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Reigning in the Rain?

Comparing your life with that of another is usually an unwise endeavor. There are simply too many variables to be considered. For example, some who seem to live gilded lives may in fact suffer a paucity of emotional security, but who would know? External factors can often conceal inner deprivations quite easily. Still, when the vicissitudes of daily life rain on us, we may view those presumed to be more fortunate with varying degrees of momentary disdain.

I remember being caught in a deluge on London’s Oxford Street while waiting for a bus. In a somewhat bemused state, I imagined how Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II would handle the downpour. I concluded that indubitably, a bevy of attendants would instantly rally to her rescue with extended umbrellas at hand. I was really considering what if the Queen was like one of her subjects – how would she manage? In truth, it is quite intriguing to consider the powerful contending with the travails of regular life.

In 1995, Joane Osborne released a song written by Eric Brazilian of The Hooters. What if God was One of Us became an international hit for her. Posing theological consideration, the lyrics to the chorus read, “What if God was one of us - just a slob like one of us? Just a stranger on a bus, trying to make his way home?” The consideration is of the high and mighty handling lowered status.

With an egalitarian sensibility, we like to envision the powerful and positioned curtailed in potency. This may explain the success of the television series Hidden Boss, where high-ranking executives experience their corporations from the modest perspective of an entry-level employee. The audience enjoys seeing those from the top echelon struggle to manage the most rudimentary of tasks. The situational awkwardness is a delight and a hoot, but what should we conclude of one of high stature, intentionally lowering themselves, not for a reality show, but for the benefit of all in true reality?

For the serious Christian, there is an ongoing awareness that the Son of God took on the lowly position of a human. The One in whom and through whom all things were created, was willing to endure dependence on first-time teenage parents, placing him in a cow's troth. He was willing to experience his bottom being wiped, the pain of teething, exile in another country, and in the years to come, every temptation known to humanity, so as to identify with us for the divine purpose of redeeming us from ourselves. What if God was one of us? Well, the reigning King of Kings, was!

Poised behind a desk, she looked up at me as if I had disturbed her solitude and then beamingly smiled with a warm “hi” offered. What ensued was one of the most delightful hour-long chats I have ever had off-air in private. As both of us were committed Christians, there was an immediate mutual understanding.

Among other things (that shall not be addressed here) she shared that when she was at SNL, every Saturday night after the onstage “rolling credits goodbye” she would head for the elevator and jump into the back seat of her limo with a tremendous sense of exhaustion. Like Mike Myers and so many others before her, she marveled that she had made it through another week. As her chauffer navigated Manhattan traffic, she would carefully pour herself a glass of wine and light a cigarette – her only cigarette and drink of the week.

Being a regular on SNL had its rewards to be sure, but her anxiety was heightened more than that of other cast members because of her unwavering faith, which at times complicated her participation in sketches. A key example occurred when she was given a script that mocked praying to Jesus. She went to Lorne Michaels’ office and timidly knocked on his door and as he answered blurted out to her boss, "I can't do this skit, because I really believe in Jesus and when I pray it is real." Michaels, somewhat startled and bemused, paused and then kindly stated that he respected her position and eventually had guest-host Sally Fields play the part.

Victoria took a stand that could have cost her contract with NBC and thereby her reputation with the entire entertainment community. Yet, she was willing to forfeit it all to walk steadfastly with her Lord. A savvy evangelist of a unique stripe, she has kept her head in all situations, from sexual advances made by Sean Connery, to declining high sums for roles that were incongruent with her values. In her most recent correspondence with me she concluded with “All things are possible with God!” Yep, I reckon so – even for the anxious!

SNL

I have had the good fortune to have walked the halls of NBC, Burbank and NBC, 30 Rock, New York. It was at the latter location (near the entrance to SNL's Studio 8H) that I ran into Jim Bolushi back in the mid-1980s. Like his legendary brother, John, Jim was reported to be a warm bear-like Chicagoan eager to talk to anyone. I found this to be correct. However, my time with him was too brief to delve into a rich conversation. All I knew was that like so many other SNL stars, he was anxious during his two-year stint working for the show’s creator and executive producer, Lorne Michaels.

