I find myself reminded of a scene from the HBO’s mini-series about John Adams, founding father from Massachusetts, and second President of the United States. There is a scene where shortly after John Adams is sworn in as President, George Washington (his predecessor, obviously) turns to him and says:

“I am fairly out, and you are fairly in. See which of us will be the happiest.”

For most politicians, the office of the President is the most coveted, most highly sought after office in the land. The fact that there are so many candidates vying for the position right now (especially on the Republican side) shows just how enticing of a position it. It is no mystery why. No other office holds as much power, as much prestige, as much fame, or as much potential for a lasting legacy, as the office of the President.

I don’t know if George Washington actually said those words or not. But it is an interesting thought non-the-less that the first man to have held such an honorable position would have been so happy to have finally been free of it.

Whether he actually said those words or not, it is no surprise that those who have held the office may have at one time or another wished that they had not held it at all. As enticing as the power, and fame, and eternal place in history that the Presidency holds, the enormous pressure, stress, and the weight of the responsibility of the office can also be crippling.

With the invention of photography we can compare images of these men as they enter into the office, to those when they leave the office. It is shocking how many years many of these men have appeared to aged in a relatively short 4, or 8 year period; the most notable of which being Abraham Lincoln. In photographs from his final days you can see the impact that 4 years of leading the Union through the Civil War had on him, emotionally and physically.

It appears being in a position of leadership may not always be what it’s cracked up to be.

Leadership may come with the authority to get what you want, but it also comes with the enormous pressure to deliver. It may sounds like a cliché out of a Spider Man movie, but it really is true that, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

This is a fact that is often overlooked in the Biblical roles defined for men and women in marriage.

Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. (Ephesians 5:22-33)

Our modern society, especially modern feminists, sees that the “wives must submit to their husbands” and immediately get worked up into a frenzy. They picture a dirty, unshaven man sitting on his butt watching TV in his “wife-beater” crushing an empty beer can, letting out a belch and yelling, “Hey sweet cheeks! How about another beer?”

They immediately start making references to the 1950’s (the God forsaken 1950’s) when women were expected to wait on their man, being at their every beck-and-call, and when they were not fetching them newspapers or cups of coffee then the woman was to be expected to be ceaseless cooking and cleaning, all while having several babies on their hip. All this is while the man sits in his leather arm-chair, smoking a cigar thinking about how perfect his life is.

Both of these images that are often invoked, very likely have happened to wives in past, and in some cases may continue to happen to this very day. It isn’t an entirely fictional scenario, and any woman (and any man) has every right to be repulsed by it.

But this is not a picture of Biblical marriage.

Biblical marriage is the union of a Godly man, to a Godly woman.

A man who lounges on the couch watching TV and drinking beer barking orders at his wife is not a Godly man. I can scarcely say he’s even a man at all. He’s more like a little boy who likes to pretend that his wife is really his mommy (who, apparently, failed to teach him how he is supposed to treat women).

A man who expects his woman to cater to his every need and keep the house in tip-top shape, and keep the children clean and fed, while he smokes cigars and relaxes after a “hard day at office” is not a Godly man.

A Godly man, when he is married, “Loves his wife, as Christ loves the church.” Such love is so powerful that he will do everything he can to care for, protect, and defend her. If necessary he will lay down his life for her. His wife is not his servant who is expected to follow his every command. His wife is his companion, his partner, his treasure.

Yes, the husband is the head of marriage. Yes, he is supposed to be the leader. And yes, the wife is supposed to submit to his leadership. But leadership is not a privilege that comes with the benefit of getting your own way. Leadership is a responsibility to put the needs of those you lead above your own. Leadership comes with the burden of living with the consequences of your decisions.

As a husband, most of the time, I’m not really making any decisions in my marriage. When it is Friday night and we feel like going out to eat for dinner, I seldom decide where we go. Usually my wife asks me where I’d like to go, and I typically respond, “I don’t care, whatever you want,” usually because I know she already knows where she wants to go and me saying this will help us arrive at a decision quicker. The day-in, day-out routine of life is usually comprised of decisions that we often make together as a team, and in many cases I will defer to whatever my wife wants. Usually it’s about something I don’t feel all that strongly about, and making my wife happy usually trumps everything else. This is partly because I love her and I want nothing more than to see her happy, and partly because I’ve discovered the wisdom in the expression, “Happy Wife! Happy Life!”

But then come the hard decisions.

Sometime, in the thick of parenting, even the seemingly simple decisions like where to eat or which church service to go can be difficult ones. My wife will have days when she gets to the end of her day and feel like she has made about a gazillion decisions, and just can’t bear the thought of having to make any more. In those moments, in which it seems I am usually also near the end of my rope, I have to stand up and take the lead, even when I’d rather not. Even seemingly trivial decisions can be important for a husband to make in taking care of his family.

However, beyond the simple decisions, every so often a major, potentially life altering, decision that has the power to have lasting or eternal consequences comes around. The right answer is seldom obvious, or if it is, is often so painful that making the decision is difficult.

In those moments, when I would love nothing more than to sit back and say, “Whatever you want honey,” that is when my wife, overwhelmed by the enormity of it, says to me, “I need you to make this call.”

That is what being the leader means. It means standing up when times are hard, and making the tough calls, that no one wants to. It means putting aside what you want, what you desire, or even what you think you need, and thinking about what is best for your wife or your family. It means bearing the weight of the decision and being the strong one, even when you may want to cry just as much as your wife. It means taking the responsibility and bearing the weight solely on your shoulders.

Should you leave your current church, saying good-bye to all the relationships you have there, and find a new one because your new neighborhood that you moved to is just too far away and you find yourselves skipping church more often than not?

Should you take that promotion at work that comes with significantly more pay and benefits that you know your family could use, but also knowing that you will probably lose precious time with your family?

Should your child who is sick, and might benefit from a new, but risky medical procedure, receive the treatment, where success could restore your child to health, but there is no guarantee that it would not leave your child even worse off than if you did nothing?

These are not simple or straightforward questions. The decisions made could have lasting impact on the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of your whole family. Your wife may have thoughts and opinions, and perspectives, and her voice should most certainly be listened too, and her feelings taken into serious consideration. But the responsibility to make the final call falls to you as the husband. Not because the woman is incapable or inferior, but because God has chosen to lay the burden on the man, as a mirror for the burden he laid upon Christ to save His Church.

The final call may not be what you initially wanted. Christ did not want to go to the cross as he prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” But he loved His people, His Church, His bride, so much that he was willing to submit to the will of His Father, saying, “Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39). Likewise a Godly husband and father, guided by the Holy Spirit, must put his own personal desires aside and do what is truly best for his family.

That is leadership, and it is not a fun job.

It’s an age old debate on who has the harder job in a marriage, the man or woman. Both have hard jobs, and both should be there to help the other through them. But whoever has the more emotionally, mentally, or physically demanding job; I believe the man has the scarier job. Because no matter how much work is involved in your respective jobs (whether in the “workforce” or being a “stay-at-home-parent”), no matter how the split of house chores is done, and no matter who does more physical labor, or who does more to care for the children, at the end of the day the man will have to stand before God and not only give an account of himself, but an account for his wife and his children. Not to say that God will not hold each of them accountable for their own actions or decisions. But as the divinely appointed “leader” of the family, it is the Husband’s and Father’s responsibility to shield his family from the evil of the world around them. It is the Husband’s responsibility as leader to teach his family the word of God. It is the Husband’s responsibility to ensure his children are disciplined.

God won’t judge the man for the decisions his family makes, but He will certainly judge the man who does not do everything in his power to adequately equip them to make the right decisions. Just as Christ not only died for us to save us, but also lived his life to show us how to live. So husbands and fathers bear the added responsibility to be the example of Christ to his family. That is a daunting, and terrifying job.

So to any man who is married, engaged, or thinking about getting married. Yes, being a husband means you are the leader, but that is not something to brag or boast about. It is not something to hold over your wife. It is not a role to enter into lightly. Being a husband is an awesome responsibility. Your wife’s well-being is your responsibility. Your children’s physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being is your responsibility. It’s an enormous job.

Don’t screw it up!

 

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A couple days ago, tragedy struck in Paris. Many of us have been trying to process the news as it has been making its way across the world. We hear of the carnage, the blood, the fear, and the death. We hear the updated official numbers of people dead or wounded. We hear the stories from the survivors, we hear of heroes who stepped up to try and save those around them.

In the midst of it all we are all so deeply overwhelmed and we each process it in our own way.

Some are tempted to feel fortunate that they live so far away from it. They feel comfortable where they are, thinking that it could never happen to them. But deep down they know that everyone thinks that it can’t happen to them, until it happens. And there is no telling when and where it will happen again.

Some are tempted to feel rage at those who would perpetrate such heinous acts against other human beings. They will call for retaliation, they will want to send in the guns. They will call for a wrath of fury to rain upon the evil doers, that they would be eradicated from the face of the earth. They will call for justice, they may even call for revenge.

Some will be tempted to feel contempt for those who feel such rage. “Where was your outrage when something equally horrible or worse was happening in Beirut, or Nigeria, or Syria?” they cry. If someone does not express outrage for one thing, they must never be allowed to express outrage over anything, even though in most cases it isn’t the person’s fault that the media never reports certain things.

Some will be tempted to remind us that these radicals who commit these atrocities do not represent Islam. They will remind us that most Muslims are a peace loving people that are just as horrified at these atrocities as the rest of us. It may be true that these radicals are a “minority” among Muslims, but to say that their radical violence does not stem from their Islamic faith is foolhardy. As an American who was living overseas, in Uganda, when 9/11 happened, I can assure you that there was not much love for America among the supposed “Peaceful Muslims”. I remember as if it was yesterday, walking through the market place in the days and weeks following 9/11, the dirty looks, the maniacal laughter, the taunting, the jeering, the voices proclaiming, “Hey American! I know where Osama Bin Laden is, Ha Ha a Ha!” The majority of Muslims may not be strapping bombs to themselves, but I wouldn’t be surprised if many of them are not quietly cheering on those that do in the privacy of their homes. The amount of death and carnage that the Islamic faith has wrought upon the world in the last 1300 years goes far beyond what any other religion has done. True, Christianity has a tainted past, but that is exactly the point, it is in the past. While a supposed majority of Muslims may be peace loving, a not so insignificant minority still continues to leave a trail of blood behind them, and that should not be ignored.

