Tag Archives: facebook

Sanity and Perspective

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Sherri Lackey

Occupy Wall Street is fraying my nerves. I’ve seen photos like the one below popping up on Facebook lately.

Ha.Ha.Ha. Whatever!

This is perhaps the most fitting joke for OWS. I read most of the Dune series; Frank Herbert was a brilliant writer. His world building was intriguing if not disturbing. So dark and disturbing that I couldn’t bring myself to finish the last book in the series.  In Dune, Emperor Leto II rules with an iron fist, not because he is a power mad tyrant, but because he wants to collapse the establishment. He wants to be assassinated and grooms his own assassin to do exactly that. What the Occupy Wall Street buffoons do not realize is that they too have been groomed for their task as well. They think they are so very enlightened when – to borrow a phrase from Pink Floyd – they are just another brick in the wall. Maddening!

On the other side of the “bizarre” spectrum my fraying nerves have been tweaked by my mother’s hero: Myles Monroe. I admit I had never heard of this fellow before last week. I wish I had never heard of him at all. But my elderly mother maintained that he is a brilliant theologian whose books are too deep for comprehension. With her ringing endorsements I had to find out who this fellow is. So I googled him.

He is just another Word/Faith quack, not a brilliant theologian with deep thoughts or words. Quack isn’t quite the right word for him, blasphemer is more like it. He has one of the most extreme Word/Faith views I’ve encountered so far. He says God has to get man’s permission to do anything on earth. His teaching focus is on “the kingdom” but it is not the biblical view of the kingdom of God. His view makes mankind the rulers of the kingdom and Jesus is just a conduit (he calls Him the door to acquiring this kingdom) to bring that kingdom about. He says you don’t worship “the door (Christ)” which I think is proof that Myles Monroe is a vile, false teacher. The apostle Paul if he were still living today would probably have a few choice words taken from the book of Galatians to say to Monroe, Galatians 1:8,9 comes to mind.

My frayed nerves were restored to order when I read the following article on the true, biblical Kingdom of God, and it restored perspective and offered refreshment to my soul –>The Kingdom of God (What it is and is not) by James M. Renihan

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Somewhere Between Middle Class and Upper Poverty

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Sherri Lackey

When I was a child my father informed me that we were not a middle class American family. He said we were upper poverty. He was joking of course for we did fit into the middle class wage bracket.

Now, when I married, I think if there were a class known as upper poverty, my husband and I probably fit in that category. We were both in college and lived off of beans, rice, and ground turkey. I felt positively rich when I could finally afford, at last, to buy chicken and beef to eat. Today, I would feel positively rich if I could afford to buy organic vegetables. Perhaps one day, but until then I’m putting in a garden next summer.

As a teen I had it made. My mom showered me with all the latest styles of clothing I could want. When I married I had to make the old styles last for years and years. We welcomed hand-me-downs and occasionally shopped at Wal-Mart for clothing. It’s nice to have hand-me-downs but the trade-off is that you don’t get to pick your own style if that is your thing, which I admit, is my thing. I do like to have my own style of clothing, colors that I like, etc.

At this point in my life I find that we do not have to wear second-hand clothing if we choose not to. How nice! I like shopping at JCPenneys. I haven’t done that since my early college days, before I was married, and my parents still paid my credit card bill. Yes, I shop at Penneys again. How nice! I’m quite satisfied with good old middle class JCPenneys!

I realize some people are not satisfied with that however. For instance, I recently re-connected with many of my old high school classmates on Facebook which is sort of like an unending class reunion. What was the inventor of Facebook thinking?!! Who wants an unending class reunion? Go home already and get back to living your life!

At any rate, there was this girl I met soon after my parents moved back to my hometown when I was fifteen. She was trouble and I knew it. I had just moved away from a school where the tension between the popular kids and unpopular kids was thick. I was an unpopular kid in that school. How unpopular? It went from being ridiculed for my hair color to being surrounded in the hallway and threatened with bodily injury. When we moved I didn’t want anymore of that and so I kept a low profile as much as possible. Thankfully the popular kids in my new school were not so intimidating. Some were quite friendly inviting me over to their house or out cruising the drag occasionally. One popular male student even flattered me once by telling his friend I had a sexy sounding name. But all in all I didn’t want to make waves and so I laid low most of the time. Except I had this troublesome friend which I have already mentioned.