As addressed by several of the show’s alumni, Michaels is not an unkind man, but he is given to making people feel unsure of how they stand with him. Mike Meyers has shared that for nearly the entire time he worked at SNL, he thought that he would be fired each week. One may seemingly have fame and fortune and yet have legitimate reason for suffering from overriding insecurity if you don’t know where you stand with your boss.

Decades later I ran into another SNL alumnus and this time had ample time to chat. Victoria Jackson had always been one of my favorite talents on the show and for some reason, that I cannot explain, I always thought that I would one day meet her. I was nevertheless surprised to walk into what I thought was an empty production office, hundreds of miles from NBC, only to find Victoria sitting alone.

Potatoes and Chips?

Along with other topics, I have taught screenwriting for many years. Consequently, I am sometimes asked why television series so often seem to start out vibrantly, only to diminish in caliber in their subsequent seasons? There are a number of answers, but the chief two are that as new writers come onboard, replacing the prior writers of a series, the new writers do not feel the same fidelity to the initial characteristics and quality as the first writers had in their run. The second reason for a series losing its way, is that the new writers tend to inject unmotivated contrivances for the sake of mere bedazzlement and thus lose sight of what made the series a success at its start. Just recently, my wife and I dropped out of a series for these very reasons. Season one was great and season two proved less so. Still, the series continues to present an arresting concept worthy of attention.

SEVERANCE is a sci-fi series that dramatically addresses the schism that many of us feel between our work and private lives. Five mornings a week, the majority of us, typically park our vehicles, grab our coffees and cross our employer’s threshold for an eight-hour stint of completing tasks of varying importance. In the process, it is as if we flip a mental toggle switch, to change our mode of behavior and persona to suit the needs of our workplace. We may be ourselves, but it is often a decompartmentalized part of ourselves that is shown.

In the Apple TV+ series, workers at the fictitious Lumon Microdata Refinement Department have agreed to sever their workday consciousness by means of a microchip surgically inserted into their cranium. The procedure ensures that they are spared any previous recollection of their work-related activities, as they come back to their cars each evening. Unencumbered by any awareness of their preceding hours of labor, they blithely pursue their private recreational interests outside of work.

This bifurcation of their psyches produces two states of identity known as an “innie” and an “outie” with each mostly unaware of the other. One’s innie works at Lumon, while one’s outie is happily oblivious to their wage-earning endeavors. In a most extreme form of psychological dissonance, some characters begin to suffer from a nonalignment of being, for each of these microchipped persons must contend with two differing forms of consciousness existing in one body.

We live in a time when most people claim that they want to be a whole person, although few of us are. Moreover, we may be divided into far more than just two selves, but multiple fragmentations – all requiring varied facets of us as needed. Such demands cannot be made manageable by implanting a cranial chip to deaden our partial awareness. No, we require a sense of meaning in all states of our being – including work. Yet, meaningfulness can seem elusive.

For decades, surveys have indicated that on average between fifty to fifty-three percent of Americans find their jobs to be unfulfilling. In Severance the workers are frequently told that their work for Lumon is highly significant, yet they are all haunted by a sense of meaninglessness. They walk nondistinctive fluorescently lit white halls that only lead to more of the same. Yet, their “innie” work-selves, sense that there is something more to be had. Conversely, their “outie” personal selves, unbridled by confines of work, for work’s sake, are also in need of meaning. A purposeful integration between the two forms of existence, the one work, the other personal, seems unattainable. However, in truth, the great divide can be crossed, at least beyond the confines of season one of the series.

In our real world, inarguably, thoughts of meaninglessness can wear on a soul – that is, unless one can see beyond oneself. As I have referenced elsewhere, as a young man, I worked for a while as a security guard for a steel corporation. Ironically, I walked nondistinctive fluorescently lit white halls that only lead to more of the same. With a black clock around my neck to rival rapper, Flavor Flav’s huge time pieces, I was required to insert wall-mounted keys into the instrument at various stations on my rounds, to attest that I had indeed made my rounds. Within a week of this nocturnal routine, I despaired. Until, I considered a seventeenth century laymen known as Brother Lawrence.

