day no. 16,291: for eff's sake, stop cussing so much

Ephesians 4:29

Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear.

Cussing is a kind of cheap authority. It is a lazy way to be taken seriously. Profanity forces people to take notice without doing anything worth noticing. 

Cussing is a kind of counterfeit currency. It claims value without being backed by anything. It is inflationary. It reduces the buying power of words by flooding the market. 

Casual cussing waters down the whiskey

It dulls the edge of its blade by banging it around. It is no longer edgy in any sense.

It is easy to grab at grubby words. They are always right there in the gutter where you left them. A foul mouth is easily found.

Speaking with true authority, however, is hard work. It cannot be arrived at by shortcuts. Which is why authoritative words are rarely spoken.

Matthew 7:28-29

When Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Cussing does have a context. The coarse word may be the right word. There is a time where you really need some grit to match the roughness of the surface you are working with.

Ecclesiastes 3:1

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

This requires discernment, however, and a concern for clarity, not merely an appearance of authority.

1 Corinthians 14:8-10

For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.

A trumpet blast is sharp and abrasive, yet it calls the troops to war. But in a world full of cacophony, a clear blast is muted. But this is what casual cussing does. It makes a call to war indistinguishable. It drowns it in noise.

The opposite error of trashing the trumpets also leaves them silenced. It ignores the fact that a sharp blast is sometimes needed to get a rise out people. But if there is no battle cry, no one battles, and everyone loses.

All that to say, for eff's sake, stop cussing so much. Save your f-bombs for declaring war. Take it seriously enough to plan if, when, and where you are going to drop it and whether or not it's worth it. In other words, do not curse anything you are not willing to destroy.

day no. 16,290: life in padded cells and death in open country

"In the bathroom two water tumblers were sealed in cellophane sacks with  the words: 'These glasses are sterilized for your protection.' Across the toilet seat a strip of paper bore the message: 'This seat has been sterilized with ultraviolet light for your protection.' Everyone was protecting me and it  was horrible. I tore the glasses from their covers. I violated  the toilet-seat seal with my foot... I began to formulate a new law describing the relationship of protection to despondency.  A sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker, than a germ." -- John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley

Nobody, child or adult, likes to be reminded to put their coat on before going outside, but it's better than having a coat forced upon you. It is one thing to be bullied by the concerns of another who can't bear to see you in danger, but quite another to be bound by the sensitivities of others who can't bear any kind of danger whatsoever. 

The "better safe than sorry" crowd cannot bear the risks of danger, no matter how much the reward may be. They were those who once said, "Better Red than dead," and proclaimed that they'd rather "Live on their knees than die fighting." Freedom is too small of thing for them to surrender their fears. They'd rather live under tyranny than die for freedom. They'd rather live in padded cells than die in open country.

Steinbeck is reading our mail. A nanny state is suffocating. It smothers others by perpetually enforcing what's best for them with no end in sight and no joy or fun to be had by anyone. Fun is often dangerous and contagious and safety simply can't have that.

There are worse things than germs, Germans of the 1940's variety, for example. Incidentally, those were some people who hated "germs." They hated them so much, they launched a crusade to rid the world of them. Some people just won't rest until everyone else has their rest taken from them. They just can't sleep unless someone else is robbed of theirs.

You can be safe from infection in a sterilized room and yet in grave danger. If germs and scrapes and broken bones and blood and sweat be the risk of living, then I say let's risk it all and have ourselves a time. 

"I know I shall die, and I shall die on time. Therefore, I must make the most of the moments between here and there.” - St. Boniface

There are fates worse than premature death, like immature living for example.

Let us stand fast in what is right and prepare ourselves for trial. 

Let us neither be dogs that do not bark, nor silent onlookers, 

nor paid servants who run away before the wolf. 

Instead, where the battle rages, let us find ourselves. 

Run towards the roar of the lion! 

Run towards the roar of battle! 

That is where Christ's most glorious victories shall be won!

- St. Boniface

day no. 16,289: converting wine into grape juice

"If your pastor tells you that Jesus turned 160 gallons of water into grape juice, how can you trust anything he says?" — Douglas Wilson

Call me ol' fashioned, but I prefer preachers who can read. I know, that may be controversial; but still, I'm stuck in my ways.

Biblical literacy presupposes basic literacy. If you cannot read in general, you cannot read the Bible. If you don't know what words mean, you won't know what the Word means.

So, why do some labor so hard to convert the wine into grape juice? Why do they send missionaries far and wide to convince the wine to repent of its sins?

The only reason to do so is if you carry into the text a presupposition about wine. You have to have a reason to keep wine away from Jesus because you:

(a) like Jesus, but you

(b) don't like wine.

But where, pray tell, does the dislike of wine come from? Was it Biblically informed?

We must say what God says and accept the consequences: whether from others or from our own prejudices. We must conform to His words and command others to do the same.

All that to say, if your pastor cannot read and will not repeat what is plainly on the pages in front of him, how can you trust him with that which is implicit, but not stated in so many words? If he makes hash of the words that are there, how can you trust him with the words that aren't? If he shirks the words on the page, how can you trust him with the words in his mouth?

