Posted on by Abe Austin

The Threat of Good People- Awkward Children

Good people, by their very existence, provide an existential threat to the wicked. And I do not mean people that claim that they are good, or which assume the moral high ground, I mean those who genuinely live principles of goodness. People who are loving, who are humble, who willingly sacrifice, who show mercy and forgiveness, who every day try to be a better version of themselves. These are the best of people, but they are also the greatest of threats.

Not a threat in the sense that there is a risk of them attacking or harming others. Of all people, genuinely good people are clearly the safest. But they are a threat to the ego, a threat to illusion, a threat to those who are insecure.

Early Beginnings)

The pattern of insecure people feeling threatened by the successful and seeking to tear them down begins when we are still children. As children, we go through many awkward and insecure phases. Most of us care a lot about what others think of us. We crave attention. We become willing to do anything to gain the admiration of the opposite sex. Unfortunately, many of us meet abject failure in these arenas many times, and those failures hurt very, very much. What makes it all the worse, is seeing a peer who is cool, casual, and content. A peer who is not only more socially adept, but who also doesn’t care when he does commit a rare faux pas. The confident child becomes a mirror showing how awkward and warped we are in comparison, something that we desperately don’t want to see. So…we seek to break the mirror.

Today, I work with the youth in my church, and I see this age-old pattern still playing out. The most insecure children try to tear down the most secure. They mock and disparage, even become physically violent, all to try and drag the confident child beneath them. They would rather a world where no one was secure, where everyone was awkward, because at least that would mean that there was nothing wrong with them. Obviously, this is not the only pattern of childhood bullying, there are many other categories of perpetrators and targets, but from my observation this is one of the patterns that does emerge.

But if this pattern begins in us as children, how much further can it go in adulthood? How do things escalate when mere awkwardness is replaced with guilty and shameful behavior? When sin stands in stark contrast to the good and pure? When “being worse” means “being evil?” We will explore that aspect tomorrow.

Posted on by Abe Austin

A Society Without a Future

A society that prioritizes the interests of its adults over its children
Is a society that has a present, but no future

Posted on by Abe Austin

Reciprocity of Good

Every parent hopes that the world will be good to our children.

Certainly, we do what we can to shape the world in that direction, but there is only so much that we can do. 

Far more effective, then, is to shape our children to be good to world, and then trust that reciprocity will see good reflected back to them.
Posted on by Abe Austin

Lost Opportunities

Every day comes only once.
Being distracted from our loved ones for today means giving up the only “this day” with them that we have.
And even a single day lost is a terrible cost. We have 40,000 days or less for our entire life. 7,000 days for our child’s entire childhood. 365 days for our child being at each particular age. These moments are dear, and when they are gone they are gone forever. They must not be given away cheaply.
Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 41:50-52

50 And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah priest of On bare unto him.

51 And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house.

52 And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.

As God had promised, there comes to Egypt seven years of plenty. But aside from just the bounteous grain this is also a special “time of plenty” specifically for Joseph. He has been made a ruler in Egypt, given a wife, and now the blessing of two sons. What a whirlwind period this must have been for Joseph! For a time, he was in the lowest pit of human existence, but now the riches are coming at a furious pace.

Manasseh’s name means “making to forget,” meaning that Joseph has been made to forget all the years of suffering, but also to forget the old life he once dreamed of. Once he was of the family of Jacob in Canaan, and presumably his ambitions were tied to those people and that place. But now he has been given a new station and a new calling to fulfill. This is his work now and this is his family. He can’t ever go back to just living under his father’s roof and tending the flocks.

In fact, one transformation that I imagine Joseph never anticipated is that he would be married to an Egyptian woman. That, of course, means marrying out of the covenant, something that was a typically an embarrassment to the lineage of Abraham. But while “strange wives” will become associated with the Israelite people giving up their God, this is not the case with Joseph.

Yes he is married to an Egyptian, yes he is in the employ of the Pharaoh, yes he is surrendering any ambitions related to his father’s house…but never is he giving up his worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Joseph has the fortitude of spirit to become an Egyptian while still retaining all his covenants as well.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 2:25

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

I let my two young children take a shower just last night. They love our walk-in shower, because they can freely march across its tile and splash in the water without a single care in the world! Both of them were stark naked, of course, but they didn’t feel one bit embarrassed or ashamed about it. Why should they? They are innocent. Indecency and sexuality don’t even register in their minds.

