Have we lost our minds?

In my humble opinion we are inundated with ‘professionals’ that are missing the point in the media everyday and for some reason, we follow their track. The stories and approach our media uses divides us, and it is very much like fighting or arguing over the scraps from the table while missing the whole meal. The ‘real meal’ would be the actual big picture/event(s). We have a bad tendency to pick up the small pieces of a story, the outer fringes of it and argue as if we know the whole story. The little sound-bite morsels move us from finding the substance of what is really going on, to helping us find reasons to divide. What if stories are picked just on the basis of ‘what gets attention, clicks, marketing etc. and not what is germane or important for us to understand?

Why do I say this? Substance doesn’t sell anymore. Maybe we weren’t always like this, but let’s be real about this… We are a soundbite driven society. Everything has to be ‘fast’ – our food, our news, our sex, our relationships… if it isn’t fast, which often we are mistaken by thinking ‘fast makes efficient’, it isn’t with the time. This ridiculous sickness that used to be far from mainstream is now an everyday normal 24 hour event.  

Here is the problem with substance.

• It takes time to digest.
• It takes work to understand.
• It takes ‘leadership’ (finding the best and inspiring) not ‘management’ (arranging the rubix cubes color into the correct order) to help the masses understand the substance. For the record… we have very little leadership in our government and the media.    

Old-school bible boy Jeff tries to look at it much like the Apostle Paul looked at scriptures and understanding God’s word. You can be one of those folks that skin is pretty thin and stay on milk (easy) or you can dig deeper and digest meat (more difficult). Like all things, the older you get the more complex your ability to understand some things has the potential to be. Unfortunately, soundbite educations makes for ignorant responses and ignorant people.

Let me give you a small list and forgive me if I step on toes here…

• I think we’ve missed the point on the gun shootings in schools.
• I think we missed the point on the Confederate Flag.
• I think we missed the point on women’s rights, the abortion debate,  racism, equal opportunities, drug use.
• I think we’ve missed the point on just about everything! (Is that broad enough?)
• We’ve created a society that is more concerned about political correctness than substance.  

It is clear that our government has no way to address what the REAL issue(s) are here. The rules and laws of man cannot and never have be able to address what the meat of these issues really are…

The heart of mankind.

These are problems that stem from our own heart issues. Laws were created by mankind and let’s be honest… living by the law is sometimes like driving you car forward by looking out the side and rear view mirrors to see ‘where you’ve been’ but not ‘where you are going’. Only after we’ve run off the road do we think about putting up a guard rail for the next set of drivers. It’s hard making good decisions when you spend your time looking backwards. Let’s illustrate; if a road crash occurred 50 years ago with 1 driver out of a 1000, not much happened. If we lost 100 drivers, then signs, lights, rails, new construction happened to protect us all.

But today it’s different. Let’s follow this analogy a little further. Did the ‘one’ driver crash because they were drunk? Were they texting? Did they fall asleep? See, with our soundbite driven society, a TV van could show up at the one car accident, do a report, start asking bystanders questions like, “Did you see this happen, what went on, have you ever been around this corner before, is this a hard turn?” Before you know it, we have a ‘broadcasted’ theory of how bad the city’s crew was that build that road/intersection, and the masses of people are just barely getting through their day alive because of the road issues created by ‘bad people’.

Inquisitions, lawsuits etc. take place and we again… miss the point.

The point was actually that this accident was from someone who fell asleep while driving. We don’t care about the substance. We care about the drama and the agenda. Don’t fool yourselves, if is makes it on the news, be suspicious. We blame the size of the cars, we blame the automaker, we blame the gun manufacturers, we blame just about everyone and everything. We create a ‘fizzy fervor’ over just about all aspects of the issue except the one that caused it… the person driving. We add to the story to point out the drama because… drama sells.

And we purchase…

But my point… we’ve missed the point! Government can’t legislate the hearts of people. These mass shootings we’ve recently suffered make me ask…

“Can government really find a way to legislate people’s lives because ‘they, the people’ can’t be trusted?” What we see occurring is the minority of a group:  the sick, the angry, the abused, the ignorant, the simple, and yes we must call it out, the evil, are creating a situation where ‘we the people’ are turning over our freedom, under the name of ‘safety’, political correctness, control etc.

We now have more visibility, connectivity and sensitivity to everything we do then ever before. Just last week I was sitting in my car in a parking lot across from my office where I work. There are a number of office buildings in the area. I noticed a young girl, no more than 12, walking down the sidewalk, trying to cross the busy street between where I was parked and where she came from. IT WAS DANGEROUS and ‘daddy’ here snapped to action and was ready to jump out of the car to assist. ANY DAD WOULD…

This little girl had a handicap and you could see she was either down’s syndrome or ‘something’. She had a limp and was struggling to find the pattern to cross the road, like she was playing the game frogger.

I was ready to leap into action. I just watched… every move she made was my focus and I was looking at traffic for her as she struggled across the street. Here is what was going on in my head though…

“I wonder who is watching me and thinking that I am up to no good? I wonder who thinks I am getting ready to snatch a child in broad daylight, I wonder who thinks I am pervert of some form and I am really about to commit a crime?” Oddly enough, once she made it across the street I noticed how many folks in the parking lot I was in were watching me. I wasn’t as paranoid as I thought and to boot, how many were watching out for this precious child instead of me? Not long ago, I would have never been the subject – only the little girl. You know what?  If I had been in their shoes, I might have been watching me as well.

We can argue all day long about the merits of protection and control over our little ones, but this is a good case in point. I meant NO HARM whatsoever yet I was under suspicion because I was watching a child closely and it caused ‘alarm’. Do I blame them for suspecting me?

My problem with gun control, large vehicles, self expression and just about any other topic that we deal with on a regular basis, is that those in our lives, the evil ones, the hurt ones, the sick, will always find a way around the law of man and no matter what we do, they will have the power over the law abiding citizens because they don’t care or are driven to kill, hurt maim etc. for some reason we don’t understand. The last school shooting that made the news… it was a gun free zone. I understand why it was a gun free zone but nonetheless it was and, many children died. If someone uses a cell phone to trigger a bomb, is the death count due to the wide spread usage of cell phones, the towers and technology? Heck no… but I know you all see where I am going. “We must have cell phone regulations! Cell phones are killings Americans!” Let’s remove guns, cell phones and whatever else hits the news. Then we are going to lose fellow Americans because someone kills someone with a pair of scissors. Metal scissors are outlawed and only plastic scissors can be used. If you see someone with metal scissors they are ‘bad, insensitive, dangerous… they are put on a watch list, everyone in the neighborhood knows ‘they have metal scissors’.

What is happening to us?

We are arguing over the scraps of the real issue and the real issue is the heart of mankind. No government can address man’s heart. Watching the news is like watching a set of rabid dogs go after the scraps of the real story most of the time. They dress it up, find the most attractive men and women to articulate the most inane foolish questions and topics, and they miss the point.

And… we gobble it up…

The heart of mankind is the real issue and I only know One Person who knows how to address the heart of mankind. The problem is, we are a free society and with that freedom comes certain responsibilities, certain rights, certain realities. Let’s continue with the tension of ‘real’ here for a minute. If you feed your people a diet of, murder, sex, drugs, wars, rapes, etc… what DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING TO GET FROM THEM? I am not saying we need bible teaching 24 hours a day but Lord in heaven, look at our diet and you tell me… honestly you tell me what is going on.

The heart of man is the issue and unless we are willing to dig deep into the meat of a situation we are always going to be doing foolish, pointless acts to one another under the banner of political correctness, but we will never make a difference except to those who think that matters. I am also not saying what is best or right on any of these issues I have addressed. I am saying it is complicated and it takes someone who is willing to lead us past the simple soundbite driven society to the relevant issues of our lives.

Will you do that in your own life? Will you go past the simple easy answers and find the meat of a situation and stop squabbling over the soundbite scraps, or at least stop listening and believing what is put in front of you? I plead for sanity starting in your own life and letting it flow OUT to our society. I guess what I am suggesting is for us to move away looking to the government to be like our God and let the real God step in do that for you.

In the great words of Forest Gump… “That’s all I have to say about that”

I pray you find peace and love with your own in your travels this week.