day no. 17,329: sword play when things are serious

"The time for war has not yet come, but it will come, and that soon; and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." ― Stonewall Jackson

Enmity is inescapable. Conflict is in the cards. Good and evil cannot coexist, regardless of what the bumper stickers tell us. God has infused enmity into the order of the world, or rather, it should be said into the disorder of the world. God is not a God of disorder, but of order. It is Christ or chaos. The two are mutually exclusive. They cannot kumbaya. There will be warfare. There armies may not always be actively firing at each other, but they are always maneuvering, planning, and positioning themselves for their next assaults.

So, they may not always be exchanging blows, but they are always preparing for the next strike. And if something is worth hitting over, it is worth hitting hard over. There is no sense is soft hitting. There is no mercy in being milquetoast. Swift and severe often ends in less overall devastation than slow and subtle. If you unsheathe your sword, don't put it away until there is nothing left to swing at. Cut and hack most resolutely, and then remember to clean your sword. (Pilgrim's Progress, The Chronicles of Narnia)

"The unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly." — Theodore Roosevelt

Casualties are reduced when contacts are made to count. An efficient first strike can sometimes be sufficient enough to eliminate the need for future engagement. If you can convince the enemy to stand down, you can save more of your enemies lives than you could have by convincing them that they had a chance.

"If you decide to fight, you also have to decide to win." — Luther (movie: 2003)

You cannot fight half-heartedly. If something is worth fighting about, it is worth fighting as hard as you can about.

"Believe that you can whip the enemy, and you have won half the battle." — J. E. B. Stuart

You should not swing unless you think you can take him and then, swing away. But don't timidly tap your opponent. Either give them the dignity of loving them well as an enemy by opposing them ferociously or give them an apology for having previously opposed them and love them by becoming their friend. If they should be opposed, then oppose them well. That is loving your enemy. If they should not be opposed, stop opposing them and ask them for their forgiveness for having done so before. That is also loving your enemy.

day no. 17,328: education and the end of everything as we know it

“The education of a man is never completed until he dies.” ― Robert E. Lee

Education is the nourishment and instruction of the Lord and its aim is to conform us to the image of Christ. As such, it is completed only when we become like Him in death. As long as we are alive, it continues. We are never done learning. We are always being conformed to the image of Christ. That is the end for which we were made and saved.

Romans 8:29-32

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

We get the English word “education” from the Latin “educere.” (eh-DOO-kay-ray) The etymology of this word is the Latin prefix “e” meaning “of” or “from,” and the word “ducere” meaning “to lead” or “to draw out.” So putting it all together, education is leading or drawing someone out of something. An education, therefore, always presupposes a start and a finish or to frame it in more theological terms, an origin and an eschatology. An education assumes certain things about where we came from as well as about where we should be going. So, where does a Christian education begin? With the end in mind.

Which is to say that education begins and ends with Christ. Anything less is not Christian. It is antichrist. We are being led somewhere by someone and the where and one are the same: Christ.

Q: What is the chief end of man?

A. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.

― Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 1

We are being led to the right hand of the Father. That is where Christ is and that is where endless joy abounds.

Psalm 16:11

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: 

in Thy presence is fulness of joy; 

at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

This is the end. In Christ, our education is completed. We do not graduate beyond grace. We continue on to greater degrees as we become more like.

2 Corinthians 3:18

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit.

Onward and upward, to Narnia and the North. Further up and further in forever and ever, world without end, and amen.

day no. 17,327: that blessed arrangement

“Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly… both partners might have found more suitable mates. But the real soul-mate is the one you are actually married to.” — J.R.R. Tolkien, in a letter to his son

There is no such thing as the one. There are better matches than others, but at the end of the day, there is the one you chose and your commitment to your choice.

"First a man must choose his love, and then he must love his choice" — Henry Smith

If you choose a spouse, you also choose to stop looking for another. Once you have said, "I do," and she has said, "I do too," you have promised to stop considering other options. With respect to all other eligible prospects, you are saying, "I don't." Every "yes" is a "no." To say, "Yes," to this way is to say, "No," to that way. To say, "Yes," to this person is to say, "No," to that person.

