Have you noticed that we focus more on the preservation and expansion of an idea rather than solving a problem? the most recent example i can think of is the opening of abortion clinics funded by the american government around the world in impoverished nations. the argument is that people are starving, poor, can't afford to have an abortion and another mouth to feed would kill them. Rather than sending food, we send an ideology.

We seem, as a culture, to be head deep in chronological snobbery. we want to over simplify the past, the cut and dry good and bad, the clear hero and villan. Even with things like the salem witch trials, there were faults on both sides, hearsay evidence was accepted, the judicial system was faulty, but witchcraft was a problem. it's real and it's dangerous.

The problem is we'll never learn from an over simplified history. life isn't simple, there are no simple answers. if someone claims to have simple answers, be weary of them. The complexity of politics, culture, and geopolitical movements makes every move today difficult, the same applies to the past. we are not a great new generation that are struggling with new trials, they are the same ones, rather we look down on the past as barbaric and unintelligent. this will be the death of us.

When i hear people speak about maturity, growing up, this or that, it is always referred to as something that is far away and yet to come. I think the thing we, as a culture, miss is that any sort of maturity happens in the present. the mind set that makes a person mature is formed in the present,but the maturing has yet to come.the foundation that sets us to mature is built in the present.

Remember the Cherokee nation.

Have you ever noticed that the greatest defiance is to live. Simply living your life with determination is the greatest way to defy something. The Jewish people, from their beginning, have been hunted, hated, and persecuted. By simply living, they have out lived, achieved more, and are remembered by history. The nations that fought against them are mostly forgotten in the records and memories of men. Christians, in most areas of the world are persecuted. yet Christianity grows in persecuted areas, the harder a people try to extinguish Christianity, the larger the flame grows.

The greatest defiance is to live committed to your principles. As Christians, the greatest defiance to a world that is sinful is to live committed to christ. Human nature is almost always self preservation. people expect people to change when faced with death. when something does not go as planned, people become scared because you are not following the rules of humanity. If you live, if you are committing yourself to any principle, you are defying something. To live and honor your principle, if you life to honor christ, you are defying something at the greatest level. your very life is a defiance to the sinful world we live in.

Instead of asking, " how could god let this happen?" rather, "how could we allow ourselves to become so apathetic and withdrawn?"

Principled people are always controversial. They stand for things; therefore there are things they stand against. To affirm one thing is to deny another. You can’t call one thing into question without standing for another. Even if you don't like it, you stand for something and disagree with something.