An Eye for an Eye...

While I believe strongly in the dignity of human beings and in the sanctity of human life, I also very strongly believe in the death penalty. Some people see that as a contradiction. My answer to that is that human life is so important that if someone takes it unlawfully they should pay for it with their own life. That’s recognition of the sanctity of human life, not a contradiction.

I am always surprised to see Jewish and Christian clergy among those gathered at death penalty protests. Judaism and Christianity are based on the Bible. They should be true to the teachings of it. The Bible is Gods revelation to mankind. It says that the death penalty is necessary for justice and for a stable society. The first five books of the scriptures, the ‘Torah’ in Hebrew, are the books laying down God’s law. The one law that is found in all five books is the injunction to take the life of someone who has taken human life unlawfully.

While the legal system laid out in the Torah bears little resemblance to our form of government, there are some aspects of it that our founding fathers incorporated into our law. A study of the history of our founding fathers will reveal that they believed in the moral code laid down in the Bible. They considered it so final that they didn’t feel the need to reiterate it in our law. Our constitutional law nowhere says: “You will not commit murder”, like the sixth commandment, what it says is: ‘If you do commit murder, the government has the right to try you and to punish you’.

The principles of justice in the Bible are clear. Justice should be universally applied, there is to be no special treatment for those with rank or position. The penalties should be applied swiftly and with full knowledge, and in many cases the participation, of the public.

Unfortunately the death penalty is not universally or swiftly applied in our system. It has often unfairly been administered along racial or other lines. And, perhaps worst of all, it only happens after years of legal wrangling. It seems like every year there is some new legal defense that allows someone to get away with murder. The length of time between the crime and the punishment is usually so long that the death penalty is often, correctly, cited as not being an effective deterrent to murder. For it to be an effective deterrent it must be applied swiftly, and to all murderers.

People should be held responsible for their own actions. Provisions are made in the law for negligence, accidental killing and self-defense where they are appropriate. But, if anyone commits murder…they should be put to death. The issue is not about rehabilitation, as some would have us believe. And it’s not about revenge. That's why the death penalty isn't carried out by vigilantes...it's only carried out by lawfully constituted governments. It’s about punishment and about justice. The issue is about the sanctity of human life.

It is never a joyous occasion for the government to exercise its authority and take a human life. The death penalty should never be carried out in a carnival-like, or lighthearted fashion. It should be carried out with the appropriate amount of sobriety. The issues of justice and punishment should always give us pause. They are issues that are important to every member of society. They apply to us all. The death penalty reminds us all that to find justice we have to apply a firm, and unwavering, hand.

That's how important human life is…

Stem Cells and Human Dignity

The current debate over the use of embryonic stem cells is yet one more battle in the fight for human dignity. The legal issues surrounding abortion, the most readily available source of embryos that could be used in research, are complex and thoughtful people, of good conscience, will sometimes disagree. But, they should at least seriously ask the questions. Also complex are the issues surrounding the use of cloned embryos as a source not involving abortion. The argument over whether or not an embryo is indeed a human life lies at the heart of the battle. That is THE question that should weigh on all our minds.

What we know is this: a human embryo doesn’t grow up to be a palm tree, an armadillo or a chimpanzee…it grows up to be a human being.

We know too that the founding fathers considered the right to life to be the first right mentioned in our sacred documents. A legal argument can be made that, if we had a constitutional right to make a journey of, say, a thousand miles, that to keep someone from taking the first step would be to deny them that right. In the same way, to deny a child from being born is to deny the right to life to a human being.

The two sides involved in the debate talk at each other and rarely to each other. They won’t even agree to a set of terms. The ‘right to life’ and ‘the right of choice’ are not opposites, they address different aspects of the issue. I will state here that I believe some abortions should be legal. If abortion is indeed a sin in the eyes of God, then it is no more a sin than adultery. And adultery, like most other sins, is legal. The real issue to me is whether a right in the eyes of the law is handled with responsibility or it becomes a license to corrupt behavior.

The latter is what worries me about abortion and stem cell research. Terminating a life should be seriously and responsibly considered. Instead, making it legal was the first step in giving many people license to abuse the right. The right to have an abortion has become a license to use it as a means of birth control for many women. If a pregnancy is inconvenient for some women, they simply kill the embryo.

I believe in the dignity of every human being and I believe in the right to life of every innocent human being. Stem cell research requires the use of potential human beings and that’s a very dangerous area to me. I know, from being an observer of human behavior that, if science finds that stem cell research can indeed cure some of the ailments and diseases of our age, the demand for embryos will drastically increase. And it is a fact, borne out by history, that the supply will be met some way. Some women will be encouraged to abort their babies to supply the demand. They may even be encouraged to become pregnant and then abort to supply the demand. That would clearly be unethical. For that reason, I believe it's an area of research that shouldn’t even be considered. Just because something can be done, doesn't mean it should be done. Even cloning embryos to use for research cheapens the life of the innocent. Cloning human beings denies human dignity. The kind of society that would do so is not the kind of society I want to live in.

We all have the right to life. And we all have the right to choose. We don’t have the right to use each other. We especially don’t have the right to end someone elses life for our own use…

A human embryo is a baby human being, just ask any mom or dad waiting to meet their new child.

Symbols over Substance

There was a time in America when, though our citizens held different faiths and came from different cultures, we were bound by a set of ideas that defined America. Those ideas are stated in our sacred writings: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and the Gettysburg Address among others. Increasingly, our nation finds its citizens at odds with the ideas and ideals of those writings. They no longer bind us like they once did. For example, it was once a common value that we believed in God, the Creator mentioned in those documents. That’s not to say that every individual believed in God, or that everyone believed in the same god, but we commonly held that there was a God watching over the affairs of men, one that we would answer to one day. It was important to hold that as a common value because it meant that ultimately we would be held accountable for our actions.

Since a common set of ideals no longer binds Americans, about the only thing we have in common, the only thing that now binds us as a culture, is exposure to the same media that enters our homes every day. Every day in America we are bombarded with images of the Hollywood elite and Washington ‘beltway’ politicians…and those that make their living watching and commenting on them. Slowly, and with an almost imperceptible intent, these images have altered the values that we once held in common as a culture.

The enemies of moral standards, the enemies of decency, know that to affect change in our culture they must affect a change in the hearts and minds of its citizens. To accomplish that, they must utilize the popular media. It’s no longer as important that our public figures actually are decent people, so much as it’s important that they ‘appear to be’ decent people. Real agendas have become hidden. Everything has become about appearances. We’ve developed a culture of symbols over substance.

Our symbols mean what we want them to mean. We infuse them with power like we infuse them with meaning. We wear symbols to signify our affiliations. We fly our symbols on flagpoles. We wear symbols to identify with our religious beliefs. Simply wearing a cross, or Star of David is more important to some people than actually living the principles those symbols represent. We represent wealth with the symbol of money. Never mind that real wealth can’t be measured in money. Many have come to see it as an end in itself instead of a means towards an end. Criminals steal our symbols then attack the symbols that maintain order in our society, the police, because they cease to see them as people. Our enemies have attacked the symbols of our system of economics and military might, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, because they know the power of our symbols and they see the decadence that hides behind them.

Make no mistake, we are in a cultural war. On one side are those who see freedom as only existing when there are no moral standards except the ones handed down from Hollywood, or some other phony, pretentious source at the moment. You can be a person of absolutely no moral values as long as you jump on the bandwagon and appear to be for ‘saving the trees’, or whatever the cause of the day is. These people believe freedom exists apart from responsibility. Personal responsibility is something they want to eradicate. They’ve distorted the freedoms that our country was built on into a license to engage in any form of decadence that one can imagine. The very acts of decadence themselves have become symbols of freedom…symbols without substance.

Prostitution is illegal in most parts of our country, unless it’s being filmed, then we call it pornography and it becomes a symbol for freedom of expression. We’ve let murderers go free when they’ve become symbols of racism. We allow the most base, vile language to fill our airwaves because it’s a symbol of our freedom of speech.

On the other side are those who recognize that freedoms demand responsibility if they are to have real substance. Responsibility demands a strong sense of right and wrong. For our culture to produce anything of real value…it must have values. For our culture to last it has to nourish its citizens and give them a sense of real values. There is no freedom apart from a strong moral standard…there’s only debauchery. If men and women of good conscience don’t act now that’s where we’re headed…

The founding fathers of this nation understood the need for personal responsibility. When they wrote: ‘You have the right to freedom of speech’ what they saw in the statement was ‘You have the right to responsible freedom of speech’. A study of the history of our sacred documents will bear that out. I doubt they could even envision a time when the freedoms they ensured for us would be turned into the license for decadence that we’ve made them.

