What Imprint Will I Leave?

Reject the myth of the self-made man; each of us is a collage of influences. As M. G. Fray put it, "I cannot be 'just me.'" We are a divinely stirred mixture of others that imprint us with their own unique reflection of the Triune God. "There is a sense in which I have become like those who discipled me--I have become the people I have known and the (authors) I have studied and read" (M. G. Fray, "It Is Enough", 2000).

Anything good seen in me carefully resembles my mentors, both the ones I walked with and the ones that continue to mark me by written expression. There is really no such thing as 'Dane Fowlkes' except in that a name is given to denote this curious montage painted by Henry Fowlkes, Lois Fowlkes, Katie Richey, T. H. Harding, Bill Clark, Bill Malin, Donald Potts, Ira Cooke, Bud Fray, Al Fasol, Vance and Cherry Kirkpatrick, St. Francis, Brother Lawrence, Frank Laubach, Andrew Murray, Oswald Chambers, A. W. Tozer, A. B. Simpson, Henry Blackaby, Stanley Mwongella, and the list goes on.... There is no such thing as a self-made man.

What imprint will I leave on those who follow me?

Thanksgiving Reminiscences

Thanksgiving affords the perfect opportunity to say "thank you" to special individuals, living and deceased. Here are a few of my Thanksgiving reminiscences:

- Thank you Jo for allowing me to see God's grace in your eyes every morning. You will always be the most beautiful and incredibly special woman in all the world to me.
- Thank you my daughters for overlooking my shortcomings as a father and loving me in spite of disappointments along the way.
- Thank you Melody for loving a brother who has always been something of a maverick.
- Thank you Mandy and Missy for allowing me into your lives and blessing me with that proud designation of 'Papa' with your precious children.
- Thank you to my students from the past decade that found something beneficial in my musings along the way about what it means to be a Christ-follower and servant leaders.
- Thank you to generous Kingdom-minded business people that have taught me volumes by allowing me to listen and observe.
- Thank you to good friends that validate the axiom that a true friend is someone who walks in when everyone else walks out on you.
- Thank you Mom and Dad for granting unconditional love from beginning to end and everything in between. I miss you more than I can say.
- Thank you to churches along the way that taught me the importance of living in community (Trinity, Midyett, New Faith, Lily Grove, Memorial, Parkway, Bel Air, Crossings).
- Thank you my Kenyan brothers & sisters for softening the edges of my own ethnocentrism.
- Thank you Father for grace and infinite love that changes everything.

When Good People Disagree

Today a good friend confronted me over my latest blog containing strong political opinion and expressed his concern that my post painted him into a moral corner inappropriately. He insisted on a direction diametrically opposed to my own insistence and was both gracious and courageous enough to own the difference out loud so as not to allow the differences to nullify the common ground of relationship. In other words, we reaffirmed our convictions and our friendship at the selfsame time. Could this be the proper tact when good people disagree? Is it possible to hold conviction and another's heart with equal sanctity? This is a good reminder to me that authentic friendship allows honest debate and substantiates relationship as a cardinal virtue. No doubt more debate awaits our next conversation, but the sharp edge of opinion will be softened (not dulled) by grace and mutual respect.

Saddest Day for America

If projections hold true, we are witnessing the saddest day in American political history. This is far more than a narrow electoral victory for a Democratic incumbent; this is a statement of how deeply America has embraced the catastrophic downgrade into Socialism. With this election result, America rejects her democratic New World heritage and rushes headlong into the failed ideologies and economic policies of socialist Old World Europe. Bill O'Reilly got it right tonight when he said America is clearly now a majority that wants "stuff" from a government, regardless of how far in debt that government must go to provide the "stuff." So, where do we go from here? Tragically, the only way for this beloved country to go is down. We race headlong over a fiscal cliff, the economy will collapse into depression, and the "stuff" so many feel entitled to receive will soon be unaffordable for a bankrupt nation. But far worse than the growing economic chaos is the moral collapse that this election evidences. Obama's re-election means that America has embraced same-sex marriage, will arrogantly pay for abortion on demand, and legalizes the removal of religious liberty.

This election was a moral as well as ideological one and the outcome is that America is now a secular, liberal, socialist nation where "one nation under God" no longer applies.

Waters Calling

I am more poet than fisherman. For that reason, when the waters call my name I choose fly fishing because I deem it more art than sport. Like verse aloft and prose landing feather-like on quiet waters, fly fishing is literature of the highest form. This poetry of motion is balm for a hurried soul and therapy for a ragged mind. Please excuse, I sense the waters calling me to compose...

