SoulFood (7) Managing Time

      The TV series Seinfelt was billed as “a show about nothing.” Until this morning I feared that this week’s blog would be one about nothing. I was void of ideas. Ah, but then Seinfelt wasn’t really about nothing – it portrayed situations that related to most people’s ordinary lives. So it was that at 05:30 my morning bike partner and I spoke of this blog. He suggested I write about something that challenges all of us: the wise management of “the daily 24.”  

       A common problem in the west is the average family coming to the end of the month with too many bills and too little money. As prevalent is coming to the end of the day with too many outstanding jobs and too few hours. Two elementary ideas saved me from burn-out in the early years: not every urgent job is really important and the whole of every job needn’t be done in any given day.

       In recent years I have been expanding the thought of life within the 21 day envelope. Depending on your makeup, your attitudes to what’s happening right now are influenced by either the past 14 days plus the 7 up ahead or the other way around. If the last fortnight has been full of calamities and disappointments it could affect your confidence level going into the next week.

      The stewardship of time can help your success rate. A Bible verse changed my ability to manage dates: “Teach us O Lord to number our days that we might apply our hearts to wisdom.” The high goal of your life ought to be gaining wisdom. What that entails is fodder for some other discussion. Let’s consider the “numbering of days.”

      Think with me about 21 days. Of all twenty one the most important 24 hours is… this day. Of the 21 you can do the least to change the last 14 – duh! So how about deciding to stop thinking about at least 7 of them? Just work with what has been happening in the last week. Even if it’s been rough – just think about the most recent troubles. So far so good.

       Which way is time going? Certainly not from the past into the future. Time is like a river flowing towards you from the years up ahead. Now let’s take the seven days we stole from last week and place it up ahead. The next 2 weeks can be the most influential factors on how you will spend today. What has all this to do with “numbering our days?”

       On your phone, I-pad, computer or even in book form; you need a calendar. Get one that allows you enough space to write something every half hour. A fortnight has 672 slots. Each of those 30 minute periods can be managed. Subtract the amount of sleep you know you need to function well and you should still have about 550 slots. Now ask an objective friend to help you list the most important things you want to get done from now till the end of the year. Succeeding in what’s important has a price to be paid.

      You might have to give up TV. Perhaps your showers will be much shorter. Now think of the important things as jobs – jobs that can be broken down into little goals that will add up to the final accomplishment. Can you discipline yourself to never work on any of those goals for more than 60 minutes per day?  A half hour of ardent, inspired attention is worth far more than 2 hours of fumbling.

      Remember the “river?”  What if interruptions occasionally are so urgent that they rob you of a slot or two. Take that calendar and, at the end of the day, cast the slot up ahead two or three days. Our best use of time is just one, worry-free, industriously lived, day that ends with a thankful spirit and a tired head! Each day has enough troubles of its own. Dividing your tasks means you work smarter rather than harder.

SoulFood (6) The End Justifies The Means

       My problem with presidential power is when it is used unconstitutionally. The country’s constitution wasn’t written to tell citizens what to do; so as much as it was to protect us from the whims of those in power. Sometimes I’m in favor of the changes proposed, but I remain concerned when the methods chosen in executive orders almost circumvent the constitution.

       Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli wrote a book called The Prince. I find distasteful that he argued for public and private morality to be two different things in order to rule well. He was on thin ice when asserting a ruler might act immorally at the “right” times to gain political aims, even noble goals. Taking that to its zenith, you arrive at Joseph Stalin’s maxim: “if you want to eat omelets you must break a few eggs.”  While many miles from the horrors of Communist dictatorship, we are experiencing Machiavellianism in our politics.

        The New Jersey Legislature wants to bring before voters an amendment to the state constitution. I like the change. The trouble is the sponsors waited too long to get it before the assembly. The rule says: "At least 20 days prior to the first vote in the house in which such amendments are first introduced, the same shall be printed and placed on the desks of the members of each house." That gives us all time to comment on it or call our representatives.