Still others will go the complete opposite, and will call for the elimination of all Muslims from our midst. They see Syrian Muslim refugees knocking on our doorstep and they are terrified to let more potential terrorists into our neighborhoods. They look with suspicion at all Muslims who are already here and feel threatened by them. While, as I mentioned, we ought to be cautious about the Islamic faith, and to not forget what it often brings, we also should not throw away our most precious freedom in this country, the freedom of religion. We cannot say that we value freedom, stand firm upon the First Amendment of the Constitution, and yet also seek to eradicate a major religion from our midst. While it is important to defend ourselves, if in doing so we compromise the very principles that make us free, then no matter who wins or loses the conflict, we will have lost ourselves in the process.

The last few days I have seen all of these thoughts and feelings expressed by so many. Some people may express one or more, or various combinations of all these feelings. And as I process the enormity of this atrocity, and what it means for freedom and peace around the world, I must admit I have thought and felt all of them to varying degrees at one time or another.

As an American I feel a great fear of the Islamic faith, as many of its followers (be they a majority or minority) at one time or another has chanted, “Death to America!” I am terrified that another attack will soon be made on our soil and I want to call in the cavalry to descend upon ISIS and wipe them off the face of the planet.

As a human being I feel great empathy for the pain and suffering that the victims and their families and loved ones are experiencing. I think about if my own wife, or children, or brother or sister were in that catastrophe, how horribly painful it would be for me. I feel a great sense of solidarity for the French people as I remember how I felt on that fateful day over 14 years ago on 9/11.

But I am not just a human being; I am not just an American; I am a Christian. How should a Christian feel about this?

As a Christian I might be tempted to feel even more threatened by all of this. After all, it is first and foremost our supposed “Christianity” that these radicals are seeking to destroy. They attack Western Culture because it is believed to be a Christian Culture. Perhaps someone should explain to them that our culture is becoming more and more secular every day, and that very little vestiges of Christianity really remains, but that will probably not really help very much.

But fear is not what we as Christians should be feeling right now.

As a Christian I should not be surprised when someone seeks to harm me for my faith, and I should even consider it reason to rejoice:

“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12)

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds (James 1:2)

As a Christian I must not forget that Jesus lived and died so that all people might be saved, even those who commit horrible evil acts, there is no evil that is not beyond the forgiveness of God:

This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:3-4)

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:17)

As a Christian I must remember that I am called to love my enemy:

You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you … (Matthew 5:43-44)

Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. (Luke 6:28)

If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. (Proverbs 25:21)

As a Christian I must not forget that no matter what wrong shall befall me, I must never seek revenge:

Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord. (Romans 12:19, Deuteronomy 32:35)

Christ has called us to be His hands and feet, to carry the good news of His Gospel to all the ends of the earth. Christ has called us to remember that we have been forgiven of our own crimes against God, and that our job is not to cast condemnation upon anyone, but to reach out with a loving hand to try and pull them from their own destruction and pray that they reach back. Christ has called us to remember that before he saved us we were mired in our own sin and evil, and that it is only by His Grace that we can see evil for what it truly is. We must not let our fleshly instincts for revenge blind us from the truth, and remember that but for the grace of God we too could be capable of such horrible destruction.

I know this is probably not a popular message. I’m sure very few people out there can say they genuinely feel love for ISIS and other terrorists right now. To be honest, I am having a hard time with that myself right now. I don’t know if I can say right now that I truly love them. If I muttered a prayer to God on their behalf, I don’t know how truly genuine it would be. I can’t say that if I heard tomorrow that they had been bombed into oblivion that I would feel sympathy or sadness for their souls. This is one place, among many, where I really do fall short from the Glory of God’s goodness and grace. This is one place, among many, that I know I have sin in my heart.

But I pray that God may overwhelm my sinful heart and show me His perfect love. I pray that God could help me see the terrorists known an ISIS for how he sees them, lost sinners in need of redemption. I pray that God would show me how he can actually love them, even though what they do is so despicably terrible.

I am not saying that we ought not to protect ourselves from destruction. I’m not saying that we, as a nation, or as a union of nations, should not fight against ISIS. There comes a point where evil is so destructive that good men and women must stand up to protect and defend all that is good and pure. Has ISIS reached that point? I believe it has.

I am by no means saying that it is wrong for us to stand behind the people of Paris. In truth, I am filled with a great sense of pride in the show of support that I have seen among my American Brothers and Sisters for the people of France in the last couple of days. Recently it seems that most French view Americans as arrogant and ignorant (for which many of us are guilty) and most Americans view the French as pretentious and self-conceited. But I am extremely proud that when it comes down to it, when our long-time allies are under threat, we can look past our differences and stand strong with one another.

But as we stand up to defend our allies, and to defend ourselves, let us not forget who we are, and what we are fighting for. We are fighting against evil, not human beings. Let us not forget that our desire is not to destroy our enemy, but to defend our families. Let us not forget that our goal should not be for our enemy’s condemnation, but their salvation.

If war is brought to our door, we should not be timid or weak to let it destroy us. We must righteously stand up and defend all that is good. But we must do so with the right attitude in our hearts. We must not forget that we are Christians. We cannot defend goodness while there is anger and evil in our hearts. We cannot defend freedom with vengeance in our hearts. We cannot defend grace, with un-forgiveness in our hearts. If we let the carnal desire for blood and revenge take over and unleash our wrath upon our enemies, we may win the war, but lose our souls in the process.

And what good is it if we save the world, but lose our souls?

May God be with the people of Paris, and all victims of terrorism around the world.

 

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The other day I was at my local Wal Mart doing some quick shopping when I noticed something different about the store. At the very front the section that was previously the “Fast Checkout” lanes, reserved for customers with 20 items or less, had been replaced with several “Self-Checkout” lanes.

In fact, I didn’t actually see any more “Fast Checkout” lanes anywhere. When I needed to check out, I was expected to either check myself out, or go wait in the mile-long line of people with overflowing carts at one of the only 2 manned checkout lanes all the way at the other end of the store (there were 20 other lanes in the store, but those apparently are strictly reserved for Black Friday, and are never manned any other day of the year).

I didn’t have a whole lot, but I had several small items that would have to be individually scanned, and one of my arms was occupied holding a 3 month old that would scream bloody murder if I tried to put her down, and I had a two year old in the cart that would start to eat the merchandise if I didn’t pay close attention to him. Not terribly practical to try and go through the Self-Checkout.

So I made the journey to the other end of the store, and I waited in line.

And I waited.

And waited.

Okay, so I was probably only in line for 10 minutes or so, but when you’re trying to one-arm hold a 3 month old that seems to be getting heavier by the second, and you have to repeatedly explain to your 2 year old that he doesn’t need to put the stuffed camel toy brought from home onto the conveyor belt, 10 minutes seems like an eternity. I couldn’t help but curse a little bit under my breath thinking that if only they still had the “Fast Checkout” lanes that it would have gone a lot, well, faster.

I was having this experience shortly after seeing this video (http://www.youngcons.com/neil-cavuto-gets-into-nine-minute-interview-with-student-wanting-free-college-and-its-really-painful/) which shows a news interview between Fox Business host Neil Cavuto and a student, Keely Mullen, an organizer for the “Million Student March” movement. The interview is outright painful to watch. It is a girl that has the very best of motives, best of intentions, admirable passion, but absolutely zero understanding of the nature of reality and is getting torn to shreds in the face of some very basic facts.

The “Million Student March” movement has several ludicrous demands, including (1) forgiveness of all student debt (2) free college tuition, and (3) $15 per hour minimum wage for all college/university employees.

That last item kept replaying through my mind as I waited in line at Wal Mart to checkout. I was also reminded of the “Fight for 15” movement that I always hear about, which is an even bigger movement seeking a $15 per hour minimum wage for the entire country. A pretty hefty demand considering that the current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. $15 per hour would be more than double current minimum standards. Some places around the country, such as Seattle, have already adopted this new minimum wage.

$15 per hour is apparently some magic number which is supposed to bring prosperity and happiness. All of these various “movements” considers this the ideal. To be fair, these movements really do have the very best of intentions. They are fighting for what they believe will bring a better life for millions of people. They are fighting for what they believe is social justice. They are trying to help the lower income workers of America have better lives. I do not fault their motives.

But good intentions alone do not bring out good results. They just don’t understand that what they are fighting for will actually hurt the very people they are seeking to help.

They think that if you pay people more money, they will have more money, and live a better life. End of Story. Everyone wins, except the greedy corporations that can afford to take a hit to their outrageously huge profit margins.

But things are never that simple, especially when it comes to economics.

The most basic driving forces behind our economy are the law of supply and demand. This is what defines values of goods and services, as well as other facets for how the economy runs. Under these basic principles, wages are set. Wages for a particular job are not defined by what the worker feels they need or want, but by the value that they bring to the employer. It depends on a host of factors including difficulty of the job, any specialized skills necessary, and the revenue that can be generated as the result of it. The wage has to be set by those factors; otherwise the business could never balance costs in order to make a profit. Sure, everyone wants to make more money, but some jobs just aren’t worth that much money to perform, either they are so basic that anyone can do them, or their contribution to total revenue is so small that it just isn’t worth paying more for them. If paying everyone working at a McDonald’s $15 an hour means you have to charge $13 for a “value meal” just to break even, then that McDonald’s won’t be in business very long. The job just isn’t worth that much.

