New technology, the internet and cell phones in particular, has dumped a whole world of opportunity and challenge into our laps. The opportunities are incredible and unlimited, but so are the accompanying challenges. And whether we like it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not, the challenges demand that we respond.
Cell phones and text messaging allow children to quickly and easily communicate, forcing parents to scramble to become familiar with technology that their children have mastered. In this new era, those who are supposed to be in charge are too frequently at the mercy of those they are supposed to be supervising. Photos taken with cell phones at home or at school can be emailed to friends or uploaded to the internet without parents even knowing they exist. Most sales packages offer free long distance and unlimited messaging, and parents seldom review their 13-page cellular bill to see who their kids are talking to.
The internet offers similar communication possibilities, but a greater potential for harm exists in its easy access to pornography. I was slapped in the face by this reality several years ago when a co-worker showed me the online gateways he had seen at a seminar that illustrated how children could easily access this information. I was surprised, not only by the content, but by my own reaction to it. I’ve discussed my experience with other men and I am convinced that the studies that say that pornography is an evil that will trap any man who plays around with it is absolutely on target. In the past we have avoided addressing issues with sexual connotations. While I prefer living in that safe zone, I fear what will happen to a generation of young men who are forced to deal with this issue alone because we are too embarrassed or too concerned about what others will think or say about us if we dare broach the subject. For the sake of an innocent generation, we must have the courage to face these new challenges.
Here is what I recommend to those I try to help.
1. Realize you are vulnerable, because whether you realize it or not, you are.
2. Use an online internet filter. A good one will keep out most questionable material.
3. Use your computer where someone can see over your shoulder.
4. Give someone else unlimited access to your computer. If you are married, your wife is the logical one. At work, a supervisor or coworker might fit the bill.
5. Let your children know that their computer activity will be monitored. Set the browser history to record at least 10 days of history, and make sure that you are the only one who can delete it.
These are just a few suggestions to get you thinking. If someone is intent upon viewing pornography these guidelines will not stop him, but they will build a wall to protect those who are aware of the danger of getting sucked into that smutty swamp.
New technology is a wonderful thing, but we cannot manage it using our old concepts. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that’s the cold hard facts.
©2006 Doug Ellingsworth
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Saturday, April 22, 2006
2004 National Peace Officers Memorial
(I serve as a police chaplain, and in 2004 was drafted to give the memorial speech when the scheduled speaker had to cancel at the last moment. My remarks follow.)
Chaplain Brooks, our scheduled speaker, is today with a family who is suffering the untimely and unexpected death of a loved one. He called late yesterday afternoon to let us know that his ministry and duty would not allow him to be here.
How ironic, yet fitting, that the person chosen to honor peace officers whose family and personal plans are frequently interrupted by a call to duty, is himself called away to help someone in need.
“Helping someone in need” is often how we think of law enforcement officers. There to help when needed. But our peace officers play a much more vital role in our country and in our community than simply providing help to citizens in need.
Thomas Jefferson summarized the basic rights of all men in the Declaration of Independence when he wrote that among the unalienable rights of men are the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Governments, he went on, are established to secure those precious and basic rights. The duty our peace officers fulfill, then, is much more than simply helping people in distress, but they are in fact the first line of defense in insuring our basic God-given rights.
Your right to life is preserved by the men and woman who work diligently, night and day, to track down those individuals known to harm others, to keep drunk drivers off the street, to stop the use of illegal drugs.
Your right to liberty is protected by badge-wearing men and women whose presence guarantees the freedom to go where you want and do what you want without fear.
The pursuit of happiness is insured by peace officers who patrol your neighborhood while you sleep, who track down thieves and return stolen goods to their rightful owner.
Police officers stand daily on the front lines as defenders of democracy. That vigilance does not come without a price. More than 51,000 peace officers are assaulted annually in the line of duty. 16,000 of them will be injured. More than 160 will die. That is why we are gathered here this morning, joining hundreds of communities around our great nation in honoring those officers who have given their lives in the defense of our freedom.
