I enjoy Marvel, DC, and so many of the other amazing super story creations. I enjoy Harry Potter. There are so many stories in which power seems so easy to get and use. Let’s completely ignore science and believe that all this energy for power in the mutants and other figures comes from nowhere and isn’t depleted with extreme use. Enjoyable fantasies like Superman, unlimited power without getting tired, abound. Yet in all these stories, the power fuels the fantasy, but the story is based on what the characters go through, and how they have to fight themselves and the forces around them to do the right thing.

The most powerful thing I’ve ever seen in the “real” world is someone who did the right thing when all their feelings were lined up in the opposite direction. I know how powerful it is because I saw how much it took in me to do the right thing when only a few of my feelings were aimed in the wrong direction. I can feel really accomplished as a strong man when I go into the grocery store hungry and come out without any snack food, not that it happens much. So I see these superheros as being superheros, not because of their powers, but because they give up something they want for themselves to do what is right for others. By my standards, Jesus is the most powerful of all that might be considered powerful on any level, fantasy or real.

Recently I have had other thoughts about Jesus and power. Creation and nature were created by God with governing laws which no human can break. Gravity works the way it was created. Oak seeds only give birth to oak trees. The world and all on it works according to the laws of creation. Human beings created the atom bomb, but even it worked according to the laws of the nature of its parts. We manipulated the parts to get what we wanted from them, but we did not make them operate contrary to their nature.

So my thoughts began to circle around what power can break nature and the laws of nature or creation? I see the healings of Jesus to be great statements of power because He healed diseases for which there were, and sometimes are, no treatments or cures. He continues to do that up to and including today. Testimonies of such events have been widely proclaimed through the centuries. He fed the 5,000 which was truly contrary to the rules of nature and creation. I think that the power which amazes me the most is the one that is most personal to me, changing nature itself.

It is the nature of sin is to be blind to the light of heaven and to war against the values of heaven. So, if all are born in sin, how do people get saved? It has to be a miracle because it is a break and overcoming in the laws of the nature of sin. People who are blind see. They have a revelation and accept what they have not seen, refused to see, fought against, and hated. A miracle. We are surrounded by those miracles and yet often choose not to see that God is alive and extremely active today, right now, in our world. We live in the presence of God’s miraculous presence and power, and He gives us the power to see and participate in it. We are part of God’s great miraculous rescue of the human race. We have the power to choose, join Jesus, and participate. Our super power is choice.

Dad’s day is, for the lucky among us, a sentimental day of remembrance. It was funny that my dad wore his glasses into the shower because he forgot to take them off, until I did it – and did it often enough for it to become a joke in my family. I remember staring at his hands during those long lectures I deserved. At some point I realized that my brother’s hands look just the same as dad’s, and I was glad for the reminder. I’ve met many who did not have a good dad they want to remember. My dad had problems and issues, but I was lucky, very lucky.

I gave him a plaque with a Mark Twain quote, “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.” It was a joking apology for the abuse my father suffered as a result of my immaturity. He expected it, and I provided with enthusiasm. I wore my immaturity like a badge of honor and would sacrifice anything to gain more of it. It was long after I was twenty-one when I realized that immaturity and stupid were close friends, if not twins.

We all have stereotypes of “Dad” that our fathers lived up to or avoided.

• He is always there, thick or thin.
• Completely trust worthy.
• Always looking for your best benefit.
• Will tell you everything that you don’t want to know but have to hear.
• Will enforce his will if it means protecting you from worse harm.
• Will allow you to suffer some of the harm you cause yourself if it is survivable and will teach you wisdom for the future.
• Will laugh or cry with you depending on which is necessary at the time.
• Provides for the necessities until you learn to provide for yourself.
• Trains you in a frame of reference which will guide you into having and maintaining a healthy life of success.
• Still provides for you as an adult because no one survives completely on their own best efforts.
• Examples that true love is sacrificial, understanding, and forgiving
• Has wisdom and stories that teach and inform.
• Provides a strength of character that continually lifts you up and pushes you forward, even when you are on your own, even after he is gone from the picture.
• The list can go on and on.

The more I work on this list the more familiar it becomes. I’m finding that a true dad, the purest form of the best stereotype, is a description of God. No human can live up to or completely fulfill the stereotype, but God can and does. We always have earthly examples for Kingdom of God things we need to understand. Jesus said, “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” John 3:12 ESV We can understand God because He uses examples that we can understand. We can understand “Dad.” That means that we can get what He means when He offers to be, and acts like, a Heavenly Father.

