Common Sense

I recently read this statement: "You don't have to have an academic degree to have common sense." I agree--to a certain extent. But I remember another statement I read some years ago: "Common sense is what tells us that the earth is flat and the sun and stars revolve around it." If you conflate these statements, you might conclude that common sense, followed to its ultimate extent, tells us that we must look deeply into some aspects of life, holding an open mind, and not being too dogmatic about too many things. Some dogmatically held on to the flat earth principle to the extent that they persecuted those who held otherwise.
There are a few things that I am dogmatic about. Only a few. One is that the ultimate Truth is very good--better than we can yet totally experience. My very existence is the only confirmation of that that I need. Beyond my existence however is exorbitant evidence that the Truth is good: manhood and womanhood, the existence of the experience of "beauty", and humor, laughter and playfulness, the feelings that we have for our children, the amazing resilience and stamina we have to overcome the worst of life's tribulations, the fact that we can perceive in ourselves a psycho-spiritual evolution---a progressive enlightenment---albeit slower than we might hope. We had absolutely nothing to do with any of these except that we benefit from the gift of them. I have come to trust deeply the goodness of the Power [the Truth] by which this life and these experiences came into existence. I am dogmatic about that. And since the best that I can perceive within myself and my fellow humans is Love, in its most evolved manifestations, I am dogmatic about the belief that the ultimate Power, the ultimate Truth, is exclusively this Love, because the best in me, and the ability to perceive such a fact, would be the gift of that Power.
When I read the New Testament [something every true seeker of Truth must do] these facts that I am dogmatic about are confirmed---especially in the life and teachings of Jesus. He said that He is the Truth. And He lived a life of perfect Love in human form. He commanded His followers to love each other, and even their enemies. {Mt. 5:44] And He taught us that God is Love.[John 3:16, 1John 4:8].
When I live in the Light of this Truth, I find a peace that I desire for everyone that I love. And in Him, I love everyone. This is like coming Home. It is to find and inwardly experience true freedom.
Then we have good common sense, infused with wisdom and humility.

Political and Social Polarization

This video expresses the philosophy of Jordan Peterson and intelligently explores the current political polarization. I obviously recommend it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trhTbEs2GGE 

My comments would be: We have come to focus too much on "rights" and too little on "responsibilities". This is Jordan Peterson's message, and it's a very accurate and important one. In this left-leaning social environment, the Christian faith has been ignored, demeaned, misrepresented and identified with a rigid and stultifying component of conservatism rather than the unifying, liberating and life-enhancing power that it actually is for those who go deeply into it.  Christianity, the way I and many people in my circle understand and experience it, seems to be the primary, if not only, influence in the human family that can unify us without force or violence while simultaneously maintaining and even enhancing the beauty and value of all cultural sub-types. Jesus described His Way as "yeast in a lump of dough". Without it we risk a revolutionary explosion of the suppressed frustrations that accrue to normal spiritless living in ANY political or economic system. The problem is not the "system". The problem is the individual soul. When that is transformed [which Christ does wonderfully and thoroughly] then the world becomes what it can and should be, and what we have always wanted it to be. Otherwise we continue to unconsciously project, and set up and destroy straw men; tilting at windmills. Then we create something that is as [or more] pathological than the "system" that we destroyed. History is replete with this cycle.

Night-time Prayer

Lord, it is night.

The night is for stillness. Let us be still in the presence of God.

Difficulty sleeping?  Pray this prayer meditatively. Let the words go deep and come from deep within you. 

It is night after a long day.

What has been done has been done; what has not been done has not been done; 

let it be.

The night is dark.

I bring my fears of the darkness of this world and of my own life to

rest in you.

The night is quiet.

I allow the quietness of your peace to enfold me,

and pray for all who are dear to me to be enfolded in Your peace,

and for all who have no peace.

The night heralds the dawn.

I look expectantly with secure hope to a new day,

new joys,

new possibilities.

In Christ Jesus' holy name I pray.

