What If ... You Were Given a Million Dollars?

 I grew up in a small farming village southwest of Boston, MA. After walking home from school, I used to watch on our family's B & W television, an afternoon weekly broadcast. Titled simply The Millionaire. This story line involved a wealthy benefactor who instructed the same courier each week to track down a certain person in our country and give them a check for a million dollars.

Recently I went to Google and asked how many millionaires are in the United States. Wow. Google says the US currently has 22 million millionaires. That's 8.8% of US adults. 33% of those adults are women. Having $1 million puts you in the top 10% of wealth in the US. 22 million individuals, residing in the US, are in the top 1% of ultra high net worth individuals worldwide. Many of these individuals are film stars, national athletes,  self-improvement guru's, tech giants, mega-land owners, self-made business leaders, sweepstake winners, born into money, stock brokers, corporate CEO's and CFO's, regardless of ethnic background. What if you were given a million dollars?

In 2010 there were 3.1 millionaires in our country. Our free market system has historically encouraged competition and financial achievement. Maybe with all the ways one become a millionaire today - it's not that cracked up to be. Yet there's a powerful lesson to be gained in this discussion.

Put yourself into that television plot when I was about 9 years old, in the 4th grade. A stranger comes to your front door, rings a door bell or lifts and releases a hard metal rapper. You open the door and he introduces himself as representing an unnamed individual. With no strings attached he offers you a check made out to you. What would you do? It would be perfectly normal to question the integrity of this intention. You might think, even say 'what's the gimmick'? Why you? You accept the check, the individual leaves your front door, and you are left with your questions. What do you do?

Now comes the 64 million dollar question - as Grouch Marx used to say on an early game show. Do you bank it? In fact will your bank cash it, even with your name as the beneficiary? Do you spend it,... or give a portion of it away? All these questions presume we are masters of of own destiny. Given just a snippet of the world's news, I say whatever happens - we're not the masters of our destiny. A million dollars, whether it comes by free-market profit, winning a sweepstakes or lotto giveaway, or receiving a check from a stranger, does not start with us.

Psalm 50:10 mentions God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. In the day those words were written and attributed to an individual named Asaph; herded sheep and goats determined much of the economy of those times. God still owns the cattle on a thousand hills, as well as overseeing his laws of supply and demand..

"Now one can serves two masters. For you will hate the one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money". (Luke 16:13) If you or I were given a million dollars without any merit on our part, how might we respond? Yes, it would be perfectly normal to use it for ourselves. Yet there are 37.9 million Americans living below the poverty line. That's 14.6% of the US population. What if we were to imagine a greater insight, that this gift could serve  others before ourselves?  If you are already a millionaire, why not consider paying a portion forward to someone trapped in poverty. There's probably a million ways that portion of your million dollars could free another from losing whatever little is barely sustaining them. 

Be well.

What if NFL line man Damar Hamlin had not experienced cardiac arrest?

On Monday Night Football's January 2nd playoff, Buffalo Bills Damar Hamlin collapsed following a collision with Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins in the 1st quarter. Damar briefly got up, adjusted his helmet, took two steps before falling backwards having experienced cardiac arrest. CPR was immediately performed on the field and his heart was restarted. As an ambulance drove out of the field amidst the hush of thousands of fans, both teams of NFL players dropped to their knees in a wide circle of prayer. Thursday, three days later the hospital who received Damar held a press conference. The doctors said when Damar woke up he wrote a note to physicians asking, "Did we win?". The doctors replied: "Yes Damar. You won. You won the game of life.". What if NFL line man Damar Hamlin had not experienced cardiac arrest?

That day could have turned out differently The encounter would have been chalked up as another routine tackle and the game would have proceeded. The Buffalo Bills or the Cincinnati Bengals would have won, clinching the AFC North title. The cheers of more than 65,000 fans would have been deafening. Press interviews would have been conducted on the field and outside the locker rooms.

