Today is the easiest time to make a difference
FAITH MATTERS
By Nathan Day Wilson
Columnist
Recently my daughter reminded me of a phrase I used in a sermon a few years ago:”Four things you cannot recover in life: the stone after it is thrown; the word after it is said; the occasion after it is missed; the time after it is gone.”
I don’t know who wrote or spoke that idea originally. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t me. And by this point, it’s more likely paraphrase than quote.
I like it, though, partly because it can have many different life applications. For instance, the saying reminds me that we should make the most of our fragile lives.
We all know that life is fragile. No matter how careful we are, how closely we watch what we eat, how faithfully we exercise or how regularly we use our seat belts, life is still fragile. Loved ones die. Jobs end. Illnesses strike. Marriages dissolve. Wars kill.
A well-known teacher reminded his followers that life is fragile when he said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
I’m glad Jesus, with those words from Matthew 6, didn’t only remind us that life is fragile. I’m glad he suggests that we have opportunities to use our ephemeral lives for something that will endure, something that will make a difference.
Isn’t that what we want? No one really expects to live forever, no matter how careful we are, but we want our lives to matter.
We can’t stand the thought that we are just taking up space on the planet, and we cannot even settle for a quiet comfortable life. We want our lives to count and to have impact. We want to have done a good job with life. We want to make a difference.
There’s one more line in that passage above from Matthew 6. In it, Jesus says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
In other words, think about what you are doing with your money. Money indicates how we invest our hearts, and thus how we choose to make a difference with our lives.
Want to know how you can tell where your heart is? Look at the ledger of your checkbook or the statement of your credit cards. They will tell you where your treasure is going and thus how you are investing your heart.
Want to know the values of a family, or a business, or a religious organization, or a country? Don’t ask what it values, just look at where it spends its money. Those are the actual values.
None of us can say, “Look, such and such has a big piece of my heart, but my money has to go other things right now. The future is uncertain. I had better hang onto as much as possible.”
Don’t you see? There is never going to be an easy time to make a difference. There is today.
Wilson pastors First Christian Church, 118 W. Washington St., blogs at www.nathandaywilson.blogspot.com and reads e-mail sent to revnathan@fccshelby.org.
Showing posts with label values. Show all posts
Showing posts with label values. Show all posts
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Vote Values this Tuesday
Voting biblical values into office
FAITH MATTERS
BY NATHAN DAY WILSON
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s going to be an election Tuesday. Yes, I know that you are impressed with my observational skills.
While that shocking news is settling in, let me ask a question: What priorities or values will inform how you vote? I mean surely you, like I, look deeper than what letter is beside the candidate’s name — a D, R or I — when choosing which candidates to support. Surely there is something else, something more that informs us when we step into that booth and cast our votes, right?
Below are five priorities that will influence my votes:First, I believe every human is made in God’s image and that the Bible clearly supports choosing life. Thirty-thousand children dying globally each day of preventable hunger and disease, health care, war, genocides, abortion — all of these are life issues. The candidates I plan to support are those who, according to the realistic functions of their desired office, propose to address all the threats to life and dignity. Along the same lines, I will support the candidates who are most likely to protect human rights and human dignity. With sexual and economic slavery increasing around the world, an end to human trafficking must become a top priority. The immigration system needs comprehensive reform, but it must be changed in ways that are consistent with the biblical command to “welcome the stranger.”
Second, as one who values the Bible, which contains more than 2,000 verses about money and sharing God’s resources, I will examine the promises and proposed policies of the candidates about overcoming extreme global poverty and unnecessary domestic poverty in the world’s richest nation. For me, such a central biblical theme cannot be ignored at election time, as too many Christians have done for years. Any solution to the economic crisis that bails out the rich, and even me in the middle class, but ignores those at the bottom is entirely unacceptable.
