Flint Michigan is a terrible place. It is blighted, it is depressed, it is poorly led, it is poorly managed. It is overwhelmingly minority. It is overwhelmingly poor. The education system and education basis of the population is poor.
But, the leadership of the city was elected in direct response to a phenomenon occurring all over America. Educated and trained and capable people were elected for years that did not look like their constituents, did not respond to their constituents, and did not care about their constituents. Honestly, I look at Congress and governors and state legislators, and I wonder what drives people to run for office.
They do not understand nor act in the best interests of their constituents. They do not seek nor drive solution to entrenched problems. They govern based on what they learned playing Monopoly. Build stuff, hope that someone lands on it and gives you something that maintains everything else until someone else lands on it. Except, instead of Boardwalk and Park Place, they are holding Baltic and Mediterranean. Most of America is Baltic and Mediterranean. That is just the economic reality. America's Baltic and Mediterranean is still a better investment that almost any street in 80% of the world.
Yet, you must govern and manage within your realities. You have to govern and lead with an eye to the future and to the sustainability of economy. You have to recognize issues, drive solution and guide the ship of state to the place picked out in logic and careful consideration. That is the characteristic of successful civil servants and government throughout the history of America. Careful, logic, guidance, planning, best interests, these are hallmarks.
Nothing about Flint is associated with this. That place is the antithesis of the successful and effective examples of government. And, it can be laid at the feet of the people of Michigan. I do not blame them, but they are responsible. In Flint, they have elected people that are woefully unprepared to govern for decades. They have mismanaged and misinvested civic funds and resources consistently and at the ignorance of the information available. When the situation came to a head, and the city was completely insolvent, the state took over. The citizens of Michigan elected a governor woefully unprepared to govern in this situation.
There is no way to fix the things that are occurring in Michigan, without raising revenue, quickly. Whatever your opinion of trickle down, or pro capital economics, it is a death sentence for a government like the state of Michigan. There is not time to trickle economic benefit down, when there are very real infrastructure failures and crisis confronting you today. And, these are of the citizen's own making.
They have allowed their cities and services to decay and fail, with full knowledge it was occurring. And, it is endemic in Michigan. Flint cannot drink water, Detroit cannot educate children. I don't live there, and I am not trying to be guilty of living in a glass house. But, short sighted economic decisions by those elected to govern in the best interest of the community are condemning the financial demise of an entire state. They knowingly put huge chunks of citizens at risk, which I think the governor did (I don't know much, but I know water purification, and what happened is criminally negligent and clearly the result of criminal decisions around quality and health. We would imprison a doctor that treated a patient with a known poison, we should imprison this governor.)
They have a surplus at the state level that will not pay 10% of the investments needed. Incredibly, instead of committing to utilize that money and make needed improvements now, there is talk about how the cities must be economically rehabilitated, how business must be attracted and how we must look at making the economy attractive. You could offer me 100 years of free taxes and the property for free, and I would not move to Flint and poison myself, my employees and my customers. Short sighted decisions couched in language of long term effectiveness are killing Michigan.
Michigan is a case study of ineffective and feckless government. Illinois is as well. So is most of New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Wisconsin. There has been a fusion of the most diametric politic aspirations that is concocting a witches brew of doom in a enormous section of our national economy. It has been brewing for 60 years, and is starting to overcome even the titanic capacity of America to succeed in spite of ourselves.
We have not enacted a single, sweeping infrastructure initiative since the interstate highway system in the 40's and 50's. That started in the 50's under Eisenhower, and I remember the opening of the final original leg of the system in Florida in the mid 80's. It was a huge effort and it took many years in a gigantic country. We have done nothing similar in the ensuing 70 years. We don't even have the money, nationally, to execute maintenance and upkeep of the system, much less upgrade and improve.
That is a fallacy. We have returned huge amounts of money to the private sector in the last 30 years, that was then removed from the economy and the interaction of the public, and into the coffers of those most insulated from economic danger. At the level of risk that is highest, in areas of poverty, old infrastructure and past environmental damage, we live continually on the drop edge of yonder.
Flint and Detroit have fallen over the edge. So has Gary Indiana. Huge cities, once key industrial havens that were entwined cogs in a massive industrial engine, have devolved into wastelands that are most notable for the poverty, bad education and health risk associated with living there. That is coming in many other places, especially if we continue to follow the economic model that we have followed since the 50's. Let's discuss the snake ready to give us an apple, LOWER TAXES.
To recover from the greatest economic ditch the nation had ever experienced, the government responded with a program that raised taxes, increased the income impact to every single American, but invested that money into infrastructure work and construction that built the spine of the economy we have today. It has ruptured disks, fractures and misalignment, but it has served us remarkably well. That was FDR and the Great Depression. Out of that horror, came greater taxes, bigger government, social programs that were publicly funded, and national investment at a local level that improved the entire economy, not the blind interests of a single community or state. We expected that we all bore a burden that was related to the national welfare.
We proudly went to work and made America great. We accepted that desperate times required investment, sacrifice and long term thinking for long term solutions. In the midst of our most immediate crisis, we took the long view and did the patient hard work. It staged us for unparalleled economic growth for 40 years and laid the required ground work to mobilize, industrialize and defeat the combined might of the Western world simply because we could outproduce and outfight them all.
Today, we face crushing debt, crumbling and inadequate roads and bridges and services, poisonous water, piss poor education nation wide at a broad level, raging violent crime rates, and governmental deadlock. In response to that, the solution we continue to discuss, in large part, is to cut government funding short term (tax cuts) to provide economic growth that will return much greater taxes in the long run. We started this nonsense under Reagan, when we had the infrastructure and economic engine to support such a theory. We had a correction under Bush the First, that updated the tax rates for economic reality, for which we rewarded that good public servant with defeat. It drove prosperity that we had not seen in decades under Clinton.
Instead of investing even portions of that surplus in the work of the nation and the underpinnings of our economy and society, we used it to fund additional tax cuts. When that failed to drive the engine of economy further, we tried the Kennedy/Johnson trick and fabricated a reason to turn on the war economy. We tried to make that false input turn the wheels of our economy to greater gain. But, we had failed already.
We had lost sight of the underpinnings and structure of what drove our nation. We have antiquated electrical grids, antiquated water purification, antiquated bridges, antiquated traffic control and direction, antiquated communication structures, antiquated social services and medical care systems. We have allowed the nation to degrade, and now the bills are coming due. Instead of being forthright, instead of taking the long view, we continue to claim we should pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
We can continue to decrease the rate at which we bring in money that services the shared concerns and interconnections of the nation to see national economic benefit. We have too many corporate taxes, yet they have contributed to the environmental mess that our systems are failing to process and contain. We have too much personal exposure to taxes, yet few, if any, of the tax cuts that have occurred in last 20 years have changed the average American's take home by more than $20 a pay period. They have only significantly improved the position of the top 20%, in which I proudly belong.
I have worked hard, and gotten nothing I have not earned, except the blessings of having been born and American, into the opportunity that brings. I am in the bullseye of what I am claiming here. I know that what I espouse will impact me. I am willing to make the investment. I don't want to pay money I have earned to the government, that will then be used to fix the mess that is Flint, or Detroit, or Chicago, or Gary, or some place other than Clayton. But, if I am not willing to sacrifice, there is no current path to success that has any history of being effective. Nothing we have recently done has ended up with success at what is causing us issues.
Let me put it a different way, as to why I am not reluctant to be part of a holistic solution. A significant chunk of the products we ingest from General Mills, you know cereal, oatmeal, etc., are produced in Michigan. Battle Creek. Do you think the water there, that is treating your food and what you are feeding your children, grandchildren, aging parents, anyone you care about, is significantly better than in Flint? Do you think that the water is treated to a higher level of purification than the communities around it? Do you think it is going to get better, with the status quo, or are you going to switch to Kelloggs? That is Rust Belt toxic, too.
I have nothing against Michigan, other than they have been too stupid to get out of their own way. But, before you get too mad at that statement, drive on I 40 anywhere around Raleigh or Durham, or take some miles on I95 anywhere in NC, and tell me how much better we are than Michigan. Check into the changes that have been made in municipal water purification in this state, all over this state, driven by "economic reality". Ask the folks that run those systems if they are safer and more effective today, or just cheaper to run. There is always a trade off. And, it is not that far off from where Michigan is. Again, I don't know much, but I know water purification.
If we continue to be unwilling to invest in our nation, to make the personal sacrifice necessary to raise our community standards and levels, we have no one to blame but ourselves. If we continue to elect candidates simply because they are against costing you any more money and can make you think they can quote your part of the Bible, we have no one to blame but ourselves. If we do not elect candidates dedicated to our improvement, hold them accountable to that improvement and expect a better nation with real deliverables, out of our investment, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
There is no truth to the myth that we can fix what ails us with what we currently pay to the government, much less with lower taxes. There is not enough time to wait for the mythical trickle. Johnston County NC is an idyllic place compared to Flint and Detroit. But, within 20 years, if we do not develop a way to improve and sustain our infrastructure, we will be in the same place as Flint and Detroit. We are already growing faster than our investment level in services and infrastructure, and growing by means of deferring and delaying and in some cases forgoing, any tax advantage from the growth. So there is nothing new coming into the coffers to improve the services this growth will need. Maybe we will finance it? No, we expect new people moving here to contribute and that will make it work. Except we are getting people here, by and large, that work in Raleigh and Wake. When we resemble Raleigh and Wake, because of growth, the new folks will live in Wayne and Sampson counties.
