EDITORIAL: IF YOU FOLLOW THE ROAD TO CONCORD, PLEASE READ THIS POST

Dear Reader,

I am about to make some major changes to this blog page and to the way I use it.  I know this page is small, and the audience is not all that large.  Still, this blog has slowly but steadily grown since I started writing regular posts again.  I hope it is not presumptuous, but I have taken this to mean that I am doing something that people find of value to them. Whatever it is I am doing that they like, I just hope it is the right thing.  By that, I mean I hope I am helping people better understand our world and not adding to the chaos and confusion — or the hate. For too long, I was on the wrong side of right, and I never want to go back there or be that person again.  So, before I tell you about the changes I am planning to make, let me tell you a little about how I got to where I am now.

Not that long ago, I almost quit blogging all together.  If you are a regular reader, you may know that I recently asked for your opinion on this matter.  I decided to keep writing because because several of you told me you really do get something of value from what I write.  That means more to me than you may realize.  It may not as popular as it once was, but I am not ashamed to admit that I still believe in the Lord.  I have to:  I have seen His hand work in my life and the lives of those closest to me too many times not to believe.  It was the Lord who changed me.  Now, I seek to serve Him by serving others.  So, if I can help just one person by maintaining this blog, I will do it: for the Lord, but also for that one person.  Still, I have been struggling over how best to use this blog to serve others. I don’t trust my opinion very much anymore, so the Lord sent a friend of mine to offer a little bit of encouragement.  But, more importantly, this friend gave me what I had been needing: a focused direction for this blog.  However, before I share this new-found focus with you, I would like to explain why I have been drifting for so long.

When I first started to voice my opinion about current events and political matters, I was motivated by an over-developed sense of self-righteous importance.  At that time, I was a pompous, arrogant, pride-filled individual who was certain that he knew better than everyone else.  I just knew that, if I could only convince people to listen to me, I could solve all the world’s problems.  So, when I wrote, I wrote for me and my own ego.  Then, one day, I realized that everything I had told myself I believed was a lie.  I may have had the right ideas, but I had the wrong explanations; the wrong reasons behind those ideas..  Then I realized that this made me a hypocrite, and I have always hated hypocrites.  This left me no choice but to change, and so I did.  For me, it started when I finally read the Bible for the first time.  After I read it, I started trying to live according to what it actually teaches and not what men claim it teaches.  That was the key to everything.  That is what changed me, and that change opened my eyes to understandings that had previously eluded me.  Not only did I come to understand God better, I also came to better understand His Laws, which helped me to better understanding of our Founding Fathers, which helped me understand the ideal they held for this Nation.

This change started nearly a decade ago, and I am no longer the person I once was.  While I still have a long way to go, I am much more humble.  I have a great deal less certainty about a great many more things.  I question things more than ever.  At the same time, I am more certain than ever about those things I do know to be true, as well as why I know them to be true. For the first time in my life, I listen to others: I mean really listen.  I value their opinions more, and my own opinion less — a lot less.  In fact, this is why I was going to give up blogging. I came to a point where I honestly felt that, if I continued blogging, it would be an act of selfishness.  I still feel this way and, if it were up to me, I would have already stopped writing.  But, for whatever reason, many people have told me they disagree with my assessment of myself: that my opinion does have value.  In fact, not only have many of my readers encouraged me to continue blogging, several personal friends have actually asked me to step up my writing.  They have asked me to write with more focus, and with a greater sense of purpose.  Therefore, out of deference to the opinion of my friends, as well as a personal sense of duty to others, I have decided to do my best to do what has been asked of me.  But to do that, I have to make some major changes to this blog.

First, I am going to start treating this blog as what it was always intended to be: a blog page dedicated to helping others learn, understand and apply the principles of Natural Law.  Unless it is directly related to helping others understand Natural Law, it simply does not belong on this blog page — period!  This means I need to stop writing about current events and focus only on posts that will help people learn the principles of Natural Law.    Therefore, starting today, I will stop posting on irrelevant topics and start focusing on helping others understand the founding principles and ideals of the United States of America.

In keeping with this new focus, I plan to re-boot TRTC.  I am going to take TRTC back to square one and start working my way forward all over again.  Only, this time, I am going to do it with a greater sense of purpose.  One cannot build a house before laying the foundation, so that is what I intend to do: lay the foundation.  Not only will I share the history behind Natural Law Theory, but I will also walk readers through my own derivation of Natural Law.   The goal will be to show people why I find Natural Law to be such a powerful and convincing argument.  If you have friends who have never been exposed to the founding principles and ideals of this nation, or who have a misunderstanding about these principles and ideals, this would be a great time to encourage them to start following The Road to Concord.

For those who have been with this blog for a while, do not worry.  I plan to continue writing about topics related to Natural Law.  I do not plan to stop using real-world examples as teachable moments.  If anything, I will expand on those posts.  I also plan to go back and cover the history behind the evolution of Natural Law theory.  Finally, I will start writing more about the philosophical threats to Natural Law, as well as the history behind these various philosophies.  Hopefully, this will mean that long-time followers will continue to find new and useful information on TRTC.

There will also be changes to the look and function of this page.  I have tried to use the pages at the top of the blog to sort my various posts, but I have never been happy with my solution.  The pages are nowhere near as easy to use as I want them to be, but I never figured out a better idea — until now.  I think I finally have an idea that will make it easier to find information of specific aspects of Natural Law.  If it works, it might eventually lead to the ability to put the bulk of the content on TRTC into an e-book form.  In addition to this, I plan to make some significant changes to the categories I use.  Again, the changes I have planned are intended to help readers find posts on specific subject matter faster and easier.  Finally, I will create an ‘ARCHIVES’ page where all my older posts will be stored.  This way, I can clean up the blog, but you will still be able to find my old work.  You just might have to search for older posts a little bit more than you do now, but they will still be available.

Finally, if you would like to continue reading my thoughts and opinions about matters outside of Natural Law, I encourage you to start following my other blogs.  They may not be what you usually read, but then again, they may surprise you.  If you find anything of any value in my writing, I encourage you to at least give them a try.  You can find them here:

AS THROUGH GLASS

This blog page casts a wide and far-ranging net over history, as well as current events, then uses a Scriptural world view to knit them into a coherent and consistent picture.

THE OIL FOR YOUR LAMP

This blog page deals strictly with my understanding of the Biblical world-view, the Scriptures, how they should be lived, as well as a very different understanding of prophecy from that of most believers.