reflecting on reflecting on the super bowl

There are no shortage of opinions are the Super Bowl halftime show.

On one hand, it was sexual. 

Do we celebrate that or critique that?

On the other hand, it was cultural.

Do we celebrate that or critique that?

Metaphorically speaking...

Antifreeze has water in it. I can "celebrate" that. But serving antifreeze to people to drink in the hopes that they appreciate the water... is serving poison.

Putting antifreeze into their cars in the right reservoir, though, is great. Context matters.

Sex has a context, too. Let's support keeping it in its God-gifted/intended context. I'd hope we wouldn't applaud a movie focused on sex because they had a "diverse cast," and in doing so ignore the content of what was presented.

Poison is poison in any language...

water is water in any language.

Shall we as missionaries to the world clap for what is blue to the Lord, or shall we dig deeper cross culturally by building real wells that actually refresh people?

Sure - you could find a way to extract water from antifreeze and serve it to people. But let's be honest - how often do we take the time to do that with antifreeze? To be speculatively candid, I believe you or I more regularly buy guests water versus antifreeze we spend time chemically purifying, correct?

But... I'd also guess you'd allow spiritually poisoned guests who don't know they are spiritually dying into your home for that water. In doing so, you likely admire what they are doing "right" in life, but not at the expense of addressing the poison.

Yes, let's enter the world. Yes, let's redeem what is the Lord's. Yes, let's have compassion and point people to Christ.

Let's also be clearer about it, lest people think our straddle into the darkness is an endorsement of it.

#WaterWeTalkingAbout

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. " (Romans 12:2)

may God bless America?

"WOOO!!! HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!! IT'S INDEPENDENCE DAY!!! WHERE'S MY AMERICAN FLAG BIKINI?" 
- a woman we will see in social media pictures today

It's a weekend of celebrating our country and the freedoms others have fought for.

Sometimes we struggle with this... 

whether we are cynical of government or wave the flag every chance we can - including the unique aforementioned bikini.

There's wisdom on all of this in the Bible. It instructs us to see an honorable government as a way to honor God, and for a government to be honorable to God in how it treats its people.

Even when the government does not live up to its role, we are still to live up to ours.

The catch is when a government asks us to do or support something that is in direct disobedience to God’s Word. In such times, we are to put God first, trusting in His power to protect us here or take us into the world to come.

Those who take this kind of stand for God stand in good company.

One example we can read about involves some young men who took a stand by simply doing that - standing up when everyone else bowed down in resignation at the risk of punishment.

Our persecution might be name-calling or shunning. Their persecution involved being thrown into a blazing fire.

"If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn't, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up." (Daniel 3:17-18)

The question this weekend isn't if we're blessed to live in a country like America.

We are blessed.

(Eat a hot dog and a brat and a burger alongside of a slab or watermelon and a diet coke... if you need proof.)

The challenge with a "blessing" is to not turn the blessing into an indulgence to do whatever we want but to be responsible and God-honoring with it.

That's the true nature of a blessing -

not "Woo hoo! Look at me! Let's do anything and everything with it!"

but "How can I use what God has given me to further what He is doing in this world?"

May God bless America?

Only if we begin by blessing God as America.

"America was founded by people who believe that God was their rock of safety. I recognize we must be cautious in claiming that God is on our side, but I think it’s all right to keep asking if we’re on His side."  - Ronald Reagan

Are you in?

ordering another "hit"

Be aware -

some social media trends/posts turn us all into Mafia-like mob bosses, ordering "hits" out to "kill" someone/something we don't like...

but it a business that treated us a certain way or a person who cut us off in traffic.

• "No one shop there!"
• "If you see this person, give them a cold shoulder!"
• "Everyone go write a bad review online!"
  

We justify it by saying such things are justifiable, and in rare occasions they may be.

Strangely, we don't treat this as a rare response but as our first response.

And our response is often as ugly (if not uglier) than what we end up rallying against.

“You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill. (Matthew 5:21-22)

now... here's the fun part

If you don't know who Eduardo Saverin is, you likely know of something he helped start with a friend named Mark Zuckerberg. In college they were the original founders (if you don't believe the Winklevoss twins) of Facebook.

I'm not sure why I started following Eduardo's feed on Facebook, but I think it had something to do with wanting an insider's perspective on social media. After reading something he posted this week, as well as the commentary that followed, I'm reminded of how we think our opinion matters more than it does.

Case in point, let's start with Eduardo's comments on Facebook letting its stocks go public:

On the eve of the Facebook public float, 8 plus year in the making, I as co-founder wanted to look back and cherish Facebook's early beginning. Congrats to everyone involved in the project from day one till today, and I especially wanted to congratulate Mark Zuckerberg on keeping tremendous stead-fast focus, however hard that was, on making the world a more open and connected place.

Although he's come under fire for some controversy of his own, I appreciate Eduardo's sentiment. Here is the graphic he attached that shows Facebook's early days:

Now... here's the fun part.

Among the many comments that followed, I somehow gravitated to one in particular.

It reads "Get rid of the timeline!!! I'm seriously considering going back to MYSPACE. Maybe...."

Keep in mind, this is right on the eve of Facebook about to make more money than they know what to do with... which is a problem they already have. Yet here is a person on Facebook threatening to go back to another social network that she left for what appears to be a negative experience.

She's threatening Facebook... on Facebook.

Do you think Facebook is afraid? Are they going to take this comment seriously?

More importantly, does she believe Facebook is going to take this comment seriously?

You'll note that I blurred out her name, because this isn't about her and I'm not trying to poke fun. Rather, it's a revelation that most of us don't realize.

