Monsters Among Us

I was present for the birth of my daughter. I was there when she took her first breath, screamed her first scream, and opened her eyes for the first time in this world.

No, I am not a woman, I do not understand what all that entails, but to say ‘my body, my right’ and to then choose to snuff out the life of one such as this for the sake of convenience, or because you did not think it was the right time, or you couldn’t be bothered with the bloating and the weight gain, is perhaps the single most monstrous act I could think of in this world.

There is no nobility there. There is no decency, there is no bravery in actively deciding to end the life of one such as this; there is just cowardice and a perverted sense of right and wrong.

According to the Guttmacher Institute since 1973 there have been some 50 million such monsters walking among us in this nation alone, and though some do regret their actions and find forgiveness at the foot of the cross through repentance, others continue to live as though they did not just commit atrocity. They glory in what ought to be shame, and boast of their decision to end a life and not lose a second’s worth of sleep over it.

It astounds me that something so serious can be taken so glibly in our day and age. It frightens me as to what kind of dark and disturbed world my daughter will grow up in ten, fifteen, twenty years from now, if today murdering your own child, filming it, and putting it on the internet is a vehicle to notoriety and fleeting stardom.

You can be against something out of principle, because you know it is morally wrong, because your beliefs dictate you can see it no other way, but it’s a real gut check when you’re holding a minutes old baby in your arms, and suddenly realize that 50 million such babies, helpless and defenseless, never got to cry, to smile, to suckle, and to grow up.

God bless America indeed!

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

Baby Belle!

Happy Father's Day!

I fell in love for the second time some five months ago. Oddly enough, it was with just a hand. Four small fingers and one small thumb that I was certain were waving at me on the sonogram machine screen.

Ever since it has been nothing but expectation, making sure my wife was eating enough, and wondering what my daughter would look like, be like, feel like, and sound like once she chose to enter this world.

I did a lot of praying over these nine months, because this is our first, and we’re not spring chickens anymore, and everyone seems to have a story about the worst possible thing happening at the most unexpected time.

I don’t know why people share these stories. All the stories do is frustrate, anger, and to be perfectly honest, makes you want to put a piece of tape over their mouth and with as much gentleness as you can muster tell them to shut up.

My daughter decided to be fashionably late, another reason for sleepless nights and wondering if everything would be well, and rather than arriving on the 6^th of June, Victoria Belle Boldea came screaming into the world on Thursday, June 12, at 2:58pm. Seven pounds four ounces, twenty inches, and to me, the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

Ten fingers, ten toes, two eyes, two ears, nose, mouth, lips, tongue, and even hair, all where they were supposed to be, all within perfectly normal parameters.

At first sight I knew I would love her for the rest of my days. At first sight I knew I would do my utmost to protect her, provide for her, and be there for her whenever she needed me.

I’m a dad! As such, from one dad to all the other dads, happy father’s day!

Now I understand.

Pictures are forthcoming. Thank you all for your prayers.  

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

How We Got Here

Some are in shock, others are in denial, and others still are in mourning. Of the three, perhaps the mourning is most fitting for what this nation has become, and how quickly it has become it, but other than the jubilant forces of darkness that seem to be winning one battle after the other, most everyone else is asking themselves how we got here.

Even those banging the ‘it can’t get any worse’ and ‘we know how the story ends’ drums like crack addicted monkeys seem to have calmed down, realizing that it can, and has, and will get worse, and though we know how the story ends, we have to get to the end with our faith intact, and without falling into the pit of compromise so many seem to be head diving into.

I am a realist by nature. When you grow up poor and are uncertain as to where your next meal will come from most nights, optimism soon takes flight, and all that is left is the reality of hunger. I don’t speak of my early childhood often, because it’s something my family got through, something that made us all the stronger for it, and something that knit a bond of love and certainty as to the others’ willingness to step in and help out if the need arose.

But I digress. Today’s post is supposed to be about something else altogether, and it is important enough wherein I will save the childhood stories, and trips down memory lane for another time.

Those who choose not to acknowledge their own complicity in regards to this nation’s descent into darkness will be quick to point to the changing times, the entertainment industry,  mass media, or another of a hundred convenient little scapegoats.

Did these things have a hand to play in how we got here? Most definitively, but by a large percentage, far ahead of any one thing, blame must be laid at the feet of the church, who fell asleep at the wheel, and refused to wake up thereafter for whatever reason.

