#7 - Incentives vs. Virtue

What Money Can't Buy -- By Chuck Colson, BreakPoint Commentaries, 6/22/2009

QUESTION: What does it take for you to do the right thing? Do you have to get some reward you can enjoy now – like money, special privileges from your parents, etc.- before you will do what you KNOW you should do? Do you find that you are more interested in getting your wants met or getting your character built up? Why and How so? Please read the following and let me know what you think.

[P.S. - Did you know there are people who will scold you for swatting a fly? Serious. Be sure to check the posting tomorrow (FRIDAY)on my other blogsite:stan
myonashiro.blogspot.com ; Also there you will find a link to a commentary on the late Michael Jackson you might find insghtful. ]

“Across the country, school systems are paying children to do better in school. In New York, fourth and seventh graders can get up to $500 for improving their scores on the city’s math and English tests. Schools in Georgia pay eighth and 11th graders $8 an hour to attend an after-school learning program. You would think that, given what’s at stake, doing well at school would be its own reward. But, increasingly, both inside and outside the classroom, striving for virtue is being replaced by monetary incentives.”

“As one principal told USA Today, he is “trying lots of different incentives for doing the right thing.” “Incentives” include iPods for attending Saturday study sessions and a flat-screen television for making the all “A” honor roll. Many critics prefer the word “bribe” to “incentive.” One compared the practice to giving athletes steroids: “Short-term performance might improve but the long-term effects can be very damaging.” Damaging or not, paying people to do what they should already be doing isn’t going away. Greensboro, North Carolina, is paying teenage mothers $1 for every day they are not pregnant. Like paying students to improve their grades and test scores, paying teen mothers to not get pregnant appears to be having the desired affect.”

“The core ideas in these kinds of programs come from a new field known as behavioral economics.” Classical economics assumes that people are rational and act in accordance with their best interests. Behavioral economics knows that, in the real world, people make bad and even self-destructive choices all the time. The goal of behavioral economics is to identify the “dizzying array of human foibles” and help policy makers take them into account when shaping policy. In the case of incentive programs like the ones I have described, it means “nudging” people to act in their own best interests. It’s an approach, by the way, that is favored by a “number of high-level appointees” in the Obama administration.”

“While basing policy on human beings as they actually are is certainly preferable to basing them on rational “economic men” that exist only in economists’ imaginations (you can count me among the critics on that one). It doesn’t surprise me that these “nudges” can have a short-term positive effect. But it’s difficult to imagine these programs making a long-term difference. On the contrary, the “long term damage” mentioned earlier may very well include creating a generation of people for whom incentives will become a necessity, not a nudge.”

“To put it in Christian terms, incentives will replace virtue. Instead of doing the right or prudent thing because it’s what a moral person does, people will do what they do because they get something out of it. This doesn’t build character—it builds calculators. What’s more, in the real world, people don’t always reward you for doing the right thing. But there are still consequences for behaving foolishly. How will people raised on a steady diet of nudges avoid these pitfalls? The answer is that many won’t avoid them because they never learned that, for the virtuous person, doing the right thing is incentive enough.” [emphasis in italics and bold mine].

For Further Reading and Information
Greg Toppo, “Good Grades Pay Off Literally,” USA Today, 1 August 2008.
John Stonestreet, “Helping Students 'Get It',” BreakPoint Online, 15 May 2009.

#6 - Remembering My Father and THE Father on This Father’s Day

[Be sure to check my other blog: (The Squirt Gun Brigade):stanmyonashiro.blogspot.com (every Tuesday and Thursday for an article about what you are not usually hearing from listening to the news; there's always something there to think about. Also, check the Editorial Cartoons on the Worldmag.com site for this past Friday; REALLY great stuff!]

My father was a man who worked hard to provide for his family. He demonstrated what it is to give it your all, sometimes even abandoning common sense. I remember once, during a busy lunch hour at our family restaurant, my father, like me just over 5 feet but muscularly thin, once tried to lift a hundred pound bag of rice by himself rather than stop to ask for help and nearly broke his back. Another time, he (THE cook in our family restaurant) was busy chopping some vegetables and cut his hand with the thick-bladed knife. But rather than stop and get medical help, rather than interrupt a very busy lunch hour, he just wrapped a washcloth around the bleeding hand and proceeded to finish out the lunch hour using just his other hand! It was only afterwards that we discovered the extent of his injury and had to rush to take him to the doctor (though I think even then he complained).

Yes, my father was a good example of hard work and was a good provider. And though he had only had a 4th grade education (was sent back to Japan while still in grade school to help on the family farm until past his teen years), he was considered even scholarly among his friends for his extensive reading of material written in Japanese. He also self-taught himself in reading English, as I remember seeing him up early every morning, without fail, reading the English newspaper and writing down in a notepad words he didn’t understand that he later would look up in a dictionary and be found reading over those words in his bedroom. Unfortunately, he was so uncomfortable with his English SPEAKING ability that I never heard him even attempt a conversation in English, not even with my brother and me. It is a sad fact that throughout my entire life, I never had a conversation with my Dad and he never even made any attempt to have one. By doing this, he did teach me how our pride can keep us from stepping out and enjoying some relationships even more fully.

Because of this, my Father was never someone who was available to me or my younger brother to share things with or one from whom we could get insights or direct encouragement. Maybe it was because his father was the same way and that, in fact, the Japanese culture taught all fathers to be aloof from their sons and didn’t teach that they had any responsibility to do more than be good providers and disciplinarians. (Though I always deserved the punishment, my father WAS never shy about being involved in any spankings I received.) I do remember that he used to take me and my younger brother to see a movie each week when I was still in grade school (those times didn’t require him to get into any conversations with us) but for some reason he suddenly stopped spending any time with my brother and I. I wish he had realized that for us, spending time with him would have still been meaningful, even without any conversation.

When my mother died on the last day of January in 2003, my father went into depression and six weeks later, while recovering from surgery, he suddenly decided he was not going to eat. (At his funeral, a family friend shared with me that he told her that he didn’t want to go on living without my Mom. They had been married over 50 years.)Because he had left instructions not to be force fed, my brother and I were not sure what to do but the very next day, my father died. I had tried to have him read the gospel message and have others try to share it with him in Japanese. But to the best of my knowledge, my father did not place his trust in Christ before he died, and so I have no expectation of seeing him in Heaven. He was basically one of those “good” people that we all have to entrust will spend a Christ-less eternity however our Just God decides they deserve to spend it.

On this Father’s Day, I recognize how blessed I was to have even had a Dad as there are so many today who grow up without even the example of a good one. I do hope that YOUR Dad knows Jesus as his Savior and Lord and has been or was more than just a provider but one who chose to be involved in your life, one who was there for you when you needed counsel and encouragement. While I have been greatly blessed to be available to help teen guys over the years, I confess to being jealous of their Dads for the privilege (and I acknowledge also their great responsibility) of being able to speak into the lives of their sons in a way I never will in this life. I only hope that God is not finished using me to at least help other teen guys to better know their HEAVENLY Father as He is the One who is ultimately not only our Perfect Provider but also our Most Wise Counselor and Guide.

Let’s always remember that Jesus came not just to die for our sins but to give us the privilege to have a relationship with our Father in Heaven, One who created us, knows us fully, and still loves us unconditionally, who will meet our every need (though thankfully not all our wants) and never fail to be there to converse with us in the language of prayer. To Him be all glory, on this Father’s Day, and every day.

#5 - Think About It: What’s with Birthdays?

[Be sure to check this blog this Sunday, June 21st, for a special Father's Day posting.]

As I anticipated this Friday (6/19) being my birthday, I became curious of the origin of this annual milestone that people almost everywhere in the world celebrate. As I suspected, I discovered that birthday celebrations are actually of pagan origin. According to the Encyclopedia Americana (1991), “The ancient world of Egypt, Greece, Rome and Persia celebrated the birthdays of gods, kings, and nobles.... The keeping of birthday records was important … principally because a birth date was essential for the casting of a horoscope. So, there is a direct connection between the Pagan practice of birthday celebrations and astrology (horoscopes and fortune telling). Of course, the Bible condemned astrology and fortune telling as in Isaiah 47:13-15. Not surprisingly then, the ancient Jews did not celebrate birthdays, regarding them as Pagan.” Finally, The World Book Encyclopedia states: “The early Christians did not celebrate His [Christ’s] birth because they considered the celebration of anyone’s birth to be a pagan custom. (Volume 3, page 416.) ”

