What We Do In Life

"Brothers, what we do in life echoes in eternity." - Maximus Decimus Meridius (Gladiator)

(Might I mention now that if you have not seen the movie Gladiator, make that a #1 on your list of priorities. Thanks!)

My friends,

I believe it fair to say that many hearts have been stirred by these great words delivered by Russell Crowe in Gladiator. There's something somewhat bewitching to think that we have that sort of power. There's something very comforting about imagining that we could move the world, move the cosmos even, by our lives. There's certainly something that calls to us and builds in our imagination a picture of greatness or even of heroism. There may even be a bit of a challenge in our experience of those words, a pondering deep within about our own strength and courage, and if we too could do something that might "echo in eternity."

I have no intention of discrediting the power of that moment or the movie itself (I think it is a very good and dramatic reflection on what it is to be human), but I would like to draw a more universal point from the line. Assuming that one accepts eternal life and the immortality of the human soul (the human being) once in existence, there ought to be a simple question begged by this idea of our actions 'echoing in eternity.' It should be... don't all of our actions echo in eternity, if we are going to look at it in that light? If what we do at some pivotal and dramatic moment will necessarily affect our lives and the lives of countless others and in some way 'echo in eternity,' how could it not be the case that everything we do, at any and every moment, also affects ourselves and others and will have some effect in eternity? Please understand, I am not implying that eternity is what is up for grabs or subject to change here - we will leave that as a fixed mark, as a truth that we will understand in its fullness when our time comes. Yet, as far as we will one day exist in a state that is different and non-temporal, our actions here on earth (while we live this life) do have a relation to life after life.

This could become a very simple argument for "living a good life" so that we can "go to heaven" or so that we do not "end up in hell." Yet, my intention is more than just a moral life, although it does assume a moral life ultimately. The point is that most people in our modern culture can easily understand the separation between action and consequence that we grow up with. It is not that we refuse all responsibility for our actions (though that does happen), but that we seem to have some serious filters keeping our ideals or beliefs trapped in our vocabulary and making them unable to trickle down to our hearts, bodies and whole selves.

For example, there are many who profess to care greatly about health; they eat well, exercise, perhaps they only by farm-fresh produce...yet they engage in sexual activity that endangers them with diseases, or they binge drink on the weekends, or they smoke, etc... A different example could be someone who professes to be Christian (and lives as a Christian) but votes and advocates pro-choice agendas, which is essentially an advocacy for mothers to be able to kill their unborn and innocent children (which is NOT compatible with Christianity). Consider how our standards for movie ratings seem to imply that young people can appropriately view what ought to be deeply private and intimate between a man and a woman (sexual activity in PG-13 movies), but may not be able to appropriately view violence or death (often causes for R ratings for movies). I am not advocating that things in R rated movies ought to be viewed by more people, but rather, there is a disparity in modern culture between what is professed and what is acted out. A disparity between truth and the way we act according to a different set of truths we assume based on convenience or habit. Forgive me, but even the disconnect between a man who is a loving father and husband and the times when he is looking at porn...these examples are realities throughout our modern culture, and the roots are deeper than simply "we ought to be good" or "we ought not to be evil."

In all of these cases, the weight of the immoral or disordered behaviors seems to be lost or forgotten. Men and women seem highly susceptible to misunderstanding how deeply and thoroughly truths run. Our bodies mean something, in the here and now, and also for what will be. Our words also carry a level of profundity. Certainly, we are still mere creatures, and the mercy and love of God has been revealed to be abundant and unconditional, but this should mean that we recognize our need to accept the truth of our world and ourselves and our relationships to and with others, rather than behave as if it is all irrelevant since we can say sorry later. It is hard for me to really grasp the vapors of steam that are rising from my interior when I think about the duplicity we are raised with in society!

Needless to say, double standards exist all around us, and can be sighted quite easily when we open our eyes to them. Yet, the trouble is that so few people seem interested in being able to see anymore. People seem content with blindness, content with living in this limping fashion. But the blind are unable to see how bad the wounds are that they are creating for themselves and others by this kind of living. We are too integrated as human persons, too thoroughly body-soul, to survive this kind of constant tearing apart. We cannot continue to say we love Jesus and then abuse our brothers and sisters in our words and actions. And if "abuse" is too strong a word, than accept "lie." For when we tell someone we love them, or behave in a way that typically implies that we love them (such as sexual activity) whether we love them or not, but we do so while acting other than in true love (which requires a commitment and promise of oneself, a gift of self that can only be given in totality through marriage), than we do lie to them, and we do abuse them in different ways. We also abuse ourselves. This is the thing that I find most astonishing, how little connection we make even within our own interior awareness or self-knowledge. If we are unable to conceive of how we are hurting another whom we ought to treat with respect, we ought to at least realize the damage we are doing to ourselves. But sin has been denied. We will not be rebuked or told that we must behave according to some set of rules, even if they are so natural and inscribed in us that we cannot escape them for all of our refusal to acknowledge them.

