Feeding the body vs feeding the soul

While this isn't an either or situation, there is definitely a sharp contrast that needs to be recognized and understood.  American culture definitely has the first part of this equation down.  We are a nation of exercise freaks, who have devoted entire markets to the idea of right eating, exercise, vitamins, minerals, supplements, etc, etc. 
Eastern thought, on the other hand, peoples such as Buddhists and Hindus have embraced and understand the idea of holistic living.  Eating, exercise, right thinking, reducing stress, etc, etc are all pursued in an attempt to live healthy lifestyle.  The problem with that kind of eastern thinking is the foundations.  The religions that underlie these are problematic, to say the least. In other words, the religious foundations of eastern thinking introduce insurmountable problems for the Christian.  But this doesn't leave us stuck.
The historic faith, ie Orthodox Christianity, gives us tools for directing a holistic lifestyle.  We don't focus solely on the body, but we don't neglect the body either.  Eastern religion provides a religious approach that proves untenable for the Christian.  Modern America provides a strictly physical approach or a self styled neo pagan New age worldview.  American Protestantism provides a
Worldview reminiscent of the American dream.  Be nice, get rich, be comfortable.
The big thing here is paying attention to the reality of the soul.  We can easily see that our bodies need attention.  Good food, clean water, clean air, and moderate exercise.  This is common sense.  But we ignore the health of our souls at our own expense.  In the same way for the guy who spends the first fifty years of his life sitting on the couch.  He cannot be expected to run a marathon, much less even run around the block.  The man who only feeds his mind and senses with trivialities and distractions cannot be expected to have a heart for God.  This man has not prepared his soul for eternity.  In all honesty, when he dies and stands before God, he will not want to be in God's presence.
The way we form our should will determine the shape they will be in for eternity.  While we are alive, it is not too late to start changing our attitude toward our souls. 
The Orthodox church has THE tools to prepare us for eternity.  Make use of them.

N.T. Wright on definitions

One of my favorite, and possibly my very favorite, theologian, in an interview, recently discussed the recent phenomenon of gay marriage.  He, being an Anglican, is in the middle of this discussion.  His critique and answer for this historical deviation was phenomenal.  You can read it here.  In summary, he argues that marriage has never been seen as anything but between a man and a woman.  To suddenly redefine it as anything else, simply because of cultural preference, is simply not honest.  Reality doesn't work that way.
I would like to take his approach and apply it to Christendom in general. The first 800 years of Christian history shows us the church's work of definition and articulation of faith and practice.  This time period saw the seven ecumenical councils and the way the church handled beliefs that differed from the historical and apostolic faith. But eventually, after decades and centuries of slight deviation (around 1050), the Roman church led by the Roman bishop, better known as the pope, decided that all other jurisdictions needed to submit to the pope as final authority.  The other jurisdictions responded with saying that the church had never lived out its that way.  That such a belief and practice would be an innovation.  This brought the first major division within Christendom.
About 500 years later, the Protestant reformation started, causing another massive split within the church.  

The common factor among these two events is that of definitions.  Christianity had been defined as the faith in Jesus Christ as handed down by the apostles and their successors.  Any change of definitions would not be honest.  Why would we think that redefining central trends or practices would even make any sense?  We all need to step back and look at how we define our faith and why.