It is a self defeating cycle. I don't like it. I don't want to pay a bigger share. But, just like I sacrificed a huge chunk of my life to the service of this country, I can extend some of my income to the service of this country. That is the only truth you are going to hear for the rest of the campaign season. We will, in large number, congratulate ourselves for electing another short term bandit to the government, because we are angry at the failure of the preceding short term bandits. These are not bad people, they are just wrong. And changing the face won't change the outcome. Being mad that someone that was in the short term camp got it through their head that nothing comes for free and voted in the assembly to service the common good, makes you a short term bandit.
Most won't understand why I feel the way I do. Most of the people I know are firmly convinced that taxes are too high, government is bad and ineffective and the problem. But, instead of electing effective managers and overseers of the government, they will support people notable for their anger and their positions against things. They will not ask how, they will not ask when, they will not ask for the proof it is working, or the signs it is effective. They want someone as mad as them, period. They don't look for someone that is mad, but is going to try something different. Repeating what has failed and failed and failed is something that Einstein described.
It just infuriated me this morning, to hear about our problems, and hear nothing about how we fix it. No one, not one single national or local government official in Michigan has asked what other communities are at the same risk as Flint, publicly. Flint is not the only city along the Flint River. This is just the 30 second soundbite window that our piss poor journalists can barely manage. Not because they can't, but because if they get any more detailed than that, we as a whole, tune out. Too much detail. 100,000 intentionally poisoned for 2 years in an American city, and we don't have time or interest in the details. We are not outraged. We are willing to send some cases of water, but not be part of the broad solution. It is sad, and sad for the nation. It condemns us for the future, because we do not understand the sins of the past.
I know there are many that disagree, and I welcome the debate. But, the time is running short. You would be surprised how very similar the treatment systems in Johnston County, coming from the Neuse River, are to the treatment systems in Flint, coming from the Flint River. You would be surprised how many coal ash pits, abandoned mines, farm retention lagoons and industrial risks line the Neuse. You would be surprised what the concentration and hazard of the effluent from fracking are. We are less than a few years and less than a couple of "tragic accidents", like on the Dan River, from being in Flint's position.
I am going to get in the shower, because it is clean. In Flint, they don't get that choice. It can come here, much more quickly than you realize. We are only waiting, especially if we don't soon make significant and pervasive investment. It might be worth asking someone that you are supporting for office. Beg them to connect the dots for you, how this gets better. Write it down and hold them to it. You don't want a container hub along the interstate because they used the term imminent domain, but you support adding industry on purchased land that the infrastructure cannot support with current growth rates. Please ask those you are supporting to make that make sense for you, how it gets better, and when.
GLYASDI.
Friday, January 29, 2016
Saturday, January 23, 2016
You might not like tech stuff, but...
You might not like tech stuff, but I DO. I like the heat to turn on and off like it is supposed to, that is technology. I want the lights to turn on and off from a switch, that is technology. I want the refrigerator contents to stay cold, but not frozen, that is technology.
I like tech stuff. I like the phones to work. I like the computer to work. I like cable. I have worked my whole adult life to never have to go back to the farm. I have fond memories of my childhood. I don't regret a second of it, it made me who I am. But, it also provides the fuel for my fire.
My house as a child was a single wide trailer, with two rooms added on when I was 3. It was cold in the winter, so cold the sheets felt wet when you crawled into them. It was hot in the summer, so hot that you slept naked with the windows open, and ignored the mosquitos. At least once a winter, the surface well that fed the house was guaranteed to freeze and break at least some pipes. The heat was an oil furnace that caught on fire at least 3 times before I left for the Navy at 17. It failed to function multiple times each year. I learned the basics of thermodynamics, internal combustion, fire fighting, electrical hazard (240V motor on the furnace fan that bit us all, at least once), and cussing from the result of that horrible, stinking furnace.
The road was gravel, 9/10 of a mile of red clay gravel. If it rained, if it snowed, if it was sunny, if it was cloudy, if it was anything, the road rutted and washed out. There was a homemade gravel pit that we hauled endless loads of gravel, bucket scoop after bucket scoop, to repair the road. We had wooden bridges that we built by hand, to cross the two creeks. They were about three foot deep and about four foot wide. Every sizable storm, and we were using the tractors, our backs and sketchy ropes and chains to haul them back into place. Transportation was work for us.
My grandparents lived about 100 yards up the hill from us. They did not have an inside toilet. My grandfather was of the firm opinion that you did not shit and eat in the same house. Nor was he willing to spend the money to install one. They had a luxury model 2 seat privy. It was a daily chore, to lime the slots, and a weekly chore to clean the trench. Next to it was a small shed that always held at least one snake. I had foundations for the real fear men have of things getting their dangling bits as they are doing their business.
We did not buy meat, ever. We had cows, pigs, chickens, God so many chickens. We ate eggs every day, sometimes 3 meals a day. We slaughtered pigs and cows for meat. That was a community endeavor, every family working together, slaughtering at least a dozen at a time. We salt cured a lot of it. We had freezers shoved in every water tight building that held the rest of it. We used every square inch of the property to grow food for the animals that we ate, and the vegetables we ate. We were self sustaining, quite capable of living off the grid. We were barely into the first square of the grid.
It was interesting, and I learned about hard work, self reliance and the value of family. I will be damned if I live like that again. It was such a load, every second of every day. If you were not working on it, you were worrying about it. Not so much us, as children, but we watched it. If it was hot, it was going to scorch or dry the hay, the corn, the wheat, the chickens. If it was cold, it was going to freeze the chickens, taint the corn, scald the peas. If it was wet, it was going to mold the corn, soup the field, bust the squash. If it was dry, everything was at risk.
It weighed on us. We worked, all the time. Nature was continuously against us. We were blessed by it, but also cursed by it. No one was immune, and it was what it was. Today, it is what it is.
We were without electricity for 23 hours. Our house is not equipped to be without electricity. We have gas logs, which kept us from freezing. But, we like the conveniences. It pisses me off to have to use a bucket to fill the toilet. It makes me remember that 2 seat luxury model with the ever present snake threat. It pisses me off to be cold in bed, I remember those wet feeling sheets, and feeling the wind through the windows. It pisses me off to worry over the food in the refrigerator, it makes me remember frantically filling freezers with ice.
I hate snow storms, because I remember carrying 5 gallon buckets of hot water 50 yards to thaw the waterers in the chicken house. I remember sledding, and sliding in cow shit, mucking the ice layer out of the stables. I am proud of how hard we worked and how well we lived.
But, I am happier working as hard as I do, in very different ways, to live so well. I miss the convenience when it is gone. Yes, I know how to survive, I know what it takes, how to do it, and a country boy can survive. You don't want to live that way, trust me, you don't. And, I dislike it intensely when I have to.
I said a prayer for electricity, cable and Internet, without a trace of guilt that I was praying for luxuries. I got the necessities, the good Lord provided them to me in history and skills I will never forget or overlook. I just hate it. So, when people tell me they are going off grid, or miss the "good" ole days, I just stay quiet.
There is nothing wrong with that life, and there is nothing wrong in living that way. But it is not a romantic thing, to be wished for. We, as a race and a nation have struggled mightily to put that behind us, to create and enjoy so much more. Every time we get a significant period without those conveniences, I think about this.
I hope to be spoiled and pampered all the rest of my days. I might even spend an inordinate amount of money on a stand by generator, to sit in my yard for less than a day's worth of duty every year. You could say it is the trauma of the daily chicken shit therapy I had as a child. Whatever, I am not ashamed. I won't die in the cold, or go hungry. But I prefer just going to the grocery store. I am happier living this life. Memories are golden in retrospect. If you have not lived that life, be careful what you wish for.
For 23 hours, we got to live the old way. The hell with the old way. Give me the age of computers, electricity and convenience. I am spoiled, and I pray about it. You are just going to have to live with that.
GLYASDI
I like tech stuff. I like the phones to work. I like the computer to work. I like cable. I have worked my whole adult life to never have to go back to the farm. I have fond memories of my childhood. I don't regret a second of it, it made me who I am. But, it also provides the fuel for my fire.
My house as a child was a single wide trailer, with two rooms added on when I was 3. It was cold in the winter, so cold the sheets felt wet when you crawled into them. It was hot in the summer, so hot that you slept naked with the windows open, and ignored the mosquitos. At least once a winter, the surface well that fed the house was guaranteed to freeze and break at least some pipes. The heat was an oil furnace that caught on fire at least 3 times before I left for the Navy at 17. It failed to function multiple times each year. I learned the basics of thermodynamics, internal combustion, fire fighting, electrical hazard (240V motor on the furnace fan that bit us all, at least once), and cussing from the result of that horrible, stinking furnace.
