A Time For Mettle

Regrettably I must admit I am resolved to the reality that this civilization has reached the tipping point that most great societies all eventually succumb to, historically speaking. It seems that prosperity and abundance is a delicate fruit that becomes toxic as it ages and then causes blindness, not unlike most good things that eventually spoils unless great care to preserve it has been applied. 

While it is encouraging to speak about what could be... if only... what actually is falls well within the patterns of what has been before. At the point of no return, the only hope is not hope in restoration but hope in the Divine Will that good has already won the war. It’s in the battles that have yet to be fought where mettle is called upon to rise to the challenge. The small battles and skirmishes with evil are often lost in the great ongoing war of good and evil. But faith cannot be destroyed in those who understand that it is often in the devastating losses where we find our peace and resolve.

To say that resolve is a form of acceptance of defeat does not address the strength of those who have seen the enemy and recognized that the enemy is us and have determined that the only way to find peace is in allowing peace to find us in the truth of what is happening in real time. 

Relief in the middle of adversity is within the silent comfort of faith. Faith does not change our circumstances but rather our attitude and how we operate within those circumstances. Are we paralyzed by fear or mobilized by bravery? Are we solution-oriented or defeatist? Are we victims without recourse? Or do we stand up for something higher and determine that it is better striving for right than living tyrannized by evil? Even if sometimes we must die in the standing?

Ultimately, faith is the antidote to fear. But faith that believes in that which it cannot see is not myopic; it is founded in knowing the difficult truth first.

Sometimes you need encouragement. You need to hear from someone or something, that can tell you what will help you get past, rise up, get out, move beyond–survive the moment somewhat intact. 

Sometimes you need gentle words, kind, uplifting philosophical building up words.

Sometimes you need to rest and, and as they say, to ‘let your soul breathe.’

Sometimes this is possible. Sometimes not.

Sometimes when the struggle, trouble, crisis, loss, threat, devastation is so profound your soul holds its breath and forgets how to exhale.

Sometimes the only way to kick start breathing again is to get slapped on the back with tough words, not soft pats. Drill sergeant words, “Get a grip soldier!” “Sink or swim!” 

And so there is a time for everything. A time to laugh, a time to weep. A time for shouting, a time for remaining silent. There is a season for good and sometimes for not so good. A time to be weak. A time for tapping into strength that can only come from Divine intervention and inspiration.

A time to muster the mettle you didn’t know you had.

For Him,

Meema

Call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great things, and difficult, which thou knowest not. -Jeremiah 33:3

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For Him,

Meema

Fall From Grace

Isn’t it ironic that in the most liberal, self-centered, reprobated society since the days just prior to the fall of the Great Roman Empire, we are still able to have our sensibilities shocked. A collective gasp goes up when we hear that an iconic father figure is accused of multiple sexual assaults, or a family touted as the standard for Christian living has dark secrets revealed. We quickly withdraw our support of a TV or movie star when the news cycle du jour is captured by reports of misconduct, misstatements, and any behavior unbecoming of our idols. 

And thus we are the biggest hypocrites ever to populate the earth.

We are completely self-absorbed and yet we look down our noses at others who are self-absorbed. We think and speak ugly things in private and then are quick to vilify others who are caught speaking racist and/or other newly redefined anti-PC words. 

We think nothing of watching what would have not too long ago been labeled soft-porn broadcast into our living rooms at all hours. We might winch a little but we don’t turn it off. We blindly accept that a cartoon channel pumps out silly kid entertainment and so we don’t bother to watch or vet what is being fed to our children’s brains. 

We buy filthy books that are so wildly popular they are quickly converted into living action movies that promote the basest of human activity. We post our reviews online. 

And yet when a sport hero is accused of domestic violence, we furrow our brows and condemn him. We call for him to be fired, or at least penalized. We like our domestic violence to be the fictional kind. We can put up with it, let it into our psyche, get some kind of stimulation from it, but we don’t want our little tin gods actually doing it. In real life.

In much the same way we endorse, by default, promiscuity, infidelity and perversion. Yet we are incensed when we discover there is a website devoted to such activity that thousands subscribe to. We shake our heads in disgust even as we click through the channels on our TV where promiscuity, infidelity and perversion reign as commonplace. Even in commercials. 

We are aghast when we read headlines about aborted baby parts callously sold as commodity. We might try to soften the topic by rationalizing that it’s for the good of ‘science’ for advancing the cause of medicine. To save lives. Wait. To save lives? Kill babies to save lives? Now that’s messed up I don’t care how you look at it. 

Where does it end? 

So, what does bottom look like for a society in a downward spiral? Once natural laws that have successfully governed integrity, decency and honor for eons are sufficiently diluted into meaninglessness, only chaos and illogical application of rhetoric can prevail. There is no better way to describe falling from grace than to say look around. It’s not only all around us, it is in us.

Not like it hasn’t happened before. But what if this is the last time? Last chance?

 (1 Corinthians 10:12) Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.  

For Him,

Meema