Third, from the prophets to Jesus, there is the hope of beating our swords into instruments of peace. I will support the candidates who seem to best understand that our security depends upon other people’s security more than upon how high we can build walls or stockpile weapons. I do not expect a pacifist president, now or ever, but I do want one who views military force as a last resort and never as a preferred response to conflict.Fifth, God’s creation is clearly under assault. I will support the candidates who will likely be most faithful in caring for God’s delicate creation. Energy resource dependence, job creation, national security are all unmistakably interconnected.
Finally for now, I am concerned about the values our leaders model. Am I looking for a Pastor in Chief? No, but I will support the candidates that best exemplify and articulate strong family values, using the White House and other offices as bully pulpits to speak of sexual restraint and integrity, marital fidelity and healthy families of all different shapes and formations.
So, there you have it — a portion, at least, of the priorities that will influence my voting this year.
How about you? What are your priorities?Whatever they are, please be sure to exercise the privilege and responsibility of voting!
Wilson pastors First Christian Church, 118 W. Washington St., Shelbyville, blogs at www.nathandaywilson.blogspot.com, and reads e-mail sent to revnathan@fccshelby.org.
FAITH MATTERS
BY NATHAN DAY WILSON
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s going to be an election Tuesday. Yes, I know that you are impressed with my observational skills.
While that shocking news is settling in, let me ask a question: What priorities or values will inform how you vote? I mean surely you, like I, look deeper than what letter is beside the candidate’s name — a D, R or I — when choosing which candidates to support. Surely there is something else, something more that informs us when we step into that booth and cast our votes, right?
Below are five priorities that will influence my votes:First, I believe every human is made in God’s image and that the Bible clearly supports choosing life. Thirty-thousand children dying globally each day of preventable hunger and disease, health care, war, genocides, abortion — all of these are life issues. The candidates I plan to support are those who, according to the realistic functions of their desired office, propose to address all the threats to life and dignity. Along the same lines, I will support the candidates who are most likely to protect human rights and human dignity. With sexual and economic slavery increasing around the world, an end to human trafficking must become a top priority. The immigration system needs comprehensive reform, but it must be changed in ways that are consistent with the biblical command to “welcome the stranger.”
Second, as one who values the Bible, which contains more than 2,000 verses about money and sharing God’s resources, I will examine the promises and proposed policies of the candidates about overcoming extreme global poverty and unnecessary domestic poverty in the world’s richest nation. For me, such a central biblical theme cannot be ignored at election time, as too many Christians have done for years. Any solution to the economic crisis that bails out the rich, and even me in the middle class, but ignores those at the bottom is entirely unacceptable.
Third, from the prophets to Jesus, there is the hope of beating our swords into instruments of peace. I will support the candidates who seem to best understand that our security depends upon other people’s security more than upon how high we can build walls or stockpile weapons. I do not expect a pacifist president, now or ever, but I do want one who views military force as a last resort and never as a preferred response to conflict.Fifth, God’s creation is clearly under assault. I will support the candidates who will likely be most faithful in caring for God’s delicate creation. Energy resource dependence, job creation, national security are all unmistakably interconnected.
Finally for now, I am concerned about the values our leaders model. Am I looking for a Pastor in Chief? No, but I will support the candidates that best exemplify and articulate strong family values, using the White House and other offices as bully pulpits to speak of sexual restraint and integrity, marital fidelity and healthy families of all different shapes and formations.
So, there you have it — a portion, at least, of the priorities that will influence my voting this year.
How about you? What are your priorities?Whatever they are, please be sure to exercise the privilege and responsibility of voting!
Wilson pastors First Christian Church, 118 W. Washington St., Shelbyville, blogs at www.nathandaywilson.blogspot.com, and reads e-mail sent to revnathan@fccshelby.org.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Who will do God’s will?
Imagine the following scene. In a hurry, as usual, familiar words rush from your mouth: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on Earth as it is heaven.”
Suddenly, abruptly, almost curtly, a voice responds: “Are you sure?”
Shocked, you reply, “Sure of what?"
The voice continues: “Sure that you want my will to be done, my desires to be made actual.”
You: “Well, yeah, we could always use a little more heaven on Earth!”
