Insidious Adaptation

"Do you love your guns?" Yeah "god?" Yeah "The government?" "Do you love your guns?" Yeah "god?" Yeah "The government?"- Marylyn Manson, "The Love Song." 2000 The love of money, fame, fortune, notoriety, the love of other men regarding what we produce in this world, the worst drug out there. A drug, as I am using here, deviates people from truth. Drugs cover what the mind naturally does, therefore drugs are found in various forms, with the addition of chemicals being just a few.  "You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing You say I am strong when I think I am weak And You say I am held when I am falling short When I don’t belong, oh You say that I am Yours And I believe (I), oh I believe (I) What You say of me (I) Oh, I believe" - Lauren Daigle, "You Say" 2018 Two choruses, one God. Two supposedly opposite ends of the spectrum. Two people, Marylyn Manson, and Lauren ...

Love is the sacrifice of oneself for another. "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs."- 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 What love is can easily be defined by what man isn't. WE are typically love's anti-venom and we have redefined "love" in a culture of lovelessness. Love is not lust, nor is it a present, nor is it controlling. You do not love if you need to know where that person is or what they are doing or to receive reassurances about your worth or their feelings for you.  Love does not need to be proclaimed in some bold statement for others to see, nor does love have to break another person down, hoping they lose so that we can remain their caregiver. Love does not steal. Love does not covet. Love is not some romance movie where the unhappily married woman finds her, "true" love and is acceptab...

It was the night after a long run, one where I went out too far, gone too long, didn't eat enough either. It was a time when I thought I could push it a little more, a little farther, and maybe I could finally obtain a coveted self-accomplishment to allow myself a little peace. "When I hit 15 miles, then I will buy those new shoes."  I will never buy the shoes, I just need something to look forward to, even if that, "thing" will never be allowed to happen.  It was at the end of one of those days, where the push of an accomplishment consumes any other idea that is life and the payment for such an accomplishment, isn't just the fatigue, for that is masterable, but it is the mental craving for something.  I have a theory based loosely in logic, one of chemicals and exercise; the longer the exercise, the more the chemicals used, so then the less brain chemicals there are later. Either way, I was burned, a longer, deeper burn that muscles provid...

According to science, everything is 99.9999999% nothing. Article here.   With that in mind, the scientific explanation that anything material is mostly electron clouds and magnetic force is what we feel, could we ever question miracles again? If science, which is typically the anti-religion take of the world's origin, existence, and meaning, is so convinced in the presentation, which is empty space, why would we struggle is accepting "non-natural" events from affecting our lives, when the "natural" isn't as concrete as we thought? Science! Jesus was a man, a Son, physically, birthed from a virgin. Science says this is impossible. The Old Testament prophesied of Jesus coming, as a savior, the messiah. Science says he was just a man. The New Testament says that Jesus did come, He was alive, He did talk and interact and die and rose again from the grave. Science claims this man did live, but that he must have been a crazy man claiming what he did. S...

The omission was not an accident, but an imposition. I am imposing that we look at the nutrient transport system known as the circulatory system and what it carries, blood, as another thing altogether. Not only is it the heart, arguably the most important organ in the body, necessary to pressurize the arteries and veins to distribute oxygen to the brain and every other organ for its necessary functions, but it is blood outside the body that reinforces sacrifice. It is the explanation for hard work, along with tears and sweat, other fluids from the body. It is the demonstration for endurance as one who bleeds for their purpose. It is the love of someone, or our heart. Blood is also life-giving as blood donation shows compassion. Blood is as grotesque as the Halloween and slasher movies display, or as simple as a pin prick on a child's finger. It is the blood that we look to for a sign of wrong, but for everyone is the demonstration for what is right. It is the blood of Christ ...

Thou shalt not... Christians are commanded to, and commanded not to. Yet, this freedom Christ gave when he died on that cross has gotten distorted. A sense of entitlement has come about. It is not your church or church attendance that matters, the list of actions, charities you contribute to, or reciting of verses that are lingering words in your mind to sound haughty, that matters, but our love. We are commanded to love the Lord our God and love a neighbor like ourselves. These are non-negotibles. Due to needing to categorize and condemn a man for their actions, keep them away from us, we Christ followers sure think a lot and do a lot for ourselves. We justify a sin when we know better. It turns out we are good at one thing aren't we, reviving an old forgiven nature, going back to our own vomit, awaiting a time to be spewed out of the mouth of the one who gave us life. A nature that a conversion of the Holy Spirit should no longer be in love with, no longer stand. A Christian ...

