The Cell Phone Problem No One Can Fix

 Most of you know me and know I'm a High School teacher. I will tell you as a teacher and from other teachers, I know that cell phones are a nightmare. I think many teachers are leaving the profession because we just can't compete anymore. We just can't do it, it is awful. My district has said no more cell phones in class, and the punishment can be as severe as an alternative school. May seem drastic, but it is not. Cell phones are ruining our students.

As a teacher, telling my students to put their phones away is equal to killing their puppy. I get called every name under the sun, yelled at, ignored, and disrespected constantly for a cell phone policy that I didn't create. If you want to see something similar, take a smoker and hide their cigarettes. These students are addicted, and when you cut off that addiction, they can act like addicts.

What makes it worse is the enabling parents who are addicts and don't support what we are doing. Most of the parents are great, but some say "I just don't see the big deal". I will tell you the big deal, and many will say I'm overreacting, but Google is running our country. The younger generations no longer think, they just google it, or ask Siri. They no longer have critical thinking skills, they just accept whatever the cell phone tells them. They get info from Instagram and Snapchat, but they have no clue what is actually happening. Google tells them what to think, what to support, and how to feel. When you cut them off from this, they lose their minds.

Teachers are suffering because of cell phones. We can't teach, we are constantly at odds with distracted students. Cheating is out of control, students are emboldened to defy a teacher, and TikTok trends are encouraging all sorts of negative behavior. Our society is speeding down a road of destruction and it begins when a kid gets their first smartphone and social media account. They do not have the ability to turn it off, put it down, and pay attention during a school day. They have no idea why it is important to learn anything. It is dangerous when people just give up control, but that has happened, and it has happened on our watch.

I wish I had an answer to put in this section of my post. I don't. I have no idea how to fix this issue. Cell phones and social media are not going away. This is not going to change. The best we can do is to continue to talk about it. Continue to teach kids the whats and the whys of education and life. We can't give the ability of Google or Apple to control the thought process of the young. We need to teach them to think critically. It will be a long fight, a hard fight. Please pray for teachers, educators, parents, and others who work with these kids. It is a hard-fought battle.

You Must Choose

 There are several places where the phrase is repeated in popular culture. I can hear the phrase echo in different voices, you must choose. 

Palpatine tells Anakin to choose the Jedi or the Sith. 

The knight tells Indiana Jones he must choose the right grail. 

The Architect tells Neo that he must choose to save Zion or Trinidy. 

In the original Spider-Man with Toby McGuire, Green Goblin tells him that some villain will come along with "a sadistic choice". He can save Mary Jane, or an elevator car full of school kids.

These are just a few examples that pop into my head, and choice is a pretty big deal. As a Wovenist (you can read Biblical and Evangelical Calvinist), I acknowledge that God calls us, that God does the work of salvation, and God ordains who is to be saved, but this does not negate the choice of man. (If this seems contradictory, please go back and read some of my posts on Wovenism, time, and the works of salvation). God created man with a choice. Obey and walk with me, or eat the fruit.

We have confused things in our modern day, and there seems to be a plurality of choices. There isn't. It really comes down to two choices, Trust God or trust yourself. In reality, every world religion is based upon human works. There are rules, laws, rituals, rights, duties, and obligations. In every world religion, man does work to get to god. In the Christian faith, God came to man in the person of Jesus. He died to redeem mankind of sin. We are offered the gift, we respond in faith, and are saved by the work of Jesus. It is not by work, effort, ritual, or law. We are saved by grace through faith.

It is pretty simple, who do you trust? Do you trust yourself to get it right? Do you trust yourself to keep the laws of God, to work and earn your way into eternity? Do you have the ability to please God by your own effort? Can you stand before God and demand Him to allow you into Heaven because of how good you have been? Can you do all that is required to get to Heaven? I am confident that I cannot, but I know that Jesus can. I can choose to trust Him, and allow Him to do the things in me I can't do for myself. I can't, but He can. He will and I have faith that I will spend eternity with Him.

Why You Should Read More (Specifically The Bible)

 My day job is as a High School teacher, specifically, I teach reading and comprehension skills. My focus is to help students who struggle in those areas gain skills and proficiency. I know that it is important for them for the rest of their lives. American (and most other societies) are based on the written word. We have books, we study books, we write things down, take notes. Even in the digital age things are written. Videos have scripts and captions and memes are a form of written satire. Even websites are written in code, and you have to know how to read and write that code to program. It is imperative that students are proficient readers once they graduate, and my goal is to get them there.

