It was July, 2012. Three young men and three young women sat in an Aurora movie theatre ready to watch the new "Dark Knight" movie that had just come out. The title of that movie was only a sliver of the darkness that night would bring for the movie goers not only that night, but for the days, weeks and months to come for the that community in Colorado.
When the shootings started, one of the young men, Jon Blunk who had served in the U.S Navy and had planned on re -enlisting, threw himself over his girlfriend and threw her to the ground, telling her to stay on the ground and to not get up. As the shooter walked up and down those aisles, shooting bullets at God's children like it was a game at an arcade, Blunk kept pushing his girlfriend farther and farther underneath the movie theatre seat. His girlfriend later said, once the shots stopped and things seemed to be over, she yanked and pushed on Blunk telling him that they had to go, they had to get out of there. When she continued to push and shake him and he didn't respond, she then realized, he was gone.
I remember that shooting, like I remember so many of the other tragic shootings our news has kept rolling on our screens 24/7. The first shooting that I remember hitting me so very hard, the one I remember where I was, who I was with and what I was doing, was Columbine. The Dark Knight shooting shook me as well, because how many times have we all sat in a theatre, excited for the movie we are about to see? Buttered popcorn waffs through the room, candy wrappers crinkle, teens whisper and giggle as they wait for the screen to light up and the "Please keep your cell phone quiet" advertisment begins. These are the types of tragedies the devil loves to use to have us live in fear. A ballgame with the kids, an outing at the mall, school, date night at the movies....the everyday things we do in life to try and get away from the stress, have now become the target of, "what if?" I will admit, I used to live a good portion of my growing up years in this kind of fear. It was truly, a living hell. The exact life God tells us NOT to live and the reason He came, suffered, died, rose and lives again for us, I couldn't embrace, because I chose to let fear rule me. By God's astounding grace and mercy, He has healed me and brought me an unsurpassing peace in life I never knew was truly possible. Sure, I still worry at times. I still fear the unknowns and the "what ifs" here and there, but never to the extent of the bondage I lived in for so long.
To God all praise and glory!!
The story above with the three brave young men shielding and protecting these young women is heroic. Thankfully, I don't know of anyone personally or even heresay that has said, "Wow. That was so toxic and misogynist! Why did those guys offer their lives for those girls? Did they ask those girls if that is that is what they wanted? Maybe those girls wanted to "instinctively" (keyword "instinct") throw themselves over their boyfriends, force them to the ground and take on the shooter themselves. How absolutely pig headed of them!?" Five years ago, I wouldn't even thought of that as even being an option of a thought in any human being, male or female. Yet, as we are living in the strangest of times, (almost like it's a movie such as The Truman Show, and conservative, stable, Christians are the Trumans) I can't with certainty say, that hasn't been said or thought of by the now fourth wave of feminism we are seeing today. Those valor young men INSTINCTIVELY shielded those young women. They weren't their wives. They weren't their fiances. They weren't their sisters. They were girlfriends. They shared a crush, a puppy love, or maybe even a true love for those women, but they weren't their forever life partner as of that evening. Those three men didn't even bat an eye as to what they were going to do in that ctitical frightening moment.
They just did what God had instilled and created them to do by design.
I know there are many women out there who have been hurt by men. Maybe you, reading this entry, are that woman. Maybe your father abused you as a child. Maybe your grandfather verbally shredded you every moment of your life. Maybe a male teacher sexually assaulted you. Maybe you were picked on constantly in your school years by a bully boy, who made you turn into a self-loathing, anorexic, alchoholic. I don't know what the case is, but I know that men have abused their position of God's design since the fall of man. I also know , God detests that. That is not how He treats His bride, the Church, nor does He want any son of His to treat any daughter of His like that as well. However, women too have abused their position of design as well. This post isn't intended to go so much into roles of men and women, as it is to talk about the specific truth that God designed two genders, male and female. "He created them male and female, and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created." Genesis 5:2
Toxic masculinity is a concept created by a feminist idea that instead of looking at all of God's people as sinners who will make mistakes, they look at it as all men trying to fulfill the role God has called them to do as "toxic." However, what these women fail to realize, is that even in the world of Alpha, there are different kinds of men...and that's ok. There are men that thrive on hunting, and gutting fish. Men who love watching MMA and revving up their motorcycles. Guys who love hitting up the gym and talking about the best brands of cigars...and that is also ok. However, there are also men who would rather birdwatch and listen to Mozart. Men who play musical instruments and love acting in theatre. Men who cry much more easily and would rather stay home and play with their kids then go to work to get away and provide. Guess what? That too is, ok. Because you see, within the realm of male, there is many types of male, and within the realm of female there is also many types of female. AND THAT IS OK! Like Dr. Jordan Peterson said, "What are we going to do about that? Carve them all up?!"
NO!!!!!
Well, at least never in the history of human time, secular or Biblical, was that ever a concept to even be entertained.
Yet here we are.
