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• The more you lead people, the less you will have to manage them.
• The more you influence people, the less you will have to try and control them.
• The more you inspire people, the less you will have to motivate them.
• The more you know what God thinks of you, the less you will care about what others do.
• The more you focus on relationship, the less you will have to focus on behavior.
• The more you collaborate with people, the less you will focus on securing agreement.
• The more you listen to people, the less you will have to talk.
• The more you can control your emotions, the less you will have to control people’s actions. 

Most people focus on the lesser of these. It is easy to manage, control, motivate, focus on people’s opinions and behavior. But the more you focus on the greater of these, the more you will experience relationships God intended. 

For those who think we should send missionaries to Syria and not have Syrians in Canada or the … isn’t that hypocrisy?

For a couple of decades now, Christians in the West have been decrying the de-Christianizing of our culture. Prayer in school, handing out the Gideon's bible, the change from Merry Christmas to Happy Holidays was just the start. Those issues now seem like child's play. 

Now we deal with issues of gender orientation, immigration, and home-grown terrorism. While we once took pride in the pluralism and tolerance of our nation, there is a constant heap of faith-based posts and shares lamenting how much we have strayed from our Christian roots. 

While it might sound mission-like, is taking our country back to its “Christian roots” really what God wants for us? What if our pluralism and the hostility to all things Christian was exactly what God wants for Christians?

In short, yes!

It is unfortunate, but normal, that we look for scripture to validate our previously held convictions. I have read lots of proof texting by proponents of free market capitalism to convincingly support all of the values and behaviors of market-driven economics. But, I always wonder (mostly to myself until now), are capitalists using scripture to justify consumerism and materialism? I have also read lots of proof texting by proponents of socialism to convincingly support the values and behaviors of compassion and social responsibly. And I equally wonder to myself, are socialists using scripture to justify entitlement and avoid personal responsibility?

I’m really tired of the conservative/liberal debate and the camps built around each one. Our current political context constantly pits one against the other. I am even more tired of Christians who say that to be one or the other is more “Biblical.” I googled, “the Bible and Capitalism” as well as “the Bible and Socialism,” and was immediately directed to dozens of passages that seem to support each one. I read many of them and came to the same conclusion I started with. The Bible teaches both—prescriptive and descriptive.

Sometimes I read the Bible and I think, “How is that even possible?!?”

I find myself in the middle of a conversation with God and I actually think I have the right to question His thought process. Sometimes it only takes Him a line to set a standard so high that it sounds ridiculous. Take this one from Philippians for example: 

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”

Philippians 2:3 ESV

Do nothing, nothing from a position of ambition or conceit: “Sure God, that sounds easy enough.” When you put it in the context of our culture, it only increases the demand on our already fallen nature. North America thrives on self-centredness. It gets tied up in a bow and presented to us as a never-ending meal of flashing lights. If you want to be someone, be someone successful, be someone great.