When I was about thirteen, dad walked into my room and handed me a picture of a poem with a gold plastic frame. He said, “I want you to memorize this and I want you to hang it on your wall.” I never did get the whole thing memorized, but it did have enough impact on my life that I never forgot the opening stanza and I will never forget the assignment. The fifth stanza is occupying my thoughts this week. We are hearing a lot about bailouts, losses, toxic assets, layoffs, stimulus plans, accountability, etc. Like many of you, I’m weary of it all.

Somewhere the notion of losing became foreign to us. We have schools that won’t fail students who fail. Our kids play on sports teams that protect them from losing by refusing to keep score. Pro athletes get no cut, guaranteed contracts. During the mortgage fiasco, people got NINJA (No Income, No Job, no Assets) loans—and no accountability.

Life is hard. There are winners and losers. And most of the time we all experience moments of both heart crushing losses and thrilling victories. Risk and loss are part of life experience. I don’t care to hear people whine about their losses. It is part of our being here. Risk gives life flavor and texture. The danger can be thrilling and devastating. It can lead to tremendous loss and unimagined gain. To fail to risk is to fail to live. Kipling said . . .

If you can make one heap of all your winnings,
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss;

People in business should be required to face their losses with integrity. If you don’t want losses, be wiser. Return to the reality that in business a certain amount of risk is required. It’s true in life as well. I don’t know what to call people who want to be insulated from every loss. Sissy seems to be too nice, but some of the more pejorative words might be inappropriate (you may insert your term of choice here.)

I’d like to see just one of those C.E.O. types stand before Congress and say, “We loaned money to people who did not have the ability to pay it back. We will eat the loss and change the policies that led to this.” (Yes, I know the government forced some of that. Here again, integrity died on the alter of political expediency.) “We took a chance on product or resource development that did not pay off. We will take the loss and improve our research.” As Kipling said it, they need to take their losses, start again at their beginnings. In regard to their hard times and losses, I think they need to shut up and go to work.

telemicus out

I don’t care for sappy spiritual talk. I’m not one of those “Praise Jebus” types, (that would be those who “talk Jesus” but don’t really know him.) I am sharing my weak and struggling heart on this. I don’t always readily turn to prayer. I pray and I trust as best I can, but I rarely feel that God heard me and that he is on my side. I wish I felt different. I believe He is good, just, holy, and righteous. If there is a shortcoming in the relationship, I have no doubt that it is mine.

That the country and the world are in a bit of a mess economically is clear. The solution does not lie in the ideology of the Republicans and Democrats. The solution is with God. We have to listen to God and what he says about His judgments. We are studying Hosea in our Sunday morning Bible class. Our country is nowhere close to as wicked as Israel was when Hosea prophesied. But we have repeated many of their mistakes in our relationship with God.

So what needs to happen? We who have knowledge of God need to attack the ignorance of our people about God and his character. In Hosea’s time, the spiritual leaders of the people were involved in all forms of wickedness and did not help the people come to know God. He said, “my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children” (Hosea 4:6).

When God’s people were in trouble, they called for help from neighboring nations like Egypt and Assyria instead of from God. But He said, “—he is not able to cure you, not able to heal your sores” “Then I will go back to my place until they admit their guilt. And they will seek my face; in their misery they will earnestly seek me” (Hosea 5:13 & 15). So we need to ask God for help; not Congress, not our politicians and not Hollywood or horoscopes. It is God who heals and provides.

He needs to hear from our hearts. We need to teach our children to cry out to Him as well. Crying out in misery or fear is not the same as crying out from our hearts. God said, “They do not cry out to me from their hearts but wail upon their beds” (Hosea 7:14). The children of Israel were crying out, but it was about their misery, it wasn’t about God.

