Finding Victory in Defeat: (The Souths surrender at Appomatox)

"There is a way of losing that is finding. It is only when a man supremely gives that he supremely finds” 

-Major General Lawrence Chamberlain, (upon receiving the Souths surrender at Appomattox). 

Tall and slight of build but possessed of an iron constitution and indomitable will, Chamberlain gazed ahead with eyes like flint. He cherished a profound respect for those who had risked all for ideals they valued above life itself. It mattered not whither they wore the blue or the grey, won or lost. On the chill, overcast morning of April 12, 1865, the men in blue felt a deep sympathy as they observed their stubborn antagonists in worn out shoes and ragged uniforms turn in their dearly beloved battle flags stack their side arms and muskets and walk away; in this hour of heartbreak and grief not a dry eye could be observed. 

The dismal scene was fascinatingly grim beyond description. The landscape presented a scenic view, the loftiest thought of mind was far too low and insignificant to delineate, describe, or portray. It was as if a solemn funeral procession, hearse in tow was unfolding. 

Many shared their scant rations of hardtack and salt pork with their famished and exhausted foes. One confederate soldier wrote “we suffered no insult from any of our enemies. Never before was such goodwill exchanged to a once bitter foe" If only in our divided nation today could lay down our arms and battle axes, furl our rainbow flags and breach a gap of compromise between liberal and republican, conservative and democrat w/o having to endure the carnage of another long, grueling bloody war. 

In a postwar address Lawrence Chamberlain echoes a message of that profound moment: That Army of Northern Virginia—who can help looking back upon them now with feelings half fraternal? Ragged and reckless, yet careful to keep their bayonets bright, and lines of battle well dressed; reduced to dire extremities sometimes, yet always ready for a fight; rough and rude, yet knowing well how to make a field illustrious. Who can forget them—the brave, bronzed faces that looked at us four years across the flaming pit—men with whom, in a hundred fierce grapples, we fought with remorseless desperation and all the terrible enginery of death, till on the one side and the other a quarter of a million fell; and yet we never hated them, except that they struck at the old flag. Main force against main force—there was good reason why, when valor like that was exhausted, the sun should go down on thousands dead, but not one vanquished…On they come with the old swinging route step and swaying battle flags. Before us in proud humiliation stood the embodiment of manhood. Thin, worn and famished, but erect and with eyes looking level into ours. Waking memories that bound us together as no other bond. Was not such manhood to be welcomed back into the Union so tested and assured. On our part not a sound of trumpet more nor roll of drum, not a cheer, nor word, nor whisper of vain glorying, nor motion of man. But an awed stillness rather and breathholding, as if it were the passing of the dead.”

There were many blunders that cost the South the war but none so disastrous as  Picketts charge. The high water mark of the Confederacy had been reached and the cause of the rebellion died that day alongside the men who perished on that field. For the rest of his life, Pickett would grieve for his men lost that day, and would blame Lee for the disaster. Thus, five years after the War, when Pickett and the Confederate guerilla leader John Mosby paid a courtesy call on Lee in Richmond, the atmosphere was less than cordial. On departing, Pickett launched into a bitter diatribe. "That old man," he said, "had my division slaughtered at Gettysburg." For an instant of memory, men in grey marched beneath fluttering flags up a long, grassy slope. Then Mosby broke the silence. "Well," he said, "it made you immortal."

Gettysburg: The Confederate High Tide, Time-Life Books 

In conclusion I have always found a striking allegory here I cannot help but share. The high water mark of Lucifers rebellion against Christ was cavalry, and what a desperate duel it was between Christ and Belial; his demonic forces continue to fight on in hopeless earnest still today, not unlike the South post-Gettysburg. The Confederacy would continued to fight for 2 and half more bloody years, yet the war was all but over. The death knells had sounded, on our sin, we have but one choice side with the one in whom victory has clearly already been won or fight alongside  the hapless Satanic rebels whose doom is sealed. Eternity awaits.....

