People are starting to get it, they really are.
When it comes to understanding the heart of a Honyak, the average reader of this blog is slowly forming a mental image of what I am trying to get across. But there still are those who are not quite sure what a Honyak really is; or even if they themselves have Honyak blood coursing through their veins? Well I have come up with a simple test to evaluate your Honyak potential. Answer this question: "When you hear the song 'Piano Man' by Billy Joel playing on your car radio, do you..." A - quickly turn the radio to another station, especially an easy listening station like 105.7 that plays all day Christmas music? B - keep it on the station , but you barely shed a tear when the phrase, "they are sharing a drink they call loneliness, but it's better than drinking alone", is hauntingly sung? C - turn the volume way up, roll down your windows, and belt out the chorus like it is the last song you will ever sing? If you answer A it is certain you have a long way to go in understanding Honyak living. If you answer B, you are a person caught between two worlds: yearning to explore more of your inner soul but not wanting to embarrass yourself doing it. If you answer C, you my friend, get it - - the Honyak well has been dug deep in your heart and the water of passion is ready to be drawn out. Why Billy Joel? Well, he lived in the Honyak world, and his lyrical poetry expresses what it means to be a bohemian redneck, a simple person just trying to live and not impress. His outlook on life is also realistic. He expresses this outlook well in the song "Keeping the Faith": 'Cause the good ole days weren't always good and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems.' In other words, Honyaks have hope - - when life is hard, when you realize you are only human, when you know you will make mistakes, many of them, you still "Keep the Faith." I have come up with an acrostic for what I am trying to express: F - (Father focused). One of the main themes throughout the Honyak series has been the certain belief that God is good, he is for us. Faith always begins here: Knowing that God is watching over us with a heart of kindness, long-suffering and compassion. If you believe this, and you know the Father has all the Universe's power at his disposal to do anything he pleases, you can be sure, you will make it! A - (Absolute belief). When you are sure of God's goodness, you also are sure that his word is trustworthy as well. I once had a professor who said, "Faith is believing God's word and heart so much, that if he told you to eat dirt you know that you would be a fool not to." If he is good, than that means his commands are good. And if his commands are good, you know you will be blessed if you follow them. I - (Immediate obedience). Obedience is always a sign you believe, you just can't get around that. People who say they believe and don't ever live what they say they believe are called "hypocrites." Honyaks hate being called hypocrites - - if you love your Father you will do what he says. T - (Trust in trials). This is where the Honyak rubber of faith meets the road of life. It is easy to believe when the sun is shining; but when the storm clouds come rolling in, hypocrites run away. Did you ever realize, storm clouds are often purposed by God to chase the hypocrites away? I once read a story about a Romanian church during the days when the communist government was purging the Christians from the land. A Red soldier came into the church, pulled out a machine gun and said, "If you are not a Christian I am going to give you a chance to leave now; but for those of you who are willing to die for your belief in God, you will stay." After half the church emptied out, he closed and locked the door. He then threw down his machine gun and said, "Ahh, now I can worship freely with God's true children." Trials thin out the false and leave the true standing - - Honyaks hang in there. H - (Heavenly minded). Honyaks believe faith will pay off "big time." They have witnessed the brokenness of life first hand: They see their sister suffer through cancer, they know people lie and cheat you almost every day, they are the ones who have lost a dad to the grave years before he should have ever died. And they figure, "If this world is it, it ain't much?" But our good Father in heaven is "preparing a place for us, he wants to be with us." This is not only true, but it is the greatest most exciting promise ever given! Honyaks believe the weird stuff in the bible and are not embarrassed by it: they don't have a scholarly reputation to uphold so they readily accept the phenomenal. They long for the glorious Rapture, they want the Anti-Christ to be humiliated in the battle of Armageddon, they can't wait to put on their immortal new bodies. Honyaks revel in the ridiculousness of God's promises - - he said it, so they have no problem believing it. I must say, however, that there is one thing Billy Joel is completely wrong about; it is not true "only the good die young." Everyone dies, because everyone has sinned, and we all die old. What does that mean? The only reason you have lived a day longer than the day you were born is because of God and his mercy. Each day is a gift, each breath is another chance; and Honyaks are truly thankful for another blue sky and drop of rain. So go ahead, turn on your radio and sing like it is your last song, it just may be... and you know what, it's all God's grace!
