Author: Tim

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Iran: What’s Going On Over There?

It’s time for another Iran update. I think a lot of people expected this whole thing to be done by now. While I understand that, it’s important to remember that we’ve completely upended a major regional power’s leadership and hamstrung its military capability. We can’t even say for sure what the nation’s leadership structure looks like right now. In many cases, the Iranians probably don’t even know. Using terms like “bogged down” and “quagmire” is a little premature when it hasn’t even been 60 days. (We spent about 10 years of direct combat in Vietnam and then 20 years in Afghanistan.)

When your nation’s leadership has been decapitated, there’s going to be a struggle between multiple entities to fill that vacuum. I’m sure everyone over there was initially filled with fury and rage, but that emotion settles down a lot faster for some than it does for others. Unfortunately, in Iran, those who propose discussions with the U.S. are probably seen as weak or lacking resolve, and are marginalized as much as possible. Those people need to somehow prevail within the rubble of their own government if we’re going to talk with them, otherwise the only people left are the violent hardliners.

On top of that, the country has prepared for this. Iran’s always known it can’t stand toe-to-toe with the U.S. and win a direct military confrontation. What it’s done instead is prepare to inflict as much pain as possible in a variety of ways. Its three main pillars of “sticking it to the West” are the use of proxies, employing decentralized execution, and exploiting the Strait of Hormuz.

First we’ll look at the proxies. Up until recently, Iran was the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism. The Iranian Government wasn’t willing to start wars with the U.S. or Israel, but it funded and supplied organizations willing to use guerilla tactics against Israel and the United States. If you follow the money, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis are all heavily supported by Iran. All three of those groups have committed acts of violence against the U.S. and/or Israel. Israel is geographically closer to the area, so it’s had to deal with that type of violence (and incoming ballistic missiles) much more extensively than we have here in the States. (I’d liken it to Israel living in a pretty rough neighborhood; not only does it have a shotgun and a pistol at home, it carries a blackjack, a shiv, and brass knuckles, and goes out looking for ways to send a message.) Iran’s backing of proxy groups allows it to inflict pain on its enemies without directly engaging them.

Iran also uses decentralized execution. Since its government knew its power was concentrated in a small number of officials at the top, it prepared itself for the possibility of a decapitation strike. In the event its top leadership was to ever be removed, it probably had standing orders to implement wartime plans. Iran’s long known it needed to fight on two fronts: external threats (militaries from other nations) and internal threats (an uprising among the Iranian people). To address the exterior threat, it formed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC), more or less the elite branch of the military sworn to protect the Ayatollah and the Theocracy. For the internal threat, the Basij (think “secret police”) keep the people living in fear, putting down protests, arresting opposition members, executing protesters, etc. These two groups have both been taught to carry on even if their leadership is killed or otherwise removed from their positions. That’s what we’ve seen since the start of the war; the U.S./Israel coalition took out many of Iran’s rocket launchers and drone launchers, but the lower-level Iranian commanders got smart about how to use the stuff they still had left. When they launched attacks immediately before the cease fire, they used “shoot and scoot” tactics which make it tough for us to eliminate that equipment. While no longer effective at scale, they’re doing about as good a job as they can shooting at foreign targets without having a command structure. Similarly, Iran’s citizens have a hard time organizing an effective uprising when they have no phone or internet connections and there’s essentially a neighborhood watch keeping an eye on them, reporting the formation of opposition groups.

And finally, there’s the Strait of Hormuz. The Iranian Government is militarily weak right now, but it’s not stupid. The Strait of Hormuz is its major remaining piece of leverage, and it’s a big one. It knows that once it gives up that leverage, it has almost no bargaining chips left. Iran’s leadership doesn’t have to worry about polling, but it knows politicians here in the U.S. do. Whoever’s in charge over there knows that if they can drag things out long enough, our own political will to continue the conflict will die. This wasn’t a war the American people were ever clamoring for; we just woke up one day and found we were in this conflict. Accordingly, it will take less time for Americans to truly sour on the war. The current Iranian Government knows it can’t win, but if it can just hang on long enough for Americans to demand an end to the conflict, it will walk away from it with more favorable circumstances than if it gave up control of the Strait right away. Four dollar a gallon gasoline is painful for Americans, and when it persists, those prices start showing up in a lot more areas of the economy than simply at the gas pump. The longer this goes, the worse it’s going to get for the party in power here in the States. Iran’s Government knows that, and will likely drag out its resistance as long as possible to affect public opinion and thus pressure American politicians. The hope would be the U.S. offers more and larger concessions to sweeten the pot for the sake of ending the conflict sooner.

We gave the Iranian people the opportunity to rise up and overthrow their government. As near as we can tell, they haven’t taken it. We can try to create the conditions that would be ripe for an uprising, but we can’t force them to take action. The ideal scenario would be to have the people rise up against their leaders, overthrow the Basij and the IRGC, and work with the United States to set up a new government that works to become a productive member of the international community. That does not appear to be an imminent possibility, however, so we’re stuck negotiating with the remnants of the last government.