The road was gravel, 9/10 of a mile of red clay gravel. If it rained, if it snowed, if it was sunny, if it was cloudy, if it was anything, the road rutted and washed out. There was a homemade gravel pit that we hauled endless loads of gravel, bucket scoop after bucket scoop, to repair the road. We had wooden bridges that we built by hand, to cross the two creeks. They were about three foot deep and about four foot wide. Every sizable storm, and we were using the tractors, our backs and sketchy ropes and chains to haul them back into place. Transportation was work for us.
My grandparents lived about 100 yards up the hill from us. They did not have an inside toilet. My grandfather was of the firm opinion that you did not shit and eat in the same house. Nor was he willing to spend the money to install one. They had a luxury model 2 seat privy. It was a daily chore, to lime the slots, and a weekly chore to clean the trench. Next to it was a small shed that always held at least one snake. I had foundations for the real fear men have of things getting their dangling bits as they are doing their business.
We did not buy meat, ever. We had cows, pigs, chickens, God so many chickens. We ate eggs every day, sometimes 3 meals a day. We slaughtered pigs and cows for meat. That was a community endeavor, every family working together, slaughtering at least a dozen at a time. We salt cured a lot of it. We had freezers shoved in every water tight building that held the rest of it. We used every square inch of the property to grow food for the animals that we ate, and the vegetables we ate. We were self sustaining, quite capable of living off the grid. We were barely into the first square of the grid.
It was interesting, and I learned about hard work, self reliance and the value of family. I will be damned if I live like that again. It was such a load, every second of every day. If you were not working on it, you were worrying about it. Not so much us, as children, but we watched it. If it was hot, it was going to scorch or dry the hay, the corn, the wheat, the chickens. If it was cold, it was going to freeze the chickens, taint the corn, scald the peas. If it was wet, it was going to mold the corn, soup the field, bust the squash. If it was dry, everything was at risk.
It weighed on us. We worked, all the time. Nature was continuously against us. We were blessed by it, but also cursed by it. No one was immune, and it was what it was. Today, it is what it is.
We were without electricity for 23 hours. Our house is not equipped to be without electricity. We have gas logs, which kept us from freezing. But, we like the conveniences. It pisses me off to have to use a bucket to fill the toilet. It makes me remember that 2 seat luxury model with the ever present snake threat. It pisses me off to be cold in bed, I remember those wet feeling sheets, and feeling the wind through the windows. It pisses me off to worry over the food in the refrigerator, it makes me remember frantically filling freezers with ice.
I hate snow storms, because I remember carrying 5 gallon buckets of hot water 50 yards to thaw the waterers in the chicken house. I remember sledding, and sliding in cow shit, mucking the ice layer out of the stables. I am proud of how hard we worked and how well we lived.
But, I am happier working as hard as I do, in very different ways, to live so well. I miss the convenience when it is gone. Yes, I know how to survive, I know what it takes, how to do it, and a country boy can survive. You don't want to live that way, trust me, you don't. And, I dislike it intensely when I have to.
I said a prayer for electricity, cable and Internet, without a trace of guilt that I was praying for luxuries. I got the necessities, the good Lord provided them to me in history and skills I will never forget or overlook. I just hate it. So, when people tell me they are going off grid, or miss the "good" ole days, I just stay quiet.
There is nothing wrong with that life, and there is nothing wrong in living that way. But it is not a romantic thing, to be wished for. We, as a race and a nation have struggled mightily to put that behind us, to create and enjoy so much more. Every time we get a significant period without those conveniences, I think about this.
I hope to be spoiled and pampered all the rest of my days. I might even spend an inordinate amount of money on a stand by generator, to sit in my yard for less than a day's worth of duty every year. You could say it is the trauma of the daily chicken shit therapy I had as a child. Whatever, I am not ashamed. I won't die in the cold, or go hungry. But I prefer just going to the grocery store. I am happier living this life. Memories are golden in retrospect. If you have not lived that life, be careful what you wish for.
For 23 hours, we got to live the old way. The hell with the old way. Give me the age of computers, electricity and convenience. I am spoiled, and I pray about it. You are just going to have to live with that.
GLYASDI
Friday, January 22, 2016
Oscar boycotts, really?
If you were to list the things wrong with "Hollywood," it would be a ponderous and awesome list. There is so very little right about it, that the list of wrong is probably approaching the definition of the mathematical term infinite.
So, to come to some kind of feigned horror about the racial inequality about Oscars, really stretches credibility, even for those in Hollywood. In a place that produces the Jenners, the Kardashians, Jack Nicholson, Nick Nolte, Gary Busey, Lindsey Lohan, and continue on with the list, being concerned because they did not recognize enough black people is really kind of pitiful.
Of course they did not get it right. They left getting it right in even the smallest way, around about June 11, 1979 when John Wayne died. It was all kinds of boogered up even then. It is a place of narcissistic and damaged people reflecting and magnifying the brokenness and tragedy inside themselves. It is a wasteland of inappropriate attention and undeserved adoration. It is vainglory come to life and a playground of the worst of humanity. It has been since the 1920's.
Acting like it is shocking and frustrating it does not get racial equality right, in 2016, is hypocrisy at it's highest. And, leading that charge, are some of the most significant "success" stories of Hollywood. The not so Fresh Prince and his wife, boycotting the Oscars, over others not getting nominated. It is not because Will did not get nominated for playing an African doctor fighting the second most narcissistic organization in the US, the NFL. That would never be the case. Because this year, damn it, it has just gone too far.
This is an industry that is notable for its destructive and horrific behavior. It is hedonism, excess, waste. Look, I am not rich. I don't have the kind of money it should take to have the issues that these people have. But, I have to tell you, I surely do. They are folks like all the rest of us. They have people they love that get sick, die. They have people they love that betray them, hurt them. They have people in their lives that damage them deeply. They have reasons for the crazy, just like all the rest of us.
We, the little people, just keep a chip on our shoulder about it. How can you throw your life away, when you have everything you ever dreamed of? (River Phoenix, John Belushi, Kevin Farley, Marilyn Monroe, the list is too long.) How can you throw away your work and career, after you worked so hard to earn it? (Lindsey Lohan, Mickey Rourke, Corey Haim, Katt Williams, Covain, Morrison, Joplin, the list is too long.) It is inconceivable, because they have money, fame, you know, everything we all want.
Except, it is not what we all want. We want money because we think it will remove stresses and issues from our relationships. We want fame because we think it will surround us with people that care about us. We want what they have, because it solves all our problems. In truth, that is all just a lie. It just magnifies our problems. Money becomes temptation and false invulnerability. Fame becomes isolation and fear of the crazies. What they have is a tortured version of the life they imagined, just like ours.
The Oscar outrage really pisses me off. I don't care how bad the Smith's feel about being left out. I could care less if Spike Lee gets nominated for anything. I could care less if "Straight Outta Compton" got overlooked. Those people, everyone associated with them and those projects, were so well paid for that work, it does not matter. It is not what is wrong with Hollywood, nor is it even close to the most obvious symptom of what is wrong with Hollywood.
I don't care, and neither should the other white folks in America. The good folks of color in this nation have been so bushwhacked that I am not sure how to get the message through to them. Hollywood is not your issue. And you will not solve it from that direction. Want a prediction of what is going to happen in Hollywood, academia, business, military and all other areas of our nation over the next 20 years? People of color are going to be more and more isolated and under represented.
If education, security in the home and relationships, and economic viability are not addressed in communities of color, nothing about boycotts, outrage and frustration will matter. The false notion that the world is doing this to THEM is killing the communities of color. You can claim I had white privilege all you want, but it did not feel very privileged shoveling crap out of the cow barn, and chicken house. It did not feel very privileged, scraping 1/4" of tobacco gum off my hands at the end of the day. It did not feel very privileged studying and working to make a career in the military, with nothing more than the high school education I got from my little FFA school in the boondocks.
I may have had the benefit of the doubt from many people, but I chose to do something with the benefit. I worked, did the things that it takes to build a life, build security, struggle to get through. I lost family and friends. We fought cancer, addiction, betrayal, bad choices, unfair treatment, failure, lies, upheaval. Yet, we continued to be focused on our family. We worked hard to make our children see that the world could be better for them, should they choose to pursue it.
No one gave us anything. We went and earned what we had, what we needed. Nothing of value ever came on green tinged paper with dead Presidents on it. Money came and went, still does. Only love, care, concern, connection ever mattered. Because of that, we focused on being better than we were.
We wanted more education for our children. We wanted a better life for them. To that aim, we taught them that work was required. We showed them that they would not be given anything of value in this life. Everything of value in this world is earned. We taught them that they had a Creator, a Father God. He loved them, and that was the important aspect of their lives.
We taught them that successful people were those that were loved, that had deep relationships with others, that connected. We taught them respect of others, respect of themselves and respect for the order of things required to exist in peace in the world. We have never heard our adult children ask why something was important, or why they should do something for themselves. We have heard why is it so hard, why is it such a struggle. That is an extremely important distinction, and it is missing on both sides of the Oscar "outrage."
It is not important, and it should not be a care. Why it is hard and a struggle is obvious. If it is truly your craft and your career, it is difficult to master and to apply. Just because it is theater, acting, it is still a profession. It is work worth doing well, if you are doing it for your profession. That is true of any endeavor. When there becomes a feeling of entitlement or deservedness, you have moved past a vocation. No one owes me praise for my good work. I appreciate it, certainly. But it is not owed me. I don't deserve it, because I was supposed to do it to the best of my ability. That was the agreement I made.
