For those of you who will never have time or ability to hike across the wilderness of Zion, and for those of you who care, here are some of the pictures I took Thanksgiving Weekend while other people were shopping. We barely saw anyone, and it was glorious. I wish I could have photographed the stars. Last time I saw the Milky Way that clearly was as a boy. I love that there are untouched places like this where we can wonder in awe at the worlds His hands have made.
I returned today from a back country trek across the wilderness of Zion that constitutes little short of a series of standing miracles. As the Christmas season opens, I think of miracles, of Christ, of meaning, and of what really matters. I can't remember the time I felt so happy to be "home" in my own bed. Every year for Thanksgiving, my family puts notes in a Thankful Turkey to take stock of the miracles in our life. Since I left shortly after dinner with my parents, I didn't participate in either the deposition or the reading of these notes like I have in years passed, but in the quiet morning moments this weekend when it was too cold and dark to move but I was awake, as we stared at the Milky Way in full splendor above our heads at night, and as we drove away from the park, I marveled at all the works God's hand made. Perhaps this is the season of miracles just because we take time to actually notice them.
Miracles that made the wilderness
The trek starts at the Kolob Canyon off I-15 into Zion National Park, but it took us several hours to actually get into position, stationing a car at the end point and then driving back to the start. By the time we hit the trail, the sun was up, so it was comfortable, which was wonderful because it's the end of November and cold. As we walked through the river valleys, climbed the ridges, watched the wild animals, treked across the plateau, looked at the beautiful vistas, and wandered where the deer and the buffalo roam free, I marveled at the hand that built this region and then carved into it. The views were breathtaking, and from the prints on the trail, I can tell that few people see much of what we saw. After the first four miles and before the last four miles, we saw a total of three other people. You think of the challenges living things face, the difficulty of living in a desert environment, and how much they thrive, and it was absolutely breathtaking, worth every bit of effort and strain and money to make this trek finally happen. More than that, you consider the miracles of time to first make it look like this and then to have it look this fantastic when we made our way into that pristine region.
Miracles that saved us in the wilderness
When you consider the possibilities for things to go wrong and the lack of likely assistance in case of trouble, it's a miracle we made it back in good order. Although it snowed Monday, by the time we arrived, all that remained of that was muddy and icy sections that were shaded all day. We took plenty of water didn't need to filter any, having overhydrated before leaving just in case. A storm blew in last night, but we were on the last seven miles of the total 35.7 mile stretch when we finally hit any bad weather. The car wouldn't start when we finally reached it, but after a brief prayer, I felt impressed to check the battery and found that driving over unimproved roads had simply loosened the battery cable, and we were on our way only 10 minutes after discovering the problem. Nobody got hurt. It was probably the best possible outcome considering the time of year.
Miracle of my daily blessings
Returning to my own place, I remain cognizant of how well I have things. I don't have to camp or farm or hunt or walk 17 miles per day in rough country. I have a nice bed, warm clothes, plenty of delicious food, adventurous and reliable friends, a decent job, and the physical, psychological, and intellectual capacity to make these treks and do so successfully. When I consider the miracles that came together to create the world, the society, and the living standard that we take for granted, I know that we are blessed with the bounty of heaven. I chose to make this trek, and I was able to return to the comfortable and profitable life I enjoy. Maybe that's one reason why I like hiking, camping, and exploring, because it reminds me when I return of just how many miracles my life contains. My needs are small; I buy them all at the nickel and dime.
There's so much for which to be thankful, and not just because it's that time of year. I guess at Thanksgiving we just get a chance to focus on it and realize after taking stock just how many miracles we see. I'm still counting on that Season of Perpetual Hope, that a particular miracle will still be mine. I haven't given up hope. Midian had a giant army; Gideon's handful had God. Sarah's too old to have children, but she has one just the same. The blind see, the lame walk, and people's hearts are turned to one another. Wondrous things have been made, and more will be made. God brought me to a land of promise before, so when He decides to do so again it will. May you see the miracles already done, those being done right now and room for more in your future this Christmas season. God bless us, every one.
Although they say that if you aren't liberal when you're young you have no heart, I don't think that's true. If you read this blog regularly, you know that I care about people and that my heart bleeds for one particular and practically perfect person. That being said, I have never been a liberal- I have never believed in expediency. I don't believe in a "living and breathing" set of rules that is always integrated at every point to justify and advance what you already happen to believe. Liberalism is, as Rush Limbaugh asserts, lies. It's pushed by the Father of All Lies. It's built upon the notion that everyone has a price, and that everyone can be bought with "stuff". It relies upon propaganda in the guise of "education" and trusts that people won't do their own homework or stand up for dissident beliefs. It excuses everything on intentions regardless of actions and claims that the ends always justify the means. In all of that, liberalism projects these faults on its OPPOSITION and slanders and libels conservatives. One of my former students actually retweeted this week the asinine notion that Democrats ended slavery. Really? You must be joking! At the end of the day, I have a conscience, which is why I have been and always was a Conservative. I realize this may cost me friends, dating prospects, promotions, etc. Well, you can keep that mess of pottage. I am a Child of God, and I won't deny Him.
Liberals will always think that YOU have too much money until you have none at all. When I was 12, I inherited from a distant relative whose identity doesn't matter a sum of stock transferred to my name. Shortly after Bill Clinton won the presidency, the tax laws changed, and I was charged some small amount (I think it was $38) in income tax because capital gains were taxed regardless of income. This was done to catch all those "rich" people who don't earn money by going to a job, but since it caught me, at the age of 14, I was upset that I had to pay money for the right to keep my own money. Now that I'm an adult, I watch liberals propose programs essentially designed to buy votes, where in exchange for power they provide pelf, in many cases under false pretenses. Some of them will say, "here are these six onties of silver, which I will give you if you deny what you believe" and some people take it! Selling your soul for silver makes you weak. The rest of the time, they promise you a free lunch and then try to buy you with your own money sometimes and get you to agree with them for personal profit. Well, my soul is not for sale. I work very hard to provide what I desire and to care for people I love, but I do not know you, and most of you don't like me, so why would I be working to help people who hate me? Our calamity is sometimes exacerbated by the realization that we furnish the means by which we suffer.