Americans and the news media are largely impatient with this whole endeavor. What the public needs to understand is that when you’re working on something as significant as the dismantlement of the world’s chief sponsor of terror and permanent reduction of risk in the Strait of Hormuz, it’s something worth patience and being willing to take the time to get right, rather than rushing to get a hasty and incomplete settlement. Whoever’s representing Iran at the negotiations may not even have full control over what all the IRGC and Basij commanders are doing, so it’s perfectly understandable (though less and less tolerable) if small numbers of one-way drone or missile launches take place.

Hang in there. The problem’s being worked, but don’t be surprised when the President doesn’t fully inform the news media of his negotiation strategy. If they know, Iran knows.

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Dude, They Made You Eat WHAT?!

I wrote previously about our college dorm’s “Olympics.” We came up with a variety of events and pitted our dorm’s four floors against one another in a stunning display of mindless testosterone to help build camaraderie and rapport within the various floors.

One of the events we did was pretty gross. We made four equal lines of dudes (one for each floor), and at the front of the line stood a judge who held a bag. Inside that bag was a collection of various nasty foods. I don’t remember what was in it except that it was the most vile collection of foods our dorm council president could find. Everything in the bag was actual food (it wasn’t mud or anything inedible, for example), but it was like, pickled squid and hot peppers and other gross stuff. There might have been something pretty benign (but difficult to eat quickly) like a large pack of saltine crackers or something similar.

Each competitor had to reach into the bag, grab an item, and eat whatever he pulled out. Upon demonstrating to the bag-holder that he had swallowed his food, he got out of the way and the next guy in line moved up and took a turn. All four bags held identical contents. The first team to get through all their items took first place, the second team took second, and so on.

You would not believe the competitive spirit displayed at this event. Dudes took it like champs. I think some guys were shoving stuff in their mouths before they even fully understood what it was. They were simply too dedicated to their goal to be bothered by the disgusting details. It was a different story afterwards; after they’d finished their turn, some guys made their way over to the tree line and tried not to toss their cookies. I’m not really sure what level of success they had.

It’s a little bit of a strange illustration, but it’s analogous to the erroneous pseudo-Christian doctrines some people follow. They think just because a group has “Jesus” in its name or has Him featured prominently, it must be righteous and worthwhile. It’s very important to question things and not just “swallow” all a given group’s beliefs without thinking them through. There are a few non-negotiable things (Jesus Christ is the one and only Son of God, both fully God and fully man, He died as a perfect sacrifice on our behalf to satisfy God’s wrath toward our imperfection, we cannot “earn” our way to Heaven or reach the same level as Christ, there are no essential books other than what’s contained in the Old and New Testaments), but there’s a lot of freedom outside of those.

Some people mistakenly believe some of those non-negotiable items are flexible as long as there’s a reasonable substitute. They’ll add some kind of required practice or instruction that seems holy or reverential, but they’ve actually sacrificed accuracy. When eternity is on the line, accuracy isn’t something you want to fudge. False teachers don’t announce themselves; you have to do some of your own investigation.

If you’ve recently begun attending a new church, ask yourself what it believes about these things. A group of people can be nice, upstanding citizens and still completely miss the mark on essential Christian doctrine. The devil is very familiar with our human nature, and knows it’s easy for us to replace a meaningful relationship with mindless practices or rote repetition. Diverting an earnest follower by steering them toward something that doesn’t matter is a great way to rob Heaven of souls. Don’t fall for it.

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Don’t Look at me in That Tone of Voice

I wouldn’t say I grew up in the boonies, but I could almost see the boonies from my house. Pennsylvania is pretty much known for Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, but there’s a whole lot of nothing filling up the rest of the Commonwealth.

The roads of our development were too small for a school bus to navigate, so the bus stop for our neighborhood was in the parking lot of a nearby church where the bus would be able to turn around. On inclement weather days, there would usually be a few different cars in the parking lot that we’d all pile into, and we’d listen to the radio to see if our school was closed.

Back when I was in middle school and high school people shared information differently. When there was bad weather during the winter, dial-up internet was the order of the day, and if there were websites for individual school districts, they weren’t updated daily. When all the families of the neighborhood wanted to find out if school was closed, having a delay, or operating on schedule, we tuned in to a couple of select radio stations.

One of the DJs we listened to went by the moniker “Gary in the Morning.” Gary’s radio station had a broad listening area, so if there were a lot of school districts affected, his lists could take awhile. First he’d read the alphabetical list of one-hour delays. Then he’d go through the schools operating on a two-hour delay. Finally he’d go through the list of schools that were closed that day. If our school wasn’t on any of the lists, it meant we were running on a normal schedule. (And if it wasn’t on any of the lists, we sat there in disbelief, arguing that there had to be some mistake…until the school bus showed up.) At any rate, we were all familiar with Gary in the Morning’s voice.

