A fundamental shift

 A Fundamental Shift

​Man is fundamentally insane.

He spends billions to build implements of war.

He sends thousands of young men to fight and die in wars.

What are the wars about?

Land, resources, ego.

What?

Are these things worth a single life?

No.

​Man is insane.

He is more interested in destroying than building.

He has no money to help his own people while he wages war.

He thinks war brings him profits, material wealth, stature, and renown, while his people suffer.

​Man is insane.

He runs for office,

Claims to be a public servant,

Enriches himself at the public expense,

Then is shocked at bloody revolutions.

Is he not a fool?

​He treats his neighbor as an enemy—

Mistreats and abuses him.

Who will then help him in times of need?

​Man treats those closest to him the worst.

Those whom he claims to love, he mistreats,

But those who care less about him, he treats well.

He mistreats his spouse—

Talks to her as he wants, but treats his boss with utmost respect.

Is he sane?

​A wife withholds affection from her husband,

Yet she expects him to love her.

A wife is disrespectful to her husband and still expects his unconditional love and tender treatment.

Is she sane?

The same wife is obedient to her boss, her pastor, etc.

Where are her priorities?

​Couples have no time for each other—

Too busy for each other,

Yet expect love to grow.

Is this a mental asylum?

​People behave without restraint,

Yet expect a well-ordered life.

Are we on pills?

​A leader is tyrannical,

But then complains that others hate him.

Is paranoid—

What did he expect?

​Musicians make music that promotes violence—

Do they expect the youth to be peaceful?

Hollywood produces violent movies—

Do they expect crime to go down?

Are we sane?

​Religious people claim to represent God, who is love.

They claim to love their neighbors,

Then go and treat them the same way as the godless treat others.

Are they truthful?

Religions claim to be the way of peace and truth,

Yet schism and fights are what we see.

Isn't man insane?

​Business owners take advantage of their customers, charging them high prices and giving them products which are not good.

Is he sane?

Thinks he not of the future?

Thinks he not that his customers are also human?

They will, sooner or later, pick up on his scheme.

​Man is insane.

He lives for self and thinks he will succeed,

But don't all others live for self?

Man does evil and expects others to submit and accept,

But will not others use evil also to retaliate?

Man chooses evil ways and expects good results—

Is his mind functional?

​The entire human race is insane.

Priorities are wrong.

Means to achieve results are insane.

​Now I understand the way of the Lord:

It's not the way of restriction,

But the path of wisdom.

Do good to others.

Treat others as you would want them to treat you.

This is sanity.

​Treat others well and they may treat you well.

Treat others well even if they don't treat you back well;

Revenge will not be in their hearts.

Treat others wrong and they may not retaliate for lack of strength, but hatred is in their hearts.

​We need a shift from madness to sanity.

Why do I do what I do?

What result do I expect to see in 10, 15, 50 years?

Will killing people for profit lead to peace or future violence?

Do the lives of others matter or only mine?

Does the well-being of others matter or only mine?

​Put away madness and folly.

Choose the path of wisdom—

The way of the Lord.

Choose to fundamentally shift from madness to wisdom.

Under Heavy Weight

 Under Heavy Weight

​I. The Void of Living

​Life is full of deaths and suffering of all sorts.

Daily we hear of murders and terrible stories.

What is the meaning of life?

This life is a horror show.

​A man gets married to a wife;

the wife expects him to take care of her and carry her—

but who will carry him?

Speaking of marriage, it is a lot of conflict resolution,

dealing with problems more than pleasures.

What is the point of marriage?

​Daily you wake up and make plans,

but have no guarantee you will make it back home alive.

No guarantee you will keep your job.

No guarantee the things you work hard for will not be destroyed in a moment.

What is the point of all this?

​II. The Trap of Fleeting Relief

​A man messing with multiple women will bring himself countless troubles.

Women can be emotionally chaotic.

They will say one thing, but emotions will lead them to do something completely different.

What appears to be love in the beginning can easily become jealousy, hatred, and chaos.

​A man cheats with a woman for the sake of pleasure,

then he soon finds out he has to carry her:

her burdens, worries, and anxiety.