If the worker does not feel that wage is sufficient to meet their needs, then they need to do something to make their labor more valuable in the marketplace, either through education or developing some more valuable skill. Forcing the employer to pay more money than the job is worth with high minimum wages throws the whole system off, and businesses will be forced to resort to extraordinary measures to make it all balance.

Ignoring these most basic concepts of economics and enacting a nationwide $15 per hour minimum wage will be one tidal wave after another of unintended consequences.

Assuming the “Fight for 15” movement, and similar movements, get what they want, they won’t even be done with their celebration party, and there will be business executives in their offices doing the math. Their lower level labor costs will suddenly double and they will come to the conclusion that at least half of their lower level labor force will have to be let go. The math isn’t hard, if you double the costs, they will somehow find a way to manage with only half the workers.

In actuality though, it will likely go beyond that. Raising the minimum wage will not only impact the wage of those who are currently earning minimum wage. It will impact what virtually everyone gets paid.

Consider the stock boy in the warehouse who used to make $7.25; but now, under new minimum wage laws, he makes $15. What about the office manager up front who already made $15? Do you think she will be satisfied to now be earning the same amount as the boy who unloads the trucks out back? No, she will say, and rightly so, that her job has much higher level of responsibility and that she deserves to make more than him. Her salary might have to be raised to $20, or even more, to make her happy. But then what about her manager at the corporate offices who was making $20? Will he be satisfied to now be earning the same as all of his lower level office managers? No, he will likely demand that his pay be raised as well.

You can’t just raise the wages of the lowest level and call it a day. There will be a ripple effect that rolls all the way up chain. Jobs that are considered higher level, either because of responsibility, difficulty, or overall value impact to the company, must pay more money, otherwise the incentive to work hard, be productive, and advance will be gone. Business cannot grow like that. That’s how corporations, and countries, go bankrupt.

So really, when you think about it, cutting the lower level work force in half will not be anywhere near sufficient to make up for it. They may need to cut 60%, 70%, perhaps even up to 90% of the lower level workforce. You may say that those jobs are still going to be necessary components to the company, but I would argue that they are not. As mentioned above, those low level jobs are “low level” for a reason. As unpleasant as they may be, they require very little skill. With our currently level of technological advancement, most of those jobs could very easily be mechanized. That’s why they pay so little, because they are easy jobs that anyone, even a well programmed robot can do it. I’m not trying to sound mean or belittling when I say that, but it’s a cold hard reality that must be faced.

You may think that I am exaggerating, or just plain wrong, about what will happen; but look around. Is Wal Mart getting rid of cashiers in favor of Self-Checkout lanes really just a ploy for them to make more money? They aren’t stupid, they have to realize it will make customers like me frustrated, and might even have a negative impact on their sales. But they can see the writing on the walls and they are pre-emptively preparing themselves for if and when $15 per hour minimum wage becomes law.

This trend is not limited to Wal Mart. Grocery stores, movie theaters, airport check-ins, all of these places are slowly but surely moving to automated machines to replace human beings behind a desk. Even some select McDonalds locations have started trials with Self-Service machines which can process your order and your payment. Customer service centers are notorious for outsourcing their jobs to lower cost workers in India. More and more manufacturers are going to places like China to manufacture their products because it’s cheaper. It’s not cheaper because China is really awesome at manufacturing; it’s cheaper because labor costs are so much lower. All of these companies can see what is on the horizon too, and they are getting ready for it.

And it won’t stop there. You don’t think that fast food companies aren’t working on developing automated “burger assembly machines” to replace the human burger flipper? You don’t think that other companies are not funding research and development to create industrial “irobots” to replace janitorial staff?

Not only will the lowest level workers face losing their jobs, but if you eliminate large portions of the lowest level workforce then you don’t really need a management staff to manage them, and you probably don’t need a management staff to manage the managers. Several levels of corporate hierarchy would suddenly be faced with the reality that because all of their direct reports are obsolete, that they are in fact obsolete as well.

And the negative effects will not be limited to those who lose their jobs (though they will bear the brunt of it).

There is no guarantee that cutting so many jobs will be enough to accommodate for the ripple effect of increased wages. At some point, there is a limit to jobs that can be cut. To maintain profitability, the only thing companies can do is raise the prices of their products. This too will have a ripple effect throughout the economy that will likely increase the cost of everything, from a Big Mac, to the price of gas, to apartment rent; even the cost of a gallon of milk will go up. If virtually everyone’s salary goes up, that means that the cost to produce everything goes up.

So sure, you are paying people more, but now the cost of living has also gone up, possibly even more.

So most current minimum wagers will end up losing their job, along with all the staff that manages them, and to add insult to injury the cost of living around them will simultaneously sky rocket, and those who are left earning the new minimum wage are probably worse off than they were before.

But don’t lose hope, I’m sure it’s nothing that a future “Fight for 30” movement couldn’t try and fix.

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I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. (Romans 8:18-19)

Thanksgiving is upon us. It is a time for us to stop, and be mindful of the many blessings we have and how thankful we are (meanwhile we stuff ourselves with obscene amounts of turkey, and develop strategies for black Friday sales). Amidst all the festivities, and family gatherings, and lists of what we are thankful for, many people might walk away with a certain feeling of guilt for not being as “thankful” as we ought to be.

With the insistence that we must be thankful, comes the unspoken sense that if you are in any way not enjoying some aspect of your life, then you are ungrateful for what you have.

For me personally, this guilt tends to revolve around how I feel about my children.

I love my children more than words can express. I would do anything for my children. I get a tremendous amount of joy, happiness, and satisfaction from my children. Every day I count myself blessed to be able to call myself their father.

But raising children is hard, exhausting, and seemingly never ending work. Especially when they are young, and they depend on you to dress them, feed them, bathe them, and entertain them. Virtually every facet of your existence becomes consumed by them. It can certainly wear down on even the most loving and devoted of parents.

However, it never fails, whether it is Thanksgiving season or not, that wherever my wife and I go with our three children (3 years old, 2 years old, and 3 months old) some well-meaning person (typically an older looking woman, who obviously has grown up children) looks at our family, smiles at us in admiration, and then reminds us that we should, “Enjoy every precious moment you have with those little ones! They grow up so fast”.

We always just smile, say thanks, and move on.

What I always want to say is, “That’s easy for you to say. At the end of your day you are going to your neat and tidy house, have a nice and peaceful dinner, spend your evening doing whatever you want to do, and then go to bed and have a nice restful 8-9 hours of uninterrupted sleep.”

“Do you know what the rest of OUR day is going to entail? We will get home; try to get our 3 year old to use the potty. He won’t. We will discover our 2 year old has a poopy diaper. We will change him. We will realize that our 3 month old is 45 minutes past when she was due for a bottle, and now the rest of her day/evening is going to be thrown off and we are faced with the impossible decision of either feeding her an extra big bottle at 6:30, and praying she makes it until morning, or giving her a ‘dream-feed’ bottle at 10 pm when we barely have energy to stay awake. We will go with the first option. We will divide and conquer, with one of us feeding the baby, while the other tries to get two toddler boys to sit still at the table to eat a hodge-podge “dinner” of hot dogs, cut-up grapes and cottage cheese. The cottage cheese  will probably mostly get into their hair, requiring an immediate bath following dinner, at which time we will discover that the 2 year old is poopy again (for the 4^th time today) and our 3 year old, who didn’t have to use the potty before, has now soiled his underwear (for the 2^nd time today). By the time the nasty underwear has been cleaned and the boys are splashing in the bath tub, the baby will have finally been fed and laid down to sleep. We will then spend the rest of the evening trying hopelessly to keep the boys quiet as we get them ready for bed so that they won’t wake the baby. We will have marginal success at that as we dry them off, get them changed into their pajamas, gather up all their “favorite” stuffed animals of the day (all 20 of them), read them bed time stories, brush their teeth, wash their hands (because the bath just didn’t get them clean enough), say bedtime prayers, and lay them down to sleep. However, in spite of our best efforts to keep them quiet, at some point in all of this a door will inevitably get slammed very loudly, causing the baby to wake up. We will listen to the baby fuss on and off through the baby monitor for about 10 minutes, praying that she will settle herself down and go back to sleep. She won’t. We come to the conclusion that we should probably give her another bottle, and will have to go through the process to feed her, burp her, change her, cuddle her, shush her, swaddle her, and finally lay her back to sleep. At this point we will finally sigh a breath of relief and think that the evening is now ours (once we’ve finished cleaning the kitchen table, loading the dishwasher, and picking up the 5 million toys scattered haphazardly around the house), when we realize that our 3 year old is out of bed. We will then spend the next hour tucking him back into bed, pretending to scare away monsters, bribing with promises to go to grandma’s tomorrow, and threats of disciplinary action, before he finally decides to stay in bed and go to sleep. Our evening will finally be ours, at which point we will realize it is 10:30 pm, and that we should probably go to bed ourselves, because we know that at least one (if not all) of the children will be awake at 6 am and we will be facing another long day of runny noses, poopy diapers, kissing boo-boos, and a million other things that it takes to keep a 3 year old, a 2 year old, and 3 month old simultaneously happy. Even though we realize that the idea of all three of them being content at the same time is probably just a dream that will never come true and that we are in the middle of the ultimate of existential struggles.”

“That is what we look forward to today, tomorrow, and EVERY DAY for the next SEVERAL YEARS.”

But I don’t say any of that. Admitting to the stranger (or sometimes even family member) that you are not thoroughly enjoying every single moment of raising your children would be tantamount to not loving your them. Every moment that you are stressed, or frustrated, or angry, is a moment that you are not “cherishing” them. Every moment that you find yourself secretly longing for the day your children are older so you can finally get some rest is a moment when you are not being “thankful” for your children.

