Deeper Waters

This is another difficult one to write. Divorce is a sad reality in our world today. What is even sadder is that the number of Christian marriages ending in divorce is not that different from the number of non-Christian marriages ending in divorce. There are families I have seen growing up where I was friends with their sons and for some reason, they decide they can’t do it anymore and the parents divorce.

Lately, The Reclaiming the Mind ministry website has had on its blog, Parchment and Pen, blogs on the topic of divorce. I have a link to the latest one at this time here:

http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2007/11/12/is-divorce-ever-understandable/

I read that one and the one before and looked at a number of the comments. They are questions that make one think and it makes me realize that situations aren’t always as cut and dry as we think. I will also add that I am not unfamiliar with this one on a more personal level.

No. My parents did not divorce. However, when my parents met, they had both been divorced. Both of them left behind incredibly bad marriages. My mother’s husband was quite abusive and she had great fear for the safety of her daughter, my sister. My father’s wife left him and although I don’t know all the details, it wasn’t anything pretty. I am the only child from the two of them and the only child of my father.

I do pay attention when divorce is brought up.

Matthew 19 is the main passage people turn to. Christ here says that marriage was made to be a lifelong institution by God. I don’t think there are many Christians committed to the Scriptures who will disagree with that. However, he then says that it is not to be undone except by marital unfaithfulness. The word is “Porneia.”

I’m not a Greek scholar. I will leave it to them. However, after some reading, I did find that this can include adultery, but I don’t think it is limited to adultery. When Jesus in Mark 7 lists various sins, he includes porneia and then includes adultery. Why say adultery twice unless the word refers to something different? Even in the Matthew 19 passage, there is another word for adultery other than porneia.

At this point, my thoughts are that Jesus was speaking about marital unfaithfulness, but I do not believe that relates only to the bedroom. I could justifiably understand a case where a lady was being abused by her husband. He is certainly not being faithful to the covenant and I see no justification for having the lady stay with him in such a case, especially if children are in danger.

Now you might say “Fine, but she shouldn’t remarry.” That’s a whole other topic and I choose to not discuss that now. The point I want to make is simply that I see no biblical justification in such a case. I believe too many women have stayed in dangerous marriages thinking they’re following Scripture right when they’re not.

Is it entirely wrong of me to make such a claim? I don’t think so. In 1 Cor. 7, Paul says that if a believing spouse has an unbeliever leave, they are free to remarry. Apparently, Paul did see that this was such a case and we can be sure he was familiar with Christ’s words on the issue as he kept differentiating in the chapter between his words and the words of the Lord, being Christ.

However, divorce is a sad reality. Even in cases where I think it is the lesser of two evils, it is still sad. Could it be so many young people are abandoning traditional marriage because so many marrieds are not holding up to what marriage should be? While we can condemn cohabitation, maybe we ought to look and ask how much of it is being sparked by disillusionment with marriage today? If marriage was seen as exciting and vibrant, maybe we’d see more of it and more of it lasting.

We all know also that this is especially hard on children. It never occurred to me for awhile that my sister never called my Dad, “Dad.” One day she did. It was even when I was in High School. I had no idea until then what had happened until either my Mom or my Dad said something. Divorce changes the way the family unit looks.

Now her story is minor compared to several others. How many children come from broken homes and as a result lead broken lives? It is not just a mother and a father that are affected by divorce. In fact, children are usually the worst casualties and these children that do not know what a marriage is supposed to be like are going to grow up and pass the laws on marriage for the rest of us.

I urge all couples to seek counseling first before any divorce takes place. I also urge married couples to please remember the joy of your marriage. Demonstrate it to the rest of us. Show it to an unbelieving world who sees marriage as an old institute that needs to be abandoned. Show it to those of us who are Christian singles and need to see the joy and wonder of marriage as something to shoot for.

Marriage is important. It is the foundation of family. For the sake of the family, and for the children, and the future of America and the rest of our world, we can do better.

I don’t believe I’ve written much on this one, but I figured it had to be covered. I just wanted to get my basic stance out there.

