day no. 17,545: harsh realities and necessary goods

“In a healthy society, if wives are generally submissive to their own husbands, there will be a cheerful deference to the leadership of men generally, a reality to be welcomed and not resented. The end result generally will be a patriarchal society.” ― Douglas Wilson, Concise and to the Point

Patriarchy is not an evil, not even a necessary evil; it is a necessary good.

It is not a sinful system to usurp, it is a lawful system to embrace.

Reality is never on the ballot. Everyone could vote against reality and reality would still win the election. Just as one man with God is always in the majority, so the reality of God is always our reality. That is not a harsh reality, but it feels harsh to those who keep hitting their head on it.

day no. 17,544: rocco is 11

A toast for Rocco:

Rocco,

You are a good son, a good brother, a good friend, and a good man. You do what you say you are going to do and you work hard at the tasks that are assigned to you. You play well with your friends and work well when you are on your own. You know how to be crazy and you know how to be calm. You can sit and read and you can climb a tree. These are the things men need to do. They need to be steady and secure and they need to be ready to secure the area. You are smart and strong, just like a good man should be. I will miss 10 year old Rocco, but I am excited to get to know 11 year old Rocco. May you continue to grow in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and with others just as Jesus did when He was your age. 

To Rocco!

I am so proud of you and I love you very much.

Happy Birthday, Rocketsauce.

Dad

day no. 17,543: just the one

Acts 22:14

The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth.

Jesus is the Just One that Paul saw on the road to Damascus. 

How many just ones are there? Just the one.

day no. 17,542: all dressed up with nowhere to go

“Benches were pushed back, bedding gear and bolsters

Spread across the floor…

At their heads they placed their polished timber

Battle-shields; and on the bench above them,

Each  man’s  kit  was  kept  to  hand:

A towering war-helmet, webbed mail-shirt

And great-shafted spear. It was their habit

Always and everywhere to be ready for action,

At home or in the camp, in whatever case

And at whatever time the need arose

To rally round their lord. They were a right people."

— Beowulf, Seamus Heaney translation

It is a good thing to be ready to go.

Luke 12:35

Stay dressed for action.

Preparedness is about being getting ready so that when the time comes, you're already ready. There is no time to get ready when the time comes.

Get ready now so that you will be ready later.

In the world of preparedness, it is a good thing to be all dressed up with nowhere to go.

day no. 17,541: the fact of the fight

"First, we must know what to fight. And secondly, we need to learn how to fight. Our central foe is secularism—the mindset that sets itself up against the knowledge of God (2 Cor. 10: 5). And as for how we fight, that should be with the joy of the Lord at our backs (Neh. 8:10), a psalm on our lips (Ps. 144:1), and a scriptural rapier in hand (Hen. 4:12). We are to fight like cavaliers, and not like trapped animals." ― Douglas Wilson, Jehovah and the Midterms

The fact of the fight must be acknowledged first and foremost. For some, this is the hardest part. The myth of secular neutrality has led many to believe that coexisting is the most Christian thing anyone one of us can do. After the fact of the fight is understood, the tactics for fighting must be acknowledged. We are in the flesh, but we do not fight by the force of the flesh. There is a way to fight that concedes the outcome. For example, if we fight sin with sin, we might win, but sin definitely does. We must fight by faith, but by fear. We are not cornered beasts fighting for our lives, we are men fighting for the glory of God. Let us not devolved into bestial battle tactics even when the ugliness of war descends upon us, rather let us rise to the level of the angels who once cleared Heaven of Satan and his comrades.

Wage peace, saints.

day no. 17,540: pregnant people

Psalm 7:8-16

The LORD judges the peoples;

judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness

and according to the integrity that is in me. 

Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,

and may you establish the righteous—

you who test the minds and hearts,

O righteous God!

My shield is with God,

who saves the upright in heart. 

God is a righteous judge,

and a God who feels indignation every day.

If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword;

he has bent and readied his bow; 

he has prepared for him his deadly weapons,

making his arrows fiery shafts. 

Behold, the wicked man conceives evil

and is pregnant with mischief

and gives birth to lies. 

He makes a pit, digging it out,

and falls into the hole that he has made. 

His mischief returns upon his own head,

and on his own skull his violence descends.

Turns out the Left was right: men can get pregnant. And not only that, but all men are pregnant. Evil is conceived in the hearts of men and mischief grows in utero before inevitably being born out in misbehavior. And this is not unique to men, it is common to all mankind. So, again, the Left was right: we should say "pregnant people" for men and women everywhere are full of sin. The only hope is to abort the evil before it is born. Again, the Left was apparently on to something, they have just misapplied the meaning of everything.

day no. 17,539: timidity and temerity

"In peace there's nothing so becomes a man

As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the tiger;

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,

Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage."

― Shakespeare, Henry V: Act 3, Scene 1

If a man is only capable of mayhem, he is not a safe man, and if he is only capable of minding his manner, he is not safe either. The first man may turn on you and the second man cannot turn away danger. The first man is a blessing when he is on your side against a common foe and the second man is a blessing to rest beside when there are no foes, but the first man is no fun to relax with because you're always walking on eggshells and the second man is no fun to fight beside because he always gets you shelled. 

Timidity and temerity are equally dangerous. The timid can get you killed and the temerous can turn on you. The timid are perhaps more dangerous because no one intuitively sees the danger. Everyone sees the danger of the ticking time bomb, but few see the danger of a bomb with no bang.

"If you think tough men are dangerous, wait until you see what weak men are capable of." — Jordan B. Peterson

A good man must be good at being a man. He needs to know how to sit still in peace and how to rise up and rage. If he can only do one or the other, he is not safe.