I’m sure that in 20 years I will be looking back at pictures of my children as they are now, and I will long for the days that I could cradle them in my arms as babies. I’m sure I will wish I could go back to when my son would pretend to not want me to kiss him, all the while laughing and giggling while I shower him with kisses. I will probably miss the days when I would give one son a piggy back ride around the house, while the other pretends to be a lion and chases us while roaring. I will miss the nights as we are turning the lights out at bed time when my son calls out, “I love you Daddy!” In the midst of all the chaos that is going on, I am storing these moments in my memory, and I know that I will shed a few tears when these days are gone. I do love these moments. I do cherish these moments. I most certainly am thankful for these moments. I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world.

But I can’t handle an entire lifetime of this. Am I not allowed to call the hard times for what they are? Am I not allowed to admit that sometimes I am not sure I have any more in me to give? Am I not allowed to say that I’m looking forward to when things get a little bit easier?

No, it is perfectly acceptable in the midst of a hardship to look forward to better times to come; to have hope in a better future. In fact, as Christians, our entire life is meant to be focused on the future that we have to look forward to in the presence of the glory of God. The apostle Paul tells us, in his letter to the Romans, to find our hope in the midst of our“present sufferings” in the “glory that will be revealed in us”. Any difficulty, any hardship, any suffering, can be endured by focusing on the promise that God has made us that we will have a better tomorrow; even if that “tomorrow” isn’t until we are with Him in heaven.

Jesus himself compared it to a woman in the pains of childbirth:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.” (John 16:20-22)

For the birth of our daughter, a mere 3 months ago, the labor progressed so rapidly that my wife did not have a chance to get the epidural she was planning on. She got to experience first-hand what a fully natural child birth felt like. No drugs. I stood next to her helplessly as she screamed in what seemed like unimaginable pain.

How would it have gone if in the midst of her pain I said, “Honey, don’t forget that childbirth is a miracle, and that this moment will be gone so fast. Make sure you cherish every second of it!” I’m pretty sure if I had said that, it would have been the last thing I ever said.

Yes, childbirth is a miraculous moment. Witnessing the birth of my children are three of the most memorable moments in my life. But it is also probably one of the most painful, miserable, difficult ordeals that a woman can ever go through. No woman should feel guilty for not wanting to relive her labor pains. No woman, who is in the midst of labor pains, should feel guilty for wanting it to be over. It doesn’t mean that she doesn’t love her child. It doesn’t mean she isn’t grateful for her child. It doesn’t mean that immediately after she has given birth that she doesn’t relish in, and cherish the moment when she gets to hold her baby for the first time. It just means that giving birth is really painful.

Just like a woman giving birth seems to forget the agony of her labor after the child is born, I think parents forget how difficult raising children is when their children are all grown up. I think the well-meaning strangers telling us to cherish these moments with our children are probably only remembering the good times, and selectively forgetting the difficulties. Otherwise they might be more sympathetic to the fact that we might sometimes be looking forward to the day that its over.

Raising children certainly isn’t as painful as childbirth (not that I would know, I’m just guessing). But it certainly lasts longer, and as much as everyone tells you that it is over in the blink of an eye, when you are in the midst of it all it can seem like its lasting forever.

No parent should feel guilty for feeling overwhelmed by it. No parent should feel guilty for feeling worn down by the constant demands, exhaustion, and the day-in-day-out drudgery of the never ending work. No parent should feel guilty for looking forward to when they might get a break from it.

It doesn’t mean they don’t love their children. It doesn’t mean they don’t love and cherish the good moments (and there are plenty of good moments). It doesn’t mean they aren’t thankful for the wonderful family they have.

It just means that parenting is hard. It just means that they are human. And sometimes looking forward to an easier day in the future might be the only way they can muster up the strength to carry on with it.

So the next time you see a family with young children, and the mom and dad seem slightly frazzled, maybe you don’t need to remind them how “fast” things are moving for them. They probably won’t believe you. What they might need to hear more from you is an encouraging, “Hang in there, you got this!”

To all parents of young children out there: children are a blessing, but they are a hard blessing. Cherish the blessings, and this Thanksgiving be sure to take some time to mediate on how thankful you are for them. But don’t feel bad for letting the difficulties get you down. Don’t feel bad for wanting the difficulties to be over with. You are only human. We know that you love your children. We know that you are enjoying a lot of good times with your children. We know that you are thankful for your children. But being thankful doesn’t mean that you have to pretend the hardship doesn’t exist, it just means that you know the hardship is worth it.

 

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I hope that you and all your loved ones had a wonderful and Merry Christmas.

Christmas has pretty much always been my favorite time of year. There is something about the lights, the music, the food, and of course the presents that turn me into a little giddy child even as I enter into my 30’s.

I get nostalgic for the family traditions that were such a big part of Christmas when I was a child. Making Christmas fudge, decorating the tree, setting up the nativity scenes, and of course we must not forget the multiple viewings of “A Muppet’s Christmas Carol”. Now that I’m married and have children of my own I enjoy taking some of these traditions, along with some traditions my wife had as a child, and even creating some of our own new traditions as we make Christmas time special for our family in its own unique way.

One element of Christmas which will not play a significant role in our household however, is Santa Claus.

I am aware this is somewhat controversial. Whenever my wife or I mention to someone that we will not be doing “Santa Stuff” with our children we are often greeted with what I can only describe as shock and horror.

“WHAT!!! How could you deprive your children of the happiness, joy and magic of Santa Claus? Do you hate your children?”

Even people who consider themselves strong Christians, who proclaim to want to keep Jesus at the center of Christmas, will often give us a look as if they are considering calling Child Protective Services on us. For some reason, Santa Claus is now considered by many to be a sacred element of the season, and not introducing him to your children is neglectful at best, and downright abusive at worst.

So if Santa is considered by many to be such a critical component of Christmas, then why would we not wish to include him in our Christmas celebrations with our Children? I have several reasons.

First and foremost, I don’t want to teach my children about Santa Claus because I don’t ever want them to feel that I have been dishonest, or deceitful to them about anything. I don’t ever want to tell a lie to my children, and I don’t ever want them to feel that they can’t trust anything that I say. It may sound like something from a Christian book of clichés, but I am honestly concerned that if I deceive them about Santa Claus they may lose faith in my teachings to them about Jesus Christ.

Many people scoff at this idea, but it is a serious concern, especially in this day and age when the culture is so rampantly anti-Christian, and many outspoken atheists like to make God out to be as fictional and ridiculous as characters such as Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. If I try to convince my children that these fairy tales are real when they are little, while I’m also trying to teach them the truth of the Gospel, why wouldn’t they then start doubt the reality of God when they discover I’ve been misleading them about all the others?

This is not a trifle fear; I know some real world examples where the shattered reality of Santa Claus actually caused children to lose faith in God. One day my wife was talking to a co-worker and expressed this particular fear. Her co-worker stopped for a moment, and then said, “Now that you mention it, I when I stopped believing in Santa Claus was around the same time that I stopped believing in Jesus.” I was also recently talking to a friend of mine about this issue, and he mentioned a boy in his non-immediate family who upon discovering the truth of Santa Claus refused to speak to his parents for months, so hurt was he that they would have been so deceitful to him for so long.

Perhaps these examples are the exceptions, not the rule. Perhaps most children when they eventually come to terms with the truth of Santa Claus accept it gracefully, and their faith in Jesus, and their parents, is not shattered. It may be the likelihood of such serious consequences is small. But even still I can’t help but wonder, is it really worth the risk? Is Santa Claus really so awesome that it is worth gambling with my children’s faith in me, or in Jesus? In my mind, no matter what the odds, the risk just doesn’t seem worth it. Santa really isn’t that awesome.

I also don’t want to teach my children about Santa Claus, simply because I really don’t feel the need. Believing in Santa is not a crucial or necessary component to childhood happiness, or a love for Christmas. My parents never gave me the impression that Santa Claus was real. If ever I asked about him they were open and honest about what he was, and what he wasn’t. Thinking back as far as I can remember (as far back as the age of 3 and perhaps earlier), I have no memories of ever once believing that Santa was a real person.

And yet, as I said at the beginning, Christmas is most certainly my favorite time of year. Many people who challenge our views about Santa express to us how excited their children get every year in anticipation for Santa Claus. But believe me, as a child (and even now as an adult) I got every bit as excited about Christmas. The “magic” of Christmas is remarkable, whether Santa is real or not. Santa is not necessary to make a child happy. This Christmas my 3 year old was just has happy and excited to have his Grandma and Grandpa visiting for Christmas as any other child was excited over Santa Claus. Why would I get my children excited over something fake, when I could get them equally excited over something real? Why should I lie to my children, when they could be just as happy without the lie?

I also don’t want to teach my children about Santa Claus, because whether you think so or not, Santa does take away from Jesus at Christmas time. And even if letting your young children believe in Santa Claus seems like a bit of harmless fun, when you really think about it, much of what Santa teaches children is in stark contrast to what Jesus would teach them.

Santa Claus teaches children that the heart of Christmas, and their happiness, is found in the presents that Santa leaves under the trees. Almost every Christmas special that involves Santa Claus ever aired on television will at some point have some catastrophe which threatens to prevent Santa from being able to deliver presents on Christmas Eve. We are always made to feel great concern for how much sadness this will bring to all the children in the world. We are to be worried that “Christmas is ruined” and that there is no other source of joy or happiness. Then typically the hero of the story, through some miraculous feat, manages to help Santa complete his mission, and deliver the presents. We all then breathe a sigh of relief as we realize that “Christmas has been saved.”

Jesus on the other hand teaches us that He himself is to be our ultimate source of joy, happiness, and satisfaction. The real Christmas story takes place in a cold, dark, and damp cave used to house horses and donkeys where a little baby enters the world in poverty. And yet this child was such a wonderful gift that angels sang in the heavens and wise men traveled great distances to come see Him. The spirit of Christmas, and our true joy and salvation, is found in this baby boy and what he represents, not in colorful packages delivered by a fat man in a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer.

Santa teaches children that the key to happiness is stuff, in the form of presents.

Jesus on the other hand teaches that the key to happiness God, and He can be enjoyed no matter how many presents are under the tree.