It isn't that we have such great lives, and that man as a whole is not living in his own squalor, but it's the fact that there is a reprieve offered. There is a way out of suffering, out of heartache, there is a peace that can be found here on earth that few really allow themselves to see. One could argue that man has a desire to suffer, living in destruction, to harm one another to then receive harm. We know that if people are suffering in the world that even as calloused as we have become, saturated with news of horrors unheard of in our own life, that we still hurt because others hurt. We can continue to distance in our minds of the suffering of other people, but we hurt, or we distance ourselves from the reality of it. When we start, in one way or another, to distance from the reality of human suffering, we all suffer. Think about when you read a memoir about some horrors a man or woman has lived through. We read these things as stories, yet there is a thin strand of re...

The time it takes to read this, you could have done something else. You could have presented to someone and made a sale. You could have went for a brisk walk around the block, for this I will make it quick, maybe half a block. You could have done what you've always done and continue scrolling through social media waiting for that one thing to distract or entice just enough that you can feel satisfied. The internet has no end, but my words do. Well, inspired words I must confess. Rarely do we get ideas on our own, for our entire life we are saturated with environmental conditions we have to understand and adapt to. We have to learn and grow for our individual environments. Learning about and playing into social media is some people's new Siberian tiger trying to eat them. their new reality. People need to adapt and learn the lay of the land as they navigate through the treacherous waters perceived as social expectations. I am slightly older than that, not much, but enough ...

Like a sentencing from the judge, the pain inside when the inevitable truth is revealed has me torn. The benefit here is that the Judge grants me a life of eternal freedom from all woes and allowed to live in His glory for eternity. No more sorrow, no more pain. That's it, it is finished, as His son that he gave to the courts in payment of all the wrongs I have been accused of. I stand, in rags of clothes draped off my pathetic body, I am sick and weary, and yet, I am being treated like a King. I have been redeemed in this court room where I am definitely guilty. One thing is asked and it is that I give to the judge, my shoes. An easy thing to give for all eternity in my future. Take everything, these rags, I will stand here naked, unashamed for I know that I am now redeemed, given a gift I could not repay. Oh glorious judge how much you must love me, not in charitable compassion, but as one of your own. He watches knowing what I will do, however waiting for me to take the shoe...

"And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord."- Ephesians 6:4 What is it to provoke someone? What is it to influence a life in corruption? When we interact with people, do they walk away worse than before meeting us? Nobody wants to admit they could be a contributing cause to the destruction of another because that is a lot to take on, and counseling says that people are responsible for their own actions. All very true, even the painful part of acceptance. However, what if in our pursuit for self-satisfaction we eat up and produce noxious fumes polluting the purity of life along the way? What if on our way to weight-loss we post pictures promoting our thinner physiques as our salvation to an otherwise pathetic self? What if on the way to becoming a doctor we produce long, difficult sentences to show our knowledge, thus superiority? What if in my accepted way of self-promotion I provoke you in a negat...

Opposition at times seems to be the best method to describe something. When one cannot think of what it is, one can only know what it isn't. With that, what if Jesus did not die on the cross for our sins as the Holy and perfect Son of God in flesh to account for the terrible deviation against all that is true. Furthermore, what if He didn't exist. A world without Jesus, a world then without the Bible, for the Bible refers to His coming and God's sending His son for Redemption. So, no Holy Inspired Word from God. Therefore our sins, they still exist. They are still ours to account for. Life would not be full of rebellion, there would be nothing to rebel against. There would be no hope. All that is good would be lost to the evil of man in this world, and those that oppose Jesus now, or oppose God don't even realize the structure provided for them to defile God's nature by the ones who believe in Him. "For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will...

Having no responsibilities means that we could essentially do whatever we want. If we had no job, no children, no bills to pay, what a glorious day, yes? I assume the thought brings fear, as it should. If we have no responsibilities, we are then not responsible, or no longer important. Lacking importance is something man is not familiar with, after all, psychology justifies that we are all the authors of our own stories and everything we view in the world, is through our lens, or how it affects us. Yes, we are the first thought and we fear that we will come across in this selfish way. However, in our actions, rather than words, walk rather than talk, we do what we claim we don't do. Phrases, like, "I'm just saying," or, "I don't mean to sound like a jerk but..." are part of our everyday language to justify and relate to the people we are talking with. However, typically the people we are talking with by the point we choose to use those justifying phr...

This world is oftentimes like a piece of gum. When the gum is taken in, it is so sweet and fills the mouth with flavor, for nothing is like a good piece of mint gum after a meal. This gum however, becomes a burden when we chew it for too long. Yet, oftentimes the obligation to continue chewing past the pleasurable part keeps us in misery. We hold on to the movement of this formless wad between our teeth, and yet all flavor and thus pleasure is gone. We think to put another in, and then another, for if two tastes good, imagine three. The pleasures of this world, the promises to satisfy our needs sadly fall very short. I only say sadly because that after all is where most people waste their time, me included. Yet, we know the truth inside that we are meant for more than this world, that we have a higher standard, and that we aren't born good. We are sinners who fail to do the right thing, think the right thing, and perform to at least some kind of moral compass everyday. We know ...