I wouldn't want to be young again for I was headed to being a poster boy for immature, irrational thought all the while thinking that I was compassionate and a defender of the unfortunate. I found out that defending the unfortunate involved strengthening what was right.... not tearing it down, that honest inquiry does not mean fighting for a platform for ideas that have long since been proven wrong, and that true liberty is enslaving oneself to that which is good and..."there is none good but one, that is, God." (Mk 10:18 KJV)
Let me give you two very easy reads for summer and I can assure you that you will benefit from both. The first, but not first in importance for obvious reasons, is by Professor of International Relations at Boston University Angelo M. Codevilla and the book is The Ruling Class; How Political Elites Hijacked America. the second written by Michael Horton, the J. Gresham Machen professor of Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California and the book is Putting The Amazing Back Into Grace, Embracing the Heart of the Gospel.
The following post is a few years old. I add it here because it is one of the many posts that I had written addressed to the youth:
In Due Time
It was the winter of 1959 in Buffalo, New York. There was just enough light to put the ice skates on and whack the homemade puck around for a little while on the toddler's play area turned hockey rink but no one had shown up. The snowflakes falling were large...I remember that. All dressed up, or bundled up, and no where to go, so to speak. A few feet away from the chain-link fence was (and still is today) a small hill, maybe six feet high at the most, where I once, in summertime, was riding my bike home with groceries on the handlebars and hit a rock or something on that hill and crashed but survived, shaken but unhurt. A tree was growing beside the path worn by bike riders and all the leaves were long gone, the branches covered by a blanket of snow. I climbed up that tree and peered off to the north and the south etc., as a seaman in a crows nest would. I contemplated life and the beauty of the snowfall and the desolate fields behind the Airport Plaza. My parents had separated and there wasn't much money. With no siblings or father at home, and my mother working hard, all I had was the silver screen and television to show me what life was about. Sometimes it was about patriotism and courage for it could not have been too long since I watched Fess Parker gaze off over the Texas landscape as his friend Georgie Russell strummed that ballad Farewell the night before the Mexicans overran the Alamo. Life was gay (not as used today) as Fred and Ginger would glide across the screen. Life was dramatic as I watched Robert Ryan dig for gold on his own farm when he should have been farming it. I didn't come close to understanding that movie-God's Little Acre! Life was funny as Lou Costello was constantly getting he and Bud Abbot in trouble. And life was this curious thing called romance. Life was black and white, heroes and villains, good and bad. I had no idea what I wanted to do in this life. I stumbled around in the confusion of unmentored youth until I joined the army then marched around in the confusion of unmentored young adulthood. I married a wonderful young lady (I still can't figure that one out either) and stumbled around a little bit more before God said "I will have mercy on that one." I will never figure that out until He tells me Himself. And then a son came. I only had one bit of wisdom from my past for what was within my scope of raising him; whatever I did in youth, have him do the opposite. The television was stored in the basement for nine years and he recently graduated with honors from law school. Now its time to turn attention back to myself. Lets see...what do I want to do in life? Besides work in a coal-fired power plant and write a blog that is. Well, I guess that is, what it is, and it is good..., maybe not the blog, but God's plan. I sat down tonight to write to the youth and this came out. By the way, don't pass this post on to anyone, it's kind of embarrassing, but to those youth, should any read this, one piece of advice: your scope of knowledge is greatly limited right now and you are a source of income to those who would readily sell you as a fish at Wholey's Market on our Pittsburgh strip! Examine the issues of the day, indeed-search for truth but burn no bridges until you see Christ's imprint on every page of Scripture. Hold fast, dig in, establish a perimeter and keep watch. None other than Jesus Christ commands this army. Supplies will always be there and reinforcements when necessary. No military victory any mortal army ever achieved will compare to when Christ returns with His holy angels. Trust in Him and not yourself for He has joys unspeakable to share with you...in due time!
