Going Galt and Loving your Family

Watching the goings on in the world, I am more and more convinced that the only reasonable response that will ensure your family’s survival is to “Go Galt.” For those not familiar with the term, reference Atlas Shrugged, the prescient novel penned by Ayn Rand in 1957. While I take exception to many parts of her philosophy of Objectivism, replacing that with legitimate Judeo-Christian values makes the book work perfectly.

John Adams forecast that democracy would not survive; he was sadly correct. Our Constitutional government no longer operates as intended; we instead operate under an oligarchy. I do not bemoan this, but simply state it as a fact. Democratic government, or any form of government, I suppose, survive more than a handful of generations. Such is the plight of man, ever subject to the call of the flesh and self-satisfaction.

As a family, we are going to be exchanging letters sharing our love for each other. This is only possible with grown children, especially those with huge student loans. As I work on my letters, I keep straying to words of warning; my sage advice learned over 53 years. I refocus, however, to tell my grown children and wife how truly wonderful and special they are and how much I truly love them, with just a few words of fatherly or husbandly advice.

Back to the world, I leave it to others to sound the clarion call for now. We all suffer from cognitive dissonance, filtering out information that fails to match our preformed conclusions. I try not to do this, digging deeper for the facts, for source material, for opposing viewpoints. I unfortunately come back to the same place, we’re out of control and on the precipice of a global, social and economic collapse. Whether this is a year, five, or twenty from now, I do not know. I am convinced, however, that it is inevitable. Has this happened before? Certainly. Will we recover? In time. Will it happen again? Most assuredly.

So I return to the question of what’s most important in life, and how to prepare for the inevitability of what will come. First, you have to be right with God. I do not mean your personal interpretation of God, but the God of Issac, Abraham and Jacob, the triune God who is creator of the universe and who has a perfect plan for us, the God who is Love. Next, you need to protect yourself and your family; live away from large population centers and be as self-sufficient as possible.Third, or maybe this is 2a, you need to be brutally honest in assessing what you see, hear, and read. God gave you a mind, use it. Lastly, help your loved ones, friends, and community prepare for what is coming.

There are many resources available both online and in print. Seek them out. Use your mind. Realize that you may have been wrong. And as I used to say in project management, question all assumptions. In the mean time,

“The Lord bless you and keep you;

The Lord make His face shine upon you,

And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,

And give you peace.”

-Numbers 6:24-26

The World Cannot Explain the Things of God

We had a visitor to our bible study recently, “Tom,” who brought up challenges he was having with “really believing” in salvation, despite decades (he’s in his 50’s) of conversations with his parents, pastors, and others. The old adage of “no one is ever persuaded into salvation” is as valid when the conversations are with others as it is when you’re trying to work things out yourself. Tom had three main questions with which he was wrestling; trying to resolve the questions based on the logic of our temporal world with the result being there was no answer. 

We need to understand that while we exist physically in this world, God and his actions are supernatural, meaning beyond this world of nature, humans, and things of science. We can reason that in order to understand a math problem, you need to base your analysis on math; to understand the growth cycle of a plant, you need biology, and so on. It follows, then, that to understand things of God, our “analysis” has to be based on the supernatural or spiritual nature of God.

Tom’s concerns were threefold, first he questioned how the bible could be accurate having been translated for thousands of years in an untold number of languages. Second, he said he did not believe in the devil, hell, or how “good” people who were not Christians could be punished. Third, he questioned why God would allow some people from a catastrophe to survive while others perished. All of these are valid concerns and understandably unresolvable when your reasoning is based on things in our physical world. We have all played a game of telephone where you tell the first person something, they pass it on to the next, and so on. The result is usually morphing, “Snoopy is a beagle” to “Snoop-dog thinks he’s regal” or worse. Of his second concern, our natural reasoning would deny the existence of an unseen force, mysterious land of punishment, or capricious damnation by a “good king.” Likewise, how could a benevolent, all loving ruler allow people to perish when the calamity could have been prevented? 

