Farewell to 2011

It's hard to believe that the year is down to its last few hours. So much has happened in the past twelve months -some good, some bad. We've said goodbye to some friends who are now in the presence of Jesus while we welcomed the new life of little babies into the world. I saw High School students grow in their relationship with Christ and in turn help lead others to faith as well. The world remains a fearful and unsettling place to many, some put their trust in Mayan visions of the Apocalypse instead of putting their confidence in the Lord of All. Others look for the government to solve their problems, but political solutions seem inadequate. Strong dictators come and go while people "occupy" and protest that democracy is failing them.
In the midst of all this chaos, God remains in control; nothing happens outside His notice. If 2012 truly turns out to be the end, it is good to know that He is "with us always, even to the end of the world."

Back to Blogging

Man, it's been so long since I last posted here. It's funny how I can blog twice a day during Lightseekers Camp, but can't find the desire or time to put into my own blog. Someone recently asked if I blogged and was surprised to hear that I actually had one. What can I say? Getting my MBA sort of pushed me out of the habit and then mindless pursuits have kept me away. Perhaps I shall try the shorter, more pithy sort of blogging that Laura uses, however I'm not nearly as prosaic as she is. Maybe I should just comment on how the world is behaving these days (not very nicely, I'm afraid) or even relate about my current reading assignments. I need to ponder this, but hopefully, I'll be back again soon.

Closing Out 2010

As I sit here in the mountains, watching an old movie, I pause to reflect on this past year. Yes, this will be my one and only post for 2010, but I promise to begin blogging on this site again. For one thing, I am now done with school, finishing my MBA in late October. It had been the sinkhole for nearly all my creative writing; in all my years of primary, secondary and undergraduate education, I hadn't written as many papers as I did these past two years. Even though my last assignment was done over two months ago, it's taken me a while to shake the feeling that some assignment is due in the coming week. Perhaps once I finally see my diploma, it will truly seem real.

School was not the only great thing on my mind; work has had its moments of joy, but there have been far more moments of frustration and anxiety. The remaining 57 months before I reach retirement age cannot come too soon, I fear. The state of the economy does not help, but adds to the pressure.

The good news is that I celebrated my 50th birthday this year, bringing me that much closer to the day I can retire. It was a wonderful party, attended by nearly forty of my friends and family. My family too is growing - my brother got married and now he and his wife are expecting a son.

There have been many births this past year in the lives of my friends as well as those friends who are no longer with us. The world changes, yet the one constant remains is the Lord who created it all. He is our peace, our hope and our life. When things seem to crumble, He is there; when we experience joy beyond reason, He is there too. As we move into a new year, may we know the comfort of His presence and the strength of His righteous right hand.

Mountain Quiet

I'm sitting here at Lake Arrowhead on the sofa in front of a crackling fire (I wouldn't say roaring - I've been struggling all evening to keep it aflame because the wood is wet from today's light rain.) Except for the sound of the fire and the motor of the refrigerator in the kitchen, it is completely silent. Laura is already asleep outside (she likes to sleep in the cold weather) and the neighbors who were bustling about earlier have all settled in. I've always liked the winters here because it is so tranquil and I have tried to spend my yearly break between Christmas and New Year's in the mountains. Most often I've been successful in getting away to this place and frequently I've had the pleasure of having friends join me. Yet this year, Laura and I are the only ones at the cabin; plus, there have been no phone calls, no emails, no text messages or pages. My cell phone died and I didn't even notice. I AM GLAD! After the stressful last few months of work, school, even ministry, I am delighted to just be by myself and rest. I have slept like I haven't been able to in months. Oh, I have the internet to keep informed of the outside world, but there's no live TV with the talking heads telling me what they think I need to hear.
I know that soon enough the quiet will be broken and that I will return to the everyday routine that is my life for the other 50 weeks of the year. For now, I will enjoy the time the Lord gives to restore my soul, body and mind. See you soon.

The Frog and the Scorpion

It's been a while since I've blogged here - I've been relying more on the short blast messages of Facebook and Twitter, plus I've been focused more on school. However, with all the interesting things happening in the political world, I thought I would make some comments.

I've noticed that a lot of people who were previously uninvolved with politics have become quite active due to what they see as a government growing at an alarming rate coupled with elected officials who seem to ignore or belittle their constituents' protestations. I myself am somewhat of a political junkie in that I love to read various websites on a daily basis and political best-sellers but, I don't write letters, attend rallies or protests, nor do I involve myself in campaigning for issues or candidates. I also have a fairly consistent political philosophy - one of limited government,low taxes, strong military/national defense, free-market economics and conservative social values. Consequently, I tend to judge and vote for political candidates on their conformity (or lack thereof) to my own philosophy and while I obviously don't agree with the folks across the aisle from me, I would expect them to vote according to their core beliefs. I respect them at least for their loyalty to principles, if not for the beliefs themselves.

This brings me to the subject of this blog post - people, who for whatever reason, voted against their own philosophy or political bent in the last election and are now complaining that things didn't turn out the way they wanted or expected. This is very unrealistic - in what universe do human beings, particularly elected officials, consistent act contrary to their stated platform or core values? I am particularly amused at "so-called conservatives" who voted for Obama because they believed that he was "post-partisan" or that he really couldn't be as liberal as his legislative voting record indicated he was. Some conservatives and independents voted for Democrats because they wanted to teach Republicans "a lesson", naively assuming that a left of center Congress couldn't do much worse or muck things up too badly. Boy, were they wrong!It's interesting to read their comments on the websites lamenting their 2008 vote, praying that Obama, Pelosi and Reid don't inflict too much damage on our Republic before the citizenry gets a chance at a do-over in 2010 and 2012.

