Turning off the Mower

Maybe I have commitment issues.  Regardless, I was very hesitant to buy my first house two years ago.  Something about living in an apartment, renting a house, living on the beach (I've done all of those at one time in my life) seems bold, carefree, and exciting.  Buying a house seems boring, restricting, and mature.  

I miss my first apartment in college with the dishwasher that we never used, couch that needed multiple blankets to conceal the holes, dirt, and questionable stains, and carpet designed during someone's LSD trip in the 70's.  We never vacuumed in all our time there, we didn't even own one, we never mopped, no mop either, but we sure had a lot of fun, although we couldn't get our girlfriends to come inside.

So as the family and I packed the UHaul, waved goodbye to maintenance free living, drove 5 miles, and then unpacked for what seemed like 6 months, I was still reluctant to the idea of home ownership.  Today, not much has changed.  My wife has taught me how to clean, and sometimes I even do it, I have a toolbox with actual tools in it, and I even bought a ladder from Home Depot (Although I've never used it).

The one thing I enjoy about home ownership is mowing the lawn.  This my 90 minutes, I have a small lawn but I'm slow, to let my mind wander and nature speak to me (OK, pretty much just the mind wandering thing).  My son, Jace likes to come outside with me and play and pretend that he's mowing as well.  It's a great time to stew over ideas and brainstorm over the hum of the mower.  If Apple would develop an imower, I could type out these ideas as I'm mowing.  PC guys could even use one of those manual mowers with the antiquated 3 blades that spin.  they could even have a complicated booklet that confuses everyone.  But back to the point...

So my mind is active and alert while I'm mowing, kind of like when you were first allowed to use a calculator in math class.  And then, and this happens every time, one word will shatter my meditation.  It's always my 5 year old calling out my first name, which I'm cool with, eager to show me a bug he found, tell me something he forgot to tell me 3 days ago, or ask me an important life question such as, "Why are aliens green?"

It's become habit for me to shut off my mower, get down on one knee, and say, "What do you need Jace?"  Now this normally happens 2-3 times each time I mow.  One day after I finished mowing, he came up to me and said, "Daddy, thanks for shutting off the mower to talk to me, that makes my heart dance."  That made my heart dance.

Makes me think about the other machines in my life.  The hum of busyness, programs, and goal-achieving that causes me to fall into patterns of putting people and relationships a distant second to ideas and strategies.  I think this is the true meaning of anti-Christ:  To put humanity below stuff.  

So I bless you to put stuff back in its place, and return to listening to humanity.

Funny Thing about Politics

I hate politics.  Everybody likes to say that, but press a little and you will find that underneath that false veneer, their colors run true blue or blood red.  A recent article I read (we'll talk about it later) states that 1% of Christians believe you must vote for Democrats, 5% believe Republicans, and 94% say there's no correct choice.  I think 94% are liars who are too afraid to admit they always vote the for the same party, no matter the candidate or the issues.

I don't vote.  Seems contradictory to me to say I hate something and then go out and spend my time participating in the whole process.  My dad used to say, and he probably still does, "If you don't vote, you don't get to criticize."  As if that's the #1 reason to vote; so I can criticize the guy(or lady) who won instead of my candidate.  Or how about this one, "Our forefathers fought and died so that we could have the opportunity to vote".  In all my time learning US history in school, we never covered a war fought over voting rights.  And no, the Revolutionary War was not about voting rights.

The funny thing about politics is that it seems to bring out the worst in people, especially Christians.  A recent article in a magazine I read asked leading "relevant" leaders their views on the major issues today.  The question of politics came up and it focused on whether either party is right.  Instead of sticking with the simple no, these leaders spoke themselves out of any amount of respect as Christians, leaders of the day, or humans with brains.

One of the leaders stated that she had issues with both parties, but went on about why one was great and the other was wrong.  She (ab)used the bible to say that it supported the death penalty and war.  She went on to say that the polarizing issue for Christians is abortion and the fact that 50 million babies have been aborted since 1973.

Many of you are sitting in front of your screen saying amen, but before you sell your soul to the Republican party, let's review.  I'm going to skip the issues of war and the death penalty for now and focus on abortion and what she was afraid to say, homosexuality.  These really are the reasons that so many Christians vote Republican.  They are against gay-rights and abortion.  We'll sign me up for a one-way ticket to Naive City, where everyone believes that all we have to do to stop people from being gay and killing babies is to vote Republican.  Don't mean to derail your train but haven't we had any Republican presidents, Republican congressman and senators, Republican governors, and Republican state leaders in the last 35 years.  Why then, do we still have issues like gay-rights and abortion!

Not to be outdone,  another one of the esteemed panel had this to offer,"A Christian is not supposed to vote on one issue... Christians ought to be political and active, but I don't think we should prescribe for people what that means."  I just put away my history book looking for the imaginary war we fought over voting rights, and now I'm scanning my bible for the verse that says we can't vote on one issue.  Nope, not finding it.  Truth is, she's a Democrat trying to make the Bible say that you can't vote Republican just because of abortion.  Here's a hint, anytime anyone starts a sentence with, "A Christian is not supposed to...", they are probably headed for trouble.

So what do we do.  It's becoming popular to say what another on the panel said, "We need Christians in each party, calling their political party to a higher standard."  The esteemed expert appears to really be an expert at dodgeball, with great ability to throw out a weak statement while not taking a hit from either party.  Maybe they should go into politics.

We're not being fair with politics, and it's time we lower our expectations.  Politics won't and can't stop abortion, deal with gay-rights effectively, bring peace to the world, and end crime.  We need something and someone who transcends hate, fear, insecurity, and manipulation.  We need someone with perfect clarity, who's walked in our shoes, who can bring truth, justice, and pure equality.

Funny thing just happened.  I was looking for that verse that told me I can't vote on one issue, and I got distracted by this one:  Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, and love extravagantly.

I vote for that.