Considering each of these questions from the perspective of how God does things, can give us a clear answer. The rub, as it is with all things spiritual, is that we are required to exercise some amount of faith; believing in things unseen. We can probably agree as a starting point, “for the sake of argument” that God operates in a way that is different from us. For this, I hope you will pardon a self-referential scripture. Isaiah 55:8-9, part of the Old Testament that has been faithfully copied for millennia, speaks to this, 

⁸ “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. ⁹ “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

How, indeed, then can we trust the accuracy of scripture? For centuries, people had the bible read to them since literacy was so low, and without a printing press, copies were rare. Further, how do we know that what the above says in English, is accurately conveyed in Russian, Mandarin, or Swahili? We know this, because the bible itself is not a comprehensive history of the world, but is God’s showing us how our relationship with Him is to be, what His nature is, and how He loves us. He conveys this accurately through prayer and the Holy Spirit. Building on our agreement that God is not like us, if we hold out the hope that His love is real, there must be a way for Him to communicate that love to us. God’s desire to show us His love, to make sure that His words (the Bible) are communicated accurately, is made possible by the work of His spirit, the Holy Spirit. There are volumes written on the Holy Spirit and how it works, but suffice to say it is the main way in which God communicates with and through us. So by the influence of the Holy Spirit, we have the “inspired” word of God, regardless of how it is copied or in which language it is read. Many times we will read a verse of scripture and understand something about, only to return to that same passage at a later time, and have a different and deeper understanding of those same words. This is the work of the Holy Spirit revealing God to us through the written word.

Questions of the devil, hell, and “good people” being punished are topics that would be covered at length on their own. Taken individually, the devil makes his first appearance early in Genesis as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, he is active and called out in various names throughout the old and New Testament, specifically having dialog with Jesus in the desert, and addressed in detail in Revelations. From beginning to end, the Bible talks about the devil and what he does. Hell and the issue of “good people” can be addressed together. Let’s start by asking what makes someone a good person? You might answer love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, or any number of other positive characteristics. But these are all based on things that people could do towards others in our physical existence. So we reword the question and ask, how God defines a “good person.” We arrive at a different answer; the characteristics we just described are indeed part of it, but they exist because we worship God and proclaim him Lord of our lives. When we worship God, acknowledging his supreme diety, and proclaim him Lord, committing to do what He directs us to do, not what we want to do, the same characteristics happen. But these actions are out of reverence and obedience to God, not our own intentions. 

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Galatians 5.22-23

This preceding passage, more fully read as the entire chapter of Galatians 5, where the Bible talks about how all of these things occur as a result of the liberty that find in doing what Christ (God) guides us to do.

The last concern that Tom voiced, was how God could allow bad things to happen. Examples he gave were mudslides, tsunamis, and war. God is all about our choosing to worship Him and call him Lord. Satan, in fact, was cast out of heaven because he wanted to force all humans to worship God. God created the heavens and the earth, he has influenced and guided people to do this or that, but He has never forced people to worship. [A quick aside on the creation story; we have the “Big Bang Theory” which in fact is the start of the Bible in Genesis, “In the beginning, God created…” Bang. An essay for another time will address evolution as the growth of species, versus Evolution (capital E) as a ‘scientific religion.’] The story repeated throughout the Bible is one of God giving guidance, and people rebelling against it. With this choice, both bad and good things happen. God does not micro-manage all of creation. If God were to control every instance of nature in the world He created, it would be in opposition to the free will that He has given to all of us. Again, we have the nature of God and his relationship to man evidenced through consistency of His actions.

So where did this leave Tom? As he left the bible study, he said, “I have been searching for a church and answers in my home town (a city of almost 1.5 million) for twenty years, and never got solid answers like I did tonight. You’ve given me a lot to think about.” My response was, “Thank you, and I’m sorry that you didn’t find your answers sooner.” I don’t know that Tom is fully satisfied with the answers to his questions, but I know for certain that he was never before presented with a different way of considering how to get his answers. God is before, beyond, and after us. His ways are not our ways, so we can not expect to get answers to things pertaining to Him, without evaluating them in His context.

