winning

First they ignore you,

then they laugh at you,

then they fight you,

then you win.

~ Mahatma Gandhi

1869 – 1948

I’ve never won much in life. Well, that is, if you consider, kewpie-dolls at the county fair, the first prize in a match-box car race, or a Monopoly game, or certain sports events worth winning; I just don’t seem to be cut out for winning: not, at least, at this level. I’d rather put my time and energy into winning the battle for the souls of men & women, for justice, for clearer communication between peoples who don’t even want to talk with each other, let alone consider loving each other. I’d like to bring peace where there is very little of it: that’s worth winning.

Winning is different for everybody. For some of us, every human exchange is a competitive event: someone has to win, someone has to lose. These people play their game with every ounce of their strength and will power (in sports, business, simple conversations, or relationships) to win. For three years during college I was on our Debate Team; I never lost even one debate. As I grew in life, after college, a couple graduate programs, & a doctorate, I had to learn how NOT to win. Why? Because I lost too many relationships always trying to win, to be right, to wind up Number ONE. It wasn’t worth it to me.

When our children were in their formative years I used to tell them— If you put yourself on Top, there’s only one direction you can go. If you put yourself on the Bottom, there’s only one direction you can go. ‘Nough said.

So, my question to you is this— What’s worth winning? Is it scoring that winning point in a game? Being summa cum laude at graduation? Becoming Senior Vice-President by age thirty? Or simply driving the coolest car? To be sure there are some things in life worth winning; and, there are some things in life not really worth fighting for. We all need to pick our battles carefully. C a r e f u l l y.

For me, I just want to make a difference in this world before I check out. How about you?

For what it’s worth,

Gary

We the People…

The Charleston murders last night are reflective of an America that has fallen deeply into the abyss of the rights of the individual to shape the core beliefs & common respect due us all. “We the people…, in order to form a more perfect union.” Has degenerated into “I will assert my rights, my values, my individual dominance, and my anger against anyone I chose…, screw you.”

Following World War II (1945) America was so tired of war we simply withdrew from Korea and allowed the country to divide. (1952) We know how well that worked out. Through our war in Vietnam (‘60s-70s) we grew weary and skeptical that any war was worth entering. Then came the Gulf War followed by the War in Iraq, and finally our world-wide war against Terrorists and ISIS. According to my son-in-law, a military strategist, that is a Stage 1 war that can never be won, and will never be over.

The effect of this history has been that American individualism has focused on our own individual rights and a return to isolationism. We don’t want to get involved.

It took almost 100 years following our Civil War for African Americans to be recognized as decent human beings. Our LGBTQ Americans fared much better in a mere 40 year struggle to gain national recognition.

Why should we be surprised that a white supremacist attends a Wednesday Bible Study and murders nine African-Americans!?! His goal? “To reignite the race wars.” American individualism has supplanted any core value with the values of whatever fringe activist group seeks to assert over the common good. This is wrong on any moral, civil, and human decency level you can find throughout history.

Which groups will face eradication next? My guess is any semblance of the Judean-Christian religious tradition. Religious types are a threat because they believe in an external reference point on which all human dignity and morality is based. They threaten those fringe philosophies that challenge the common core’s right to exist. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, are a threat to our nation and must be kept in check. There is no common decency, there is no moral code, there is no respect for “WE the people.. .”. There is only I.

Thus, the murders in Charleston last night.

And yes, I am mad that we have come to this.

Dr. Gary Davis

Bench Players

There are a lot of bench players out there. You know the ones; they are on the team, but they are never quite in the game. Oh, they will cheer the players on the field with great gusto, but they never seem ready to enter the game as much as others.

We find them in all walks of life— sports teams, churches, business departments, etc. Some “players” would rather sit/stand on the sidelines and cheer rather than getting into the game. They never quite measure up.

In my line of work I find many bench players who cheer the team on; they just don’t want to play. What they settle into is a critical spirit that rains down on their fellow team members who are giving it all they’ve got. These bench players know how to get things done, of course, even better than those embroiled in the game, even better. They just never do it. And if they do have a better solution, we’ll never know it. Ah, if only they would play.

So, what kind of player are you? It’s easy to tell. If you are in the game, you are battered, bruised, dirty; discouraged one minute, elated the next. If you sit on the side and merely criticize those in the game, your uniform is spankin’ clean; you may have a great perspective on the overall game, but you are just not invested in it enough to get roughed up by the other team.

Real life needs players who play. Churches need players who play; and who are not afraid of getting beaten down every now & then. We need genuine Christians who are invested in the game. They are invested in their church and its goals. We already have too many bench players as it is.

