Having many possessions isn't necessarily a sin, yet possessions can be distracting...and if Satan can't convince us to worship him instead of God, he will do his best to distract us from our purpose.
That is why I try to have only what I need...seeking a life that is materially simple, yet spiritually rich. May my possessions not possess me!
As a Millennial, I've grown up in a postmodern society...yet I don't resonate with postmodernism.
When I read the works of modernists, I am struck with a nostalgia of sorts. Despite their cynicism, they seem more honest, sincere, innocent than most people today. They speak to my heart more than any postmodernist has ever done.
After all, the modernists were raised by Victorians. They had a Romantic past to look back to wistfully, even if they knew they could never return to that more innocent time. In contrast, Millennials have the 20th century to look back to...a century that many of us would rather forget.
What does God think of the web of lies known as fiction? Since fictional stories are untrue by definition, should Christians avoid them and stick to nonfiction? Is writing fiction a form of lying?
The answer to all of these questions is no. Christ and the prophets spoke in parables, which are fictional tales. Yet the parables cannot be considered lies, because God never lies.
Lying is sinful because the liar intentionally distorts reality, trying to portray untruth as truth. It is a form of hypocrisy. Yet an author of fiction doesn't claim to be telling a factual story, so the motives are completely different.
In fact, fictional storytelling can be used to tell profound truths, even in ways that nonfiction cannot. Nonfiction tells practical truths -- facts, in other words. Fiction -- if the story isn't merely intended to be entertainment -- tells transcendent truths.
"For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every though to the obedience of Christ." -2 Corinthians 10:3-5
These verses used to make me wonder...does God despise imagination?
Since He created us to have one, the answer must be no. After all, the imagination grants us creativity, leading to artistic and scientific innovations. Creativity is part of what makes us reflect the image of God, and imagination can be used for good purposes.
Yet some Christians consider the imagination to be entirely evil, like how some consider all sex to be evil. Of course, sex isn't inherently evil. God created it!
The problem is the wicked heart of mankind, which twists normal sexual feelings into sexual immorality. Outside of God's established boundaries, sex becomes evil. Since sexual immorality is rampant these days, some Christians associate all sex with sin.
The imagination is similar, I think. The imagination of mankind is wicked from youth. Since we're born with a fallen nature, our imaginations are corrupt. As a result, most of what we spontaneously conjure in our imaginations is evil, and some Christians may suppress their creativity in order to avoid offending God.
Yet when we are redeemed by Christ, so are our imaginations. Christians must avoid immorality of the body and mind, but that doesn't mean denying our humanity. We aren't to stop using our imaginations, but to bring them under submission to Christ.
Being loved changes us.
There's a little stray dog -- perhaps a chihuahua, a Pomeranian, or a mix -- running around outside. The disturbed creature's crazed barking awakened me at 4:50 this morning. Unsettled, I couldn't go back to sleep.
Yesterday I tried to help it, but the dog hid in a corner, barking and snarling in fear. Fleas crawled across the poor thing's face. Its yellow eyes looked deranged, distant, traumatized....Yet I saw glimpses of what the dog could have been if someone cared for it.
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| At the time Tyson was next to me, contentedly snoring like a domestic dog ought to. |
Love...or the lack of love...makes us who we are. Love transforms our character. Without love we become like that abandoned dog, a deranged shadow of who we're meant to be.
The dog was too far gone to realize the difference between an enemy and a friend. It didn't sense my intention to help. From its perspective, all had become darkness and danger...and so it ran away from love, the only way it could be saved.
In Christ, we keep improving. This is a mystery that defies the law of nature. In this fallen world, everything eventually breaks down.
If someone's art is inspired by demons...as most art is these days...their work may start out good, as in skillful and able to capture people's interest (though not good in essence). Then, over time, their work depreciates...tends to become darker, more twisted...and eventually, the talent they once had is no longer apparent. This pattern happens time and again with authors, musicians, and artists.
For example, J.K. Rowling, Beyonce, Snoop Dogg, and Stevie Nicks all depreciated over time. There always was a seed of darkness in their works, which grew and blossomed into bad trees producing corrupt fruit. Their early work is great, but their later work is awful, after the demonic muses left them.
For Christians, though, the opposite occurs; they continuously improve, becoming wiser and more skillful.
