Politics

The problem of partisan politics is the promises it makes. Modern politics (and perhaps most politics through world history) promises that the battle can be won. It tells the immature mind, “If you can only win this—this issue, this problem, this position—the world will be right again.” Me, I find myself laughing at such a claim. Perhaps it is because of my wide travel, and theological training. But many good people that I know get sucked into the political wheel of doom: more emotional investment, with more rage hangover. How someone, anyone really, can stay on this treadmill for more than one year, boggles my mind.

So let me help. I think Jesus has some profound words to be applied. 

Jesus, in His most famous sermon, taught in Matthew 7: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.” 

Let’s take a look at the fruit of modern politics. The promise is clear, as I’ve already laid out. Each issue is the most sensational issue in memory. The opponent is the worst that has appeared in history. And everyone is cranking the anger output to maximum. I suppose it would be bad enough if election day turned off the treadmill. It doesn’t. Modern politics puts out a certain deathly and intoxicating fruit, because it is a deathly and intoxicating source. 

Political pundits, with any kind of longevity, seem to go down one of two roads. Either they turn into brainless partisan ranting, or they burn out. Check out two pundits trying to make sense of the “outrage machine” and their own involvement in it. 

https://youtu.be/SvR17Ta8nxM?t=531 

To this pastor, the evidence is clear: modern politics is the equivalent of a false prophet. It promises legacy, meaning, victory, and a future. It cannot deliver, but instead hooks you on outrage, and then demands more. Modern politics takes your attention, your emotional effort, your spiritual vitality. It seeks to replace your connection with God, with humanity; tearing away your participation in something, Someone, greater than yourself. 

Let me share with you some good news, in fact, the Good News. God, in all His glory and majesty, has made a way for us to be intimately with Him—now and forever. That way, indeed the Way, is a man named Jesus Christ: He died in our place to secure our present and eternal destiny. Those who believe in God’s salvation, this Way, are firmly placed in a relationship with God in which they can receive total fulfillment of body, heart, and soul. 

Politics promises what only God can give. Look closer. Politics is encoding law, or deciding how public dollars should be spent. That’s it. How could that possibly fill your soul? How could getting your own agenda, or that of your preferred party, passed into law possibly cause you to be satisfied with your life? Isn’t politics, on its very foundation, about deciding how society is to be governed? How could governing others give you what you need inside yourself? 

Truly, if you gain the whole world, you can still lose your soul. And modern politics is sucking the soul out of Americans. We should instead try to find our fulfillment in those personal and congregational pursuits which do give purpose to life, and do draw us closer to God and one another. 

Getting to the soul’s sanctification is simpler than you may think. The Lord promises in the Scripture that those who simply have faith that God is able, and willing, to save; they receive such salvation. This revolutionary truth means that anyone can stop putting their faith in American politics, and treat politics as the hobby, or side-show that it really is. We can devote ourselves to the better things in life, the more worthy pursuits. 

God bless you this election season.

The Value of University

My Grandpa, J.D. Palmer, in the 1950’s, left the family farm in central Washington State. He hitchhiked to Seattle Pacific College (now University), and began his collegiate journey. That journey would be the single proximate cause of the success of his entire life. It is where he met his beautiful, intelligent and loving wife, Eva. It is where he excelled in study; where he set himself apart as a 4.0 student. It is where he became sophisticated, participating in all the activities that transform a limited country boy into a well-rounded educated man: track and field (where he ran with world class Ben Mooring and Eugene Peterson), student government, church, and many studies. He made lifelong connections with people in his future field. In those days, a four year college degree was the basic building block for getting ahead in life.

In his day, J.D. Palmer could leave Seattle Pacific in the spring, and head back to the farm just outside of Yakima for the summer. There, he worked long hours in the creamery. He spent the weekends thinning fruit trees, picking produce, and other hard labor for local businesses. The money was terrible, but if he worked harder than most, and put in the long hours, he could just afford to pay for the upcoming school year in the fall. That was how he did it. Mid-year hard work was how he could afford to climb out of poverty by way of college.

Grandpa Palmer didn’t stop at a four year degree. He accepted a job in teaching just after graduating. He loved it, and he seemed to be made for the world of education. After gaining some experience teaching in elementary school, he decided to get his Masters Degree in the field. It could only help. More sacrifice, as his family grew. More time pouring over the books, and pursuing that degree. Getting it helped him to secure his first principalship. He climbed the institutional ladder through hard work and excellent leadership.

