with youth are disrespect, rebellion, self-absorption, cliquishness, conformity to peer pressure, indifference to serious issues, and a fixation on fun as the only thing that satisfies. If these are pronounced, people can even despise youth. Paul implies that in saying, “Let no one despise your youth.”

2. Youth Should Not Be Indifferent to What Adults Think
Paul is telling Timothy to do what he can as a young man to keep that despising from happening. Don’t be indifferent to what older people think. Care about it. Take steps to win their approval. “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”

3. Youth Should Not See Adult Opinions As Supreme
But the way he tells Timothy to overcome being despised is not to adjust to their attitudes. He does not say, “Let no one despise you for your youth, but find out what they want and act that way.” Peaceful relationships between older and younger is not of supreme value. Adaptation to older people is not the point. He does not absolutize adult expectations. He does something very different.

4. Youth Should Look to Ultimately God’s Standards
Paul says, The way I want youth to pursue not being despised is look to God’s standards of love and faith and purity. In that way, even young people can become examples to older people. “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”

The point is not: Find out what older people want and give it to them so they don’t despise you.

The point is: Find out what kind of words and conduct God wants and do that. He gives love and faith and purity as examples of what we should do in our words and conduct. Let all your words and actions come from faith in Christ. Let them be loving. And keep yourselves sexually pure.

Now that may make some adults despise you. If you stand up at school for the way of sexual abstinence before marriage, there will be adults that despise you. But you will be right, as well as the adults who really matter, and God himself will not despise you.

So Paul’s main point is that Timothy should not have low expectations of the impact of his life toward those who are older. He should look to God, believe in the gospel, do what God calls him to do, and in that way become an example to the rest.

Don’t Adapt to Low Expectations
How many of our young people think that way: I am called to set an example for the adults. Of course, adults are supposed to set an example for young people. But here it’s the other way around. That calls for a dramatic shift in mindset for most adults and youth today: Don’t adapt to the low cultural expectations for youth. Set high ones. Youth can become examples for adults. Think that way. Dream that way. Or as the Harris brothers would say, “Rebel against low expectations.”

A Biblical Portrait of Youth’s Perils and Possibilities
Now step back with me to get a larger biblical picture of the perils and possibilities of youth. Let’s move in order from original sin to a bold life of God-centered gospel-obedience beyond all low expectations.

1. Born in Sin
First, sin. Every child is born with the corruption and guilt of Adam’s sin. “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psalms 51:5). That was David’s cry after his adultery with Bathsheba. He accepted responsibility, but he traced his corruption all the way back to conception and birth.

So it is with every child from Adam. And even after God started over, so to speak, after the flood. God said to Noah that he would not bring another flood like that, but it was not because the heart of man was now cured. Instead he said, “For the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). Nothing had changed in the human heart. Not to this day.

So it became a proverb: “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child” (Proverbs 22:15). That is the first thing we need to know about all of our children. They are sinners in need of salvation. They don’t just do bad things, they have bad natures, bad hearts. They need to be born again. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. They have all been born of the flesh. Now they need to be born of the Spirit (John 3:6).

2. In Need of the Gospel
Second, children must therefore be taught the truth about God and about Christ and about the gospel. God is the decisive teacher concerning himself, but he uses people, especially parents. “O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds” (Psalms 71:17). We pray that God would begin to teach our children from the earliest age in ways that only he knows how.

But he has told us the ordinary way that a child will come to know and trust Christ. “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). The discipline and instruction of the Lord is not simply moral demands followed by rewards and punishments. That would not be “of the Lord.” The Lord is the Lord who died for the child’s sins and rose again and pours out his Spirit to help us. Dad and Mom bring their children up in this gospel-saturated instruction. The grace of God in the gospel becomes the rule and the power by which a child lives. We will come back to this.

3. Born Again in Jesus
Third, a child is born again and comes to faith in Jesus as the Savior and Lord and Treasure of their lives. “You, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth” (Psalms 71:5). The Psalmist says that God has been his trust, his confidence, from his youth. God gave him new life, and he saw Christ as true and precious. That may mean he never remembers a time when he did not trust the Lord.

That would certainly be true for me. My mother told me how I came to a point at age six of wanting to receive Christ as my Savior and how I prayed at her bedside on vacation in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. But I have no memory of this—or much else in my childhood for that matter. I would say with the psalmist, “You, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth.” My confidence that I am born again does not rest in being able to remember the point when it happened, but in his finished work on the cross and in the relationship I have with the Lord now.

So after the reality of original sin, and then the teaching of the truth of the gospel, and then faith there comes now the forgiveness of sins.

4. Forgiven Through Faith in the Gospel
Fourth, original sin and all our sinful choices that follow from it will be forgiven through this faith that God awakens through the knowledge of the gospel. David embraces this truth in Psalm 25:7: “Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!”

This is good news at every age. We may tell our frightened eight-year-olds whose consciences are terrifying them, that the sins of their youth and their transgressions against Mommy and Daddy’s word may be forgiven. Peter says in Acts 10:43, “Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” Children must come to love this precious good news that makes them very thankful to God.

5. Given Suffering and Trials As God’s Own Children
Fifth, now that a child is born again and holding fast to Jesus as Savior and Lord and Treasure of their lives, God treats them as his own children. That means he gives them trials and afflictions to purify the heart and to make their faith strong and mature. “The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. . . . If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons” (Hebrews 12:6-8). One of the psalmists cried, “Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors; I am helpless” (Psalms 88:15).

We must teach our children a strong doctrine of suffering and affliction and how the Lord disciplines. We want to hear them say someday what the old man Samuel says to God: “I have walked before you from my youth until this day” (1 Samuel 12:2). And what Obadiah the prophet says: “I your servant have feared the Lord from my youth” (1 Kings 18:12). The Lord is loving our children in their trials. We must teach them how to understand the hard things that happen to them.

6. Brought to Biblical Maturity
Sixth—after sin, teaching the gospel, faith, forgiveness, and trials—it becomes plain therefore that in the Bible children, from the time they come to faith, are being treated by God in a way that can lead them to remarkable maturity and usefulness earlier than most of us think. Here are a few clues that this is the case.

David prays like this for his children and our children: “May our sons in their youth be like plants full grown” (Psalms 144:12). What does he mean, “May our sons already in their youth be like plants full grown”? He’s praying that the strength and fruitfulness of the more mature plant will already show itself in his sons even while they are young and the expectations for such fruitfulness is low. Should that not be our prayer all the more: “May our sons and daughters in their youth be like plants full grown”?

