I'm Entitled and You're A Liar

Do you want to know what is really irritating? People who claim that Gen Y is "entitled" are irritating. I am a "ripe" 27 years old and I can tell you for sure that I am not "entitled" in the workplace or anywhere else. I have been provided some wrong information my whole life and as a result I was under the presumption that those lies would come to fruition and when they didn't my generation was fed up with it. Let's talk about a few of those lies.

The Lie: Get yourself a college degree because it will make you more money.
The Truth: A college degree is about as good as anything else when you are out of college and you are looking for a general job. Most of these degrees are used in fields that don't even come close to corresponding with their concentration and most of those jobs are NOT starting at the "median" wage you were expecting. Instead you are now in heaps of debt and you are likely starting at the same wage as some kid who just graduated high school and is sitting in the cube next to you. Congrats! You've made it.

A degree does offer you an easier time GETTING a job, but if it's not a specialized degree it's probably going to sit on the back shelf and collect you more debt and dust. If you do go to college, try not to spend a ton of money on a college unless that college can boast connections to a field you want to be in and can back that up. I personally attended a college that doted a program for being one of the best in the nation, and it was, but they offer no connections to that industry and it became more apparent to me in my sophomore year there and I dropped. College can be a good thing and it IS worth the money if the college can connect you with people who can get you places.

All of that said, if you want a job in a specialized field (Doctor, Lawyer, Pilot, etc.) you had BETTER get a degree because you won't be one without the degree.

The Lie: Hard work will take you to the top
The Truth: The concept of ladder motivation in the workplace is nearly non-existent in our day and age. Just because you work hard does NOT mean you will be promoted. It doesn't mean  you will get a raise. It means you will keep your job. Connections and likability are what get you further.  Knowing your value empowers you to make those moves.

I have worked several jobs where I had the "top" numbers and I have worked at places where I was in the middle and on the bottom of the leaderboard. Not one of those places where I excelled promoted me. Not one. Every "promotion" I have had was because I either got fired and demanded more from my next job and got more money or because I realized my company wasn't going to promote so I demanded more from the next place and quit. I worked at a grocery store and they had a program where you get these buttons for your apron when a customer says you were great to a manager. I had several times where I did this. One time I was wearing Crocs in the middle of January and a customer had their car stuck in the foot of snow that was coming down. I went out and pushed them out and they called in to tell the manager how great I was. The manager laughed and looked at her friend and said, "they must have been drunk." I had another occasion where a hispanic man who actually WAS drunk fell back and smacked his head on the floor. He was conscious but there was some blood on the floor. When the paramedics arrived I was roughly translating the paramedics questions to this customer and the paramedic told the manager that I did them an invaluable service. Neither of these occasions earned me one of these pins.

Your hard work and extra motivation will only get for you what you demand of it. If I had demanded my pin for doing those things I would have gotten them. I was soft and weak and in the end those pins weren't worth the fight but it still proves the point. I didn't move anywhere or do anything because I wasn't very good socially with the managers above me and I didn't have that connection. Parents and teachers should be teaching how to create those connections because THAT is what takes you places. That and KNOWING YOUR VALUE. (more on that later)

The Lie: When you graduate you will be able to support yourself.
The Truth: Up until 2008 this was relatively true, but then people realized that the upper class (wealthy) are poaching on the middle and lower classes. Here's how it works. The rich people in our country run businesses. There are many dynamics that dictate our economy, but one of the most basic concepts is the idea of money flow versus rate of inflation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). What this essentially means is something to the effect of, "How much money are we paying for things versus how much money we are making." When the cost of living increases, wages should increase by the same margin or more to compensate. If wages increase more then money flow increases (because people now have expendable money). If they do not then it remains the same. If wages increase less then the money flow slows down and the economy suffers.

What does all of this mean? It's simple. It started long before 2008, but October 2008 the problem reached it's metaphorical "event horizon" and there was no escape. Gas prices started inflating in the early 2000's exponentially. They nearly tripled actually. The cost of gas (crude oil to be more specific) being so much more puts strains on businesses who need product moved and as such all of these other products hike their costs to offset the expenditure. This is 100% okay when the wages increase for everyone. To the businesses this seems like a one-two punch, but really it's a sacrifice in the short game to make more in the long game. If minimum wage increases in-sync with the gas cost then what happens is the company compensates by inflating their cost and if they can do so in a way that the inflation doesn't exceed the consumer burden (meaning if they can raise prices and pay their employees more) they lose "margin" but make more money. They won't make as much a % profit on any one given item, but because the workforce has more expendable money they sell more product at a slightly smaller profit. Still too confusing? Here:

ABC Company makes Product X for $20 but it costs them $2 to make. That's a margin of about 90% increase. Hooray.

