Opposable Thumbs

God created life. Its careful crafting will receive careful analysis in WOKE, but God breathing life into EVERY human, beginning with Adam, is a love story. In other words, we were created by the most WOKE sentience in the Universe. After creating Adam and Eve, God gave them choice.

Hold up your thumbs like ‘Two Thumbs up.’

Human beings are one of the only inhabitants of the earth with Opposable Thumbs. We are the only inhabitants who possess the flexibility and mental acuity to use those thumbs to unbutton buttons, unzip zippers, and release bra straps.

Using your Opposable Thumbs is a choice. If that choice leads to a baby, that new life is not a choice. No matter how inconvenient it might be. That life BEGINS at conception with a unique DNA code. In just a few short weeks, it will have its own heartbeat. To me, CHOICE begins and ends with how you use your Opposable Thumbs. Let’s go to the Beginning of LIFE…

In WOKE, we’ll start with a close look at Creation then step to Adam, Noah, and their families. We will walk the beginning of the Scarlet Thread in Genesis from the beginning to a man named Judah.

We want to level set a few things up front. As we wrap up this book, I’m a Microsoft Digital Architect who’s built backbones and server farms on the Euphrates, across Central Asia, and down the front range of the Rocky Mountains. Jan walked this life with me across my Army Career and Microsoft career as wife, mother, Home School teacher, and artist, illustrating in water colors and publishing her Children’s book, Little Lambs. I’ve commanded soldiers in combat in Iraq, was one of the last guys to command an 8-Inch Howitzer Battery before those system were decommissioned, and I’m stupid enough to jump out of perfectly good airplanes to earn my Airborne wings. Jan is such a wise lady, teacher, mentor, and counsellor. She put me back together after doing dumb things like jumping out of planes and falling down boat docks.

But those are not the most important things. I want to set the condition that we are not theologians, either. Here’s the most important thing that we hope defines us as a man and a woman. I am a disciple of Christ who is a husband, father, historian, writer, soldier, computer geek, and wanna-be-scientist. Jan is a disciple of Christ, Warrior Princess, wife, mom, artist, and wise counselor who ministers to women of all ages. For me, Jan is my blood stained ally in this blessing called, life. This book contains the things that challenged and fascinated our hearts, minds, and souls across the years. Many challenged the very core of our faith. We hope y’all find this gathering of faith from our personal walk on the Scarlet Thread challenging and useful. It is across this thread that we discovered a God and savior who is WOKE.

In WOKE, we are going to study the love of God from time past, into time present, extending toward time future. We will see how Abraham looked forward to his salvation, just as we look back at the cross for our salvation. That cross is the single point when God entered time present, becoming man. It is THE anchor point for all of creation. We are going to weave the Scarlet Thread from time past, through the cross, to time present, and into time future.

WOKE is broken into chapters that frame the beginning of the Scarlet Thread in Genesis. Each chapter generally lands in chronological order across Genesis in the framework we describe in this Chapter. Yet, some chapters, especially Chapter 9, “Domains of War” are strange and Jay’s fault.

In this book, we will Ruthlessly Prioritize on the first sentence in the Bible… “In the beginning, God created…” If you don’t have a problem with that, you will not have a problem with the rest of the Bible. In today’s exponential velocity of information at the speed of light, people have a lot of choice. So much choice that they spend their lives focusing on Ruthless Change. General Colin Powel told a bunch of us young Captains moving into company level commands that a good commander picks one thing to focus on and delegates the rest. A great commander picks two and delegates the rest. A commander who tries to do everything will fail and often wonder why he ever joined the Army.

Focus on Ruthless Prioritization vs. spinning on Ruthless Change. The Bible contains endless characters who spin on Ruthless Change and a few who focused on Ruthless Prioritization.  Paul details the complexity and badness of Ruthless Change in Romans 1: 28-31. Lots of evil choices, in how people use their Opposable Thumbs to fulfill Satan’s strategy of lawlessness.

Moses defined Ruthless Prioritization very simply:

Deuteronomy 6: 4-5. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul.”