It’s time to stop our decline into moral decay. It’s time to repent as a nation and turn back to God who made us strong. He is watching. It’s time to put His Ten Commandments in every public square, every church, every school building and every courtroom in the land. If we are to survive as a positive force in the world we need to write them into our hearts. They too are symbols…symbols that have been ignored because of what they represent…real values. And real freedom only lies within real values.

Honest Tears

A friend of mine and I were talking about the subject of grace recently. It was fresh on my mind, having written a blog on the subject. I shared with him how I experienced grace in the death of a friend last year. He shared with me how he experienced a true moment of grace in the death of his newborn child. His eyes welled with tears while he smiled and told me how he was given the gift of being able to hold his daughter in his arms while she drew her last breath... There is something pure in the tears of honest emotion.

Everything in our nature tells us that it's contrary to the way the universe should work to experience the death of ones child. We expect our children to outlive us. That is the way. But, this is earth and life is sometimes a veil of tears. Human tears have fallen like rain in our history. Like rain, they have nourished new growth in human hearts. They may be all that preserve us sometimes.

If there is anything positive in the death of a child, anything redeeming at all, it is that it strips away everything unnecessary in life. For those with the eyes to see, it allows them to glimpse the essence of what is important in life. No ego exists in that moment; no pride; no pettiness, only the simple, pure feeling of love for a life cut short. And, while it breaks our hearts to see our children, the most innocent among us, suffer and die...we can remember that a broken heart is also an open heart. Open hearts are the hope for our race; they preserve it. In the tears of a broken heart are true moments of grace. Often it is through such tears that we can see God the most clearly. Blessed are those with a broken spirit...

My faith calls on me to open my heart. It calls on me to realize the connection that exists between all of us. My friends' tears touched my heart and it went out to him. The death of his daughter was my loss too...it was a loss to all of us. We are all family.

Never have I’ve seen it more beautifully put than in the prose of the poet John Donne: (Excerpts from: Meditation #17, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1623), XVII: Nunc Lento Sonitu Dicunt, Morieris)

“All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated...As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness....No man is an island, entire of itself...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

Amen.

How we play The Game

Did you ever sit down to play a game, like Monopoly, with other people and get so caught up in the game that you forgot about everything else? Did you, or any of the people you played with, take it just a little too seriously? How about this…did anyone you ever played with surprise you by revealing a side you hadn't seen before, like being greedy or perhaps cheating?

It’s easy to get caught up in such things for some people. The game becomes their reality. It becomes a reflection of their ego. They seem to forget that it’s not ‘real’ life; that the stakes don’t really matter. What matters is how we play the game.

As a Christian, I have come to see life like that kind of game. I have come to believe that the ultimate reality is what we are being prepared for. I don’t mean to say that what goes on in this life is unimportant at all. I just mean that 25 million years from now the details of what happened in this life will be meaningless. Just think of our board game again. Chances are you may not remember any details of a particular game, but you may well remember if someone showed a greedy or cheating nature. This life is a kind a game, one that reveals our character. Some positions we land in are just luck of the draw or the throw of the dice. What we do once we're there is entirely a matter of our choice; a reflection of our character. It is the character that we develop here that will have lasting value in that ultimate reality.

It is a fact of our existence that our days on earth as mortals are numbered. We are all going to die some day. How one can really know that and still get worked up over how much stuff they’ve accumulated is beyond me? A popular bumper sticker declares that: “He who dies with the most toys wins!” Wins what??? It is a well-known truth that we can’t ‘take it with us’!

What we do take with us is the kind of people we have become. We take our character with us. If we’ve lived as honorable people or liars and cheats, it will go in our ‘permanent files’! If we have lived as people of faith or people who believed in nothing, I believe it will matter.

I’ve heard some non-believers declare that Christians just ‘must not be that bright’ for believing in something that’s little more than a fairy tale. None of it can be proven they say. They’re right, I can’t ‘prove’ what I believe is true. But, I’ve decided that, even if what I believe turns out to be completely meaningless, I still think it is the very best kind of life! I will have lived a life of faith, a life believing in something bigger than myself. I will have spent my life to try and become a better person and to help others become better people. I will have spent my energies learning to love. That’s surely a better life than one without purpose. And what good is a life devoted only to oneself??

I choose faith in God. I see proof of Him every time I open my eyes! And, I pity those that don’t. I try to see the big picture of what is going on here on earth. I realize that I'm nobody and nothing in the grandness of the universe. But, I believe, the very Creator of the universe knows my name. I feel humbled and exalted at the same time because of that. The older I get the more I realize just how short this existence really is. An inner voice declares that it all means something more; that what’s going on here will have lasting value.

What I believe is that Jesus the Christ conquered death by His resurrection and God holds out the promise of eternal life to me through His sacrifice. That is the hope that I live with.

To live a life of faith and hope and love…what could have more value than that?

Save the Baby Humans!

I’ve often heard it said that mankind must survive as a species, by colonizing other planets for example, otherwise what has all of human history been for? The achievements of our species, they say, would come to nothing if we ceased to exist.

To be sure, the accomplishments of our race have value. We’ve spent thousands of years climbing out of the darkness of ignorance. The arts, the literature, the technologies and the culture that we've striven so hard to develop…all of these have contributed to the betterment of human life. To see value only in what we have accomplished as a species, however, is to ignore the value of individuals. I think that’s the wrong way to view what’s going on here on earth.

Traditional human wisdom from many cultures recognizes that it is not the man who conquers a thousand cities that is superior, it is the man who has conquered himself. That’s a recognition of what has real value.

Every human life has value. Every human being is a child of God. What God values isn’t what we’ve accomplished as a species, it’s how we have grown as His children. The true value of mankind is not what we have accomplished as a race, it’s what we’ve accomplished as individuals.

Virtually every religion on earth has some concept of laws that the universe runs by. If we live in harmony with those laws we are in harmony with the creation. If we choose to disobey those laws…we are outside of that harmony and we risk harm to ourselves and each other.

Eastern philosophies, like Buddhism, teach that consciousness is a fundamental energy in the universe. What we choose to do affects the world around us. The scriptures teach us that our obedience to Gods law, or lack thereof, is connected to the fabric of time and space in a similar way. If we sin, disobey the laws of God, even the world around us suffers. Every human life is connected to the universe. Every human life is woven into the fabric of time and space.

The universe exists to create life. The purpose of life is growth, in consciousness and in character. To grow, we must make the right choices. We, as sentient beings, have free will. We have choice. The message of the scriptures is that we can live any way we choose. But, if we want to grow into healthy and happy individuals, and live in a healthy, happy society, we need to choose the way our Creator instructs. If we are to be deemed worthy of eternal life we must yeild to His will. God revealed His laws to us for our own good. He doesn’t send and angel down to slam us into the ground if we choose to jump off a high building. If we ignore the law gravity, our disregard of that law harms us. Spiritual laws work the same way. If we choose to disobey them, it is our own disobedience that is out of harmony with creation and that harms us.

Ultimately our growth comes from the choices we make. It is within our power to decide what is most important to us and what we will devote our energies to. Every sentient being has that right. God gave us free will so we can choose. He then asks us to choose life... That makes every human life important.

The Pull of Islam

Even after all the acts of terrorism committed by Muslims in the last few decades, Islam is still the fastest growing religion in the world. Our knee-jerk response to a terrorist attack might be to condemn all Muslims. That would be wrong. Many Muslims are decent, upstanding people that try to make their corner of the world a better place. I know Muslims that I respect as decent people. What they have maintained is something too many Christians have forgotten...a strong sense of right and wrong.

Individuals most often are the face of a religion to non-believers. Christian martyrs were responsible for the world taking notice of the faith, and for the conversion of many, many people. Unfortunately, in our time, Christianity has become so filled with paganism and so watered down as to bear little resemblance to the faith once delivered. Christian churches and their ministers have adopted so many of the worlds values that the church is almost indistinguishable from the world. They've made the faith appear to be a joke to many non-believers. Modern Christianity has failed to do what ‘the faith once delivered’ did. There are people calling themselves ‘Christians’ with little to no moral values. The message this sends the world is that the faith is no better than a collection of myths filled with hypocrisy. That's far from the light to the world it was intended to be.

In our modern world we have adopted a kind of ‘anything goes’ philosophy. Moral relativism, the ‘buzz word’ of the day, says there is no ultimate right and wrong. It says that those are relative values determined by time and place; every culture is different. This can leave honest people, who sincerely seek the right way to live, feeling empty and without purpose. This attitude has even crept into Christian churches, infecting them with a sense of moral ambiguity. They removed the Ten Commandments from their pulpits long before the ACLU began removing them from government buildings.

