Tolerance basically means not spitting on someone

A word that's been thrown around a lot since the uproar over mosque building and Qur'an burnings is "tolerance." Public figures of all types have been preaching non-stop the significance of being tolerant of other people's religion, traditions and so on. Most notably, Christians (of all levels of spiritual maturity) have been asked to be tolerant of our Muslim neighbors and their wishes to build places of worship in our communities. Over the past week, I've heard the phrase a ton and began to think about what it really means to be tolerant.

A quick look at dictionary.com gives some general definitions:

tol·er·ance

1. a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry.

4. the act or capacity of enduring; endurance.

The two definitions above paint slightly different pictures, one being more permissive and the other more indifferent. According to a Wikipedia entry, "Conversely, 'intolerance' may be used to refer to the discriminatory practices sought to be prohibited." With that being said, I think I can surmise that tolerance basically means not spitting on someone.

Okay, maybe it's a gross exaggeration but the point I'm trying to make is that tolerance is a lot closer to hate than it is to love. Pastor Mike Glenn once said, "Do you know how dismissive it is to tolerate another human being, rather than to love that human being? To have someone and say you tolerate them...that's the best the world can offer. Jesus says, you love your neighbor. It isn't based on who they are or what they do, it is based on proximity. It is the person nearest you, the person in need nearest you, that is your neighbor."

Fellow Twitter user Dan Eggenschwiler tweeted recently, "Tolerance is a falsely promoted idea that is often confused with love & grace. I believe in love and grace. I do not believe in tolerance."

When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. The second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself." Christians are not called to tolerate. We are called to love, and love like we would love ourselves.

Who in your life have you merely tolerated? Is there someone in need of love right now?

Music That Soothes

For most of my post-elementary school life, country music was not my music genre of choice.  As a general rule, that is still true today, but that is changing a little bit.  I'm not talking about the new country either, the stuff that sounds more like pop than the "country" I listened to as a wee lad.  I'm talking about the folky country, with simple yet brilliant lyrics, and musical genius not tyipcally finding a home on "99.7 THE TRACTOR" or whatever station is spinning the newest country tracks these days.

Anyway, you can listen (for a short time) to Justin Townes Earle's newest album, "Harlem River Blues" in it's entirety right here: Justin Townes Earle: Harlem River Blues

Let me know what you think!

Madness, Madness I Tell You!

As is generally the case, I was able to connect Sunday's sermon (and subsequent small group topic) to a very specific part of my life. Pete spoke on the tendency we have as humans to take something that is good, and make it ultimate. I think most humans get that there is a certain hierarchy within the universe, a natural order of existence that places things of importance above the average and mediocre. Family before friends, friends before complete strangers - it's very simple, but no less a part of the way we intend to function. However, we stray from this model. We let good things (work, hobbies, entertainment) become more important than things that "matter." As Christians, we know God tops the list of the hierarchy. But how often do we forego any time spent with him in a given day to pursue our interests and families and friends? If you're like me, it's a lot. We have a way of taking what is normally good and making it an ultimate, something that should only be reserved for God. It's not like we're out there every day looking for a fight or drugs or a pyramid scheme to get invovled in. We are stuck chasing not what is obviously evil, but what is deceptively good.

Okay, I know what you're thinking..."cool story bro." But it applies, watch.

There's a title given to this time of year where we immerese ourselves in something good. And then we immerse ourselves more, and get deeper and deeper in and get a point where we are crazy (aka, mad). Get it? March Madness.

I love this time of year, and so does everyone else. If you question whether or not we make an "ultimate" out of the NCAA Tournament, chances are you've already gone mad. The tournament isn't a bad thing, but (much like other massive sporting events) we worship it and give it a lot more attention than we probably should. After all, the main story on ESPN's homepage right now is detailing the bracket picked by our President (yea, like...the most powerful person in the world right now). 1The NCAA says that 1 out of every 10 Americans fill out a bracket, but I'd bet that is a very conservative estimate. Additionally, the Nevada gaming commission claims around $80-90 million is wagered every year, with another $7 billion or so being illegally wagered in office bracket pools and with other bookies. It's a crazy time, but it is fun. The question remains:

What are we to do?


I don't recommend boycotting the tournament (Lord knows I won't be). But what I might suggest is that we not let watching games or filling in brackets get in the way of maintaining our relationship with God and/or others. Take a look at the hierarchy of things in your life (if you aren't a Christian, maybe you value your family most and that shouldn't suffer because you like watching basketball) and make sure the good things (like March Madness) don't become ultimate things.

On that note...GO RACERS!




1 http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2009/03/17/ncaa-march-madness-can-cause-lifetime-gambling-problems.html

Wisdom in our words

I've recently faced some conviction in an area of my life that is very public. More often than not, I'm convicted of things on the inside: my character flaws, thoughts, actions that others don't always see. I'm convicted of things like saying something I shouldn't, showing up late to work, or pride issues that aren't easily seen from the onlookers perspective. However, this most recent conviction has to do with my public spirituality as of late. To complicate matters, Pete's (pastor at Crosspoint) message took the issue in a different direction, that almost counter-balanced my conviction on the issue. Enough jabber...I'll get to the point.

Since the emergence of Facebook status updates and those 140 character tidbits (oh yea, Tweets, as they call them), my entire spiritual répertoire can be defined in two sentence segments. I find myself spiritually satisfied with a message or book when I can wittingly repeat a sentence I find particularly enchanting. No doubt, this is not what God intended one's spirituality to look like. But before I cancel my Twitter and Facebook accounts, I need to share what Pete spoke on this Sunday.

The sermon was titled, "Pursuing Widsom in Words." (You can listen to it here within the next day or two, btw.) Words are powerful, and none of them happen in a vaccum - what is said has an affect on someome or something, if not many someones or somethings. To quote, "God has designed the human soul where your words will either destory or build up one another."

Proverbs 15:4 says, "Gentle words are a tree of life; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit."

Proverbs 18:21 also sends the same sentiment, "The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit."

From James, we find that even though the tongue is a small part of the body, it has a lot of power. Just as a bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole animal, our tongue can change the course of someones entire day!

So how does this relate to Twitter, or Facebook? I think you can make the connection...whereas the tongue in a setting of two or three people can affect two or three people (before it leaves the room, anyway), Twitter and Facebook can reach hundreds, thousands, possibly even millions of people all at once. So if I make the decision to use these social media, why not use them to spread truth or share some wisdom instead of gossip? My words can have an impact on people all day, and I intend to make that impact as positive as possible.

Just for fun, here's a chart of what is typically posted to Twitter, by content matter:

As you can see, only 174 of the 2000 tweets taken in this sample were worthy of the "pass along value" title. We say so much throughout the course of a day, are we building others up or are we destroying them?

Support the luo project

Please take some time to visit the luo project page to see what you can do to help orphans in Managua, Nicaragua. It only takes $200 to give an orphan food, water, shelter, and educational materials for an entire year! We are trying to get at least 150 donors to help out. Watch the video below to learn more about the orphans in Managua.