Two fold failure

We can look at our current culture and see how horribly men have failed in their relationships with women, both wives and daughters.  Even a brief glance, and it should be brief, reveals a generation of women craving male attention and leadership.  I'm not talking about patriarchy or male domination. I'm talking about simple, traditional male/female relationship. Feminism aside, people function best when roles are defined and fulfilled in this manner.
The failure of men in this regard had turned into a vicious circle.  Men become self centered and begin to view women as just another object.  Women in turn lose their proper sense of self and begin to objectify themselves to try to gain back some of their needed attention.  This in turn fuels improper passions in men, which only further denigrates women.  And the cycle continues.
All of this is fairly easily recognized.  But I would like to view the question about the other side of this coin.  We look upon the young men of our culture and what do we see?  We see angry, self centered, and immature young men with no focus or long term goals.  What is driving this?  What is happening in our culture that produces young men like this?  Why are they angry and why are they so short sighted? Is it tied to what is happening with young women, in some fashion?
I could suggest some ideas or theories, but I'm not too sure this would help.  Instead, we, as the people of God, need to recognize what is happening and make a concerted effort to remedy the problem.  We need to address it in our own children and speak about it when opportunity arises.
The church has all the answers.  We need to be ready to give them.  As happened in Rome, when Rome fell from within, the church stepped in and took the reins so too in America, when America falls from within (that's my theory), the church needs to be ready to fill the needs that will be present.  We must not fall into laziness and simply be like the world.  We need to apply the gospel of Christ to all areas of our life and give a reason for the faith that we have.

Covenantal marriage

A friend recently recounted a sad story about a mutual friend.  Someone with whom I attended high school had met someone in college and after developing a friendship into an emotional relationship, they decided to marry, but there was one problem, the man whom she had met was not a Christian.  When asking for her hand in marriage, her father told him that he would only give his blessing to do so if the young man would become a Christian.  He agreed to do so and they married.
Unfortunately, after a relatively short time, the young man filed for divorce and left.
Of course, I was saddened by this story but had a few thoughts.  The first was the naivete of the father.  This family is strongly Christian, at least in the American evangelical sense.  And a profession of Christ apparently was enough of proof for this father.  In the Orthodox worldview, a one time profession would not be enough.  Common sense would seem to dictate the necessity of a lived out profession, as well as baptism.
The second thought was the value of community.  Choosing a spouse from a well connected and well known family is of inestimable value.  This provides a level of protection and truth that can be found nowhere else.  To choose a spouse from an unknown family and background is dangerous.  A faithful marriage requires a like-mindedness and like faith that can only be found in a place of community.
The third thought is that of an arranged marriage.  While the idea of an arranged marriage is only mocked today, with no consideration at all.  But this is an American aberration.  An arranged marriage was commonplace all over the world and for most of known history.  As someone once said, "Marriage, like a pot of dinner, starts cold and warms up, but American culture has marriage start hot but then it only cools."
Marriage, relationships and the such must be understood from a Christian perspective.  Anything else will end in failure.  Our faith defines all of life and we must learn to see it.

Perspective and emphasis

Something occurred to me today as I was thinking about the upcoming nativity.  Speaking in general terms, it seems that Protestants put a greater emphasis upon the birth of Christ, while the Roman Catholic lay greater emphasis upon the crucifixion (consider Mel Gibson's The Passion) but the Eastern Orthodox strongly emphasize the resurrection.
I'm not sure what it all means or if there are connections to be made, patterns to be seen or structure to it all. 

Another vote for Russia

     My daughter recently received this photo on her Facebook page.  I saw it and couldn't resist sharing it.  This photo, taken inside the Russian space shuttle, gives us another example of how the gospel and the Christian life is deeply and intricately woven into Russian life.  Why is it that you never see a cross or an icon or a Bible on any US anything?  If the US was ever a Christian nation (and that is arguable), Russia is a Christian nation and has been for over 1000 years.  Even during the time of Soviet control, the hand of God was over and in the Russian people.

A Flaccid soul

The thought occurred to me add I was chatting with my second oldest son.  If we knew someone whose diet consisted of am/pm burgers and hotdogs, macaroni and cheese and McDonald's, would we not voice concern and encourage them to eat with more variety and health concerns?
But why is our not the same with entertainment?  We seem to put a huge emphasis and concern over the health of our physical bodies (which will only last for about eighty years) but we nearly totally neglect the health of our souls.  We have become a nation of practical materialists.
At the very minimum, we should be asking about what constitutes a healthy soul and how we can take care of the eternal souls that we do have.