The brother was assigned kitchen duty at a Carmelite monastery. For fifteen years he labored with the daily tasks of cooking and cleanup. Although he longed to express his devotion to God in the chapel down the hall, by singing and prayerful meditation like the other brothers. Instead, each day he was maintaining heated pans, scrubbing counters and washing utensils. He too initially despaired. However, he began to realize that his work had meaning once he entertained the notion that he could be cojoined with God and his fellowman in the very actions required for his employment. Brother Lawrence concluded that even peeling potatoes could take on great significance if it were done for the purpose of God and his fellow brothers.

In Severance, although there are moments of dubious religiosity, God is a nonentity and therefore cannot provide solace for those suffering from a haunting sense of futility. Like Sysyphus, each worker ultimately pursues unrealizable tasks, which are made all the more hellish by the lack of true comradery between the cubically isolated employees. In comparison, I was fortunate.

Some weeks passed at the steel corporation before I considered that perhaps my rounds served a purpose beyond the mere twisting of keys into a timekeeper. On evening shifts, I encountered office workers with anxious looking expressions working late. I found that a well-timed humorous comment could briefly lighten their load. Before their chuckles had subsided, I would mentally note that a type of divine occurrence had transpired. Two mortals had shared a laugh, with at least one, very much aware, like brother Lawrence, of the presence of God, bringing divine meaning to work.

Working Prayers

Perhaps you have driven behind someone with a bumper sticker declaring that "Mean People Suck!" - which is to declare the obvious. What I would far rather see stated is that "Kind People are Marvelous!" In terms of media personalities at least, I have long noted that the kindest people are consistently the same both in front and behind the camera. I observed this early in my career while working at a CBS affiliate. Wide-eyed and excited at every turn, I thought myself to be rather unimportant at the station and acted accordingly. Performing associate producer duties, my newsroom desk was adjacent to Gayle King's. This meant that I would occasionally receive calls on the newsroom's line and talk briefly with Oprah before handing the phone to her best friend, Gayle.

Not all of the "talent" were pleasant. I once had an evening male anchor fling his pen at my head because the teleprompter had gone down. Clearly, I was of no significance to him. Actually, the floor-director would have been the rightful person bearing the responsibility, but I was the nearest in range.

The next day after this incident was my wedding anniversary, and my wife was truly sad that I had to work. In her typical fashion, she shot up a prayer to heaven. Moments later our phone rang - it was Gayle King. "Alan" she started, "today is your anniversary and I think it is absolute B.S. that you have to work. I'm taking all of your producing duties. Now go out and have a great dinner!" I couldn't believe it.

Some months later, I knew that Billy Graham was holding a crusade in our area and so wanted to go out with one of our news crews to cover it. Again, my schedule conflicted, and I had to remain in the studio. Like my wife before me, I shot up a prayer to be relieved of my responsibilities. This was a definite no-go! Once again, I was in studio with the anchor who had flung a pen at my head, when unexpectedly, Billy Graham walked in and before anyone else, extended his arm to me and asked, "What is your name and what do you do?" I replied, "Oh, I'm not very important, but my name is Alan." After a significant pause, noting his intense blue eyes he said for all to hear, "Alan, you are very important - you are very important to God." The male anchor was silent.

Ephesians 4:32 reminds us that we are to be kind to one another. Both Gayle and Billy lived this out without the benefit of a camera's red tally light. They each recognized my personhood as of sufficient unto itself. Kind People are Marvelous!

Becoming One

I like to tell people with a wry smile that I have married many women. Then I hold a beat and add, "I have also married many men" after an initial moment of puzzlement, laughter ensues. I love officiating at weddings. It is true, as it is often said, the presiding minister has the best view! Yet, most importantly, it is an honor to welcome His Divine Presence to sanctify a couple's marriage.

The Bible emphasizes that marriage is a sacred union where two individuals become one in a deep, spiritual, emotional, and physical sense. However, becoming one is not an immediate occurrence. Indeed, as Genesis 2:24, states, "A man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they shall become one flesh" – but there is a process and sometimes a crisis ensuring so. Ephesians 5:31 and Matthew 19:5 assert the concept of unity and commitment between spouses. However, as with nearly every facet of Christian life, it is tested.

