Men of America (and the women too)

Let us turn back the hands of time today and look at America, and society for that matter, some 150 years ago. I know you may be wondering why I would want to do such a thing, but then again why do I do most of the things that I do. (Man that was a lot of ‘do’ in that sentence, hopefully the whole post isn't full of do.)

In the days of our great-great grandparents, or not so great in some cases, there was a certain aspect of life that was just simpler. Do you ever recall hearing of them having to deal with many of the same issues that we have today. Sure there was unemployment and the housing of a family could become a stressor, but today’s society seems to moan much louder.

In the days gone by a man used to take the care of his family into his own hands, not cry to his city officials about his short falls. The family would move to find work, or the family would work the land (if they had any), but seldom did they expect a social agency to care for their needs. In those days people flocked to our great nation for the opportunity to work and be their own person. Currently, to our great misfortune, our nation does not breed that same fervor and the flock comes for a different reason.

The answer as to why this occured is lengthier than what I can provide today, however, I contend that one key reason is the absent father/husband. When one takes a casual glance in today’s society you are more likely to find a single mother struggling to survive than you are to find a responsibly, married, man that is breaking his back for his family. Now, I understand that there were many injustices committed in yesteryear and our current system alleviates much of them, but which injustice is bigger: today’s absent father or yesterday’s overworked man?

Simply put: I am asking that America stop looking for the assistance of government agencies and to begin standing on their own two feet. America was great in the days that men took care of their family and women (hopefully I am not castrated for this) took care of their men. Unfortunately the moral standard for society has become so liberal that the hope for a return to what was once great can only be concluded as being lost.

Women, your cowboy is never coming home; not because all men are bad, but because there is no home being made. Men, your lady is not yours any longer; not because women have begun to wear pants, but because we have forgotten how to love them. America, our greatness may never return; not because America is not great, but because America has forgotten what it stands for.

A Natural God

What is natural? I know this may seem to be a fairly simple question, yet I see a potential issue with our contemporary understanding of the word. I find that there is sufficient cause to believe that what we call natural is not natural at all.

Imagine, if you would please, that you were the proud owner of a vivarium. In this created world you placed a couple frogs and fish. Everything was made to your specification. Then one day the frog looked towards you and postulated that the world in which it lived was natural, and that you in fact were supernatural.

At this point I do suppose that if this indeed happened you would be wondering if you inadvertently (or not so inadvertently, I do not judge) licked the fore mentioned frog. However, for this argument let us suppose that this was a regular occurrence and you have no cause for concern.

If this statement was in fact made to you by the frog I would think that you would find it quite a ridiculous comment for a creature to make. After all, you created the entire world in which it lives and for the sake of argument I will even say that you had the power to create the creature. In this example I find it difficult to believe that the created creature could ever postulate that the creator was not of natural existence, yet this is exactly how we view God; we view Him as if He is more than natural.

In Christianity it is put forth that in the beginning God created all things and we now live in that creation as a created. If this is truly the case then how can we ever possibly call out to God that He is supernatural? Does it not make more sense to understand that the state God exists in is the natural state of the universe and that what we live in is some altered, almost artificial in essence, state.

Now I know some etymologist may at this point be conjuring up the definition of "natural" and point out that the definition of "natural" does not reference initial state (or original form). It simply means something that was developed by nature and to what nature is would be another question entirely. To this point I would agree, however, it is the connotation that causes issue.

I contend that the use of natural in today’s societies brings with it a connotation of unchanged or original form. This connotation has essentially altered the understanding of the word and therefore transformed our idea of what is an initial state and what is an altered state. I suppose to the evolutionist this makes no difference, but to the creationist this will be the crux of their understanding.

In conclusion, I do not wish to prolong this scrawling and will summarize. The intention was to simply display that we do not live in a world that is natural in relation to the existence of God. It is God in all His glory that is natural. When God created us He created an unnatural world for us to live in, but gave us a piece of His natural spirit so that we may always know Him. In this sense our natural spirit is at odds with our unnatural flesh. Therefore, we must daily take up our cross and crucify our unnatural fleshy encasement.

Freeing the Beast

Recently I have taken up the exercise of running. At one point, five years and thirty pounds ago, I would run two miles daily. These daily runs at the time were a thing of magic and I often looked forward to them throughout the day.

Over the weekend I changed gears in my running routine, if you call one week of participation a routine, and took the jog outside in lieu of the gym. It was this jog in my neighborhood, nowhere near two miles by the way; that I realized what I had been missing this past half a decade.

There is something so natural and basic that emerges in the person who is exerting themselves by running/jogging. It is as if the world slips away and you are able to become just what you were meant to be: a living, breathing, adapting creature.

All too often we humans muck everything up with our complicated way of doing things. What we need to do is just step back and remember that we are all just here for a season and we need to enjoy the world in which we live.

We need to experience the sun shining on our face and the moon cooling the air. We need to find shade under a tree and allow the grasses to tickle our feet. We need to feel the adrenaline of an exerted body and the peace from the rest that comes after. We need to stop and remember that none of it matters as much as we think it does.

Today I challenge you to go run, maybe not in the physical, but at least in the spiritual. Let your spirit run before you and experience the world in which you live in a new way. Experience it in the way that you have forgotten.

Relief in "Relief"

As a modern day Christian I, along with many others, find that in some ways our faith has been disconnected with reality. It is as if the belief in a supernatural being that created all things is considered science fiction in a world that proclaims to be science fact. This schism in the human psyche presents us with a sort of alien effect in the world in which we live.

To compound this issue we also find that in many of the religious institutions of the world we are just as foreign. It is as if when we go to congregate with other Christians everyone wears a mask of what they believe they should be. Many churches today create this pseudo-peace type existence that our mind utterly rejects as authentic. (Quite possibly the reason conversions are down across the nation.)

So what we have is a person, such as myself, that fully believes in God (with reasonable doubt of course) and fully believes there is no place for them. The world rejects the person's premise of a Creator, and the church rejects the person's need to not only be relevant, but real. I do not believe this is what Christ had planned.

With all this considered I arrive to my point of this entry. I recently read my first issue of Relief. Relief is a Christian literary journal that treats the cause of our faith with a very open eyed, honest, and transparent perspective. They seem to understand that the corporate church environment has become just as alien to us as the world in which we live. As you read their published works you become engrossed with the theme of real world hurt married with supernatural comfort. It is this marriage that appeals to the genuine faith we all strive for.

In closing I simply thank the people over at Relief for their hard work and their vision. The goal of this publication as stated on their website is, "to pursue a complete picture of Christ and life –- real, gritty, painful, wonderful, this-side-of-heaven life." To this they have been successful. May I also recommend that all my readers take the time to look over their site (http://www.reliefjournal.com/) and even consider a subscription.