The moment the words sin, repentance, hell, and righteousness stopped being trumpeted from the pulpits of America, we began our descent, and we haven’t stopped descending since.

The wolves in suits make quick work of the Bible, butchering it mercilessly as though it were some fattened hog ready to be meted out rather than the inerrant, absolute Word of the Most High God. For some unexplained reason the widow of Zarephath gets more contemplation, sermons, and exegesis on ‘Christian’ television than Christ’s Sermon on the Mount ever will, while sin and depravity are treated with kid gloves as though they were not cancers in the Body of Christ. All this, to the cheers and adulation of those who love their sin more than they will ever love God, and who just want some sort of numbing agent to rub on their burdened consciences.

It is the church’s compromise that has led to this, it is the church’s compromise that began all this, and it is the church that God will judge first, with the fierceness of His righteous anger.

Rather than identify the cancer growing our midst, rather than attempt to remove it, and excise it from the Body, we’re busy calling each other names, playing the ‘my ministry’s better than your ministry’ game, and actually debating whether Paul the Apostle was the antichrist, and if we should rip the Pauline Epistles out of the Bible altogether.

A more cynical person would say we’re looking to pick these foolish fights, and focus on tertiary issues just because we don’t have the stomach for the real fight, and don’t want to confront the darkness that threatens to swallow us whole. A more cynical person would say that the church has become nothing more than an amalgam of sleek and fattened cowards who would betray even their deepest held convictions for the sake of retaining their positions and possessions. A more cynical person would say these things, but then again so would a realist, I fear.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

The Predatory Instinct

Pretty much every animal species can be categorized as either predator or prey. Depending upon where they find themselves along the food chain, some are both predator and prey, while very few can be catalogued as predators without equal, or apex predators of their domain.

There are certain traits and characteristics every predator possesses, and if we take a careful look at certain world leaders of times past, current presidents, generals, or military strategists, one can readily identify the selfsame predatory instincts and characteristics in them.

One is either born with predatory instincts or not. One cannot nurture such an instinct, or delegate it to others. One either has it, or they don’t.

What defines a predatory instinct is the ability to discern, identify, and sniff out weakness both in one’s enemies, as well as in one’s prey. An apex predator will gaze upon a thousand potential targets, and choose the weakest of the lot knowing instinctively which it is. Once the target has been identified, an apex predator simply attacks, without warning or pretense, without concern for collateral damage, or international treaties.

The mind of a predator functions very differently than yours or mine. Theirs is not a life put upon by notions of right or wrong, or if what they are doing will be seen as a positive political action. Their purpose is to vanquish their enemy, and pick the perfect moment to strike.

To think that one can negotiate, or use diplomacy with a predator is to embrace foolishness with uttermost ferocity, because deceit and misdirection are some of a predator’s most useful tools.

We have seen this play out on the international stage time and again, whether Iran’s incessant promise that they would not pursue a nuclear program only to have a representative appear on television months later talking about making certain nations ash heaps, or Russia’s vehement promise that all they want is a little beachfront property in the Crimea and nothing more.

Predators exploit weakness, they feed on weakness, and they attack weakness without mercy or preamble. If one is intent upon studying the habits of predators in the wild, one will also notice that predators will often work together to fell larger prey, instinctively realizing that they need each other in order to achieve a common goal.

To be perfectly honest, I’ve been on baby watch the past couple weeks, expecting to see my daughter any day, so I haven’t had much inclination to delve into international affairs, but from what I’ve gathered, two of the biggest predators in the world, and I am speaking of China and Russia, are currently courting each other in the hopes of felling a common enemy.

The next few months will tell the tale, but I fear our weakness is showing, the predators smell the flop sweat, and it’s only a matter of time before they pounce.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

Living In the Midst of a Rebellious Age

Rebellion of heart blinds men to their downfall, and the consequences of said rebellion. I’ve had conversations with runaways who were neither abused, beaten, verbally harassed, nor made to feel anything less than a beloved son or daughter, living in squalor, dirty and hungry and cold, huddled under dingy bridges, yet telling themselves over and over again that they are better off this way.

We lie to ourselves often enough, consistently enough, and with as much conviction as we can muster, and eventually we start to believe our own lies.

Many today look at the society our rebellion has vomited into existence, and continually tell themselves that we are better off than our parents and grandparents. Who needs affection when you have Twitter? Who needs love when you have Facebook? Who needs a loving, caring, involved two parent home when you have streaming video and on demand movies?