Typically, with or without wedding planners, brides spend untold hours looking at dresses, choosing music and studying thematic color schemes for their receptions. Often, they and their grooms view the wedding day as the most important day of their lives, but they are wrong. The most important day of their marriage may be at night, at three in the morning, when their two children are throwing up, with mom having an important sales presentation expected at nine and dad struggling with thoughts of his new secretary. It is precisely at moments like these, not captured by photographers, minus floral designs and laced gift mementos, that couples with God’s help truly become one.

Yesteryear and Today

In June of 1966, Capitol Records released a “United States and Canada – only” pressing of a Beatles’ album entitled Yesterday and Today. The originally selected cover photo was taken by London-based photographer, Robert Whitaker, depicting the Fab Four donning white butcher smocks with decapitated babydolls and strips of raw meat strewn over them. The intent was to present an absurdist art image in a humorous way, but the result proved a major embarrassment for the record label.

Outcries of “sick” and “disgusting” came from the public. The cover was deemed unsuitable for distribution after promoters refused to handle the LP’s “horrific” imagery. Executives at Capitol Records went into overriding panic and implemented what they called “Operation Retrieve”. An immediate recall went into effect of some 750, 000 copies of the album. The “grotesque” cover was strategically replaced by an innocuous photo of the “Mop Tops” in and on a steamer trunk.

How quickly things changed. Seven years later, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Roe V. Wade, that plaintiff, Norma McCorvey, had a constitutional right to abort her child if she wished, and so too had every other woman in the nation. Although McCorvey later changed her position by becoming an anti-abortion activist, nevertheless, a legal and social precedent was established that tolerated more than the beheading of plastic babies, but the mutilation of real ones.

Playing on Heart Strings

In differing ways Johnny Cash had a messed-up life. That is one of the reasons I liked him. He was sincere and willing to be spiritually naked about his weaknesses before family, friends and ultimately fans alike. His only true security was found in his faith. Having grown up in a poor farming community in Dyess, Arkansas, where cotton had to be picked, as a boy he lost his brother in a horrific table saw accident. It was devastating to him.

When he came of age, he joined the U.S. Air Force and was stationed in West Germany. It was there that he picked up a guitar for greater lengths of time and started strumming to his own words. With a family of his own in the states, his climb in the music industry led to numerous infidelities and drugs. Clean for a while and remorseful for his sins, he would soon slide back again to his old ways. Nonetheless, in desperation he would cry out to Jesus for deliverance.

Immersed in scriptures, he and his second wife, June Carter Cash studied the Jewish aspects of their faith and made a docudrama in Israel after the birth of their son, John Carter Cash. As he began to study Christian theology with greater depth, he and June became long lasting friends of Billy and Ruth Graham.

Candid and authentic, he did not deny his ongoing struggles. Bono of U2 fame recalled that while visiting Cash at his home in Hendersonville, Tennessee, the country singer offered a poignant blessing for their meal and then whispered after his amen – “Sure miss the drugs, though”.

Hymns and Gospel tunes were a key element to his repertoire. As his son declared, his faith was “everything” to him - even in music. For those who strum our own flattop guitars, Cash pathed the way for us with less than perfect vocalizations to give our best heartfelt offerings.

Many Mansions

The English playwright, actor, director and composer, Sir Noel Coward, wrote a ditty called The Stately Homes of England, which in part bemoaned how the landed gentry could no longer keep up their mansions. With beautiful exteriors and decrepit interiors, the costly maintenance forced many owners to open their private estates to tourists – think of Highclere Castle used for Downton Abbey.

Although not as historic, American mansions have fared much better. The greatest concentration of mansions are found in California’s Beverly Hills, Rhode Island’s Newport, Florida’s Palm Beach, Connecticut’s Greenwich, New York’s Long Island and North Carolina’s Asheville. In the latter area you will find the largest mansion in the United States, the Vanderbilt family’s Biltmore Mansion, which has caused a few wits to quip “They shouldn’t have Biltmore - they should’ve built less!”

I have had the good fortune of having been to all these locations. The effect is usually the same. I wonder what it would be like to have the run of such properties. Then I think of my future, where One has promised me, and every believer, such a dwelling. It is a significant comfort and certainty about life after death, that in John 14:2, Jesus declares, "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." The word “mansion” is translated from the Greek word μονή -which is transliterated as moné. The meaning is a full, more than ample, eternal dwelling place, beyond imagination!

I’ll take it!

The Jack Rabbit Special

At the age of five die-cast cars rocked my world! As a British boy I was first exposed to the Matchbox brand. In those days the cars came in cardboard packaging truly resembling a drawer-like box of matches. Yet, my greatest delight was found in the American Hot Wheels brand made by Mattel. With a 1:64 scale, their miniature vehicles rolled better thanks to the pin-thin axels attached to their red line wheels. The cars had exotic names like The Beatnik Bandit, The Splittin’ Image and The Mongoose. Each model came with a matching metal badge. Then there were the highly sort-after special releases, which in my case was the coveted Jack Rabbit Special. I write "coveted" with great intention, for it was my first taste of the unsettling state.

Jeff was in my third-grade class. He was cool, I wasn't. He wore new clothes of the latest style, while my clothes came from thrift stores and were typically ill-fitted and faded. Jeff was all that I would have liked to have been. He was good looking, athletic and an "A" student and worsted of all, a member of a Hot Wheels Club. How one exactly joined such a club I never knew, for I was too afraid to ask, lest I appeared even more of a dweeb than I already felt. All I knew was that his Hot Wheels Club membership provided him with a Jack Rabbit Special!

I was tormented by the idea that Jeff would one day produce his prized car at lunch and then give it a run between our trays. It would be more than I could take. I had seen pictures of the car in a magazine and had also seen a weekly Saturday morning animated show called appropriately, Hot Wheels, that prominently featured the vehicle. It was a white convertible with a blue racing stripe down its center. I wanted it. Not raised in a committed biblical household, I had no idea of what covertness meant, but via Jeff, I experienced it. Unlike the tenth commandment's admonishing not to covet they neighbor's wife, I did nonetheless covet my classmate's Hot Wheel.

It would take two years for me to finally get a Jack Rabbit Special. As my collection gradually grew, I would line up my cars next to my bed, so they would be the last thing I saw at night and the first thing I saw in the morning and holding center position was always the Rabbit!

Indeed, despite claims to the contrary, boys will be boys and men will be men, and one of the continuing unifying connections between them is a fascination with vehicles. The big ones are more expensive, and their mass requires more space, yet the desire to collect them never fully goes away, nor the nagging covetousness that if we aren't careful, can so easily scale 1:1!

True North

Canadians are deservedly viewed as a reserved and somewhat unassuming people. Unlike their neighbors to the south, they usually don’t clammer for recognition. For example, one would be hard pressed at a sporting event to find many Canadians waving foam gloves declaring, “We're #1!” even if they were. No, what Canadians do, they tend to do quietly. Consider the approach and content of Canadian Christian television and you’ll have an informal study into the typical low-key Maple Leaf Christian.

Back in 1976, when the USA was celebrating its bicentennial, the Reverand David Mainse and his wife Norma-Jean, had set about to quietly and prayerfully establish Canada’s only television studio dedicated to full-time Christian programming in downtown Toronto. The address was 100 Huntley Street, thus providing a suitable name for their flagship program.

From the show’s inception the focus was not on flash or bang, but on prayer, praise and persuasion. With a cavalcade of guests and careful, but informal Christian teaching, the show expanded with the growth of cable to cover the entirety of the nation. Today, it is Canada’s longest-running daily television show. From Vancouver to Halifax, it blankets the country with hope, encouragement and insight.

Moreover, as its founder and his wife envisioned the ministry (now known as Crossroads) has a 24/7 toll-free prayer line service, ensuring an interactive relationship between the show’s viewers and producers. Now available on YouTube, the show has become a staple of my daily viewing. The appeal for me is found precisely in the aforementioned calm and reserve. With a modest budget, the show is authentic and mature, allowing for weighty interviews.

Letters for the Dead?

Andrew Knox, of CBN's 700 Club Interactive, interviewed me regarding my being reared in a "Spiritualist" household and my breaking away from all such occultic practices. What follows is an abridged version of the discussion.

We are joined by British born media personality and educator, Dr. Alan Campbell...Your mother was in - was it Spiritualism?