Yesterday was a great Father’s Day. The best part of it was that all of us had a Heavenly Father working to bring us closer to home and Himself. Dad really does love us in all the comfortable and uncomfortable ways that a true and perfect Dad does.

A line in the sand was a true challenge when I was growing up. Typically, you didn’t want what was on the other side of the line if you dared to cross it. It was a dare with dire consequences. Usually, the consequence was a person ready to fight. “Will you come meet me in battle,” was the challenge for young knights to see if their armor would hold by the strength of their nerve and determiniation. It was your hero self against the villain who came against you.

My daughter was a toddler some years ago. The line in the sand was the stove. It was the challenge because mom worked at the stove. Mom kept saying “No!” She spelled the word “H O T hot. Don’t touch because it will hurt you.” My daughter jumped the line in a moment that mom turned to get something from another counter. We all heard our beautiful child yelling “H O T  hot” as she ran around the room holding burned fingers in the air. Mom immediately came to the rescue with hugs, a bowl of ice water, and training efforts to assure that the little one would not do that again. The consequence of crossing the line was too severe. 

We are loved by God greater than we are loved by our mothers and fathers. We understand His love because we experienced the love of people who cared and sacrificed for us. We know we want this kind of sacrificial love because we have all experienced times when we didn’t have it. One example of love is from some battlefield warriors who experience such a strong sense of all-sacrificing care from their fellow warriors that they prefer the danger of the battlefield over the safety of home to have it. God is greater than all the levels of love we might ever experience from the deepest and most satisfying of any relationship we have ever held up as a standard of love and care.

God has drawn a line in the sand. He gave us ten commandments. He points to them and tells us that crossing that line is “H O T hot!” Failure to stay on the right side of the line will be painful to us. The line isn’t to punish, but to protect. It is mom or dad saying, “I don’t want you to be hurt. Crossing this line hurts. It will create sorrow and hardship in your life. It will damage you, your life, your relationships, all the good things I want for you!” 

Inevitably and predictably we jump the line in a moment we think He has turned His back. Inevitably and predictably we run screaming from our injury. Wisdom takes us screaming right to the one who warned us. He with the bowl of ice water, hugs and teaching, uses the moment to love on us and assure that we will apply this lesson to other warnings. He doesn’t want us hurt. He is there to repair the damage and care for us when we do hurt. 

The ten commandments are a pretty big line in the sand. It becomes easily evident that it takes someone far more than mortal to be able to keep the commandments. No one, born of this earth, has ever kept all ten faithfully. This line proves that we can’t stay on the right side of the line without help. The line pushes us into relationship with God. We are damaged every time we cross it, just like He says. We can’t do it without Him. We can’t heal from crossing the line without Him. The line proves that man with man’s greatest strengths and abilities aren’t enough. 

We aren’t alone. Jesus crossed all barriers, all lines in the sand, from heaven to earth, to provide us with the help we need, the healing we need, the comfort we need, and the teaching we need. Jesus is alive. The promised Holy Spirit lives in each believer working the redemption and restoration Jesus won on the cross and through His resurrection. We are truly loved by the line in the sand that warns us of death and danger and the living Jesus who walks with us through every adventure and misadventure, drawing us ever deeper into a healing, redemptive relationship with Himself. We are loved at every level. 

It is easy to joke that most of my traveling comes through guilt trips. Maybe it just comes easy because I’m a mistake maker. I certainly make enough mistakes to keep an apology ready for every occasion. I must say that the tour guide for the guilt trip and the sights seen on the guilt trip aren’t worth having. It is easy to feel guilty over every missed possibility. 

This weekend my wife and I took a more preferred type of trip, one to the beach. I saw a man leaning against a rail on the walk to the beach and greeted him. The same man was at the same place the next day, and a conversation started. Apparently the tour guide on this trip was the Holy Spirit. 

Somehow the conversation came around to a deep and profound pain in the man’s life. I listened. I accepted his view of the experience. I shared my understanding of pain and my respect for what he had and was currently experiencing. He had lost a child. I was able, as an outsider, to see the tremendous love he had given the child. I’ve had many students who did not know their parents loved them. This child knew and trusted. The beauty of his love and sacrifice were obvious to me. He had a hard time seeing the beauty for the pain he felt.

