day no. 15,654: like leaven

"We need not debate about the mere words evolution or progress: personally I prefer to call it reform. For reform implies form. It implies that we are trying to shape the world in a particular image; to make it something that we see already in our minds. Evolution is a metaphor from mere automatic unrolling. Progress is a metaphor from merely walking along a road -- very likely the wrong road. But reform is a metaphor for reasonable and determined men: it means that we see a certain thing out of shape and we mean to put it into shape. And we know what shape." -- G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Reform plants, revolution supplants; reform is seed, revolution is weed. Reform has the long game in mind, revolution is a prisoner of the moment. Reform is focused on legacy by means of the history; revolution is focused on urgency by means of violence. 

Reform is not as fast as revolution, but it is more principled. It isn't interested in removing ancient landmarks just for the sake of changing the scenery. Reform has a particular end in mind. It cannot be accomplished by haphazard disaster or slapdashery. It sees something and takes calculated measures to bring about the outcome envisioned. It is patient and principled and it will take shape. Slowly, but surely, it will win. Reform, like leaven, brings the thing back to the intended design. Reform is predicated upon form which presupposes a Former. 

day no. 15,653: a reality fixed, not mixed

In reading The Art of Manliness, Manvotionals: Timeless Wisdom and Advice on Living the 7 Manly Virtues by Brett McKay, I came across the following quote,

"What would life be without fighting, I should like to know? From the cradle to the grave, fighting, rightly understood, is the business, the real, highest, honestest business of every son of man. Every one who is worth his salt has his enemies, who must be beaten, be they evil thoughts and habits in himself or spiritual wickedness in high places, or Russians, or Border-ruffians, or Bill, Tom, or Harry, who will not let him live his life in quiet till he has thrashed them... The world might be a better world without fighting, for anything I know, but it wouldn't be our world; and therefore I am dead against crying peace when there is no peace, and isn't meant to be. I'm as sorry as any man to see folk fighting the wrong people and the wrong things, but I'd a deal sooner see them doing that, than that they should have no fight in them." -- Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days

The world is a place of enmity by the will of God.

He placed enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of Eve.

Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman,
and between thy seed and her Seed;
it shall bruise thy head,
and thou shalt bruise His heel.

There will be fighting.

It is inescapable.

You are fighting. Whether you like it or not, you're fitted out for a uniform. If you imagine you are not fighting, you are merely fighting for the wrong team. You've joined the enemy ranks and stand opposed to God and His people. No one fights for Christ by accident, but many fight against Him without knowing it. The enmity is there -- fixed, inexorable, immovable, indomitable.

Galatians 5:17

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

Good and evil cannot mix. They push and push back respectively, but they do not mingle. Good men may go rogue and cross the line or God may convert and recruit evil men to cross over from death to life, but never do the salt shaker and the sugar bowl mix.

day no. 15,652: there is greater victory in falling in battle than failing to battle

In reading The Art of Manliness, Manvotionals: Timeless Wisdom and Advice on Living the 7 Manly Virtues by Brett McKay, I came across the following quote,

"I do not know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of their death. They died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory." -- General Douglas MacaArthur in Duty, Honor, Country

Men do not fight because they are assured of personal victory, but because they are sure that their fighting will secure victory. Men give their lives and die in the name of victory. They die, but their side survives. They fight not merely for their own well-being, but for the lives of their family, their people, their country. They lay down their lives so that what they lived for might survive. Faith fights and dies believing that there is greater victory in falling in battle than failing to battle.

Nehemiah 4:14
Be not ye afraid of them: remember the Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for your brethren, your sons, and your daughters, your wives, and your houses.

day no. 15,651: Laurelai Rush is EI8HT!

Happy EIGHTH Birthday, Lolo!