Last Thursday evening, 362 more names were engraved on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington D.C. 362 more men and women who gave their lives to preserve those basic rights Thomas Jefferson defined. They join the more than 16,000 - including our own Officer Maynard - already listed. Engraved near the entrance to that memorial is a statement that reflects our appreciation for their commitment. “It is not how these officers died that made them heroes. It is how they lived.”
Since our peace officers are the first-line of defense of our freedom, it is fitting, then, to borrow the words of Abraham Lincoln to remind us we cannot simply acknowledge the sacrifice these have made and walk away. But as he told that gathering at Gettysburg so long ago, “Le us here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."
With gratitude and resolve we say thank you to the family of Officer Maynard, and to those families whose fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, proudly serve with integrity behind the badge that represents the very best on Earth.
May God bless you all.
Chaplain Brooks, our scheduled speaker, is today with a family who is suffering the untimely and unexpected death of a loved one. He called late yesterday afternoon to let us know that his ministry and duty would not allow him to be here.
How ironic, yet fitting, that the person chosen to honor peace officers whose family and personal plans are frequently interrupted by a call to duty, is himself called away to help someone in need.
“Helping someone in need” is often how we think of law enforcement officers. There to help when needed. But our peace officers play a much more vital role in our country and in our community than simply providing help to citizens in need.
Thomas Jefferson summarized the basic rights of all men in the Declaration of Independence when he wrote that among the unalienable rights of men are the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Governments, he went on, are established to secure those precious and basic rights. The duty our peace officers fulfill, then, is much more than simply helping people in distress, but they are in fact the first line of defense in insuring our basic God-given rights.
Your right to life is preserved by the men and woman who work diligently, night and day, to track down those individuals known to harm others, to keep drunk drivers off the street, to stop the use of illegal drugs.
Your right to liberty is protected by badge-wearing men and women whose presence guarantees the freedom to go where you want and do what you want without fear.
The pursuit of happiness is insured by peace officers who patrol your neighborhood while you sleep, who track down thieves and return stolen goods to their rightful owner.
Police officers stand daily on the front lines as defenders of democracy. That vigilance does not come without a price. More than 51,000 peace officers are assaulted annually in the line of duty. 16,000 of them will be injured. More than 160 will die. That is why we are gathered here this morning, joining hundreds of communities around our great nation in honoring those officers who have given their lives in the defense of our freedom.
Last Thursday evening, 362 more names were engraved on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington D.C. 362 more men and women who gave their lives to preserve those basic rights Thomas Jefferson defined. They join the more than 16,000 - including our own Officer Maynard - already listed. Engraved near the entrance to that memorial is a statement that reflects our appreciation for their commitment. “It is not how these officers died that made them heroes. It is how they lived.”
Since our peace officers are the first-line of defense of our freedom, it is fitting, then, to borrow the words of Abraham Lincoln to remind us we cannot simply acknowledge the sacrifice these have made and walk away. But as he told that gathering at Gettysburg so long ago, “Le us here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."
With gratitude and resolve we say thank you to the family of Officer Maynard, and to those families whose fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, proudly serve with integrity behind the badge that represents the very best on Earth.
May God bless you all.
Motivating Change
How well do you handle change?
How good are you at motivating change?
There are two basic reasons why people do not change.
1. They don’t believe what they are being told or shown. Our decisions reflect what we believe. We say a whole lot of stuff, but most of it is just that – stuff. Actions identify beliefs. Nothing else does.
2. They don’t change because they value what they presently possess more than what is being offered. What you present may be wonderful, but it must not only be better than what they currently have, but the gain promised must be significant enough to convince them to shatter their personal comfort zone and begin work on another.
©2006 Doug Ellingsworth
How good are you at motivating change?
There are two basic reasons why people do not change.
1. They don’t believe what they are being told or shown. Our decisions reflect what we believe. We say a whole lot of stuff, but most of it is just that – stuff. Actions identify beliefs. Nothing else does.
2. They don’t change because they value what they presently possess more than what is being offered. What you present may be wonderful, but it must not only be better than what they currently have, but the gain promised must be significant enough to convince them to shatter their personal comfort zone and begin work on another.
©2006 Doug Ellingsworth
No Corked Bats!
