How refreshing would it be, if a candidate simply told us why we should vote for him? What if a candidate told me straight up what he was pledging to do as president, and spent no time cutting down the other man?
And maybe a deeper question is this - why are mud-slinging tactics so effective? Is it because we are such a negative-minded people that derogatory language is all that we understand?
God help America. Really.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Lessons from the Rock: It Still Hurts to Fall
Over and over, a logical thought kept running through my mind during my day on the rock at Torrent Falls: “A controlled fall won’t kill you.” On the heels of that logical thought was the screaming thought “But it sure would hurt!” Really, as long as you were clipped in to the via ferrata cable (never double unclip!) about the farthest that you could fall was 8 feet or so. Yet even at that, your momentum would probably swing you out and then crash you back into the rock face, leaving you banged up and bruised.
The harness that I wore and the cable that I was clipped into gave me protection from death. I think the longer we were on the climb, the more we began to realize this (trust your equipment!). But in no way did my gear protect me from injury. Even though I did not experience a fall, I still came home with scraped knees, sore hands, and aching muscles. And I can you tell you this – I would go again tomorrow.
Jesus promises that I – because of my faith in him – will never taste death. I have been at funerals where all that I had to cling to were the words "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (1 Cor 15:55) But I have also lived long enough to know that I will still experience hurt. Those funerals that I mentioned – even though I knew that my loved one was in the presence of the King – I hurt because my life had a hole in it that someone no longer here used to fill.
The fact that life is full of hurts – and that living for Christ provides no protection from those hurts – doesn’t keep me from living or following Jesus. At the end of the day, I’m saying the same thing, really. Hopefully for me, my day to day life is spent following Jesus. Yes, it still hurts when we fall. But I wouldn’t miss the trip for anything.
31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. [Romans 8:31-39]
The harness that I wore and the cable that I was clipped into gave me protection from death. I think the longer we were on the climb, the more we began to realize this (trust your equipment!). But in no way did my gear protect me from injury. Even though I did not experience a fall, I still came home with scraped knees, sore hands, and aching muscles. And I can you tell you this – I would go again tomorrow.
Jesus promises that I – because of my faith in him – will never taste death. I have been at funerals where all that I had to cling to were the words "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (1 Cor 15:55) But I have also lived long enough to know that I will still experience hurt. Those funerals that I mentioned – even though I knew that my loved one was in the presence of the King – I hurt because my life had a hole in it that someone no longer here used to fill.
The fact that life is full of hurts – and that living for Christ provides no protection from those hurts – doesn’t keep me from living or following Jesus. At the end of the day, I’m saying the same thing, really. Hopefully for me, my day to day life is spent following Jesus. Yes, it still hurts when we fall. But I wouldn’t miss the trip for anything.
31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. [Romans 8:31-39]
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