Islam appeals to many people because of the failure of Christianity to live up to its true purpose. The very first words Christ is recorded to have uttered when He began His ministry are: “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand!” Repentance is to return to obedience to God. That’s a message that has been lost by Christians trying to fit in to a world without a moral center.

Islam has some measure of righteousness, where much of the Western world has none. Islam often appears to be uncompromising in its moral code in many ways. The way of Islam is submission to 'The God'. (Al = the, Lah = god) The faithful of Islam live by a strict religious code that demands that submission. Right and wrong are moral certainties. To a world without a moral code, that certainty can be very appealing.

Unfortunately many ‘Christian’ churches that offer some kind of moral certainty are actually cults. Cults tend to focus on their leaders and their own agendas more so than Gods. They tend to pick and choose their list of do’s and don’ts from the Biblical tradition and strictly enforce them, while missing the bigger picture of the message of the Gospel.

Many mainstream ‘ministries’ have removed the less palatable parts of the Gospel to try and appeal to more people. The result is a gospel devoid of any real meaning other than some ambiguous emotional appeal. The message of Jesus the Christ was meant to bring people back to the knowledge of, and obedience to the one true God.

When looking for the reason why Islam’s growth is on the rise…Christians should look first to their own failures. The world needs the Gospel of Jesus the Christ now more than ever. We’ve lost our way because we follow our own desires and deny that there is an ultimate code of right and wrong…and it’s found in the pages of the Bible.

Instead of putting the Ten Commandments out of public view in more and more places, we should be putting them in every public square, every school, every church and every government office in the land.

We should be writing them on the tables of our hearts….

Reaching out...

An interesting thing sometimes happens to people who work in the healing professions. They often find themselves attuned to people’s pain. It’s a kind of empathy that allows them to enter into the feelings other people have to find the best way to help them. When it happens to those in the mental health field another thing sometimes happens as well. They start to see pain everywhere…

Most of us have some level of empathy towards others in physical pain. If we were to encounter someone who say, had a motorcycle accident and had an open leg wound a femur was sticking out of, the sight would be so horrific to us that we would experience a level of shock ourselves. Those of us so inclined might try to stop the bleeding and treat for shock. Most people would certainly call for help. In the mental health field things aren’t quite so clear.

We encounter people every day who have open wounds to their psyches. Instead of ‘stopping the bleeding’, treating for shock or even calling for help, we most often just expect them to straighten up! Wounds go unnoticed and untreated, they scar over and they continue to cause pain. Such pain is everywhere.

The sad fact is that often the only thing needed to treat such pain is the simple recognition of it. If we could see the pain that others are in we might not be so quick to expect them to simply straighten up. We might begin to develop a level of empathy towards them. That empathy can be just the recognition of someone else’s pain that they need to begin to heal. Unlike physical pain, sometimes just the witness…the testimony of our troubles to another human being can be all that it takes to begin the healing process.

We often refer to some unseen pain as ‘emotional baggage’. We sense it sometimes in the form of defense mechanisms or rationalizations. Sometimes no one sees it until it manifests itself in the form suicide or violence towards others. There are all kinds of wounds to the psyche. They manifest themselves in all kinds of ways. And they are all around us.

Perhaps, if we could take some time in our lives to put our own problems and concerns aside and begin to notice the wounds other people carry, our world would begin to change. Forgetting our own problems and helping someone else with theirs can begin the healing in two people. It's called outgoing concern, and it has the power to heal wounds there aren't even words for.

Christians will know it by another name...Love.

In the Company of Saints....

As a Christian, I am heir to a religious tradition wherein thousands of my fellow believers have died, sometimes violently, for our faith. While, unlike Islam, the Bible nowhere encourages some kind of violent martyrdom, it does record the lives of many who willingly died as martyrs.

What they believed to be the truth was more important to them than their own lives, and they held that truth until their last breath. They found something worth living and dieing for. Christianity, for the first centuries of its existence was a minor religion of little importance to the societies around it. Early believers were easy targets for political or religious leaders who needed a scapegoat. Persecution of early Christians was quite common. It was partially the example of some of these extraordinary individuals that caused the world to take notice of this small new faith.

In one story of the ‘purges’ of Christians in early Rome, believers were rounded up and killed for sport in the colosseum. One 19-year old young woman was led out into the floor of the colosseum where wild lions were to be released. The thousands of spectators laughed and jeered in anticipation of her ‘punishment’. She remained calm...she held her faith in God. Her lack of fear quieted some of the laughter. She began to sing hymns as the lions were released. While the lions tore her apart, the laughter and jeers fell silent. She believed. After witnessing her courage and faith it is reported that thousands of people converted. In the chapter on faith, Hebrews 11, the writer says the world is not worthy of such people. He was right.

In our time, we Christians have it very easy…at least in America. While we endure some criticism of our faith, we are allowed to worship any way we see fit. There are no Christians being rounded up to be tortured or put into prisons. Perhaps because of that, many of us have become complacent. We believe…because it’s easy. The biggest threat we face is not people intent on killing us. The biggest threat we face today is non-Christians we like and want to be accepted by. Many of us compromise our faith to be accepted. We don’t want to be ‘un-cool’ after all! That’s an even more deadly threat to our spiritual lives than facing death for what we believe… Sometimes finding something worth dieing for is easier than living for it.

We all know stories of people who say they believe certain things only to find out when push comes to shove that they really believed them only while it was convenient. How many of us have something that we believe so completely that we are prepared to die for that belief? How many of us believe so completely that we are prepared to live an uncompromising life? How many of us are prepared to be ridiculed for what we believe? To live a life of faith, a life of hope in Christ’s return may one day call on us to sacrifice our lives. What it calls on us to do now is to be the salt of the earth, the light on top of the hill. We can’t do that if we’re doing what everyone else is doing just to fit in.

How many of us, I wonder, really believe enough to lay down our lives? How many of us believe enough to commit our lives to living it? What's worth dying for...is well worth living for.

Religion or Faith?

It’s common these days, when you ask someone if they’re religious, for many of them to tell you they’re ‘spiritual, but not religious’. That most people can’t even define what ‘spiritual’ means makes this response virtually meaningless. But the point should be taken that organized religion has failed so many people that it has been rejected by many of them.

So much evil has been done in the name of religion throughout the centuries that the very concept is distasteful to many people. Fanatics in the name of every religion have rationalized and justified their lunacy as being “the will of god”, even when their actions have been pure evil by any standard.

Typically two things exist in a religion, the body of beliefs that individuals adopt as their faith, and the culture that develops among its believers. The first, the body of beliefs is the idealistic part of a religion. The second, the culture of a religious community, often goes unstated in its official beliefs. It is the culture that develops in a religious community that usually comes to dominate it. A particular religion can give one a community wherein one is supported and strengthened when it is working like it should. When it has gone wrong…it ceases to be idealistic and can become oppressive, even dangerous, to its members.

Religions should exist for individuals and families…individuals don’t exist for the religion. When the focus of a religion becomes the organization and not it’s individuals, it has lost its way. When a religion becomes about itself or about it’s human leader(s)…it becomes a cult. A religion should never be about the personalities of its leaders…it should be about the beliefs that define it. Those beliefs should make its members better human beings. That is the ‘why’ of religion and faith. Human beings can and do often corrupt religion…but they can’t touch a deeply held faith.

Faith and religion are not the same thing. Faith is what guides us in what we do; it’s what we expect from ourselves. Religion is what we expect other people to do. Faith is within individuals, religion is in organizations. Faith gives people purpose. Religion gives them ceremony. Faith gives individuals a connection with something unseen and much bigger than themselves. Religion gives them affiliation to other people. Faith gives you power. Religion gives others power over you. Religions usually become static bodies of beliefs. Faith is a living thing wherein beliefs may changes as one grows and matures. Religion, at its worst, has served to divide people and to fuel hatred. Faith has quietly gone about changing the world one individual at a time.

Religion can be a true force for good in the world but only by doing good. Religion must be guided by, honest people of good will…people of faith.

By definition, since there is only one truth, there is only one true faith…one truth that we can hold and have hope in. As a Christian, I am convinced that the Christian world-view is the true one. That doesn’t mean that all, or even most, people calling themselves Christians would agree with it…and they certainly don’t live by it. Most are divided by their respective religions. Imagine that...people who claim the same faith divided by their religions? The only people who benefit from that are the religious leaders. This serves to do the very opposite of what Christ taught. When a ‘Christian leader’ teaches something different than what Christ taught…he, or she, has left the faith once delivered and they should be left behind.

It is not a human leaders place to live a Christ-like life for their followers…it is every believers place to do so. What the world needs is fewer religions and more faith.

Still, it is not what we believe that makes us decent human beings…it’s what we do. Religion, all too often, makes us complacent. Simply belonging to a religion doesn’t make us better people. We must act. Faith prompts us to action. And, faith without works is dead.

