Warning! This gets political

Subtitle: Jarvis Wright’s view on politics

In light of today’s turbulent political scene where everyone who disagrees with the next guy is an idiot, I thought I should finally get in on the action. So, let me set it all up and tell you how I filter my political views. More than anything, I consider myself a follower of Jesus Christ [meaning that I confess with my mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in my heart that God raised him from the dead resulting in a desire to answer the call "Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men."]  Being a follower of Jesus Christ should work its way through a person’s whole life. At least that’s what I believe. So, my everyday actions, feelings, and thoughts toward my country, my community, my family, my stuff and myself should align themselves with the thought that Christ rules over every area of my life. Got, it? Alright then we’ll move on from here.

So, the primary thought that I have on politics is that Jesus wasn’t a conservative, he wasn’t a liberal and he definitely wasn’t a moderate. But, he was and IS a radical. I am about to make very broad sweeping statements about all of these political alignments, so don’t condemn me until you hear me out. But, I do welcome your thoughts. Conservatives want small government and big business when it comes to our money, but they like to have morality ruled with an iron fist. Liberals like to have big government that helps those in need whether those in need in anyway live morally. And moderates can’t really make up their minds. They like stuff about both sides so they’re afraid to commit to just one. :-) Haha! So, by me saying Jesus is a radical what I mean is that he doesn’t lean in any of these directions (or that he isn’t in this taking sides business). He walked to a different drumbeat; that of his Father in heaven of whose will he said he came to fulfill.

There were liberals and there were conservatives in Jesus’ day. The most conservative were the Sadducees (who didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead) and then there were the Pharisees. At the opposite end of the spectrum were the Zealots who wanted to overthrow the Romans and were willing to risk the livelihood of the nation to do it (sounds radical – or just crazy?) But Jesus didn’t fall into any of their camps, he made his own camp. It was a camp of caring for the lost sheep of Israel and preparing the way for all men that would to receive eternal life. And, so now my point of all this is that for Christ followers, he has made this way and he has left us with a mission. See Matthew 28:18-20. So, why are we more concerned with this world’s affairs and making life comfortable for us and our children than we are concerned about telling lost men and women about Jesus? Why are we more enthralled with the latest gadgets, gizmos and trappings that the pagans chase after than we are with “look[ing] after orphans and widows in their distress and [keeping ourselves] from being polluted by the world”? See 2 Timothy 2:4 and James 1:27… We have a fight but our fight should not be with each other over political “stuff” unless it is unjust to the poor – not your friend that owns the tanning salon that might be hurt by an excise tax but people who are truly poor through circumstances such as oppression and/or calamity. Our fight should be against a very real enemy that is dragging people off to hell at alarming rate. So, brothers and sisters, I urge you live the life you’ve been called to by Christ and preach the gospel both with your lifestyle and your mouth being led by the spirit.

Don’t get me wrong. We should be involved in the political process. We have a very powerful voice called a vote. We should study candidates, we should pray, and we should vote in the way that we believe God is leading. We should also cry foul when we see the defenseless being oppressed. But, more than we are involved in politics for the sake of politics, we should be involved for the sake of the kingdom of Christ.

Stop all that (letter) cussin!!!

Alright, I’ll go ahead and tell you up front, I like to write blog entries that have some redemption at the end. But, since this one will likely lack that, I’m attaching a link to a video that DOES contain actual BAD language but has a redemptive point. It is audio so don’t play it around your children. :-) Just click here.


Now, since the beginning of time mankind has justified himself against everyone else around including God. We always like to use the term that "I’m doing better than , so I must be okay."  Well, for me there’s one particular sin that bothers my conscience but that I still flirt with just a little bit. (Oh, did I say one?) Ha. Here’s one of the sins. And, that sin is not always having wholesome language. In other words, I don’t like to be around people that swear or use bad language. And where I come from it’s called cussin’. I don’t like to be around cussin’, especially from women or young people. At a power plant, I’ll tolerate it. Not sure why on that last part. But, I really don’t cuss (very often).  And, it catches me off guard and bothers me to hear people that do (very often).

So, here’s my justification. If I want to say it but don’t actually do so, then I’m okay, right?  Ha! So, if I’ve adopted a system called letter cussin. Let’s say that you want to fight somebody. I don’t like to fight either. But, if I wanted to, I might say something like “I oughta kick you’re A.” Or if I’m just dumbfounded at the dumbness and the dumbnity of something (or someone), I might get that amazed look on my face and say something like “What the H?” But, that’s about it for me. A, B, D, H (and a very rare S) are enough. I stray away from the granddaddy of them all. I think it is a most offensive word and would rather stay around the fringe of cursing than get really bad by throwing out the bomb.  You know the one.  I don't use it.

For those that wanted to know, there’s my explanation of letter cussin.  So now, don’t make me mad and don’t do anything stupid or else I’ll have to break one out on ya.

Much love!!

Seven out of Ten

I heard this statistic a couple of weeks ago (didn't confirm it but heard it on the radio as the intro to a conference about helping break the trend). And, it broke my heart to hear it.  I’ve heard it before and it is disturbing.  I shutter at the thought of sharing, but here goes. Seven out of ten church attending men view pornographic material at least once weekly. By the sheer grace of God, I am in the three. I don’t take that lightly because I know that the temptation is always there for sexual impurity of any kind to creep into our lives. So again, it is by the grace of God so that all I can boast in is Christ and his work on the cross for being in the three rather than the seven.