…………

Hoziers "Take Me to Church" Lyrics and Meaning – A Christian Analysis and Critique

Often the most loving thing a person can do is tell the truth. I am afraid that the sermon preached through Hozier’s song that every person should just be allowed to do what comes natural is in actuality a very deadly sermon. In an effort to empower and “free” people, Hozier is actually contributing to their destruction by leading them astray.

Regrettably, the lyrics to “Take Me to Church” are pretty blasphemous. Here’s my theological analysis with my commentary in the red:

[Verse 1]
My lover’s got humour
She’s the giggle at a funeral
Knows everybody’s disapproval
I should’ve worshipped her sooner (So this is the cue. The God throughout the song is a girlfriend.)
If the Heavens ever did speak (“If the Heavens ever” = revealed religion is cast into doubt)
She’s the last true mouthpiece
Every Sunday’s getting more bleak
A fresh poison each week
“We were born sick”, you heard them say it (“they” [Catholics] teach original sin)
My church offers no absolutes (So unlike Catholicism, there are no moral absolutes – only relativism)
She tells me “worship in the bedroom” (the liturgy is sex. It’s the place of union between him and the “god”/girlfriend)
The only heaven I’ll be sent to
Is when I’m alone with you
I was born sick, but I love it (acknowledges original sin – but he loves it)
Command me to be well (a reference to Christ commanding people to be well in the Gospels)

[Pre-Chorus]
Amen, Amen, Amen

[Chorus] (x2)
Take me to church (remember, “Church” here is sexual reference in this song)
I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies
I’ll tell you my sins so you can sharpen your knife (confession reference)
Offer me my deathless death
Good God, let me give you my life (he hands over his life to her the “god”)

[Verse 2]
If I’m a pagan of the good times
My lover’s the sunlight
To keep the Goddess on my side (the god/girlfriend is also a goddess)
She demands a sacrifice (here’s where the song gets “Eucharistic” with reference to sacrificial meal and hunger…)
Drain the whole sea
Get something shiny
Something meaty for the main course
That’s a fine looking high horse
What you got in the stable? (reference to the Christ Child “in the stable”)
We’ve a lot of starving faithful
That looks tasty
That looks plenty
This is hungry work

[Chorus] (x2)

[Bridge]
No masters or kings when the ritual begins (egalitarian ritual – sex)
There is no sweeter innocence than our gentle sin (hey, at least he knows it’s sin – he’s Irish!)
In the madness and soil of that sad earthly scene (a reference perhaps to leaving earth into the “heavenly bliss” of sexual embrace)
Only then I am human
Only then I am clean (he ends with a reference the sexual completion as a kind of baptism or absolution)

What’s amazing about his song is that it’s about as offensive as anything produced by Marilyn Manson, Judas Priest, or Slayer – yet hardly anyone recognizes it! It takes rich Catholic sacramental language but re-signifies the imagery as a sexual encounter. And that’s the so-called “genius” of this song.

The music industry is now much smarter than it was in the days of Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, and Slayer. Your daughter is not likely to love Marilyn Manson and erect an idol to Satan in her bedroom. Your son will not likely consecrate his baby to Lucifer and baptize him in goat’s blood.

Overt Satanism is out of style. However, young people are likely to exchange their Christian faith for sexual license. The stats show that young people will likely exchange the sacramental life and liturgy for the liturgy of sexual experimentation.

And that’s exactly why this song has become an American anthem. The devil doesn’t needs a league of heavy metal Satanists. He’d almost prefer to have people mocking the Christian sacraments and images.

If God isn’t real – “If the Heavens ever did speak” – then the only goods to be enjoyed in this life are the pleasures of food and sex. That’s all there is left for humans to experience transcendence. Hozier gets it and he sings for us a catchy hymn.

In an interview with New York Magazine in March 2014, the artist Hozier stated:

‘Take Me to Church’ is essentially about sex, but it’s a tongue-in-cheek attack at organizations that would… undermine humanity by successfully teaching shame about sexual orientation — that it is sinful, or that it offends God… But it’s not an attack on faith… it’s an assertion of self, reclaiming humanity back for something that is the most natural and worthwhile.

So there you have it from Hozier himself.