These three abide…Faith and Hope and Love. (Religion isn’t even in the running…)

Casual Sex

“If it feels good do it”... That’s the unofficial motto of my generation. Casual sex was just one expression of that when it began (as a movement) in the sixties. It’s one that we are paying a heavy price for now. Divorce and it’s effects on all the members of a family, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, unwed and unwanted pregnancies and the resulting war over abortion, emotional pain…and even murder, these are just a part of the resulting problems from treating sex like a casual, recreational activity.

The most fundamental drive in living beings is to reproduce. It is the most powerful force among living things. Call it Libido, Ki, Chi, Prana, Orgone, L-fields or whatever you like. The sexual impulse is the life force expressing itself.

We, human beings, seem to go from one side of the road to the other, from trying to completely suppress the sex drive to letting it run unchecked. Sex is, without question, one of the greatest things in life. It has the power to heal and the power to destroy. Sexual energy has the power to bind two hearts together and the power to drive them to hate each other like no other hatred on earth. Sexual energy can build stable families and it can destroy entire civilizations. Sexual energy can cause us to love one another and it can cause us to use one another in the vilest ways. The sexual impulse can produce everything from jealousy to suicide to serial killers. There is nothing casual about sex. Those who treat it casually ultimately harm themselves.

For those who choose a faith based life like Judaism or Christianity the very heart of that faith is that our Creator knows what is best for us…His creation. Only He can dictate how we should live our lives. The ultimate authority for many people of faith is the Bible, the revealed Word of God. Just as God has laws governing His physical creation, He has laws governing His spiritual creation. Sexuality spans both realms. What goes on in the bedroom affects all of us ultimately, so our Creator has revealed His guidelines for how sexual energy should be used and directed.

It rankles many people that there is a moral code that would presume to dictate how sexual energy should be used and directed. What goes on in the bedroom is no one else’s business, they say. Human beings are a stubborn lot. We don’t like to be told what to do. For something so personal and so powerful as our sex drives we like it even less.

But the Judeo-Christian moral standard is clear…what goes on in the bedroom IS the business of everyone in a society. It ultimately affects all of society.

One can argue their case for personal freedoms. God certainly allows personal freedoms. We have the right to choose how we want to live. What God tells us is that if we want happy and healthy families and a happy, healthy society we need to obey Him. His laws are for our good. A young child may rebel against his parents’ rule that he not go out into a busy street. He may not be old enough to see the danger that his parents do. The message of the Bible is very much the same. God sees the end result of our behaviors and has given us guidelines for avoiding the dangers…if we’ll only listen.

There is no point in restating God’s laws governing sexuality here. They’re well known, even among non-believers… Suffice it to say that IF God’s laws were obeyed by mankind there would be no sexually transmitted diseases, there would be no children born out of wedlock, there would be fewer divorces and fewer genetic diseases, and there would be far fewer abortions. The gospel, the good news, of God is that such a world is coming.

Sex is a beautiful gift from our Creator. It shouldn’t be completely repressed or allowed to simply run unchecked. There is a right way to direct sexual impulses just like there is a right way to eat and to exercise. It’s time mankind grew up and began listening to our Creator.

Right here, right now…we can make our world better if we’ll only choose to obey Him.

A Real American hero

I have always been a fan of boxing as a truly American sport…like baseball. I actually like boxing and baseball movies more than the actual sports…go figure! I had never heard of ‘Bulldog’ Jim Braddock until I recently saw the movie: Cinderella Man. Braddock was a heavy weight boxer in New York in the late twenties and thirties. The movie tried to stay true to the events in Braddock’s life and, I have to say, made Braddock one of my heroes. A hero is someone who inspires you to hold on just a little longer.

In Braddock’s case he was a strong contender in his career until the infamous stock market crash of 1929. He, like so many other Americans, lost everything including his boxing license, and ended up in a soup line. Braddock had a wife and three small children. He didn’t walk out on them because things were too tough. He swallowed his pride and did what he had to do to feed his family. He resisted going on public assistance until he was forced to.

Braddock was given a second chance in his boxing career…and he came out fighting! He fought his way to the heavy weight championship of the world. He went back to pubic assistance and paid back every penny. He went on to serve honorably in WWII and then into building his own business. I won’t try to retell his story here. It can be found at his official site: http://www.jamesjbraddock.com/ It is well worth reading and remembering.

Braddock was a father, a husband, a fighter and a man of honor. Jim Braddock was a hero to his generation…he inspired them to hold on just a little longer. The values this man exemplified to a generation of Americans are sorely needed today. His story should be told and remembered, and his values taken to heart.

There is nobility in the human spirit. Men like James J. Braddock shine the light on it...

The Big Screen

I love movies. Not all of them. Many aren’t worth the cellulose they are printed on, but the well-crafted ones can truly be works of art. They’re not just meant to entertain, they explore what it means to be human. They have the power to show us that we are not alone no matter what we struggle with. They can reveal where our culture is and where it’s going. They draw from the well that is humanity and show us ourselves. Old movies, new ones…they all tell our stories. Movies are the novels of our age.

While I love the stories about the broad sweeps of history with famous people, sometimes the very best movies, the best stories, are about unknown people. Most of us will never be included in any history books. Most of us are just ordinary people who live our lives affecting the people around us and not much else. Movies can give us glimpses into the lives of ordinary people who make up the vast majority of humanity.

There are stories of love and compassion. There are stories of courage and commitment. There are stories of failure and redemption. The thing is, these things happen all around us every day. The man across the street, the woman who sits in back of you at work, the old man you pass on the street corner. They all have their struggles. They all have their stories.

We see so much of the worst humanity has to offer every day. Just turn on the evening news or pick a newspaper. As a species we have so many flaws. But, we have nobility in us too. There are stories that deserve to be told.

It’s not the actions we take at a crucial moment in history that define who we are, it’s the little things we do every day. It’s in lending a helping hand to another human being when no one else is watching. It’s in giving a cup of water to someone who’s thirsty. It’s in giving up your seat on the bus to someone who needs it more. There is nobility in the human spirit and it shows itself most often in the quiet, little actions that go unnoticed everyday all around us.

Movies have the power to shine the light on our actions. They point out the weaknesses that we’re all prone to for sure. They can glorify sex and violence to titillate us. They can also show us something of the heights we can strive for. The good stuff in us may not make the evening news very often, but it’s alive and well. The places where it thrives are in the people whose stories we wouldn’t know if books and movies didn’t bring them to us.

Movies have the power to teach us we can all be better than we are. We don’t have to go to war or travel to distant lands to do so. We can all be a hero to someone we know. We can uphold what is the best and the noblest among us in our everyday actions. Those are what fill most of our lives after all, everyday actions.

Most of us go to movies simply to be entertained but, with a true work of art, we can take away much more than that. We can come to see life through someone else’s eyes. We can learn to appreciate what is common to all of us. Best of all, I think, we can come to understand that most of our struggles and our triumphs don’t make the history books. It’s the little stories that give history its context. Great deeds ultimately come from great hearts and those aren’t born, they’re grown. Those stories too, are worth being told…

Finding Grace...

I love the concept of grace. I even love the word. Without Gods grace I wouldn’t be here writing this. It is His absolutely unmerited love. Dervishes will sometimes say: “the Baraka is with me”. That is to say the very presence of God is with me, blessing me. Some say things like: “I feel the breath of God” or “the hand of God”. And, one of my favorites: “I feel God smiling on me.” These are those moments in life when we feel connected to the Creator of the universe Himself in our actions. These are moments of grace.

To say that an athlete is graceful might be to say that they are so connected to some universal force that they move in complete harmony with it. You might say grace is to ‘Dance with God’. In those special moments we can feel our connection, our place, in the grand design of the universe. In those moments all is as it should be.

I have found Gods grace in His forgiveness. I have felt His grace in the sunlight on my face. I’ve seen it in the smiling faces of little children. I've even felt Gods grace in the death of a good friend.

I began to write this about getting older and all I that came to mind was grace. We know from the time we’re children that we’ll get older. We know, though most of us do our best not to think about it, that we will die someday. We know those things but they don’t really ‘sink in’ until after about 40. Then, the reality of aging and our mortality, the inevitability of death, begin to change the way we see things.

It is depressing at first, realizing that we have fewer years ahead of us than behind us. To grow as human beings we have to come to peace with that fact. We have to find the grace in it. God won’t abandon us in this either.

As they grow older, some people find new ways to see life through the eyes of their children and grandchildren. Those of us that don’t have children can still see life through the eyes of children. Children are such a blessing in so many ways! Children are full of grace.

