TAKING THE WRONG EXIT

Nate was telling me not too long ago about a friend of his from preschool. Their friendship was on and off and Nate described it by saying "I want to be his friend, Mimi, but it's tricky".

Gotcha, Nate. That describes my last few days; they have not been my best.

I took the wrong exit off the relational highway by reacting to some misunderstandings and mischaracterizations. Well, they looked like that from my side.

The feeling of defensiveness and the need to explain myself swelled up inside me. I was overwhelmed with the need to set someone straight. It has been a long time since I've been that angry and it surprised me that it couldn't be put aside. For the better part of two days I simmered. In the middle of the night I woke up thinking about the situation and couldn't go back to sleep. Anger was controlling me. I am not so much of a hollerer like old Jack and Adam in the picture. My anger is more internal.

Not wanting to consult the Lord (because I knew His anger verses)...I brooded. I didn't want to hear the Ephesians 4.26 stuff about the sun not going down on my anger because I wasn't quite through being miserable yet. I didn't want to hear that love was not touchy or resentful (1 Corinthians 13.5) because I MIGHT have been a bit touchy, but I had every right to be offended. Then there's that meddler James (from 1.20) who says my anger can never make things right in God's sight. Hush, James.

Of course, the truth is that anger is an emotion and not a sin. The sin comes as anger is cherished (as I did) and a person refuses to address it (forgive) and move on.

When I got up the next morning, my body and spirit were WAAAY miserable from lack of sleep. In self-defense, my spirit began to relent. The "want" to eat dirt/apologize was not there yet, but I found myself starting to put my words down in a letter to own what I could. Beginning to feel a release in my spirit, I realized that the thing that had caused me to bow up was now losing it's power over my disposition.

Then something pretty cool happened. God showed up.

God is so faithful. Well, that's His name. El HaNe'eman (from Deuteronomy 7.9) means Faithful God. I couldn't call that name or spell it, but THAT MORNING I knew the truth of the character trait. It came from a tweet from Dennis Rainey that caused me to perk up. I recognized that voice! Dennis wrote the tweet, but he was speaking for Someone else. And the tweet that day said we should pray that our heart would not be eager to be angry, but that being "slow to anger" would be more our speed. Dennis listed Ecclesiastes 7.9 as his reference: "Do not be eager in your heart to be angry, for anger resides in the bosom of fools".

Hmmm. Fools? That must be because anger eats up the angry person's insides. Then I turned to The Message and got a better understanding:

"Don't be quick to fly off the handle. Anger boomerangs. You can spot a fool by the lumps on his head."

BINGO. Lumpy knew that the One who spoke heaven and earth into existence...had kindly bent to whisper into her ear that morning. Now I was getting the "want to". I asked Him to forgive my churlishness and hurried to finish the letter.

It feels good to please your Father. It feels good to be set free from that chokechain. Father does know best.

GOT COMPASSION?

If a person is suffering and I feel for them, I am said to be empathetic. But if I am moved to help alleviate the person's pain, I take it to the next level and show compassion.

That's what the Good Samaritan did. Wiki says compassion is considered to be one of the greatest virtues. Yet regarding compassion toward the poor, not everyone can agree on just what that looks like.

There are many good-willed people that feel empathy for the poor. Some perhaps feel giving to the poor is best accomplished by government. They would not be against higher taxes because they feel giving to the poor is an appropriate use of their tax money.

I wonder what they think as they look across at people in another party with opposing views. Maybe it looks like compassion-deficit over here.

It is a timely question to answer: what does it mean to show true compassion toward the poor?

Back in the early 90's, Mike and I volunteered at a housing project called Eastgate Terrace. There were 178 units there, and our church had an outreach called the STEP program (Serving to Equip People). STEP was a neighborhood outreach that began with a ministry to children.

They added a mentor program in the schools to be able to keep up with the children's academic needs. There were summer clubs (like Vacation Bible School) and throughout the school year, STEP maintained clubs that had components of mentoring, homework, Bible study, and fun.

The program was always evolving in order to meet needs, but there were certain fixed guidelines. The guardrails were based on biblical principles. I learned a lot while serving with STEP, and it challenged all my preconceived ideas about what compassion was...or was not.

*Because Christ loves us as we are (and not because of what we do for Him), the STEP worker was to come alongside the children and give of themselves in a relationship...just as the Lord does. One-on-one time communicates huge concepts.

*Because Christ values people over things, the STEP worker was not to buy for the children. STEP had limited funding for family emergencies so that help could come from the organization, but not from individuals. Money can corrupt relationships.

