Snapshots and Synapses

I recently started a book written and updated in the early 1980’s by a man born in the late 1880’s. Imagine what this man saw in his lifetime: the gay 90’s during his youth, the last of the American Indian wars as a teenager, the “war to end all wars” (in theory), Spanish Influenza, the roaring 20’s followed by the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, Korean War, Vietnam War, Watergate, and finally the recession and rapid inflation of the 70’s. In the preface of his book, he wrote that man was happier working manually in the fields than he was with all the technological advances because the evils grew larger. Had he lived another 30 years, do you think his view would have changed? With all the comforts modernity has brought us, is the world an easier or harder place?  Moores’ Law says that processing speeds double every two years, and it has led us to an age of digital disruption where old paradigms are being replaced by new models faster than society can adjust. The compu...

The year 2020 has been one crisis after another, and I feel the burden of it all. It’s exhausting and so easy to just wonder what can be done or how to respond. It feels like the darkness is growing, trying to overpower the light, and it feels like Darkness is winning. It can create anxiety and a sense of hopelessness, a despair that cripples. That is just what Satan wants: to discourage you from being light in this world and to convince you to give up.  But as long as there is life, there is hope!  The assault of fear combined with the empty promises of this world is a giant enemy that is growing bigger. But take heart: our God is a giant-killer! The lines between light and darkness are growing sharper even as the arguments blur the lines. It is a battleground for our minds, our emotions, and our very souls, and what happens in this world will reflect the aggregated outcomes of battles within each of us. In other words: if the light wins in each of us, the darkness will fade...

“I’m giving you a new commandment: Love each other in the same way that I have loved you. Everyone will know that you are my disciples because of your love for each other.” John 13:34-35  It’s undoubtedly Jesus’ heart that we love one another, but do we really know what love is? Love is a feeling, a very powerful feeling, but it’s so much more. I’m told by people more knowledgeable than myself that there are three words for love in Hebrew, and that Greek, the original language of the New Testament, has seven words that translate to “Love” in English. Of all those words, one is singled out as the highest form of love, an unconditional love that is an act of will, doing what is in the other person’s best interest even when they don’t want it and the lover doesn’t feel like doing the loving thing. That word is Agape, the word for love that Jesus uses in the quote above.  Our society, our world, is forgetting how to love. Love is not a desire for something; rather it is a decision...