Santa Claus teaches children that they will only get presents if they are “good” all year long and that they are on Santa’s “nice list”. They are taught that getting gifts is dependent upon them doing the “right things” and not doing the “wrong things”. It is all about them earning the presents that Santa leaves for them under the tree.

Jesus on the other hand teaches that there is nothing anyone can do to earn his grace. Jesus teaches that the only true gift that anyone really needs, the gift of salvation and a peace that passes all understanding, is a free gift that he offers to us, if we would only open our hearts to Him and accept it. Following Jesus is not about doing the right things, or not doing the wrong things, but about entering into a true faithful relationship with Him. It may not be a shiny present under a Christmas tree, but it is the only gift that will truly satisfy.

Santa Claus teaches children that doing good things, and not doing bad things is what’s important, and that their motivation for being good does not matter. In fact children are often encouraged to be good and not be bad specifically so that they can maximize their take-away come Christmas morning. The fact that such motivation is inherently selfish (focused on doing what I must to get what I want) does not matter.

Jesus on the other hand teaches that doing good things is fine, but what’s most important is having a good heart. You could do the greatest things and be the kindest person in the world, but if you do so from selfish ambition than you have earned nothing in the sight of God. Everything that we do, we are to do with the love of God working in our hearts. Without genuine love, nothing else matters.

Santa Claus teaches children that they “better watch out, they better not cry, and they better not pout,” because, “he sees them when they’re sleeping, he knows when they’re awake, he knows if they’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!” Santa teaches children to always act as if they are being watched by some mythical security camera and that all their bad deeds are being documented to be used against them. It is kind of creepy when you think about it.

Jesus on the other hand teaches that everyone ought to come to him as little children, He is not someone to “watch out” for. He teaches that He is always with us, but not in a creepy – always watching you and keeping records of all the bad stuff you are doing – sort of way, but in a – watching over you, protecting you, giving you strength, encouragement, and forgiveness – sort of way. Yes, Jesus does know all the “bad stuff” that we’ve done, but instead of “keeping a list and checking it twice” he looks at us with compassion and tells us, “I have taken your sin upon myself and washed you clean, come and be forgiven.”

Why would I want to encourage my children to believe in Santa, when I could give them Jesus? Santa gives momentary fleeting happiness, while Jesus gives everlasting life and never ending joy. Santa says happiness is in presents, Jesus says true happiness is in the Gospel. Santa’s gifts are conditional upon good behavior, while Jesus’ gift is unconditional love and forgiveness. Santa only cares that children act good, Jesus wants them to actually be good. Santa spies on them like some sort of pervert, while Jesus watches over them for protection, strength, and comfort.

I may not be entirely opposed to letting Santa and Jesus share Christmas, if Santa was not the opposite of Jesus in so many ways.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that all mention of Santa is banned from our house. I am not saying that Santa’s name is treated like a four letter word, and that there is never to be any mention of him in my presence. I enjoy a good Santa themed Christmas movie as much as the next person. We have a few Santa figurines as Christmas decoration around the house. And my family will enjoy watching Rudolf, Frosty the Snowman, Elf, and Christmas movies starring Tim Allen. We will enjoy Santa for what he is meant to be: a fun story with which to have a few laughs over a cup of egg nog.

But I will not go out of my way to convince my children that Santa is real. I will not spread glitter in the backyard and tell them it is a magic trail left behind by Santa’s sleigh. I will not put fake reindeer prints in the snow and try and convince them Santa was just there. We will not put out milk and cookies which will be left as an empty glass and a plate of crumbs come Christmas morning. While there will certainly be a lot of presents under the Christmas tree on Christmas morning, not a single one will be labeled, “From Santa”. Santa will be a fun story to watch on TV or read in books, but he will not become an intricate element of our Christmas celebrations, and he will certainly not be celebrated as if he was real.

We won’t necessarily make a big deal to our children that Santa isn’t real. We won’t beat them over the head with a Bible every time they say something about him. But neither will we go out of our way to deceive them into believing him. And if any of our children ask us about Santa, we will be open and honest about him. We will tell them that he is a fun story that is told at Christmas time, but nothing more. We may even tell them about the real life Saint Nicholas, after whom Santa is (very loosely) based. We will make sure that they know that while Santa movies and TV shows are fun to watch that the real joy behind Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Not because we think that “Baby Jesus” is cute, but because it is the awesome story of God who loved us so much that he took on the flesh of a man that he could live and walk among us, and ultimately die to save us, and that he is alive today offering us eternal joy and happiness. Santa Claus and his eight flying reindeer could never hold a candle to a story as magnificent as Jesus. Santa is fun, but Jesus is life, joy, and happiness. Why would I give them Santa, when I could give them Jesus?

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Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. (Romans 13:1)

This election season seems to be the most absurd in history, or at least in my own personal memory. As I look back over the last several months, I am still stunned to see where we are ending up. I remember when Donald Trump announced his candidacy, running as a Republican. I didn’t pay him too much mind. His candidacy had to be a joke. No seemingly intelligent individual could possibly support him. Nobody could honestly think that the “You’re Fired!” guy from The Apprentice would actually make a good President.

But as we’ve seen, jokes appear to be becoming nightmarish realities.

And here we are, essentially facing an election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Quite possibly two of the most despised political figures ever. Somehow we, as America, could not find any other people, more qualified to lead our nation. Of the over 300 million people in our borders, these are the two people that we thought were the “best”.

I mourn for the state of our country if that is really the truth.

But with Primary season wrapping up, and it is coming down to these two figures, what are we supposed to make of it? Should all of us conservatives simply “tow the party line” and throw our votes behind Trump? Should we buy into the whole “lesser of two evils” message like we have always done?

I, for one, will do no such thing.

My fellow conservatives may gasp at me, and call me a traitor, but I don’t care. I will not vote for Trump. Period!

But to not vote for Trump is the same as a vote for Hillary? Right?

We all know that if Hillary wins she will make it her mission to fill the Supreme Court with liberal Justices, and the conservatives will never win another case again? Right?

Hillary will do everything in her power to destroy the second amendment, and make abortions even more widespread? Right?

Letting Hillary become the next president is the worst possible thing for America? Right?

No!

The worst possible thing for America would be for us to lose sight of what is right, and what is wrong. The worst thing for America would be for us to turn our back on good, or even worse, to unashamedly support evil. And that is what a vote for Trump is. A vote for Trump is an active support of evil. And I will have none of that.

But isn’t Donald Trump the only choice left for conservatives?

Just because he has an “R” next to his name, does not make him conservative. Donald Trump is no conservative. To those that accuse me of betraying my conservativism, I cry foul! Trumps political affiliations have been fickle at best, bouncing around between Republican, Democrats, and for a while in the “The Reform Party”. For the first decade of the 21^st century he was by-and-large a Democrat, contributing quite heavily to Bill Clinton’s campaigns. In a 2004 interview with CNN he straight up said he identified more with Democrats. While in more recent years his track record may lean a little more towards the Republicans, it seems more evident that he throws his money and support behind whoever he think will better impact the bottom line on his portfolio. He has no principles that guide him, other than his own personal gain. So to those calling me traitor I say no, you are the traitors to conservatism, by allowing this man who spent so many years supporting Democrats to even call himself a Republican candidate, let alone actually vote to give him the nomination. Those of you who are trying to make this wolf in sheep’s clothing our shepherd are the real traitors to the cause, not those of us who are calling him out for the wolf that he really is.

But even if Donald Trump is not terribly conservative, isn’t he still better than Hillary? Isn’t he the lesser of the two evils?

Every election cycle I hear the “lesser of two evils” speech. I’ve actually said it myself in the past. But where has that gotten us? Every election we nominate candidates that nobody really likes or supports, and we find ourselves voting against the one we dislike the most. And then we bemoan ourselves for having terrible leaders. Enough!

Even still, I am not convinced that Donald Trump is even the lesser of the two evils. Donald Trump, in just about every facet, is a despicable person. He spews garbage every time he opens his mouth. He never speaks love, only hate. He never preaches unity, only divisiveness. He never seeks peace, only conflict. He is quick to go into fits of rage even while in the public eye. He is demeaning to everyone who stands in his way. He has no respect for anyone. He is particularly demeaning to women. He has been married 3 times to women that he allegedly abuses (there have even been allegations of rape). His current wife is widely known for being a bikini model in “Sports Illustrated, Swimsuit Edition”, and even posing nude for British GQ magazine (could you imagine the scandal that would ensue if any other presidential candidate had that skeleton in their closet). He calls himself a Christian, but says that he does not need forgiveness for any sins, which by definition means he cannot possibly be a true Christian.

Conservative commentator, Matt Walsh, best describes Donald Trump as:

“… a left-wing vulgarian who, when he’s not bragging of his adultery or fantasizing about dating his daughter or mocking POWs and the disabled, has taken to perpetuating conspiracy theories about how his former opponent’s father killed JFK. … But this is par for the course with Trump. He’s not above calling your wife ugly if you cross him or sending his surrogates out to accuse you of being a serial adulterer. As a guy reportedly linked to the mob, and who’s been credibly accused of brutal rape, and who used to pal around with an infamous international pimp and pedophile, you’d think he’d shy away from repeating rumors. But Trump doesn’t shy away from anything, save the truth … He lies about everything, all the time, relentlessly. Even when there’s no real need or reason, like when he brazenly lied about Mike Tyson’s rape conviction after Tyson endorsed his campaign. And so on. I don’t need to list all the times Trump strayed from the facts, nor the conflicting positions he’s taken on every issue, nor the litany of other charges that can be leveled against him. All of these things are known, yet he was still handed the banner of the Republican Party and appointed its standard bearer.”