Unfortunately, we have seen growing apathy among many that reading and comprehension are no longer important. They see it as antiquated and obsolete. I assure you it is not (and I probably don't have to convince a blog reader that reading is important). We are now and in the near future will be a text-based civilization. It will be that way until some major technological breakthrough changes fundamentally how we learn, think, and communicate. We will not be moving away from the written word, even if it becomes digital. The email, text message, blog, and website will not be replaced anytime soon. 

With reading being an essential part of life, reading and good comprehension is key. For the Christian, it is even more important. God has chosen to reveal Himself to us through His Word. God became incarnate in Jesus, and we find His life, deeds, and words written in a book. The Bible is key to knowing God. We learn about the nature and character of God and about the work of Jesus through reading. We study and meditate on the word. We are commanded to know the word. The Bible is vital to the Christian life.

Let me implore you, do not neglect to read. Read the Bible, and read good Christian works. Read old books and new books. Read, and grow in your ability to read fluently and be able to think critically about what you have read. Being literate is critical and a tremendous gift. Read to your kids, grandkids, to people around you. Be involved with books and most importantly with the scripture. It is vital to living a successful Christian life!

What Should Our Response Be to the Revival at Asbury?

 Unless you live under a rock, you have probably heard about the revival that has begun at Asbury University in Wilmore Kentucky. It began with a chapel service that students decided to continue to praise and worship. The chapel was on Feb 8th, and the praise and worship service has not stopped. Other colleges report that this movement is beginning to spread to their campus. Samford University has reported a revival at its campus. Lee and Cedardale Universities report the same.

As a believer in Northwest Iowa who is not on a college campus, how do I respond? Let me begin with what I am NOT going to do. I am not going to discourage or speak ill of this event. I am not going to label this as emotionalism or just immature college students. I am going to believe the best. I am not going to let myself become a skeptic, because revivals have a history of older skeptics attempting to quench the fire.

The missionary David Brainard was a student at Yale when revival began. During that revival, many of the local pastors and college staff attempted to discredit the revival for its emotionalism. Brainard said that one of the local pastors and college tutors "had no more grace than a chair" and was expelled from Yale. History will remember David Brainard and the Great Awakening that swept through the United States in the 1720s and 1730s. Those who fought against the Great Awakening are not remembered well in the annals of history. They are often written about as those who "wished to regain control" and who refused to support the young students as their excitement for the movement of God began to grow.

Knowing the history of the First Great Awakening, and knowing that many revivals and spiritual awakenings have begun with the younger generations, with students, and in colleges. My response is to have hope. I hope that his movement continues to spread to college campuses, to young men and women, and to churches. I hope that people reject the selfish ideology that is sweeping our country. My hope and prayer is that young people turn from the lies that are being pushed on them today and reject the hypersexualized culture in our country.

My response is to continue to pray that God's Spirit will be poured out. I can't claim to know what God is doing and what He has planned, but I trust and have faith. I know that students who praise and worship God today have a better chance to follow and trust Him tomorrow. I believe that these events have a better outcome in our country that the current path we are on. I'm going to pray that this movement of the spirit grows and comes to Northwest Iowa and consumes the entire country in the Holy Spirit. I hope you will join me in praying for revival!

Understanding Deconstruction (And Why It's Breaking Faith)

 My undergraduate work is in English Lit. As a student of literature, we studied a variety of critics and critical theories. One was a man by the name of Jacques Derrida. Derrida is the father of modern deconstruction and is a huge part of the postmodern movement and subsequent culture. This movement began, like many movements, in academia and then spread into popular culture. I want to dive into what Derrida said and then how that impacts what is happening in American Christianity today.

Derrida was a French philosopher, and like all other philosophers, he took ideas about thinking and thought and expounded upon them. He took the idea that all objects are made up of signified and signifier, the signified being the object and the signifier being the word that represents it in language. The signifier is arbitrary, it only exists because we assigned it, so for example there is an object growing from the ground. It is large, reaches to the sky, grows, and has leaves or needles, and sometimes fruit or nuts. We use a word, tree, to define that object. The word tree is arbitrary, and if we called it something else as long as we all agree that the word stands in the place for that object, we will be understood. If we called it a cat or a fish, or a flognart, as long as we all agree that word equals that object, it will be understood.

