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The world has gone all the way over the hill in its idiocy, cruelty, and incivility!

I refuse to watch the hearings regarding Judge Kavanaugh or Dr. Ford. Not because they aren’t important, but rather because of the sheer foolishness in the conversations. PLEASE don’t get me wrong. I do not want to become another voice in a crowded space of terminally certain people screaming at this process or these people.

I do, however, wish to point out that somehow, someway we have become bullhorns full of often foolish assumptions, attitudes, and narratives that leave no room for civility, decency or gracious leadership.

I’ve never met Dr. Ford and I’ve never met Judge Kavanaugh. I do not know whether he or she over-served themselves in high school, college, or in their present lives.

I do know that both of these people seem to have become pawns in a whirlwind of binary thought focused on party lines. And friend, that’s a shame.

Dr. Ford is probably a credible person that has had a challenging and gut-wrenching experience. Judge Kavanaugh is probably a credible person that has now had a gut-wrenching experience himself. Neither of these folks is ideal or perfect, I’m sure. My soul hurts for them both. They both have been sucked up into a funnel cloud of anger, resentment, incivility, and hate. I’ll bet that both of them would love to go back a couple of months and have a mulligan. But that isn’t going to happen.

This divided loyalist party line foolishness must stop! We cannot continue down this nasty slope of finger-wagging, name calling, and party line dogma that is currently the norm. Not just in DC, but in every area of our life!

The only thing I know to do personally is to want to want to be a better man. A better follower of Jesus, and seek to not let my heart and my soul follow the easy road to sarcasm, incivility, cruel intentions and angry actions. I need to work on me.

God help us if we ever give in to walking the path of critical, mean-spirited conversation regarding everything. I see it in politics, business, families, leadership and yes, in the church.

Surely we are better than all that, aren’t we?

Maybe you are wondering how to start correcting your own voice, attitude or assumptions. Here are three suggestions that I promise to work on with you:

1. TAKE A LONG LOOK IN THE MIRROR and compile a short list of not more than 3 things that you would like to correct. Maybe it’s a temper or an attitude. Maybe it’s a critical spirit or an envious heart. Ask the Divine to point out the truth in any of these areas. WRITE THEM DOWN! Then assess yourself each day for the next week on a scale of 1-10. “1” is you totally blew it. “10” is you fought that dragon and you are killing it. Here’s a suggestion – You are rarely on either fringe, but you should always be moving forward.
2. STOP NEGATIVE LANGUAGE! No matter how you may think or feel about something, recognize that just because we think it, doesn’t always make it so. Negative talk to others leaves no room for mercy, grace, wisdom or genuine blessing to become a part of the cure. STOP IT! Stop the negative talk, both to yourself and to others as well.
3. READ THROUGH THE GOSPELS with a slow, note-taking, methodical read. I promise you that the hate speech that is now our norm can be whisked aside to make room for learning more intently the truths and teachings of Jesus. He is where we will feel a serious respite from the barrage of the shouting masses, regardless of which side they come from.

If we are to find our way out of this pit of foolishness, it will be a result of the people of faith ceasing to engage the foolery.

Take a look at the words used in Proverbs 26:4; “Don’t answer the foolish arguments of fools, or you will become as foolish as they are.“

If you would like another word on civility, just click HERE on this BLOG:

–AChuck

Somewhere along our journey, we all have said “I Quit” at some point. Today, I quit a few things that I should have quit a long time ago. Here they are, 10 things that I am quitting:

1. I quit trying to compare my life to others. It always ends poorly.
2. I quit worrying about what everybody else thinks about me. I just need to worry about me. It’s a full-time job!
3. I quit watching the news on any television station. It seems as though they all promote a binary, bigoted position against whatever side they are against. I cannot seem to find a news channel (maybe NPR) that offers facts without commentary.
4. I quit trying to gauge my plans based on the weather that may or may not happen in Atlanta. I love my man David Chandley, but I’ve postponed far too many events that could have gone on with the show!
5. I quit trying to read the latest and greatest fad diet and supplement offerings. Bottom line, I need to move more and eat well. I need to train my body to treat food as fuel, not comfort.
6. I quit trying to please everybody. If that is the goal, I’ve already lost. I’m amazed at the folks that simply don’t like me. I wonder what I would think about me if I sat across the table from me?
7. I quit trying to figure out why President Trump won’t just stop Tweeting! Oh, my stars! Stop it!
8. I quit answering Facebook Messenger. I hate it! I can’t keep up with the multitude of ways that I need to keep up with everybody. Email me, text me, smoke signal me, or send me messages via carrier pigeon, but do not contact me via Messenger as of right now!
9. I quit overscheduling my calendar in the belief that I can indeed get everything done that everybody else has in store for me. I’ll do my job, but please do yours.
10. I quit speaking negatively about others and about myself. This world has plenty of critics. It doesn’t need me to chime in.