Only then does he realize she is not a pleasure toy,

but a real human being with needs and emotions,

seeking someone to carry her.

​The pleasure soon becomes pain—

another burden added to his shoulders.

And soon he needs another woman to relieve the stress he carries.

Unless he becomes wise and understands that each advance in life,

each acquisition, brings more burden,

he will ruin himself.

​What is the meaning of this?

The search for pleasure soon turns to anguish and bitterness.

​III. The Universal Weight

​Life is hard for everyone on this planet.

Even the criminal is seeking a future,

seeking something firm to hold onto.

He commits crime because he believes it will provide a way to sustain himself

and shield him from life's chaos.

​Compassion upon all;

this life is hard upon all.

All are either seeking an anchor,

a relief of pleasure,

or a way to sustain life.

All these things lead to more burdens, one way or another.

​This life is a life of burdens.

One might say the real purpose of this life is to carry burdens until they crush you.

What is the meaning of this?

Show me a path of life where no burden lies.

​For even the homeless person has a burden to carry:

he needs to stand in the sun and beg for his daily bread.

He is never safe in the streets;

harm is always near.

​The millionaire has a multitude of cares to carry:

the fear of loss.

He acquires riches to shield himself from life's lack,

yet fear now becomes his burden.

​What is the meaning of this?

The pleasures of life are simply temporary relief from a life of burdens.

​IV. The Bondage of Modern Existence

​The woman seeks to get married because she wants to be loved and her burdens carried.

Yet more chores are added, along with her husband's expectation for intimacy,

his desire for her to sacrifice for him,

and children needing to be taken care of—

all while her husband is not really available for her emotional needs.

Why did she get married?

​A job removes one's liberty:

you must be up at a certain time,

get there at a certain time,

and can only leave at a certain time.

The time spent on the job can easily destroy time for your own creativity.

You need the job, for with no job, there is no food.

Like the animals of the forest, most of our energies are spent chasing food,

leaving little time for creative development.

​Isn't life a chain of slavery?

Isn't this world one vast field of slavery for all?

Where can true, unfettered joy be found?

​V. Disillusionment and Despair

​Temporary joys are sometimes followed by deep existential despair.

This is why many who are married come to hate marriage.

Those working hate their jobs;

people in affluent countries hate work altogether.

The pleasure lover hates the woman he just slept with,

as all these things reveal themselves to be shallow and contribute to more stress.

​Drugs become widespread as we seek to numb our pain

from the totality of our disappointment and disillusionment.

It is why suicide increases as our riches increase.

When some realize the burden of life,

the emptiness of every achievement,

and the vanity of it all,

they find life not worth living.

​The question remains:

All this for what?

What is the meaning?

​VI. The Unshakable Anchor

​When all the layers are peeled back,

life only makes sense if there is a source of constant dependency, constant relief, constant joy.

What is this source?

Only God.

​Not God as the religionists preach Him—

the opiate of the masses, a mere source of comfort—

but God as in abiding in His love,

as in seeing Him as the only source of true and constant joy.

God as the One who lifts and carries burdens.

​We were not meant to carry burdens.

It is the burdens of life that have robbed us of life and joy,

added countless stress upon us,

and led to all manner of destructive behaviors as we seek relief.

​Let us enter into true fellowship with God.

Cast all our cares upon Him;

only then will we become free to live.

​Without this constant and abiding love in God,

everything we seek in life becomes the chain that holds us captive.

Marriage, jobs, and pleasure all become heavy burdens with minimal reward.

This life leaves us heavy laden, under crushing weight.

No wonder we are so stressed and crime is so rampant.

​Let us go to Jesus and cast our burdens upon Him.

The Measurement Trap: Why Men Master Goals but Struggle to Love People

​Relationship problems among men often trace back to childhood and upbringing. I fear that many men do not understand the true purpose of life, and this misunderstanding leads to serious issues down the line.

​Growing up, men are taught many things—good things, even—that inadvertently lead to problems later on. From a very young age, boys are conditioned to be protectors and providers. We are taught to build ourselves up so that we can take care of others later in life, whether providing for ourselves, our parents, a spouse, or children.

​In short, men are taught to form relationships with things, activities, and goals rather than people.

