Top 1% in income for US citizens: $120,000
Median income for US citizens: $25,000
Top 1% in income for world citizens: $47,500
Median income for world citizens: $850
All across the United States, groups of dissatisfied citizens are clamoring for greater equality between the rich and the poor. A shame, because the average income of “The 99%” here is in the Top 10% everywhere else.
Meet the other 90%:
Perspective.
Roughly this time last year, upon the conclusion of the celebration of my birthday, I posted a status update on my Facebook page. It read, quite simply, “The Year of Jim.” The sentiment, offered in jest, nonetheless was meant to propose that I felt an anticipation of accomplishment in the following 365 days. Looking back, there was a certain element of truth to the statement. In the past year, I’ve been granted the opportunity to pursue my dream job, travel the country, and watch my sports teams accomplish things some thought were impossible: an Auburn national championship, a Baylor bowl game, and a Rangers World Series appearance. On a subjective ranking of the years of my life, the preceding would have to land somewhere near the top.
Birthdays are milestones, markers on the journey of life that afford us the opportunity to reflect and reconsider. I’ve been doing some of each recently, and would like to share with you my observations. That status update, while completely unintentional, was undeniably selfish. The purpose of my remark was to signal the embarking of an exciting new year, but after looking back on what I said, I can now recognize that the focus of my endeavor was entirely on myself. That must change.
If last year was “The Year of Jim,” then I’d like to publicly, humbly, offer that the next shall be given a new moniker, “The Year of You.” Annis del Vobis. I don’t know what that will entail, what precisely will be different or how it will manifest itself, but throwing down the proverbial gauntlet in quest of an outward focus. I offer this in full recognition that there will be numerous moments where I revert back to more selfish ambition, where I place the needs of myself above the needs of others. This isn’t a promise of perfection or an announcement of my enrollment in the monastery. It is, however, something that I hope will have a profound impact on the lives of those around me.
Now, those of you who know me best may ask, why are you writing this two weeks before your birthday? Well, The Year of You is getting off to quite a bang. On Wednesday, I’m headed out to Kijabe, Kenya, as part of a group of students heading into the missions field to love on the people of Africa. If you’re reading this post, it means you have at least a passing interest in my affairs, so I would like to ask for your prayers while I’m overseas. I won’t be in the States to celebrate my birthday, so let me preemptively offer each and every one of you my thanks.
This is gonna be a great year.
As I sit typing this post, my phone is in my right front pocket, keys in the left front, and wallet in the right back. I didn’t have to do anything to make sure that sentence was correct, didn’t have to validate my claim or consider how or when I made the decisions therein. I know that each item is in each location because that’s where I’ve always put them, a decision made long, long ago repeated day after day after day.
Human beings are prone to develop habits. While chaos can be enticing in the romantic sense, typically we gravitate toward order. It’s the reason I’m typing this in an insured apartment behind a locked door and you’re most likely reading it on a computer screen protected from harmful chemicals and radiation. We like filing cabinets and pantry shelves and glove compartments because they organize our lives and keep that chaos to a minimum. Habits not only increase order, they also simplify the decisions we have to make each day. I’d go mad if I had to do a cost-benefit analysis each time I wanted to decide which pocket in which to place my keys. Similarly, our brains would explode if we had to consider the positive and negative consequences of brushing our teeth at night. Some decisions are better left without thoughtful analysis, thus habits are formed.
Some of the interesting research coming from psychology is on the negative aspects of developing habits. One such consequence is the formation of inertia. Scientists describe inertia as the act of continuing one behavior in lieu of changing to a more beneficial behavior. For example, let’s say the Wall Street Journal wrote an article on how placement of one’s wallet can lead to back problems in late adulthood. They may say that it’s best to keep the wallet in the front. If my daily habit of wallet placement has reached the point of inertia, I’m likely to continue putting it in my back pocket than moving it to the more beneficial front. While my habit benefits me by easing the stress of making decisions, the inertia that is formed keeps me from accepting the better alternative.
The non-Christian community is operating in a state of inertia. They live their lives day after day with the same false assumptions and ideologies, acting out against what we know to be the truth. Though they may even acknowledge the presence of a better alternative (Christianity), they will continue to live the same lifestyle because that is what they are comfortable with and that is what they know works. Tying this back to psychological research, scientists have claimed that the only way to break inertia is to force a cataclysmic event that shakes the person up and forces a reevaluation of the decision. So, how do we, as Christians, shake up the beliefs of our fellow men? Clearly, it will take some drastic measures.
