Class of 2007, Welcome to the Real World

Congratulations! You have made it to a huge milestone in your life. We are all proud of each and every one of you. Just by graduating from high school, you will make a much larger income over the course of your life than your friends who dropped out. You may eventually even get to work during the day and sleep at night.
You have many fond memories, but they are only the beginning. You won’t even remember most of them past your five year reunion. The vast majority of your life is still ahead of you, and the best times are yet to come. Your fun, laughter, romance, sense of accomplishment, and pride is not over. Quite the contrary, life has only just begun. You are going to laugh more, love more, experience more, and live more than you could even dream. You are a plant about to bloom.
That’s the good news. Now the bad. From now on, no one owes you anything. Your education may have been free to you, but every penny of it was paid by someone else. Now the free ride is over. College is expensive, but not going would be much more costly in lost wages in the long run. Get an education so you can get another job if your uncle’s auto shop goes under.
From now on, you will pay real money for every meal you eat. Businesses and colleges do not offer free lunch and you are going to have to earn the money. Life is not always fair so you might as well get used to it. If you get laid off, you may not be able to eat for a while. You may also find that eating out every meal quickly drains your paycheck.
You will work hard for every penny you make, and you will not start off as the CEO of a big company, earning a huge salary. That will only come to a few of you and will take years to achieve. For now, flipping burgers is a good place to start. You will have to work nights and weekends, of course, and when you take off to have some fun, you won’t get paid for it. You may, in fact, get fired if you miss too much or show an attitude. Educators had to put up with you, supervisors do not. They won’t care about your self esteem, home life, or childhood. They don’t care who your parents are or how you look in the latest fashion. They will only want to know if you can be at work on time and get your job done.
Oh, and you’ll work holidays and weekends too, so get used to it. If you thought your teachers were tough, wait until you get a boss. Your teachers may have passed you out of sympathy, but that has no resemblance to anything you’ll encounter in the real world.
The friendships you made in high school may last and they may not. Most will not. Your ability to make friends is what better last, especially when you move away for college or a job opportunity. One day, you may even discover that your parents aren’t such embarrassing losers after all. Thank them now for washing your drawers all these years.
Is life exciting? Yes it is. Is it challenging? Definitely. Is it worth living? Absolutely. I pray every day will bring you all the joy it has to offer. The decisions you make today, though, are going to decide much of that.

Magnificent Magnolia

I plucked this magnolia flower from our tree the other day. The wife wanted it for decoration and aroma. What a magnificent flower. It smells wonderful and look how beautiful it is. Who could behold such creation and think it came about by accident?

It makes a great desktop for your computer. If you would like a bigger jpg file, just email me and I'll send it to you. lcraigharris@embarqmail.com.

Hope You Had a Good Holiday

I hope you got to spend some quality time with family and friends this weekend. My crew went to Cedar Creek Lake Saturday to spend the day with my cousin and his family at their new lake house. We had a great time. There were scores of cousins, aunts, and uncles there. Lance and his wife, Amanda, were very gracious hosts. They fed us and took us out in the boat. They have a great place and great kids.

Remember the Fallen

Memorial Day is a time to stop and reflect on those who made the ultimate sacrifice for us. Let us remember to do this. As parents, I want us to teach our children to appreciate the sacrifices others have made – and are making – so that they can enjoy the freedom and lifestyle that they have. Freedom is never free, it is bought with blood and sacrifice and I don’t want us to ever forget that. I want my children to understand that someone paid the price for them to have what they do. Young men and women have sacrificed, suffered, and died miles from their families so we can enjoy free speech, choose our paths, worship as we see fit, and pursue happiness.
This weekend is a time to set aside personal feelings about Iraq or any other war. No war is popular at the time. Spilled blood knows no politics. We should remember this, stand together as a country, and honor those who have died for us. Every life is precious and I wish no one had to die in war, but may we honor those who have died for this country. A country where freedom reigns and opinions may be expressed without fear of prison or torture. That is not so everywhere. God bless America, and may God bless those who have died for her.
My prayer is that we use the freedoms those soldiers purchased for us for good and will live our lives worthy of the price paid. That is quite a challenge. What if you could speak with a soldier who just died for you – what would you say? And what would he say? He might encourage you to live your life to the fullest and enjoy the freedom he just bought you. He might ask that you do something decent and constructive with your life since it cost him such a high price. When one of the heroes dies in the movie Saving Private Ryan, he looks at James Ryan, whose life he has just saved, and says, “Earn this.”
That’s what I want to impress upon my children to do – to earn the life they have been given.
In the American Revolution, 4,435 Americans lost their lives. 2,260 died in the War of 1812 with Great Britain. In the Mexican War of 1846, 13,283 died. In the Civil War, 558,052 died. (In that war, every casualty was an American one.) The Spanish American War of 1898 cost 2,446 lives. World War I took 116,708 American lives and World War II, 407,316. Korea, 33,651; Vietnam, 58,168; the First Gulf War, 293; 75 died in Kosovo; 18 in Somalia; 390 in Afghanistan; 3,422 in Iraq (as of noon Wednesday), and climbing. Some of these deaths were from combat, others from sickness or accidents, but all of them amount to an ultimate loss and sacrifice.
Add up these numbers up and we realize we are remembering at least 1,200,517 men and women who have died in war for our country.
This does not include the two million or so more who have returned from war alive, but seriously wounded. (And many believe every soldier returns psychologically wounded.) It also does not include those soldiers who have died in times of peace or other conflicts, nor does this list include the millions of coalition and allied forces who have fought and died along side us.
I hope by setting aside a weekend to remember those who died for us, we will remember to be appreciative people, and we will teach our children to follow our example.