​1. The Scorecard Mindset

​We condition men to be strong and in control. As a result, men bond with each other primarily through shared activities: playing sports, hiking, or serving in ministry together. To us, this represents connection. But the activity—not the person—is the primary focus. This is why men rarely have deep, face-to-face conversations in the way women do.

​We are not taught to value relationships with people, but with things we can measure and keep score with:

​If I invest in a business, I can see its growth and progression.

​If I play a game, I can track my stats and performance.

​But a true relationship with a human being—how do you track that?

​2. Courtship as a Conquest

​This difficulty with unquantifiable connection is why marriage becomes a stumbling block for so many men.

​In the early stages, a relationship feels like an adventure or a conquest. The man puts in effort, sees a return, and measures his progress as the woman responds to his overtures. He has a goal he can track—whether that goal is honorable or not. In reality, he is not building a relationship with the woman; he is building a relationship with the goal of acquiring her.

​Once they marry, the goal is achieved. The dynamic switches, and the man suddenly faces a reality where progress can no longer be measured on a chart. Disillusionment sets in.

​Because he has not been trained in the art of human connection, he reverts to what he knows: providing.

​Work becomes the priority.

​The bank account becomes the benchmark.

​The relationship with his wife and children takes a back seat.

​Why? Because relationships are hard to quantify. Why spend an hour talking to my wife? What does it accomplish? How can I track the return on investment of her love?

​It is far easier to track financial security. So, the man concludes: "I will work hard and sacrifice my presence so my family knows I love them." Then, one day, his wife says, "You don't love me. You're never here, and you don't spend time with me."

​The man is shocked: "How can you say that when I exhaust myself every day to provide for this family?"

​3. The Real Currency of Life

​His astonishment comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of life's most important currency: relationship.

​Life is not about conquest, performance, or metrics. It is about connection—getting to know someone, spending time with them, and discovering who they are day after day. Men must realize that while providing for a family is important, nothing is more vital than knowing them. People only feel they truly belong when they are known and loved for who they are.

​To know someone, you must invest time in conversation—not conversations aimed at achieving a goal, but conversations simply to know and love the person.

​Having a wife does not mean you have a relationship with her if you do not invest in her personally. Working 16 hours a day to fill a bank account while remaining emotionally absent is not genuine care. In fact, sitting with your family, listening to them express themselves without measuring or judging them, is a far greater sacrifice than working overtime.

​4. Emotional Avoidance and the Path to Wholeness

​Men are skilled at tasks with clear targets, but we struggle with emotional connection. When emotional issues arise at home, our instinct is to retreat back into activity.

​Instead of having a heart-to-heart conversation with his wife to resolve an issue, a man will work late or head to the gym. He does not realize that the very conversation he is avoiding is the only thing that will strengthen the relationship. Men play a massive role in marital breakdown by being physically present but emotionally absent.

​We are meant to be whole. Men are emotional beings, and neglecting our emotional development nurtures a weakness that eventually manifests as relationship failure.

​5. A Call to Unconditional Love

​Men, let us learn to develop relationships with people purely for the sake of love—not to gain an advantage, reach a goal, or hit a milestone. In true relationship, there is no rush, no benchmark to accomplish, and no metric to track. It is simply to love and be loved.

​God is love, and God is fundamentally about relationship with us. He makes time for us and desires to hear our hearts. Marriage is meant to reflect that divine connection.

​It is a tragedy that many men know more about sports teams, the stock market, and politics than they do about their own spouses and children. Let us shift our focus away from objects, jobs, and hobbies, and invest our lives in the people right in front of us.

Why you feel cheated

 During the courtship process, a man presents himself to a woman as a lover — someone who will take care of her, listen to her, and carry her through life. The man takes her out, pays for her food, opens her door, and treats her with kindness.

In the mind of the woman, she thinks this is what the man will always provide. She believes the man will always protect, provide, and shield her.

The woman comes to the date looking her best, looking beautiful. What message does her outward beauty send to the man? She is saying, "I will bring beauty to your life, pleasantness, and peace." She laughs at his jokes, checks on him, shows concern for his well-being, and presents herself as someone who is here to help build him up in every way. She wants to be an addition to his life, to improve its quality. She respects him and he protects her.