Sally works for ABC Company and makes $7/hr. So she is now reducing their margin to about 55%. They have other expenditures to keep the place open and such, so in reality ABC Company at $20/Product X is probably netting themselves somewhere in the margin of 20-25%. That's actually not bad for a net margin but because it would take people like Sally 4 hours of work (after taxes) just to purchase 1 Product X they only sell say, 1000/ year.

Now let's say that the cost of gas increases and minimum wage is raised to say $10/hr. Well that now drops their margin to a mere 40% and after other costs they are probably closer to 5-10% margin at $20, but they need to mitigate cost so they raise their price to $25.

At $25 they are now back to 52% margin (yes less) but now Sally can buy 1 Product X for only 3 hours of work (after taxes) and have money to spare, so she is happier at work and ABC Company sells more of their product. They sacrifice the 3% to get more business.

Companies don't do this. The rich people say, "oh, you increased my cost? Better fire the people making too much money, hire cheaper labor, send some jobs over seas, and hike the prices. We might be able to even GAIN some margin here!"

All of this means it is increasingly difficult to support yourself out of high school . The average wage in the USA is between $8-$9/hr. and most jobs are now part-time (30-35 hours/week). Assuming the high end of that scale you make $315/week pre-tax. That's a grand old $16,380 a year. So you are working two jobs (assuming you can hold both and keep those hours) and you make $32,760. Well, you're going to spend about $3k of that on gasoline alone. (http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/05/report-u-s-households-spend-record-amount-on-gas-in-2012/). You are going to drop about $11,180 on average for rent (http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/home-front/2012/04/27/rents-rise-while-home-prices-fall). On average you will probably drop close to $6,443/year on food. (http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/average-american-grocery-bill.htm). Assuming you were conservative and bought a used car, on average you will spend about $4,212/year on that (http://www.cnbc.com/id/48844052).  At this point you ALREADY need to have that second job or you are under water by about $4k, but we haven't included utilities.... Utilities on average will set you back $1200/year if you live like a pauper. (http://ohmyapt.apartmentratings.com/breaking-down-the-average-utility-costs-per-month-whats-normal.html#b). Average hygeine is likely to set you back about $1k a year and clothing another $1k. You're probably dropping about $500 a year on that cell phone plan, about $1k a year for your TV, about $500 a year on internet, and we haven't even considered that you might have some loans to pay back for your education. Let's assume that you are incredibly fortunate and only pay $150/mo. for your loans. You are now dropping about $1500 a year on that. Car insurance will set you back close to another $1k (probably more if you are actually this young - but I'm being conservative). Your health insurance is likely to cost you close to $4,565 a year (http://kff.org/private-insurance/report/2013-employer-health-benefits/) so now even with the two jobs and working 60-70 hours a week with no other members in your home you are at a negative of $1,643. So you will proably have to cut out that TV, Internet, and probably skimp on clothes because that phone bill is already a minimum plan and you need a phone for safety reasons. Did I mention that all of this was based on your $32,760 being PRE-TAX?

So if you work two jobs making $9/hr and each give you 35 hours a week on average you can break even if you live in a small apartment, don't eat out, don't have TV or Internet, don't spend much on clothes and keep the lights off most of the time.

No. You cannot support yourself straight out of high school or college. Stop saying, "You should be able to." It should be possible to. THAT is an accurate way of saying it because they are saying that it's not the way it should be, and it isn't. Stop thinking that this is the 90's, 80's, or even one of the golden ages before then.

CONCLUSION (I know it's been a long time coming)

To the Gen X'ers and Boomers: Stop telling Millenials (Gen Y'ers) that we are entitled. We aren't entitled. We want the very best like we were promised and it was all torn out from under our feet while most of us were in college. Gen Y'ers now make up the majority of the management workforce in the workplace and we are very concerned with what will do better for us. There is a value for technology and a value for an ability to work smart instead of working harder. If one of us is your manager or you know one of us it's really simple, don't assume we are entitled. Assume we want the very best and if you aren't it then we will find what it is. We aren't a generation that is one to help you become the best. We were bred on the concept that we were all competing to be the best. My high school classes highest GPA was a weighted 5.2. We strive to be the best and expect to be rewarded for doing so. We don't believe in the "everyone gets a participation medal" but we do believe in the "everyone can be #1 and all cultures are important" mentality.

