Everything matters...to those who see with Heaven's eyes

I just hope I can state this one simply enough.

A few weeks ago I was back in Georgia, and on my last day there, I drove to the town where I went to college and walked the paths of my old school again. I was surprised that I felt more curious about seeing the new buildings than taking a walk through the older, less changed part of the campus.

Even with all the new glamor, and there was plenty, I was overwhelmed with nostalgia and warm memories. It was, for most of America, a chaotic time to be in college. Young men were being drafted and shipped off to Viet Nam, some returning in body bags. Racial riots wracked many cities, and older values were being questioned and rapidly set aside. Experimentation with drugs reached even to our very rural campus.

Most of that did not touch me at all. The academic side of college was not very challenging for me (this was not a selective school), and my teacher scholarship did not necessitate my having a campus job, at least a paid one. I threw myself whole-heartedly into a cause, the same one for which I am still passionate: Christian discipleship. The preferred venue at my school was the Baptist Student Union, and we could truthfully boast that we were the largest student organization on campus during the years I was there.

I want to describe the kind of nostalgia I feel when I think back on those days. We were terribly idealistic. We sang our songs with fervor, and engaged in every project with reckless abandon - whether it was winning the campus skit night (we always did), or raising the most money for summer missions of any college in the state (we were usually in the top five, in spite of being smaller than most). We were well represented in summer misson volunteers, state BSU officers, workers at camps and conference centers, and every other way that we could legitimize ourselves as loyal sons and daughters of the denomination. Inspired by an incredible campus pastor, John Caylor, we were certain that we would make an enormous difference in the world beyond college.

Here's the part that is hard to explain. We did go on to do amazing things. I know many wonderful stories of where these friends have been and what they have done. And yet, those things are an infinitestimally small part of God's great church and work on this planet. But the little bit that we did - which seems huge to us - does matter terrifically in God's economy.

We did not change the world, or conquer time and space. But it was all unquestionably important, and it was worth the journey.

O, the simple joys of the journey - both the magic, hopeful springtime and the quiet autumn of reflection! O happy songs of our youth, and peaceful reflection of advancing age! O beauty! O wonder! O joy! God was in it all, and He still is!

Kinder, gentler Marxism

This title is not original with me, but comes from one of my favorite writers, Gene Edward Veith. Two of his books that made a great impact on me were Postmodern Times and Reading Between the Lines, and I recommend them both. Of course, I also appreciate that he is an advocate for classical Christian education, and that he currently teaches at Patrick Henry College.

In an article by the title quoted above in the May 9 edition of World magazine, Veith takes to task Eric Etheredge of the New York Times for downplaying President Obama's leftist plunge by labeling him a "social democrat" instead of "socialist." In his insightful article, Veith "reads between the lines" to dissect the etymologies of all these terms, showing us they they are really cut from the same piece of cloth.

My favorite quote comes near the end: "Social democrats are not communists, but their Marxism is evident in their belief in class struggle. Thus the vilification of "the rich" over against "working Americans." Also Marxist is the project of redistributing wealth, the use of state power to seize control of private property, and the overarching secularism that rejects the past in favor of a materialistic progress."

Here's the simple part: we can't respect private property if we believe the state is God. The true God (the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - that one) gave "gifts unto men," and made individuals to be stewards, not governments. And we can't reject silly notions like "class struggle," if we believe that the only purpose of life is material gain while on this planet.

It's not about who dies with the most toys. It's about glorifying God and enjoying Him forever. It's that simple.