"Dreams to Dream" is playing continuously in my mind...not "stuck in my head," which would imply that the song is annoying. The song is much too beautiful to be annoying. The character singing it, Tanya Mousekewitz, is 16 years old....At that age I also cherished secret dreams in my heart. Actually I still do...and perhaps I am more of a hopeless romantic than ever.
Yet my dreams have been sanctified. Because of God, I am more innocent now than I was at 16. Most teenagers aren't very innocent at all.
Lately I have been simplifying my life. After all, Christ was a minimalist. A spiritual life is a simple life.
There is something soothing about solitude. Too much can make the soul melancholic, I know. Yet constantly being surrounded by people...is that natural either?
Maybe I really am an individualist through and through, because I instinctively crave solitude. In groups of peers I don't know well and don't relate to, I have a tendency to withdraw into a fantasy world within my mind. What sweet relief to escape to the upper floors of the library and be embraced by the quiet.
Below, people scurry like ants and chatter like hyenas, but here...silence is caught between the narrow shelves and absorbed by the books upon them. Below are the clubs, the bars, the fashion contests....Here I accompany a few stranded weirdos. Libraries were invented as a haven for us introverted oddities, I guess.
"How was your day?" I knew he would ask. He never failed to ask.
"You know those flowers that close up when the sun isn't out? Today I'm like one of those flowers," I planned to say.
But of course I could never say something like that aloud. That's the stuff of fiction and quotation marks. Instead I replied, "Okay."
There are several topics I've radically changed my mind about during my life...such as politics, religion, and people I once admired. There are opinions I've been wrong about and information I've been ignorant of, I freely admit. Undoubtedly there still is, though I make every effort to make sense of the world. Sometimes I wonder what misconceptions I'm still living with....
Even now, with the internet granting access to information on every conceivable topic, most people still unquestioningly believe what they're taught by authority -- the government, professors (who are often funded by the government), and the mass media. The television tells people that conspiracy theorists are crazy (and now dangerous), so they go around parroting the idea. These authoritarian entities brainwash the population, filling our minds with what we're supposed to think.
Atheists, who are often proud of their own cleverness, are the most brainwashed of all. They tend to dismiss "conspiracy theories" with as much close-mindedness as they do with the supernatural. Despite claiming to "follow where the evidence leads," instead they try to explain away any evidence that contradicts their narrow worldview. For example, there's plenty of evidence that the scamdemic has been planned for years, but they don't want to believe.
Why would someone stubbornly hold onto a worldview that allows for no mystery? The answer is simply pride....They don't want to acknowledge the limits of their own reasoning.
In the distant past, I suppose people with a skeptical worldview could have been considered legitimate free thinkers, as they disagreed with the majority of the population. But those days are long gone, and postmodern skeptics aren't the radicals they fancy themselves to be....We have entered the era of shallow pseudo-intellectualism, in which most skeptics today repeat the same arguments verbatim as the "professional debunkers," unpleasant people like Richard Dawkins and Randi. Most of them believe CNN and NASA are gospel.
We've gone full circle. Before becoming a worldwide religion, Christianity began as a radical belief system. But now Christianity is waning, and (genuine) Christians are radicals once again. Christians are the real free thinkers of these times as Paganism, hedonism, and atheism are becoming the dominant worldviews in society.
In the typical schlimazel fashion, my watch that I've had for years died on the first day I returned to work in person. It's a plain, cheap digital watch, but it's special to me because it was a birthday gift. "Coincidentally," the next day I found a random description I wrote about it a couple of years ago while I was bored during my lunch break:
The shiny surface of my watch reflects the sunlight, creating a miniature sun with colorful rays. The tiny replica is just as intensely bright as the real sun. Perhaps, as mirrored surfaces reflect light, we are meant to reflect the holiness of God....If we have clean lives, free from the contaminating influence of sin, we shall be able to reflect the essence of God in miniature, providing light wherever we happen to be.
The problem ended up being just a dead battery, which has been replaced...so thankfully, my watch is back in action.
Being "cool" seems to be a driving force for many people...but that has never been a priority of mine. Maybe that's why I don't fit in...because I haven't put forth the effort to conform to society's standard of what coolness is. Instead, I simply am who I am....
