Trans-identification: egoistic indulgence v. discipline

When transferable identity reaches the level of media coverage where it eclipses vital issues of government gone awry, it's time to pull on the galoshes. There's a sea of manure to slog through and one misguided person after another is being sucked into the mire only to find that it gets deeper and more noisome the further he ventures. (Yes, here will be invoked the proper grammatical use of the male gender term to indicate all persons. Political correctness be hanged.)

Behind the problem of individuals believing their identity is other than what they see in the mirror is that of self-absorption. Based on fallacious cultural constructs, they spend far too much time worrying about their emotional acceptance of birth characteristics. If you didn't get that, let me put it this way... People who are disturbed by what they look like, how they're made or from where they come will grasp at trends to create a personal alternate reality. And, for the moment, it's fashionable to identify with a victim minority, even if it's a contrived exclusiveness like trans-genderism and trans-racialism. Plainly, people who want to be something other than what emerged from the birth canal are focusing on the all-important "I" and getting it wrong. They think they're seeing the inner being but they're actually seeing an imagined being. Laying the blame on "feeling" like something or someone other than what they were born, be it a man, woman, ethnicity or a platypus, they prefer to believe they are actually something else because they've been taught to hate their birth costume. And that is exactly how they treat their physical being... as a costume that can be discarded and replaced with another one that is more colorful (pardon the pun). The question is why do so many people despise their physical nature? What is at the core of this self-hate? First and foremost is the focus on self. The constant companion of contemporary existence is the spotlighted "me." How amazing it is that people spend most of their time thinking about themselves to the point of wishing to be something or someone else because there is no happy place for "me" to exist. At the core of this egoism is the utter lack of discipline.

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Discipline is the dirty word that has crept into our social paradigm

Discipline is the dirty word that has crept into our social paradigm that is, in some cases unknowingly, disparaged by spiritual, atheistic, relativistic, pragmatic and religious individuals of all stripes. Discipline is something that is wholly misunderstood to be a regulator, whether by time, space or cultural constraints. Most believe that to be disciplined means they live a life confined by outer parameters such as a work, study or play schedule that responds to rules generally imposed by society. As such, it is a concept to be avoided, ignored or disdained by those who believe themselves to be nonconformists. The easiest way to reject conformity to social standards is to, instead, conform to nonconformists' standards like joining outlaw bikers, gangs, sexual minorities, goths, ethnic politics, humanists, cults, artist colonies, gamers, etc., even the homeless. Any of these groups draw members who despise the trappings of discipline despite the fact that within each group and sub-group a hierarchy still reigns. The thing about discipline is that it isn't about the outside rules, observances or appearances. And it isn't about emotionalism. The most focused person who spends endless hours writing code for a computer program and is unable to let go until they physically drop from exhaustion is someone who exercises no discipline. The same can be said for any manager, missionary, volunteer, or professional who is compelled to continue until the "job" is done. They are relying on "feeling" a sense of accomplishment. Standing by the previous statement, it takes discipline to listen to the true needs of the physical and the spirit and to separate the two. What gets in the way is emotion. Emotion twists our response from being guided to accomplish a task into a "need" to finish a task no matter the cost, which may be one's health. Or emotion may fill an emptiness with any alternative that appears to console the feelings for a while, though it isn't lasting. And that alternative could be seeking fulfillment in food, drugs, wild behavior, marathon gaming, asceticism or attempting to change our physical being to fit the emotional uproar. In every case, what is missing is discipline. So what is discipline that it can counter the emotional fracturing that so many are suffering? Discipline is acceptance of who you are within the world as it is, not as you imagine it to be, and we have been educated to believe that the world is whatever we want it to be. Does that sound like disciplined thought? No, it is not. It is emotional tree-swinging between elusive branches that confuses individuals to the point of self-destructive behavior. It is the opposite of sound connection to the spirit, which is not "soul-searching" because the soul is the essence of emotionality.

Public education, media and the "common wisdom" for the past five decades has taught youth to trust their feelings, their emotions

Public education, media and the "common wisdom" for the past five decades has taught youth to trust their feelings, their emotions, so, should they feel like they're really the opposite sex or some other skin tone than the one God gave them, that's fine and dandy. In fact, it's encouraged as the less discipline one engages in to realize the true gifts they're given, the more the social fabric unravels. And this concept of living an imagined reality is about unraveling American culture. First, by denying that such a thing exists and, secondly, by redefining freedom as caving to undisciplined emotion, thought and action. American culture is solidly founded on Christian principles of Grace, the gift of Truth from which individual liberty is derived. Part of that truth is, rather than focusing on our own emotional response to the world and what we think we shouldbe feeling about that world and our part in it (according to the world's constructs), focusing on God frees us from those worldly constructs that actually hamper us. In less convoluted English: worldly social-political games tweak our minds to indulge our emotions, believing that peace comes by feeling. In reality, freedom comes by reaching beyond base emotions, which can feed a work-til-you-drop session, a drugged frenzy or undergoing body-altering surgery, to changing one's focus from "me" to Him -- from the small, insular individual to the Greater Christ.¹ The American culture that emotional indulgence denies and steadily denigrates is the culture of Freedom that exists nowhere else in the world. Nor will it be exported abroad until the world refrains from focusing on itself, including worldviews that concentrate on rewards from a self-centered spirit life driven by emotion. Discipline starts with the individual. Congress, are you listening?

1. 2Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. NIV