A Family Story - Closing Thoughts

Greetings Dear Reader,

The story of all humanity is a family story.  We are all connected as a race.  We are all accountable for each other.  When Cain asks the Father if he is his brother’s keeper the resounding answer is :”YES”.   Jesus makes it clear that the “least of these” is his brother and that what we do to them we do to him.

So much of the strife and hatred in the world could be abated if we simply acted loving to our family.  We need to love at all costs.  It is not that we demand that others love us at all costs but that we determine to love others at all costs.  It is that we dare to hate anyone that dooms us to wars and violence.

How I treat the least among us is how I treat family.  How I treat the innocent is how I deal with justice.  How I treat the weak is the statement of my true power.  If we fail to love others at any cost then we have failed to follow Christ. 

We are a family.  This is a family story.  We are all orphans on a journey back to home.  Until we face that we cannot hope to end the loneliness and pain in the world.   We need to seek to love rather than to be loved.  It is in this that we can find peace.  It is in this that we can find the power to end suffering. 

No matter how I express hatred I am wrong.  It is not hatred or prejudice to disagree about social or moral issues.  It is wrong to fail to actively love those with whom you disagree.  Murdering anyone from the unborn to the infidel is just wrong.  Allowing anyone to starve no matter what their social or national status is unloving.  Denying the healthcare needs of anyone no matter what you think of his or her life choices is failure to be compassionate and kind.

Until we choose to love we will choose to hate.  Until we refuse to see disagreement as hatred we will be blind to love when it is there.  I cannot call myself a Christ follower if I reject my obligation to love anyone.  It really is that simple.  Anything that works to complicate it is smoke and mirrors. 

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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A Family Story – Clans, Tribes, and Banners

Greetings Dear Reader,

Some of the family we create is under a belief or cause.  We band together for a purpose.  It may be social, political, or leisure.  It can range from the great social cause to the support of a local team.  We band and bond around things and events.

These things are good when they unite us.  They can provide comrades and solidarity in a way that is healthy and re-creative.  It is when our tribal alliances cause strife and division that they are dangerous.

When we use our alliances to hate or harm others we violate the very purpose of family.  It is in family that we are to find peace and safety.  It is in love that we are to treat everyone in and out of our selected tribes.  Instead we use these as lines of division. 

This leads to anger and darkness.   It puts us at odds over things that do not matter.  It causes us to act wrongly over things that do matter.  We forget that no matter what our alliances we are one tribe; once race.  We are human.

It is in our humanity that we must realize that we can disagree about things without harming or hating each other.   As a Christ follower I am commanded to love everyone including Yankee fans (insert laughter here).   I must care for the needs of those with whom I disagree. 

If there is division over a social issue then I must assure that in my disagreement I do not neglect the needs of others.  Recently I have seen a social meme that says, “If your religion tells you to hate then you need a new religion.”   Perhaps we should replace the word “religion” with “tribe”, “clan”, or “anything”.   If anything tells you to hate then you need a new anything.

An honest examination of Jesus reveals that he commands us to love always.  He does not allow us to reject anyone.  We are to love at all times both the Father and all humans.  The journey requires that we journey together.  It is much easier if we do so in love.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

A Family Story – We Family

Greetings Dear Reader,

When I was still teaching one of the students whose life was vastly improved by getting a new career referred to the collective body of staff and students as his family.  He would look a people and simply say “We family.”

There is something so enriching to the spirit when we realize that someone thinks of us as family.  It is also devastating when those same people decide you are no longer family.   A friend is going through this now and I can see the pain it inflicts. 

The idea of family needs to be permanent.  The Romans had a law that if you adopted someone it could not be revoked.  It is the idea or permanent belonging that we need.  It is that touchstone of assured connection that sustains us in the journey.

I believe that is why God represents himself as the Father; our Father.  It is why he sent the Son.  It is why followers are adopted as sons.  It is a family that the Father redeems for his own. 

It saddens me greatly that we see loyalty to family as something transitory.  We reject those we have promised to keep as part of our clan. We dismiss those we have taken in as family when things become hard.  We are family and the revocation of that is a pain that never fades.

We are all connected.  When the Father brings all things back to good we will realize this.  Until then I must love and forgive and keep following.  I must do so even when those who have called me family reject me.  I must do so even when they sit with me in pain over others rejecting them.  It is what family does and “We Family.”

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

A Family Story - Chosen

Greetings Dear Reader,

There are family members we choose.  We marry someone.  We adopt a child.  We become part of a group that becomes our family.  We choose some of our family. 

This is such a clear picture of redemption.  We take those outside of the family and pay the cost to bring them into that family.  Paul uses this as the metaphor for redemption.   We are adopted into the family of the Father through faith.

When we reject those we have taken in we do the opposite of what the Father intends.  He adopts us permanently.  He does not reject us.  When we divorce or abandon those we have made family it rends an eternal bond.  It sets up a pattern of damage that can echo for generations.