How can love be so necessary for life, health, and well-being when it is never completely pain free on planet Earth. You suffer when those you love suffer. All will die and leave loved ones behind to suffer. The daily sacrifices of selfishness required to love others is a constant type of pain and suffering, worthwhile, but painful. Learning to be self-less is never easy and never without some level of discomfort.

Now it is time for the conflict resolution. Should I feel guilty about leaving my wife on the beach while I talked to this man, or should I ignore this man’s needs to sit with my wife and feel guilty about that? There are so many ways I can turn this into a neurotic, anxiety attack. I can feel the guilt tour guide planning my itinerary. That is not what the Lord wants.

Guilt or no guilt is based on my understanding of any given situation. I am not God and do not clearly see all possibilitiies and implications of any decision, great or small. Feeling guilty means that I have decided to be in the position of God and have determined my mistake. Many times that means a no win situation because, like above, all possibilities and every choice is filled with the opportunity to be a mistake or be perceived as a mistake from my earth bound perspective. 

Jesus had to deal with the limitations of being in one place at one time with more opportunities than one person can accomplish. He dealt with it, and I have Him to lean on and be with. Jesus had purpose, vision, and an unrestricted relationship with God the Father. God the Father could and would cover all the additional distance Jesus in one place and one time couldn’t. I have a relationship with Jesus. I have to trust Him instead of buying tickets on the guilt train. That doesn’t mean that I will be right all the time, or even half the time, or even less. It means that I can trust God to do, correct, fix all that is beyond me because nothing is beyond Him. I can walk in the awareness of trust instead of the missing opportunity that breeds a guilt reflex.

I believe Jesus used that conversation at the sidewalk rail to teach two people to trust. He was teaching two people to be aware of Him and what He can do for limited people in hurtful life experiences. I shared the experience with my wife who was touched by it too. That is three for three that Jesus worked on. My wife saw me talking to the man and trusted the Lord was up to something. He doesn’t miss an opportunity. 

Today’s groovy topic might cause you to flip your wig if you can’t dig it. It will play with your head. I’m hoping this blog will make you mellow and not be a bummer, but who knows. It might just send you trippin’. Slang. We all use it. Check Google, and you can find popular slang by the decade to refresh your memory. That doesn’t even include jargon, which is work slang developed around any job or work type or situation.

Each generation creates its own way of saying things, short cuts, slapped-together metaphors, references, allusions, images, or, now, techno types of things like emojis. I’m sure the parents of Egyptian teens were wondering what the teens were saying during the time the pyramids were being built. It seems to be human nature.

Slang is a way of inclusion and exclusion. It separates those in the know from those who aren’t. Civil war youth had an entire language with fans, flowers, and gloves to give dating cues to the opposite sex in ways that the parental chaperones could not get. Slang can be subversive. It is weaponized communications used in many ways to include, exclude, separate, isolate, intimidate, love on, and meet many other needs of the communicator, sometimes just self affirmation.

I think about this when I overhear Christian speak. Christians have their own language, slang, short cuts, logic, and Bible based understanding. It is beautiful when they are together and have the same Christian speak. However, it is painful when Christian speak is used with non believers.

I’ve heard witnessing persons ask a person if they were “saved.” That is a question that a Christian would understand because it carries a lot of logic and theology with the term. A non-Christian won’t understand that. They will probably understand a potential threat and that they have been made a target, but not understand the term.

Christians use scriptures to verify their thoughts which is great, except when they are doing so with a non believer who does not recognize or understand the Bible. Jesus told parables. He explained heavenly principles in the terms the common man could understand. He only used the Bible terminology with the Pharisees and Sadducees who were trained in their common faith. Jesus communicates with us in ways that we can understand. That is loving.

I am challenged to consider how I am communicating. Am I forcing others to understand me and my thinking processes, or am I trying to understand them so I can communicate clearly and thoughtfully? Am I stretching to understand and love them, or forcing them to stretch and understand me? The truth of Jesus and heaven can be told in any language, circumstance, culture, and career. Jesus proved that in the way He taught and shared.

Seeing the beauty of God everywhere and in everything is encouraging. That encouragement can and should be shared. We are called to witness, but not to alienate through thoughtless language and slang.

