Growing Up?? Too Fast??

It started with Annette Funicello in the 1950s. I wasn't there to see it, but I believe that it did happen. In recent years (months) we have watched the rise and subsequent disintegration of teen pop icons Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse, Nicole Richie, Lindsey Lohan, R Kelly, Kanye West- do we need to go on to sports figures, political leaders, etc.?


Now we see a huge hubbub concerning some pictures of current tween queen Miley Cyrus. (You may know her as Hannah Montana.) There are photos of Miss Cyrus in the current issue of Vanity Fair magazine. Some of these photos include Miley with her father, country singer and television actor Billy Ray Cyrus. The furror is about what seems to be the sexually suggestive nature of some of the pictures. Some have said that they are completely inappropriate for a 15 year old girl. I have two thoughts. First of all, it is too bad that there is a whole generation of girls who will miss out on childhood. Secondly, the consequences of this tendency are frightening. If we dress 10 year olds like 16 year olds, we should expect 12 year olds to have unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

First of all, our culture glamorizes teen sexuality. We, whether we realize it or not, encourage children to grow up. We legitimize sexuality at younger and younger ages. Eight year old girls are wearing low rise pants and half shirts. They are piercing navels and being suggestive at earlier ages and in more situations. This is a tragedy. The great memories of life are of being children. If we push our young people into adulthood they will lose out on the greatest joys of life.

Finally, let's not get to worked up about the photos in question. Although you can read into them a tantalizing back-story, it is not necessary. You can look at a teen-age girl who seems to be recently finished with a sexual encounter, or you can see a young girl. Period.

I lament the state of our world. I am sad for what our culture is doing to young people, especially girls. But I am going to do everything I can to not further complicate the situation. I am going to give Miley Cyrus and her parents, and photographer Annie Liebovitz the benefit of the doubt. I am not going to see trash where I do not need to.

Of Raging Bulls and Life Choices

Most decisions that I have made in my life are pretty insignificant. No one cares what color socks I wear each day. The college I attended, my major and GPA are all unimportant for most people in most situations. Usually the outcomes of my decisions are not known, or are so inconsequential that even I do not notice or remember.

Sometimes, however, my decisions have long-term effects. Those long term effects can be positive, but too often I find that I am sorry for decisions I have made. There is embarrassment, debt, and other problems. These are all the residue of not thinking through what is important and what will happen when and if...

The biggest problem is that most of these decisions were made when I was too young, or too naive, to take into account the full impact of all that I was doing. Fortunately for me, although I made some silly choices, the consequences have been minor and short-lived. That is not true for everyone. The consequences of addictions, sexual encounters and other experiments can be devastating and long-lasting.

That is the lesson that is brought home clearly in the classic film, Raging Bull. In the film, Robert DeNiro plays middle-weight boxing champion Jake LaMotta. Time after time we see LaMotta make bad, impulsive choices. He his violent with his wife. He has an affair. He beats his new wife. He beats his brother. He associates with the Mafia. He throws a fight. He gets involved with young girls in his bar. LaMotta makes one bad choice after another.

The reason this happens to LaMotta, and too many of us, is that LaMotta only sees right now. He is not concerned about ruining his relationship with his brother, only about satisfying his rage at the moment. The future is too far away to take seriously. "I'll worry about tomorrow when tomorrow gets here" is the attitude that many of us have.

We all need to learn something from Raging Bull. We need to take the future seriously. Plan for the future. Think about what ingesting that substance will do to the rest of your life. Consider the implications of everything you do for the future. Go ahead and have a great time, but make sure that your great time lasts beyond today.

What I Believe About the Afterlife

Let me begin by saying that I believe in the afterlife. I believe that all humans, good and bad, saved and lost, will live after death. There will be a judgment someday- either after we die, or after the return of Jesus at the last day. When this takes place, every human will have to answer for him or her self.

Here are some questions that you might have about the afterlife. I will answer them as well and as scripturally as I can.