Mr. Walsh then continues by listing a myriad of similarities between Trump and Clinton:

“…They’re both elitist progressives. Both pathological liars. Both morally bankrupt. Both narcissists. Both entirely unconcerned about the issues and willing to take whatever position assures them more power. Both Statist. Both authoritarian. Both tyrants, the only difference is that Trump actually ran on a platform of tyranny – promising to murder women and children and squash dissent. etc. – whereas Clinton has to pretend she’s not a tyrant. That means Trump will have a mandate for tyranny that Clinton will, much to her chagrin, not be granted.

“These two could not be more identical. That’s why they were such good friends. For God’s sake they’ll both be under investigation for crimes during the general election. Clinton for her email scandal and Trump for financial fraud. It’s like they’re fraternal twins or something. It would almost be kind of cute if they weren’t harbingers of national doom.”

Supporters say they like Trump because he “tells it like it is”. What they mean is he has no filter … at all. He is constantly as intentionally outrageous and profane as he can possibly be to make as many headlines as possible. He doesn’t “tell it like it is”, he tells it such that he can stir up as much controversy in the tabloids as possible, because everyone knows there is no such thing as bad press. Meanwhile, every time he opens his mouth he makes a mockery of himself, and our nation for actually taking him seriously. If we weren’t on the verge of giving him the launch codes to our nuclear weapons (think about that the next time Trump publicly goes into an uncontrollable rant), the world would be laughing at us. Instead they are trembling that we might actually elect him.

Some of his supporters agree that Trump is an outrageous buffoon, but they assure me “… nobody really believes that he will follow through with any of his outlandish statements once he is President, but Hillary will; we should be more concerned about that!”

So you will vote for a person, based on your assumption that they will renege on what they say they will do? You are voting for someone BECAUSE you trust in their inherent untrustworthiness? Are you listening to yourself? You would rather throw your support behind the evil that you don’t know and understand and can’t predict than the one that you do? That is true insanity.

Yet, even if Donald Trump was the lesser of two evils, when did we lose sight of the fact that the lesser of two evils, is still evil? When did we decide that it was okay to support “Hitler” as long as his opponent was the Devil? When did we stop looking for someone admirable, and instead go for the one who is the least despicable? When did we stop seeking good, and settle for just minimizing the bad?

Donald Trump is no conservative, and there is no reason to think that he is the lesser of two evils. And even if he were, I cannot stomach the idea of supporting evil, just because it might be a lesser evil than the alternative.

Quite frankly, I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I will not vote for Hillary. But by the same token, I will not vote for Trump. I’ll probably vote Libertarian, which quite frankly I’ve been feeling more of a connection with lately than the Republican Party anyway. And to all my nay-sayers: To not vote for Trump is not the same as a vote for Hillary. A vote for Hillary is a vote for Hillary. Not voting for Trump, is just that, a refusal to support Trump. Just because a majority of “Republicans” were insane enough to nominate Trump does not mean that I am under any moral obligation to support him. If he is unable to defeat Hillary, it is their fault for nominating literally the only person more repugnant than Hillary. The threat of a Hillary victory is not enough for me to turn my back on what I know to be right, and support what I know to be wrong.

And to those that preach of the doom that is sure to follow if Hillary wins, I ask this: Are you putting your hope in the office of the President? If you are, you have no hope, no matter who wins. You have already lost.

I am not a “Conservative”. I am a follower of Jesus Christ. My faith in God, and belief in the truth of His Word, makes me to tend to a “conservative” perspective. But I do not put my hope and trust in a political ideology. I do not put my hope and trust in any political party. I do not put my hope and trust into any presidential candidate. My hope is in God.

Yes, if I don’t vote for Trump, Hillary might win. In reality, even if I do vote for Trump, Hillary will probably win anyway, and I’ll have sacrificed my integrity on the alter of Donald Trump for nothing. But whoever wins, I can rest easily knowing that God has ultimate sovereignty and authority over all. I can rest easily knowing that “… all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God.” (Romans 13:1). Whether Hillary wins, or Trump wins, I take comfort knowing that God allowed it, and He does not make mistakes.

Hillary may try and destroy the First Amendment, and remove all semblance of religious liberty. She may get the Supreme Court to rule it illegal for anyone to voice any opposition to the LBGT cause. Freedom of religion and freedom of speech may disappear, but my hope is not in the First Amendment. My hope is in God and I will follow him no matter what our Government says my rights are.

Hillary may try and repeal the Second Amendment (or even better “Executive Order” it into oblivion), taking away our right to own guns to protect ourselves. But my hope is not in a gun, or in any weapon other than the Word of God which is the Sword of Truth.

Hillary may continue to push open our borders and flood our nation with even more illegal immigrants. But my hope is not in a political boundary. My hope is found within the borders of the Kingdom of God, the walls of which can never be shattered.

Hillary may try to dismantle our armed forces, leaving our country weak and defenseless. But my hope is not in any earthly army. My hope is in the power of the Lord, who can obliterate any forces of evil with a single whisper.

Hillary may do all of these things, and more, but Trump promises no better. The threat of any of these horrible things is not enough to throw my support behind Trump. I will not choose the path leading to nuclear holocaust at the hands of a raging lunatic just so that I can say, “At least I still have my guns!” while my skin is melting off my bones.

Hillary may lay the seeds of destruction for our nation, leading our nation to implode in on itself. As heartbreaking as that would be for me, I can rest easy knowing that, “… in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Even if everything that once made this country great burns to ash, and our culture marches toward its own demise, I know that my salvation and my place in eternity is secured in Jesus Christ. My hope is not in America. My hope is not in a President. I will place my hope in something far greater, that I know will not disappoint.

I’m not saying that the Presidential Election is meaningless; quite the opposite in fact.

My point is that it is important enough for us to demand more of our candidates than simply to be the lesser of the two evils. It is important enough for us to expect more of them than to simply be the least despised. If we want our country to be great we must expect more of leaders, just as we must expect more of ourselves. And for that reason, when Election Day comes, I cannot vote for someone as unambiguously despicable as Donald Trump, even if his opponent is Hillary Clinton. America deserves better than that. America needs better than that.

God may ultimately decide to put Hillary, or for that matter Trump, into power to serve some purpose that is beyond my human understanding. That is His decision to make in His divine wisdom. But for right now, I cannot use the power of my vote to support a candidate who is so far removed from anything good. I’m not saying a candidate should be perfect, no candidate ever is, but they should at least be decent, and Donald Trump is nowhere close to that.

At the end of the day, if America insists on electing one of the two evils put before us, it will break my heart. But it will not dissolve my hope. Because whoever becomes my President, Jesus is still my Lord, and that is something that no election can ever destroy.

 

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Donald Trump is President-elect. And some people are very upset about that.

VERY upset.

Like, take to the streets in protest and signing petitions to completely upend the democratic process we have followed for two and half centuries, kind of upset.

And I understand where they are coming from. I’m not particularly happy about a President Donald Trump either. I am nervous about what that entails. He is a vulgar, offensive, infuriating, impulsive, out of control, and in many ways, a despicable human being whose faults are too numerous to mention. I’m not happy about having Donald Trump as President. I’m not saying I would have preferred a Hillary Clinton president. She has a different, but just as long and terrifying, list of issues that gave me just as many, if not more, misgivings, than Donald Trump. I was scared of both of them. When I went into the ballot box to cast my vote, I did so knowing I was going to be scared of the outcome, even if the one I voted for won. The people lamenting that America made the “wrong” decision on election day don’t realize that America made the wrong decision back during the primaries, on both sides. At that point the cards were already stacked in the “wrong” direction, no matter which way we went. On November 8^th there was no right decision to make, there were only wrong decisions, and the election was more about deciding which was the least wrong.

I understand that people are upset about Donald Trump. I am too. But what I don’t understand, is the extent to which people are wailing about it. The complete and utter hopelessness that many people are expressing. They think that Donald Trump as President spells the certain doom of America.

Good news people, Donald Trump will not destroy America. Not because he will all-of-the-sudden turn out to be a great guy, though I hope the weight the office will sober him up. Donald Trump will not destroy America, because the President, no matter who they are, just doesn’t have enough power to do that.

If you don’t believe me, then read the Constitution. It spells out exactly what the President has power to do. When the founding fathers laid the foundation for our republic, they had just broken free from the tyranny of Great Britain, and their King. They knew all too well the dangers of putting too much power in the hands of one person. So, they established a system of government with checks and balances to ensure that no one person, or even group of people, have absolute control over anything. They established three branches of government (1) The Legislative branch, made up of the Senate and House of Representatives (Congress), which is tasked with creating laws (2) The Executive Branch, headed by the President, to execute the laws created by Congress (3) The Judicial Branch, made up of the Supreme Court and all of the lower courts, which make rulings based on the laws enacted by Congress.

It’s a brilliant system really. Those who create the laws do not execute the laws. Those who execute the laws do not make rulings on them or enforce punishment for breaking them. Each of the steps of establishing a lawful society are taken by three different, and independent branches. In addition, even the steps that each branch takes, has oversight from the other branches. The President has veto power over laws passed by Congress, and the Supreme Court can overrule a law passed by Congress if un-constitutional. Much of what the President does is subject to approval of Congress, and the President is even subject to impeachment by Congress. And both the President and Congress have say over who gets appointed to the Supreme Court. Under this system, outright tyranny is almost impossible.

The President, as head of the Executive Branch has limited power. His job is mainly to execute the laws enacted by Congress, conduct foreign relations, and act as commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He cannot create laws, that’s the job of Congress. He cannot make any rulings on laws, that’s the job of the Courts. He cannot entirely prevent laws from being passed, even his veto power can be overturned if Congress is dead-set on passing a law. Even as commander-in-chief, his power is limited, in that he doesn’t have the power to declare war without the approval of Congress. The Constitution by design does not give the President that much power. The Constitution actually gives the majority of the power to Congress, not the President. Which is why the effectiveness of a President is determined more by his ability to work well with Congress than anything else.

