Chosen

This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him! 

 - From Luke 9

At the Transfiguration, Jesus is seen speaking with two men, whom the three Apostles recognized as Moses and Elijah, representing the Law and the Prophets. They may have been discussing the tie-in of Christ to those two Old Testament figures and all that they represent. Perhaps Elijah was whisked away to another time when he was carried away on the chariot. Perhaps Moses, when on the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments and the Law, was translated to that moment with Christ . . . or maybe Moses appeared in connection with the time spoken of in Jude, where Michael and Satan disputed over the body of Moses? He would have had to be resurrected in order to appear with Christ, in real time. 

The Three Apostles were moved, and in their exuberance wanted to erect three tents, or tabernacles, or edifices - one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for Christ. But they are corrected by the voice of God, to focus on Christ only.

And yet, down to the present time, we still build our edifices, named after a human; idols made with hands, glorifying someone other than Christ (St. James Episcopal Church," "St. Paul Lutheran," etc. 

I wonder if our distractions away from Christ, as well intended as they may be, are the root cause of so much discord on earth? The lost and watching world looks to Christ, but sees dispute rather than unity. 

And that's on us. 

Earthly

Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly . . . 

 - From Colossians 3

Occasionally, my post will be almost entirely directly lifted from Scripture. And I will ask the reader to just read through it, apply it to today. Let the words have their plainest, truest meaning. Let the words be uncomfortable, or unpopular, or unwoke, or illiberal, or reactionary . . . whatever. But them mean what they mean. And then consider: what is it about these concepts that make them spiritual, holy, desirable?

What is it about them that makes them anti-selfishness? What is it about them that, if followed faithfully and truthfully, would actually yield societies and cultures that are free, prosperous, and where the people generally are happy? 

So here is a simple list from today's reading . . . of traits and behaviors that we should NOT do, as the practice of them is selfish, leads to trouble, creates discord among people, is destructive, and actually leads to death. 

What NOT to do . . . 

• Fornication
• Impurity
• Passion
• Evil desire
• Greed
• Anger
• Wrath
• Malice
• Slander
• Abusive language
• Lying

Stupid

. . . like the dull and stupid they perish . . . 

 - From Psalm 49

I've always marveled at the lure of the crowd. 

I come from a proud tradition of people that willfully, even spitefully, resisted popular movements and people. I learned to disdain Groupthink at a young age. As a boy in my neighborhood, I feared and abhorred the crowd more than the toughest bully. A bully is one person. I have a better chance against him, than against the random, morphing, fleeting, highly emotional mob. 

We kids would "gang up" on anyone absent, for no reason at all. The spell of Groupthink is too overwhelming. 

I have observed it among adults as well. In college. In the workplace. In organizations. In neighborhoods. 

Indeed, the one place where I have felt safe from the threat of gangs, crowds, and the mob, is in the family. You're stuck in your family. You cannot be kicked out. Sure, your parents may disown you . . . but they will always be your mom and dad. DNA doesn't lie. I will always be a full member of dozens of different families (even hundreds) brought into being by my ancestors. 

We follow crowds perhaps, exactly because the bully is their leader. Or maybe because they are numerous enough to pound down bullies. Or maybe they have wealth behind them, and can do cool things. Perhaps they get on TV and in tabloids. They are "popular." They also are very, very cruel.

And so we believe whatever the crowd wants us to believe. 

We have learned, since 2020, that the masses can do whatever we want them to do, with a skilled enough of a campaign, packaging the message just so. There comes a point where no one will stand up to the prevailing narrative. No one. And people will even be convinced that this is how they felt, all along. 

The solution is utter freedom of speech, and of conscience, for all. 

The Psalmist alludes to this. None of us end up better off than any of the others. We all wind up in the grave. We're all going to die. And in the line that I referenced, it says that the wise are no better than the stupid. 

Your cool President in 2014 is no better than your outsider President in 2018. And he's no better than your woke President in 2022. The oaf, the moron, the anointed, the pedo, the buffoon, the dealer, the golden boy . . . none is any better than any of the others . . . in the end. 

So again . . . maybe Freedom of conscience and of speech are the way to go, to be safe, to move forward, to avoid making horrible mistakes. 

And we do want safety, right?

Vanity

This also is vanity.

 - From Ecclesiastes 2

King Solomon writes "Even at night their minds do not rest."

Just last week, I had a sleepless night. I had been dealing with a multi-day spell of a sort of anxiety. There were nervous feelings that I could not tame. My heart wasn't racing, not exactly. I did not check my blood pressure . . . for that always makes me feel worse!

I've dealt with occasional bouts of anxiety at times in my life. I do not think I'm alone in this. When you are troubled, and can't sleep - that's anxiety. When you feel intensely angry, or have entered into a mood where you honestly don't care anything about anything - - - this is anxiety.

And it may be traces of clinical depression. I don't know. 

I do know that our mind is master over our physical well-being. When your heart is broken, it is more than a state of mind, or a trite commentary. A good old-fashioned heartbreak causes your chest to ache. You might get a headache. Your breathing might go shallow. You can't do anything about the horrible thoughts going through your mind. You may reach a state of near-panic. 

It affects you physically. 

I also know that I am more prone to this problem, when I have not been praying, or studying God's word.

If you're more focused on DOING, than BEING, you are more prone to anxiety.

