kingdom travelin'

This last week I have been at a conference where we were urged to plan ahead. Think of the outcome you wish to see and then what are the things that will show that this outcome has been reached. Then, what are the things I must do to help this happen. It has me thinking about my life and work.
One leader said that until a couple of years ago his organization (a huge mission organization) had looked at what they had achieved, drawn a target around the achieved and celebrated!
But no more, now they have set out to achieve some very large and important outcomes and are focused like a laser beam on them.
This really has me thinking about living life with real goals and purpose so as to best make use of the time we are given to make a difference.

Each week the Economist runs an obit on a figure. This week it is about a man who committed his life to helping the hungry. Click here to read about a man who literally fed millions.

Don’t hesitate when you have a chance to encourage someone. It doesn’t matter how trivial it may seem to you, it may make their day and therefore encourage others. Contrawise, when we are critical or sarcastic, we are not building people up, thus, we are probably tearing them down. Being careful of our words is very important in this age of cynicism. I know, I am too critical.

I was watching a comedy monologue last night. I listened carefully to the jokes. I came to a conclusions. Leno only makes fun of people. If this is the best humor (I am NOT saying it is) around and if this is the norm, and the normal comedy routine is all done at the expense of people’s intelligence, their mistakes, etc then is there any wonder why we are full of cynicism?

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Last night Sweet Anna and I were trying to enjoy the Finale of AGT (if you don’t know, it doesn’t matter- let it go – don’t get me started about the winner) and there were constant interruptions (during commercial breaks) by the stinking Virginia governor’s race. Deeds has gone on the attack against McDonnell and the negative ads are ticking me off. Now, the Right may have run attack ads too, but I’ve not yet seen them (my position on the race is not important at this juncture – so don’t start trying to convince me like last fall, okay?) My point is the ugliness. Which was shown in Congress by that congressman from S.C. who yelled to Obama “You lie!” That ticked me off too. Yesterday, I saw a van with an anti Obama sticker and it reminded me of the anti Bush and anti Clinton stickers. These tick me off too.
I am ranting about this because I am sick and tired of the fact that people can’t let someone else have a different perspective and respect the person while disagreeing with the opinion. In church last week Pastor Bill told about a book he was reading which called cynicism the “spirit of the age.” Sadly, I think that is true. And all this stuff I’m talking about being ticked off about is a sure sign of such. Perhaps this post is as well… 😦  But its not just politics.
Yesterday I had coffee with a thoughtful guy and one of the many things that he said which caused me to nod in agreement is the way people of different religious persuasions and even different denominational perspectives treat each other. Its, like, people think they have a corner on the stinking truth and nobody else can have a differing opinion. Well I’ve got news for all of us. We’re all a whole lot blinder than we want to think ourselves and we need to seek the Truth not from arguing humans but from the Truth himself. And Christians need to spend a whole lot more time in Scripture and in prayer to the Lord than arguing on and about FoxNews and CNN and putting everyone else down because we have a different view.
So, this guy yesterday reminded me of an old parable from the East which has stuck with me. A quick research quest on the parable shows that it is really old and has many versions from the eastern religions. The gist is this: A bunch of blind men happen upon an elephant and seek to understand what it is like. One feels the trunk and says one thing, another its ear, another its leg (a tree) and so on, you get the picture. See, these blind men operate on what info they have. And NONE of them have all the info, so their picture is incomplete. Get it?

See, there are a ton of incomplete views out there because too many of us are not realizing how blind we are and not getting the whole picture about a ton of this stuff here on earth. We have two ears and one mouth for a reason, listen more than talk for crying out loud! And when you disagree, even if you KNOW they are wrong, use some courtesy.

Sorry about the tone. Yes, I’m a hypocrite… sigh.