Five Minutes with Marlin
Actually, IT IS One Minute with Marlin! But this post will take five minutes to read! This inspiration was in my inbox early Monday morning begging to be shared ASAP! Marlin Miller, founder of Plain Values magazine has a gift of elevating the simple (apples again Marlin? the forbidden fruit?) to the profound. Make no mistake! As in the days of Noah, our culture is catastrophically grooming both “deceived christians” and the “worldly unaware,” to strategically accept a false synthetic form of “His “Biblical redemptive simplicity” that is clearly profane. May His Truth be revealed, grasped, implemented, and invitationally shared as we have opportunity during the ensuing chaos...merlin
Last fall, our neighbor Kevin started bringing some apples over for our pigs a few times. He would toss a few handfuls through the fence, hang out for a few minutes, and then go about his work. Hammy, the self-proclaimed leader of our porky tribe, noticed a pattern and began making a beeline for the gate at the bottom of the hill every time Kevin came near. The big old Ford tractor or his little ATV; it made no difference. Hammy knew Kevin, end of story. Then came the last cutting of hay, and that pig ran corner to corner following Kevin as he mowed hay and then baled it… Every time he passed by, Hammy was with him.. He knew what he liked and who to get it from.
It may be a stretch, but humor me, please. If you replace the pig with me or you and those apples with deep fulfillment in life, it makes for a beautiful microcosm of the human condition. All of us yearn for peace that lasts, something to fill the hole and fix the brokenness we sense deep down. We run from corner to corner, searching for ways to cope with our own broken lives, and when there is severe trauma, our minds and bodies have different ways of surviving, to protect and keep us alive, all to find an apple or two.
When a person runs after apples outside the divine design, trying to fill the hole with money, sex, or power, they make decisions through the lens of self. At times, forgetting about the people who love them, those actions isolate themselves and hurt the ones by their side. Because they are still seeing the world focused on themselves, they don’t see the unintended damage left behind. Sometimes, they will leave a trail of broken relationships, utterly unaware of the role they played in creating the wounds.
When a family chases apples outside the divine design, you see a compounding of bad decisions because the children grew up watching Dad prioritize his own needs. They might have seen their parents endlessly bickering, till one day, they are sat down and told that one parent will be moving out. The need to watch out for oneself is reinforced and welded into his or her subconscious. The next time, they are at a crossroads with a decision to make, what do you expect them to do?
When an entire culture runs after apples outside the divine design, you have the makings of a world before Noah’s great flood. Genesis 6:5 says people were “only evil continually,” bringing the Creator to regret having made mankind. At times, I try to imagine what a world looks like in which you and your neighbor are living with every thought being only evil… continually. I wonder where our culture lies on that scale? How close to the pre-flood culture are we today?
The other day I read the story of two gay men hiring a surrogate to carry and give birth to their baby boy. All was going well, then, in the baby’s 25th week of gestation, the surrogate mother was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. The doctors encouraged her to deliver the baby to facilitate treatment. The two men quickly and decidedly told her they needed a death certificate. They claimed the baby was now their property, and because they didn’t want to mess with the messiness this turn of events would bring, they refused the Hospital to care for their son after birth in any form. They refused the surrogate’s plea to allow her to adopt him. The surrogate’s uncle begged them to allow him to adopt the baby. They refused the uncle’s pleas. They would not allow their DNA to be “out there,” hence, he was not allowed to live. That tiny, innocent baby boy starved to death, surrounded by people wanting to save him and not allowed to do so… the two guys got their death certificate.
Soon after, I read another shocking story about euthanasia. Canada is planning on euthanizing 15 million people in the next 20 years. If you are not familiar with MAID, I humbly ask that you learn about it. The program, Medical Assistance In Dying, became law in June of 2016 and expanded in 2021 to include those suffering from a grievous and irremediable condition whose death was not reasonably foreseeable. The planned inclusion of people with mental illnesses is controversial and has been repeatedly delayed. In fact, as of this writing, the website says, “eligibility for MAID for persons suffering solely from a mental illness has been delayed until March 17, 2027.”
A hundred years ago, on July 21, 1925, in a Tennessee courtroom, evolution made its way into our public schools by way of the Scopes trial. I submit to you that we are seeing the devastation caused by a worldview that claims life is meaningless, you came from pond scum by way of millions, even billions of years of chance. Henceforth, if life has no purpose or meaning, it’s all about self-actualization, fulfilling who you really are, and because this worldview has killed God off, the only thing left is one’s own nature. A very sinful nature, which drives that person to prioritize their own needs above everyone else… blindly chasing those apples.
I remember Terry Schiavo’s family fighting for her right to live. Under a court order, she died on March 13th, 2005, after 13 days without nutrition or hydration. The judge ordered the hospital to stop feeding and giving her water.
I remember the first time I listened to Steve Taylor’s song Baby Doe. He shared the story in haunting verse of a woman in Bloomington, Indiana, who gave birth to a baby boy on April 9th, 1982, with Down syndrome. He had a complication, esophageal atresia, where the separation of the esophagus from the stomach renders the baby unable to absorb food. It will take a surgery to fix and save his life. Instead, the parents decide not to treat their son, and on April 15th, Baby Doe died of dehydration and pneumonia.
BOTTOM LINE:
Looking back now, I realize the role these two stories played in my life. It’s one thing to read about life and death in a book, even the Bible, but when I see how that “rubber meets the road,” it changes everything. From birth to death, life is loaded with apples. The older I get, the more I see life as our journey to laying down our own desires and serving others. The very fact that we humans find meaning in the things around us (Hammy and the apples) points us to a First Cause of meaning. May we not stop finding apples all around and seeing them through a worldview where humanity and life is gloriously bright, full of meaning, and dare I say, especially so, in suffering!
As always, may you find joy in the simple things, marlin