       At 5pm on a Friday night the Assembly Speaker, Vincent Prieto, called the Assembly back into session for a quorum call. Only one member of the Assembly arrived. I presume the others had gone home for the weekend by 5pm. Now here’s where Prieto thought the end justified the means: he opened the vote tally machine and told staff members to go to the desks of the members of the General Assembly while those members were absent and vote "Present." 70 such votes were recorded. No Vincent, no!

          Joshua Kaplan said of Machiavelli: “He emancipated politics from theology and moral philosophy.” Speaker Prieto, is there something immoral about pretending that absent elected officials are present, and then voting on their behalf?  President Obama plans to sign executive orders soon prohibiting discrimination against gay and transgender workers in the U.S. government and its contracting agencies. President Lyndon Johnson prohibited federal contractors from discriminating based on race, religion, gender or nationality in hiring. Obama plans to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protections. He thus seeks to emancipate politics from theology. 

          At present we have the tax scandal in which certain liberals are accused of using the I.R.S. to make life very difficult for conservative organisations that have for years been a thorn in the side of left-leaning politicians. This is a worrisome example of misuse of methods.

          If Mr. Obama is not an aberration, but part of a trend, I see more struggles ahead, because the American Constitution was written with plenty of theology and moral philosophy! It was written with a Judeo / Christian worldview. 13 years ago, on a  Chicago public radio program, Obama said the document had “deep flaws,” adding that the country’s Founding Fathers had “an enormous blind spot” when they wrote it. Adding fuel to the fire he opined that the Civil Rights movement had failed to bring about an economic redistribution of wealth in America.

          Forced respect for homosexuality, redistribution of wealth, these are two of the rallying cries of international socialism. Stacking the courts with liberals has helped the left overcome the constitutional protections given to the voters and the states.  The end is clearly in view and whatever means will serve that destination is deemed acceptable. It may be modern and it may be pragmatic, but it’s not the way Judeo / Christian countries care built.

         More importantly than all this: we each need to search our own hearts as to when we will be tempted to use unethical methods. One - you will never forget it when you do. Two - its a slippery slope when you succeed.  Guard your heart!

SoulFood (5) Kidnapped to prevent Kalalah

       “You may be a Redneck if….” is the way some jokes start. They have made one American comedian very famous. People are tickled by his gentle ribbing of what is an obvious stereotype.  Mr. Foxworthy has been falsely called the author of a new series: “You may be a Muslim if….”  It’s a rerun of the 2007 jokes: “You might be part of the Taliban if…”  One of the new quips says: “You may be a Muslim if you have nothing against women and think every man should own at least four.”

       Polygamy is only representative of about 3% of Muslim families, but it’s part of how Radical Islam has given many in the West a slanted view of Mohammed’s teachings. Fanatics fasten onto Sura 4 vs 3: “if you fear that you might not act equitably towards orphans, then marry from among [other] women such as are lawful to you - [even] two, or three, or four: but if you fear that you might not be able to treat them with equal fairness, then [only] one - or [from among] those whom you rightfully possess.”

       The last word should give you pause: “possess.” Come with me now to a meeting of sad hearts in a hotel in Abuja, Nigeria. Twelve of them were the parents of girls kidnapped three months ago by militant Islamic group: Boko Haram. They were taken to provide wives, some say, to prevent Kalalah. That’s a term in Islamic inheritance referring to someone with an estate but no direct descendants.

        A Pakistani man rose to speak at the hotel, but after stammering a few words he broke down and sobbed. Tears flooded throughout the room! The 90 day ordeal still holds no prospect of the kids’ safe return. The speaker, Ziauddin Yousafzai would be a name unknown to us, were it not for the bravery of his, now just 17 year old, daughter Malala. She came with him to that hotel meeting to express solidarity with the kidnapped girls.

      "I am going to stand up for them," she said, adding that she thought of them as her sisters. Do you remember why Malala is now so world-renowned that The U.N. has proclaimed July, 14, 2014 in her honor?  When that happened last year, she opened her acceptance speech with: “First of all, thank you to God for whom we all are equal and thank you to every person who has prayed for my fast recovery and a new life.” Recovery from what?