Derrida took that one step further, saying that things are identified primarily by what they are not. A tree is a tree because it is not a bush, a rock, a mountain, a river, or anything else. All of the things in nature have a space that is what a tree is. The only way we know it is a tree is by seeing what it is not. If it is not any of those things, then a tree is what is left. Language and the objects represented begin to seem arbitrary. To find out what something is, or what something is not, it needs to be broken down into its smallest component to find what is left. This is the heart of deconstruction.

Applying this to the Christian faith, once we begin to compare Christianity to another world religion, it simply becomes what that religion is not. If we use Muslims for example, then being a Christian doesn't mean we follow Christ, it means that we do not follow Muhammid. It no longer matters what Christianity is, it only matters what it is not. Using this method, we can remove anything from the Christian faith without problem, and we can add anything as long as it is not in line with another world religion. This has opened up Christianity to be shaped and changed by the culture in a way they see fit, as long as they retain some guiding principle. Usually, these principles fit with some general sense of the faith, like the idea of prayer, the inclusion of Christ, some Biblical teachings, traditions, and whatever sacraments seem to fit, such as Baptism (either pedo or credo). By holding to just enough of the aspects of the Christian faith that we can recognize it against the Muslim, the Atheist, and the Buddhist, then it is fine because the definitions are arbitrary and we only define things by what they are not.

The biggest issue in deconstructionism should be obvious. We can just define and redefine sin as we (or the culture) decide. It doesn't matter what Jesus said, we can just change the teachings, find ways to justify, or simply say it is obsolete. Orthodoxy no longer matters, and historical presidents can be tossed out as well. Nothing can be defined, redefined, added, or tossed out. It is this kind of thinking that has made sexuality and gender so malleable and fluid in our culture. If you can take away the aspects you don't like, then you can simply define anything by feelings or subjective reality.

If this pattern spreads into the few remaining orthodox denomination and churches, we will be in real danger of losing Biblical, orthodox Christianity in America. Faith in Christ is leaving all to follow Him, but if everyone can define for themselves who Jesus is, what following means, and which teachings are right to follow, the faith will be lost and salvation will not be preached, taught, or shared in American pulpits. Lets all pray against the dangerous movement towards Deconstruction as an aspect of the Christian faith and American culture.

Why Won't God Fix My Problems?

 I have been getting this question from a number of people lately. Several individuals know are struggling with problems like illnesses or relationship issues or financial problems. Often when we suffer, we ask the question: Why won't God fix this? This is reflected by the words of the character of Lex Luther in the Batman Vs Superman movie. "If God is all good, he cannot be all-powerful, and if he is all-powerful, he cannot be all good." The argument is that a good God would not allow people to suffer, so if God allows suffering, He either isn't powerful enough to stop it, or He isn't good enough to stop it. Is this true?

The foundational flaw in this position is that we assume we know what "good" is. We assume that what is good is for us to be happy, comfortable, and not in need (or want) of anything.  Is this really good? The best example is the life and reaction of people who are in these situations. It is well established by looking at those in Hollywood and Malibu that the easier our life is, the more selfish and self-focused we are. Nothing will make a person more shallow. We see this very thing happen in the New Testament. Crowds of people were seeking Jesus because He was healing and doing miracles. Once they were fed by a miracle, they were all in. They wanted to make Him king, thinking He would continue to give them what they want. When Jesus said He would perform no more miracles, they turned on Him and called for His crucifixion.

The first and most important reason that God doesn't just give you whatever you want is that it will never be enough. We are sinful, and what we want is everything. We are more like Satan than we would like to admit. Satan was given everything as the Archangel Lucifer. He had beauty, command, and respect, but it wasn't enough. He wanted to be like God, he wanted to be worshipped. If God gave us everything we wanted, we would continue to want more until we wanted to be Him. Our greed is not satisfied by getting what we want, it continues to grow. If you don't believe me, take a child to a toy store and offer to buy them one thing. They will ask for two.