The man loves the woman for the beauty she brings him. External beauty, in the mind of a man, appears to be a symbol of internal loveliness.

The woman loves the man for the love he represents. Paying for the date, opening doors, waiting until she gets home — all mean to her mind that he will put her well-being first.

The man is willing to spend his all on her and she is willing to give her all, herself. This is the promise both genders implicitly make during the courtship stage.

But during the relationship or marriage, the truth is revealed that these things were not true. The man stops doing these acts of love, and the woman reveals that external beauty does not necessarily translate to inward beauty. Conflict arises as both genders abandon their own promises and shift into a blame game. You start to feel, "This is not the person I initially met."

Both genders feel cheated, deceived, and disappointed, and if they do not understand the reality of what is happening, they will seek these highs from a new relationship.

But the truth is, for love to be properly maintained, both have to keep their promises. The man should continue to be the provider — providing love, tenderness, and wooing — the same process from the beginning, and improving upon it. The woman should continue to develop and provide the grace and beauty she presented in the beginning, while finding ways to make things better.

It is the failure to keep our initial promises that leads to the breakdown of our relationships. For love is longsuffering, and love never fails, as the Scripture teaches.

The way you gain is the way you keep. A relationship is constant work. Keep working.

Why did God create Satan?

 Why did God create Satan?

This is a question many people ask, and I understand why. When we see all the suffering in this world, to think that there is a God — a loving God — who is presiding over all of this is maddening to many.

Christians will say, "No, God is loving and is not responsible for this evil. The culprit is Satan, the enemy of God and man." The question then becomes: Why did God create Satan, knowing that he would rebel and create all this chaos and suffering?

God never created Satan. Satan is a character assumed by the highest created being — a being with choice, just like you and me.

God gave all intelligent beings the choice to choose Him or to reject Him. God made a beautiful angel called Son of the Morning, gave him wisdom, and placed him as near to Himself as possible.

The highest being thought he had God figured out. He thought he was wiser than God and rebelled out of his own free choice.

Intelligent beings have the ability to question, to study, and to evaluate. Lucifer, or Day Star, began to question the divine will and concluded that he didn't have to obey the precepts of Jehovah, that he had sufficient wisdom to lead his own path.

You and I will ask, "Why would God give Lucifer free will, knowing that he would rebel?"

You and I wouldn't do it because we are not wise or strong enough to know the outcome of choice, and so we give limited, controlled choices.

But God is not like us. He is infinite in power and wisdom and knows the end from the beginning. He allowed the universe to see where choices outside of His will lead: chaos, misery, terror, and death.

No creature is wise enough to guide himself. No creature knows what the choice being made today will result in a trillion years from now.

The issue is not about not creating Lucifer; any intelligent being could have questioned the divine will. "Why do I need to obey God? Why can't I lead my own life?" Now all the universe has seen that life outside of God is ruin and misery.

Lucifer thought his choices would lead to greatness, to self-exaltation, etc. He never anticipated everlasting ruin. He couldn't anticipate that far because he is a created being. His earlier success in overcoming one-third of the angels emboldened him to believe that God Himself could be overcome. He believed in his wisdom, and his wisdom became foolishness.

How often we see similar things, from geopolitical blunders to our personal failures.

The US launched an operation in early January in Venezuela and captured Nicolas Maduro. It was, in military terms, an almost flawless operation on the US side with minimal casualties. Emboldened by such success, the US thought it had finally found the blueprint for success without the need to put boots on the ground and launched a similar decapitation strike against the Iranian government, killing the supreme leader on February 28th, the first day of the operation. One of the aims was to force regime change. We are now in August 2026 and fighting is still ongoing, with the global economy being held hostage through the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The planners in Washington didn't plan for such a long war and didn't anticipate such a long fight, but here we are.

Even now in the United States, there is an effort to deport a massive number of immigrants. The policymakers think doing so will make things better, but the truth is we have no idea how the expulsion of so many people will impact us down the line.

Likewise, in our personal lives, we make choices that we think are tried and true — proven strategies that lead to ruin. We think we can control outcomes, and lo and behold, things end up in ways we never even thought of.