I have found a kind of grace in creating too. Bringing something new and beautiful into the universe is so exhilarating! I have an art professor that says it is ‘expressing’ or pressing something out of our hearts. That’s where creating comes from. I’m new to the art world and I’m still searching for exactly what it means to me, but I certainly appreciate his thoughtful perspective on it. He’s a remarkably creative man and a brilliant sculptor. When I first saw his art I was convinced that that was why he is on earth! Such grace!

I only know of one way to feel more like God than in creating and that’s in forgiving. Forgiving involves knowing someone’s worst, and still loving them. What could give us more insight into God than forgiveness? In forgiving and in being forgiven we experience real grace.

I’m only beginning to understand how all these aspects of grace are connected. My heart only knows that grace is at the core of their connection. Grace flows from Love. And Love flows from God...

The Gates of Paradise

It’s been an age-old dream of mankind to find, or create, the perfect society. The word Utopia, used by Thomas Moore for his book of the same name, has become a part of our language for the ideal society. The myths of Shangri-la and Atlantis, wherein all the inhabitants live, or have lived, in harmony have filled us with the dream. Ironically, some of the most horrific events in the history of our race have been committed in the name of the search for Utopia. The search has always begun with a false premise. Perhaps, we reason, if we just find the right set of laws and the perfect economic system, or eradicate the genetic flaws in humanity, we’ll finally find peace and reach our true potential. In fact two of the greatest myths in modern thinking have been responsible for untold suffering and misery in the last century. One is that economics can change our nature, the other is that race can. Both ignore the fact that human nature is common to all who have ever lived. We all draw from the well that is humanity. Utopia is a nice dream…but it will never happen while human beings have human nature.

We human beings are a fundamentally flawed species. Wherever we go we take our built-in flaws. If you’ve ever felt jealousy, envy, lust, greed, hate, revenge or any other of the darker qualities common to mankind you would take those things with you no matter where you chose to go. Sooner or later those darker qualities would show themselves again and Utopia would cease to be Utopia. There will never be an ideal society run by man unless, or until, the fundamental nature of human beings is changed.

Some philosophies and religions teach that we’re OK just the way we are. Those that do so flatly ignore the facts of history and live in denial. Some teach that the nature of our race will change if enough individuals do. We will all be ‘uplifted’ when the number of people who have become enlightened reaches a ‘critical mass’. Those that claim this kind of enlightenment say that they perceive the world differently...otherwise they don’t appear any different from anyone else. The number of individuals becoming personally enlightened would have to outpace the birth rate if their claim were true. In what is one of the greatest ironies in the world of religion, the folks that seek ‘enlightenment’ for themselves often ignore the suffering of other human beings. One need look no farther than the countries where those beliefs thrive to see the effects of their ‘enlightenment’. These people practice their own self-centered, versions of ‘spirituality’. Any enlightenment they claim to achieve doesn’t seem to produce any real change. They certainly haven’t made the world a better place to live in.

The reality is that races don’t become enlightened, only individuals do. The only ‘real’ enlightenment is exercising the will that is guided by wisdom. (In short, true enlightenment is in actually doing what is right…) Every human being has the potential to do that. That’s just as much a part of us as our baser nature. Real enlightenment can’t be achieved by hiding on some mountaintop meditating. It can’t be done for us by someone else. Even with real enlightenment our nature doesn’t change…it’s only controlled. Cease to exercise the will guided by wisdom and anyone can slip back.

Think of the scenes you’ve seen of third world villages for example. Those that are the most memorable have had trash and raw sewage in the streets. The people in them are often sickly as a result of disease caused by living among garbage. You may think, “If only these people could be moved to a place where it’s clean, they would be disease free”. Did you ever wonder who put the trash and raw sewage in the middle of the street? If the people of the village were moved they’d soon be turning the new place into an open sewage pit too. Even if they are educated to understand the laws of sanitation and quarantine the people must still exercise their wills to observe those laws. If they don’t…they revert back into the condition from whence they came. That is the history of our race…

Knowledge and technology accumulate with every generation and are passed on to the next generation, but wisdom always begins at square one. The birth of every human being is a starting over at the beginning. That’s both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because with every newborn child there’s a chance to start over and do it right. It’s a curse because every newborn child must start where every human being who has ever lived started.

We are not OK just the way we are. That’s obvious to anyone who takes an honest look at our race. We need divine guidance and divine help. We need divine intervention. We need to obey God and His laws. Where some other religions and philosophies would have us focus only on ourselves, Judeo Christian values make us focus on both growing ourselves and in aiding our fellow man to do so. We are to always struggle with what is right and wrong. We are never to forget that God is in control and that we are all His children.

The promise of Judaism and Christianity is that a Messiah will come and save us from ourselves. Eventually our very nature will be changed. Even the nature of predatory animals will change. “The lion will lie down with the lamb…” That is the promise of scripture…that is the hope of our faith. We will be rescued from ourselves.

In the meantime, we are to do all we can to obey the laws of God, to grow and aid our fellow man. A true religion doesn’t tell us that we’re OK. A true religion causes us to focus on our Creator and His will for us. It is God’s will that we ultimately inherit a Utopia beyond our dreams. We will only do so by our willingness to put God first in our lives…and by His grace.

Looking into the Abyss...

I found out a few days ago that the wife of a good friend committed suicide. It was like being kicked in the stomach for me. I can only imagine what it’s been like for my friend. His wife was the central point of his life. I don’t know any words that would comfort him…but my heart is with my friend.

Having been a counselor, I’ve known others who came see death as the only way out of their pain. They came to see life as a burden instead of a blessing. I can’t shake the feeling that I somehow failed those who came to me for help and went on to take their own lives. I live with their faces in my memory.

To someone without a sense of purpose in life, without a sense of meaning, life can seem unbearably empty. Clinical depression, an imbalance in brain chemistry, can cause us to perceive life that way, even if we do believe in a higher purpose. It can seem like an endless abyss.

My friend’s wife looked into the abyss and all she saw was darkness and despair. The pain and the emptiness became too much for her. It’s a scary thing to do…looking into the abyss. I once looked into it and saw only darkness and despair too. I know what it is to lose hope and fall into the emptiness. Without a firm footing it’s easy to lose one’s way. Depression affects so many of us and yet it remains undiagnosed so often. Many people feel like they should be able to simply shake it off. When it's true clinical depression that’s just not the case. The light at the end of the tunnel seems just too far away.

As a Christian, I know God as my rock and my foundation, He is where my footing is and I know it’s sure. Knowing God as my foundation has changed my perspective of the abyss. I now see it as full of hope and possibility. The thing that helped me the most was a simple ‘Thank You’. I just began to say 'Thank You' to God for this life, this gift that He’s given me. In that simple act my perception began to change. I began to see life as a blessing. I wish I knew a better way to share that with others.

Having been in the light it’s hard to see people wander aimlessly in the darkness. I just want to call out and tell them the light is all around them…if they’ll only open their hearts to see it. We can only do what we can do…we can’t live someone else’s life for them. We can’t make someone else’s decisions for them.

What we can do is be there for them. Sometimes just ones presense or the sound of a familiar voice nearby is a comfort. To learn to love one another is why we’re here. Love reaches out into the darkness and points the way towards the light. It’s too late for my friends wife. Maybe I can help point the way for my friend now.

May we all move onward and upward into the light.

Hoka Hey!

It is somewhat of a puzzle to me that so many people live their lives like they will live forever. It is the central fact of our existence that our lives are temporary…we will die someday. So many people push that fact out of their consciousness and go about their lives “eating and drinking and being merry” that they lose sight of any real meaning in life. It’s not, ‘He who dies with the most toys wins!’ It really isn’t whether you win or lose anything…it’s how you play the game that matters. How we 'play the game' is everything.

In every culture on earth throughout human history, every religion practiced by man has described an ultimate destiny for our race. We intuitively know that there is more going on here than meets the eye. Every religion has given voice to some form of the belief that man needs to live in harmony with the ‘rules of the universe.’ If we live in harmony with the rules, our destiny is greater. We sense that life is a kind of...proving ground. It’s not an end of itself. Whatever we may believe the purpose of life is, it clearly has something to do with growth. One has only to observe nature to see that all living things have a growth cycle. Acorns push up sidewalks to become oak trees!

We can choose to grow in life or choose to flitter it away in empty pursuits. There are myriad traps and blind alleys that can sap our energies in life. Alcohol and drugs, sexual promiscuity, amassing material possessions, and seeking power over others are only some of the empty pursuits that can lead us away from our real purpose. Every major religion on earth has produced men and women of wisdom, and they have universally come to the same conclusions.

While it can serve us well to always remember life is temporary, it doesn’t do to focus all the time on the fact that we’ll die. There can be something of a psychological trap in dwelling on that. We can lose hope and become depressed if our focus is a dark one. If, on the other hand, we embrace the fact of our mortality, it can help us to embrace life. We learn that we can’t hold on to it, so we learn to appreciate the moments of it all the more.