On July 5, 2011, police officers in Fullerton, California beat a 37-year-old schizophrenic man to death as he cried for his "daddy" repeatedly. He hadn't committed a crime or done anything at all to provoke the attack. Yet despite being described as one of the worst police beatings in US history, none of the officers was charged with the murder of Kelly Thomas.
This incident is similar to the George Floyd event that occurred last year, which gained much more publicity and sparked an aggressive antiracist movement. Since then, it has become fashionable for politicians and celebrities to accuse each other of racism over actions that, while obnoxious, actually have nothing to do with racial discrimination. But Kelly Thomas and the officers who killed him were all white men — which reveals that racism is not the real issue here. Police brutality — and the abuse of power in general — applies to people of all races.
With the recent fixation on systemic racism, schools have been pressured to teach critical race theory, and this is causing more harm than good. For instance, a course survey I took after completing a class at California State University, Fullerton prompted me to rate my instructor's effectiveness in convicting me of my own privileged status. It struck me as inappropriate; I attended school to be educated, not indoctrinated. Besides, I grew up with a single mother who lived paycheck to paycheck — hardly a privileged demographic. People around the country with similar sentiments have been fiercely protesting the teaching of critical race theory in schools. Some states have even banned it from the curriculum — but the culture war rages on.
Corporations have jumped on the antiracist bandwagon as well, slapping up statements on their websites that pander to the movement. One can't even buy ice cream from Ben & Jerry's without being subjected to a lecture about the evils of systemic racism. It's just absurd.
Now, I understand that racist attitudes still exist today among a minority, but America simply cannot be compared to a truly racist society. In fact, my ancestors fled to the United States from Nazi-occupied Europe in order to escape real systemic racism. Nazi Germany aggressively boycotted Jewish businesses and taught schoolchildren that the Aryan race was inherently superior to all others. That's systemic racism. And while no one has offered reparations for the Holocaust — as if such a thing could satisfactorily make up for its atrocities — Jewish culture emphasizes an attitude of resilience rather than victimization. The best way to honor the memory of our persecuted ancestors is to learn from the past, vow to never repeat it, and move on to make the most of our lives.
Racism is an unfortunate part of America's history, but we have clearly progressed. We have black celebrities, black sports stars, and we've even had a black president. That would not be possible in a racist country.
What I fear is that indoctrinating students with critical race theory will create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instilling the belief that life is rigged against certain people encourages a fixed mindset rather than an empowering growth mindset. Regardless of any real or perceived disadvantages we may have, Americans are still more advantaged than most other people in the world, simply because we live in an industrialized nation with ample opportunities for education, employment, and access to resources. Why not see the glass as (at least) half full?
This isn't to imply that human rights issues no longer exist today. They certainly do, but they don't stem from white privilege. Slavery has long been abolished. Equal rights for black Americans and other minority groups have been established since the civil rights movement. We all rooted for Martin Luther King, Jr. when we learned about him in elementary school. Let's not go one step forward and two steps back.
It's time to move on from this issue that is being strategically used to destabilize the country. We face different issues today. We've invented new forms of segregation, such as between the left and the right, the masked and the unmasked — and, most disturbingly, the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. Scientists, doctors, and others who question the safety of experimental injections are being systematically censored and demonized. People are losing their jobs because they don't feel comfortable participating in a massive medical experiment. The parallels to Nazi Germany's human experiments are quite striking, though this particular iteration of discrimination is colorblind.
Indeed, we have a battle to fight — but let's aim our indignation at the real enemy.
***
This article was originally published in American Thinker.
In sixth grade, there was a poster on the classroom wall similar to this one:
Of all the quotes I read on classroom walls, that one struck me in particular. If only we all took the advice we received from posters in grade school....
The quote is just as important to me now as it was then, if not more so. The world is filled with deceit, so all I can do is follow God's prompting....The Holy Spirit promises to guide us into all truth.
Even if everyone sings the praises of a particular person, that is no reflection of reality. The world applauds people like this:
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| Anthony "Gain-of-Function" Fauxi |
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| Shill Gates |
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| Kamala "Heelz Up" Harris |
And the world rejects people such as Ron Paul, Larry Elder, and Jesus Christ Himself - people who actually make a positive difference.
