Tuesdays with Morris

On November 4th, record numbers of US citizens will be hitting the polls to weigh in and cast their ballots. No matter who is elected into office, history will be made. For most, the presidential race is the big ticket item. However, many of us face important decisions on the state and local levels as well. Here in Indiana, the race for the White House has heated up. But, the popularity contest for the state governor is also a major emphasis of voters.

As a Christian, I’ve been compelled to pray for this election and the candidates. I’ve also prayerfully considered who I will cast my vote for in each race. Using a balance of Scripture, tradition, experience, and reason (that sounds very Wesleyan), I feel very strongly that I have arrived to the best conclusions and will vote accordingly. And, this is where it gets tricky.

Many other Christians have also gone through the same process as I have in choosing a candidate. Some will line up with my views…others will be the exact opposite. If we’re all consulting God on these matters, how do we come up with different conclusions? That’s probably where our tradition, experience, and reason come into play.

So, then, I find myself asking the question “who is right?” Am I right? Is the person who will have a ballot that is the exact opposite of mine right? Are we both right?

In the end, I’m not so sure it’s a matter of who is right and who is wrong. I believe the big issue is what will we do with the results. Will we support, encourage, and pray for whomever is elected? Or will we carry on with some of the intense hatred that has marked this campaign?

We have an amazing opportunity and privilege to participate in choosing the next president of the United States of America. While the system isn’t exactly perfect, it’s decently fair (it could be worse, you know). So, I want to encourage all of us to get out and vote!

Okay, so I’m totally against all the “princess” crap. We have too many 4-8 year-old “divas” who are totally out-of-control because their parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles refer to them as “princess”. Unless you can prove it with some royal documents, please don’t call your daughter a princess. It will go straight to her head and you’ll be dealing with one of those bratty kids on “My Super Sweet 16″.

Having said that, we took Sammie to a friends princess themed birthday party at the Children’s Museum. It was actually pretty cool for the kids. Sammie got to dress up as a princess and have her picture taken. It’s pretty cute. But, it won’t be any kind of regular activity for her.

I saw this the other night on the Colbert report and thought this was absolutely hilarious! Watch the whole thing…the song at the end is amazing! Frankly, I think Colbert’s harmonies are pretty solid (well, he kind of goes off a bit towards the end). Please enjoy!

Every so often, I make the mistake of returning to the local Christian bookstore. It’s no secret how much this place irritates me. I grow so tired of seeing the various products that they push (books dealing with the prosperity gospel, books about marital faithfulness written by guys who get divorced and convince younger women to divorce their husbands and shack up with them, and so on). And, over and over I tell myself just to avoid the place.

But, as a pastor, I can receive at least 20% off any product I purchase. So, when I want to buy a new Christian book, this is the best place because it’s cheaper than other outlets. However, I’m beginning to think that paying an extra 20% for the books elsewhere might keep me from balling up in bitter rage.

Today, as soon as I walked in the doors, I was bombarded by books with a big pictures of the Republican vice-presidential candidate plastered all over it. Now, this wouldn’t be such a bad thing, except for the fact that I didn’t find books with pictures of the other Christian candidates in the store (which would be all of them). Where were the biographies of Barack Obama? Maybe they were sold out. How about a small book on the life of Joe Biden? Nope. Okay, we know that all real Christians who live in real America are Republicans, so certainly there was a book on McCain. Um, I came up empty on this one too (I did ask if they had any books on Obama, Biden, or McCain…the answer, “I don’t think so. But we have this nice book on Sarah Palin”). I just wish that Christian organizations would stop being so obvious about their political perspectives.

One of the biggest complaints I hear from my non-Christian friends would be that Christians tend to wear their politics on their sleeves…that Christians tend to talk more about politics than any thing else…that they wish Christians would be as passionate about caring for the world and those around them as they are about their politics.

Obviously, I’m pretty straight-forward about my political leanings. But, I try to do my best to avoid letting my political favorings influence my teaching. I’d rather focus on the Scriptures and try to present a non-partisan front and let people make up their own minds. But, when you walk into the Christian bookstore and all you can find are books about Sarah Palin and George W. Bush, many make the assumption that this is what Christians should support. (I will say that I did find some Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo, and Shane Claiborne books that question the evangelical Republican agenda…but they were tucked away in the back).

Having the Palin book being the first thing customers see walking into the store just helps push the “to be a Christian is to be a Republican” stereotype. And that bothers me.

I really need to take my own advice and just steer clear of the Christian bookstore. Then, I could view my trips to Borders and Barnes&Noble as outreach and evangelistic opportunities.

Sometimes, we just let things get away from us. We know that if we would just take a small amount of time here and there, we could keep up with the work. But, there are times when we realize that things have just gotten away from us. We’ve made decisions to do just about any thing other than those little things that will help out in the long run.

This evening, I spent an hour-and-a-half pulling weeds…in my driveway. And, this is after spending about an hour one day last week doing the same. Pulling weeds…from the driveway. Weird.

What happened is that I should have resealed my driveway two-years ago. But, about two years ago…my hands were full with a newborn baby. Then, last year, my hands were full with a one-year-old. Today, I could continue the excuses, as I have my hands full with a two-year-old.

By the time I’m done, I’ll probably have invested four-hours in pulling weeds out of the blacktop. After that, I’ll spend a couple of hours patching holes and doing prep work. Then, I’ll spend about an hour sealing the drive.

Had I taken time two years ago to seal the driveway, I would probably not be in this situation. But, instead, my driveway has its own weed garden. And, if I don’t take the proper steps to repair the driveway, it will be much more expensive to fix.

This whole experience can be applied to so many areas of our lives. Where do you need to pull some weeds (in other words, what do you need to spend some time doing). Do you need to invest more time in your family, friends, occupation? Do you need to spend more time studying God’s word? Do you need to spend more time in prayer, worship, fellowship?

When we neglect fellowship, we often find ourselves battling loneliness. When we neglect Bible study, we can find ourselves wrestling with doubts and false teachings. When we neglect prayer, we can experience emptiness. When we neglect worship, we can find ourselves becoming selfish (worshipping ourselves instead of God).

When we neglect those “basics” of the faith, we will often find weeds popping up. I have weeds in my driveway. I’m sure I have some weeds in other areas of my life. Where are your weeds?