Finally, when his kids were old enough, my Grandpa went back to get his Doctorate. The highest level of higher education in our family, directly or in wider cousin circles. It was years, and much sacrifice at the University of Southern California. Earning that coveted diploma did a few things for the family. First, it allowed Grandpa to become a superintendent of schools, in Redlands California. Second, it made Grandpa a lifelong and devoted follower of Trojan football. Third, it set a bar of expectation for all to follow after him.

Our family milieu was firmly pro-education. It was the way Grandpa went from hayseed to Superintendent. Going to college was part of what it meant to be a Palmer; you go to church, love the Lord, love your family, be a pillar in the community, and find a way to go to college. An expectation for pursuing higher education was so important, he and my Grandmother saved money for their children and grandchildren to go to college.

My father, Bruce Palmer, followed his father’s footsteps in the late 1970’s. He moved away from home in California, and enrolled at the same place: Seattle Pacific College. While he was there, it became a university. He got his degree in Business. He met his wife there, and just like Grandpa, was married before graduating. Even in the early 80’s a college degree was a surefire way to get your foot in the door at corporate America, and it was how my dad made his leap into the middle class.

But, by then tuition was not something that a teenager could swing by working hard during the summers. My dad, along with everyone else, needed some help. Because my grandparents valued college so much, they had set money aside for him. But, even in those days, it was possible for a student with some planned help, to graduate from a four year university (even a private Christian school) without student debt. It was also in this era (about 1976) that congress made student debt especially difficult to erase with bankruptcy.

It was in the late 70’s that our nation began to allow financial institutions to loan bad debt to teenagers, at the cost of their futures. If one follows the logic: a four year degree makes a person far more valuable to an employer, and they will pay the graduate much more. Financial institutions are therefore making an investment that pays off for both the student, who will make more money in the long run, and the debt collector, who earns interest over the life of the loan.

My father took a job as a pharmaceutical salesman. He worked the Alaska territory for almost a decade, before settling down in Spokane, Washington, until his retirement a few years ago. When it came time for me to decide whether or not to go to college, both my father, and my grandfather strongly encouraged me to do it.

My decision to go was based solely on the strenuous advice of my grandpa, and my dad, who argued that it was the best first place to go. Get your education, and no matter what you do, you will find a valued use for it. I had almost joined the Marines. But, another mentor of mine said, “You’re young. The Marines aren’t going anywhere. Get your education while you have the time and energy, and you’ll have it out of the way. Plus, you can join the Marines as an officer if you do the college thing first.”

It seems that I was the first generation of Palmers to encounter the massive change in college costs. Put simply, college had become, and continues to be exponentially more expensive, and exponentially less valuable. In 2002, I boarded a Greyhound bus and made the trip from Spokane to Seattle. I too enrolled at Seattle Pacific University.

Paying for school was a nightmare. I had some scholarships, but not a lot. School cost about $25,000 a year. Like the Palmer men before me, I had worked hard, and was willing to commit my entire life savings (up to that point), representing countless hours working at Hollywood Video, Grocery Outlet, and Denny’s on weekends, holidays, and through the summer. It was about $2,500. I remember signing the check with a shaking hand at the registrar’s office. It wasn’t even enough for room and board for one school year, never mind the tuition, books and fees.

I focused on classes that I found fascinating, allowing my major to spring up organically. I had taken many classes in communication, and in theology. Finally, I declared my theology major, just in time to have all federal subsidies stripped away: it was a new ruling, citing separation of church and state, and any students wanting to pursue spiritual studies would have to find their own way to pay for college.

It was then that I faced a life changing decision. Do I take out lots of personal loans, with horrible rates and fees, and complete my education? Or, do I add a couple years to the experiment, take less classes, and try to lower the debt burden by working full time? I knew the loans were easy to sign for, but like iron shackles put around the neck. The debt was expensive, and repayment over many, many years is still the only way out.

Again, I found myself signing documents with a shaky hand in the registrar’s office. In the end, I graduated with $60,000 of debt. It was horrible debt. 10% origination fees, 8% interest (adjustable). It was a crushing way to start adult life. So, what is the value of a liberal arts degree in the modern world?

I, like most of my peers, did not meet and marry at college. It was more taboo, marriage was the kind of thing you would do when you settled down, when the future was a little more certain. We all thought ourselves too young for matrimony. Of all my friends, I only knew one guy who wound up marrying someone he met at college. Perhaps that is for the better, perhaps not; but finding a quality person who is motivated to succeed in life, and desirous of getting married, isn’t happening on the college campus. Again, what is the value of a liberal arts degree in the modern world?