First off, abortion is murder.

So what are you saying? If I aborted a child or encouraged a significant other in my life to do so, I’m a murderer?

To be blunt, yes.

Now for the good news.

It is forgivable.

Tonight though seems like a good reason to state why I believe that. It ultimately comes down to what is in the womb. If this is not a human, it really doesn’t matter. If it is a human though, then we cannot justify this act in any way. So is what is in the womb a human being?

Randy Alcorn has gathered much info on that. The information comes from a Senate hearing on the topic.

http://www.epm.org/articles/life_conception.html

I will give some basic points though from my own thought.

First off, the baby has different DNA than the mother does. In that regards, it can no longer be said to be the mother’s body entirely. There is another body here. There is a third party. The question is, is that third party a human being or not? Again, I believe th above has answered that. Since it is, we cannot take its life seeing as it is an innocent human being.

Now let’s suppose though that we don’t know. I have often asked where this magical point is that the baby becomes human. Unfortunately, I have not been given an answer. There is nothing magical about the birth canal after all. So what if we don’t know when human life begins? We should leave it alone then. Why take the risk. If you’re hunting with a friend in the woods and see a rustling in the trees and think it could either be a buck or your friend, are you going to risk it?

Yet if you don’t know when life begins, are you not risking it?

Now some might ask about rape or incest. This is a hard situation. One must have full sympathy for a woman in this kind of situation. However, there is no justification in taking an innocent human life because someone else was a monster. What about the baby? The child can be put up for adoption, a great system that should be used more often.

Too often though, we know the reason is not for rape or incest. It is for convenience. It is the strongest form of birth control out there. In this, millions of babies have been murdered in America alone. How many great minds and discoveries could have been there if we had allowed them to live. It has led to the cheapening of human life.

Abortion has been called the silent holocaust. I agree.

One other situation needs to be mentioned though before giving final thoughts on it. What about to save the life of the mother. The best I have heard is someone saying “The kingdom of God is always about the stronger giving itself for the weaker.”

I will also say that while I am for the death penalty in some cases, that is not a contradiction. Taking a guilty life guilty of bloodshed of the image of God is not the same as an innocent baby. I wonder about those who don’t see the difference between a baby and a murderer.

Ultimate message today? We need to do our parts. Today, statistically, about 4,500 innocent babies died. 4,500! Most of us don’t have near that many in our churches! How long will the bloodshed last? What has Scripture said about those who shed innocent blood?

Today, I make the call. Let us do our part. Let us end the silent holocaust. All it takes for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing.

Now this is a difficult one to write. I have a friend who I am sure has his wife on birth control. I even have a sister who is on birth control. Thus, whatever I say here, it is going to be taking a stand on what they are doing. I will say that I am open to having my mind change. I am not dogmatic on this point. I am more willing to lean, but this is just where I am now.

At this point in my life, I just don’t support birth control. Now I understand that there are some forms of birth control out there that do abort a baby when it is conceived. Such a form of birth control I would not change my position on. I do not believe that is moral under any circumstance. (For the record, I do believe that it is forgivable just as abortion is.)

My concern with birth control is with that last word. Control. We have set up this illusion that we have control and that when we want to have children later on, well they will surely come. As Morse has said in her book “Smart Sex,” it didn’t happen for her, because when she wanted to have kids later, she suddenly couldn’t. There are several other women who share the same story.

It has thus allowed us to buy into this myth that we are in charge. We can change the odds on the dice, but the odds are still there. You could still somehow have a child on birth control. It’s not likely, but you could. You could not have a child with fertility help. It’s more likely you will, but there is no guarantee.

I am more and more amazed that we see so many commercials for birth control that have happy families. It’s as if we’re saying “If you use our product, you can put this off, but it will be waiting for you.” You have no guarantee. You are not in charge of your reproductive cycle. Maybe you will have kids. Maybe not. You don’t know.

