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The Sin of Boredom: MK Perspective

Friday, November 11th, 2016

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Having grown up in a third world country, I have seen true poverty. In Guatemala, people who were finished with their chores would sit outdoors and contemplate life. They were not stressed out, even though they were poor. They didn’t feel that they had to be doing something every second in order to be happy.

In America, there are so many options for continuous entertainment. Most Americans become angry if they don’t have the extra money to do everything their heart desires. They lash out at the people around them that they are miserable, even though they have already spent lots of money on entertainment.

The sin of boredom is truly ugly. It reveals a heart of self-centeredness. Instead of asking God who to minister to at that moment (either by phone or in real life), they think only about themselves. They lack love. Love seeks the good of others above oneself. The majority of Americans have no love. As Jesus tells us about these end times in Matthew 24:12, “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.”

We are commanded to be different from the world. First John 2:15 says, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.” What a cold statement! The love of the Father is NOT in the man who loves the things of the world.

Even the fluff entertainment (that might not be sin in and of itself), when indulged to excess the way that Americans do, leads to tens of thousands of squandered hours. We will stand before God and give an account of our time. We will be ashamed. We will wish we had the time back to glorify God rather than indulge our flesh.

But very little of today’s entertainment is harmless. It causes us to indulge in sins of the mind, which lead to sins of action. As a whole, American Christians don’t even have a conscience any more. No only do they indulge in wickedness, but they feel entitled to self-pamper their greed every waking moment.

When the Israelites in the wilderness were “bored” with the manna that God miraculously provided, God sent quail for meat, and God struck dead the people who were bored, wanting more variety in their life. This is how God feels about boredom. It’s inextricably related to ungratefulness. God had supernaturally provided for all their needs, and they slapped God in the face because they DEMANDED more variety. They were angry that God did not give them more variety. They were ready to go back into slavery in Egypt rather than “put up” with God’s provision. What rotten people! No wonder God struck them dead!

Yet we are WORSE in this nation. God has given us more riches than any preceding time in history, and instead of being fully satisfied with our manna from God, we slap God in the face and demand to be self-pampered with whatever we can think of. If we can think it up, we should be able to do it without hindrance. How dare God say that we can’t do whatever we feel like doing?

God, have mercy on our nation where we say, “Have fun,” every time someone leaves the house to go out, as if the goal of life is having fun. Instead we should say, “Find ways to glorify God while you’re out.” Are we actually Christians, or do we indulge our flesh to the same level as the world?

This is the second in a series of “Indictments Against the Sins of America.”

  1. The Sin of Entitlement
  2. The Sin of Boredom (this post)
  3. The Sin of Lust

To keep up with my MK posts, like my MK page and subscribe to my blog.

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Posted in Christian Living, Growing Up as a Missionary Kid | 30 Comments »

The Sin of Entitlement: MK Perspective

Friday, November 4th, 2016

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When we believe that we deserve something that we have not earned or worked for, we have the sin of entitlement. Having grown up as a missionary kid in a third world country, entitlement is one of the worst qualities I’ve seen in Americans. This sin is truly ugly and selfish. It’s strange that people feel so entitled in such a rich country.

I have seen my Guatemalan friends in houses with dirt floors, completely at peace. They don’t have a bratty, angry attitude like Americans do about deserving better… that their condition is somehow someone else’s fault.

People in third world countries who are in true poverty know that they are not entitled to anything. They try to find some clean water to drink and to produce enough food in their field not to starve.

So many Americans want “free” handouts from the government, not realizing that all government money comes from taxes—the sweat and tears of the common people. By demanding more goods without working for them, they are forcing the middle class into poverty. Higher taxes mean less money to pay bills for normal people who are working.

Americans demand rights that God never gave them. No one deserves anything. You should get what you earn. The only thing you deserve is what you work for.

The richest nation on earth is the most miserable—with a huge proportion of its population on pharmaceudical drugs. Yes, people are so miserable because of their bratty attitudes where they think that if they don’t have a perfect house, a perfect marriage, and perfect kids without putting in continuous work, they need mood-altering drugs to put up with their misery.

Entitled people are often bored with their lives. All bored people are sinning. They are not walking by the Spirit. There is always something God wants you to be doing in any given situation, and He will empower you to do it and give you joy in ministering to others. Boredom indicates that you feel that you are entitled to a continuous variety of entertainment, otherwise you will snap at the people around you.

I’m fed up with this attitude.

A sense of entitlement is sin. Pay for your own goods and services. Stop demanding that other people sweat and break their backs to provide for your entertainment and gluttony. I see people who say they are poor but own a cell phone. This is not a necessity. Nope. If you have $100 a month for a cell phone, I will not give you a single penny for your basic bills because you are a squanderer. If you’ve paid all your bills and you are not mooching off others, you are allowed to get a cell phone. You are not entitled to the luxury of a cell phone if you are not able to pay your basic bills.

You are responsible for your own bills. Other people should not have to pay your bills. Scripture says if you don’t work, neither shall you eat (2 Thessalonians 3:10). And if you are frugal and still have bills, ask God, and He will provide. God is not a liar. James 4:2-3 says that we have not because we ask not, and the reason we ask is to self-pamper and spend our money on our own lusts (including gluttony, which is eating out all the time because we are bratty about “boring homemade food.”) God will not provide monetarily for brats who have been unfaithful with the money He has already provided.

Let’s repent of our national sin of entitlement. Let’s work and pay our own bills. Let’s not expect to go on vacations and eat out and be constantly entertained. Take back your life for the Lord, and live for Him. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33)

This is the first in a series of “Indictments Against the Sins of America.”