Social media has become about us getting our way... or at least trying to.

Maybe we're just like how Facebook was first founded - only instead of five people who embodied those traits, each person embodies them all. Do you see any of this in your or others online:

• Founder: We believe "I am doing things in my life aren't as important as what's happening in your life. I have the right to say what I want to say without question. I know you share something, but honestly I'm more interested in what I shared... what I'm doing... my latest breakthrough or complaint. You have part of my attention - you have the minimum amount."
  
  
• Destroyer: We believe that if we have a bad experience with a person or a local store, the best way to feel vindicated is to destroy them online. If you have an issue with your family or are trying to win over mutual friends in a dispute you have with another person, make sure everyone hears your point of view.
  
  
• Brazilian: We believe we're culturally unique and people actually want to see the places we've been, the food we've just eaten, and the place we've flushed it all.
  
  
• Lockbox: We believe that if we can get enough people to like/retweet/pin what we say, that we've locked down credibility on what we've said - especially if we can get random friends and strangers to debate with us against any other random friends and strangers who think differently.
  
  
• Pressguy: We believe that if we post enough content about how "those guys are morons" (politics, anyone?) or how amazing our latest breakthrough is we can get more people to see life our way and buy our latest product/service/philosophy.

Here's the punchline... none of this has anything to do with Facebook. All social media does is amplify what's in our hearts. That is ultimately an issue of unaddressed sin - something that every person on the planet is tempted to overlook.

Take a look at the list I created - see if you recognize any patterns in your communication or others. If you find yourself shaking your head, take a second look... which ones are you even unconsciously tempted or bent toward?

Meanwhile, take note that I've ironically used social media to talk about social media. If you've made it thus far, then perhaps you're willing to join me in finding a redemptive purpose for our time online versus ranting and raving about however we're feeling.

Otherwise, how about you just like this, retweet it, and pin it - because "I need more followers."

(Um... not.)

Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”? (Proverbs 20:9)

a brief observation about our brief observations

Sometimes it seems like social media has become the means by which we tell everyone how we need to be suspicious of those "other people." Politics, schmolitics. Government, schmovernment. School systems, schmool systems.

Then I saw this cynical spread in print at the doctor's office.

So... maybe it has less to do with the tools and more to do with our divisive hearts?

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

yesterday, today, and infinity

Interesting...

60% of Apple’s sales are from products that didn't exist 3 years ago.

http://www.asymco.com/2010/10/19/60-percent-of-apples-sales-are-from-products-that-did-not-exist-three-years-ago/

Which raises the question... what are you doing today that you think matters, yet won't be doing tomorrow?

Unless it's eternal, it's temporal.

a reality check regarding young men and their impact on young women

Here is piece of an interview from Relevant Magazine.with Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill church in Seattle. Take note of this particular gut-wrenching slice regarding young men in our culture and the way their auto-pilot lives impact young women:

You’ve talked a lot about twentysomethings today living in a sort of extended adolescence. Why do you think that is?

I think, in particular, it’s young men. Perhaps to some degree it is young women as well, but we’re finding more women are getting better grades, more women are graduating high school, more women are graduating college, more women are buying homes, more women are doing things that are more adult and responsible. We’ve created this. It’s a sociological category. It used to be you go from “boy” to “man,” and now you go from “boy” to “guy” to “man.” There is this whole new creation of a “guy.”

It’s just extended adolescence, where 20s, 30s, sometimes even in his 40s, he doesn’t really want to get married, doesn’t really want to have kids, doesn’t really want to pursue a career. He has a lot of hobbies, got a lot of buddies, watches a lot of porn, gambles, has a lot of fun, maybe plays in some band or is in a guild of World of Warcraft, or something ridiculous like that. And they’ve even got little [mottos] like, “It’s all good” and, “Bros before hos.” It’s just this whole adolescent, juvenile culture. Kind of the Adam Sandler-esque view of life, and there is this whole genre of comedy movies built around these kind of inept, irresponsible, immature guys, and I think part of the problem is, as well, that the Church in large part has accommodated that.

Those guys tend not to go to church. If those guys do show up at church, it’s usually just to find a couple of gals to break the commandments with. And the Church doesn’t really know what to do with them, so the least likely person in America to go to church is a guy in his 20s who is single. Without knowing what to do with those guys, they commit crimes, they get women pregnant, they’re a drain on social services, they don’t raise their kids, they don’t contribute to church, they’re not getting ready to lead the next generation. I’d say it’s nothing short of a crisis, it’s a real problem.

What do you think has created this “guy” phenomenon?

Part of it is the unintended consequences of divorce. Forty percent of kids go to bed at night without a father. Not to be disparaging toward single moms, but if you’re a single mom and you’re working 60 hours a week, and you’ve got a boy, and he’s home all by himself with no parents and no dad, he’s just going to be hanging out with his buddies, feeding himself pizza rolls.

The number one consumer of online pornography is 12- to 17-year-old boys. What that means is he’s home eating junk food, drinking Monster energy drinks, downloading porn, masturbating and screwing around with his friends. That really doesn’t prepare you for responsible adulthood. That’s a really sad picture, especially if you’re a single gal hoping to get married someday. You’re like: “Seriously, that’s the candidate pool? You’ve got to be kidding me.” That’s why 41 percent of births right now are to unmarried women. A lot of women have decided: “I’m never going to find a guy who is actually dependable and responsible to have a life with. So I’ll just get a career and have a baby and just intentionally be a single mother because there are no guys worth spending life with.”