Due to the lack of dentists in the semi-boonies, sometimes it was necessary to drive a bit to get to one. For awhile, I went to a dentist whose office was very near the radio station where Gary in the Morning worked. I think I was vaguely aware that the station was nearby, but wouldn’t have even recognized him if he came in and sat down next to me in the waiting room.

There was one day at the dentist, however, where I didn’t need to see him. I was lying in the dentist’s chair, with the dentist doing his thing and the bright light in my face, when I heard a familiar voice talking to the receptionist out front. “No, it couldn’t be…” He kept talking, though, and yeah, that sounded just like Gary. Like a total buffoon, with dentist fingers and tools still in my mouth, I mumbled “Is that Gary in the Morning?”

The dentist, fluent in understanding people with this speech condition, came back with “It sure is! You want to meet him?” I don’t remember what I said, but the dentist gave a shout out to the front, and it wasn’t long before Gary came walking into the area where I was having my teeth cleaned. I was at an obvious disadvantage, but Gary was very nice. He shook my hand and told me I had beautiful teeth, which probably wasn’t true but what else are you going to say to a total stranger who’s in the dentist’s chair and is excited to meet you? I don’t remember what he looked like, but it was a fun little interaction with a local celebrity.

In the New Testament book of John, chapter 10 spends a lot of time covering Jesus’ description of himself as the “good shepherd.” Back in those days it was common to have flocks spend the night in pens, so they’d be easier to consolidate, keep track of, and protect from predators overnight. In the mornings when it was time to get them out of the pen, contrary to the methods of western shepherds, the shepherds of bible times did not drive their sheep, but instead called them out of the pen.

3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice. –John 10:3-5

For this method to work, the sheep have to be familiar with the shepherd’s voice. The shepherd is talking quite often, but the sheep need to be listening to the voice, tuning in and becoming familiar with the voice of the one they trust. We (Christ-followers), of course, are the sheep, and Christ is the Shepherd. He’s ever calling us, and is always aware of where we are, and the dangers we face, even if we’re oblivious to them.

Spending time in the Bible and in prayer, dwelling on the things of God, and avoiding things we know to be detrimental to our Christian walk are all ways we become more familiar with our Shepherd’s voice. He doesn’t shout; He calls. There are plenty of ways His voice can be drowned out, so we need to be listening for it.

Let’s be sure to pay attention to the Lord’s voice. His sheep are familiar with it, and will follow it even when things don’t quite make sense. Trusting the Shepherd enables us to simplify the conflicting things our own senses are telling us, and leads to the safety He’s got in mind.

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.

He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for the sake of His name.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

-Psalm 23

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I’ve had Some Weird Illustrations Before, but This Time…

Years ago I worked in the Air Force in a place that was manned 24/7. People were there at all hours of the day and night. One time as I reported to work to start my shift, there was a guy who I’d seen countless times before, but there was something different this time. He looked somehow…creepier.

It took me a minute to figure out what it was, especially in the dim lighting of his computer screen. I finally realized that the dude no longer had any eyebrows. It turns out he had been trimming them and I guess he wasn’t paying attention and didn’t realize he had removed the guard without putting another one on. He didn’t realize his mistake until he had already buzzed off one of his eyebrows.

That wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was deciding that it would look too weird to go anywhere with one eyebrow normal and the other one like this, and that he needed to do the same thing to the other one. By the time he came in to work, he looked like somebody you’d tell your niece and nephew to stay away from.

In the Bible you may have seen the term “the law and the prophets.” This term collectively signifies the importance of the Old Testament’s authoritative scriptures, both from the legal code of behavior Moses first introduced, along with the transformative messages from God’s various prophets. The phrase represents the core of God’s revealed instructions and moral standards.

The law represented God’s standard. The law is not meant to provide salvation; it’s meant to provide guidance and illustrate how impossible it is to fulfill each and every commandment God provides. Jesus is the only one to live a life without violating any of God’s laws.

The prophets refer to sections of scripture providing narrative history, divine judgment, warnings, calls for repentance, and prophecies of hope and restoration. It’s the story of Israel’s history, along with what the future holds for those who follow the Lord.

The Law reveals divine standards of righteousness, and the Prophets repeatedly give notice to Messiah’s salvation. They’re important to take together, hand in hand, like a single set of eyebrows. One without the other loses significance. Having only one of the two might not look as ridiculous as only having one eyebrow, but it would lose much of the power and sense of completion when compared to having both of them. The pairing is so important that it was even represented during the Transfiguration when Jesus met with Moses (representing the law) and Elijah (representing the prophets).

Jesus claimed that He came not to abolish the “Law and the Prophets” but to fulfill them. His life and teachings fulfill the prophecies found in the Old Testament Scriptures.

That ties in directly to what we’re celebrating this weekend. Jesus’ perfect adherence to the law means He is the only one to fulfill the messianic prophecies and be eligible to serve as an unblemished sacrifice. Only a perfect sacrifice could meet God’s standards, and thus cover a multitude of sins.