Perhaps I am walking too far into the woods of abstract thought. To be concrete, I firmly believe that our lived experience of the world demands that we recognize that how we behave, the actions that we make, will always have some influence and effect on our own person and also on others and the world at large. It is really ridiculous to imagine that creatures who begin existence in-relation to other creatures (aka, no one is born without coming from two parents) could then live life without always being related to other creatures in this same type of constitutive sense. And if we are constituted in relation, than our responses, invitations, participations or refusals will always impact us and others. Sipping your water bottle is clearly less affective of others than it is for yourself, and most likely it is not an action that is in danger of immorality, but it still means something that we choose to sip it or are able to sip it, etc...

At the end of the day, the point is to reconsider how seriously one takes life. Do not give up fun, or laughter, or silliness, or impulsivity. Yet, do not allow yourself to be dominated by impulses that are not guided and ordered by a moral order of love, by the truth. Do not allow the duplicity that meets us at every corner to sink in and take root in your mind and heart. Do not accept that every barely-clothed woman on the cover of a magazine is beautiful simply because she is barely-clothed; she deserves more than that, she is certainly not only her body. You deserve more than that, you should not be in a position where you are only considering her as a body nor should you have it reinforced in your mind that beauty is nothing more than parts that have been emphasized that are really one with a much greater whole. It is the person who is beautiful, but our culture has forgotten what and who people are.

I challenge us all to consider Maxiumus' line once more. We cannot be so simplistic that we really accept that our actions and behavior in life affects only us, and that the affect is only skin deep. No, we feel, deep in our souls, the brokenness we live. We become shaped and formed by the habits we build. We need to sense once more in our hearts the transcendence of the human person. We need to reawaken our sensibility to our relationship to others, the world, and of course, to God. We need to reopen our eyes and ears to understand the depth and breadth of truth and love that order our world. We cannot find fulfillment, happiness, peace, hope, true love, if we will not strive to live as whole people, as truly human. We will never find an end to the restless search if we fail to understand how integrated we are, and how much our behavior can and does mean.

"Brothers, what we do in life echoes in eternity."

Feminism, part II

I know I wrote something on feminism back in the day, and I recall rereading it a few months back and thinking I was an idiot. So I may do that again. But as it is, I have a head and heart for the topic. I have a brief thought, and that's all:

"Feminism is the exact opposite of what it is meant to be; where women think themselves liberated, they are rather chained to one option- that of always choosing themselves. This, as history has revealed, is contrary to the very nature of woman, who has always possessed the capacity to give of herself to bring about greatness, most especially obvious in her ability to give life. And so 'feminism' destroys the true feminine nature."


This should seem clear, if common sense is being applied. 


Ask the questions. What is woman? What is feminine? What is proper to her as a feminine woman? If you can't come up with good answers, or answers that bring clarity, than ask the opposing questions. What is man? What is masculine? What makes a woman different from a man? What makes man different from woman? What are their distinct and unique characteristics? 


In our culture today, sadly, there don't seem to be a lot of straightforward answers to these questions. Ambiguity for the sake of equality rules. But has it ever struck you that being "equal" does not mean being the same?! Let's be very basic here - a cup of sugar. "Equal" to eight fluid ounces. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but sugar is a solid. So somehow a liquid and a solid are equal. But they're very different in their nature. 


Man and woman... very different in their nature. This does not create inequality! And we do not need to continually homogenize the genders to create one equal person without sexual difference. Sexuality is a part of the person. A woman has a sexuality that is completely different from another woman's and from a man's. That's why we are born with different bodies, different hormone levels, different metabolisms, etc... Our unique person cannot be understood outside of the aspect of humanity that is gender. This is what culture would have us do - reduce ourselves beyond that pesky issue of sexuality. If there's no sexuality to worry about, there can't be consequences to worry about either. Isn't this obvious! It's a cop-out. A nice blanket to throw over the mess that's been made by attitudes of "free love" and sexual promiscuity that have lead to so many people suffering from diseases, loss of loved ones, broken hearts, misunderstood attractions, abortions, contraceptives, and all that comes with this mentality. Can't fix the problem? Well then, just ignore it. It will go away. 


