In case anyone’s missed it (doubt that’s the case if you’re reading this), there’s a new technology available for learning, fun and communication – I believe they call it the Internet.
Find out more via this 1995 video:
Just 12 years ago and the top weather site mentioned in the video was “The Weatherman.” There’s also not even a single mention of Google in the video – my how things change.
Thanks to CommonCraft for the heads up.
This morning at the men’s What-a-Study we talked about labeling.
We’ve all done it. Whether it’s a group of guys standing by their lockers and rating the girls that walk by… “I give that a 3.” “I give that an 8.” “I give that a 15.”
Or it’s labeling someone because of their nationality… “Well all Hispanics are the same.” “Well you know, he’s Scottish.” “Well Americans are all the same.”
Or we label by stereotypes… “Well all Hispanics are lazy and they’re all illegal immigrants.” “Well he’s from the Middle East so he must be plotting against the U.S. and our Western culture.” “Well they’re Asian so they must be bad drivers.”
When we label people we take away a piece of their humanity. It’s a lot easier to disregard someone if we don’t have to look them in the face or accept them as equals. It’s a lot easier to dismiss someone’s comments when we can say, “Well they’re an idiot.” “Well they’re white so we know he’s racist.” “Well they’re just an angry black man.”
Gen 1:27 says, we are made in the image of God. Everyone of us. Each person in your family and each person you can’t stand. All made in the image of God.
Someone very close to me told me yesterday that a co-worker would be going to court this week because they’re husband is an illegal immigrant. The husband faces deportation. “She is not Illegal herself. All this immigration mess takes on a different twist when you put names and faces to the immigrates.” It’s so much easier to dismiss 12-million people as criminals and yell and scream for them to go back home — until we see them face to face and realize we’re talking about individual people. Real people with real lives with real problems and real feelings. Just like us. Made in the image of God.
In ancient Egypt it was said that all the kings ruled in the image of their particular god. King Tutankhamun (King Tut) ruled in the 1300’s BC. His name literally means, “Living Image of (the god) Amun.” In Egypt, if you wanted to see what a god was like, you looked at that god’s king. I wonder if that could be said of each of us today? If you want to see what God is like, you look at God’s followers.
In Matthew 5:27-30, Jesus says if you lust after a woman, you’ve already committed adultery with her in your heart. Jesus connects our eyes and our intentions with the state of our hearts.
But then He says, if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. Or if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
Because (v 29 & 30) “It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”
Wow! That’s pretty strong language. If you lust your body will be thrown into hell? It would appear that the only other option is to pluck out your eye. Good thing we don’t take that literally or as Rob Bell says, “half the population would be without an eye in a few moments.”
But according to Bell, Jewish tradition (Eric feel free to comment on this and/or clarify) has a slightly different idea of heaven and hell.
Psalms 103:19 says, “The Lord has established his throne in heaven and his kingdom rules over all.”
Heaven is the realm where all things are as God intends them to be. How many times have we said while sitting on a mountainside in quiet, or sitting by a pond or lake fishing, or enjoying a moment along with our wife or loved one, “Oh, this is heaven. This is heaven on earth.”
What if Heaven is more than just a place we hope to go to after death, what if it’s the realm where things are as God intends them to be? What if that place can be anywhere, anytime, with anybody?
Psalms 115:16 also suggests that God has given the earth to humankind to do with it as we please (for a temporary time).
So if there’s a realm where things are as God wants them to be. There must be a realm where things are not as God wants them to be.
Heaven or __(fill in the blank)__
Think about the opposite of “Heaven on earth.”
When something is a living hell or “Hell on earth” its void of love, peace, beauty, meaning. It’s absent from the will of God.
What if when Jesus says, “It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell” He’s saying when you’re lusting after someone, something happens – something serious – something hellish. So you must avoid it at all costs.
What if he’s saying, “if you lesson the value of someone, you lesson your value of me?”
What if to be “anti-human” is to be “anti-God?”
Now imagine if you can… the possibility of heaven invading earth. Or the opposite… hell invading earth. Which would you prefer? Which do you think is happening when we devalue those around us with our labels, heated language, sharp tongues of anger?
When we don’t treat others as Christ would (a.k.a the Inverted lifestyle) it not only takes away a piece of their humanity – it takes away ours.
Jesus called us to something bigger. Something better. Something different. He called us to look beyond Jew and Gentle. Roman and Israelite. White and black. American and African. Rich and poor.
My mom’s kept a lot of my writings over the years. In fact she recently gave me a book she made of most of the columns I wrote at The Belton Journal and Harker Heights Evening Star. She even kept some of the writings I did back in high school that I received failing grades on. I’m pretty sure she didn’t keep all those writings because they were great works of art. I’m pretty sure she didn’t see an aspiring writer in me and think, “One day he’ll be famous and I can make money off these high school papers.”