The voice: “My will: No more children dying of hunger. No more extreme poverty. No more allowing the greed of a few to trump the need of many. Peace among nations, even religions. People truly loving me and each other. These are my desires. This is my will. Is this what you want?”
You: “Yes, sure. Absolutely. All of that sounds exactly right. It sounds very good, in fact.”
The voice: “Then what are you doing to make these things happen?”
Wondering how to finish this now uncomfortable dialogue, you mumble: “Em. Well. Me? What am I doing, you ask?”
The voice, in a calm yet firm tone: “Yes, you. If not you, who? Who else would do my will?”
The dialogue ends.
Wow. Try to catch your breath. If that dialogue happened to you, what would you think, feel and do? Would you ever dare to pray those words again?
After all, the voice — which we assume to be God’s voice — has called you out. You claimed to want God’s will on earth. And the voice met your claim and raised you one: What are you doing to make that claim become reality?
That’s a tough one. In fact, it is so tough that I think we ought to back up and blame it on Jesus. After all, he’s the one who used this phrase in his model prayer.
It’s true. Jesus was big on kingdom of God talk. Line up 100 New Testament scholars and ask what is most central to the message of Jesus, and I bet nearly 100 will say it is this idea that the kingdom of God can transform earthly kingdoms.
Or if you don’t like scholars, just open the Bible. Kingdom of God talk is all over the place, especially in the first three Gospels.In Mark, which is the oldest Gospel, Jesus uses the phrase in his inaugural address: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe this Gospel.” (Mark 1:15) Matthew and Luke both include kingdom talk in their beatitudes and many parables.
So, what did this phrase mean for Jesus? For Jesus, God’s kingdom had a present and a future meaning at the same time.
In the present, right now, you can claim the presence of God within you and among you within community. The future meaning aspect for the kingdom of God envisions a transformed world where relationships are deeper and the Earth and its fullness are rightly recognized as belonging to God. (Psalm 24)
There is more to say about this, but not today. After all, today I am thinking about your prayer to want things ordered the way they would be if God were king and other rulers were not.
It’s a big claim. Are you sure we want that?
Suddenly, abruptly, almost curtly, a voice responds: “Are you sure?”
Shocked, you reply, “Sure of what?"
The voice continues: “Sure that you want my will to be done, my desires to be made actual.”
You: “Well, yeah, we could always use a little more heaven on Earth!”
The voice: “My will: No more children dying of hunger. No more extreme poverty. No more allowing the greed of a few to trump the need of many. Peace among nations, even religions. People truly loving me and each other. These are my desires. This is my will. Is this what you want?”
You: “Yes, sure. Absolutely. All of that sounds exactly right. It sounds very good, in fact.”
The voice: “Then what are you doing to make these things happen?”
Wondering how to finish this now uncomfortable dialogue, you mumble: “Em. Well. Me? What am I doing, you ask?”
The voice, in a calm yet firm tone: “Yes, you. If not you, who? Who else would do my will?”
The dialogue ends.
Wow. Try to catch your breath. If that dialogue happened to you, what would you think, feel and do? Would you ever dare to pray those words again?
After all, the voice — which we assume to be God’s voice — has called you out. You claimed to want God’s will on earth. And the voice met your claim and raised you one: What are you doing to make that claim become reality?
That’s a tough one. In fact, it is so tough that I think we ought to back up and blame it on Jesus. After all, he’s the one who used this phrase in his model prayer.
It’s true. Jesus was big on kingdom of God talk. Line up 100 New Testament scholars and ask what is most central to the message of Jesus, and I bet nearly 100 will say it is this idea that the kingdom of God can transform earthly kingdoms.
Or if you don’t like scholars, just open the Bible. Kingdom of God talk is all over the place, especially in the first three Gospels.In Mark, which is the oldest Gospel, Jesus uses the phrase in his inaugural address: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe this Gospel.” (Mark 1:15) Matthew and Luke both include kingdom talk in their beatitudes and many parables.
