Media Ménage à Trash

In a day where you can watch the death of someone occur on your video cell-phone and post a comment about it's validity or worthwhile-ness, even before the person drops dead to the ground, you would think that the quality of what we have access to would be enhanced by the elimination of the middle men, the editors, the sponsors, the D-Jockeys. But it hasn't. Quite the opposite has occurred. Everyone is now a photojournalist. High School students with a cam-ready, wi-fi caffeinated, and possessing a quick-publishing automat-on-the-web interface have turned the old-fashioned web-bulletin boards into the NY Times of Easy-Bake News. It's called news; but it is opinion. It is not fact; it is viewpoint. It is not objective; it is decidedly sided. The upside, we have access to any piece of information being broadcast from any piece of the planet. It doesn't have to be deemed important by an editor before it is allowed a medium. It doesn't need to be of the highest quality in order to be viewed by millions. The downside, include the same. It doesn't have to be fact-checked, nor source protected. The quality can be poor and so our standards become lax. It doesn't have to be worthwhile for people to invest time reviewing it. It can be an immense waste of society’s time and resources.

We now spend an incredible amount of our salaried time reading useless emails, surfing useless internet sites and blindly following useless links around the web-world. A study involving 10,000 workers cites the random surfing of the web as the leading cause of productivity loss every day. The average hours per day spent? A whopping 2.09 hours. And that’s while on the job. The salaried cost for this unproductive use of FTE's is a mind-boggling $759 Billion a year. For more info you can investigate this (on your own time) at www.salary.com.

My thoughts, and these are merely my opines so you should weight them all in light of eternity, and the possible loss of your jobs, is to leave the surfing to your lunch time and after hours activities. Put your work, family, fitness and faith first. Then putting on your spelunking gear and head into the dark crevices’ of the internet.

Now for some news commentary. If you are interested in Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, or Anna Nicole, Daniel Radcliffe, Beyonce, Jessica, Pitt, Cruise or the rest, find yourself another blog to waste your time on. I have no interest in individuals who's greatest desire is to coin-toss between one bad decision or another. And to do it well aware that a brain-dead population of imbeciles who live vicariously through their escapades vie E or the Enquirer will be waiting to tune in nightly. Have I made myself clear?

Now I start of tonight with a "Bravo" to Michael Flaherty of Walden Media for having the courage to fly in the face of the Media Elite and produce films that are of a good quality and of great value to families with children. His works range from "Holes" to "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," to "Because of Winn Dixie," to his latest releases "Amazing Grace" and "Bridge to Terabithia." His desire has been to encourage reading of the classics and writings of the greatest authors such as Thoreau (from whose book Flaherty draws his company's name, Walden) and C.S. Lewis. I thank Mr. Flaherty for using his ability in the Media world to give us something we can safely take or children to; use for moral grounding; and that gives our kids hero's they can proudly emulate.

How many of you have been staying abreast of the discovery of the entombed Ossuaries in Jerusalem labeled with the names Jesus, son of Joseph; Maria (Mary); Yose (Joseph); Mariamne (Mary Magdalene); Matia (Matthew); James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus; and Judah, son of Jesus. Filmmaker James Cameron is producing a film entitled “The Lost Tomb of Jesus.” If you haven’t thought this one through yet, you need to. Albeit it entirely possible that this is just one of the merely hundreds of possible tombs with a name Yeshua inscribed on at least one of the ossuaries contain within; this one has some unique distinctions. First, the combination of these names together is somewhat obvious. Second, although a family tomb, DNA testing of remains found in the ossuaries indicate family relationships and non-family remains exactly as one would predict. The implications should this be authentic are going to cut deep into Christian belief and theological core. If true, Jesus’ bodily resurrection may not be supportable in spite of Matthew’s insistence in the Gospels. Was it then a spiritual ascension then what Christ foretold? It’s a good time for Christians to refresh their memory as to the text and context of the resurrection and come to an understanding, with the assistance of God’s spirit, as to what we are to know and understand from the history of Christ.

Looks like the race will be heating up. John McCain announced his intent to run for the Presidency on “Late Night with David Letterman.” I personally think he should have first used YouTube.