Amen.

Religious Wars?

It's ridiculous to blame any human violence on a religion whose progenitor was Himself non-violent and taught His followers to love their enemies, bless those who curse them, do good to those who would hate them, and pray for those who would despitefully use and persecute them (Matthew 5:44). The earliest disciples and followers elaborated on His teachings, inspired by His Spirit, and commanded followers not to return evil for evil, nor to be overcome by evil, but rather to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:17, 21; 1Thessalonians 5:15; 1Peter 3:9). Jesus would not even allow His followers to use the sword to protect Him when He was taken into custody at night by a vigilante party operating under trumped up and blatantly false charges (Luke 22:50-51).  His primary command was that we are to love each other as He loved us and gave His life for us (John 15:12-13).
We must not blame wars on the Christ of the Bible; rather we must recognize that wars come from the evil that He exposed in the human heart, elaborated on by His half-brother and disciple, James, who stated that wars come from inner desires and lust for power and pleasure (James 4). Wars come from the desire for land, resources and power; certainly not from the love of Christ. And the fact that Christianity could ever be used to promote any form of violence is a testimony to the evil exposed by Christ and more generally in the entire Bible. The Jews, who follow what we call the Old Testament, which is certainly a more violent scripture than the New Testament, are nevertheless one of the least violent and most beneficial people groups on the planet (and strangely, one of the most hated people groups). Even though Jews comprise only .2% of the worlds population, they have been awarded 22.5% of the 900+ Nobel Prizes which  are widely regarded as the most prestigious awards available in the fields of chemistry, literature, peace activism, physics, and physiology or medicine. This makes sense in light of the fact that the God of the Old Testament is the God Who promised the Messiah, Christ of the New Testament; and even though the psycho-spiritual growth of humans has been slow and violent, we see the Spirit of the Old Testament God in Christ Who lived and preached love as the highest good.  It is irrational to blame Christianity--the teachings of Christ--for the wars and violence of this world. Islam is a different story because Mohammed was a warlord and the Quran tells a different story about God and Christ than the Bible relates. Every true Christian is offended when Christianity is lumped together with Islam in statements blaming "all religions" for the problems of this world. An objective account of Christianity reveals that enormous good has come and continues to be rendered to the human family because of Christ's teachings. The fact that our democracy has emerged in large part from Judeo-Christianity is indisputable. It is in the fulfillment of the Christian religion, not in its eradication, that we will find peace in the human family. Instead of blaming Christians for wars and violence, it would be wiser to encourage them to be better Christians.

Love and Respect in Marriage

I was going to write about love and respect but I found an article that expresses it beautifully. [below link]  The only other thing I would point out is the vicious cycle generated by spouses when they do not love and respect each other. As the article points out, biblically speaking, men are to love  their wives, and wives to respect their husbands. Men need respect, women need love. It is hard for a man to love a woman who does not respect him; and it is hard for a woman to respect a man with whom she feels unloved. So you see the downward spiral this could create. It can be reversed by either partner who is willing to practice the required discipline even if his/her spouse is not practicing it. This is not something to be tried once or twice and then collapse into "This is not working!" It's a good practice even your spouse never responds positively. It's good for you. It's God's will for us to "love our enemies" and to not return evil for evil. You become a better person when you do not allow your spouses' failures to determine your attitude and behavior.  This does not mean that one should tolerate and submit to chronic abuse. Abuse should be sternly confronted; and the abusive partner must come to understand the counter-productive outcome of abuse and discipline him/herself to eradicate abusive behaviors, words, gestures and even attitudes from his/her personality. This is the work of the Holy Spirit--very important work! It is work motivated by love, even for the abuser. We don't stop loving our mate with Christ's Love when they lapse into abuse, because Christ doesn't stop loving them. But we must be careful to protect ourselves, and especially our children from abuse. Love is manifested as a strong intolerance for abuse.
Read more in the below well-written article.

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/love-and-respect