The Choice Has Never Been More Clear

Barack Obama did offer one truth at the Democratic National Convention in the middle of a mountain of half truths, twisted truths and blatant untruths. That one statement was that in this election, the choice has never been more clear. Focus on whatever issue one chooses, the paths delineated by the Democratic party and the Republican party differ widely--the Democratic platform leads radically to the left; the Republican party leads strongly to the right. And while many speak only of economic recession and resurgence, the most critical contrast for me in this election is a moral one. The official Democratic Party platform aggressively promotes same-sex marriage and abortion on demand. The official Republican Party platform stands upon and promotes traditional family values and the sanctity of human life. Obamacare demands institutions to relinquish freedom of religion, while Republicans fight to defend it. It is obvious to me that this then is a moral divide and that to vote for a Democratic candidate is an immoral choice.

So, finally after a term as a failed leader, we have heard Mr. Obama utter truth. Ours is a clear choice. But more significantly, ours is a moral choice. For me, I choose traditional morality and that means I will cast my vote for morality in America on November 6 by electing Mitt Romney as the next president of this one nation under God.

Spinning the Truth

Barack Obama and his political party does do one thing well--they can spin the facts faster than LeBron James does a basketball on his best day. But this time the liberal media got one right. CNN wire staff reported following Tuesday night's Democratic National Convention that a statement repeated throughout the night was at best misleading. The Democratic speakers quoted the number 4.5 million several times in reference to new job creation during Obama's time in office. "Despite incredible odds and united Republican opposition, our president took action, and now we've seen 4.5 million new jobs," said San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, the party's keynote speaker on Tuesday night.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick both cited the same number. However, according to CNN: "While a total of 4.5 million jobs sounds great, it's not the whole picture. Nonfarm private payrolls hit a post-recession low of 106.8 million that month, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The figure currently stands at 111.3 million as of July. While that is indeed a gain of 4.5 million, it's only a net gain of 300,000 over the course of the Obama administration to date. The private jobs figure stood at 111 million in January 2009, the month Obama took office.

And total nonfarm payrolls, including government workers, are down from 133.6 million workers at the beginning of 2009 to 133.2 million in July 2012. There's been a net loss of nearly 1 million public-sector jobs since Obama took office, despite a surge in temporary hiring for the 2010 census.

Meanwhile, the jobs that have come back aren't the same ones that were lost.

According to a study released last week by the liberal-leaning National Employment Law Project, low-wage fields such as retail sales and food service are adding jobs nearly three times as fast as higher-paid occupations."

Spin the truth as fast as you can, there are still fewer people working now than when Obama took office at the height of the recession.

Mitt Romney Is Not The Messiah, But ...

Mitt Romney is not the Messiah... but he is desperately needed at this juncture in the history of the United States. While the media pundits downplay the contrast between candidates, differences that matter could not be more stark. The incumbent plays to the camera and his policies are bankrupt--morally and financially. The Republican challenger is a man of value, morality and proven ability--corporately and domestically. This is not about control of the oval office; this is about the soul of America. No, Mitt Romney is not the Messiah. However, he is a man worthy of leading America and able to right the careening ship that Mr. Obama is defaulting to the ocean floor.

Reluctant Evolution

Change is inevitable externally and should be embraced internally, but I confess to frequent bursts of reluctance. Something about sameness conjures an illusion of wholeness, while possibly masking stagnation. Yet these days I am forced to admit certain unexpected evolution personally. Growing up my concern was always serving God and others with such intensity that I disdained any thought of material success or financial security. I was following the way of the cross and way of St. Francis, thinking the cross incompatible with commerce and service at odds with financial security. Years later, I find myself Director of Major Gifts for a private institution, immersed in scrutiny of financial markets, giving trends in the private sector, and gift & estate planning options. What's more, over the past few years I've met gracious and generous Kingdom minded people that just so happen to be persons that work hard to earn a profit. Commerce is not the enemy of the Cross after all and servanthood may be found at the top rung of the corporate ladder.

Another component of this silent self-evolution is the accelerated dawning that politics are not of the devil and that Christians should aggressively participate--promoting and insisting on morality, virtue and integrity in elected leaders, from the White House to the State House. Never before in this country has it been as necessary to rouse the Christian army to full political stature. We cannot hide behind stained glass, hoping this pall shadow will pass. I am finally ready for muscular political involvement in order to preserve this one nation under God. Lest I leave this paragraph vague, let me encourage every American to vote for Mitt Romney for president on November 6!

Election Rhetoric and the Genius of James

Election year is a season of rhetoric complete with intermittently inspiring ideas and frequently disappointing realities. Aristotle defined rhetoric as "the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion." Translated into the vernacular of today, rhetoric is telling people what they want to hear so that they in turn will do what you want them to do. Perhaps this election year is a good time to invoke the genius of James: "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (James 1:22, 27 NIV). In other words, powerful rhetoric is word wedded to action. It is noun and verb together creating an unforgettable and unavoidable statement of truth. In this election season pray with me for our nation and choose wisely our next leader. More than anything else, refuse empty rhetoric and insist on truth validated by action.

