This morning I woke up and scrolled through some sites on my phone.  The first was Youversion.com.  Great sight and I would encourage you to use it as much as possible.  The next site which I found myself was Google news.  I love Google News because they are a source for almost every news outlet.  I found this very disturbing article here about Iran placing restrictions on the news media.  About an hour later, I was reading some blogs and found myself at my friend Pete’s blog, which is very insightful.  Pete talked about this news coverage piece of “news” where President Obama is getting comfortable with ABC news. One of my strengths is connectedness.  This strength helps me connect things in my mind that sometimes are connected and sometimes are not.  But this is a really big one I’m going to need your help on, whether your liberal or conservative.

Is this okay?

Obama to Biden: "Ummmm, please shut up."

I don’t say a lot about politics on here, but I thought this story was worth a mention, because it speaks more about character in the little things than anything else.  (Coincidentally, I just read from Matthew 25 when Jesus tells the story of the master who gave a bit of responsibility to 3 servants)

Sometime in the last 24 hours, President Obama and Vice President Biden were talking to the press.  Someone asks Biden if he was going to swear everyone else in, because Biden had forgotten that he had more to do.  Then Biden immediately decides to make a joke, essentially selling out Justice Roberts from the Supreme Court and his little mess up at the inauguration and says “I don’t have as good of a memory as Justice Roberts.”  At this joke, the press laughed really hard, and it even received a few “ooohhhh”s.

But Obama’s reaction was stone cold. (this link is time sensitive and will probably not be there tomorrow, but eventually you’ll be able to check it out on you tube)  He didn’t laugh.  He didn’t smirk.  He simply and slowly reached out his arm, and touched Biden’s arm as if to say, “We don’t have time for your partisan, crappy jokes that have the intention of drawing attention away from yourself and onto others shortcomings.”

An absolutely amazing moment.  One of the things this little story did for me was helped me realize that though I might not agree with everything President Obama does, as I haven’t agreed with everything any other president has done in the last 20 years, I already respect him for being the person who he says he is, and this is a quality that has been non-existent in our nations capitol maybe since Washington in his two terms.

What do you think?  Was this character or just for show?

So when it comes to politics, we still tend to lose our minds.  Republicans, Democrats, Indy’s, and whoever else is out there -please hear this.  I don’t want to hear what you’re candidate can do or what he/she will not do.  If you believe that your kingdom will be saved because John McCain gets into office or that life will be so much better of Senator Obama takes the stage, than you are on one ride that takes you to fairy tale land, a place where Jack Bauer lives and never dies.

It’s a bit like football season.  We all have hope our team will win, and cheer to that end, but ultimately, who cares, it’s football.  You might say, “well this is not football.”  No, it’s not, it’s worse.  It’s a stage designed to create reality where no reality exists, and then tell you it’s reality.

I have news for all of us – No politician will ever make it better.  Not a donkey or an elephant or a donaphant.  What will make it better is if we begin to make a difference in our communities, in our churches, at our workplaces, and in our families lives.

I was told by everyone around me in my place of birth that the world was coming to an end because the honorable Bill Clinton came to office in 1992, but by the year 1999-2000, I was as happy as I’ve ever been.  Why?  Because my trust is not in a politician.  It’s true that this subject brings out the worst in us.  We become as dogmatic as my baptist brethren back in the 50′s.

So my suggestion would be to go out in November to vote, because I believe that’s your right and personally I think it’s important.  But before and after that time, get up, move around, start to love people, and begin making a difference in their lives.  At that point, and only after that point…

your life will be different.

You choose.

I’ve been pondering the idea of the media “favoritism” (if this is what it is) towards Obama.  I’e also been thinking of what McCain’s response might be to this as time goes on.  Not because I have made up my mind on the candidates, but being a pastor, I’ve been focusing on leadership and responding to different situations I might run into as time goes on and how I might respond to these situations. This is a great case study.

Someone (or some thing) has a lot of momentum, and I want to exceed that momentum, or at least “catch up” to it; So how do I respond?  For instance, in the transition to begin as the pastor of Fellowship Church last October, and as a new pastor, I knew that I would not have momentum, no matter how good things were.  I knew that questions and doubt were the song of the hour, and I wondered how to respond.

I could have given in to the questions and attempted to please everyone, but this just didn’t seem to be appropriate.  “Pleasing everyone” is never the appropriate answer.  Neither is getting mad and expecting people to automatically get whatever message I’m trying to share with them.  Or to attack any naysers.

I hope that this is not the way that McCain responds to “favoritism” on the part of the media.  There is really only one good response – to stay focused on his message.  The message, in the world we live in, is the only way to win momentum and to win hearts.  It can be powerful, whether it is a right or wrong message, and the proper response in the world we live in, to defeat another message is not to “cry foul” about the other message or the other mediums that message is getting across, but to powerfully present your own message with passion, heart, and an unwavering drive to say what you believe needs to be said.

This is what I did (because I’ve been taught to do it), and I’m proud to say that momentum is building at “The FC”. 

If you had one message to share right now, (that I would not edit) what would it be?

This has been a Watercooler Wednesday kind of post

“Hey B, I’ll bet you $100 that I will win West Virginia.”
“Well John, only if you let me guess who’s going to win Massachusetts.”
“You’re on.”

My best friend in high school, Clay, is really into politics, like many of my friends are.  Clay has recently started a new web site, from a right wing perspective, that I would like to advertise for.  Now, before I give you the link, I need to say that these are not my thoughts, though I agree with Clay on many things, just as I agree with Jeff and Eric on many things from the opposite viewpoint, which pretty much leaves me as an independant-type person, where I like to be left alone in my own little corner.  But Clay is an amazing friend who shares my love for Christ, and so I humbly give you the link to his brand spanking new site, which is opening just to time for the fireworks in November.

If you were watching fireworks, who would you rather be watching them with,
John McCain or Barack Obama?