I’m not overly spiritual. But I know this, our problems extend far beyond the politics of the country. We need to increase our knowledge of God. We need to look for help only from God and he needs to hear our longing and dependence on Him and not simply for relief in tough times. I am a positive person. I don’t think we are headed for disaster or we are nearing the end. There are plenty of prophets of doom. (Those clowns should join a circus and earn an honest living.) I’m simply saying we need to listen to God about this and seek him with our hearts. It’s going to be all right. He has everything under control.

telemicus out

In the 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes, there is a surly character named Limbo. He is sort of a slave trader dealing in humans. While making a sale of a human child he issues one of the most memorable lines from the film…

“The young ones make great pets. Just make sure you kill them before they mature. Believe me, the last thing you want is a human teenager running around your house.”

In earlier times, teens were really kids forced into adulthood by life. However, with prosperity came time and “disposable income” (what a ridiculous phrase). With income came stuff and well… you know, here we are. Dude! I am not one of those who is down on the youth and their culture—totally.

Teens drive the social fabric and economic engine of our country. They determine what clothes are in style. They direct the music industry, (I’m not altogether pleased about that.) They have a verbal language of their own. And now they “TEXT” in an augmented English that resembles a sort of code—(imo). [For the uninformed or un-cool “imo” means “in my opinion” – unless you’re talking about the people that are "Imo" and that is a different thing altogether.] As in every decade since any can remember, teens determine what is cool.

Well, for the third time, in a third decade we have a teenager living at our house. He is like most of them. He likes food, likes stuff, likes rock n’ roll, likes the opposite sex, likes clutter, likes video games, and I’m good with all of that. But the thing I like most about having teenagers is where mine, and many that I’ve worked with over the years, are unlike the culture.

Everyone should have teens like we have had. Our kids have been free to choose their friends and they’ve chosen wisely – usually. They’ve been free to disagree with their parents, but have done so within the bounds of respect – usually. They’ve been free to seek and find the Lord, they’ve come to Him on His terms at their own pace and time. They follow Him in faith – usually.

I love teens. I love listening to them talk, watching how they act and interact. I love their sense of justice. Their out of balance drama is the germ of reality TV. The one draw back that I see in teen-hood is when people move to adulthood and bring their teenager mentality with them. There is a time to put away the teen years, but as John said, “Hold on to 16 as long as you can; changes come around real soon—make us women and men.” Even though Caleb is a teen, we’ve decided to keep him - at least for a while.

telemicus out

He threw his hands in the air and said in a voice loud enough to hear all over the store, “I just don’t get it!” I don’t know what had so baffled him that he became that incredulous in Target, but he was clearly puzzled and exasperated. It got me thinking about how many times I’ve felt the way he sounded. So I thought I’d give you a few of mine and I was kind of hoping you might like to share some of yours. Just for fun and reflection.

I don’t get people – blessed immensely – who then complain about lack. Instead of counting everything that is above need as a blessing, they account every desire unfulfilled as a robbery of life against them.

I don’t get people who call you friend, but fail to write, or call. They often receive your greetings and visits with joy and exuberance, but caring enough to reach out is beyond their dashboards. I suppose they are like consumer Christians, willing to take all the blessing of relationship without making investments in it.

I don’t get people who are so self centered that they don’t know they are selfish. They actually see themselves as unselfish. They reckon any act of kindness as their true character and they are blind to the selfishness that everyone sees.

I don’t get why the American people choose leaders who have a history sprinkled, if not baptized, in dishonesty. I really don’t get them choosing outright liars. I’m not talking about small errors in judgment, I’m talking about the criminal type of dishonesty that makes rich guys more rich at the people’s expense.

I don’t get lovers who don’t. I don’t get cheaters who do. I don’t get people who hurt kids and why we as a society don’t eliminate them. I don’t get the millionaire athlete who thinks we owe him because of his athletic ability. I don’t get celebrity worship. I don’t get record profits in the oil business; why do we keep letting them do it. I don’t get the medical insurance business – it’s a convoluted mess.

I don’t get the spiritually lazy. I don’t get those who choose ignorance over knowledge. I don’t get the cowardly who won’t speak up when a wrong is committed. I don’t get the politically expedient who will throw people under the bus if it benefits them. I don’t get how anyone likes The Who or Janis Joplin. I don’t get how people eat slimy spinach. I don’t get smart men who can figure out nuclear physics, but can’t figure out that a print tie doesn’t go with a striped shirt.

telemicus out