Goats and Lepers

We received a note card from someone in our former congregation over the weekend. What she wrote brought tears and anger to both Leonora and me. This lady, we’ll call her Mary, can be difficult to deal with. She has some emotional/mental health issues that result in her being much more persistent in asking for what she wants; she can come across as accusatory, and her approach to people is generally direct and without social niceties. That being said, she is very kind, extremely giving, and has a gift of discernment about people through the Holy Spirit that she does not realize. She is on permanent disability, and lives well below the poverty level.

Since God sent us out of California to our new mission field, Mary has been attending a church near her home. One I know well that had extended space to our congregation without charge. However, Mary’s approach has nearly worn out her welcome. Recently, her rent has been increased 35%; we all know grocery prices are up over 20% since the beginning of the year, but her income remains the same. She went to the church to ask for help and was told [paraphrasing,] “We’ve helped you a lot; we’re not doing any more, so stop bothering us.” In honesty, they have helped out financially from time to time, and with rides to the store on many occasions. But can we ever help those in need too much? How can someone in need be a burden on an active congregation? The answer simply, is that the church is functioning IN the world, taking the label of Christian, without have actions that are the result of inwardly being true disciples acting as the Body of Christ within their community.

Mary, for all of her outward appearances and actions, is a social leper. No one really wants to be around her, for fear they will catch the judgment of society as they see her interactions. It’s important to recall how Christ dealt with lepers; he healed them.

² And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” ³ Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.  (Matthew 8.2-3)

¹² Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. ¹³ And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” ¹⁴ So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed.  (Luke 17.12-14)

Is this congregation treating the leper in their midst as Christ did? Or are they responding as most of the world does, crossing to the other side of the road. I’m afraid for the congregation; God is giving them every opportunity to be sheep, yet through their attitudes and actions they are acting like goats.

³² All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. ³³ And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. ³⁴ Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: ³⁵ for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; ³⁶ I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
 
…

⁴⁴ “Then they also will answer Him saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ ⁴⁵ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ ⁴⁶ And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”  (Matthew 25.32-36, 44-46)

What will happen on the day of judgment to those in the congregation who Mary made uncomfortable with her social leprosy, who asked for help with food and drink, acted as a stranger, was imprisoned with her mental illness, and needed ministering and love? Will they be judged sheep to sit at the right hand of Christ in eternal life, or goats sent to everlasting punishment?

God’s mercy is without limit, until the time has come when our actions and intentions are judged. I urge you to reflect on those who make you uncomfortable, who have needs that are unmet; are you acting as a disciple of Christ, or are you acting according to the rules and norms of the world?

Reverting to the Norm is going to hurt.

Over the last 200 years, the world has seen a great blip of wealth, health, and productivity that cannot be sustained. We have seen over centuries that nature will balance itself. If populations become too dense, disease will level them out. Lies will catch up to you one way or another. Morals may ebb and flow but for societies that survive, they always return to Judeo-Christian values. And over time, everything reverts to the statistical mean. No matter what you consider for ups and downs, growth and decline, there is a normal level that will always be the truth. All of this proves that while we may have a vision of our current prosperity, problems, morals and opportunities that is seen through the lens of our own experience; the further you move out from current times and events, more clearly we can see the picture of our own place on the course of human existence.

Most of you reading this know that I am an Orthodox Priest, and I know that there are biblical precepts and truths that have been violated over and over again, leading us to this point. But those are topics for other essays dealing with love, truth, and honesty. I’d also add that this is a blog post, and while I have researched and verified everything that is presented, I am leaving footnotes and references for later publication. You can search the internet for yourself, the NSA will think you’re really smart.

