We’ve waited two long years for a big concert festival. As a family, we lost those experiences forever. Lockdowns took away outdoor entertainment, one in a series of unscientific, arbitrary, and harmful measures that have reduced the health and quality of life for billions around the globe.
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Tomorrow we head out to the Philadelphia Folk Festival for four nights of music and camping. My girlfriend and her daughter are joining us and I get to share some of Mary’s favorite music with them. Having mostly missed out on concerts for two years, I’m sure to be extra emotional when I hear Michael Franti and Dom Flemons (my younger son was one year old when he first saw the Carolina Chocolate Drops) perform some of our favorites. The joyous tears just might out do the grieving ones.
The Lord said to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand on him. Give him some of your authority so the whole Israelite community will obey him.” -Numbers 27:18, 20 NIV
Mary brought physical touch into my life in a way I had not experienced. She was a hugger and I wasn’t. I came from a physically reserved family and this was a new and awkward rhythm for me.
Having children broke apart the awkwardness. Our boys fell asleep in my arms so many times. To this day we wrestle and hug and kiss and tickle and, with the recent introduction of the Punch Buggy game into our lives, hit each other a lot.
It wasn’t until I lost Mary that I saw how much I valued touch. I’ve talked with a lot of widows and widowers and the loss of frequent, intimate touch is the most commonly felt agony.
I hug my boys more than ever. I relish the contact in soccer as much as any other aspect. Jiu-jitsu is the ultimate in physical contact in a safe environment. My romantic relationships have also taken on a greater level of attention to physical contact.
I experience God primarily through nature and people. Touching the ground and the trees and even spider webs connects me to all of God’s creation. Similarly, physical touch connects me to the whole of humanity. It is intense and can be frightening, but on the whole, I experience great love through the connection to Creation.
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You must distinguish between the unclean and the clean. -Leviticus 11:47 NIV
Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains … an unuprooted small corner of evil.
Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions of the world: They struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person.
I can’t improve on Solzhenitsyn, but I can ruminate on the Biblical challenge to discern between good and evil.
They are mixed together in each of us. Just as the balance of good and evil moves in others, it moves in us.
Watching my internal dance between good and evil and order and chaos (different dances, yet interrelated) is key for me to discern between good and evil in the world.
I commune with my heart in the night; I meditate and search my spirit -Psalm 77:6 RSV
I can only seek the constant good of God once I have come to know the ever changing nature of myself. Another dance. I commune with God and know myself better. I commune with myself and know God better. The journeys are intertwined.
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I was interested in the effectiveness of masks before Covid madness settled into American culture. During six days in the hospital with my wife I learned that there was little enforcement or consistency with mask policy, even in the ICU with a respiratory infection.
I didn’t dive deep at the time, but I was surprised to read that masks were largely regarded as useless outside a surgical setting, according to decades of studies.
In 2020, I revisited those studies with a closer, and less emotional, eye. I hadn’t fooled myself, masks created more of a sense of security than actual health or safety. I don’t know why doctors and nurses ignore this, or perpetuate the farce. I don’t really know why Dr. Fauci told the world that masks were ineffective, then told the world they were. I was lying then, but I’m telling the truth now? Sounds like classic toxic male.
Ian Miller is data obsessed and has been publishing official government statistics in chart form since near the beginning of the Lockdown.
In this conversation with Thaddeus Russell, Miller shares how he became the go-to source for seekers of Covid data truth. Over and over again his charts showed that mask mandates had no measurable effect on health outcomes anywhere.
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I’m seeing more people in masks again. It is important that we reach as many as who will listen about the lies that have been peddled about mask effectiveness.
This conversation and this book are great weapons of truth. Please take time to listen, read, and share. There will be another attempt by government offcials to deny citizens their rights of travel, speech, and assembly. We must be armed with the truth and be ready to speak it. We must defy the lies by acting against their mandates.
He got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him. -John 13:4-5
I don’t have a lot of words to share about Jesus washing the feet of his students. It is one of those examples that I struggle to follow. I love to serve others, but am I always doing it in the name of the Lord?
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When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel. -Judges 2:10 NKJV
Home education and fatherhood center around modeling. As I learn, my sons not only learn, but are shown how to learn.
My faith is grown through learning. Not only by studying the Word, but by praying openly for wisdom and guidance.
I don’t know how my boys will grow in their beliefs. That isn’t up to me. All I can do is be honest and outspoken in my faith journey.
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Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. – 1 Peter 5:8 NKJV
When I was attending Alcoholics Anonymous there was a guy who said that the devil wasn’t on his back, he was outside doing push ups, getting ready while we sat around getting fat and lazy in our sobriety.
That stuck with me. I don’t live with a devil on my back and I’m not getting fat and lazy in my sobeiety. That’s in no small part to the knowledge that the devils are always getting stronger.
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? -Hebrews 12:7 RSV
God doesn’t let us get away with sin because he loves us and wants us to let go of sin. We face consequences and confront our choices. We are made more whole through the healing.
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The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child. -Hebrews 12:6 NLT
God as judge. God as conscience.
When God is in our hearts, it hurts to do wrong. To sin is to miss the mark and that applies to every word, thought, and action not created in love.
When you are loved, you feel a responsibility toward that love. You wish to honor it and be worthy of it.
We all fall short of that worthiness and that hurts. The hurt comes from not stepping up into God’s awesome love and projecting it into the world. That awesome love is unshakable and rallies around us when we fall.
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Then he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” -Matthew 4:19 NKJV
I’ve recently been given the opportunity to help my community through some difficult and personal conflicts. I have prayed for guidance and been humble in my approach. I can’t “fix” problems between my friends.
I can, however, minister better and share the wisdom that I have been blessed with through God’s Word. I haven’t been as vocal about my faith as our “official” group isn’t religious, but open to all beliefs. Sometimes I err on the side of being quiet about my relationship with Christ and I endeavor to become a more vocal follower.
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