Of course being naked is also metaphorical. It means being exposed, being vulnerable, having all your private secrets laid bare. How many of us would feel so unashamed in that event? A key piece of my children’s carefree innocence is that they also are too young to have done anything that they truly, deeply regret. They therefore have no hesitation to be seen exactly the way they are, just like Adam and Eve.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Give Thanks- Children

I am grateful for children.

I’ve always been able to understand these small persons much better than their adult counterparts. Children’s rules are far simpler, their criteria for being accepted into the group are far less cryptic.

A friend once pointed out to me how delightfully straightforward children are when expressing their needs. They have no shame in asking for our affection. Where we adults try to “drop hints” about what we want, children simply come out and say when they require a hug, or a kiss, or a snuggle.

I also love how their natural state is one of happiness and play. They are able to have fun for the pure joy of it, without trying to turn it into a competition or a money-making scheme. They do what they love, simply because they love it.

Without a doubt, children are the best people I know.

#givethanks

Posted on by Abe Austin

Finding Our Purpose- Matthew 5:16, 1 Corinthians 12:26

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

COMMENTARY

And whether one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works
Can you imagine a world where all of the petty competition and comparison are gone? In today’s world we have insecurities that make us jealous of others’ accomplishments, when we should be rejoicing with them. Or if not that, we are repulsed by that idea of jealousy and over-correct into a false humility, not daring to appear “special” ourselves.
I’ve expressed this in previous sections, but it is alright for you to be special, and it is okay for others to be so as well. We do need to be humble, we do need to give God the praise for our talents, and we must never use our abilities to make another feel that they are somehow “worse” than us.
But, none of that means that we are supposed to dim the wonderful light that God has given us. Having a purpose to fill and a talent to show makes the world brighter and helps others to see more clearly. When one is vibrantly living out the purpose for which they were made it helps everyone.
Children are remarkable in how they are able to be both fearlessly proud of themselves, and fiercely proud of others. I am convinced that this is one of the aspects of children Jesus had in mind when he commanded us to be like them.

Posted on by Abe Austin

That They Might Have Joy- Personal Example #3

One of the motivations for this study was that I have been feeling an increase of joy over the past year and wanted to examine the reasons why. As I’ve considered the matter I have identified three basic reasons. Today I’ll discuss the third.

A little over three months ago my wife and I discovered that we are expecting our second child. Now I’ll be perfectly honest, along with the immediate joy at this news, I also felt a great deal of anxiety. As time has allowed me to settle into this life change, though, I have found the anxieties to be fleeting and the joy to be abiding.

Being a father is the one of the most rewarding roles I have ever had, right up there with being a husband 🙂 It feels good to give my time and energy to my son, to make things for him, to help him process his life. I am very excited to do these same things for our new daughter as well.

Being a father is certainly one of those things that I feel completes me, something that gives expression to an essential element of my soul. It puts me better in touch with the mind of my Heavenly Father.

Years ago, the first time my wife and I got pregnant, she had a very painful miscarriage. Given that this was our very first pregnancy, my mind raced to all sorts of worst case scenarios. I began to dread whether this was to be our lot in life, and whether our family would feel incomplete because of it.

In the end that was a short-lived fear. But after that very brief taste I have the greatest sympathy for anyone who is not able to have children of their own, for whatever reason. It seems that some of the core joys in life are not intended for everyone. That is a very hard truth of this fallen world, and one that should move each of us to mourn together. At the same time, it also gives us all the more reason to deem precious the joys that we are allowed.

Posted on by Abe Austin · 3 Comments

The Family of God- 1 John 4:7-8, 11

Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

COMMENTARY

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love
I think we all know that we are supposed to love each of God’s children…but sometimes we just don’t. How can we make ourselves feel things for those that we don’t know, or for those that irritate or even offend us? It seems an impossible requirement.
But then, when I look at my young son I realize that most of us were once able to love so freely, when we were still children. Children are able to love others as soon as they meet them, children are able to forgive and restore love instantly. But while growing up we become jaded and cynical, we start making stipulations to limit the affection we show our fellow man.
That does not have to be the end of the story though. The maker of all things is also the re-maker of the heart.
We must never forget that we did not invent love. We are not the authors of how it works. We are not the ones that set the rules for when it comes into the heart. All we have power over is whether we keep it out.
God is the gatekeeper of love, and the closer we get to Him the more love He gives us for His children, the more He restores our natural affection for all mankind, the more He binds us to them. Perhaps you cannot make yourself love another, but God can.