I arrived at my new location today, safe and sound.
Of the dozen or so who are moving over this month, six came today--three in an early convoy and three of us in a later one. Moving with me was a junior officer who hopes to become a chaplain down the road and my chaplain assistant, who arrived today. I have already lost him tonight, but will hopefully find him tomorrow. He is from inner city DC and hopes to use the Army to propel himself beyond his surroundings and set up a more secure future for himself and his prospective family.
It was humbling to hear from those at my old post who were sad to see me go and from those at my new post who are happy that I'm here. I have no set chapel service yet, or a Bible study, but I hope that those things will come in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, I can invest much of my time visiting and counseling soldiers. I look forward to seeing what God has for me here, in His gracious providence. May He be glorified, here, as before, and always.
16.9.13
15.9.13
The Stagnant Zambezi
I finally got around to reading The Lower River, by Paul Theraux, a fictional book about Malawi sent to me by my sister. The story revolves around Allis Hock, an American man, who in the aftermath of his divorce from his wife of three decades, decides to return to the beautiful country of his young, Peace Corps days: Malawi.
A story of a man allured by Malawi after decades away intrigued me, to say the least. I expected him to find a changed country, but with the same objects of love hidden beneath the surface. Instead, the story follows a man who finds himself trapped further and further within the interior of a country and culture rotted away by years of Western aid and corruption. His idealism is quickly dashed. He is begged and robbed into poverty and grows sicker and weaker by the day. The beautiful trees are cut away, and the waters flowing into the Zambezi are stagnant and polluted.
In her book, Dead Aid, Malawian-born and Harvard-educated author, Dambisa Moyo, makes the case the foreign aid has not only been unhelpful to Africa, but has largely destroyed it. Theraux's book is an unflinching, pessimistic, all-encompassing portrait of the same truth. Hock is treated by the people he comes to help as a walking ATM, shamelessly exploited by the desperate and greedy. The honorary treatment he sometimes receives is a thinly-veiled veneer for cynical and manipulative ploys to drain the very life from him. (Spoiler Alert) On the verge of being sold into slavery, he is rescued by an embassy official. The book closes with Allis leaving a trail of dust behind his escape vehicle, saved from the ravages of Africa.
As you might expect, the utterly depressing tale and finale is far from I expected and even further from my experiences in Malawi. My journeys throughout the interior have largely uncovered rural people who were genuinely kind and joyful, making me feel safer in pitch-black nights than I do at times in the States. Hospitality was not a pretense for financial exploitation. Villagers brought the firstfruits of their crops to the local churches--their symbolic way of saying that it was more important to them that the Bread of Life go forth rather than feed upon the meager bread of the land.
Did I experience some of the evils of the dependency culture? Certainly. In the cities, under the greatest Western influence, many kids grow up with "money" as the keystone of their meager English vocabulary. Some will accost you and hold their hand before you until you give them money. Others, especially the "mini-bus" drivers, will intentionally and outrageously overcharge Westerners. There is also a general expectation that all Westerners are rich, and in there is no room in that stereotype for the missionary who is serving due to the generosity of others.
All that said, there is (usually) a stark difference between the cities and their Western-crafted culture of dependency and the rural villages and their sense of pride and dignity in their work. There is (usually) a difference between those whose lives revolve around aid agencies and those who lives revolve around the Church. I don't think it's mere coincidence that the Church is hardly given mention in this book.
One of the few occasions is found near the close of the book, when Allis notes that of the many things to change in this remote, transformed village, there is no more church. Looming much larger is the tribal witch doctor with his vicious innoculations and remedies, and tribal superstitions and ceremonies that empower men with AIDS to rape female virgins to cure themselves.
This book, in a bizarre way, reaffirms my love for Malawi--at least the part of Malawi that has remained unspoiled by Western aid. It reaffirms my commitment to Joy to the World, an organization, led by a native Malawian, that offers everything--from a Bible to an innoculation--at a price (an affordable one). Freebies degrade their recipients, leaving them feeling like dependents and not equals. They degrade their providers, turning them into founts of money, not love and compassion. An implicit thesis of this book: Love and compassion recognizes equality. Material aid, apart from such qualities, creates dependency in one generation and hatred in the next.
(Spoiler Alert) As one final, stinging insult to modern African culture and the Western aid that warped it, the one person who Allis could trust and cared for him unconditionally, a precious and dignified sixteen year old girl, is brutally raped by an AIDS-infected man in her last-ditch quest to secure rescue for Allis. What an ugly and poignant analogy--an undefiled culture brutally raped and infected. Allis takes the young woman with him at the end, but the only hope that leaves the reader is one of escape from Africa, not recovery of Africa.