I’ve always loved baseball. I mean REAL baseball. Not the fat-free version featuring designated hitters, wild cards, set-up men, closers, and free agents designed for this media-driven, sound-bite generation, but the game played like God meant for it to be with pitchers who bat, champions who are the best team over the whole 162 game season, not just the team who got hot in late September, and men who loved the game enough to play a few double-headers every summer. I still follow this game played by millionaires I’ve never heard of, but I’d take the old game back in a heartbeat.
Sammy Sosa would probably turn the game back a couple of years, too, but not for the same reason I would. You know Sammy. The hard-hitting outfielder with the wide smile. Sammy has hit more than 500 home runs, a feat that fewer than 20 men have been able to accomplish. Sammy did it with such ease and grace that he was admired by baseball fans everywhere. At least he was until June 3, 2003, when a routine ground ball to second base became more famous than any home run Sammy ever hit. The bat Sammy used to hit that grounder broke on impact, and revealed that it had been hollowed out and filled with cork. It was a bat on steroids. Sammy, the home run slammer, was using an illegal bat.
Sammy quickly apologized and said he grabbed this bat by mistake. Because baseballs hit with corked bats fly farther, Sammy kept this one to entertain the crowds who came to watch him hit before the game. Anyway, that is what he said. Most baseball fans were wondering how many other times he had mistakenly carried a corked bat to the plate in a real game?
I don’t know Sammy so I can neither convict nor acquit him. He may have told us the truth, but his reputation sure took a beating. Regardless of what the real story is, lots of folks will always think that Sammy cheated.
I used to feel sorry for Sammy, but he brought it on himself. Wanting to impress those sitting in the grandstands, he stepped over the line. Ultimately, he lost any admiration he might have gained and tarnished his own image in the process. A new Sammy Sosa was born on June 3, 2003. The new one will be remembered long after the old Sammy is forgotten. And it’s his own fault.
It is fun to sneer when the rich and famous make fools of themselves, but what if you were exposed to the same media scrutiny as Sammy? What if your job was performed before 40,000 jeering spectators? How would you fare?
Be genuine. Don’t risk your integrity for a few more cheers from the cheap seats. It isn’t worth it. By the end of the 2005 season, Slammin’ Sammy had batted 8,401 times as a professional player, but the one swing that the crowd will always remember is the one with the cork exposed.
You must value integrity more than you cherish the adulation of others.
No corked bats. Not even in practice.
©2006 Doug Ellingsworth
Sammy Sosa would probably turn the game back a couple of years, too, but not for the same reason I would. You know Sammy. The hard-hitting outfielder with the wide smile. Sammy has hit more than 500 home runs, a feat that fewer than 20 men have been able to accomplish. Sammy did it with such ease and grace that he was admired by baseball fans everywhere. At least he was until June 3, 2003, when a routine ground ball to second base became more famous than any home run Sammy ever hit. The bat Sammy used to hit that grounder broke on impact, and revealed that it had been hollowed out and filled with cork. It was a bat on steroids. Sammy, the home run slammer, was using an illegal bat.
Sammy quickly apologized and said he grabbed this bat by mistake. Because baseballs hit with corked bats fly farther, Sammy kept this one to entertain the crowds who came to watch him hit before the game. Anyway, that is what he said. Most baseball fans were wondering how many other times he had mistakenly carried a corked bat to the plate in a real game?
I don’t know Sammy so I can neither convict nor acquit him. He may have told us the truth, but his reputation sure took a beating. Regardless of what the real story is, lots of folks will always think that Sammy cheated.
I used to feel sorry for Sammy, but he brought it on himself. Wanting to impress those sitting in the grandstands, he stepped over the line. Ultimately, he lost any admiration he might have gained and tarnished his own image in the process. A new Sammy Sosa was born on June 3, 2003. The new one will be remembered long after the old Sammy is forgotten. And it’s his own fault.
It is fun to sneer when the rich and famous make fools of themselves, but what if you were exposed to the same media scrutiny as Sammy? What if your job was performed before 40,000 jeering spectators? How would you fare?