When we offer others a place to belong we need to recognize that it is for the long haul.  It is why there is so much legal regiment around marriage, adoption, and family.  As our culture erodes these lines it becomes easier to reject family.  It becomes harder to see that the Father will never reject us.

Our obligation is to care for those we have chosen at any cost.  Most of the time instead we harden our hearts.  In the same way, when we reject the Father, once we have chosen him, we fragment the eternal.  Once we have chosen to follow Christ we create an eternal bond.  We should not be surprised that when we fail to do so our lives are not as they should be.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

A Family Story - Unchosen

Greetings Dear Reader,

“Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them; sometimes they forgive them.”  - Oscar Wilde

We do not get to choose many aspects of our natural family.  Parents, aunts, uncles, and the like are part of the package when we are born.  Even our siblings are not our choice.  This is the family that we are born into.

We find as we grow that some are good to us and others are not.  We draw close to some and distance ourselves from others.  We judge and condemn.  We do not always forgive.  Our obligation is to love and forgive. 

We cannot control what others in our family do and how it impacts us.  We can control our response to it.  We can also control our expectations of others.  Most of the offenses we take up against our family is the result of them not living up to our expectations.  We decide how others should act or be and then judge them when they do not live up to those decisions.  This is preventable if we simply stop placing expectations on others. 

Often we cause strife because we are trying to get our own needs met.  The way family works is that we need to meet each other’s needs.  We must all work mutually to care for each other.  When we focus on our own needs above others we create strife, division, and even wars.

As a Christ follower I must love my family.  That does not mean that I do everything they wish or allow abuses.  It does mean that my interactions with them are loving and kind.  It does not mean that I accept their bad behavior.  It does mean that I keep the door open when they do good or show that they understand their errors. 

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

A Family Story - Grandfathers

Greetings Dear Reader,

My Grandfather was born in 1910.  He reached the clearing at the end of the path in 1969 just before the Braves claimed the National League pennant.  He is one of the central people in my life even today when he would have turned 106.   He is one of the primary influences of my faith, following, and the way view the world.

In Sheetrock on the Road. he appears often at the beginning.  He is the one I think of when I need counsel  and have no one to whom I can turn.  He is the one who prayed for me to have faith and did not live to see me find it.  He is the blueprint for how I wish to treat my Grandsons.

I miss him more this year than on his past advent anniversaries.   His guidance would be invaluable to me today.  When those I love are hurting I long for his words and wisdom.  I find them occasionally in the writings he left behind for me. 

My progenitor, his son hated him.  He rejected everything my Grandfather believed and treated both my Grandfather and his faith with contempt.  My progenitor was an abusive alcoholic and a conman.  When I look at the lives of these two men in light of how I wish to be the answer is obvious. 

The contrast of these two lives forces me daily to ponder what my Children and Grandchildren will say about me five decades hence.  It drives me to my knees to pray and to follow Christ more closely.  It is in this man that I see the closest I have ever seen to the face of God.

For FFB – Michael Card

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

A Family Story - Fathers

Greetings Dear Reader,

I think one of the keys to the ills in our society is that so many fathers are no longer fathers.  They are absentee, disengaged, or not responsible.  They do not engage win raising their children.

This destroys a legacy that the Father intended from the beginning.   The Father takes on the role of father for a reason.   All of human history is intended to be a family story.  When we fail as fathers we damage the future.  I am still trying to be better as a father and my failures motivate me.

I had poor training from my progenitor.  He was never a father to me.  The few times he inserted himself in my life were filled with pain.  I discuss this briefly in Sheetrock on the Road.  The point is that I was working blind with my own Sons.

I do not know if I can mend my mistakes but I work at it.  I know that I see my Son working hard to be a good father.  What I conclude is that fathers are vital to the fabric of our culture.  As long as we have children we have responsibility.   Our society suffers when we fail to carry that responsibility.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

A Family Story - Opening Thoughts

Greetings Dear Reader,

Family gets defined in so many ways in our culture.  The common thread is that in so many ways we yearn to be in a family.   Our clan, family, or tribe calls us from somewhere deep within us.

It is in the construct that we find belonging.  It may be the natural family through which we are born and descend.  Often it is a tribe that we join to bond with those like us.  Sometimes it is a combination of both.

As I move through this journey the tethers of family attach and tear at odd intervals for me.  The damage that natural family can do to an individual astounds me at times.  I know that I have failed at times and that my children still suffer from it.   I know that the things with which I wrestle are because of the failures of my forebears. 

I love my family and need to mentally walk through all the things about family that are vital to me.  I cannot change the past but I must find a way to more clearly show Christ in my life as the thing that can heal us.

Walk with me Dear Reader.  I will need your thoughts and cherish your questions.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)