I Pity The Future

There is a great scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off where he is pretending to be Abe Fromon, sausage king of Chicago and has a run in with the concerige where he utters the line, "I pity the future."
Well, right now in certain areas I do. You probably have heard alot about the generations stuff today. For example, there are five generations in the church today, four in the workplace.

Today I am going to show you the difference between mine and this younger one.
A good friend and I were having breakfast one morning and one of the conversations that the table of six young people at the table across from us were having was about missing work that day and how several were going to skip work.

This is something I would never have considered. My parents would have made sure of it but I have always wanted to work. There are things that come from it. I couldn't imagine slacking from work in my day and just the sheer thought of explainin that to my manager.

Skip ahead to shopping at the Riverchase Galleria on the day before Thanksgiving and watching Build A Bear implode due to lack of employees. They were two to three short and it took my wife and girls 90 minutes to make their way thru their annual tradition of getting a new BABear.
Fast forward to Cracker Barrel two days later after some intense Black Friday shopping and we are seated amongst five tables that haven't been cleaned at 8pm at night. The reason I lean on the younger generation here is that that I haven't seen older people ever cleaning tables at CB just the young ones. This one was hurting. Good food, good service....
Here is my theory. You have probably heard of the "helicopter parents" that watch over their kids in college. Every move has been orchestrated for years. Well, my theory is that you also have alot of kids that are just doing as they please. They watch things they shouldn't be watching at their age, play video games that they have no business playing, and why should it be any different for them to blow off a job? Its a pretty day, and they go from fast food to fast food job never learning any real work ethic and not really caring.

This is going to be a tough wake up call for them when they have to decide on a career. Mom and Dad today aren't going to say much as long as they are pulling some change down at a entry level job but when they start to get into college it could be interesting. I don't think they see the problem this creates for their manager or supervisor. Nor do they care, but when you are continually late or not at work you start to put yourself in a position to be liberated.

In the Letter to the Ephesians that Paul wrote to the Christians there (6:4) he asked the "fathers to not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord."
Fathers are called to teach their children the word of God so they will know what to stand on in this world. There are a couple of areas that Dads need to watch against with their children.

1st is overprotection. There are things we are protecting our kids from and there are things thru relationships that they will have to learn. But, they being taught the word of God it will help them make that decision as well as their heart condition.

Next is discouraging them. Doing this continually is going to affect their self-esteem as well as their confidence. You are their dad, not their best friend. You need to encourage them as God gifts them. Cruel words, actions or neglect are not things you need to do as a dad.

Thirdly is micromanaging them. We learned this as soon as the twins arrived that we needed to schedule but all be in agreement. For example, if we did everything and pushed them into everything we wouldn't have a family we would have a transportation service. Don't be pulled into the "Wants" side of the world. Carefully plan and don't forget time for bible study. Help them learn how to study on their own. See how God has gifted them but don't mistake your parenting versus what the Jones are doing. Ask God and seek Him if you have questions.

Harvard and Yale were established to teach men to be in the ministry. Times change don't they?
In fact, Harvard was started because the thinking was Yale was becoming to liberal. Dartmouth was established to teach missionaries. Little different today at colleges who are no more supermarkets of knowledge than what they once were. I know in my field, I could care less where you went to school, what value do you bring?

John Meador said several years ago at a night service at the Park that your children need to hear these three things:
1) I love you
2) I am proud of you
3) You do this well

I worry about many youngsters that I see in retail work environments as they don't have even enough gumption to understand what customer service is or care. After we get thru this recession we will run smack dab into a shortage of workers as the boomers retire and it will get really tough from a talent standpoint to staff some of these jobs. 2011 to 2012 will show this.


Parents today need to be thinking about these things in my opinion. The world is not going to do anything but challenge you to think like it. God thinks about things differently.
As a man, dad or husband you are here on this earth for a short time. This is your training ground. Heaven is your destination. Show your children what Paul said. Instruct them around scripture, if you don't know it get into it. Where do you start? As David Lawson says ,"just pick it up and start reading." Ask God to speak to you thru what you are reading. If you are a dad I would start in Ephesians....
You will not be able to understand the Christ Life fully until you know what the word of God says about it. I know this by experience.

