“I would rather live by principles that brand me naïve and lead to hope, than to adopt a philosophy that can be empirically defended, yet results in despair.”
Archive for the ‘Opinions’ Category
Thought for the Day – The Proof & the Pudding
Posted in Opinions, Personal, Thought for the Day / Quotes on November 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Thought for the Day – Rules of Engagement
Posted in Opinions, Thought for the Day / Quotes on October 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »
God has called His people to be engaged in the world, but not to be invested in it. A distorted view of holiness can cause us to miss the former, while misguided notions about evangelism can result in us falling to the latter.
Thought for the Day – Building Bridges
Posted in Opinions, Thought for the Day / Quotes on October 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »
God has not called His people to build a bridge between Him and the world; He has called them to be the bridge. While our human tendency is to erect monuments for posterity, God is far more interested in our personal involvement.
Thought for the Day – Unity
Posted in Opinions, Thought for the Day / Quotes on October 5, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Because every persons experience and perspective is to some extent unique, unity is not likely to come about through total agreement. For human beings, unity only becomes possible when we are willing to commit to standing together in spite of our differences.
Thought for the Day – Time Spent in the Valley
Posted in Opinions, Thought for the Day / Quotes on September 30, 2010| 2 Comments »
In the deepest part of the valley, you encounter the river that carved it. Ultimately, I believe this is why God allows us to spend time there.
Thought for the Day – Home is Where the Heart Is
Posted in Opinions, Thought for the Day / Quotes on September 27, 2010| Leave a Comment »
A child of God should never truly feel at home in a fallen world. Our efforts to find comfort in the things of this world only serve to drive us away from the One Person who can actually provide it.
10 Things that Change with Age
Posted in Lists, Opinions on September 24, 2010| 2 Comments »
1. It becomes easier to say “I don’t know”: I think that children often assume that adults have all the answers; so as young adults, they feel as though they should have an answer for every question. As we get older, it becomes painfully obvious that we don’t have all the answers and easier to admit that “I just don’t know”.
2. What we look for in a mate seems to change: As a young man, I seemed to lack a lot of the qualities (e.g. bodybuilder physique, cutting edge style, movie star good looks, a fat paycheck) that girls seemed to be looking for; but when I suddenly became single in my thirties, I found that what women (my age) seemed to be looking for had changed dramatically. At that point, being clean cut, friendly, respectful and dependable seemed to trump those other features (which I still lacked).
3. Peace becomes of greater value than excitement: I think that younger folks believe that older folks just lose their sense of excitement; but I’d submit that we simply come to recognize how much more precious and rare true peace is. I’ve found that life can often become a lot more exciting than I’d like and in those times its clear that excitement is generally overrated. Eventually most of us come to see that a quiet walk on the beach, with someone we genuinely care about, is a lot better than a house full of beer swilling friends and loud music.
4. We become more excited at the thought of our kids (or grandkids) having success than by visions of our own success: This may not be true for people who never have kids, but for those of us who do, it’s almost an absolute truth. As a dad who’s watched many a ballgame, dance recital, play, school program… I can testify that watching my kids shine is far more exhilarating than anything that I could accomplish at this point in my life.
5. It gets harder to use words like “always” and “never”: They say that life is a great teacher and one of the things that life tends to teach is to expect the unexpected. As such, it get’s harder to come up with examples of things that are “always” this or “never” that. While children seem to use these kinds of words frequently (e.g. he never has chores, I always have homework…), experience makes it harder to find a context for them.
6. Character tends to become more important than personality: I’ve noticed that younger people are often more engrossed in an individual’s personality than in what kind of person they might be; while older folks seem to reverse that pattern. I believe this is probably bore out of experiences like being deceived, disappointed and/or damaged by people who initially seemed highly attractive.
7. It becomes easier to be patient: Please note that I didn’t say it becomes “easy” to be patient, just “easier”. Learning patience is a long and painful process, but a reality of life is that it often makes us wait and after awhile, we know to expect some of that. Though the process doesn’t get any more pleasant, it does become easier to predict.
8. We realize that it’s easier to look 10 years younger than it is to feel 10 years younger: This is probably a no-brainer, but a fresh coat of paint doesn’t make the barn stand any straighter. While we can have things nipped, tucked, banded, suctioned, airbrushed… it doesn’t do anything to actually preserve our youth. Things like exercise and eating right are disciplines that have to be practiced regularly to have an effect; and ultimately, our overall well-being extends beyond the physical, to the emotional and spiritual aspects of our life as well.
9. Our concept of love tends to change: I think that young love tends to flow closer to the surface, where the waves make for an exhilarating and sometimes treacherous ride. While old love tends to move in the depths, where the winds of a passing storm are barely felt. Though some might see that as less exciting, many of us see it as being more substantial and meaningful.
10. It gets harder not to wonder about the meaning of this life and whether there is anything beyond it: As we get older, we inevitably face the passing of acquaintances, friends and family; and as we ponder the meaning of their lives (and/or deaths), it’s hard not to do the same for our own. In those times, the permanence of death naturally causes us to wonder about, and maybe even hope for, something beyond this life.
