Taxes Do Good, Too

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Tomorrow’s tax day and it’s brought out the contrarian in me.

Like many of my readers, I fall into the sociopolitical pool that mistrusts taxes generally. It can be disheartening to think that too many tax dollars are going to nothing, funneled into places that help nobody, and that the resulting voids only call out for more tax dollars to fill them.

But it is encouraging to remember that they also do good.

Those firefighters who help repel the flames creeping towards your home? Paid for with tax dollars. We Montanans are especially grateful for that today.

The soldiers who put their lives on the line to stand watch over our country? Trained, equipped, and paid with tax dollars.

The police? Same thing.

After their military tour, some young soldiers go to school and get degrees (like mine in secondary education after my Air Force years) off of the G.I. Bill, also paid by taxes.

Of course, our teachers are paid through taxes.

And those glaring Montana potholes that nearly destroyed my car this morning? Not getting fixed by anything but taxes.

Paul teaches us, “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God” (Romans 13:1). And this is said with brutal, excessive Rome in mind.

The Pharisees tried to trap Jesus by asking whether he thought taxes should be paid. If he said yes, the people would denounce him; if he said no, the state would. Instead, Jesus slipped the trap (as he always did so well) with a statement that helps form part of the foundation of our modern concept of separation of church and state: “Therefore give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21).

So, as we go about launching opinions on social media about whether or not taxes should increase, we can least pair it with thankfulness for those who serve their world on them.

God is Not Karma

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“…most Christians think if we could only get the spiritual combination just right that God would then be willing to help us out.”

The Many Shades of Singleness, Part 2: Unaffirmed

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person(Part 1 and Part 3 of this series.)

Years ago, my college group attended a weekend retreat (at a hot springs!) without knowing the topic. The speaker hadn’t announced it beforehand. Later, we discovered that that was because the speaker himself didn’t know his subject until he got underway; God only revealed it to him then. That subject was marriage. And it didn’t take long to see why God in his wisdom had waited for the reveal: at the end of the retreat, numerous attendees, as they shook the speaker’s hand in gratitude for solid teachings, admitted that if they’d known the topic beforehand, they wouldn’t have come.

At a different young adults’ group I briefly attended, the pastor offered a choice of topics for the next series: one of Paul’s epistles, or relationships. Paul’s epistle won. By a landslide.

And a friend recently asked, “Can we quit making the first question we ask someone after we haven’t seen them for a long time, ‘Soooo, do you have a guy’?”

Why do so many millennials land anywhere from disinterested to fiercely opposed to marriage?

The answers, I suspect, reach double digits. I myself never numbered among the matrimonially disinterested, but over time, I’ve come to appreciate fellow millennials’ increasing desire for singleness. It stems from not a few understandable stalks. And as I said last week, blunt criticism of singleness, from even respectable evangelical figures, will never be as effective as understanding and encouragement.

One stalk, I think, could be described as a lack of affirmation.

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The Many Shades of Singleness, Part 1

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road (2)(Part 2 and Part 3 of this series.)

Recently, I’ve become aware of past controversial comments made by Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, on Christian singleness.

In previous years, Dr. Mohler has directed heavy criticism at kingdom singles. He has labeled as sinful the practice of delaying marriage by those who lack the “gift of celibacy”.

Singleness is not a sin, but deliberate singleness on the part of those who know they have not been given the gift of celibacy is, at best, a neglect of a Christian responsibility. The problem may be simple sloth, personal immaturity, a fear of commitment, or an unbalanced priority given to work and profession. On the part of men, it may also take the shape of a refusal to grow up and take the lead in courtship. There are countless Christian women who are prayerfully waiting for Christian men to grow up and take the lead. What are these guys waiting for? (Link)

Hailing from a Baptist paradigm that appreciates marriage’s Biblical shine (and having actually read the qualifiers in Mohler’s comments), I get what he was aiming for.

Nevertheless, if you ask me (and I know you didn’t), he’s left a lot out. Mohler’s comments are only a sliver of the much bigger message that Christian singles really need to be hearing. And that message is difficult, because not every single is created equal. God in his sovereignty is painting with a great many shades.

We singles are…complicated. A diverse bunch. Far more than is commonly recognized. We land somewhere on a spectrum best described so: I want someone, yet at the same time, I’m not sure I do. But I totally do! Yet…am I sure?

Some are tired of being judged entirely by, and being asked only about, their marital status. They feel unseen for themselves. That matters to millennials.

Others feel they lack the tools or a conducive personality (e.g. introverts) to move towards marriage.

