Over the last three days, I have had the complete displeasure of watching and listening to most of the keynote speakers at the Democratic Convention. Last night, I watched the repeat broadcast of Joe Biden's speech.
I was struggling to find a catchy line that would describe what was heard in most of the speeches. Then, while reading a chapter from Max Lucado's book
Traveling Light, I found the phrase I was looking for:
Democrats: Those people who trudge through each day with a "cumbersome sack of discontent."I am serious!! All that I heard coming out of the mouths of most of the speakers were complaints!!
Except for moments of grandeur and praise of themselves, their own families, and other Democrats, did you hear any mention of gratitude for living in the greatest nation on God's green earth??
The other thing that really bothered me was seeing Hillary and Bill join the clueless, Kool-Aid drinkers and through their individual speeches, ultimately ended up bowing at the altar of Obamination. Are we to really believe that what they said was sincere?
Perhaps Hillary was sincere in her rejection of John McCain, but the recent campaign commercial where she states something like this - "John McCain is prepared to be president and has served this country honorably for years - Barack Obama gave a speech in 2002." [paraphrased here] has to make one wonder...when was she telling the truth? Was it when she made that original statement about Senator McCain or the other night when she disparaged him and praised Obama?
Isn't it logical to ask,
"When was she genuinely sharing her true opinions and feelings?" It is mindboggling how Democrats consistently talk out of two sides of their faces - and end up saying completely opposite things. What's even worse is that the MSM lets them get away with it!! Thank God for the Internet where we can discern truth from lies!
Did you happen to see the new NOBama fad? Flip flop sandals with mini heads of Obama attached at the top! Each one represents each of his known flip-flopping stances on issues! Ha!! More accurately, it appears that he tries to be "both ways Obama." Now, that's a real hoot!!
It wasn't my intention to continue describing all of the discontent that reeks from the Democrat Party. It's just that it served as a perfect example of what Max Lucado describes as "the prison of want" in chapter four of his book
Traveling Light.
This particular chapter is so good that I wish I could type it all out! But I will share just a few portions that will hopefully give you the main message.
Max describes the "world's most oppressive prison" as "the prison of want." He gives examples. People who may not want much, but just that "one thing" that will make them happy.
Excerpt:
They want just one thing. One new job. One new car. One new house. One new spouse. They don't want much . They want just one.
And when they have "one," they will be happy. And they are right - they will be happy. When they have "one," they will leave the prison. But then it happens. The new car smell passes. The new job gets old. The neighbors buy a larger TV set. The new spouse has bad habits. The sizzle fizzles, and before you know it, another ex-con breaks parole and returns to jail.
Personally, I think that many liberals and most Democrats are in the prison of want. What's worse is the fact that their leaders want them there in order to get what they want...
elected!When the Democrats took over Congress in 2006, did you see them pass any legislation to make their "prisoners of want" happy? No. Of course not! Why? Because they wanted the "sack of discontent" to linger all the way up to this forthcoming election day on November 4th, 2008! Doesn't it seem that way to you, too?
Lucado tells us how to recognize when we are in this type of prison:
Are you in prison? You are if you feel better when you have more and worse when you have less. You are if joy is one delivery away, one transfer away, one award away, or one makeover away. If your happiness comes from something you deposit, drive, drink, or digest, then face it - you are in prison, the prison of want.
If the truth be told, I think that almost everyone goes through a time in this particular prison. However, some people remain their for most of their lives! That's truly sad!
Well, as Max writes, "that's the bad news. The good news is, you have a visitor."
And your visitor has a message that can get you paroled. Make your way to the receiving room. Take your seat in the chair, and look across the table at the psalmist David. He motions for you to lean forward. "I have a secret to tell you," he whispers, "the secret of satisfaction. 'The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want'" (Ps. 23:1 NKJV).
David has found the pasture where discontent goes to die. It's as if he is saying, "What I have in God is greater than what I don't have in life."
You think you and I could learn to say the same?
Wow! That's SO POWERFUL!
Let me take a brief time out to share some thoughts about a movie documentary that I saw yesterday. The movie is called
Young At Heart.At that link, you can read a brief review (that doesn't give a lot of the plot away) and also view several video clips (may contain spoilers) of the documentary.
At the end, I teared up big time!!
It was so awesome to see these people perform and receive standing ovations. They got such responses from both a huge concert audience, as well as from prisoners (who were holed up in a real prison camp) they had performed for earlier in the movie.
Several of members of the choral group were believers. One sang in his church chorus and another mentioned that the Lord will take him when it is his time.