The hope for Africa, as well as America, is found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Life in Christ is one that does not recognize suffering and death as the greatest enemies, but sin. Ultimately, suffering and death as well as the sin at their root is conquered by Christ (1 Cor. 15). Likewise, money is not viewed as the cure for the misdiagnosed disease. If sin is the fundamental problem, then the perfect life and atoning death of Christ is the fundamental answer. Belonging to Christ imbues a sinner with dignity that cannot be bought or taken away with money.
Love is not a transaction made with money, it is the Spiritual overflow of the grateful life in Christ. The love of Christ will abound for the sinner saved by grace in life and death. And we await the day when it will spring forth from the eternal throne of Christ, from which the redeemed from every tribe and tongue will drink and be satisfied.
A story of a man allured by Malawi after decades away intrigued me, to say the least. I expected him to find a changed country, but with the same objects of love hidden beneath the surface. Instead, the story follows a man who finds himself trapped further and further within the interior of a country and culture rotted away by years of Western aid and corruption. His idealism is quickly dashed. He is begged and robbed into poverty and grows sicker and weaker by the day. The beautiful trees are cut away, and the waters flowing into the Zambezi are stagnant and polluted.
In her book, Dead Aid, Malawian-born and Harvard-educated author, Dambisa Moyo, makes the case the foreign aid has not only been unhelpful to Africa, but has largely destroyed it. Theraux's book is an unflinching, pessimistic, all-encompassing portrait of the same truth. Hock is treated by the people he comes to help as a walking ATM, shamelessly exploited by the desperate and greedy. The honorary treatment he sometimes receives is a thinly-veiled veneer for cynical and manipulative ploys to drain the very life from him. (Spoiler Alert) On the verge of being sold into slavery, he is rescued by an embassy official. The book closes with Allis leaving a trail of dust behind his escape vehicle, saved from the ravages of Africa.
As you might expect, the utterly depressing tale and finale is far from I expected and even further from my experiences in Malawi. My journeys throughout the interior have largely uncovered rural people who were genuinely kind and joyful, making me feel safer in pitch-black nights than I do at times in the States. Hospitality was not a pretense for financial exploitation. Villagers brought the firstfruits of their crops to the local churches--their symbolic way of saying that it was more important to them that the Bread of Life go forth rather than feed upon the meager bread of the land.
Did I experience some of the evils of the dependency culture? Certainly. In the cities, under the greatest Western influence, many kids grow up with "money" as the keystone of their meager English vocabulary. Some will accost you and hold their hand before you until you give them money. Others, especially the "mini-bus" drivers, will intentionally and outrageously overcharge Westerners. There is also a general expectation that all Westerners are rich, and in there is no room in that stereotype for the missionary who is serving due to the generosity of others.
All that said, there is (usually) a stark difference between the cities and their Western-crafted culture of dependency and the rural villages and their sense of pride and dignity in their work. There is (usually) a difference between those whose lives revolve around aid agencies and those who lives revolve around the Church. I don't think it's mere coincidence that the Church is hardly given mention in this book.
One of the few occasions is found near the close of the book, when Allis notes that of the many things to change in this remote, transformed village, there is no more church. Looming much larger is the tribal witch doctor with his vicious innoculations and remedies, and tribal superstitions and ceremonies that empower men with AIDS to rape female virgins to cure themselves.
This book, in a bizarre way, reaffirms my love for Malawi--at least the part of Malawi that has remained unspoiled by Western aid. It reaffirms my commitment to Joy to the World, an organization, led by a native Malawian, that offers everything--from a Bible to an innoculation--at a price (an affordable one). Freebies degrade their recipients, leaving them feeling like dependents and not equals. They degrade their providers, turning them into founts of money, not love and compassion. An implicit thesis of this book: Love and compassion recognizes equality. Material aid, apart from such qualities, creates dependency in one generation and hatred in the next.
(Spoiler Alert) As one final, stinging insult to modern African culture and the Western aid that warped it, the one person who Allis could trust and cared for him unconditionally, a precious and dignified sixteen year old girl, is brutally raped by an AIDS-infected man in her last-ditch quest to secure rescue for Allis. What an ugly and poignant analogy--an undefiled culture brutally raped and infected. Allis takes the young woman with him at the end, but the only hope that leaves the reader is one of escape from Africa, not recovery of Africa.
