Count how many times I use the word “like” in this. Geez.

Over the course of my Christian life, I have never struggled too much with most of life’s “big picture” questions. That is not to say I have not worked through them in my mind, but issues related to suffering and the powerful noetic effects of sin on this dying world do not really trouble me.

I “get” why there are natural disasters. I get why there is war, crime and large-scale suffering, etc.

In fact, I find it way harder to accept the small annoyances in life to be frank. I often muse that I will be asking this question when I get a chance: “God, I understand how sin entered the world, made it imperfect and gave us all of this disaster, famine, evil, and whatever. But why did I have to bang my head on the car door sill this morning? Or have a rock in my shoe yesterday? Friggin annoying.”

But here is the one I have been dreading as a father, because I don’t know how to answer it if any of my children ever ask.

Why did God create the universe and everything in it in the first place?

Imagine Him existing before all of time and space. He says to himself, “I’m bored. I think I will create an entire universe with planets, stars, cosmic gases, organic material and people. Then, everything will blow up because the first two people will sin against the one simple command I give them, and then billions of people will be born, fight against their nature, be saved by me and my son incarnate. THEN billions more people will be born, suffer on the planet  and in the end all of the redeemed will live with me forever in Heaven.”

Why?

Why not just create a bunch of souls to live with you in Heaven, and bypass all the human suffering and destruction?

Normally, when I ask this question, the answer given is from Job, (“Where were you when I created the world”) or something similar. But these texts speak to how insignificant people like Job were in the big picture, which brings me back to the macro issues I don’t really have trouble understanding. I really don’t mind obeying God because He is God and he said so. The question isn’t “why me?” It’s “why any of it?”

It is related on the micro scale to a question my own kids might ask one day, namely “why did you have [me]?” My answer would probably be “there was so much love between your mother and I that we couldn’t help it.” And yes, there is plenty of theology behind a similar argument related to the Trinity.

But until recently, I have only ever come up with the idea that the entire creation exists to glorify God.

OK, but doesn’t that make God a bit narcissistic and insecure? In this scenario the answer to my big question is “because I am awesome and I wanted to prove it.” Yikes. Kind of a lot of suffering just to show how awesome you are.

Then, a friend shared this:

Well alright then. Of course, I went out searching for everything I could find on St. Gregory of Nyssa, and found much to love about him. He, like myself was not a big detail oriented guy. He sought to think and write about big, lofty ideas at the expense of his daily administrative duties. Hey–but at least he came up with this cool quote, which became a meme that finally made some sense to a guy like me 1600 years later.

This is not exactly the deep exploration that Donal Graeme performs on his “Saturday Saints” feature, but it makes this point: Read your saints and fathers. They actually might answer something you have been struggling with for a while. If you have kids, it might give you some answers for their difficult questions.

I think I will write a book entitled “The Great Battle of Dinner” which will no doubt include chapters like these:

1. Why are you eating when we have not prayed yet?
2. Keep your hands off your brothers food.
3. The reason you are not hungry is because you drank all your milk first.
4. How did you get that butter in your ear?
5. A place mat is not head gear.
6. That’s just f***ing gross, man.

And others. Holy crap.

Earlier this morning, this article was shared by a female friend on social media. It is one in a flood of recent articles complaining about how angry, naked feminist protesters with obscenities scribbled across their chests have wrecked what “true” feminism was supposedly about.

It’s pretty standard stuff, and many of me and Mychaels female friends express the basic sentiment regularly. And many of them read here.

I want to start by asking are you really “over” feminism? Or you are annoyed that feminism has followed its natural progression and born its teeth and true intentions in such an ugly way?

Here’s the thing–and this is a major piece of understanding what it really means to swallow the “red pill.” When taking in a biblical, historical arch of history, it is a categorization error to try and make a meaningful philosophical distinction between the various “waves” of feminism. And there are many of us who have finally woken up to this fact.

Because even though modern feminists are more obnoxious than some of what we have seen in the past, the basic catalyst for all of its chosen battles and victories has been the same. Namely, envy of the perceived “unearned” privileges that men have, until recently, enjoyed in their families, their communities and the society at large. The curse placed on women when Eve was kicked out of the garden was that she would do this. Her desire was to “rule over” man. And remember, she was taken in by the possibility of being “like” God, the ultimate “man” in the picture.

Do men have unearned privilege? Did they ever? Considering that the vast majority of the civilized worlds battlefields and industrial accidents are filled with the corpses of men, I would argue that whatever privilege there was, was earned indeed. All of those deaths happened to provide women and children with a stable, easy, lifestyle.  And consider the evidence of the curse that is involved–the desire is to have all this privilege without the commensurate risk and accountability that goes with it. Women obtained the vote and a decent level of involvement in every aspect of running the country but are still not required to register for the Selective Service. They complain about the “wage gap” but are not clamoring for entrance into some of the highest paying professions in the country because they are in the trades. These come with the risks associated with working around dangerous chemicals, explosions, construction sites, heavy equipment, high places etc.  Icky, dirty, hazardous stuff. They sit in air-conditioned office buildings and fail to notice that the building was built by men who lost life and limb doing so, or even that the person dangling on the scaffolding outside cleaning the window is probably a man. There are two sets of physical fitness standards in the military (which is tied to promotion). Easy access to abortion (sex without consequences) birth control (sex without consequences) and a total dominance in the divorce and custody system are considered sacraments in the religion of feminism–and even conservative “feminists” believe this. And on and on it goes.