We are not lazy. We appreciate the value of working smart instead of hard when possible because of maximum output. You should value this.

We are not entitled. We understand that you may not understand the technology as it is coming out but we DO think that we can use it in ways that will help improve business while also working smarter and faster. It's not entitled to want an iPad to do my job with if that means I can now do the work of 3 people for you. That's a desire to be more effective. You should value this.

We are not needy. We are constantly on a mission to be better than the other person next to us. We were raised under the notion that we should be the best and we should work the hardest. Since we all want to do better and continuously improve, we want your feedback. I want to know if I am not doing something as effectively as you want BECAUSE I WANT TO BEAT YOUR EXPECTATION! If I have come to you multiple times to get feedback it's because you were so nonchalant the first time around. Give me legitimate feedback even if it's hard to hear. I would much rather hear about how terrible a job I am doing so I can do better than to find out one day I don't have a job.

We aren't narcissistic (clever word you guys but we know what it means). We were promised to have tons of job opportunities with the education we got and they weren't there. We were promised to be paid well and the average income is $8-9/hr in the USA. We want to do the best for ourselves because it is what we were promised. When a millenial is trying to get more for themselves it is because we have ambition to succeed. Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) is the 2nd youngest self-made billionaire in the world. We know how to succeed and we have lofty goals but we also are inclusive of most cultures and generally want to help and teach others.

We aren't disloyal. We simply have ideas on where we want to be. I have worked a ton of jobs and while I don't necessarily know where every move was taking me, I DO know that every change was an opportunity and between 2008 and 2013 I have aggressively seized that opportunity and dramatically improved my results. If you aren't providing a way for a millenial to get what they need/want they will find another way to get it. Plain and simple. We aren't the type to settle. We adapt and improvise. It's not disloyal. If you explain to me rationally how I can patiently wait and what steps to take to move forward I am happy to be loyal to you in that chain. If you simply do not afford any improvement I will look elsewhere under the notion you don't have anything further to offer, which might I add has proven true several times in my life.

To my fellow Millenials (Gen Y'ers): Here are a few tips on things that you can do to make transitions easier for other people and tips that I have had to learn first hand:

1) Know Your Value - If you only think you are worth $30k/year you have NO RIGHT to ask for a penny more than that because you will not offer them a penny more in value for their money. People who are making more money do so because the services they provide the company warrant it. If the services didn't the company wouldn't pay them for it. If you are worth $200k/year then know you are and own it. Don't accept less than that unless you are in a position where you NEED to (currently unemployed, etc). In those cases you always accept a step up from where you are at.

2) You Are Never Better Than What You Are Doing - If you are working at McDonalds as someone who takes orders, you are never above it. You are never below it. It is what you do to get from A to B. I have done a lot of things in my life (Hospital sanitation, grocery store cashier, gas station attendant, jewelry salesman, collections, staffing, telemarketing, business development, unemployment, bus boy, cook, manager, clinical research test participant, plasma donor, Card Shop Operator, janitor, etc.). I was never above any of those positions even though I thought several times that I was.

3) You Never Deserve To Be Above Your Superior - When you are hired by someone, you have a couple of responsibilities. One of them is to do what they are asking you to in exchange for your pay. The other is to make your manager look as good as possible to the person above them. It doesn't matter if you are SMARTER, MORE TALENTED, FASTER, WISER, or any other "ER" because you haven't put in the time to be in the position that they have. If they don't deserve to be there, the person above them will decide that. If they are the top and they own the place, you have no right to say so anyway because they are doing YOU the favor of employing you. If you do well at your job and you make the person above you look better, eventually when that person is rewarded you stand a better chance of receiving some of those benefits also. They are not obligated to share them with you - so don't EXPECT it. Just realize that they will favor you anyway because you do better for them. At best it means you move up in the company or get more money. At worst you have an excellent reference for your next position.

4) People Who Are Older Are Wiser Than You - Maybe they don't know how to sync everything up on iTunes and maybe they don't know how to access the public WIFI. Those can be taught. They know more about discipline and how to position yourself within the company than you do. Respect them for that. They were where you are at one point and likely have a lot of insight to help you get where you want anyway. Often times I have spoken with people older than me and realized that, while they don't realize the error of their ways while speaking to me, I am able to see the flaw simply because they are telling me the "horror" story of when they were in my position. We may be more tech-savvy but they have more life experience. Credit them for that and learn from them. Value them for it.