*Because Christ said that His Word was to be a light to our path, the STEP worker helps a child learn to study Scripture and recognize God's direction as they pray to ask the Lord to meet their needs. Money pales alongside the opportunity to

be a part of connecting a soul to God.

*Because Christ spoke about the value of work and accountability and dependability...the STEP worker lets the kids know that coming to their club meetings (on time and regularly) is their "work" and their faithfulness will

result in a field trip at the end of the month.

But this felt so foreign. I'm used to meeting my own needs. It would be the most natural thing for me to whip out plastic when a child needed tennis shoes. It was actually excruciating to not provide. Greater lessons were being learned on both sides of the relationship.

There is no way that money can fill the hole in these people's lives. They need dignity, respect, a sense of accomplishment, friendship, and importantly, hope....along with their need of economic opportunity.

Now perhaps you are thinking that this is a nice little program and it is possible because someone else is actually providing the chunk of change. I agree that there is a place for SOME government financial help. But government help has whopperjawed to the point that it harms more than it helps. Throwing money over a fence at people may SEEM compassionate. Americans are glad something is being done to alleviate suffering. They know suffering is present and they want to help. But from our years at Eastgate, we had a unique perspective of the harm done.

When President Johnson began his Great Society, it seemed like a good idea. But the Great Society decimated the black family. It brought a generation of single mothers (which of itself aggravates poverty). It brought population density which wrought crime and violence onto neighborhoods. It made the black male a phantom propagator. It brought victimhood and poverty and anger and slothfulness and addictions. On "check day" you can add fighting and stealing.

One party in national politics claims high ground on this issue. By shoveling money at the problem, they are supposedly "compassionate". But as you look at Detroit or New Orleans or Chicago (cities with the same party leadership for thirty years or more), you cannot tout "better lives" for all that money dropped in. Instead, it created a permanent underclass. And then the residents vote the party line and perpetuate their refugee camp status, while thinking someone is helping them.

So why doesn't the system work? Much of poverty legislation contradicts biblical principles. Can something be virtuous, yet not God-honoring? What does God have to say about work? Would He pay someone not to work? In His economy, work is the way a person provides (gives up his life) for his family. Work provides a place of influence to share Christ...and provides money to support God's work.

Work builds self-worth and satisfaction and perseverance and a sense of contribution and identity. We are all familiar with 1Thess. 3.10 "If anyone is not willing to work, neither should he eat." Work is part of God's design for our lives.

What about paying a woman's expenses if she has children? That has negated a man's place of family headship. Would God go for that one? What has paying single women to have kids led to? If you are black, you are more likely to be in a single parent home than a home with two parents. You therefore automatically will have a harder chance to "make it". Again, not compassionate.

OK, so if I'm so smart...what is the answer? Well, I like what Rick Warren has said. He points out that America has sent piles of money to Africa for relief. Has it helped? No. Why? It doesn't get there. Corrupt dictatorships siphon it off. It gets clear across the ocean, and then within a few miles from the target, it is diverted. So, let's think. Our money mostly gets to the target in America, but it doesn't help. Our money does not get to the Africans, so that isn't working, either. WHAT IS THE ANSWER?

Well, Warren suggests something that would work in America or Africa. But woohoo! It will make some folks who have excused God from the public equation REALLY uncomfortable. Warren points out that structure is already in place all over the world for meeting needs. It's the church. They are local, therefore they know the people. They know who is shucking the system and who is really needy. They are already set up so the wheel does not have to be reinvented. They have a heart and can come alongside the money with people to build relationships. And that is the "one-to-one" that is KEY to making it work...just like the Good Samaritan.

Now do I really think in this day and time of "separation of church and state" that such a model will ever be tried? Probably not. This side of heaven things are not ideal. Our home now is a broken system that we work within...in order to have influence for Him. But let's face it. Heaven is our real home. That is where things will be set right.

America is sitting on the precipice of viewing government as our provider/caretaker...then master. Government was NEVER to be our Savior or Deliverer or Master. That role is taken. Looking to anything other than God has always had serious repercussions.

"The Lord alone is God - there is no other besides Him." Deuteronomy 4.35 NET

DISSENT or DESCENT

Well, hallelujah...a reason that old age is our friend. We remember things (usually).

I can recall Bill and Hillary in the old days. They were in the streets as hippie activists.

And how about our current President? Barack Obama's resume was full of words like "community activist" and "million man march". So perhaps hitting the streets to express participation in our republic is not such a frightening thing. That's what the Tea Party Movement is doing...

