day no. 17,517: long cons and little men

"The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive." — Thomas Sowell

You can pass a law that two plus two equals five, but you can't force God's world to work that way.

"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." — Philip K. Dick

Reality is not left wing or right wing. It is not conservative or progressive. It is the indomitable will of God Almighty and it doesn't go away. Insanity is not a long term plan. Everything is going somewhere and sooner or later it's going to get there. There is a way to work with the grain and a way to work against it. There is a way to more competent at corruption than others and there is a way to be incompetent with character. In other words, some people are better at being bad than others and some people no good at being good. Politicians, somehow, are often both.

"No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems -- of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind." — Thomas Sowell

Since insanity cannot work, it must seek shelter somewhere were results do not matter. Washington is just such a place. Promises do not need to be kept and policies do not need to work, they just need to be lobbied for. So, as long as politicians keep promising to do better and continue to be reliably dishonest or incompetent in keeping them, they will always have job security.

Washington is where you want to go when you don't want to work and you aren't concerned about the outcome. Not working is what works best in the swamp. It is the land of long cons and little men.

day no. 17,516: promises and excuses

"When a politician is in opposition he is an expert on the means to some end; and when he is in office he is an expert on the obstacles to it." — G.K. Chesterton

It is easy to have all of the answers when you don't have to answer for any of the problems.

It is easier to criticize than to construct. It is easier to tear down or edit someone else's ideas than it is to generate your own. It is easy to point out how the man in office is failing, but it is hard to be the man in office without pointing to all of the hurdles you have to hop over. 

“No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems—of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind.” ― Thomas Sowell, Dismantling America: and other controversial essays

Politicians run for offices on promises and stay in office on excuses.

day no. 17,515: succors and suckers

“Men are ruled, at this minute by the clock, by liars who refuse them news, and by fools who cannot govern.” — G.K. Chesterton, Utopia of Usurers

Honest men are, at this very moment, governed by liars and wise men are ruled by fools.

Dishonest men presented themselves as experts and honest men believed them.

Liars said they were being honest and wise men trusted them.

Do not be deceived, as bad as you know yourself to be in possibility many are in actuality. Those who rule are not different kind of men than we are, but they may have less self-control than we do. 

day no. 17,514: students of stupid

“Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.”

― G.K. Chesterton

Those who do not know any better often assume that those in the know are their betters. A Christian education dispels that misunderstanding. The myth of the elites evaporates under the heat lamp of God's Word. 

1 Corinthians 1:19-31

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

Stupidity is not ignorance, it is arrogance.

Stupidity is not a matter of information, but of obedience.

The stupid person is not in the dark because they don't know what to do, they are in the dark because, knowing what to do, they do not do it.

Secular education is a boot camp of disobedience. The more studious you are, the stupider you are. 

day no. 17,513: form and freedom

"Form and freedom must go together for the sake of ordered liberty, and form and freedom only go together in Christ." — Douglas Wilson, Unholy Wars: Slavery, Jews, and Your Mouth

This reminds me of Chesterton's observation that "the chief aim of order is to give room for good things to run wild.” which then reminds me of what our Lord said in John 10:9, "I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." 

So, any way you shake it, it comes down to: form and freedom, order and emancipation, or one door and infinite pasture.

1 Corinthians 14:33

For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.

The law of liberty is peace. 

Law without liberty is legalism and liberty without law is licentiousness.

day no. 17,512: right and wrong

"We have to start with the fact that we are always looking out at the world through our own eyes. And we think that we are seeing accurately, which may indeed be the case, but we are sometimes wrong. You don’t believe you are always right, but you always believe you’re right... Confronted with the question 'have you ever been wrong?' virtually everyone would acknowledge it in the abstract. But acknowledging it and budgeting for it are two different things." — Douglas Wilson, Athletics and the Christian Community #6

No one says, “I was wrong,” unless they think they’re right about that. So, even when we are confessing our failures, we are presuming to be succeeding in that assessment.

day no. 17,511: don't run in a hurry

“Don’t run in a hurry, run with a farmer’s patience.” — Brooks Potteiger

Runners should run, but not frantically. They should strive for the finish line, but not grow impatient in the meantime. Running includes a commitment to keep running. It isn't sprinting until you cannot continue, it is persevering in the running. Running is patient diligence.

2 Timothy 2:1-7

You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

Think it over. Be in it, but be in it for the long haul. Do not lift so little that you do not bring anything across the finish line, but don't lift so much that you cannot reach the finish line. Yoke yourself to Christ and carry what you can and more to the point, keep on going until the end.

Philippians 3:12-15

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

Do not run like someone who doesn't have to run, but do not run like someone who has lost sight of the finish line.