A Very American Kind Of Trouble - 12/1/2009

Today's Image:

American Culture Worship

AN AMERICAN KIND OF TROUBLE

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It's a very American kind of trouble.  We are a culture that worships the winning result:  the league championship, the high test score.  Coaches are paid to win, teachers are valued for getting students into the best colleges.  Less glamorous gains made along the way -- learning, wisdom, growth, confidence, dealing with failure -- aren't given the same respect because they can't be given a grade. [Willian Zinsser - On Writing Well]

And so we develop -

AN AMERICAN TROUBLE IN THE CHURCH

We do not pursue the fruits of righteousness, because they cannot be given a dollar value. We neglect the harvest, because it does not have a dollar value. We hold the church exempt because we don't want to be given an honest evaluation. And so, generation after more-cautious [or controlling] generation, church loses it place in believers lives and becomes a receding American value.