Why Extremes?Terry Dashner……………….Faith Fellowship Church PO Box 1586 Broken Arrow, OK 74013
I came of age during
turbulent 1970s. Two weeks after graduating high school, I landed in San Diego, California for basic training with U.S. Navy.
1973 was not a good year to enter military. In March of that year, U.S. had worked out a cease fire agreement with North Vietnamese and, except for troops remaining behind to help South Vietnamese “de-Americanize” (the essential weaning away of South Vietnamese Army from U.S. support while learning to defend itself against N.V.A.), most of American troops had come, or were coming, home. As you might recall, soldiers were mostly draftees who cared very little for military life. As they came stateside to leave war behind, I was just getting adjusted to military life.
More than anything, I remember low moral, blatant racism, overt drug abuse, and general malaise that many returning soldiers displayed. It seemed that contempt and hate for anything patriotic ruled day. We even hated ourselves. It was not a good time for America’s military.
Nevertheless, as is often true in life that when pendulum swings one way it strikes with equal force on its return. Although America was reaping whirlwind of military burnout and political corruption (Watergate) on one hand, other hand opened to great revival among America’s youth. This was known as “Jesus Movement.”
Instead of hippies with mind altering drugs in hand and free sex to give away, young people were now turning on and turning to Jesus. I remember this period of time from a West coast perspective. Long haired men with beards and sandals were turning their VW buses into missionary wagons. They traveled up and down coast line, preaching Jesus and winning souls. Some of men (and ladies) even looked like Jesus.
So while America experienced distress and bitterness on one end, there was great awakening and revival on other end. When I think about this time, I’m reminded of Apostle Paul’s words to Christians in Rome. When sin abounds, grace abounds more (Romans 5:20).
While reflecting recently about stark contrasts during this period of time in our nation’s history, I was reminded again of some of words from G.K. Chesterton. Chesterton was a man ahead of his time and spoke eloquently about human experience in its extremes. I’d like to share some of his thoughts, recorded in Philip Yancey’s book entitled, Soul Survivor (Doubleday 2001).
Philip Yancey writes, “In addition to problem of pain, G.K. Chesterton seemed equally fascinated by its opposite, problem of pleasure. He found materialism too thin to account for sense of wonder and delight that gives an almost magical dimension to such basic human acts as sex, childbirth, play, and artistic creation.
“Why is sex fun? Reproduction surely does not require pleasure: some animals simply split in half to reproduce, and even humans use methods of artificial insemination that involve no pleasure. Why is eating enjoyable? Plants and lower animals manage to obtain their quota of nutrients without luxury of taste buds. Why are there colors? Some people get along fine without ability to detect color. Why complicate vision for all rest of us?”