And the entire book of Proverbs is designed to help this early fruitfulness happen. The book begins like this: “The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel . . . to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth” (Proverbs 1:1, 4). The Bible does not believe that wisdom is only for the aged. Wisdom comes from God’s word mainly and from life-experience secondarily. Therefore, we should work and pray to help our children have wisdom and discretion.

Or consider Ecclesiastes 4:13: “Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice.” Better a wise youth than a foolish king! Think of that. Here is a poor lad badly clothed, and here is a rich king in fine robes. And the Bible says that this lad may be wiser than that king. How can that be? Because wisdom comes from God through his word. That is why parenting and church curriculum should be saturated with the Scriptures, so that someday our youth will hear the folly of old unbiblical men, and not be swept away. They will be like Elihu in Job 32:6-10 when he answers Job’s friends, I am young in years, and you are aged; therefore I was timid and afraid to declare my opinion to you. I said, “Let days speak, and many years teach wisdom.” But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand. It is not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right.” (Job 32:6-10)

7. Not Settling for Low Expectations
Seventh, this brings us to the practical conclusion for young people: Don’t let the culture set low expectations for what you may accomplish for Christ. Listen to the way God and Jeremiah argue about Jeremiah’s call when he was young.

Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.” (Jeremiah 1:6-7)

Be careful young people that you don’t postpone the burden and the blessing of fruitfulness in your life because you use the excuse, “I am only a youth.” God said to Jeremiah, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go.” There are some younger than you that you can lead, and there are some older than you that you can serve. But do not say, “I am only a youth,” as though the only thing you are good for is watching videos and playing games, as though there is no ministry for you to do.

8. Successful Parenting Is Gospel-Saturated
Finally, eighth, a closing word to parents and all who love children. We do not want to hear our children say when they are thirty what the rich young ruler said to Jesus after Jesus listed the commandments, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” Here is the great commandment keeper. Here is the compliant kid who did what he was told. He kept the commandments.

But when Jesus put him to the test and said he lacked one thing: “Sell what you have, give it to the poor, and follow me” (Mark 10:21), he couldn’t do it. He had no heart for Christ. Rule-keeping? Yes. Treasuring Jesus? No. He was dead. He had no affections for Christ. He was simply a good rule-keeper. And he said that it goes all the way back to his youth: “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” His parents said do, and he did.

The Shaping and Sustaining Power of the Gospel
Parents, successful parenting is more than compliant kids. It is gospel-saturated living and teaching. Show your children how Christ, crucified for our sins, and Christ, raised for our justification, and Christ, showing the Father’s love, and Christ, guaranteeing the Spirit’s daily help—show them how this gospel is not just something that begins the Christian life but empowers it and shapes and sustains it. Pray and love and teach your children until Christ breaks in on their hearts and becomes their Treasure.

May God give us a vision for the next generation that glorifies the gospel of Christ, and leads thousands of young people to the cross where they find forgiveness of sins, and broken-hearted humility, and Christ-exalting courage to rebel against low expectations and “do hard things.”

How to approach love for others, John Piper style...

This is from a recent John Piper sermon from the book of 1st John...

1 John 5:1-5

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

One of my aims today is to show that our ability to love others imperfectly is based on our assurance that in Christ we already love them perfectly. In other words, I want you to see for yourselves that, even when you fail to love as you ought, Christ’s perfection stands before God in place of that failure. And I want you to see that faith in Christ, not love for people, is the way you enjoy that union with Christ. Therefore, faith must come first and be the root of love and be different from love. Otherwise, love will be destroyed.

If you don’t come at love this way, your failures will probably overwhelm you with guilt and hopelessness. If that happens, you will give way either to hardworking legalism or fatalistic immorality.

If you don’t love God, you can’t do anybody any ultimate good. You can feed them and clothe them and house them and keep them comfortable while they perish. But in God’s mind that is not what love is. Love does feed and clothe and house—and keeps the commandments which would include helping others know and love God in Christ. But if you don’t love God, you can’t do that. So if you don’t love God, you can’t love people in the way that counts for eternity.

So we have our answer: When John says, “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,” he mainly means the commandments summed up in loving other people, especially believers. So we could paraphrase verse 3 like this: “This is the love of God, that we love others, especially his children and that this life of sacrificial Christ-like love is not burdensome. It’s what we most deeply desire to do as an expression of our love for the Father.”

The main reason we don’t love God and find it burdensome to love people is that our cravings are for the things of the world. They may be good things. They may be bad things. They may be material things. They may be relational. Whatever their form, they are not God. And when we crave them above God, they are idols. They replace love for God and love for people. That’s the universal problem of the world. What’s the solution?

John’s answer is in 1 John 5:3-4. He says in verse 4 that the reason loving God and loving people is not burdensome (verse 3) is that we have been born again and this new birth conquers the world: “Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.” Now we can see what that means. It means that the new birth severs the root of those cravings for the world. Overcoming the world means that the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride in possessions don’t rule us anymore. Their power is broken.

There are some today who are combining faith in Christ and love for people. They are saying that faith really means faithfulness, and that faithfulness includes love for people and so there is no way to distinguish faith in Christ and love for people.

I think that is a deadly mistake. I’ll try to say why. Faith in Christ and love for people are inseparable. But they are not indistinguishable. They are so inseparable that John can sum up all God’s demands in these two: faith and love. First John 3:23: “This is his commandment [singular], that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.” That is the summary of all the tests of life in this book: Believe on Jesus and love each other.

But the order of causality is crucial. The reason it’s crucial is this: There is going to come a day when you do not love as you ought. What will you do if your heart condemns you because you know that love is a sign of the new birth? How will you fight the fight for assurance at that time?

Here is one crucial way to fight for your hope at that moment, and it depends on a clear distinction between faith in Christ and love for people: Go to 1 John 2:1 and read, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin [that is, fails to love others as you ought], we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” John assumes that even when you fail—even when you sin, when you do not love as you ought—you have an advocate before God. And this advocate is called “the righteous.” That is, he is perfect. (See Romans 8:33-34.)

Even if you have sinned, he has never sinned. Even if you have failed to love as you ought, he has never failed to love as he ought. And this one stands before God and advocates for you—not against you, but for you. Precisely because you have failed. “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate . . . the righteous one.”

