Easy Times

I recently saw a quote, "Hard times create strong men. Strong men create easy times. Easy times create weak men. Weak men create hard times. " 

This does illuminate a cycle present in history. It is very evident we are living in easy times, one must only look at the men in this country, and the sheer fact that saying "men" could be seen as a trigger. 

Belief in truth creates disciplined men. Disciplined men raise disciplined families. 

Belief in relative truth creates undisciplined, greedy men. Undisciplined, greedy men don't raise families, and when they do, they raise undisciplined, greedy families.  

The life of the latter feeds off the environment created by the former, and its ranks increase. 

The cycle repeats because truth cannot be undone, and the arbiter of truth cannot be unthroned. Truth prevails; but we are a sinful lot, for even our discipline can lead to the sin of self-righteousness. 

Before sending troops to stop the North Korean advance into South Korea the US Military had faced years of drawback. We sent in an Army contingent "Task Force Smith" and they lasted all but a few hours against the North's advance. The phrase is now commonplace in military circles - "No more Task Force Smiths" Untrained men do no good in war. 

We are living the warning laid out in Deuteronomy 6, and it strikes me each time we read it before Shabbat each weekend. You will inherent wells which you did not dig and cities which you did not build. And when you have eaten and are full, then beware lest you forget the lord your God. We are living in a country built by stronger men in our past, we did not labor for the freedoms we enjoy. We are plump and heavy from our pleasure driven culture, and as a nation, we have forgotten the Lord our God. 

Our family shall not forget. 

Don't shoot for a glistening trough.

 Proverbs 14:4 "Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; but much increase comes by the strength of an ox."

For oxen to gain strength they must eat from the trough. To accomplish work on the land, the oxen must be fed. If the trough is unused, it is safe to say the land is unworked. 

Don't be afraid of the mess that may be a byproduct of diligent work. Look ahead to the fruit of the labor. 

Where there are no children, a house may be perfectly organized and clean; but change in the world comes by the rearing of children. 

Great encouragement for myself and also Meghan as messes abound in this season. 

The implications of this verse are not limited to the application above. 

You don't have to worry about cleaning up after oxen if you don't have any, but you also won't have much profit. 

We will always have problems in life, we should seek after those problems that are associated with blessings. 

Some problems are good problems. 

Men's Breakfast Notes / Thoughts

 Attended a men's breakfast this morning at church - the topic of discussion was Worship and I wrote a handful of ideas down in my notebook that I wanted to transfer here and possibly expand upon if able. Also just some general notes/thoughts to follow

Books to read: C.S. Lewis "Letters to Malcom" also "The Analects" by Confucius. The latter was mentioned today in that Confucius wrote how conflicts arise generally because we miss title things or fail to define things correctly. Or we don't treat things as the title demands they be treated i.e. the title no longer has a meaning that it once did. Interested in getting a copy to read more. Also of note just came across Confuscious in another book I am listening to on my commute called "The hundred year marathon" about chinas strategic 100 year plan for world dominance which is currently being carried out, to be completed in 2049 so hang tight. I digress, Confucius was quoted in that book saying something along the lines of, the sky cannot have two suns, nor the earth two emperors. 

Psalm 96 vs 4-5" For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols." 

If you read this and say amen, but then fail to identify what exactly the 'gods of the peoples' are in our society today then you may find yourself giving praise (with your time, effort, devotion, and fear) to one of the said gods of the people. So, it is necessary to ask, what are the false gods of our age? How do people serve them? Am I serving them? Do I fear them? Do I fear the repurcussions of not fearing them? You cannot answer those questions unless you actually define them. I think this is a point that is often missed in sermons and christian cirlces. We don't go deep enough to understand our current times and what to do with them. Like the men of Issachar, those men of old. 

Romans 1 vs 21 - 22 "Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools" This verse came up in discussion, definitely one that is underlined in my bible. Worldly wisdom is not wisdom at all. 