And still others have tried to find a mate, spent countless nights bedside in tears praying for someone, and…nothing. They’ve put real effort into finding someone – and been resisted so serendipitously and relentlessly that they can only conclude God is the one keeping them single. Relationships buckle. Peace evaporates. Parties are called to move away. Or…nobody notices.

One friend, a passionate youth pastor who has served God far harder than some marrieds, lives in a formidably atheist country where kingdom singles are slightly more plentiful than unicorns (to say nothing of quality). Others live in rural areas, where they start wondering whether God has left them to the rules of probability.

This is the reality for singles at the street level. Needless to say, it might be a disservice to fall short of honoring these stories. Lack of pursuit is hardly the sole generator of singleness.

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I Have Found the Best Possible “Late Spring” Meme

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chat

Head Beliefs vs. Heart Beliefs

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brainheartThere are certain life skills that have pretty much made the adult me.

The ability to apologize. You wouldn’t believe how far that takes you with people.

The ability to laugh at oneself. Which, naturally, makes me a one-man comedy.

The ability to say no to purchases I don’t need. No TV/Netflix, used cars…it adds up.

But probably the most valuable life skill is the ability to articulate the hidden lies I’m believing.

We have two kinds of beliefs: head beliefs and heart beliefs. Head beliefs are the ones we’re aware of, the ones we’ve explicitly processed and given mental consent to, like the existence of gravity. It’s easier to articulate those beliefs, though we don’t necessarily act according to them.

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Charles Colson on Proving the Resurrection

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Sharing God’s Mission to Love Others

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womenI posted last week about a sensitive topic that’s been on my heart for a long time but eluded my words: that it’s a little awkward for us to be teaching people to “stop comparing themselves to others” when we ourselves hold a considerable amount of power over whether they feel the need to compare.

We all have a part to play. Whenever we choose someone else’s companionship or potential over another, we make a comparison. Everyone’s got their A-lists and D-lists, and I’m no exception. I’ve been rejected, and I’ve done some rejecting. And when people learn, in their youth, that they are being compared to others by others, it is only natural that they’ll join in. Lonely people can tell you this better than anyone.

To be sure, our lives are jam-packed and we don’t have time for everyone or everything. But even that feels like an excuse at some point. I know I’ve missed opportunities to show the love of Christ. It makes me wonder what the kingdom would look like if we really celebrated everyone as an image-bearer of God.

What is the Biblical solution?

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Jesus says you are WORSE than you think you are, and there lies HOPE.

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It’s not popular theology, and it doesn’t naturally put butts in pews, but it’s actually the best news out there.

Laura's avatarEnough Light

*Trigger warning* While I keep things as vague as possible (and the news article just states the facts) please don’t read the news article if you’d rather not. The title alone may be all you can stomach: Man gets 60 years in prison for trying to sell 4-year-old daughter for sex. Most of this blog post will move on from this initial news story.

GK Chesterton is often remembered for his remark that:
“Certain new theologians dispute original sin, which is the only part of Christian theology that can really be proved.”

Chesterton saw it as the one doctrine that could actually be verified by the observation of human behavior and history. I agree. How some can deny human sinfulness is beyond me. We are all sinful, and need a Savior. Yet many people, even Christians, can struggle with this doctrine. Many insist than humanity is really good at heart…

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Are We Driving Others to the Sin of Comparison?

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the_most_terrible_poverty_is_loneliness2c_and_the_feeling_of_being_unlovedThe woman who gazes at a hated reflection and wishes she were thinner and prettier.

The poor man who wears himself out pursuing the worry-free life of a millionaire.

The failed applicant who lost to someone with a longer resume (or better connections).

The scrawny sophomore who sits at home envying the senior jock who seems to go nowhere without an entourage.

All these people are comparing ourselves to others. It’s a rampant problem in today’s society. I needn’t rehash the costly and damaging things people do to attain the standards society promotes.

Much Christian teaching these days, directed at millennials in particular, has recognized the insecurity bred by this phenomenon and offers an answer: to “stop comparing yourself to others and find your satisfaction in God“.

There is truth to this. Even the world manages to stumble haphazardly upon this truth as it blindly gropes its way across the landscape. “A broken clock is right twice a day” and all that. And I would hasten to add that there are good reasons for some of the comparisons we perform. Job hunts are comparisons. We want the best person for the job. We would not hand a pulpit to an uneducated layman (or Satanist), or an engineer’s desk to a botanist who doesn’t know a wrench from his rear end.

However, at the end of the day, there are still lonely and undervalued people out there. There’s a missing piece to the puzzle: us. We have a role to play. And I suspect that we have allowed the competition aspect of life to spill its banks, become more prevalent than it should be.

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