The worldly, physical person says "I have to be at work at 8:00am." You are a slave - - - you do things because you HAVE to, not because you want to. You do not serve anybody. You're serving yourself. Everything's a chore. Everything is toil. It makes you very nervous. 

If you say "I will arrive at work at 8:00am," then you are acting out of service. You CHOOSE to be there. 

All this work. All these schedules. All these emails. All these deadlines. Solomon said it's all "vanity." It's all, in reality, pointless, because in the end you'll have nothing to show for it, and it does not add anything to your eventual eternal existence. 

So, focus on being a child of God . . . rather than on keeping busy all the time. 

Gathered

He gathered them out of the lands . . . 

 - From Psalm 107

The children of the Creator of the Universe always have to be redeemed. They have to be saved. They have to be rescued.

They always get attacked and are forced to leave their homes. They get to a point of wealth and freedom . . . they set the standard for advancement in the arts, in science, in technology, in social progress. They become a place that others take great risks to get to . . . other people always have to escape horrible conditions to get to the land of God's people. 

And then, I guess out of some sense of mercy, the invaders don't kill all of them outright, but will just scatter them throughout the world, where they can no longer cause trouble building wealth and freedom, and spreading such toxic ideas as the innate dignity of every single individual, and the right of all people to express what's on their own mind. 

So, when God goes out and saves His people, He always has to go gather them . . . and bring them home. 

Wouldn't it be better if the world, that hates God's people so, would just figure out what it is, that makes them so free, and wealthy, and happy . . . and maybe try to emulate, and learn from . . . them? 

Isn't that better than violently attacking them, and ruining their lives, and cultures, and all the attending benefits to the world?

Return

. . . and I will return them to their homes, says the Lord. 

 - From Hosea 11

Hosea 11 is one of Scripture's tenderest passages. It is like visiting the aging father of a son that grew up and went bad. The child had been raised correctly, faithfully, warmly and lovingly, in a home that loved the Lord. 

But sometimes, there just is no explaining how people turn out. Is it in the DNA of some people, to just be trouble? Do they start out with the seed of evil (perhaps we all do), but circumstances, and the environment, conspire to cultivate the bad seed? And once they start down the wrong path, they soon feed these impulses with liquor, drugs, sex, and other intoxicants. 

It is easy to persuade an already vain person, to focus on themselves: "You be you!" and "You deserve to be happy!" Soon, it feels so good to be vain, selfish, and in the end . . . evil itself. And as Scott Peck wrote so convincingly, evil is nothing more than the extreme expression of selfishness. 

The good feeling of wrongfulness soon gets confused with Good, itself. "If it feels good, it must be Good."

To paraphrase the song If doing bad is wrong, I don't wanna be right.

In the Hosea passage, as I said, God is the elderly man, that has not heard from his son in years. He has heard about him. He knows that he is in trouble. The old man has visitors, and pulls out the family photo album. He points to photos of his son-gone-bad, before all of that. Here is the boy at six years of age, with the family dog. Here he is in a Cub Scout uniform. Here is is playing varsity basketball. The old man beams with pride at the joy his son once brought him.

When Israel was a child, I loved him . . . 

But all is takes is for the son to come home. To treat the father with respect and love once again. To change his ways and make the family proud . . . again. 

And all will be forgotten. 

That's God. 

Store

So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God. 

 - From Luke 12

We're all rightly concerned about the future of the planet. We see how easily, and quickly, things can go wrong; and how near we are to conditions not unlike the worst in the world. 

One of my favorite teachers, in my life, Dexter Schools Band Director, Martha Scharchburg, told me once: "It only takes one year to turn a great band program into a mediocre one."

The problem, you see, is our tendency toward "What have you done for me lately?" A fifty-year legacy of greatness is good, is very admirable, and draws people to it. But if you have just one down year, it may take a decade to rebuild things. 

Just look at the University of Michigan football program, since about 2005!

Or, think about the topic of Church Growth. I have been involved in several Church Planting, or Church Growth projects, in my life. Many times, we have noted that, if people would just stick around another year, or two, the size of the church will be as big as they always hoped it would become. Each year, there's a wave of people that drop off because it's taking so long. They are replaced by another wave of people that also will get discouraged in one year, and quit. 

My music studio, that I operated between 2017 and 2022 - we always needed 100 active students, and growing, to allow us to continue investing in other programs and paying for admin help. If just 10% of the people that quit, would stay . . . even for just half a year, we would always attain our goal, and the growth of the business would be easy. 

It doesn't take much to make a good thing go wrong. 

In good times, we are advised to save for the bad times. This is excellent advice. It's timeless and wise. But for every one person on the planet that expands their income and assets, there must be a hundred that are barely scraping by. And many of them are in desperate poverty. 

They don't care about your hard work, your wise money management, or your expanding wealth. They will take it from you, without batting an eye. 

While we're going about saving money that we will never use, let us act as though it all may come crashing down tomorrow. Make sure those around you are doing well. Take care of the widows and orphans in your family, your extended family, and neighborhood. 

Take one less vacation, or two. Lose a vacation home. Drive a smaller car. Cut out a wasteful hobby. 

And help someone that will not eat well today, or someone whose heat has been shut off, or whose child is getting bored and bitter because Mom can't afford a nicer home, and piano lessons.