But that's not what happened. Something so totally different captured the hearts and actions of thousands, if not millions of Americans. ABC Television said "The intersection of prayer and sports has been especially prominent in the aftermath of Damar Hamlin's frightening collapse during that NFL game. All 32 NFL teams have included 'Pray for Damar' on their Twitter avatars. ESPN's Dan Orlovsky, former NFL quarterback, prayed for the Buffalo Bill's safety on live TV. Countless fans and other concerned observers said on social media they were praying, and dozens linked arms outside his Cincinnati hospital." 

What does this intersection of prayer in sports suggest? "It's new in terms of the scale and the scope," said Paul Putz, assistant director of the Faith & Sports Institute at Baylor University. "It's not common to see someone on a national television network who opens in prayer or just issues a prayer during the broadcast." So, why pray? What difference does it make? Consider Psalm 145:18. "The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth." Psalm 6:9 affirms that, "the Lord has heard my plea for help; the Lord accepts my prayer." These are life giving promises when taken seriously. 

When Damar fell, the ESPN commentators in their television studio were struck silent. But then one spoke up. "If we didn't believe that prayer works, we wouldn't ask this of you, God" Dan Orlovsky said in his prayer. "I believe in prayer. We believe in prayer. We lift up Damar Hamlin's name in Your name."

Afterward, Orlovsky told the AP in a text: "It was on my heart. The more we pray, the more Damar may come out of it." Bills coach Sean McDermott and general manager both thanked God in separate news conferences. NFL executive Troy Vincent, a five-time Pro Bowl cornerback during his 15-year career, praised God in an emotional news conference. "My greatest fear flashed in front of me in the moment, but for the goodness and grace of God, Damar is still here," Vincent told the AP. (Copyright 2023 KABC Television, LLC)

This matter of prayer in the public domain really transcends all means for human control. I am reminded of the Oregon high school football coach who was fired in 2015 for privately giving thanks to God on his knee, in the field after the game. Coach Joseph Kennedy lost his job. In a 6-3 decision the US Supreme Court ruled that a high school football coach has the First Amendment right to pray on the field after games. As of  March 13, 2023, Kennedy  has been reinstated as Assistant  Football Coach from the Bremerton High School in Washington.

Orlovsky commented from the ESPN television studio. "I heard the Buffalo Bill's organization say that we believe in prayer and maybe this is not the right thing to do, but it's just on my heart to pray for Damar right now. I'm going to do it out loud. I am going to close my eyes. I am going to bow my head and I'm just going to pray for him." He did pray, ... and the network didn't cut to an advertisement!

When you don't know what to do, prayer is your best option.

Be Well.

What if ... Globalism Is A Bad Idea?

Do you see yourself as an intentional seeker for truth, willing to change your stance, if persuaded? Or are you someone who finds straddling the fence of truth or consequences comfortable enough?

The United Nations website listed one of their new initiatives as U.N. 21/2030. Amongst items were a global currency, a central bank, the end of national sovereignty, mandatory vaccines, universal basic income, microchipping of citizens and the end of fossil fuels. The suggested completion date for these globalized actions was 2030. A small firestorm ignited and the United Nations quickly disavowed the report, and the media debunked it. But why did this story spread so quickly? Besides standing out as an example for those fearing a coming apocalypse, every element of this initiative seems entirely plausible. Fast track to this January's World Economic Forum's annual meetings in Davos, Switzerland. International news sites invested their broadcasts to the WEF's daily break-out groups and plenary presentations. The goal of  full globalization appears to be their primary golden goose. But what is good for the goose may not be good for the gander. What if today's issue for globalism is a bad idea?

There are currently 27 embroiling conflicts between world governments, vying for prominence against one another regardless of 1,000 treaties. Consequently there is a palatable fear concerning the complete disintegration of civilization as we know it. This item of globalism seeks to stop the clock of western civilization's collapse. Countless  examples of the written and spoken word are consumed with this desire to fix the fatalism of this fallen world. I am reading one of NC's Wake County Library books. Live No Lies: Recognize and Resist the Three Enemies That Sabotage Your Peace suggests a rationale that we, as individuals and not just whole nations, are at war. Author John Mark Cormer explains how. "Not with aliens from Mars, but with an enemy far more dangerous;...But unlike the War of the Worlds, our enemy isn't the figment of an overactive imagination (Orson Welles' radio depiction of H.G. Welles' classic scifi novel), there's no hoax. Our enemy is real."