And that ultimately is my concern. We are given the impression that we are in control and blocking off the increasing of the community largely for reasons that are quite shallow. A child would interrupt our career or we want time to enjoy ourselves first or we think we can’t afford a kid. Somehow, families centuries ago made it.

Thus, at this point in my walk, I just can’t support it. Now why am I discussing it? Well, we’re discussing marriage and sex and I plan to cover all areas. If I’m wrong, I’m ready to admit it, but these are just my thoughts at the moment.

I’ve seen several people in this world shopping together who are a man and a woman together with a small child with them. Unfortunately, many of them at the same time do not have wedding rings on. I think we all know what that would most likely mean. Honestly, the trend of this increasing alarms me.

Now I used to think this was mostly with the younger generation until friends of my own parents underwent divorces and before too long, they were cohabiting with someone else. It was quite stunning as I figured these people grew up with traditional morality and would honor it, but instead, they chose to not do so.

I hope most of you know my heart on this kind of situation. These women especially sadden me. I have a great love of ladies after all, and it saddens me when they make themselves to be something that they aren’t. I also get bothered by the men who I expect to act like men and not simply grown boys.

I won’t give the statistics. You can find those in many places. My understanding is that this causes the marriage to break down if it ever even gets to that point. Apparently, many women do this hoping it’s a stepping stone, but the man does it and he doesn’t really want to commit. Seems like a good way to get what you want and have an escape clause without commitment.

My opinion on why it fails though is that marriage cannot be treated like a trial run. That is not trust at all. You want to know when the testing is? It’s simple. We call it dating. That’s when you start to know the person and really learn all about them and who they are.

Now you might think you don’t know everything about them so you want to play it safe. The problem is though that you will never know everything about them. People who have been married for decades are still learning new things about each other.  Persons are inexhaustible mines of information.

This is simply our culture that does not like the idea of commitment. We want to be autonomous and not dependent on anyone. We want to be able to come and go as we please. Unfortunately, life is not like that and Christians should not be like that. We are a people who serve a God in relationship with himself. We are not anti-relational. Christians believe in interdependence.

Now some say that you wouldn’t buy a car without giving it a test drive. A simple question must be asked though. Who is the driver and who is the car? Ladies? Do you want to hear that your guy is testing you like a car and wanting to see if you will perform good enough lest he take you back to the parking lot and look for another model?

That’s a comforting thought. This marriage was established because I knew my girl could perform well. Is that really what you want a marriage to be based on? Ought it not to be based on who the other person is? (Which I believe is shown in the Trinity. We look at each person for who they are and what they do flows out of who they are. Essence precedes function.)

What can be done?

I only know one answer, a return to virtue. Especially that which is found in Scripture. We need men and women who know who they are. They are creatures in the image of God. They are not highly-evolved animals resulting from an accident. Their sexuality is a gift and it is not to be treated as common.

And oh yes. Parents. Be sure of this one thing. Before you go and tell your children they need to be living virtuously, make sure you are doing the same thing. Much of our problem with the younger generation might sadly because the older generation has not portrayed the importance of the values that they said to embrace.

I do hope and pray that this trend will slow down at least. Our future, the future of the family, is too important.

In a discussion with a non-Christian, I have had him mention something about sexual prowess. Now I’m thinking then the idea of sexual prowess is involving how much sexual experience one has. What that involves then is how many women one has been with. Thus, the idea of a man with sexual prowess is he’s able to romanticize many women.

I’d like to challenge that view.

Men. Any of us could go out tonight and find a lady to sleep with us. If I wanted to, I could go out and find a lady of the night and have myself a time tonight. (Granted, I really don’t know how I’d go about doing that, but I’m sure I could find a way.) There really isn’t much challenge.

Also, many of us probably have fully functional systems. That we’d be able to fully perform in a sexual encounter is not much of a deal honestly. Granted, there are some men with various conditions, but for most of us, we don’t really have that fear when it comes to sexuality.

Now if that is the case, why is that such a big deal? In our society, it really isn’t much to get a lot of women to take their clothes off and allow themselves to be used like this. Unfortunately, we men have been far too eager to help them going about this. We live in an age where we are copying the animals. Indeed, even arguments about morality today point to what animals do.