So then, what am I saying? That we shouldn’t celebrate our birthdays as well as Christmas? No. As far as birthdays are concerned, I think that as far as it gives us occasion to thank our mothers for giving us birth, considering that one in four mothers choose not to give birth to their unborn child but to abort him or her, I see nothing wrong with celebrating birthdays. But, as far as Christmas is concerned, it does help us to remember that Christmas is not technically a Christian celebration with Biblical support or even roots in the traditions of the early Church. Furthermore, we should recognize that our birthdays no more represent the day that our lives began anymore than December 25th represents the day that Jesus Christ entered our world.

The truth is that, like Jesus, we entered this world the day we were conceived in our mother’s wombs, not the day we exited her womb. And so, if Jesus was (though it’s only a guess) born on December 25th, he actually entered our world – technically- 9 months before on March 25h. Which means that if we are to celebrate the entrance of Christ into our world, we would be more accurate to celebrate it on March 25th of each year. Of course, that would be at about the same time we celebrate His death (Good Friday) and resurrection (Easter) and would be too many holidays to celebrated at one time. And besides, how can we ever picture Christmas without snow, right? No, though technically inaccurate on several points, Christmas should still be celebrated for what it represents to the world – that at one point in history God chose to enter our world in order to one day sacrifice Himself for the world. That Eternal and incomparable expression of love should forever be celebrated.

But for ourselves, here’s a thought. While it’s asking a lot to have us stop celebrating our birthdays (even though as Christians we now know it is a celebration with pagan roots), may I suggest that we consider making it a greater celebration each year to recognize the day we were conceived, the day we really were first given life and technically first entered the world. Of course, very few of us will ever know exactly the day we were conceived. But what if we just took our birthday and projected backwards 9 months to the day? In my case, for instance, though I was born on a June 19th, I can reasonably conclude that I was conceived around September 19th of the previous year. With that in mind, I am choosing this year to begin celebrating, not my birthday but my “First-day,” the term I’ve chosen to recognize the day I (anyone) was given life (by God)and first entered the world.

In closing, I do have to wonder if, by celebrating birthdays inaccurately as the day we made entrance into the world, we do not perpetuate the myth that our life does not begin, that we are not “officially” a person, until the day we are born. I can’t help but wonder if people, beginning with Christians, began to celebrate their “First-day” and not their “birth-day,” the unborn will begin to be understood as being persons with lives already begun long before their “official” entrance into the world by birth. Maybe then, women considering abortions will understand that they are already mothers because their unborn child is already alive in their womb and that having an abortion is killing a person who is just not yet born. Maybe then, the claim of the abortion promoters that the unborn is only a “potential” life will be exposed for the lie it is, and, by God’s grace, fewer women will see abortion as a "choice" that should ever be considered.

#4 - What Can God NOT Do?!!!

[Hey, all!!! First of all, you haven’t heard from me in a week partly because I haven’t been feeling well, not just lately but for a long time now. But also, I haven’t heard from any of you who’ve visited this site about what you think about what I’ve been writing, the resources I’ve alerted you to, and most important, what things you have a question about or personally struggle with or what you just are excited about as a Christian that you’d like me to share with others. I could just comment about things I THINK you might be interested in reading about, but I want this to be a blog discussing things YOU tell me you’re interested in. I’ve been told that, for some reason, it’s been hard to register a comment on this site. I don’t know how to correct that yet but until then, please just EMAIL ME your comments at: yonashiro@bellsouth.net I would REALLY appreciate hearing from you!

And please remember, again, that because of my health, you may not hear from me for a week or more. If that happens, DON’T ever assume I’ve abandoned this blog. If I do, I will clearly tell you that on what would then me my last posting. Until then, please continue to check this site. With your input, I continue to hope this will be a place you will look forward to visiting each time you do.]


