Daily Archives: February 19, 2010

Teenagers Unfriend Facebook for Lent

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From the Columbus Dispatch:

It was only Ash Wednesday, and Kirby McKenna had already been tempted three times. The 17-year-old went to the Facebook home page, but she couldn’t log on. Her mom, at her request, had changed her password. Kirby gave up Facebook for Lent. For a teenager, this is about the same as giving up oxygen or water. But she will be brave. “There was life before Facebook,” she said, “even if I can’t remember it.” Joining Kirby in her sacrifice are friends Isabel Gaitan, 17, and Ben Heigel, 17. All live in Dublin and attend St. Brigid of Kildare Catholic Church. All are seniors in high school; Kirby goes to Dublin Jerome, and Ben and Isabel attend Bishop Watterson. “I’m literally on (Facebook) 24/7,” Ben said. “So I kind of wanted to challenge myself this year.” “Lent is all about sacrifice,” Isabel said. “Granted, I don’t really need Facebook. But it’s a sacrifice.” ” Big sacrifice,” Kirby added.

Read it all.

Here is a test for you. What is your reaction to this story? How you react will tell you a lot about how you see yourself before God.

How to Respond to Tiger?

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From Fox News:

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Tiger Woods is to return to therapy after he speaks publicly for the first time about his infidelity, according to a letter from PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem that was obtained by The Associated Press. Finchem’s letter to the PGA Tour policy board and other officials explained why Woods chose Friday to make his first public comments, which are to be televised live by the major networks. Woods’ statement comes during the Match Play Championship, sponsored by Accenture, the first company to drop Woods as a pitchman. “As we understand it, Tiger’s therapy called for a week’s break at this time during which he has spent a few days with his children and then will make his statement before returning,” Finchem said in a letter Thursday. “Accordingly, there was very little flexibility in the date for the announcement.” Woods is to speak at 11 a.m. EST from the clubhouse at TPC Sawgrass, home of the PGA Tour. It will be his first time to speak publicly since his car accident Nov. 27 that sparked sordid revelations of extramarital affairs.

Read the entire article.

The sad spectacle of Tiger Woods’ saga continues today. I do not plan to watch it because Tiger is not accountable to me nor does he owe me an explanation or apology. Rather he owes God and his family an apology because he has done great damage to his relationship with both.

So what should the Christian response be to Tiger Woods? Doubtless there are many who take glee in his fall. But this can only be attributed to human pride that makes us jealous of Woods’ success. There is nothing in this spectacle about which to find glee. It is tragic because people have been badly damaged, Tiger included. Those who crow over Tiger’s demise would likely not be so eager to do so if they were in his position. And those who say that they would never do what Tiger did only delude themselves because every one of us is profoundly broken and capable of committing transgressions, sexual or otherwise. This is what Jesus was talking about when he told us to remove the log from our own eye before we attempt to remove the speck from someone else’s.

No, the proper Christian response to Tiger is one of compassion. That does not mean we excuse or condone his inexcusable behavior. Neither do we attempt to rationalize it away. Tiger made a terrible mistake and needs to take responsibility for it. Instead, we recognize that we are in the same boat as he is. If we truly profess to love all people, then we must desire the best them. In this context, I would hope and pray that Tiger finds the One who loves him and gave Himself for him. I would pray that the Holy Spirit works in Tiger to bring about true repentance as well as healing and transformation. I pray that God will provide his family with the grace to forgive Tiger if he has truly repented, and to watchfully restore him. This does not mean that they suddenly develop amnesia over his transgressions, but rather give him a chance to prove that he has repented. This means that Tiger will have to be humble enough to allow himself to be closely monitored and supervised so that his relationship can gradually be restored over time.

Again, I pray that from this sad spectacle, God will use it to bring about Tiger’s conversion to the Christian faith so that he has a fighting chance to overcome his sexual compulsions (if that is the problem).  There is great hope and mercy for those who repent and turn to Christ to be healed. I hope and pray this for Tiger and his family. They need a Power that is beyond them if they are truly going to be able to overcome the damage that has been done.

In my opinion, any other response to Tiger Woods and his family  is neither loving or Christian.

