I live in a community where garbage cans are only allowed on the streets on the day of pick up. Rest of the time they are either to be stored in your garage or on the side of the house behind the fence so that it is not visible from the street.

That’s the HOA rules. If you violate it, you receive a nice note. If you violate it again…well…I’m not sure. I guess you get a not such nice note.

While it’s kind of a pain that, even in my own home, I don’t have the right to do with my garbage can what I wish, for the most part I am okay with it because it makes our whole neighborhood look better.

In order to protect the well being of the majority, each of us give up some personal rights. This is how societies and communities work.

• We already do this every time we go to the airport and submit to the rules and regulations of TSA.
• Every time we drive on the road, we are not free to drive anyway at any speed we want. We already submit to the rules of the road for the safety of us all.
• We are not free to post whatever content or photos online. We have decency laws that prohibit the distribution of certain kinds of materials for the well being of all.
• Goodness sake, I can’t even leave my garbage can any way and any where I want on my own property because of HOA rules!

The curbing of personal rights in some areas ensures the well being of us all. This is how all societies work. There are mutual agreements on which personal rights we protect and honor and which ones we will submit to the well-being of us all. That’s the only way societies work.

Now what does this have to do with guns?

I like guns. I like shooting guns. I appreciate that I live in a country where I am free to own guns. I would currently own a gun if I did not have a 12 year-old boy in the house. When my boy is out of the house, I will purchase a gun.

While I like guns, I am willing to forego my right to purchase and own semi-automatic, military grade weapons like the AR-15 (the civilian version of the M-16) if in return it makes it really difficult for people to gain access to such weapons. It’s about access. We have to limit access to weapons like the AR-15. We have to get semi-automatic weapons off the streets.

I know. Some of you are saying, the gangs will have these guns no matter what. You are right. The criminal element will always have access to weapons.

But they aren’t the ones going into our schools shooting up kids and teachers. It’s kids doing that. And the problem is that it is way too easy for people to get access to these weapons. We have to limit access to these weapons. We have to make it really, really hard to gain access to these guns.

I want to do my part so that we never use the words “Another Mass School Shooting” ever again. And if we can limit access to these weapons, I am willing to sacrifice my right to own such guns.

We owe it to our kids, our teachers, ourselves, our society.

 

 

Today is Ash Wednesday and we begin the Lenten Season.

One of the spiritual disciplines many Christians engage in during this season is fasting.

• Some fast from meats, chocolates, sweets, coffee, etc.
• Others add exercise, Bible reading, a spiritual discipline, a virtue.

After Ash Wednesday service, one of the things my wife and kids will want to know is what I am giving up for lent.

If you have been thinking about what to fast…don’t. In fact. Don’t fast.

Instead do whatever will help you to reflect on Jesus more during this season of Lent. You could be fasting from all kinds of stuff and miss the whole thing – Jesus. It’s all about Jesus. It’s not about fasting from, or adding to…it’s about doing whatever will help you reflect, think, remember Jesus more.

The point of Lent is not fasting, but Jesus.

So if fasting from chocolates will help you think of Jesus more, by all means, fast from chocolates. If exercise, being kind, fasting, etc. helps you reflect more on Jesus, please do that.

But if you’re going to fast from chocolate, meat, or coffee for the sake of fasting…what’s the point?

Whatever you do during the season of Lent, my prayer is that you are drawn more intimately to the beauty and majesty and the incredible sacrificial love of Jesus.

Disciple.

The word the New Testament uses most often to describe the church’s relationship to Jesus is disciple.

Not apostle. Not Christian. Not prophet. Not servant. No other word comes close to “disciple”.

Disciple: a follower, a student, a learner.

Our main job as Christians is to follow, learn from, and be a student of Jesus Christ. Seems obvious, right?

• I know what Jesus said, but what I believe about sexuality is…
• I know what Jesus said, but what I think about money is…
• I know what Jesus said, but what I feel about ______ is…

Is it any wonder that the main word the New Testament uses to describe our relationship to Jesus is “disciple”?

If it were only so obvious.