The value of people

Upon what do we base our valuation of people?  This is something we all do, either consciously or subconsciously.  This is something learned and if not addressed and thought through, it becomes something we do without consideration of truth or falsity. 
Do we, upon seeing a homeless person, a drug addict, a prostitute, a transvestite, or a gang member, immediately think less of that person?  Do we hold some sort of racist tendencies, sometimes without thinking?
Social experiments have been done with "homeless" people and "business executives".  It's sad to see how people actually respond when they don't know they are being watched.
Do we judge others who are trapped in a particular sin that we personally find repulsive, but "wink" at other sins?  Do we explain away our own sins while strongly criticizing others for their sins?
And even more importantly, do we devalue some people because of their particular sins?
Give it some thought.

It's all wrong

Everything is wrong and nothing seems to be done about it.  Obviously I am speaking metaphorically, but the general point stands.  I can only speak for what I see in America, but considering the influence and power that America holds, this is a pretty big deal.
The America dream. That of comfort, ease and wealth, has infiltrated and now controls everyone's thinking.  From birth, through school, through our days working and into retirement, the focus is on getting lots of money, entertaining ourselves and being comfortable.  We strive after pretty things, after distraction and after ease.  This is what motivates the entire clothing, music, movie and technology industries.
In raising our children, we push them to get a good education so they can make a lot of money so they can be comfortable and well off.
It seems as if we are willing to take on the appearance of American evangelicalism and be nice, thinking this is all that is required of us.
Personally, I need someone motivating, challenging and confronting me for the weaknesses, the sins, and the inconsistencies in my life.
How can we honestly do any less?

Practical valuation

Every so often, and it seems to be of increasing frequency, I have the urge to move to Russia and get away from western society.  Of course, I realize that everyone has their sins, that every culture deals with (or ignores) their sinful predispositions, but western culture, I believe is so subversive, that I am seriously driven to get away from it.
So the question that comes up at this point is this.  If it is valuable to mold ones life to turn away from sin, to seek after holiness and to love God with all of ones self, then the flip side would be true as well.  The culture in which we live here in America does not encourage us to holiness.  In fact, it does the exact opposite, that is, be comfortable and be distracted.
So if we truly value holiness, should we not do what we must to gain it?

The big picture

Every so often, I'll dip my toe into the world of big brother government conspiracy.  Tri-lateral Commission, Bilderberger, Illuminati etc kind of central banking, world control kind of stuff.  The validity of all this stuff, the allegations and various proofs, are much to be debated.  That is not the point of this blog. 
Here are my thoughts: it should come as no surprise that those people with lots of money are also seeking after power.  It should also come as no surprise that the masses are more than happy to be distracted by temporal pleasures.  Everyone has their own circle of life that they live out and control.  It may be that there are very powerful world leaders, elected and unelected, that are manipulating events and people in order to gain more money and power.  But ultimately there will be a final judgment.  We have our own lives for which we are responsible and there are global situations over which we have no control.  The things over which we are responsible are the things we will have to answer for. 
While it may be interesting to look into the conspiracy type of secrets, our responsibility is our own holiness and to love God and neighbor.  If we fail in these, we have completely missed the goal.  Loving neighbor should involve doing what we can to protect the innocent from perpetrators, which certainly can include big government.  But we shouldn't lose sight of the ultimate big picture.  God is in control and world events are not dictated by the whims of the wicked.  Everyone has their free will and sometimes we all suffer for the actions of others. But being focused on the eternal rather than the temporal will keep our lives in order.

A metaphor

Reality is like a visit to the Louvre in Paris.  Non religious people are like those who walk by the grand glass pyramid and no longer see it.  Non Christians are those people standing in line but refusing to pay the entrance fee.  Protestants are visitors who hang out in the bathroom, marveling at the glories therein and debating art theory.  Roman Catholics are like the guards in the security office, catching occasional glimpses of the art.  Eastern Orthodox are the museum patrons exploring and receiving guided tours through the various branches of the museum.