I’d like to say what real sexual prowess is.

You know as well as I do men that sometimes, it seems hard to make a woman happy. It really does. How many times does a husband go crazy just wondering what his wife really wants? How hard can it be for us to go to the store and buy something for the women in our lives because it has to be just the right gift? How easy can it be for us to completely annoy them by the way we act at times?

With all that said, you want to know what true sexual prowess is?

True sexual prowess is being able to take a woman like that who you can legally call your wife and make her happy.

It’s not just in the bedroom either. If you can please her in the bedroom but nowhere else, you’ve lost. If you please her everywhere else, you will please her in the bedroom. True sexual prowess is pleasing her at breakfast, it’s pleasing her by calling her or sending an email throughout the day, it’s pleasing her by bringing home a flower for her.

True sexual prowess is pleasing her by being a right father to the kids. It’s by changing diapers and telling bedtime stories. True sexual prowess consists of working hard for your wife throughout the day, but when you get home, leaving that work behind and doing your part. It consists of not coming in and just saying “What’s for dinner?” and sitting on the couch with the TV remote.

True sexual prowess consists of being there when your kids have games at the school. It consists of being waiting by the door when your daughter has her first date and making sure her date treated her right. It consists of talking straight to your kids about sex and listening to them when they need you. It consists of you loving their mother in their eyes.

Yes gentlemen. That is true sexual prowess and I am convinced that if you please your lady in those areas, that she will be more than happy to please you in the bedroom and I am sure she will be happy to do so often.

Perchance this is why so many men don’t have true sexual prowess. What I’ve described isn’t easy. It terrifies me when I think about it and I hope I can live up to it. It would be so easy to just go to multiple women and get my kicks that way.

No. A woman deserves the best though. She deserves a man. Not a boy. You want to be a true man for a woman? Do these things.

One thing we hear in the debate on sexuality is that this is a private matter. What two consenting adults agree to do is their business. This sounds plausible to us. Who are we to go into the bedroom of another? There is only one problem with this idea. It is completely false. How so?

Consensual does not equal moral. Because two people agree to do something, it is not automatically right. Two people could agree to beat each other for instance. That would not mean that mutilation would be okay. Two people can agree to use illegal drugs together. That does not make it right.

Now, I’m not saying in this though that we are to storm into the bedrooms of people and see what they are doing. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I am saying though that we can hold them accountable because that is the nature of sexuality. It is a public matter open to be discussed. (And if it isn’t, why is it constantly being discussed everywhere?)

I have a good friend who is married. She is one of the kindest souls I know and every now and then, she’ll tell me that her and her husband have a special evening planned. My reply is something like “oooooooh” to which I’ll be told “Go watch an episode of Smallville” or something like that.

But I assure you, as soon as she says it, she knows where my mind is going. We don’t necessarily keep such things private. A lady can come to a group of other ladies smiling in the morning and they know why.  Married men I know tell me that they expect a special evening on their birthdays.

Here’s the biggest clue though that this is public. You and I are here. Now as soon as you see any human being, you know what has been going on. Every person you see is a result of sexual intercourse. When my friend comes to me and tells me his wife is expecting, I don’t have to ask “How’d that happen?” I know how it happened.

And because it’s public, we can hold each other accountable.

I can go to my friend who is married if I am a good friend and say “How is it going? Are you treating your wife right? Are you staying faithful to her? Are you avoiding sexual sin?” I don’t have to have the details of the bedroom. I don’t want them. I can though hold him to the biblical standards and make sure he is living right.

This applies to dating couples also. If I should meet a lady soon and get to take her out, my roommate has every right to ask me when I get home after an evening with her if I stayed pure. In fact, I would hope that he would do so. Now granted, there are some questions that couldn’t be asked, and those are obvious. However, he may most definitely ask if I’m keeping it pure. I may not like it, but I need it.