Yet the ex-President outrageously uses "tea party movement" and "Timothy McVeigh" in the same talk he gave yesterday down in Florida. Comparing peaceful dissent to McVeigh? Think back to what motivated McVeigh. Was it words or actions? Wiki records:

"McVeigh instructed his lawyers to use a necessity defense, but they ended up not doing so,[52] because they would have had to prove that McVeigh was in "imminent danger" from the government. (McVeigh himself argued that "imminent" did not necessarily mean "immediate.") They would have argued that his bombing of the Murrah building was a justifiable response to what McVeigh believed were the crimes of the U.S. government at Waco, Texas. The 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian complex resulted in the deaths of 76 Branch Davidian members."

Please do not misunderstand. McVeigh's actions were indefensible. But to insinuate a link between tea parties/talk radio and a deranged act, ex-President Clinton steps over the fact that McVeigh was responding to Janet Reno (HIS Atty General) sending tanks into a compound that resulted in many deaths.

Additionally, it's just a big bite to swallow when ex-President Clinton points that finger in our faces to caution Americans about domestic terrorists when he was president when we were bombed at the first World Trade Center, the Cole, the Khobar Towers, the African Embassy, and the Saudi Arabian Embassy. How did HE respond to REAL al Qaeda terrorism?

But we can cut the former President slack when he calls for measured words. Everyone should be held accountable for the tone of their words. Back when Hillary was running against President Obama, Clinton called Barack Obama a "Chicago thug". Well, that was just jive campaign talk. But as Bill Clinton said, words are provocative and do incite. Some examples that come to mind are BHO's friends...Bill Ayers (re the Pentagon bombing..."sorry we didn't do more"), and Jeremiah Wright ("gdamn American"). Those ARE pretty provocative words.

Tea party demonstrators are peacefully meeting to speak for less government. If the tea party movement seems angry, it is because they are either totally ignored or mocked by our leader. The President has control over that response. In the last Pew Research Center's poll, it recorded that 80% of Americans do not trust Washington and have little faith that it can solve America's ills.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jd_jiGbsExSJ0dfp1Na1YjnRJsfgD9F608UG0

I heard a man today say some powerful words. He cited the movie "Braveheart", when William Wallace stood at the table to plead with the lords. Wallace said "if you will just LEAD us, we will follow".

I believe that the reason Bill Clinton and President Obama have such a terror about the tea parties...is that they know the tea parties capture the country's longing to follow a leader who would know the way back to our founding.

PARTYING on the SQUARE

What a gorgeous day in NW Arkansas for a tea party. It's 75 degrees with a nice breeze.

Mike and I approached the square and it looked like a normal Thursday with the Farmers Market going on.

But as we headed around to the Town Center...

Actually the Town Center was not this active when we arrived because we were an hour early. This picture was made as we left.

One paper put the crowd at 1,000; another put the number at 400. Quite a disparity, eh? Mike said it could have been a thousand. He set up our sharechair on the front row and we were unable to see behind us accurately.

My sign won the contest for Best Sign on the Front Row.

I wondered if there were any troublemakers in the crowd, so we swapped chairtime and I went wandering through the participants earlyon.

I didn't know this lady, but she epitomized the enthusiastic spirit of the crowd. Plus she won for Best Headdress.

Another lady went by with a button that said "Bitter Clinger".

Now this guy had the real talent. He won for Best Signage Coming and Going.

This is what he said on one side...

This is what he said on the other.

Remember you can click on the picture if you'd like to make it larger.

This lady went through the crowd offering buttercreme mints wrapped in red/white/blue. Look at that cute little bow in her hair.

The pregnant anchorlady in purple waited to catch the special speaker.

Someone started singing "God Bless America" as we waited. And the introduction contained a real

prayer.

Dick Morris did a great job speaking. I wondered if they might bring him in through the building behind him. Nope. He came straight through the crowd to the front.

The man in the straw hat is the organizer of the Washington County Tea Party. The young lady on the right introduced Dick Morris. She was DYNOMITE. I wish everyone could have heard her speak. She was a Fayettevillian mom/wife and works with Americans for Prosperity. Seriously, Morris should put her on TV.

One of my take-aways from the talk was about socialism. Dick Morris says that the word is not a title, but a statistic. He said when President Obama took office, the percentage of money under government's control was 28%. In just a year and four months, it is now 36%...and when the full effects of healthcare kick in it will be 41%. That would put us in a tie with England, two less than France at 43%, and on and on until Sweden has the highest percentage at 54%.