So, what did this phrase mean for Jesus? For Jesus, God’s kingdom had a present and a future meaning at the same time.
In the present, right now, you can claim the presence of God within you and among you within community. The future meaning aspect for the kingdom of God envisions a transformed world where relationships are deeper and the Earth and its fullness are rightly recognized as belonging to God. (Psalm 24)
There is more to say about this, but not today. After all, today I am thinking about your prayer to want things ordered the way they would be if God were king and other rulers were not.
It’s a big claim. Are you sure we want that?
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Today's Students Are More Globally Aware, Less Materialistic, Leading Pollster Says
This is from The Chroncile of Higher Education. What do you think?
Washington — The generation of young people who are filling college classrooms and becoming junior faculty members today are more globally aware and less concerned about material wealth than were their predecessors, a leading public-opinion pollster told more than 150 college and university presidents and other top administrators who attended The Chronicle’s Leadership Forum here today.
John Zogby, who is president and chief executive officer of the marketing and research firm Zogby International and has been conducting polls for more than 20 years, said college administrators should keep in mind the priorities of “America’s first global citizens” — those now 18 to 30 years old. Fifty-six percent of people in that age group, he said, have passports and have traveled abroad: “They are as likely to say they are citizens of the planet Earth as they are to say they are citizens of the United States.”
Mr. Zogby has taught history for 25 years and is a senior adviser at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is also the author of The Way We’ll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream.
Today’s college students are “the most diverse, multicultural generation yet produced,” he said, and are more tolerant of differences. “College students don’t believe that American culture is inherently superior to the cultures of Africa” and other parts of the world, he said.
Even though a growing proportion of Americans — possibly 30 percent now — are earning less than they did in their previous jobs, a surprising number still say they believe in the American dream, he said. The definition has changed, however.
“We’re not only looking at a transformation of the American dream, but in many ways at a transformation of the American character,” he said. Instead of focusing on material wealth and professional status, people in their 20s and early 30s are more likely to seek a rewarding and spiritually-fulfilling life, he said.
Some of these “secular spiritualists” have already taken pay cuts and see little immediate hope of regaining their former earnings. Their attitude, he said, is, “God threw me lemons, so I may as well make lemonade.”
—Katherine Mangan
Washington — The generation of young people who are filling college classrooms and becoming junior faculty members today are more globally aware and less concerned about material wealth than were their predecessors, a leading public-opinion pollster told more than 150 college and university presidents and other top administrators who attended The Chronicle’s Leadership Forum here today.
John Zogby, who is president and chief executive officer of the marketing and research firm Zogby International and has been conducting polls for more than 20 years, said college administrators should keep in mind the priorities of “America’s first global citizens” — those now 18 to 30 years old. Fifty-six percent of people in that age group, he said, have passports and have traveled abroad: “They are as likely to say they are citizens of the planet Earth as they are to say they are citizens of the United States.”
Mr. Zogby has taught history for 25 years and is a senior adviser at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is also the author of The Way We’ll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream.
Today’s college students are “the most diverse, multicultural generation yet produced,” he said, and are more tolerant of differences. “College students don’t believe that American culture is inherently superior to the cultures of Africa” and other parts of the world, he said.
Even though a growing proportion of Americans — possibly 30 percent now — are earning less than they did in their previous jobs, a surprising number still say they believe in the American dream, he said. The definition has changed, however.
“We’re not only looking at a transformation of the American dream, but in many ways at a transformation of the American character,” he said. Instead of focusing on material wealth and professional status, people in their 20s and early 30s are more likely to seek a rewarding and spiritually-fulfilling life, he said.
Some of these “secular spiritualists” have already taken pay cuts and see little immediate hope of regaining their former earnings. Their attitude, he said, is, “God threw me lemons, so I may as well make lemonade.”
—Katherine Mangan
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Religion and business
My most recent column about the interface of religion and business can be found at http://www.shelbynews.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=58329&SectionID=42&SubSectionID=&S=1
I welcome comments!
Nathan
I welcome comments!
Nathan
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)