So liberals can calm down a little bit. Donald Trump cannot single handedly throw out all the Muslims. He cannot single handedly change policies of immigration. He cannot single handedly overturn laws or rulings on abortion (if only), same sex marriage, or gun control. He cannot single handedly declare higher or lower federal minimum wages. He really can’t single handedly do anything. As much as the anti-Trumpers out there might cry out with much wailing and gnashing of teeth, he simply cannot, and will not, undue all of the supposed progress that they hold dear. He simply doesn’t have that kind of power.

The writers of the Constitution did this on purpose. In addition to protecting against tyranny, it was inevitable that we would have a “Donald Trump” elected to the office eventually, and they wrote the Constitution to limit his power just for that reason. The office of the President is designed to be so weak that even if Adolf Hitler himself were elected to the office, the nation would still be able to survive it. It wouldn’t be pretty, or pleasant I’m sure, but there would be no anti-Jewish laws, no concentration camps, no holocaust, and no quest for world domination. And the nation would certainly not implode.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to minimize the importance of the President. The President is important, and it is a profoundly serious and important job. The President does have ability and power to do tremendous good for the nation, and whoever is elected President has the duty and responsibility to use that power to the best of their ability. And I know that the President can do a decent amount of harm. But my point is that there is a limit to just how harmful the President can be. A good President at his best, who can work well with Congress, can accomplish a lot of good. A bad President at his worst, typically will simply accomplish nothing, because Congress will hold him back, as it is supposed to.

Donald Trump will not destroy America. But I can tell you what could destroy America.

Trump supporters gloating over Hillary’s surprising and embarrassing defeat, giving liberals a giant middle finger as they do it, could destroy America.

Anti Trumpers degrading anyone who voted for Trump as uneducated racists, sexists, misogynists, bigots, homophobes, transphobes, and every other -ist and -phobe in the dictionary, could destroy America.

Trump supporters mocking those overcome with grief, taking to the streets in protest, or staging “cry-ins” on college campuses as a bunch of whiny, childish, brats, could destroy America.

Anti Trumpers wanting to completely throw away two and a half centuries of the Electoral College, without truly understanding its purpose, and signing petitions to get the Federal Government to overturn the results of a free and fair election, could destroy America.

Trump supporters who try to act as though they were little angles when Barak Obama was elected, even when we know they haven’t stopped whining about it for the last 8 years, could destroy America.

Anti Trumpers who act as though the only “scandalous” thing about Hillary Clinton was her deleted emails, completely disregarding the host of real and serious issues that her detractors saw, could destroy America.

Anyone who throws away friendships and family over who they did or did not vote for could destroy America.

Our insistence on letting our differences of ideas and opinions turn friends into enemies with an ever deepening chasm of divisiveness growing between us could destroy America.

Donald Trump will not destroy America. But our reaction to Donald Trump could.

We need to stop fighting. We need to stop vilifying those with opposing viewpoints or ideologies. We need to realize that the internet is not a place with faceless, emotionless drones, but with real flesh and blood people who can be deeply impacted by words that are carelessly flung across social media. We need to be more mindful about what we say, how we say it, and why we say it. We need to stop the hate that is coming from both the left and the right.

We don’t have to agree on everything. We don’t have to see eye-to-eye on everything. We don’t gather around a camp-fire and sing “cumbia”. We don’t even have to like everyone.

But we need to get along. We need to respect those who disagree with us. We need to care about those who do things we don’t particularly care for. We need to actually try and understand opposing ideas, even if in the end we still can’t accept them. We need to realize that even if we don’t agree on how we get there, our objectives are the same: the peace and prosperity of our nation.

If we don’t start doing these things, if we continue to let our differences in thoughts and opinions divide us, if we continue to breed hate for those who don’t think like us, we will rip our country apart at the seams. It is already happening, with racial tensions escalating and riots and violence breaking out all over the place. If we don’t stop, we will have another Civil War on our hands, but the lines won’t be conveniently drawn between North and South, but through every single neighborhood, in every single city, in every single state across the whole nation. We won’t be divided between “here and there”, we will be divided everywhere.

The President doesn’t have the power to destroy America. But we are a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. “We the People” have tremendous power, more so than we realize. And “We the People” could destroy America if we continue to behave like animals.

Heavenly Father,

We know You are sovereign over all. We know from Your Word that no powers are in place that are not placed there by You. Many of us are lost and confused as to why you would allow someone like Donald Trump to become president. Help us to remember that Your ways are greater than our ways, that Your wisdom is greater than our wisdom. Help us to remember that You are ultimately in control. Help us to trust you in this seemingly dark time.

Please lay your hands on Donald Trump. Whether we supported him or not, he is going to be our leader, and he desperately needs your guidance and your wisdom. Please soften his heart, and open his mind to your influence so that he can become the leader that we need him to be.

Heal our nation in these coming days. Help us to band together, not fall apart. Help us to have hope, not fall into despair. Help us to find peace, not conflict. Help us to realize that though we disagree on so much, we agree on one thing, our love for our country. Help us to unite behind our common goal, the peace and prosperity of our nation.

Please bless our nation!

Amen!

Previous Post: Genesis 1:1 In the Beginning God

Now Read: Genesis 1:1-2:4 (NASB)

In my first post I focused entirely on Genesis 1:1, the epic opening line of God’s “personal letter written to mankind” (aka, the Bible). I focused on God who, Himself having no beginning and no end, was the beginning of everything that has a beginning. I explored how the layout of that first verse, putting God above the heavens and the heavens above the earth, painted the picture of the unimaginable greatness and glory of God.

But the key part of that verse that I did not focus on last time, but is no less important, is this: God created.

Again, this might seem like a trite, self-evident observation, but the author of Genesis didn’t believe so. The fact that God created everything that we know and see is so important that not only did he write it down explicitly in the very first verse, but then proceeded to spend the whole first chapter describing not only what, but how, God created.

Many people may read this opening chapter of the Bible and see it as fanciful description of God bringing the universe into existence (which they may or may not believe ought to be interpreted literally), but one thing they may not see it as is beautifully written poetry.

Poetry?

In fact, it actually is a perfect example of ancient Hebrew poetry, and that sets it apart from much of the rest of Torah (the first 5 books of the Old Testament). Indeed it even sets it apart from the rest of the book of Genesis itself. The rest of Genesis is written much more like a “history book” … describing how this person who was named this, did this and went here and said that … that sort of stuff. But this first chapter, describing the creation acts of God, is much more poetic, and when recognized as such it can be unpacked in much more meaningful ways.

It isn’t necessarily poetic in the sense that we today may think of poetry. We expect poetry to have rhyme (usually) and rhythm, and most importantly it “sounds nice” to the ear. But Hebrew poetry isn’t necessarily written for repetition of sound or rhythm, but repetition of concepts and repetition of specific phrases. It’s kind of like the repetition of the phrase “The sound of silence” at the end of each verse in Simon and Garfunkel’s classic song (a little bone for my fellow S&G lover’s out there). Only in this case the poetry of Genesis chapter 1 keeps repeating phrases like, “and there was evening and there was morning, the first day” and other phrases like “God saw that it was good”. But even more so, along with repletion of key phrases, it has a “repetition of events” or a “repetition of actions” on the part of God, beautifully showing how God, as He built His creation up one step at a time, followed a repetitive pattern. That pattern highlighted in the poetry, when pulled apart into its key elements, gives some key insights that can be taken from the text that might not seem so obvious from a simple line-by-line read.

The pattern of repetition goes something like this (Note: Not all of them happen in precisely the same order chronologically through the text, and they are in many cases interwoven with each other, but they are all there):

The poetry of the creation account highlights the key aspects of God’s creation process through this repetition.Eeach element in the repetition says something about God’s character and how He intends to relate to His creation:

1. God created empty spaces with the plan to fill them with something specific.

This might just be the way my brain thinks as an engineer, wanting to see purpose behind design, but I find it interesting that God specifically created what appeared to be emptiness, but He did so with a purpose and a design to fill that emptiness. Likewise He did not create anything that didn’t already have a place prepared for it to go. He did not create stars and then realize, “oh, I guess I ought to create a universe to put them”. Nor He did go, “oops, I’ve got all this cattle here, but they are sinking to the bottom of the seas because I forgot to create dry land to put them on.” God planned His creation, and each piece of His creation had an intended relationship to some other piece. And even the “empty spaces” that initially someone without vision might have thought as a “waste” was created with purpose in mind. Don’t ever think that anything that God has put in your life doesn’t have meaning or purpose or won’t become critical to the plan He has in your life. You might find times in your life where you feel empty, but trust that God has a plan to fill that emptiness with something truly spectacular.

 

2. God took the time to specifically name certain parts of His creation.

This might seem a little odd to us, and many might gloss over the fact that God gave certain items names, but it’s actually very important to our understanding of God’s sovereignty. In ancient societies naming something you discovered or created was a way of establishing ownership or dominion over it. Kind of like European colonists planting their nation’s flags on land they “discovered” and claiming their nations dominion over that land. That is what God is doing here. When He is calling the dry land “earth” He isn’t just assigning arbitrary words to certain items or defining language, He is saying, “I created this, and I am establishing my dominion over it by giving it its name”. So when God calls the light “day”, and the darkness “night”, and when He calls the dry land “earth”, and the waters “seas”, and the expanse “heaven” He is establishing His Lordship over His creation. He is saying, “All the land, all the seas, and all the cosmos above, are under My dominion and My control for all time (day and night)”. This is why we can have faith that ultimately God is in control. Yes, we live in a fallen world mired in sin (we’ll get to the “Fall of Man” in a couple chapters) and the sin that man has brought into the world may make things for a time seem out of control. But God’s hand of dominion is still over all the earth, and all the seas, and all the cosmos, all the time. In the end God will have the last say over everything that He created and called out by name.