We are on the cusp of a grand change in the world. The two great political experiments of our time, democracy and communism, have failed.  Communism has failed because it is immoral to forcibly take “everything” from a man and share it with everyone else. The other failing of communism is that you cannot centrally plan things as complex and dynamic as a society and economy. In reality, communism is just a “feel good” face that is put on a system that keeps an oligarchy in power with special privileges, while forcing everyone one else to live at a subsistence level. As communism devolved in the Soviet Union, China and other countries, the political systems became decentralized, but still with a central, unifying government, whether it is official or not. Communist economies mutated into a variety of small businesses; large, resource and production oriented businesses, and crime syndicates. The devolution of democracy has followed the same path, although somewhat in the opposite direction. With both of these political and social experiments, the end result will be somewhere in the middle; a government that tries to control through laws, taxes, and force being opposed by small businesses that operate “under the radar,” large businesses that comply, and black market enterprises that operate in violation of the laws, taxes, and force.

The world’s economy has also developed in an unsustainable way because of cheap energy. Coal, oil and natural gas, the fuel of the industrial revolution and certainly the last century allowed business to leverage a man’s effort through the use of machines. However, the greatest growth was in the first half of the 20^th century when crude oil was $20 per barrel (inflation adjusted) versus almost $100 per barrel today. The financial justification for using fossil fuels at $20 per barrel, is much different than if it cost five times as much. By comparison, if the car you purchase to get to work (that’s your production) costs $200 per month to operate, would you choose the same care if it cost you $1,000 per month to get to work? I’m not going to address “alternative energy” except to note that of all the energy consumed in the world, only 2% is from renewable sources. It is completely unrealistic to think that we can replace the other 98% of worldwide energy from these same sources; the leverage to produce equivalent BTUs or KwH just isn’t there. Combine the increasing cost of fossil fuels, the increasing cost to extract them from the ground, and limited supply (production peaked several years ago) and we can see that fossil fuels will be going away. This means that the costs of production for products, electricity, heat, gasoline, diesel, are also going to be adversely affected by both cost and availability.

As a direct result of greed, and organizations not wanting to face their true insolvency, the derivatives markets were created. In short, derivatives are financial agreements between two parties where each is betting on an interest rate, credit default rate, or return on investment going one way or another. They are contracts where one party agrees to pay the other party money if they are wrong. By definition, these contracts will balance out; if one party gains, another party loses. The problem is these are contracts based on future events, with no real value as collateral. Where there is collateral, it is in the neighborhood of 1-2% of the contract’s value. Parties to these derivatives are every single bank, insurance company, investment brokerage, pension fund, and commodity firm in the entire world. Let me say that another way, if an organization deals in a financial market, it has exposure in the derivative market. As inflation increases, governments default on debts, mortgage backed securities are found to have no value, and financial markets fall, these contracts will have to be settled. The value of all these derivative contracts worldwide is USD 1,200,000,000,000,000 (one point two quadrillion dollars.) So when all of these are settled, half will have to be paid, or USD 600,000,000,000,000 (600 trillion dollars.) To put this in perspective, Gross Domestic Product, the value of ALL goods and services produced, in the entire world is 50 trillion dollars per year, or 1/12 the settlement value. If we were to imagine this being settled, it means that everything produced on the planet for 12 years would have to go towards paying these debts, not a single dollar, pound, or Euro for food, heat, medical care, wages, nothing. It is an impossible situation. Wait you say, what about all the money in the world. Thank you for asking, the value of all currency in the world as of 2012, is about $2 trillion US dollars, 1/300 of the amount needed. But, what about gold? The value of all the gold every mined in the world since the beginning of recorded history is estimated at $8 trillion US dollars. There is only one way that these accounts can be settled, and that is a complete reset on the world economy where no country, bank, pension or person owes any other a single cent. All financial instruments are dissolved, accounts zeroed out, and the only thing left of value are the physical assets that are possessed. There is no other way, and the value of all these financial organizations and accounts are based on the value of these fictitious derivatives contracts.