When our world was in the full thralls of the coronavirus crisis, former British prime minister Gordon Brown vocally called for a "temporary form of global government". The presumptive conclusion for globalism to succeed is that individual behaviors have no individual rights - robbing us of our right to self-determination. Ray Bradbury's 1953 literary classic and perennial bestseller Fahrenheit 451 comes quickly to mind. Could globalism be Socialism, Marxism, Fascism all rolled into one? 

What can pause this kind of future? May it not be the 2023 prediction of the Doomsday Clock with mankind's impending extinction at 90 seconds to 12 noon. Genesis 11:4-6 portrays an example of globalism highlighting the often quoted, "we can be our own worst enemies" by modern humanist Friedrich Nietzsche! I have come to this conclusion, regardless of this world's opinions. "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and accept what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Romans 12:2)

Be not afraid. 

What if your broken past can be the means for a new beginning?

 

In Fortaleza, Brazil's fifth largest city and the capital of Ceara, along the country's northeast coast ,,,, “Carla fidgeted in her seat. She tugged at her hair, then with her wrist she brushed away the tears glistening in her eyes. The 19-year-old buried her face in shame. Ringing in her ears were Franklin Graham's words: 'Any type of sexual relationship outside of a marriage relationship between a man and a woman is a sin against God.' As a young teenager – to escape the abject poverty of her Brazilian neighborhood – Carla sold herself as a prostitute for three years. Then she met Carlos and he rescued her, The couple married and started a family. What if your broken past can be the means for a new beginning? Now, worlds away from her once sordid lifestyle, Carla couldn't shake the guilt that still haunted her. But with Franklin's next declaration, she perked up. Was there hope? Could she actually be rid of her shame? 'I want you to know that God loves you and will forgive you of that sin,' Franklin said. 'He will cleanse you, He will set you free from the guilt, and He will heal your heart and give you a new life and a new beginning. But you've got to be willing to repent of your sins and put your trust in God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.' When Franklin extended an invitation to the Festival of Hope audience to come forward and surrender their lives to Jesus, Carla turned to Carlos and said she wanted to go down front. God had been tugging at Carlos' heart as well, but the 21-year-old hesitated. He shook his head and said he wasn't ready. All of a sudden, the couple's young daughter began to jerk. This had happened before. It was an epileptic seizure, and as always it filled Carlos with fear. He looked toward Heaven and cried out: 'God, if you will stop this seizure, I will go forward and will give my heart to Jesus. Please, God.' Little Claudia stopped shaking. She lay perfectly calm, with a smile emerging. As relief flooded over Carlos, he and Carla heard Franklin beckon from the floor of the Arena Castelao, 'Some of you still need to come. We'll wait. You come.' Carlos jumped out of his seat, took his wife's hand and together they bounded down the long flight of steps to the soccer field below. There they met Adoneas, a volunteer Festival counselor, and with his help, they prayed to receive Christ as their Savior.” Carlos and Carla were among the 83,000 individuals who attended the two-day Festival. Accepting God's love really isn't hard to do. All we need is to be honest with ourselves and willing to ask Him for His love to fill us. A new life and a new beginning can be yours as we begin this new year of 2023.

Be Well.

What if you could really clear your conscience?

Imagine the release you could have from every dirty, low-down thought, word or action you’ve committed. Someone emailed me an interesting story about an elderly woman who could not live with her regrets and conscience any longer. She purposed to hang herself. She prepared the materials and was about to fling herself off a ladder, when the doorbell rang. All her friends had passed away and she had no family. The doorbell never rang. But it rang and rang and rang. Untying the noose from around her neck, she gingerly stepped down from the ladder and went to the front door.