She wanted to hang out with the popular crowd, but the popular crowd did not want to hang out with her. She grew angry over this, she had quite the temper as I recall. She made it no secret that she scorned ALL popular kids. Being her friend brought me under suspicion and one particular popular girl who had once been friendly to me saw me one day with this other girl and snubbed me because of it. Our friendship didn’t last very long because she got angry with me because I wouldn’t go to youth camp with her one summer. After that she got pregnant and dropped out of school. I didn’t see her much after that. I made other friends which I had things in common with, but all in all I laid low biding my time until graduation.

Flash forward to the age of Facebook. The angry girl sends me a friend request. I suppose that she is not still angry with me over not going to summer camp with her. I also note that she is sending friend requests to some of those popular kids we went to school with. Hmm, that’s interesting. I wonder why? Is she really letting bygones be bygones? Or…is she one of those people who come to the class reunion to gloat. Call me pessimistic, but I think she is.

She was poorer than my family as I recall. Today she is married to a man who apparently has some money. By his picture on her Facebook page I can see that he is quite a bit older than her, at least old enough to be her father I am guessing. He has adult children as does she. I’m curious to know where she found him and what he does for a living. I probably watch too many crime shows, but he has the look of someone involved in organized crime. That is uncharitable of me, I know.

So, a few days ago she posts on her Facebook status how appalled she is that Target is now carrying (she mentioned some designer name which I cannot recall) handbags. She’ll never look at one of those bags again without thinking of Target, she complained. Whatever! I don’t shop at Target either. But she better not ever say a word against JCPenney or I’m unfriending her.

I’m kidding! I don’t unfriend anybody. I just wait for them to unfriend me…and I lay low.

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Pastors Posing as God

Posted on January 29, 2011 by Sherri Lackey

There is a pastor I know who is always looking for ways to get people on his Facebook account to attend church. Prizes, good food, and gospel singers are often offered as incentives. His doting wife is always in the background via the comment section cheering him on. I bet she was a cheerleader in high school. She is quite perky.

This week he is posing as God in order to try to draw folks in to church tomorrow morning. At least…I’m pretty sure he’s posing as God. I don’t think God hijacked this man’s Facebook account and wrote the following, which I edited just a bit removing the name of the pastor and his church, etc:

A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR: “My child  (pastor’s name)will be preaching tomorrow on my day in my house in (name of church). He has been instructed to preach from (name of scripture passage)and he will be teaching you on the subject of (Title of Sermon). Some of you claim to have forgotten but most of you just neglect to do it. Listen to him. But you have to be there to hear what I have to say.” GOD~

This is followed by Perky saying in the comment section that he is awesome. Does she mean God or her husband? Nevermind, that would involve a second poll.

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Polished Stones

Posted on January 6, 2011 by Sherri Lackey

I’ve encountered two very different takes on the church in the past twenty-four hours. One article is titled “Is Church Life Stifling Your Creativity” by Donald Miller and is located here. The other article is titled “Church Can be Fun” by Eric Rauch and is located here.

The first article is brief; the author makes his point and encourages his readers to go forth and be creative. I have no problem with the creative process; God made us to be creative creatures. He did not however give us license to pursue our creativity in such a way that abandons all thought of Him and His holy requirements of us. He is, afterall, our Creator, King of the Universe, Sovereign God, Mighty, Omnipotent, I could go on and on. What I mean to say is we essentially belong to Him and should pay attention to what He says. And He does have quite a lot to say. He put it in a book and lest we forget He has something to say, He also sent His Son to earth and named His Son – The Word.

What follows Miller’s article is a string of comments by people who feel set free, positively liberated to create with abandon, never minding what those stuffy traditional church going types think. Essentially the whole spirit of the conversation is pick your favorite commercial slogan: “Obey Your Thirst” or “Just Do It” and let nothing stand in your way, que sera sera.

