Why Should YOU PBJ this Year?

I heard this from my dad. “You can’t fix Stupid.”

My wife and I are at the tail end of Baby Boomers. Looking across our family, church, and people we love, work, and minister with, we see a lot of singles, families, and marriages in disarray. Seriously charging into ‘Stupid.’ Don’t worry about condemnation from us because my wife and I already know a lot about stupid from personal experiences doing stupid. The people we live, work, and do ministry and life with are single, families, and marriages ranging from Boomer to Gen X to Millennial to Plural. Here we are in the most amazing Bull Market and lowest unemployment in American History but like our nation, our lives and marriages seem to hurtle deeper into disaster… Into Stupid.

I stopped watching Fox News years ago. I disconnected the others years before that. Quite simply, my politics are:

Protect the Innocent
Defend the Defenseless
Protect the Poor from Wickedness

That comes from Psalm 82: 3-4

In the swirl of everything happening from DC politics to planned Parenthood Abortion clinics, the truth is that those simple verses above have to begin at home. No one is more innocent, trusting, and vulnerable than our spouses, kids, and friends. If that’s not true, it is worth a lot of reflection and prayer to figure out why.

In my family, God has blessed us and our married kids with Holy partnerships. No Divorce. That said, please don’t think we have a nice little ‘Happy Days’ style home. We face some serious things in our family ranging from a child enmeshed in the LBGT life style and another with various sins and problems we know will kill him if he does not step away from those pathologies. Because of scripture and love, my wife and I tell all our kids, and now grandkids, that they cannot ever make us stop loving them. Along with life’s turmoil, we worry about retirement, my wife is concerned about my cigar smoking, and I throw my hands up in irritation at the Dallas Cowboys.

But God…

Jan and I worked with some great folks at our church to put together and publish “The Partnership Journal: 2020 at The Road” for our church… Singles, Families, Married… All walks of life. Click the link to get a copy if you don’t go to The Road. For Jan and I, we strongly agree with our pastor, Steve Holt, that being in God’s word together and praying together keeps marriages strong. Keeps families strong. Gets singles ready for an amazing spouse. Prepares everyone to proclaim the Gospel in all they do, using words when necessary. Each day, Jan and I read the selection of passages for that day then journal. Before I leave for work, or over the cell phone when I’m on business travel, we read our journal sections to each other. From that, I BLOG both our ideas to areulost.org. I will try to keep this going each day but I’ll miss a few, I’m sure.

Jan and I want your marriages to work. Heck, we want our marriage to work. The way God wants it to work, not our opinion of what that looks like. We want people dating to do things right. Again, the way God wants it to, not in our oh-so-vaunted personal opinions. We want everyone to prepare for lives of proclaiming the Gospel. The older we get, Jan and I believe all of those things begin in God’s word. At 61 years old, we think of the many Xer, Millenial, and Plural folks like our own kids. It’ll sound snarky coming from me but I’m deadly serious – We deeply desire for singles, families, and married folks to stop being stupid… To actually fix Stupid with Grace and Redemption.

Our Prayer for 2020 is that each of you – married or single – will do each day’s reading then journal. If you are married or engaged, come to together to discuss your journal entries. Men in discipleship groups and ladies in discipleship groups, hold each other accountable to the discipline of daily Bible reading and journaling.

As an old Soldier and History major, I agree with Pastor Steve that 2020 has the potential of really sucking, big time. But that level of political, national, and generational conflict… and stupid… does not have to be us. PBJ each day. Journal. Discuss with a spouse, friend, mentor. Instead of having to fix Stupid, this year, you will discover People, Path, and Destination framed by God’s word and a clear way ahead in the coming storms.

Jay and Jan Inman