That could be something that could keep sexual sin at a minimum today. If men would come together and be accountable and women come together and be accountable, I think it would do much good. Unfortunately, we have this idea that it is private and then it’s not my place to ask.

It is your place. If you care about your brother or sister in Christ, you may surely ask if their walk is right. This is not a private matter. It is one that will effect how we live in the eyes of the community.

I was talking to a friend last night who was talking about a friend of his who has apparently gone down the darker path with sexuality. He was one who used to be in church but is now a pretty much, sex addict. It is a tragic tale to hear and I write this mainly to the men to know that we all need to persevere.

One of the worst mistakes that you can make with temptation is to think that you are above it. I always wonder, for instance, when I apply for a job somewhere and they have a question asking “Have you ever been tempted to steal?” I always answer it honestly. I have. Who hasn’t been? I am a fallen human being and I know my own weaknesses. I think the person who denies they have ever been tempted is being totally dishonest.

Now when we turn this over to sexuality, I first think of what Peter Kreeft says. He doesn’t esteem the man who is never tempted with lust. He pities him. Why? Because all temptation is ultimately dealing with some concept of good. The murderer may think the world will be a better place in some way if his desires are carried out. That greater good may be only for the one person, but that is still the temptation. This will bring happiness in some way that is seen as good.

Which of us men is going to deny it? This is something good. Even those of us who have not had the experience of intercourse yet do not worry that this might be something we don’t like. We know that God created an experience that is good. That is the reason why we are tempted. We wouldn’t be tempted with a negative experience. I don’t walk through a hospital and see patients suffering from various conditions and think “Wow. I’d like to have that happen to me.”

Now I know women are tempted also and if they have a high sex drive, then this would apply to them as well. However, I am writing to the men as men and as the ones who are the leaders of society. It is we who will set the examples ultimately and be the ones that raise up the next generation.

I also write this because of the case of this one that my friend was talking about. It is quite easy for a sin such as this to take us away from God. Friends of mine know that I can be thinking of someone very particular, and I will be nice this time and not mention their name, but they are a noted apostate who made the turn away from the faith that began with having an affair. It has now led to atheism. My constant stance on that is that a man will either accept the justification of God or try to justify himself apart from God and my own friends know my saying in this situation is “Lady Macbeth. That spot’s not coming out.”

This is the power of addiction, though not just of sex. If one is given the choice of either God or the addiction, it is a sad reality that too many will choose the addiction. This is why we men need to be careful. I’ve made enough mistakes in the past to know better. Now I’m still very much virgin, but I do know I have made mistakes. Chances are, I’m not alone of course. However, what I do is my own responsibility, a lesson we all need to learn from sin. Ultimately, there is none to blame but ourselves for our own decisions.

Men. It is time we hold ourselves accountable. This is not a private matter. This is a public matter. If I come home from a date or my roommate comes home from one, I believe we each have all right to ask each other questions about the experience to make sure that we were living pure, and I certainly hope I will be held accountable.

Be careful men, lest you fall. Our future needs men after all and not boys who are controlled by their hormones.

I decided today to set down some things that I do when it comes to arguing about sexual morality. I know a lot of reasons given for teenagers and others to practice abstinence today seems to come down to STDs, unplanned pregnancy, guilt, and future regret. A lot of reasons against them also come from statistics showing negative results that can follow these actions.

Now I’m not against these insofar as they are true at this point. I do think though that these arguments should be secondary arguments. Why? I do believe that we can imagine a Brave New World easily where we’ve eliminated the problems of the first set that I mentioned. We could have no disease or pregnancy unwanted and we could have soma to eradicate negative feelings.

As for the second one, in such a society, we could probably avoid the dangerous statistics then as well. Furthermore, just because something doesn’t seem to produce the results we desire, I do not see how that necessarily means it’s immoral. It could be a good clue, but are we not putting the cart before the horse?

What method do I prefer? I prefer to argue about what sexuality really is. What is it’s intended purpose? What does it mean when we say that people are sexual? Why do I keep insisting that people have sex and are sexual long before they have sexual intercourse? At that level, because the words matter. Words shape ideas and this is a battle of ideas that we are in.

