The Lottery - a Good Thing?

I admit I have never played the lottery.  I consider it state-sponsored gambling.  It has a many negative connotations, most of which you would never hear on the local news.

1. It takes money from the hands of mostly working class people that very rarely can afford to blow money on gambling.  
2. It has a subliminal effect of promoting the miracle windfall.  Wouldn't we be better off promoting those that have worked hard and achieved success the correct way?  Our culture has become way too much of "get rich quick" mentality.
3. Then, you have those very few that actually win.  There are reports that 7 out of 10 lottery winners actually blow all of it.  But there are certainly cases of many of those that have blown it all.  Check this article out on 10 reasons why winning the lottery is not a good thing.
4. Finally, there is the totally false sales message that the lottery helps education.  I doubt people are actually playing the lottery with the notion of helping education.  And very little of the money coming from the lottery actually helps education.

I am gravely concerned about our country - where it is going, what it is doing?  We have lost our work ethic, our drive.  We are expecting the sky to drop blessings on us.  The lottery promotes this notion. How about we take half of the time we spend talking about the lottery and talk about hard-earned success?  Gambling does not expand the pie of gross domestic product.  It simply redistributes and wastes it. 
 

Is Jesus a Democrat or a Republican?

Ok, so the election is over, thankfully.  Now we can get back to the business of how the country is doing.  Some of us were happy with the outcome and some of us weren't.  Some of us are bitter and remain bitter.  There are two truths to remain encouraged about.  One, we still live in the greatest country on this earth.  We actually can vote without fear.  Secondly, God is still sovereign.  I still worry about our country in many ways, but I completely trust in a sovereign God who is not unaware of anything.

Too many Christians make strong direct association of their faith to politics, including me.  This has done great harm to the perception of Christianity.  If we spent as much time evangelizing, serving the poor, building up people, and investing in the Kingdom, there would be a much far different perception of who Christians are.  There is nothing wrong with expressing our opinion of who we favor as President and why - I have certainly done that.  But it should be separated from who we are as believers.  I made the mistake of expressing my opinion in our workplace and denigrating the other candidate.  My co-worker calmly stated she supported the other candidate.  I was embarrassed and I apologized to my friend and co-worker.  Debbie has strong friendships with those that strongly support the other party sometimes vocally.  But she has chosen to put her politics aside because she values those people as friends. 

I spent a little time with Ambassador Tony Hall in my work with Opportunity International.  I remember giving Tony a ride and quizzing him on how he lives his faith in his politics.  He would say that Jesus could identify with Democrats because they are champions of the poor and He could identify with Republicans because they are masters of work ethic.  I asked about abortion and Tony was a proponent of life and he said that he wanted to be a vocal minority and work with his colleagues to understand this sensitive issue.  He would also say how he worked across the aisle with the other party because of his deep respect and love for people.  Tony obviously loved Jesus and obviously loved people.  Which leads me to whether Jesus would be about political parties or about people? 

Being an Infectious Person

Every since I saw the movie Contagion I have been much more aware of catching germs.  That movie is nasty. It is not for the faint of heart and probably not one that you want to see again.

I have been thinking about how we as people need to be infectious but in a positive way.  I am really blessed because I work with a group of people and have another group of people that I have as friends that are infectious.  They are positive, upbeat, sure of themselves, funny, and caring.  Their infection is themselves.  How often I tend to be the one who is the downer.  I gripe, I complain, I sometimes gossip.  I forget to thank people.

Some examples - recently one of my co-workers gave me a card and a gift.  Not anything I did but just the way she is.  She was trying to thank me for being a good leader.  I was cleaning out the basement as we prepare to move (hopefully soon) and came across a stack of cards.  When I used to travel a lot, my wife always put a card in my suitcase to know that I was missed.  On the negative side, I recently had an interaction with a Christian university and my experience was anything but positive.  Their big preoccupation was that my position on certain scriptural issues was consistent with theirs.  Now I have no problem being held to a standard on scripture but this occurred for a half hour and I felt like I was getting grilled.  It did not feel like they cared about me at all as a person.

