To put the whole mess into one story or illustration of just how bad things really are seems impossible, when we are dealing with the slimy, grimy, awful reality that our state leadership has become. But I think what happened a few days ago in Springfield just might come close.

The fiscal irresponsibility and utter abandonment of all financial and moral principles when it comes to handling and spending the people’s money has left us literally destitute as a state, second only to California in terms of our level of crisis. Any business in this shape would have had no other choice but to declare bankruptcy and start over a long time ago. But our state leaders go blithely on, legislating, spending, and acting like all is well, blindly ignoring the warning sirens and lights at every intersection, interested only in their own survival, their party’s continuation in power and their endless appetite for ever more control and connections being fed. Bills go unpaid, funds illegally and unethically hoarded and misappropriated and people whose very lives and businesses depend on state payments teeter on the verge of financial ruin, yet the state leadership continues to grant favors and pass out money to cronies and causes dear to their political hearts with no remorse.

Into this mess stepped Pat Quinn as our new Governor after an embarassing and unprecedented impeachment with even the worst of the corruption not being able to stomach the level our previous Governor had gone to and all but one voting for his removal. Pat has some good qualities to be sure, which I believe are sincere. He cares deeply about fallen soldiers and attends their funerals. He tries to relate to average folks and give the appearance of being one of us. I would imagine sitting down and talking with him would be fascinating and enjoyable.

But his solution for the worse financial crisis in our history? Increase Illinoisans’ income tax 33%, and legalize video gambling with payouts in every possible place of business statewide. In other words, increase taxes on the already immorally overtaxed population of this state and depend on alcohol-saturated gamblers hunched over the most addictive form of gambling ever invented by man creating thousands of new addicts and shattering thousands of more families’ lives and future and retirement and children in the process to try and balance a hopelessly debtridden budget. Now there’s upright leadership if I ever saw it.

But even that isn’t as bad as what happened a few days ago. A law literally written by lobbyists of the coin machine industry in Illinois to regulate video gambling that was hurried through the legislature without input from citizens or regulators was signed quietly and without announcement until after it was done by our esteemed Governor. As the Chicago Tribune correctly editorialized on August 4: “It’s terrible public policy, and the governor knows it. But the bad guys have friends, and they won.” The editorial also says this bill “strips regulators of the discretion they need to police thousands of new video poker terminals coming online soon,” bars ONLY those with a state gambling conviction (virtually no one!) from participting in the new gambling enterprise (meaning all other convicts can!), and that “Quinn’s signature is a win for lobbyists who represent gambling interests and tavern owners who have been breaking the law all along. It’s a slap at the Gaming Board, and the public.” Wow. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

All this from a Governor who before he was in this pile of mess was supposedly deeply troubled by state-sanctioned gambling! Thank you, Governor Quinn, for your high-ground moral and ethical leadership and discernment and insight overseeing our crumbling state. We deeply appreciate it! Keep leading like this and we will be sliding down the absolute final abyss before election day.

We have an option, such as it is, of not returning this man to power or many of his cronies. We probably won’t take it. And we can’t be well assured that it would be much better with change!

And so we go, merrily on our way to absolute destruction, with no shred of moral or ethical integrity left in the leadership of our state, be it the Governor’s office, the State House or the State Senate.

Without the grace of God we would be doomed. Thankfully that still exists! May He grant us more grace. We’re going to need it just to survive.

While you’re waiting for all of those to post, check out the recently posted videos of baptisms from last October!  God is doing amazing things in our midst!

As I have taken the classes and been buried in the research for this project over the past few years, the whole issue of leadership has taken on new meaning for me.

Indeed, because of the journey I have been on, I confessed to some of my colleagues on our Pastoral Staff at a meeting yesterday some of my own failings as a leader that I now recognize. I shared similar observations with our Church Board last night. In the area of nurturing and inspiring the Vision, part of my calling and job description as your pastor, I have far too often failed to keep our Vision in front of myself, let alone our leaders and congregation. I have too often succombed to what I now call the “creeping comfort complex,” which places personal comfort ahead of the hard choices and driving passion of fulfilling the Vision God has given us. It is easy, isn’t it, to just ride the waves and coast as long as we are holding our own and pretty much paying the bills, forgetting the lostness of humanity all around us and the urgency and necessity of connecting them to Jesus. Leadership is not just one thing, it’s the only thing, when you are called by God to lead His people. A new fire is beginning to burn in my soul. I am recognizing some things I didn’t see before. These are new and exciting days for me as a leader.

I thought about all of that today as I got the message that our present Governor was proposing a 33% income tax hike for the people of Illinois. Talk about lack of leadership!

What we are being asked to do by the present sorry leadership of our state is to allow the very people who bankrupted us into so many billions of dollars of debt we can never repay, sold their souls to the highest bidder for their own political survival and the perpetuation of their machine, and so tainted our entire public service sector with such corruption and greed we don’t even recognize it any more – what are they asking us now to do?