In the last the few months alone, I have watched countless stories of children as young as 14 be put on hormone blockers while their healthy breasts and tissue are removed. They believe that they don't "feel" they fit the mold of what they see on tv and social media as the "gender they were assigned at birth." This is absolute insanity!! First of all, although I never struggled with the feelings of wondering if I was a boy or girl, I went through many phases of life where I had no clue where I fit in or who I really was. Diagnosed with OCD as a child and later in adulthood with ADHD-inattentive, I have learned so much about myself, but more so , the complexity of the human brain. I remember, for example, my years in high school. My freshman year I struggled so severely with anorexia. I was 103 lbs at 5'8. I had a grey nose and grey fingers and toes because my body was so malnourished and cold. I would study incessantly 4-6 hours of the night after school to get straight A's. Leaving my schedule even a hair, left me severely anxious and frightened. Fast forward to the end of freshman year, I was drinking with my older brothers and his friends. I am not proud to say that, but I say that to be open and candid and honest about what life is like for just one person like me. Imagine all the different personalities, situations, traumas, genetics etc each child of God has been given and try to convince me we aren't going to have the largest slew of "crazy" possible?! ;). Sophomore year I became obsessed with things like The Beatles (the psychedelic era of The Beatles not the "I Saw Her Standing There" era). I wore dark clothes and baggy jeans and flannels. I drank, smoked pot, listened to Nine Inch Nails and went to a White Zombie concert with my best friend. (Who during the concert was lifted up, body passed and some crazy person bit her rear end in the air! I joke not). God was so patient and merciful with me even still. He never left me. I chose to stray from Him, but He found a way years later to bring me to my knees in a way I had never known before. When people claim to describe "the day they accepted Jesus," I can say with truth, I know what they are trying to convey. Although I had been a Christian my whole life, baptized as an infant, raised and instructed in God's word and His love every day of my childhood by my loving, believing parents, I remember the day and room in my Bethany Lutheran College dorm, that my life had truly been "born again." It's not that I don't still struggle with sin, obviously, but there was a conscience there that I hadn't noticed before. I always believed in Jesus, even in my wild days. But, because so many others were doing the same thing, and here I was attending Christian schools my entire life, I just figured, "Well, it really can't be THAT bad."
Oh, how the devil crafts and lies.
By Junior year, I started dating the "preppy, jock" so naturally I decided to leave my hippie, psychedelic "phase" and progress to painting my room pink, with stenciled teddy bears. Country music had now become my jam. Ok, I'm sorry but is anyone starting to notice a pattern here? "Woooow, Sara you really were a nutcase!" Lol! No, actually, I wasn't. I was a normal teenage girl, struggling to find herself, where she belonged, who she wanted to please and on and on and on. I was a girl who needed loving, firm parents to remind me who I was and WHOM I was, and pray for me daily and nightly as God so commands.
He came through. :)
Maybe now you are saying, "yeah but Sara, you were older there. What about these four year olds who feel like they are a boy when they are really a girl, and vice versa? That is COMPLETELY different and we need to be affirming this so they don't become depressed or WORSE! COMMIT SUICIDE!" Yes, sadly this is the demonic guilt trip many woke, Jesus hating practitioners are guilting and gaslighting parents into thinking. I mean, of COURSE we would never want that to happen! So of COURSE, carve them up, cut their parts off and let's get the ball rolling!" (If you haven't seen Matt Walsh's documentary "What Is A Woman" yet I HIGHLY, highly recommend it). To that? I say this and I have said it many times. When Patience was four years old, she went through a few months where she pretended to be a cat. She was obsessed. Crawled around, wanted to eat her food and water from a dish etc. Meowed... LICKED PEOPLE!!!!! (Don't get me wrong we started to wonder if their was something off in her as well haha JK). We let her do this TO AN EXTENT, because she was four and there is something called "imagination" and it's actually a very healthy thing at a child of that age. What we DID NOT allow, was when it was time to stop playing, and actually sit at the table and eat, or not lick people (because that's inappropriate and gross). We reminded her firmly and consistently that she was God's little girl and it was now time to eat like God wanted her to eat and use her words instead of meow.
Guess what?
She outgrew it.
She is now a healthy (but stubborn) nine and a half year old girl who has never once since, pretended or wanted to be a cat. Imagine if we had abided by her imagination and feelings and started to transition her to the feline family of animals?
You guys. There are two genders. As Christians you know this, but maybe the world is consuming so much of your thoughts, that you are starting to cave a bit. "Maybe it's not that bad?" "Maybe there is a biological reason they should have this done?" Or my ultimate favorite, " I WOULD NEVER DO THAT, but I am not going to judge what another parent does with their child?" That last one literally makes my blood boil.
We are not here to judge souls, but we are here to judge right and wrong, criminal and non criminal. It's not judging thing to present the facts. When it comes to criminal acts, an actual court appointed judge will decide their earthly fate, but we areNOT judging by presenting facts. I do however believe we are sinning, by withholding calling out acts of sin out of fear of what our peers and the world might think.
We are living in strange, bizarre and sad times. Being told I am hateful for not adhering to calling someone the pronouns "ay/em" is beyond bewildering. But I have said it a million times and I don't think I go a day without saying it, "There is nothing new under the sun," as wise Solomon said in the book of Ecclesiastes. There is absolutely nothing that surprises our Father, and He has promised to equip us with the gifts for every work or challenge that comes our way. Stand strong. Fight the good fight. Don't be pressured or guilted into following a narrative that is based on lies, mental illness and at it's core, Satan. As a mental health advocate, nothing could be more unloving and damaging to them, then to affirm the lie in the mentally ill human's head. Don't encourage their lie. Don't buy into their lie. You can be loving AND helpful by truly acknowledging their battle, reminding them they are not broken, unwanted or damaged, and then go immediately to God's Word and remind them where their TRUE identity lies. They have an even greater purpose that will never be revealed to them if they choose to live in that lie of sin and travel the road that leads to hell.
It's hard. I get it. It's hard to be mocked, belittled, and yelled at for standing up for truth. My prayer for you and for us all, is to have our motivation and our guide, not be the thought of "how will they respond? or "What will they say or do to me?" , or "Will I lose my job?" Rather, let your sole motivation be of this: "I want this person to be in Heaven for all eternity. This is their soul that is literally on the line." When we let that reign in our thoughts and be our guide versus the uncomfortable feeling of being trashed and verbally assaulted, you WILL be able to do ALL hard things.
"And the Peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:7
コメント