Delusion Made Manifest

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From Fox News:

The tirade posted Thursday on a Web site registered in Stack’s name began: “If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, `Why did this have to happen?”‘ He recounted his financial reverses, his difficulty finding work in Austin, and at least two clashes with the IRS, one of them after he filed no return because, he said, he had no income, the other after he failed to report his wife Sheryl’s income. He railed against politicians, the Catholic Church, the “unthinkable atrocities” committed by big business, and the government bailouts that followed. He said he slowly came to the conclusion that “violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer.” According to California state records, Stack had a troubled business history, twice starting software companies in California that ultimately were suspended by the state’s tax board, one in 2000, the other in 2004. Also, his first wife filed for bankruptcy in 1999, listing a debt to the IRS of nearly $126,000. The blaze at Stack’s home, a red-brick house on a tree-lined street in a middle-class neighborhood six miles from the crash site, caved in the roof and blew out the windows. Elbert Hutchins, who lives one house away, said the house caught fire about 9:15 a.m. He said a woman and her daughter drove up to the house before firefighters arrived. “They both were very, very distraught,” said Hutchins, a retiree who said he didn’t know the family well. “‘That’s our house!’ they cried. `That’s our house!”‘

Read the entire article.

Yesterday Joseph Stack flew a small plane into a Texas office building, killing himself and at least two others. Apparently his final manifesto was rich with irony and hypocrisy as he railed against government and the Catholic Church. His solution? Murder. Here is another sad example of human pride and hubris manifesting itself in deadly ways. We cannot help but notice a haughty self-righteousness in Stack’s manifesto, a self-righteousness that apparently gave him license to kill, at least in his own mind.

It never ceases to amaze me how evil invariably seeks to rationalize its actions by blaming the Christian faith or the Church. Is the Church catholic (not the Catholic Church) perfect? Heavens no! It is comprised of broken and fallible humans who will continue to make mistakes until Christ returns to finish his saving work. But this is no excuse to blame God or rail against him. It’s a cop-out for those who do. Neither does it justify acts of violence and murder. Never. Under any circumstances. May God have mercy on Stack’s sin-sick soul. May he have mercy on his victims and their families.

The Essence of Happiness

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“Happy is the person who loves you [God]” and his friend in you, and his enemy because of you. Though left alone, he loses none dear to him; for all are dear in the one who cannot be lost. Who is that but our God, the God who made heaven and earth and filled them? By filling them he made them. None loses you unless he abandons you, and when he abandons you where can he go or fly for refuge?

For whenever the human soul turns itself, other than to you, it is fixed in sorrows, even if it is fixed upon beautiful things external to you and external to itself, which would nevertheless be nothing if they did not have their being from you.

—Augustine, Confessions 4.9.14

We humans spend a lot of time running from God. As Augustine points out, this is utter futility because try as we may, we cannot ultimately flee from the Source and Author of all life. To make matters worse, when we flee from God in pursuit of lesser things, it just compounds our misery because we deprive ourselves of life.

This is why we read in Scripture of God lamenting over his rebellious people and desiring us to return to him. He created us to have life and like a parent who grieves and becomes angry when he sees his child pursuing things that will surely lead to death, so God grieves for us when we continue in our rebellion and alienation.

God wants better for you. Do you want better for yourself? Spend time this Lenten season pondering these things. Ask God to show you what needs to die in you so that you can develop a relationship with him (or continue to grow in your relationship with him).

Keeping Our Priorities Straight

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Gradually [time] repaired me with delights such as I used to enjoy, and to them my grief yielded. But these delights were succeeded  not by new sorrows but by causes of new sorrows. The reason why that grief had penetrated me so easily and deeply was that I had poured out my soul on the sand by loving a person sure to die as if he would never die. The greatest source of repair and restoration [of my grief] was the solace of other friends, with whom I loved what I loved as a substitute for you; and this was the vast myth and a long lie. By its adulterous caress, my mind which had “itching ears” was corrupted.

—Augustine, Confessions 4.8.13

In this poignant passage, Augustine reminds us of why we grieve. We put our ultimate love, loyalty, and hope in people and things that are mortal and bound to pass away. Augustine is not telling us not to love others. He understood that God created us to have relationships, both with him and each other. Instead, Augustine is reminding us that when we attach our ultimate hope and loyalty to things that must pass away, we are bound to grieve because eventually we will lose them to death.

In other words, what Augustine is implicitly identifying in this passage is a by-product of human sin and rebellion—human pride. Instead of keeping God the main thing as we were created to do, we choose to keep transient things the main thing and we suffer mightily for it. This is the essence of human sin. We miss the mark of God because we think we know better than God.

When we finally come to put our ultimate hope and trust in God, we will never be disappointed because God is unchanging and eternal. He cannot pass away. We cannot lose him to death. And because he is merciful and faithful, we can count on him to love us and renew us.

This Lenten season, think on these things and ponder them deeply.

From the Morning Scriptures

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Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

—Philippians 4:4-9 (TNIV)

Here we see the essence of observing a Holy Lent.