But it doesn't! Because we're humans. We are people. We love. We have so much more to us than what can be reduced and explained away! We should never treat ourselves with such little appreciation, as to reduce ourselves to a place where our sexuality doesn't matter. I can say very honestly there have been so many times in my life where I felt that life would be so much easier if I did not have such "girly" attributes. Emotional highs and lows, all the competition that comes to us as young women in a culture like ours, the demands on us to be a certain way to receive attention and love, etc... Why not just be a guy? Or better yet, not have emotions at all? Why let anything influence me or touch me? It seems to only incur pain.


But there you have the crux of the issue - once again - to avoid pain, suffering, and the things we can't make sense of, we have to run away from them. Yet, they chase us down. We can't escape them, even with our technology. We can't escape them even with our intelligence and great medical developments. We can't escape them because they are part of our nature, our very being. Sure, medicine can allow for men to be pregnant, for women to conceive from a petri dish, for people to change their gender physically. This doesn't change the unique person they were created to be! Gay or straight, man or woman, transgender or bisexual or any other state you can come up with... we all have one origin and one home. 


The good news is the Christ! The only real answer anyone who is struggling or suffering should hear is that Jesus loves them. Not the peace-and-love crap that has pretty wrapping but nothing inside. I'm speaking of the truth. The Truth. He is a person and He is personal. He loves to the point of shedding blood for his beloved. This is no joke. We are so far removed from his mercy! We can't imagine his forgiveness! We can't imagine that he would still love us! And we don't even imagine that He is real because (once again, our cultural situation) we don't meet him on a daily basis to know that he is real or that he loves us. I mean honestly, if you grew up in public school and you never heard a prayer, who on earth could convince you that Jesus and his message were true? Why would it make sense that a God infinitely loving and perfect would care about you? Would care enough to come to earth to give his life that one day you would hear of his love and want to love him in return? Oh America! No wonder we fear suffering so much! We pretend we've conquered death and then put all of our elderly in homes so no one has to be faced with the truth that age hits and we die. We pretend we've eliminated God from the picture because we can create new human life in a petri dish. Wake up! No wonder we're afraid of pain, of suffering! No wonder we won't face the consequences of our actions. Sin incurs a debt. Sin brings about hurt. It is a break from the love that God offers us, from our relationship with him. If we don't know that He loves us anyway, that he constantly calls us back, that he is faithful a million times that we are not, that he forgives us EVERY time we return truly repentant and with the will to amend our lives - well then, of course we would think it's a hopeless cause. 


But life isn't a hopeless cause and God's mercy is unending because he is perfect love. Read the Scriptures. Just open the Bible. His love will seep in and you won't be able to close your eyes to the truth. A hungry heart is necessary, and we're all starving for a love that gives life instead of death, that offers hope in a weary world. He is Life, Hope, Truth and Love. 


And this is the message that must be proclaimed in this world of gender-neutral treatment. I want to reclaim my feminine nature! I want people to know that by being a woman, there is a mystery about my person that is unique and special because it shares in the feminine mystery. Likewise, I want to look at every man and understand that there is a unique mystery in his person because he is masculine. Where do you even read those words anymore? Kids probably have to go to wikipedia to find out what that is. 


I am all for true feminism, because right now I don't think anyone can be accused of chauvinism or feminism. It's just straight androgynism (chuckle at the play on words later). The point is that there must be a reclaiming of an ultimate truth of personhood, a salvaging of a gender specific anthropology, if we are to ever understand the nature of ourselves and each other. I cannot bear to see so many men and women suffering because they have never been taught the inherent, innate and intrinsic (I love those words) beauty that comes simply from being born a man or a woman. We are equal, but different! Equal in the sense of human value and dignity, in a worth given to us by our being created in God's image and likeness. No matter what religion or non-religion you are, in the end, these natural truths are inevitable because they are prior to your existence. God does in fact create you. Therefore, like it or not, you will have to face that he has created us in a beautiful order, and in that order we find the truth that sets us free. This freedom is one for another, to give ourselves to God, to our brothers and sisters, to our families and friends, etc... A necessary and vital part of this order is that there is a gender difference that allows men and women to give themselves to one another in a marital union that is biologically and ontologically designed to be in the masculine-feminine complimentary structure. 

In the end, just read the Gospels. One will never find a lack of knowledge or truth that reveals the essence and purpose of being in this world when encountering Christ. Jesus is the fullness and perfection of mankind, the God-made-man who reveals to us God's perfect plan of love for humanity.