Parenting Like Eagles

The American bald eagle gives us a wonderful example of parenting.
When the chicks are born, they cannot fly and must spend their time in the safety of the nest. The parents build their nests high in trees or on the side of rocky cliffs. The mother swoops down and catches a fish and brings it to her young and feeds them. She nurtures, protects and takes care of them. Those little eagles must feel safe and loved in that high nest. But eagles were not designed to sit in a nest. They were designed to fly.
The day comes, then, when the mother realizes her chicks are ready to fly. So, she kicks them out of the nest. She gives them a shove, then dives out right behind it. If the eaglet catches on, he may just take flight on the first try. If not, the mother catches it before it crashes to the ground and takes it back to the safety of the nest.
The mother will wait a while then try again until her offspring catches on and begins to fly on its own. The instinct to push their babies out of a lofty nest must be very strong or I don't think they would do it.
Learning to fly must be a thrilling adventure for a young eagle, but it begins with a few seconds of sheer terror! Is it worth it? Yes, I think any eagle would tell you if he could that soaring in the heavens is worth risking his very life for the privilege. It is worth every effort, every second of anxiety, every brief moment of feeling betrayed, and every lonely moment of emotional detachment.
I suspect those young eagles think their mothers hate them when she boots them out of the nest. They may think she is punishing them or that she no longer loves them. But the opposite is true: she cares very much for them and is doing what she knows is the absolute best for them. She wants them to become what God designed them to be.
We must push our children out of the nest so they can become what they were created to be. Yes, we are there to catch them if they fall, but then we try again.
One day, when we gently shove them out of the nest they will not return. But we can smile and know that we nurtured them while we had them and we prepared them to spend their life in flight and not languishing in the comfort and safety of the nest.

Sermon from Sunday

Here is the listening guide from my sermon yesterday.

I preached from 1 Peter 3: 8 - 15.

Three Major Threats to the Church:
1. One, the breaking of unity.
Live in harmony

Be compassionate and humble

Don’t repay evil with evil,
but with blessing (Matt 5:44)
2. Two, the acceptance of sin.
God’s body must be righteous
Sin breaks our fellowship with God and
quenches the work of the Spirit (1 Thes. 5: 19)

3. Three, apathy toward God’s Word
We must prepare to answer why we have the hope that we do.
We fight for the truth with gentleness and respect

The Law of BBQ Season

My Dad sent me this. I think it's too funny and too true:

We are about to enter the summer and BBQ season. Therefore it is important to refresh your memory on the etiquette of this sublime outdoor cooking activity, as it's the only type of cooking a 'real' man will do, probably because there is an element of danger involved. When a man volunteers to do the BBQ the following chain of events are put into motion:

(1) The woman buys the food.

(2) The woman makes the salad, prepares the vegetables, and makes dessert.

(3) The woman prepares the meat for cooking, places it on a tray along with the necessary cooking utensils and sauces, and takes it to the man who is lounging beside the grill.

(4) THE MAN PLACES THE MEAT ON THE GRILL.

(5) The woman goes inside to organize the plates and cutlery.

(6) The woman comes out to tell the man that the meat is burning. He thanks her and asks if she will bring a cold drink while he deals with the situation.

(7) THE MAN TAKES THE MEAT OFF THE GRILL AND HANDS IT TO THE WOMAN.

