Why The Liberals Have It (Half) Right

I was listening to a local area talk show recently.  The host is somewhat right-leaning.  He was having an excitable exchange with a left-leaning caller.  They were discussing the social ills and how best to address them.  The caller and the host both agreed on the problem-- a lack of cohesive, traditional family structure.  They also both agreed on the solution-- a more cohesive, traditional family structure.  The difference was in the means to that solution.

The caller had the usual liberal talking-points.  Society's wealth is disproportionately distributed.  Those of us who are more advantaged need to pay more taxes so that government programs can help the disadvantaged out of the cycle of poverty and crime.  The host had his usual conservative quips.  We have been throwing money and government programs at these problems for decades and they are arguably worse now then when we started.  The government is not the solution to our problems.

Finally, the caller said, "Well, if you don't want the government to do it, then who should?"  This was probably the best question of the whole exchange.  Unfortunately, both the caller and host quickly moved on and the question was not really addressed.  This is exactly where the liberal philosophy is half right.  Some people are stuck in cycles of poverty and crime and they desperately need somebody to come along and help them out.  Of course, the conservative philosophy is also correct.  Government is not the best "somebody" to do this.

The problem with both points of view is that the problem is viewed as a systemic problem instead of a personal problem.  If the problem is systemic then we do need to find systems-wide strategies as means to the solution.  The problem, though, is not systemic (as in a problem with a system); the problem is personal (as in a problem with individuals).  You cannot treat a personal problem with systemic strategies.  Personal problems have to be treated individually.  This takes much more than money.  It takes people-- real people-- to spend time with individuals and educate, model, and walk next them as they deal with and work through the problems.

For example, welfare programs do provide means for individuals that are in need the ability to obtain food and shelter.  What is missing?  For one thing, isn't it just as important for someone to come alongside a needy individual and show them how to balance a check book, live within their means, write a decent resume, fill out job applications, and just provide the moral support needed to keep on keeping on as they struggle to get back on their feet?  Sure there are programs that are set up to provide some of these services.  Many of them, though, are set up in such a way that the individuals who need them have to take the initiative to seek out those services.  What these individuals need is someone to take the initiative to come alongside them and show them what they need to do and help them begin to do it.

This is the reason the government is not very good at this sort of thing.  The government does not have the time or resources to spend the time necessary with individuals to meet the needs in the way they need to be met.  Just look at how the government handles anything else.  Government education is set up as a systemic approach that is designed to educate large numbers of students in basically the same way.  It is not designed to teach the individual.  How does the government run the post office?  The postal system is designed as a system.  If you want to send a letter or package you must make sure it conforms to the systems that have been set up.  I am not in any way arguing against public education or the post office here.  I am simply pointing out that the government does not, and cannot, deal with individuals very well.  The government always deals with problems systemically, not personally.

Now that I have tried to express why I believe the government is not the best "somebody" to deal with these types of issues, I must go back to the original question. If you don't want the government to do it, who should?  Well if we say it is a personal, individual problem, then it stands to reasons that individuals must be the ones to meet the need.  I think this sounds alot like what the Bible teaches us about the poor.  The poor are not simply a group we give money to.  The poor are people that need to be treated as such.

It is easy for the liberal to say that we need to redistribute wealth to make it more equitable for the poor.  It is also easy for the conservative to say that government is not the answer.  It would be nice if the "poor problem" could be fixed by simply giving money via charity or taxes.  If we give all our possessions to feed the poor and have not love, it profits us (and them) nothing.  It is fine to give money, and I think we should.  We then also need to show love individually and come alongside and truly help the poor.  Show someone how to deal with the daily struggles.  Sit down and teach someone how to balance a check book and prioritize spending.  Allow another person to spend time with you so they can learn how to live outside of a cycle of poverty and crime.  But, then again, that takes time and real, honest investment.  I think I will just throw some change in a red kettle and go about my day.

What is Job Satisfaction Worth?

I turned 33 years old a month ago.  I also finished the first 10 years of my time as an educator. This means I am approaching the second trimester of my professional career.  The first 10 years was spent trying to figure out how to do my job and expending energy trying to advance my career.  I am now reaching a stage in which I think I know what I am doing.  I still want to "advance" in my field, but I am not so interested in moving on as I am in moving forward with what I am doing now and building upon that to make a lasting impact.

Up until this year I have been pursuing the next step in the chain of advancement and salary scale.  Trust me, I am still interested in these things, but they are not the driving force of why I get up in the morning.  I find I am more and more interested in job satisfaction rather than position and pay.  This has caused me to ask myself a question: How much is my job satisfaction worth?

I can truly say I am satisfied with what I am doing right now.  I think I could go on doing this for another 20 years if necessary.  I have built key relationships with colleagues and the community in which I work.  This allows me to continually find new and challenging endeavors in the midst of maintaining a high level of performance in my day-to-day responsibilities.  I still see sufficient areas for personal and professional growth without having to take a new job title.

At the same time, I have had several recent conversations discussing possible new positions that would greatly increase my pay-- in the neighborhood of $20,000 annually.  No matter what your current annual salary is, a $20,000 increase is significant.  So, I ask myself, do I put forth concerted effort to pursue these very real opportunities, or just sit back and see what happens?

Truly, I can say that I would be satisfied no matter what happens.  That is a good position to be in.  It is nice to know that if I remain where I am now that I will continue to have a high level of personal and professional satisfaction.  It is also nice to know that there are possibilities out there should I ever desire to officially have an upwardly mobile career path.

So, how much is job satisfaction worth?  Well, I guess I can say that for me it is at least worth around $20,000.  I hope this means that more and more I view my level of job satisfaction as a function of what I do and not so much a function of how much I make.  As far as I can tell this is a good direction in which to be heading.

