For the Love of God: An Opinion
By Douglas Polk
      I perceive that, through the years, a misunderstanding about God's love for mankind has developed in our culture . This little rant is my attempt to address this misunderstanding, because I find it very irritating, and false.
      When discussing Christianity the concept of God's unconditional love is used by both believers and non-believers to make points about their views of religion and Christianity. Lately it seems that because  of the way we perceive God's unconditional love for us, He has to love us regardless of what we do, or how we live. I quite frankly believe this to be bullshit. God does want to love us unconditionally, but the choice isn't up to Him, it depends, EXACTLY on what we do and how we live our lives.
     Becoming or being Christian, and accepting Jesus Christ as our savior is a choice we must make. God attempted and attempts to stage interventions in our lives all the time. A kin to the addict, we sinners must accept the wrongfulness of our actions, and agree to attempt to make changes in our lives, before we can truly feel and live in God's unconditional love. God knows we are likely to continue to make mistakes and screw up, but that is where His unconditional love comes in. He is always willing to forgive and forget about past offenses, and the door to His love is always open, as long as we are willing to attempt to live by His word.
     That doesn't mean redefining sin, or what sin is or isn't. It means attempting to trust in the Lord that He has shown us the way and will continue to show us the way, through the Bible, and traditions handed down through the generations.
     Most of the social conflicts of today, bashing Christianity,  are argued from false premises, when advocates for change, attempt to change the definition of words or concepts, such as sin, and the social norms. They purposely misrepresent concepts of love, inclusion, and responsibility, and again argue from false premises. (An example: Love doesn't equate with sex . . .  God doesn't forbid men to love men, or women to love women, or  men to love women, but God does forbid sex . .in all the categories mentioned. Love and sex are not the same thing. . . .We are called to love our neighbor, regardless of race, religion or gender, but loving our neighbor doesn't equate with making judgements regarding their race, religion or gender. Loving someone doesn't imply agreement with, for example, their religion or life style. We are called to love . .unconditionally . .even people we disagree with.)
      In my humble belief, sin equates with death, and or the prevention of life, because love equates with life, and God is Love . . . .there my rant is done . . .Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

A Century of Education

The Polk family has a proud and long history working in the field of education. Going through family mementos, I decided this history should be documented somewhere accessible to the family, and decided to post it on this blog. I hope the family will enjoy the information posted here.
      Penn School: District 43 in western Nebraska is where this history begins.

    Great Grandpa Jensen, Christ Jensen was on the school board of Penn School for a number of years. In fact my Grandpa Oscar Jensen, met his future wife, when she was hired to teach at the school and was boarded in the Jensen home. Below you will find some mementos of the Penn School. The Penn School was founded in 1891.  In that year a sod school house was built 1/2 mile north of what is now Highway 26. School was held in 1892 with Grace Spillman as teacher. Her wages were $35.00 a month and school was held for three months. In 1904 a new frame school house was built in the same location, and later became the home of a local family.

Christ Jensen

Penn School: Grandpa Jensen (Oscar) is the fifth one from the left. He is the boy in a vest. Grandpa's brother, Dewey, is the first one from the left, (holding his hands together.)

 this page is a summary of the school year. Each subject is documented with the page number they started on, and the page number on which they ended the year.

Expense ledger, (notice the dates)

Expense Ledger enlarged

                  This is a check stub from the school account.

Grandmother Jensen, (Miss Pearl Zorn)

Teaching partner and Grandma Jensen

Grandma Jensen's class at Big Springs, Nebraska

Grandma's Senior Picture

Grandma Jensen with another class

Grandma Jensen's younger sister was also in education, and was an advocate from children her entire life.

Elizabeth Zorn

 Mom, Margie Polk, posed outside one of the schools at which she taught.

     

  

for Dad

only eighteen when the world gone mad,
volunteered to sacrifice,
a life not yet completely his own,
death walked with him into manhood,
shaping his life and beliefs for years to come,
surreal the life he lived,
belonging on the silver screen,
a hero to my childhood friends,
but to me,
just a Dad.