I am owed respect as a human being. I am owed opportunity as a human being. In that, there is a huge issue in Hollywood that I support fixing. But, more qualified, better educated, better prepared people coming behind the current professionals, is the only answer to improving the situation. It will not improve just because we protest about Hollywood.
Living the thug life, the redneck life, while perpetuating the stereotype that Hollywood trades on to make money, does not prepare or equip one to be successful. If you don't learn, don't make those coming behind you better, don't push and reinforce the correct values, the correct approach, nothing will improve. It will change, change is inevitable. But it will get worse. That is what is happening, Detroit, Compton, Flint, Rochester, Memphis, Ferguson, Little Havanna, it is getting worse.
Want to be outraged, get outraged about the waste of the talent and potential of millions of young people with no rudder, no example to lead them to better and to different. I don't blame the young men and women that are degrading to nothing in our judicial system. It is their own doing and their responsibility, but I don't blame them. They are emulating what they see in the role models they have. Why is poverty entrenched and immutable in Appalachia? Why are the hollers so depressed? Because there is not a premium on education, there is not a culture of betterment. It is not a black or color thing, it is a belief thing.
Butcher Holler has the same disease that Detroit and Flint have. It is not about color, and it is not about Oscar. But, if you are pissed you didn't get your Oscar nod, instead of trying to make old white guys with buckets of money change their mind, go make a difference in the lives of those young people. Make them different to the point that even the old white guys can no longer ignore the evidence before them. That was the secret of Dr. King. He made it obvious, to even old white guys, that people of color could be reasoned, patient, upright, and worthy of consideration and respect.
Tupac, Big E, .50, Snoop, that is not exactly convincing anyone to respect or consider that lifestyle and approach worthy of respect. I have nothing against those men, and I don't know enough to condemn them. But, what they broadcast, what they portray for others to idolize, it is poison for their communities. Keeping it real should not translate to making it permanent. But, it is becoming permanent, and that ought to shame all Americans.
Whenever we decide to fix this, all of us, regardless of color, and work harder on educating and enriching our children to prevent that false reality from being their metric, their yard stick, their dream, we will restore America. Electing Hillary, Trump, Carson, Cruz, none of them will do that. Unless we make them do more than 10 second sound bites and the latest gotcha. Liking or hating Obama is no qualification for fixing anything. Neither is being rich, nor well educated. But, compassionate, concerned and realistic, those are good qualities. Find any candidate in the list with those qualities they are expressing?
No one ever gave us anything, we had to work for it. Including making America better. Don't like the Oscar mess? Me either, but it is a distraction and false flag. But, if you want to fix it, however minor it is, best start with those coming behind you. It is the only solution. It does not change today, it does not get better by devolving, as the segments of poverty are devolving. The Mafia was not glamorous, but it was the subject of great story telling. Why would the Hood be any different? It is nothing to aspire to. Yet, it what we glorify, and then sit befuddled as to what makes a Justin Beeber happen. God help us all, but just look at Justin Beeber.
Read something yesterday about Carl Brashear, one of my personal heroes, who I had the opportunity to meet. He was just a guy like me, but he made those around him better, as he made himself better. When more of the world is emulating Carl Brashear than Kanye West (please, God help us all), we will be making a difference. If you want better, earn it, make it. Stop asking for it and expecting it. I marvel at how little the community of color knows and understands Dr. King and the movement he represents. It is the worst thing the establishment has ever done to those communities, taking that knowledge away from generations. And shame on the adults, generation after generation, that allowed that knowledge to die in their communities.
Tell your children to pull up their britches, learn how to read and write, get a life skill, a trade, and raise their children to be better, be more. Regardless of their color, they will bless you with riches beyond having 50 Oscars. If we don't soon, nothing will recover the path of descent. I won't be boycotting the Oscars, though I don't know if we will be watching. Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverb 22:6. Thousands of years old, and every bit as true and important today as it was then.
I have been working on making programs and education paths that make people better at what I do, than I am. I might spend that time working on that instead, putting my own preaching to action.
GLYASDI
So, to come to some kind of feigned horror about the racial inequality about Oscars, really stretches credibility, even for those in Hollywood. In a place that produces the Jenners, the Kardashians, Jack Nicholson, Nick Nolte, Gary Busey, Lindsey Lohan, and continue on with the list, being concerned because they did not recognize enough black people is really kind of pitiful.
Of course they did not get it right. They left getting it right in even the smallest way, around about June 11, 1979 when John Wayne died. It was all kinds of boogered up even then. It is a place of narcissistic and damaged people reflecting and magnifying the brokenness and tragedy inside themselves. It is a wasteland of inappropriate attention and undeserved adoration. It is vainglory come to life and a playground of the worst of humanity. It has been since the 1920's.
Acting like it is shocking and frustrating it does not get racial equality right, in 2016, is hypocrisy at it's highest. And, leading that charge, are some of the most significant "success" stories of Hollywood. The not so Fresh Prince and his wife, boycotting the Oscars, over others not getting nominated. It is not because Will did not get nominated for playing an African doctor fighting the second most narcissistic organization in the US, the NFL. That would never be the case. Because this year, damn it, it has just gone too far.
This is an industry that is notable for its destructive and horrific behavior. It is hedonism, excess, waste. Look, I am not rich. I don't have the kind of money it should take to have the issues that these people have. But, I have to tell you, I surely do. They are folks like all the rest of us. They have people they love that get sick, die. They have people they love that betray them, hurt them. They have people in their lives that damage them deeply. They have reasons for the crazy, just like all the rest of us.
We, the little people, just keep a chip on our shoulder about it. How can you throw your life away, when you have everything you ever dreamed of? (River Phoenix, John Belushi, Kevin Farley, Marilyn Monroe, the list is too long.) How can you throw away your work and career, after you worked so hard to earn it? (Lindsey Lohan, Mickey Rourke, Corey Haim, Katt Williams, Covain, Morrison, Joplin, the list is too long.) It is inconceivable, because they have money, fame, you know, everything we all want.
Except, it is not what we all want. We want money because we think it will remove stresses and issues from our relationships. We want fame because we think it will surround us with people that care about us. We want what they have, because it solves all our problems. In truth, that is all just a lie. It just magnifies our problems. Money becomes temptation and false invulnerability. Fame becomes isolation and fear of the crazies. What they have is a tortured version of the life they imagined, just like ours.
The Oscar outrage really pisses me off. I don't care how bad the Smith's feel about being left out. I could care less if Spike Lee gets nominated for anything. I could care less if "Straight Outta Compton" got overlooked. Those people, everyone associated with them and those projects, were so well paid for that work, it does not matter. It is not what is wrong with Hollywood, nor is it even close to the most obvious symptom of what is wrong with Hollywood.
I don't care, and neither should the other white folks in America. The good folks of color in this nation have been so bushwhacked that I am not sure how to get the message through to them. Hollywood is not your issue. And you will not solve it from that direction. Want a prediction of what is going to happen in Hollywood, academia, business, military and all other areas of our nation over the next 20 years? People of color are going to be more and more isolated and under represented.
If education, security in the home and relationships, and economic viability are not addressed in communities of color, nothing about boycotts, outrage and frustration will matter. The false notion that the world is doing this to THEM is killing the communities of color. You can claim I had white privilege all you want, but it did not feel very privileged shoveling crap out of the cow barn, and chicken house. It did not feel very privileged, scraping 1/4" of tobacco gum off my hands at the end of the day. It did not feel very privileged studying and working to make a career in the military, with nothing more than the high school education I got from my little FFA school in the boondocks.
I may have had the benefit of the doubt from many people, but I chose to do something with the benefit. I worked, did the things that it takes to build a life, build security, struggle to get through. I lost family and friends. We fought cancer, addiction, betrayal, bad choices, unfair treatment, failure, lies, upheaval. Yet, we continued to be focused on our family. We worked hard to make our children see that the world could be better for them, should they choose to pursue it.
No one gave us anything. We went and earned what we had, what we needed. Nothing of value ever came on green tinged paper with dead Presidents on it. Money came and went, still does. Only love, care, concern, connection ever mattered. Because of that, we focused on being better than we were.
We wanted more education for our children. We wanted a better life for them. To that aim, we taught them that work was required. We showed them that they would not be given anything of value in this life. Everything of value in this world is earned. We taught them that they had a Creator, a Father God. He loved them, and that was the important aspect of their lives.
We taught them that successful people were those that were loved, that had deep relationships with others, that connected. We taught them respect of others, respect of themselves and respect for the order of things required to exist in peace in the world. We have never heard our adult children ask why something was important, or why they should do something for themselves. We have heard why is it so hard, why is it such a struggle. That is an extremely important distinction, and it is missing on both sides of the Oscar "outrage."
It is not important, and it should not be a care. Why it is hard and a struggle is obvious. If it is truly your craft and your career, it is difficult to master and to apply. Just because it is theater, acting, it is still a profession. It is work worth doing well, if you are doing it for your profession. That is true of any endeavor. When there becomes a feeling of entitlement or deservedness, you have moved past a vocation. No one owes me praise for my good work. I appreciate it, certainly. But it is not owed me. I don't deserve it, because I was supposed to do it to the best of my ability. That was the agreement I made.