5) Sometimes You Need To Sacrifice - I have held several positions and there are several times I have moved up because of a play I made to get what I needed. That said, I do well now because I sacrifice time with my family (I work 60-70 hours a week). I do what I can to enjoy my time with them as much as possible, but EVERYTHING comes with a sacrifice. If you want more money you will give up family and friends to get it unless you are VERY lucky. If you want more freedom you will give up money. If you want a family you will give up some of your own personal ambitions. Sacrifice isn't a bad thing. It's simply a way of measuring what is more important to you. I could aggressively put more time into work and make MUCH more money, but I value my family and I am happy where I am at. There is a balance there as there should be with everything.

Matt 6:21 "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."


Thanks for reading and God Bless.

There Both IS And IS NOT Absolute Truth

I recently have been speaking with people about morality and how it is defined. I am largely an ethical subjectivist with traces of nihilism in my belief system, though not clouded by the notion that everything is without purpose. I know there's a term for that. I don't know what it is. Sue me.

TERMS

So to really get at the heart of what my thoughts are you need to understand some very basic verbiage or constructs. It's not necessarily the "definition" by English standards that I am concerned about, but the "concept" that underlies that definition so don't get too hung up on the words I'm choosing but more on the idea behind them. Words change based on linguistics but the concept can remain the same.

Objective - Independent of the mind or free of the mind. Essentially it means you don't have to apply any personal reference. This is simply what is observed or found from testing

Subjective - Dependent upon other factors besides an intrinsic nature. Subjective means essentially that the object relies heavily on things beyond itself to define itself.

Morality - This is a basic idea that something is either "good" or "bad" as applied to several fields. It can apply to the best interest of a person, group, ideal, or anything really. (More on this later)

Absolute - Absolute means that something cannot change. It will continually remain however it is regardless of external factors.

Eternal Force - This is my polite way of acknowledging deities. While I believe in Jesus and God, my thoughts regarding this apply unilaterally and thus I'll replace the words "God" or "Jesus" with "Eternal Force" which will represent an eternal force that governs the universe and has values that are absolute as defined above.

Belief - The concept that you have a thought or feeling and you, by way of agreeing to your own, either silently, mentally, or vocally argue that all others are incorrect. (ie. if you believe even that all beliefs are correct then you would say that those who only think there is one right belief are wrong, etc.)

Community - The grouping of people with which you currently have awareness. If you are aware of the people, even if you choose to ignore, they belong to the community.

Power - The ability/inability to further an agenda

Law - Rules given to groups that may or may not be independent of morality

Justice - The concept of weighing moralities against one another in order to "justify" or make a concession for one or the other.

Bad - Painful or Damaging (whether physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or otherwise)

Good - Pleasing or Restorative (whether physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or otherwise)

WHAT IS MORALITY?
Here is where I will argue what morality is. I don't suggest you continue reading this if you are a Christian with a weak faith that isn't subject to challenge yet. The thoughts I have largely fly in the face of a lot of traditional beliefs. I by no means mean that to insult you, but the statements I will be making may get you thinking in a way that is counter-biblical, which is not the intent. I fully believe the Bible and this is simply my way of understanding it.

My belief largely corresponds with different escalating levels of community. Here are what I have so far (meaning I am willing to adjust):

1. Self
2. Small Social Circle (Family/Friends/Etc.)
3. Large Social Circle (Friends of Friends/Extended Family/Etc.)
4. Establishment (City/Town/Village/Etc.)
5. State (Where applicable)
6. Region (Where applicable)
7. Nation/Country
8. Allied Nations/Countries (Where applicable)
9. Hemisphere (Where applicable)
10. World 
11. Beyond World (Theoretical contingent upon other intelligent life)
12. Universal
13. Eternal Force (If consented to)

BASIC CONCEPTS:
Everything in life that we can know is subjective. Objectivity being free of the mind or without the mind then would mean that the minute you begin to know something it is no longer objective, because it is tainted by your perspective of observation. If I look at a cylinder from the top, it only looks like a circle and for me that truth is absolute from that point, but it is relative to my position in relation to the cylinder. The basic idea then comes down to this: There is no such thing as objectivity as applicable to mankind. If we begin to know what it is, then by the very idea of what objectivity is then it no longer exists. 