 

3. Everything that God created was good.

At this point we still haven’t gotten to where man brought sin into the world. At this point there is nothing that exists that wasn’t specifically created and crafted by God and God alone. And since God is good, and there is nothing bad or wrong in Him, everything that He creates is good. God is specifically calling attention to that by emphasizing over and over (repetitively and poetically) the goodness of His creation. It is almost as if God is speaking to us in our fallen world, which is most certainly not good, and He is saying, “Hey, look … when I created it, it was all good. I did not create anything that was not good. Anything that you have in your world that is not good is your own (ie. man’s) creation.” In this day and age it is very common for the world to try and heap the blame for evil, pain and suffering onto God’s door step, or try to use it to prove God doesn’t exist: “How can a good God allow this? Where was God when this happened? Why did God do this?” But God will have none of that. He is making it perfectly clear here in the very beginning that what He created was good, and beautiful, and perfect, and that everything in our world today that is not good, and not beautiful and not perfect is because we, human beings, have taken what He created and broke it, smeared it, and tainted it with sin.

 

4. God always finishes what he starts.

Encompassed in the pattern of “creating, filling, naming, and declaring it good” is the emphasis that God did not start the process of creating something without seeing it through to its full completion, at which time he could step back and admire it as being good. He did not create an ocean of waters, and then leave it empty and lifeless. No, He put life in it, and not just a little bit of life, but life to the point of it “teeming”. He filled it with life. He did not create dry barren rocks and call it done. No He filled the dry land with beautiful plants and vegetation and animals and birds, and only then after it was filled with a great diversity of life could He step back and admire it as being good. I think it also bears mentioning that the creation account makes special note of the seventh day when “God rested”. This is not to say that God was “tired” or in need of rest, but the point is to say that this was when God was finished with his initial work of creation. Just because the creation is divided into 6 days we are not to think that God stopped His work at the end of each day. Just because there was evening and morning and a day was over, we are not to think that God paused His act of creation. No, He didn’t “rest” until the 7^th day, because His work wasn’t complete until then. When God starts something He sees it through to the end, until it is complete, until it is truly, “very good.”

So what should we take away from this first chapter of Genesis? Many people are tempted to read these verses and get into a debate about what the creation account really means as far as how God created the universe, in what order, and how long did it take him to do it. It is a great source of controversy for debates between “Young Earth Creationists”, “and “Theistic Evolutionists”, and Atheists and all flavors in between. They can get caught in debates on what does a “day” mean? Is it a literal 24 period or could it be metaphorical that could mean epochs of time? Was the earth and the whole cosmos created  in 6 literal 24 hour days, five or six thousand years ago or did it evolve over billions and billions of years? These debates are fine to have, and there is nothing wrong with looking at this first chapter of Genesis to try an answer those questions. I encourage people to do that, and I certainly have opinions on that, but I obviously can’t tackle all of that with one little blog post, so if I had to read these words and think, “What is the most important message to take away from Genesis chapter 1?” My answer is this: God is not finished with us.

When I read this creation account what is most evident to me is that (1) God has a plan for everything he creates (2) He has dominion over everything he creates (3) Everything he creates is good, and (4) He does not stop until his creation is “complete” and “very good”. We can look around our world today and see that we as a race of sinful people have messed up God’s perfect creation pretty bad. What was “very good”, is now not so good. But we know from God’s pattern of creation, that God does not rest until all of His creation is “very good.” God has a plan. He knew we would mess up from the very beginning, and provided us with Jesus Christ for our salvation. God still has dominion over all things; He is not powerless to bring the world back into His loving embrace. God will not give up on us or His creation. We may be broken now, but He has started a work in us that He will see through to its completion, until that glorious day when He can look over us, the most precious of all His creations, and smile and declare finally that we are “very good.”

 

P.S. If you’re confused how I could write about Genesis 1, and not comment at all about the creation of man and woman … don’t worry. I will cover that in my next post. As I move into Chapter 2 I will revisit the latter part of Chapter 1 as I ponder what it means to bear the image of God.

Next Post: Genesis 1:26 – 2:25 – Male and Female: The Image of God

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Genesis 1:1 (NASB)

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 

 

When you pick up a book that is as thick and dense as the Bible, being told that it is the very word of the all-powerful Creator of the cosmos, and you turn to the first line and it starts off with the statement, “In the beginning…” you know that you are starting something truly epic. It doesn’t mince words about where it is taking you to … it is taking you to the beginning of all things. The beginning of time itself.

And God was already there.

The first thing that screams off the page, which might seem trite to point out, but is important to note in our secular-naturalist world, is that in the beginning God was already there. He was there before the beginning, He has no beginning, He always has been and always will be. We must remember that when the world wants to try and fit God into a box that lives entirely within the realm of what we can see and observe and within the natural laws of the cosmos as we have come to understand that.

It won’t work.

God cannot be boxed in based on our measly attempts to understand the universe. He is so much bigger than our ability to comprehend. He is so much bigger than the universe. He not only exceeds the universe, but as we can see right here in the very first verse of the Bible, which starts it all off, he preceded the universe.

And if that wasn’t enough, the first verse of the Bible continues to emphasize not only the greatness of God, but also the smallness of man. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” First there is God, then there is the heavens, and then there is the earth, an on that earth is man.

Ponder just for a minute how vast the earth is compared to the size of a man. With our technology we can shoot rockets up into orbit and take pictures of our world, or we can jump into a 747 and fly to the other side of the world in a matter of hours, or we can jump on the internet and send a message to the other side of the world in seconds. All of this makes our world seem quite small, it is a “small world after all”, isn’t it? But if you strip away our technology and just leave us as bare human beings the vastness of the earth compared to our tiny selves is very apparent. We are mere specs of dust on an enormous canvas that is the earth. Up until less than a century or so ago traveling across the earth was a difficult and dangerous endeavor. Up until a few centuries before that people generally didn’t travel the earth at all, but more or less stayed within a few hundred miles of where they were born. The vastness of the earth compared to tiny size of a man was overwhelmingly clear to our ancestors.

But above the earth, stands the heavens.

If we are but a speck of dust on a vast, vast earth; the earth itself is a tiny microscopic spec in the unimaginable expanse of the universe. The billions and billions of stars in our galaxy, and our galaxy being but one in billions and billions of galaxies, and that is just in what we have been able to observe. Who knows how much may lie beyond the reach of our telescopes gaze. No one can truly understand just how vast the universe is. Sure scientists can conceive of enormous distances like the “light year” and then express distances in terms of billions and billions of light years, taking advantage of “scientific notion” to express extraordinary distances with relatively few numbers on a piece of paper. In doing so they write down on paper how big they think the universe is. But just because they can mathematically express it in a concise manner doesn’t mean that even they can truly fathom or comprehend just what those kinds of distances truly are, or many galaxies or stars or worlds are truly out there. Just as our ancestors likely couldn’t truly comprehend in their mind just how big our earth is, even with all our technology and understanding today we can’t fully grasp just how vast “the heavens” really are.

But above the heavens, stands God.

Just as we are but specs on a vast earth; and the earth is but a spec in a vast cosmos; so is that vast cosmos is but a spec compared to the infinite greatness and glory of God. That is what I believe the very first verse of the Bible is trying to say. It is not simply saying that God created everything that we see, but right off the bat the author of Genesis (traditionally believed to be Moses) is painting us a picture of a God that is so much bigger, so much more powerful, and so far beyond anything we can truly every comprehend or imagine.

God is bigger than all things. God is greater than all things. God is more powerful than all things. And if you go back as far as you can, you will find God is the beginning of all things.

 

P.S. To my readers who may be concerned that I spent this whole blog post on just one verse, and thus far I’m only one verse into the ENTIRE BIBLE, please do not be scared away. Not all my posts will be so focused. Occasionally I may come across a verse that has so much weight to it that I believe it warrants focusing an entire entry on that one verse, but that will not be the norm. My next post will cover the rest of the first chapter of Genesis and even a little into the second chapter.

Next Post: Genesis 1:1–2:4 – God Created

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Studying God’s word, in its entirety and in detail, can be a daunting task. To pick up a book that is around 2000 pages long and stands at over two inches thick (even when printed on tissue-thin paper) can be enough to dissuade even the most enthusiastic of believers. It is a task that I myself have embarked on several times throughout my life, but must confess have never completely succeeded in. I have read a lot of the Bible. But have I read every single word in it? Can I say I have read, and studied and mediated on every statement that is contained in its vast number of pages? I must say, I have not.

But I intend to change that.

To anyone who has read my blog in the past, this might seem like quite a seismic shift. I also fully understand that not that many people may be interested in coming with me on this journey.  What little readership I may have had may find what I’m doing now, uninteresting. I understand that, and don’t blame them if they move on. To them I say go in peace, no hard feelings.

I’m doing this as much for myself as I am for any of the few who might actually read this. I’m doing this for my own personal spiritual growth, and I’m sharing it in case anyone else would like to grow with me. I am not setting any particular time table here. I’m not going to be ambitious and say, “I will have read through the entire Bible in one year!” or anything like that. Sure the whole Bible could be read in that time, but to be really studied, mediated on, understood and mentally processed, and a blog post written about it? Probably not. And even if it could be done, I don’t have the time to be able to churn out that many blog posts in that time span. No, I do not have an end goal in mind, other than to say I will march through the text verse by verse, chapter by chapter, leaving my thoughts on it as I go, and we’ll see where the Lord takes us. It may take several years to get through the whole thing, but it’s a journey that I want to take, and I’m inviting anyone who wants to come along with me.

I should also point out that while I would like to cover EVERYTHING, realistically if I’m ever going to get through the whole Bible (even if its years in the making) I can’t do a detailed analysis of every last statement. I could spend a lifetime doing that and still not do it true justice, so I have to find the right balance of looking at the story as a whole, and also diving in the specific details. There may be times I look over a chapter and I may not comment on every verse. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t something interesting or important to be learned in certain verses, it just means that at that point in time it may not have spoken to me as much other verses in that chapter.

So with that prelude, I jump right into it, beginning in the first verse, of the first chapter, of the first book: Genesis.

First Entry: Genesis 1:1 – In the Beginning God

 

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