On the other side was an eight-year-old boy with a smile as large as the Grand Canyon. The woman asked what he wanted and he said, “I want to tell you about my Jesus”. She was taken aback – not quite sure how to respond. In her hesitation, he pressed into her hand a little pamphlet and asked her to read it. Collecting her thoughts, she closed the door on the little boy. And that could be the end of the story, but it wasn’t.

The following week a local church pastor was ending his sermon about the shed blood of Jesus Christ and what it means. He gave an invitation for anyone in the assembly to give a testimony about what Christ had done for them. Way at the back, the elderly single woman slowly stood to her feet. She recounted what I have already mentioned and added that when she closed the door on the little boy with the big smile, she read the little pamphlet. As she read, the eyes of her heart were opened to her true state and what God wanted to do for her, if she would but ask Him for His help. With no religious background, she had come to the church address stamped on the back of the pamphlet to say thank you for the hope her heart had finally found in the promises explained in the words she had read.

From the very beginning of the world’s history – the problem of a dirty conscience is as old as Adam and Eve.  As soon as they did what they had been told not to, their conscience was dirty. Whether you go to the Old Testament or to the thousands of worldwide indigenous people groups, conscience was and is an issue. None of us want to acknowledge our willful missteps. When we do step out of line, our natural tendency is to hide it and pretend it never happened. This is like one of life’s proverbs – we can run, but we can’t hide. Enviably, even if we are the only ones to know – whatever we’ve done or not done eats away at us until we do something irresponsible.

Here we are in the 21^st century – an age of science, Internet, organ transplants, instant messaging, cell phones and Ipods, and we all continue to struggle with conscience. We can cut ourselves, or give a million dollars to the United Way, or serve in a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving, or perform many forms of penance and the result will be the same. If we don’t deal with the pride, self-pity, bitterness, lust, envy, apathy, fear or other attitude that birthed our guilty conscience, unresolvement will breed toxic actions to us personally and probably to those who love us.

Do you have something that is bothering you – something eating away at the lining of your self-worth? In my Life Recovery Bible, utilizing the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, on page 1541 are these words; “…if we confess our sins to God, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.”  To confess means to agree with God that what He declares to be wrong really is wrong. Each time we do this, being truly repentant, God says He WILL receive it, erase it and remove our guilt.



Be Well.

What if ... the Church did not exist?

We, here in the 21^st century USA, find it hard to relate with those who have known freedom and then totally lost that freedom. From observations gleaned since my college days, people groups lose their basic freedoms because of arbitrarily set socio-economic restrictions – be they imposed by duly elected leaders, military dictators, kings or self-appointed civil revolutionaries.

    Fifty-eight years ago, upon the world's stage, a large people group, lost their freedom to an entrenched military and godless presence. Author Michael Furchert grew up in that very limited world, having never experienced the freedoms his parents knew were possible. He says; “believers were pressured to leave the church and to follow communism. 'Without God and without sun, we will get the harvest done' was a slogan taught to the farmers in our communities. And to children in school, this song: 'We need no god, no king, no emperor to save us; to redeem us from our misery we must arise ourselves.' My sisters and I did not participate. We were among the 2 percent of East German students who refused to join the communist youth organizations or to conform to their beliefs. Thus I lost the privilege to obtain a driver's license, participate in my graduation ceremony or to attend college.” The 87 mile long Berlin Wall was the defining reason why Michael and his family could not walk the few miles past that impediment to see their relatives.

    There is an interesting statement found in chapter three verse ten of the Epistle (letter) to the Ephesians: “through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known.” When I think of church, two definitions come to me. There is the universal church, referring to all believers in Christ – regardless of where they live, no matter what race they come from. There is also the local church, identified by individual believers choosing to gather for recurring worship and interaction, according to specific and differing convictions of polity. What if the church did not exist?