Here’s a young guy you haven’t heard of but who I think has contributed more in a couple of years towards bettering the world than 90% of the Hollywood Elite will in their lifetime. And, he’s only 15 years old. His name is Zach Hunter and his cause is human slavery. Reported by the International Labor Organization to be a number as high as 12.3 Million people (most are women and children), it is largely invisible to the West. The organization he created is called “Loose Change to Loosen Chains” and can be found at www.lc2lc.org . I encourage you all to become abolitionist in 2007. Like Wilberforce in Flaherty’s “Amazing Grace” we as Christians must be agents for positive change. Whether God has given you a heart for the elderly, the enslaved, the poor, the handicapped, youth, pregnant teens, the suicidal, the environment, animal welfare, or the ability to teach a skill, build or repair a home, bless with musical abilities, fix a car, fix a marriage, or befriend the lonely, you can’t keep putting it off.

That’s the news, now get to work.

James 1:27

Coming Home

To My Male Friends…

I want to start this letter by stating unequivocally that I believe that God is…

Strange way to start a discussion. There is something hanging intentionally. Unfinished. Incomplete. Imperfect. Like short sentences we utter daily never really getting out the flood of words, ideas and thoughts that barrage our minds daily. A million stars twinkling in our heads every hour, yet, we speak short insignificant nothings. To our peers, wives, children, wives. We have become the Windows Blue Screen. It’s recognizable, but hardly detailing the billions of bits of operations that were and are going on behind it. We dare commit to voicing our perceptions, ideas, understandings, revelations from God: Truth. We have become the empty syringe or pill, a placebo. In our own minds effective. In truth however, we fail to get in the face of those we love with serious conviction and probable solutions. We can’t bring ourselves to tell someone that they have a terrible disease or life pattern. We can’t bring ourselves to say that we might have the same issue.

There is no doubt in my mind that God wants…

I have had several friends dealing with issues of infidelity. Infidelity: to their wives and children; to their bodies; to their God given talents; to their work; to their purpose in life.
The guilt is overwhelming. For them, you, and me. Some of you (let’s get honest) may not have gotten involved with the destructive behaviors if someone had intercepted; if someone had spent more time with you asking questions and being present within your’ personal space. I do not pretend that I am better, that I make better choices or understand the greatest mysteries of life, passion, sociology, psychology, God’s creation or how we are driven or impulsed in one area or another. Quite the contrary. I have come to recognize that I am quite capable of making the same mistakes that you have. I have struggled with various temptations over the years and thank God that He continually works on me.

God, for eternity, has been in the business of…

I want to see my friends successful. But really, what does that mean? Does it mean a solid career path in a high paying job? I suppose that it could. But it is not a clear indication. I would rather the evidence bring light to their abilities as a father to their children; as a dedicated lover of their wives; as men who seek God’s wisdom over their own; as friends who truly care for one another and speak truth when necessary. God is in the reconstruction business. Like things in my home of 5 children, they were once constructed but almost everything needs to be reconstructed at some point. I bet you know what I mean. God created. It’s a simple statement. But even more empowering is He is still creating. He’s creating new futures for us all of the time. He is creating beauty from the ashes where we once trespassed.

God has never…

Knowing that we are all prone to foul up, there is no division between us. Whether its’ doing our jobs well; remaining faithful to our wives; developing a dependence on drugs or alcohol; not taking care of the bodies and possessions God has given us; not helping the poor and lonely; stealing or developing a welfare attitude; having hopeless or suicidal thoughts; failing to demonstrate our faith to our children; or forgetting to be real friends, we are all similarly guilty and worthy of the crap we create.

This is why I say to you all today, I care about you and your families. I care that you may have destructive, addictive tendencies that maybe you’ve had for years and don’t know how to beat. I care that you may not be on the path that God has planned for your lives nor are you living that purpose out successfully.

And, I am sorry. I am sorry that I didn’t say it sooner. Or, that I allowed busyness and fear to get in the way of saying things that needed to be said. I am sorry for trying to pretend that I had everything together when a better friend would have said “let’s get through these life situations together.” I will not judge you, only be there to help in any way that I am able.

The good thing to remind yourself of is that God will…

He will restore a heart that has become cold and separated from Him. He will paint a masterpiece depicting a new future for us. He will walk and talk with us when we reach out for Him and seek Him first, above all other things. He will bring the beauty from ashes that we all desperately need. It’s about coming home.

Now go back to the statements unfinished above and complete them in a quiet discussion with God. Because for each one of us, the answer will be a little bit different. And that’s o.k. I just want to hear back from you what He completes each sentence with.