The Bible says that the Christian is to be a "sweet aroma of the knowledge of Christ" (1 Cor. 2:14) wherever they are.  In other words when people see me, they are to see Jesus.  Man, what a tall order and one I so often fall short of.  My friends who are infectious manifest that.  I think to be infectious we have to train ourselves.  We have to constantly remind ourselves of the goodness of God and His indescribable gift of salvation.  We have to remind ourselves of the power of friends and relationships.  No matter how challenging the day in and day out grind is, there is so much to be thankful for.   

I Don’t Have a Cue

One could not watch the VP debate this past week without drawing some conclusions of the power of non-verbal cues.  From the perspective of the Democrat, Joe Biden took Paul Ryan out to the woodshed.  From the perspective of the Republican, he was condescending and completely unprofessional.  Because this is not a political blog, I will leave it up to you as to which one I am. 

I am reminded however how important non-verbal communication is.  I am constantly aware of these cues when I teach my classes.  I have to be aware of cues when I am communicating in our business.  Can I show attentiveness by my body language as I listen to another person talk or do I show listlessness, boredom, or impatience?  Do I show genuine interest in what the other person is saying by my body language?  There are good ways to smile and bad ways to smile – I don’t think anyone can interpret Biden’s smile for example as expressing approval as what Ryan was saying.  But smiling can be a positive non-verbal cue.  Eye contact is another – I can always tell which students are engaged in my class by their eye-contact.

For weeks now, Max our dog has been showing non-verbal (last I checked, dogs can’t speak) behavior that has demonstrated to us that something was clearly not right.  He was hesitant to go into his house, he was constantly itching and generally not right.  Now he has had other health issues so we thought it was just and extension of that, but we finally decided to take him to the vet.  He had an infestation of fleas!!  Poor guy – once we addressed the issue, he slept like he hadn’t slept for weeks. 

THANK YOU FOR PAYING ATTENTION TO ME MASTER!

I find attentive, interested listening is hard.  I so want to dominate the conversation.  But good attentive listening is the trait of our Savior Jesus.  You cannot read into the gospels without seeing him in attentive conversation.  And this is someone who “knew what was in man’s heart”.  Listening is no just keeping quiet, but showing it in my non-verbal cues. 

Too Busy–Give Time Away

I am really overwhelmed at this point.  I run effectively two businesses now, teach two classes, am on this years class of Leadership Cleveland, am part of a small group men’s bible study, am part of the advisory group of Christian Business Owners Fellowship, and mentor couples about to be married with my wife.  It just seems like I don’t have time to breathe.  Wah, Wah!

A few weeks back a friend from the small group men’s study asked for help in his new home.  Usual guy stuff – move furniture around, paint walls, etc.  To compound things, this guy lives a good half-hour away.  I couldn’t just drop by.  I said no, I just couldn’t.  He fortunately got help from our group as other guys stepped up.  He then asked for help again several weeks later and I said no I couldn’t then either.  Again, other guys stepped up.  Finally, we were doing a group project at a local ministry and again I said I couldn’t. 

You know if we have so little margin for other people we are probably overcommitted and I probably am.  I am going to have to make some changes to give margin.  The other thing is that I need to view service from a different perspective.  Of all things Harvard Business Review had the following podcast which I have uploaded to Soundcloud and is embedded below.  The premise if you can’t listen to it is that studies have shown that if you help people, by some miracle you have more time or seemingly more time.  How could that be?

315 Pressed for Time Give Some of Yours Away by DQuigg

Don’t each of us have 24 hours in a day?  I don’t get any more because I am special.  Yet, if we give away some of our time, we have more to get.  That is what this secular author is saying.  Yet it makes all the biblical sense in the world.  It is all about serving and helping people and somehow when that happens you have more time to spend.  God has wired us this way and when we get buried in our own agenda, we are missing out on what he wants best for us. 

I have to be reminded that I need to make time to be with and serve others.  If that happens, I believe the refreshment that comes from that will make me a better, more well rounded person.  Maybe even my work will get done regardless. 

Political Correctness - Those Were the Days

Sometimes I am just overwhelmed by the amount of political correctness that occurs today.  In the world of Twitter, Facebook, etc., the amount of conversation has increased dramatically, but so has the hyper-sensitivity.  As every word is recorded, so is it scrutinized.  It really makes people overly sanitize their statements making doubly and triply sure they have not offended anyone.

