Awesome essay. I was moved by your reference to the flaming sword propelling us forward, not our individual plans or desires. Isn't it remarkable that the promise of faith is found in both Deuteronomy 31:8 and Mark 16:7-8? It is the Lord who goes before us; thus, life is the call to discipleship. It is no longer a sword forcing us forward (which is really what progressivism offers: a relentless goading into the future), but the loving Savior inviting us. We don't know where we are going, and yet, in spite of that, He invites us to follow Him. Thank you for this great work.
“Knights of Raymond Chandler’s detective stories.”—Spencer
But if you want the best dialog of those knightly—er, detective—virtues, it has to be Elmore Leonard. 🤔
I’ve seen Crusaders, as well, but they’re really just knights with a holy purpose. Every SEAL I’ve listened to has either gone into war with Christ, or found Him.
Eddie Penney, perhaps the meanest, toughest SEAL from Gold Squadron (commonly called Team 6), the Navy’s most elite unit among the already-elite SEALs, loved killing bad guys. He LOVED it. He called himself, and his comrades, Crusaders, because of the evil he saw in the culture he fought, the things they did to their enemies, to their own boys. But after many events—too many to all be coincidences—he let Christ lead him and started writing about his experiences. And when he heard from a vet, who had been about to take his own life, only to be stopped by the word he’d read, Eddie found he loved saving lives even more than taking them.
You should have seen me, as I listened to him tell his tale. He had me—and himself—all weepy-eyed through much of it. But it’s SO good to see men of iron turning to Christ. 🙏🏻✝️
Being one who wishes we could go back, (I wanted to be Laura Ingalls when I grew up, and live in a log cabin on the prairie) this all makes so much sense. I feel the awful angst of the world moving forward in not-so-healthy ways and I want to fight it and hang onto something I know we're losing. Your post, combined with my morning scripture readings, which included the poetic grief of Job, remind me that it really is that our art and effort should point to the world that is greater than all we see and hear with our physical eyes and ears. I personally will choose paper and pencil, piano and human voice, however it comes out. But others may choose electronic modes. It is only important that we seek and glorify Him whose glory is an outpouring of Love and Joy towards us. He who rejoices over us with singing. Point this flailing desperate generation to the One who is greater and beyond us and who accomplishes His will in all of this so called progress.
Ask anyone who has opinions that diverge from tubes sensors, or those who publish and then you see one of the flaws in YouTube videos. The Daily Wire gets censored and demonetized routinely. There’s also a power in the written word that just doesn’t come across in videos and visual Formats. I absolutely love video formats and audio formats as well, but I always go back to reading. There is something about a well written and edited and reworked story that just is not the same as all the “spontaneity“ that you see on YouTube. It is diverting and sometimes interesting. However, the point is well taken but for me, I love the written word. For others, they are compelled to write, but would never be caught dead making a video or even doing a podcast.
The image of the Angel facing away from the future and just seeing the destruction in the wake of the future while being propelled towards it is how many of us lead our lives. Those with no hope, no belief in an afterlife, in a loving God, and trying to become their own god will suffer the fate of this Angel. A great propulsion toward euthanasia/Assisted Suicide is just that; when the life one has envisioned for oneself is no longer attainable, there is nothing further to be gained, so stage-producing their taking leave of life is all that is left. Many of the other supposed benefits (avoidance of pain, etc) actually ranks far lower than loss of autonomy or becoming a burden to others. I believe that bearing that dependency with good will is a grace to those who will care for you when you need it, and is a good definition of the eternal question “Who is my neighbor?” Those near who need your help or services, whether compensated (professional care; it can be given grudgingly or beautifully) or through love (friend, loved one or just someone who needs the help).
