Cultural Superiority and Vacation Deprivation

This Amerikiwi really struggles to disengage from reading emails while on vacation. (I have to delete the account or the temptation is too great.) So it was with great interest (especially after my last post) that I read the following article in USA Today, titled: "Who Gets the Most Vacation Time? And Who Gets the Least?" (Clue: I've just decided to move to Brazil. Questions: Are they lazy? Or are we driven? Which cultural values are superior? Hmmm.)

The average working European earns 25 to 30 vacation days annually and usually takes them all. In 2011, the typical American employee earned 14 days off, but took only 12.

That's according to a survey out today commissioned by the online travel agency Expedia.com. The wide-ranging 2011 Vacation Deprivation study queried 7,803 adults in 20 countries about how much vacation they earn – and actually take – and also about their attitudes regarding time off.

The results differ from another recent survey on the topic by Hotwire.com, which reported that the average American leaves 6.2 days of vacation unused each year. (That survey was based on online responses from 2,000 workers.)

Other highlights from the Expedia.com survey:

Asians get – and take – fewer days than residents of other parts of the world. Japanese reported taking just five days out of 11 earned. South Korean respondents, who earned 10 days off, took seven. Brazilians outpace even holiday-hungry Europeans in using time off. They typically earn 30 vacation days and use them all.

Lack of money was the most frequently cited reason for not taking a vacation. Lack of planning was No. 2.

More Americans than other nationalities cite money worries as the reason for foregoing a getaway. However, 50% characterized their financial situation as "solid" or "good," reinforcing the idea that Americans regard vacations as a luxury. Brazilians, on the other hand, were least likely (6%) to cite money issues.

The Danish find it easiest to disconnect from work mode. Only 1 in 7 respondents said they check email while away and half said they never check it. Only 25% of Americans said they check email regularly on vacation; 75% said they check in sporadically or not at all.

How about you? Will you be leaving vacation time unspent this year? And if so, why?

Source: http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/dispatches/post/2011/11/who-gets----and-takes----the-most-time-off-work-and-who-gets-%C3%83%C2%A2%C3%A2%E2%80%9A%C2%AC%C3%A2%E2%82%AC%C5%93-and-takes----the-least-/574893/1

Cultural Superiority: Good or Bad?

When, if ever, is pride a virtue? When is it a vice?

We recognize and condemn it in arrogant individuals (other people, of course, not ourselves). We recognize and condemn it in the destructive nationalism of a Nazi Germany or a xenophobic Japan.

But does our sense of "American exceptionalism" (the decline of which I have heard lamented repeatedly since Obama's election) ever cross the line from appropriate self-awareness to hubris?

What about the nationalistic pride of other nations?

Whatever the answer, it is clear from the following that geographic and demographic boundaries do little to foster humility. A new study by the Pew Research Center Global Attitudes Project reveals that nationalistic superiority complexes, though robust, might be in decline. Commendable? Or lamentable?

The report:

About half of Americans (49%) and Germans(47%) agree with the statement, 
“Our people are not perfect, but our culture is superior to others;” 
44% in Spain share this view. In Britain and France, only about a third or fewer (32% and 27%, respectively) think their culture is better than others.
While opinions about cultural superiority have remained relatively stable over the years in the four Western European countries surveyed, Americans are now far less likely to say that their culture is better than others; six-in-ten Americans held this belief in 2002 and 55% did so in 2007. Belief in cultural superiority has declined among Americans across age, gender and education groups.

For more go to: http://www.pewglobal.org/files/2011/11/Pew-Global-Attitudes-Values-Report-FINAL-November-17-2011-10AM-EST.pdf

Pastoral Retreat

Mrs B sits cross-legged for long stretches
in a manner impossible for Mr B

 Had a great week away with my favorite woman at Cedarly Pastors' Retreat in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin: (click for more on Pastors Retreat Network). I get out there myself for a day of prayer and contemplation every month or two, so it was great to take Mrs B. to this place that has become an oasis for me. The emphasis was on sabbath rest, so that's what we did. I also got to read three books, one, a novel, just for fun. Shhhh! 