Consider GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin’s recent comments on rape.  Stupid, yes.  Misinformed, yes.  But no one truly believes that Akin believes rape is ok.  His comments were taken out of context and “gotcha politics” were quick to capitalize on his dumb statement.  I make dumb statements all the time and certainly knowing that they might be taken out of context makes me think twice.  However, is this kind of sanitization of speech what we want?  When it comes to potentially offending someone, we are hyper-sensitive. 

Do you remember this guy?

What happens when you have two outspoken racists at a party?  You get quite a show.  We cringed watching Archie Bunker, but for whatever it was worth, you got at least the words out.  It exposed him for what he was.  I think that is probably better in the long run than our PC culture sometimes today.  Do you yearn for the Harry Truman “tell it like it is” kind of guy.  I know I sometimes do.

A Game That Tests Failure

Just completed another season playing baseball.  It is still a kick playing the game that I have loved since my youth.  I got started playing baseball as an adult when Debsue sent me to Indians Fantasy Camp for my 40th birthday.  I had been playing in some pretty competitive softball leagues in the NE Ohio area.  But once I stepped foot on the hardball diamond and started playing that game again, I was hooked.  That was twelve years ago.

I play with the Kent Mudhens in the Roy Hobbs 47 and over league.  I have kind of made my way along starting in the 38 and over and then retiring from that an moving up an age group.  I also play in a 38 and over Cleveland baseball league as a part-time player for the Bay Bisons.  We play from early May through August.  We also play in late October, early November in Florida for a week. 

Baseball is a tough sport.  Kind of like golf, it tests your ability to accept failure.  By way of illustration, about three weeks ago, I had a great game on a Sunday afternoon where I hit three doubles in a game in addition to a single and a walk.  The sound of a solid hit just kind of sticks with you and I had three solid doubles in that game.  My daydreams rehearsed those hits over and over again.  Unit Tuesday that is when I played for the Bisons on Tuesday night.  They hit me cleanup and I promptly went 0 for 5 with two double plays and striking out with the bases loaded.  As if that wasn’t enough, I lost a fly ball in the lights in left field.  A truly humbling experience.

Fast forward a week to that team when we played a much better team in the playoffs.  We were tied 2-2 going into the top of the eighth (we were visitors).  We got men on 2nd and 3rd with two out and our number three hitter up (I hit cleanup again – I guess they didn’t learn enough from the previous game).  They intentionally walk our guy to face me with the bases loaded.  The drama is further enhanced because the opposing pitcher and I played as teammates for eight years.  He gets to one ball and two strikes and my instincts are just to put the ball in play, but he grooves one and I line it into the gap driving in all three runners and then I score also as the ball gets by the catcher.  So now we are up 6-2 going into the ninth.  Unfortunately, we could not hold the lead and lost 7-6.  My teammates called me the “would-be hero”. 

The following Sunday, our Mudhens team got absolutely clobbered 23-2 by a fairly mediocre team.  I had never seen us so poor.  We normally are a good team.  I crowned my performance with a 1 for 5 hitting.  My last at-bat was an embarrassing strikeout captured by my wife below.  You can hear my little groan as I miss the last pitch.

Dan strikeout from Dan Quigg on Vimeo.

I have a hard time accepting failure.  In baseball, I would fling my bat, utter a profanity here and there.  Most times my teammates didn’t hear my response, but they certainly could see my reaction.  Baseball like life tests the crucible of our inner fabric.  We all fail, but it is how we learn and respond that tests who we really are.  After a major business failure a few years back, I find I am a better person.  I am much more aware of who I am.  I also find that failure means that we take success much more in stride.  I am not in any way saying that we shouldn’t strive for success.  However, failure is really what makes us what we are. 

I found that my failure makes me more pliable, more useful to God, and more sympathetic to others.  God doesn’t shield Christ followers from failure.  He uses failure to make us better people.  Even the great hitters experience some failure.  Winners of batting titles fail 2 out of 3 times.  The game makes us good at striving for success but able to use failure to make us better.