I have to say that seeing some grown men at the prison camp tear up - and then hug the choral group members after their performance - was so very moving!
We know that many Christian groups bring children and various singing groups to nursing homes to visit the elderly and cheer them up. But to see the elderly from nursing homes come and sing for a group of hardened criminals was just amazing!
These chorus members still had their problems - health and otherwise. They had their aches and pains. They had difficulty learning and memorizing some of the lyrics. They had their emergency trips to the hospital. They had physical disabilities and all the rest that comes with the aging process. Yet, when they were performing - in those moments - all of those problems went away...for a time. They expressed how much they loved singing and performing for grateful audiences.
The final concert at the end had me sobbing - both with sadness and joy!
You see, the life of the Christian believer is like that. Sometimes filled with sadness - but also overflowing with joy!
When we receive Christ as Lord and Savior, that born-again experience releases "the fruit of the Spirit" within us.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Eph 5:8 ¶ For ye were sometimes darkness, but now [are ye] light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
Eph 5:9 (For the fruit of the Spirit [is] in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
Eph 5:10 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.
Notice that one fruit is called "long suffering." The Bible tells us the truth - and the truth is just as Jesus described to us in John:
Jhn 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
And, why can we be of good cheer despite all of the turmoil going on around us?
1Jo 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
Jesus is all about overcoming. At the moment of salvation, he overcomes the effect of sin on our souls. With Him in our hearts, he allows us to overcome our fears, trials, tribulations and yes - even the "prisons" that tempt to snag us in this life.
Rev 2:10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast [some] of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
Rev 2:11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
Which brings us back to Max Lucado's book.
Excerpt:
Think for just a moment about the things you own. Think about the house you have, the car you drive, the money you've saved. Think about the jewelry you've inherited and the stocks you've traded and the clothes you've purchased. Envision all your stuff, and let me remind you of two biblical truths.
Your stuff isn't yours. Ask any coroner. Ask any embalmer. Ask any funeral-home director. No one takes anything with him.
The author goes on to tell the familiar story of one of the wealthiest men in history, John D. Rockefeller. When he died, his accountant was asked, "How much did John D. leave?" The accountant answered, "All of it."
"Naked a man comes from his mother's womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand." (Eccles. 5:15 NIV).
Back to the election for a moment. During all of the back and forth about Barack Obama's elitism (and, now he's 4 million dollars richer through book sales) and John McCain's wife owning seven homes; on campaign camp tried to outdo the other in the "rich man" game.
However, I liked what I heard from John McCain. Compared to most of the rest of the world, every single one of us in America is rich! He probably wasn't only talking about financial circumstances. America is rich in many other things too.
Rich in faith, hope, love, forgiveness, grace, mercy, and salvation through Christ.
Rich in freedom.
Rich in generosity.
Rich in protection.
Rich in good people.
Rich in a military unsurpassed by any other.
Rich in giving to those less fortunate.
Rich in providing education.
Rich in opportunity for those who work for it.
The list could go on and on.
What would you add to it?
I see John McCain's candidacy as being filled with optimism - about today and tomorrow. I see Obama's campaign as filled with pessimism and discontent about today - with a pseudo kind of "hope" for tomorrow. These are just my opinions, of course.
Back to Lucado's book:
All that stuff - it's not yours. And you know what else about all that stuff? It's not you. Who you are has nothing to do with the clothes you wear or the car you drive. Jesus said, "Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot" (Luke 12:15 MSG). Heaven does not know you as the fellow with the nice suit or the woman with the big house or the kid with the new bike. Heaven knows your heart. "The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart" (1 Sam. 16:7 NIV).
When God thinks of you, he may see your compassion, your devotion, your tenderness or quick mind, but he doesn't think of your things.
And when you think of you, you shouldn't either. Define yourself by your stuff, and you'll feel good when you have a lot and bad when you don't. Contentment comes when we can honestly say with Paul: "I have learned to be satisfied with the things I have....I know how to live when I am poor, and I know how to live when I have plenty" (Phil. 4:11-12).
Back to the election.
Tonight, there will be a grand performance held at a stadium which holds 70,000 people for Obama's speech. I just can't even imagine what the cost of such an extravaganza will be. In the midst of all this hype, I have two questions.
1. Why doesn't Obama donate money (even just some of the 4 million from book sales could do a LOT!) to the needy he often talks about in his speeches?
2. Why is he wasting millions of campaign donor money on an event that is designed just to specifically glorify himself?
HT:
Young at HeartMax Lucado's Traveling Light
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