The Law is my Mother

Apparently there have been a number of cases of pedestrians walking into the paths of oncoming emergency vehicles and receiving injuries and occasionally death for their carelessness. The cause is earphones, or more specifically the music screaming from them into the eardrums of those with the aforementioned items inserted into their ears.

Deafened by their audio entertainment, they step forward, oblivious of rapidly approaching catastrophe. Pedestrians can be pretty stupid. Lazy. Reckless. Careless. Pedestrians are people. Speeding emergency service vehicles are not.

Anyway, I've heard a suggestion from some relevant authority; one of the blessed and chosen ones who speak publicly on behalf of others and have the pleasure of witnessing their wise counsel reduced to silly soundbites. He said, he thinks we need a law to force earphone users to only plug one ear when they are in public.

Awesome idea. Let's disengage police officers from crime fighting duties to arrest people for using two ear phones to listen to their mobile music players in public. Let's beat them with canes in public so people learn to act more sensibly, and take more thought with their actions, and the possible consequences of said actions.

I love laws which attempt to protect people, not from others, but from themselves. What about a law that forces people to brush their teeth twice a day. We have a shortage of dentists, so if people take better care of their teeth, they won't need dentists. Let's publicly abuse people with poor oral hygiene to make sure they get the point. Humiliation is great for modifying behaviour.

We need the law to be our mother: to tell us what to do and to threaten punishments if we don't obey. Finally, a law I would really like to see introduced is one that makes it illegal for my wife to say that I don't listen to her. Are you with me fellas?

Design Flaws

British adventurer, Ranulph Fiennes once said, when talking about preparing a team for an Artic region expedition, that "human beings are very badly designed for getting on with each other. Basically they don't. if you put two of them into a confined space like your average home you get, at the moment, a one in three divorce rate which is just a symptom of this bad design factor."

Are we poorly designed for good relationships? We have many of them, but is that because there's something wrong with the way we were made, or with the we behave, or the choices we make? Is there something wrong with us? We certainly have the capacity for healthy relationships.

If we only talk about our bodies then we have to take our hats off and give a standing ovation to our Designer. The human body is an engineering masterpiece. An unbelievably sophisticated machine. Yet one which is susceptible to the poison spread by microscopic bacteria and viruses. Should we have been better constructed to be impervious to infection? Perhaps that is a question for another day...or one for your Maker when you meet Him.

The complexity of our design extends to the area of our intellect and our emotions, and to the interplay between them and the x-factor known as free will. We have the ability to make good and bad choices and therefore the ability, at least potentially, to have both good and bad relationships. We can choose right. We can be selfless. The problem is we often lack the power to choose wisely and lovingly at crucial moments of human interaction. When humility is required. When compassion, and forgiveness are required. Can you rightly describe this failing, on our part, to properly exercise the gift of free will, as a flaw in our design?

I believe my Creator is perfect, and He made me in His image. If He created all of us in His image, why are we so messed up?

The Masochist Within

We must all be masochists. Gluttons for punishment. When it hurts we cry a river then we run back for a second helping. Please sir, can I have some more? We fall but we struggle up on our feet again. We want what we can't have and we drive ourselves insane in futile pursuit of it. Or if do we achieve the desired outcome, we find it's taste is not as sweet as we imagined and are forced to pretend it is delicious. We are fearlessly fragile. Knowing we are broken and vulnerable doesn't stop us from lining up for more pain. We warmly embrace suffering. We are mad, aren't we?

There is an alternative lifestyle available. It is peaceful and harmless, and experiencing the pleasure it promises only requires our surrender. All we need to do is give up. Stop trying. Stop striving. Want nothing more than what you have. Don't love anyone or allow them to love you because that is way too risky. Close your heart. Close your mind. Block out the misery and misfortune of others. Don't try to change what cannot be changed. Accept injustice.

How does that sound? Sounds to me like the pain is worth it. I choose option A. Thank you very much. I'm not going to go searching for trouble and problems but I'm not going to faint with fright when they come, and they will come. Nor am I going to run away. I choose to fight though I may suffer injury. I already carry the scars of previous battles and I cherish them. They have made me who I am. I won't invite suffering into my life, that would be stupid, but when it comes, and it will come, I will welcome it as irrefutable evidence that I am alive. I am really living not just passing the time. If that makes me a masochist...so be it.

In the arms of my father

I don't remember what it felt like as a child, to be hugged by my father. I know he did it and it must have felt good to be carried or just held in his strong arms. It must have felt safe and secure, and it must have made me feel important, but I don't remember the feeling itself.