(8) The woman prepares the plates, salad, bread, utensils, napkins, sauces, and brings them to the table.

(9) After eating, the woman clears the table and does the dishes.

(10) Everyone PRAISES the MAN and THANKS HIM for his cooking efforts.

(11) The man asks the woman how she enjoyed "her night off." And, upon seeing her annoyed reaction, concludes that there's just no pleasing some women ...

Apathy Has Got to Go

It’s easy to get in the flow and just drift, but I want to warn against that. I think the biggest threat to the family today may be apathy. Parents are busy and it takes effort to capture our kid’s attention, so we have a tendency to just make it through each day. We wake up in a flurry, and we may let day after day pass without teaching our kids what’s really important.
Apathy is defined as “lack of emotion or feeling” or “lack of interest or regard; indifference”. If we are indifferent to the social ills of the world, we teach our children to follow our example. If our attitude is “me and mine and I don’t care what happens to anyone else,” it will eventually catch up with us. That’s because we don’t live on an island or in isolation. We are one big family on this planet and it does matter what happens on the back of the world. It matters to them and it will eventually matter to us.
When I think about apathy, I blame selfishness first and foremost. We want leisure and luxury, and we don’t want to soil our hands with other people’s problems. But, as I said, I think this is a major threat to the family because we are in danger of raising a generation of socially blind and selfish guppies, destined for the shallow end of the pool.
We don’t want to raise a generation who seldom look up from their cell phones. A generation of us verses thems. A generation that is blind to anyone who doesn’t entertain them or make them happy.
Apathy will let someone else elect our next president. Apathy will let the media say whatever it wants about our values without our defending them. Apathy will let society tear apart the family without a fight. It will let movies and TV shows project beautiful and dangerous lies without a word from us. Apathy will accept whatever is handed to us. It will let someone else fix pollution and poverty. It will wink at pornography and stand silent when our faith is shredded by falsehood.
Do you know what picture comes to my mind when I think of apathy? A young woman saying, “Oh my God,” over and over. She says it when she is happy, when she is upset, when she’s showing contempt for something, or just as a filler between thoughts. It’s such a popular phrase, it is even a text code: OMG. But I despise that phrase. It belittles God’s name; it breaks the Third Commandment, and people say it all the time. They don’t even realize what they are doing which is what apathy is. Some parent not only didn’t stop it, he probably taught it.
You may say, “But I don’t care about the Ten Commandments.” Then you’re off the hook as far as this issue is concerned. All I ask is that you find something to believe in – some moral compass – then follow it and teach it to your children.
This is exactly why God said he would rather us be hot or cold, but being lukewarm makes him sick. (Revelation 3:16) God hates apathy, too. He knows how dangerous it is. I have much more respect for the atheists who write me to call me names than the hoards of men who just sleep in on Sundays with no solid beliefs in anything. Find something to believe in and show some emotion about it. Teach your children to be passionate about something. Apathy has got to go.

Darwin or Einstein - Who's Right?

In its Conventional Wisdom Watch this week, Newsweek Magazine says that three out of ten Republican candidates indicated they do not believe in evolution, “further proof we come from monkeys.” In other words, you are as stupid as an ape to believe in special creation.
Really?
If we evolved from single-cell organisms as most scientists assert, there should be a steady line of fossil evidence all the way back to the first life. But that line does not exist. Evolutionists say this is because of “punctuated equilibrium”, which means creatures didn’t stay transitional very long. They also say evolution happened in a “branched tree” not a straight line.
Huh? Does evolution hold that all species gradually changed from lower forms to what we see today or not? No matter how it happened, there would still have to be thousands or even millions of transitional creatures between a fish and a fry-cook; an amoeba and an attorney; a worm and a warden, right? But there are none. Zero. In fact, the amoeba is still alive and well, worms are still here, and so are fish. The thinking is that we evolved, but the lower forms stayed put. (The fact is, there never really were any “simple” creatures. The DNA code is just as complex in a tape worm as in your own cells.) But, the question is, why didn’t they evolve, too? Yet I’m the monkey for wondering about this. Also, go back as far as the fossil record takes us and you find animals that are still living today, complete with organs, eyes and body systems, fully functional and intact.
Can we agree that computer code is written only by very intelligent authors? But Newsweek says I'm a moron for not believing that the amazing DNA code was basically an accident.