       It started when, in a year, Militants, seeking to impose Sharia law, destroyed 150 Pakistani schools. They want no education for girls! Malala, then 15, wrote a diary named "Gul Makai" for the British Broad Casting website. Later, when peace was restored in her region, she was on TV channels and her articles and statements were published by many newspapers. The Taliban ordered her assassination. A gunman boarded her bus after school one day.

      Back to her U.N. speech: “On the 9th of October 2012, the Taliban shot me on the left side of my forehead. They shot my friends too.” She survived after treatment in England. “They thought the bullets would silence us. But they failed. The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this: Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”

      Last week I met a wonderful lady named Kerry. She spoke at Rotary on behalf of her chapter of P.E.O.  Look it up, you’ll be blessed by this organization. Go Kerry! Go Malala! And “thank you to God for whom we all are (indeed) equal.” Islam and Christianity part company here. Jesus gave men and women equal worth. 

SoulFood (4)

Operation Protective Edge

        My last night in Israel was spent with the Rotarians at a club in Jerusalem. Rotary  invites  speakers. Very often it’s a representative of a charity or some form of business person. The talk that October night had the sobering title: “The ill effects of rockets on children.” Only in Israel would a Rotary Club hear such a presentation.

       Early this morning I was listening to a BBC report saying that in one day: Monday July 7, ninety rockets had been fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip. We are not talking July 4^th fireworks here, readers! When these missiles land walls fall down and shrapnel flies. The wail of the sirens in Ashkelon, Be’er Sheva and Ashdod sent the citizens, Jew and Arab, scurrying into the bomb shelters.

      Most of us can’t imagine what it’s like to live that way. One of the missiles was powerful enough to threaten Tel Aviv. The “Iron Dome” missile shield brought it down before harm could be done. If it were you, if you were holding your loved ones close in the air raid shelter, what would you want your country to do in response? Israel is very “eye for an eye”, and then some!

      In philosophy class or at a Sunday School convention some theorize about: “what if Israel just ignored the attacks?” Perhaps you have heard a well-prepared speech about how Hamas just wants peace. Let me put the 90 rockets in a day into a bigger context. There have been 450 since the year began. Widen the focus even more: 8000 missiles flew into Israel since 2005.  About how many rockets per month do you think is bearable? At what point should Israel respond in force?

      P.M. Netanyahu said: “We won’t tolerate rocket fire on our cities and towns.”  He added: “We do not go joyfully into battle.”  It’s about now that some wailing voices at the U.N. decry the fact that when Israel responds they do so with the full force of their military power. Operation Protective Edge is done with F-16s and smart bombs. Whole blocks near the border vanish. So far 38 Palestinians are dead. Many innocents will yet perish as well.

       Nobody should relish that thought. Nor, however, should anyone be so naive as to imagine air force retaliation can be done so surgically that only the Hamas terrorists who launch the missiles from among houses in those very same neighborhoods can be eliminated. Israel’s borders as they stand today are the spoils of war as much as what defines the southern boundaries of California. The empires of Europe have adjusted their domains by the sword. Who even knows what, say, Poland should look like.

       The U.N. should recognize that Israel holds the lands she does and has no desire to conquer an inch more.  She certainly could have advanced the Syrian border in recent days, but no. The Middle East isn’t any time soon going to become the sort of place where the rules of Cricket – or at least the spirit of the game – apply. My Jewish friends there send e-mails hoping for peace. I tell them I pray for peace. Yet Israel has to drive its tractors with boys who are just as at home inside a tank.

       I don’t write to defend Israel’s actions in every sense. The Jewish state isn’t some province of the kingdom of God in that when you are there you meet all, from the ultra-orthodox modern Pharisee to the strident atheist. Nevertheless, the thinking Christian must see through the left-leaning, bash-Israel-every-day, attitude of those who cannot fathom why we Christians see 1948 as one of God’s modern miracles.  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

SoulFood (3) You are only as free as you are Brave

       In Politically Correct America, it takes a very bold person indeed to state a view that crosses the liberal sensibilities. On the other hand it doesn’t require much courage to “go with the flow.”  Many are rushing to show that they have accepted homosexuality as a normal part of life. Both the news and entertainment media have spent three decades pushing us to adopt what the Bible rejects.