The hope for Africa, as well as America, is found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Life in Christ is one that does not recognize suffering and death as the greatest enemies, but sin. Ultimately, suffering and death as well as the sin at their root is conquered by Christ (1 Cor. 15). Likewise, money is not viewed as the cure for the misdiagnosed disease. If sin is the fundamental problem, then the perfect life and atoning death of Christ is the fundamental answer. Belonging to Christ imbues a sinner with dignity that cannot be bought or taken away with money.
Love is not a transaction made with money, it is the Spiritual overflow of the grateful life in Christ. The love of Christ will abound for the sinner saved by grace in life and death. And we await the day when it will spring forth from the eternal throne of Christ, from which the redeemed from every tribe and tongue will drink and be satisfied.
14.9.13
God Wins
By God's grace, I will have the opportunity to preach for the morning and evening chapel services tomorrow, on my final day at this post. And as you might expect, my mind is detained with thoughts of disease and death.
Putting my own morbidity aside, these thoughts are provoked in part by two items in need of prayer. One, concerning the soldier I mentioned in a previous post--his wife will have the spots removed from her cervix in the next couple of weeks, hoping to avoid the surgery that would remove the cervix entirely. Please pray for his comfort in his helplessness and her strength to prepare for the upcoming steps while also being a single mom to a two-year-old and baby. Two, another soldier just got a Red Cross message. This is one of my soldiers with a pregnant wife at home. They found tumors on the baby's head. The prospects are bleak. Please pray for a miracle. This soldier will travel home soon.
My wife reminds me on occasion that she was pretty oblivious to death until the loss of our friend, Kortney, a couple of years ago. The loss of this precious woman and unborn baby, and the loss to her widower husband was devastating (especially to him!). Since then, my dear wife sees death all around her. It's as if the curtain on this grievously broken world has been cast aside.
But as we stand naked before the inescapable winds of death, we cling more tightly to the cross. We are encompassed by the hand of the Good Shepherd, never to be let go or lost to the wind.
This (5 minute) tear-drawing video reminds us that the truths we confess will one day be the truths we depend upon (and hopefully even now depend upon!):
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2013/05/02/whether-i-live-or-die-god-wins/
And here is the happy outcome:
http://jenmcmanus.blogspot.com/
Putting my own morbidity aside, these thoughts are provoked in part by two items in need of prayer. One, concerning the soldier I mentioned in a previous post--his wife will have the spots removed from her cervix in the next couple of weeks, hoping to avoid the surgery that would remove the cervix entirely. Please pray for his comfort in his helplessness and her strength to prepare for the upcoming steps while also being a single mom to a two-year-old and baby. Two, another soldier just got a Red Cross message. This is one of my soldiers with a pregnant wife at home. They found tumors on the baby's head. The prospects are bleak. Please pray for a miracle. This soldier will travel home soon.
My wife reminds me on occasion that she was pretty oblivious to death until the loss of our friend, Kortney, a couple of years ago. The loss of this precious woman and unborn baby, and the loss to her widower husband was devastating (especially to him!). Since then, my dear wife sees death all around her. It's as if the curtain on this grievously broken world has been cast aside.
But as we stand naked before the inescapable winds of death, we cling more tightly to the cross. We are encompassed by the hand of the Good Shepherd, never to be let go or lost to the wind.
This (5 minute) tear-drawing video reminds us that the truths we confess will one day be the truths we depend upon (and hopefully even now depend upon!):
http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2013/05/02/whether-i-live-or-die-god-wins/
And here is the happy outcome:
http://jenmcmanus.blogspot.com/
13.9.13
5 Reasons to Put Away the Porn (PG-13)
Due to its bold presentation, the universality of its availability, and the treachery of the human heart, porn has a near-dominant grip of men in our society and a sharply growing grip on women.
I talk with soldiers about this issue on occasion. Some celebrate their usage of it; Some are indifferent to their usage of it; Others are bothered or perhaps even repulsed by their struggle with it.
I hear many defenses of porn: "I'm not hurting anybody." "It's okay to look, just not touch." "I'm not looking at any of the hardcore stuff." "My spouse doesn't mind."
Here are five reasons why I believe this addictive epidemic must be fought at all costs:
1) Porn encourages selfishness. Sex is a time-consuming process that requires selflessness to be enjoyable. God created husbands and wives differently. They have very different needs and desires. Sex, unlike porn, requires mental energy, emotional intimacy, and words of affection. Porn, on the other hand, requires nothing but seeking one's own pleasure. It is self-love. And it is easy. There may not be others directly involved in the act, but those figures on the screen are made completely subservient to your pleasure. They are being used so that you can love yourself. And habits of the heart, even those enjoyed only in the dark, tend to become a lifestyle in the light as well.