So this Easter, give thanks to the Lord for His plan and sacrifice for you and your loved ones. It’s that arrangement that allows your access to Him. Happy Easter!

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Time Waits for no Man…Unless That Man is Chuck Norris

I was a teenager when I took part in my first bible study focusing on the book of Revelation. I was excited about it; at that point I only had a no-frills bible that only included the scripture’s text, no notes to help understand context, no maps, none of that stuff that explains what gets lost in translation from the original Greek. If you’re a teenager, and you’re reading Revelation without the benefit of any of that additional context, you can easily be confused and even discouraged.

This was probably 30 years ago now, and the world has changed a lot since then. While sure, people were still mean and there were still bullies, the general hate and vitriol we’re accustomed to today wasn’t nearly as prevalent back then. “Right” and “wrong” were still largely universal, nobody argued over the difference between male and female, people were still generally respectful of their elders, and if you mouthed off at school, you either got suspended or expelled.

In Revelation chapter 11 we encounter some strange things. After the Rapture has occurred (when the Lord collects His still-living followers, prior to a period of chaos and disaster at the hands of the antichrist the world hasn’t seen before), God still gives everybody a chance. He still makes sure everybody who’s left has the opportunity to hear the truth and repent of their sins. The Lord places two invincible “witnesses” on the earth to testify for three and a half years. They speak the truth in a way that cannot be censored. Even when people try to physically harm, or even kill, these witnesses, their testimony won’t be stopped. In fact, people who try to harm the two witnesses are themselves killed (Revelation 11:5). Cancel culture has no effect on them, and it will drive people absolutely insane to hear the unadulterated truth they don’t want to acknowledge.

At the end of those three and a half years, the antichrist is permitted to put an end to the testimony by killing these two witnesses. As a teenager, I was floored by what came next. People are so relieved by the death of these two that not only do they disrespect the witnesses by refusing to bury them, but they also celebrate by giving gifts to one another to commemorate their deaths.

I couldn’t fathom such a thing. Maybe I just hadn’t been exposed to enough of the world’s troubles by that point, but aside from Adolf Hitler and some other dictators, it seemed like some impossibly dark future where people celebrate someone’s death because they disagreed with them.

Fast forward to today. Last week we lost an American legend, Chuck Norris. This guy was about as wholesome as you could get. I remember watching “Walker, Texas Ranger” often when I was younger, and I still find myself stopping and watching for a bit as I’m flipping through channels and come across an old episode. Yes, the plots and bad guys (including their mullets) were often cheesy, but good always triumphed over bad. Later, Chuck Norris was invited to be in the action movie “The Expendables 2,” and agreed to do so on one condition: that the vulgar dialogue be removed.

I realize and accept that the genre he’s known for isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I’m pretty irritated that people would celebrate his passing. That tells me quite a bit about their character. They seem to have lost respect for the value of human life.

That’s not the only example, though. Charlie Kirk’s passing last year was a more prominent example of the callous disrespect for human life people can hold. Opponents openly celebrated his death in ways I can’t understand. The fact that Kirk made a name for himself by promoting biblical beliefs makes it easier to relate to Revelation 11. Thirty years ago the End Times seemed distant; today at least some of those obstacles have fallen.

(To be fair, the disrespect for human life is not just on one side of the political spectrum. This week President Trump expressed his gladness for the fact that Robert Mueller, who had been in charge of investigating Trump, had passed. He didn’t say it with nearly the level of vitriol and hate that came from those celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death, but he holds a much higher position and platform. I can only imagine the crude things that will be said when President Trump eventually passes.)

I encourage you to keep reading more in Revelation. It turns out those two witnesses don’t stay dead for very long. The people of the earth gloat and celebrate for three and a half days over the death of their tormentors, only to be struck with terror as God raises them to life, and then ascend to Heaven in full view of everyone when God tells them “come up here.” Wow!

I don’t know that it was that particular night of the bible study, but I distinctly remember my youth leader saying something to the effect of “maybe not in my lifetime, but probably in yours,” the events of Revelation would come to pass. Based on how quickly things have gone downhill, it’s getting tough to argue.

Lord, I thank You for giving us the scriptures that help prepare us for the End Times, whether we live to see them or not. For those who will be alive to see it, I pray that you’d help them find their way to the truth, either through the pair of witnesses, biblical texts, the testimony of others, or through the unforeseen methods You excel at using. Prepare those people and help them withstand the incredibly tough times they’ll face, and may they seek You and cling to You in those difficult circumstances. These things I ask in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

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Hopefully a Little Something To Give You Some Encouragement

Did you ever hear what you needed to hear at just the right time?

My greatest hope for this blog is that it encourages believers to step into the role God’s made for them, regardless of how impossible it seems. I’d love if the entries bolster courage and resolve in its readers, and helps fuel them to swing for the fences and take the next step to do the things only God could empower them to do.

