Opus 2025-282: Headlines: The Great Divide

All the rush today is about the split between Musk and Trump.  They have had a falling out.  Verbal attacks have been exchanged.  The end is near.

Balderdash.

Keep in mind a few things.  The first is Fake News and the technique of editing.  Have Musk and Trump had words?  Probably.  Is it as big a deal as the media wants it to be?  Probably not.  My wife made me sit and watch a bit of Fox on the topic.  What struck me was that most of the quotes were carefully edited and most of the interviews were with Democrats who hate Trump.  They also hate Musk almost as much.  Take the reporting with a grain of salt.  The goal is ratings and ad revenue, not truth.

Second, keep in mind that you are dealing with two men who are quite open about speaking their mind.  Neither one got where they are by being diplomatic.  I seriously doubt this is the first time they have knocked heads.  It is just the first time we have heard about it.  Both are used to getting back on the horse and having the end goal in mind.

Third, they are both right.  Musk seems to be upset because congress is doing nothing about all the cuts he has clearly earmarked.  He is right.  They are playing politics and trying to work with a congress controlled by Rinos.  Trump has things that are necessary to get done and the only way he can get them is to try to work with a congress controlled by Rinos.  If you are a praying person pray that they both get what they want.

Fourth, and probably most important, both men love American and really want to see it great again.  That is a quality that makes it possible to overlook a lot of faults.

In the end it will come down to MAGA.  Buckle up and don’t make any bets.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-281: Death Watch

I just lost my younger brother.  I myself am pushing 80.  At church I’m surrounded by a growing number of people experiencing what could very well be their last turn of the wheel.  Death is very real.  And yet it is a time of joy and celebration.  As Christians, we are kind of odd balls in the game of life because we march to a tune the pagan world cannot wrap its arms around.

To us death is a door.  It is a door that stands before all of us, but unlike the pagan world we know what’s on the other side and we know that as much as we enjoy life here and now, the other side of that door is going to be much better. That’s why I the questions from a certain passage of scripture highlight our awareness,

1 Corinthians 15:55 (KJV) O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

Through the door for us is the resurrection.  It will be a resurrection into new bodies new minds, new spirits, and a resurrection into life eternal.

So death comes to mind frequently in my days now.  I’m not trying to hurry it along.  I have grandchildren to contribute to and the church family to support.  I have the daily joy of the Lord.  At the same time it’s coming.

When I think of the sting of death, I think it is more in the sting of a tetanus shot as opposed to the sting of a wasp.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-280: Children of Eternity

What are the patterns I see in the spiritual walk of the people of God is that you often have generational decay.  The parents have a strong encounter with the living God.  They often pass that on to their children, but it is still not the same as that first initial experience.  By the time you get a few generations down the road, it becomes ritual, habit, going through the motions and the living contact has died out.

This makes me wonder about eternity.  We already know what Jesus had to say about marriage,

(Mat 22:30 KJV)  For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.

I would assume that if there is no marriage, there would be no children.  That seems a bit sad but I’m sure we will make up for it in other ways.

In eternity it is possible that the only chance people have a knowing what it is to have children will be to interact with those young lives that were destroyed by abortion.  They may need to wait in line after the real parents show up.

One of my questions is about whether sin will be possible in eternity.  It would seem not, but the only way that you could get a culture or a community with no-one slipping into sin is to have filtered in such a way that the desire to sin has been pushed out of the picture.  That would seem to imply no new children, because each of us who makes it to heaven has gone through the gauntlet of living on earth.  New children would not quaify.

Picture a Utopia established here on earth.  One of the characteristics of that Utopia would be that no one likes liver and onions.  It was off of the menu and out of our minds.  If we continue to have children, the odds are that somewhere in that process a defective gene would reemerge and a child would be born that thought liver and onions are the cats meow.  Thus sin would be reestablished.

In reality, it will be more like being suspended in that brief moment between our last child moving out to their apartment, and realizing their room is now available for an office and the moment when empty nest syndrome sets in.  Or that time as grandparents between when we finally waved goodbye to our grandchildren after a long day, take a deep breath and then start wondering how long until we see them again.  These intervals may not be long, but in eternity they can be extended.

And I trust that eternity will be so glorious that we won’t have to worry about little things.  Until we know more we need to concentrate on making sure that the children we have here will be with us up there.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-279: On the Street: Do They Wave Back?

I’ve gotten into the habit of trying to at least appear to be friendly.  When I’m out walking, I will greet people with a “Good morning” .  As cars drive by I will wave to the drivers and since I’m on the road and they’re coming straight at me, I can see that they respond with a vague wave of their own.

