Adulting

I am sure I am behind the times. I only heard about this term in the last few days when a person I know, a fifty something, said she did not want to “adult” anymore.

The top definition in the Urban Dictionary[1](I can’t believe I had to look this word up) is, as of July 2018,  “Adulting (v): to carry out one or more of the duties and responsibilities expected of fully developed individuals (paying off that credit card debt, settling a beef without blasting social media, etc). Exclusively used by those who adult less than 50% of the time.

Used in a sentence: I was going to buy a sack of Blue Dream but I finally got my oil changed instead. Adulting!”

The second definition in the same site is,“ Adulting (v): to do grown up things and hold responsibilities such as, a 9-5 job, a mortgage/rent, a car payment, or anything else that makes one think of grown ups.

Used in a sentence: Jane is adulting quite well today as she is on time for work promptly at 8am and appears well groomed.”

I understand that everyone likes a vacation from duties once in a while. I do not understand avoiding adult responsibility habitually. I especially do not understand it in the context of the Christian community. Apostle Paul said, 1 Corinthians 13:11 (KJV)

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

The Bible says of both John the Baptist and  then of Jesus,

Luke 1:80 (KJV)

And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.

Luke 2:40 (KJV)

And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

The point is to grow up, gain wisdom and put away childish things.

I can’t help but think that the person who isn’t happy with their life is the person most likely to train their children to avoid “adulting.” The competent adult, who charges into life, handles the difficulties of life with Christian grace and looks forward to an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of God, will raise up children to do the very same.

Marvin McKenzie
In the fields

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[1]https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Adulting, accessed July 19, 2018

Does Starbucks Write Religious Groups Out of Approved Charities?

I think that Christians are prone to a victim type mentality. We probably deserve it. For two thousand years this world has pretty much made victims of Christians. Whether it was from the Romans, the Catholics, the Protestants, or some other unfriendly power those who have held to the idea of seriously living like we believe the Bible teaches has been hunted down, tormented and very often killed. Though, in America, we have had comparative peace for the last couple of hundred years, we haven’t forgotten. By the way, this world has ever let us forget, there has always been a current of resistance to faith. Though persecution may not be incredibly violent for the two centuries, there has been plenty of offing, mocking and general finger pointing at believers. We have some reason to be fearful of the world’s position against Christianity.

That said, this victim mentality frequently leads Christians to misread, overemphasize and over react to world events we deem critical of our faith. An article in The Christian Post puts this into perspective concerning recent allegations by Christians towards coffee giant, Starbucks.[1]  Starbuck's CEO was reported to have said he did not want the business of people who supported traditional marriage. The article in The Christian Post clarifies, “Schultz never said or implied people who support traditional marriage should take their business elsewhere.”

Now I get to the point of my article. 

Our church hosts an annual ladies’ conference. In the past, I am talking about ten or more years, Starbucks has donated coffee to this conference. Until last year. When our ladies asked about getting coffee donated from the nearby Starbucks last year, they were told that their annual quota of donations was exhausted. This year the ladies approached the same Starbucks but did so much earlier in the year. They received the same reply, their donations of the year had been exhausted. 

Not to be discouraged, the ladies approached a newly opened Starbucks store. This time they were interrogated by the store manager as to the nature of the event. When it was revealed that it was for a local church event the store employee told our group that it is Starbuck’s policy not to donate to religious organizations. I have gone online and, at this point, have not been able to find such a policy. 

Maybe it is not the corporation's policy, but it was certainly this local store’s policy. They refuse to donate to our conference, even though they have in the past, specifically because we are a religious institution.

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[1] http://www.christianpost.com/news/did-starbucks-ceo-really-say-we-dont-want-your-business-92588/, accessed 7-3-17.  

Three Stages of Learning

A few years ago I became very interested in studying the history of the founding of the United States. I got some books on the subject, I watched documentaries on the key players, mostly from the American side but also a few from the British side, I also enrolled in several of the college courses available online. What I discovered is that, for the most part, each documentary, book and college lecture was a rehash of another. The emphasis of each might be slightly unique, but the depth of the material was just about par. The value of the courses, I soon determined, was not in the lecture but in the list of sources each provided. Those sources usually first hand or very nearly so documents is where all the fresh water is. That set me to thinking about the levels of education, especially in higher education:

The Lecture Stage

Painting with a very broad brush, I refer to all undergraduate education as lecture based. I realize this brush isn't completely fair or accurate but please, hear me out. The lecture level of education offers summary information. The student hears what another has learned. There is of course some room for other things; the younger students have some memory work. The student will receive some basic research skills, should they choose to advance to the next level of education. Some courses provide hands on time so the student can apply what he has learned; he has to be able to translate what he has learned into a marketable commodity. Likely any further education will be in this practical area. The student simply learns to improve his skills and increase his market value,

The Research Stage

Students who come to this stage of education have generally developed such a fascination with what they have learned that curiosity drives them to further learning. This level of learning, however, can’t be obtained in a typical classroom/lecture setting. This level of education requires research. The student must find original sources or at the very least source only once or twice removed from the original sources. At this stage the student will generally run in to one of two situations:

• There will be scant amounts of original documentation to work with
• There will be an overwhelming amount of material to work with

The Presentation Stage

The student becomes the teacher and shares what he or she has learned.

Education at this level becomes very much like an art.

I recently listened to a presentation concerning President Lincoln. The presenter, a staff member of the Washington Post named Lillian Cunningham, explained the dilemma she faced with preparing her 54 minute long presentation on President Lincoln; there is so much material that if she had just chosen to read off a list of Lincoln’s accomplishments while in the Whitehouse, it would be too long to fit in her slotted time.

She chose to only speak of Lincoln as a writer.

So you see where the lecture level of learning comes short; the presenter always filters through the material at their disposal to give you what they have personally determined would be of most interest to you. Or else, in the case of finding too little original material, the presenter uses conjecture and imagination to develop a story line (lecture or series of them) that will appeal to students, win an audience and thus, become marketable.

I realize that a person could argue the specifics of my description but my point is to bring about this application and parallel. These three stages could also represent the stages of Christian life and growth.

The Hearer Stage

Both the unsaved and the new convert to the Christian faith have a hearer stage.

Romans 10:13-14 (KJV)

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

Faith is passed from one soul to the next through the medium of preaching. A person gets saved through hearing the Word of God and a person takes their first steps of faith through that same medium of preaching. Every one of us must be a hearer of the Word of God

The Study Stage

2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV)

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

The Word of God is replete with passages urging the Christian to advance past being only a hearer of the Word of God:

James 1:22 (KJV)

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Hebrews 6:1-2 (KJV)

Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

2 Peter 1:4-10 (KJV)

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;

And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.

For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:

The Preaching Stage

Hebrews 5:12 (KJV)

For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

Acts 1:8 (KJV)

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

At this point the cycle of God’s Word has gone full circle. The student (still yet and always a student) has become the teacher.

Those Christians who grow the most and have the fullest experience in their Christian life engage themselves in all three stages.

• They hear the Word
• They study the Word and
• They teach/preach the Word

Marvin McKenzie

In the Fields