I was at a party one night a few weeks ago, playing some games with friends. On the table in the center of the room was a bowl full of cookies. Naturally, this being a group of college students, the cookies disappeared very quickly. All of them, except one. I couldn’t help but notice that there was a subconscious recognition by the group that no one wanted to take the last cookie. Though the obvious benefits were there (deliciousness), and the motivation was present (hunger), not a single person at the event wanted to be the one to take that last cookie. It seems to me that the current generation is one that operates more out of the fear of upsetting others than the desire to enact change. This is now the world of “acceptance,” “unity,” and “togetherness.” Many teachers have publicly written that the amount of class discussion in recent years has drastically declined, mostly due to students’ fear of arguing.
The point I’d like to make today is this: “togetherness” and “unity” aren’t going to get people to change their ways. If my friend is walking toward the edge of a cliff, I have to be willing to shove him down to prevent him from falling off. In the same way, the followers of Christ must be willing to take some drastic measures to break the negative habits that pervade our society. Don’t be afraid to disagree. Don’t live in fear of arguing. The hardest arguments to win aren’t the ones where the opponent has no idea he’s wrong. Rather, it’s the ones where the opponent knows he’s wrong, but has no desire to change.
Be the agents of change.
Delegating is difficult work. On the surface, it may seem the easiest of life’s tasks, getting someone else to do your dirty work. But the truth of the matter is that we are hard-wired to believe that a job can’t be done right unless done by ourselves. It’s the instinct that makes us scream at incompetent Jeopardy contestants and rip the screwdriver from the hands of a friend that just isn’t utilizing it properly. Far too often, the only time we allow another to take on our responsibility is when it becomes painfully obvious that we can’t do it alone.
At a Bible Study group that I attended last week, we discussed the story of Stephen. If you’re unfamiliar, Stephen’s life was an incredible journey filled with persecution, strife, and, ultimately, assassination. But my focus in this post is not on the end of Stephen’s journey but its beginning. We’d never know the works of Stephen had it not been for Peter and the remaining disciples. During the time of Christianity’s foundation, a disagreement emerged between members of the group. As they were in positions of leadership, the expectation was that the twelve disciples would settle the matter themselves, as they had the right and capability to do. However, they delegated this responsibility to seven others, a group which included a young man named Stephen.
The symmetry is abundantly evident. Jesus, the one man who never needed any help to do anything, still chose twelve men to aid Him in His cause. Those same twelve men, promoted from positions of subordinance to those of leadership, heeded the example of their leader and delegated responsibility to seven more. The twelve whom Jesus chose would go on to lead the first group of Christians. The seven whom they chose would spread the message even further.
We’re often reminded that God won’t give us a challenge we can’t handle. The fallacy is in thinking that this means that we should attempt to solve every challenge ourselves. Sometimes the path to solution lies with the assistance of others. The blessing of delegation is that it has benefits beyond the scope of the task. Allowing someone the opportunity to help not only makes the challenge less difficult, it also empowers the other person to do great things. Who knows where Peter’s life would have gone had Jesus not called him into ministry? Or Andrew? Or John? Or Stephen?
One of the hardest things to do in life is to ask for help. It involves both humility and courage. The next time you’re in the position to ask for help, consider the life of Stephen, a life that would have turned out much differently had twelve men not made one very important decision.
Well, folks, it’s that time of year
That all anticipate
The time to grin from ear to ear
From Mali to Kuwait
Christmas season brings its joy
And fills up all the Earth
All so every girl and boy
Can learn about the birth
Yet, once again, we’ve missed the point
We’ve hit a mental block
I must accept this due appoint
To be the one to mock
Santas, santas everywhere
Yet not all are in sync
When Mall Santa has blonde hair
The kids are left to think…
Mariah Carey, zippeth thus
It pains for me to say
All I want for this Christmas
Is for you to go away
What in heaven is a yule?
And why does it have a tide?