"Many a man has been lucky in marrying the woman he loves. But he is luckiest in loving the woman he marries." — G.K. Chesterton

Your soul-mate is the one you are married to. No better match can come along after the fact. Once the fact of the marriage exists, there is no better option than the one you call your spouse.

day no. 17,326: stupid people

Jeremiah 10:14

Every person is stupid.

Stupid is as stupid does.

Proverbs 12:1

Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, 

But he who hates correction is stupid.

Stupid is rejecting correction. Stupid is knowing what to do and refusing to do it. Stupid is not being ignorant. Stupid is being arrogant.

So, stupid is as stupid does, but stupid also is what stupid doesn't, which is to say that not repenting is stupid.

day no. 17,325: night mares and day stallions

“The center of every man's existence is a dream. Death, disease, insanity, are merely material accidents, like a toothache or a twisted ankle. That these brutal forces always besiege and often capture the citadel does not prove that they are the citadel.” ― G.K. Chesterton

Pain and suffering are a part of life, but they are not life itself. They cannot be easily ignored, but they should not be readily indulged. Sin seems indomitable, but it only seems that way. Death seems inevitable, but it only seems that way. When you have a toothache, it is all you can think about, but life goes on. You may not sleep or eat as well as you once did, but your life is not a living toothache, even if it feels like it. When your ankle is sprained, it dominates your life for a time. It changes the way you walk, but it does not change the fact that you still have places you have to walk to. Nightmares seem inescapable until you wake up. Good dreams do not go away with the morning. They dominate the waking hours as much as they do the night.

day no. 17,324: women in the workplace

“Most of the Feminists would probably agree with me that womanhood is under shameful tyranny in the shops and mills. But I want to destroy the tyranny. They want to destroy womanhood. That is the only difference.” — G.K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong with the World

Womanhood in the workplace is tyrannical because women in the workplace is a tyranny. It is not a matter of women being allowed into the workforce as much as it is women being forced into the workforce by abdicating fathers and abandoning husbands. Women were marched into the workplace long before they marched to secure a place there. 

So, like Chesterton, I agree. Women in the workplace is less than ideal.

"Modern women defend their office with all the fierceness of domesticity. They fight for desk and typewriter as for hearth and home, and develop a sort of wolfish wifehood on behalf of the invisible head of the firm. That is why they do office work so well; and that is why they ought not to do it." — G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong With The World

Feminists want to turn women into men. They want the standards of men applied to women and the rewards of masculinity available to feminists. I, like Chesterton, want that tyranny toppled. No one should be held to someone else's standard. Each servant should answer to his or her master and not for his or her fellow servants.

Romans 14:4

Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.

So, a woman should not be held to a man's standard in the workplace and a man should not be held to a woman's standard in the classroom. But both should answer to God and strive to live according to His standards for them respective to their posts.

“The woman does not work because the man tells her to work and she obeys. On the contrary, the woman works because she has told the man to work and he hasn’t obeyed.” — G.K. Chesterton, What’s Wrong with the World

When men fail to work, women must fill the void. When men are willing to let others starve, others either need to get to work or starve.

“What is called matriarchy is simply moral anarchy, in which the mother alone remains fixed because all the fathers are fugitive and irresponsible.” — G.K. Chesterton

Women in the workplace would be necessary if husbands went home to their wives and fathers went home to their children. Men must go to work, but they also must come home when they are done. When the men abandon their posts, it is only natural that the the women will unnaturally abandon theirs.

day no. 17,323: doctrine and desire

Psalm 37:4

Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

The pharisaical separate doctrine from desire. They put their hope in right living while indulging in wrong loving. They assume that the right answers excuse the wrong desires. They feel free to go on wanting wrong things because they continue to understand the right ones.

Mark 10:9

What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Doctrine and desire go hand in hand. You must love what is true, good, and beautiful and you must do that which is right, good, and helpful. You cannot excuse bad actions by good beliefs and good actions cannot grow on the tree of bad belief.