Be genuine. Don’t risk your integrity for a few more cheers from the cheap seats. It isn’t worth it. By the end of the 2005 season, Slammin’ Sammy had batted 8,401 times as a professional player, but the one swing that the crowd will always remember is the one with the cork exposed.
You must value integrity more than you cherish the adulation of others.
No corked bats. Not even in practice.
©2006 Doug Ellingsworth
I Made Sure My Children Failed
A sure-fire way of setting your kids up for failure, as demonstrated by the wandering Israelites.
1. I Did Not Have Faith. When God desired to lead us into the Promise Land, I sided with the majority who felt that we had neither the resources nor the ability to accomplish such a huge mission. After all, there is safety in numbers and the majority should rule. That's the only fair way.
2. When Things Didn’t Please Me, I Longed For The Past. I valued the confinement of the familiar past more than I anticipated the joys of a free future.
3. When Nobody Was There To Make Me Live For God, I Became An Idolater. Serving God was…well, serving. Work. Effort. It never became a relationship.
4. I Blamed My Leaders When Things Got Tough. I refused to take responsibility for my own choices and actions. I didn’t ask to be born, and this little trek in the desert was hardly my idea, so why shouldn’t I put the blame where it belongs?
5. I Made An Issue of What I Perceived As My Leader’s Mistakes. I made sure he (and everyone else) knew when I disagreed with him. The fact that one can never destroy their leader’s authority without compromising their own wasn’t important to me.
6. I Always Saw The Bad Side of Things. When so many experiences are bad, how can you not notice?
7. I Didn’t Take God’s Word Seriously. You’ve got to admit, some of it just doesn’t make sense. Come on! Killing your best lamb? Isn’t blood blood? And isn’t blood the whole point of the sacrifice? So if the lamb only has three legs, what’s the big deal? It still has plenty of blood. And why does our tribe have to set up camp in the exact position relative to the tabernacle every cotton-pickin’ time? What difference does it make? I really don't need some preacher telling me what God means. I can read and think for myself. Duh! You shouldn’t have gotten me started….
8. I Expected Success To Always Come Easily. I don’t see a God who can create a universe in six days needing forty years to get me to the Promise Land. He can create the Earth by speaking words, yet expects me to walk all the way to my new home? Please!
9. I Made Sure My Leader Knew When I Wasn’t Happy. Hey, he is the one who said God was going to tell him how to get us all to this wonderful land that flows with milk and honey. The good time he promised isn’t exactly what I am currently experiencing, so don’t blame me for talking about it. He is the one you ought to be complaining about.
10. I Didn’t Have The Guts To Stand Up and Speak Out For God. I’m not a preacher. God never spoke to me out of a burning bush. Sure, I saw a few amazing things like water coming out of a rock, quail covering the ground every evening, rivers parting so a couple million people could cross on dry land, but does that mean I am now God’s attorney? There are other people who are better at that sort of thing. Anyway, I can’t take a chance on offending some of these guys. I’ve got to live with them, you know.
11. I Valued The Familiar More Than I Treasured The Future. With the familiar, at least you know what you’ve got. The future is uncertain and there are no guarantees. A bird in the hand is better than two in some bush that exists only in your (or some preacher's!) imagination.
12. I Preferred Earthly Things Over Heavenly Things. They called it angels’ food, but after a while you grow tired of that light and fluffy stuff. We may not have had a lot in Egypt, but the onion and garlic certainly livened up the cuisine a bit.
But what's it to you? Get off my back, okay? You never had to live my life, so stop judging me!
©2006 Doug Ellingsworth
1. I Did Not Have Faith. When God desired to lead us into the Promise Land, I sided with the majority who felt that we had neither the resources nor the ability to accomplish such a huge mission. After all, there is safety in numbers and the majority should rule. That's the only fair way.
2. When Things Didn’t Please Me, I Longed For The Past. I valued the confinement of the familiar past more than I anticipated the joys of a free future.
3. When Nobody Was There To Make Me Live For God, I Became An Idolater. Serving God was…well, serving. Work. Effort. It never became a relationship.
