Two different people decided to tell me this story regarding my more liberal political views: The story is about a girl who writes a paper in a high school class about democratic policies, she worked very hard on the paper and felt confidant that it deserved an “A.” She gets the paper back with a “C-” on the front. When she asks the teacher about the grade, petitioning that it was a really great paper, the teacher agrees and says that she is right, the paper deserves an “A,” but the rest of her class did not write “A” papers and she must share her grade with the rest of the class because that is the democratic thing to do.
Ha ha ha right?! No. This story equates a grade on a paper to life and death issues. How about another story I heard recently: There is a man who has the AIDS and needs to take medicine daily to stay alive. He falls in love and marries a woman who also has the HIV virus but does not have medicine. He is now forced with the question, do I share my drugs with my wife and have a high percentage that they don’t work for either of us or do I give them to her and die or do I keep them for myself and watch her die?
The first story is about a grade on a paper, sharing resources so that everyone does well in school. The second story is about a man, who without shared resources will die.
The stories go on and on, people who live not only without health care but also without food, shelter, and education… people in the States and countless more overseas.
I want to support policies that make a better life for everyone and reverse cycles of poverty… even if it means that I lose a good portion of my inheritance.
I just sponsored a child with Food for the Hungry! I have a friend who was a missionary with them and I have been to 50 concerts where they pass out those cards with children on them and thought… someday I should do that. My best friend has sponsored a compassion child for years… she inspired me too.
I decided to pick a kid 13 or older because they always get the shaft. I saw this kid Ben from Uganda and it said that he likes music. As most of you know, I love Ugandan music because FSU COM of a dear friend of mine from Uganda, so I chose to sponsor Ben… or maybe he chose me?! His picture is below please pray for him!
Ben from Uganda
I recently heard a pastor teaching on vocation. He quoted Sam Keen from his book Fire in the Belly. This is the quote:
In a time when my life had gone off track my friend Howard Thurman said to me, “Sam,” he said, “there are two questions a man must ask himself: The first is ‘Where am I going?’ and the second is ‘Who will go with me?’ If you ever get these questions in the wrong order you are in trouble.’”
I have been thinking a lot about where I’m going. I have also been thinking a lot about who will go with me. I don’t think I’ve ever really put the two questions in sequential order… but Thurman’s order makes a lot of sense to me. I know people who are happily married without a clear idea on where they are headed as well as people who are divorced because they were going different directions. Sometimes I beg for God to bring me a partner, but I’m still unsure of where I’m going and even more unsure of how I’ll get there.
I do not think that I will ever know exactly where I am going. But this new succession of questions makes me excited that God is clarifying the going question before he sends me a man who is headed in the same direction.
I want to be very clear with both Sam Keen and Howard Thurman when I inform them that these two questions are not just for men. Women are not tagalongs on the vocational journey of men. We are partners, working together for our mutual benefit and doing ministry for the benefit of the world.
On a business trip with my work I had the pleasure of meeting a man named Andy Stoker. He’s the new associate director for children, youth and camping ministries in the North Texas Conference for the United Methodist Church (UMC). I like opinionated people (I wonder why?!) and Andy definitely has his opinions about things. One of them is so interesting that I want to share it on my blog.
He shared his observation about identity in the United Methodist Church: The common United Methodist Member considers itself to be Christian, not United Methodist.
If you ask a Baptist person what they are (whether they are proud to admit it or not) they will say Baptist. If you ask a Catholic person what they are, they know they are Catholic.
What’s the difference between these denominations? The UMC does not have an across the board theology. Yes, we publish a Book of Discipline, but the way that is lived out from congregation to congregation is vastly different. Honestly, I love the across the board theology of the UMC. It’s hilarious that you can meet a tea totaling Methodist and a Reconciliation Methodist in the same congregation.
I believe that most Methodists just want to agree on the majors and agree to disagree on all the rest. Oh, and we like to eat a lot of food. Potlucks are another common theme in the UMC.
This brings up more questions:
How do you build an “identifying” theology about getting together and agreeing to disagree over dinner?
Is there a way to build that theology without losing our spirit of open doors, open hearts, and open minds?
Is the common United Methodist young person with or without a church home just looking for a place to get along over dinner?
Will a “Methodist identity” provide solutions for the lack of Methodist students that grew up in the church in Wesley Foundations and Methodist-Related Institutions?
Would a common United Methodist theology spur more UM young adults out of colleges to join UM churches?
I don’t know the answer to these questions… however with the majority of my UM 20-30 something friends either not attending church or attending non-denominational churches… our future is looking dead and dying.
What is your opinion?