The old Lakota battle cry: “Hoka Hey” (It’s a good day to die!) offers one such example. Though it has often been misunderstood, it's message is actually a positive one. It can teach us to embrace life by not to trying to hold on to what is fleeting. Life is not a thing to hold on to, it’s a process that we experience. It's like a song in which we have the opportunity to embrace each note...but only while they are being played. One can enjoy a good song, a book, or a movie but they’ll end. They, like life, are processes that we experience. We can let the experiences slip by with only the barest awareness or we can embrace them and fully participate in each moment.

What life does offer us is a choice. We have it in our power to choose how we meet life at every moment. We can be there fully for the experience or to let it slip by while we’re in a fog. We can choose to grow or we can choose to do nothing and remain the same. Death comes to all either way…

The only things that really matter are the ones we can take with us when the lids of our coffins are closed. The only thing that we can take with us then is the character we’ve developed.

Life reveals the story of who we really are. Death closes the book. What is written on each page is entirely up to us...

For Nixzmary Brown

Yet again an adult given to pure evil has murdered another child.

This time in Brooklyn, New York 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown was beaten to death by her step-father Cesar Rodriguez. He then tossed her on the floor of what the family called their "dirty room," a rodent-infested room where little Nixzmary had been tied up and left with only a litter box as a toilet. This little second grader had been beaten, starved and sexually molested in the weeks before her 'care giver' brutally murdered her by a blow to her head. She weighed only 36 pounds... In her short time on earth the adults entrusted by God to love and nurture this child treated her worse than most people would treat a vicious animal.

Others will, no doubt, debate the role of the child protective services that let little Nixzmary fall through the cracks in the system. Some may use the case to advocate the death penalty or some other political agenda. I don’t know what the answers are in dealing with most of the world’s problems. I find I am often at a loss to know what the right course of action is in many of the problems that plague our race. I can’t comprehend the scope of the problem of child abuse. I do understand love and I understand the pain of one child. My heart goes out to this one little girl who never got a chance.

I know that every child is made in the image of the Living God and is worthy of love. I know that God is watching us. I know He entrusts us with children for us to love them and teach them to be decent human beings. I know that every child that dies will breathe again. I know that every child will know the love of God…one day.

This story will only be a footnote in the news outlets that report it at all. Such things happen too often, every day and in every country on earth. We've become used to them. Instead of stopping to take notice, most people will go on with their lives like the murder of this one child has no effect on their world. This was a crime against humanity. That affects all of us.

May people of good will take notice. The bell tolls for thee...

The Strongest Among Us

The New Testament speaks of spiritual gifts that God bestows on people as He uses them to do His will. One such gift is the gift of healing. It’s not considered one of the more important gifts but it made a lasting impression on the suffering at the time of the early church. I only know that if I could have any gift from God to serve my fellow man, it would be the gift of healing. Compassion moves me to want to ease the suffering of people, especially children. I can only imagine the unspeakable joy of being able to empty out the cancer ward in a children’s hospital by healing all of them.

Unlike some people, I have never questioned God in allowing the innocent to suffer. Innocent people suffer. It's a part of life on earth I think we, human beings, bring on ourselves for the most part. If we would simply obey the laws of God a great deal of suffering would be alleviated. Like all children whose parents love them, we were given the instructions to keep us safe. Out of our rebellious attitudes we’ve ignored them. God wants us to be healthy and happy in this life and He has left us an instruction manual for just that purpose. We still seem to have a good deal of growing up to do before we’ve learned the lesson…our Creator knows what is best for His creation.

That children suffer from illness, disease, natural disasters, violence and war while the adults in their lives must stand by helplessly can tear my heart out. I know I’m not alone in that. It occurs to me in watching it that Gods purpose is being served even in that suffering. The lessons of compassion and love that I’ve seen and heard pour over me like a warm rain.

It seems to me that some children have a strength of spirit not found among adults. The strongest among us have become our teachers in their suffering. Watching it can break our hearts…and like the saying goes, a broken heart is an open heart.

I don’t pretend to be able to see the big picture…but I have the faith that God does. While, most often, the suffering that children endure seems random, the lives they touch reach out far and wide. The hearts they open reveal who we really are. In that, their pain can serve Gods purpose. No life goes unnoticed in Gods eyes. No innocents suffer without His special notice. I have no doubt that they will be rewarded for their suffering and for their gifts to us.

The only issue left seems to be what we do with the lessons we’ve learned from watching innocents suffer. Do we ignore it and go on with our lives? Do we seek some kind of revenge? Do we curse God? Or, do we choose to honor the young lives cut short and open our hearts to love each other more?

With One Voice

It was in martial arts that I learned the concept of ‘Kime’, the Japanese word for focus. I know from experience that it’s possible to put my hand through ten inches of concrete with kime. Physics dictates that it should be impossible…but I’ve done it. The psychology behind it is fascinating. When you think, for example, “I’m thinking”, you’ve created a duality in yourself. A part of you is watching you. Kime teaches you to unify all your energies into one point. There is no more “I am walking”…it becomes simply “walking”.

That’s a state of mind that’s sought after in Eastern schools of meditation. In Japan it is called Zammai, in India it's known as Samahdi. Samahdi is a natural state of mind that everyone has experienced. It's when one is so wholly engaged in some activity that one forgets oneself. In Eastern schools of thought it’s systematically sought after and practiced. It is the removal of the ego, the sense of ‘I’, from the picture.

In Kime it’s sought after to focus all of ones energies into the task at hand. The mind, the body and the spirit all work together to accomplish ones goal.

I used to teach rape-defense classes for various police departments. The very first things I would address with a room full of new women were the psychological aspects of self-defense. If a woman was raised to be a ‘good girl’ and believe that good girls don’t hit people, she would have to recondition herself to understand that sometimes it’s OK. Perhaps someone was raised in a religious home and taught that good ‘Jewish girls, Christians, Buddhists, whatever…’ don’t hurt people. That too, is a kind of conditioning that must be addressed before any physical technique will work. If one believes that it’s wrong for them to hurt someone else their biggest battle, when confronted with an attacker, will be with themselves. If you use, say 50% of your energy to fight your own conditioning, that only leaves you with 50% of your energy to fight off an attacker. If all of you believes it’s OK to defend yourself before you’re attacked you have 100% of your energy available to you. For the average American woman who weighs say, 125 pounds, to fight off the average American man who weighs maybe 165, she will need all of her energy for the fight. If all her energy isn’t available she’s more than likely to lose.

The principle of Kime, or focus, can be applied to many things. There are, of course, other voices in us that aren't unified most of the time. If you do something you believe is wrong, you are working agaist yourself. If all of you isn’t behind something it isn’t a ‘pure’ act. A pure act is one in which there is no inner conflict to address.

In the age of computers another analogy can be applied. If you give your computer one command, then give it a competing command, it can seize up. The human brain works in a similar way. Doubt, fear, anxiety, worry etc. all work to send competing commands to someone engaged in an action wherein they need all their energies. Most of those feelings involve thoughts about the future. They can be avoided if one lives in the present.

Living in the present or ‘in the moment’, means to focus all your awareness and energy on what you’re doing…even if it’s only sitting. It’s easier said than done but with practice it can be readily achieved. It frees up ones energies so that they’re available at the moment they’re needed. Unfortunately most people don’t know about the simple skills necessary to achieve Kime. Most people don’t know what a ‘pure act’ is, except for the random times they naturally occur.

Most of humanities battles are the battles within individuals. Because it’s easier to face an opponent outside of us…most of our inner battles are played out in conflicts with other human beings. If human beings are ever to come to a place wherein they are free of inner conflicts, they’ll need to learn to speak with one voice.

It is the man who has conquered himself that has won the greatest victory. Inner peace is the greatest strength…

Just Around the Bend...

If I had to come up with a rule to live by, or just a piece of advice for a young person, it would surely be: “Never Ignore Anything God Puts in Your Path”. This is a rule that I’ve discovered over the years because of how my life has been blessed when I follow it and, how I have to keep dealing with the same things when I don’t.

I’m not one of those people who believe that everything happens for a reason. I’m convinced most things are simply random events. But I do believe God puts some things in our paths. He is either trying to teach us something or He’s revealing a part of us. I don’t think circumstances in life create our characters so much as they reveal them. Often they reveal us…to us.

Sometimes people come into our lives that we take little or no notice of. I’ve awakened to the fact that when I do take notice of them, and get to know them a little, my life is usually blessed for it. We still need to maintain some boundaries with people. A drowning swimmer will pull you down with them if you let them. Keeping our own boundaries clear still leaves room for getting to know some interesting people. And we never know whom we touch by simply taking notice of them.

I’ve found the people and things I’m drawn to usually have some lesson to teach me. I've often marveled that the lessons can be so profound. The burden is with me to actually see what’s in front of me.

Its funny that some people feel it necessary to go halfway around the world seeking something when the answers they seek are usually right in their own little corner of it. Maybe it takes that to open them up. I know it’s taken me years to begin to see some things right in front of me! To live life in such a way as to be oblivious to the things in our path is a shame. They can show us so much of our world and ourselves.

Remember the words of William Shakespeare: “If it be now, ‘tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all.”

When you’re ready for the lesson…it will come--the readiness is all!

Lords of the Air

All of my life I’ve been captivated by birds of prey. When I was sixteen I was on a camping trip next to a creek a few miles from our home. While exploring a cliff face above the creek one night, I spotted several sets of eyes in a cleft with my flashlight. The next morning I fashioned an Indian style snare and attempted to catch, one of, whatever was in the cleft of the cliff face. I pulled out a baby Great Horned Owl. (He was not the least bit happy about his new predicament. And it was sheer luck on my part that his mother wasn't around or she might have taken my scalp!) I put him in a brown paper bag and secured it to the back of my motorcycle seat and took him home. I named him Amon-Ra after an Egyptian god. I didn’t know the first thing about raising a bird of prey but I was determined to learn. That began a love of hawks, owls, falcons and falconry that burns in me still.

I refused to cage my new friend. I opted instead to let him fly wherever he liked around the house. I would call him to eat and he would dutifully fly down from where he was perched to land at my feet. I didn’t realize then that I was doing him harm by feeding him raw steak. Raptors need bones, fur and feathers as roughage in their diet to stay healthy. (We can harm the things we love, while thinking we're doing them good, too easily...)

What I instinctively knew then, I more fully understand now. The thing I love about birds of prey the most is their spirit. To break that would be to destroy the very thing that draws me to them. Not to break it, is to risk losing them…but that’s a part of loving them.

It was given to mankind to dominate the earth…but that doesn’t mean everything in it should be dominated. To destroy the very things we are drawn to is to destroy a part of ourselves. We are all connected. God works through us to affirm that when we let Him. I pity those who haven’t found their sense of connection. And I especially pity those who’ve lost their sense of awe.

What a wonder and a miracle is a bird of prey in the air. It doesn’t matter how long the leash is from the jesses to the glove, sometimes the leash has to come off and then they’ll do what God intended them to do...the things that we love them for!

The falconer that treats his bird like a pet will destroy it. They're not pets. The person who just wants an unusual animal to keep and tell his friends about should avoid birds of prey. They're our partners. They have to be worked with every day. It is our honor that they allow us to participate with them in the Way. We owe them our respect. The falconer that doesn’t treat his partner with respect soon loses her.

The wise one learns the lesson…

The Breath of The Dragon

I’ve been studying and teaching martial arts for over thirty years. I was fascinated by the ‘secret’ techniques that were alluded to when I began. What I came to realize is that they aren’t the kind of secrets that can simply be told to another person. They are secrets that can only be revealed to individuals through practice. They may be more correctly seen as Ways of understanding. One such Way is The Breath of The Dragon. The Way of the Breath isn’t spoken about very often. Martial artists that practice The Way don’t speak about it openly because of the danger it can be to someone trying to advance too quickly.

Some Christians tend to see any allusion to a dragon as connected to Satan. That’s an overly simplistic and very misleading understanding. The more correct understanding of the symbolism is akin to the Celtic view. The Dragon represents all of creation and it’s breath the life-force, the pulse, of creation.

In Eastern schools of philosophy the direct experience of reality is considered the ultimate experience. The symbolism of a veil between us and reality is commonly used. The function, the goal, of Eastern religious-philosophical schools is to lift the veil and allow us a direct understanding; a direct connection with “IT”. The Breath of the Dragon is one such Way.

I don’t consciously think about martial arts very much these days. They are so much a part of me that they're almost too natural to question. I sometimes have to stop and realize that most people have little to no understanding of that approach to life.

The Breath makes you face life and death directly. Without betraying any of its techniques or secrets I can say that it brings you to new levels of understanding. It brings you to a place where paradoxes and inner conflicts are reconciled, a place where connections are seen where none were visible before. You learn to see beyond life and death. The Breath shows you that inner peace is the greatest strength, but it’s not a place you can live in all the time. With practice your visits there can become longer and longer.

The Breath is a part of me…or, I should say, I'm a part of it. The way that it influences me sometimes surprises even me. I find, as I get older, that I don’t care for ambiguity or subtlety nearly as much as directness. I tend to go straight to the heart of a matter when it’s important to me. That puts some people off and even scares some people. The Breath is a way without rituals or games…it drives us to seek only truth and connection. I’ve found in life that not many people are comfortable directly facing truth. It can be very scary…because it forces you to change and grow.

What the masters say is true, the taller the tree...the stronger the wind. I only know that if acorns didn’t change…there would never be oak trees. I can’t imagine a world without oak trees.

Garbage in...Garbage out

So much power and so little wisdom of how to use it… That’s what I think of Hollywood and its contribution to American culture. Hollywood is the land of illusion. Everything coming out of it should be suspect. Their ‘raison d’etre’ is to make money and they’ll even fake sincerity to do so…

While I often question the psychological health of someone who would pretend to be someone else, solely for the approval of strangers, (my definition of an actor), I do like movies. I find many to be vulgar and without any redeeming values but there are some responsible producers and directors who are not only artists but responsible members of the human race with honest stories to tell.

Some stories can give us a glimpse into our fellow human beings and a greater understanding of what we hold in common. I remember watching ‘The Joy Luck Club’ for the first time. At first I thought it would be nice to see some attractive Asian women on screen. Somewhere, while watching it, I forgot they were attractive Asian women and just saw them as fellow human beings struggling to live and grow like every one else.

I recently watched ‘Antoine Fisher’, the story of a young black man growing up in America. That he was a black man became completely irrelevant to the story. He was another fellow human being trying to put the broken pieces of his life together and grow beyond the cruelty he’d known. There was no graphic sex or violence in the story, no cheap thrills, just honest human emotion. It’s a touching story of human redemption and how we need each other. Such stories should be told.

Unfortunately Hollywood, while condemning things like handgun violence, too often exploit the very things they ‘pretend’ to abhor solely for their profits. They argue that they only reflect what is really going on in society and that what happens on screen doesn’t affect the behavior of the average person. Of course that argument is reversed when they are selling commercial airtime at say, the Super Bowl. Then the power of what happens on screen to affect the publics behavior can be worth millions for a thirty second spot.

Many of us are more concerned with what goes into our mouths than what goes into our minds. It would do us well to remember a very old adage…”Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil”. If we keep the garbage from coming into us…we’ll keep it from coming out of us. It can pay to turn the channel or even turn off the TV to keep the garbage out.

Hollywood would eventually get that message.

The Way of a Man with a Maid...

In Proverbs 30:18-19 King Solomon declares: “There are three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent on a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid.”

I share King Solomon’s awe in these things. I’ve worked with birds of prey for some years but I still get a rush when I see them in the air! While standing in a yard recently I saw a prairie falcon silently swoop from her perch just yards away to cross my line of sight. I stopped and my heart gave thanks at the miracle of it! It was…too wonderful for me!

I’ve never had the aversion to snakes that many people have. I’ve always found them fascinating too. I’ve caught and played with, then released, hundreds of snakes in my life. In my youth I killed many that were poisonous, or many that I thought were anyway. I don’t do that much anymore, unless they pose a threat. When I see them now, I think the world is a much more interesting place with them in it, so I pay my respects and move on. It would be a shame to kill one of Gods miracles…

I think I have a little different take on ships at sea than the one King Solomon may have had. I’m in awe of the men that sailed the old wooden ships out into the vast blue, not knowing what they would face. My awe is of their courage and ingenuity. The adventure of it sends my heart there…to feel the wind and the salt spray on my face, to wonder what the next horizon will bring!

It is the forth which I know not…the way of a man with a maid. It amazes me that one day a man can be thinking of how to join one piece of steel to another or about where to stop on his next trip through the land of enchantment and then a woman can unexpectedly enter, then consume, his thoughts. All it takes may be a simple hug or a moment when the sunlight brings out the gold flecks in her eyes. The sight of it captures your imagination. Maybe it’s the moment when you touch her skin and it feels softer than the finest silk... It can be completely distracting!

Where your only thoughts of color may have been to see the way steel changes from black to bright yellow in a forge before…now you drift away with thoughts of how the gold and green in her eyes changes with the light. You dream of smelling her hair and feeling her breath on your skin.