On Abraham and Isaac. I had never realized until today that before Abraham took Isaac up the mountain and left the rest of their party at the bottom he told them to stay and he said "when WE return". He didn't know what was going to happen but he knew that someone there would be descendants as numerous as the stars that would come from Isaac and he trusted that Promise that God had given him. Made me think about recent things I have read in which people question God and request signs in order to believe him - this is a time when Abraham didn't need any further questions to be answered but fully trusted in the Lord. Genesis 22

2 Timothy 3: 1-5  Throws in that children will be disobedient to their parents with a whole host of other sins . that they will appear righteous but deny God's power. Just another great verse that is underlined. And a good one to have in memory when thinking about disciplining children. 

Starting a book study with two other Leutenants from church. Going to read through Principles of war by jim wilson first and go from there. Excited to be doing a study with other guys at work. 1x infantry officer and 1x ground intel officer. Hope to add more as we go. 

Will be promoted to first Lt on Dec 15, Comes with a pay increase. And increase in responsibility as well as room for maneuver as more will trust automatically that you know what you are doing. 

Enjoying our advent this year, today is baking cookies to take to the neighbors and I am holding everyone up by typing so farewell, lets bake cookies!!

Sun Szu on spoiled children

 "Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even into death. 

If, however, you are indulgent, but unable to make your authority felt, kind-hearted but unable to enforce your commands; and incapable, moreover, of quelling disorder, then your soldiers must be likened to spoiled children; they are useless for any practical purpose. "

-Art of War, Sun Tzu

Likewise, regard your children as soldiers, for they will need to follow you into the deepest of valleys. They will need to stay the course until death. 

My Battalion Commander, LtCol Robeson, assigned a book for the Lts to read: This Kind of War, by T.R. Fehrenbach - A comprehensive history of the Korean War. I am thoroughly enjoying it. One key piece I have already taken away is that society aims to make us soft, they do not understand what it is that needs to be done or what kind of men are required to do it. "For he who desires peace must prepare for war. " Task Force Smith is a prime example. The first US Troops (Army) engaged to stop the advance of the North Koreans. They only lasted about 7 hours. 

The reality sunk in that deteriorating our efforts in training and equipping in times of peace is not a recipe for success in times of war. And times of war will undoubtably arise. 

Its not the critic who counts.

 

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

― Theodore Roosevelt

Miracle on 34th St.

One of the activities Meg has included in our advent calendar was to watch a christmas movie. This weekend we were scrolling through potential options and ended up watching just the preview for "Miracle on 34th St." 

I have not watched the movie, but from the preview I gathered the general synopsis. There is an old man who dresses up as Santa Clause each year (as many do across the country) for photo ops and to hear children's wish lists. Differing from most Santa's, this man truly does believe he is Santa Clause. It ends up going to court (again I haven't actually watched the movie) and his defendant makes a statement that was the climax of the preview:

"Would you rather have a truth that sheds a tear, or a lie that brings a smile."

Let that simmer. Let it further simmer that in context this was meant to be a rallying cry to viewers to empathize and agree with the defense. Let it simmer again, and watch the grease splatter from the pan, as you realize that many in our culture today not only would prefer the latter in this hypothetical situation, but are, in reality, living out this notion.

Meghan and I had a good laugh. This movie was definitely made in the 90s or so, and you can see that this ideology (subjective truth) has been playing the long game. They call it "my truth" now, and in the 90's they admitted it was a lie, and appealed to your emotions to get you to be okay with it. 

First men could marry men because it would be rude of you not to allow it, you homophobic. Now Men can marry men because the definition of marriage has changed all together. The culture has believed the lie because it came with a smile, 'tolerance' they rejoiced. We would have been much better off to have the truth, and let a few cry. 

Praise God we know which long game will win in the end, and already has. 

Death has been defeated. The serpent and all his efforts, are in vain

 

Quotes to Remember

 I read this today in Orthodoxy and thought it worth its own post - nothing further to be said; other than that I whole-heartedly agree, I have seen it now in my own daughters, and I believe it is this that Jesus references when he says:

 “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

Think of all the men who stick up their noses to monotony because they simply are not strong enough to exult in it. 

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy: "It might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not to lifelessness, but to a rush of life. The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "do it again"; and the grown up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, and has never gotten tired of making them. It may be that he has the eternal appetite of infancy: For we have sinned and grown old, and our father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore."