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Prisoners of Our Own Device

   There might not have been a more world-changing invention this century than the smartphone.  I remember in high school we would ask our math teacher if we could use a calculator, she deny us by saying, “Are you going to be carrying a calculator in your pocket every day?” Well, it turns out we would, plus a phone, computer, encyclopedia, message system, gaming console, news feed, and music player.   As great as the devices are, they come at a high cost and not just to our pocketbooks. Since the mainstream adoption of the smartphone, there has been a stark corollary increase in anxiety, depression, and suicide, especially in the younger generation.  It is easy to see the distraction they make on the roads, in the classroom, and in the workplace. As author Jonathan Haidt put it, “ The phone-based life makes it difficult for people to be fully present with others when they are with others, and to sit silently with themselves when they are alone .”   This...
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Already Gone

  Some folks like to arrive at the airport minutes before the plane is about to take off. Some don’t get to the show till the curtain has gone up. Some people will only step out on the platform when the train is spewing smoke.   The only problem is that if you do that, you run the real risk of the gate being closed, the doors being shut, and the train is departing the station.   While that is not a wise way to go about life, it is a much worse way to approach God. Many will wait to seek forgiveness from God till the absolute last moment. They assume there will always be time.   Yet let’s consider what the psalmist tells us in Psalm 32.  As he espouses the goodness of being forgiven, he warns in verse 6, “ Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him .” He warns that waiting till later may mean it’s too late!  Don’t wait till the rush, it might be...
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Take It Easy

  I recently read a great piece of advice: “ Be hard on yourself in the morning and easy on yourself at night.”   The idea is that at times we keep ourselves up at night beating ourselves up over what we didn’t do, yet we often let the opportunities that are there slip away in the morning.   It's about regret. We usually can’t do anything after the fact. The best way to eliminate regret is to kill it before it is born. Procrastination seems like a solution in the moment, but it's a drain for the future.   Proverbs 3:27-28 says, “ Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.  Do not say to your neighbor, "Go, and come back, and tomorrow I will give it," When you have it with you”.   If we act when we can, we won’t have to be so hard on ourselves later.
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Finish What You Started

  Well, the year is coming to a close. It sure seems to go by fast.  As you think back, what are those things that you planned to do but just didn’t get around to? You had good intentions, but it just never seemed to be the right time.  Consider the advice Paul gives in 2 nd Corinthians 8. Here, Paul is fundraising for relief efforts and knows that the church in Corinth wants to help. He is encouraging them to finish what they started. He is not asking them to give what they can’t, but rather to not let an opportunity pass them by. “ So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have ”. 2 nd Corinthians 8:1  Don’t let the year pass you by on something you can do.  Don’t let a good idea go to waste.  An inch of movement is better than a mile of intentions.  If you can, do.  There is not a time like the present.  Finish the year with a good finish!
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You Haven’t Figured It Out Yet?

    You can fool kids pretty easily. I think back to some of the tales I believed when I was a kid, I cannot believe I was that gullible.  Maybe it is the lack of experience. Maybe it is just ignorance. Maybe it's just because we really want to believe. For whatever reason, when we are little, we will believe some pretty fantastic things even when it doesn’t make a lot of sense.  But at some point, we grow up and figure it out. Or do we?  In 1 st Peter 1:14, we read, “ As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance ”. There is a time when we can be excused for believing in things because we were ignorant. Our desire overrules our thinking. In doing so, we live very spiritually immature lives.  But as we mature, we must not let our lust rule us. We have to wise up and realize that just because we want to believe something, it doesn’t make it so.  Too many folks wallow in their ignorance. Th...
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Take That to The Bank

  In 1798, Issac Davis committed the first notable bank robbery in American history. He stole $162,821 from the Bank of Pennsylvania at Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia. He almost got away with it. Early suspicion fell on the blacksmith who forged the vault.   But then Davis went and deposited that amount in the bank. Not another bank, the exact same bank. I guess he wasn’t worried about the same robbers coming back.   You would think the bank robber might not put his money in that bank, but people are funny. They see flaws in others but not themselves. An arrogant man will condemn others' pride. A selfish person will complain other how others are just in it for themselves. An adulterer will accuse his spouse of infidelity.  As Paul writes in Romans 2:21-23,  “ you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal?  You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You...
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Running People Off

   I don’t run. The only way I’d ever run is if a monster were chasing me, and it must be a pretty big monster. If I ever had to run a marathon, I’d die. But it turns out just having a marathon run might just do it.   According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, more people die of heart attacks and cardiac arrest when they fall ill during marathons. Not the runners, the people near the race.  The problem is the change in traffic patterns when streets are closed due to the race. Ambulance ride takes on average 4 minutes longer. People driving to the hospital get delayed. The result is that the 30-day death rate from heart attacks and cardiac arrest jumped 15% for people who fall ill on marathon days.   We often think about our lives in terms of what is good for us and what we want. Yet we must be careful because our actions do influence and have an effect on others. In 1 st Corinthians 8, we see Paul make this point in the context of die...
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