Regarding the caller who asked why such stories are no longer being written, I believe they are. They just are not being picked up by major publishing houses. Klavan the Elder speaks of how hard it is to break into the writing business, and it is far worse than it was 50 years ago. There is a wealth of great fiction that never sees the light of day outside of self-publishing; some of it builds on a previously constructed framework (fan fiction; it is not all “Harry and Ron are secret lovers” dreck) or original work, but it is difficult to find as there is a lot to wade through. However, occasionally great works do escape into the publishing houses. Tolkien and Lewis both have excellent works, and Lewis’ That Hideous Strength pops to mind. I wonder how many works were written or told about that never made it past the Middle Ages; we have the filter of time to keep the most compelling stories. It is also an error to believe ourselves more sophisticated than those who lived in the Stone Age or Bronze Age. I for one would not want to have a throw down verbally with Socrates, for instance. Since H. Sapiens appeared our thinking and belief systems have become more sophisticated at times, certainly our ability to govern ourselves, but our reasoning abilities are much the same as those who lived 10,000 years ago or 100,000 years ago.
I like to remember what movies were like in the early ‘70s. Misery and drudgery as far as the eye could see. Gritty, ugly, and anything but uplifting. Suddenly fantasy and science fiction appeared as well as a fairy tale and farce (Mel Brooks, early Lucas and Spielberg, and Stallone) and movies were fun again for a while, but then they became too jaded, and many of these early escapes turned to drudgery or hectoring. We are capable of great and uplifting stories but the public loses its taste for them or those who control the spigots of mass publication decide that we need something else.
Maybe that’s why Substack and all the other self-publishing venues are here now. Thank God for it.
We’re also in a great shift in media technology. Who cares about “publishing” when you can narrate your work for YouTube? Plenty of vids have **millions** of views.
A book is one technology, a movie is another, tiktok is a third, and YouTube is a fourth. Reach the people and you’re in business.
The only going back I can by choice and faith assent to is returning to God: tried and tested, prepared for eternity, cleansed and redeemed through Christ and no other way, qualified to sit down with all the Holy Beings and go no more out. It will take more then one life-time as vital as this one earthy time is to set direction and choose our King. All the old glories are waiting in the promise of immortal glory if we don’t muff it now. Good to hear others out there singing the same tune.
I’m glad you made the point about the angel of history being an angel of destruction.
I’ve come to the realization that I don’t really care about history. Especially as a Jew, I find it hard to be jazzed about any era without standing on a heap of lies and dead bodies.
Fiction for me does the trick. With a made-up story, the author can nod to the horrific world and still commune with the reader in a good feeling, admit the chaos out there and still find hope in the little good things we do.
Just as God called Abraham "to a land that I WILL show you," we surrender and follow our Lord into a foggy future, feeling powerless to change things, but confident of Who is truly in control, no matter how dismal things seem. "So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." II Cor. 4:18
"This week on my podcast a listener asked, a little sadly I thought, why we can’t seem to write Arthurian legends and fairytales in the innocent primary colors of Medieval Christendom. My answer was the one we’ve been moving toward: humanity has grown and changed over centuries, until the spiky particulars of our individuality no longer fit so perfectly into the smooth molds cast for us by our heroic ancestors."
That Hideous Strength C.S Lewis
“Have you ever noticed,” said Dimble, “that the universe, and every little bit of the universe, is always hardening and narrowing and coming to a point?”His wife waited as those wait who know by long experience the mental processes of the person who is talking to them.“I mean this,” said Dimble in answer to the question she had not asked. “If you dip into any college, or school, or parish, or family — anything you like — at a given point in its history, you always find that there was a time before that point when there was more elbow room and contrasts weren’t quite so sharp; and that there’s going to be a time after that point when there is even less room for indecision and choices are even more momentous. Good is always getting better and bad is always getting worse: the possibilities of even apparent neutrality are always diminishing. The whole thing is sorting itself out all the time, coming to a point, getting sharper and harder.