I went back to Seattle a while ago, to meet up with my old college roommate. I asked him this very question. Perhaps my experience is a one-off, but neither he, nor I, knew of anyone that we went to college with who wound up in a field where their degree put them ahead. It didn’t get them a job, it didn’t get them a promotion, and it didn’t help. It hurt. All of my peers had to find a way to pay off the equivalent of a mortgage without the benefit of a house, without low rates, and without the ability to sell in an emergency. Some of them found work in the swelling Seattle IT market.

I graduated over a decade ago. My mentor was right, the military didn’t go anywhere. I went to an officer interview board for the United States Army before I took my last finals, and swore in just before graduating. Just after shipping off to Basic training that fall, I got a letter in the mail. That 8% interest rate had just been adjusted, to 12%. The Army did not offer loan repayment to my particular track; I wound up paying out of pocket for years and years. Most officers who go to college outside of the Academy go through ROTC, which foots the majority of the bill. For my entire time of service, while other officers were in fine living quarters and going out for meals, I was renting a trailer and eating sandwiches. I paid down the debt like a madman. I wanted out of the shackles.

Finally, I got deployed to Iraq, and it was there, without any overhead, or taxes, and plenty of extra pay, that I finally felled the giant. My debt was gone. Paid in full. I’m not sure of my peers, but I suspect most of them are still making payments, without the benefit of higher pay.

When it comes to the value of a university degree, simple economics has been ignored, I suspect because there is too much money to be made. The bubble has nearly run its course. Disaster looms.

I think the American landscape is changed. Universities and colleges have become more about social programming than individual preparation and mental sharpening. Perhaps with the exception of a specialized field, like medicine or computer programming, a 4 year degree does not qualify someone to step into corporate America and succeed. Reading today’s published cost of Seattle Pacific University, I see that a student should expect to spend $54,735 for a school year. That’s more than twice the cost when I was attending. Exponential growth of cost. This phenomenon is based on the poor lending practices, and over government regulation, that would cause an overvaluing in any market.

One cannot write about the value of a college degree without discussing the content of those degrees. The devaluation of a liberal arts education has more than one contributing factor. It must be more than supply and demand; too many people have a degree, thereby decreasing education value in the marketplace. The product itself has lost value.

When my grandpa was attending college, he was taught exceptional material from exceptional professors. The academic standards were high. And, if you could not hack the load, you left. Nowadays, with high volume of finances to be made off of students, universities have sacrificed their academic standards. Furthermore, academia has been the breeding ground of far-left ideals, and a student is far more likely to graduate with political ideologies drummed into them than employable skills. Employers are less likely to value the investment, unless they are in the political arena, and on the far-left. Liberal arts degrees are more about social, racial, socioeconomic, and political ideals than they are about competence and knowledgeability. Early adopters and sharp critical thinkers understand this, and are moving away from the college pathway to wealth and prosperity.

My own confidence in education has not been shaken in the least; only the value of expensive universities. This has led me to make some adjustments as my own son is now old enough to begin elementary schooling.

My decision has been to make an early investment in education. I’m opting to send my kids to a private school where the focus is more on learning basic knowledge and function in academic rigor. I believe that a leg up on learning is the more productive route. I’m sure universities are not going anywhere for the long term, but until the bubble bursts, I cannot advocate for my own children any path where student debt will be a part of the outcome.

Endings

The Lord blesses a people, with someone who just seems to know the right thing to do all the time. Occasionally, God is good enough to send us someone, and shape them, to be a kind of guiding light to the rest of us. We often take them for granted, walking in the illumination of their God-reflection. Until they are gone.

I was driving to work this morning, and cycled through the radio stations. One of my local stations was broadcasting the funeral of Billy Graham. I could hear the bagpipes playing, and the announcer spoke of the body being moved by procession. They were playing Amazing Grace. I imagined the group of people standing behind the casket as it moved to the final resting place. I took off my hat, there in my car. One of those mighty titans of truth being laid to rest, surely translated to walk in the land of the truly living.

We have lost something, O Lord. Don’t leave us in the darkness.

Just a few months ago, a mighty hero in my life was laid to rest as well. I had the pleasure of playing a couple of songs on my guitar at the funeral. Jim Eller was on of those titans of truth. He walked with humility, and always was there to pray for me, for my family, and remind us of how to follow God. He was half blind, and physically unsteady, there in the last few months. But, I couldn’t help but noticed that he was never more clear eyed, and spiritually solid. His greatest concern was for his wife, grown children, and growing grandchildren. He wanted them to follow in the way that he had been paving his whole life. When we did lay him to rest, I felt like there was a real hole in our community.

We lost something, O Lord. Don’t leave us in the darkness.