I once was invited to a ministry at a retirement home for military personnel. I was extremely concerned because I had never been in the military and didn’t know how to talk to them. I realized that all I had to do was listen. Jesus had been every place they had gone and with them through all they had experienced. All I had to do was listen, and I would be able to point the Lord out to them in their own life experience. It was not about me, my understanding, or my slang. It was about the creator of the universe who truly and deeply loves everyone.

I have grown addicted to the GPS apps. Someone sends me an address, and the app will tell me where to go, how to get there, and which is the best route to take. Some GPS apps even include all the details like slow traffic, interruptions, road hazards, police, and all the places you might want to stop along the way. Convenient right? So – do you know where you are? Ask Siri or Alexa. They know.

I’ve often thought about the Tardis in Dr. Who and Hermione’s carry-all bag in Harry Potter. They are bigger on the inside than they are on the outside. Humans are that way. We are much bigger on the inside than our outsides show. We have years of history, places, things, emotions, memories all jogging along with our feet during our daily movements. The demoniac in Luke 8 had enough room to house a legion of demons who took out a herd of pigs when he was delivered. Our souls are greater than houses holding on to all kinds of treasures and junk. We carry all that while we are growing and gathering more.

Periodically, people, like me, take on a project to dejunk. It is shocking how much I have in closets and storage. My heart, soul, and mind are bigger than that, filled with all kinds of stuff. You might even think of the inner you as being as big as a city, a country, or a world when you consider all it contains. The GPS maps can’t map that. Ask Siri or Alexa where you are in the inner dimension and you won’t find any coordinates or directions. I think that many times you can’t know where you are except by looking back at where you were after the fact because our hindsight is better, or seemingly more clear, than present sight.

We actually do have an internal GPS called the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to live in us upon the day of salvation when we join Jesus’s family. The Holy Spirit knows where He is in each of us. The Holy Spirit is constantly at work, walking the streets and hallways of the interior world of a child of God, mapping territories, cleaning closets, repairing destroyed areas, and proclaiming the Kingdom of God to all the areas inside that secretly don’t want to come under the authority of God.

The New Testament tells us how Jesus walked through Israel doing the wonderful things He did to free people and bring them in to the joy of the life He offered them. He is doing that in each of us, walking through all the inner areas of our souls bringing His life, love, hope, and healing, piece by piece, event by event, area by area throughout the entirety of our being. The Holy Spirit is our GPS.

We can see His footprints and know where He is and where we are with Him. How? Consider — How many times a day are you reminded to do the right thing? Be loving? Forgive someone? Pray? Be honest or thoughtful? Get a sudden insight that teaches you how to be a better you? Get a revelation or any kind of experience that draws/points you in the direction of Jesus? Get an understanding of Bible verses that you’ve read dozens of times and experience it like you are truly seeing it for the first time? Finding the Holy Spirit isn’t playing “Where’s Waldo” because He is busy talking to us all day, every day, in ways that make our lives, and we as people, better and closer to our Lord Jesus.

I can’t watch “I Love Lucy” because it embarasses me. How can a TV show do that? Easy. I think I got a silly gene from somewhere, and funny things happen to me. I’m the guy who could stand up in a restaurant, knocking over the waiter with a tray of hot soup, which lands on the next table, creating total chaos, that escalates through the restaurant. 

I didn’t want to pass the silly gene on, but my youngest son got a dose of it. He really makes it work. His children adore him, as he adores them. I see in him, and his version of the silly gene, a complete lack of pretence or self presumption. In him, the silly gene is the ability to lovingly and innocuously move to any level with any person, even a small child, and communicate. I’ve seen people without the silly gene be able to do the same thing. Maybe I’m the only one who gets the embarrassing side of the silly gene, but I don’t think so.

Embarrassment comes when irony happens in real life, the opposite to what you should reasonably expect. (The teacher in me had to add that definition.)  It is that moment you get in your car to head to get some new tires and find that all four tires are flat. I have learned to fight the rigid fight response to those moments, because anger is a native best friend to embarrassment. Learning to accept and go with the humor of the moment is the opposite of my natural response, but the one that works the best. So why bring this up?

God very often works in complete opposition to human normal. His kingdom is upside down to our way of thinking. Leaders are to be servants, the first shall be last, in giving you will receive. His ways aren’t our ways unless we are learning to be more like Him, which has to be an intentional choice. It is learned behavior to let our guard down, give up our pretense and our self presumption. 