Oh and about the coming event in Washington in January, this person gets it right. The last big 1 million plus event in Washington was PK. It was historical and so will this event in January:

http://washingtontimes.com/weblogs/belief-blog/2008/Nov/24/set-record-straight-crowd-counts-mall/

May God Bless you today and grant you the desire to know Him more by learning more about His word..

During Green Week-Weather Channel axes "green programming

Amazing timing at a NBC property during Green Week to dump all Green programming. Weather Channel let go 50 staffers and Media Bistro has some of the information that NewsBlues unearthed this week.

Very interesting move. See link below:

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/nbc/weather_channel_cuts_environmental_unit_101492.asp

Ramblings:

Vince Carter's shot last night in OT was carried live on NBA TV and was the play of the year so far. Nets and Raptors had battled back and forth all night and into OT when with just 2 seconds left the throw in and just watch as Vince lingers for a second on the rim

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwDp-iq7LI0

How Athesists are reaching out -Human Light

{from the Wall Street Journal 11/18/08)

Late next month, atheists, humanists, freethinkers, secularists -- in short, nonbelievers of every description -- will gather in dozens of cities to mark the holiday they call HumanLight.
Whether by singing from a Humanist Hymnal, decorating a winter wreath or lighting candles dedicated to personal heroes, they'll celebrate what has been an exhilarating ride for the faithless -- a surge in recognition that has many convinced they're on the brink of making a mark on mainstream America.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which represents atheists and agnostics, kicked off an ad campaign with this billboard in Madison, Wis.

During the past three years, membership has grown in local and national associations of nonbelievers. Books attacking faith as a delusion shot up best-seller lists. For the first time, the faithless even raised enough funds to hire a congressional lobbyist.
Building on that momentum, nonbelievers have begun a very public campaign to win broad acceptance. On billboards and bus ads, radio commercials and the Internet, atheists are coming forward to declare, quite simply: We're here. And we're just like you.
"We've had an undercurrent of emotional and academic support, but we've been waiting to make a movement happen," said Joe Zamecki, an Austin landscaper who recently organized Texas' first statewide convention of nonbelievers. "It's a very new age."

Not really Joe, same stuff outlined historically across the bible. Some believe, some don't. Not new at all. One thing is the same. Hebrews 13:8

Not so fast, religious leaders respond. They point out that the vast majority of Americans believe in God. A poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life earlier this year found 71% of American adults are absolutely certain God -- or some sort of universal spirit -- exists, and a further 17% said they were fairly certain. Only 5% said flatly that they don't believe.
Atheists "are talking to a very small slice of the population," said Mathew Staver, a leading Christian conservative and law-school dean. "In some ways, they're really just talking to themselves."
Nonbelievers point to a different set of statistics and societal trends. Americans are shifting away from formal allegiances with specific faiths. In 1990, about 90% of the U.S. adult population identified with a religious group, according to the widely cited American Religious Identification Survey. When the most recent survey was conducted in 2001, that dropped to 81%. Relatively few go so far as to call themselves atheists, but young Americans, especially, are drifting from organized religion, other surveys have found.
Unlike in Europe, where secularism has a strong hold, many atheists in the U.S. have felt like a shunned minority. Politicians often reflexively end speeches with "God bless America." Schoolchildren pledge their allegiance every day to "one nation, under God." City parks display the Ten Commandments. When atheists talk openly in public, "we often see people shaking their heads and moving away, like there's a plague zone around us," said Iggy Dybal, a real-estate broker in Kansas City, Kan.
Secularist groups say their membership began to surge in 2005, when Congress sought to prevent Terri Schiavo's husband from removing her feeding tube. Many new members said they hoped nonbelievers could serve as a counterweight to religious influence in political affairs.
Rather than renew old battles, such as the symbolic fight to remove "In God We Trust" from currency, members are mobilizing to repair what they view as breaches of the wall between church and state -- such as federal funding for faith-based charities and teaching of intelligent design in science class. They believe many others sympathize with their views -- but are too timid to commit.
The new ad campaigns and other public-relations efforts are designed to raise comfort levels about atheism by making the point that nonbelievers are "just as ethical and moral as anyone else," said Lori Lipman Brown, who lobbies Congress on behalf of the Secular Coalition for America.
As Doug Krueger, a philosophy professor in northwest Arkansas, put it: "Step one is for people to know we're not crazy, we're just regular people [who have] perfectly satisfactory lives without believing in God."