The emphasis falls on his righteousness—his sinlessness. His perfectly doing what we have failed to do. The reason this works for us is that faith is what receives him. And when faith receives him he is everything that we need before God. He is our righteousness and our perfection and our perfect love. This is the bottom of our hope before a holy God.

Great commentary on the home loan bailout that is right on!

This is from the Motley Fool, a great financial website, and the link to the actual article by Seth Jayson is here. I have copied the article and placed it below:

Paulson's Plan to Punish the Public
By Seth Jayson November 30, 2007

If you don't learn from the past: If the mortgage crisis and housing bubble have taught us one thing, it should be to watch out for the unintended consequences of greed. Unfortunately, our nation's legislators and political appointees haven't learned that lesson. Recent plans for housing and mortgage bailouts generally run from dumb to dumber. Today, The Wall Street Journal reported on yet another scheme, reportedly being spearheaded by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. It's an idea so naively populist and antimarket that you would think it came from Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, if not for its cringe-inducing, Beltway-wonk moniker: the Hope Now Alliance.

In short, bankers and loan-servicing outfits are going to lower interest rates on strapped borrowers so they don't lose their houses. How much, how long, and who qualifies are all still up in the air. No doubt, this will sound good to those folks who signed on for mortgages they can't actually afford. It will also look good to politicians angling to score points before the next election, and to bleeding hearts everywhere. It will also look good to select mortgage-industry players -- like Countrywide Financial (NYSE: CFC) and Citigroup (NYSE: C), which could really use a government-led bailout.

Unfortunately, this ill-conceived salve will ultimately punish the silent majority of Americans, people who didn't go out and make boneheaded financial decisions over the past half-decade.

Let's take a look at why.

A history of the housing Ponzi scheme: Since 2001, too-cheap financing pumped up housing prices to ridiculous levels. This was enabled by speculative lending from Wall Street to Main Street: Big banks like Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) and others were providing the lending capital to outfits like death-watch candidate Countrywide, mostly dead NovaStar Financial and Impac Mortgage Holdings, along with dozens of completely dead lenders. They did this by purchasing mortgage loans from these lenders so that they could chop them into mortgage-backed securities of dizzying complexity and dubious credit quality, which were, in turn, sold to suckers ... er, "investors" all over the world.

This provided a musical-chairs-like situation in which lenders produced as much volume as they could, no matter how bad the loans or credit risk, because they got paid to pass that risk along, through Wall Street's Wise bankers, to whatever "investor" ended up with the loans, in the form of stuff called MBS, CDOs, CDO-squared, R2D2, and so on. There was a flood of money to the lenders, which stimulated excessive demand, in turn stimulating excessive price appreciation. (You will note that there was no Paulson-led "Hope Now Alliance" coming together at that point to try and rein in this dangerous orgy of greed, though the consequences were plain to anyone who bothered to examine it.)

Greedy flippers and naive homebuyers resorted to gimmicky loans, like interest-only and "option" adjustable-rate mortgages, because it was the only way they could pay inflated prices for the properties they wanted. They got a few years of artificially low payments, thanks to artificially low teaser rates. The catch was that when the loans reset after a few years, they'd jump up several points, to 9%, 10%, 11%.

This may not sound like a big deal, until you run the math on the payments to see that many people would be facing twice the mortgage bill they were used to. Now that those mortgages are resetting and home prices are dropping like rocks, they can't make their payments, and they can't flip the houses for a profit, so loans are defaulting. The fancy securities -- what I call Wall Street dog food -- have become nearly worthless, and the music has stopped, without any chairs for anyone. Ironically, stupid, leveraged bets on these lousy securities have crippled the banks themselves, and CEOs and other execs have been getting the boot at places like Citigroup, Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER), and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS).

Hank to the rescue!: Hank Paulson's latest plan to protect homebuyers from their own mistakes is simple: Lenders extend those teaser rates for a few years. It's a win-win, right? What's the harm, especially when there's no bill to pay? You just reset those interest rates to low levels, and everything will be fine, right? Who could be against a policy that would keep Americans in their homes? One negotiated with the private sector itself?

This Fool, for one.

Making the credit crunch crunchier: Remember, the only reason those teaser-rate loans were made in the first place was because lenders (and thus the investors buying the mortgages from the lenders) could count on a much larger, contractually guaranteed payoff in the future, when those interest rates were due to reset. Take away that payoff, and you take away any incentive to loan to borrowers of marginal credit quality. Usher in an era when government and banks reset loan rates at their whim, and you can be sure that investors will never again buy securities based on adjustable-rate mortgages.
If you think credit is tight now, just wait until you yank away potential returns from the people putting up the capital for all those loans.

And let's not forget that Paulson's plan introduces an incredible moral hazard. By rescuing greedy and naive borrowers from their mistakes, our government encourages others to take big, stupid, bankruptcy-inducing risks, secure in the knowledge that the government will bail them out when times get rough. That means trillions of dollars in capital will be ill-invested yet again, something that's much less likely to happen when speculators are made to suffer the consequences of their behavior.

No free lunches: Here's another problem. Someone is going to have to foot the bill for this. Banks and associated entities that will, over the short term, finance this homeowner bailout are not going to do it out of the goodness of their hearts. Reported Hope Now Alliance honchos such as Countrywide and Citigroup (NYSE: C) are, I'm certain, only doing this because they hope it will be cheaper than having to pay up for their lending sins all at once. Moreover, it gives them a chance to look like good guys who care about the commoners -- never mind that they were quite happy to fleece borrowers with gawd-awful mortgage "affordability products" for years.
Still, this will sting some of these banks and mortgage servicers, so you can bet they're going to pass along the costs. They're going to do it by firing employees. (Countrywide and Citigroup are already doing that.) They're going to do it by moving offices to offshore tax havens, outsourcing, closing branches, lowering deposit rates, hiking fees, and whatever else it takes. (Golden parachutes for Wall Street failures are pricey.)

Worst of all, they're going to do it by soaking future borrowers -- people like the majority of us, who didn't do something stupid -- with higher rates than we would have otherwise paid for mortgage loans, credit cards, and commercial loans. They'll have to. They've got their own lenders to pay, and those lenders aren't going to simply hand over-stretched Americans a pile of money.