Since Objective Truth collapses upon itself in the face of human observation, morality is then defined by whatever the majority believes in relation to the level of community within which it exists and is re-evaluated whenever the level of pertinence increases beyond the level of the existing group (For example: groups within groups, expanding groups, combining groups, etc.). This then lends that the chain will escalate up as far as the world, but since other-worldly intelligence is yet to be discovered it is then not logical to assume community levels 11 or 12 and you jump straight to 13 if the group as a majority consents not only that 13 exists but also on what/who 13 is. 

For example: Premarital sex by levels of community

1. I individually believe it's "bad" as you can get diseases and it damages it's own value within the context of marriage (escalate to 2)
2. The majority of my immediate family and friends concur (escalate to 3) 
3. Most people who know my friends and family closely also concur (escalate to 4)
4. The majority of the city I live in believes it is okay (either escalate to 13 or stop)
5. (Doesn't apply-already negated)
6. (Doesn't apply-already negated)
7. (Doesn't apply-already negated)
8. (Doesn't apply-already negated)
9. (Doesn't apply-already negated)
10. (Doesn't apply-already negated)
11. (Doesn't apply-already negated)
12. (Doesn't apply-already negated)
13. I am a Christian. I fall subject to the subjectivity of the Eternal Force (God) and the consensus is that it is "wrong" among the believers of this particular deity.

In this case you can see how it is Absolute Truth, where Christians would then be concerned, however it is simply a subjective truth for those who don't believe. If the majority of the city I live in sided with me (even if on an unobserved level) then we now hold morality and it is then escalated to the next level of State, and so on.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

For Christians: Paul says that we aren't supposed to hold non-christians to the same standard we hold ourselves to. We should be doing what we can to help them come to know what we know, but inevitably it is the Light that draws all men unto itself, not the lamp. Our job is to allow the Light to shine, not to convince other people that it exists or that it is the right thing. Once they have seen and believe the light, we are to hold one another accountable. 

Stop telling non-christians they have to conform to christian standards or they are going to hell. If they haven't seen the light and met Jesus, then according to our belief they are going to hell regardless of behavior. Show them Jesus before condemning them.

For Non-Christians: It is equally acceptable for Christians to say that an Absolute Truth exists and for you to say that it does not. We are simply two separate people looking at the cylinder from different angles. We may see a circle and you may see a rectangle, but in the end neither of us understands fully what we are looking at. Christians aren't "bigots" or "antiquated" for believing the way they do. They are justified in their own beliefs even under the rules of subjectivity and that's okay. 

Stop calling christians ignorant and bigotted for their beliefs. Often times Christians don't feel deep in their hearts that some things are wrong that the bible says but they consent to the will of their deity and as such have compassion for those morals. It's not biggoted. It's not ignorant. It's looking beyond self and considering a larger picture, which is what most non-christians do when they make the argument that religion destroys people.

I'm renouncing my Christianity to follow Jesus

When I was growing up, I was under the impression that much of the world still needed to hear about Jesus Christ. This statement is true, but in reality it's only about half of the story. For generations "the church" has been very focused on reaching everyone in the world because "Jesus is coming back soon."

I want to discuss some of the issues with the way "the church" has gone about doing this.

1) Sacrificing Quality for Quantity
The church often celebrates and hears great cheering when they hear about the volume of "salvations" that they get. If we go to a service and find that 20 people were "saved" at the service we are all emotional. Everyone gets into their own personal Jesus moment and there is a lot of cheering and clapping. The new recruits are treated like fledglings and ushered into the care of some people they have never met and handed some pamphlets and told that God loves them. After about 10-15 minutes of them discussing their personal lives they are then set free to fly on their own. These birds learn to fly in 10 minutes.

You wanna see how this looks from the outside?
Here, we have all these new baby birds! Hooray they look adorable and we are so excited. Let's handle them for about 10 minutes and then we are throwing them from the tree to see which ones fly. Training? No...we gave them a manual (written in complex and contrived language) and they can read it if they need training. We have seminars and groups that do training, but the next one doesn't start for about 3 months so they will probably have to wait. You were born at the wrong time little bird.

We as Christians are so focused on the act of saying you accept Christ but not helping these people develop with Him. Is it because we just don't care about those people or because in reality many of us don't live the "christian" lives that we like to talk about on Sunday mornings? Is it because we are so shy or because we are embarrassed that these "new birds" will see how flawed and misshapen we are if we truly share life together and walk with Christ?

