How's Your Vertical?

 

No, I'm not referring to your ability to play in the NBA, but to your ability to prioritize God over all others. It seems virtually all people (including a disturbing number of professing Believers) are more concerned with how others, rather than God perceive them. Being held in "high esteem" by others is of paramount importance. Of course, Christians have their geometry all wrong with this approach. We need to relegate the horizontal relationships to being contingent on establishing a proper vertical perspective.

This post was spawned by a discussion in our adult small group at church. As Christians so much emphasis is placed on the horizontal activities in the form of ministries, volunteering, hospitality, evangelism and general kindness and concern for others. I am by no means disparaging these things, but I am minimizing them to a degree. But, before you just dismiss me as a curmudgeon (or even Amish) here me out. 

It's not hard to convey an authentic holiness (holy defined: set apart for God) by performing any of the above-mentioned activities. But that holiness could be more perception than reality. For example, many people other than Christians would agree to the positive nature of these activities without having any particular religious views at all. There are even atheists who would affirm the "inherent goodness" of helping your fellow man. So, although it could be said that all true Christians would (should) abound in the horizontal behaviors, the reverse in the form of all people who volunteer, are kind, are hospitable, etc. are Christians; is not a true statement. I would go further and say that Believers can (and do) perform these activities together with the "world" (think Civil Rights Movement of the 60's). So we (Christians) can work in tandem with unbelievers in a myriad of causes displaying kindness and general charity, but let me show you where the fissure occurs.

It occurs when the vertical is introduced. Essentially, when Jesus and his exclusivity is introduced. Believers are as welcome as anyone else when it comes to saving baby Harp Seals, but I'm not sure how many Greenpeace folks want to hear "... the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Unfortunately, there are many professing Christians who don't want to hear that (but that's another post for another day). Yes, if we love the Lord, we are going to love others and manifest that love. But we must demonstrate our vertical love first and make it as consistent as any ministry involvement we might have. We need to emphasize the things we do for God that are not in the "limelight". Prayer, personal Bible reading, quiet time with God just meditating on His blessings or maybe His creation through a peaceful walk, confession, evangelism, defending the faith and calling sin out; are all ways that demonstrate a vertical "fear of the Lord".

Another way of explaining the vertical would be considering it a form of personal worship. Worship can only be vertical, as there is only One worthy of worship. I am not referring (only) to church attendance. In my opinion, that is only a small percentage of worship. The vast majority of worship is self-initiated and can be summed up in a word: holiness. I defined it as being set apart for God earlier as it can mean many things to different people. Unfortunately, for many, it is synonymous with perfection. As it pertains to us; it's not that at all. Obviously, as it pertains to God, it does connote perfection, as He is the embodiment of perfection. Set apart for God and from the world is what demonstrates holiness. As already stated; it's not perfection. It's not even particularly difficult for a true Christian. It just requires the determination that nothing is more important than my relationship with Jesus. Therefore, I will conduct myself with the singular goal of pleasing Him that gave all for me. Not to earn His love (I already have that) but to demonstrate my love for Him. How others along the horizontal plane view me matters not. 

There are many in this post-modern (I would say post-Christian even) world, who consider this view a bit hard to take. Words like zealot, self-righteous, judgmental, and Fundamentalist (noooo!) come to mind. It's as though the word holy itself is just too...something. Sort of like Hell or homosexual (must be the H words, they just smack you in the face). I think there are a fair number of Believers who would benefit from a bit of a smack now and again. Doing a bunch of "things" in God's name doesn't make you right with God; spending a bunch of time with God will. We all need to spend less time scanning the "horizon" to see how we compare to other Christians and spend more time looking straight up to Him. He'll use us as He sees fit to further his kingdom.

Stop the World...It's Become Too Silly!

 The title of my post was inspired from a line in an old Monty Python bit: "stop the skit, it's become too silly!". Of course, the biggest difference between then and now is that, then, it was funny; now it's not. I mean, what could possibly be sillier than men dressing up as women (whatever they are) and reading stories to young children; and they're not creepy uncles, they're total strangers. Maybe males undergoing mutilation, so they can "live" as females and even compete against "real females" in sports so they can win. Or maybe it's the whole non-binary/pick-your-own pronoun thing. Or maybe it's millions of otherwise high-functioning humans who voted in a cognitively challenged senior citizen for the leader of the most powerful country in the world. Or maybe the idea that despite living in the most perverted and violent culture in history, we should have less police. Or maybe increasing the rights and legal protections for the aforementioned perverts (cue the homos and trans folks, and anyone else in the ever-increasing alphabet soup) and criminals in society, while continuing murdering the unborn. 

While we're focused on the unborn, let me mention a new twist I just read about. As I spent many years working in the corrections field, I read a fair share of the current articles. If you want to really know what silly is, hang around inmates for a decade or so. In a nutshell, this pregnant female inmate is angling to get out of prison on a murder charge (search Natalia Harrell) based on her slimeball...er, lawyers claim that her unborn child is being held in prison wrongfully. Her baby didn't hop over the seat in the Uber ride and shoot some other ho...er, female she was arguing with, so why should the little one be behind bars? And if you let the little one out, momma has to go with, as they're pretty close. The argument continues along the lines that the unborn child is living in an unsafe environment, being surrounded by violent felons, not getting adequate nutrition (are they saying jail food is crummy?), not getting proper prenatal care, yada, yada yada. So, in a nation where most people are just fine with killing babies in the womb (given the "right" circumstances) some government officials are actually going to consider these arguments! In the institutionalized setting of prison, that child is better off than being "free" with the dirtbag mother. I'm sure the mother would still be surrounded by violent felons and doing a lot more drugs and alcohol to boot, if she were on the outside. Trust me, she wouldn't be concentrating on Flintstones vitamins, or her pre-natal classes either. Most importantly, a lot more abortions happen outside of prison, than in. So, if we are going to use the welfare (no pun intended) of the child as the paramount concern, it's no argument.