Christmas leaves me quite the fool
But at least I have my pride
Christmas movies are the best
But I’d much rather enjoy
If Charlie Brown went on a quest
To the land of misfit toys
It’s all in jest, I doth attest
But it comes with intent
If in our zest, we forget the rest
Well, that we should prevent
Christmas exists for just one cause
And for it we should praise
As much as I love Santa Claus
It’s all about this phrase:
A woman birthed a child so small
While casting off her frights
So we might sing Merry Christmas to All
And to all a jubilant night
2010 is rapidly coming to a close, and with it comes the examination of the year that was. For me, that means looking back on accomplishments and, well, more accomplishments, but accompanying the ego-boosting session is a reflection regarding the progress that has been made on a focused pattern of prayers. Throughout the past year, I have asked God to help rid me of anxiety and show me the path toward contentment and peace. As usual, He chose to do this in a manner different from my expectation, electing not to instantaneously lower my heart rate and slow my breath in times of fear, but rather to help me understand the definition and nature of what anxiety truly is. I thought I’d take a minute or two and let you all know what I’ve come to learn.
It’s almost universally understood that anxiety, defined as “a relatively permanent state of worry and nervousness,” is bad. No one ever wants to be anxious, and as an extension we seek to rid ourselves of this undesirable trait. Why? Well, for some, the simple answer is that the Bible says so. Matthew 6 spends an entire passage on the need to free our minds from worry. While the sentiment behind this motivation is noble, I don’t think God ever intended us to act in a certain manner simply because the Bible says to. When Moses went up to the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments, I don’t think God just handed him a few stone tablets and said “Good luck.” It stand to reason that there was explanation involved, a need for Moses to understand the nature of the commandments, so he could in turn communicate this reasoning to his people. We are to act according to the message of the Bible, yes, but out of our understanding of its commands, not purely because of the commands themselves.
So, what is anxiety? Let’s start with the basics. Anxiety is a sin. As with all other sin, it has roots in both selfishness and arrogance. To understand anxiety, I think we need to understand the nature of trust. Trust, by definition, involves the recognition that someone, or something, has both the authority and the proclivity to aid in our well-being. We trust the elevator because we know it can and will help us reach a destination. We trust our cars because we know they can get us where we want to go. Similarly, we trust God because we recognize His desire and unwavering conviction to enhance our general welfare. Trust is the central building block behind the formation of relationships.
Anxiety stems from the relinquishment of trust. Using the previous examples, those that are anxious in elevators lack the trust in the elevator’s ability. Those who have anxiety when starting their car’s engine don’t trust it’s capability to start. Speaking more broadly, we have anxiety in life when we no longer trust that the God of the universe is capable, or willing, to promote our well-being. Just as a mother worries when handing over her child to a teenage babysitter, we feel anxiety when the bond of trust we have in the Lord is hindered.
The second aspect of anxiety is the self-indulgence of responsibility. We feel anxiety when we feel that we, rather than some other object or person, are ultimately responsible for our well-being. At exam time, college students across the country feel anxiety though the realization that they bear the burden of responsibility for the grades they receive. A public speaker is anxious before stepping to the podium because of the recognition that he alone is responsible for the success of the speech. Again, thinking broadly, this is where the arrogance of anxiety rears its ugly head. A large determinant of the anxiety we feel on a daily basis, anxiety that stems from the important questions in life (“Who will I marry?” “What job should I take?” “Where should I live?”), is the feeling that we are ultimately responsible for the results of these important decisions.
This all leads to the important question, how do we reduce anxiety? I see it as two steps. First, we must recognize that God is ultimately in control of our lives. He has a plan and a purpose for us, and no matter how hard we try, we can’t really screw it up. Second, once we’ve made this important recognition, we must relinquish the control to Him. This means understanding that, as the Bible says, “tomorrow will take care of itself.” I don’t know what God has in store for me today, tomorrow, or any day in the future. However, when I feel that tinge of anxiety start to emerge, I can be comforted in knowing that there is a plan and I do serve a purpose. Remember, he is the Alpha AND the Omega, the beginning and the end. We only lie somewhere in the middle.
Stop worrying.
In the age of the internet, adventure begins from the comfort of your living room. It was there, at sometime around 2:00 Thursday morning, that my attention was lassoed by an interesting headline: “LEONID METEOR SHOWER TONIGHT.” Normally, such an event would have been dismissed, especially given the time of night and temperature outside (brrrrrrrr), but something triggered that night which sprung me into action.
