Last week I got to appear on Fox News, just before Fathers Day. I had a great visit with the folks at The Strategy Room and I’m thankful for them being willing to talk openly about both God and the Fatherless Crisis. They put a clip online, but it’s just a short sample of the hour. We ended up having a great conversation. I’ll be out of commission today and most of tomorrow, so I won’t be able to moderate comments. Here’s a clip of the Fox program for now. I’ll be back soon! Watch the latest video at FOXNews.com
When we begin believing there are simple explanations for the happenings of the universe, we are in dangerous territory. Physics is not simple. The complex nature and enormity of the universe is not simple, the ecosystem is not simple and so forth. So when I hear a theologian or philosopher talk about how simple reality is, I know He’s not talking about anything God made. When you analyze God’s art, it is not simple, it is extremely complex. In fact, the more we know about our reality, the more we understand it’s infinite intricacy. We like simple explanations of reality because we like control. We want to stuff the complexity of the world into our little minds because if we can hold it all in our minds, there is no mystery. But God did not give us control over the complexity of the cosmos. He gave us limited control over ourselves, and those whom it is appropriate we care for, children and so forth. We get to choose where we pee, for instance. And to some degree we get to choose where our children pee. What we don’t get to control is who goes to heaven and who doesn’t. In my [...]
18Jun, 2010
This past week I stopped by the White House to hear about the initiatives the President will be rolling out during a White House celebration of Fathers Day on Monday and I left encouraged and excited. I remember when I first started talking about mentoring and fatherhood a few short years ago how little discussion there was about the issue of fatherlessness. It was a dark subject that brought up thoughts of weakness. Now, it seems, a positive spotlight is being shone on the power and importance of fathers. If you’re dad is around, would you do me a favor? Would you make a really big deal out of him this weekend? Would you take him to a baseball game, shower him with corny (or perhaps thoughtful!) gifts, and tell him how important he is to you? It’ll mean the world. I’m hoping in the next decade Fathers Day becomes a huge deal, a day of celebrating positive masculinity, a day of celebrating the amazing gift that strong men bring to families and communities. We can start by making an enormous deal out of Fathers Day. On Monday the President will make a few major announcements, including an explanation of [...]
17Jun, 2010
If you’re like me, you’re kind of loving the world cup. The drama of nation pitted against nation and the modern-day gladiator feel of each match is too much to ignore. And it’s also hard to argue that the players competing this month in South Africa aren’t the greatest all-around athletes in the world. Anybody who has kicked a ball around for a few minutes knows how fit you have to be to even play, much less compete. That said, many here in America (read white-twenty-somethings who once backpacked through Europe) praise soccer a bit too much as a unifying sport. While it’s true soccer is the most popular sport in the world, and it’s also true it has unifying qualities in the sense that it hilights the common ground interest in a common sport, it’s hardly a total unifier. In fact, an argument that soccer does more to polarize continents, nations, countries and even towns would be fairly easy to make. Entire riots take place after wins and losses. In the end, soccer is just a sport, and it does what every other sport does, it illustrates what is in the heart of man: the desire to compete, to [...]
16Jun, 2010
This past weekend I read a sermon by Ray Stedman regarding Romans 6. Ray focussed, in part, on the idea we can either be enslaved by sin or enslaved by righteousness. It’s a passage I am familiar with but he talked about it in a way that was new to me, new and helpful. The paradigm shift involved Stedman’s argument that human beings are designed to be mastered. He says God designed us to live in relationship with Him as our King, and we work best, most healthily and emotionally stable when we submit to him as our master. As Stedman said this, I realized he was right. We aren’t independent creatures, capable of “finding our own way.” We were designed to have a master. We were designed to be ruled over. As I’ve gotten older, and hopefully wiser, I’ve realized my views of authority are skewed. Earthly authorities, all of them including Kings and teachers and pastors and priests are corrupt. And they aren’t just a little corrupt. The best of us are extremely corrupt, acting in our own self interests. The most trustworthy leaders are the ones who know this and press on in honesty and humility. I’d [...]
