Daly Focus Blog
Is it just me, or have you noticed a real increase in downright meanness online these days?
While cruel and hateful words can rear their heads just about anywhere, unkindness is especially intense in the social media world. It seems the gloves can come off and a verbal free-for-all can explode at almost any time. Sadly, this is too often the approach of professing believers and non-believers alike. It can be sparked by even what may at first seem to be the most innocent of topics.
I’m not sure what it is about cat videos but the Internet is full of clips about felines – cute ones, grumpy ones, you name it.
“Dear Kitten,” one of the latest to go viral, is actually a commercial for a particular brand of cat food, but the creators pack a lot of meaning into it.
Now even if you’re not a cat person, you have to admit that kittens are cute. But there’s something even more appealing about this video.
Are you busy? Silly question, right? Who isn’t?
Everybody seems to be racing from one place to another and scrambling to get the next thing on their to-do list checked off. And, really, that isn’t all bad. From work to responsibilities at home, I’m sure the activities that fill most people’s days are pretty important.
But even good things can have their drawbacks.
Ever read your kids a bedtime story when your mind is still at work?
Isn’t summer great? It’s the season for family vacations, blooming flowers, patriotic celebrations, and best of all – weddings. June, July, and August continue to be the most popular months to get married.
Maybe you’re like me in that whenever I have the privilege of witnessing a man and a woman exchange vows, I can’t help but wonder what their future holds. Will their love gradually deepen? What challenges will they face? Where will they be in five, ten, or fifty years?
A lot of people assume it’s their circumstances that determine their attitude. But that’s really not the case. It’s actually quite the opposite.
Let me tell you about Christy and Debra. I think their stories illustrate the point well.
Christy is in her thirties. She’s college educated and ambitious, but with the economy struggling, she started cleaning houses to make ends meet. One of her daily tasks is scrubbing toilets. She hates it. From her view, she deserves better.
I often hear from folks who want to reprioritize their lives. They just don’t know how.
I get it.
The world is moving faster and growing more hectic for all of us. It’s easy to feel pressured to do it all. From our jobs and the bills to school plays and soccer practice, everything seems important. But all that busyness leaves us with crumbs of time to scrape together for family and friends, and, yes, even God.
The following is excerpted from a previous July 4th reflection:
When it comes to America’s sovereignty, freedom has never been free. Dating back to the Revolutionary War right up until our ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, over 1.3 million Americans have died in combat. It’s important to remember that each of these deaths is not an isolated incident; no man is an island. When a soldier falls, life within a family unit is irrevocably and permanently changed.
Our family is visiting Mt. Rushmore this 4th of July weekend. In the visitor center Tom Brokaw narrates a film about Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor who carved the four Presidents’ images—Washington, Jefferson, T. Roosevelt and Lincoln—into the granite. Brokaw says of those who worked on the mountain, “… these were ordinary men accomplishing extraordinary things.”
It made me think of our Christian faith. Yes, we are ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things through Christ. In fact, this testimony came to us this week.
The Supreme Court’s June 30 decision, which protects Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties from having to pay for possible abortion-causing drugs in company health plans, was a necessary win for religious freedom. The Court’s opinion, written by Justice Alito, relies on the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) to reach its conclusion that religious freedom trumps the government interest in this instance.
Many Christians are already asking: “Well, if religious freedom can trump a government law, then could wedding vendors refuse to participate in same-sex weddings on religious grounds?”
In several cases over the past few years involving Christian photographers, bakers, and florists, state courts and civil rights commissions have said “no.”
Does Hobby Lobby change things?
Every so often it’s good to get little reminders that serve as something of a reset button for what’s truly important in life.
I recently experienced that when a colleague of mine shared some thoughts he found online from a palliative care nurse.
As you can imagine, when each work day is spent caring for folks in the final weeks of their lives, the subject matter tends to dip below the surface to what’s truly meaningful.
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.