Throughout my life there has been a painful pattern. The people closest to me have betrayed and abandoned me despite my pure intentions and efforts to be forgiving. Abuse is what I have received in return for kindness.
Other people seem to have no shortage of support, which I have never had...and no matter how much I pray, I haven't seen any significant changes.
Often I've wondered why. God created us with a need for fellowship, so why leave me in this situation? But now I'm beginning to understand....
God isn't to blame for the failures of people...and very few people today are loyal, kind, or virtuous in any capacity. People abused me because they're abusive; they betrayed me because they are untrustworthy. Most people are....We're living in end times, after all.
The plannedemic has made this abundantly clear. Families have been falling apart left and right over disagreements regarding the vax, lockdowns, and all the other nonsense. Since my family never spoke to me in the first place, that's one less issue I have to worry about. (Of course, they've all had the vax.)
Indeed, God knows the beginning from the end.
Most people today hold the assumption that ancient people were less intelligent than we are now. That is one of the arguments atheists use for why belief in God is foolish for modern, scientifically minded people. However, what is accepted as a scientific fact today is discarded tomorrow...and in fact, evidence reveals that ancient people were actually quite advanced. Scientists are still puzzled by how the pyramids were built; the innovations of ancient civilizations are arguably much more brilliant than modern ones. Considering the direction in which humanity is headed today, are we really "improving?"
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| Musical Notation: Invented By Savages |
When a new technological invention becomes widely used, the world changes. The main purpose of technological progress is to make life easier, more comfortable. Cars transport us farther and faster than horses and buggies, and thanks to washing machines we no longer have to spend hours doing laundry (unless we put it off for several weeks, maybe).
Invention improves certain aspects of our lives, but at a cost...and at this point, the costs outweigh the benefits of most new innovations. The latest technology hasn't necessarily granted us more leisure time and less stress. In many ways it has made life more fast paced, overwhelming, and dystopian.
Postmoderns tend to think of technology as additive, simply providing more options to the ones we have, but it is actually transformative. Once a new invention is released in society, our way of life changes permanently. These changes have the potential to be positive or negative.
Faster and easier isn't always better. For instance, modern transportation created its own set of problems: drunk driving, pollution, a decline in people's fitness due to lack of exercise. The invention of the automobile literally changed the landscape of the world. Paved roads are such a common sight that my little cousin thought God created them along with animals and people.
California in particular has been built around the automobile. Buildings are sprawled out miles apart from each other, so a car is required to reach everywhere one needs to go. Older places such as New York and London have condensed layouts because they were built before the invention of automobiles. Their configurations allow for more walkability (and therefore fitness), as well as more opportunities for conversation. Owning a car offers many benefits, though I wonder if humanity would ultimately be better off living in more compact communities with slower modes of transportation - and no, I don't mean dystopian smart cities, but a relatively low tech way of life such as we had in the early 20th century.
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| Typical Californian Sprawl |
Of course, what's done is done and we can't return to the past...but since new inventions radically change our lives, the environment, and the way we behave, we would be naive to think of technological progress as inherently good, embracing every new invention like kids in a candy store. There is sacrifice involved in exchange for the quick and easy. What are we willing to give up for the sake of "progress" - clean air, privacy, bodily autonomy?
Usually I don't like to talk about my personal life, especially my problems. Yet from time to time I post personal entries because my hope is that someone out there may benefit from reading about my experiences, perhaps because he or she struggles with similar ones. Empathizing with others has always helped me in my sorrows...so, I will share an entry I wrote awhile ago about loneliness, and a man who broke my heart:
Still, I see no sign of marriage in my future...and sometimes I feel tossed about, forgotten by the world like a spare part.
Why did he behave as if he liked me, giving me gifts, complimenting me, hugging me, asking me to draw for him, and so on? Why did he kindle a lonely soul's passion without the intention to stay in contact and be friends? He seemed to lose interest soon after I moved away, and I still feel hurt by that.
Maybe I was just one of the many pretty faces he encountered through the years.
Yet we had so much in common....We were both odd and misunderstood. He was the person I wanted to be with more than anyone else I have met, and I felt like we connected on a deep level...but maybe only I felt that way. Maybe many girls have felt that way; I can't look into his mind and know...and actions can be misleading. Maybe I misinterpreted everything.