You are growing up so much. Well, some of you is growing up so much. Other parts of you are staying about the same size. If you keep this up, your insides will one day be larger than your outsides. You are maturing in so many ways. I can see God at work in you giving you a love for others and an interest in other people's interests. You voluntarily give up your preferred seat in order to make room for someone else to enjoy it. You decide to clean something up so that someone else can enjoy the pleasure of a neat and tidy room. All that to say, you think about other people and are demonstrating the fruits of the Spirit that inspired the apostle Paul to write, "Do nothing out of a selfish ambition and vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself. Each of you should look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others." (Php. 2:3-4)

You are always full of energy. You like doing parkour on me and having me help you jump as high as you can and then suspending yourself in mid-air. You run most places you go. You enjoy running. You delight in going as fast as you can. You are almost always smiling and can be counted on for the strongest, longest hugs a dad can have. 

You are super strong. Like, is she a secret superhero who spends her evenings stopping crime, strong. Every muscle you have is muscular. You are like a living stick of beef jerky, only cuter and more fun to find on the floor. 

You are a beautiful young lady. You have gorgeous hair and beautiful skin and the best part is that you don't seem too caught up in it. You are pretty and you like being pretty, but you don't spend much time fishing for compliments. You are content with who God made you to be and grateful for all that you are.

You are a fantastic artist. You are really developing a style of your own and I love seeing how God is giving you creative abilities to express yourself. I like the person you are and I love that I am getting to know you more as God gives you the ability to share your gifts with the rest of us.

You love to dance. Anytime a jam comes on, you are quick to retreat to your bedroom and reenter the room in your ballerina outfit ready to spin and jump. You make dance parties more dancey and parties more party-y. You are a blast to have around.

You still love sitting on my lap during Dad Time in the evenings. You like oddly satisfying videos and Jamie Grace. You like singing along with the songs you've come to know and performing new songs with your sister that you work on together,

You are still VERY ticklish. Like, super, really, very ticklish. Like, watch out, someone might lose an eye, ticklish. You laugh and kick and wiggle and convulse and then come back for more. In being tickled, all your best qualities coalesce into one: your muscles, your energy, and your joy. They combine to create a tornado of tickle-time fun.

You love being one of the last ones to say, "Goodbye," anytime I leave the house. You love your daddy and I love you too. I love knowing that when you think of the word, "dad," you think happy thoughts. It will serve you well as you come to know and love your Heavenly Father more and more as you get older and older. 

You may not be getting much bigger, but you are definitely growing older. You are a happy, fun, respectful, thoughtful, young lady and I love being your dad. I can't believe God has given me the fun of getting to spend my days with you. 

Happy birthday Laurelai! May you grow in wisdom and stature and favor with God and with others and may you give and receive honor as your name implies, in every way, for all your days.

I like you and I love you,

Always have, always will,

No matter what,

Forever and ever,

Amen.

Love,

Dad

day no. 15,650: the call of duty

In reading The Art of Manliness, Manvotionals: Timeless Wisdom and Advice on Living the 7 Manly Virtues by Brett McKay, I came across the following quote,

"Duty... makes you strong enough to know when you are weak, and brave enough to face yourself when you are afraid." -- General Douglas MacArthur from Duty, Honor, Country

Duty calls out cowardice and draws out courage.

Duty reveals your weakness. It is a duty because you were not going to just do it anyways. You had to be told. You needed the weight of responsibility to press upon your will.

Oswald Chambers is on point in saying, "Unguarded strength is double weakness." Strength in the wrong direction is weakness in every direction. Duty shows you your weakness so that you can be strong in acknowledging it. Acknowledged weakness is a strength. Duty shows you your weakness so that you can be stronger in having seen it. 

Duty also creates courage. It gives you a reason to face yourself down when you’re tempted to face down. When you are tempted to step aside or look away, your duty calls you to step up and to look your fears in the face. Duty brings boldness out of cowardice. Duty beckons bravery out of brooding.