During that same year, my parents gifted me the complete works of CS Lewis, chiefly amongst them "The Screwtape Letters". For those who don't know, that particular book contains fictitious correspondence between two devils attempting to lead a man astray during WWII in Great Britain. The more I read, the more I experienced things that I felt, that people around me tried to prevail upon me to believe, and that the government, media, and liberals preached as doctrine issue straight from Screwtape's mouth as advice about what Wormwood ought say to his "patient" in order to mislead and destroy him. Just inside the front cover, I wrote in pencil back in 1995: "Nothing convinced me more that liberalism is the philosophy of hell than reading this book". I've alluded to it on this blog before, so I won't belabor the point, but the same arguments, the same topics, the same ideas I hear issue from the mouths of liberals today were plied by the pied pipers of prosperity back in the 1960s just as vigorously as they are today. Consequently, as liberal ideas paraded before my eyes in high school and college I knew they were the techniques of the adversary of truth and disregarded them.
At almost every juncture, liberals appear to be the biggest hypocrites on the planet. Sure, other people make mistakes, but I have watched liberals talk out of both sides of their mouth as well as do the opposite of what they say WHILE saying it! A memorable majority of garbage we find on the trail evinces the passage of those "environmentally conscious" persons who buy power bars, special trail foods, energy drinks, and the like. Almost everyone I have to lecture on trail etiquette, camping regulations, and dog handling on the mountain shops at REI, Patagonia, the North Face, etc., companies who give some fraction of their funds to "save the planet", I guess because their customers destroy it. Many liberals complain about wealth but do not understand that compared to most people they are rich beyond the dreams of avarice, and while they prattle about carbon emissions and drive their fancy cars and fly their private jets it never dawns on them that they're part of the problem. Liberals are the people who always end up unfriending me because of my religion or politics, even if they are liberal republicans. While they require me to tolerate them, they also require that I become what they tolerate. Some of them who read this blog will say that they hope we can still come to an understanding, but they never seem willing to compromise on THEIR narrow vision or admit error.
As much as finances, education, and behavior influenced my beliefs, the greatest influence on who I am, what I believe, and how I live originates with my Faith. Even though it grows increasingly passe to stick on the side of God and stand for right, and even if I stand alone, I continue to adhere to the directions and commandments I understood and understand to be the word of God. He has declared certain behaviors, beliefs, patterns, and circumstances to be contrary to His will, and so no matter what the Wicked Traditions of Our Fathers may allege, I will choose the Lord. The Pope, some politicians, and even some prominent members of my Faith may change with the times for the sake of "political correctness", but making something legal does not make it ethical or moral, and neither does making it popular or common. I continue to maintain that there are laws irrevocably decreed in heaven. This is where I am; this is where I will stay, and I will not be moved. My ally is God Almighty, and you cannot do anything to me unless He gives you permission (that's the lesson of Job). I will follow the law, the Law, and the Lawgiver. I will not presume to be wise enough or almighty enough to formulate better ones or to supplant them in their place. Choose Ye This Day whom Ye will serve. If you choose to serve mammon, then we're not going to be close friends or anything else. We don't have enough common ground, and the ground on which you decided to plant your flag is built upon the sand, which eventually cannot stay in the storms of Truth like you could if you were built on the Rock. I may disappoint God sometimes, but I'm not intentionally fighting against Him, and at least, unlike many liberals, I'm willing to admit "I might be wrong".
The problem with leadership in the world as I see it, at least in America, is that although people may graduate from high school, some people never actually leave it. The adolescent attitudes of high school permeate the adult world far more than I expected or like. The petty, shallow, vapid, and false fronts of that stage continue to parade a company of players into our lives, most of whom are playing you for a fool. They are not the best, the wisest, or people who know how to move forward. They think they are experts, but they were poorly educated, mostly with propaganda, and so there is a great dearth of understanding between what they believe and what is real. It's really a case study in pavlovian logic, that these pretty people are actually petty and think that they are enlightened but other people are dumb, deluded, and deceived. That's usually the case with young people, most of whom are out there absolutely atwitter that Hillary got Trumped. The problem is when they never actually grow up because it tends to mess up the world for those who do.
In high school, the popular kids rose to positions of prominence. How many times have you seen someone, perhaps yourself, cast a vote because you "recognized the name" but knew nothing else about it? Much of the prominence in high school is due to visibility rather than morality, charisma rather than character, and promises rather than prescience. The prom king and queen are usually both known, both attractive, and both magnetic personalities. In some rare cases there are notable exceptions, but only because the "beautiful people" and "important people" band together to make it so. Unless you are one of their MyFaves, you don't stand a chance in the pecking order of high school. These people in adulthood continue to maintain the misbegotten notion that worth is tied to titles, power, and influence, and consequently they seek after these things in professional capacities in order to reassure themselves that people still like, adore, and need them. They crave POWER. They love how once they get into leadership positions that people bow to them, fawn over them, and depend on them. Empty and vacuous, these people enter politics and leadership in an attempt to relive the glory days and feel better because they secretly loathe themselves. If you look at many of the best leaders in history, they were people who took charge because of necessity rather than true desire. The best people in high school do not enter student government, become cheerleaders, etc., as a rule, because they are busy preparing in high school to be successful elsewhere. If the need arises, in the moment, these beta personalities will rise up and take charge, but then they go right back to what they truly love as soon as possible because they do not depend on validation.
Back in high school, the powerful kids did so because they had nothing else to offer except as a figurehead, a mascot, and a beacon. Especially in light of yesterday's election results, how many of those candidates are the most moral, the most capable, and the most desireable? In point of fact, candidates of both parties are actually morally bankrupt, intellectually bereft, and lacking sorely in actual achievements. Sure, they may be rich and famous, but so what? There are lots of rich people and lots of famous people who make very little difference in your life at sidewalk level. Most of what they offered in high school to gain fame and position was and is fake. Their wealth usually came from wealthy parents. They bought friendships with fancy cars, lavish parties, gifts, and physical intimacy. The cool kids only talked to me when they needed something, usually hoping to copy off my homework or get free tutoring once they realized they didn't even have to sleep with me to get my help. Far too many of these people peak early and fade away, and you know the cliche of how the cool kids at the 20 year reunion are hardly recognizable let alone laudable, because that was their glory period.
Young people were insufferable know-it-alls back then and continue to be so in adulthood if they don't leave high school. It amazes me when a former cheerleader knows everything about everything when they barely made it to graduation. It amazes me that jocks are experts because they are rich or hot. They don't know anything, but people turn to celebrities for answers and perspective because they are known and not because they are credentialed. You know the aphorism: "Hurry and move out while you still know everything", but these adults still think they know all the answers. So much of this comes in false premise, logical fallacy, and outright deceit from the people to whom they look up. They really believe the tripe they feed each other about the rosy outcomes that MIGHT be. They truly believe that tyranny leads to liberty because their leaders say so. They are always right about everything, and so these naive people, inflamed with hope and ignorant of human nature, presume the best and make no provision for the worst. They think that if they change human behavior it will change human nature. They may know a great deal about their specific area of expertise, since they work in some field, but they presume expertise in related, tagiential, and unrelated areas, and they cannot be turned because they do not learn. When men are learned, they think they are wise and do not hearken to other counsels and dissenting opinions. In many cases, although the beautiful people in high school of yesteryear do things for power and advancement, they think that adults do not care about money or titles or rewards when adults say that. Nevermind that they don't believe that when their own parents say that. They're in love with "grandpa bernie". They actually think that their leaders give a flying pinwheel about them. They can't; they don't know you. Their kindness is largely imaginary, but their hatred towards their opponents is fully real, despite the theater we saw today from the "gracious" concession to Trump. They are ignorant of history and don't want to know about what happened before they are born, so the history they believe becomes canonical, and in many cases, in order to justify their own hatred, they link modern events to historical ones, imbibed with hatred to rationalize the caricatures they create. They hate homework, so they don't do any legwork to find out anything besides what they are told is so. Their leaders spoonfeed them hogwash, and the parliament jester's foist works on this somnambulent public. Terry Goodkind wrote in "Wizard's First Rule" that people will believe a lie for one of two reasons. In the first part, they believe it because they hope it's true. Young people the things their candidates and leaders say will happen, often without regard for the integrity of those making the promises or without introspect into their past proclivities to keep promises. On the second hand, people believe lies they fear might be true. Young people believe the fearmongering their side uses in caricature to slander and libel their opponents because they believe in their guys. It's perfectly normal. You like who you like, and you don't really know if you like other people.
While young people fear the "tyranny of the right" they busy themselves imposing their will on the right, and on everyone really. They do precisely to others what they claim those others do to them. Our young people may be the future, but only if they grow up. Far too many of them still live in and venerate the laws of the jungle that apply in high school, and we continue to pay the price for it. Our leaders aren't wiser; they're prettier. Our leaders aren't better; they're vacuous. Our leaders don't learn; they assume. They exist in both parties, and this adolescent attitude is my major critique against most candidates who do not live in the real world but hold on tightly to vestiges of the fairy tale land that established expectations in their youth. The only way to arrive at a good outcome is to admit where you really are, and only when they live in the real world.
A lot of young people now remember the Fifth of November, but very few of them really understand what it truly means. Coopted by the Occupy Wall Street movement, the image of Guy Fawkes has become associated with something somewhat skew from its original intent, as a new version of "rage against the machine" without bothering to identify what the "machine" means. Young people may foment and rant about big business, but it is big government that always does the most to reduce human options, human potential, human liberty, and human happiness. Guy Fawkes, and the Gunpowder Treason, were not about what people think. This was about LIBERTY. It was about an idea that men ought to be agents rather than objects, that government was bloated and oppressive, that it was inefficient and corrupt, and that when a man stands up against tyranny he might actually change the world. As you go to vote next week remember that although Fawkes failed, 276 years later, in Philadelphia, another group of men started a movement that succeeded and gave us the liberty that we do enjoy, a freer country than the world had know for centuries, if we can keep it.
Guy Fawkes belonged to a group that felt that the central government of Britain had too much power. Ironically enough, the ensconced government managed to convince a plurality of young people that it intends to increase freedom. How, exactly? The liberal left hates religion, guns, conservative freedom of speech, the Constitution, election law, law in general, police, etc., all of which are actually part of our law and legal system. How does that increase freedom to flaunt the law? What they really mean is they want to control HOW you are free. Well, if rights come from man, and Barack Obama believes that they do, then it is government's power to give or take them at will. This is actually the opinion of feudal lords, or in other words the same opinions about government and its relationship to the people held by the powers Fawkes intended to disrupt. His efforts were aimed at taking government's eye off oppression of the people and focusing on itself. Far too many of our leaders, including Donald Trump if he is elected, think that "whatsoever a man doeth is no crime" if it's legal. Well, that's because they do not believe in natural law. Sure they believe in what they call "science", and they claim they believe in karma, but who decides what constitutes reason and good karma without a standard, which is something in which our leaders do not really believe. It's a convenient religion to worship government, but that's just as bad as if not worse than trusting in men of the cloth because every man is flawed in some way, and so what they do cannot possibly ever be perfect.
Guy Fawkes' actions were designed to reduce the efficacy of government overreach. A large explosion in a building housing the bureaucracy would provide a significant setback four centuries ago to the administrative state's ability to harass, delay, and defraud the populace. Rather than looking outward, they would have to put things back together before any foray out to harass the citizenry could be effectively mounted. The king of England was the final word. With the creation of the Anglican Church under Henry, the king wasn't just the political and military leader, he WAS god. Rights, gifts, and everything were up to him, and that was an ideal as offensive and vile as any the people of that island ever knew, because as flawed as they were they at least meant to worship God. "There is God and there is government. God is greater than government, and government doesn't like that" (Inga Barks). Whenever any government becomes disruptive of our rights under natural law, it is our right and responsibility to resist. Fawkes did so violently. Others do so peacably, but he did something, and as Teddy Roosevelt would say, credit goes to the man in the arena, and that's why we remember Fawkes.
Guy Fawkes Day occurs near election day every year in America and ought to remind us why the gunpowder treason got started in the first place and its relationship to American Liberty. In truth, the events his failed actions set in motion eventually precipitated the American Revolutionary War because the government of King James and the government of King George both enslaved the people to their government. The tyranny of British Monarchy demanded loyalty and offered nothing in return. It was long on talk and short on action, and so both of these dynasties eventually fell for the same reason. Although destroying Parliament would not defeat Britain, Fawkes and his fellows knew that symbols are given power by people and that if enough people got behind it, it would change the world. It didn't work in 1604, but in 1776, the symbols in America DID work to galvanize a continent to throw off the oppression of an island.
This election day, we have a choice between a candidate who will do whatever it takes to centralize power in government and a buffoon. Hillary Clinton has shown for 30 years that she will do whatever it takes to empower government and by association empower her since she's part of executing government mandates, no matter what it costs you. Her final stretch ads claim that she will rebuilt America- an America she essentially destroyed. Despite what Clinton claims, she is not interested in expanding your options; she is interested in dictating which ones you have, even if they are ones you desire. I grow tired of her ads on youtube claiming that she campaigns to help children when she ignores the potential of a fetus to become a full-fledged citizen; liberals do not care about your potential, because they believe it's unfair for people to not be equal in every way (except of course for them, they may be whatever they like). Liberals do not believe in freedom the way we mean it; they mean to be free from restraints, except those restraints they happen to feel ought be imposed upon you at this moment, and they encourage behaviors that enslave the mind and body (drugs, sex, etc.). Where on earth are liberals actually happy? They claim they just need a little more time, a little more power, and a little more money, and THEN they will be able to deliver on their promises, but this is a lie. If they deliver, and you become happy, you will not need them, and they cannot abide that. According to them, you will always have too much freedom and too much money until you have none at all of either, and even then they may, as they did in Europe, squeeze it out of you or incarcerate you for inability to pay tax.
Tuesday I arrived on campus to see a table outside manned by young, idealistic, and foolish young people in favor of increasing background checks on guns in Nevada. As much as I appreciate their zealotry and enthusiasm, it's based on several pieces of flawed logic. Since they are young people, they still believe in the world the way they wish it were and will be and discount human nature. They still think that things are simple, that people are predictable, and that what they are doing will lead to the outcome for which they hope just because it might. Well, this is not an effective way to achieve the outcome they allegedly seek. They may not really mean it the way they sell it, but if they do mean it honestly and earnestly, they are ignoring a few facts, behaviors, and statistics that show that this road does not lead where they think it will and that increased background checks will not necessarily make the state safer.
False Logic #1: Background checks are not currently done enough to deter crime
Background checks are actually only required right now in Nevada if you buy a gun in Clark or Washoe County. In the rural areas, there are no background checks at all, so the simple answer could have been to simply drive to Ely or Wells or Schurz and buy one in a county where they don't ask any questions. However, most people who obtain guns don't do that, even though it's not technically illegal. The only way to get a gun in Clark County without a background check is to meet someone in a parking lot based on an internet ad and buy one out of his car. Even then, most people in those ads insist on seeing some sort of paperwork or ID before they will sell a gun. It's not 100% effective, but it does deter most law-abiding citizens from transacting sales with criminals and miscreants. You have to prove you live in NV, that you either bought a gun legally (blue card) or have a CCW.
False Logic #2: Background checks will keep guns out of the hands of criminals
By definition, criminals are people who do not care what the law says. Criminals always get things even if they are illegal- drugs, hookers, jobs, promotions, elected to public office, guns, etc. Police statistics in Clark County show that 99.9% of gun violence is perpetrated by people who shouldn't have a gun who obtained it by illegal means. Criminals do not show up to do background checks; they know they won't pass. They get guns elsewhere, and they will always find a way to get them even when it's difficult for you. These young people, foolishly naive, think that more laws mean lower crime; well, then why are people killed with guns in Chicago, where owning guns is illegal? It's a canard that background checks will affect anyone other than law-abiding citizens who will have to pay the price to get one if they desire and to defend themselves against one if a criminal arrives and shoots them. A month ago, my friend's neighbor awoke one morning to find a burglar armed with a gun standing at the foot of his bed and shot him with his own .357, and guess what- the burglar didn't get the gun legally. He stole the gun. That's what usually happens.
False Logic #3: Background checks will reduce violent crime
Even if you keep guns out of the hands of criminals, it will neither prevent them using other weapons nor deter them from violent crime. No criminal says "Crap, can't buy a gun? Now I can't rob the liquor store." In point of fact, in Europe where they have strict gun laws, many of the Islamic facists who attack Europeans are now doing it with knives, axes, ad infinitum. You do not need a gun to kill someone. Wars throughout recorded time prove that. Back in May when I was mugged on the way home, my attacker didn't even have a weapon on him, which is one reason I didn't feel threatened. When he escalated to assault, he used a weapon of opportunity and threw a floor tile fragment at me, hitting me in the back. He is alive because I, as a responsible gun owner, didn't mow him down where he stood, because with a .357mag, I could have certainly put a stop to his crime spree single-handedly. I was robbed because he does not have a conscience. Criminals are criminals. They will do what they do no matter what laws you pass.
CS Lewis criticized this kind of blind naivete. He wrote in Mere Christianity how the world works from the outside in, hoping that changing behavior will lead to the right result without acknowledging human nature. Many of our laws ignore basic human nature, human behavior, and assume that if they DO a certain thing they must BE a certain way. Being begets doing, but doing does not necessarily lead to being. Background checks will not work because they will only work on people who would already obey the law if it were in print; the criminals would ignore it no matter what it says. Criminals do not need guns, and keeping guns out of the way of people sets them up to be easier targets of violent crime. Since being mugged, I have carried my revolver on my hip with me to the store some evenings. My presence alone deters shoplifters, profanity, and jaywalking. I don't brandish it, but the criminals know that if I pull it, if it's loaded, and if I know how to use it, their lives may never be the same.
I've never truly been excited to vote, but I do because it's a privilege, honour, duty, and commandment to do so. Voting is a blessing, a privilege, granted to a veritable few in context of human history and the present world population. Many people don't take it seriously, and many of those who do vote for things I detest, but it is a fundamental principle that men have moral agency. Our one true God gives us freedom to choose for ourselves- liberty and eternal life, or captivity and death. So, on or before November 8th this year, I will go down and exercise a divine right, granted by our Constitution, inspired by our Creator, and historically true to God's behavior and interpolations in the actions of man.
God has always desired His people to be free. For this reason, He promised a Savior. For this reason, He led Israel out of Egypt. For this reason, slavery and debt and caste stratification are eschewed by those who truly love and worship Him. Benjamin Franklin suggested that the national motto of the United States ought to be "Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God". Whether the tyrants were slave masters, foolish Pharisees, a wicked king anointed by the prophet, or a corrupt judge who sells his judgments for 20 pieces of silver, God allows and encourages His people to choose. Prior to the reign of Saul, God's people were ruled by His laws without the interference or involvement of men. After the tradition of Moses, who appointed others to assist him in the arbitration that arose from violations of the Mosaic Law, once in Canaan, Israel established a series of Judges. These men spoke on God's behalf, served at the will of the people, and didn't pass on their position by virtue of inheritance. We know this because Samuel, the prophet who later anointed Saul king, served under the Priest Eli, who was chastised while Samuel was very young for being part of a corrupt heritable patriarchal order with his sons, both of whom were slain by God. This is in large part why bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people. God does not interfere to respect their agency, and He expects us to use ours wisely and well.
The Constitution and Declaration of Independence are inspired documents. Mathematically, the odds of those men being born in the same region at the same era under the same circumstances, not to mention the chance of actually winning or composing something on which a plurality would agree, defy the odds of winning roulette in Vegas. Instead, they came, they came together, and they set up a system that allows us to come choose our own heads in the tradition of ancient Israel. Enshrined in those documents we find the pieces of truth these Founding Fathers were willing and able to receive and wisely use. In my Faith, previous church leaders officially declared these papers to be inspired works, although they are not necessarily canon, and we take it seriously to sustain and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. As part of the government established by these documents, we vote for our leaders, and with that opportunity to vote comes the concomitant responsibility to select the choicest candidates we can. I won't comment here on how many candidates next month lie far from choice, but we are supposed to pick the people we best believe will "lay its foundations in such principles and organize its powers in such forms as shall seem to them most likely to secure their safety and happiness" (Declaration). Our government has God's fingerprints on it, and so it pleases God that we vote and moreso when we vote wisely.
Agency is essential to God's plan and free, civil society. True, the dark side is quicker, easier, more seductive, and I understand the temptation to treat people as objects rather than agents and dictate to them, but there is no virtue in using the Adversary's methods to achieve the Father's plan. For that reason, Lucifer was cast out of heaven and God's presence in favor of Jesus coming to atone for men and alleviate the consequences of our mistakes and rebellions for those who care to apply the atonement. Sometimes our choices are not great. Sometimes, we have to choose between trading one tyranny for another and losing a woman that you love. Sometimes the only thing to do is to trust God. Sometimes, our choices are between the lesser of two evils. Ultimately the only choices that actually elevate our state are those that show love to God and our fellowmen. most people love themselves, and since those people are the ones most likely to run for office, we find that our choices often do not include the people we prefer. My ancestors had a saying that power is for those willing to stoop low enough to take it. I know that these moments are ultimately tests of character, and I know that character matters most, and so I will go vote and do the best I can to give God and His children the best chance they have to continue exercising their agency in every aspect of their lives possible.
We feel powerless sometimes because experience teaches us that we rarely get what we deserve, but we forget that what we send out always comes back to us. Sometimes it doesn't come in the manner or the timing we expect, but it comes back somehow, some way. Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the son of God, and the fullness of my intent is that I may persuade men to come to God and be saved. There is a very good reason that the tag line of this blog is taken from Deuteronomy 10:25 which says "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land and to all the inhabitants thereof." I believe that is my purpose in life, and so I try to talk about it on this blog, with my friends, with students, with strangers, and with all who will listen. When Jesus came of age and went to read in the synagogue, He read this verse from Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord". Liberty, freedom, good news, opportunity, happiness, and what God truly desires for His people- to be free. That is the way God always works. This is the way He works among this people today. He inspired men to establish a government in this land where people could choose liberty and life and happiness. As long as we have that power, it's one we ought to exercise. Life, liberty, and the pursuit. That means something to me.
Far too many people equate charity with service without asking why we have two different words to describe what appears to be the same thing. While service is about doing, charity is about being; service is how we are but charity is what we are. It is difficult because the world distracts us with din and dissonance, calling a spade a club and a circle a square, but we are not really asked to just do things in order to show what master we truly serve. Being begets doing, or in other words our actions will evince who and what we truly are and value. We read in Luke 10:27 "And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself." Immediately after declaring this, Jesus dictated to them the parable of the good samaritan, the well-known story of service, sacrifice, and selflessness that borders on heroic. While inspiring us, at the same time, it may cause us to condemn ourselves as we realize how many opportunities we miss to reach out in small ways to the people around us or feeling hurt that in our darkest hours nobody seemed to be there. At some point in life, everyone comes into dire circumstances that necessitate help, and at some point each of us will see one of those people and have the opportunity and onus to help. Some of those people will be people we dislike, or people we don't think deserve our help, or people that won't accept it, but in that moment, how we act will show what we really think of God in the manifestation of how we treat His children.
At the very least, when others come into duress, we should notice. Even in the parable aforementioned, the priest and levite knew that the victim needed help. They didn't even bother to notify anyone else so that he could get help. Often, in our haste to get from A to B in our lives, we don't plan ahead well in order to avail ourselves of opportunities to help, but things do happen of which someone ought be made aware. Ironically enough, most of the time, people just need to be noticed or acknowledged in some way in order to have part of their burden lifted, because most people are lonely, or unsure, or they think less of themselves than they ought. Wednesday night before class, I met student worker Paul, about whom I wrote some time back, while walking to class, and because he seemed down, I stopped to chat with him. Sure enough, all I had to do was talk in order to make a difference, and I think he felt better. This level of service frequently costs you nothing except time and some air, both of which we pass anyway and frequently in things of no moment, in order to make someone's moment in the moment. Christ did this. He called out the woman who touched Him, not to make her selfconscious but to teach her that He noticed her, loved her, and valued her, and that's what service is supposed to achieve- making others feel, not just that they are made of matter, but that they do matter.
Service to others asks us to give what we can. It really doesn't cost us very much to make some sort of gesture, and there are people out there who genuinely need and appreciate small efforts. Each Saturday afternoon, a group of Harley Davidsons gathers to feed the homeless just north of the Vegas Strip. The food isn't noteworthy or particularly abundant, and the recipients are rather uncouth by visual and behavioral standards, but they appreciate the gesture, and both groups benefit from the virtues of the other. It really would have taken nothing for the levite and priest to drop some coins, to leave a tankard of water, or to cover the wounded man. In fact, their arguments seem invalid if they were willing to at least make a token gesture. Even if it wasn't what the man needed or wanted, and even if he wasn't conscious to know, it would still be a blessing, and the giver would gain God's blessing for his service. My next door neighbor took in a congregant of his faith who lost almost everything when he was robbed and his house burnt to the ground. Jeff isn't home much, so it doesn't put him out a great deal, and the man has a place to stay and things for comfort until he can get back on his own feet. At the very least, service involves an effort to empower others to lift themselves. Sure, there is a minor upset to his routine, perhaps his budget, and his privacy, but he was able to share some of his to help before moving on with his normal plans. This is where most "charity" ends, with service, where it doesn't really ask you to give anything of yourself, and most of the people who claim to be charitable stop here, because it's the least intrusive and painful effort with the maximum potential for visibility.
Valiant service asks us to give, not just to our convenience, but to the ultimate healing of the wounded. Notice in the story that the Samaritan tells the innkeeper that, in addition to paying for things with coins he leaves behind, to take whatever care is necessary and that he will be paid when the man returns. This isn't just service. This is heroic. At the time of his departure, the man was rescued, recovering, and rejuvenated, and although you can't really regain your previous status, it was essentially the same as if he'd never been robbed minus the loss of his wares. However, the good Samaritan wanted to make sure that NOTHING was lost to this man, and he paid to make sure that the man got right back on the path as if he never left it. How many people, especially those who prattle their own virtues and preach charitable service, ever found a homeless man, got him showered and shaved, bought him a custom suit, arranged for a job interview, and put him up until he was on his own? True charity, even in its lowest form, invites us to not wait until others can lift themselves but to lift them because we can. One of the reasons I go hiking each week, aside from my own desires, is to help out my buddy, who has some issues. Between his military service, the death of his parents last year (due to old age at least), and the murder of our common friend in 2013, without our regular romps, he fears he would go out of his mind. He does not believe his family can or will understand or that they even care, and so when he needs help he calls me. I am now the holder of the note on his house because I don't need the money, but because he couldn't pay attention to the payments and almost lost it to foreclosure. When we get together on the mountain, he leaves behind his bad habits and some of the bad memories and goes to a higher place. Not all wounds are physical, and not all needs can be served, solved and salved with monetary outlay.