When it comes to this blog, the nature of the medium generally results in a lack of feedback from readers. Through a variety of means, people either drop in on the actual blog itself, view entries somewhere on social media, or receive emails, and after reading an entry they move on with life. Of course I’m curious about what people think of various entries, but I’ve come to accept that I simply won’t find out in most cases. That’s okay in the short- or medium term, but it gets harder to stay motivated in the long term.

Due to a combination of my spiritual gifts, my life experience, and the way my brain’s wired, I tend to keep plugging along on something I believe to be important when I believe many others would have lost interest or given up. In my mind, God led me to begin this project; He pointed to a spot beyond the horizon and said “now, go!” I continue because this is the task I believe I was given “until directed otherwise.”

That doesn’t mean, though, my determination is unflappable. That was seven and a half years ago.

Even though I work to please God and not people, every once in a while I do wonder if these entries are making any kind of difference. I fully accept that I won’t find out the true impact of my efforts until Heaven, but sometimes it feels like I’m just sending post after post into the electronic void. In fact sometimes I go so long without getting any feedback I start bringing it up in my prayers. I don’t mind continuing to do it if it’s what God would have me do, but every now and then I get to the point where I kinda ask “hey God? Could you please either, like, send me some encouragement to keep this going, or let me know I can shut it off?”

Well sometimes, He does send that encouragement, and it’s enough to keep me going.

One time I was wrestling with this problem, and I had been asking the Lord for a little pick-me-up, some kind of sign that I should either continue posting or start wrapping things up. Now it’s important to understand that I’m not the most outgoing guy. I’m usually pretty content hanging back in a crowd and I don’t usually go seeking out others to start a conversation. That weekend in church, though, a longtime supporter found me and we started talking. He let me know that he didn’t read each and every blog post I sent out (and that’s fine), but he still enjoyed the ones he read. We talked for a few minutes about past entries, and then as we closed the conversation, one of the last things he said to me was “keep doing what you’re doing.”

Sometimes God just shows up, man. He doesn’t forget about you. Somebody out there needs to hear this: God has not forgotten you. He sees your struggle, and He knows your heart. He knows you’re trying to do the right thing, and He knows you’re not perfect. I want to encourage you to keep going. Don’t give up. Keep doing what you’re doing.

But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded. -2 Chronicles 15:7

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Let There be no Mistake: Wimbledon This is not

In high school I played a couple years of tennis. It was a spring sport, so right around this time of year, when it went back and forth between snow and hot weather, we’d have practice in preparation for our first match.

I played doubles, so the strategy was a little different than for singles. In singles you’re responsible for the whole kit and caboodle: everything that comes over the net is something you need to get back to your opponent. It’s a little different in doubles, and you have to work as a team. Figuring out the way you want to move around the court, who’s got the better serve or backhand, which of your opponents was the weaker player from the baseline, and seeing if you could lure the guy at the net close enough to the center of the court to get it past him down the alley were all parts of the strategy you’d look at developing.

Playing the net was my favorite part of doubles. Most of the time the two guys at the opposite baselines are slugging it out, but every now and then the guy on the other team would either flub the return or maybe underestimate the net guy’s reach, and allow the ball to get close enough for the net man to pounce on it and slam it back between the two opponents. Sometimes teams would get a little tricky and have the baseline and net guy switch sides of the court, which usually threw the other team off balance but also opened themselves up for an attack if they didn’t do it right.

Sometimes it would become painfully obvious that high school tennis players were not professionals. The net guy on one team would “intercept” the return and get it over the net, but the other net player would get to it fast enough to get it back over. The goal was for the net player to return the ball at a sharp enough angle that neither one of the other players could get to it in time.

I’m pretty tall, and I’ve got a pretty large wingspan. When I have a racket in my hand, my reach gets that much further. When I played at the net, I usually crouched and kept my arms tucked in, to try and mask my full reach. As the volleys continued, many times the opponents sort of got lulled into this sense that I wasn’t going to do anything unless the ball came very close to me. Once in awhile I’d even ignore a ball I may have been able to get to. They’d get less and less careful about keeping it away from me, and eventually I’d explode out of the crouch and either blast the ball somewhere onto their side or just barely tap it over the net to a spot they couldn’t reach fast enough.

That lurking, that patient waiting until just the right moment is a lot like one of the tactics our enemy uses. We, Christians, can get lazy or lose sight of the danger, and get lulled into a sense of complacency. We know we should stay away from the really bad stuff, but this smaller, less obvious version is probably okay, right?

It could be anything. Alcohol. Pornography. Racy novels. Gossip. Substance abuse. Gambling. Lying. “It’s not so bad,” we tell ourselves. There are no immediate repercussions. Then we wade a little deeper into whatever it is; we “allow the ball to get a little closer to the guy at the net.” We might even be a little excited about feeling like we’ve got things under control. Then one day, you suddenly and horribly realize you should have made different choices. That sudden realization can look very different depending on what kind of fire you’re playing with.

