For the Joy, Not the Enjoyment

       Growing up a pastor's son/ homeschool kid, it was probably inevitable that I would read The Chronicles of Narnia. C.S. Lewis' only works for children were not 'dumbed down' versions of his other works but rather a series of fairy tales that applied theological principles to stories of witches, dwarfs, fauns, and centaurs. I think my favorite tale in the chronicles is The Horse and His Boy. It centers around Shasta- the adopted 'son' of a cruel fisherman who plans to sell the boy as a slave, Avaris-the daughter of a noble family who's on the run from an arranged marriage, and Bree and Hwin- two Narnian horses from a breed granted by Aslan with the gifts of intelligence and speech but held captive in the tyrannical Kingdom of Calormen like normal horses. Aslan helps their escape, but often without their knowledge and probably not in ways they would choose.

Moving Forward in a Debauched Society

      It's easy to blame today's moral regression as the product of 5 unelected government officials shoving their opinions down our throat at the expense of national spiritual well-being. The fact is that this is the result of a long-running and very deep moral rot that the Church has had trouble addressing for several decades. It's a fundamental problem of ministry, or any kind of attempt to convert somebody to your way of thinking: how do convince somebody who doesn't even accept your basic assumptions?

What Do You React To?

      The transition to college wasn't the easiest for me. I did well in high school, but my work habits were sloppy and most of my life structure was imposed upon me by my parents. When I found myself in a situation where a little last minute cramming and flurry of effort couldn't bring me the results it once had, I got into a downward spiral. Crappy work lead to crappy performance which lead to me feeling crappy about myself just as a person (I'll discuss this flaw in my concept of self-worth in a later post, for now let's move on). Last semester was a train wreck and I carried all the baggage from it into this semester. By the end of January I was hitting breaking point. As I sat on the floor of my bedroom praying to God for some kind of guidance out of the hole I'd dug myself into, I got an answer: "Everything in your life is subconsciously reacting to your opinion of yourself and your problems. That makes them your god and that's garbage. *I* am your God. And these issues are nothing compared to Me."