A Brief Introduction

A fascinating thing about being human is the opportunity to reflect on things encountered as we grow in life. Sometimes these things are weighty, sometimes they are light, yet they all are captivating. Many of these questions seem silly or irrelevant by the more cynical among us. I don't care since where will they be when I go to meet my Maker. I hope everyone makes an honest effort to arrive at answers since the consequences are eternal. What is the meaning of life? Where did we come from? Where are we going? Were we created? If so, by whom? Who created the creator? And so on...

I ask the deeper questions less the older I get, having by faith, logic, or frustration, arrived at some sort of answer on them, or filed them under the 'mysteries of life' to be contemplated but never rationalized. The relevancy and practicality of the questions now determine whether they are ones I spend much effort on. Now in my 42nd year I am realizing how little I know about this world. By faith I accept there is a higher being who created us and He has revealed himself in the Bible. This gift of faith I received when I was 30 and have stumbled and fumbled my way since then, not really knowing what Christian living is supposed to be.

I have decided to write this blog as diary if nothing else; if it spawns any interest then as a means of communication and dialog as well. If there is no interest other than from me it will at least have served its primary purpose of being a creative release and a means of helping me to better organize my views.

Currently most of my thoughts revolve around family, community, culture, continuity, and how faith in God should guide them all. I am struggling with what I perceive as the overly individualistic philosophy of the evangelical movement of which I am aligned. There is such an emphasis on the individual that community is an afterthought. In my local church we do have a meal together once a week to go with the 2 hours together Sunday morning but not much else. Is this all there is? Once when I sent an email to my Sunday School class about a moral issue being considered by our local school board the interest was almost non-existent. I even got one rebuke for not being the right kind of salt and light. Also I have become more and more aware of some of the effects dispensational theory on the whole evangelical movement. The end result of all this is even in the supposed 'right wing' evangelical Christian community there is a very passive, worldly way in which we are expected to act in the world. Doing anything that is communitarian and counter-cultural (like the Amish) is considered 'legalistic'. My interpretation is that Christ has been overtly feminized by non-Christian elements in our society and that the Church has gone right along because it both wants to fit in with the world and not face the masculine pain of separation from it. From my holistic view of the Christian life something ain't right. Forget the 'mainline' Protestant view on things; they are even more astray from the clear teachings of the Bible. Roman Catholicism is so riddled with anti-Biblical practices as to also be undesirable.

I am searching for the right balance for my family. I want to be the husband and father God calls me to be. A continuity of family and community is needed that can be preserved and passed on until Christ returns. With that in mind there is a time for a Christian to stand up and be counted and not to shrink from speaking the truth even when it violates the false religions and false gods of our day. Our liberty has turned into libertinism. The traditional Christian freedom of our forefathers is now a shadowy memory. I hope to reclaim some of it for my kin and kith before my time passes.