Which kind of player do you think you are? Hint— look for wounds, cuts & abrasions.

Bleeding a little here,

Gary

A Quiverful of WHAT?!

How should we respond to the sexual actions of Josh Duggar when he was 14…, 13 years later?

One such response was titled A Quiverful of Shit. What, pray tell, is Quiverful? Its resource is from Psalm 127, Christian Bible. Look it up. Quite a large number of Americans adhere to the Quiverful ideals of male dominate families, the bread winners, wherein the wife’s job is to bear children, manage the household exclusively, and never working in a fulfilling job outside the home, produce even more children, and homeschool the kids to adulthood. That is her God-defined role in life. Any higher education beyond high school is superfluous to her primary obligation to bear children and raise them. Really!?!

What bothers me is that this family portrays themselves on TV as the perfect, Christian, American family—a role model for the rest of us to emulate. They admit they have problems, but don’t we all?!? But there is never any evidence on their TV series that they have these problems; just an admission that they have them—that’s it. Dirty laundry issues.

Being portrayed as the ideal Christian family is the real problem. Do other Americans’ actually share their values? Actually, yes.

Does it seem possible that in the 21^st Century there are families that esteem The Little House on the Praire ideal? For one, the Praire ideal wasn’t ideal. It was hard work, not to mention dangerous at times. The head of the family more than likely worked in his fields nearby nurturing or harvesting his own crops or tending to his sheep/cattle. The Quiverfull Movement has captivated vast numbers of followers due to their emphasis on a self-sufficiency ideology to remain free of any and all external influences. Take NO government assistance; teach your own children so they are not tainted by other children, and never, EVER, borrow money from anyone. Live as if you are independent from any involvement in “the world.” Total self-reliance means total separation from normal society.

Question— Had you grown up in this kind of environment, as did the Duggar girls and their brothers, would you have known right from wrong? Of course you would. Basic human decency & respect are common to us all; whether we choose to follow it is another issue. That being stated, teenage obsession with exploratory sex is a powerful drive, not something easily overcome. I cannot brush aside Josh Duggar’s actions when he was 14; but I cannot condemn him for them either; not given our present society’s over-stimulation of sex no matter where you turn. Teens cannot be protected from that.

What I condemn is this entire Quiverfull concept of agrarian family values that should have died with the incursion of industrialized society. Their values are certainly not Christian in any way. They are about a chosen life-practice that the Duggars and others believe is the right way to live. They are all about control and male dominance. Sorry, perfect Quiverfull Duggar family, your Christian values are not Christian. That are a façade of deep, genuine Christian faith. Your faith is simply fake.

Your faith seems an attempt at conservative values that are impossible because of our basic nature. Josh is under fire for what he did in his adolescence. Would any of us have fared any better?

It certainly is not genuine Christian faith.

Finally, it seems a tragedy that there seems to be no regard for the sisters involved. Did we have to open up these old, deep scars, bleeding across the entire social media scene? Incredibly callous.

Dr Gary Davis, President

Partly Innocent

Gary, Davis, Judge, Christian, Condemn, Innocent, Pure The Christian process of sanctification, being drawn by God from darkness to brilliance, is a life journey. Yet far too frequently do we judge those who are lagging behind, or who struggle with the same thing year after year. We tend to condemn them more oft than we do forgive them.

Therein lays the puzzle. God has forgiven them yet we continue to pronounce and enforce our own Christian judgement upon them. So…, God may have forgiven them, but we do not? Well, not yet at least. They need to prove themselves worthy of our approval, not just God’s; then maybe we might consideration restoration.

Think of the innocence of a young child—so pure and blameless; so simple in their outlook on life; impressionable, formative in their earliest days. So what impressions do they have of our Christian lives? Do we come across as Holy, Righteous, completely Moral and Upright? I doubt it; but that is the image we want our children to aspire to. Adult Christians can more easily hide their true selves.

The problem with that is that we often fake our righteousness, our faithfulness to the cause of Christ. Want proof? Easy. What percentage of your income do you tithe? Have you been completely pure in your devotion to your husband, your wife? Ever lust? Or maybe you simply judge those who don’t measure up to your standard of outward Christian faith. Quietly, of course. Until there comes a time when you just cannot hold back from sharing something you saw on Facebook or twitter about so&so. Bless your heart!

Our children are certainly partly innocent. In contrast, we are partly guilty. This is not meant to be a condemnation— rather, it is an obvious fact of growing toward maturity in Christ. In the end we must all rely on Christ’s grace and mercy alone.

So the next time you are in a sharing mode, think again about your own stance before the Throne of Grace. Recall that you are still partly guilty yourself. You are, like me, a work in process. Seeking that great day when you find your own sin disgusting.

One finger pointing out the sin in another’s life: three fingers pointing back toward yourself. Remember?

⁵You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye,

and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

~Matthew 7:5

For what it’s worth,

Gary

(PS, And if you need a reminder, here’s some wisdom from a toddler. )

Mindless Christianity

Imagine if you will a recent Study released by the Pew Research Center that showed Christianity to be the one religion that people are fleeing from, more than any other religion in the world.

http://holykaw.alltop.com/christians-fleeing-faith-faster-than-any-other-religion

Now imagine that you are a part of that religion and see no evidence of this in your churches. Worship services are great, the pastor’s sermons hit the nail on the head every week, the average age of the congregants is 35-45, the building is paid off, and you enjoy your Christian life in the midst of friends & family.

What you don’t see are the people who are not there. They are long-gone— playing golf, enjoying a relaxing Sunday morning at Starbucks, at home, boating, or simply sleeping in. The thought of going to church on a Sunday morning never enters their minds.

Too many of us have become mindless about those whom we never see. They are just “them,” or “non-Christians,” “the unsaved.” They are non-entities. We organize commando raids, evangelistic thrusts, into their midst and then regroup to “debrief.” Really!?! Whatever happened to being part of our society, our community, having neighbors we actually know and enjoy?

Actually, whatever happened to meaningful engagement? It feels as if the majority of our Christian community has ceased functioning, at least when it comes to clear, mindful thought. We find it so much easier to simply sit there and have someone who is an authority tell us what to think, believe, and DO. Then it slips out of our brains by that afternoon or evening.

With all the great minds of our past who launched the amazing movements of our faith past— the Cistercians, Augustine, Anselm, Francis of Assisi, Benedict, the Moravians, the Sacred Heard of Jesus, even those pesky Protesters, Calvinists & Huguenots, Pilgrims & Puritans— All made deep intellectual, yea academic, contributions to the history of Christian thought.

Today, not much thought is taking place in our churches. It has been replaced by a casual intellectualism and glancing references that support our personal perspectives. Even books are written for those with no more than an 8^th grade reading level. Really?!? That’s it!?!

Ergo, please try to learn to think more deeply about your faith. Read some richer books than simple personal testimonies, or “sweet-Jesus” stories. Read books you cannot understand. Learn the differences between Christianity & Islam, between Catholics, Presbyterians, and Pentecostals. Learn the issues surrounding the emerging/emergent church. Think through possible loving responses to Bruce Jenner, One Direction, and the challenges put forth in the music of U2.

None of us were born brainless, mindless automatons; but there is ample evidence that we have striven doggedly to move in that direction.

For what it’s worth,

Gary

Bathed in Yellow

It is not an unknown fact that painter Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), used yellow in his art to signify the presence of God. In many of his self-portraits he was bathed in hues of soft gold and yellow.

Vincent lived a troubled life. Though he was the son and grandson of Dutch Reformed Church ministers, his own faith was tumultuous; he was constantly plagued with doubt, low self-esteem, and depression. So much so that at age 37 he took his own life with a single gunshot.

His paintings reflected his life— vague, obscure images, dark & brooding; yet with that thread or point of golden yellow burning through somewhere on the canvas. Whether point or thread, it is always there.

His art reflected his own life, to be sure; but it also mirrors so much in our own lives as well. The Christian life is not a glorious, joyous road to travel. Like van Gogh, we too find ourselves in places of darkness and confusion more often than not. Sometimes, the yellow glow of grace is totally lacking— or, at least it seems that way. At other times it feels like a distant star we can barely make out in the heavens. Or, as in Starry Night, we are engulfed within it— “the glory of God shown ‘round about them.”

This is the way it was meant to be. Our faith is worth very little if we only bask in the glory of God’s golden hues. But this world is a complication of darkness and light. It is in those dark times, in turbulence & testing that the steel of our trust in Christ is proven.

But you already know that. What you must constantly keep before your vision is the reality that your strength must come from God and not merely from within (II Tim. 2:1). In times of deep tribulation, our strength will eventually give out, fade, and collapse. Therefore, it is much easier to rely on Christ’s strength from the very onslaught of trouble rather than to tack it on after our own wears out.

For what it’s worth,

Gary

Fast Faith

Let’s see…, how to be a Christian in the 21^st Century—

· Go to school.

· Clean the house.

· Shopping.

· Go the plant, the office, wherever.