And so I'm thinking...hmmm...each of my dimes they spend...are dimes I don't get to spend or to say how they are spent. I can be assured by history that they won't be spent as a good steward or even effectively (as I look back at how the War on Poverty came out). One part of my liberty is to be able to give according to my heart's direction.

These are the candidates for Congress running in the Republican primary. This morning they all promised not to raise taxes if elected.

Mr. Morris finishes and walks past us to make his way through the crowd. I left my finger in the picture so it was obvious I hadn't cropped him to make him look close.

Allison, do you see your Daddy in the picture?

Leaving...

Is this a real car?

One last lady sticks her head in for a book signing, and...

Dick Morris is off to Fort Smith, and then late this afternoon, to the Capitol steps in Little Rock.

THIRTY-NINTH RICHEST GUY IN THE WORLD

Did you catch a 60 Minutes piece about this man back in March?

His name is Mikhail Prokhorov, a Russian billionaire who has agreed to purchase 80% of the New Jersey Nets basketball team. The program was introducing Mr. Prokhorov because he is the first foreign owner of an NBA franchise. At 6'8" he says he is the only owner who can dunk the ball.

Steve Kroft followed this billionaire through several days in "his world"...allowing viewers to get an eyeful of the lavish lifestyle he enjoys. Mr. Prokhorov travels around the world in private jets stocked with beautiful women. He does absolutely what he pleases. He works out two hours a day and says he is addicted to adrenaline sports (what he calls "controlled risk"). I read he doesn't sleep much, so it was nothing to fly Kroft to Siberia to check out his gold mine in the middle of the night. The Russian joked and laughed often as they talked, but even in laughter his eyes seemed cold.

At one point, the interviewer remarked..."well, as you come to the United States to watch the Nets play, maybe you will find someone to marry". The 44-year-old bachelor laughed and explained to Steve Kroft that his life was to his liking. "If you have a wife, you have to be with one woman...I like women. My heart is like a teenager."

Does this mean that he thinks the choices are either marriage (A), or whoopie (B)? Mr. Prokhorov, you are not alone in that misunderstanding (and there are others who choose to juggle both those choices). But please know that the One who formed your innermost being has kindly left instructions for a well-lived life; life is found in choosing to live inside God's guidelines. And those guidelines offer marriage (A), or celebacy (B). There's no sex outside of marriage.

If our Russian billionaire has all the money he can burn...all the pretty women at his beck and call...and all the toys...then why are his eyes so lifeless? Why is he not able to sleep at night? There is a richness and relaxation that comes from the assurance of pleasing God. Not everyone owns an NBA franchise, but when your life is in conformity to the Owner's manual, simple things like sleep come easier.

Addendum...

Just this week I read another article about Mikhail Prokhorov. Investigation is revealing that Mr. Prokhorov has done business with the Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe for years. Know him? Mugabe is so evil that his henchmen cut off the hands and feet of an opposition leaders WIFE before they set her on fire. The dictator's corruption caused the United States to make laws against doing business with him. Mr. Prokhorov does not violate Russian law in his business dealings with Mugabe, but they do reveal an icy, calculating heart. The NBA (whose job it is to investigate the character of prospective owners) might want to take another look at whose money that they have accepted.

"The fear of the Lord is the start of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One gives a wise mind...If you are wise, you will be the one to benefit. If you scorn wisdom, you will be the one to suffer." Proverbs 9.10,12 BBE/NLT

STEEPING

Have you seen these pics from Searchlight, NV?

They were having a tea party there the last Saturday in March and that's quite a line to get in.

Our country is experiencing a groundswell of citizenry outrage against government.

This snowball began rolling long before our current president.

People who work hard and spend their time taking care of their families have trusted leadership and that same leadership rotted from within.

George Washington would drop his wooden

teeth if he could see the motives and character of

the men we have asked to go to DC to be our voice.

Just last April, exasperation with government expressed itself as the Tea Party movement.

Meetings were thrown together all over the country and people turned out in droves.

Take a look at the people you see in these pictures.

They are middle America.

If you took a poll, I'll bet you would find that "taking to the streets" was new for 75% of them.

They morphed from voters to political activists.

Maybe you have friends who have been to a tea party. We have.

Some friends here in Fayetteville got tired of not agreeing with our country's leadership.

So one man was convicted that he didn't have the right to complain if he wasn't offering to be part of the solution.