I am owed respect as a human being. I am owed opportunity as a human being. In that, there is a huge issue in Hollywood that I support fixing. But, more qualified, better educated, better prepared people coming behind the current professionals, is the only answer to improving the situation. It will not improve just because we protest about Hollywood.
Living the thug life, the redneck life, while perpetuating the stereotype that Hollywood trades on to make money, does not prepare or equip one to be successful. If you don't learn, don't make those coming behind you better, don't push and reinforce the correct values, the correct approach, nothing will improve. It will change, change is inevitable. But it will get worse. That is what is happening, Detroit, Compton, Flint, Rochester, Memphis, Ferguson, Little Havanna, it is getting worse.
Want to be outraged, get outraged about the waste of the talent and potential of millions of young people with no rudder, no example to lead them to better and to different. I don't blame the young men and women that are degrading to nothing in our judicial system. It is their own doing and their responsibility, but I don't blame them. They are emulating what they see in the role models they have. Why is poverty entrenched and immutable in Appalachia? Why are the hollers so depressed? Because there is not a premium on education, there is not a culture of betterment. It is not a black or color thing, it is a belief thing.
Butcher Holler has the same disease that Detroit and Flint have. It is not about color, and it is not about Oscar. But, if you are pissed you didn't get your Oscar nod, instead of trying to make old white guys with buckets of money change their mind, go make a difference in the lives of those young people. Make them different to the point that even the old white guys can no longer ignore the evidence before them. That was the secret of Dr. King. He made it obvious, to even old white guys, that people of color could be reasoned, patient, upright, and worthy of consideration and respect.
Tupac, Big E, .50, Snoop, that is not exactly convincing anyone to respect or consider that lifestyle and approach worthy of respect. I have nothing against those men, and I don't know enough to condemn them. But, what they broadcast, what they portray for others to idolize, it is poison for their communities. Keeping it real should not translate to making it permanent. But, it is becoming permanent, and that ought to shame all Americans.
Whenever we decide to fix this, all of us, regardless of color, and work harder on educating and enriching our children to prevent that false reality from being their metric, their yard stick, their dream, we will restore America. Electing Hillary, Trump, Carson, Cruz, none of them will do that. Unless we make them do more than 10 second sound bites and the latest gotcha. Liking or hating Obama is no qualification for fixing anything. Neither is being rich, nor well educated. But, compassionate, concerned and realistic, those are good qualities. Find any candidate in the list with those qualities they are expressing?
No one ever gave us anything, we had to work for it. Including making America better. Don't like the Oscar mess? Me either, but it is a distraction and false flag. But, if you want to fix it, however minor it is, best start with those coming behind you. It is the only solution. It does not change today, it does not get better by devolving, as the segments of poverty are devolving. The Mafia was not glamorous, but it was the subject of great story telling. Why would the Hood be any different? It is nothing to aspire to. Yet, it what we glorify, and then sit befuddled as to what makes a Justin Beeber happen. God help us all, but just look at Justin Beeber.
Read something yesterday about Carl Brashear, one of my personal heroes, who I had the opportunity to meet. He was just a guy like me, but he made those around him better, as he made himself better. When more of the world is emulating Carl Brashear than Kanye West (please, God help us all), we will be making a difference. If you want better, earn it, make it. Stop asking for it and expecting it. I marvel at how little the community of color knows and understands Dr. King and the movement he represents. It is the worst thing the establishment has ever done to those communities, taking that knowledge away from generations. And shame on the adults, generation after generation, that allowed that knowledge to die in their communities.
Tell your children to pull up their britches, learn how to read and write, get a life skill, a trade, and raise their children to be better, be more. Regardless of their color, they will bless you with riches beyond having 50 Oscars. If we don't soon, nothing will recover the path of descent. I won't be boycotting the Oscars, though I don't know if we will be watching. Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverb 22:6. Thousands of years old, and every bit as true and important today as it was then.
I have been working on making programs and education paths that make people better at what I do, than I am. I might spend that time working on that instead, putting my own preaching to action.
GLYASDI
Sunday, January 10, 2016
2 Thes 3:11-13
Yes, I know that is a Bible verse, not a title. But, there is a message in that verse that very clearly speaks to me today. There are other pertinent messages. It is way too dangerous to base your whole life on a single passage from the Bible, from anything in that regard. There are good passages to commit to memory and honor above all others.
2 Cor 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight
Phill 4:13 I can do all through Christ which strengtheneth me
Romans 10:13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved
2 Tim 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind
And there are many others. It is an excellent book, written by the greatest author in creation, written for us, about Him with us, and ministering to us. We sometimes forget that the purpose of the Word of God is not to condemn us, but to save us. We use it as a brick and a bat, to demonstrate the wrong in others, but then fail to use it as a dressing and a cure full of love, over that wrong. It is an age old failing, and not solely the property of Jews and Christians.
That is, however, another post. Today the post is about the verses in the title. They read:
"We heard that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy, they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat. And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good."
I was feeling idle, and used one of the greatest Bible study tools, (and my personal theory as to why God tolerates the rest of the internet) Google, to find passages about feeling idle. That did not work very well, so I typed in Bible idle, and got several good responses. By the way, be careful about what you type in, searching for faith related material. The internet is the playground of all of our adolescent males and females. It provides the statistically highest relevant answers, not the spiritually relevant answers.
But, I have been idle, in terms of writing for a few weeks. And, as usual, the only thing I could churn out was a spleen venting about politics. Nasty business that, and kind of unredeemable in its way. However, I was feeling as if I was being idle about me. I kept telling myself, it has been a rough few weeks, I was just taking a break to heal and recharge. In reality, something was weighing on me and keeping my mind in places that were not useful.
I felt as if I were in a fog of hurt, sadness and shock. I was entitled. My Dad and my sister both gone in nine days. Other issues in the family. Work piling up because I had been gone so much. Health deteriorating as the stress built. It is a bad cycle, and one of the best designed destructive cycles of our enemy. I won't preach too often about the devil, but today, let me tell you how real he is.
2 Thes 3:3 says, "But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one." That would seem to imply that God will keep the devil away from us. But, it says that the Lord is faithful, not that we are. And that the Lord will strengthen and protect us, not shield us. Big difference in protect and shield. Protect means that He will prevent the devil from hurting us. Shield means He would prevent the devil from touching us.
Alot of folks that aren't Christian ask why a God, that loves, would allow a devil. Why, if we are made in His image, and to be with Him, would we have to suffer at the hands of another being He created? Because, while He is perfect, and we were created in the image of perfection, and have that capacity within us, we were not and choose not to be perfect. You tell your children not to partake of things because they are not good for them, and will hurt them, like alcohol, drugs, tobacco. Yet, you know that they ultimately choose what to do. It makes no sense, after all that you have told them, explained to them, expected of them, and still they go do it anyway. That is the crux of human nature, and the fall.
Why is there a devil? Because inside the sentient creatures of God, He put the capacity to deny Him. Rather than have slaves and automatons to adore and worship Him, He chose creatures of will and purpose. In that, He chose the potential of pain, experienced when we deny Him. It happened in Heaven, among the angels. It happened here on Earth, amidst the Garden. They are parallels, because we are parallel creations. The capacity exists. It is not in God's nature to forsake His creations.
So, at the time of the Fall, God had a plan. He knew the path He was going to take to reach a point where He could accept all His children, that so chose. That is where my idleness concerned me. I did not feel much like I was choosing God. I felt more like I was choosing pain and suffering that God was not shielding me from. I listened to the lies of the devil, and instead of understanding that God has already strengthened me and protected me, I was expecting to be shielded.
When we chose to know good and evil, we chose protection over shielding. God could not allow us free will and shield us from evil. He could strengthen us and protect us from evil overcoming us, and He has. I kind of lost sight of that, and could have used some good old shielding for a few days. But, it was my job to settle down and earn the food I ate. Meaning, I had to settle down and do the hard work of digging in the Word, finding my way, seeing the strength I was given, live to the purpose the Lord carved out for me. In times of greatest stress, we also have access to the greatest blessing. We get to choose.
I let the devil talk in my ear more than the Word of God. I did not lose faith, or lose my religion, or fall away. It is not always that concrete. Sometimes, it is just being willing to listen to the whisper that says you feel too tired to read the Bible. It is just listening to the whisper that says you don't feel up to praying. It is just listening to the whisper that says you can't do anything about the situation but live in it. It happens, to all of us. While created in the image of perfection, we have not yet been redeemed to perfection. We fall.
But, if ever you hear that voice in your head that says you don't feel like or have time to read the Word, understand that is not you, not your voice. If ever you hear that voice that says you don't feel like or have time to pray, that is not you, not your voice. If ever you feel as if the situation is beyond all control, and you are completely powerless in it, that is not your soul, not your self. We are made to be conquerors, victorious.