2) Porn dehumanizes God's image-bearers. God, in His infinite wisdom, did not make men or women as a mere collection of body parts. He made them complex, with thoughts, emotions, moral sensibilities, and weirdness (those peculiar traits that set us apart from one another). He also made men and women very different from one another so that a veil of mystery obstructs easy love. Porn turns these complex people into mere animals, there to give another physical satisfaction, nothing more. All of the other personal dimensions are wiped away. And again, habits of the heart turn into lifestyles. People become what you think and you can not truly love a person unless you love the whole person.
3) Porn never satisfies. Like most addictive drugs, porn creates a yearning that only grows with time. This time, it might be a person in a swimsuit. Next time, that particular image will seem less exciting and more will be desired. Like other addictions, porn can become to take over your life. Hours a day are spent viewing images and videos that are increasingly perverse. Less and less time is spent with other people. More and more, social engagements, work, and other activities are seen as irritating distractions to the all-consuming addiction. That addiction grows until it begins to advance in the realm of the real, where illicit engagements are pursued, even at the cost of a marriage.
There is also great emotional/psychological consequences to porn. Unlike the stereotypes, porn addictions are not only fed by lust, but by loneliness, depression, anger, etc. If you feel rejected by your spouse, you can take refuge in porn. If you feel like no one understands you, you can take refuge in porn. If someone mistreats you, you can give them the other middle finger. But as with the physical component, the emotional rush quickly dissipates into emotions much darker than the ones that led you to that point. You feel even more alone, more unloved, more hopeless.
4) Porn destroys marriages. Spouses do not like being used or dehumanized. A porn addiction leads to that sort of treatment of a spouse. Life and love is no longer about sacrifice for another, but self-fulfillment. And an over-hyper sexual drive can quickly turn the creativity of marital sex into a gymnasium of the perverse. In addition, this seemingly physical act has ramifications for the rest of marriage. Emotional accessibility is blunted. Quality time is consumed. And a part of you is kept separate from your spouse, making them feel cheated, betrayed, and excluded. They are married to half a person, and most people will not suffer half a marriage indefinitely.
5) Porn distracts from what truly satisfies. Like a marital affair in the realm of real life, porn offers something that is already freely given. Song of Solomon talks often about the fulfilling pleasures of sex within marriage. Much of the fulfillment is found in the pleasure of the other, which is an ever-deepening cycle of joy and satisfaction. There is nothing satisfying that can be found in porn or an affair that can't be found with your spouse. Unlike the alternatives, marriage offers true marital satisfaction at the cost of sacrifice. Porn offers superfluous self-love at the cost of selflessness.
And the rich intimacy that can be found in your spouse alone points to the richer intimacy that can be had in Christ alone. Jesus Christ is not merely a buddy or best friend--He is the lover of the soul. The vulnerability, sacrifice, trust--all those things that belong to marriage also belong to those who are in Christ. God knows ever crevice of the soul, even the darkest places, and love the sinner in Christ to the very core of their being. Only He can truly satisfy the soul, and that satisfaction is found in glorifying the God who saved us. In the beauty of God's love for His people in Christ, porn is exposed as offering nothing but deceit and despair.
I talk with soldiers about this issue on occasion. Some celebrate their usage of it; Some are indifferent to their usage of it; Others are bothered or perhaps even repulsed by their struggle with it.
I hear many defenses of porn: "I'm not hurting anybody." "It's okay to look, just not touch." "I'm not looking at any of the hardcore stuff." "My spouse doesn't mind."
Here are five reasons why I believe this addictive epidemic must be fought at all costs:
1) Porn encourages selfishness. Sex is a time-consuming process that requires selflessness to be enjoyable. God created husbands and wives differently. They have very different needs and desires. Sex, unlike porn, requires mental energy, emotional intimacy, and words of affection. Porn, on the other hand, requires nothing but seeking one's own pleasure. It is self-love. And it is easy. There may not be others directly involved in the act, but those figures on the screen are made completely subservient to your pleasure. They are being used so that you can love yourself. And habits of the heart, even those enjoyed only in the dark, tend to become a lifestyle in the light as well.
2) Porn dehumanizes God's image-bearers. God, in His infinite wisdom, did not make men or women as a mere collection of body parts. He made them complex, with thoughts, emotions, moral sensibilities, and weirdness (those peculiar traits that set us apart from one another). He also made men and women very different from one another so that a veil of mystery obstructs easy love. Porn turns these complex people into mere animals, there to give another physical satisfaction, nothing more. All of the other personal dimensions are wiped away. And again, habits of the heart turn into lifestyles. People become what you think and you can not truly love a person unless you love the whole person.
3) Porn never satisfies. Like most addictive drugs, porn creates a yearning that only grows with time. This time, it might be a person in a swimsuit. Next time, that particular image will seem less exciting and more will be desired. Like other addictions, porn can become to take over your life. Hours a day are spent viewing images and videos that are increasingly perverse. Less and less time is spent with other people. More and more, social engagements, work, and other activities are seen as irritating distractions to the all-consuming addiction. That addiction grows until it begins to advance in the realm of the real, where illicit engagements are pursued, even at the cost of a marriage.
There is also great emotional/psychological consequences to porn. Unlike the stereotypes, porn addictions are not only fed by lust, but by loneliness, depression, anger, etc. If you feel rejected by your spouse, you can take refuge in porn. If you feel like no one understands you, you can take refuge in porn. If someone mistreats you, you can give them the other middle finger. But as with the physical component, the emotional rush quickly dissipates into emotions much darker than the ones that led you to that point. You feel even more alone, more unloved, more hopeless.
4) Porn destroys marriages. Spouses do not like being used or dehumanized. A porn addiction leads to that sort of treatment of a spouse. Life and love is no longer about sacrifice for another, but self-fulfillment. And an over-hyper sexual drive can quickly turn the creativity of marital sex into a gymnasium of the perverse. In addition, this seemingly physical act has ramifications for the rest of marriage. Emotional accessibility is blunted. Quality time is consumed. And a part of you is kept separate from your spouse, making them feel cheated, betrayed, and excluded. They are married to half a person, and most people will not suffer half a marriage indefinitely.
5) Porn distracts from what truly satisfies. Like a marital affair in the realm of real life, porn offers something that is already freely given. Song of Solomon talks often about the fulfilling pleasures of sex within marriage. Much of the fulfillment is found in the pleasure of the other, which is an ever-deepening cycle of joy and satisfaction. There is nothing satisfying that can be found in porn or an affair that can't be found with your spouse. Unlike the alternatives, marriage offers true marital satisfaction at the cost of sacrifice. Porn offers superfluous self-love at the cost of selflessness.
And the rich intimacy that can be found in your spouse alone points to the richer intimacy that can be had in Christ alone. Jesus Christ is not merely a buddy or best friend--He is the lover of the soul. The vulnerability, sacrifice, trust--all those things that belong to marriage also belong to those who are in Christ. God knows ever crevice of the soul, even the darkest places, and love the sinner in Christ to the very core of their being. Only He can truly satisfy the soul, and that satisfaction is found in glorifying the God who saved us. In the beauty of God's love for His people in Christ, porn is exposed as offering nothing but deceit and despair.
12.9.13
Rotten in Rome
In a fictional cartoon-movie, all dogs go to heaven. In real life, most people do not.
God makes this abundantly clear throughout Scripture. We are all sinners (rebels against God), and the wages of sin is death. And God does not veil Himself from the eyes of the world--thus, we are left without excuse (Rom. 1). We reject Him because we are dumb, deaf, blind, and treacherous, so that God is justified with He judges (Ps. 51; Rom. 3).
But in God's grace, Jesus was set forth as a sacrifice for sinners (Is. 53). He bore their sin in his body, becoming their sin so they would be the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5). And it is only through Christ that we are saved. He declares Himself to be the way, the truth, and the life--no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14). Following the teaching of their risen and ascended Lord, the apostles taught that there is no other name by which we may be saved (Acts 2). Ultimately, every man will bow the knee to Jesus--either in repentance now or in judgment later (Phil. 2).
Apparently, some of the most notorious figures claiming the name of Christ now deny these fundamental truths. Apparently, the man who claims the position of Christ over the church, Francis, has been swept up in the universalistic tide that has swept through Rome over the past half century and rejects fundamental Christian orthodoxy: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/pope-francis-assures-atheists-you-dont-have-to-believe-in-god-to-go-to-heaven-8810062.html
Rome used to argue that one could not be saved by Christ outside of the Roman church. Shaken out of that blatantly anti-biblical notion, they have declared that all dogs go to heaven, as long as they are good dogs. They have caved to the spirit of the age, where a pagan monism (merging of distinct things into one--opposite of dualism) has blurred the lines of truth.