This type of evangelism is interesting as the total lack of understanding of what a changed life in Jesus Christ is to look like versus having a religion. Your life, your outlook, your focus is not on the things of this earth.

So the American Humanist Association is spending $42,000 to plaster buses in Washington, D.C., with ads asking: "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake." FreeThoughtAction and its local affiliates have put up billboards all over the country asking: "Don't believe in God? You are not alone." Eight billboards are going up this month in Denver.
At the same time, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., has hit at least nine states in the past year with billboards that look like they're made of stained glass but say "Beware of Dogma," "Imagine No Religion," or -- coming soon -- "Reason's Greetings." The group also advertises on the liberal radio network Air America. One spot features Ron Reagan, son of the former president, who signs off: "Ron Reagan, lifelong atheist. Not afraid of burning in hell."
Local groups of atheists are also making a point of getting out in public to show that they're part of every community.

The Pennsylvania Nonbelievers rehabbed a women's shelter this fall. Kansas City FreeThinkers hold monthly walks in a dog park and weekly coffee-house meet-ups, advertised online. Secularists in Sacramento, Calif., stage a family-friendly Freethought Day each fall, complete with roving magicians.
Organizers of such efforts generally say they aren't trying to evangelize. Instead, they say their goal is to make the public more comfortable with the concept of atheism and give fellow nonbelievers a sense of community.
In seeking the spotlight, the movement risks a backlash. Some Christians find the billboards deeply offensive, especially at this time of year. In recent weeks, press releases from the religious right have accused atheists of "mocking" and "insulting" Christmas. In rural Chambersburg, Pa., one Christian group responded to an "Imagine No Religion" billboard with a giant sign of their own, asking: "Why Do Atheists Hate America?"
Even some who share common goals with nonbelievers are uneasy with the provocative nature of the ad campaign.
"Atheists can act very much like Christian fundamentalists from time to time," said James Webb, president of the Community of Reason in Kansas City, which includes both believers and skeptics. "It's important not to be in-your-face with people."
Some nonbelievers respond that this is a critical time to reach out, as a new administration prepares to take office in the White House.
For instance, some atheists are dismayed by some of President-elect Barack Obama's proposals, such as his pledge to funnel more tax dollars to faith-based groups running soup kitchens, tutoring programs and the like.

He likes them because he realizes that they are results based and even saw some of it as a community organizer. It works.

Others are more hopeful.
They note that in a big speech on faith last summer, Mr. Obama called for "Christian and Jew, Hindu and Muslim, believer and nonbeliever alike" to work together. It isn't often that politicians specifically mention nonbelievers, they say.

Paul did on several stops in the Acts of the Apostles

Secularists also are encouraged by Mr. Obama's eclectic upbringing. He has written that his mother disdained organized religion but exposed him to a variety of faith traditions and holy books as an anthropological study. Though he now talks often of his Christian faith and envisions a role for faith in the public square, Mr. Obama has sought to use inclusive language and signal respect for different traditions.
Obama transition spokeswoman Amy Brundage, in a statement, said, "People of all backgrounds and beliefs will have a voice in the Obama-Biden Administration."
Still, leading activists say nonbelievers tend to be just as wary of organized atheism as they are of organized religion -- making it tough to pull together a cohesive movement.
"A pastor can say to his flock, 'All rise,' and everyone rises. But try that in an atheist meeting," said Marvin Straus, co-founder of an atheist group in Boulder, Colo. "A third of the people will rise. A third will tell you to go to hell. And a third will start arguing....That's why it's hard to say where we're going as a movement."

HA! A third tells you to go to hell. They believe in something then don't they! That is funny and sad at the same time. You have to believe in something. The most inclusive and wonderful relationship is to know that Jesus Christ is who he said he was. If you like business news I urge you to make the online WSJ a Christmas gift. All the stuff in the print is right there online for much less than print.

As Thanksgiving approaches it is a good time to think about what you are thankful for whether you believe of not, this message from David Jeremiah I heard on the way into work on Friday on SiriusXM 170 and it is a great message to think about for your year:

http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/Turning_Point/archives.asp?bcd=2008-11-20

Last but not least, lots of talking about the Big Three automakers this week, here is a look back at what was done back with Chrysler, interesting read:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/echoes-of-1979-in-the-detroit-bailout-debate/