Okay, I quit!

–AChuck

I’ve tried to avoid the television coverage regarding the confirmation hearing s of the proposed Supreme Court Justice, Brett Kavanaugh. I’ve tried to avoid both sides of the political aisle, both sides of the American system of grandstanding and both sides of complete rubbish we call news. However, I made the mistake of watching “the news” this evening.

In case your wondering, I am neither pro-Kavanaugh or anti-Kavanaugh. I do not know him at all. I have not read his positions on many things that I think should matter in our country. I am however completely, totally and overwhelmingly anti-rhetoric, anti-hate-speech, and completely sick of finger pointing, personal attacks and lack of facts, truth, decency or even common civility in our country. It is childish, selfish, evil and it is pathetic.

And before you get fully armed behind your keyboard to launch an assault on whichever side you are on – STOP! We – Me and You…we are perpetuating this villainous incivility by watching and repeating the same half-truths that are being touted as news.

I fear that we have trained at least one full generation to never seek to change the world for good because you will be hated and hailed as the next horrific human on the planet. Again, lest you think I am touting this as a proud Republican, right-winged preacher that is blind to the foolishness of both sides – STOP! I am filled with the kind of anger that is rooted in the firm belief that populous expediency is a fool’s errand. I am angry that we have bought the lie that the Divine is truly riding either a donkey or an elephant.

My friend, when He comes again, it won’t be on anything a simple as a jackass or a tired circus elephant. When He returns there will be no foolish pandering for the cameras. There will be no saying what you think will gain your party’s allegiance.

You might say Great! Way to go Chuck. Your idea is to just stick your head in the sand and hope things get better? NO! My idea is that we —

1. Choose to grow up and make our part of this world far better by simply speaking the truth in love.
2. Choose to offer forgiveness to those who are not worthy of it.
3. Choose to allow the presence of the Divine within you to fill you with so much grace, so much mercy and so much compassion that we cannot help but be inextricably connected to how the Savior of the world treated us.
4. To stop pointing a bony finger of guilt at the world and take a long look in our mirror and choose to be grateful, gracious and kind to all peoples.
5. To get off of our proverbial stumps and stop screaming at people. I have never found it possible to introduce Jesus to somebody while simultaneously screaming at them.

This is a messed up world we live in and as long as we carry the same selfish position on every single issue as a result of ignorance, we will continue to spiral out of control in our lack of civility. As a Follower of Jesus, I do not want my grandkids to inherit this evil incivility that has been thrown into the sewer to reside as the filth of humanity.

As for me, don’t bother asking which side of the aisle I line up with. I’m sick to my stomach of the gross disregard for decency on both sides.

I cannot imagine any of our best and brightest wanting to enter the arena of foolishness known as politics. I pray my grandsons and granddaughters will never consider it. But then, I am a pastor with convictions that don’t line up with theological conservatives or theological liberals. I just happen to line up with Jesus. I grow more and more confident that He is who He said He was and He is the only hope for this world.

Believing that can get you in some hot water with both sides of the theological aisle. But if He is enough to split time in half, leave Heaven for the earth as a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, live a sinless, perfect life, offer His life up as a sacrifice for the worlds sin and selfishness, beat death and raise from the dead, go back to Heaven and sit on the throne of the universe and welcome every believer a home with an eternity of peace…well, He is more than enough. And, He is worthy of better. Better than the silly filth we offer in places like Washington DC and in Sugar Hill, Georgia.

Please, folks, let’s crawl out of the sewer and claim our rightful place as the image bearers of the Most-High God.

–AChuck