Foolish final thought: There's another reason that Paulson's latest plan will punish the public. It will have the effect of artificially supporting a home-price bubble that desperately needs a correction. Historical rent-to-purchase data show just how far home prices need to come down in order to return to mean. That requires a painful drop, and it will happen sooner or later.

Paulson's plan means fewer homes dumped back on the market at lower prices, where they belong. Now that he's a politician and not the CEO of Goldman Sachs, Paulson apparently believes that the market shouldn't be allowed to correct on its own. He's wrong about that, and he's wrong to support any plan that will only delay the inevitable. Better the quick, painful correction than the decades-long, slow bleed that he's nurturing now. For evidence of how ugly things get when policymakers try to coddle the financial industry rather than let the market apply its harsher, faster, medicines, just take a look at how long the banking mess continued in Japan.

Of course, a decade from now, if the economy is still suffering because of an ill-conceived housing bailout plan designed to win favor with the public and cover the economic hind-end of his boss, George Bush, Paulson won't have to issue any gomen nasai. He'll already be long gone, retired to his millions.

You and I will pay the bills.

The First Time

The lyrics below are from Lifehouse's newest song, "The First Time". I finally listened to the lyrics today and was overwhelmed. When I fell in love with my wife back in 2000, I couldn't think of words to describe what I was feeling at the time. But much as I have used music in my life to express emotions, the song I needed 7 years ago was finally written. Ann Bailey Saylor, this is how I felt about 3 days into my first Nashville visit.

The First Time
We're both looking for something
We've been afraid to find
It's easier to be broken
It's easier to hide

Looking at you,holding my breath,
For once in my life,
I'm scared to death,
I'm taking a chance,letting you inside.

Feeling alive all over again,
As deep as the sky, under my skin
Like being in love, she says
For the first time
Maybe I'm wrong,
But I'm feeling right where I belong
With you tonight
Like being in love
To feel for the first time

The world that I see inside you
Waiting to come to life
Waking me up to dreaming
Reality in your eyes

Looking at you,
Holding my breath,
For once in my life
I'm scared to death,
I'm taking a chance,
Letting you inside.

I'm feeling alive all over again
As deep as the sky under my skin
Like being in love, she says, for the first time
Maybe I'm wrong, I'm feeling right
Where I belong with you tonight
Like being in love to feel for the first time

We're crashing
Into the unknown
We're lost in this
But it feels like home

I'm feeling alive all over again
As deep as the sky under my skin
Like being in love, she says, for the first time
Maybe I'm wrong, I'm feeling right
Where I belong with you tonight
Like being in love to feel for the first time

John Piper's Letter About Minneapolis' Bridge Collapse

Putting My Daughter to Bed Two Hours After the Bridge Collapsed

What Do Tragedies Like This Mean for Us?
August 1, 2007
By John Piper

Read this resource on our website.

At about 6 PM tonight the bridge of Interstate 35W over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis
collapsed. I am writing this about three hours after the bridge fell. The bridge is located within sight of Bethlehem Baptist Church. Most of us who minister at the church cross this bridge several times a week. At this point I don’t know if any staff was on the bridge. Desiring God offices are about a mile from the bridge.

There are no firm facts at this point about the total number of injuries and fatalities. When we crossed the bridge Tuesday on our way out of town, there was extensive repair work happening on the surface of the bridge with single lane traffic. One speculates about the unusual stresses on the bridge with jackhammers and other surface replacement equipment. This was the fortieth anniversary of the bridge.

Tonight for our family devotions our appointed reading was Luke 13:1-9. It was not my choice. This is surely no coincidence. O that all of the Twin Cities, in shock at this major calamity, would hear what Jesus has to say about it from Luke 13:1-5. People came to Jesus with heart-wrenching news about the slaughter of worshipers by Pilate. Here is what he said.

There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."

Jesus implies that those who brought him this news thought he would say that those who died, deserved to die, and that those who didn’t die did not deserve to die. That is not what he said. He said, everyone deserves to die. And if you and I don’t repent, we too will perish. This is a stunning response. It only makes sense from a view of reality that is radically oriented on God.

All of us have sinned against God, not just against man. This is an outrage ten thousand times worse than the collapse of the 35W bridge. That any human is breathing at this minute on this planet is sheer mercy from God. God makes the sun rise and the rain fall on those who do not treasure him above all else. He causes the heart to beat and the lungs to work for millions of people who deserve his wrath. This is a view of reality that desperately needs to be taught in our churches, so that we are prepared for the calamities of the world.

The meaning of the collapse of this bridge is that John Piper is a sinner and should repent or forfeit his life forever. That means I should turn from the silly preoccupations of my life and focus my mind’s attention and my heart’s affection on God and embrace Jesus Christ as my only hope for the forgiveness of my sins and for the hope of eternal life. That is God’s message in the collapse of this bridge. That is his most merciful message: there is still time to turn from sin and unbelief and destruction for those of us who live. If we could see the eternal calamity from which he is offering escape we would hear this as the most precious message in the world.

We prayed during our family devotions. Talitha (11 years old) and Noel and I prayed earnestly for the families affected by the calamity and for the others in our city. Talitha prayed “Please don’t let anyone blame God for this but give thanks that they were saved.” When I sat on her bed and tucked her in and blessed her and sang over her a few minutes ago, I said, “You know, Talitha, that was a good prayer, because when people ‘blame’ God for something, they are angry with him, and they are saying that he has done something wrong. That’s what “blame” means: accuse somebody of wrongdoing. But you and I know that God did not do anything wrong. God always does what is wise. And you and I know that God could have held up that bridge with one hand.” Talitha said, “With his pinky.” “Yes,” I said, “with his pinky. Which means that God had a purpose for not holding up that bridge, knowing all that would happen, and he is infinitely wise in all that he wills.”

Talitha said, “Maybe he let it fall because he wanted all the people of Minneapolis to fear him.” “Yes, Talitha,” I said, “I am sure that is one of the reasons God let the bridge fall.”

I sang to her the song I always sing,

"Come rest your head and nestle gently

And do not fear the dark of night.

Almighty God keeps watch intently,

And guards your life with all his might.

Doubt not his love, nor power to keep,

He never fails, nor does he sleep. "

I said, “You know, Talitha, that is true whether you die in a bridge collapse, or in a car accident, or from cancer, or terrorism, or old age. God always keeps you, even when you die. So you don’t need to be afraid, do you.” “No,” she shook her head. I leaned down and kissed her. “Good night. I love you.”