Everything is within the control and power of God. We have to accept that what He wills is best for us. Sometimes, what He wills hurts our feelings. That is part of the issue of being separated from Him. We no longer walk with and exist in His presence fully. We cannot see where He is looking and where He is going. We have learned to doubt that He is steering, or that He knows the directions. That is from the devil. It is the devil's masterwork of a lie. The more people the devil gets to believe that lie, the more people he steals from God.
The devil knows the outcome. He knows that he has been beaten. He knows that he has no victory in the end. He is so angry and twisted and evil over it, that he is not looking for us to join him in his victory and his kingdom. He is just looking to find more souls to damage and destroy as a way to hurt God. It is the last power he may possess. The more he hurts God, the more he enjoys it. It is not about you, you are simply a piece and pawn in the devil's schemes.
You are only important to God. Only God has a plan for you and a purpose for you. Only God cares for you. Only God loves you. The devil hates you and despises you. You have a path to redemption that he does not. It makes him the ultimate cornered animal and danger. The devil has power, as an angel of God, but he does not have the power or ability of God.
Don't be idle. Earn the wages for the food you eat. You have to pick up the Word, you have to stop in prayer. Works do not save, but you cannot live a committed life without working for the kingdom. You can't get anywhere without working for yourself. Feeling under the weather, burdened by life? It happens, to everyone. But, if you choose to work to get to God, it gets better. If you are not idle in your spirit, it becomes clear. Not permanently, there is never a time you don't have to work at it.
So, sorry I have not been working at it. I am sorry most to God. I keep asking Him to understand, because I can't accept that He does. Why would He notice me? Why would He care? It is so not a human trait, which is another of the most successful lies the devil has told. It is most definitely a human trait, it is just not a devil trait. The devil does not care and only notices as it pertains to his plans and deception. How do we face it all, keep going, keep the faith?
There is a way to get through. The closing of II Thessalonians: "Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you."
If you believe, the Lord is with you. If you do not believe, the Lord is with you. So is the devil. If you believe, the devil can only suggest and lie and scheme, he has no power. If you do not believe, you do not take on the protection that God offers. There is very real harm the devil can do to you then. Why is it the greatest commandment, to go out, baptize and make disciples of all men? Because without that, men are subject to real harm and damage from the devil. They do not take on the protection and strength of God. It is a dangerous world, if you are not choosing the Lord.
That is what idle means. It means letting yourself back into the dangerous world where real harm exists. Don't be idle. Dig, work, pray, worship. It is the sure path and the best medicine and the only cure and the quickest recovery. That is coming from the experience of one of the most idle, broken, sick and diseased people in the world, me. In this, I am an expert, and you would do well to heed my advise. Don't let it be like alcohol, drugs, tobacco. Remember when you were told they were bad for you? And what did you do? Listening to the devil, being idle is bad for you. I know.
GLYASDI
2 Cor 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight
Phill 4:13 I can do all through Christ which strengtheneth me
Romans 10:13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved
2 Tim 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind
And there are many others. It is an excellent book, written by the greatest author in creation, written for us, about Him with us, and ministering to us. We sometimes forget that the purpose of the Word of God is not to condemn us, but to save us. We use it as a brick and a bat, to demonstrate the wrong in others, but then fail to use it as a dressing and a cure full of love, over that wrong. It is an age old failing, and not solely the property of Jews and Christians.
That is, however, another post. Today the post is about the verses in the title. They read:
"We heard that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy, they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat. And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good."
I was feeling idle, and used one of the greatest Bible study tools, (and my personal theory as to why God tolerates the rest of the internet) Google, to find passages about feeling idle. That did not work very well, so I typed in Bible idle, and got several good responses. By the way, be careful about what you type in, searching for faith related material. The internet is the playground of all of our adolescent males and females. It provides the statistically highest relevant answers, not the spiritually relevant answers.
But, I have been idle, in terms of writing for a few weeks. And, as usual, the only thing I could churn out was a spleen venting about politics. Nasty business that, and kind of unredeemable in its way. However, I was feeling as if I was being idle about me. I kept telling myself, it has been a rough few weeks, I was just taking a break to heal and recharge. In reality, something was weighing on me and keeping my mind in places that were not useful.
I felt as if I were in a fog of hurt, sadness and shock. I was entitled. My Dad and my sister both gone in nine days. Other issues in the family. Work piling up because I had been gone so much. Health deteriorating as the stress built. It is a bad cycle, and one of the best designed destructive cycles of our enemy. I won't preach too often about the devil, but today, let me tell you how real he is.
2 Thes 3:3 says, "But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one." That would seem to imply that God will keep the devil away from us. But, it says that the Lord is faithful, not that we are. And that the Lord will strengthen and protect us, not shield us. Big difference in protect and shield. Protect means that He will prevent the devil from hurting us. Shield means He would prevent the devil from touching us.
Alot of folks that aren't Christian ask why a God, that loves, would allow a devil. Why, if we are made in His image, and to be with Him, would we have to suffer at the hands of another being He created? Because, while He is perfect, and we were created in the image of perfection, and have that capacity within us, we were not and choose not to be perfect. You tell your children not to partake of things because they are not good for them, and will hurt them, like alcohol, drugs, tobacco. Yet, you know that they ultimately choose what to do. It makes no sense, after all that you have told them, explained to them, expected of them, and still they go do it anyway. That is the crux of human nature, and the fall.
Why is there a devil? Because inside the sentient creatures of God, He put the capacity to deny Him. Rather than have slaves and automatons to adore and worship Him, He chose creatures of will and purpose. In that, He chose the potential of pain, experienced when we deny Him. It happened in Heaven, among the angels. It happened here on Earth, amidst the Garden. They are parallels, because we are parallel creations. The capacity exists. It is not in God's nature to forsake His creations.
So, at the time of the Fall, God had a plan. He knew the path He was going to take to reach a point where He could accept all His children, that so chose. That is where my idleness concerned me. I did not feel much like I was choosing God. I felt more like I was choosing pain and suffering that God was not shielding me from. I listened to the lies of the devil, and instead of understanding that God has already strengthened me and protected me, I was expecting to be shielded.
When we chose to know good and evil, we chose protection over shielding. God could not allow us free will and shield us from evil. He could strengthen us and protect us from evil overcoming us, and He has. I kind of lost sight of that, and could have used some good old shielding for a few days. But, it was my job to settle down and earn the food I ate. Meaning, I had to settle down and do the hard work of digging in the Word, finding my way, seeing the strength I was given, live to the purpose the Lord carved out for me. In times of greatest stress, we also have access to the greatest blessing. We get to choose.
I let the devil talk in my ear more than the Word of God. I did not lose faith, or lose my religion, or fall away. It is not always that concrete. Sometimes, it is just being willing to listen to the whisper that says you feel too tired to read the Bible. It is just listening to the whisper that says you don't feel up to praying. It is just listening to the whisper that says you can't do anything about the situation but live in it. It happens, to all of us. While created in the image of perfection, we have not yet been redeemed to perfection. We fall.
But, if ever you hear that voice in your head that says you don't feel like or have time to read the Word, understand that is not you, not your voice. If ever you hear that voice that says you don't feel like or have time to pray, that is not you, not your voice. If ever you feel as if the situation is beyond all control, and you are completely powerless in it, that is not your soul, not your self. We are made to be conquerors, victorious.
Everything is within the control and power of God. We have to accept that what He wills is best for us. Sometimes, what He wills hurts our feelings. That is part of the issue of being separated from Him. We no longer walk with and exist in His presence fully. We cannot see where He is looking and where He is going. We have learned to doubt that He is steering, or that He knows the directions. That is from the devil. It is the devil's masterwork of a lie. The more people the devil gets to believe that lie, the more people he steals from God.
The devil knows the outcome. He knows that he has been beaten. He knows that he has no victory in the end. He is so angry and twisted and evil over it, that he is not looking for us to join him in his victory and his kingdom. He is just looking to find more souls to damage and destroy as a way to hurt God. It is the last power he may possess. The more he hurts God, the more he enjoys it. It is not about you, you are simply a piece and pawn in the devil's schemes.
You are only important to God. Only God has a plan for you and a purpose for you. Only God cares for you. Only God loves you. The devil hates you and despises you. You have a path to redemption that he does not. It makes him the ultimate cornered animal and danger. The devil has power, as an angel of God, but he does not have the power or ability of God.
Don't be idle. Earn the wages for the food you eat. You have to pick up the Word, you have to stop in prayer. Works do not save, but you cannot live a committed life without working for the kingdom. You can't get anywhere without working for yourself. Feeling under the weather, burdened by life? It happens, to everyone. But, if you choose to work to get to God, it gets better. If you are not idle in your spirit, it becomes clear. Not permanently, there is never a time you don't have to work at it.
So, sorry I have not been working at it. I am sorry most to God. I keep asking Him to understand, because I can't accept that He does. Why would He notice me? Why would He care? It is so not a human trait, which is another of the most successful lies the devil has told. It is most definitely a human trait, it is just not a devil trait. The devil does not care and only notices as it pertains to his plans and deception. How do we face it all, keep going, keep the faith?
There is a way to get through. The closing of II Thessalonians: "Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you."