Still, I wonder...does he remember me? Only God knows. How many girls has he made feel "special" by now? If I wasn't really special to him, are they?
No matter what his sins might be, I can only confess my own...and I forgive him for breaking my heart.
***
Recently there has been a remake of the song that always reminded me of him, which prompted this trip down memory lane:
Do I make a difference in the world?
The way I constantly feel is...insecure, invisible, lonely, insignificant, mediocre, plain, boring, awkward, afraid to look people in the eyes.
If I were gone, hardly anyone would miss me. Most people wouldn't notice. Is that everyone's fate?
Loneliness gnaws at my heart like the deep winter air gnaws at my bones. Waves of sadness continually wash over me, and I have no one to talk to. It really hurts.
"Trying to break out of my shell" doesn't work; I have tried, and that has gotten me nowhere.
Do the ones in which I've invested my deepest passions even remember my name? People are so disappointing....Loyalty means nothing these days.
Several cliches originated from the Bible and became watered down due to overuse...for instance, "the eyes are the window to the soul," a variation of Christ's words: "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness" (Matthew 6:22-23).
The eyes truly do reveal a person's essence. The "elites" who sold their souls for money and power have lifeless eyes that are quite disturbing to look at. Dr. Charlton describes them as "snake eyes."
Discerning people's qualities by their facial features is a lost art in postmodern society. Yet one can see just by looking at these people that they are spiritually corrupt. The evil thoughts and deeds they've committed throughout their lives are apparent in their expressions, just like the healthiness of one's diet is revealed by outward appearance. Perhaps that's why villains were traditionally portrayed as ugly - a physical manifestation of their character.
However, not all demon possessed people have dead, soulless eyes. There is also a false light that is just as unnerving, usually found in younger sellouts - musicians, yoga gurus, and the like. They look flashy in order to attract people, but the source of their charm is demonic. The Bible describes the demon Leviathan as a majestic creature: "His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of dawn" (Job 41:18).
Satan's minions may disguise themselves as angels of light, but there is still something off about them.
In contrast, the eyes of people infilled with the Holy Spirit don't have that dead look or an unnerving, otherworldly glow. They are full of life without being dramatic or exaggerated. They have a simple, wholesome goodness about them.
A battle takes place in the air above. The shrill cawing of a crow replies to the gentle call of a mourning dove. Meanwhile, a chorus of sparrows sings in unison. Like the battle between the realms of good and evil, with the physical world caught in between, the dove has the first and final word. The good is victorious.
Yes, I project spiritual significance onto mundane events.
Sometimes I'm lonely and wish I were married. Yet I know from experience that a romantic relationship isn't necessarily the cure for loneliness. A man won't fix all of my problems, and would more likely make them worse.
The Bible calls singleness a gift. Indeed, I am more peaceful now than I have ever been in a relationship, and being single allows one more time to focus on spiritual matters. Though companionship would be nice, I wonder if marriage would even be wise in such a time as this (which I believe to be the end time). Bringing children into this world seems irresponsible. Marriage without children is a possibility, but who would understand my point of view and agree that children wouldn't be a good idea right now, and maybe never?
God, I'll let You figure this out.
The other night I dreamed I attended a megachurch. On a television screen I watched people onstage speaking in tongues and casting out demons. Then a man stabbed himself in the neck and cut off his own head. He died onstage.
This dream is probably the result of a strange mixture of all I've been thinking about lately. For example, I looked up Creflo Dollar, a sociopath who said he wanted to kill people who don't tithe. He gives me a very bad feeling.
Greedy televangelists make Christianity seem like a scam. They take advantage of the poor, needy, and lonely to make money for themselves. Creflo probably doesn't even believe what he preaches, and is laughing all the way to the bank at how gullible people are.
Sadly, Joyce Meyer seems to be the same way. When I first became a Christian, I liked listening to her sermons...but she preaches the same prosperity gospel as Creflo. She doesn't seem to be quite as crooked as him, but she sure has a greed problem.
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| Joyce Meyer's Private Jet |
All of this reminds me of the first few chapters of Fullmetal Alchemist, when Rose is fooled by a corrupt, false preacher, then tearfully loses her faith after discovering the truth behind the scenes.
