Is Our Helping Really Hurting?
Perhaps some of the biggest criticisms in the book are aimed at the multi-billion dollar Short Term Mission industry in America and the Western world. According to the evidence (or lack of it) most STM experiences do not benefit the people they are intended to. Even those who go on them generally fall back into old patterns of life and thought within months of their return from a trip. In other words, there is very little to see for the huge sums of money being spent. Very often, the 30k needed to fund an average overseas missions trip could be better spent on the ground by local practitioners, but this is far too radical a step for many!
It’s So Much Easier To Criticize!
Because it is so easy to criticize, we must take extra effort to encourage, build up, and affirm other believers (I’m preaching to myself here). We must go the extra mile to encourage and refresh others. We must work hard to overwhelm our relationships with encouragement. If our relationships become overrun with criticism they can quickly become unfruitful.
We know God opposes the proud. But some forms of social media seem to have redefined what pride is and what it’s not.
One part snark + One part bitterness + Just saying = Complete forgiveness for whatever you’ve just said.
Somewhere along the line this restoration project which began as a unity movement (“Christians only but not the only Christians) began asserting itself as the only true church, attacking all other denominations as false teaching and unchristian. The result became an anti-intellectual, anti-traditional, and tribalistic form of sectarianism. Of course, those still steeped in this sectarianism will cry foul at my assessment here but that may only show just how much we became a victim of our own iconoclasm.
I Want to be a Parent… I Think
Parenting has its share of joys. But, it has its challenges, too. Someone remarked, ”Some adults never become good parents because they can’t leave the “childhood” (selfish!) stage.” Their point was simply that there is still too much selfishness in them to turn loose and focus on the needs of other people – even their own children. What is true of biological families and parenting in particular can be true of believers with respect to our “stuckness” in faith growth.
Does reading in dim light hurt your eyes?
Dr. Sheedy says he assures his students that there isn’t enough evidence to argue that what you do with your eyes leads to myopia (nearsightedness): “The predominant determinant of myopia is genetics.” No link to long-term damage has ever been conclusively shown, says Dr. Sheedy. “It’s an old tale, a ploy used by moms to get kids to go to sleep when they wanted them to,” he says.