The Cycle of Faith

All of my life I have heard about God's will. I know I need to do His will, follow His will, find His will, etc. Yet, there were many times I simply felt like I did not know what His will was. I think I often just made all of this much more complicated then it needed to be.

Colossians 1 has been a key passage in helping me understand the will of God. In verses 3 and 4, the apostle Paul tells the believers in Colossians that he gave thanks when he heard of their faith. Then, in verses 9 and 10, he tells them the secret to this whole idea of God's will. He says, "For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray and make request for you, that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will." What had he heard about? Well it was the same thing he had just mentioned hearing about in verse 3 -- their faith. So, because of their faith he prays that they will be filled with the knowledge of God's will.

If we just stop here we still do not know much. We still don't know what God's will is or how we grow in our knowledge of it. At this point we need to go back to Christianity 101. What is God's basic will for anyone? It is just His revealed will that we find in His word. You know, the basics: honor your father and mother, love your wife as Christ loved the church, do not lie, remember the Sabbath, etc. By the way, I have found that doing a mediocre job of the basics usually is much more than I can handle on my own. So, if you are looking for the will of God for your life, start with these basics that He has clearly laid out. If you are living these basics out in your life, by His grace, you know your living according to His will.

Now, here's where Colossians 1:9-10 has really helped me. The apostle Paul wants the believers to grow in the knowledge of God. Look what happens next. Verse 10 says, "to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God." Did you see that?! Paul said that he wanted them to have the knowledge of God's will so they could do some things! What, specifically, did Paul say that they would do? They would walk worthy in a manner that pleases the Lord and bear fruit through good works. This is the answer all along to my questions on God's will that I started with in the first paragraph. When we talk about God's will we are not talking about some mystical and vague idea. We are talking about real and concrete things. Those things are what we do and how we do them. How we "walk" and the fruit we bear. This is God's will for us! To work out our salvation in the way we live each and every day is the will of God for you and me.

Do you know the best part of this passage? It is found at the end of verse 10. Did you see it? What happens when we take the revealed will of God that we do know and use it to live in a way that pleases Him and to bear fruit? Exactly! Paul told the believers in Colossians that they would then increase in the knowledge of God! So, not only does this passage clear up the initial question of what God's will is and what we are supposed to do with it. It provides an amazing bonus. It says that as we put what we know into practice it has the result of increasing our knowledge of God's will.

So, what does this mean? It means that if we truly want to know God's will that we need to take what we know now (even if it is just a little bit) and begin to live that daily in a way that pleases God and bears fruit. This will lead us into more understanding of His will. We can then take that new and deeper understanding and begin to live that out. Then what happens?! You guessed it. We again get an increase in the knowledge of God! It's a cycle. 1. Take the knowledge you have. 2. Use it to walk pleasing to Him. 3. Bear fruit with good works. 4. Get more knowledge. 5. Repeat.

If this cycle is happening in your life it is an evidence of faith. Remember how we started this investigation? Paul started off by telling these believers that he thanked God when he heard of their faith, and that the faith he had heard about would then lead to this cycle of growth in the knowledge of God.

Creativity

I am daily amazed at the abundant creativity found all over the internet. As I peruse Youtube submissions, read blog entries (by others), and monitor the endless stream of Tweets that continually bombard my phone I cannot help but marvel at the various ways others have found to create new ways to communicate ideas. I find myself saying over and over again, "Why didn't I think of that," or, "I wish I could do that."

As I sit in Panera sipping my coffee I have resigned myself to the fact that I will never be as creative as many of the artists whose art I find populating the world-wide web. Contentment, for me, must be found in the occasional blog post. Even my feeble forays into the mighty Twitterverse fall far short. How is it that so many are able to convey what they are thinking in just 140 characters or less?! I'm all for brevity, but this seems a bit beyond my reach.

The author of a book I have recently been reading states that we are all philosophers. Advanced degrees and dissertations are not necessary. If we can think, and can communicate our thoughts we are philosophers. How would Plato, Aristotle, Kant, and Hegel compete in this age of one-sentence syllogisms? What would their tweets and blog posts look like? Would they podcast themselves on Youtube? Would their wireless words of wisdom take shape through a weekly video upload full of "clips of the week", "video question of the day", or flashy screen transitions?

Now, since we've taken a moment to envision how some of the greatest of human thinkers would interact in this digital age, let me ask one more question. If, in the sovereign will of God, Jesus Christ had been born and lived in 2010 how would He have used this seemingly endless wealth of communication technology? Would He have used it? Would His Twitter account give insiders advance notice such as, "Healing blind man, this AM, downtown"? How many views would a cellphone video upload titled "Dead Man Raised, NO EDITS!" gather in a week? Would He have still been able to teach a mass of people and hold their attention so long that He would need to miraculously feed them all when they grew hungry? Would His message have been cut up into 30-second video blurbs, thus losing much of its meaning?

So, let me try to bring my random ramblings together. I've considered the mass creativity that abounds through the mass of our ability to communicate in new and increasing technology. I've asked how history's greatest thinkers would use this technology if it were available to them. I've pondered how and if the Jesus Christ would use this technology explosion. I am thinking that some of the greatest thoughts ever communicated were done so without instant messaging and email. So, while I will still be amazed every time I come across a highly creative web gem, I will try to also remember that thoughts of true substance might need to communicated with a few more than 140 characters.

Blessing!

We learned today that we will be expecting a third child! This is very exciting (and surprising) news. What a difference news like this can make to your priorities. I came home from work thinking about some things I would not have been thinking about otherwise. God certainly has a way to change your paths in an instant.

Today's Thought

Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.

Sir Francis Bacon
English author, courtier, & philosopher (1561 - 1626)