We must stop viewing suffering, pain, and hardship as things to be avoided at all cost. James says to rejoice when you experience trials.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4

We need the hard times in life to make us better people. We learn compassion by struggle. We learn selflessness by having needs. We learn to share, and we learn to have compassion. We learn to have hope. Let me put it this way. If we have everything we want if life was perfect and have no struggles, why would be hopeful or long for Heaven? Why would we tell others about Christ? Why would we seek Christ? Why would we need God? We would just be content to live in our sin and in a sinful world and then spend eternity in hell. We had a perfect life in Eden before sin entered the world. Sin necessitates suffering, or we will blissfully remain in our sin until we are cast headlong into hell.

It doesn't feel like it at the time, but suffering is for our benefit. We grow, we hope, and we gain faith, hope, and love through the hard times. Hard times will build us up if we can reject selfishness and self-seeking desires. We have to decrease and let Christ increase, and we can do that in suffering. Learn to suffer well, learn to look for the rock in the waves, the shelter in the storm. Let the hard times make you better, don't allow the world to make you bitter.

Church in a Tiktok World

 I live with a foot in two different worlds. In one world, I exist in the world of Public Education. I work with teenagers, I work to teach them and guide them through their high school experience. It is challenging and frustrating because I compete for their attention every minute. I am fortunate that my district has a no-cell phone policy. If I even see a cell phone in class, I can write a referral for that student. If I tell a student to put the cell phone away and they don't, I can have them removed from class. It definitely helps the situation, but the damage has been done. Students have whittled their attention span down to three minutes at maximum. Most of them can pay close attention in 30-second sections. They very quickly get bored, they want to be entertained and they don't have to have to put much thought into everything.

It is not uncommon for students today to be entitled. They feel they are deserving of what they want and they get upset when they don't get it. They often do not put much effort into things, but they want those around them to put maximum effort into them. In the 90s, we saw spoiled, elite, rich students who behaved this way. In the 90s tv sitcoms, often a rich and popular girl would behave this way. This behavior is no longer a parody, and it is not limited to the spoiled rich kid. It is now commonplace.

It would be nice to be able to just accuse the youth of acting this way, but it is not just high school students. Adults in their 20s, 30s, and even into middle age act this way more and more. The entitled behavior and attitude have spread into all areas of society. The reality of being mentally lazy has stretched from one end of life to the other. It has become a problem for modern Americans, we are connected to our electronics but disconnected from our community. We are united by our desire to be connected but divided by our ideology and selfish ambitions.

We live in a Tictok world, a place where everyone can be a star. I have made some videos and one of my car videos has over a million views. It is easy to get caught up in that kind of attention, and people begin to really focus on their 30 seconds of fame. The problem is, Tiktok is a fleeting popularity, it is empty and void. We are simply making the companies rich that own these apps, and we are subjecting ourselves to hours of advertisements. It has been customized for us, and as a result, we have become very selfish. We now see what we want to see, and we hear what we want to hear. We watch the shows, movies, and videos that agree with us. We have people who are an echo chamber of our ideas. We even watch and listen to the news that fits our political and social agenda. We are no longer confronted with the truth, no one really seems to want to know what the truth is. We are simply content with what we agree with and what we like.

This is a challenging environment for the church. The church exists to share the Gospel. The other world I exist in is one of Biblical truth. The Bible holds facts, if I like it or if I don't. The Gospel will not change to fix my ideas or beliefs. When confronted with scripture, I need to change for it, not change it to suit me. The Bible should inform my life, but unfortunately, we see this consumer-driven culture more and more willing to change the Bible. It has been re-interpreted to fit our social narrative, and to allow for the things we once agreed were morally wrong. People are using the Bible to justify abortion, transgenderism, same-sex marriage, and any other social or political movement they want to hold on to. The Bible no longer shapes us, the American culture is seeking to shape the Bible.

We must reject the Tiktok culture and cling to a Biblical worldview. As hard as it is, we must not allow the world and the powers that be to move us from the orthodox teaching of Scripture. This post would be torn apart by this self-seeking world, and if I allow myself to be taken and swayed by popular opinion, it would be easy to just keep silent and not put myself in the crosshairs of the woke worldview. My prayer is that men in women in the church will reject the Tiktok-ism of modern America and strive to have one shaped by God's opinion, not the internet's.