Back to the fossil record: Yes, there are fossils of an animal the size of a dog that resembled a modern horse. It was called the eohippus. And right along side it in the fossil record are full-sized horses. Oops. What about the Archaeoraptor – the flying dinosaur with feathers? It was a wonderful example of a transitional fossil – until it was revealed that it was fake.
I found a web site that lists many supposed transitional fossils, but it has no pictures. If you click on a name it says things like, “Paramys -- Generalized early rodents; a mostly squirrel-like skeleton but without the arboreal adaptations. Had a primitive jaw musculature (which modern squirrels still retain).”
Okay, so it was an old squirrel. It may even demonstrate micro-evolution (within a species), but Darwin’s evolution needs macro-evolution (from one form to another) to be true. He said so himself, and there is not one undisputed, transitional fossil to back up his theory. Not one and there should be thousands and thousands. 148 years of science have completely failed him in this regard.
I first published this column in October, and got quite a bit of response from around the world. It was amazing how passionate people are about this topic. It was as though I had deeply insulted them by writing this. Several sent me pictures of whale and elephant fossils that are believed to be transitional forms. I was totally, completely unconvinced. The elephant fossils showed nothing more than micro-evolution. And about the whales: evolutionists believe life began in the seas and crawled up on land, right? But they believe whales began on land and crawled back to the sea. And as they evolved, their noses migrated from the tip of their faces to the top of their skulls. Shouldn’t there be fossils of whales with the blow hole slowly moving to where it is today? Well, there isn’t a single one. It’s utter nonsense and only a fool would believe it.
I most certainly want science and medicine to move forward, but Darwinian Evolution is a bust.
We all have philosophical leanings that influence us, I fully admit that. And if the evidence really did support Darwin’s evolution, I would have to adjust my faith somehow to match it. But this is simply not the case. (What I see in the animal kingdom is a common creator, not a common ancestor.)

Some will call me a fool for believing God created the universe in 6 days. Actually, I don’t believe that. I don’t know how long it took. Hebrew scholars say each day in Genesis 1 can represent an epoch of time. That seems to fit the fossil, astronomical, and geological records. Imagine believing in what the evidence actually shows? Why don’t scientists do this? Could it be they are desperate to explain the universe without giving the creator the credit?
And I haven’t even mentioned the origin of life itself. Scientists are so desperate to keep God out of the loop, they teach that aliens may have brought life here. My son learned in school the other day that the earth’s oceans were filled with ice from comets. That’s a heck of a lot of comets hitting us to produce that much water! Why not just embrace that we were created by a God who loves us? Why is that so hard to do?
Can I prove that God exists empirically? No, it takes faith, but so does evolution! Look at a beautiful painting and tell me what takes more faith, to believe it was created by an intelligent artist, or that the image formed accidentally over eons of time. Like it or not, the evidence is on my side.
Einstein saw this, too. He believed the incredible order of the universe proves it was created. You can believe Darwin if you want, but I’ll go with Einstein on this one.

Happy Mother's Day

My wife wanted just one thing for Mother's Day this year. A white rocking chair. That's it on the left, next to the one she bought me for our anniversary last summer. It was a good idea to get her one so she could sit outside with me with a warm cup of coffee - or cold glass of tea. We surprised her with it this afternoon and she was thrilled.

I'm going to be preaching tomorrow from 1 Peter, chapter 3, where Peter tells women to submit to their husbands. Some women don't like the sound of that, but Peter is agreeing with Paul that God created men and women different - and a woman is most content when she has a godly man protecting and providing for her. Peter goes on to say that men and women are both heirs of God's grace, and that a man's prayers will be hindered if he mistreats his wife in any way.

Paul said a man should love his wife like Christ loved the church. That's a tall order. But I contend that a woman wants a man to be a man. She wants a man with a strong moral compass. A man who takes a stand for what he believes. A man who will sacrifice for her. A man who works hard to make her happy and satisfied in every way. And yes, a man she can submit to. In life's dance, someone has to lead and God designed men and women to follow his chain of command. The man submits to God and his wife to him. Both are equal, but by taking the lead in the home, he offers her the security she was created to crave.

Honor Mom this Mother's Day, and men, don't forget to be a man. Your children's mom will love you for it.

Happy Mother's Day to my own mom and grandmom, too. I love you both!

Give Me That Old Time...