Trust them – with 33% more of our hard-earned money, no dismantling of the state bureauracracy, no long-term plan for fiscal responsibility or change, let them borrow billions more to reduce the red ink – imagine – borrowing to reduce the debt! – and – are you ready for this – finance the remainder of their lack of leadership by filling the bars and clubs of our towns and cities with video poker machines, the most addictive form of gambling ever invented by man – so that the gambling addicts of Illinois will help finance our future with no concern for the shattered and broken lives it will leave in the wake. Now is that leadership or what?

God help us all!

As I wrote to my State Senator this afternoon, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! We should not take it any more.

It was also a strong reminder to me – LEAD! Lead with integrity, responsibility, courage, compassion, but LEAD! Don’t accept the easy excuses, the comfortable avoidances of reality, the perpetuation of what is because it is easier than what should be. LEAD!

I challenge our pastoral and lay leadership – LEAD in these days. And I challenge our people to do the same.

We talked a lot about our influence in 2009. In fact, we called it the “Year of Holy Influence.” 2010 we have named “The Year of the Presence and Power of God.” We experienced both the presence and power as we prayed over dozens of people at our altars this past weekend, and heard the heart cries of so many desperate situations. And we reminded people – God is able – Christ is faithful – His will be done!

In the midst of seemingly hopeless messes in our world, I am more confident than ever in Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man, as we have preached about the past two weekends. He will lead us through. And He’s calling us to lead – in these days! I am renewed in my determination to do just that. And I trust He will enable us to raise up real leaders in our society as well. We have never needed them more than today.

It is a humbling privilege to be your pastoral leader! It is an overwhelming task, only possible with the infilling and leadership of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis. I covet your prayers – and am praying that He will use YOU in your areas of influence as well! Blessings!

Restaurants, movies and political speeches are one thing. But apologies? Come on now. When someone has the courage to stand before us and say “I’m sorry”, “I messed up big time,” “I really blew it this time,” and then we critique everything from eyelids fluttering to body language to words used to camera angles to movement of hands? Really now. What have we become?

I watched, on TV, the greatest golfer in history give his apology a few days ago. I wanted to see it for myself because I “knew” what was going to happen. I would be told by a thousand media sources what “he really said” or what “he really meant” or that “he wasn’t sincere” or that “he didn’t really apologize.” I figured if I see it myself, I can decide for myself. What a concept!

I watched a man who was obviously broken by his fall from his wife’s grace, his family’s grace, and his hordes of fans and sponsors’ graces. I listened as he apologized profusely, as he admitted his pompous arrogant attitude in the past, his sense of entitlement that was wrong, his idea that “I can do anything I want to do” spirit that got him into such trouble. I listened as he promised his best efforts to not repeat his destructive behaviors, and even wanted to respect the game of golf more by his actions on the course. Wow. I was moved. Here was Sports’ first billionaire on this planet speaking with sincerity, honesty, openness. Having walked around three different golf courses watching Tiger play at least once every year for ten years, I was keenly interested in what he would say, and came away pleased.

Within minutes, the evaluators went into high speed. By the time a few hours had passed, let alone a few days of media reports, newspaper columns and call-ins from average folks on talk radio, I wondered if I had seen a different apology! Maybe I was watching something else! Maybe I was blind or deaf or unable to comprehend, because what they saw and heard was so completely different than what I saw and heard. Evaluativitis became epidemic. And it has continued!

And so it goes in our society. All the time. With anyone of fame or fortune, noteriety or success, degradation or perversion, we go into overdrive with our critiques and evaluations and really think we know!  Don’t we?

I have been fascinated at the response of many of God’s people as Tiger’s sins sunk in.  I have been the only one in the many conversations I’ve had with people who expressed unitiated that I hoped his sex rehab was successful and the family was able to stay together.  Virtually everyone else was raining condemnation, judgment, categorical declarations.  I have heard virtually no one express concern for two children, and other than saying his wife ought to discard him and get all she can virtually no one express genuine concern for her. 

I listened as radio talk show hosts and sportscasters and radio call-ins spewed venom in all directions, while at the same time saying “they all do it” and “he’ll never change” and “who cares who sleeps with whom” and “shut up and play golf” and all sorts of confused and two-sided statements like that.  I even heard two well-respected sports show hosts ranting that he even mentioned Bhuddism, which was, after all, the religion of his youth, and his Foundation, saying it was all a cover-up of his indiscretions.  Forget the fact that he acknowledged he had left his faith, albeit not the one we would choose for him, and paid a price for it, and that he had “let down” those who believed in his Foundation, which, after all, has literally helped thousands if not millions of children and youth.  Yet, these hosts said, he never should have mentioned any of that.  So here we go again – men who never acknowledge any faith at all (I listen regularly!) and use Christ’s name in vain (often!) and will never have enough wherewithall or devotion to causes to ever have any Foundation yet they have the right to evaluate  and pass judgment on another?  We are amazing people, aren’t we?