Discipleship demands that we do what Christ would have us do. It is not enough to feed, to clothe, to pay for, and to otherwise lend assistance. It is also essential to lift them to a higher place. It was not enough for Christ to simply remediate their plight; He invited the disciples to come and follow Him, giving up all other worldly previous pursuits and follow Him remediating the plights of others. Only in losing our life can we truly discover it. When the rich man came, Christ told him to give up EVERYTHING and follow Christ. It's very rare that we do this, and it's not often asked or recommended, but only in this can true charity be found. When we think of the truly charitable, they are not people who have foundations and give large sacks of money or hefty sums in philanthropic gestures. The truly charitable are people like Mother Theresa, who gave EVERYTHING in order to be of service to her neighbors. Far too many of the elite among us talk of charity only when it doesn't cost them anything, but that's not what charity asks. Most people do not really need things, and the things we give them do not really help. What most people really need is love. What they really need is for us to BE Christians, to comfort the weary, to visit the sick, to give of our time, our talents, and our very essence. We can always get more money, sometimes in illegal or immoral ways, but we cannot simply go out and get more character, and you do not get good character by illegal or immoral means. Jesus spent time with the unloveable, the unwelcome; He forgave the prodigal and the erred; He healed people of their SINS before caring about their infirmities. Essentially, Jesus showed other people that they mattered more than any thing a man might give or possess or seek, that it was about people and not about the adornments, vestments, and baubles we usually use to stratify one another. True charity treats people as they really are rather than what we assume based on the imperfect and partial information we possess- as Children of God. My Sunday School class last Sunday admitted that it probably displeases God when we sing "I am a Child of God" and then focus on our weaknesses. Most burdens are not physical and cannot be solved by throwing money at them, and most people remember the giver far more than they remember the amount given. In the parable, although the good Samaritan also gave much of his substance, he gave much more- he showed that this stranger mattered. We only truly possess charity when we fight for, work with, and give aid to people we do not know and in particular that we do not like. Jesus ate with publicans and sinners. A harlot cleaned his feet with her tears. He didn't seek out the wicked, but He saw them for what they were rather than just seeing what they did- as children of His father, God.
Far too much of what we assume to be charitable is the letter of the law rather than the spirit and about us more than it is about those we claim to serve. At both ends of the spectrum, we pay attention to people, not because they are statistics or because we are statistics, and not to reach goals, but because people matter. The Samaritan was chosen as the hero because he was the person least likely to intercede- he was unliked and unwelcome among the Jewish people, not because of what he believed but because of some label given to him by others for something he did not control. In the end, he showed that he saw people as they were and for what they really needed. He wasn't content to simply call 911 and report an accident or shoot video on his phone to upload later for lolz. He wasn't content to toss some coins in a jar or leave something or just tear his sandwich in half and share. He wasn't content to simply throw money at the Samaritan. He didn't have to care about what happened in the inn when he returned, but he did. He was HEROIC. Maybe you aren't, and if not, that's ok. What is important to understand is that there is a higher law, a higher ideal, and a higher expectation. What matters is that we remember that people are primary. Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved (Thomas S Monson). People aren't things, and problems aren't physical, and money isn't the answer. What they need is YOU. They need to know that they matter more than money, than fame, than rank, than entertainment, than image, than whatever else distracts you, and you need to know by whom you serve if you really love God or if you just love when it's easy. It is said that a man can be measured by what he does for those who can do nothing to help him. This parable teaches us that a man can be measured by how much he's interested in the well-being of those who would hate him if they knew and who might reject his help. Each of us is a prodigal. Each of us is the recipient of Christ's love and sacrifice for us, no matter how unlovable we may feel. Mankind ought to be our business and discipleship the ideal for which we strive.
Since the radio cycles through talk shows and advertisements during my commute, I turned back to my cassettes for music during the commute. One of the unmarked cassettes in my car contained Christmas Music from Mannheim Steamroller, and I've listened to it all this weekend as I drove around, and I remembered something. Over the last decade, I have listened to a particular remix of Silent Night from this group when I needed to recenter myself and prepare myself for a difficult situation. I share it here in hopes that maybe it can be of help to you:
While I was still married, frequently my days got worse when I arrived home. Before going into the house, I would sit in the car and play this version of Silent Night over and over until I was calm, until I felt peace, until I was ready to go in and face whatever new madness threatened to rob me of a refuge in my own home. I'm actually surprised this cassette is in as good shape as it is, since I know I have rewound and replayed this particular stretch of tape probably thousands of times. Something about the energy of this song always helped, no matter how bad my day went, and I went in to face my new challenges in the best attitude possible.
They say that music matters, that music is life, that music can affect people. THey also say that what they want us to buy is music, and I think most modern "artists" have a "song" about which could be said, "Someone really got paid to write that tripe?" Many of them repeat the same four chords, use the same three instruments, and use repetitive lyrics, and the rest aren't music as much as they are noise. I don't really know how someone is supposed to be made a better person when the lyrics are vapid, violent, or vulgar. I don't really know how a person cannot help but be helped by music well composed, well designed, and well orchestrated to elevate your life. You don't have to believe in Christ or like Christmas to appreciate a good remix of a song, and you don't have to be perfect to have God step into your life and touch your heart, calm your mind, and heal your soul with good music.
I doubt very much that Mannheim Steamroller intended this when they wrote this arrangement, but it STILL works to help me when my mind is troubled. This week, with my mind awry, my nerves on edge, and my heart still broken, I sat in my car Friday night and listened to "Silent Night" until I felt better. Maybe it's because I served as a missionary in Austria near where this song was originally composed that I feel a special bond to Silent Night. Perhaps it's because I sang it in German for a program in church eight years ago. It could be that this song was really written so that anyone troubled can "sleep in heavenly peace". It did that for me that night, and I hope that you choose music that helps you become a better person. I know it's early for Christmas, but it's been far better than the music to which I listened during the past few weeks, and I feel a difference already. At least for tonight, I feel some peace.
Two days before I reported to return home from my missionary service, I experienced the only time ever as a missionary that someone asked us to return without our having to broach the subject. My companion grudgingly accompanied me to this apartment complex near where we did service in order to knock doors for what I think was the fourth time, and as before most of the apartments gave no answer at our arrival or rejected the invitation. One family, however, invited us in, listened intently, and then asked us when we could return in order to teach them more. I told them I was returning to America on Wednesday but that my companion would be happy to return. I don't know what happened with that family as Elder Gertge and I never really got along and never spoke again, but it reminded me that the race isn't over until it's actually over. The watermelon comes at the end; upgrades come later in life; God's promises, although not always swift, are always certain.