Of course, I am thankful for the statistics that so many other people find and I think that they are a part of a case, but not as the primary one. The danger is that if we did eliminate the secondary problems, could we say that sexual intercourse as anything  other than between a man and a woman is immoral? I’m not sure we could if our only grounds were in secondary issues.

This will also get us to asking the main issues. We believe that disease seems to spread when intercourse takes place outside of husband and wife. Why does the system work like that? We seem to have to have condoms in order for people to be protected during sexual intercourse? Why does the most loving act of all require protection from your lover? Pre-marital intercourse seems to lead to trouble in marriage later on. Why is that?

This will get us into questions of what sexuality really is. Why is it important? It will also lead us to questions about morality. Why do we treat sexual morality so uniquely? Why is it that we believe that this is reserved only for marriage? Why do I even have sexual desire if I’m supposed to wait.

Yes. I plan to keep posting on this topic, but I wanted to set down the parameters I work with. I am not a statistician nor am I an expert on disease. I’m simpler a philosopher and a theologian.

In the book “Smart Sex”, Jennifer Morse gives a endnote where she shares a story that a girl wrote in to advice columnist Carolyn Hax. I’d give the web page here, but it doesn’t seem to work. For those interested, the endnote can be found on page 253. It was so stunning I read it to my roommate and have frequently discussed it with him as it shows the problem of what is called “casual sex.”

She starts talking about how her ex-boyfriend of three years and she still maintain contact. Now at that point, I don’t have a problem. If you can be on good terms with an ex, great. Sometimes though, it just doesn’t happen. However, it is what happens later that gets things interesting.

The girl writes on to say that the last few times they have ended up sleeping together and says “I’m totally fine with it.”

Stop right there.

Now what I’m thinking is that if I was coming from a more worldly perspective, I’d be saying this guy is getting a good deal. Chances are, the guy already has another girlfriend and if he’s willing to sleep with his ex, he’s probably sleeping with her. Thus, he gets to have at least two partners and then, he doesn’t even have to date this girl and he still gets all of her. (Well, physically at least.)

I hope this girl wakes up soon.

Ladies. Once a guy leaves you, that’s it. You do not have any kind of a romantic relationship. You may talk to him of course, you may hang out with him, but don’t do anything with him that should be done only with the significant other in your life, especially not sleeping with him which should only be done with your husband. (Yes. Don’t sleep with a boyfriend. Sleep with a husband.)

That this girl is totally fine with it terrifies me.

So what is this girl writing about? She’s saying that during the last visits, they had a couple of drinks and then went to bed. She says that now he’s suggesting that they can even avoid that part. In her words, he wants to go “straight to the goods.” Gah! It makes me want to scream! Doesn’t this girl see it?!

First off, this guy is just planning this out. He doesn’t care about this girl in that way at all, but he’s wanting to sleep with her still. Granted, a guy can lose a girl and still have dreams where he is with her, but this guy is getting his reality! In fact, they’re even planning it out. She’s letting it happen and the guy knows that he can do it. Ladies. Here’s a sad truth about many men. If they know they can take advantage of you, they will. Sadly men, the same goes for several ladies. If someone is taking advantage of you though, drop them.

That this girl even raises a question is sad. Geez. Do I spend my money on this girl and then get to sleep with her, or would it be better if I could just save my wallet for the other girls in my life and sleep with her anyway? Why oh why did not this girl kick this guy in the sweet spot immediately? (Normally, I don’t get as explicit, but stories like this really anger me.)

Now she goes on to say that she’s not expecting a lot, but he could at least get Ramen. Yes. That’s what she said. Ramen. I know about them. You can get Ramen for less than a dollar. Wow. Doesn’t that just scream romantic. Now I’m not saying the romance in a gift is conveyed in the price, but I am saying that you shouldn’t be necessarily cheap with the special ones in your life.