My own Grandpa, Jay Denton Palmer, was one of those too. We lost him about six years ago. I named my oldest boy after him. I’m so sorry that my kids will never know him like I did. I loved him as only a grandson can. I know that he believed in me, cherished to see me grow up. He was proud of me. In the way that a proud grandparent can, he respected me. And, I respected him. He ran track in college with some of the legends of the Pacific Northwest, like Ben Moring and Eugene Peterson. He was a Gideon, believing that the Bible was powerful enough to be set into a stranger’s hands and left to work. When he went to be with Jesus, I felt robbed. Even now, I wonder what he would say if he could see what we are up to now; and wonder what kind of wise words he would offer. He was a good man, and we are the poorer for having to let him go.

But, that is the way of things. I feel like there is a grainy color polaroid, of all those who I grew up with. Many of them were people to be in awe of. People to listen to. People to emulate. People to love and respect. They reflected God’s radiance, it seemed. And one by one, their faces are being rubbed out of the picture, never totally removed, but somehow eerily absent. Oh, how the people next to them in the picture grimace at the loss.

Sitting in a coffee shop, I ran into some old friends. Mrs. Murray had lost her husband to cancer a few years ago. Her friends, the Stiltzes, had lost a son to an IED. All three of them having coffee. I MEPS’d in with their son, so many years ago. I’ve memories of us running at the park, in the early morning Spokane hours, trying to get in shape for basic training. I came home. He didn’t. We hugged and caught up. Just before leaving, Mrs. Murray said to me that we are about to lose Marla. My heart caught in my throat.

Marla is one more of those titans of truth. She worked at the church I went to as a boy. She taught us to sing, and had the job of putting on the church musical productions. I don’t know for sure, but I think she loved it. She always came off that way. Marla never stopped being the kind of person you wanted to run into on a hard day. She just reflects that light in a way you can’t explain, but you know when you are in the presence of it.

What are we going to do? Lord, we’re losing so many of our pillars. Don’t leave us in the darkness. Sometimes it feels like our country has its hands around its own throat, and it is squeezing. Polarizing, punditry, anger, and entrenched shouting has become our way of life. Shooting people just to shoot them. Then, accusing and crying about how we were right all along. Squeezing. So much darkness.

Lord! Don’t You leave us alone! Raise up the Elijah and Elisha, the Samuel, the David, the Isaiah, the John, and the Jesus. Send us leaders who know the way, who know the truth, and who lead in the way of life.

The Importance of Prayer

What is prayer?

Simplest I can say; prayer is communicating with God. Prayer is the most ancient spiritual experience on record. I'm sure that statement holds up to scrutiny. Prayer is the intercultural, trans-chronologic, universal spiritual experience of every human. I don't think I have ever met a person who had never prayed.

Because of it's universal nature, prayer is the bedrock of human spiritual experience. By it, the ancients called for relief from plague, honored their gods (or God), and called forward rain. Though I am no sociologist, I have a dollar-to-doughnuts bet that every culture (which has been scientifically studied) has stories of prayer.

For the Judeo-Christian worldview; there is no deeper or more abiding connection with God than prayer. Prayer is the most personal of all the spiritual disciplines. And, I think by standards subjective and objective, we can know for certain that prayer; and God's response to it, has been the largest shaper of human history. More than the gun. More than democratic republics. More than antibiotics.

Prayer is the touching of the most inconsequential (like a dude with a theology blog) with the most Divine (the Great I AM) in the most intimate way (sharing thoughts without filter).

We Should Pray
I believe that prayer is the most important discipline a Christian can develop in their spiritual lives. The practice of regular communication with God is the only way a believer can be tapped into the heart of God. Prayer is the only way that God can hear what we have to say, and respond. This is why the Bible is full of commands to pray. For some reason, the Lord of the universe-- Creator and Sustainer of all that was, is, and will be-- chooses to work through the prayers of people.

Though it is mind-blowing, certainly we can all agree to the truth. The Truth. God commands His people to pray, so that He can be doing the things they pray about. Don't get ontologically twisted; there is much here that I am not saying. I am saying that through prayer, we learn what God wants us to pray about; and through prayer we express what now God has caused us to care about; and through prayer God assures us that He is listening, and that He will move. And, through prayer God does what He intends.

Crazy. What kinds of things are we missing out on by not communicating and communing with God? How much have we not been a part of that we could have been? How much more are we willing to lose out on? If every believer in the world began a serious season of prayer; even the unbelieving world would be in shock at the result. For prayer results in the will of God. What loving person would not want to have the complete will of God done here on earth, as it is in heaven?

I adjure you with this command: people of God, pray.