Tonight across the Twin Cities families are wondering if they will ever kiss a loved one good night again. Some will not. I am praying that they will find Jesus Christ to be their Rock and Refuge in these agonizing hours of uncertainty and even loss.

The word “bridge” does not occur in the Bible. There may be two reasons. One is that God doesn’t build bridges, he divides seas. The other is that usually his people must pass through the deadly currents of suffering and death, not simply ride over them. “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you” (Isaiah 43:2). They may drown you. But I will be with you in life and death.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life . . . will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-38)

Killed all day long. But not separated from Christ. We go through the river. Not over it. He went before us, crucified. He came out on the other side. He knows the way through. With him we will make it. That is the message we have for the precious sinners in the Twin Cities. He died for your sins. He rose again. He saves all who trust him. We die, but because of him, we do not die.

Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25)

Talitha is sleeping now. But one day she will die. I teach her this. I will not always be there to bless her. But Jesus is alive and is the same yesterday today and forever. He will be with her because she trusts him. And she will make it through the river.

Weeping with those who weep, and those who should,

Pastor John

Psalm 71:20 You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again.

Excuses Are For Losers

I was a high school football player for Buckeye Union High School almost 20 years ago. I played offensive line, starting left tackle, for three of the four years (my senior year I was converted and started at tight end). I had never played before my freshman year, but my size (6'2", 200 lbs) meant that I was needed to keep the opposing lineman off our quarterback. As I said, I started every year I played offensive tackle, including my first year on varsity, as a junior. That year I made 1st team All-Region.

But what I remember most was one afternoon during two-a-days that junior year. We were doing drills against the scout team, who held blocking pads in their hands, so it wasn't exactly realistic, but it was early in the season and we were getting the plays down. My assignment on this particular running play was to block the linebacker, and I remember doing exactly just that. I ran him completely out of the play.

When the whistle sounded to end the play however, I found that our running back was hit behind the line of scrimmage by the nose guard when the he stunted into the gap between me and the offensive guard next to me, thus having a clear path to the running back. The play lost yardage, and the nose guard was assigned to the offensive guard next to me, but obviously he missed his block.

Coach Nunez, who wasn't the most cool headed of coaches, yelled at me, "Why did you not block Jarvis Berry?", the scout team nose guard. I answered, "I was supposed to block the linebacker, and I did." Technically I was correct. I did what I was supposed to do on paper. Instead, my coach blew up at me.

"Excuses are for losers, Danny Saylor," he said, and sent the entire team to run gassers for my answer.

At the time, I was angry. I did nothing wrong, done my job correctly. It was someone else's mistake. I, and most of my team, were now running because of some stupid whim of who was truly a very tempermental man.

But, I still remember this moment, now 17 years (almost to the day) later, because it taught me something very valuable, something that has shaped me into who I am today. See, it wasn't that I blocked the wrong guy, I should have read that my linemate, the offensive guard, had blown his assignment and blocked the nose guard myself (Jarvis was a quick guy!). I failed the team that day, and realized much later, due to my legalism in justifying my actions based on what was right technically, when instead I needed to learn that sometimes when you head out on a course of action, doing another's job is necessary for the benefit of the team. The guard should have released the nose guard to me, and gone on and done my assignment by going to pick up the linebacker. I should have done his job, and combined, the play would have been successful.

Excuses are for losers. Coach Nunez, as much as I hate to say it, was right. Responsibility lies not in how each of us performs, but what each of us should do in order to benefit the team. We all have reasons why we don't accomplish the things we set out to do- family, work, no time, etc.- but they are all the cliched "the dog ate my homework" excuse. Even if it were true, you had to get the assignment done anyway. In my case, the assignment of the team- to be successful- had been lost sight of instead for my personal assignment. It was my fault, coach, I admit it. Thanks for the lesson.

Oh My God Jars!

Youtube is pretty awesome, you can find almost anything you want there.

Was turned onto the Jars of Clay song "Oh My God" which is featured in the background of a previous John Piper youtube link on this blog...you can find the song in it's entirety with someone else doing a slideshow and providing some lyrics here:

Oh My God

Here are the lyrics:

Oh my God, look around this place
Your fingers reach around the bone
You set the break and set the tone
Flights of grace, and future falls
In present pain
All fools say, "Oh my God"

Oh my God, Why are we so afraid?
We make it worse when we don't bleed
There is no cure for our disease
Turn a phrase, and rise again
Or fake your death and only tell your closest friend
Oh my God.

Oh my God, can I complain?
You take away my firm belief and graft my soul upon your grief
Weddings, boats and alibis
All drift away, and a mother cries

Liars and fools; sons and failures
Thieves will always say
Lost and found; ailing wanderers
Healers always say
Whores and angels; men with problems
Leavers always say
Broken hearted; separated
Orphans always say
War creators; racial haters
Preachers always say
Distant fathers; fallen warriors
Givers always say
Pilgrim saints; lonely widows
Users always say
Fearful mothers; watchful doubters
Saviors always say

Sometimes I cannot forgive
These days, mercy cuts so deep
If the world was how it should be, maybe I could get some sleep
While I lay, I dream we're better,
Scales were gone and faces light
When we wake, we hate our brother
We still move to hurt each other
Sometimes I can close my eyes,
And all the fear that keeps me silent
Falls below my heavy breathing,
What makes me so badly bent?
We all have a chance to murder
We all feel the need for wonder
We still want to be reminded
That the pain is worth the thunder
Sometimes when I lose my grip,
I wonder what to make of heaven
All the times I thought to reach up
All the times I had to give
Babies underneath their beds
Hospitals that cannot treat
All the wounds that money causes,
All the comforts of cathedrals
All the cries of thirsty children,
This is our inheritance
All the rage of watching mothers,
This is our greatest offense

Oh my God
Oh my God
Oh my God

Lead singer Dan Haseltine's comments:
“I think there are more lyrics in that one song than there were on our entire last record,” Haseltine says of Oh My God. “People all have their reasons for crying out to God. Some of those are really deep, deep doubts, and one of the questions in that third verse where it asks whether Jesus is real or not. Growing up in the church, I was scared to death to ask that question, because I didn’t know whether the Gospel could stand up to the scrutiny. There are times when I wrestle with that even now, but it’s a question that needs to be asked.”

John Piper and Joel Osteen

Last week in community group I was directed to a couple of youtube.com links that I really wanted to share.