I was in church one Sunday, more than ten years ago, standing and singing the song, In the Arms of my Father, while my daughter Alana slept in my arms. Undisturbed by the volume of the music or my loud singing right above her head, she slept peacefully. I had the full weight of her little body in my arms and I cried. I was happy.

As I held my daughter and sang to give thanks to my Father in Heaven, I had a fresh revelation of exactly what kind of love God has for us, his children. It's the kind of love I'm not sure I would have or even could have understood without the experience of being a father myself.

I can't remember what it felt like as a child to be in the arms of my earthly father, and it's unlikely Alana will remember when, God willing, she reaches my age and perhaps holds a child of her own. However, I do remember exactly what it felt like that day in church with Alana in my arms. I vividly recall being 'hugged' by my Father in Heaven that day, and I have felt it again since.

There is nothing in all of the universe that even comes close to the power of God's love for us, and I am so grateful to Him. So with Father's Day coming up, remember to thank your perfect supernatural Dad.

What do our Schools Produce?

The idea of successful learners suggests achievement. To be considered successful what must one do? How is success measured? Is society's view of what may be deemed “success” as important, more important or less important than the individual student’s own conception of success?

Although “Successful learners” is a little vague, significant benchmarks have been introduced into the Australian education system, such as NAPLAN, which do a reasonable job of measuring academic achievement. The question is, I guess, is academic achievement our only goal?

What about confident and creative students? It could be easily argued that confidence is a non academic measure of success. Creativity, however, is not a measure of success. It is debatable whether or not creativity can be taught, or even enhanced in those individuals who are naturally creative. Some people are successful without being especially creative.

Hardworking people who may or may not be creative, can be, and often are, very successful. In my view, perhaps turning out creative individuals should not be a goal of the education system. I just don’t know whether you can create creative students.

Active and informed are good goals but what does active mean exactly? Are we expecting our students to all become champions of various causes, members of political parties, unionists, community volunteers? I guess that’s not unreasonable. While “active” may be debatable, “informed” is not. Ignorance is one of the biggest problems we have, not only in our schools, but in society in general. It’s one thing for students not to want to know what’s going on, to be socially aware, quite another for educators to accept, in any way shape or form, the questionable maxim, “ignorance is bliss”.

I think they only thing missing from these goals is diligence but I suppose it is implied in conceptions of success and active involvement. As a Christian I wonder where is the mention of making a primary goal of education the development of loving and caring people who respect others and work to promote peace in society by building good relationships. Perhaps such talk is too “Christian” or “religious” for our secular system.

A way that seems right

A footpath curves to the left away from the road and around a landscaped garden with a bench for the weary traveller. Between the garden and the road was intended to be a lovely green grassed area but it is bisected by a terrible scar running across it in a direct line to where the path curves back towards the road.The scar was caused by many lazy feet walking across it, making their own path instead of using the one built for them.

A woman ran across the road in between two sets of traffic lights, both with pedestrian signals. Had she walked an extra fifty metres, either to her left or to her right, and used the crossing she would not have been knocked down by a car and injured.

The Bible says, "There is a way that seems right to man but its end is the way to death." (Proverbs 14:12)There was a way that seemed right to the many who took the shortcut across the grass, widening and deepening the scar with each step. There was a way that seemed right to the woman who risked her life for the sake of convenience to run across the road between the lights. There is a way that seems right to the Buddhist, to the Muslim, to the Humanist, and to the man who says he has no religion but worships the gods of his favourite sport. These ways lead to death.

There is a way that leads to life. Jesus is that way, (the only way), the truth, (the only truth) and Jesus is the life, (the only life). (John 14:6). There is no other way.

Dark Light

Whether you are perceived by others, or even see yourself, as a good or a bad person does not alter the fact that you are, at the very least potentially, both good and bad. People have the capacity for both good and evil. Given the right set of circumstances, anyone is capable of producing uncharacteristically bad deeds or unusually good deeds.To dispute this is to deceive yourself.

Light is a metaphor for goodness and dark is a metaphor for evil. Light represents not just goodness, but truth. Here is truth: God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. Here is another truth: If you claim to be without sin, you are a liar.

For those who are offended by God and the positive influence of his followers, here is a question: What would the world be like without any light? What would the world be like if there was no truth? Would you like to live in a world where evil reigns? What is it that restrains evil?

God is light. If you turn off the light, you invite death.