In the last weeks, two people (and in one case, husband and wife) have taken a risk and started a real conversation with me.  In both scenarios we were eating and chit chatting about life, sports, kids, and job stuff, when out of the blue, they both burst out with something that had clearly been on their minds and hearts.  What was inside of them was so important that they broke the old adage about the faux pas of conversation (never talk about politics or religion, and for what can be inferred, anything personal and real about your life) and brought it out to me.  The result was two conversations that I’ll never forget and will for a while at least, stamp what they’re going through on my mind so I can pray and continue the dialogue.

They could have kept it light.  They could have continued on how the Pats are playing or the weather or how the church is doing, but I think they took a risk, and shared with me something real going on in their lives.  I hope to learn a lesson from them.

But I still hate talking politics.

At a high school basketball game concession stand at the age of 4

Growing up in the midwest wasn’t that bad.  I think we all look back and see the goods and bads of our childhood.  People who have a negative bent probably believe there childhood sucked and people with a more positive outlook on life probably believe theres was all good.  Of course it could and has been argued that people have a positive or negative bent because of there childhood, but I digress.

One of the more interesting things about growing up in the midwest was the conversation.  While in New England, politics tends to be the conversation of choice, in the midwest, that distinction belongs to sports.

“Hey, how are ya?”

“Good, how are you?”

“Good thanks.” (I’m pretty sure in the midwest it’s illegal to let someone know you’re having a bad day)  “see the game last night?”

And we’re off.  The person could have been talking about high school, college or pro sports, it doesn’t matter.  It’s the default conversation piece, and it’s much easier than talking about the fact that my marriage is falling apart, or I’m in debt over my head because of the large screen TV I just leased with astronomical interest or I lay in bed every night crying wondering if my life has any purpose.  Nope, just good clean sports, and it takes all chances of sharing our real problems away.  Why would someone want to hear about what I’m going through when we could talk about the freakin fastest 6’9″ guy on the planet – Lebron James.

So I learned a bad habit I’ve tried to break for the better part of my life.  Out of church, I talk about sports.  In church is where we talk about spiritual things.

Of course, we could talk about how stupid our pastor is, and all the mistakes he makes too.

Yeah, that could take some of the pain away!

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?

2,000 years ago, a young carpenter from a po-dunk town of Israel rose to the ranks of the known and stirred up the established religions of the day by claiming to be God and throwing out ideals like many of the ancient prophets did – Justice, hope, and peace (amongst other universal ideas).  Jesus is risen!

700 years ago, A guy by the name of William Wallace (if you believe the movie) cried out for the ideals of freedom for every individual against an established feudalistic order of the day that was hell bent on keeping the land owners, land owners, and the peasants, peasants.

100 years ago, two men were born, one in the north and one in the south, who believed that things were not right, but they could be.  So these men fought for equality, hope, and the American dream, both rising to national prominence, and both were shot for these ideals they were propogating.  Martin Luther King, Jr. died at a hotel on March 29, 1968 and Ronald Reagan survived an assasination attempt on March 30, 1981 (coincidentally hours before my sister, Brooke, was born).  Reagan went on to finish out 8 more years as the president of the United States.

I use these examples, not to call our new president (as of this January) any type of savior or freedom fighter or even a uniter – He’s not a savior and hasn’t been around long enough to fight for freedom or unite anyone.  But I want to continue to propagate a different message that I believe every politician, pastor, and leader should hold on to beyond this election week.

When given the choice between cynicism and hope – we will ultimately choose hope.

When given the choice between hate and love – we will ultimately choose love.

When given the choice between injustice and justice – we will ultimately choose justice.

When things aren’t going well, the temptation is to start playing the cynic and attack the opposition, but the irony is that time and after time after time the person or people who accentuate their ideals ultimately win, over those who attack the opposition.  Could it be that God created the world this way?

I know there are a lot of arguments (even good ones) against this thought process.  But the examples for ideals far outweigh the examples of playing the cynic.  Just look at the opposites of the aforementioned examples.  They are famous too:  The Pharisees, King “Longshanks”, George Wallace, and Walter Mondale.

My case is now rested.

7:45 pm – Carie and I are doing some work.  I flip on Fox News for election coverage.  Oh come on, for years I’ve been watching the other bias.

