Character Is Holiness

Oklahoma is where I was born, and where I live now. In the southwestern part of our state, the streams and rivers run clear; everywhere else they run shades of dark red mostly. In the southwest corner of our state, the primary geological feature is granite. Water running across granite carries away precious little. The granite has character, a solid presence which is unaltered by anything but vast quantities of time. In very many ways, character and convictions are inextricably linked. To have one is to have the other.

Let me reiterate how theology is a human attempt to define the ineffable. The word “define” means to set limits, but God knows no limits; we do. Thus, theology is not really the study of God, but the study of what we can say about God. The foundation of theology is not objective truth, but your response to God’s ineffable touch. Academic attempts to establish and enunciate an objective body of truth are mostly academic, and do not lend themselves well to reality. Reality is building from yourself.

I am not my favorite topic. I am not the center of the universe. God is my topic, and I am a prophet called of God. This is hardly the thing of which I dreamed; I never aspired to it. What I wanted in my youth was to be the bigshot pastor of a big church. I could do it, but not without compromising my character. My understanding of my calling was essentially correct, but my contextual understanding was wrong. I was not called to pastor, but to manage, to be an elder. That’s what most pastors do these days, and precious few actually carry out the shepherding of souls very well. As an elder I teach a great deal, but I don’t do much shepherding. On the other hand, I am called to prophesy.

This prophet’s focus is on the meaning of God’s Laws. Our modern Western society is utterly foreign to God’s Laws, and they to it. The West will never be reformed; it will only be destroyed, and as a prophet I warn you that will come soon. I am a radical. Let’s get back to the roots and build a fresh society, and a fresh religion. Let’s build a living, breathing theology by first casting aside the blindness of Western Civilization. We need to observe how things actually work in the real world, and decide how we will respond based on God’s revelation.

It can be any academic topic you choose. Today I’ll pick something we can run through the filters of God’s Laws and create a theology of something. I’ll pick as an example The 16 Commandments of Poon. Roissy’s motives in writing this list are quite different from mine, but the basic facts of human nature are the same. I have no interest in being an Alpha Male, nor the rewards of it. I’m not trying to cultivate the desire of women nor the admiration of men. I’m trying to make my God the center of attention. I want to see men strong enough to serve God. My own list I’ll call the Principles of Spiritual Manhood, and I don’t need 16 points to cover it.

Our assumptions about romance is the part it plays in the life of someone with a mission from God. Some of these are a reaction to Roissy’s list, and some affirm parts of it. Ordinary women and their charms aren’t worth the time or trouble. For a man with a divine mission, finding one who is worth it requires not catering to the herd.

1. You’ve got better things to do than chase women. Make them chase you. Any woman worth having will regard you as her mission. She’ll be ready and willing to sacrifice everything else women typically want in this world to be with you. Otherwise, you can live without her.

2. Be faithful, but not fawning. A woman who needs to feel jealous in order to stay interested is not worth having. Let her see you enjoy the attention of other women, but feel secure that it means nothing in the long run, that you are too cynical about anyone trying to suck up to you.

3. Let her have her way when it doesn’t impact the mission. A woman will always be a woman, and you will always be a man. You can afford be very generous because all those small things that tickle her allow her to exercise her own character.

4. You don’t have all the answers, nor need to have them. When the time comes, you’ll know what you have to do. Don’t let her press you to commit to some path you aren’t sure will enhance your mission. Stay away from making promises which aren’t derived from your faith. Let things ride, not because you’re too lazy to think it through, but because there’s not enough data. Be honest; hide nothing which affects her, including variables of which you are aware. If she needs silly head games, she isn’t worth the trouble.

5. You may be awesome, but you are not perfect. When you make a mistake, own it and clean it the mess. Don’t fall all over yourself trying to make it all better, nor be grouchy about it. Never let your mistakes take on any emotional significance. Laugh at yourself, then leave it behind you.

6. Connect with her emotions. Roissy gets this one right (his number IX).

7. Physical beauty is a liar. Never evaluate any woman based on her looks and your hormonal response. That part of you should have no vote, no voice in any decision. You can’t afford the moral costs of handling this Roissy’s way, so just teach yourself to trash the entire concept.

8. Faith is the victory. You have a mission from God; if that does not provide enough confidence, you aren’t a man yet. Faith is not rational; otherwise it would not be faith. You win every time because you are committed, and your own feeble abilities were never the question in the first place. It’s all about God’s power. Whether it be to make things work or to make you bear up under failure, it’s still more power than you deserve to taste.

9. Don’t get distracted. Lots of things will tug at your human desires, tastes, interests, etc. Indulge them when they are not a violation of your convictions and your mission. God lets us play with toys, but don’t ever forget what your calling is. The same goes for when she is having some insecurities. Address the insecurity, not the way in which she communicates it.

10. Celebrate like it’s time for Jesus to come back. Making love is a form or celebration, celebrating the vast riches of God who granted such a full measure of fellowship and oneness on this earth. But this is simply an extension of the basic principle that joy knows no bounds, and there very well may be no tomorrow, so when your spirit tells your mind it’s time to make merry, do so with appropriate abandon. Resources are provided by God to be used, so if celebrating is right, then do it right.

(This post in part one of two, and continues here.)