Mudshot Eyes

Last year was a tough year for “Merry Christmas.” It seemed like every corner store was banning the dangerous phrase from being spoken by employees. Instead, a “Happy Holiday” was wished upon us.

There is a HUGE difference between being merry and being happy. Merry people are busy saving the world by making sure that everyone acts like Jesus, even if they don’t know Jesus from Alice Cooper. The merry mission is to strongarm the entire world into behaving as if they already know Jesus. This comes at the expense of His reputation, but for merry people it is well worth it.

The new front line of battle last year became a simple phrase: Merry Christmas. If you don’t acknowledge Christ on Christmas, then you are in big trouble, pal. But the tables were turned this year. In almost every retail establishment I’ve been to, there is somebody saying the magic words, “Merry Christmas!” It gives me goosebumps, or should I say, a chill. With each Christmas salutation, I wonder if it was Christian peer pressure that forced them to do it!

Christendom has temporarily won the Merry Christmas battle, but we seperate ourselves further from the world and from Christ when we insist that the world act like Him without ever knowing him. It brings double damage to His cause: Not only are people given an inaccurate picture of what God is doing in the world, but they also are repelled by the people who represent Him.

God’s invitation is to a messy manger, in a messy stable, to worship a Savior who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. Can we find a way to invite people to such a scene without asking them to first clean up their act?

Along with one.org, there have been other movements over the past 3 decades that have raised awareness and moved people to action regarding a variety of humanitarian crises. Unfortunately, the abundance of pop stars supporting these causes makes it seem like the “hip” thing to do. At first glance this may seem like a good thing. Helping the poor as “the latest trend” may bring a lot of help to people who otherwise wouldn’t receive it, right? Temporarily, yes. However, passing fads are just that: passing.

This latest movement toward helping the needy may be a societal blip on the radar. However, within the church I think we are seeing a genuine awakening. Many churches have come together for ongoing efforts to help those displaced by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast. Even youth groups are more inclined than ever to put their hands to the plow, the hammer or the paint brush. The Church has always responded to phyical needs during times of crisis, but there seems to be more awareness beyond those temporary calls to action.

OutOfUr.com has an entry by Dan Kimball on this topic called “
“>Pop Justice: Is social action the latest church trend?” that’s worth checking out…

I had a very, very haunting conversation with a good friend who is a pastor at a church in southern California. We hadn’t seen each other for awhile and as we were catching up he was excited about a ministry he was starting with used clothing stores where all the profit goes to orphanages…

If you visited One.org, one of the things you would see is the fact that a lot of famous people, from George Clooney to Pat Robertson, have given their voice to draw people to the site. I’m not a big fan of social trends, especially when they are led by hollywood types who are severely disconnected from anything resembling real life. However, One.org is simply encouraging people to get involved and educated about two things: the needs of the poor around the world, and what our government is doing to respond.

Fighting hunger and poverty is a mission that crosses political lines. We have people in Congress from our neck of the woods that speak for us when it comes to what goes on with our tax dollars. America is a great country because we can call our representatives and say, “If you want my vote, do what I want!”

In addition, the mission to help the poor is one that has echoed in the Bible from the voice of the prophets to the hands-on action of Jesus. No matter the way we choose to respond, each generation is called to engage the problem of poverty in both hearts and hands. When we call our Senators, give to a ministry like World Vision, or to help build a home with Habitat for Humanity, we involve ourselves with God in what he is doing in our world.

A couple of months ago, I posted an entry on some well-documented information regarding electric car technology. The info came from the web site of a new documentary called Who Killed the Electric Car? For most areas this movie has come and gone, so I’m watching for a DVD release soon.

I think we are at the beginning of a trend toward electric car technology. Gas-electric hybrids barely scratch the surface of what we will see very soon from automobile manufacturers. Tesla Motor’s upcoming release of the Tesla Roadster is more evidence that electric cars are in our forseeable future.

The Roadster is 100% electric, goes 250 miles on one charge, and can reach 60 MPH in only 4 seconds. This particular car is out of reach for normal people who don’t grow money on trees ($100K), but it is a sign of things to come. See what 1 cent per mile looks like at the Tesla Motors web site.

I’m still fascinated by the view above the clouds whenever I travel by airplane. I do not travel a lot, but whenever I do, I love to gaze out the window at the minature world below.

However, there are a few things about airline travel that deserve special attention.

For example, who could deny the joys of cramped seating? It’s an experiment in social psychology, as people sit within each other’s personal space, trying to avoid eye contact. This is very important because you don’t look at somebody in the eye sitting that close unless you are ready to pucker up. That’s why it’s ok to have a conversation on a plane only if you are looking at the seat in front of you. You can glance at the seat in front of them, in order to indicate who you are talking to, but do NOT look directly into the eyes of the person next to you. The ensuing discomfort will result in a social anxiety akin to the feeling one gets in an over-crowded elevator that is stuck between floors.

Then there are the strange smells. On my recent flight to Phoenix, there was a little girl curled up in the seat in front of me who apparently is at the tail end of her diaper days. She has odorized the cabin of the plane repeatedly, leaving everyone in rows 1-8 wishing they had chosen those seats further toward the back of the plane. Fortunately, her chemical warfare attack has caused her to stop crying. She’s feeling much better now. That’s the only reason none of us are complaining. The ear piercing screams during the first part of the flight have given way to nose piercing gas. So for the first time on a flight, I was praying that we would hit some major turbulence––unless there is some other way for those oxygen masks to drop from the ceiling.

Finally, airplane food is an easy target. Or should I say “food.” On most flights within the U.S., they no longer serve a meal. Instead, the flight attendants pass out a box of leftover, rejected packages of preservative-packed cookies and crackers from a cookies-and-crackers factory in Mexico. This stuff is not made using actual human food ingredients. The label reads, “Packed with cheese-like yumminess!” I don’t have to tell you why this is a bad thing. But at least you can wash it down with water from a can! Nevermind that the aluminum makes the water taste like mercury. That’s not just your imagination.

So next time you fly the friendly skies, enjoy the ride knowing that airline travel is 900,000 times faster than traveling by camelback.

I’ve decided that it is impossible to find out what our government is doing most of the time, whether they are Republican or Democrat. I realize that there are some top secret things that should be kept top secret. That’s not what I’m referring to.

Is there any doubt that under the goverment’s “classified” category there are deals, bribes, and blackmails that would make us shiver? Of course, there is a lot at stake: dollars and lives and oil barrels and children and votes and power and the minds of the people.

We depend on the major news networks to tell us what is going on, but most of their “reports” are a disfunctional hybrid between reporting and editorializing. Writers and media channels continuously resort to extremes, but that is what sells commercials. You think FoxNews is “fair and balanced”? I’m sorry, but to be truly fair and balanced in reporting won’t sell any soap. They swing as far to the right as CNN swings to the left.

I suppose that my only recourse at this point is to do my best to interpret the droning speeches we hear on C-SPAN in an effort to figure out what exactly our government is trying to accomplish.

But who’s got time for that?