So, if you are one of those women who read here, and are wondering why this sudden annoyance with feminism rings hollow for many of today’s men, let me help.

To begin– understand, as Dr. Helen Smith has been documenting for several years now, that the incentives for men to get married are gone. Dr. Helen is a clinical psychologist (forensic sub-specialty) by trade and has written a book about why the marriage rate is falling from the mans perspective. It’s called Men on Strike.

Next, there is evidence that the entire civilized world is organized in such a way as to make the female reproductive strategy the dominant force. This blogger has been writing about it for several years now. The idea is that based purely on biological realities and drives it makes sense to preserve and protect eggs over sperm, since they are, in pure market terms more valuable. Christians generally reject this as the only model for understanding human sexual behavior–see “Dalrock” below.

The youtuber “Turd Flinging Monkey”a MGTOW guy drew attention to himself by critiquing the PragerU videos about masculinity, as did I, here. These folks cannot help but continue to double down on men emulating the 1950s “Ward Cleaver” archetype because they refuse to acknowledge that the America of the previous decades  (the 20s, 30s and 40s) also produced a fairly good supply of “June Cleavers” for him.  And the entire culture supported this form of marriage. It is no longer realistically available to the average man.

The entire military mental health profession is totally dumbfounded by the rising suicide rates among our ranks, yet can’t seem to put 2 and 2 together. The data clearly shows that the most accurate profile of a “typical” military suicide is a male soldier who’s wife has taken all his stuff, his children and a good portion of his future earnings. So he feels hopeless and ends his life. It’s the Occams Razor (most reasonable and intuitive) explanation but is obscured by the cultural disconnect. This data extrapolates into the general population quite well. And why not, the entire system is designed to encourage this behavior. See here:

http://www.realworlddivorce.com/DomesticViolence

The aforementioned Turd Flinging Monkey actually has a theoretical model for this based on the Kubler-Ross stages of grief:

Finally, the Dalrock blog has been the singular most powerful force in synthesizing all this data from a Christian perspective and trying to sift out what the right response to it is–in particular for married fathers, but his stuff is valuable for everyone.  He gives a Christian context and actionable information to a seemingly impossible cultural narrative.

Feminism has accomplished basically every one of its goals. It is not now in a new “wave” but rather shoring up the last bits of power for itself. It has infiltrated every aspect of our lives, including the church, the state and the culture.

*image copied from “The Father’s Rights” movement page.

Any modifications I need to make the 2000ish miles to our getaway?

It’s a 2005, V10, 2wd. It sits a little low so I’ll be putting add-a-leafs in the back and a front leveling kit. Needs 10 ply tires too. Camper weighs almost 6K loaded. Can you think of anything else?

Let me know.

That infection hit her pretty hard and she spent almost a week in the hospital. The course of antibiotics they sent her home on is brutal.  But my sweet wife is home with me, resting, where she belongs.

Thank you everyone for the prayers.

First Lady Melania Trump was born in the former Yugoslavia and speaks Serbian.

Just sayin’

I still say there is no America, no shared values, no shared culture…

BUT.

I was standing in line at HEB waiting to buy these puzzles and stuff for Mychael– bored out of her mind at the hospital. Kenna and David are with me and acting crazy, then I realized I left my wallet in my truck. I had to leave the stuff, take two unruly kids all the way back out to the truck and get my wallet.

When I got back into the store, the lady in front of me had paid for all of Mychael’s goodies.

These are the people the scripture tells us are angels among us and we never know what mission they may be on.

Be good. Do good.

Since I have been home for a couple of days while Mychael recovers in the hospital, I have been present to observe a few things.

Exhibit A:

That’s my littlest guy, pushing a baby stroller.  (Don’t mind the laundry pile. We are operating at 50% strength around here). Unprompted, he grabbed one of my daughters babies, found the stroller and put it in. He pushed it around for a while, stopping to “show” the baby things, “talking” to it, etc. He’s been doing this a lot lately.

Exhibit B:

Here he is, with a baby wipe, cleaning the baby’s face, presumably after the baby “ate.”

As a dad, it’s tempting to panic when we see this. Oh my God, he’s becoming a woman!

I neither encourage nor discourage this in them and both both boys went through something like this. No big deal. I suspect its more pronounced when I am around here playing both parents. They mimic it.

Anyway, enjoy it. It’s harmless.