The orthodox from the early Church through the Reformation had an appropriate label for such teaching coming from a supposedly Christian platform--the spirit of antichrist. Let us hope that the Rome repents of such grievous errors and heresy. Let us hope, for Francis' sake, that he doesn't pin his hopes on his own conscience as he encourages others to do. My conscience, and his, apart from Christ is but another piece of luggage destined for eternal torment. And let us hope that he quickly corrects this false teaching or he will rue the day when he must give an account for it.
My friends, God confronts the lie of our self-righteousness and pretension of self-salvation through His Word of truth. Francis, and much of Rome, condones the lie and the pretension. Love detached from truth is no love at all, but a blood-bearing complicity in death. May God in His abundant grace convict those who uphold the name of Christ in name only, and drive them to zealously guard the truth, beauty, and power of the Gospel of God's grace for sinners in Jesus Christ (Acts 20:24).
God makes this abundantly clear throughout Scripture. We are all sinners (rebels against God), and the wages of sin is death. And God does not veil Himself from the eyes of the world--thus, we are left without excuse (Rom. 1). We reject Him because we are dumb, deaf, blind, and treacherous, so that God is justified with He judges (Ps. 51; Rom. 3).
But in God's grace, Jesus was set forth as a sacrifice for sinners (Is. 53). He bore their sin in his body, becoming their sin so they would be the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5). And it is only through Christ that we are saved. He declares Himself to be the way, the truth, and the life--no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14). Following the teaching of their risen and ascended Lord, the apostles taught that there is no other name by which we may be saved (Acts 2). Ultimately, every man will bow the knee to Jesus--either in repentance now or in judgment later (Phil. 2).
Apparently, some of the most notorious figures claiming the name of Christ now deny these fundamental truths. Apparently, the man who claims the position of Christ over the church, Francis, has been swept up in the universalistic tide that has swept through Rome over the past half century and rejects fundamental Christian orthodoxy: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/pope-francis-assures-atheists-you-dont-have-to-believe-in-god-to-go-to-heaven-8810062.html
The orthodox from the early Church through the Reformation had an appropriate label for such teaching coming from a supposedly Christian platform--the spirit of antichrist. Let us hope that the Rome repents of such grievous errors and heresy. Let us hope, for Francis' sake, that he doesn't pin his hopes on his own conscience as he encourages others to do. My conscience, and his, apart from Christ is but another piece of luggage destined for eternal torment. And let us hope that he quickly corrects this false teaching or he will rue the day when he must give an account for it.
My friends, God confronts the lie of our self-righteousness and pretension of self-salvation through His Word of truth. Francis, and much of Rome, condones the lie and the pretension. Love detached from truth is no love at all, but a blood-bearing complicity in death. May God in His abundant grace convict those who uphold the name of Christ in name only, and drive them to zealously guard the truth, beauty, and power of the Gospel of God's grace for sinners in Jesus Christ (Acts 20:24).
11.9.13
Fighting for Freedom
Tonight, we gathered in a square to remember the loss of 2,998 innocent civilians on 9/11. We stood to commemorate their lives and deaths. We fight to continue their legacy.
On that day thirteen years ago, the free world was painfully reminded that democracy is not the default. Free republics are but islands in an historical sea of tyranny.
On that day, untempered idealism was mingled with sober realism. Blood must always be the price paid to sustain freedom. Yet it is a price that Americans, by the millons, have been willing to pay.
On that day, the most entitled generation in this nation's history was taught responsibility. Their illusions of security without sacrifice crashed down like tumbling towers--they fell from the sky and plowed into the earth like an eagle clipped of its wings in mid-flight.
On that day, America rediscovered itself. It is not a nation of slaves or greed or hubris. It is a nation of free peoples, gathered from all ends of the globe, united in the imperfect pursuit of ideals. These ideals at various times have gone unrealized, but they have never gone unpursued and they remain unconquered.
On this day, a "pastor" who stands outside the confessional contours of orthodox Christianity will use fire to be politically incendiary. His actions are morally repugant, though fully legal.
On this day, a shadow of uncertainty will descend for a time over all those fighting for freedom, anticipating the bloody and violent response to one man's free, incendiary act.
On this day, I am glad that this man is still free. Other cultures will brutally punish the man with the warped conscience. Our culture defends the conscience of every man, recognizing that the conscience is the fount and foundation of freedom and virtue.
On this day, I cannot offer any moral justification for this man, but I can offer my pledge to defend his freedom. Only those left free to cry "Let's roll" will be willing to fight for freedom on the day of its challenging.
On that day thirteen years ago, the free world was painfully reminded that democracy is not the default. Free republics are but islands in an historical sea of tyranny.