The outside world is bitter from the Church being so one track minded. They are tired of the "you need to accept Jesus" campaign and they are tired of hearing about how great He is but not seeing it. I'm tired of it. The world is tired of it.

2) Using our own language and colloquialisms to explain things
We have very "christian" ways of explaining things. We use metaphors and we use christian idioms to express things. In the Christian subculture it's a very comforting and affirming thing to do. You tell someone that God hasn't answered your prayer yet and they say that "God is never early or late" and that's supposed to make you feel better, so you give up on it. 

The problem with the outside world (non-christians) is that this is simply an unintelligent reply to a legitimate question. People nowadays are tired of the unintelligent expressions. They are tired of the band-aid expression meant to cover the problem but not heal the wound. If God isn't answering  your prayer right away, your friend should be helping you as much as possible. They should probably ask what your prayer is for and help evaluate if it lines up with the will of God. Does your prayer affect someone's free will? God is a gentleman and will not steal away someone's ability to choose. Are you praying for something that takes time? Then why are you expecting it to happen right now? There are several logical answers that still maintain with biblical standards. For instance, how are you living your life? Are you cheating on your spouse but expecting God to hear your prayers? He may, but if your prayers are unanswered you may have an underlying issue to take care of. People need practical answers, not some made up "Christian-ism" that calls into question the intelligence of the christian community.

3) Fear of anything that challenges our faith
Christians, generally speaking, are afraid of whatever challenges their faith. We avoid science because it says that Evolution is real and that the universe started from the Big Bang. We get afraid of these things because the presumption is that then God must not exist and calls into question all of our beliefs. 

For the record, let's go into those two things. Evolution is the theory that things change over time. They do. That's proven. It's not worth arguing. Whether we came from monkeys or fish or not is completely different from Evolution. Evolution as a process may be a theory, but it's widely proven. Don't fight it. God wants us to change over time too. In regard to the Big Bang, realize a simple truth. If everything in the universe came from a single point, then something with equal or greater power than the universe MUST have existed in order for the universe to have ever happened. That's the law of math. If 1=everything and 0=nothing then 1=1 and 0=0, Everything that exists requires a force equal to or greater than itself to exist. If the universe is infinite in space (though not commonly held belief) then by the rules of e=MC^2 and relativity it is then infinite in time and energy also. Under these assumptions it is not only probable that God exists, but inevitable. That's also legitimate reasoning.

Remember this: If we as Christians are afraid to challenge our faith, then what faith do we really have? Do you really believe that Science will ever disprove God? Science is the study of his creation. Do you actually believe it can result in anything but finding God?

4) I'll do this for you, if you do this for me

The church is very focused on the giveaways that require you to do something. You can eat at our free pancake breakfast if you sit through a sermon first. We are happy to feed the poor if we can brand ourselves and label everything with our logo and such. I don't see anywhere in the bible where Jesus wanted to make sure that everyone did something for him before He did for them. We always focus on the bible from one perspective. Take when Jesus fed the 5,000. Everyone focuses on the faith of the boy to give the two fish and the bread. They want to talk about how Jesus will provide, but they don't want to focus on the simple things.
Jesus did NOT require everyone to sacrifice. The sacrifice of one was for the benefit of many. Jesus didn't talk about moochers or even care that they were there. If you think there weren't moochers you are foolish. There were 5,000 people there. There were moochers and Jesus fed the moochers more than they needed. Why? It's not our job to convince a moocher or anyone else that Jesus is the way. We don't do the convincing. His spirit is enough for that. Our job is simply to show his love to people. That's where we miss it.

As a church we want to do so much to build numbers of attendees and we want to add to the ranks, but we have lost a grip on how to show the love of Christ. The world is sick of the marketing campaign where you get to get something if you do or give something. They are tired of the, "you get this great experience for only 10% of your income." I am 100% in support of tithe and offering. If you are a christian and you aren't tithing, shame on you. That said, the focus shouldn't be on the rules. It should be on the Love.

I honestly today am ashamed of the title Christian. Not because of Jesus. I'm proud to know Jesus. I'm ashamed to be associated with people that are seemingly unintelligent, greedy, finger-pointing, and relentless to serve their own needs. That's not the Jesus I know. As it is, I don't think Jesus would be a christian either.