Time has taught me that those embarrassing moments become bonding moments between myself and those who love me. They see me as I am and accept me when I’m silly and when I’m not. We gain intimacy, depth, and joy through all the good and bad moments because love accepts and encourages. It builds up without tearing down. It allows you to be completely yourself without the defenses that always lead to conflict and division. 

Destructive defenses destroy relationships and potential relationships. The “I must look good according to how I think others see me” creates walls and warfare which not only hurt others, but keeps a person from receiving the love and healing so desperately needed by everyone. God’s way is upside down, but it works. Love has no need for walls, defenses, or perfection from anyone. Love does not fight to maintain an image of self, but it relies on the truth.

I guess that it should be no shock that the death on the cross is necessary for the life of relationships because no relationship can exist without forgiveness. Forgiveness destroys walls, defenses, and an individual’s unreasonable belief in his/her own perfection or ability to be right no matter the cost to others. God’s way works. Death gives life, another upside truth, because it takes the death of selfishness to love others. Loving others is more fulfilling in every way than loving self.

With all that said, I still can’t watch “I Love Lucy.” I may be learning, but, apparently, I’m not there yet.

A good fire, some hot dogs, a few smores, and a few good friends can be an extremely good time. Fires can be productive, destructive, or informative. How informative? I’m not talking about the musing moments passed staring at the fitful flames in a fireplace with a cup of hot cocoa. I’m talking about the flames that are a tie of the first two, productive and destructive. How can that be?

Moses was out on the job in Midian when he saw a burning bush that wasn’t consumed. The contradiction amazed him. He stopped, transfixed, and had a meeting with God. That meeting confronted the history of Moses, the history and agony of his people, and the purpose of God — all more than enough to consume Moses in flames. Two burning bushes faced each other, a bush that brought Moses to focus in God, and a Moses who would bring God’s people’s focus to God. Both the bush and Moses were insufficient to the tasks they were given. Both should have been consumed, but neither were. 

I am sure that each of us can relate a life event in which our personal destruction was imminent. I remember when my first child was born, a surprise caesarean when Tona and I were both unemployed. There was no way we would survive. Even now, I’m not sure how we did. Somehow jobs came, bills got paid, food was on the table, and a roof was over our head. We were in front of a burning bush. We should have burned with the bush. God provided then and for any and all of the other moments we thought were totally cataclysmic at the time of the event. 

So, why the bonfire that didn’t consume? Actually it did consume. The fire consumed my ambivalence toward God. I was brought to sincere prayer and focus. It consumed the path I was walking to set me on a better path for God’s purpose in my life. Like Moses, I quit doing what I was doing and started doing a more focused and intentional walk in the direction God was pointing me. 

I would like to say that I was good about it, but even Moses complained and tried to get out of the job. God adapted the plan to get Aaron as spokesman because Moses was hard pressed to go along. I’m not sure that I could say I was as cooperative as the uncooperative Moses at my times of being refocused and redirected. Moses created many excuses, and so did I. Excuses are not the point. 

The point is that God set up an impossible situation to refocus and redirect. The appearance of a cataclysm that didn’t consume is a miracle that I often remember only through the fear of the moment, rather than as a starting point for dramatic change that was created by a Jesus intent on rescue and not on destruction. Miranda, our first born, is still alive and well. I found the career I was meant to do. We were shifted toward victories we couldn’t imagine at the time. That is just one example. With Jesus, there is always more.

I have the luxury of looking back. My experience teaches me to be extremely grateful to Jesus who was not satisfied with less, but intended to give me more. Looking back teaches me to look forward. A burning bush is a time to truly expect the Lord to speak, refocus, redirect, and prove Himself as God over all the small things like nature and my life. He is trustworthy and worthy of all praise. He tells us, as He told so many of His leaders in scripture, to be bold, to be courageous, and to trust Him, even when the bush is on fire.

I was thinking about the Ten Commandments and thought I’d do a little comparison. What does God want versus what does humanity provide based on the big ten. Following is a list contrasting the two. 

Here are a few comments to consider before the lists. God’s list prefers God and others in all behavior. The sinner’s list does not. God’s list requires sacrifice of the individual. The sinner’s list requires sacrifice of others. In God’s list, the individual is accountable. The sinner’s list makes others accountable. God’s list provides for relationship, community safety, trust, and productive interaction. The other does not provide for any such trustworthy behavior.