I don’t know the general age of those commenting but I’m guessing there is probably a good percentage of twenty-somethings. I’m old enough now that I can usually gauge the age of most internet commentors without actually seeing their birth year. Each age group has their own set of characteristics which they seem to follow in general. I’ve noticed a pattern of angst among many twenty-somethings. They largely reflect a general despair that follows them about like a dark cloud and they readily latch on to writings such as Miller’s, I think, because they like to view themselves as persecuted and misunderstood. I personally know several twenty-somethings that reflect this behavior, they are on my Facebook friends list and I get to read daily about their trials and afflictions. To be fair there are also some forty-somethings who also daily voice their horrific circumstances in life. Horrific circumstances like: “I hate my job”, “I hate my co-workers, they’re all idiots”, “I have a paper due in three different classes this week”, “I am so bored”, and things like that. Add something as stifling as church to this mix and you have a very sad lot of people.

Now compare that to the second article where Rauch mentions a bumper sticker he has recently spotted claiming that church can be fun. The aforementioned people group who finds themselves stifled and bored by church would be interested (maybe?) to learn that there are others who would like to make traditional church a little more comfortable for them. I know a pastor who offers door prizes to coax people into his church. Showering folks with even more material wealth than they already have however has its limits. These people are bored, stifled, and misunderstood for goodness sake! You can let them throw pies in your face till the cows come home and nothing will change their dire circumstances!

I would like to add here that Rauch is not advocating ‘fun church’ and he makes some rather good points in his article about ‘fun church’.

I think something is being missed here about the purpose of church in the first place. Yes, when you become part of a church you will eventually get your feelings hurt. Yes, you might feel judged at times. Yes, your needs might not be met. But here is what we must not miss. There is a God. He made things, lots and lots of things. He has an order, sets of rules for the things He made. He lets us discover some of those rules in nature like the law of gravity and laws of physics. There are other rules though which he doesn’t want us to discover on our own and so He had them written down and put them into a book which we call the Holy Bible. They are not man-made rules. They are God-made rules. He made the church an authority in a believer’s life that should be acknowledged and obeyed just like He made governments which rule society at large. I am not an authority unto myself. I have authority figures over me which God put over me. Not because he wants to stifle me but because He loves me. I read that in His book. There is much more in His book which governs my life as well. I belong to Him, my life is not my own. I need to be reminded of that daily. Interacting with others in my local church helps to knock the rough edges off of me as I knock the rough edges off of them. In the end we will be polished stones.

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Would I Survive No Internet for a Whole Month?

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Sherri Lackey

Facebook

Could I live without internet service for a month? Well, of course I could. I might not like it but I could live without it.

If I went a month without the internet I might overcome the impulse to check Facebook every time I get online. That would be nice. Often I get online with the intension of doing research, ordering an item, or some such thing but then I get sidetracked reading Facebook news feeds and commenting. Then I completely forget to do what I had intended to do. I exit out and walk away. Later I will remember and then go back and get online, get sidetracked by Facebook, exit out again, etc. It gets frustrating. My daughter, who shares a computer with me, has the same trouble and has requested that we change our homepage to something other than Facebook. I really should, but then I get on Facebook and forget to do that.

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Facebook is Profiling Me

Posted on July 7, 2010 by Sherri Lackey

I’m pretty sure Facebook is profiling me, but I’m sure they don’t care. I’ve noticed that the ads on my news feed are becoming more personalized. No longer am I treated to some buxom ‘Sassy Susie’ who is wearing a toddler’s t-shirt; no, I haven’t seen her in a long time.

(Note: Sassy Susie is actually the name I gave to one of my grandmother’s figurines that she collected. S. Susie is a pink clad gal who looks like she could be part of a chorus line in Vegas; she sits on the lower left tier of the vanity that I also inherited from my grandmother. On the upper right tier is the more modestly dressed and respectable Handless Hannah. I never found out why she is missing her right hand but it seems to add to her humility and thus I’ve raised her position. I suppose I’m profiling Susie and Hannah but they haven’t complained yet.)

Now I see a lot of ads for homeschool textbook suppliers and groups. That’s OK. I don’t mind that. But now they are getting into my political interests or what they perceive to be my political interests.

I get page suggestions saying that so many of my friends ‘like’ Sean Hannity and I might ‘like’ him too. As a matter of fact I don’t particularly care for Mr. Hannity’s show. It irritates me mostly. Then it was suggested to me by FB that I might like Sarah Palin. It’s true I think that I might like her on a personal level. But on a political level, no again.

