day no. 17,342: fire prevention

“How did you go bankrupt? Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”

― Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

Some things just happen and some things appear to happen all of a sudden but have been happening for a while.

Ecclesiastes 10:18

By much slothfulness the building decayeth; 

and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.

The roof collapses all of a sudden, but the deterioration took place over a long time.

Some consequences spring upon you in an instant like a finger in a mousetrap, but some build up before bursting like the pressure in an overinflated tire. The tire blows in an instant, but the conditions that led the explosion occurred over time.

Some things are emergencies from the git go like a grease fire in the kitchen, but some emergencies evolve like an engine running on old oil. The engine eventually gets so hot that it locks up and when it does it happens in a moment, but that moment was days in the making.

All that to say, there are enough real emergencies in life that you could not have foreseen or prevented, do not create more emergencies for yourselves by putting off preventable problems. 

day no. 17,341: juniper is SEVEN!

Happy Birthday, Juniper!

You are SEVEN years old today. It seems like just yesterday you were toddling down the hallway of our Columbia house to knock on the door as I began working from home for the first time. You have always enjoyed being where I am and I have always loved having you around.

You are always full of energy. Sometimes this looks like laughing and screaming for joy and sometimes it means crying and screaming bloody murder, but rest assured, somewhere, for some reason, you are always screaming!

You love running around and jumping and hugging with all your might. You hug like it's a contest and more often than not, you win.

You love your friends well. You love writing notes to your friends and church and enjoy receiving little notes from them.

You like little kids and enjoy looking after them. You are growing in your ability to discern what is helpful and what isn't. You often help to look after the babies in the morning while mom is doing school and you like being responsible for them.

You are scrappy. Always have, always will be if I had to guess. You like to mix things up. You don't like being left out of the action and often create some if there is nothing else going on.

You are smart. You are doing well at school and you genuinely like learning stuff. 

You are pretty. You have a great smile, beautiful eyes, and cute hair. 

You like wearing dresses, but you also like getting your dresses dirty. Well, I'm not so sure that you like getting them dirty as much as you are indifferent to whether or not they get dirty in the process of doing things that you do like. You do not shy away from a game because you might get dirty. You dive in.

You are a great daughter and I love being your dad. I hope you have a great birthday and that your seventh year of life turns out to be the very best so far.

To Juni!

Happy Birthday!

Love,

Dad

day no. 17,340: in season and out of season

“Never allow a feeling which was stirred in you in the high hour to evaporate. Don’t put your mental feet on the mantelpiece and say — “What a marvellous state of mind to be in!” Act immediately, do something, if only because you would rather not do it.” — Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest 

When we feel spiritual we don't want to do things, we want to enjoy feeling spiritual, but when we don't feel spiritual, we don't want to do things because we feel like it would be disingenuous. 

As a result, we rarely do the things God requires.

When we feel like we are on the mountaintop with Jesus, we want to enjoy being there, not going back down into the demon-possessed valley to do things. 

When we feel like we are in the demon-possessed valley, we don't want to do things because we don't feel like it.

2 Timothy 4:2

Be instant in season, out of season.

What this all amounts to is that we are going to have to obey God when we don't feel like it. We must be instant in season and out of season. We must obey when we're feeling it and when we're not. When we feel like obeying God, we need to take that energy and apply it to the next thing God has for us to do. When we don't feel like obeying God, we need to power through and obey Him anyways.

Our feelings cannot be the basis for our obedience or we will never obey.

day no. 17,339: but i repeat myself

Matthew 6:7

When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Repetition is not mala in se, but it can be, as Jesus points out. 

In fact, repetition is inescapable. 

So, the question then is not between vain repetition and sincere novelty, it is between vain repetition and sincere repetition. Something will be repeated. Liturgy is inescapable. The point Jesus is making is not that we must avoid repeating things, but we must avoid vainly repeating things and that we also must avoid repeating vain things. In other words, do not mindlessly adhere to orthodoxy and be careful to avoid being indoctrinated in heresy. Because repetition is given, you will either be repeating God's commands from the heart or you will be repeating them heartlessly or you will be repeating the world's pattern from the heart or by default. 

Faith has never been an accident. It requires intention and sincerity. Liturgy does not have to be hurdle to sincerity. It can be, but it isn't inevitable. In fact, sincere belief is the result of liturgy. Without repetition, you are left to novelty which is not, by definition, orthodox.