As soon as I write this, it may well be that further revelations will come out.  It may well be that any sex rehab “success” will be frittered away in terrible immoral decisions within weeks or months thereafter.  It may well be that Elin says “I can’t take this anymore” and divorce, and another family becomes a terrible statistic.  It even may well be that he wasn’t sincere, didn’t mean a word of what he said and can’t wait to get back to his freewheeling ways.  It may well be.

But here’s my take, Tiger.  Here’s hoping  you overcome your issues and straighten up your life.  Here’s praying your family somehow makes it and is restored.  Here’s one person saying your only ultimate hope is to be introduced to Jesus and begin a personal relationship with him that will change you from the inside out.  And yes, I’ll be there in September at the BMW Championship at Cog Hill – hoping your incredible golf game comes back to entertain us again.

At two different tournaments that I’ve seen Tiger play in, by total coincidence we found ourselves standing next to Elin and Tiger’s mother, before they were married.  We chatted a few words back and forth, and kept running into each other on the ropes surrounding the greens.  I saw these people not as celebrities, but human beings.  They looked so very normal, accessible, vulnerable.  And I’ve stood within a few feet of the man himself multiple times as some great golf shot was once again displayed. 

I know I’m naive.  I’m soft.  I still care.  Somehow I can’t muster up the condemnatory anger so many others have.  I apologize for that.  Or do I?  And I confess that with some people,  much more than I should, evaluativitis sweeps over me and I become what I so disdain in others.  I confess.  And repent. 

But I hope and pray it’s less and less frequent in my life.  I don’t want to be like that.  And I can only imagine what life might be like if we all cared, instead of critiqued.  Wow.  Dreaming, aren’t I?

For Christ’s love compels us…So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view…Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.  Selections from II Corinthians 5:14-19

So what really matters about it all?

The gifts? Sure – they’re important. I had a great Christmas this year – not because of high priced fancy gifts, but rather the love and personal interest expressed in each one. I got a collection of greatest hits of my favorite Country Music artist, Alan Jackson, from my oldest daughter. I had asked for that. That meant a lot! I got a pair of Chicago White Sox slippers from another, and a new Chicago Blackhawks hat from yet another – all of which they knew I would appreciate!  And I did!

My wife got me a new apron – something I needed when I cook – which is one of my hobbies and usually splash all sorts of things all over myself. I’m glad for that. Oh, there were several other things that meant a lot, no doubt.

I have found, though, across my fifty years of life, that while those things are really special and precious, they don’t constitute what REALLY matters.

So what does?

The annual trek to northern Alabama – with my daughters and wife – something we’ve been doing from wherever we live for nearly thirty years now. Flying down the highway with Frank Sinatra’s Christmas music playing on the car stereo and our family and dog  together – that matters!

Joining with my wife’s extended family – each of us with our own unique idiosyncracies, to be sure – gathered in a church basement to eat together, exchange gifts, read the Christmas story and spend a few minutes together. That matters.

Playing golf on hopefully a day warm enough to not freeze to death on the course – and again this year we got to! – that matters.

Sitting with my family in a theater watching a great movie together – last night it was “Invictus” starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela – remembering the years after Apartheid in South Africa just over a decade ago as this heroic black man joined forces with a white rugby team to further the change of their country’s future and practice reconciliation. That matters.

Worshiping together with extended family numbering more than twenty on a Sunday morning at my in-laws’ church. That matters.

Eating together around restaurant or home tables laughing, telling stories, cheering for sports teams and sometimes getting into raucous debate – that matters!

Spending New Years Eve with my daughter and son-in-law and German Shepherd granddogger eating turkey in front of their fire and hanging out in their lives – that matters.

Maybe it’s middle age and sentiment settling in. Maybe it’s more emotion oozing out than before. Maybe it’s just more mature love, I don’t know – but things that used to matter don’t matter quite as much to me – and things that I used to take for granted mean a lot more now. So it is this season.

I hope you are finding it so. I pray you had moments like that in your life with those you love this holiday season. And I trust we can work to create more of them in our lives in the year ahead.

Our world is is improving and imploding at the same time – in conflicting forces of ever-increasing speed and change. Nothing that used to be secure is even predictable any more. It’s a new, wild frontier of uncertainty.

We need God, family and each other like never before. We deem money, possessions and stuff as less important than we used to. And that’s all good.
Because the things that matter are eternal in nature – are built into us in the image of God we are born with.

Let us commit anew to priorities in our lives that matter – and lowering the volume and distraction of the stuff that doesn’t as much. That is my goal for 2010. What is yours?