Grace as Potential

First day of a new school year... Not a Western phenomenon but certainly a Western obsession. Some face the day with knotted stomachs, while others enjoy a Type A adrenaline rush toward over-achievement. No matter the individual response, collectively it is a rite of passage, more substantial than New Year's for change resolution. Lived now vicariously through daughters, grandchildren and university students, I cannot refuse the growing connection for me of first days with grace. Perhaps due to a better grasp of grace's saving grip on me, I detect grace in every moment of potential. How often we think 'If only...', 'I would have...', 'I'd give anything if...' Grace secures another chance, another first day of school--endlessly. Enormous potential resides in first days, and grace extends potential in every breath we enjoy.

Longing To Feast

The awful hollowness of a day lived absent of the conscious awareness of God's presence is excruciating enough to create an insatiable longing to be enveloped by Him. King James English expresses it, "As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after Thee, Oh God." A more familiar modern declaration is, "Lord, I'm desperate for You..." Either expresses the recognition of a bankrupt heart, bending in desperate humility, clinging to the hem of His garment. St. Bernard of Clairveaux states it well: We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread And long to feast upon Thee still: We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead And thirst our souks from Thee to fill. Never surrender experiential heart-theology in favor of smug self-sufficiency. Long to feast upon Him still...

Perpetual Incarnation

This moment perches precariously on a knife edge, animation suspended between memory and mystery -- tip-toeing a tightrope of chronology & dimension. Lean too far behind and tumble into remorse, regret, reprise, repeat. Stretch too intensely toward tomorrow and drift into fog, fantasy, make believe, fairy tale.  Either behind or ahead is dysfunction. To live this breath in healthy tension with present attention, this is the divine mandate--nothing less than perpetual incarnation. Relentless intersection. Created in the image of "I am", "we are."

Advance To Abandonment

Lent compels us: advance to abandonment.  Whereas we often confuse abandonment with passive inactivity, the Lenten season insists that we take action, cutting erroneous ties and re-lashing our moorings to Christ.  With the Prodigal, "I will arise and go to my father..."  I will arise-- I will wake up, get, up, grow up, and climb up.  I trash and discard the garbage piling up in my heart and mind.  Ruthlessly, I inventory motive and attitude and address each in desperate fashion.  I recalibrate my attention to Christ each day with savage intentionality.  "Reckon yourselves dead to sin..."  This is no valley of ease; this is a summit to scale under harrowing and hellish conditions.  Lent places me precariously on a rocky crag with no safety net below, and bids me ever higher.  "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)

What's Up Doc?

(12:56 am) It's either much too early or much too late to be writing, but either way I'm much too awake to avoid the urge.  My teenage daughter was invited to see a late feature with friends which meant a 20 minute drive into town at 9:20 pm, the same back home, and all over again at midnight to retrieve her. Such are the parental moments that add purpose to the thinning & greying hair, and discoloration to the bags suspended and inflating below my eyes.  I've somehow reached a stage of geriatric limbo--I fall asleep in my chair while "watching" TV, then can't find my way back to lala land after a midnight paternal run to town.  This somehow reminds of Paul's words in the New Testament, something to the effect that I do the things I don't want to do and fail to do that which I should--call it a kind of senior disequilibrium.  Now, if only I can summon the 'umph' to translate insomnia into productivity.  Whoever said you're only as old as you feel wasn't old or he wouldn't have said it; he would either have been drinking coffee to stave off the dropsies or been hitting the fridge in search of a slumber-inducing combination.  What was it Bugs Bunny used to ask, "What's up Doc?" Perhaps understanding this is too much to ask and I should self-content with knowing that at least I won't have long to toss and turn before bracing for another round of life.

Open Letter To President Obama

Dear President Obama:

As your constituent, and on behalf of the nonprofit organization I represent, I urge you to oppose limiting the deductibility of charitable donations - whether in deficit reduction legislation or funding for jobs programs. The donations we receive are used to help those in our community who are most in need. Tax deductibility of donations to charities is an important incentive for Americans to invest in the works of charities who benefit fellow citizens of our country and those around the world. That incentive makes it possible for charities to return much greater benefits to those in need. Americans historically have given a greater percentage of their income to charities than most other nations, and our government has encouraged and fostered those efforts. The gifts we receive - whether in good or in difficult economic times - reduce the burden on government to assist citizens in need. In turn, the deductibility of charitable gifts helps charities reduce the demand for government services, helps us invest in our communities and helps us improve the lives of our fellow citizens.

I appeal to you not to support removing this important incentive for charitable giving. Do not increase the demands for government assistance because charities must pull back their programs. Do not end the long-standing American commitment to encourage supporting nonprofit programs that help those less fortunate than we are. Placing the burden of deficit reduction or funding for jobs programs on the backs of the neediest Americans is not the direction our country should take. Please oppose any attempts to undermine our work and hurt our beneficiaries.

Sincerely,
Dane W. Fowlkes, Ph.D
Director of Major Gifts
East Texas Bapttist University