On that day, untempered idealism was mingled with sober realism. Blood must always be the price paid to sustain freedom. Yet it is a price that Americans, by the millons, have been willing to pay.
On that day, the most entitled generation in this nation's history was taught responsibility. Their illusions of security without sacrifice crashed down like tumbling towers--they fell from the sky and plowed into the earth like an eagle clipped of its wings in mid-flight.
On that day, America rediscovered itself. It is not a nation of slaves or greed or hubris. It is a nation of free peoples, gathered from all ends of the globe, united in the imperfect pursuit of ideals. These ideals at various times have gone unrealized, but they have never gone unpursued and they remain unconquered.
On this day, a "pastor" who stands outside the confessional contours of orthodox Christianity will use fire to be politically incendiary. His actions are morally repugant, though fully legal.
On this day, a shadow of uncertainty will descend for a time over all those fighting for freedom, anticipating the bloody and violent response to one man's free, incendiary act.
On this day, I am glad that this man is still free. Other cultures will brutally punish the man with the warped conscience. Our culture defends the conscience of every man, recognizing that the conscience is the fount and foundation of freedom and virtue.
On this day, I cannot offer any moral justification for this man, but I can offer my pledge to defend his freedom. Only those left free to cry "Let's roll" will be willing to fight for freedom on the day of its challenging.
10.9.13
Man Made to Marathon
I have just finished the superb book, Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall, which has become a cult classic for most anyone who loves to run.
There was near-unanimous consent in the scientific community over the years that man was fundamentally a walking being. This seemed rather obvious when comparing man with the multitude of animals that can easily outrun him. In the past decade or two, this consensus has been challenged and perhaps even dethroned. In terms of anatomy, man is separated from the most similar species (i.e., monkeys) by elements specifically geared for running--from the achilles tendon to a particular muscles that balances the head over the body to the upright position which allow man to gain two breaths for every stride, compared to every other animal's one.
We were made to run--more than that, we were made to marathon. As some of the last remaining endurance hunters show us (the bushmen of sub-Saharan Africa), man for a portion of his history was forced to rely upon chasing much faster animals down over long periods of time in order to feed himself and his family and survive. How was this possible? Man, using his rational faculty, gathered with other men (and women and children), and would give chase to the faster animal, knowing that it would eventually tire out. Every time the sprinting animal would come to rest, another man from the hunting pack would give chase again. After a couple of hours, said animal collapses. No animal was made to marathon. Man was made to marathon, and that physically set him apart.
Why don't all men, then, love to run and do so for dozens, if not hundreds, of miles a week? Ultimately, man unique physical ability comes into conflict with his unique intellectual ability. As man was made to marathon, as opposed to sprint, his mind is constantly geared toward efficiency, looking to save energy for when it is most needed. In a post-industrial society, not much energy need be exerted in order to survive, so the the mind keeps the body off its feet.
But this mental faculty was meant to give a perpetually worked body a bit of rest, not enable a sedentary lifestyle. And by remaining sedentary, we cause our bodies much more harm than if we had a lifestyle involving running. In cultures that are still running cultures (few and far between), the incidents of cancer and other terminal and degenerative illnesses are vastly reduced. You want to live longer--run (or jog). As one elderly distance runner once said, getting old doesn't keep him running, running keeps him from getting old.
More and more, the science that said running is bad for your body is being debunked. Injuries are not as much a result of running, as they are a result of sedentary people trying to run. People run too hard. They run with very poor form. They wear expensive, padded shoes which take perhaps the most complex and sensitive part of our body (the foot) and numb them to correct landing, taking off, and pain thresholds. Our feet tell us how to run well. Our shoes often muzzle them. (Many recent studies have shown that the more you spend on a pair of shoes, the more likely you are to get injured.)
Of course, I make a boring, more mundane case for a particular lifestyle when the book I just read is really more about the greatest ultramarathon race of all time, between some of America's greatest runners and a dying breed of ultramarathoning super-warriors from the canyons of Mexico. The story presents a riveting narrative, with occasional sidebars like those mentioned above, that makes the reader want to close the book and go run barefoot in the grass without a care in the world.
The one true weakness in a truly fabulous book is its simplistic and forced evolutionary explanations for mankind's running ability. Instead of simply providing the anthropological (study of man--anthropos) and biological (study of life--bios) facts, it parrots a common cosmological (study of world--cosmos) explanation for these facts. If you assume that man adapted in accordance to a "survival of the fittest" principle, then he developed all of these innate running abilities in order to survive. Yet that assumption need not be made. If God made man to subdue the earth, and part of exerting mastery over every creature involved being able to outrun it as well as outwit it, then it shows the creative genius of God in making man with an achilles tendon.