The issue is that you and I, no matter how wise, do not know everything there is to know, and as a result, there will always be factors outside of our control. We see leaders getting into power genuinely desiring to help their people; circumstances come into play and they end up being murderous tyrants.

We see people getting married, genuinely planning to love each other, and end up hating each other. They planned one thing, but circumstances developed that led them on a completely different path. They all thought they knew what they were doing and had sufficient wisdom to carry out their plans, but ruin is what they found.

The truth is that you and I simply don't know the outcome of our choices. We don't know where today's choice will lead 5, 10, or 15 years from now. The best way to be certain of our path is to put our trust in God and allow Him to lead.

This is the lesson the entire intelligent universe is currently learning with the rebellion of Satan, his angels, and mankind. No creature can guide his own path without God, and I am speaking of every decision here. Decisions have ripple effects, and we have no idea where they lead. God knows the end result of each decision.

Let us then put our trust in God in all that we do. This is the only true path to peace and prosperity, the only path to true wisdom. God knows, and I don't.

If Lucifer, who was the highest created being, by his own choice has led himself to everlasting ruin — and trust me, his choices and decision-making process involved greater thought and rationale than I have the capability to do — how much hope do we have in trusting in our own feeble thought process and capabilities? Without God to guide us step by step, our choices, even if they appear good today, will eventually lead to decay and ruin. Nations fall decades or even centuries after critical mistakes were made. Sometimes it is not until we reach the bottom that we see the path we were on. Historians look back and say, "Here was the beginning of the end." Let us be wise and put our trust in Him who knows the end from the beginning.

"I know, O LORD, that a man's way is not his own; no one who walks directs his own steps." — Jeremiah 10:23 (Berean Standard Bible)

"There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death." — Proverbs 14:12

Why

 Why?

​A lot of people think the United States is being run by a greedy oligarchy. These men are in government or behind government simply to profit themselves and make more money.

​Let's look at President Trump, for example. He is already a billionaire and yet he is seeking to make more money, using the office of the presidency to make more deals for himself, his family, and his friends.

​The question many people ask is: why?

​The president is 80 years old and already financially secure. Why in the world does he need more money?

​You look at these huge corporations making millions of dollars, and yet they are seeking to increase profits next quarter, to make even more money, to increase market share. Why?

​To leave behind economics and go into romance: some kings in history had hundreds of wives and concubines. Why? What true relationship can you possibly maintain with all these women? One is simply robbing other men of women and robbing the women themselves of genuine affection.

​You go to school, take out a lot of loans, and acquire multiple degrees. Why? Now, you are drowning in debt and the jobs you find don't pay you adequately.

​An Arab prince who has hundreds of cars in his parking garage: why? Will he seriously be able to drive all these cars? Isn't it a waste of resources that could benefit the nation?

​Or a person who has a closet full of clothes they never wear, buying expensive shoes that never see the light of day. I think there was a president's wife—Marcos of the Philippines—who had countless shoes in her closet. Why? A waste of national resources.

​See, the thing is, we can see the issue when the billionaire is not satisfied with his billions and seeks more, but we can't see it when it applies to us. It is said that this world has enough resources to feed us all, but greed has turned it into a place of the haves and the have-nots.

​See, the thing is, all these things we talked about are good, but taken to an excess, they cause ruin. It is good to have money, for the world system operates on money to help facilitate commerce; but when money becomes the aim of life itself, it corrupts the soul as a person seeks to fill his inner void at the expense of others.

​Having one wife is good—the Lord Himself prescribed it—but when women become the aim of life, they become objects to manipulate, use, and dispose of, or to have as trophy wives to put on display and nothing else, robbing them of their humanity and other men of a good wife.

​It is good to have degrees if the aim is to do a particular thing that requires degrees, but there comes a point where having the degree becomes a matter of ego and prestige, and it corrupts the soul.

​The reason we seek more and more of things that we know at a certain point no longer satisfy is to maintain appearances, to feed our ego, to compete with others, and to make ourselves seem better than them. It is a psychological attempt to fill the spiritual void deep in our soul—the need to feel important, loved, and honored.