The “gospel” Hozier is preaching is that men and women should be allowed to pursue whatever comes natural to them. His “church” offers no absolutes (hello, postmodernism!). A church that does teach things like moral absolutes is, according to Hozier, only teaching shame.

Hozier does get something right. His song does depict humanity at its most natural. The Bible teaches that all human beings were born sick; that “sickness” is sin (Rom 3:23).

At our “most natural” we are enemies of God. Yet, our God, while we were still His enemies, made a way for us to have a relationship with Him (Rom. 5:8). He loves us enough to know what comes “most natural” to us often leads to our own destruction. It may be easy for someone reading this to think, “Oh, there is just another Christian bashing alternative lifestyles.” However, that is not the case. I agree with Hozier that violence against a LGBT person is something that must be stopped. Any Christian harming another person for this reason is sinning—there is no other way to state it. However, for me to call homosexuality a sin is actually showing love.

At the end of the day, Hozier’s religion is hedonism—the pursuit of pleasure as the highest good. He “worships in the bedroom.” Just like Paul pled with the church in Galatia not to be so easily swayed by a “different gospel” which is no gospel at all (Gal. 1:6-8), I pray that men and women will not be swayed by this “false gospel” proclaimed in Hozier’s popular song.

Reflection: on tendencies for the cheap fix, vs the end goal.

"I remember standing in a cold dark jail cell shivering with a blanket wrapped around me. Sick and cold. When I first arrived someone came up to me and said "You remind me of Edward in Twilight, you're far too good looking to be here with us. Why aren't you modeling somewhere?" I still remember those words, not the kind of greeting you want to first hear from a guy you happen to be trapped with in a cell block. But upon further reflection, that hellhole it was exactly where I belong. And it felt like a portal to hell; in the tank every one was detoxing, puking, coughing..It was brutal. But you know it was good. Real good to go through that. I helped lead a bible study and was amazed at the amount of interest perked around our group as we went through a passage in Romans. The climate seemed to change and positive energy fluxed in. Everyone in the group was stirred in zeal within, feeling more hopefully about their case. It was during this moment I had an epiphany of sorts. Even the most hardened around seemed to relinqush their temperament.

I saw, in a sense; how life on this planet for Gods fragmented creation without a plea-bargain deal transpires. Guilty convicts, awaiting our final sentencing. We are all in the same situation, without Grace, trapped like prisoners in a cellblock hopeful for a lenient verdict. When all the allusionary veils of worldliness that enrapture our hearts and minds are peeled back. Utterly stripped away, we will see everything temporal we've chased was missing the eternal point. The essence of our predicament becomes more painfully clear and readily apparent. For me, allegorically, and personally, it was a microcosm of ‘us’, you and me. The eternal, yet fallen creatures present plight. Whither we are aware of this on an existential level or not, many I sadly confess are not.

Why is this though?

Emotions....

Feelings can quickly destroy our emotional health and spiritual balance. They can spiral us into either pride and self-absorbtion or nose-dive us into anxiety, depression and despair...

The worlds method for dealing with these "Pits of Gloom" these chemical and emotional imbalances to is to numb, mask and escape certain emotions; alcohol, drugs, social media, extreme sports, video-gaming, illicit sex...Not that many in themselves are bad, yet to some degree we all look for these cheap substitutes and it creates more of a roller-coaster ride of emotional highs and lows. We seem to be spending more time either, depressed, on an artificially induced high or oscillating up and down from one to the other. And for many people, myself included, it can happen many times throughout any given day.

I found through personal experience over half of the addicts I corresponded with were suffering from some variation of an opioid addiction..Pain-relieving prescriptions that lead to an all-consuming addiction. It leads me to think most unsuspecting patients become addicts not by choice but rather by circumstance. A correct understanding of how profit-driven large-scale coorporations exist  and how they manipulate the masses to keep spending money should be employed. This is a stunning reality. Why is it that more and more people who are just attempting to receive minor relief from back pains, lives soon spiral off the deep end;  end up in rehabs, lose their family and marriage..the list goes on..I've seen it first hand. I am not saying all medicating drugs are bad. I am not advocating for that. If you have a severe migraine or headache take some Advil, maybe more than one.  If you have urinary pain go to a doctor or maybe stop sleeping with 5 girls a week or use protection? Behavioral modification can be a good thing.