I just read an email from a student friend in high school, Elizabeth. She talked about her desire to see revival take place at her high school next school year and of feeling alone in believing God to do that. As I shared with her, I felt that way a number of times in the 33 years I was involved in full-time ministry. Once was while I was serving in Japan and was the only of our ministry staff working on a certain college campus. I heard about a traveling ministry music group that was going to be in our city and I asked if we could have them put on an evangelistic concert on the campus. All of the Japanese staff members I worked with as well as most of the people at my church said that such a thing had never been done there and could not possibly happen. Fortunately, I had the support of my city director who basically said, “Go for it!” I worked with the several students I was meeting with to plan the details of the event and had the help of a member at my church to help us transport the music team’s equipment for set up on the campus.

On the day of the outdoor concert, it rained heavily all morning and the dirt ground they were going to perform on was obviously muddy. Because we were dealing with electrical equipment, we considered canceling the event for the safety of the performers. But the group was willing to go ahead with it, and so, at the noon lunch hour, with a heavily overcast sky up above, they assembled and soon began their concert. While it could have easily begun raining again, just as they began the first song, the clouds above parted and a shaft of light shot through and hit the performers right where they stood (I kid you not!). It was almost like a heavenly spotlight that shone on them the entire time they performed. The weather remained good throughout the concert and it was only an hour afterwards that the clouds covered that shaft of light and it began to rain! You talk about something that was God-ordained –wow! I still get goose bumps every time I recall that day.

I honestly don’t remember any particular students who were at the concert coming forward and speaking to us about the spiritual message. But I do remember the following Sunday at church and the excitement among the people about how God had done such a mighty work that day on campus. Because we were moved to another city a short time later, I don’t really know how that excitement translated into greater steps of faith by the people at that church. But I do know it was probably a long time afterwards before any one forgot what God could do if we just step out in faith and attempt something.

As I shared with Elizabeth, in I Kings 19, even after he saw the great work of God on Mount Carmel as he battled the Baal priest, Elijah had fled to the desert in fear of Queen Jezebel’s threats. There, in v. 14 he talked about how he felt like he was alone in standing up for God but in v. 18 God reminds Elijah that He still had 3,000 in Israel “whose knees have not bowed down to Baal. I share all of this to encourage you that, as you seek to believe God to do something supernatural (which is what you should ALWAYS expect of Him), you may feel alone and may even experience opposition. But I promise you that when God leads you to believe Him for something, He HAS raised up others to stand with you. Just start praying with one other friend, even if that friend doesn’t believe God will work as you do. Then watch and see what God does. I believe that God will use the united prayers of two or three (Mat. 18:19) to do something very special.

And so, why am I sharing this now. I know, it’s summer and all you can think about is doing fun things and hanging out with your friends and family. But as you’re doing that, I challenge you to think about the next school year and to begin asking God NOW to do something supernatural at your school through you and your friends. I believe with all my heart that He wants to do the supernatural a whole lot more than we’re seeing if we just invite Him into our circumstance and ask Him to do it (that’s what intercessory prayer is all about). And why wouldn’t He? That’s what He’s about, isn’t it?

#3 - Ah, Yes, Those God-Moments!

Hey, check out the editorial cartoons appearing TODAY and EVERY FRIDAY on the Worldmag.com site. Just look for the link in the column on the right. REALLY GREAT STUFF!

In Joshua 4:1-9, after the people of Israel have miraculously crossed the Jordan River, God had the people build a memorial to remind them of God’s work on their behalf. After the Israelites had failed to remember God’s work of helping them to cross the Red Sea and to escape the Egyptians and shortly afterwords began complaining about the inconveniences they experienced in their travels, it was obvious God had to help them with their short-term memory problem.

Do you find yourself at times getting discouraged in your walk with God? I know I do. One of the things that helps me in those times is to remember how faithful God has been to me in the past, to especially remember those “God-moments” For this reason, I have been keeping a “God-Moments” journal to record not just answers to prayer but those awesome times when God does something that is so special that you feel as though you’ve been literally touched by His Holy Spirit.

One of those special moments for me happened several years ago. I was looking for a new church home and I was meeting with the pastor for the first time. I was looking forward to just spending the time just getting to know him as a person – where he was born, grew up, how he came to receive Christ, etc. Instead, the focus ended up being on me and it ended with my being told that their church didn’t want me to volunteer to work with their youth and that maybe I should consider that GOD, after all, didn’t want me to work with youth. (I had been involved in direct ministry to youth for 6 years by then.)