It’s a bit more uncertain when viewed from my porch.  Every time a car goes by as the poor working classes drive to their jobs I greet them with a jaunty wave.  I sometimes wonder if they wave back.  I wonder if they even see me if it’s dark enough.  Add to that the fact that I’m looking through the side window, which is usually tinted in someway so I can’t see them.  I don’t know if I’m wasting my efforts at friendliness or not.

In reality it doesn’t matter.  I am doing what I need to do.  So much of life is like that. If we want our culture and our society to go on being a decent place to live then each of us need to step forward and be accountable for her own actions.  We need to stop blaming our failures on the fact that no one else succeeded.  We need to toe the line of the kind of behavior that we know is appropriate.

So just because everyone else throws the trash out the window that doesn’t mean I can.  Just because everybody else parks taking up two spaces at the grocery store doesn’t mean that I can.  Just because everybody else is checking their emails and their Facebook postings in the middle of the sermon doesn’t mean that I can.

Even more important when we stand before God, it will not be what other people did, or how other people responded, but how we trusted in Jesus.

Here’s waving at you.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-278: Still Asking

I’m sure that somewhere in the past 10 years I have asked the question of why am I blogging.  I can’t remember what answer I came up with before but I think it might be something to the effect that I have things to say and no one wants to listen so I’m going to write them out and put them on the Internet.  That still doesn’t mean that anyone is listening or reading but it makes me feel like I’m doing something.  It’s an inner compulsion.

You would think by this time I would understand that I am never going to go viral, as they say these days.  I’m good with that.  But this morning another thought came to me about why it’s important for me to keep doing this.  I noticed that as I was going through my morning that the fog that settles over my mind, sometimes lifted after writing a few items.  It occurred to me that one of the ways in which we can avoid declining mental health is to keep thinking and keep processing life around us.

I’m sure I’ve read stuff like this before.  It’s just interesting to see it taking place right before my eyes, or should I say right behind my eyes.

And of course, that brings up the question of am I really thinking more clearly or am I just thinking more into self delusion?  To me it doesn’t really matter because I’m the one who is inside the box.  I guess as long as I’m happy and I’m not hurting anyone else, all is copacetic.

Now to send this before I forget.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-277: Stories

When I hear the word “stories” I have a number of ideas that pop into my head.  As a kid telling stories was a euphemism for telling a lie, probably because the facts were invented.  I generally think of a story as a work of fiction, usually shorter than a novel.  That may have some unrecognized connection to the term “news story”.  That has become the foundation for Fake News.

While driving through the Choctaw nation I saw it used in a ad campaign plastered along the highway.  The complete phrase was,

Our stories make us more

It didn’t grab me.  I kept seeing it and it kept not grabbing me.  It was cute but little more than a clever way of saying “We are not doing much with out lives.”  I would like to ask, “More what?”  Can it be measured?  “More” means compared to something.  If everyone has a story and every story makes us more than we are still standing in line waiting for life to reward us in a way that can’t be defined.

I accept the point that we are all created in the image of God and because of that have unique worth.  We have rights, clearly stated in the Bill of Rights and a government that is supposed to guarantee that we have them.  Beyond that it is what we build with what we have.

No, our stories don’t make us more.  We make our stories which make us more.  There is a difference that demands hard work as opposed to a welfare check.

I hope that people will get beyond empty headed promises and find real purpose.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-276: Hidden Moments

At the end of the book of Deuteronomy Moses dies after getting a glimpse of the Promised Land.  God does not relent on the declaration that He would not enter.  He was even buried outside.  The reason is given that it was because Moses had struck the second rock for water instead of just speaking to it as God had directed.  It has always seemed like a bit of overkill.

Then I got to thinking about the character of God.  He is much maligned by unbelievers and His patience is overlooked.  Look at how long He holds back His punishment in other occasions.  I decided that God is consistent so there must be something I was missing.  I think that is always a good way to look at things.

It came to mind that Moses may have had anger issues all his life, that God had admonished him frequently and he had not responded.  We know from the words of John in his gospel that all the things Jesus said and did were not included.  I would imagine the same applies to Moses.

First I looked for what I called Moses’ Anger Points.  In addition to the rock I found at least two other points where Moses flew off the handle.  The first was when he killed the Egyptian.  The second was when he broke the tablets God had prepared.  This could be an indication.  You may find others.

God is incredibly patient but even He has His limits.  I think that is demonstrated in the Biblical account.  I think it would be good for me to understand that it applies to me also.

A good lesson for today.

homo unius libri