​But these attempts can lead to the ruin of others, as with what oligarchies do, whether through robbing the workers, manufacturing wars for profit, etc. Or the Arab prince robbing the nation of its wealth while he lavishes it on expensive cars, or you robbing yourself of peace by being restless in keeping up with the Joneses and ruining your health or finances to maintain the appearance.

​The truth is, we all have something we believe will satisfy us if we can only have one more, like the drunkard who thinks one more drink will do it. The thing is, experience has taught us it's not true.

​The only thing that "one more of" will not only satisfy us, but also do no harm to self or others, is the love of Christ.

​While it is good to pursue things, do all things in moderation, lest you become consumed by them and start to live an absurd life that to you makes sense, but is in reality utter foolishness.

​The only cure for greed, the love of display, and keeping up with the Joneses is to seek more of the Lord; this alone will keep us balanced and content with what we have.

Sin as Identity

 The more acceptable a sin is to society, the worse it is for the person struggling with it. Sin seems like an easy thing until you try to break free from it. The more sin is nurtured, the more it grows. Eventually, sin becomes one with the person—it becomes your identity.

​This is why many who are caught up in a homosexual lifestyle identify with it. The hold is so powerful that it feels like this is simply who you are. From a young age, before we are even aware of it, a tendency begins to develop toward a particular vice. Unless it is checked early, it will—like an anaconda—envelop the entirety of our being. The vice becomes your defining feature, your raison d'être. Sometimes we mistake the vice for a virtue; we embrace its death grip, and it grows. The serpent may seem to smile at us as it tightens its hold, sometimes leaving enough wiggle room to allow us to think we are free. But try to escape, and the monster will reveal its true death grip upon the soul.

​A person struggling with things society condemns, like theft or prostitution, may find themselves in a better position to be rescued from sin's vice grip than those dealing with socially acceptable sins—such as the love of money, premarital sex, extramarital sex, homosexuality, pride, and hatred.

​Why? Because those dealing with fashionable sins do not realize the power those sins hold over them, precisely because society does not condemn them. The thief knows there is human punishment if he is caught, so he may be more willing to accept that he needs help. The prostitute may see her degradation and realize she needs help. The drug addict may see his impending ruin and his impotence in freeing himself.

​In contrast, the man who loves money cannot see how much of a slave he is, and because society honors him for his wealth, he will not seek to break free. Similarly, a person caught in the grip of homosexuality is catered to by modern society and cannot see the destructive impact it is having on him. He fails to see that the depression and anxiety he experiences are the result of an unnatural affection; society tells him he feels this way only because others are unaccepting. Thus, he remains on the path to moral ruin without realizing it.

​A woman who is vain or selfish might be excused by society, but she is still dealing with sin, and it will eventually become her identity. Likewise, the man who is hungry for power or the person who is chronically impatient or unloving, are all dealing with destructive sins that will ruin the soul sooner or later, unless the sinner comes to Christ.

​When we say, "This is just who I am," if any part of the character traits we are describing is not in harmony with God's character, we can know we are dealing with something we need deliverance from.

​It is only as a person begins to come to Christ that they realize the power of sin in their life. You begin to see that your entire identity has been shaped by your particular sin, and that only God can save you. At some point, you realize the only way to be saved is for God to destroy who you were. The problem, however, is that the destruction of one's former self is so painful that many simply choose to find comfort in their old identity.

​The closer a person draws to God, the more they realize that true religion is not simply about going to church, but about the need to die daily to whatever identity they held before truly coming to Christ. The old self must die, and this process is perhaps more painful than physical death, for it means dying while you live. You walk through life while the Lord works to destroy the sinful self and recreate you in the image of His Son.

​The sooner we realize our old identities must die, the better we will understand the true nature of Christianity. Christianity is not the improvement of the old life, but its destruction and the birth of a new one. Everything impure in us must be destroyed as we are renewed in Christ Jesus. Unless we are continually dependent on God moment by moment, we will not be able to endure the severe ordeal of inner purification.

​When we hear that we are sinful, it means our very identity has been corrupted by sin. To be holy is for Christ to become our identity—to reach a place where our entire life is centered upon Him and every decision is made for His glory. He alone can accomplish such a work in our lives, but we alone can give Him permission.