    Thirty years ago on November 9, 1989 East Berlin Germans regained their freedom after losing it. How did it happen?  Furchart says “Growing numbers of students, workers, artists, and oppositionists began to join church-wide weekly Prayers for Peace. In the churches they found a safe haven to freely discuss their concerns. They found pastors to pray with them or help them seek dialogue with the communist regime. Here they heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ: 'Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who mistreat you!' “Between September and October 1989, weekly prayer marches and demonstrations in Leipzig had grown from 8,000 to 300,000 people. By early November, the prayer vigils of Leipzig and Berlin had grown into a nationwide movement. Out of the churches we marched into the streets, with burning candles in our hands, with songs of praise and freedom on our lips, approaching the soldiers who awaited orders to shoot.

   The police started to beat and arrest people. Secret agents infiltrated the crowds to incite violence. They wanted someone to throw a rock or overturn a car – anything to give the military a reason to open fire. Again and again, church leaders called upon people to resist aggression and to pray for peace. One lady kneeling on the street arose and put a flower into the muzzle of a gun. She watched a tear roll down the soldier's cheek. Not one shot was fired. Instead, the Berlin Wall came down. On November 9, 1989, our family stepped over the rubble of the wall into freedom to be reunited with our relatives. Months earlier, East German dictator, Erich Honecker, had declared the Berlin Wall would stand for another 100 years. Now people were dancing on that wall singing the famous German hymn Now Give All Thanks to God.”

    The Peaceful Revolution of 1989 remains an historic legacy of the East German churches. One former Communist leader said about their defeat: “We [our government and military] were prepared for anything. But not for candles, faith and prayer.”

Be Thankful!

What if ... there were no birds?

    About a year ago I was challenged by a local friend with a question for this column. I asked him what might that look like and he quickly ticked off issues to the significant impact this question would have on our current quality of life. What if birds did not exist? For these unique air, ground and water fowl keep our planet livable in a multiplicity of ways. Here are a few of them.

    What would camping be like without birds? Imagine the overwhelming odds uneaten insects would have upon the enjoyment of our day and evening campfires. The picture causes me to physically shudder at the thought of all those mosquitoes, black flies, gnats, no-see-ums and horse flies. When deer ticks bite into our skin, they leave a small reddish bull's eye welt, handily confirming the danger of their attack.  Remove the greatest restraint on insect populations and we could well count on having not one – but multiple welts. Camping grounds might not even exist and four season vacation spots would be limited to three seasons - maybe less.

    Quoting from birdlife.org, please note. “The domestication of the Red Jungle fowl and the Rock Dove were seminal events for human food security. In the past 10,000 years (on any one day there are some 25 billion chickens alive on earth): domesticated geese, ducks, guinea-fowl, turkeys and quail make important contributions to human diets.”

    With no birds, the variety of what we consume would be seriously lacking. Where would Thanksgiving be without a well done fowl or the signature Chinese presentation of Peking Duck. Manage their lives carefully, let some live and be guaranteed the enjoyment of all manner of eggs. 

    With no birds migrating from the north to the south across the North American continent twice a year, there would be minimal seed distribution. That is one of the ways the area surrounding Mt. St. Helens has so quickly created new growth of all types of trees, bushes and grasses. “In the high mountains of the American West, there's a tree called the white bark pine with large seeds which grizzlies and black bears love to eat. The tree's seeds are dispersed by just one bird: the Clark's nutcracker, a black-and-white-winged cousin to the crow.” If this nutcracker did not exist, these bears would be out of one of their main food supplies.

    Birds give us two additional favors: their colors and their sounds. The primary means of their flight, their feathers attached in full plumes and arranged with such magnificent hues of every color we can imagine. What would a forest or a garden be without the calls of cat birds, robins, orioles, blue birds? Their sounds sweeten our hearing with the melodies of music. Go to any symphony orchestra and you will hear during the warm-up, the sounds of birds calling to one another, from pianos to all manner of flutes to violins. I can't imagine a world without music!

    Be it penguins swimming effortlessly in the arctic oceans to eagles riding the air currents far above our heads, without birds - our ability to appreciate the majesty and the call of the wild would be severely hampered. So, thank you God, for birds.

Be Well.