· Shovel the snow.

· Shovel more snow.

· Drive the kids to Saturday sports practice.

· Pick up the kids from sporting events.

· Attend a small group with other Christians.

· Maybe, if there’s time, have personal devotions each morning.

· Oh, and go to church Sunday morning for an hour, maybe an hour & a half.

Now, back to the beginning…, repeat.

Is there anything missing? Probably. You’re thinking of something right now, aren’t you; and that made you think of something else!?! Is there no end to the things that chomp away at our lives?

We are moving too fast and our faith is having a hard time keeping up.

Just following my conversion to Christianity I remember a chapel speaker saying “There is enough time in each day for you to do all of God’s will.” Although my life often mocks this axiom it still raises a consideration at the end of every day. Did I make a difference today? Did I come any closer to fulfilling God’s design on my life? Most days…, yes. But there are some days I would rather forget.

Being a genuine Christian in our post 9/11, postmodern, postChristian world is no simple matter. You need to find your “Christian-self” in the midst of the normal people who surround you. What visible aspects show others that you are genuinely a follower of Jesus Christ? How did you matter today for the sake of Christ’s glory and the Kingdom of God? What do normal people think about your “Christian side?”

Answering these questions will be different for all of us. But one similarity will run through every answer— and that is our need to slow down to allow our Lord to catch up to us. Give up on a fast-faith. It’s not worth it. “Be still… .”

For what it’s worth,

Gary

After the Resurrection

Goin’ fishin’.” In essence, that is what Jesus’ closest disciples opted to do after His crucifixion. It was over. But Jesus asked them to wait— to wait for 3 more days. Three days of asking— What went wrong? What do we do now? Why wait to get on with our lives?

Have you ever felt that emptiness that follows the death of someone close to you— a mother, a dear friend, a child? It’s an emptiness that has no resolution, no closure; just a, flat, raw, void. It does pass; eventually.

Then the resolution to keep-on-keeping-on sets in; one foot in front of the other; another day to face. And you do it with a big hole in your life.

Sometimes it feels like Christ’s Church is still waiting. Waiting for something to happen. We say we’re looking forward to our Lord’s return, but we hardly live like it. We’ve established a new-normal. Faith without vibrancy, expectation, or longing—a settled faith that gives little regard to Christ’s commission to “make disciples” and to declare that He has conquered death and opened the door of heaven.

In too many ways, we have established a wrote-religion. You know what I mean— it’s what we do on Sundays. Same thing— week after week.

Isn’t it time somebody tackles our boredom and shakes things up a bit. Jesus certainly did. Ask yourself these questions—

What difference is my faith making to people outside the church?
What challenges me to make a difference?
What can I do to overcome my uncomfortable feelings when I am surrounded by normal people?
How can my life matter to others?
What do I need to do to change?

The Resurrection took the Jesus’ disciples by surprise. May He surprise us still, today. Be afraid!

For what it’s worth,

Gary

Response: The Science is IN: God is the Answer

For people within the sphere of religion, any religion, Brian Bethune’s & Genna Buck’s article The Science is IN: God is the Answer (McCleans, 30 March 2015), comes as no surprise. People raised in secure loving religious homes tend to have greater skills at facing the realities of adulthood. Children raised within this kind of environment tend to be better equipped at re-defining themselves when they reach both puberty and that “ah-ha” moment we now define as “individuation.” i.e. that phase in life wherein a child ceases to define his/her-self in terms of their parent’s values and creates their own value system, beliefs, and life priorities. Granted, this can be a time of trial & error run amuck; but, hey, that’s what growth and transition are all about. If you get it right the first time, you’re holding on way too tight!

That being stated, I have encountered a LARGE number of twenty-somethings, who come from religious families— conservative Christian, liberal Christian, Jewish, Catholic, Muslim (Sunni/Shiite), and others, who are a psychological mess. Their lives have no borders or boundaries; they can’t make a decision about anything; commitment to anything is terrifying; and their ties to any belief system change hourly. “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.”

I’m sure Lisa Miller’s (the researcher who studied this topic for 18 years) efforts yielded factually supported data. But I wonder if she ever actually met an adult child from a conservative Christian family? Or Catholic family? Or modern-day Jew? There is very little faith left to their religion. They are, in effect, practical “religious-atheists” who call upon their religious roots in times of disorientation or trouble and then quickly return to their lives as really nice people.

Our societies search for spirituality outside of faith has only yielded a feel-good-faith; certainly not one that will hold up under the pressure of postChristian non-presuppositions about why it’s not all about me. It is, ya know.

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