Then comes one of the enemy’s biggest and most effective tricks. Instead of coming clean and seeking help from someone you trust, he whispers in your ear “you’ll never recover from the shame if people find out. You’ll carry that stigma everywhere you go for the rest of your life. It’s better to just keep it hidden.”

Every one of those examples above are well-known problems among humanity. Admitting it to someone you can trust isn’t admitting you’re a failure, it’s admitting you’re human and you’re not perfect. Guess what? We already knew that. Sharing your struggle with someone and trying to get some help actually takes away most of the enemy’s power to bludgeon you with shame and regret. You have the choice of whether you want to remove a good portion of his power over you. Don’t pass up the opportunity to shed that fear and guilt. Christ didn’t die for you so you could live in shame. He died for you so you could experience the freedom of forgiveness, the wonder of His grace, and the joy of sharing this news with others.

Don’t let that amazing opportunity pass you by because you believe the lies whispered in your ear when you’re feeling vulnerable. There’s power in the name of Jesus, and He’s waiting for you to call on Him.

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It Looks Like Iran has Been in the News Lately

Lots of big stuff is happening in the news. I’m going to take a little time and just explain a bit about Iran. If you’re already familiar, my apologies, but I thought it would be good to just give a basic overview of the situation.

So, where to begin? The Iranian Government has been behind much (not all) of the turmoil of the Middle East over the past few decades. The Government which was in place a week or two ago hates two countries: Israel and the United States. Iran is the classic state sponsor of terrorism; if it can’t directly engage in war with its enemies, it funds terrorist groups that do. It funds Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. Israel knows this, and every time it gets attacked by Hamas or Hezbollah, it knows Iran’s really behind it all.

For a long time, Iran has had a nuclear program, claiming it’s for peaceful purposes (power generation, nuclear medicine, etc.). The problem, though, is that it’s spent a lot of time and effort enriching Uranium to a very high level, and there’s no purpose to going through so much trouble other than for the construction of a nuclear device. A nuclear reactor used for generating electricity does not require such highly enriched fuel, and there’s no point in stockpiling so much Uranium for medicinal purposes. It’s bomb material, pure and simple. You can see how this, along with advancements to Iran’s ballistic missile program, makes Israel very nervous. Leaders in the U.S. and/or Israel may have received some intelligence about pending developments on this, prompting the recent action against Iran.

Strategically, Iran is physically located at a very important spot. It has the ability to shut down a maritime bottleneck (the Strait of Hormuz) through which a very large percentage of the world’s oil gets shipped. Tanker vessels carrying oil from Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, and others transit this bottleneck every day. Iran can try to shut down all traffic transiting the Strait and hold the oil hostage until it gets what it wants, or until somebody forces the Strait back open. Iran’s navy has taken a beating since hostilities commenced, but even without large vessels it can still launch missiles from shore at ships that try to transit the Strait. Incidentally, China needs a lot of oil, and it previously got a large percentage of its oil imports from Venezuela and from Iran at discounted rates. Now that both of those gravy trains have stopped flowing and nobody wants to send oil through the Strait of Hormuz, China’s going to start making a lot of noise about opening the Strait back up again.

The United States has a history of involvement in Iran’s internal affairs. In the 1950s the CIA helped pull off a coup that installed a leader friendly to the United States and its interests (mostly regarding oil and oil infrastructure). This led to an uprising among the younger generation a couple of decades later, when the U.S.-installed Shah was sidelined and Iran’s recent government model took power during the Islamic Revolution of 1979. It established a Theocracy, with an Ayatollah in charge of the nation. A president is also present, but the appointed-for-life Ayatollah makes the decisions.

Over time the demographics in Iran have worked against the Government. Although the religious enthusiasm of the revolutionaries in 1979 swept them into power, today’s under-45 population is much less interested in the morality police and would rather not deal with the crippling sanctions their government’s policies have incurred from the international community. Uprisings have sputtered to life, only to be put down by a sophisticated and brutal security apparatus. Networks of secret police, informants, morality police, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) put down uprisings through fear, violence, and intimidation.

President Trump is keenly aware of Americans’ distaste for another multi-decade conflict in the Middle East. He appears content to remove the nation’s current rulers to give the general population an opportunity to rise up and establish its own version of government. I don’t have insight into the President’s actual plan, but a major sticking point here is that everyday citizens in Iran do not have access to firearms, and that makes it very tricky for them to overthrow the armed security apparatus. In all likelihood, the theocratic element of Iran’s Government will come to an end (the role of Ayatollah and clerics will be greatly diminished), but the apparatus put in place to maintain the theocracy’s survival will likely take charge in some capacity. If that’s true, Iran will trade a religious authoritarian government for a secular authoritarian government. We’ll see just how willing President Trump is to continue remotely disrupting the power of the establishment in Iran. Eventually, the theory goes, they’ll have enough of the struggle, and they will surrender. An opposition must emerge somehow, either organically within Iran or the descendents of the Shah who was ousted in 1979.