Filthy rich preachers don't represent God. They are a major reason why people become disillusioned with the hypocrisy of "Christians." Yet I haven't lost my faith, despite people using God's name for material gain. Seeing the beauty and order of this world, and believing it created itself, has always seemed to me like a far-fetched philosophy.
Even after becoming a Christian, I experience seasons of almost debilitating depression. During those times, accomplishing even the most simple tasks requires me to rely on God's strength alone. Thankfully, these moods are lifted much more quickly than they used to be....Before becoming a Christian, I felt depressed about 99% of the time.
Holding onto eternal life, I realize that the spiritual journey is truly endless...and in a sense I am like a child, exploring every corner of creation with my best friend, anticipating every day as a new adventure.
By God's grace I haven't succumbed to the dreary mentality of the doldrums, though I easily could have. Perhaps I was going in that direction, but God took my hand and rescued me from the mire. At one time I believed adulthood meant tossing away frivolous thoughts, including daydreams, dreams for the future, interest in anything childish...and I felt ashamed of my dream to be an artist, so I tried to hide my childlike qualities. At that time I felt annoyance toward people who reveled in immaturity, telling myself I don't have that luxury, that I must grow up and stop being selfish and reach realistic goals.
There is truth to those thoughts, but there is a balance. Yes, growing up means becoming less selfish and unrealistic, but I don't have to butcher my soul to achieve that. Being an adult...responsible, diligent, and virtuous...with childlike characteristics such as imagination, humor, and innocence, is entirely possible.
Doing good works is not the way to earn favor with God...as if favor could be earned in the first place. "Faith without works is dead," though good works arise from the abundant overflow of God's love, rather than through human effort. Yet how often I go about life backwards.
The Christian life should not be a life of striving, trying to impress God and others, trying to obtain "perfection." Christ Himself doesn't fit our typical concept of perfection. He is sinless, and He is the Son of God, so He is indeed perfect; however, He wasn't handsome or successful by worldly standards.
Christ didn't have fancy credentials or polished social skills. Today, He would not be living the American Dream. He was entirely honest; there is no pretentiousness or deceit in Him, as there is in most of us.
Christ's character proves that God's priorities are not the world's priorities. Status, money, and power are important to the world; therefore, the world applauds people who are selfish, inconsiderate, shallow, vain, and narcissistic. To the contrary, God values humility, kindness, a quiet life of obedience. His pace is not frantic like the world's pace. He considers a gentle and quiet spirit to be of high value. Where the world sees weakness, He sees strength.
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| The Opposite of God's Beauty Standard |
As Asaph writes, there is no need to envy the wicked.
As an example of the fleeting nature of fame and fortune, consider the pop singer Lorde. Her parents sold her out to the music industry when she was a child, like a sacrifice. At first she was popular and widely praised, but then people quickly became sick of her, and she isn't very popular anymore. People didn't really like her awkwardness or her music.
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| Just Another Sellout |
(Nothing against awkwardness, but that quality doesn't mesh well with the long term success of a pop star.)
Not sure if she still has a Tumblr, but back in the day of "Royals" (around 2013) it was like an ode to Satan, with lots of Illuminati symbolism. She probably didn't even manage it herself....Her handlers probably did. The taste was too dark and sophisticated for someone supposedly so young. Like all well known pop singers, her entire persona was created by handlers, and she doesn't write her own music. Her "friendship" with Taylor Swift seems like an extremely contrived publicity stunt as well.
Lorde and other sellouts like her are wicked, so there is no need to envy them; their time of vainglory is short.
Some people are so spiritually blind...and they will stay that way unless God reveals the truth to them.
Sometimes I am disgusted with humanity, especially my own generation - Millennials, who else? Though I suppose I should be more understanding. They have been systematically brainwashed by pop culture, after all.
In this day and age, being (genuinely) Christian means being a radical and independent free thinker...oddly enough.
Militant feminism has turned many of my fellow females into plastic whores, imitations of what they see on television, including the obnoxious vocal fry and upspeak trends. Modest women are an endangered kind. Postmodern culture is shameful, and lately I've been bitter.
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| "Be yourself," right? |
Most of my peers are victims of this Satanic culture...willing victims, perhaps, but I used to be just like them, so I must have patience and understanding.