By the time I finished reading the article, and many subsequent articles, and checked my Facebook page a few dozen more times, the clock read close to 3 AM. Luckily for me, this was the precise time that all of the science nerds informed me I should look for the meteors. Now, before I continue the story, I’d like to point out a few key details. First, it was very late at night, and I was tired. Second, the temperature outside was so low, I could remember how to speak it in Spanish (Estamos a cinco grados). Finally, I know as much about astronomy as I know about proper eyeliner application.
I stepped outside, clad in a t-shirt, shorts, and without footwear, my eyes immediately posed towards the heavens. Star-gazing tip #1: know where to look. Turns out, the sky is big. Star-gazing tip #2: without your glasses, all lights appear to be meteors. Upon retrieval of my glasses, I continued the quest. I stood outside for the better part of ten minutes, alone in a quiet parking lot, with nothing to do but think. I thought about what I must look like to anyone who happened to see me at the time, no doubt assumed to be wrought with delirium. I thought about how dumb it was to think that I could see the stars with all of the parking lot lights blinding my eyes. I thought about all of the other articles I could have read an hour ago, ones that would have me in bed right now. But mostly, I just thought about how cold it was, so I headed back inside.
I needed a new gameplan. Among the many articles that I read earlier, many of them mentioned that, duh, it’s easier to see stars when it is dark outside. As it was now 3:30, I couldn’t possibly abort my quest, so I decided to head somewhere it was dark. I hopped in the car, this time with a coat on (genius) and drove until I found an open field without much light. I found it. In a cemetery. I guess you could say it wasn’t the best place for a person to be standing, alone, in the middle of the night, wearing only a ski jacket, pajama pants, and flip-flops, but I had abandoned logic much earlier that night, so I stepped out of the car.
Have you ever really looked at the stars? I mean, really looked at them? Never before in my life had I felt so small, and this is coming from a guy who played basketball in high school against some really, really tall dudes. When you live in the city, you generally assume that there’s like six or seven stars, maybe a few more if the strip joint a few blocks over forgot to turn off its spotlight. Turns out, there’s a whole mess of stars up there, and if you plan it right, you can really see something special. Alone, in that cemetery, with what can only be described as frost-bitten toes, I think I caught a small glimpse of the heavens.
Alas, I didn’t see any meteors that night. Perhaps if I had a perfect setting, or an ounce of astrological knowledge, or the proper equipment (star-gazing tip #3: flashlights don’t help you see meteors), my night may have ended differently. But don’t think for a second that I could chalk it up as a loss. Somewhere, in some land, at some time, God spoke and the heavens were separated from the land. It took an ounce of adventure, and a hint of delirium, but I got to see just what it may have looked like that very first night.
Genesis 1:14-15 – “And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.’ And it was so.”
I read a New York Times article recently which cited scientists who have scientifically proven that, contrary to previous popular opinion, bones do not heal stronger than they were before. Rather, they do heal stronger, but only for a short period of time, before ultimately returning to the original equilibrium state. There’s a whole bunch of gobbledygook about calcium deposits and bone density, but that’s the gist of it.
Initially, this news is somewhat disheartening. I don’t claim to be an expert in anatomy or one who gets a kick out of studying femurs, but there was something poetic about the metaphor of it all. As it was, bones healing stronger exemplified what we call the “American Spirit,” the notion that we endure hardship, and by enduring such hardship we emerge better, stronger, wiser, etc. It’s a wonderful notion, but now that it has been debunked we’re forced to examine a new analogy for the now-proven science behind bone healing.
My mind began to wander to our daily lives as Christians. In a sinless perfect world, there would be no “breaking,” and thus no need to heal. Accordingly, it stands to reason that sin is the great cause for our struggles in life. Unlike our bones, sin causes us to break at a daily, if not hourly or minutely pace. Thankfully, blessedly, we can call upon the great Healer to patch us up and send us on our way. God’s like that magic spray they use at soccer matches; we don’t know why or how, but it fixes everything.