Duty requires you to be on guard where you've been sleeping, to be enough where you know you aren't, and to become more by confessing you're less.

day no. 15,649: mediating for millennia

"The book of Hebrews has much to say about the Lord Jesus Christ as our great high priest, buy only in John 17 do we have a sample of that mediating intercessory ministry. This is the only example in Scripture of what He has been doing in heaven incessantly since His ascension... The cross was accomplished in hours, the resurrection in days, but several thousand years have already passed in the course of Jesus' intercessory work. We read in Hebrews 7:25, 'He always lives to make intercession for them.' For 2,000 years, Jesus has been praying us into heaven against the force of sin that assails us." -- John MacArthur, The Lord's Greatest Prayer, Part 2 in The John MacArthur Handbook of Effective Biblical Leadership

Jesus lived roughly 33 years and spent around 3 of those in public ministry. He spent hours on the cross and days in grave and weeks in His resurrected state among men. Every day prior to His incarnation, He existed in perfect, eternal divinity as the second member of the Trinity and every day since His ascension, He has been seated at the right hand of the Father in perfect, eternal divinity making intercession for those His Father has given to Him: those elected before the foundation of the world and enrolled in the Lamb's Book of Life before life on earth began. 

Jesus has been mediating and interceding on behalf of His people for millennia. At this very moment, He is there and He is praying for those who are His right here and right now, and He will continue to do so until the time He stands up in order to descend and visit His earth again in person.

Hebrews 9:28
Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

day no. 15,648: morality is a daring conspiracy

A friend of mine asked me to read over Chesterton's A Defense of Detective Stories paying particular attention to the final paragraph. A friend of his had sent him a snippet from this implying that Chesterton was opposed to morality and that social justice could cure temptation to sin.

"There is, however, another good work that is done by detective stories. While it is the constant tendency of the Old Adam to rebel against so universal and automatic a thing as civilization, to preach departure and rebellion, the romance of police activity keeps in some sense before the mind the fact that civilization itself is the most sensational of departures and the most romantic of rebellions. By dealing with the unsleeping sentinels who guard the outposts of society, it tends to remind us that we live in an armed camp, making war with a chaotic world, and that the criminals, the children of chaos, are nothing but the traitors within our gates. When the detective in a police romance stands alone, and somewhat fatuously fearless amid the knives and fists of a thieves’ kitchen, it does certainly serve to make us remember that it is the agent of social justice who is the original and poetic figure; while the burglars and footpads are merely placid old cosmic conservatives, happy in the immemorial respectability of apes and wolves. The romance of the police force is thus the whole romance of man. It is based on the fact that morality is the most dark and daring of conspiracies. It reminds us that the whole noiseless and unnoticeable police management by which we are ruled and protected is only a successful knight-errantry.
 -- G.K. Chesterton, A Defence of Detective Stories

Here was my response:

I think Chesterton is saying the opposite of what your friend wants him to be saying in his "defense of detective stories" essay. From what I can tell, and taking into account what I've read in Chesterton's other writings, I believe he is turning things on their heads (in typical Chesteronian fashion) to make a larger point. He is employing the terms in the opposite way we're accustomed to them being used. In other words, he's saying that we think of the world as "moral" and the outlaws as "immoral," so criminals are the "abnormal" and police forces the enforcers of "normal." But he's saying the world since the Fall of Adam is in actuality predicated on sin and immorality as "normal." Thus, criminals are the "norm." No sin has overtaken them which is not common to all men (1 Cor 10:13), and so the police officer is the "rebel," the "outlier," the one imposing this foreign thing called order and reason and morality. He is picturing the detective as the renegade because morality is abnormal in our world where sin and darkness are the norm. Morality is a conspiracy to overtake the immoral ruling elite. Law and order are a plot to assassinate the presiding darkness which casts itself in certain lights as the enlightened.

In other words, morality (in this scenario the detective/police) is the conspiracy against the immoral ruling elites. We experience the detective story confused and in the dark; we sit back in awe of the criminal who pulled it off, but the detective knows something we don't and proves to be wiser than either the criminal's or our own ideas of reality.