Heaven's Ageless Life

How old will we be in heaven? What will happen to children who die as infants? Will they grow up or remain as babies? Those are some of the questions asked and answered in the Presbyterian Pro Life Newspaper.

I think you will find the writing and insights interesting and provocative.

Enjoy your reading.

Gary Sweeten

Love Thyself

An old friend from several years ago found my email address and sent me his as well as the address of his blogs. Dan Gilliam is an interesting man with sensitive spiritual insights and he writes them well.

Dan recently quoted Thomas Merton on his blog.

To live well myself is my first and essential contribution to the well-being of all mankind and to the fulfillment of man's collective destiny. If I do not live happily myself how can I help anyone else to be happy, or free, or wise? Yet to seek happiness is not to live happily. Perhaps it is more true to say that one finds happiness by not seeking it. The wisdom that teaches us deliberately to restrain our desire for happiness enables us to discover that we are already happy without realizing it.

Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, p. 81

I like this quote and do not remember ever seeing it before. He is saying something about life and helping that I started glimpsing back in the late Seventies when we began a serious attempt at Equipping the saints to DO the works of the ministry. EPH 4:11

Over time we discovered that 75 to 85% of our student Helpers were really there to get personal healing. The embarrassment of asking for help themselves was too much to admit so they showed up to counsel other people.

We always tried to say that the most important thing was to know, understand and get along with our self. No matter how hard we tried the students ended up being frustrated with us because we failed to teach them how to "sock it to the people in need".

Let's face it. Most people are completely confused about the nature of Helping/Counseling/ and pastoral care. They think it is little more than preaching, teaching and advising people on a one-to-one basis. Whenever a fledgling Helper tells me what they are doing the story is nearly always about the story teller, the Helper not the Seeker. "I said to him, (blah, blah, blah.) But he wouldn't listen to me.

Many of us are secret control freaks. We enter the Helping process as professionals or volunteers with a hidden desire to tell people what to do. Maybe we try to lecture them on happiness but until we relinquish our desire for control to God we can't even tell ourselves how to be happy, let along another person.

Re-read that statement by Thomas Merton. It's pretty profound.

Gary Sweeten

Read My Book

The more I minister to Pastors and Lay Leaders the more I see the need to train every Christian how to be a positive influence with family, friends, church members and those who need Christ. It is obvious that most Pastors, especially those with degrees in theology and Bible, have had no training in motivation, influence and change.

I had lunch today with a young man who is very interested in going into the professional ministry. As he and I discussed what a minister needs to be most effective, he was quite insightful about the ways people grow and change.

I was surprised because this twenty five year old man seemed to be far ahead of Ministers twice his age. I asked him where he learned those things and discovered that he had taken classes in Secondary Education, Family Life and Sociology where thses issues were the focus.

After coming to my office I thought I need to help those of you in places of Christian influence learn the crucial points of being a Chang Agent. So, here is my strong recommendation. Buy the book Steve Griebling and I wrote on the topic of influence and change. It is Hope and Change for Humpty Dumpty.

If you live in Cincinnati you can come over to the Life Way Counseling Center Office in Blue Ash and get one for a donation to my ministry. The directions are on the web page. You can order Hope and Change for Humpty Dumpty from Author House.

Check out Another Blog

My daughter Julia has a blog called, Hooked on Houses that you can click on the left side I have named it Fun With Houses. She is a great writer and works so very heard to write about her favorite topics, houses and decorations.

Julia has gotten 375,000 hits since January 2008 and I have less than 15,000 in three years. That tells us something I suppose. She is good; very good.

So, check her out and see why the critics are raving and giving her so many awards.

Note From Paula Clare

Hi Gary,
WONDERFUL article(s)! As always! I heartily concur with your assessment...although I am but a "wee" 50, I do not like being termed "Senior Citizen". It sounds like the last year of citizenship to me (like the last year of high school)I have in fact, (no doubt in utter vanity)

I am NOT signed up for AARP benefits because of the way they refer to me in their letters. I know my refusal will not change things, but maybe, if ENOUGH OF US refuse, they'll start to listen and realize we're still here, we're still "kicking" and we're still valuable to society.