  1. The Sin of Entitlement (this post)
  2. The Sin of Boredom
  3. The Sin of Lust

To keep up with my MK posts, like my MK page and subscribe to my blog.

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Posted in Christian Living, Growing Up as a Missionary Kid | 29 Comments »

Are Most Americans Superficial?

Friday, July 24th, 2015

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At the risk of ticking off this whole country, I am going to address this issue head-on, from the point of view of a missionary kid—a person who grew up outside of the U.S. but then returned to the U.S to live as an adult.

Before answering this question: “Are most Americans superficial?”– I would like to clear the air and say that some of my closest friends are Americans, and they are not superficial. Those I relate to the most are people who have gone through suffering in their lives and have a real walk with God. These are the exception to the rule, and I married one of them.

I recently offended someone on my Missionary Kid Page when I said that missionary kids that return to the United States are shocked at how superficial Americans are. The Missionary Kid page exists to show how missionary kids perceive the world, not how other people perceive the world. Missionary kids don’t care about being politically correct. Our world view is opposite to most Americans. We’ve never truly belonged to any nation, so there is no reason to pander to anybody.

I have listened to thousands of missionary kids over the years, and here are the real reasons why we perceive Americans as being superficial:

1. Most Americans care about and pursue trivial things.

They love to talk about TV shows, sports, celebrities, and other topics that have no substance. After living in a third-world country my whole life, I perceived that part of the reason is that Americans are pampered because they have way more money than they need to survive. If they don’t, they use their charge cards to pursue the frivolous pampering that they “deserve.”

People in third-world countries are concerned about survival. When you are surrounded by suffering, your conversations are different. The conversations are more relational and less about trivia.

2. The U.S. educational system has churned out brainwashed, mindless idiots.

Ask any random American walking down the street basic information about any topic, and they just don’t know and don’t care. All they want is to be entertained and to stare down at their cell phones, snapping selfies to post to Facebook.

The reading level of this nation has been dumbed down so much that what was previously considered 5th grade reading is now college level. The majority of Americans do not read in their spare time—they watch TV for tens of thousands of hours, which brings us to the next point.

3. Whoever controls the media controls the minds of the U.S. population.

The morals of our nation are eroded as we watch sin and practice sinning over and over in our minds. Pretty soon we are actually committing the sin because we have been de-sensitized to it. Even if we don’t practice the sin ourselves, we allow the sin in the lives of the people around us because it’s so normal to us now.

We can’t perceive the heart of God on major issues because our hearts are so calloused to God because of the media.

The media is controlled by the world. We are told in Scripture to not be a part of the world, but instead we have morphed into the world. American Christians ARE the world.

The U.S. population is like a huge mob. The media can actually CAUSE riots and other problems by brainwashing people to believe lies. Then everyone is in an emotional frenzy, and if you stand against the emotional mob, you risk being killed. That’s because they no longer can think clearly.

That’s just it. Most Americans can’t think independently. Whether they are afraid of public opinion, or whether they have just been told their whole lives by their teachers and the media what the right answer is, who knows?

4. The American church is in a babyish catatonic state.

When talking about the deeper things of the Lord, very few people even understand what we are saying. Their eyes gloss over, and they would rather talk about fashion or what they are doing on Friday. The majority of American Christians do not pursue holiness—they even say that pursuing holiness is a sin because everyone is imperfect. Even if they have unrepented sins, you have to look the other way and not tell them that what they are doing is causing their misery.

I have never been in a third-world church where the native Christians were so apathetic about the things of God. True delight comes from pursuing God full-tilt. I guess if you’re poor, you have less to lose when you give up your life to gain Christ.

So I ask you, do you sense that most Americans are superficial? Does it disturb you? When you mention it, do people get offended and stomp off, like the woman on my Missionary Kid Page?

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Missionary Kids and Nostalgia

Monday, June 22nd, 2015

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What’s up with missionary kids and nostalgia?

For some reason, even though I never truly fit in when I was growing up, every time I see Hispanics in the States, I feel like I’m home, like I’m somehow understood. I’ve always been more comfortable around brown-skinned people. That’s because I grew up as a missionary kid in Guatemala, where I lived until I was 18. It shocks Hispanics that I speak fluent Spanish because of my white skin and bright red hair. You should see their expressions! But they are always honored that I know their language, and they always treat me like an insider once they hear my Spanish.

For years I didn’t see a single Hispanic here in Washington state. I finally stopped looking. Two years ago I met a white woman at a park, who said she attended a Hispanic church where the pastor was from–of all places–Guatemala! An American missionary had led him to Christ, and now he was a pastor in Washington state. I said to her, “Are there enough Hispanics to actually make up a church?” Yes. The Hispanic population  had apparently grown while I wasn’t looking. A church that started in this man’s garage had grown to 200 members!

When I first stepped into the Hispanic church, I was transported through time to my childhood. I felt so nostalgic that I had to choke back a lump in my throat. My emotional reaction was so intense that I was overwhelmed. I was happy, but I wanted to sob. I felt like I was home, and I had no idea how much I missed my people. The fact that I hadn’t used Spanish in 20 years hadn’t affected my fluency. There was something about being with these people that brought me back full circle so that I finally felt complete, like part of me wasn’t missing.

Last Christmas the pastor’s wife made some Guatemalan tamales, and she gave me some. As soon as I took a bite, I began weeping. I was alone in my dining room, so there was no point in holding back the tears. These tamales are nothing like the other tamales I’ve had in the States–these were real Guatemalan tamales. I pulled out a bone and laughed. Yes, Guatemalan tamales often have bones from the meat. I laughed and wept and savored every atom of the tamale. When it was gone, I just sat there. I smelled the aroma of the tamale on the empty banana leaf. And I sighed with satisfaction and joy.

 

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