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Last December I began a little two-bit blog named “Shapka & Coffee.” Here I am, a year later, still standing; quite an accomplishment for a slacker like me.
My intent at the beginning of this personal journey was to have a place where I could hash out my meanderings and people could listen in. I am grateful for those who have stopped by once in a while, and left a “like”, or a note of approval or dissent. Either way, your insights have forced me to refine and sharpen my skills when it comes to communicating through written ideas and words. I’m a pastor, and these are the tools of my trade. I chose the title “Shapka & Coffee” for two reasons: (1) I like wearing big fuzzy Siberian hats. (2) I spent a year of my life in Russia, and while there teaching the bible, I found myself daily drinking coffee or tea. That experience has greatly affected me, and it made me realize there is more out there than Cleveland, Ohio and Grand Rapids, Michigan. (Believe it or not you Wolverines, Spartans and Buckeyes - - the rest of the world shockingly does not revolve around football or Cedar Point). As a result of my time spent in Eastern European culture; my mom who is an avid reader, will send me anything she finds on Stalin, Lenin, Communism, Tyranny and recipes for Red Borscht. One constant topic I am very sensitive to in all of these readings is the menacing presence of socialist thought. In particular, I find the dirty fingerprints of Karl Marx on much of Eastern Europe’s sordid history. For those of you who have not really heard of Karl Marx, he was a 19th Century German economist that developed a brilliant and terribly destructive system to understand the world by. (Live in Russia for a year and you will understand just how destructive it has been). His was a philosophy that came out of a deep desire to defeat capitalism and curtail once and for all its influence and excesses. What really troubles me about Marxism is that presently, through mostly covert means, it is holding enormous sway on our present day American experience. His terms and categories are everywhere these days. People, especially on the left side of things, have willingly swallowed his premises, assumptions and conclusions without even knowing that these same ideas have been responsible for massive amounts of blood-shed, war and the loss of dignity to humanity in general. Marx built his ideas from a foundation that had no use for God, and the over-arching belief that humanity is in a fight for survival between people from differing economic classes. Karl was cut out of the same “revolutionary cloth” as Thomas Muntzer, the 16th Century “Peasants War” fire-brand, and the guillotine happy Jacobins of the “French Revolution.” He was the main influencer on the Russian Revolution, Chairman Mao’s Cultural Conquest, Latin American “Liberation Theology”, and even inspiring present day “Black Liberation" writers and preachers. All of these movements have the same common goal: To maintain an ongoing struggle to overthrow the oppressor. It never ends, nor does Marxism intend for it to. The irony of each of these Marxist movements, they believe with their whole heart, they are in the right - - which gives to them an air of smug justification when they commit often violent and criminal acts in the guise of revolutionary righteousness. My concern with Marx is simple, I want for people to see that his ideas are both antithetical to a Biblical Worldview and they are intentional in destroying the fabric of healthy national body politic. By nature Marxism wants conflict; and it accomplishes this by using the basest of human instinct, “jealousy” and “greed.” So I have decided to continue my “Shapka & Coffee” meanderings by exploring Marxism on Mondays. Look at it as an “Idiots Guide on Marxism.” I will (K.I.S.S.) keep it simple stupid, so I hope you read it. And I am not calling you stupid, this is simply a cool way of saying I will try to make it fun and easily understandable. Last but not least, if you pick up anything from my odd mind, I hope you realize that when it comes to economics, finding solutions for the poor, and deciding who really is just, there really is “nothing new under the sun.” Ferguson, Occupy Wall Street, and Paul Krugman have been heard and tried before. So grab a bag of M & M’s, put on your Shapka, a warm cup of Joe, and get ready to wrestle with Karl. |
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