The first is on Joel Osteen, who myself watched on TV one Sunday morning while home sick. While watching I couldn't get past the perfect teeth, the perfect coiffed hair, the elaborate delivery. In my mind, if he was trying to sell me a car, I would have been very skeptical. But instead he is sellling Jesus, and if you don't know your Bible it is easy to get sucked in by the pizzazz of the show he puts on. But he is selling a false gospel, known as the prosperity gospel...in other words, Christians are not supposed to be sick or suffer or have bad things happen to them. The are supposed to be rich and drive Mercedes and retire early. But I ask you, where does it say that in the Bible? Watch and see for yourself...

Joel Osteen Said What?

The prosperity gospel sells...think about how many books O'Steen has sold, how many "Prayer of Jabez" books Bruce Wilkinson sold, how many people go and see Benny Hinn.

Now here is John Piper's commentary on the prosperity gospel, given to a speech at UCF in Birmingham.

John Piper on the prosperity gospel

Tell me if you feel convicted...

Next week, GNR's "November Rain" is Tackled...

I smiled as I remembered a conversation I had with my 5 year old son yesterday afternoon while coming home from Lowe's. I am pretty much a rock dude, with my favorites being on the scale of Van Halen, Matchbox 20. While listening to a local station, that 80's anthem "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" by Poison came on the radio. My son asks, "Why does he say a rose has a thorn dad?" While trying to sound intelligent on the subject after hearing the song for almost 20 years and able to sing almost every lyric in time, I came up with "sometimes the things that are pretty can still hurt you." Not bad for answering on the fly, if you ask me. Bret Michaels would be proud.

Don Imus

There is a firestorm going on over shock-jock radioman Don Imus' comments about the Rutgers University women's basketball team. For those of you who missed them, he described them using the derogatory and racial terms "nappy headed hos". NBC's Today Show had host Matt Lauer interview him and Rev. Al Sharpton concurrently, then later interviewed Jesse Jackson. For the record- he has been suspended for 2 weeks beginning next Monday (due to a previously scheduled telethon that runs Thursday and Friday to raise money for his charities).

Here's what bugs me...why the big deal?

It is not that what he said was right. Certainly I agree with those saying that he was wrong. I feel diversity aware enough to feel disgusted about his portrayal of women as nothing more than sex objects as he did in using the word "ho", slang for "whore". To me, that is simply seeing a female as nothing more than a vagina, and if that is all you think about when you see a female, believe me you are missing the best parts of a woman. Then to characterize them as "nappy headed" surely is inane and inflammatory. This reference wasn't too hard to comprehend- and black people should not be characterized like this. So overall what did his term mean? A team of black whores. That sounds very intelligent. It just proves he's an idiot.

But why the big deal? Rappers have been using this term in their lyrics for years. Do you see any one of them being raked across the coals for what they publish and put across the airwaves? So it is OK for a black person (and I am stereotyping this group because most of them are black) to use these words? I find them offensive! Let's get them to stop making records! Let's keep their music off the shelves! They have no right to do this also!

What? You don't hear this argument? You don't agree? They are being "artistic"? You say I can choose to not listen if it offends me (which I do)? Well, guess what, you can do the same with this man as well! Don't like him, TURN HIM OFF! That will get his network and his sponsor's attention more than anything the media, of which he is part and parcel, can do. In fact, I think he is basking in the attention of it all. Free PR!

Just great...

ROMANS Chapter 1, Vs 1-7

My wife and I are working our way through Tom Nelson's, the teaching pastor at Denton Bible Church in Denton, TX, current sermon series on the book of Romans. You can download it for free on iTunes, just search podcasts for "Denton Bible Church". I will post my notes on his sermons (currently he is somewhere in the 20's, and the series began back in October!) as we delve into his teaching on this book.

Tommy Nelson Study- ROMANS

OVERVIEW
1. Most important book in Bible

2. Theme- How a perfect, holy God can get an imperfect man into a perfect, holy place and yet remain perfect without compromising His holiness.

3. Purpose- Paul had never been to Rome, and word on the street was that he was afraid to go to Rome because he couldn’t preach it to Rome, the height of culture, the “enlightened” philosophers, the classic “city of Man”, and hold up to Rome’s (man’s) intellectual attack on it. But Paul had wanted to go to Rome, but God had not allowed him to do so yet, thus the writing of this letter.

Chapter Breakdown by Subject:

• Ch 1-3: Condemnation
• Ch 4-5: Justification
• Ch 6-8: Sanctification
• Ch 9-11: Vindication of God’s Sovereignty
• Ch 12-16: Application
  
  CHAPTER 1: Vs 1-7 Faith’s Foundations
  

Vs 1: The Author- Paul

• A servant and apostle- one who saw and was sent forth
• Was given a message by God himself
• He is not a mystic, a thinker

Vs 2: The Source

• Promised beforehand by his prophets- not in man, but of God
• In the Holy Scriptures- purpose of the Old Testament was to show you your sin and point you to Christ
• If Moses, David, or Elijah were here, they would believe in Christ

Vs 3-4: The Focus

• Regarding His Son- Jesus- perfect humanity and deity
• He was fully man- a descendent of David
• He is also fully God
• He died and was resurrected- proving/declaring his deity- declaring = “horitzo” in Greek- translated into appointed, determined, something clearly marked out
• He showed that death has no power over him
• Thus, Jesus is the Son of David who was resurrected- He is the Messiah- he fulfilled the prophesies, thus He is our LORD

Vs 5: The Purpose

• Human salvation depends on obedience by faith and this only

Vs 6: The Scope

• God has commanded all mankind to repent- those that worship the earth, idols, other things are to abandon that way of thinking and repent of that and come to their Creator or risk being judged accordingly

Vs 6: The Recipients

• Those who were called- God summoned the Christians, they are the objects of His grace, even though he commanded all to repent, only the Christians have obeyed
• Has nothing to do with moral or intellectual superiority or any other characteristic of man

Vs 7: Benefits of Being Saved- Sainthood

• He LOVES us and because of this we are to be progressively changed in Christ throughout our lives in a process that will culminate with our resurrection to be with Him on the day of judgment to join the family of God. When He looks at us He sees His Son, and His righteousness has been imputed to us through our faith in Him alone. We are thus reconciled to God.