• How can a loving God send people to Hell? The easy and pat answer is that God sends no one to hell. People are judged based on their own choices. Those who do not get to enjoy eternity with God are those who chose not to live with him in life. God is loving, but he is also just and fair.
• Will my dog be in heaven? (I cannot believe that I am even tackling this one.) I do not know. But I do believe that heaven is a place of eternal joy and bliss. If it requires a pet to have that joy, Fido will probably be there for you. However, my hunch is that we will be so excited and fulfilled to be in the presence of the King of Glory that other concerns will seem unimportant.
• Where is heaven? I am not sure where heaven might be now, but I know where it will be in the future. Jesus told the disciples that he was going to prepare a place (John 14.2). So heaven is somewhere. It may be in a spiritual place rather than a physical or geographical location. I compare the current location of heaven to “warp factor 2” on Star Trek. It may be that heaven is all around us and we just cannot see into that dimension. Eventually, after the second coming, the New Jerusalem will rest on the New Earth.
• What about my saved family and friends? Will I know them in heaven? Jesus teaches that there is no marriage in heaven (Luke 20.35). However, I believe that when reaching heaven we will recognize one another and remember good things and good times.
• Will I think about or miss my unsaved friends? The Bible teaches that there will be no crying in heaven. All will be peace and joy according to the hymn writer. That means that we will not remember, or dwell on all those who are not in heaven. The best answer for us is to pray hard and share consistently with those who are not Jesus followers now.
• How can I be sure that I will go to heaven? The Bible teaches that all people are sinners and need the work of God through Jesus Christ in their lives. To be sure that you are going to heaven, confess your sins and your need for Jesus in prayer. Ask God to save you and he will. Then, get involved in worship, prayer and Bible study. Only through consistent effort can you maintain the faith.

Prayer of the Week

Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29.12-13

Here is a promise and a proclamation. We humans are so interested in hearing and receiving God's promises that we miss the rest of it. But in these verses we get both. First the promise. God promises that he is available. Even though sometimes it seems that my prayers are useless and that no one can hear. When I think that praying is a waste of time, I can rejoice in the promise that God wants to hear my prayers. He is available. He wants to be found by me. This is great news. His promise is that when I pray, he hears.

The command is this; when I may be discouraged with my prayers and my relationship with God, I need to continue nonetheless. I need to seek God with all my heart. I need to search with all my strength. I need to pray until I reach him. When I cannot find God, could it be that I have not persevered in the search? Is it possible that I have given up too soon? You and I need to be persistent with our prayers. God will hear.

PRAYER: How soon we want to give up and throw in the towel, Lord. Every little distraction seems to be an insurmountable obstacle. But you have given us this great promise. Teach me to search for you with all my heart. Give me the patience and the persistence to seek you until I find you. In the name of Christ I pray. Amen.

Speaking or Listening??

Babel made my list as one of the best movies that I saw in 2007. There is no question that is true. There are four seemingly unrelated stories that all tie seamlessly together by the end. What a surprise. Time jumps back and forth, and sometimes you don't know what is happening. Brad Pitt gives his best performance as the husband of an American woman who is shot by a sniper. The wife is played by Cate Blanchett who once again is perfect.

Then there are the two pre-pubescent brothers who seem to know nothing about anything serious. One brother likes to watch his sister undress and bathe. The other thinks that is an offense to Allah, and decency. These young Moroccan boys are filled with play, mischief and sibling rivalry.

There is the deaf girl in Tokyo who longs for someone, anyone, to love her. After the death of her mother her grief is almost unbearable. And although her father tries to connect with her, he is reserved. He tries too hard. She is left to reach out to her teen-age friends who seem incapable of any real emotion or connection.

Then there is the Mexican immigrant who cares for children in southern California. Although she is a legal resident of the USA, circumstances require her to take her charges to Mexico for the wedding of her son. One thing leads to another and the caretaker and two children are lost in the desert.