4. I Blamed My Leaders When Things Got Tough. I refused to take responsibility for my own choices and actions. I didn’t ask to be born, and this little trek in the desert was hardly my idea, so why shouldn’t I put the blame where it belongs?
5. I Made An Issue of What I Perceived As My Leader’s Mistakes. I made sure he (and everyone else) knew when I disagreed with him. The fact that one can never destroy their leader’s authority without compromising their own wasn’t important to me.
6. I Always Saw The Bad Side of Things. When so many experiences are bad, how can you not notice?
7. I Didn’t Take God’s Word Seriously. You’ve got to admit, some of it just doesn’t make sense. Come on! Killing your best lamb? Isn’t blood blood? And isn’t blood the whole point of the sacrifice? So if the lamb only has three legs, what’s the big deal? It still has plenty of blood. And why does our tribe have to set up camp in the exact position relative to the tabernacle every cotton-pickin’ time? What difference does it make? I really don't need some preacher telling me what God means. I can read and think for myself. Duh! You shouldn’t have gotten me started….
8. I Expected Success To Always Come Easily. I don’t see a God who can create a universe in six days needing forty years to get me to the Promise Land. He can create the Earth by speaking words, yet expects me to walk all the way to my new home? Please!
9. I Made Sure My Leader Knew When I Wasn’t Happy. Hey, he is the one who said God was going to tell him how to get us all to this wonderful land that flows with milk and honey. The good time he promised isn’t exactly what I am currently experiencing, so don’t blame me for talking about it. He is the one you ought to be complaining about.
10. I Didn’t Have The Guts To Stand Up and Speak Out For God. I’m not a preacher. God never spoke to me out of a burning bush. Sure, I saw a few amazing things like water coming out of a rock, quail covering the ground every evening, rivers parting so a couple million people could cross on dry land, but does that mean I am now God’s attorney? There are other people who are better at that sort of thing. Anyway, I can’t take a chance on offending some of these guys. I’ve got to live with them, you know.
11. I Valued The Familiar More Than I Treasured The Future. With the familiar, at least you know what you’ve got. The future is uncertain and there are no guarantees. A bird in the hand is better than two in some bush that exists only in your (or some preacher's!) imagination.
12. I Preferred Earthly Things Over Heavenly Things. They called it angels’ food, but after a while you grow tired of that light and fluffy stuff. We may not have had a lot in Egypt, but the onion and garlic certainly livened up the cuisine a bit.
But what's it to you? Get off my back, okay? You never had to live my life, so stop judging me!
©2006 Doug Ellingsworth
Planting Choices
Have you ever noticed that some people do not know, or do not care, that personal choices, once put in motion by some action, reverberate far beyond the intended point of impact, like the ripples that result when a stone is tossed into the water? Is it possible that they do not realize that, since our lives are not our own, it is impossible for us to completely control them?
You and I are not in charge of our lives. We aim them in a general direction, good or bad, but the daily events that define us are beyond our control. Our choices and decisions set systems and cycles into motion. Those actions ignite a series of repeating events, like one domino falling onto another, the results of which impact us and cause us to make yet another choice, which sets yet another cycle spinning.
Life involves a lot of reacting to events that we did not plan. Some of those events we did not create, but some were designed by choices we made earlier.
Making decisions is like planting seeds. You are in complete control until you scatter the seed, but once the seed is spread, you relinquish all control. God's laws then take over and you must deal with the crop your choices produce.
What harvest are you about to reap?
©2006 Doug Ellingsworth
You and I are not in charge of our lives. We aim them in a general direction, good or bad, but the daily events that define us are beyond our control. Our choices and decisions set systems and cycles into motion. Those actions ignite a series of repeating events, like one domino falling onto another, the results of which impact us and cause us to make yet another choice, which sets yet another cycle spinning.
Life involves a lot of reacting to events that we did not plan. Some of those events we did not create, but some were designed by choices we made earlier.
Making decisions is like planting seeds. You are in complete control until you scatter the seed, but once the seed is spread, you relinquish all control. God's laws then take over and you must deal with the crop your choices produce.
What harvest are you about to reap?
©2006 Doug Ellingsworth
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