And planning for the future.
Being Present
365 Devotionals: What are you Creating?
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches.”
-Matthew 13:31-32
Nothing is static. We are moving toward Heaven or we are moving toward Hell. We create in the direction we move. We can’t have Heaven on Earth, but we can move to create a more heavenly earth.
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365 Devotionals: Persistence
“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”
-Matthew 7:7-8
Align your thinking with God when you pray. You will seek the good and the beautiful the world needs.
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Manliness and Meaning
The first rule of manliness is that we don’t talk about manliness.
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I read Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club about 23 years ago, right before the movie was announced for release. I was at my most nihilistic and certain the movie would be a terrible bastardization. After watching with my sons for the first time, it holds up as one of the best book-to-screen adaptations I have seen before the advent of long-form streaming shows. Although wildly different, the endings of each are disappointing.
The questions asked by the story are intractable. They have been forefront in my mind since I became a single male in sole charge of two boys.
The men in Fight Club are desperate for meaning. They would sacrifice their lives for a taste of it. Yet, none of them can achieve that meaning on their own. The central character, the avatar of (perhaps “toxic”) manliness, Tyler Durden, is a schizophrenic split within his figuratively castrated host. In fact, castration features heavily in the film with regular returns to the theme of separating males from their genitalia.
We are disconnected from our bodies, our sexuality, our strength, and our search for meaning. I have met women who cannot name one impressive man in their history. Impotent in every sense of the word, there is a famine of positive masculinity in the world.
Nihilism and schizophrenia are not the answer. Individual responsibility and work are a start, but we need more than these to inspire men to greatness. I don’t know what. I think and try everyday to model compassion and strength to my sons. It can seem like a futile effort when faced with the madness of the world.
I’m trying to be vulnerable and explore these questions out loud, to seek the answers in my sons and others. I lean heavily on scripture to teach me the lessons that society has deemed unimportant.
It’s a process I hope to share and grow through these posts. I will keep asking questions and hope to be humble enough to receive the answers.
365 Devotionals: Ego
“When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
-Matthew 6:3-4
Ego is always knocking. It takes effort to promote service opportunities, but not self inflate for being involved.
Lord, help me to serve you more humbly, more quietly, and more completely.
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365 Devotionals: Spiritually Poor
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
-Matthew 5:3
Baptism is meant to be done once with an open and honest heart. It is the enacting of one’s death to worldly attachments and rebirth into Christ’s arms. There is no need or use to repeating the gesture. However, in a psychological sense, the process of killing off old, useless, incorrect, and evil parts of ourselves to replace them with upgraded elements is ongoing.
A spiritual life goes through a series of these Phoenix Cycles. After Baptism, one feels full of the Holy Spirit and spiritually rich. That richness is the flaming Phoenix at its apex. Whether the flames crash into darkness or the mental fuel to sustain them merely wanes, we will be left in ashes. In the ashes we are spiritually poor and aware of the broken nature of our material existence. This is when we humbly turn to God and receive what we need to carry forth.
We have some control over the speed and frequency of the cycle. I prefer to spend my time in the ashes. I learn the most there and widowhood has forced me to be more comfortable in the dark. I’m wary of being the shining beacon of the Phoenix at apex as I dread the inevitable decent. This manifests in a rapid succession of Phoenix Cycles that keep me in a flow of growth.
The lower we go, and the longer we spend there, the greater we will be rewarded.
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365 Devotionals: God’s Will
“You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
-Jeremiah 29:10-11
Sitting here in traffic after a long day, missing a soccer game I sorely want to play in, and praying to find the good in this moment.
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365 Devotionals: Let God
Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will help you.
-Psalm 37:4-5
When we align ourselves with God, our desires align with our most loved Self. We take better care of ourselves and desire good for every man, woman, and child.
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365 Devotionals: Grace and Forgiveness
Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you, so you must forgive others.
-Colossians 3:13
I am struggling with this one. I am trying to understand the supporters of Lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and masks. I want to forgive them, but it feels important to stop them first. They must be stopped from harming my family, vulnerable populations, and the very cooperative nature of our success as a species.
I will fight to protect the people I love and I will strive to always expand that circle to include as many as I can. I will keep forgiveness in my heart and welcome the authoritarians to my table, once they are defeated.
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365 Devotionals: Contentment
Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
-Hebrews 13:5
When you know you are loved, you need nothing else.
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