I was walking through Menards this evening and saw an “Animated Deer Head.” My thoughts ranged from “Why in the world…” to “Who would pay that…” Crazy stuff.

I came across another report of corporate fraud this week, excuse me, but am I the only one who finds the hypocrisy in this. Don’t get me wrong, when execs steal from the company, they need to be punished. What gets me is when they are punished for the perks they receive as part of the job. What I find so hypocritical is that there is not a person I know that does not receive some extra benefits as part of their job. Even if it as simple as making copies for personal use or taking company time to run some errands, even using the company vehicle on the weekends for that trip up north, we all stand convicted. The perks of the rich are just on a larger scale, they may use the company plane for a vacation or use the Board Room for a birthday party. And these perks are not available to us, so we want them punished. Totally hypocritical in my mind.

Time magazine this week has an article titled “Faith and Frat Boys” exploring faith in secular colleges, specifically how Christians seek to live out their faith and reach out to their classmates in an environment that is hostile toward them. One quote struck me, “In the past five years, ‘attention to spirituality has been especially strong.’ But committed Christians seem to want more than just spiritual living. They’re looking for something deeper…” I think that serves as a very accurate assessment of the Christian culture in America today. I know it is true of our family, and if I had a dime for every family I have talked to in the past few months who have expressed the same desires to me, I’d be a much richer man. Simple consumerism is not a sufficient attitude in the Kingdom of God, drive through religion (taking up a seat for an hour on a Sunday morning) does not suffice for a powerful Christian walk. It never was, we were ever meant to do this alone, we were built for community with both the Lord and each other. Adam, with complete access to God, was not complete without Eve, we are not meant for isolation. Yet that seems to be more and more of what we are finding today. Churches preach small groups and community, yet theory is different than practice. We still exist as just a talking head with some band members up front and surface level community. We desire something deeper, deeper relationship with the Lord and each other today more than ever, and the church is not meeting those needs. It’ll be interesting to watch what the next step is in the church in America, will we continue to exist as always, or will we change our ways to seek after Kingdom living?