Let’s tie this all up. It stands to reason that God wouldn’t create a situation where we healed stronger than before a break, because to do so would be to encourage the act of breaking. Last time I checked, God doesn’t think too highly of sin, so in His mind he’d rather us just not break what he spent so much time creating. Instead, He devised a protocol where, through healing, we’re returned right back where we were before the whole thing got out of kilter. It’s genius, and I’ll explain why.
You, in your present condition, are exactly as God would have you to serve out His divine plan. He doesn’t need you any stronger, any wiser, any prettier than you are right now. However, we spend a great deal of time breaking what God has carefully crafted. What does God do? He heals us, then puts us back just as He intended. There are so many times in our lives when we think we’ve done something so catastrophic that surely we’ve interrupted God’s plan for our lives. The next time this happens, just sit back and watch the healing process begin. He’ll get you back where you belong.
Jeremiah 30:17 – “But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’ declares the LORD…”
For those unaware, the Mondays With Jim Wunderblog (patent pending) recently packed up its bags and headed back to school. I know you’ve been devastated with the lack of posts, so I offer up this little nugget in a solemn attempt to ease the burden this has placed on your life.
There are many positive to being a college student. Many, many, many, many positives, even some that don’t involve the words “Frisbee” or “napping.” I could write a lengthy editorial on the positive side of my experiences, but today’s inspiration came from one of the few negatives: walking.
The average college campus is a wonderfully crafted, beautifully decorated Robert Frost poem. Flowers and trees and squirrels and more trees dot the setting and bring with it an escape from the trappings of daily life. However, missing in this inspirational painting of a workplace are parking places. As such, my daily routine often finds me walking great distances each morning on the way to class. Somewhere, Richard Simmons is smiling.
It wasn’t long into the new semester when I realized that, in my walking, I often found myself trudging uphill. In fact, it seemed that the proportion of time I spent going uphill to downhill was strikingly unbalanced, and not in my favor. This was somewhat burdensome, but at the time I couldn’t think of a solution to my sweat-inducing dilemma.
As time wore on, I became more familiar with the setting and started to notice shortcuts to avoid longer walks. I found places to park which would limit the amount of uphill walking needed. I discovered a bus route that would drive me to class when it rained. I found that, as time progressed, my struggles lessened, not due to anything other than a change in perspective. New knowledge bred adaptation and enlightenment.
Here’s where this matters to you. I think now, more than ever, we are more prone to ask the question “Why?” As in, “Why am I here?,” “Why did you do that?,” and so on. More to the point, the question that is often toughest to answer goes something like this, “Why is (insert problem) happening?” To anyone who has ever sought to understand the reason behind why evil exists or why problems occur, I propose that the problem is not one of knowledge, but of perspective.
As Christians, we know that God is all-knowing, that he is fully aware of all things. What we don’t often consider is that with omniscience comes omnipresence. For God to know all things he must see all things, and as such he has the perspective to see the benefit from a potential problem.
It’s pretty much a guarantee that we will face problems during our life here on Earth. That’s the price we pay for mortality. The next time you find yourself facing one of these problems, wondering why it is you with trouble and needing an explanation, have faith that we believe in a God that sees all of the angles in life. Put your trust in Him, and those hills will be trending downward in no time.
Psalm 33:12-15 – “From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; from His dwelling place He watches all who live on Earth – he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.
Greetings,
I hope that this message finds you well. Actually, I know that this message will find you well, and I know exactly where you will be when you read it, for I am from the future. Not too far into the future, just over five years, so don’t bother wondering if I will tell you about stock tips or what flying around in jet packs is like. No, instead I’m simply here to tell you a little bit about the world I live in, the world you soon will live in, to prepare you for the reality you about to face. You may want to sit down for this.
It’s the year 2015. I no longer live in the USA, as that was renamed a few years ago into its new moniker, The United States of Chinamerica. I’m not entirely sure of the specifics, but apparently the combination of a crippled economy, a dour public sentiment, and a gulf so filled with oil it resembled watered-down Coke, the US started borrowing funds from overseas. Then, they borrowed some more. And some more. And some more. They kept borrowing, until one day some blogger with a fancy calculator came to the realization that, due to all of its investments, China had effectively completed a takeover of the US government. This was a shock to both parties involved, though I suppose it was a slightly more pleasant shock to the Chinese. At any rate, one simple little Blogger account essentially started a chain of events that led to the merging of two of the largest governments in the world.