Yes, two terms are used. In Britain we use the term Spiritualism. In the states its more likely to be Spiritism, but they're essentially the same thing. It's what's known as necromancy. It's communication with the dead - intentionally. My mother, if you had asked her, would have probably self-described as a Christian, but a very lukewarm Christian at that - she was also very much into Unitarianism, but I had multiple generations of family members involved with Spiritualism, which is communicating with the dead, to gain access to either concealed or hidden information, or to be privy to the unknown and seek guidance.

So growing up did you know early on this was unusual - something was wrong, peculiar, or just - it was kind of natural?

No it wasn't natural. Innately, and I don't know why, I can't attribute it to anything other than God's provision, but I just sensed as a child that it was deleterious, dangerous and not right. My mother would take Scrabble letters and place them on a table and then use an inverted shot glass and then have my sister hold hands mutually between the two of them - very much, if you will, like a primitive Ouija board and the glass would begin to move and they would ask questions to entities.

Would that frighten you?

Yes, I did not like it. I didn't have the wherewithal at the age of four, five and six to say, "Mummy, don't do that!" - I did later, and she would just pass it off and say, "It's alright, Alan. It's alright - don't worry, we're having friends guide us!" Well, really?

What was she looking for?

Very important - everyday nine thousand people die in the United States...everyday people die and when somebody dies there are concentric circles of influence that go out. Now think about just one person dying. I went to a funeral last week and one person died, but there were hundreds of people involved. When people lose someone significant they want continuous communication and one of the aspects of dealing with Spiritualism, which is so insidious, is that it capitalizes on people who are grieving...but there are some - if you will - philandering spiritually, Christians, who would declare themselves Christian, who are involved with this. The problem is Andrew, you can't have "Jesus and" - and a lot of people think that.

So some Christian's try to "add on" in a sense?

Yes - Jesus and I Ching, Jesus and Ouija boards, Jesus and horoscopes and astrology. We are told in the gospels and in the Old Testament that God is a jealous god. He's jealous. If people do not understand what we believe, they would say, "What a primitive god you follow! What a primitive god! Jealous? Why would you be jealous?" They confuse the word jealous with envy. God is not envious, but He is jealous. I'm quite sure that if your wife was to pay attention to - well - another gentleman that you might feel jealous.

Perhaps I would - I would think so!

Why? Because you are in love with her and you care for her and you feel that you have a right to have her devotion and her attention. God feels precisely the same way. For everyone watching right now - he loves them greatly - intensely! So He doesn't want them fraternizing with lessor spirits and those lessor spirits incidentally are demonic...and they put on the facade of being a deceased loved one because they can assimilate these roles very easily.

Okay, I've never heard that before - that's the strategy so to speak?

Imagine that you were a demon out of body - and we know that demons exist, I mean at one point Jesus is requested by them to be sent into animals going off the edge of a cliff. They want embodiment - they don't have embodiment - they want it. So when you go and activate work with a Ouija board or whatever, you're putting yourself up to that. Sometimes it involves what's called psychometry or automatic writing. Your body - our bodies should not be accessible to demons.

Do you think some Christians focus too much on evil and Satan and then some don't look at it at all? Is there a kind of middle ground?

Yes! I worry about people who are overly fixated with Satan. So that the fact - you know - everything from the washing machine being off cycle to anything that happens is attributable to Satan, but also I'm worried by those people who are so blithely, lightly, ignoring the person of Satan. Hollywood in particular, but popular culture tends to make a mockery of the idea of the Devil, so we have the horns and what have you. No, he comes as an angel of light and angel of deceit and deception, and here is an interesting thing - if I may add this - the very same people who will say, "Oh, well I believe in angels and I believe in spirit guides" also denounce the idea of there being demons and scoff at it. Well, you can't have the one without the other, because we know that demons are rebellious spirits - or if you will - angels.

What about people who have gotten involved with this and they say "I want to get out." How do you recommend they - I mean is it just a prayer or how do they transition out of this?

Two things. I think first of all you have to trust, but you also have to be willing to get rid of paraphernalia. I've done it - I mean I don't want to get myself in trouble here, but I once threw an item off the Golden Gate Bridge, which was a holdover from my mother - not wanting to hurt the environment - but it was a holdover from my mother. This item was very valuable, very expensive and I dismissed it. We have in the Book of Acts examples of people who are believers, who get rid of very expensive things, in fact it says it in the scriptures.