8:00 pm – Steve Bramlett called and said he was coming over.  Kentucky and West Virginia go to McCain.  Obama gets his first state:  Vermont

8:15 pm – Steve Bramlett shows up.  I feed him, although Carie made the meal.  Yummmmm Chicken pot pie.  Obama has a lot of the eastern states and New England states.  Not a shock.

8:30 pm – McCain gets Alabama and Arkansas, but Obama gets a big prize:  Pennsylvania.  Thats gonna leave a mark.Looks like John Kerry is going to win the senator race here in Mass.

8:40 pm – McCain win Georgia.  Bramlett says Obama win could be good for America.  He also wants me to mention he is not for Obama though. Okay.  bramlett is not for Obama.  Carie is almost done with her work.

8:42 pm – Incumbent republican senator for Georgia wins.

8:43 pm – Brit Hume stutters a lot.   I’m pretty sure Massachusetts went to Obama.  I CANT BELIEVE IT!

8:48 pm – Bramlett just commented on a gas can commercial with country folk music being the “stupidest commercial ever.”  I say its much better than the prostate commercial immediately afterwards.  Now Bramletts calling his woman, cilla.  She’s my facebook friend.

8:54 pm – while Carie gets up to look for a book to read and Bramlett continues to come over to our house and ignore us, talking to his girlfriend, I change the channel and see the Celtics are winning 14-13.  Go Green!

8:57 pm – Talking heads on all the networks are so irritating.  Should I change the channel to John Stewart and Stephen Colbert?

9:00 pm – results from several states come out now.  Wyoming, New mexico, Minnesota, Michigan, Rhode Island and Michigan goes to Obama.  A few states go to McCain like North Dakota and Kansas, but it looks pretty bad for McCain.

9:04 pm – skipping over to lifechurch.tv for a few.  Be right back.

9:07 pm – Having church at lifechurch.tv. Sweet worship!  Nice to know no matter what happens tonight, I serve a God bigger than all the hype and chaos of politics.

9:11 pm - Anybody have an idea where else I can surf while I’m ignoring the election?

9:26 pm – Bramlett just said that Craig Groeschel’s voice sounds like a candy bar.  WHAT?!

9:30 pm -Craig Groeschel “Pracitcal atheism – a belief in God with no real fear of Him.”

9:32 pm – McCain wins Louisiana!  Too late.

9:39 pm – I’m all about the underdog, but this race is over.  Congrats President Obama.

9:40pm – Steve Bramlett, Carie, and myself, all say good night!  Thanks for joining us.

Are you happy or miserable about the outcome?

All right, ‘fess up.  How did you vote and why?

Presenting:

The best political article (focusing on Christians) I’ve read this year!

Your welcome.

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.

Don MIller prays at the DNC

Ilove the web 2.0! 

This morning I was catching up on my blogs (I had about 120 I had to scroll through), and I found something very profound.  And this time, it wasn’t in Seth Godin’s blog.  If you haven’t read his blog, and you’re into Marketing even on a marginal level, go and read it right now.  Everything he writes is profound.

Anyway, back to my point.  This morning I was reading the blog of my new friend (of the last year or so) Eric.  Eric is a web developer amongst other things and has taught me a lot through the mediums of conversations and blogging about web 2.0.  One of the things Eric is truly passionate about is politics.  Eric likes democrats.

In his latest post, Eric gives a fairly even-handed review of his thoughts on McCain’s choice for running mate, and connects to the site of my best friend from high school (this has been several years by the way) Clay, who runs the site, “Reluctant Republicans”.  Clay is also truly passionate about politics.
Clay likes republicans.

As a friend of both of them, I can appreciate their thoughts on this subject and read each and every post on the subject fairly thoroughly.  But the point of this post is once again connection.
At no point in my life has Clay and Eric ever even been in the same state at the same time that I know, except for maybe this summer when Clay and his family took a vacation to NYC, but here they are, even in a subtle way, connecting their thoughts so that viewers on their blogs can see where they are both coming from. Not to mention they both have impacted my life in several ways,

I come from the end of an age where hearing from someone who differed from you was betrayal, and now its the best way to come to a conclusion.  So thank you to my friends who offer two different sides of a very important subject these days.  Also thank you to Don Miller, author of “Blue Like Jazz”, for this post in his new blog.

And thank you to you…for reading and sharing your thoughts.

You choose.