Doctor's Don't Listen and MRI's Lie

Here is a cool listen on NPR's Fresh Air on a recent book by a New England physician who states how MD's easily err in their thinking and misdiagnose by failing to listen to patients and hanging their hats on what are often poorly reliable imaging. The book is "How Doctors Think" by Jerome Groopman, MD.

Deductive Reasoning for Prevention

As an allied health care professional- a physical therapist to be exact- it amazes me how passive so many people are when they go see a practitioner in any of the vast medical fields- from RN's to MD's to DC's to PT's. A system has been created, from as far back as ancient tribal shamans to the father of modern medicine, Galen, where a patient tells the practitioner what is wrong and expects the practitioner to heal them. In fact, this model is thoroughly utilized every time you go see your family physician- you have some symptoms and he/she prescribes an antidote, typically pharmaceutical, and you're told to call if you do not improve. It works most of the time, even with the expectation that there may not be a response to what has been prescribed, especially if the patient follows as he or she has been advised.

So here's my scenario- a patient walks in last week with a prescription for rehabilitation for spinal pain from an orthopedic specialist. He has private commercial insurance, and as a favor my company always researches his medical benefits prior to his appointment just so he will know what his costs will be for utilizing my services. While we do this he chooses to wait to see what they are before he schedules his initial evaluation.

We get through to his insurance company fairly quickly (and by this I mean in under 20 minutes) and find that he will have a $250 deductible that must be met before his insurance company will pick up 80% of the bill. He declines to schedule.

So this is a man who probably started out at his primary care physician for complaints of back pain. He was then most likely prescribed pain medications, either steroidal or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications, and possibly muscle relaxants to relieve his symptoms because 80% of spinal complaints resolve in less than 1-2 weeks (thus the use of medication- it gets you through those two weeks). But for this guy, we can only guess it did not work, because he was sent on to a specialist, maybe even after his primary care doctor ordered a series of imaging (X-ray, MRI) to better assess what he or she was treating.

So he now arrives at his second physician appointment, a specialist in the care of back pain we would imagine. This physician most certainly would order imaging of some sort if it had not been done before, might also again try some medications, and in this case determined that he should try rehabilitation in the form of physical therapy as well.

Let's recap: 2 physician appointments, great chance for the use of medications, probably some imaging of the spine involved, and our patient still has complaints of pain in his back. A specialist, who he chose to visit after being referred by his primary care physician, tells him to go to therapy.

BUT...when he finds out that he will have to pay for at least a few visits out of his own pocket- and I know that $250 can be a lot of money for some people, which is why we have a payment assistance program for those who need it- HE DECLINES TO BE SEEN!

I want to ask him, "Why did you take the time to go through the hassle above when you were not going to follow the physician's advice anyway?" Obviously what he has tried himself has not been working, else why would he have sought out care?

The sad thing is that in someone who has gone this far through the system, he likely will not return to the specialist until his case becomes so involved that he would require surgery. And this surgery will cost him the deductible plus a whole lot more, especially when you think about the time off work required and the fact that his deductible probably will go up in the coming years, for something he may have been able to prevent if he had not worried so much about that $250 right now.

Are you up on your Sesame Street?

Do you know the name of Big Bird's wooly friend? Take this quiz at one of my favorite MD blogs...

No More Ice Cream For Ann...

We have finally figured out the key to the Bailey family's fertility: ice cream.

It appears that a recent study from the Harvard School of Public Health published in the European Journal Human Reproduction showed that eating full-fat ice cream and other high-fat dairy items (Ann loves her cream cheese too!) may lower the risk of one type of infertility.

Sherbet and frozen yogurt for this family for here on out! And hey, how bout some non-dairy creamer for that coffee!

Phoenix Drivers

From a former Phoenician, provided as a public service announcement:

HOW TO DRIVE IN PHOENIX

1. You must first learn to pronounce the city name, it is: "FEE-NICKS."

2. The morning rush hour is from 5:00am to noon. The evening rush hour is from noon to 7:00pm. Friday's rush hour starts on Thursday morning.

3. The minimum acceptable speed on most freeways is 85 mph. On Loop 101, Your speed is expected to match the highway number. Anything less is considered "Wussy.

4. Forget the traffic rules you learned elsewhere. Phoenix has its own version of traffic rules. For example, cars/trucks with the loudest muffler go first at a four-way stop; the trucks with the biggest tires go second. However, East Valley, SUV-driving, cell phone-talking moms ALWAYS have the right of way.

5. If you actually stop at a yellow light, you will be rear-ended cussed out, and possibly shot.

6. Never honk at anyone. Ever. Seriously. It's another offense that can get you shot.

7. Road construction is permanent and continuous in Phoenix. Detour barrels are moved around for your entertainment and pleasure during the middle of the night to make the next day's driving a bit more exciting.

8. Watch carefully for road hazards such as drunks, skunks, dogs, barrels, cones, cows, horses, cats, mattresses, shredded tires, squirrels, rabbits, crows, vultures, javelinas, roadrunners, and the coyotes feeding on any of these items.

9. The Maricopa Freeway, Papago Freeway and "I-10" are the same road. SR202 is the same road as The Red Mountain Freeway. Dunlap Rd. and Olive Rd. are the same street too. Jefferson St. becomes Washington St., but they are not the same street. I-17 is also called the "Black Canyon Freeway" as well as the "Veterans Memorial Highway". And if all that isn't enough to remember SR 51 has recently been renamed to Piestewa Freeway because Squaw Peak Parkway was too easy pronounce. Lastly, Thunderbird Rd. becomes Cactus Rd. but, Cactus Rd. doesn't become Thunderbird Rd. because it dead ends at a mountain.

10. If someone actually has their turn signal on, wave them to the shoulder immediately to let them know it has been "accidentally activated."

11. If you are in the left lane and only driving 70 in a 55-65 mph zone, you are considered a road hazard and will be "flipped off" accordingly. If you return the flip, you'll be shot.

12. For summer driving, it is advisable to wear potholders on your hands.

Boy Have I Sucked At This...

No posts since last May! Let's see what has transpired since my last post...

Trip to the lake in July...
Trip to Mammoth Cave with my lovely (and very pregnant) bride...
Birth of Anna Kate Saylor...
Starting new job in new clinic...(same company though)...
Fixing up/Marketing/Selling old home...
Finding/Buying new home...
Thanksgiving...
Moving all earthly contents to new home...
Christmas...
New Year's in Knoxville...
Finding out new home address is incorrect...
Going to the circus with family...