Mrs B says, "How
uncomfortable" &
snaps a pic

A slim volume that was really challenging was David Whitney's Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health (NavPress, 2001). It's worth another, even slower, read, so I'm gonna have to get a copy.

It's interesting how, as pastors, we are called to diagnose and treat others' spiritual health, and yet give so little attention to our own. Maybe that's one reason why 1,700 pastors leave the ministry each month (for stats click here).

Also did some journalling, praying, canoeing, playing "Monopoly Deal" and we even broke the media fast to see the "The Help" (powerful movie).

Last, but not least (perhaps even best), meditated on Jesus' words in Matthew 11:28-30:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

"Now you look comfortable," says she, with a click

My Text For Sunday with Sick Pics

"You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you" - James 5:5,6

USA TODAY reports: Terror Group Blocking Aid to Starving Somalis

The worst drought in decades is affecting several countries in the Horn of Africa, but the famine is worst in southern Somalia, where al-Shabaab, an Islamist terrorist organization with links to al-Qaeda, is preventing aid groups from helping nearly 3 million people living under its control, according to the State Department and aid groups. http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-08-14-somalis-famine-terrorists-block-aid-groups_n.htm

ARIZONA MOM WANTS TO BE THE FATTEST WOMAN EVER

Our beloved country is home to nine of the ten heaviest people ever documented. But Suzanne Eman's goal is to be the world's heaviest woman ever. "I'd love to find out if it's humanly possible to reach a ton," she said. 

Eman visits the grocery store with her two sons where she said she usually spends up to eight hours filling multiple shopping carts with enough food to sustain her 22,000 calorie-a-day diet.

 http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/200709/20110819/arizona-mom-aims-to-be-world-s-fattest-woman.htm

Technology & Idolatry

I love to read. Many books inform my thinking; occasionally one transforms my thinking. Tim Challies' latest book, The Next Story, is in the 2nd category. I'm not done with it yet, and won't be for a while as it deserves a second reading. Here's a sample:

There are always spiritual realities linked to our use of technology. We know that there is often a link between our use of technology and idolatry, that our idols are often good things that want to become ultimate things in our lives. Communication with others is just this sort of thing, a very good thing that can so easily become an ultimate thing--an idol in our hearts.

How can we tell if something has become an idol in our lives? One possible sign of idolatry is when we devote an inordinate amount of time and attention to something, when we feel less than complete without it. It may be something that we look at right before we go to sleep and the first thing we give our attention to when we wake up. It may be the kind of thing that keeps us awake, even in the middle of the night.

A 2010 study by Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research sampled the habits of 1,605 young adults. The researchers found that one-third of women between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four check Facebook when they first wake up, before they even head to the bathroom; 21% check it in the middle of the night; 39% of them declare that they are addicted to Facebook.

- Tim Challies: The Next Story (2010), 70.

Free at christianaudio.com
http://christianaudio.com/the-next-story-tim-challies

LakeView's Vision & Some Painful Stats

This weekend, we start a 2-week series on Vision & Mission titled "Compass."
Here's our Vision for 2010-12, followed by why I am more convinced than ever that it is urgently relevant.

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Our 2010-2012 Vision: Making God Famous (Habakkuk 3:2)

“LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD.

Renew them in our day, in our time make them known. In wrath remember mercy.” (Hab 3:2)

Over these next two years the focus of our vision will be spreading the fame and glory of our God who has shown us such mercy in Christ and desires all to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4).

This means that on campus we will seek to create a warm and inviting place where anyone can come as they are, learn about Jesus at their own pace and, like Him, grow in wisdom and favor with God and men (Luke 2:52).

Off campus, we will look for opportunities to serve the people of Stoughton in order to not only show but also tell them of the love of Christ, who came not to be served but to serve and give His life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).

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Why is this so relevant?

Recent research in a book I'm reading:

"58 percent of those studied stopped coming to church because of relational problems. For example, 26 percent said church members seemed judgmental or hypocritical; 20 percent didn't feel connected to people in the church; and 15 percent said churches were either unfriendly, unwelcoming, or cliquish." - Ed Stetzer & Philip Nation, Complelled By Love (New Hope, 2008), 83.

This is not what God intends His Church to be. What have we become? And why?