The decline does not happen all at once, but is unraveling as you read this. If we consider that the value of currency and promises (pension funds, welfare, retirement, etc.) is going to revert to zero, the only things of value are those you can touch. If industrial production is based on leveraging energy, and the energy is going away, production will have to be based on our individual efforts. There are those who say that the collapse will be catastrophic and sudden; like the doomsday preppers who look like idiots on television. Things could decline suddenly, but history shows that decline takes years, perhaps even a generation.

So what do you do? You plan for eventualities, and continue with your life. My wife and I have moved to an agricultural valley in the Rocky Mountains where we grow much of our own food, and have enough room for the entire family should things go quickly. My daughter is a teacher, and my son is studying marine biology. Will they instantly become unemployed or unemployable? No. Will my daughter have the teacher’s retirement she’s been promised? My guess is either no, or it will be a far cry from what was in her contract. Will my son be able to find work? Probably, his specialty is aquaculture; growing food. However, I would encourage both of them to live in an area where they can afford to buy (and own) a place with enough land for them to grow their own food. Live frugally, drive older cars in good condition, stay healthy, and question everything. Above all, know that God loves you, His word, the Bible tells you everything about how societies should operate, and we have an eternal place in heaven, regardless of what happens in the world around us.

Heading to Wyoming

Some of you know, and others are just finding out with this letter, that we are moving to Wyoming. This is not a decision made lightly, and much prayer has gone into it.

Several years ago, God started directing everything in our lives; it was clear that we were on a journey. Over the past ten years, David had been laid off three times in two years during the dot com bust, our car and home were broken into, an arson fire destroyed most of our “precious” things, we downsized from a house to an apartment, and David went back to school to be trained as a nurse. During that time as well, God has been more and more apparent in our lives to the point where David’s been ordained, we started a homeless ministry, bible study, and have held regular liturgical services.

Throughout these ten years, God had set on our hearts a couple of things. First, that we were on a journey, and He showed us that as we were obedient to Him, He would take care of all our needs; which he has done. Second, that our calling would be to teach and show discipleship to church communities; helping them to be the model of Christian communities in all things from prayer, to true love and support for one another, helping those in need, and developing community gardens to feed both church and community. The last part is an extension of the meals we do after every service and is something we started at our apartment complex. Further, that we would do this for a number of different churches and communities, not just build one big church. Third, was that after completing my RN and working for a year, the next step would be shown to us. Over the summer, we travelled to Oregon and Washington, looking around, meeting with bishops from our church, and the feeling we got, the advice we received, and the answers to our prayers was consistent; not now, not here, stay the course, you will both know when it is the right time and place. Next we visited Hawaii, met with another bishop, spent time with some other church workers, and the advice, and answer to prayers were the same; not now, not here, stay the course, you will both know when it is the right time and place.

This brings us to the end of November. For three years my sister has been asking us to visit her in Wyoming, look around, and interview. We finally did that the end of November. We spent five days in Wyoming; David interviewed, we socialized, and got to know the area a little more. Both of us are now at the point where we know that the time is now, Wyoming is the place, and we are continuing our course serving God there. The result of my interviews was a number of different job opportunities, an invitation to start a bible study/home church from an existing congregation, the location for a model community garden with willing workers, and the means to reach out to other communities through helping those in need.

It is amazing how God works, where His answers are always accompanied by a sense of peace, whether it is “no”, “not yet”, or “ yes.” To those we have been involved with in fellowship, continue loving one another, speaking the truth from the Gospel, and staying prayerful in all things. The church meetings, homeless meals and other things we have been involved with are not the result of our efforts; they are all the result of obedience to God’s direction. As Bishop John Stanley has said on many occasion, “If you’re willing, God will make you able.” We were simply willing, as we pray you will continue to be as well.

We have family and friends in the Bay Area, and our kids are in Southern California so we will be back to visit. We are not saying a final goodbye, but just a “see you later.” To all our friends, we will miss you, but know that God is calling us to Wyoming. If you are not part of our church family, please know that God loves you, cares for you, and has a plan for your life. Just ask Him about it.