I guess these folks have never heard of the parable of the Frog and the Scorpion. The scorpion tries to convince the frog to ferry him across the river on his back. The frog initially rejects the scorpion's plea. "You are a scorpion and might sting me, killing me if I let you get too close." "No, Mr. Frog," said the scorpion, "I will be grateful for your kindness in granting me safe passage across the water and would never sting you. Besides, to sting you while crossing would mean the death of us both." This promise seemed reasonable to the frog and so the two commenced out across the wide river. Halfway through their journey, frog felt the sting of the scorpion's tail. "What have you done?" asked the frog as they started to sink as the poison began its deadly work, "now we will both perish. How could you break your promise not to sting me?" To which the scorpion replied, "You know what I was before I ever got on your back; I cannot deny my nature."

When those on the right side of the political spectrum decide to either vote for their foes or sit home on election day to spite members of their own party for their lack of ideological purity, they are extremely foolish, like the frog was. The two, four or six years plus that the leftists possess the reigns of power will not be pleasant, laws and policies will be passed that will fundamentally change this country forever ala FDR and the New Deal - not in a way true conservatives would find acceptable. My suggestion is that they not vote while holding a misguided "hope" that these politicians would somehow "change" into something they are not. We may not have liked the Republican alternative, but at least he was reliably pro-life and definitely not influenced by radical or Marxist heroes (Ayers, Alinsky, Wright, et al). Even if some conservatives believed that the damage caused by a leftist President's policies was minimal or recoverable, having the opposing side control all three branches of government along with the mainstream media would not be an environment in which government would get smaller, taxes would be reduced or strict constitutionalist judges would be appointed. How are these voters surprised now that they are being stung?

Stuck on Stupid

A few years back, during Hurricane Rita, there was a military commander (LTG Honore) who coined this phrase when answering reporters' inane questions about the relief effort -the reporters kept asking why such and such was done in the past while the general was trying to give out information that would be helpful to the survivors. He chided them for being "stuck on stupid" for focusing on irrelevant details that could not be changed while ignoring potentially lifesaving info that needed to be broadcast.
I commented on a similiar phenomenon in post (Not All Gloom and Doom) three years ago in which I talked about people who were "stuck" in some trauma that had happened years ago. I know a couple of people who are frozen emotionally at the point of their marriage break-ups over forty years ago. They are almost like the character of Miss Haversham in Dicken's Great Expectations. Miss Haversham had been jilted on the day of her wedding many decades before, but had shut herself up in her house wearing her dress with the cake and flowers still laid out as though expecting her tardy groom to show. Her disappointment had turned to bitterness and bitterness into hatred for all men as she trained her young ward, Stella to exact revenge on males by breaking their hearts once they had fallen in love with her.
These real Miss Havershams continue to relive their moment of pain, sometimes crying their hearts out as if the trauma occurred yesterday. Like Miss Haversham though, their hurt has turned into bitterness and over time they have become quite unpleasant to be around, save for a select few that they allow in. The ones who are even worse are the ones who seek to settle the score -not with the actual object of their victimization (the villians themselves might be dead or out of the picture), but others that these Havershams view as apt surrogates. On more than one occaision, I have been unwillingly selected as their foil. I really want to say to them,"I am not X, get over it."
I've had a Miss Haversham in my life; I wish I knew what her problem was -she definitely seems stuck in what may have been a happier time for her when she was a teenager, but that was a very long time ago. She also doesn't seem to want to have "grown-ups" around who might frown on her childish ways. In her mind, I am the evil one -the one that ruined her blissful return to her youth (or perhaps I just remind her of the one) and so she attempts to "get even with me". How silly and pathetic! Her lack of forgiveness and lack of desire for healing only hurt her, not me. Her heart, like Miss Haversham's wedding cake, becomes dark and moldy, full of the sin of bitterness.
You might say, "Aha! I know exactly of whom you speak." No, unfortunately, you may guess wrong because there are more than one Miss Haversham-types around these days. However, if you see yourself as one who is stuck on stupid and is bitterly reliving the past in order to try to feel right about yourself, get some help. We all can get in a rut every once in a while -the Miss Havershams though, end up living there.

A Small Pause to Reflect

As I have mentioned earlier, my MBA coursework has been grabbing all the attention that would otherwise be reserved for blogging. In a sense, the weekly Blackboard discussion boards that we do for our classes is a form of blogging, just not readable by the general public. I probably could re-post some of my thoughts from the Ethics discussion, but it is like listening to one side of a phone conversation -you miss the whole back and forth that defines the dialogue.

This term is somewhat different in that we are having a dialogue not only with our fellow classmates from work, but also with classmates we haven't met from the main campus. It was interesting to imagine what these other students were like based on their writing styles and thought processes. However, on Saturday the two classes came together for an ethics panel in Riverside, sponsored by the University. Although we were not introduced to the others, I observed some familiar names on the name tags. There, just two tables over, were a collection of a half-dozen twenty-something males - bright and shiny MBA students.

I shouldn't have been surprised that the MBA students from the main campus were youngsters, fresh off their undergraduate programs, but I wonder if they were surprised that most of their off site counterparts were more than twice their ages. Perhaps they even felt an air of superiority over their elder classmates. I remember the cockiness of my own youth -the feeling that I and my companions had the world by the tail. We just knew that we were that much smarter than "older ones" who either had never learned what we just did or who had forgotten it many years before. Yet with age comes experience and with experience,wisdom. It is a wisdom gained not by textbooks but by living life. That life has caused me to stop form time to time and reflect upon how I got here. Hopefully, my young classmates will begin to do so as well.