It was so nostalgic last night. We went to the Brushy Creek Arbor to an old fashioned revival. I wanted to go, in part, because I wanted my kids to get to worship where their great-great grandmother did more than a hundred years ago. The arbor was built in 1873 out of hand-hewn sweet gum, with sun-seasoned hardwood pegs. Lighting is provided by bare bulbs and coolness from the air outside. You can see burn marks on the beams from lanterns in days gone by.
My mom has her grandmother's autograph book from camp meetings there in the 1880s. Back then, the families would camp around the arbor all week.

Trampus Black was the evangelist last night and Perry Eaton led the singing. Randy Perkins played the piano. They all did a great job. A little warm, but I didn't care.

After the revival, we walked down to the original spring where they used to baptize the converts.

Trip to Wallyworld -- or Not

Took the fam to Disney World. It all happened so quickly I still can’t believe we pulled it off. The kids had been bugging us to take them for a couple of years, but I honestly never thought we would be able to go.
But I knew how much the kids wanted to go, and I believe families of faith should have the most fun. I also knew how busy the next few years may become. This seemed the best time to go and make some good memories. We waited until the tickets were purchased before we told the kids because we didn’t want to disappoint them if it all fell apart. It was a wonderful night when we told them we were going. They yelled and hugged us. At first they didn’t believe it, but when we showed them the receipt, they were jubilant. It was all worth it just to see their faces.
I wasn’t quite so thrilled, though. It was only three weeks before our time to go and I was dreading the whole thing. I was afraid one of us would get sick or the weather would go sour on us. But I knew how much it meant to the kids and was determined to push forward. I honestly just wanted to get it over with.
Every day I watched the extended forecast for Orlando. Day after day it showed rain for the days we were going to be there. One week before we left, our daughter missed school with fever and vomiting. I was wondering how it would all play out. Everyone assured me it would be great, but I was having a hard time believing it.
Until we went.
You know what? That may have been the most fun week we ever had. Not a hitch and I think I enjoyed it more than anyone. I took scores of pictures and yelled and hollered on the rides like I was a kid again. Pirates of the Caribbean, Expedition Everest, Space Mountain. We drank it all in and it was beyond a blast. It was another reminder for me that sometimes doing something for someone else can be a wonderful experience for you as well. Gather the family and do something fun this year. Get off the couch and make some memories. Don’t let gravity or fear stop you. You may just have a better time than anyone.

A Father's Best Gift

You may have heard that the best gift a father can give his children is to love their mother. He may be crazy about his kids, but the best way to show it is actually putting the needs of his wife above them. This is true for a variety of reasons.
First of all, by doing so, he will help provide them with a loving, peaceful home. This will set them up to be more secure and well-adjusted. So many children live in homes full of conflict or even hatred. Many other children live without their father present at all. Children are very egocentric in their world view – in other words, they believe they are at least partly to blame if something is wrong. It may make them feel like losers or victims. Parents who are continually feuding will be challenged to give their children the emotional stability they need.
This is why it is important for couples to work on their own relationship. Getting away together for a romantic weekend may upset the kids at the time, but is good for them in the long run. And they need to hear Mom and Dad say they love each other. Some couples spend all of their emotional energy on their children, but they should focus on each other first, then the kids.
I know in the real world it is not always possible for Mom and Dad to stay together – and he is up against it if she isn’t doing her part, and I know many men truly love their children, but have left their mother. But the ideal situation for children is one man and one woman loving each other, loving them, and working hard to provide a stable home.
Remember, the kind of love we’re talking about here isn’t a feeling, it’s an action. A willful choice to fulfill her needs, take care of her, make her happy, and everything else he promised on their wedding day. It’s the decision to do his part to provide a happy home for everyone. This may require a measure of sacrifice, but as with anything of value, it is well worth it.
Another important reason for a father to love his wife is that his sons are watching how he treats her; that’s how they learn to treat the fairer sex. Daughters are watching him too, to see how they can expect to be treated. What a tremendous responsibility. Fathers, your daughters will look for someone like you to marry. Is that a good thing?
When a father lives with his family, he is also providing them with the best possible economic outcome. The number one cause of children living in poverty in America is an absent father. This is just one of many reasons why a man should only have children if he is married to their mother, loves her, and plans to stay with her for the duration. I don’t care what Hollywood says, or what rap, country, rock or pop songs say.
Children are resilient and can overcome many obstacles, but a physically or emotionally absent father gives them a whole new layer of difficulties to climb through on their way.
Fathers, how about it? What do you think the best gift is you can give your children? Is it something you could purchase at a store? Is it quality time spent with them? Is it encouragement or a moral compass? Is it financial or emotional support? These are awfully good, but not the best thing. The best gift you can give them is to love their mother.