day no. 16,212: jumping on the sland wagon

Ephesians 4:31

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

It is easy to jump on the sland wagon. Everyone else is always doing it. It is easy to speak negatively about people who aren't around and it is even easier to agree with someone who is slandering someone who isn't there. Once that dollar bill gets put into circulation, it's off to the races. Put away all slander. Stop running your mouth and run the race set before you, sidestepping the ordinary sins that so easily entangle and trip people up. 

day no. 16,211: ownership

Galatians 6:6

Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.

We are called to be somewhere. And in that place, we will receive. And in that place, we ought to give back. We need to take ownership of our place. This includes being associated as a member of part of it and being or assuming the roles and responsibilities of a member in that place.

Ownership is picking up clutter because it's your home, not your job.

You know you have taken ownership of something when you do the little things without being asked. If you pick up the tissue next to the bin and toss it in the trash, you are expressing ownership. If you grab the lint from the carpet on the stairs, you live there. The difference between occupying a space and owning it is taking responsibility for it. You want it to be clean because its yours. You don't need a chore chart to make you tidy up. It's where you live, so you take it upon yourself.

Ownership is giving to where you get from, serving at the table from which you are served, and doing the dishes where your plate is filled. Those who do so get all the benefits of belonging. One of those often overlooked is the privilege of giving back to and pitching in where you get.

day no. 16,210: be grateful for what you have and work for what you want

Philippians 4:12-13

I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Sideways glances are often motivated by discontent and laziness. We are easily envious of those around us when we're hard to please with what surrounds us. We lust for that which we avoid the labor. We covet because we can't count our blessings. We want what others already worked for. The only cure is to be grateful for what you have and to work for what you want. This frees your eyes up to focus on God above and the good work ahead. It will spare them from sideways glances and self-indulgence. 

day no. 16,209: public schools produce public fools

Psalm 14:1

The fool hath said in his heart,

There is no God.

They are corrupt, they have done abominable works,

there is none that doeth good.

Proverbs 18:2

A fool has no delight in understanding,

But in expressing his own heart.

Public schools produce public fools.

And it isn't by accident. Government schools aim to produce students who say in their hearts, "There is no God," and who say out loud whatever it is they feel at the moment. By Biblical definition, that person is a fool. And that is the goal of government schools. So it isn't by mistake, but by mission. 

"Government schooling is inevitably an exercise in statist brainwashing, not genuine education." -- Thomas J. DiLorenzo, Foreward to The Law by Frederic Bastiast 

Government schools produce fools pretty well. They've got the recipe down pat. Every once in a while, it's true, someone escapes the clutches of the catechisms, but not often. Government schools do not typically expect their disciples to have a wild season in their teens where they go off grid by reading their Bibles, experimenting with abstinence, sobriety, and sound judgment. Every once in a while, that happens, but it's the exception, not the rule. Government school converts learn their catechisms well. They are baptized in the ordinances of the State eight hours a day and sent home with additional work to keep them focused. Government schools do not typically find many backsliders. They practice discipline and excommunication that keeps most of their disciples in line for life. The cult of the classroom keeps their kids, which is to say, they more often than not, successfully take yours.

day no. 16,208: everyone gives their first and best to something

Proverbs 3:9

Honour the LORD with thy substance,

and with the firstfruits of all thine increase.

Everyone tithes to what they worship 

Everyone gives their first and their best to what they most prioritize. They find a way to give to it. They go without other things in order to give to it. They endure other difficulties in order to avoid the difficulty of going without it. Everyone tithes because everyone worships and giving your first and best is the most natural expression of sacrifice. 

Everyone gives financially to what they value spiritually. They give the most to what they value the most. They give their time, energy, worship, money, and mind. We are all worshipers and where our treasure is our heart is also. Our dollars follow our adoration and our adoration follows our dollars. We give to what we love and we love to give to it. 

We stand in lines for hours to be the first to pay homage to it. We pay top dollar to be as close to it or have the best view of it as possible. We find a way. We make room in our budget for what occupies the board room of our hearts. We promote certain passions to the corner office and then bend over backwards to provide them with the choicest portions of our life and livelihood. We sacrifice with a smile on our face. We go to great lengths. We cheerfully set aside our best in order to offer it. 

Everyone gives to and glorifies something.

day no. 16,207: sage against the machine

“Their labour-saving devices multiply drudgery; their aphrodisiacs make them impotent: their amusements bore them: their rapid production of food leaves half of them starving, and their devices for saving time have banished leisure from their country." -- C.S Lewis, The Pilgrim's Regress

Many of our machinations have produced or exacerbated the very problems they were made to solve: Pornography has produced impotence. Entertainment has produced boredom. Social media has produced isolation. Production has produced poverty. Efficiency has produced waste. Sustainability has produced consumption. Organic has produced corporations. Education has produced insanity. Green has produced Red. Socialism has produced antisocial behavior. Inclusion has produced exclusion. Antifacism has produced facism. Peaceful protests have produced destruction. Security has produced terrorism. Political correctness has produced identity politics. Critical theory has produced racism. Gender studies has produced transgenderism. Sensitivity has produced hatred. Love has produced evil.

Modernity isn't progress. New isn't improved. It might be, but it isn't necessarily. You have to have a presupposed standard by which to assess it. There must be something away from or toward which you measure distance. Without a fixed point or a defined target to which you are heading or away from which you are fleeing, you can never tell if you have made any progress. We need wisdom to discern where an advancement is advancing us or what a development is developing. We need sagacity to sift through every step forward in order to determine what we've stepped in.

day no. 16,206: faith riseth up again

"‘There is no avoiding danger in our country,’ said History. ‘Do you know what happens to people who set about learning to skate with a determination to get no falls? They fall as often as the rest of us, and they cannot skate in the end.’" -- C.S Lewis, The Pilgrim's Regress

If you want to be good at something, you have to be willing to first be bad at it. No one learns to skate who is unwilling to learn how to fall, or more to the point, who learn how to get back up. Everyone falls down. No one goes from novice to expert. Far too often we flatter ourselves by assuming that other people's skills were all gifted to them by the gods in some kind of savant-style situation. 

In most cases, however, the reason other people are good at something is because they were willing to be worse at it than they wished for longer than they wanted. But they had grit. They had resolve and hard work and calling back to the earlier point, they got up. They were willing to fail more than we were. Success follows a long train of failures. If we were willing to fail more, we'd be better equipped to succeed now.

Proverbs 24:16

For a just man falleth seven times,

and riseth up again:

but the wicked shall fall into mischief.

I need this reminder. I don't like falling down. I like to do my homework ahead of time in order to avoid falling on my face. And I can all too easily become discouraged at falling down and count it as a sign of not being cut out to be good, when in reality, it is merely the curriculum by which anyone understands or achieves anything. 

The difference between the righteous man and the wicked one, is that the righteous believes in the power of resurrection. The righteous or diligent man lives by faith that he will rise again by the power and grace of the good Lord Almighty. The wicked or lazy man falls away and then looks for a way to make a life for himself under the bleachers or in the gutter.

The righteous fall and trust God to forgive their failings as they get back to work.

Micah 7:8

Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;

when I fall, I shall rise;

when I sit in darkness,

the LORD will be a light to me.