day no. 15,865: good news for criminals

"The gospel is good news for criminals, as the thief on the cross can testify. He knew that he deserved to die and that he still wanted to live." -- Douglas Wilson, A Justice Primer

Faith is the courage to confess that you deserve to die combined with the conviction that the glory of God is worth living for. It is a willingness to die for that which is worth living. It is an acknowledgement of the kindness and the severity of God, the seriousness of sin and the superfluity of salvation. Sin is worse than our depravity and salvation exceeds our audacity. Our situation is far worse than we wish and our salvation is far greater than we dare dream.

"Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die." -- G.K. Chesterton

Matthew 10:39, 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24, 17:33; John 12:25
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

The Gospel is Good News for criminals who openly confess to their crimes. All have fallen short of the glory of God and committed crimes, but only repentant criminals can be forgiven. Only those who agree that they deserve to die can live. You must admit your crimes in order to remove your condemnation. The Gospel is ONLY Good News for criminals. It is Bad News for those who imagine that they have clean records. The healthy don't make Dr. appointments anymore than the innocent seek clemency. Yet, the sick find healing and criminal find freedom in seeking the Good Physician and our Brother, the Advocate.

day no. 15,864: when helping hurts

“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” -- C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology

History has produced no greater villains than those who imagined themselves valiant. The worst bad guy is the one who thinks he is the good guy. For, like Lewis observed, he will never stop assailing you. His conscience will never compel him stop. It urges him on to greater atrocities. It fuels his insistence "to help."

"She's the sort of woman who lives for others—you can always tell the others by their hunted expression." -- C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help.’” — Ronald Reagan

day no. 15,863: fast and loose with other people's reputations

"(Cowards) usually have no shortage of opinions as to what others ought to be doing; they’re brave with other people’s lives and reputations. Conflict and justice involve risks. In a fallen world, the pursuit of justice sometimes requires warfare, which, inevitably, requires getting shot at." -- Douglas Wilson, A Justice Primer

It takes no backbone to play fast and loose with someone else's reputation. It is easy to know what someone else should do. It costs the critic nothing to see what costs someone else should be paying.

This tendency is what makes us good at reading stories. We intuitively know what each character ought to do or have done. That is why it is crucial for us to see ourselves as characters in a story. God is the Author and we are acting on the stage He has placed us during the part of the play He has called us up. When we step back and see ourselves like we see other characters in a story, it often becomes obvious what we should do. We know how to read other people's stories, but have we learned how to read our own?

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” -- Theodore Roosevelt

Literary criticism is easier than being a noble character. The critic can count the blunders, but cannot be counted upon to avoid them himself. The critic is an expert in reading other people's stories and an amateur actor in his own.

Cowards become critical experts of what other characters should be doing. The courageous are those who embrace their roles and play their parts to the glory of their God and the good of their neighbor.

1 Corinthians 16:13

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

Be a better character. Consider what a man would do and make that your script and then devote all of your energy to acting it out and playing the part assigned to you by your Director.

day no. 15,862: self-defensive

"Scripture requires those in spiritual authority to take care that they not react in a manner that makes the accusations retroactively true. False accusations of tyranny could provoke a man into tyranny." -- Douglas Wilson, A Justice Primer

“O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself.” -- St. Augustine of Hippo

When we are insecure before God and man, we rush to our own defense when falsely accused and in our zealous self defense, become guilty of what we were previously innocent.

It is a high ground the enemy can acquire only through our forfeit. When we withstand the temptation to justify ourselves, we are justified by God and before the men whose opinions matter rather than by ourselves and before men whose opinions mean nothing. The haters will still hate and jeer at you for not calling on a legion of angels to come to your defense, but  in fairness, they are also the same people who put you on a stake by falsely accusing you in the first place. So don't imagine that bending over backwards to appease them will convince them to join your fan club.

day no. 15,861: anonymity is an assassin

"Never write what you dare not sign. An anonymous letter-writer is a sort of assassin, who wears a mask, and stabs in the dark. Such a man is a fiend with a pen. If discovered, the wretch will be steeped in the blackest infamy." -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Anonymity is a sucker punch. It provides the satisfaction of punching without any of the danger of being punched back. It is a sniper firing shots from the safety of distance. It can strike without being struck. It can wound without being exposed. It is the desire to cast your vote without having to be accountable for the outcome. It is the ability to condemn without the necessity of clarifying. It is the privilege of withdrawing funds without the responsibility of accounting for them.

day no. 15,860: when your wife, like fine wine, ages well

They say that time flies when you're having fun. Admittedly, they say all kinds of crap, but in this particular case, they appear to be right. However, what they miss is that time flies just as quickly when you're having babies. And how much the more then when you're having fun having babies? By that math, you should be fast enough to give the Flash a run for his money and I don't doubt that you could if I didn't also know how much you dislike running. Best leave those sorts of shenanigans to the superheros, amiright? I mean, those voxxer messages aren't just going to answer themselves. Hit the showers windsprints, Scrubs is on.

All that to say, happy birthday!

You've done a lot this last year between surviving the Winter of our Deadly Discontents and having another baby. All things considered, those two facts alone would constitute a pretty productive year. Add to that the regular upkeep of the household and maintenance of the people who dwell therein and you round out quite the resume. I am very grateful for all that you do from planning and preparing our meals to cleaning up after them, from keeping our shelves stocked to keeping track of our appointments and schedules. You proactively look for ways to improve our lives from better water to cuter pillows and make the effort to resurrect our yard back to life:

“Paige, can this yard live?”

“You know, Lord.”

“Call out to the yard and say, ‘Dry clay, hear the word of the LORD! “I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life."’” Worth a shot, right?

Our household depends on you. Not just your presence, but your person. We need you; not just another warm body doing its job. We need your personality influencing the atmosphere of our world. We depend on you and rely upon you. And you, for your part, come through for us. You take care of us and think of us and go out of your way to serve us. From the time spend making sure the kids have shoes that fit to researching and ordering curriculum that fits our vision, you are do it all. You make sure I have shoes for walking and clean sheets for sleeping under. You keep up with everyone's birthdays and all the presents that accompany them; and more often than not, you even keep your head in the process. 

And if that we not enough, you have friends who reach out to you for advice. When they are wrestling through the cross-sections of Christianity and culture, you are the one they turn to. You always have more voice messages to listen to than you have time to respond to. You are a resource many rely upon for truth, advice, wisdom, and godly counsel.

I am proud to be your husband. I am glad that you are my children's mother. I like you and I love you and I promise that I always will. Especially if you keep making it this easy. 

Happy birthday! Here's to many more.

Todd 

day no. 15,859: as a matter of fact

"In other ways, our touchy-feely era is way too interested in motives. This is why we now have stiffer penalties for hate crimes (which must be distinguished from those ordinary, run-of-the-mill love crimes)." -- Douglas Wilson, A Justice Primer

Feelings are difficult to define. Facts are easy to establish. Feelings are subjective. Facts are objective. Feelings can be hard to describe. Facts must be able to be described. Motives are helpful in attempting to help the person, but not in establishing the facts of their case. The reason why the crime was committed is not an additional crime. There are certainly better reasons to break the law than others, but the reasons are not admissible as evidence in establishing the fact. They may play a role in considering proper discipline or punishment, but they are not necessary for determining the facts of what happened.

"Motives matter. Rightly balanced and rightly known, motives matter to persons, and in personal relationships, but there are important places in our consideration where we do not and must not factor them in." -- Douglas Wilson, A Justice Primer

There is a time to wonder why, but that time is not when attempting to establish timelines or matters of fact.