      Burger King now has what they call the Proud Whopper where, in their logo, the last E is replaced with the gay flag. Burger King is celebrating gay pride with a message on its Whopper wrappers. The fast-food chain has a video, showing scenes from San Francisco, where it sells the "Proud Whopper."  When you open it a message inside the wrapper says, "We are all the same inside." I support their right to say what they believe. Freedom of speech should never demand uniformity of ideas.

      Note though that when a company run by Bible believing Christians says that they believe in traditional marriage there are huge pressures towards censorship and much breast beating ire.   You might recall the outrage over comments by Chick-fil-A. People have lost their jobs because they have donated money to causes upholding one man one woman marriages. Nobody at Burger King is worried about their career because they were behind the Proud Whopper.

      So there is a price to be paid for speaking against the trend to force acceptance of a lifestyle that America in the pre 1900s regarded as one of the many expressions of humanity’s fallen state. In a way there is nothing new about finding it expensive to stand firmly in support of what the Bible says. The Braveheart line: “They can take our lives but they cannot take our freedom,” finds an echo in a hymn by Martin Luther: “Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; the body they may kill, God’s truth abideth still.”

      In the midst of this debate we now come to our country’s birthday celebration.  It is popular for churches to include the Irving Berlin song: “God bless America.”  We will do that this Sunday. However a lady e-mailed me this reminder of how the song starts: “While the storm clouds gather far across the sea (and you will recall the world war setting of the poetry) Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free. Let us all be grateful for a land so fair, as we raise our voices in a solemn prayer….”

      Will we pray God Bless America, well-knowing that the drift away from His laws is now far advanced?  I write this not just with one issue in mind. The desire to redefine marriage is just one expression of liberal America’s shift from the world view of its founders. It was a concept of life that included the word “sin.” Sin is a conscious decision to live opposite to what God’s Word prescribes. In that respect we are indeed: “all the same inside."

       Here’s Jesus on the matter: “Things that make people sin are sure to come, but how terrible it will be for the person who brings them! Suppose people lead one of these little ones to sin. It would be better for those people to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck. So watch what you do.”  All very well, until a time comes when sin is called good. That is a time for bravery. 

SoulFood (2) Unintended Consequences

    This Saturday it'll be 100 years since Gavrilo Princip fired the shot that killed at least 8 million and left more than 11 million wounded. He wasn't even a good marksman. Archduke Ferdinand's driver took a wrong turn, then backed the car right up to the assassin's feet.  He fired his pistol as a staunch anti-colonialist and became a Bosnian hero, until the Bosnian Civil War of 1992 that is. Croatian troops even destroyed the Princip family home. History has odd ways of being rewritten as perspectives change.
       Gavrilo's trigger finger unwittingly launched one of the greatest evils ever to befall the empires of Europe. World War One opened the door to rampant Communism, collapsed many of Europe's empires, spawned National Socialism (the Nazis) in Germany, Italy felt cheated of land promises and so very many young people were gone. 
       Another of the unintended consequences was that the wide-spread European belief in the trustworthiness of church denominations was undermined. By the end of World war two, trust was gone altogether.
       George Bush (2) said that Iran, North Korea and Iraq were the biggest threats to the USA immediately after 9/11. He chose Iraq for invasion and unseated the tyrant Saddam Hussein. Mine was just one of many letters, April 20, 2004, sent to him requesting that an early termination of American occupation was desirable. Instead our Army was tasked with the impossible job of nation-building. 
        Peter Galbraith's book, Unintended Consequences, has some odd theories, but in his list of unexpected consequences of the war he didn't consider what it did to one of earth's oldest bastions of Christianity. Christ's disciples became targets for waves of persecution under the wrong perception that America is a "Christian Country." Many fled from Basra and Baghdad and those who couldn't resettle in Lebanon or Syria squatted in Mosul and the Ninevah Plain. As ISIS butchered their way towards the center of Iraq, its estimated that 150 000 have fled the country. The troubles in Iraq have ended a Christian presence that dated to the first century.
      You and I must also come to terms with the "Law of Unintended Consequences." It is, I am afraid, a direct offshoot of the God-given privilege of Free Will. Where is God in all this terrible suffering? Where He has always been: in self-imposed limitation to human decision making. For example, He has bound Himself with respect for your next decision to sin against His laws of love and justice. Not that He cannot stop you from sinning, but that He will not. Your very next self-centered act of carnality will happen against His will. He will respect you enough to allow it. The trouble is - there will be consequences. The even worse trouble is - there will also be unintended consequences. Only time, as with Princip's shot, will tell how grave those unintended consequences will be.
       Oh please, use that same will to study and love and live by God's directives for holy living. You may think that a "narrow" way to live, but four decades in this world tell me the consequences are good.
       Sometimes the consequences are neutral and yet work towards the greater good. If you have studied economics you will recall a name from the distant past: that of Adam Smith. His famous metaphor of the "invisible hand" described what happens when the butcher and the baker ply their trade with zeal for personal gain, yet with integrity required by business laws. Smith believed that a society filled with upright, yet hard-working people, though they each seek primarily their own best interests, nevertheless benefit the whole of that community. It worked well in small towns and even prospered whole nations until globalization introduced a whole new playing field.
       Charity may well "begin at home," but yours and mine must not be content to stay there. The twin New Testament laws of "sowing and reaping" as well as "casting bread upon the waters" will add to this life many unintended consequences of blessing. This is the highest form of paying it forward. To refuse to live beyond the circumference of your home and family is to make the mistake of seeing to find your life. The unintended consequence is that your well mannered and "prudent" self-centeredness will result in you failing in opportunities to add joy to many people unknown to you and, worse still, will end up in you loosing your life as well. 
       Give yourself away! Give yourself to Christ. It will be the best investment you ever make. Oh, and be sure, you have to renew that gift daily, because there are unintended consequences for trying to rest on past commitments.