It is a heart-rending movie. There is never a dull moment. But I can summarize it for you. No one listens. In this film no one listens to anyone else. The American couple are having a marital crisis because they will not listen to one another. The Japanese teen-ager is desperate because she can get no one to pay attention to her. The Mexican woman can get no one to care for the children, and then when she is lost in the desert with them, no one can hear her calls. There is a lot of talking in Babel, but there is not very much listening.

So learn a lesson. Do not be afraid to speak to people. But when others are speaking, be sure to pay attention. Listen and hear what they are saying.

Things I'm Learning

This has not been a banner season of life for my family. At Christmas time we had a financial problem- nothing any more serious than everyone else is dealing with. Then there was the requisite "we have a teenager in the house" crises that every family deals with. Then just recently we had a flood in our basement. There were 6-8 inches of water everywhere. And last week, my wife had major surgery and the results of pathology will not be available for a few days yet.

Although we are going through a rough patch, we are learning a lot.

• If my purpose in life is train leaders, and it is, then I should be willing to let others lead. I am learning to delegate and to let others take responsibility for tasks, work and ministry.
• I (read that as, everyone) need to be gracious when receiving help and ministry from others. I am used to being the one who gives, serves, ministers, but sometimes it is appropriate to receive ministry.
• Others are called to minister. Sometimes they are called to minister to me and my family. I should learn- and I am trying- to let others serve and minister.
• I, like you, am called by God to humility. There is no quicker way to learn to be humble than to let someone help you. What a wake-up when you are faced with your own lack of self-sufficiency.
• I am trying to learn to not be judgmental. Although people have their own agendas and motivations, I need to allow them to deal with their own stuff. I need to not assume that someone is serving me just so I will "owe them" in the future.
• I am learning to ask for help when I need it. There is something in me that keeps me from asking others for help. I want to solve my own problems. So, if I haven't called you yet, your turn is coming.

Evangelism in the Real World

One of the most disconcerting problems in all the Christian world is sharing your faith with someone else. We are all concerned (maybe consumed) with seeming normal. If I were to tell someone else about my faith in Jesus, that would necessarily make me a fanatic. I would be embarrassed for others to know what I believe. And heaven forbid that they think I was different than them.

Bill Hybels has been criticized greatly in the church at large. Sometimes the critiques have been justified, but too often we minimize his importance to the work of evangelism. Hybels and his staff at Willow Creek have done as much- perhaps more- for practical approaches to evangelization than anyone else in contemporary western Christianity. His book, Just Walk Across the Room, is filled with hands-on suggestions, opportunities and inspiration. There are three suggestions that Hybels makes that I would like to mention here. Each of these are part of the Hybels canon. If you have heard Hybels speak, been to a conference at Willow, or heard anything about the church, you have been exposed to these approaches.

• Do/Done. So many people think that the Christian faith is all about following rules and meeting requirements. The problem with this approach is that it is as exhausting as it is futile. It is impossible to "do" enough to make God happy. The better approach, and the one that is historical and biblical is to recognize and receive what God, through Jesus, has already done. You cannot earn salvation, but you can receive it.
• The Ladder. If the Christian faith were all about doing good deeds and being good enough for God, that would mean that there was some sort of spiritual ladder to climb. Are you good enough? Billy Graham, one of the most famous holy men in America, finds many faults and sins in his own life. He would not place himself very high on the ladder- maybe half-way to heaven. Could you be higher than that? If not, you cannot climb into heaven. You need to know that God offers a different plan, one that does not require you to be perfect.
• The Bridge. If God is holy, and we believe that he is, he cannot associate with sin. People are sinners and therefore there is divide between humanity and God. All of our attempts to cross that chasm are futile. We cannot get to God. But, God, through Jesus Christ his Son, used the cross as a bridge to get humans to God. All we have to do is cross that bridge through our faith.