If you believe, the Lord is with you. If you do not believe, the Lord is with you. So is the devil. If you believe, the devil can only suggest and lie and scheme, he has no power. If you do not believe, you do not take on the protection that God offers. There is very real harm the devil can do to you then. Why is it the greatest commandment, to go out, baptize and make disciples of all men? Because without that, men are subject to real harm and damage from the devil. They do not take on the protection and strength of God. It is a dangerous world, if you are not choosing the Lord.
That is what idle means. It means letting yourself back into the dangerous world where real harm exists. Don't be idle. Dig, work, pray, worship. It is the sure path and the best medicine and the only cure and the quickest recovery. That is coming from the experience of one of the most idle, broken, sick and diseased people in the world, me. In this, I am an expert, and you would do well to heed my advise. Don't let it be like alcohol, drugs, tobacco. Remember when you were told they were bad for you? And what did you do? Listening to the devil, being idle is bad for you. I know.
GLYASDI
Saturday, January 9, 2016
Ask HOW?
I would like to imagine a place and time where our politics was about actions not viewpoint, practicality not ideology, getting it done not keeping it from happening. Unfortunately, those times have been very rare in American history. Much of the horror of the Civil War can be traced to the same ideological and emotional garbage that is tainting our politics today.
Instead of internal racial slavery, we are turning ourselves inside out because we basically don't like two people, and as a nation we don't. We don't like Barak Obama and we don't like Hillary Clinton. We have come so low in our electoral process that we have to like people to recognize their value and be willing to listen to reason from them. It is almost criminal, how shoddy we have allowed our politics to become.
Hating Barak Obama comes from what? The economy in the toilet? No, really it is not. The nation less safe? Considering the fact that this latest "terrorist" attack smacks more of work place hatred that we can blame on radicalism, and that we have killed 90% of the identified dangerous international terrorist leaders, and that we removed forces from foreign countries and brought them home to rest and heal before they broke completely, probably not. You remain, as you did on 9/11, much more likely to be the victim of a drive-by than a terrorist attack, and by some orders of magnitude. Dislike and the rabid nature of the hatred for Barak Obama comes from a deeper and nastier place, that we dare not name.
Hating Hillary Clinton comes from what? Well, that one is easier, she just is an easy person to hate. She has the same issue I am told Lyndon Johnson had. It feels like you are being sold a used car whenever they talk to you. The difference is that LBJ sold some really good used cars. Take a shower and you were good to go with reliable transportation. Hillary, she is peddling bad used cars, with no CarFax and only sold as is. She is by nature, a cold and unappealing personality. She is not, however, anywhere near our worst Secretary of State. And the truth is, her experience makes her more qualified, from an understanding and experience standpoint than anyone since LBJ. And, maybe more so than LBJ was. I don't mean that makes her right, but I think the rabid nature of the dislike comes from a deeper and nastier place, that we dare not name.
"I don't care what else I do, but I am going to repeal Obamacare!" "I will never vote for legislation that funds Planned Parenthood!" "I will defend the Second Amendment!" "I will never vote for a tax increase!" "I will prevent all immigrants from coming to America!" "I will curtail welfare and not pay people to not work."
Those are the current flavors of the day, right? All of them designed to remove the taint of the last eight years on our proud heritage and history, and some of them are worthy. But, where we have failed, in our duty as citizens, that we should be performing to our candidates, is to demand the answer to the logical follow up question, HOW? Do that a couple of times, and see how happy you are about where you plan to cast your vote.
These ideological goals are all well and good, but many of them are nonsensical. I have been to the Mid East, many times. All of the "trips" involved touring pieces of that region, small as they were, that were deemed safe. All of the "trips" involved raining American hellfire down on top of terrorists and civilians alike. It was the job. Do you dislike me as much as the "terrorists" that we are so afraid of? I guarantee you that I have helped contribute to more civilian deaths than any terrorist you can name. The magnitude of the warfare I supported and contributed to, is vastly more destructive than all of Al Qaeda's dreams put together. Conservative estimates are hundreds of thousands of deaths due to collateral damage in Iraq and Afghanistan. The truth is probably millions.
I don't defend terrorism, or the animals that I went to help fight and defeat. But, before we live in the absolute world, we must make peace with the real world. Nothing will ever keep every bad actor out of this country. We have had Russian, Chinese, Israeli (yes, especially Israeli), French, German, British and Japanese spies and informants here for decades.
We have allowed in hundreds, thousands of young African boys, who were trained to fight war, not pretend to be terrorists, but trained to fire Kalishnikov's, attack in supportive formation, seize tactically superior ground and live through shooting another human to death. It saddened us as a nation that these young boys were taken by terrorist armies, trained to fight and forced to kill. They have killed, not thought about it or been trained to do it, they have done it. And, we did not refuse them entry until we could vet them completely and know without doubt that they are safe for entry. We took them in because they were preyed upon and helpless, and we had pity on them.
Some of the least proud posts, and the least commendable statements I have made, is over allowing Syrian refugees into this country. (And you were right Dan.) Like many others, I got caught up in the mental trauma that is our political landscape right now. I forgot that we have no guarantee of safety, regardless of the best job that we do to ensure it. People are the ultimate failure mode. They will find a way to defeat and overcome any obstacle to their desires. We should not let that stop us from allowing in orphans and widows and people that no longer have homes or villages. Especially because we are the root cause of most of the displacement and migration. Our warfare, and support of the overthrow of the governments of the region is without doubt the basis of the Arab Spring. (And it is what the experts predicted prior to invading Iraq, by the way.)
We cannot repeal the Affordable Care Act without gutting Medicare and Medicaid. They are entwined and joined in a way that to get rid of the things we dislike, we would have to dismantle VA care, Medicare and Medicaid, and remake them. It could be done, but are any of you willing to allow more crippling of that safety net that I guarantee someone you love relies on? We could do it, but someone better have a very good plan and a very solid understanding of the macro and microeconomics involved in one of the largest expenditures in the government, behind defense spending and corporate welfare, and probably not much else. Who exactly is that person? Because I don't know them, and they are not running for Congress or President.
We could refuse to vote for legislation that funds Planned Parenthood. We could remain ideologically pure. It sickens me that they fund abortion, and I think it should be illegal. But, like the Affordable Care Act, the Supreme Court has many multiples of times, upheld that right for citizens of our country, regardless of what my faith informs me. It is law, and while I may disagree with it, it is not a crime and it is not illegal for our government to be involved in.
It always kind of concerns me that folks that are the most indignant about any potential impact to their Second Amendment rights, are often the most opposed to supporting the other rights, guaranteed by the same system of law and judicial process that protects the Second Amendment. It is how our country was founded, built, designed and operated. We do not get it right constantly, but we do not generally get it wrong, over and over and over and over again. If we have, spend half the energy you do worrying about some government entity coming for your guns and build a movement to pass an amendment that prohibits abortion. You can be opposed to the practice, but be careful about throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Funding for Planned Parenthood impacts, depending on which side's numbers you are using, 20-50 million women. Some small percentage of funds has any impact on abortion practice, counselling or performance. The rest takes care of breast cancer screenings, pre natal care, general health care and reproductive health care, that many women would otherwise be unable to afford. I deplore abortion, and I cannot fathom that decision, or being in a place to make it. I am a man, I have not ever had the experience. However, the wave of impact to the entire nation for defunding Planned Parenthood is similar to a pandemic disease. It would impact more people than influenza has in the last 5 years put together, in this country.
Tax levels and the tax code remain fairly identical to the code that Reagan worked with Tip ONeil to pass in the 80's. There are some small changes around the edges, and we have tinkered with the pennies on the dollar, but the force and effect are largely unchanged for 30 years. In that time, the entire world around us has changed. The 80's tax code was typed by hand on typewriters, then set into print by hand, then printed for review and distribution. There were no computers in general use. The Senators and Representatives smoked at their desks as they debated the legislation. It went out on the three networks, and that is all the networks there were. We read about it in newspapers and magazines. Mesothelioma was not yet something that was awarded work place compensation. Football only came on twice a week, Sunday and Monday.
Expecting that the world has changed to the extent that it has, that we have come to where we are, and that there is no potential that the best course for the nation may be to increase some tax rates is moronic. Perhaps some should go down, but some certainly then, may need to go up. Even if you pass the flat tax at anything more than 15%, and most agree 18-20% is the minimum, you are raising taxes on a segment of the population. It is nonsensical and bespeaks of poor understanding and lack of comprehension to make promises that potentially are damaging to keep.
Why do Congressmen and Presidents go support and vote for these things, after making these bold statements? Because here at home, it is unlikely that you understand the interconnected nature of the things we are hating. It is unlikely you have seen the pictures from inside Syria, Lybia and Tunisia, that show what this flood of people are running from, and you are not getting it on CNN and Fox, believe me. It is unlikely that you know that Planned Parenthood is one of the nation's leading providers of cancer screening for all of the cancers that impact only or predominantly women (ovarian, cervical, breast). It is unlikely you understand that the Affordable Care Act is now the conduit by which Medicare and Medicaid are funded and controlled. It is unlikely you understand that the majority of welfare recipients are white, and most have been thrown out of the work force due to economic contraction in their location, and have a legitimate work history prior to benefits. Ideology meets practicality, and generally, decency allows practicality to win. Almost always to the benefit of this nation, which has been built on what I just described, compromise.
