It's a FB day. Checking in from time to time, with special attention to what friends are posting in the wake of Oregon and Connecticut. Some talk about "arming teachers." Makes me wonder, what are you thinking?
Arming teachers and asking them to act in yet one more enormous role is NOT the answer. This knee-jerk reaction (arming teachers) is part of the larger problem facing us this morning. Too many people have bagged on their responsibilities for creating a "user-friendly" culture--this would of course be true of SOME teachers; BUT it's a big tent filled with parents, extended family members, the Church, politicians, the entertainment icons and their handlers, the culture of our Colleges and Universities and corporate profits--seems a good start on a long list.
In the name of freedom we have acted in ways that have produced unintended consequences. We have come to believe that because we have the protection under law to do something, produce something, say something--we can. The irony is that liberty in that context is license--and license leads, too often, to lawlessness. One of the most important lessons I learned at home was this; just because I CAN do something, doesn't not mean I SHOULD do it.
If we as a culture, can get back to this simple lesson and apply it with consistency to the way we LIVE our lives, run our companies, invest our money, lead our homes, churches, communities and our nation, THEN I believe we will have taken a FIRST-STEP toward restoring sanity to our decision making process and rebuilding the ramparts that protect our culture from evil and devolution toward certain destruction.
But mark this, the final solution is a spiritual one. The Older Testament prophet Micah lived in a truly evil world. The theme of his prophetic letter stresses the integral relationship between true spirituality and righteous conduct. Toward the end of his letter he turns to an axiomatic concern: Micah 6.6 "...with what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the God on high?" In today's vernacular it might sound something like this..."What kind of life will reflect and infuse truth in a world whose reality is based solely on pragmatism and driven by relativism?" He reveals that answer to us in chapter 6, verse 8...
"He has showed you O man, what is good. To act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6.8
Friends, it's not a fiscal cliff we see looming on the horizon.
Arming teachers and asking them to act in yet one more enormous role is NOT the answer. This knee-jerk reaction (arming teachers) is part of the larger problem facing us this morning. Too many people have bagged on their responsibilities for creating a "user-friendly" culture--this would of course be true of SOME teachers; BUT it's a big tent filled with parents, extended family members, the Church, politicians, the entertainment icons and their handlers, the culture of our Colleges and Universities and corporate profits--seems a good start on a long list.
In the name of freedom we have acted in ways that have produced unintended consequences. We have come to believe that because we have the protection under law to do something, produce something, say something--we can. The irony is that liberty in that context is license--and license leads, too often, to lawlessness. One of the most important lessons I learned at home was this; just because I CAN do something, doesn't not mean I SHOULD do it.
If we as a culture, can get back to this simple lesson and apply it with consistency to the way we LIVE our lives, run our companies, invest our money, lead our homes, churches, communities and our nation, THEN I believe we will have taken a FIRST-STEP toward restoring sanity to our decision making process and rebuilding the ramparts that protect our culture from evil and devolution toward certain destruction.
But mark this, the final solution is a spiritual one. The Older Testament prophet Micah lived in a truly evil world. The theme of his prophetic letter stresses the integral relationship between true spirituality and righteous conduct. Toward the end of his letter he turns to an axiomatic concern: Micah 6.6 "...with what shall I come to the Lord and bow myself before the God on high?" In today's vernacular it might sound something like this..."What kind of life will reflect and infuse truth in a world whose reality is based solely on pragmatism and driven by relativism?" He reveals that answer to us in chapter 6, verse 8...
"He has showed you O man, what is good. To act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6.8
Friends, it's not a fiscal cliff we see looming on the horizon.
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