After becoming a Christian, people dismissed me as odd and brainwashed, but I don't mind enduring derision for the sake of Christ. Hatred from the world is in fact a compliment. Besides, I hate the world in return, so the feeling is mutual.
To be more specific, I hate the evil in the world...the darkness, indulgence, and cynicism of postmodern society.
As a child, I was drawn to the character Blue in Pokemon. To me, he was more than just a character....He seemed so real!
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| Blue |
In my Pokemon world, Blue is a talented trainer who becomes the champion, but soon loses to Red and then becomes the Viridian City gym leader. He starts out selfish and arrogant, but changes after his experiences....He loses to Red because love defeats raw power.
In his quest for power, Blue seeks the legendary Articuno at the Seafoam Islands. Yet he doesn't prepare for the journey properly, and he nearly dies by freezing in the icy mountains. Then Articuno appears and saves his life, bringing him to Cinnabar Island. That is when Blue begins to realize Pokemon are more than tools of battle....
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| Articuno |
Then he meets Missingno, who almost destroys the world by glitching reality into a chaotic mess. With help from Red and later Crystal, Blue defeats Missingno, symbolizing the defeat of corruption within his own heart. Then, one day, Blue meets Mew, the last Pokemon to fill the Kanto Pokedex...signifying that his heart is finally pure.
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| Mew |
Crystal is another character in my Pokemon world who grows up in Violet City and attends Earl's Pokemon Academy. She has great talent as a trainer, but the other children shun her because she keeps defeating them in Pokemon battles. Earl favors her because she is a quiet, serious, and intelligent student.
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| Crystal |
By the time Lynn turns ten years old, old enough to become a Pokemon trainer, family problems lead him to move in with his father, who heads back to Kanto. So, Lynn starts his Pokemon journey in Kanto, while Crystal's takes place in Johto. Lynn's little sister stays in New Bark Town.
Crystal becomes the Johto champion, thwarts Team Rocket's attempted comeback, and later becomes a Pokemon professor after Lynn's death in the magnet train crash. She also helps Blue defeat Missingno. Eventually she marries Faulkner, leader of the Violet City gym.
At one point I planned to develop these ideas into a long fanfic, but then my interest in Pokemon waned.
Yet even now, I wonder why fictional characters seem so real to me. Why do I often find them more interesting and somehow more pure than real people? Why do I often prefer the company of imaginary people to real ones?
Real people are all too often rude, selfish, fake, and shallow. In fiction, there are men like Jean Valjean and women like Stargirl. People like this simply aren't to be found in reality.
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| Stargirl |
Though I no longer struggle with anorexia, from time to time I come across journal entries I wrote during that time in my life and feel they're worth sharing, for anyone else who happens to be going through an anorexic phase:
Lord, thank You for never forsaking me. Now is one of those times I need You most. You know I am a sinner and a hypocrite...because in the past, I judged people with anorexia as simply selfish and narcissistic. Now I am a bit more understanding, since I'm struggling myself...though I still believe pride and a self-absorbed mindset definitely contribute. Lord, You know I am selfish and proud; change my heart....
The root of this affliction involves feeling unseen and unloved - starving for love, a common problem these days. This society is so isolating, and I have even been forsaken by most of my family. Since my personality is a bit offbeat, I have difficulty relating to others...so the most I can hope for is to be noticed from a distance, because others don't seem to be interested in loving me intimately.
***
These days I have an entirely new set of problems that don't involve anorexia. Yet this entry serves as a reminder of God's grace, and the conviction not to be so quick to judge others. We don't know what battles they're fighting.
Many questions have arisen since the World Health Organization declared a worldwide public health emergency on January 30, 2020. Where did COVID-19 originate? How long will it take to "flatten the curve?" Are ubiquitous lockdowns necessary or effective for an ailment that has a 99% recovery rate? And perhaps most perplexingly, why did the World Economic Forum host Event 201 in October 2019 - a simulated pandemic exercise that eerily followed the real coronavirus narrative, complete with stuffed souvenir microbes?
So far, none of these questions have been sufficiently answered. Yet as the narrative goes on, the picture of the "new normal" we've been ushered into gradually becomes clearer.
Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, sees coronavirus as the catalyst for the "Great Reset" and the "fourth industrial revolution." According to him, "The pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world." He seems excited, but what will that "reset" mean for us?
Schwab proposes to "build back better" using technologies such as
artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, 3D printing, and
nanotechnology - which are supposed to be more "sustainable" than current
technologies. The World Economic Forum has also toyed with the idea of universal basic income to fix economic issues caused by the coronavirus lockdowns.
Soon after Event 201 seemed to go live, skeptics of the official
narrative speculated about a possible link between the pandemic and 5G technology, which was deemed "essential" and continued to be installed during the lockdowns. Official news sources claimed the virus originated in Wuhan, China - where, of all places, 5G was among the first to launch in November 2019.
Like mRNA vaccines, health effects of radiation in the 5G range haven't been tested, and many citizens have been protesting its installation. However, thousands of peer reviewed studies have confirmed deleterious effects of existing wireless frequencies, ranging from tinnitus in some people to life-threatening arrhythmias in others, so there is reason to believe that 5G can cause similar problems. Indeed, the symptoms of microwave sickness vary as widely as symptoms of COVID-19.
Despite mainstream news sources systematically ridiculing anyone who
says "coronavirus" and "5G" in the same sentence, there is no disputing
the fact that 5G forms the infrastructure of the fourth industrial revolution - namely AI and the IoT. With the rollout of vaccine passports, yet another one of 5G's raisons d’etre becomes apparent; every passport holder is assigned a blockchain code that broadcasts his or her mRNA injection status. These codes could be easily expanded to contain other personal information as well, such as one's social security number, banking information, and current location. A biometric digital ID - like ID2020, for instance - would essentially connect everyone to the IoT.
If all of this sounds a bit far-fetched, scan your vaccine passport and take a trip to China. Virtually every item there is marked with a blockchain code, which allows for cashless payments by scanning the code with a cell phone - or, disturbingly, by scanning your face, which is stored in a vast AI database and recognized by every camera you pass by in the street and in commercial buildings.
Once you're assigned a digital ID, your data is collected at all times - where you go, what you buy, whether you've been "bad" or "good" - and this data can be used for a variety of purposes, from selling your information to advertisers, to informing law enforcement of your daily routine, to assigning you a social credit score.
So, there you have it - a method of surveillance that surpasses Orwell's wildest nightmares. The vaccine passport is your ticket to a brave new technocracy.
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This article was originally published at The Activist Post.
Lord, please teach me about agape love.
May this not just be intellectual knowledge, but experience. Let my life and my character be defined by agape love. Let this love be the basis of all I do, my only motivation.
Love has always seemed mysterious to me. Like the vastness of the world, I have never been able to fully comprehend love. The only way I know is to consider Jesus Christ.
Father, make me Christlike; I ask sincerely, though my simple mind can't fully understand what that means.
Postmodernism, which started in the late 1970s, is the school of thought that currently dominates Western society. It is a modified form of modernism, which originated in the early 20th century and led to atrocities such as the World Wars, eugenics, and modern art. Yet as evil as modernism was, its offspring is even worse.
When modernism first took hold, society still had a sense of what they had lost by abandoning traditional values. Art and architecture became dull, depressing, and ugly, partially for pragmatic reasons...but also as a collective traumatic reaction to industrialization. Giant tombstones known as skyscrapers entered existence, mass production removed the soul from human handiwork, and people knew life was dreary...but they resigned themselves to that reality.
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| "And they're all made out of ticky tacky, and they all look just the same...." |
While modernists lamented the loss of purpose and meaning in life, though, postmodernists attempt to celebrate the degradation of society and culture.
The postmodern aesthetic is childish...either using bright colors and wonky shapes or trying to be blatantly edgy and dark like the Satanic shoes pictured above, reflecting the tastes of a rebellious adolescent. Unlike modernism, postmodernism is a perpetual state of childish consciousness...a refusal to grow up and accept responsibility, and a refusal to acknowledge reality. Perhaps this is why homosexuality is so prevalent these days...because there is no greater responsibility than raising children, which homosexual relations cannot produce.
A post-truth world is a do-what-thou-wilt world...and from here we have nowhere to go but in a downward spiral unless society repents, but I doubt that will happen.