Musings From A Rolling Eyed Turtle

“Are you for us or against us?” “Neither!” We seem to have this predisposition to want to know whether people are for us or against us.  If they are for us, meaning they are in agreement with what’s important to us, then we can associate with them.  If they are against us, then we can’t associate with them. In this day and age of polarization, the “for or against us” predisposition seems to be even more prevalent.  Compounding it all, we seem to focus our “for or against us” on single issue items.  Perhaps it’s being for or against abortion or where we fall on gender and sexuality issues or our level of commitment to the environmental or our position on immigration.  But polarization really understates things as positions have become even more extreme and entrenched.  There doesn’t seem to be any room for common courtesy or looking for common ground or trying to understand the positions that we disagree with. So if I am asked if I’m for something ...

In many ways, it’s true that there’s nothing new under the sun! Take the Athenians, for example, and their goings on about two thousand years ago. The Bible says this about them:  “All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.” (Acts 17:21) Sounds a bit like today, doesn’t it.  But, just in case you aren’t convinced, see how other translations describe what they were engaged in and see if it compares to today:   spent their time on nothing else but telling or hearing something new;   spent their spare time talking or hearing about the latest intellectual fads;   looked for opportunities to tell or hear something new and unusual;   always used their time talking about all the newest ideas;   spent their time simply and solely in telling and hearing the latest novelty.   Is it okay to gather w...

A recent news story caught my eye.  It was a story about some auditors who were caught cheating on an ethics exam. The more I thought about it, the more absurd the whole situation seemed to be.  Just think about it, cheating is normally a violation of ethical standards and here the auditors were cheating on the exam that is supposed to measure their knowledge and understanding of ethics!  On top of all that, when auditors do an audit, they are supposed to look for irregularities (cheating) in business and accounting practices.  Since they cheated on the exam, how in the world would they even know what to look for?  Maybe the old expression, “it takes one to know one” applies here! But it also reminded me of how the Word of God describes some absurdities in regard to how some shepherds (leaders of people) were “shepherding” God’s people.  The descriptions reveal negligence at best and absurdities at worse.  Take a look at what these shepherds were...

In journalism, the “Five 'W's” help journalists address fundamental questions that should be answered in a story for the benefit of the reader or viewer.  These “Five W’s” are “Who,” “What,” “When,” “Where,” and “Why.” .     I was recently reading in John 4 about the type of worshippers that God seeks (v23).  While the type of worshippers is a topic for another day, a question came to mind:  if God is seeking worshippers, should worshippers also be seeking God?  To try to answer that, I applied the five “W’s to the phrases “seek the Lord” and “seek Him”: “That the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name,” says the Lord, who does these things.  (Acts 15:17) The “ who ” seems to be both us (mankind) and God (the One we should seek).   “Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.” (Dan 9:3) The “ what” seems to be that we tur...

Wings are a popular food item these days. There are even restaurants where wings are the featured menu item.  Or, if you prefer to cook your own, one cooking web site has 23 best recipes for wings.  And if that isn’t enough, another site has 30.  But neither come close to one web site that has 160 ways to cook them! As one allergic to chicken, I can’t say that I get excited about any of that.  But, I can say that I do get excited about God’s wings!  Ok, so God probably doesn’t really have wings but He does describe how He cares for us using some word pictures that involve wings.  For example: “He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.”  (Ps 91:4) Birds take their vulnerable hatchlings under their wings to shelter and protect them.  Being u nder God’s wings is a picture of God providing protective refuge, shelter and defense for us.  Then there’s this verse: ...

Matters… What matters? That question could be used as in “what matters are we considering?”  That is, what are the subjects or issues under consideration?  Or, that question could be used as in “what matters in this situation?”   That is, what is sensible or serious as distinguished from that which is nonsense? The matters themselves, the ones that are under consideration, could be big or small and everything in between.  So, to appropriately engage with them, we need right perspective because we can sometimes lose sight of which ones are important.  Take, for example, the religious leaders during Jesus’ time: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matter s of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.  (Matt 23:23) And sometimes we just need to learn to manage matters appropriately.  Read the ...

Last week, I wrote about the old saying:  “he who hesitates is lost.”  It’s not a biblical proverb but it almost could be! To hesitate means to pause before saying or doing something, especially through uncertainty.  Among other things, when you hesitate you might miss out on opportunities or find yourself experiencing negative consequences. Last week I also mentioned a man named Lot .  His story is found in Genesis 19.  For him, too much hesitation would have resulted in death, his own! The word “hesitation”, in some Bible translations, is translated as “waver”.  To waver, according to the dictionary, is to vacillate irresolutely between choices or fluctuate in opinion, allegiance, or direction. How about this verse as an obvious example of wavering: Then Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal, follow him.” But the people didn’t answer him a word. (1 K...