Some have even taken to looking back on the idyllic times of yesteryear and mocking them ceaselessly, because it’s just absurd to consider a family sitting down for dinner together, holding hands, saying a prayer, talking about their day, and being involved in each other’s lives.

We have entered an age wherein the notion of affection is neither implied nor expected. Love, and the notion thereof have become a punch line, and the notion of family, is as abstract and foreign to many, as molecular biology. Everything is boiled down to animalistic rutting, inflated egos, and constant feelings of entitlement.

Those who would cling to the basic ideas of family, of true love, of lifelong commitment, of God, of Christ, of righteousness, of wholesomeness, of decency and yes, even humanity, are openly mocked and ridiculed as though their actions could readily be likened to some simpleminded child’s attempt to catch butterflies with a fishing net.

I’ve even met individuals who’ve been browbeaten into feeling shame for having a loving family, well behaved children, or in other words, just being what would have passed for normal as little as a decade ago.

Countless individuals have been made to feel like the odd man out. They’ve been made to feel like a circus freak and an oddity just because they’re still together, because they still fight to keep their family intact and put food on the table.

How is it that we are still aghast, or wonder at how the most gruesome things and the most heinous acts can be perpetrated by young and old alike in our age when we have stripped society of the very notions of morality, godliness, or virtue?

Rather than be something to aspire toward, these things have become something to be mocked and ridiculed. Rather than promote virtue as an ideal, we call perversion the new normal and see nothing untoward in having our children inundated with it day in and day out.

When did it become accepted practice in this country to look down on someone because they go to church, or because their family is still intact?

We have taken to calling good evil and evil good, not realizing that by doing so we are creating the instrument of our own demise.  

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

The Anatomy of Judgment

As the day draws near and we are barreling toward a certain and inevitable judgment, I’ve found myself contemplating what the judgment of God looks like more often than I would like. It is not merely a philosophical or intellectual exercise, but a true and honest searching, especially in light of the fact that everywhere you turn you have preachers and pastors calling one thing or another the judgment of God, then summarily retract their statement and apologize for their insensitivity the following day.

How can we define the judgment of God? Will we know it when we see it? Will it look like what we’ve always expected it to look like, or will it be something wholly unprecedented?

These are the questions I struggle with, the questions that bounce off the sides of my cranium on chilly spring mornings, and starry spring nights.

The reason understanding the judgment of God is so important is that once judgment commences, it eliminates the possibility of repentance. As long as God is warning, as long as God is pleading, as long as He is allowing certain things in the hopes of correcting us, the possibility of repentance, of turning from our wicked ways and once more seeking His face is implied. Once judgment is poured out, however, the possibility of repentance is eliminated, done away with, and all that remains from that moment forward is the reckoning.

When speaking of the judgment of God, I believe one of the most important things we must know is that the possessions of the wealthy will not be able to hedge against it, nor will the strength of the young, nor the wisdom of the old, nor the preparations of the prepared. The only thing that will inoculate us from the judgment of God when it commences, the only thing that will keep us, protect us, and carry us through it all, will be to be in Him.

This is how we will likewise know that it is His judgment, and not just a loving warning. Nothing men can do to hedge against it will work, nothing that man can prepare for with his hands, his intellect, or his abilities will weather the fierceness of His judgment when it is finally poured out.

The judgment of God is also an all-encompassing proposition. By this, I mean that there will be no avenue of escape, no way to minimize it, soften the blow, or alleviate the ripple effects for those who are not found to be under the shadow of His wing.

Men will not be able to beg, bribe, steal, or force their way out of the outpouring of God’s judgment no matter who they are, how hard they try, or what connections they might have made along the way.

Although we have a tendency to gloss over it, because let’s face it we would rather just not deal with the implications, the last thing we must acknowledge about the judgment of God is that it begins in His house.

God is not a busybody, endlessly concerned about the neighbor’s yard; He cleans His yard first, then proceeds with the rest of the block. What the notion of judgment beginning in God’s house first must tell us, is that even within His house there are practices and individuals deserving of judgment.

Just because we call ourselves sons or daughters of God does not give us a blanket immunity, nor will God wink at the selfsame practices among His children that He will subsequently judge in those of the world.

Contrary to the incessant blathering of some, God does hold His own to a higher standard, He does have greater expectations of those calling Him Father than He does of those who don’t, and He will, for the sake of His Son’s blood judge those who trample upon it more harshly still.

With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.