When my marriage fell apart nearly a decade ago, I felt very strongly that my life was over. For reasons I will mention elsewhere at another time, I felt I had failed at life and could/would never recover. I blamed myself, since I'm the only person whose behavior and choices I can actually change, and held myself to a degree of scorn and disproval of such degree that God chastised me for being so hard on myself, prompting me to write about allowing the atonement. Since then, although things have been rocky, shaky, and uncertain, I have seen His hand bringing me to better opportunities and places, and when problems arose at work in 2011, trusting Him brought me to a land of promise. In 2013, when something dear to me was taken from me, I wrote here and told Him elsewhere that I trusted Him then and was trusting Him now. I'm not making progress as quickly as I'd like, but in comparison to that dreadful day, I'm far better off than I ever have been, and I've never lost any of my Seven of Eight.
People often criticize me carte blanch for living in the past. The trouble with the past is that the past, unlike the future, consists of things that already are real. "History is not 'was'. It's 'is'," said William Faulkner, which is why there is truth in the past. The future largely enflames hope and fear, and the adversary of truth wants us to live there as much as possible instead of being grounded in truth, always afraid of what will or will not happen to us in the future rather than focusing on what we actually do. God, however, wants us to busy ourselves with what we do. The way we win matters. Virtuous means justify virtuous ends. Joseph Smith taught that if we do our duty, it will be with us as if all men accepted our message. The trouble for me is that the past seems much more interesting to me than my future. I had something going that I thought was amazing, and years later all I've seen is time pass without any indication of a replacement let alone an upgrade, and I'm not sure when God intends to change that. I'm afraid my happy ending will come at the ending, which makes me less jubilant about future prospects than I ought to be. If this is what my life consists of for the next 50 years, is that supposed to make me happy? At least Wesley had a wheelbarrow and cloak about which to get excited...
That's where the Atonement of Christ steps in and really heals men's souls. God doesn’t care nearly as much about where you have been as He does about where you are and, with His help, where you are willing to go. What are you going to do today to make possible that future about which you ostensibly care? There is hope smiling brightly before us, and we know that deliverance is nigh. God brought Israel out of Egypt, led them across the Sinai desert, gave them a land of promise, protected them even in their sin, provided them a Savior, and promised to make all things rich unto them because they are a people of promise. Everyone has a Land of Promise- maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, and maybe not until after your days on earth end and you enter into eternity. Sometimes, things must die to give way for better things, and just because the better things aren't there yet doesn't mean they will never be. You usually find things in the last place you look, and usually when you have reached the end of your options you turn to God and finally understand that He was there waiting to bless you until you were ready to receive it. Unlike the crackpot gardener, He only sows seeds when and where they can grow, so until you're ready for planting, He will keep plowing.
Only when you are at the end of your rope do you really begin to understand the width and breadth of the Atonement, that there is not only a future but hope IN the future and FOR YOUR future. I previously wrote that time does not heal wounds, but time does give us hope, which gives us power and reason to try again, love again, and live again, and so sometimes it just takes time. I am worried because I've already waited longer since 2013 to have a prospect for a better future than I did after I was divorced before a prospect appeared, and I've never had to wait this long before. Essentially, I'm in uncharted territory, and I'm nervous. As my last days as a missionary wound down and I remained bereft of anything to show for my efforts, and even when I got off the plane without any idea how any of those stories ended, I reached the end of my rope. However, I feel good about the fact that, over Elder Gertge's objections I continued to return to that complex to tract, because if we had gone elsewhere, we never would have met that family, and they would have had to wait longer for a season of perpetual hope.
I don't really know how this will end, and I don't know what form the end will take. I don't know how close I am to the end, but I know better than to give up now. Many people tell me to abandon my hopes, to leave my Faith, to give up on God, and to live it up, but this is who I am, and this is how I will stay. I saw God lead me to a better place, and although some fruits withered and died on the vine, I continue to improve my lot little by little, yard by yard, every year through His blessings and mercy. Yes, I attribute the blessings to Him because "against none is his anger so kindled as against those who confess not his hand in all things". People around you who talk about how you should trust and hope because they have seen it have reached their end, and that's why it's hard to listen to them. You don't really understand until you also arrive where they are, and they forget what it's like to be you because they reached the end of that trial and got to eat their watermelon. It took many miracles to establish my prior circumstances, and I expect it will take more to provide me with another opportunity, especially a better one. If you think that you're not worthy or whatever, that God will not bless you, especially if miracles are required to right your options, rest assured that God desires to bless us with the greatest of blessings; He understands that what we obtain easily we may esteem lightly. Consequently:
He will set them off with communications of His presence which, though faint, seem great to them, with emotional sweetness, and easy conquest over temptation. Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs-- to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best. We can drag our patients along by continual tempting, because we design them only for the table, and the more their will is interfered with the better. He cannot 'tempt' to virtua as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.
At that point, where you still desire, still obey, still hope, because you don't obey unless you have at least some scintilla of hope, that is where you are beginning to see the end. Only after the trial of our faith do we see the end of our faith. Only after we plant the seed, nurture the seed, prune and dung and dig about it, can we actually hope to harvest. The Lord of the Harvest knows when the fruit is ready, what fruit we will enjoy, and how best to enjoy it. Only at the end will we understand as we look back how the loss and the struggle and pain we went through brought us to a better place. I'm not there yet. I may never be there in this life. I hope you do get there and get there soon, because I care about you and desire you to be happy and enjoy the blessings now. More than that, I desire what is best for you, for God, and for me. Only at the end will I understand how that really is the way it turns out to be.
