A Frozen Mind

March 30, 2014.Reading time 5 minutes.

Remember in the 70’s when some white-haired old men in polyester suits said that if you spun your evil rock & roll records backwards, you could hear embedded devil lyrics that would worm their way deep inside the unsuspecting soul. Backwards masking! Subliminal hellfire! My friends and I spent hours pulling at our turntables hoping to find something through all of the garbled, warped noise. In the end, the buffoons probably boosted record sales more than anything else.

But why are we fascinated? Why do we spend time, energy, and emotion looking for bad?

Abe Lincoln once said, “If you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will.”

Yeah, you don’t have to look hard to find bad. It’s everywhere. So, when you stumble upon it, as you inevitably will, what do you do with it? Shout at it? I can’t find where Jesus said we were to shout at the darkness. What good does that do? “Hey darkness, uh… you’re dark!” I do see the Sermon of the Mount where Jesus said we were to shine a light in the darkness. There is quite a difference between the two.

^Matthew5:16Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Shouting only makes noise, while shining a light shows direction.

Shouting creates confusion, light dispels fear.

Shouting is angry, sharing light is love defined.

♦

My oldest daughter told me about a “preacher” out west who has decided that the Disney movie Frozen is going to make us all gay with its hidden agenda. Before I address him, I want to give you my review of the movie. I really liked it. It was like Up – I had few expectations going in but I walked away loving it. Olaf cracked me up, the story was compelling, and the music was beautiful. Now that the Bluray has come out, I’ve seen it again and I still like it. (oh no, I said ‘come out’, what’s happening to me?) It’s a very sweet story and I think anyone finding an agenda simply has one of their own. They are searching for substance out of shadows.

I had originally quoted some of what the shouter said here, but I don’t want to give air to such blather, especially since he admits he has not seen the movie. I will give one quote for the sole purpose of mocking it:

“If I was the Devil, what would I do to really foul up an entire social system and do something really, really, really evil to 5- and 6- and 7-year-olds in Christian families around America?…If I was the Devil, I would buy Disney in 1984, that’s what I would have done.”

I read The Screwtape Letters. I know C.S. Lewis, and you, sir, are no C.S. Lewis.

But maybe. Just maybe… if I were the devil, I’d sit back in an ivory tower and in the name of religion spew ridiculous insinuations that make the church of Jesus Christ seem like a bunch of backwards, unloving idiots that no one in their right mind would want to be a part of. Yeah, that’s what I’d do.

Look around, Rev. Shouterson, this tactic seems to be working.

This post is a bit out of the norm for me. I typed it while ticked off and debated whether to trash it. I even made a new (hopefully seldom-used) category called ‘Don’t Blog Angry’ for it when I decided to push publish. Uh, enjoy – I guess?

Photo Credit: Fyrsten (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons

An Alarming Contradiction

February 23, 2014.Reading time 4 minutes.

I live in what is called the most affluent county in Georgia and according to statistics, the 30th wealthiest in the nation. Before you think I’m all high-rent and ask me for a loan, please understand that we were here before the rich folks came. Almost all of the trailer parks are now gone, replaced by huge communities with dozens of tennis courts and golf courses. I’ve got nothing against them besides the fact that I live close enough to walk to their club house but can’t afford the green fee. toilet

There was this guy nearby who wouldn’t sell his mobile home to a developer, so they just raised fence and built around it – kinda like Mr. Fredrickson in UP. To get back at them, he put an old toilet in the center of his lawn, lifted the lid, and used it for a planter. I love that guy.

With all the money around here, I guess its easy to let folks slip through. I suppose we see what we want to see and look past what is inconvenient. Downtown, the county is building a new municipal complex with the following estimated costs:

Jail – $41.5 million
Courthouse – $31 million
Two new parking facilities – $7.9 million
Other renovations – $1 million

I’m not too good with numbers, but my calculator says that is $81.4 million in total. Does that seem a vast sum to anyone else?

I drove literally a couple hundred yards past the complex yesterday to help some good folks who are gutting a house for homeless men of the area. They already have two renovated houses in operation, within sight of the crane erecting the massive new government buildings. I sanded drywall, painted, and got to jack up the house (which is an awesome thing to add to my resume of experiences! Yes, I have now jacked up a house.) I worked with several men from area churches and side-by-side with three of the residents who had been homeless…right here, in the richest county in the state…neighbors of an $81.4 million complex being built to mete out justice. An alarming contradiction.

These are good men, who don’t take for granted what they’ve been through, and are grateful for what they now have. They weren’t paid for their labor. They worked with us only to help more men get under roofs.

I’ve been blessed to work with homeless ministries in nearby Atlanta. But that is the big city with big city problems. That is there…not here. I don’t have any grand answers, not even a proposal. All I can do is work with my hands; smooth a ceiling and jack a house.

I try to be funny most of the time here on my blog, and genuine always. I’ll be lighter tomorrow. But today, my heart hurts a little.

Provide justice for the needy and the fatherless; uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute. Rescue the poor and needy; save them from the power of the wicked.

Psalm 82:3-4