The word for "confess" in the original Greek is homologeo which is literally homo "same" + logos "word." So when we confess that Christ is Lord, we are saying the same things God says. We are repeating His Words. When we confess our sins, we are saying about them what He has already said. We are agreeing with Him and aligning ourselves to His published opinion on the matter. If we refuse to use the words God does or prefer to use different words, we are confessing a different faith and relying upon a different word.

James 3:1

Do not become teachers in large numbers, my brothers, since you know that we who are teachers will incur a stricter judgment.

day no. 16,288: without a backbone to stand up for itself

"How should a jelly not conform?” -- C.S. Lewis

Jelly doesn't have the backbone to stand up for itself. It is always found in whatever shape it was last left in. It cannot rise to the occasion for the same reason it cannot rise on any occasion -- it cannot rise at all. It is soft where it should be hard. It lacks a nerve. It is pliable. It is whatever shape anyone else wants it to be and pointing in whatever direction anyone else wants to bend it.

Psalm 106:30

Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was stayed.

The evanjellyfish cannot conform to God's will and stand up because that requires a resolution it does not possess. It can be conformed to any whim or fashion other than one that insists on consistency. It is no credit to the jelly that it’s bowed down. It cannot lay itself down because it cannot stand itself up. If you cannot stand, you cannot take credit for just laying there.

Jelly is tossed to and fro by the waves and winds of other’s opinions and can't stand its ground because it is not anchored down. There’s nothing to hang on.

James 1:6-7

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

day no. 16,287: the best way to catch a falling knife

"A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping. You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly: while you are making them you cannot see them.You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk. Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either." — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

The best way to catch a falling knife is to let it hit the floor. In other words, don't catch it. Pick it up when it's safe. You will only hurt yourself if you attempt to catch it before then. And at that point, depending on your injuries, you may not be able to pick it or your fingers up off the floor.

You cannot counsel a drunk while he is drunk. If he calls you at 3:00 am after last call in order to communicate that he's, "Gone and done it again," the time to work through it is not at that moment. He isn't thinking clearly and nothing productive can come of it. You need to let him hit the floor. Help him, if necessary, to hit his bed instead of his floor. Prepare some things in advance perhaps to help him with the hangover he will have in the morning. You are clear-headed, he isn't. You can see what's coming, he can't. That is why you may be of use to him tomorrow when he can understand you. But don't try to work through the sins and outs of drunkenness then and there. The time to talk through it all is after he's sobered up.

day no. 16,286: masculinity does not retire

"It happens to many men, and I think doctors have memorized the litany.  It had happened to so many of my friends. The lecture ends, 'Slow down. You're not as young as you once were.' And I had seen so many begin to pack their lives in cotton wool, smother their impulses, hood their passions, and gradually retire from their manhood into a kind of spiritual and physical semi-invalidism.  In this they are encouraged by wives and relatives, and it's such a sweet trap... Who doesn't like to be a center for concern?  A kind of second childhood falls on so many men. They trade their violence for the promise of a small increase of life span.  In effect, the head of the house becomes the youngest child... I did not want to surrender fierceness for a small gain in yardage. My wife married a man; I saw no reason why she should inherit a baby... And in my own life I am not willing to trade quality for quantity.  If this projected journey should prove too much then it was time to go anyway.  I see too many men delay their exits with a sickly, slow reluctance to leave the stage.  It's bad theater as well as bad living.  I am very fortunate in having a wife who likes being a woman, which means she likes men, not elderly babies." -- John Steinbeck, Travels With Charley In Search of America

Men were not made to live forever. They are born to die and go out with a bang. Too many men strive for what Steinbeck despises. They live their lives for the sake of forfeiting them in the end. They can't wait to be put out to pasture. They'd rather be petted than vetted. They step up in order to step down. They rise up in order to fall. They flex in order to flounder, spending their days full of nothing to do.

Judges 8:21

As the man is, so is his strength

Godly men don't retire. Masculinity does not take time off. Manliness cannot take a vacation and remain manly. Hardihood does not desire time off for good behavior. It doesn't want to be released from its responsibilities. It doesn't strive to slack off.

Now, men may and should rest, but that is intentional refreshment, not haphazard hospicing. Rest is intentional and active and aimed at invigorating. Retirement is inconsequential and passive and aimed at lazing. Men don't give up. They don't call it quits on kicking ass. They get up and get things done on behalf of those they love until they are forced to quit by a body that fails them or a mind that flees them, but they don't hang up their own uniform or sing their own so-long serenade. They throw until their coach approaches the mound. They work and are spent. They sow themselves for the sake of God and the good of their neighbor until He calls their number and retires their jersey.

day no. 16,285: faith plants the step and reaps the progress

"Faith needs no staff of flesh." -- George Herbert, Divinity

Faith does not lean on anything and it walks without a cane. It does not require a crutch. It does not have a limp. It plants each step and reaps the progress. It does not wobble, totter, faint, or fall.

Faith moves.

John 6:63

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

The flesh cannot walk without faith because the flesh cannot do anything without faith. It cannot walk for the same reason that dead things cannot... it's dead. Faith quickens and then faith quickens the pace. It quickens and then it thickens. The flesh leans on faith every step of the way -- for life, breath and everything else.

2 Corinthians 5:7

For we walk by faith, not by sight

The flesh can see, but it cannot walk; thus, we walk by faith and not by sight.