I imagine she held on to those writings because she valued me. She valued the creator much more than the creation.
Bell writes, “How you treat the creation reflects how you feel about the Creator.”
To be a Christian is to work towards a new humanity. To work towards a place where the first thing we see isn’t race, culture or nationality, but where the first thing we see is the image of the Almighty God.
Thomas sent me a tweet this morning after the What-a-Study. “Only label God uses is ‘loved.'”
His message was in response to a Tweet I sent shortly after getting on the bus this morning. “We talked about labelling people this morn and here i am on the bus and ive already labled 4 people. Geeze!”
When Jesus says to love our neighbors, it isn’t just for our neighbor’s sake. If we don’t – something happens to us. And on the flip side, when we do – something happens to us as well.
From Brian McLaren:
Senator Obama’s speech today was, I think, one of the most important speeches of my lifetime. I hope people will read it and ponder it…
I hope each of us can encourage intelligent and civil conversation on the content of this speech. I feel we’re at a moment where our history could take a different turn depending on how we respond. In the context of “Everything Must Change” – Senator Obama has said things that America desperately needs to hear and engage with.
Here are lines I especially hope we take to heart:
For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina – or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
I resonate so much with these words. Will we choose – as we do so often – to focus on the latest distractions? Or will we go for the deep shift that’s needed in our hearts, our attitudes, our values, our beliefs, our priorities, our purpose, and our vision? I believe we can make the better choice and take the better path. I believe we can.
The NYTimes has the full transcript of Obama’s speech today.
Here’s a few snippets:
I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.
But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
Laurie’s got a quick recap of our Memphis trip on her blog for everyone. I microblogged (Twittered) much of the trip but I figured I’d give everyone a quick recap here as well.
a – we left early Thursday morning
b – stopped and grabbed a pic near the Texas/Arkansas border
c – found a Geocache at a rest stop where we ate lunch
d – stopped in Arkadelphia to fill up and found out they don’t like loud music
e – drove from there to Memphis
f – arrived at the hotel around 4ish and then headed downtown to Beale St
g – ended up at an Irish pub for dinner
h – stopped at the Lorraine Motel and took photos of the place where Dr. Martin Luther King was gunned down April 4, 1968
i – took some night pictures of the Mississippi
j – woke up Friday morning and headed to Graceland, home of Elvis Presley
k – it was well worth the visit but they have turned that area into a money making tourist trap for Elvis Presley Enterprises
l – signed our name to the fence outside Graceland
m – ate lunch back at the hotel and then headed to Sun Studios where Elvis recorded his first single and U2 recorded several songs while filming and recording Rattle and Hum
n – found another geocache along the banks of the Mississippi River
o – enjoyed a nap and then had dinner at Chick-fil-A
p – woke up the next morning and headed back to Graceland to grab a Sun Studio hat — funny that the Sun Studio hat I wanted was at Graceland and the Elvis keychain Laurie wanted was at a store near Graceland, not at Graceland
q – drove 4 or 5 miles south to Mississippi and found our first geocache in Mississippi
r – headed back to downtown Memphis and toured the Gibson Guitar Factory — before arriving Laurie suggested maybe we should buy me another guitar while we were there. i was all for that (and still am) but figured she didn’t realize how expensive Gibson Guitars really are. besides knowing how great the look and sound – after seeing how they make their guitars by hand we both understand why they’re so expensive.
s – found some great Memphis BBQ at Corky’s on the east side of Memphis. Laurie says it tops her favorite, Red, Hot & Blue. i may have to agree but i don’t know if any BBQ tops the great BBQ at Cyclone Corral BBQ outside Temple, Texas.
t – made a random stop at Target and bought Elvis’ 30 #1 hits — another random Elvis purchase away from Graceland ($9 compared to $22)
u – headed back to Dallas Sunday morning
v – stopped along the way for another geocache in Arkansas and dropped off a travel bug and grabbed a new one – didn’t realize till we were back home that the travel bug we grabbed was actually on it’s way to Memphis and not away from it – DOH!
w – stopped in Sulphur Springs to see family and to see Bryan and Amanda’s new house
x – it’s very Oyler-esque – all the way to Bryan’s collection of John Deere collectible tractors
y – ate dinner at Snuffers in Rockwall – mmm Snuffers
z – arrived back home around 9 after picking Presley up from Laurie’s parents
So there you have it – Memphis A-Z. Hope you enjoyed our trip. We sure did.
For Laurie…
Lisa Marie on Oprah
The original uncensored video: