Scott Freeman

I ate lunch today at Whataburger. I know I shouldn’t have.
I can feel my arteries clog as we speak.
But I love it so.
Anyway, there was a mother there with two small boys, probably 6 and 4 years of age. These little guys were running wild.
Who needs a play-land when you have free run of the dining establishment?
5 years ago I would have been aghast at this woman letting her little minions whopping it up and lowering the property value.
But now, I looked at her somewhat haggard and wearied posture. Keeping those boys in line is probably a full-time job for her.
Now, don’t misunderstand me, I fully believe she should have gotten her children under control. Children need discipline and in this case they weren’t getting it.
But I am much more sympathetic now to her plight than I once was.
5 years ago I would have muttered something to the effect of “yank those little snot-noses up and make them be quiet.”
Today I empathized with the constant need for vigilance that this woman faces.
5 years ago I would shake my head at parents who would take their children out with dirty clothes and crusty faces.
Today I understand that toddler bodies possess a gravitational force of their own for dirt, ketchup and drainage.
Again, don’t misunderstand me, I believe that permissive parenting is not truly parenting and that too many mothers and fathers today have abdicated their responsibility to raise their children with discipline.
The point is that I sympathize with their plight and my prayers are with them that they might seek the full reliance on God to fulfill their parental responsibilities.
I need to do a better job of that in every facet of life.
I need to judge less and pray more.
I need to look down on others less and lift them up more.
I need to criticize less and encourage more.
We, as Christians, can be awfully quick to look down on others (unfortunately, I am not above reproach here). I’ve seen us do it many times. For example:

• We railed against Bill Clinton’s White House infidelity and failed to pray for a family in crisis.
• I sat and listened to a prominent church preacher lambast “Ellen Degenerate” during her coming-out episodes with no mention of the preciousness of her soul. That came home to me a few nights later at a singles retreat as I sat up late into the night with a tortured young man wrestling with his own homosexuality.
• We protest abortion (rightly so) and fail to consider the plights of young girls who find themselves in trouble.

My fear is that we can be perceived as unloving to people who need our love the most.
That we can be considered to be callous when a gentle touch is needed.
That we turn people away by our piety when they need our brokenness.
That our rhetoric supersedes compassion.
And that our desire to denounce sin overwhelms our desire to change lives.

The mother at Whataburger needs to control her children. But she also needs grace. She needs an understanding smile and an offer of encouragement.
The person lost in sin needs to repent and get their lives right with God.
But they also need to find in us a place to find forgiveness.
A place of refuge from the hurts of the world.
A look of understanding that sin is consuming.
A look of sympathy and an offer of hope.

If we become Jesus to the world, what can we accomplish?
We can offer hope to the hopeless.
Salvation to the lost.
Forgiveness to the unforgiven.
Love to the unloved.
A Home for the homeless.
We don’t have to change our position on sin. Sin is sin and it always will be.
But we can change our heart toward those struggling with sin.
We can be more understanding.
We can love the sinner.
Isn’t that what Jesus did with us?

Does the fact that I love Kelly Clarkson’s album Breakaway diminish my street cred?

I am back after a short hiatus from blogging. I took a vacation last week and included this site as “off-limits.” I had a wonderful time with the family settling in to being a family of 5. 5?! Still feels weird to say that.
Anyway, it is good to be back in the office listening to my favorite Survivor CD, When Seconds Count, and thinking of something to write about.
I have a confession to make: I am a TV junkie. I know I watch too much. But after a day at work, dealing with dinner and getting the kids to bed, it is a great stress reliever.
It is the time of year for finales and I thought I would weigh in with my thoughts of the ones I have seen:

• Arrested Development–I am so relieved that the funniest show on television has been renewed for another year. The season finale aired long before they knew their fate and the Bluth family maintained their cutting-edge sense of comic timing and refusal to pander to the lowest common denominator of the TV viewing public. This is not just a show that you can pick up and understand all that is going on. In-jokes abound, references to previous plot elements crop up regularly. In the finale all of that was hitting on all cylinders. Special mention goes to their defiant teaser at the end: a look at the next season of Arrested Development. Thankfully that turned out to be true. GRADE: A
• The Apprentice–OK, I don’t really watch this show. Reason being I hate it with an unbridled passion. However, my wife loves it and so I am often in close proximity to it viewing. I have to give it two grades. For its bloated, pretentious, self-importance I give it an F. For the fact that I don’t have to see it again until September that’s an A+.
• ER–I had great mixed emotions about this show going into the finale. Over the run of this show Noah Wyle has been the constant face. Although, they have yet to regain traction after the death of Mark Green I have stilled enjoyed tuning in each week to see the goings on of County General. But this finale was also Wyle’s swan song–the last regular standing was bowing out. How to play that? Wyle’s character was largely disconnected from the show this season, the regulars that were his true tie to the ER were long gone. An overly emotional exit didn’t seem right to me. After all, I believe, Wyle has long played Carter with an understated grace. Pomp wouldn’t have done it. With that said, I believe they mostly got it right in the finale. My heart would have preferred a more emotional send-off but my head knows it would not have fit. By referring back to his growing up in the ER they gave long-time fans of the show the sense of history that leaves with Wyle. Pictures and voices of previous cast members gave the nostalgia that his exit creates. Grade: B
• Desperate Housewives–for all the publicity this show has received, I view it as a highly adept morality play. These women and the men in their lives (who, annoyingly, all look alike) are deeply flawed individuals. Their desperate search for meaning and purpose deftly illustrate the need each of us have for a sense of hope in this world, for belonging. Ultimately, none of these individuals, will find what they are looking for divorced from the offerings of God. Their ill-fated attempts for happiness are proof-positive that we are our own worst enemies. The finale answered so many questions about what brought each of the wives’s current circumstances into play but left us with so many more. Legal problems for the icy Martha Stewart-esque character, single parenting concerns for the vain, materialistic beauty queen, the pain of leaving behind your children to re-enter the workforce for the mom who has continually struggled with the demands of the home and the desire to be somebody, and the ramifications of building a relationship with an individual that you are not sure you can trust for the woman who has been down this road before. Oh, so much preaching I could do here. Grade: A-

There it is for now. I will return later this week with my thoughts on 24 (can’t wait for tonight), House, American Idol (Tracy makes me watch it), Lost and Alias.

The words were obviously out of place in such a dank and dreary environment.
Sentiments seemingly at odds with the hopelessness imbued within.
Obviously they were evidence of a rare moment of clarity in a milieu muddled with confusion.
They served as a reminder of a hope that seemed somewhat illusory.
A reflection of a light that can drive out the most impenetrable darkness.
Of a meaning for existence that had long been lost.
How truly amazing it is when such words of meaning, of hope are found in the most inhospitable of locals.
Yet here they were–unmistakable, clear and blessedly true.

The words were from a Jewish poem written in the late 11th century.
The poem was called the Hadamut. It was written in Aramaic.
90 couplets that reflect God’s eternal love and never-ending concern for his people.
The words from that poem written on the wall were this:
Were the sky of parchment made
A quill each reed, each twig and blade
Could we with ink the oceans fill
Were every man a scribe of skill
The marvelous story, of God’s great glory
Would still remain untold; For He, most high
The earth and sky Created alone of old

Those words were found written on the wall of an insane asylum!
Obviously they were written in a moment of extreme clarity.
When the author of these words was fully cognizant of the blessed power of the love of God.

In 1917 a man named Frederick Lehman took those words scrawled on the wall of a mad-house and wrote a timeless testament to the enduring love of the Father: