What’s The Point?
So why am I even writing a “Mike’s Memo” in the first place? I don’t have anything interesting to share. I’m not smarter or more profound than others. There are really two reasons.
The first is personal. Sometimes I’m reading or studying and I have these epiphany moments. Something that says “I’ve never seen that before.”, or at least not in that way. Or I’ll hear someone on a podcast or video explain something in terms that just make sense to me. They give me the verbage I’ve needed to relate a topic I’ve known or believed but couldn’t put into words. Like “The reason most young people are talked out of their faith in college is because they’ve never been talked into it.”, care of Frank Turek’s Crossed Examined podcast introduction.
I’ve been writing things in a notebook for years but it just collects dust. Writing these memos will help me dust them off and share them with others who might find them useful. I like Colossians 1:28 (you’ll have to look it up!)
The second reason is more pragmatic. Our media team was looking for regular content. I never remember to upload pictures from events or meetings so this is my contribution to the ongoing media effort. I pray someone finds it useful.
I’m mostly going to stick to life, bible and the current reading I’m doing. (That’s been mostly apologetics lately.) I know politics is popular but it isn’t something I want to raise a banner over. BUT… I had to share this one from my daily bible reading yesterday. It made me chuckle. Considered one of the wisest men who ever lived King Solomon writes:
Ecclesiasties 10:2 A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right, but a fool’s heart to the left.
Given the increasing and deepening divisions across so many issues in the country that people label “Right” or “Left” this is a good verse to have in your pocket. At least if you lean “Right”.
Speaking of the political, two recent Crossed Examined podcasts provided some interesting criticism and support for our president. 12/7/19 “Why did Evangelicals Vote for Trump?” and a follow up responding to questions on 1/4/20 “The Elephant in the Room isn’t Trump”. This podcast series may now be named “I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist”. I haven’t kept up with the reorganization they are doing. While this isn’t the “whole story” it does cover some important topics and provide some resources for further reading if one is so inclined.
Did you know there is a web site that for the past 30 years has been analyzing and quantifying bias in media presentation, https://www.mrc.org/. Or that there is another site, https://www.allsides.com/unbiased-balanced-news, that has a 3-column parallel news format with articles from, right, center and left publications. (I don’t know who decides what’s RCL but that’s beside the point.) I didn’t know that!
Okay, you might say I’m apolitical but I also believe that God is sovereign. That has a big affect on how I look at all this stuff. Am I worried about the state of the country? Would it help? (see my sermon from 11/24/19 https://ithacavineyard.org/sunday-mornings/sermons/worry-would-it-help)
God bless, MIke