After a six year hiatus I have decided to reactivate my "Wesley's Child" blog site. I didn't realized it had been this long of a break. At one point I thought about using this blog as a way of republishing my Sunday sermons but since they were being published on the church website it seemed kind of redundant and I just lost the motivation for keeping it going. So, maybe your witnessing is what happens to all retired preachers. We still have things to say but we just don't have anyplace to say it. So, I don't really know if anyone will read what I put here (it never had much of a following before) but if this ends up as being nothing more than an outlet for my frustrations then it might be worth the effort. So, we'll see how far it goes. Here's to giving it another shot. Let's start with today...
Today I woke up to the heart breaking news that there had been another shooting (this time) in Texas (Indiana was last week) and that once again there were multiple victims and like all of you I found myself wishing (praying) that it would all just stop. I understood (almost as soon as that prayer left my lips) that this was probably not going to be the last senseless tragedy I would have to hear about (or experience.)
Most of you know that almost 3 years ago I decided to retire (after 43+ years of pastoral ministry) and one of the things that I learned over those four decades was that maybe the most difficult and frustrating place to be in any tragic event is standing on the sidelines simply watching it unfold.
One of the particular challenges we face in the twenty-first century is that we have to live our lives dealing with a twenty four hour news cycles that repeats and replays every tragic event that happens in our world over and over and....I think you get the picture. What this does is exacerbated our sense of helplessness and if you are like me my natural response is to begin to list off a whole series of simplistic solutions to what is an extremely complicated problem. The bottom line for me is that I want it done with (fixed) but I understand that this problem like so many others is really complicated.
We could talk about gun laws (and we probably should) but it seems like we've beaten that horse to death without really solving the problem. I think that there are a number of other cultural changes that we need to revisit. I think we need to talk about our decision to mainstream the mentally ill. I think we need to look again at what has been referred to as the breakdown of the nuclear family. I also think we need to talk about what some perceived to be the marginalization of religious belief. Like I said, I think the problem is extremely complicated.
At the risk of being way too simplistic I think the problem is with the human heart. I think that too many people are being raised to believe that they are (individually) the sole arbiter of their lives; there is not God to hold them accountable which in turn means that right and wrong are all determined by whatever makes them happiest. I know that might sound a bit harsh...I know that not everybody is simply reacting to what is most convenient as if they can't be bothered. Again, it's complicated but if there isn't some standard that shapes how we approach the concrete reality of our lives then every decision we make comes from our personal understanding of what is right or wrong and (it probably goes without saying) everyone's everyone's perspective on what might right or wrong is different.
This is fundamentally why I have spent 43+ years of my life trying to convince people that they really needed Jesus and I think I need to be clear that I'm not talking about simply joining or attending a church. What we all need is a personal relationship with Jesus that comforts, cleanses and instructs how we live our lives. Being part of a church is a response to our decision to know Jesus because the church (in theory) should help us keep our feet to the path. It doesn't always work that way (I might have said "rarely" but I'm trying to be a more optimistic person) but it should.
Anyway, if you're ready this, I so hope this helps move forward the conversation about gun violence but more than that I hope this will cause people (you) to pause and think again about Jesus because I believe that it is our relationship with Him that will help us find the answers we are looking for.
#Wesley's Child
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