This is a pretty fluid situation and I’m sure things will change by the time this entry gets posted, but President Trump said he expects this operation to last four or five weeks. War Secretary Pete Hegseth stated the objectives of the operation to be threefold: 1. destroy Iranian missiles/missile production, 2. destroy Iran’s navy and other security infrastructure, and 3. they will never have nuclear weapons. Destroy the missile threat, destroy the navy, no nukes. All three of those goals have been brought much closer to reality, but now we have an Iranian military and IRGC who are armed with missiles and are scared and/or motivated to take action. A lot of missiles seem like they’re getting launched, but there doesn’t seem to be much of a strategy behind the launches other than lashing out at anyone who doesn’t help them.

Like I said, it’s a highly fluid situation. There are a lot of articles and a lot of TV coverage about this story, but there’s not always a lot of information to report, so you’ll see and hear a lot of words that aren’t really telling you many concrete facts. Be on the lookout for how Russia and China play this one, what governments in neighboring nations do, and what kind of opposition groups start emerging as serious contenders to take part in a new government. Obviously, there’s much more to come on this topic, so keep an eye on big developments.

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When Was the Last Time Most Americans Agreed on Anything?

When was the last time the majority of Americans agreed on anything?

I’ll get to that in a moment. I have to start wading through some controversial territory to get there; I’ll try to lay it out in a neutral way so you can be better informed.

Whether you call them illegal immigrants or undocumented workers, the topic has been in the news quite a bit lately. Our nation was built on the backs of immigrants, certainly, but there’s a very large difference between the legal and illegal versions of migration into the United States. I don’t want to go too far down this rabbit hole; suffice it to say Democrats are widely in favor of encouraging vast numbers of undocumented workers into the country, and Republicans are widely opposed to it. What’s the rationale here?

Every 10 years, the U.S. performs a census. We want to see how many people live in our country, where they live, and as much demographic data about age, income, household size, ethnicity, etc. as we can easily collect. Ok cool, that sounds reasonable. One of the things the government does with that data is re-apportion congressional representation among the states according to population. Every state gets two senators regardless of how many people live in each state, but aside from that, the more people reside in a state, the more representatives they’ll have in Congress. For example, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming don’t have very many people living there, so they barely have any representation in the House of Representatives. Each of those states gets two electoral points for each senator, plus one point for a congressional representative, for a total of three Electoral College points each. California, Texas, and Florida, on the other hand, have very large populations. Accordingly, there are a lot of congressional districts, and a lot of Electoral College points, associated with those states. I’m sure you’ve watched as the Electoral College map gets filled in on presidential election nights. The states with the largest population are worth the most electoral votes.

California is the single most important state on the Electoral College map. It’s worth more points than any other state. A presidential candidate has to win 270 points in the Electoral College, and right now California accounts for 54 of them. That is, until the next census occurs.

Contrary to the best interest of the American electorate, it turns out congressional representation is not based on how many American citizens reside in a given state; it’s based instead on how many people, including non-citizens, live there. Due to its policies that result in a high cost of living, American citizens have been leaving California for years. They can leave California, but if additional people, citizen or otherwise, move in, it will mitigate the loss of electoral points. If your party normally wins California but people are leaving it in droves, what’s one possible solution to maintaining population levels? Facilitate the arrival of undocumented migrants in areas otherwise losing populations. Doing so tinkers with the census results, which subsequently affects the electoral math.

So what is it the majority of Americans are agreeing on?

It’s a slightly different, but still related topic. What’s your view on having to prove your identity and eligibility when you register to vote? Do you think you should be able to just show up and state your name and address, or should there be something a little more stringent where you have to prove you’re eligible to vote in an election?

According to a recent Pew poll, this is not a controversial topic at all. Overall, 83% of Americans (71% of Democrats and 95% of Republicans) are in favor of having a requirement for voter ID. The numbers are also high when broken down by race. Harry Enten of CNN has been quoted as saying “The bottom line is this: Voter ID is NOT controversial in this country. A photo ID to vote is NOT controversial in this country. It is not controversial by party and it is not controversial by race. The vast majority of Americans agree.”

Why, then, is there so much opposition to it by members of one of our two major political parties on Capitol Hill? Because it reduces opportunities to operate in the margins. When voter rolls are pretty slim, it’s fairly easy to ensure there isn’t any funny business going on regarding fraud in an election. When the voter rolls are swollen, it increases the opportunity for voting shenanigans. Election officials are just like any other job…there never seems to be enough hands to cover the basics. As long as everyone’s acting in good faith and playing by the rules, it’s wonderful to have high percentages of eligible voters participating in their civic rights. Not everyone plays by the rules, however, and fraud is more difficult to catch when it’s hidden among extensive numbers of registered voters in an understaffed voting location.

