Silly Old Bear

I had never prayed as hard in my life as I did the morning of March 16, 1997. It was a Sunday morning, about 6:30, and I was driving from Children’s Medical Center in Dallas back to our house about 35 minutes away. Four hours earlier, Susan and I had been told by a doctor at Children’s that our 9-year-old daughter Ashley had a brain tumor.

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So, we’re sitting in church tonight (my wife Susan and me), and our preacher (Dean) gets up to preach. Often, on Sunday nights, he will quote the first part of Philippians 4:4, and the congregation will respond with the last part.

Tonight, however, Susan’s response wasn’t quite the same as everyone else’s, and earns her the distinction of being the latest “Quote of the Moment”.

(The words below in black are preacher Dean’s; the words in blue are Susan’s.)

“Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say …”

“… SCOOT UP!”

- Susan O’Rear

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In “Moral Courage (Part 1)“, we looked extensively at the meaning and origins of morals. Morality, in the external sense, is the standard of right and wrong as established ultimately by God and revealed in His word. My own personal moral code is shaped as I decide whether or not, and to what extent, I will follow His standards. And that’s where courage comes into play.

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What do you think of when you hear the words “moral courage”?

Webster defines “morals” as: “moral practices or teachings; modes of conduct; ethics”. [1]

“Ethics”, then, is defined as: “the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation; a set of moral principles; a theory or system of moral values; the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group; a guiding philosophy; a set of moral issues or aspects (as rightness)”. [2]

So your morals can be defined as “what you believe about what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad, what your moral duties and obligations are, and how you should conduct yourself”.

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[PART 12 OF 12]

Let’s review what we have discovered from the book of Ecclesiastes. What have we learned by following Solomon’s quest for meaning and purpose?

The first outside piece of the Oreo cookie, the first half of Solomon’s philosophy of life, is the idea that “everything is meaningless!”

The Double Stuff filling is all the stuff he waded through in his search for meaning and purpose, and the resulting conclusions concerning each endeavor:

• Money – meaningless;
• Wisdom – meaningless;
• Hard work – meaningless;
• Achievement – meaningless;
• Life is good;
• There is a time for everything;
• Injustice is all around us.

And now, finally, we come to the conclusion, the other outside piece of the Oreo, the other half of Solomon’s philosophy of life. After all his searching, after all his attempts to find meaning and purpose, after all the frustration of coming up empty-handed again and again, here is what it all boils down to.

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One week ago, the United States of America elected its 44th President, Barack Obama. He will be the first African-American in the history of our country to serve in that capacity. Election Day 2008 was truly a historic day in many ways … some good, some bad. Here are my thoughts.

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“He that tooteth not his own horn,
     the same shall not be tooted.“

- Horace Bratcher

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[PART 11 OF 12]

As Solomon chronicles his quest for meaning and purpose in his life, he makes an interesting observation regarding sorrow and joy.

“It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure. It is better to heed a wise man’s rebuke than to listen to the song of fools. Like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of fools. This too is meaningless.”
(Ecclesiastes 7:2-6)

Huh? Sorrow is better than laughter? That doesn’t make sense! A sad face is good for the heart? Doesn’t that contradict Proverbs 17:22?

“A cheerful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”
(Proverbs 17:22, which, by the way, was also written by Solomon)

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I do not have an iPod.

My son Justin has a really nice iPod that we bought for him as a Christmas gift a few years back. But I don’t have an iPod.

(He also has a better car than me, a better cell phone than me, etc., etc., etc. The things we do for our kids!)

However, in spite of this complete lack of equity in the quality of my few paltry possessions compared to his, there is one area in which the inequity leans completely in my favor.

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Tolerance has become the Great Religion of America.

Webster defines tolerance as:

“sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one’s own; the act of allowing something” [1].

In other words, if you don’t agree with me or don’t believe the same thing I believe, I will indulge or allow that difference and still accept you as being “OK”. I am not required to change my belief system in order to be tolerant. I simply allow for the fact that your belief system isn’t the same as mine.

I think that is a good definition of tolerance, and constitutes a healthy and realistic approach to life … most of the time. I also believe, however, that there is an appropriate time for intolerance. Let me give you a couple of examples in an attempt to help you understand what I mean.

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