My Chazown

So what is my chazown? Over the last few months, maybe a year now, this dream has been developing. My wife, Holly, and I have taken what some would describe as a dive off the deep end. I come from what I would call a typical conservative Christian up bringing. Go to church every Sunday and Wednesday, attend the local public school but be weary of the secular encroachment, and always vote Republican. Holly was less than typical, being home schooled and having a large family, but still nothing too outlandish (most of the time anyway). Recently though, we’ve started to open our eyes and look around to see the way things are and we have begun to ask, “Why?”


Why is it that despite 70% of American’s claiming to be “Christian” we act the same as unbelievers whom we are trying to save? The Church is evolving to try and stay hip and relevant, we now have a coffee bar and donuts, men’s, women’s, high school, middle school, and children’s retreats, flashy lights and expensive sound systems, and a “Life Group” for every hobby, interest, and identifiable group imaginable, but its attendance rates are still falling like the proverbial millstone. We aspire to be “in the World, but not of it” yet we are still hiding eggs every Spring (a pagan tradition) and bringing a tree and jolly fat guy into our house every winter, we skip out on service for or arrange our lives around a sports game, television show, or other distraction, we go into debt buying the best house, the nicest car, and the newest gadget.

Why is it that America is now #30 in the world for education and we complain that there are too many students in a class, “they” are teaching our kids sex, evolution, secularism, “they” aren’t doing a good enough job, “they” want more money, more time, more of “them”, yet we send our children day after day to this institution, one espoused by Karl Marx in his Communist Manifesto, and continue to complain? Why do mothers who choose not to work in turn also choose not to home school their children?

Why is it that national politicians as a whole are hovering around the 20% approval rating yet we continue to vote them into office every couple of years simply because they get their name out there the most and have an “R” or “D” next to it? Why is it that a politician can clam to be a “conservative” yet can spend money like it just comes out of thin air, can consume resources faster than they can be pulled from the earth, and can totally disregard the principals this country was founded on?

So what is my chazown then? This is my dream:

• I want a plot of land, be it 5 acres or 500 acres that I can call my own and one day will pass to my children and their children

• I love the idea that I can go out for a walk, be gone all day, and never leave my property

• I want to be able to grow as much of my own food as possible through natural methods, eating food as closely to how God created it in The Garden as possible

• I want to be able to send my children out in the morning, and know that they will be home safe at sunset

• I want to live within walking, or at least biking, distance of all of my closest friends and family. I want to spend holiday’s, weekends, and whenevers building something together and growing as a community

• I want to be able to rear our children in a manor as closely befitting God’s design as we can manage

• I want to be able to leave my doors and windows open whenever I feel like and not fear anything more than a mosquito getting in

• I want to be able to teach our children in a manner of our choosing, instilling not just the three R’s but also values and morals lacking in today’s world

As you can imagine, I get a lot of strange looks when I begin to profess my dreams. This sort of thing doesn’t appeal to everyone. But the more people I talk to about it, the more I find that this is what a lot of people want. People who are fed up with the way the world is turning out. People who at some level know that this is not the way God intended for us to live. I just pray that my dream is in sync with God’s plan because, as I’ve learned, His plan is always the one to go by.