Clearly FB has profiled me as conservative which is true although I don’t jump on the Palin and Hannity band wagons. I favor states rights very much and the more de-centralized the Federal government can be the happier I am. I hate, hate, hate progressivism/liberalism/socialism/Marxism/fascism as ideologies. Abhor them I truly do.

Yet the kicker today on FB was the ad asking me if I was frustrated by my husband’s chewing tobacco addiction. Excuse me? I’m conservative and so my husband must be a chewing tobacco addicted redneck? I clicked on the ‘x’ button and another message popped up asking why I wanted to delete the ad. I was given about five choices to choose from. With a wry smile I clicked on ‘offensive’ as the reason I didn’t want the ad. Maybe I’m being overly sensitive just like the illegal aliens crossing over into Arizona screaming about their ‘right’ to be illegally here in the U.S. I too, am only human.

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I Am an Expert at Spotting Experts

Posted on May 31, 2010 by Sherri Lackey

It is not really hard to spot experts; they tend to announce their expertise in one form or another. Just this morning I had a new follower request on my Twitter account. I don’t know this person. I wondered why she would want to follow me on Twitter.

Next, I took a glance at her bio. She announced that she was a recovery expert and specialized in addiction counseling. Perhaps after reading my rather short bio in which I state: 1. I’m married to a pastor 2. I have three children 3. I like studying my Bible, she surmised I might need counseling for drug addiction or perhaps I might know some addicts and send to customers her way. I suspect it is the latter.

I declined her request. Maybe I need counseling but I do not follow or friend (depending whether I’m on Twitter or Facebook) experts. I just have this feeling that if someone has to state he or she is an expert either 1. he/she has an enormous ego that leaves little room for anyone else in his/her life or 2. he/she has a the opposite problem, what counselors would call low self-esteem, and he/she is trying to validate his/her existence. Regardless of whether it is reason 1 or 2, I believe he/she has a problem generally called selfishness or in other circles is termed narcissism.

I acknowledge that there are individuals who excel in certain areas of their expertise and it is good and well that they do. I happen to appreciate the ones who are humble, those who admit to failings, falling short some of the time. I find myself more willing to listen to what they have to say.

Still, I suppose self-proclaimed experts need friends and if you can fit yourself into their oversized egos then perhaps it could be beneficial to both parties. I don’t regret declining “Recovery Expert” today however. I feel sure she was not looking for friendship from me.

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Get It Right! Legalist Not Racist

Posted on May 24, 2010 by Sherri Lackey

I have a daily routine I follow. I pour a cup of freshly brewed coffee which my son has prepared. (I’ll miss that kid when he leaves home. But not just because he makes a wonderful cup of coffee.)

Next I read my Bible and work on my memory passage. After that I check Facebook, Twitter, and email. If I find myself starting my morning off in a grumpy mood you can usually bet it has something to do with Facebook. So why do I keep coming back to it? One Facebook friend says that FB is like the song Hotel California – You can check out any time you like but you can never leave. I think there is some truth in her statement.

This morning as I checked FB I found out that according to one “friend” I am a racist. This actually caused my heart to seem to skip a beat for a moment. I was outraged by the accusation although my “friend” who posted it didn’t post it on my wall. I simply read her news feed which stated that she liked a page that snarkily stated, “I would rather have immigrants living here than racists.”

My first reaction after the heart skipping moment was anger, followed by a few snarky comments that I would like to have replied back to that. I restrained myself however. I’m sure my liking of several conservative pages has been wearisome to her ever since she friended me.

Like Eric Holder I also have not read the Arizona law that is in heated dispute at the moment. I rely on others, journalists mainly, to interpret the basic contents of the document for me. If I was a resident of Arizona I would read it myself but I’m far removed from that place. I do have an opinion on the subject. I think immigrants should go through proper and legal immigration channels. That does not make me a racist, a legalist perhaps but that is far removed from racism.

The racist card seems to be the Progressives favorite accusation these days. If you don’t like socialism they call you a racist. If you favor legal channels for immigration they call you a racist. If you favor the Constitution over their ideals they say it is outdated and written by racists. It is getting rather old and tiring.

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