What is the weekly mettle maker? It’s a weekly shot in the arm, a semi-fortnightly kick in the pants — your helpful heckler, hammering away at you to stop hemming and hawing and hurdle headlong into becoming your own hero!
Autodidactic: Mettle Maker #299
Self-defense and Fitness combo: Do some calisthenics. Regardless of which program you’re in, be it Heritage Self-Defense or Heritage Fitness, watch the video on the right and get ‘er done. If you’re new around here, we call these things constitutionals. Interested in one of our free programs? Click here to sign up for Heritage Self-defense, or check out the also-free Heritage Fitness Distance Learning Program . Did I mention they’re free?
Some of my favorite outdoor skills resources.
Wildwood: Read a good book and then go practice what you learned. I am, for the most part, a self-taught outdoorsman. I’ve only taken a handful of classes, mostly through my membership in MAPS Group (Mid-Atlantic Primitive Skills Group). The best ones were taught by the very powerful Tim MacWelch. Mostly what I’ve done is read books and then I’ve gone out, gotten dirty, and tried out the stuff in the books. Why don’t you give that a try? On the left is a photo of some of my favorite outdoor skills resources. All of them are books except for the DVD on the very top of the pile. That’s Wild Edibles and Medicinals of Appalachia by the incredible Ila Hatter, a renowned naturalist and descendant of Pocahontas. The one on the left is The Wildwood Workbook by yours truly. Interested in a free earn at home program that will encourage you to practice, keep you on track, and reward you with rank bandanas? Click here to sign up for the totally-free Heritage Wildwood distance learning program.
Spirit: Why do bad things happen to good people? This is called the problem of evil. If you don’t have an answer to this question, it will likely prove fatal to your happiness, your health, and your spirit. I suggest getting started today. Blaming God for tragedy and evil causes loss of faith, emptiness, hopelessness, and nihilism. In times past, folks would’ve arrived at a satisfactory position on the problem of evil during grade school, and would’ve made it more robust into adulthood. Nowadays, the state of philosophical and theological teaching is so poor, that the average adult — Christian or otherwise — is unlikely to have adequately contended with it. Have you? I prefer the free will defense, which I think Jesus makes in Luke 13:1-9. which is the gospel reading for tomorrow, and on which I will be homilizing. Stay tuned! CLICK HERE to join our email list and to begin participating in church activities. And if you need someone to talk to, CLICK HERE to set up a phone call with archdeacon Mitch.
Luke 13:1-9 New International Version
13 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4 Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”
6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
8 “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”