"Liturgies train our loves by aiming them toward a certain telos." — James K.A. Smith, You Are What You Love

No one falls in love. Affection is not the end result of inattention. You do not "fall for" anything you haven't been preparing to embrace. You don't spend your entire life feeding an affection for virtue and then fall head over heels for vice. You do not mull over an affinity for sports cars and then fall in love with a minivan. You don't love by accident. You can fall in lust, but not in love.

How we organize our days and how we regularize our delights determines our affections. It trains our hearts in a particular direction. You do not backslide into affection. You fall, in that sense, for what you have been hoping to trip into.

"The reason culture trains our heart is that, in a sense, it is a type of liturgy." — Raymond Simmons, The Confessional County

Culture is a kind of repetition. It is a smell that always accompanies a moment, a flavor that pairs with a routine. Culture is a liturgy of livelihood. It trains our affections in a certain direction. It provides the grammar of delight and the logic of loveliness. It provides the scripts and sets the expectations. 

"You can't not love." — James K.A. Smith, You Are What You Love

Love is inescapable. Liturgy is inescapable. Repetition is inescapable, .Culture is inescapable. You will love something. You will organize your days around something. Your will train your affections towards something. You will do something over and over.

"Christian culture is putting God's ethics into public action." — Raymond Simmons, The Confessional County

Christendom is Christ's commands incarnate. It is not merely private sentiment. Jesus is not only the Lord of the few inches between your ears, He is Lord and Savior of every inch inside of you and the world around you in which you live, move, and have your being.

Christendom is Christian civilization organized around a Christian calendar, fueled by a Christian culture, and built on a Christian foundation.

1 Corinthians 3:10-11

But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

day no. 17,338: necessary and ugly

“All government is an ugly necessity.” — G.K. Chesterton, The Meaning of Merry England, A Short History of England

Because of sin government is necessary and because of sin government is ugly. Without government, the world would be even uglier than it is, but government does do its own part to add to the ugly.

Romans 13:1-2

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

It is good that powers exist. Image bearers were made to live in covenantal realities. People are molecular, not atomistic. We were made to live in relation to others, beginning first with parents and siblings, and then extending to church, neighbors, cities, counties, states, and nations. We organize ourselves into representative associations like marriage, churches, HOAs, school districts, and counties. These associations require covenants. Covenants require representatives. These things are not in themselves ugly realities, these are the beauty of God's design.

But because of sin, the reasons for these associations is often related to sin, e.g. law enforcement. And what Chesterton is pointing out is that the law enforcers are themselves lawbreakers. Those in charge of punishing sin are themselves sinners.

day no. 17,337: desperate is dangerous

Proverbs 27:7

The full soul loatheth an honeycomb;

but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.

Desperate is dangerous.

Desperate people are in danger of devouring poison.

Contented people are in danger of being devoured by desperate people, if they're not careful.

Do not get too close to someone who needs closeness too much.

Do not confide in someone who needs to be needed too much.

Do not give attention to someone who needs attention too much.

Desperate people are a danger to themselves and others.

"For you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you." — St. Augustine

Restless hearts will give you no rest if you get mixed up with them. Until they find Christ, they are not safe. They are like a drowning victim who will take down anyone who tries to help them. Unless Jesus saves their lives, they will drown and they will drown anyone else who gets too close to them.

day no. 17,336: a longhouse headache

“If there must be a head, why the man? Well, firstly, is there any very serious wish that it should be the woman?” — C.S. Lewis

Men were made to be responsible. Many do not like that and try to abdicate, but that just leaves their responsibilities to fall on others's shoulders. But whose fault is that? Men's. Men can be irresponsible, but they cannot be aresponsible. They do not have the ability to avoid that weight. And everyone knows it.

“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

Matriarchy is not women ruling, it is men ruling poorly. Men cannot NOT rule. They can only rule well or not so well. The feminists know this. They hate men for leading and then they hate men for failing to lead. They do this because they hate men, not because they hate authority or responsibility. They want to separate what God has joined together. They want to possess authority without having to take responsibility. They are at war with reality. They want to live according to a new dictionary, but they want men to live according to the old one. 

They want to blast a man for opening a door for a lady and they want him to pay child support he abandons her. They want him to pay for the abortion and they want him to pay for the wedding.