However, a certain thought pattern develops, when we believe the relief from our problems to be rooted in emotional states of mind. States of mind, are fleeting and temperamental opposed to understanding some shame is normal, even emotional pain is normal, we can absorb, repress, forgive and grow but we cannot look for perfect relief from it. Otherwise it leads to a host of other parasitic chemical dependencies which can spiral to addiction which never promise what they promise; lasting relief but only short term profit driven promises which manifest themselves in our interpersonal lives..

The most miserable people in the world today are those who live their lives based on their emotions.
However that being said. I don't believe emotions are not bad or wrong. We don't "feel" the truth but we do feel our emotion. That is why we usually pay far more attention to what we "feel"  than to what is true.

What affects the root affects the plant. And us humans are spiritual creatures, looking for physical solutions solutions to chronic spiritual issues seems to work for the short term but never really grasps hold of the "root" of the matter. we think 'mental health' is as deep as it gets, but it goes deeper than that.  This is not a popular, mainstream medical solution givin' out in liberal fashion today. Mainly because doctors will want you to keep returning for visits, psychiatrists for evaluations....But, there is a secret, confidential, simple solution that beats the breaks off medical marijuana for anxiety, depression and stress of mind...shhh, wait for it...

Repentance, you guessed it! esp of habitual sins...Connection with our Father in Heaven, a loving realationship that stems from a consistent repair of a fractured relationship to our creator, you see sin fractures, like trust issues in a physical one, the same echoes with an eternal one, one we were designed for one that explains the very reason we were formed, created and placed on this earth..the most important one, that should be our true focal point :)

Valentines Day Surprise Ideas

8 thoughtful ideas for your sweetheart tomorrow:

1) Make things easier for her this Valentine's Day by skipping the guessing game and telling her exactly what you'd like to eat that evening. She'll appreciate the directness and make your dinner dreams come true.

2) Let your honey know you care by stopping at Walmart and picking up a 3-pack of genuine nickel earrings. Tell her that you would have gone to Tiffany's, but your beer fund is running low. Your honesty will make her fall in love with you all over again!

3) Skip the clichéd flower bouquet and hand-pick some dandelions from the neighbor's backyard. She'll swoon at the bravery it took and reassure you that weeds are so much prettier than roses, anyway.

4) Sprinkle a trail of rose petals leading all the way from the bedroom to the kitchen, where she'll find a box of cake mix on the counter, directions included. You've made this so easy for her! You hopeless romantic, you.

5) Take her to her favorite restaurant and surprise her by saying you got her an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour by landing her a place on the dishwashing staff! She'll be thrilled to be able to see where the magic happens.

6) Indulge your special lady with a box of fat-free, sugar-free chocolates. Say you've been hearing her complain about her weight lately and thought you'd help out. She'll be so charmed that you've been listening to her!

7) If you're feeling extra generous, tell her you'll take care of dinner and pop a Lean Cuisine in the microwave. Half the time, half the calories, double the affection.

8) Treat yourself to a new Corvette with an in-dash GPS and tell your wife you got her a brand new passenger seat. She'll be swept off her feet so quickly, she might just find the way to the ground on her own!