God gave man the biological tools he needed to be a steward of this world as an image-bearing representative of God. Since the fall of man, man's task have become more difficult as he now must toil through thorns and thistles. Thus, an unruly creation sometimes subdues man.
But there will be a day when Christ puts all things under His feet. The lion will sleep alongside the lamb and the trees of the fields will clap their hands. On that day, we will begin to reign forever and ever with Christ over a subdue and bounteous creation, unhindered by the Fall. And on that day, I rejoice that my uniquely human anatomy, with the biological capability to run all day, will do so unfettered by injury or age in the eternal Garden of the Lord.
There was near-unanimous consent in the scientific community over the years that man was fundamentally a walking being. This seemed rather obvious when comparing man with the multitude of animals that can easily outrun him. In the past decade or two, this consensus has been challenged and perhaps even dethroned. In terms of anatomy, man is separated from the most similar species (i.e., monkeys) by elements specifically geared for running--from the achilles tendon to a particular muscles that balances the head over the body to the upright position which allow man to gain two breaths for every stride, compared to every other animal's one.
We were made to run--more than that, we were made to marathon. As some of the last remaining endurance hunters show us (the bushmen of sub-Saharan Africa), man for a portion of his history was forced to rely upon chasing much faster animals down over long periods of time in order to feed himself and his family and survive. How was this possible? Man, using his rational faculty, gathered with other men (and women and children), and would give chase to the faster animal, knowing that it would eventually tire out. Every time the sprinting animal would come to rest, another man from the hunting pack would give chase again. After a couple of hours, said animal collapses. No animal was made to marathon. Man was made to marathon, and that physically set him apart.
Why don't all men, then, love to run and do so for dozens, if not hundreds, of miles a week? Ultimately, man unique physical ability comes into conflict with his unique intellectual ability. As man was made to marathon, as opposed to sprint, his mind is constantly geared toward efficiency, looking to save energy for when it is most needed. In a post-industrial society, not much energy need be exerted in order to survive, so the the mind keeps the body off its feet.
But this mental faculty was meant to give a perpetually worked body a bit of rest, not enable a sedentary lifestyle. And by remaining sedentary, we cause our bodies much more harm than if we had a lifestyle involving running. In cultures that are still running cultures (few and far between), the incidents of cancer and other terminal and degenerative illnesses are vastly reduced. You want to live longer--run (or jog). As one elderly distance runner once said, getting old doesn't keep him running, running keeps him from getting old.
More and more, the science that said running is bad for your body is being debunked. Injuries are not as much a result of running, as they are a result of sedentary people trying to run. People run too hard. They run with very poor form. They wear expensive, padded shoes which take perhaps the most complex and sensitive part of our body (the foot) and numb them to correct landing, taking off, and pain thresholds. Our feet tell us how to run well. Our shoes often muzzle them. (Many recent studies have shown that the more you spend on a pair of shoes, the more likely you are to get injured.)
Of course, I make a boring, more mundane case for a particular lifestyle when the book I just read is really more about the greatest ultramarathon race of all time, between some of America's greatest runners and a dying breed of ultramarathoning super-warriors from the canyons of Mexico. The story presents a riveting narrative, with occasional sidebars like those mentioned above, that makes the reader want to close the book and go run barefoot in the grass without a care in the world.
The one true weakness in a truly fabulous book is its simplistic and forced evolutionary explanations for mankind's running ability. Instead of simply providing the anthropological (study of man--anthropos) and biological (study of life--bios) facts, it parrots a common cosmological (study of world--cosmos) explanation for these facts. If you assume that man adapted in accordance to a "survival of the fittest" principle, then he developed all of these innate running abilities in order to survive. Yet that assumption need not be made. If God made man to subdue the earth, and part of exerting mastery over every creature involved being able to outrun it as well as outwit it, then it shows the creative genius of God in making man with an achilles tendon.
God gave man the biological tools he needed to be a steward of this world as an image-bearing representative of God. Since the fall of man, man's task have become more difficult as he now must toil through thorns and thistles. Thus, an unruly creation sometimes subdues man.
But there will be a day when Christ puts all things under His feet. The lion will sleep alongside the lamb and the trees of the fields will clap their hands. On that day, we will begin to reign forever and ever with Christ over a subdue and bounteous creation, unhindered by the Fall. And on that day, I rejoice that my uniquely human anatomy, with the biological capability to run all day, will do so unfettered by injury or age in the eternal Garden of the Lord.
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