I feel like the elderly Inuit who has been put on the ice flow to go downstream and die...NOT READY FOR THAT!Blessings to you and your work with Seasoned Believers!

Paula Clare commented on the last post but I thought it deserved its own place on my blog. Thanks, Paula.

My Friend's Blog

If you love houses you will love this blog. I have it linked on the left of my blog but try it once and see how well she has it layed out and how well she writes about houses and the things in them.

http://hookedonhouses.wordpress.com/

New Link

Dr. Andrew Jackson, one of the premier bloggers in the Christian blogesphere, has noted the existence of our Seasoned Believers blog.

A tip of the hat to Andy with a big thanks! Go to his blog by clicking the Smart Christians Link on this page. He also has a face book connection for Christian bloggers you may wish to join.

The Reveal Book

The two posts that follow discuss the research in this book. I think the data are interesting and somewhat disturbing. Read the posts and respond with your insights.

Thoughtful Readings

Several days each week I open my computer to read the Wall Street Journal's free online newsletter OpinionJournal OpinionJournal@wsj.com I find it usually well written and thought provoking. As an author I know how hard it is to write welcoming prose about non fiction. Yet, the Wall Street Journal writers seem to pull it off again and again on issues with which I am interested.

For example, one entry has to do with faith during war time. It was written by Andrew Carroll and has a penetrating view of warriors whose faith is tested during times of chaos and pain.

Another article is written by the ever insightful and delightful writer Peggy Noonan. In this issue she discusses the unfortunate results of a nation being under the throes of Political Correctness and Unbridled Rudeness/Crudeness. Both the Left Wing, Bill Maher and the Right Wing Ann Coulter are examples, have devolved into harmful verbal attacks on each other. Despite the mindless and punitive establishment of hate speech laws and harsh realities of censorship on a few forbidden words our public discourse is spiraling into more and more gutter talk unfit for human consumption.

To Peggy's list I will add many Christians who regularly violate the Bible passage that commands us to "Let nothing come out of your mouth that does not edify..." I will also add that I continually find many of these crude commentators to be pedantic and mindless. I saw people in my psychiatric hospital with more flexibility and soundness of thought than Shaun Hannity, Ann Coulter and Bill Maher. The people dragged before TV cameras to speak for "balance" about politics and religion are anything but balanced. No wonder that Peggy Noonan finds public discourse so harsh and crude. It is all we see and hear on radio and TV.

Back in the early Seventies my friend Rich Walters and his colleagues at the University of Georgia did extensive research on the power of speech to touch others emotionally. In an attempt to test whether or not the writer of Proverbs was scientifically accurate or just using poetic license when he wrote, "Death or life are in the power of the tongue" they developed scenarios for actors to read to listeners that were alternately harsh or caring.

The listeners were hooked up to a machine that recorded the size and movement of the pupil when they heard the statements. They discovered that harsh talk did result in an automatic threatening response of the pupil while a caring word was automatically received with physical relaxation. So, no wonder the Bible urges us to interact with love, mercy and grace.

Finally, there is a great article by Bret Stephens called The Great Depression. In it Mr. Stephens writes about a research study trying to get at depression rates around the world. According to the study, the wealthiest nations with the highest standards of living may also be the unhappiest. If recent celebrity crises are any indication of who is happy and sad then the multimillionaires in Hollywood are definitely in the most depressed mode. Brittany Spears, Anna Nicole Smith, Paris Hilton and Mickey Rourke as well as countless others have amassed millions only to use their fame and fortune to seek artificial happiness in alcohol and drugs.

When we think about the overwhelming amount of negative and crude talk that fills the airwaves and iPods in discussions and music it may be no mystery why our depression rates are so high. We can thank God that in most instances the talk among Christians and in churches is much more peaceful and loving. Perhaps that is why depression and anxiety as well as abuse and divorce among church going believers are lower than those who sleep in on Sundays.

If you want to enjoy life more and be happy for the rest of your life, be nice and be with nice people. Also, turn off the TV shows with ranting hosts and crude "comics". Attend a loving church and speak to others in upbuilding ways.