Our bodies are demanding and they are prone toward what is wrong.  They urge us to turn from good to evil every moment of every day.  But scripture urges us that love God to 1) remain unstained from this world 2) confess our sin that we may be made whole 3) and to pray for those that are weak. So, pray for the seven. Sin is serious and it kills. Sexual sin kills individuals, it kills marriages and it destroys whole families.  So, men, put up a fight, it's worth it to prevent the shame that the enemy would bring into our lives.

And so no one thinks I'm exalting myself as better than anyone else, I will add this, being in the three doesn’t make me great.  I fight my own battle every day as Paul said, I discipline myself that after I have preached to others, I myself am not disqulified.  Trust me, I have enough mental images from my own corrupt past (and present) or from today’s mainstream media (from ‘Rated PG’ movies to the evening television drama) and even a casual walk or drive through the local community without ever seeing another naked body.  Some of the ladies make sure that there’s not much left to imagine when they suit up to go out into the public eye.  And, I have no control over that.  So, the struggle is real for me without a need to watch dirty movies or visit websites.  So, I make it my aim to follow the example of Job -- “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl…”  No matter what she's got on, I am pretty sure, it's not my job to examine her for anatomical correctness.

Dang, this was a tough one, but this is the stuff I think about.

much love my friends, much love!

Bad Customer Service

Another day, another encounter with the fine agents of Wal-Mart. I actually like the Wal-Mart that is nearest our house. I’ve had lots of good experiences there. But for some reason I chose to go to Wal-Mart 280 on the way homw Wednesday. While there, I realized that I have it good at the Chelsea Wal-Mart because they have all the things we need and in just the right package sizes. And, I bet their fried chicken is fresh and not all dried up like a raisin.

So, here I am, looking for Motrin which has apparently been recalled at all the local pharmacies. I didn’t know that but in case you didn’t know either, now you know. And, then I got the call from Ms Kimberly that her back hurt and she wasn’t fixing dinner so I better get something. Well, I stepped right up to the heat lamp in the middle of the store that had what was probably at one time a fine tray of fried chicken under it. It all looked like it was cooked 8 hours ago. So, I stepped on over to the deli where I THOUGHT (my bad) there might be actual factual “so fresh and so clean clean” fried chicken. Nope. It was cooked at the same time as that over there in the mobile heat lamp and the lady behind the counter had a major ‘tude.

She flinched not, and she smiled not, and she acknowledged not my very friendly “Hey! How are you today?” I took immediate offense. How could you live in the south and be unwilling to engage in the beginning of a good Southern conversation. I won’t belabor the point from here. But good customer service is a lost art. Why can’t people that are at work do the things that it takes to do their job well. If one customer upsets you, don’t take it out on the next customer. Be friendly! Be firm if you have to but be good to your customers if you’re in customer service. It goes a long way.

much love my friends, much love!

Road Rage

I’ve found myself becoming a competitive driver lately. I don’t know if it’s the 20 miles of highway that lie between my home and my office but I find myself being rude to other drivers, This is mostly in terms of seeing someone put their blinkers on to get over in front of me. What do I do? I speed up to prevent them from getting over. It’s a race from Chelsea to Birmingham and back again every Monday through Friday.

So Tuesday morning of this week, I stopped at a traffic light. As I approached the light I got into the left lane because traffic had to start uphill from the light and there was a 18 wheeler in the right lane. Meanwhile, two other fine citizens pulled right up behind the truck rather than getting behind me. When the light turned green the first of those two squeezed over in front of the car that was in front of me. Good for him. The next car was determined to pull over in front of me. I was equally determined (short of getting in accident) that she wasn’t. She won because she was perfectly willing to sacrifice her car, my car and the back part of the 18 wheeler in order to get over. But, her determination infuriated me to a point that I’m sure I letter cussed her in my head (I should write a blog on letter cussing, later). And, then I pursued and kept pulling up beside her to get her to look over at me. But, of course she wouldn’t.

I remained quite upset until I got to the office. At which point, I had to pray for forgiveness and a changed heart, for being too rude to let her over in the first place and then for harboring resentment toward her because she cut me off. I think this is the first time I’ve ever been that angry for such a petty offense on her part. And all this after hearing from Colossians 3 this week... Verse 8 says: But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Oh jolly!!! I think I pulled all of those into my Tuesday morning commute. Pray for me and hold me accountable. I know you will.

much love my friends, much love!

intro

well i fought it but alas i am starting a blog. the basis of the blog are my thoughts. if you want a cutesy family blog, see my wife's (that is if she'll share the link with you). how'd i get here? well, i used to have really good friends, but either they moved away (Scotty, Dereck and probably others) or i moved away from them (Veno, Reynold and probably many more). a guy needs an outlet of thoughts whether those thoughts are good, bad or ugly. so you'll find here my random thoughts and probably some poor punctuation like my dislike for using capital letters at the beginning of sentences where they probably belong. as the title says, i won't just wow you with all my good fluffy thoughts. i am a Christ follower, and i am one with many faults (consuming much grace) and it is my full intent for you to see my faults and hopefully we can grow together -- that is if you choose the follow this here blog.

much love my friends