An Inconvenient Christianity

Happy Thanksgiving! For those who are unfamiliar with the holiday, the fourth Thursday is set aside to give thanks for the bounty with which we have been blessed. We also get together with family and friends and enjoy a nice meal and quality time. Some families have the tradition of stating at least one thing/person/event during the calendar year for which they are thankful. I think that's a nice tradition. It make us focus on the blessings we have in this life and not so much on the struggles, which are highlighted more often than we may care to admit. Today, let us be mindful of two things: 1. God gets the thanks. Period. Apart from God, we would have nothing and no one for which to give thanks. But that's the easy part to remember... 2. Give thanks for everything. Yes, I typed "for." You see as Christians, we have a fairly easy time with the concept of giving thanks. We even accept the fact that in every situation we ought to give thanks because no matter h

Hello out there! Long time, right? Yes, I know. Forgive me. I've had a lot on my plate. But for sanity's sake I make it a point to listen to a lot of good, sound Bible teaching and failing that, NPR. Recently I was reminded of former Governor Sarah Palin's "Lipstick On A Pig" comment. Essentially, the phrase is used to illustrate the futility of using a superficial, cosmetic addition to change the nature of a thing. It simply doesn't work. It's like putting lipstick on a pig. So I was thinking about pigs and how much they love mud and dirt and slop. No matter how much you wash a pig off and clean it up, it will return (almost immediately) to the slop and dirty itself all over again. In fact, I dare say that you could scrub the pig, put it in a tuxedo and lecture it on the best way to keep clean and it would still, when given the opportunity, return to the mud. That is the nature of the pig. How many of us as Christians operate just like the pig? We run