Most of us know women who gave up smoking and/or drinking (both of which I don't do and discourage any true Professor of Christ to abstain from) while they were pregnant, over concerns for the baby's health (even heathens). But here we have an unmarried woman (don't know for sure, taking a leap; can you say baby mama!) who wouldn't even give up carrying a firearm, let alone shooting someone! Heck, she probably was drinking, drugging, and smoking! Point being: where was her concern for the welfare of her unborn child then? Silly? Of course not. It's tragically sad. But that's where we are these days. What should be tragically sad, is just silly because it happens so often. It's silly, because fools actually condone it, or at least, don't speak out against it. 

In this day and age, we are surrounded by silly fools. Although, they are different words; it's nearly redundant to say silly fool.  They are no doubt, closely related. So many Bible passages refer to the foolish and their ways. In these times, we are living it. People have silly entertainment and engage in silly pastimes. They admire silly people (think The View). The most silly and foolish thing about these people is that they consider us (people of God) as the foolish ones! The Lord did say the end days would be bizarro world (loose translation)! I thank God that Jesus loved me enough to pay for my sins on the cross and that I have been adopted as one of his own. Recently, we joined a church for many of the reasons a true Christian does. But in addition to that, I wanted to tangibly demonstrate the Rock I stand on surrounded by the sea of silliness, dotted with so many ships of fools. It's easy to want to "drop the curtain" as the "skit" has become too silly, but it's not my call. Until then, I want to enjoy the incredible blessings God still bestows on this creation, and on my life specifically. I want to be in the Good Fight and support others who stand beside me. I want to be part of the remnant that will hear ..."well done, good and faithful servant". 

Welcome Back Blogger

 I won't say that I can't believe it's been almost a year since I posted on my blog...so, moving on. I was moved many times over the past year to post as this crazy world never lacks for material to opine on, but I stopped. Why bother? There were/are innumerable bloggers and with the growth of YouTube, one is just lost in a sea of "noise". I mean opinions (or takes) are like noses; everyone has one and why should one pay any special attention to mine. I considered starting a YouTube channel, but the same dynamic applies. Besides, it's a lot more labor intensive to do it right and requires cashola for decent equipment. In addition, you have to be prepared to deal with more real-time interactions via comments. Blogging seems more leisurely, where YouTube seems more frenetic. Kind of old-school vs. new. 

So, I had to answer the questions I asked myself. The answer was/is to look at this differently. Two points held sway: I have decided to write for the sheer enjoyment, not to impress or convince anyone (although I would be pleased to accomplish either or both). As there are people who play a musical instrument, or sing in the shower, or take photos without any hope and or desire of garnering a large audience; I can practice my craft for no other reason than it's fun. In addition, it may be true that my take on things is no better or unique than many others; however, it certainly is no less worthy to exist in the marketplace of ideas either. It's rare that I read anything that is truly a "hot take", espousing a view that is singularly brilliant. And this applies to Joe or Jane Schmo commenting to an op-ed to Ben Shapiro writing an op-ed. 

That is why I have decided to pump some life into this blog. I just couldn't bring myself to let it just fade away to nothingness. I realize that I'm probably (no wait...almost certainly) the only one that feels this way, but I'm a little biased for sure. It was kind of sad when I poked around some other blogs via followers and such and found so many had just ceased to post. Almost like a garden that's not tended and becomes overgrown with weeds. A little sentimental for sure, but isn't that why most of us started in the first place; sentiment? Understanding there are blogs of a more practical nature, but I'm referring to those that speak to the more visceral, such as relationships, reviews of books/movies, family, God, etc. I do get it that people move on from stages of life (especially the young) but a lot of the "abandoned" blogs I saw could have, it seems, been maintained. Maybe not to the same degree, but to a degree. Maybe many have moved on to other formats like YouTube, but I hope they didn't give up discouraged due to lack of followers. If anyone could have used that criterion; it was/is me. The most followers I ever had was maybe seven (and two of them were family!).

So, here's to those of us scarce in followers, but not necessarily talent, and certainly not passion. Maybe I'm just making noise, but it's my noise. Think: If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it still make a sound? Of course it does! If I write a blog and nobody reads it, does it still make a difference? It does to me. Someone might fairly ask why not just journal? That had occurred to me, but it's not the same. It's private thoughts that you want to keep private. Besides, unless you are relating a unique experience, such as riding a Yak bareback across Siberia; who cares? If you just want to yammer on about your trip to the mall or your cat's trip to the vet, just post it to Facebook. That's what Facebook seems to be used for by most; public journaling of mundane affairs. At least us brave bloggers are putting it out there! We're taking a stand; not just "reporting" events. We have a take! 

So, this is a short introduction to my revitalized blog. I'm going to follow the same format I always have in putting a Biblical spin on general musings or current events; hopefully with a fair amount of humor. In spite of living in these horrendous days where we can't define woman and homosexuals are accepted as normal, where speaking Gospel truth is hate speech; I like to think a little humor can help us cope. As Provebs 17:22 reminds us: A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones. Too much is drying our bones these days, we can all use a little medicine.