I’m a firm believer in the idea that Gods people need to be answering the questions people are asking rather then having answers for questions no one cares about. Every culture and time have question that are unique to them but some questions transcend time. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why does a good God allow so much evil and the suffering it brings with it? What is death all about and what happens on the other side? Does God bring suffering on people or do they find it themselves?

I don’t have answers for all of these but I think as a believer I need to. I have ideas but for really good answers I come up short. Maybe answers aren’t what people need anyway. When some one is suffering answers don’t help much but when we are doing all right maybe we need to wrestle with some of these questions.

Whatever the case Gods people should be the ones with insight, wisdom and the know how to help.

Today is my wife’s birthday. I won’t divulge her age but she has spent more years been married to me then years not married to me. Come to think of it I’ve spent more time on this earth married to her then I have not married to her. While life has brought good and bad, ups and downs, I’m thrilled that all those years ago on August 29 a girl was born who would choose to marry me.

Its football season and while I’ll admit I love football I have a nagging voice in the back of my head that wonders if this love of football is not such a good thing. Violence permeates our society and our sports are just one example. If you don’t think violence is part of the draw of sports imagine all of football going to flag rather then full contact rules. With out the violent contact would any of us watch? How about if Nascar ran restrictor plates that limited speeds to 35-mph., which would effectively, remove the thrill of the crash and the danger of the sport. All the other elements would still be there, strategy, skill and luck but the violence would be taken away. Who would want to watch that?

How do we as disciples of Christ deal with all this violence? If violence is O.K. in some areas who to say where its not O.K? If I can have violence in my sporting entertainment why not in my personal relationships. If my nation can use violence to achieve its own ends why can’t I do the same as an individual? If violence is an acceptable alternative one area why can’t it be in all areas?

I for one have a growing fear that violence in all its forms is sin. You have to understand I don’t like where this is taking me and my mind is working over time to find a way out of it but I keep coming back to the same place. When Jesus calls us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us his goal is not to change the persecutors but to change the disciple into a child of God. While the world may hold violence up as a viable alternative, a tool to be used in certain places at certain times, I’m afraid that train of thought is starting to come unwound in my mind.

With 48 plus years behind me, and all of that spent in the church, it seems there has always been a problem with the life of the average Christian becoming disconnected from real life. Why is it so tempting to try and separate the spiritual from the daily? Here are just a few observations I’ve had over the last few weeks.

How can some things be deemed spiritual and some things not spiritual? Isn’t all of life spiritual considering we are created in the image of God? Is talking about the creation account in Genesis any more spiritual then experiencing Gods creation? Is cooking a meal for my family any less spiritual then studying servant hood? If some things are spiritual and some things aren’t how can you tell where a certain act falls on the spiritual scale? When we thing that some acts are more spiritual then others we tend to divide our lives into the spiritual and non spiritual which leads to walling certain parts of our life off from Gods influence or His use.

This dividing of life into two parts, spiritual and non-spiritual, tends to lead to some muddled thinking. The evidence of this is seen when we think there is behavior that is acceptable out side of church but not inside church as if location or company determines what is right and wrong. If I behave one way when in a “spiritual” context but differently when in a “non-spiritual” context something is wrong.

The consumer approach to church that has and does dominates American Christianity coupled with 1500 years of believing it is acceptable to be part of the church but unchanged has led us to this point.

I find it fascinating that both political parties in this country seem to want to legislate morality. The Republican Party has long been known for this but the democrats seem to be joining the show. The more conservative elements of our government have tried to legislate morality with laws concerning abortion and same sex marriage. The more liberal of our politicians have jumped on the moral legislation band wagon by trying to pass laws banning speech that might offend some one and any activities such as dodge ball that might be deemed hurtful.

Why is it that so many want to legislate behavior rather then change character, especially those who claim to be Christians? Disciples of Christ should know that legislating behavior has poor results at best. Legalistic religion does little to improve the human condition. There has always been a basic attraction to creating rules of behavior. While this sounds and often times feels good it just doesn’t work.

I think that we who claim to be followers of Christ would be better served to focus on spiritual formation in the image of the one we follow rather then seeking to change our society through political means.

Had an interesting experience recently. I had just anchored the boat up to a reef with two other guys. The weather was threatening to say the least. When I picked up a rod to hand it to one of the fellows I heard the rod humming. Lots of electricity in the air! We quickly laid all the rods in the bottom of the boat and tried to get real small ourselves. When you’re on the bay you are the tallest thing out there. Lightening tends to look for tall things so you do the math.

The event got me to thinking about being the target. It’s not an uncommon theme in my life and I would image your life is much the same. After hosting a youth rally in Arlington Texas that drew over 5000 the guys who had put it all together found ourselves written up in several brotherhood periodicals and the target of several attacks. We enjoyed it so much the next year when we held the youth rally again we designed bright red shirts with a target on the back for all the committee members to wear. Made it easy for folks to know who was in charge.

That’s just one story in a life of finding myself the target. I’ve come to grips with the idea that if your going to do anything your going to get some unwanted attention. You really can’t choose how folks react to you but you can choose how you react to this unwanted attention. Some times I do well and sometimes I don’t but the best way I’ve found to deal with being a target is try and find some good in it. This is not always easy and many times not possible at the time of suffering but in the long haul it can work

Thomas wanted to see Jesus scars not a perfect body. It was the scars the made Jesus credible in Thomas’s view. I think we are all made more believable, more credible by our scars.

If you haven’t figured it out by now this being a disciple thing is not easy. Not only is the life rather demanding but just trying to figure things out can hurt your brain. For instance, if sin is falling short of Gods glory i.e. not living up to what God designed me to be, everything in my life comes into question. The way I talk to my wife, my thoughts on current events, how I spend my money, the way I spend my time and anything else you want to add. When sin is seen in this context, not as breaking a rule but falling short of an expectation, its not hard to see why the Biblical picture is one of a broken humanity.

I’ve always had trouble with the phrase, I love you, when its said rather quickly. Not that saying it fast is a problem but saying when you barely know some one is a problem. A few weeks ago my wife and I spent a weekend with eleven other couples and a lot of I loves you we’re said at the end o the weekend. These I love yous were exchanged between folks who had just met each other two days before. Seemed a little strange to me.

The thing is I really do love those folks. If love is a decision to treat some one in a certain way and seek their good then yes I really do love them. If love is not what our society would have us believe, an emotion to be exploited, but rather a conscience decision then it is quite possible to say I love you to some one you’ve know a short time and mean it.

It still strikes me as a little weird but then I’m a guy and what can you expect when you start talking about love and all that kind of stuff.

I’m a little over a year from turning fifty and I’m starting to think about what I should have learned in half a century and what will happen in my second half century. I’ve stared reading a little to get my brain started processing the two questions. I’d recommend Jimmy Buffets A Pirate Looks At Fifty. It’s a travel journal of a trip Buffet took to celebrate his fiftieth birthday. Soul Survivor by Phillip Yancey is another great read for any one shows spent a few years in the church and has the scars to prove it. I’ve also spent some time in several books about David. It seems to David’s life seem to unravel around the age of fifty. While that’s a little disconcerting it’s a good idea to learn from any source you have.

If you have some more recommendations I’d be glad to look at them.