Daly Focus Blog
Have you reached the point where you’re afraid to turn on the nightly news or pull up your favorite news app on your phone?
Who could blame you? With every new headline, you risk being confronted with yet another report about an ISIS-led/inspired terrorist attack. Some days you may even hang your head low and wonder if the Lord’s light really is able to pierce through the darkness and change the hearts of people so committed to hatred and evil.
“Why do bad things happen to good people?”
It may be one of the most common questions we ask when we’re in pain. Maybe that’s because suffering is more than just an inconvenience. It shakes our lives to the core, leaving us so disoriented and confused that nothing seems to make sense.
Suffering is universal. At one time or another, all of us will have our world turned upside down. In fact, Scripture and life itself plainly teach that every one of us will take our last breath one day.
Our hearts have been heavy this past week with the tragic news of shootings in both California and Colorado. As I write, details of the rampage in San Bernardino are still coming in. We’ll be processing and evaluating the news in the coming days.
Garrett Swasey, the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs police officer who was murdered last week outside a local Planned Parenthood clinic, will be memorialized on Friday afternoon, just up the road from our ministry’s headquarters.
Each December and January we re-air a selection of our best-loved broadcasts of the year. It gives our listeners a second chance to listen and benefit from the God-centered, practical marriage and family advice that has become a hallmark of the Focus on the Family broadcast. It also gives our friends an opportunity to recommend a favorite program to a friend.
The next few weeks will be busy for everyone. In order to make things easy for you, I wanted to list the upcoming broadcast schedule.
Has it ever occurred to you that so many traditions of Christmas are actually sterilized versions of historical truth?
There are the lights and decorations; the smell of cookies, pies, and freshly cut Christmas trees; the music of choirs and carolers. The air is filled with the joy of the season.
It’s beautiful imagery that, in almost every way, stands in stark contrast to the dark, difficult circumstances surrounding the very first Christmas.
Case in point, let’s consider the lives of three women who lived it:
Mary, Elizabeth, and Anna.
This time of year is supposed to be the most joyous, but it’s often the most stressful.
A big reason for that is the amount of expectation we pour into the holidays.
Think about it.
We put expectations on ourselves and our family members, and they have expectations for how they want things to go as well. It’s a special time of year, and we want the house to be perfect, the gifts to be perfect, the meals to be perfect.
Thanksgiving is one of the great American holidays, a time dedicated to the deliberate expression of gratitude to the Lord for this country and our many blessings.
If you’re like my wife, Jean, you’ve been shopping and preparing the last few days. Perhaps you’ve cleared your house of extra clutter, wiped the fingerprints off the fridge and aired out the stuffy guest room. The serving platters are out of storage and your overnight guests might even be on their way.
One of the guiding philosophies at Focus on the Family that’s woven into the very fabric of our organization is the sanctity of human life.
In part, our statement of faith in this area reads:
“We believe that human life is created by God in His image. It is of inestimable worth and significance in all its dimensions … from the single cell stage of development to natural death.”
By and large, Christians do well in recognizing the value of the preborn.
When you think about it, instilling virtue in our children can be pretty serious business. After all, the adult world is a competitive place, and we want our kids to be prepared. And that leads some parents to bury their children under some pretty harsh standards.
At report card time, a parent wanting their child to learn responsibility may question why their nearly straight A student didn’t get that one grade just a little higher. Or maybe they snap at their teenager if he or she shows the slightest sign of irresponsibility.
Is it really possible that some nice people go to Hell?
Well, according to the Bible, the somber answer to that question is yes. But, let’s admit it, that can be a tough concept to wrap our heads and hearts around.
Speaker Jay Carty says that’s because we minimize God’s holiness and act as if He “grades on a curve.”
He describes it like this: Picture a scale of holiness numbered from one to 10. The Hitlers of the world would be at the bottom, while people like Mother Teresa might be a nine or 10.
Jim Daly is a husband, father and President of Focus on the Family and host of its National Radio Hall of Fame broadcast. His blog, Daly Focus, is full of timely commentary and wisdom designed to help you navigate and understand today’s culture. His latest book is Marriage Done Right.