Awesome essay. I was moved by your reference to the flaming sword propelling us forward, not our individual plans or desires. Isn't it remarkable that the promise of faith is found in both Deuteronomy 31:8 and Mark 16:7-8? It is the Lord who goes before us; thus, life is the call to discipleship. It is no longer a sword forcing us forward (which is really what progressivism offers: a relentless goading into the future), but the loving Savior inviting us. We don't know where we are going, and yet, in spite of that, He invites us to follow Him. Thank you for this great work.
“Knights of Raymond Chandler’s detective stories.”—Spencer
But if you want the best dialog of those knightly—er, detective—virtues, it has to be Elmore Leonard. 🤔
I’ve seen Crusaders, as well, but they’re really just knights with a holy purpose. Every SEAL I’ve listened to has either gone into war with Christ, or found Him.
Eddie Penney, perhaps the meanest, toughest SEAL from Gold Squadron (commonly called Team 6), the Navy’s most elite unit among the already-elite SEALs, loved killing bad guys. He LOVED it. He called himself, and his comrades, Crusaders, because of the evil he saw in the culture he fought, the things they did to their enemies, to their own boys. But after many events—too many to all be coincidences—he let Christ lead him and started writing about his experiences. And when he heard from a vet, who had been about to take his own life, only to be stopped by the word he’d read, Eddie found he loved saving lives even more than taking them.
Well that choked me up. Thank you for sharing.🙏🏻
You should have seen me, as I listened to him tell his tale. He had me—and himself—all weepy-eyed through much of it. But it’s SO good to see men of iron turning to Christ. 🙏🏻✝️
Being one who wishes we could go back, (I wanted to be Laura Ingalls when I grew up, and live in a log cabin on the prairie) this all makes so much sense. I feel the awful angst of the world moving forward in not-so-healthy ways and I want to fight it and hang onto something I know we're losing. Your post, combined with my morning scripture readings, which included the poetic grief of Job, remind me that it really is that our art and effort should point to the world that is greater than all we see and hear with our physical eyes and ears. I personally will choose paper and pencil, piano and human voice, however it comes out. But others may choose electronic modes. It is only important that we seek and glorify Him whose glory is an outpouring of Love and Joy towards us. He who rejoices over us with singing. Point this flailing desperate generation to the One who is greater and beyond us and who accomplishes His will in all of this so called progress.
Ask anyone who has opinions that diverge from tubes sensors, or those who publish and then you see one of the flaws in YouTube videos. The Daily Wire gets censored and demonetized routinely. There’s also a power in the written word that just doesn’t come across in videos and visual Formats. I absolutely love video formats and audio formats as well, but I always go back to reading. There is something about a well written and edited and reworked story that just is not the same as all the “spontaneity“ that you see on YouTube. It is diverting and sometimes interesting. However, the point is well taken but for me, I love the written word. For others, they are compelled to write, but would never be caught dead making a video or even doing a podcast.
The image of the Angel facing away from the future and just seeing the destruction in the wake of the future while being propelled towards it is how many of us lead our lives. Those with no hope, no belief in an afterlife, in a loving God, and trying to become their own god will suffer the fate of this Angel. A great propulsion toward euthanasia/Assisted Suicide is just that; when the life one has envisioned for oneself is no longer attainable, there is nothing further to be gained, so stage-producing their taking leave of life is all that is left. Many of the other supposed benefits (avoidance of pain, etc) actually ranks far lower than loss of autonomy or becoming a burden to others. I believe that bearing that dependency with good will is a grace to those who will care for you when you need it, and is a good definition of the eternal question “Who is my neighbor?” Those near who need your help or services, whether compensated (professional care; it can be given grudgingly or beautifully) or through love (friend, loved one or just someone who needs the help).