I remember in my family, my mother throwing a Buddha against the rocks that someone had kind of passed down and it was like "get rid of it."

Well, mine was an ivory. So, (motioning as if dropping an item) "katung" - gone!

So get rid of the paraphernalia?

Absolutely, even if it is associated with it. Even if it is a little ring someone gave you - whatever - get rid of it, because what you are doing is - you are giving entrance into your home. I don't have to worry anymore, Andrew, about a speaker going across the floor. I don't have to worry about demonic entities in my home. I sleep peacefully, but most people are enticed to this by the gentile idea that, "my loved one is communicating with me" - no! When someone we love dies trust God. When someone you love lives trust God. No matter what you do trust God and the way to do that is through Jesus. You can't have "Jesus and" - only Jesus.

When Reality Bites

In 1994 Ben Stiller directed a film with the title, Reality Bites. The concept revolved around graduated Generation X-ers coming to terms with the fact that life does not always go as one would like. Disillusionment finds its bedrock in the harsh reality of existence. Roughly three thousand years ago, King Soloman, expressed similar despair when in Ecclesiastes 1:2 he stated “Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” This sentiment parallels the principal struggle found in Stiller's cinematic characters.

Soloman's acknowledgment of his (at least momentary) depression, demonstrates that the Bible does not shy away from addressing life's hardships. In John 16: 33, Jesus unequivocally declares, "In this world you will have trouble." but then asserts, "take heart! I have overcome the world." That may be, but how does that help those suffering from the vicissitudes of daily existence? Well, consider a brother's perspective.

Most biblical scholars agree that the book known as James, was in fact written by Jesus' younger half-brother (born to Mary and Joesph by natural means) hence the eponymous title. James led the church in Jerusalem and while doing so, wrote the following for those enduring suffering seemingly without reason, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

When reality bites, rots or sucks, James encourages believers to view trials as opportunities for growth and spiritual maturity. Yes, assuredly, Jesus has overcome the world in that He is greater than all circumstances both within and outside of our lives. However, until we are called from this world's existence, trials of many kinds, will serve as a uniting force leading to maturity and completeness ensuring that reality need not bite!

Counting Pennies

According to Forbes List of Billionaires, there are 2,781 such persons in the world. I have never had the pleasure of meeting any of them, but I have come close to doing so. The wealthiest person I ever met (who shall remain nameless) was worth $750 million. The next wealthiest person I spent time with was only worth a cool $100 Million. His name was Sam Simon.

If you have ever paid attention to the opening credits of The Simpsons, you will know that three people are credited as the series creators and developers, they are Matt Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon. The latter also wrote a fair share of episodes and became one of the series' chief showrunners. After four seasons, Simon quit, ceasing direct involvement the show. Still, for decades, each year, he continued to pick up a check for $30 million. That is a sum of about $577,000.00 per week.

For some years I had taught a university level class on the topic of "Sit-Com Development" which incorporated the historical and social impact of situation-comedies and then the process of creating a series from production startup to completed pilot. When a colleague shared in passing that Sam Simon was coming to our area, it was decided that we would combine our classes, if we could convince him to guest lecture. He generously agreed!

I was designated to greet him and his entourage of twelve persons. I was shocked by his thin frame, walking cane and awkwardly fitting woolie hat. It was evident that he was putting his best effort forward to conceal his frailty. We clicked right away as I led the group to the lecture room. The students were thrilled and the discussion addressed varied aspects of show business including his great wealth and what he had done with it.

My mind wandered as he spoke, I recalled of the words of Jesus in Luke 12:15, where he said, "A man's life does not consist of the abundance of his possessions." Indeed, everything we own we eventually leave. Nothing we possess can we permanently retain. Sam Simon knew this, as he unbeknownst to me, and so many others, was busily distributing his wealth to charitable causes as fast as he could. A few months later, on March 8, 2015, he died in his Los Angeles mansion.

Quite frequently we hear the phrase, "What are they worth?". Jesus indicated that God knows every sparrow that falls, and according to Matthew 10:29, at the time, two could be purchased for a penny, yet God, nevertheless, was aware of each one. So, in God's eyes, how much was Sam Simon worth? A penny? A $100 Millian? No, like you and me, his worth was and is, beyond measure.