Morning Thought

I'm an early riser. I enjoy the pre-dawn stillness here in our Florida retirement community. For me, noise has become a mind-numbing distraction and my aging brain seems to function best in the silence of these early hours. I need the quiet to think and to pray. There is, however, one exception. For some unknown reason, classical music, specifically the baroque, soothes my mind and animates my thoughts. Many of my best ideas germinate during a Bach fugue and mature thanks to a Vivaldi violin concerto. Of course, these days, unless I write them down, most of these great thoughts disappear within minutes. Too often I am left only with the not-so-great.

This morning, for example, I read about a professor, enjoying his tenure at some prestigious university, who attributed all the world's ills to a group he labeled, dead white males. Now, as a future representative of this subset of humanity, I took this attack personally. I see no need to present a counter argument since one can easily refute the professor's attack by a quick scan of the history and culture of Western civilization. But then I realized this academic was interested in neither history nor culture. No, indeed, he was trying to make me, along with all other white males, both dead and alive, regret our very identity. He wanted me to apologize, not for what I have said or done, but for who I am. And this I will not do.

Now don't get me wrong. I am not proud of my white maleness. How can I take pride in that over which I have no control? Anyway, pride is highly overrated and if you don't believe me, just read chapter three of the Book of Genesis. No, I consider my race and my sex to be gifts from God. And because they are gifts, I thank God for them. Every human being should do the same. If you are a black female or an Asian male, just thank God every day for these wonderful gifts that form a part, but only a part, of your uniqueness. 

Bigotry in the form of racism and sexism exist when God  is forgotten. When we attack others because of their God-given identity, we also attack God who created each one of us in His image and likeness. 

This is also why so-called transsexuality is morally wrong. To try to change one's sex is to reject one of God's most precious gifts. It becomes just another vain attempt to "be like God" [Gen 3:5] and we all know what happened the first time a man and a woman tried to do that. Also, our very DNA prohibits any real change in sex. People might call themselves whatever they want, but their sex remains locked in their DNA. It remains God's gift, even if we try to reject it.

God commands you and me to love Him with all our being and to love each other as we love ourselves. Do you love yourself as God made you? You should, because it is a beautiful gift, the gift of life itself. And if you don't, you will not only despise yourself, but also others. So many today do not love themselves. Because they reject the gift of their own being, they have no problem rejecting the gifts that mark the identity of others. 

Pray for all those torn by inner confusion, for those unaware of the wonder of God's gifts. Yes, indeed, "Being is good."

And now I think it's time for a Handel concerto grosso.