Regarding the caller who asked why such stories are no longer being written, I believe they are. They just are not being picked up by major publishing houses. Klavan the Elder speaks of how hard it is to break into the writing business, and it is far worse than it was 50 years ago. There is a wealth of great fiction that never sees the light of day outside of self-publishing; some of it builds on a previously constructed framework (fan fiction; it is not all “Harry and Ron are secret lovers” dreck) or original work, but it is difficult to find as there is a lot to wade through. However, occasionally great works do escape into the publishing houses. Tolkien and Lewis both have excellent works, and Lewis’ That Hideous Strength pops to mind. I wonder how many works were written or told about that never made it past the Middle Ages; we have the filter of time to keep the most compelling stories. It is also an error to believe ourselves more sophisticated than those who lived in the Stone Age or Bronze Age. I for one would not want to have a throw down verbally with Socrates, for instance. Since H. Sapiens appeared our thinking and belief systems have become more sophisticated at times, certainly our ability to govern ourselves, but our reasoning abilities are much the same as those who lived 10,000 years ago or 100,000 years ago.
I like to remember what movies were like in the early ‘70s. Misery and drudgery as far as the eye could see. Gritty, ugly, and anything but uplifting. Suddenly fantasy and science fiction appeared as well as a fairy tale and farce (Mel Brooks, early Lucas and Spielberg, and Stallone) and movies were fun again for a while, but then they became too jaded, and many of these early escapes turned to drudgery or hectoring. We are capable of great and uplifting stories but the public loses its taste for them or those who control the spigots of mass publication decide that we need something else.
Maybe that’s why Substack and all the other self-publishing venues are here now. Thank God for it.
We’re also in a great shift in media technology. Who cares about “publishing” when you can narrate your work for YouTube? Plenty of vids have **millions** of views.
A book is one technology, a movie is another, tiktok is a third, and YouTube is a fourth. Reach the people and you’re in business.
The only going back I can by choice and faith assent to is returning to God: tried and tested, prepared for eternity, cleansed and redeemed through Christ and no other way, qualified to sit down with all the Holy Beings and go no more out. It will take more then one life-time as vital as this one earthy time is to set direction and choose our King. All the old glories are waiting in the promise of immortal glory if we don’t muff it now. Good to hear others out there singing the same tune.
I’m glad you made the point about the angel of history being an angel of destruction.
I’ve come to the realization that I don’t really care about history. Especially as a Jew, I find it hard to be jazzed about any era without standing on a heap of lies and dead bodies.
Fiction for me does the trick. With a made-up story, the author can nod to the horrific world and still commune with the reader in a good feeling, admit the chaos out there and still find hope in the little good things we do.
Just as God called Abraham "to a land that I WILL show you," we surrender and follow our Lord into a foggy future, feeling powerless to change things, but confident of Who is truly in control, no matter how dismal things seem. "So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." II Cor. 4:18
"This week on my podcast a listener asked, a little sadly I thought, why we can’t seem to write Arthurian legends and fairytales in the innocent primary colors of Medieval Christendom. My answer was the one we’ve been moving toward: humanity has grown and changed over centuries, until the spiky particulars of our individuality no longer fit so perfectly into the smooth molds cast for us by our heroic ancestors."
That Hideous Strength C.S Lewis
“Have you ever noticed,” said Dimble, “that the universe, and every little bit of the universe, is always hardening and narrowing and coming to a point?”His wife waited as those wait who know by long experience the mental processes of the person who is talking to them.“I mean this,” said Dimble in answer to the question she had not asked. “If you dip into any college, or school, or parish, or family — anything you like — at a given point in its history, you always find that there was a time before that point when there was more elbow room and contrasts weren’t quite so sharp; and that there’s going to be a time after that point when there is even less room for indecision and choices are even more momentous. Good is always getting better and bad is always getting worse: the possibilities of even apparent neutrality are always diminishing. The whole thing is sorting itself out all the time, coming to a point, getting sharper and harder.
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BTW if you have not read That Hideous Strength C.S Lewis, do yourself a BIG Favor.
That Hideous Strength Audiobook
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9twXwR1vZ50