Introductions SoulFood (1)

What to say when introducing yourself?  In some settings it is made easy, like "Hello, my name is Andrew and I'm an ....." Since I shall be using this blog to express moral, biblical, and or ethical comments once a week (or if work pressures bite) every other week, I'd better say: "Hello, my name is Andrew and I've been a disciple of Jesus Christ since the end of the 60s."  I wish I could introduce myself as the perfect roll model for discipleship or even to say that my following of Jesus has been consistent without a flaw, but the best I can tell you is that, in this journey down the decades with Jesus, I have been a recipient of much grace.
       What more to say by way of introductions? "My name is Andrew and I am married to a godly woman named Carol who has not hesitated over the years to challenge my opinions." In the early years she said of our relationship: "being married to you is like the irresistible force meeting the immovable object."  I should add that I am the father of two sons, about as different from each other as chalk and cheese except for their ardent Christianity. Rich with two good daughters in law and five grand-kids.
      I used to be able to introduce myself as a marathon athlete.  I gave up those events, after 62 of them, when the costs involved became too rich for me. Now at 60 I'm just a runner.  Come to think of it, I used to be a biker, until I made the painful decision to sell it this year. When the big six oh comes up there are quite a lot of things you used to be, but its time for me to accept the advice I have dolled out for 40 years: "gracefully surrender the things of youth."
       I should introduce myself as a preacher and a pastor. I am much more the former and a lot less the latter. I am convinced that the king of preaching styles is what used to be called "the Expository Sermon."  Now its just called old fashioned and dictatorial.  Be that as it may, I have committed a lifetime to speaking about 49 times a year directly from a Bible chapter and the next Sunday following that with the very next verses. I don't consider the primary objective of exposition the teaching of the Bible. No, I believe the person in the pew has the right to ask: "what did God tell you to tell us from those verses this week?"  No clear answer = no sermon at all. As for pastoring, I am very limited, but major in clear solutions to personal problems.
       Politics - conservative.  Finances - live for cash.  Music tastes - declarative worship.  Pets - a retriever named Leo.  Cars - a Jeep.   Hobbies - travel.   Favorite places on earth: Hunterdon County USA, London England and Jerusalem Israel.  Military Service - South African Army Tank Corps.  Abilities (sort of) brass instruments, drawing, home repairs and writing creative English.
      That's about as much as you need to know. Send prayer requests and requests for my credit card number and personal loans to ajjpaton@embarqmail.com