Proper?

I have written before about how, regardless of our intent, our appearance communicates a message to those around us.  And that message is defined by the culture in which we live.  Thus it is our responsibility to try to make that message as honest and accurate as possible. 
The question came to mind, what is the "proper, young man"?  What message is being communicated by the young man who looks "proper"?  There is a look that young men can carry that communicates a sense of proper and nice.  The kind of guy a parent would want to meet.  But what kind of person is that?
Coming from an Orthodox perspective, I would suggest that, while this "proper" look is not negative, it is contrary to the Orthodox faith.  "Proper" usually carries with it the attribute of "successful" in a worldly, temporal sense.  The American dream and the Protestant work ethic have created a culture that, albeit prosperous, is very worldly.  The proper, young man is very temporally focused.
So the next question, what does a spiritual minded Orthodox youth look like?  This is worth pondering, as we are raising up the next generation.  And the culture around is doing a very poor job.

Experience

Over the past while, I've been reading about DMT, a relatively new, hallucinogenic drug that is quite popular right now.  The thing that is so intriguing about this stuff is the subtitle, "the spirit molecule."  It is strongly suggested/believed in the DMT circles that the ingestion of this naturally occurring drug opens one up to a different reality.  It is suggested that the drug reveals the foundational, universal reality behind and beneath the visual, temporal reality in which we currently live.
While I am not going to go into the validity of this argument, I do want to explore the idea of this experience.  There are many experiences that occur across the board.  So it is suggested that the experiences that people have are actually an objective reality. 
My question is this: in the living out of an experience like this, upon what do we base our interpretation of those experiences?  Because the things being experienced are from a different reality, we have nothing to which to compare them.  This is the real danger.  Because we are talking about a non temporal (spiritual) experience, the potential for deception is very high.  And beings or entities that one may meet in this kind of experience are going to be safe or dangerous.  They will be honest or they will lie.  And how can we know to trust them or not?  From a Christian perspective, one must presume that these beings are malevolent (demonic).
This is about presuppositions and worldview.  How do we interpret our experiences?

Sin leads to death

I am going to make an observation but am going to request that a particular truth be kept in mind.  Truth #1 - Jesus' death and resurrection defeated the power of sin and death.  Jesus now holds all authority.  With that in mind, consider now that sin leads to death.
Any time a person, a community or a culture turns away from God to anything else, be it deliberately sinful or simply self serving, they are turning to death.  So when we look at our own western culture, what do we see?  Even despite the Protestant foundations of this nation (some may say because of it), our nation is turning away from God.  This then means we are embracing death.  So the fact that our nation is becoming what it is, i.e., pro abortion, pro homosexuality, pro violence, selfishness, greed, etc., it should come as no surprise.
We have to expect that the USA will decline and fall only to be replaced by something else.  We have no way of knowing when this will happen or by what we will be replaced, but we can know that it will happen, for sin leads to death.

From physical to real

An intriguing and far reaching concept within covenantal theology is that of the difference between how God blessed his people under the old covenant versus his blessings upon them in the new covenant.
It looks like this: from the time of the fall of Adam until the resurrection of Jesus Christ, man was under the power of death and therefore had nothing to which to hope for after death.  Thus, all of the blessing which God could and did bestow upon the old covenant people were physical.  Even a brief preview of the Old Testament reveals this.  Every blessing for obedience was some form of physical: long life, many children, freedom in the land, protection from enemies, and health.  Of course, the curses for disobedience were the exact opposite, death, barrenness, eviction from the land, slavery and sickness.
But since the time of Jesus' resurrection/victory over death, the people of God (those in Jesus Christ, the church) are not limited to mere physical blessing.  We will have eternal life, free from the oppression of sin, and constant, perfect relationship with God and each other.  A review of the New Testament reveals this.  Paul often speaks of the troubles and trails through which we will pass, but these are exercises which prepare us for eternity.
Changing our mindset about this reality will put an entirely different perspective on how we live.

Self justification

It seems to me that people find ways to justify their beliefs, thoughts and actions so add to remain comfortable.  Most people don't like change.  Most people want to remain with what is familiar.  Thus they fabricate a reality based upon what they want to be real rather than on what is founded on objective truth.
Are we willing to face reality and change?

Definitions

All throughout our lives we are labeled, defined and formed by others.  The families into which we are born, that religious context, the culture, the country and the economic situations all form the way in which we think, even down to the presuppositional level.  All of these situations are foisted upon us without our consent or input.  At best, by the time we are reaching teen age, we may begin to question some of these things.
I believe that any and all thoughts, ideas, beliefs, culture and presuppositions should be questioned.  The great thing about truth is that truth is never afraid of any question.  This is great because any question will lead to truth, when rightly sought out and understood.  Question everything.  The right use of logic, with the right foundation, will lead to truth and in the truth is where we want to be.
If someone is honest, the right answers may be radically different than what we currently believe.  But if we are "actually" seeking truth, and belief change, even drastic, world shattering changes will be welcomed.
As a side note, I belief that any and all questions will only be answered rightly by the Orthodox church.  All truth leads to Jesus Christ as revealed by his church.

What sanctification means

A thought occurred to me concerning how Protestants (myself included in the past) define what sanctification means.  Our thoughts so often have been controlled by the American/Protestant work ethic.  The rationale for the beginnings of America were initially formed around religious freedom (i.e., the state/a governing body should not control how we worship God).  The Protestants, in response to Roman Catholic abuses, fled from hierarchy to form their own independent republic.  One very clear part of that freedom included an ethic to create a productive, creative, ever successful culture.  One merely has to look at the technological advances that were made in the United States from 1776 onward.

But this is not, at all, any part of the sanctification process, in fact, I would argue, contrary to it.  Sanctification is all about purification and repentance.  We are to turn away from things that are contrary to the Christian faith and renew our nous (mind/heart/thinking/attitudes/emotions).  The Protestant work ethic, on the other hand, is all about success and progress in things temporal.  It's about working hard and making progress so as to make life easier and more productive.  It is a drive toward ease and comfort.  

This thoughts needs more development.