I remember driving away from that church stunned and confused that God had given me a deep desire to impact the lives of teens, I had enjoyed the efforts I had made, and yet was now told by a “professional” (someone having a seminary degree which I didn’t) minister that I wasn’t supposed to do that. (I learned the next day that the pastor’s opinion was not based on Scripture but just on his limited, personal opinion, and therefore was lacking any real authority.) About 5 minutes later, I pulled up at the pillar of mailboxes near my home to pick up my mail. After I removed the mail, I heard a voice behind me and turned and saw a middle school boy who was one of my neighbors. It was just turning dark and Matthew had been standing near his home in a spot with no light and so when he stepped out I was startled. Matthew had a big smile on his face and had his hand stretched out as he walked towards me. I had only met him once about a year before when I had gone from neighbor to neighbor asking if they had seen my new pet cat that had suddenly dashed out of the house. I was obviously embarrassed that I didn’t remember his name but Matthew re-introduced himself and asked me how my cat Purrty was doing and then he pointed across the street to his own cat. I was amazed as I did not know Matthew had a pet cat and had not met someone Matthew’s age that had a pet cat; boys I had known only had pet dogs and tended to make fun of cats. Soon, we were exchanging stories about each other’s cat when suddenly one of Matthew’s friends walked up and we started talking about HIS cat!

It wasn’t long before the three of us were talking like long time friends when Matthew suddenly stopped and pointing to my car and asked me if I shouldn’t turn the engine off as I had left it running since I had planned to just dash to the mailbox, get my mail and drive away. It would have made perfect sense for me to pause, walk over to my car, and turn the engine off. But I suddenly sensed God’s Spirit telling me not to do that and so I turned to Matthew and said, “No, that’s okay, let the engine run” and we continued talking. Several minutes later, first Matthew’s friend and then Matthew excused themselves to go home. I then got into my car, turned it around, and drove the half block to my home and went inside.

As I was getting ready for bed, I started thinking about why I had not turned off the car’s engine when Matthew alerted me to it and almost instantly I knew that my conversation with those boys was a “God-moment” that had soothed the hurt and confusion I had felt just minutes before. That conversation served as God’s way of reminding me of His call on my life and that despite what that pastor had said, I was (and am) able to interact with teens and could make an impact on their lives if given the opportunity. Had I stepped away for the few seconds it would have taken to break off the conversation, either of those boys could have become distracted and I would not have had a conversation to return to. I was having great fun and I just didn’t want to risk doing that and letting go of that special “sacred” moment, even if my car engine ran idle till I had burned off all the gasoline in the tank! On reflection, I realized that only God could have arranged for that meeting because otherwise there is no way of explaining my running into both boys at that time and of our having instantly found a common point (our pet cats) to converse about other than the provision of God. Furthermore, it’s been over 2 years since that conversation and I have only recently seen Matthew again, and I have never run into neither of them “by accident” since.

In closing, may I just repeat what I said in my first posting: I hope that YOU will determine as soon as you can what it is that gives you joy in doing, what God has given you a passion and giftedness for doing and just go out and do it. If you especially know in your heart that God is directing you to want to impact others in a certain way, then don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Listen to God’s Spirit and He will confirm – sometimes with “God-moments”- what He is calling you to do. Dare to dream and to step out to pursue that dream, even if it means taking a risk and not playing it safe. My mailbox “God-moment” reminded me that it’s fine to listen to the advice of others, but what really matters is what I determine God is directing me to do and doing only that with all my heart.

And finally, I encourage you to keep a “God-moments” journal. And if you have a special entry you would like to share with others to encourage them, PLEASE send it to me and I will post it on this blog site (or if I receive many, maybe a separate blog site.) And be sure to let me know if you want to remain anonymous. One of my hopes is that you will be able to come to this site regularly and read about what exciting thing God has done in the lives of others and can certainly do in yours.

This blog site will be particularly special if people like YOU sharing their “God-moments”- and also their struggles and challenges - with others.