Monday, May 18, 2009

Instead of turning into the Casino...


Last post, I shared about looking out at the casino near our office. Let's look a little closer at what can keep us from turning into that parking lot -- by being willing to face something as scary as... a gas pump!
Dr. Tony Wheeler, the Director of our Midwest Center for StrongFamilies (www.midwestfamilycenter.com) is fond of sharing an amazing story.
In the state of New Jersey, like everywhere else across the country, the cost of gasoline has gone up and up. It seems that in 2006, in the face of soaring prices, their governor at the time decided to do something that experts calculated would drop the price of gasoline 5 to 10 cents per gallon immediately. There could be huge savings statewide if they could just make that small change – but even the suggestion brought a huge outcry. In fact, the Governor’s office retreated on making this change after being swamped with over 1,400 e-mails and calls that poured in from an outraged public! (That was five times the “outrage emails” they gotten regarding anything else the Governor had proposed).
What was it that fired up people so much that they shouted down making such a small change? The Governor had suggested that people be allowed to pump their own gas! But in New Jersey, motorists haven’t pumped their own gas in 57 years. Cries came that people would put the gas in the wrong hole! That the elderly couldn’t do it and would harm themselves! That gas stations would be blowing up all over the state from smokers filling their tanks!
In short, fear shouted down positive change. Proverbs 16:13 says, “The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road! A lion in the open square!” You’re not going to take a step outside if there are “lion-sized” problems out there! (Real or imagined). Fear blows up our problems and decreases our feelings that we can do anything about them.
So – if you’ve ever pumped your own gas without harming yourself or others – then you might think about sharing this story with someone you’re working with who is fearful of taking even that first small “step” towards a positive future. Or perhaps, as you think about your own life, you need to ask the hard question yourself. “Have your fears in these difficult times caused you to slow down, stopped you from moving forward, or caused you to question your faith not just in a positive future, but in the God of the future?”
I’ll start by being honest. Our little ministry has been hammered by the economic situation like never before. I’ve faced heart pounding, stomach tightening fears, just like many of you. But I promise I won’t turn into the casino on the way home, and like you, that I’ll keep turning towards a loving God who does have a positive future for us, and who sent His only Son who will “never leave us, nor forsake us.” (Hebrews 13:5b). Write more soon, JT

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Where a loss of optimism can lead...


From my office, if I stand close to my upstairs window and look far out towards the horizon, I can see “it” poking it’s head above the trees and buildings. The “it” is a Casino. It’s right in the middle of town, with a parking lot that always looks full when I get on the freeway to go home. In fact, our local paper reported recently that with the economy being so bad and with so many businesses hurting for customers – attendance numbers at the casino was actually increasing!
But that only makes sense, right?
Surely, in these troubled times, people are flocking there who are optimistically thinking to themselves, “My luck is bound change! This time, when I pull the handle on the slot machine, I’m going to win a jackpot that will change everything for the better!”
People who frequently visit casinos are optimists, right? They just have to be it would seem. But if the truth be known, in clinical studies, people who frequent casinos aren’t optimists... they’re major league pessimists!
That took me by surprise when I first read that people weren’t numbly “pulling the handle” of a slot machine because they thought it would lead to a positive future. Most were pulling the handle because they felt they didn’t have a future – or at least a future that they could do anything about changing.
But certainly, that kind of fatalistic view of the future isn’t something Christians have to deal with, right? After all, we can lay claim to verses like Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord. “Plans for welfare, not calamity, to give you a future and a hope.” And “Phillipians 4:6, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be make known unto God.”
Those are great verses, and God’s word is absolutely true. But if the truth be known, I think many Christians today – like never before in my lifetime – are getting a chance to hold those verses in one hand, and the incredibly harsh economic and social realities we’re facing in the other. In fact, if I were a betting man, I would “wager” that some of us reading (or writing) this blog right now are fearful about a positive future. What's more, some are questioning whether with so many "rules of life" having changed so quickly... can we really impact our future in a positive way?
Let me start by being honest about being fearful of a positive future. Back in the months after 9/11, our small ministry almost went under. We do roughly 18 to 20 seminars a year, and those seminars at churches across the country represent about 75% of our income as a ministry. After 9/11, we had 14 seminars cancel -- and we nearly went out of ministry. I thought that was the toughest of tough times. However, to put things in perspective, we had our major February conference cancel... then our major March conference... then April... May... and two days ago, I got a call that our July conference had canceled. (Which makes June sound like a good month -- except we didn't have a June seminar!). All that to say that I had to sit down with my precious wife, Cindy, and have the same very challenging talk with her that I did back after 9/11. That is we not only won't be getting paycheck this month... but as it looks I won't be able to hand her a paycheck this summer. That's tough, but I know lots of folks who have had it tougher. And so that leads me back to where we began.
It's 6:13pm and I'm getting ready to go home, looking out my window at the office as I write this... and just barely able to see the casino in the distance. Tune in tomorrow, and I'll share with you what it is that keeps me from turning into that parking lot, and pulling a handle.
Lord bless and write more soon,
John Trent, Ph.D. StrongFamilies.com