So in addition to his 9-5...and with no prior experience...Randy Alexander is running for the Senate this fall.

If we cannot trust men with experience, then let the inexperienced have a go.

Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln, the incumbent, will face a contender from a field of 8 Republican candidates. Eight.

This is a grassroots movement.

http://alexanderforsenate.org/site/

Randy went to Washington for the first tea party a year ago; Randy Alexander is who I think of when I think Tea Party movement.

God bless men of principle.

Have you noticed the full-court discrediting blitz going on to suggest that the TP'ers are violent and racist?

Oh please! And THAT is why all these people are in the street? I don't think so.

Fifty-three percent of the country voted for a black man. Now they hate him enough to don white hoods?

That's such an obvious smokescreen.

For middle America to be out, there has to be more.

There has to be a problem that is coming into their homes...

Granted, some weird things are happening.

Fringe folks may have attached themselves to the Tea Party.

There are always angry people that use a cause to vent, and venters live on the left as well.

But current efforts to assign ominous tones to the Tea Party movement are ridiculous.

One slobbery venom-spewing heckler making a

burden-bearing animal of himself does not define the Tea Party movement.

What is undeniable is that an amazing number of civil protesters assembled in Washington and in many cities ALL YEAR LONG.

They've peacefully chanted and held up signs and listened to music and speeches.

Then they cleaned up after themselves as they left.

So what IS the Tea Party movement?

It is measured civil dissent.

It is a group of patriots and libertarians who are against tax-and-spend big government.

They have been ignored by government.

The media has assigned to them a misnomer.

But they remain a force to be reckoned with in November.

P.S. Fayetteville's second annual Tax Day Tea Party will be held on the town square from 11-1 on April 15th. Dick Morris will speak. Please bring canned goods for Life Source (a non-profit which comes alongside families in need).

JESUS EYES

This man is a perfect stranger to me, yet I feel like we are friends. Doesn't he have the kindest eyes?

Keith Green was born into a musical family and at 6 was singing/writing his own songs. Decca Records signed him at 11; the same year he was a guest on the TV show "I've Got a Secret". He felt like a failure at 14 because he was not yet a pop star. At 15 he ran away from home in search of truth. He enjoyed California's hippie/drug scene, found his wife Melody when he was 19, and when they were 21... they both found Jesus. Now this "John the Baptist" wrote songs for God.

The Greens had not read the Bible before; they believed what they read. So they brought people who needed help into their home. When the house was full, they bought the house next door. And then they rented five or six others on their street. There was always a Bible study going on.

Keith also had radical thoughts about his music...and he sent shock waves through the music industry when his songs were high on the chart and he decided to sell them for what people could afford...even if it meant giving them away. He gave thousands of CDs to prisons and to the poor. He strongly felt that no one should pay for the gospel.

Mike and I were new Christians in 1981 when Keith Green came to Little Rock in concert. Mike made big points by taking me to the concert. We were surprised to find the tickets were free. To pay the venue rent, they took up a love offering.

Keith and Melody did not take any of the offering; they were able to live on their music royalties.

Life has curious twists. Keith Green died in a plane crash the next year. He was 28 years old. His Josiah (3) and Bethany (2) were also on the plane. That left Melody pregnant and with Rebekah (1).

Today Melody Green runs a ministry that she and Keith started in 1977 called Last Days Ministries. She's an author and speaker, she writes music, and she's been all over the world ministering with pro-life issues. Her two daughters (one who never knew her Daddy) are married now and serve the Lord along with their husbands.

When Jesus comes into a life, that person's account receives many assurance deposits. One confidence is that they know on "that day" they will meet people who have gone ahead. I'm looking forward to meeting my brother with the holy fever, Keith Green. His life was a blaze of glory. And his story reminds me of another of my heroes, Rich Mullins.

If you'd like to listen to some of Keith Green's songs, I have some links...

On this one, Keith is introducing one of my fav songs "O Lord, You're Beautiful"...and he speaks a profound Keithism: "Lord, I want to have skin like a baby on my heart."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVgPQm06g2c&feature=related

I love watching him bounce on the piano bench when he sings "You Put This Love in My Heart"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0nUizWjaFM&feature=related

If you ever sang a song in church called "There is a Redeemer", that is one of Melody's. She wrote the music/lyrics and Keith recorded it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEwR9Zvnk9g

BUT...Easter just wouldn't be Easter without Keith's "Easter Song". Want a blessing? Hope you and your family have a great celebration Sunday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OEqavkJGCE&feature=related