Humans are impure creatures. I have met many passionate people, but none that were pure in their passions. There always seems to be some wavering, somewhere inside. We see publicly how private things can corrupt otherwise beautiful people. Some preachers have been passionate about the Bible until they were caught with their hands on the money or adultery, or ? 

I guess for humans it is a matter of degree. “I’m not a murderer” may disguise a person who has betrayed others, taken advantage of others, or spoken lies that hurt others. I find that the first person I lie to is myself because I want to see myself in a good light, even if that is not a true mirror image. 

I confess that I value the first ten below, but constantly fight being pulled in the direction of the second ten. I am committed to Jesus, but also to myself. I am embarrased by my failures and don’t want others to see them when I should rather be honest before myself, the Lord, and others. Learning to be a transparent person, instead of an Adam searching for a fig leaf and an opportunity to blame others, is a challenge from small to large, every day. I’m human. 

The cross is critical because all relationships require forgiveness. Forgive me please. God is still working on me, and I’m not there yet.

▾ Laws of God and man

▾ Bible Ten commandments

• 1. You shall have no other gods before me
• 2. You shall make no idols
• 3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain
• 4. Keep the sabbath day holy
• 5. Honor your father and mother
• 6. You shall not murder
• 7. You shall not commit adultery
• 8. You shall not steal
• 9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
• 10. You shall not covet

▾ Sinners big ten

• 1. I am most important. Whatever I want should dictate the circumstances and people around me.
• 2. Things and people are most important to me when they serve my pleasure or best interest. I will sometimes be thoughtful of those things that bless me.
• 3. Cursing is power. It shows my anger, displeasure, and it degrades those things and people less than me.
• 4. I work and play until I have enough money or pleasure, and there is never enough. I’ll rest when I die.
• 5. Mom and dad’s purpose in life is to take care of me and make me happy.
• 6. Anyone or anything that gets in my way is disposable. I can destroy it or get rid of it in any way that is expedient.
• 7. Sex is pleasure. I feel free to take or require it from anyone regardless of what it may cost them or others I’m committed to, from lurid comments or actions on my part to complete use of their body.
• 8. I should have what I want, and I feel free to acquire what I want in any way I can. Laws don’t apply to me.
• 9. I say what I want others to accept or believe. The truth is irrelevant if it does not serve my desires.
• 10. My appetite grows every time I see something I want. I grow to meet my appetites because they must be fed.

David’s entire kingdom was drawn into the drama of personal passions and hatreds in the royal family. I’m sure their Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook were full of the news. Check 2 Samuel 10 . . .

I have often seen my theater students provide more drama offstage than on stage. I thought if they just did half the drama on stage that they did off stage we would have a nationally recognized program. Drama is not limited to schools and students. We see humans performing dramatically everywhere we look. It is a wonder that Hollywood or television could create programs people are willing to pay to see when the public is exposed to nonstop drama all the time.

The media, including all forms of social and news, thrive off the personal foibles the of the rich and famous. We cannot escape the stage slap, the divorce court, the political scandals, the corporate scandals, and the criminal injuries one person does to another. It is easy to complain, asking where the good news might be found. Jesus is the good news. We don’t have to live, scuba diving in the septic tank.

Stage drama at least struggles to find courage in suffering and reasons for suffering. Stephen King and his book The Dance Macabre indicated that horror movies are an attempt to deal with the harsh terrors we face in our world. Terrors, like the atom bomb, turn into radiation monsters and become a tangible reality we can fight. Isn’t that really a healthy prescription for life drama. Chris Jones says that you can’t defeat a problem until you define it. Once you define it, you must accept your part in the issue with humility and personal accountability.

Drama continues when we don’t see the healthy response to an issue. Politicians cover up until the world finally stands at their doorstep and forces them to face their wrong doing. That doesn’t mean they change. “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies” (Groucho Marx).

The sad dramas we face every day should be the signals or symptoms that call us to change. It becomes evident that many people prefer to be right than healed, king of the cage instead of set free. We can be liberated and join Jesus in liberating others.

Accepting Jesus requires humility because He is God. That gives Him the power to correct. It accepts that we need to be corrected, a pivotal point. I grew up with good parents. They never told me to do anything that would harm me. I would have lived a superlative, nearly pain free life had I followed their directions. Jesus is better than that. He speaks correction to heal and liberate. The faster we agree with Him, the sooner our suffering stops. We can pay for drama as entertainment instead of being the source of drama for the people around us.