Thoughts of candlelight dinners and hours spent with your arms around her in front of a fireplace crowd out the poems waiting to be written in steel. All of the sudden you no longer feel whole when she’s not there. The sunsets that were so beautiful not so long ago now seem empty without her to share them with. It can feel great to be alive and miserable all at the same time?? No wonder it’s inspired so many poems and songs !!!

The way of a man with a maid. Surely it’s one of Gods greatest miracles...one I hope I never understand!

War

There was a time when I wore a military uniform. I learned to use modern weapons and trained in modern tactics for warfare. I looked forward to putting my training to the test just like a football player looks forward to playing another team after training with a new coach, new equipment and a new rulebook. I actually thought going to war would be a good thing! That’s a view common among many young men, especially those exposed to military culture. The military is a kind of right of passage for many young men. There is something inherent in us that drives us to prove ourselves, to prove that we have become men.

It’s a natural thing for a young man to feel that way. It’s good that there are such young men to fill the ranks of our military. Without a strong military we wouldn’t enjoy the lifestyle that most of us take for granted. It’s an old saying but a true one…Freedom isn’t free.

There are always those who will try and impose their will on others, and they’ll do it with whatever weapons and means are at their disposal. It is a fact of human life that some people don’t respond to diplomacy…the only thing they respond to is greater strength. That makes war necessary sometimes.

Make no mistake…war is the most obscene evil that human beings can engage in. Old soldiers know that even if the young ones don’t…yet. The wholesale murder and maiming of other human beings is what we’re talking about. Those that die in war are far from the only casualties that it causes. It destroys hearts, minds and families in addition to destroying land and property. It has destroyed entire civilizations and generations. No one who’s been in a war has any romantic notions about it. Still sometimes wars must be fought. There is always a bully on the playground that only understands one thing…

The question arises then, what is a justifiable reason for going to war? Contrary to what some believe, a government has no right to dictate to it’s citizenry whom to hate… Governments and dictators have engaged in immoral activities ever since there have been governments. To conquer someone else’s territory is immoral. To go to war to protect the financial interests of some group is also immoral. These are motives based on greed, one of the basest of human drives. What are moral, justifiable reasons then?

To defend ones home and land is not only ones right but ones moral responsibility. To set the oppressed free is also a moral responsibility. In as far I’m concerned, those are the only justifiable reasons to engage in war. Every effort to avoid armed conflict should be exhausted beforehand. The cost should be carefully considered before sending men and women into harms way. Once the decision is made to go to war everything that can be done to insure victory should be done. No expense should be spared in arming and training those who will put their lives on the line.

There is one more thing…the values that our warriors are fighting for should be reflected in their actions and in those of their leaders. To defend human rights by breaking every decent principle of humanity is the kind of hypocrisy that only plants the seeds for future conflicts. Such things are not worthy of a free people and a noble nation.

I am not a pacifist or a warmonger…I’m a realist. I only pray that our leaders are guided by this principle. We should always strive for the noblest of intentions. Every human being is made in the image of the Living God, the ones we send to do the killing, and the ones we intend to kill. We can never take that lightly.

My Grandmother...

Saturday December 11, 1999 was the day my grandmother died. She was the only grandmother, and one of the finest people, I ever knew. Vera Francis Taylor Schipper was a woman of little formal education. She could read and write enough to get by. She married my grandfather in 1930 and bore him five children, a son and four daughters. My mother was in the middle. My grandfather abandoned my grandmother and his five children when they were all young. While he went off to chase other women and drink, she made sure that her children all had food, clothing and shelter by doing whatever it took to get by. They lived on a small farm at the time. My grandmothers heart was always in farming.

By the time I was a young child in Alaska she had remarried and settled on the outskirts of Austin in a small house that was little more than a shack. She, and the only grandfather I ever knew, worked as custodians at a small elementary school across the street. I lived with her for a time when I was a child, along with one of my cousins. Anytime anyone in the family was broke or needed a place to stay she did whatever she could to help. There were times when their small house was home to more people than it had room for but my grandmother would never turn anyone away.

She never liked it when anyone called her 'grandmother'...She said it made her feel old. She preferred to be called by her childhood nickname: 'Beader'. I still don't know the true story behind that one! She taught me to love the old ways of doing things. We would sit on the front porch snapping green beans or shelling peas. I learned to churn butter and ice cream by hand. I learned to milk a cow and figure out where sneaky chickens would hide their eggs. I learned to make peach preserves and dill pickles and all kinds of things. My cousin and I washed the dinner dishes by hand for a dime a week. I learned the importance of the Farmers Almanac and to watch the phases of the moon when I planted my garden. And I learned about unconditional love...

I remember once a homeless person, we called them hobos then, wandered up. He asked if there was any work he could do to earn some food. My grandmother wouldn't hear of making him work for food. She made him a plate of Southern cooking about six inches high and when he was finished she gave him seconds. He tried to pay her with the only thing he had, a ball point pen, but she wouldn't hear of that either. My grandmother never turned anyone away hungry...not once in the forty years I was blessed to know her. If someone was cold she would see to it they had a coat or blanket. If someone was sick or lonely she would visit them. That was the foundation of her faith in God. She didn't understand all the philosophical arguments about religion. She understood what it was to be hungry, cold and lonely. She knew that we are all connected and that God works through us and that was enough for her.

I've studied most of the religions on earth at some time in my life. There have been times when I was certain about some of the things of God...only to be convinced of something totally different later. I no longer claim to know anything about God save what my grandmother taught me by her example.

She sleeps now, awaiting God's call. I know that one day she will be a jewel in His crown. I hope that I can be something of the man she saw in me so that I can be there to see that...

I miss you Beat...

Attraction and Love

As a student of the human condition I’ve found that the easiest way to study humanity is to turn my awareness on myself. I think that’s somewhat akin to what actors do. By studying ourselves we come to understand others. It’s a kind of empathy I suppose. The only flaw in it that I can see is that not everyone thinks or reacts the way I do. Some people are a genuine puzzle to me.

One area where most of us have some interest is the realm of attraction. Lately I’ve found myself thinking quite a bit about attraction and love. (Of course a woman blacksmith inspired it!) The nature of this particular subject seems to be what divides so many men and women because we think about it so differently. I know from experience that most men are attracted to women in one of three basic ways. First, there is basic sexual attraction. When a man sees a woman he wants to be sexual with his main focus is on her body. That’s what he’ll compliment… Some guys will say anything to get what they want here. When it’s understood by both parties it’s one thing…but when it causes a man to lie to get what he wants it crosses the line into using another human being. What a man says when the attraction is purely physical will usually give him away. Often after he gets what he wants he’ll move on to the next woman. This is the area where women feel used…because they are used. This is the basest kind of attraction. It is a need all of us have but there are ways to fulfill it that don’t involve hurting another person. Immature people…especially men…tend to focus only on their own desires. This is something women don’t seem to get primarily because they ‘want’ to believe otherwise. While physical attraction can evolve into romance, it’s rare that it does. A relationship that's built on sexual attraction won't last because sexual attraction waxes and wanes over time. That's natural. To build a lasting bond it needs to be on a different foundation.

The second kind of attraction that men often feel for women is a kind of mental attraction. They’re not usually physically attracted to these women, at least at first. The attraction begins around a common interest or sometimes just good conversation. This can be the ‘I just want to be friends’ area but a man can become physically attracted to a woman he feels mental attraction for too. Just like he can come to find a physically desirable woman less attractive because of her personality. Some women become more beautiful as you get to know them. When these evolve into relationships they're often very good because the foundation is one of friendship. Many women seem to sense that this is the way to go…get involved with your friend and you won’t get used. These relationships can grow into romance. There’s a danger here too though. Becoming physical can ruin the friendship. Sometimes romance can ruin it too. Romance is such a powerful feeling it can raise the expectations unrealistically high. Lose this one and you can lose it all.

The third kind of attraction is the one from the heart. This is when a man is drawn to a woman because of what she does to his heart. This can be love at first sight or it may happen over time. This is the birthplace of romance... It has an element of physical attraction, to be sure, but that’s not the main focus. The things we focus on and compliment are her eyes and her smile more so than her figure. This kind of attraction also has a mental element. We want to know what’s in her heart and on her mind. It is significant that the heart is between the brains and the loins. The heart is where they meet. This is the kind of attraction most of the songs, poems and love stories are about. All of them will make him think of her... This form of attraction lifts us to our highest level. This is the one that can make your heart ache when you're not with her. When a man starts to feel this way about a woman he can’t think of other women. ‘She’ becomes every woman for him. If, in the process of giving in to the attraction you feel, you can become friends, that friendship is the best foundation for real love. When this one is real, (and real means mutual), it can change your heart…and your life.

Just some observations…from the Blacksmith’s Corner….