It may not be a 100% solution, but there’s a bill which has already passed the House, called the “Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act,” which aims to make it mandatory to be able to prove citizenship when registering to vote in elections. Again, only American citizens are eligible to vote in American elections. The various states are allowed to run their elections how they want, but they’re all supposed to have a process that ensures only American citizens can cast votes. Not all states have a stringent process. It might be a stretch to say there’s widespread fraud, but fraud does exist. The SAVE Act would establish minimum requirements for registering to vote (strict photo ID requirements and proof of citizenship). The downside is that even American citizens who are eligible to vote may not have easy access to the required proof (not everybody has a passport, for example, and there are plenty of people who wouldn’t be able to easily find their birth certificate). The requirements aren’t particularly onerous; you usually need to provide similar proof when starting a new job. While you don’t always need to have citizenship to get a photo ID, the SAVE Act would mean you must prove citizenship to register to vote. In theory, the combination of secure voter registration and legitimate photo ID should help minimize fraud at the polls.

This doesn’t quite cover everything related to election controversy these days (numerous states are looking at redrawing their congressional districts to manipulate which party wins the district), but hopefully it will help keep you informed as you hear about the SAVE Act in the coming days/weeks. Remember that it’s not the news media’s job to keep you informed on all sides of an issue; it’s the news media’s job to get high ratings and sell advertising space. Straightforward, honest reporting doesn’t draw an audience, but controversy and outrage do. Hopefully this will help you keep the facts straight as you keep an eye on the latest developments.

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Let’s Go as Fast as We Can Down This Icy Death Chute

The Winter Olympics are coming to a close this weekend. I’ve always enjoyed the Winter Olympics more than the Summer games, maybe because even though Summer Olympic events represent the more classical competition, the Winter version has at least one of the following: snow/icy tracks/sharp blades/high speeds/people soaring through the air. Nobody gets broken bones in sprinting or swimming, but you can break a bunch all at the same time if you fall the wrong way in Super G or have a bad day on the luge track. Aside from javelin, there’s not a whole lot of danger in the Summer games. The winter exception is curling, where even middle-aged athletes can earn a medal. Somehow though, even though I don’t understand the scoring and it’s not fraught with danger, it’s still strangely entertaining to watch.

I’ve shared multiple times in the past about how, when I was in college, my roommate and I drove out to be spectators at the 2002 Winter games in Salt Lake City. It was a lot of fun, for sure, but these days I’m seeing the games through different eyes.

One thing that was lost on me 24 years ago was just how young everybody is! I look at today’s athletes and wonder if some of them are old enough to shave. It’s interesting to see that the “senior” participants, the ones who have been to three or four Olympics already and are the elder statesmen and mentors in their discipline, are only in their late 20s or early 30s. When you see the human interest pieces on them, you find out they competed in their first Olympics when they were 13 or 14. That’s insane to me! I’ve got kids older than that!

The people I watched back then (or even since then) are now commentators or interviewers for today’s events. Picabo Street (women’s downhill skiing), Bode Miller (men’s downhill skiing), Apollo Ohno (short track speed skating), and Shaun White (men’s snowboard halfpipe) all took or are taking a turn behind the microphone.

I can’t watch some events the same way I used to. I watch moguls and think “Ow! Ow!” over and over in my head until each skier crosses the finish line. Then I kick myself for sounding like an old man when I find myself thinking “this will probably be the only Olympics that set of knees competes in.”

The sports themselves evolve over time, too. Rules change, innovation occurs, and the stakes get raised. Norwegian cross-country skier Johannes Høsflot Klæbo employed a new tactic when skiing up hills, more or less running up the hill at full tilt while wearing skis instead of skiing in the classical style. Ilia Malinin, the American figure skater, pulled off not only a one-legged backflip (which hasn’t been allowed in previous competitions) but a quadruple axel…a stunning four and a half rotations in the air. Snowboarders routinely execute tricks that seemed impossible not long ago. The people that win are the ones who risk the most and manage to string together a series of tricks or a couple of runs that barely avoid catastrophe. Competing at the absolute edge of control, it’s at once awe-inspiring and death-defying.

I now find myself rooting for the “old people.” In Olympic terms, if 30 is old, 40 is ancient. Lindsey Vonn (41) sustained injuries that ended her downhill bid during a training run. A Canadian pairs figure skater (Deanna Stellato-Dudek, 42) made history as the oldest woman to make an Olympic debut in figure skating. She and her partner were crushing it, too, until a fall took off too many points to be competitive. While showing her back story, the piece detailed how intense her regimen is; training at 40+ is much different from training at 24.

The Winter Olympics will always hold a bit of a special place in my heart. While I recognize not everyone’s into watching the Olympics, it’s been nice to have a little bit of the usual anger and division take a back seat. We can just be Americans (or wherever you’re from) and enjoy the fruits of thousands of hours of each athlete’s practice. Hopefully you can enjoy a similar break from the normal noise that’s out there.