Nah, not much. Maybe I'll take another 7 months off!

The Da Vinci Code and Mohammed?

When The Da Vinci Code opens in theaters on May 19th, it certainly will garner a great number of tickets sold for what may be the most anticipated movie of the year. Truly no other book, other than the Bible itself, has had such a big impact in terms of copies sold and interest in historical religiosity so far this decade. The Catholic Church and Opus Dei organization are already on a defensive campaign to spin what is perceived to be negative PR from the book and certainly the movie's release itself.

Author Dan Brown himself says that "The Da Vinci Code is a novel and therefore a work of fiction" and the goal for the reader is "that the story would serve as a catalyst and a springboard for people to discuss the important topics of faith, religion, and history. "

A lot of Christians are seeing the release of the movie as an opportunity to discuss religion with those unfamiliar with their faith, and this surely is a great chance for evangelism to take place. Many sites have also commented on the book's impact on Christianity- Christianity Today and Campus Crusade for Christ both having information readily available for those seeking truth.

All the above to put forth a simple query: What if The Da Vinci Code had at its basis the question of religious history with relation to Mohammed instead of Jesus? How would the Islamic community have handled it? With all the outrage from the Islamic community regarding the publishing of editorial cartoons depicting Mohammed in various situations recently can you imagine the outcry from the Arabic speaking world? Does this speak volumes about the sensitivity and tolerance of both faiths to questioning and the attitudes of those who follow both?

Day Without an Immigrant = Absent From School?

I would like to applaud those that took to the streets, stayed at home, or chose other peaceful protests to bring to a head the importance of the issue of immigration here in this country. Truly, we are at a crossroads with how we handle the vast number of individuals who desire entrance into this country, often with the motive of giving themselves or their children a better life. That in and of itself is honorable, and it says a lot as to the accomplishment of this country from the fledgling society we started out back in 1776, when we declared independence from England by stating "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." However, that success has also driven the immigration issue we face today- since the United States is perceived to be the country where one must go to achieve a level of economic and personal security, with the relative safety of respect for cultural individuality thus fostering our populous diversity, there exists large numbers wanting to cross our borders, both legally and illegally.

Many come and work hard to achieve these goals. In fact, we have the dilemma of wanting cheaply produced and thus cheaply sold products in this country, as evidenced by the impact the Wal-Mart concept has had on consumer shopping. No where is this more evident than in two different areas in our economy- agriculture and construction.

Last fall, there was fear of a worker shortage in Arizona, where during November 35,000-40,000 workers are needed to harvest the produce- lettuce, cauliflower, broccoli and celery- necessary to deliver to your corner grocery store. Like a head of broccoli for under $2? Then you have just voted for allowing illegal aliens across our borders by using your wallet. The same goes for the keeping the price of fruit, cotton, and other agricultural products low. In a time of $3 a gallon gas, I think an increase in the price of food and socks would surely make people stand up and take notice.

Then there is the construction industry. In many parts of the country the housing market has been booming thanks to low interest rates and the large number of individuals wanting to buy homes. But tell me, have you seen many non-Hispanic faces on the work crews? How many of your friends would work 10+ hour days 6-7 days a week for less than $15/hour? Take into consideration that a lot of these people are also sending a good portion of their incomes back across the border for their immediate and extended family members. Their dedication to hard work and for their family is something we can all learn from.

This leads us back to the "Day Without an Immigrant" 6 days ago. Again, it seemed like those most affected by immigration law would want less attention drawn to them, for if any change is made to further determine the legality of a person's presence here in this country, those that would be at risk would not want to stand out by having their absence noted in the workplace. But, taking a stand for something you believe is something this country was founded on (see above), and this shows the incorporation of American ideals into the diverse ethnic and cultural peoples who chose to make their presence known. If these same people can become legal citizens, can you imagine what their presence can do in the polls if they continue to take their civic responsibility so seriously?

However, one thing does show me the Americanization of the immigrants may have been too complete. Almost everywhere you will read that those here both legally and illegally are here to better themselves and/or their children. In fact, three high school students, all undocumented who are here with their undocumented families, stated in an NPR interview on May 2 that they reason the United States should allow them to stay was that they were "studying hard" in school. But why were they out of school on May 1? Does this not contradict their reason for staying?

Here locally it was reported that the absence rate for Hispanic students in Metro Nashville schools was 30%. Again, if parents of minority students, some of whom are certainly immigrants and here to better the lives of their children, would appreciate the fact that in order to accomplish that goal attendance in school is an absolute necessity. Has school attendance, as it has to many of the American students who are natives of this country, become a convenience to these students as well?

I, as an educated American would call this contradiction ironic. It is a pity that those who were taking a stance may be missing the point of their purpose in being here, and may be more like us than they know.

Islam vs. the World

This is the first of what I hope will be many posts on the radicalism seen in the Muslim world today.

Today an Austalian news company ran a report of new photos of the Abu Gharib abuse scandal, and according to the report on MSN, the Muslim world in once again "inflamed". In fact, here is a quote from the report:

“This is truly American ugliness that no other country in the world can compete with,” Yemeni journalist Saleh al-Humaidi told Reuters.“The Americans ought to apologize to mankind for their government’s lie to the world that it is fighting for freedom and that it came to Iraq to save it from Saddam Hussein’s oppression,” he said.

Now surely what happened at Abu Gharib is indefensible on all fronts. The man responsible, Army Spec. Charles Graner, has been tried and convicted and is now serving 10 years in prison for his atrocities. Justice has been served.

But how can this be "ugliness that no other country in the world compete with"? So Saddam's gassing of the Kurds in northern Iraq is not ugly? So the children walking to school this morning that were killed by a terrorists' bomb in Iraq this morning is not ugly? So the genocide that occurred in the Sudan and Somalia is not ugly? So the killing of thousands at the world trade center is not ugly? So the Yemini bombing of the USS Cole is not ugly?

The statement, from a Muslim, condemns the US on a political level for something that is more a result of his personal hatred and intolerance, something that his culture and many in his faith feel is defensible in their twisted, self-righteous, bigoted way of thinking if it occurs by their hands or is according to their "purpose". If they kill people, it is ok; if we torture people, it is the extreme in "ugliness".

Sounds to me like the pot is calling the kettle black, Mr. al-Humaidi. Police yourself and establish some sort of tolerance for views that are other than your own and maybe you can have some credibility with your comments.