"Only one generation..."
So, yesterday in church, John was praying for fathers. While he was praying I got the message, "Only one generation." This is something I think I have heard from other sources. It is the idea that people tend to perpetuate the family environement that they grew up in. People who grew up in abusive situations seem to have abusive families as adults. Because of that, however, it only takes one generation to break that cycle and create a new family tradition. So one generation can re-write our entire society and culture.
On the other hand, just as negative effects are carried forward, so are positive. And that same generation that can eliminate the bad things can also remove the good things.
So, in the wake of this Father's Day Weekend, I will pray for families everywhere. In particular for parents. That they will have wisdom to raise up a generation that can break the cycles of mental and physical abusive.
Would you recommend a movie you had not seen, or a restaurant that you had never been to? And if someone gave you a recommendation without trying it first, how much would that recommendation be worth?
This has been brought to my mind because of 2 things I have heard in the past week, from two different Vineyard pastors. The first was our own Chris Reeves. He commented that if the Vineyard model was working like it should, we would see dozens of people coming forward for prayer every week.
The second was from Columbus Vineyard Paster Rich Nathan. I have been listening to him online for the past few weeks and I really enjoy his sermons. Allow me to paraphrase... "The people out there, the people who don't know Jesus, no longer care about the truth of Christianity or the facts of Jesus' life and death on the cross. They don't want a reasoned, logic debate about the existence of God, or a treatise about sin and redemption. What they want to know is, do you know a power that can free me from enslavement to the filth of this world, that can give me purpose, significance, peace, and if you know that power, I will follow that power."
So, I come back to that original line of questioning... Have we as Christians experienced the freedom, and do we continue to experience the freedom, from the fear, the pain, the degradation, the hatred of this world? Not that we do not experience those things, but that they do not rule over us. That we continue go to the Power that is greater than these powers, and find freedom. And if we have not, if we do not, why would anyone ever listen to us when we tell them about Jesus.
So just about my entire family is reading a series of science fiction books about a character named Honor Harrington. This is a very good series.
Anyway, in this series, 2 large star nations are at war. One of this nations has a number of allies. This same nation also has a significant technological advantage over their enemy. Over the course of the series, one of this nation's allies switches sides. The reasons for this are varied, but the result is that the enemy nation gets access to much of the advanced technology. Many of our hero nations secrets are given away.
It has only recently occurred to me how devestating something like that could be on a personal level. I have private areas of my life that I keep hidden from almost everyone. I say almost because there is one person with whom I share everything. If that person were to betray me, were to want to hurt me or humiliate me, that person would have more than ample ammunition. It comes down to a matter of trust. Thankfully, I trust this person implicitly.
I am reminded of a quote I heard many years ago, and I cannot remember who said it. It went something like this...
"If all the people of the world came together and made one giant heap of all their troubles, from which each would take an equal share, most people would be content to take their own troubles and go home."
When I first read that, it made no sense to me at all. Then I understood it to mean that most people have less than their "equal share" of trouble. However, a new meaning is dawning on me. I think some people have a certain amount of ... pride? in their troubles. An attitude that says "They may be troubles, but their are *my* troubles". It leads to a line from a BNL song.
"Won't it be dull when we rid ourselves Of all these demons haunting us To keep us company?"
I consider myself a fairly intelligent person, but there are definitely times when I feel like a real dope.
I have a head for numbers. I can memorize words fairly well. I can pick out faces pretty well, also. What I apperently cannot do, however, is remember a name to save my life. No, I take that back. I'm even pretty good at remebering the names of actors and other celebrities. It's remembering the name of people that I meet that confounds me. I think that is what impresses me most about our head pastor. Once he hears a name, it seems, it is enblazened in his memory and he can greet people by name that he has only met once.
Two cases spring to mind. Yesterday we went on a prayer walk after church. One of the people in our group is someone that I see almost every week. Whenever I pass him, I nod my head and say hi. But I cannot remember his name. I couldn't when I 'introduced' myself yesterday, and I can't today, only slightly more than 24 hours later, even after mentally noting to *remember* his name.
Second, I need to get VPN access from work so I can work from home. I filled out the form and my manager told me to give it to Chris. Now, I think Chris is the PC Tech that I see wondering about, but I don't know. This is a guy that I see a couple times a week. We have had conversations. Entire diagaloues. And yet, I am not sure whaty his name is.
Don't get me wrong. It is not that I don't care about these people. I do. I just cannot seem to write the name down in my little mental notebook. I can remember where I've seen them. I can recall what they do. I can even remeeber if they are a Lost fan or prefer Grey's Anatomy. But the name continues to elude me.
I'm sorry, what was you're name again?