Beauty In The Change Of The Seasons

This is something that has struck me as an odd sensation. How seasons have one thing in common. One central connection point. Beauty in change. Fall has always been my favorite season, upon further contemplation I asked: What is it about nature dying that gives beauty? What is it about transition that can be so indelibly endearing to the senses? Is this not a picture of the transient nature of all things physical? The beauty we see in the passing of the seasons, the nostalgic romanticism one attaches to the falling of the leaves is not the thing itself, they are only the scent of unmet desires we have not yet found, an unsatisfied longing for the unknown, echoes of a tune we have not heard, news from a faraway country we have never visited, perhaps it is akin to weaving a spell? Spells are used for breaking enchantments and maybe nature can be a strong spell to break us form the clutches of our home monitors and screens, away from the compelling vices that have been laid heavily upon us. Built up crutches of esteem, layered and pasted on by the peer pressures of our society. A constant bombardment of stimuli, stimuli, input, input, a data collection cesspit of noxious sedatives. The worldwide web, an all purpose medium, the conduit for most of the information that flows thought my eyes and ears and into my mind. A sordid matrix of facade part-like representations, blog posts, memes, emojis, hashtags and tweets, with angular limbs, jerky movements, dry, metallic noises, all suggesting either machines that have come to life or life degenerating into mechanism. A brain molded by the plasticity of the age, re-categorized and sculpted into the rapid fire, quick-scan process of internet thought, attempting to reach an end yet always missing the linear and concentrated whole.

Yet outside nature, with a soft compelling plea begs to whisk us away into that other dimension apart of fear and anxiety, distrust and vexing competition, almost all of our culture has been directed at silencing this shy persistent inner voice, almost all our modern philosophies have been devised that the good of man is to be found in the vast interlocking web of self-aggrandizement and political advancement. Yet my mind wanders to the wet leaf-strewn concrete of a college campus on a blustery fall day as the trees shed their summer foliage and the wind whispers through many a now leafless tree. Falling leaves hide the path so quietly, a sickening nostalgia now entangles my mind, like the sordid web-like matrix of the internet itself. When autumn comes kicking the long hot perverse summer out on its treacherous hindparts, as it always does one day, sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend you have missed. It settles in the way an old acquaintance will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since last he saw you. I prefer Fall and Winter, that is when you feel the bone structure of the landscape. The loneliness of it, the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it. The whole story doesn't show.

Autumn reminds us that our leaves too will die. The curse we inherited from our father-tree Adam means we have our seasons and then we go. Winter takes us all.

This is worth stopping to consider. My chlorophyll will break down; my limbs will turn brittle; one of these breaths I now take casually will be my last.

And what, then, when my tether snaps from this mortal coil?

Autumn can draw our attention to the one man who broke through winter into an unending summer. The one who spent three days brown and dead in the dirt and came back in an indestructible green. The one who wasn’t just a leaf; he was a whole new tree.

Winter comes to us all. But winter isn’t the end for Christians, because our lives are joined to a tree that winter cannot touch. Death has no sting; winter has no bite. We will fall from the tree of Adam; but we will flower again in a spring of eternal, glorious growth.

Holding this truth gives the hope to inoculate us against the persistent disease of worldly materialism, to understand the eternal realities behind the transient veil and to one day let death be swallowed up in victory so we may indeed beautifully.

I do believe it is within our natures to be resistant of change. Though we might enjoy each season for its change once its taken place, there's an anxiety that comes with that build-up, it sparks a bit of nervous energy within us, making us feel like we need to prepare ourselves form something more severe or brace for impact--even though its as simple as allowing the seasons to turn. And though after a long harsh winter we may look forward with anxious eye to the budding of the green leaf and bloom of the flower, spring and soon summer itself we are yet still quick to let go of. And though we might be excited about sweater weather and Halloween parties, we know Christmas with its hullabaloo and enigmatic rush propelling many a profitable fortune earner into dispiriting debt and soul-cleaving New Years depression, looms large around the corner and we find ourselves at cross purposes as we all cant still but hesitate to embrace the new season. 

Yet, if we have the correct mindset and focus, setting our minds not on fortune, money, or the transient nature of things, because like the seasons and the years that pass us by they seem to be as fleeting as a leaf in the wind, hard to catch yet visibly detached. What is changing is merely the physical apparatus and worn out vestures of things passing away, like a snake shedding its skin, what is left is a representation of things eternal, like the seasons of change they give us a fleeting and passing glimpse of lusters yet to come if only to be enjoyed for a moment, for what is really you, is as changeless as the eternal nature of our being. 

"Since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above not on earthly things. For you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. " Col 3:2

"So we fix our eyes, not on what is seen, but what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal" 2 Cor 4:18