Bjcorbin's Blog 
Talking Politics with a 5th Grader
Posted in Commentaries, Opinions, Parenting / Family, Personal, Social / Political on November 9, 2010| 9 Comments »
Last Wednesday morning (11/03/2010), as the results of the mid-term elections were announced on the car radio, I noticed that my 10 year old son was watching for my reaction. Apparently my lack of response stirred his curiosity and we had a conversation that went something like this:
“Dad, are we Republicans or Democrats?” he asked.
“Neither,” I replied.
“Don’t you have to be one or the other?” he continued.
“No, you don’t have to be a member of a political party if you don’t want to be,” I said.
“Don’t you like any of them?” he said.
“I don’t like any of them enough to join them or to vote for their candidate’s every time. None of them really represent what I believe in, so it’s better for me to look at every candidate and to decide which is the one I want to vote for,” I explained.
“What’s the difference between the Republicans and the Democrats?” he asked.
I had to smile at that question, as I answered, “It’s not always clear son. Generally, Republicans feel like less government means more freedom, so they tend to want to limit how involved the government gets in the lives of the people; while Democrats tend to be more concerned about social issues and feel as though the government has a duty to get involved in the lives of the people. As you can imagine, these differing ideas cause them to disagree a lot.”
“Which idea do you think is right?” he asked.
“Actually, I see value in both ideas. Like the Republicans, I generally feel that less government is better; but like the Democrats, I feel like the government should provide some help for people who really need it. It’s just a question of balancing those two ideas. If we make the government too small, there may be people who won’t get the help that they genuinely need; and if we make it too big, it could start to interfere with our freedom and become difficult to pay for,” I replied.
With a puzzled look on his face, he asked, “Doesn’t the government just print up the money it needs?”
I chuckled, as I said, “Well they do print the money, but the truth is that the people pay the bills for the government; if we want them to do more, than we have to be willing to pay more for it. If you hear a candidate promise to do more, without the cost going up, you’ll know that they’re not being honest about it.”
“So since the Republicans won last night, do you think the government is going to get smaller now?” he continued.
“Unfortunately, that’s probably not how it’s going to work; because neither side is willing to work with the other. It’s like when the kids in the neighborhood get together for a football game; both sides want to win so badly that the minute one team starts to get ahead, the other one takes their ball and goes home. For that last couple of years the Democrats had enough people in office that they didn’t even need the Republicans to play; but now that it’s closer to even, I expect that they’ll spend a lot of time fighting with each other and trying to convince the people that the other side is the reason for their lack of progress. The truth is that their lack of progress is really caused by their unwillingness to work together to address the problems.”
“All the guys on TV said that they were going to make jobs for everyone; won’t that make things better?” he asked.
“It would help, if they actually had the ability to keep that promise. The problem is that they can’t. The government doesn’t make jobs, business and industry do that. Though they can spend some of the people’s money to give a few people some temporary jobs, they can’t create the kind of job it takes to raise a family on,” I said grimly.
“Why do they promise things that they know they can’t deliver?” he asked angrily.
“Sadly, because they know that people are really hurting for jobs and that it’s what they want to hear,” I replied.
“But haven’t the people figured out that they’re lying?” he said.
“I guess not; it seems like a lot of people are still expecting someone in the government to deliver the jobs they promised. You see, the government was meant to serve the people in certain limited ways, but it was never meant to take care of the people. Now that things are getting hard, a lot of people seem to want the government to take care of them and it wasn’t built to do that. It would be like me hiring a maid and paying her to serve me. The more I pay her, the more she’s willing to do. But if I lost my job and I can’t pay her anymore, should I expect that she’s now going to take care of me for free until things get better?” I said.
Shaking his head, he said, “No way, if you don’t have any money, she probably won’t do anything for you.”
“That’s right, she’s my servant, not my mother; but there are a lot of people in America who seem to think that our servant (i.e. the government) ought to take care of them like a mother. At this point, “We the People” can either decide to rise to our new challenges, like we have many times before in our history or we can keep crying out for more government help, which will eventually result in a government that we serve. The reason America has done so well, for so long, is because its people have been willing to rise to new challenges and we’re once again in one of those times. It’s up to the people, not the government, to do things differently,” I replied.
“So is this why you don’t seem very excited about this election?” he asked.
I smiled, as I replied, “That’s right son, my hope isn’t that the government is going to save me or our family. If it was, I’d be miserable. Our hope needs to be invested in better promises than the ones you’ve heard on TV.”
“So, should I even bother to vote when I get older?” he asked.
“Absolutely, you have been blessed to grow up in a country where the people have a voice in their government and as a citizen; you have a responsibility to participate in that process. I don’t want you to think that it doesn’t matter, because even if the government is just a servant, it affects your life and the lives of people you care about. You definitely need to take your rights as a citizen seriously, but don’t lose sight of the fact that the government can’t deliver peace and prosperity to your life. Those things will depend on the choices that you make.”
At that moment, we drove up in front of the school and the conversation ended.
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