The girl asks if she should make it clear that the guy gets dessert later or not. Oh if only I was there. I’d scream at this girl that she is being taken advantage of. Of course, she says though that she’s all for casual sex, but you have to treat the person right don’t you? There’s the problem.

There is nothing casual about it. If there was, this letter would not need to be written to an advice columnist.

The world needs to drop the myth of “It’s just sex.” It seems when date rape takes place, it is far more substantial than if a mugging takes place. A lady can easily report a mugger no matter who it is and get on with her life. A rape on a date will change her forever and she can be ashamed to report it? Why? Because it’s not just sex. It’s about her and who she is as a woman. A mugging gets at her pocketbook. A rape gets at her.

That’s why it’s so devastating. That’s why sex changes everything. This isn’t about purely biological function. This is about something that gets at the hearts and lives of who we are entirely. To treat it as casual is to treat ourselves as casual. It is not a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder. It is a treasure to give to the one who has that right.

The sad thing is, this girl is not alone. There are probably several girls out there that are making the same mistake she is making. (At least, I hope by now she’s stopped making it.) There are several men out there that are using women and there are several women that are using men.

Let us drop the idea though that this is casual. To the women out here, I urge you instead to realize that you are a treasure. To the men, I urge you to recognize that you should make it your desire to dive into the ocean of one lady than wade in the shallow end of many.

People are worth far too much to treat cheaply.

J.P. Holding of Tektonics ministries I count as a dear friend of mine. I received news this afternoon that his dog Toby had passed away.

His dog? You’re writing a blog about the death of a dog?

Yep. You got a problem with it? Tough.

Yeah. I know I’ve been blogging on marriage lately, and that will resume, but when something like this happens, you just have to say something. I can’t put my friends on hold like that. If you want to hear about marriage, it will continue. Tonight though, I’m going to honor Toby.

I’ll go on and say I’m not really the one that scores highest in empathy. However, I was deeply moved with sorrow when my roommate called me to tell me the news.  The thought was on my mind throughout the day. Walking through a parking lot, a dog in a car started barking and I wanted to be able to tell him he should be silent for one of the best has passed on.

When I was on vacation earlier this year, I got to hold Toby. It has been considered a rare honor. I even got to feed him and I have a picture of me with him. When I was there, there could be no doubt that JPH loved (No, loves) that dog. Even when he picked me up at the wedding I was at, Toby was there in the backseat. The dog went everywhere.

What is it about animals?

My first loss of a pet was our cat several years ago. I’d never known life without this cat. It was one of the hardest experiences of my life. I know other people who lose pets and it’s the same way. For some reason, when a pet dies, everyone else just flocks around and showers you with love and kindness. Nearly everyone can relate to this.

Why do they get into our hearts? It could be that they’re pictures of grace. They come and give us unconditional love at times. That is the only thing they usually give us. Yeah, some people have dogs to protect them and some have cats to get rid of mice, but even those would most likely agree the best aspect is the relational one.

Animals come and give us someone we can be with just for the sake of being with and they treat us the same way. Picture the joy in a dog when he hears his master calling and runs forward. Picture the cat who is happily purring and sleeping with his owner. Pets somehow become part of the family.

When our family gets together for Christmas, we even exchange Christmas gifts for the pets and we have them getting “gifts” for each other. Everyone knows the names of everyone else’s pets. People who know me know about the cat that my folks own back where they live. People who know JPH know about Toby.

Now a question arises as to whether pets go to Heaven. Now I don’t think the Bible speaks explicitly on this issue, but seeing the joy animals have brought in this world and how I believe in a cosmos being resurrected, I can’t rule out the concept. C.S. Lewis has argued that an animal receives eternal life by being connected to someone else who has received it. He could be right. No complaints here if he is.

So in conclusion, I’d like to say that I send my condolences out to my friend in his loss. It’s a terrible happening and I’m here any time. As for Toby, the world seems a lesser place without the presence of that happy pup in it. To anyone who has lost a pet now, take the time to cherish that memory. If you have a pet now, go and shower some affection on it now. You never know when that time will come.