“Man has lost faith in his own value when no infinitely valuable whole works through him.”
Nietzche “Will to Power”

“The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.”
Psalm 14:1

Sometimes it is difficult to go back home.
Naturally, there is always great joy when you are able to meet again with siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews after months and years of being apart. There is nothing like seeing a familiar smiling face that has long been forgotten in the craziness of adult life; or being pleasantly surprised by a smell, sight, sound or taste that you took for commonplace as a kid. But always hiding behind these nostalgic memories lurks the cold clammy chill of melancholy that can leave you feeling empty, longing for what “once was” and even disappointed by “what is”. It hurts to lose a loved one who can no longer share in your joy as he or she once did. Or feeling the acute pain when you miss that hug from a parent or being able to talk to an old friend that is no more.

Death sure knows how to spoil a good reunion.

But maybe the most distressing thing of all is when the friends you once knew or family members you love have changed over time for the worst. Misery often clings to the adult who made disastrous choices as a teenager. Sin is real, and your own family and friends are not immune from the long-term fall-out from it.

This past trip home I was looking at some old yearbooks wondering about people I once knew. I asked my sister about a few of the names and faces – more often than not she would say, “Haven’t you heard what happened? It is really sad.” And then she would relay to me some tragedy or destructive lifestyle choice that has befallen them. After pointing to one very familiar face, she told me how a disastrous divorce left the person’s children confused and conflicted. The result was that both kids decided to change their genders: The boy now wants to be a girl and the girl wants to be a boy. He has become she, and she a he. It is sad…

As we were talking, my niece, who works as an art teacher in a large suburban high school outside of Cleveland, turned to us and said, “Transgenderism is more common than ever. Just in my school alone, I have to deal with two or three cases of students wanting to change their names in each and every new class I get.” She explained one extremely difficult case of how a girl in her drawing class wants to be called by her male name but not in front of her brother who shares a class with her. So my niece, who is the girl’s teacher, must navigate the slippery pronouns, oh so carefully, so she doesn’t upset the girl who wants to be a boy or the brother who is not yet aware that his sister is soon to become his brother.

The world is mad.

I asked my niece her opinion on why transgenderism is growing, and here is her take, “I think it is now trending. The person who once was ignored or went unnoticed in their natural gender is now cool in their new gender. In fact, the most popular kids in school are the ones who have changed genders.” I asked do the kids really believe they are a different gender or are they just trying to get attention? She waited a second and said, “Personally, I think they are confused. High School is competitive and to win you need to be unique, you have to have something no one else has, you need to get yourself noticed, and when a boy becomes a girl, believe me, it does the trick.”

I had to stop on that a second. You have to be unique to be noticed. It reminded me of a book I read 15 years ago called “Shows About Nothing.” The point of the book stressed that in America, “we have no other culture than popular culture.” Hollywood, television and movies set the trends, and the trends now determine truth. The book goes on to say, “Hollywood promotes a debased, Nietzchean culture – the side of Nietzsche that values unrestrained creativity.”

That is it! Unrestrained creativity – – we have reached the point where the weirdest and most non-traditional ideas and choices have become the most celebrated and desired. Not only does it get attention online, but it sets a person apart. The ultimate goal of pop-culture! The writer, Thomas Hibbs, says behind this cultural reality lies a very troubling world-view that he describes as “demonic anti-providence.” We have thrown God out, and chaos has filled the very large hole he left behind. Nietzsche wrote a book about this called “Beyond Good and Evil.” Everyone decides what is right for them. And if everyone is right, no one is wrong.

Boys will be girls and girls will be boys. Even if science has evidence to prove the contrary, your personal feelings matter more! Reason falls dead at the feet of pop-culture’s sword.

We have been debating gun violence for the last two weeks in America after the school shooting in Florida. Passions are running high, the students blame the NRA, the NRA blames the local cops and FBI, the FBI blames the lobbyists and the lobbyists blame the politicians, and the politicians blame the media, and the media blames Trump, and Trump blames Hillary. If everyone is right, we all are wrong. And the shooter, the one who actually pulled the trigger, is the only one truly innocent. “Hey, he was just ‘trying to be noticed’, he can’t be faulted for using his ‘unrestrained creativity.'”

I wonder, if we do not bring God back, and recognize the importance of his guiding hand of Providence, what lies beyond the horizon? Will we stop at gender experimentation, or will we take our unrestrained creativity farther? How about changing our pigmentation? Will we want to marry animals? Will the poor demand the money and keys to the houses of the rich?

I wonder. . .will we want to kill our own children?

Maybe my melancholy isn’t just because I miss my family? I long for the world that made sense to me as a child. I miss the days when we called “demonic anti-providence” evil. But, oh well, now I must just grin and bear it.