We don't talk about those things on MSNBC or Fox News. We show doctored pictures of some imagined horror being perpetrated by one side or the other. We show a row of tenement houses with an Escalade parked in front of it, implying that they are all on the take from the government, and that by and large, their career plan is to survive on welfare. Or we show cockroaches crawling on walls and babies living in filth to demonstrate how poorly we help them. We show made up videos of horrific acts on fetal tissue. Or we only focus on the equally horrific practice of killing abortion providers. We show only examples of corporate greed and crime, and nothing about the giving and volunteering sponsored and organized by those corporations. Or we show only the profits and sanitized claims mouthed by corporate shills. We claim that people kill people and not guns, but then cannot explain why it is not worthwhile to be more rigorous in determining which people should then be allowed to buy guns. Or we claim that guns are the root of the evil, and there is no conceivable reason anyone should have one, look at Europe and wonderful that place is.
We do not demand HOW, we just get together and shout about WHAT. We have done that since 1988, and look at where it has put the country. What do I personally hold against Obama? He spoke of change, and while he enacted some needed legislation and made some difficult but necessary command decisions, he has not effected change. I don't think it was in his power, unfortunately.
We still have the same uninformed angers driving uneducated debate around nonsensical issues. And very few of our candidates are even aware that that is true. That is the part that is so concerning. It is one thing to be unintentionally ignorant, I am on many subjects. It is another to be willfully ignorant. I beg of you, please ask your candidates for all offices which kind of ignorant they are. They are one or the other, we all are. To do that, ask HOW? It is the fastest way to test for the truth in their answer.
GLYASDI
Instead of internal racial slavery, we are turning ourselves inside out because we basically don't like two people, and as a nation we don't. We don't like Barak Obama and we don't like Hillary Clinton. We have come so low in our electoral process that we have to like people to recognize their value and be willing to listen to reason from them. It is almost criminal, how shoddy we have allowed our politics to become.
Hating Barak Obama comes from what? The economy in the toilet? No, really it is not. The nation less safe? Considering the fact that this latest "terrorist" attack smacks more of work place hatred that we can blame on radicalism, and that we have killed 90% of the identified dangerous international terrorist leaders, and that we removed forces from foreign countries and brought them home to rest and heal before they broke completely, probably not. You remain, as you did on 9/11, much more likely to be the victim of a drive-by than a terrorist attack, and by some orders of magnitude. Dislike and the rabid nature of the hatred for Barak Obama comes from a deeper and nastier place, that we dare not name.
Hating Hillary Clinton comes from what? Well, that one is easier, she just is an easy person to hate. She has the same issue I am told Lyndon Johnson had. It feels like you are being sold a used car whenever they talk to you. The difference is that LBJ sold some really good used cars. Take a shower and you were good to go with reliable transportation. Hillary, she is peddling bad used cars, with no CarFax and only sold as is. She is by nature, a cold and unappealing personality. She is not, however, anywhere near our worst Secretary of State. And the truth is, her experience makes her more qualified, from an understanding and experience standpoint than anyone since LBJ. And, maybe more so than LBJ was. I don't mean that makes her right, but I think the rabid nature of the dislike comes from a deeper and nastier place, that we dare not name.
"I don't care what else I do, but I am going to repeal Obamacare!" "I will never vote for legislation that funds Planned Parenthood!" "I will defend the Second Amendment!" "I will never vote for a tax increase!" "I will prevent all immigrants from coming to America!" "I will curtail welfare and not pay people to not work."
Those are the current flavors of the day, right? All of them designed to remove the taint of the last eight years on our proud heritage and history, and some of them are worthy. But, where we have failed, in our duty as citizens, that we should be performing to our candidates, is to demand the answer to the logical follow up question, HOW? Do that a couple of times, and see how happy you are about where you plan to cast your vote.
These ideological goals are all well and good, but many of them are nonsensical. I have been to the Mid East, many times. All of the "trips" involved touring pieces of that region, small as they were, that were deemed safe. All of the "trips" involved raining American hellfire down on top of terrorists and civilians alike. It was the job. Do you dislike me as much as the "terrorists" that we are so afraid of? I guarantee you that I have helped contribute to more civilian deaths than any terrorist you can name. The magnitude of the warfare I supported and contributed to, is vastly more destructive than all of Al Qaeda's dreams put together. Conservative estimates are hundreds of thousands of deaths due to collateral damage in Iraq and Afghanistan. The truth is probably millions.
I don't defend terrorism, or the animals that I went to help fight and defeat. But, before we live in the absolute world, we must make peace with the real world. Nothing will ever keep every bad actor out of this country. We have had Russian, Chinese, Israeli (yes, especially Israeli), French, German, British and Japanese spies and informants here for decades.
We have allowed in hundreds, thousands of young African boys, who were trained to fight war, not pretend to be terrorists, but trained to fire Kalishnikov's, attack in supportive formation, seize tactically superior ground and live through shooting another human to death. It saddened us as a nation that these young boys were taken by terrorist armies, trained to fight and forced to kill. They have killed, not thought about it or been trained to do it, they have done it. And, we did not refuse them entry until we could vet them completely and know without doubt that they are safe for entry. We took them in because they were preyed upon and helpless, and we had pity on them.
Some of the least proud posts, and the least commendable statements I have made, is over allowing Syrian refugees into this country. (And you were right Dan.) Like many others, I got caught up in the mental trauma that is our political landscape right now. I forgot that we have no guarantee of safety, regardless of the best job that we do to ensure it. People are the ultimate failure mode. They will find a way to defeat and overcome any obstacle to their desires. We should not let that stop us from allowing in orphans and widows and people that no longer have homes or villages. Especially because we are the root cause of most of the displacement and migration. Our warfare, and support of the overthrow of the governments of the region is without doubt the basis of the Arab Spring. (And it is what the experts predicted prior to invading Iraq, by the way.)
We could refuse to vote for legislation that funds Planned Parenthood. We could remain ideologically pure. It sickens me that they fund abortion, and I think it should be illegal. But, like the Affordable Care Act, the Supreme Court has many multiples of times, upheld that right for citizens of our country, regardless of what my faith informs me. It is law, and while I may disagree with it, it is not a crime and it is not illegal for our government to be involved in.
It always kind of concerns me that folks that are the most indignant about any potential impact to their Second Amendment rights, are often the most opposed to supporting the other rights, guaranteed by the same system of law and judicial process that protects the Second Amendment. It is how our country was founded, built, designed and operated. We do not get it right constantly, but we do not generally get it wrong, over and over and over and over again. If we have, spend half the energy you do worrying about some government entity coming for your guns and build a movement to pass an amendment that prohibits abortion. You can be opposed to the practice, but be careful about throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Funding for Planned Parenthood impacts, depending on which side's numbers you are using, 20-50 million women. Some small percentage of funds has any impact on abortion practice, counselling or performance. The rest takes care of breast cancer screenings, pre natal care, general health care and reproductive health care, that many women would otherwise be unable to afford. I deplore abortion, and I cannot fathom that decision, or being in a place to make it. I am a man, I have not ever had the experience. However, the wave of impact to the entire nation for defunding Planned Parenthood is similar to a pandemic disease. It would impact more people than influenza has in the last 5 years put together, in this country.
Tax levels and the tax code remain fairly identical to the code that Reagan worked with Tip ONeil to pass in the 80's. There are some small changes around the edges, and we have tinkered with the pennies on the dollar, but the force and effect are largely unchanged for 30 years. In that time, the entire world around us has changed. The 80's tax code was typed by hand on typewriters, then set into print by hand, then printed for review and distribution. There were no computers in general use. The Senators and Representatives smoked at their desks as they debated the legislation. It went out on the three networks, and that is all the networks there were. We read about it in newspapers and magazines. Mesothelioma was not yet something that was awarded work place compensation. Football only came on twice a week, Sunday and Monday.
Expecting that the world has changed to the extent that it has, that we have come to where we are, and that there is no potential that the best course for the nation may be to increase some tax rates is moronic. Perhaps some should go down, but some certainly then, may need to go up. Even if you pass the flat tax at anything more than 15%, and most agree 18-20% is the minimum, you are raising taxes on a segment of the population. It is nonsensical and bespeaks of poor understanding and lack of comprehension to make promises that potentially are damaging to keep.
Why do Congressmen and Presidents go support and vote for these things, after making these bold statements? Because here at home, it is unlikely that you understand the interconnected nature of the things we are hating. It is unlikely you have seen the pictures from inside Syria, Lybia and Tunisia, that show what this flood of people are running from, and you are not getting it on CNN and Fox, believe me. It is unlikely that you know that Planned Parenthood is one of the nation's leading providers of cancer screening for all of the cancers that impact only or predominantly women (ovarian, cervical, breast). It is unlikely you understand that the Affordable Care Act is now the conduit by which Medicare and Medicaid are funded and controlled. It is unlikely you understand that the majority of welfare recipients are white, and most have been thrown out of the work force due to economic contraction in their location, and have a legitimate work history prior to benefits. Ideology meets practicality, and generally, decency allows practicality to win. Almost always to the benefit of this nation, which has been built on what I just described, compromise.
We don't talk about those things on MSNBC or Fox News. We show doctored pictures of some imagined horror being perpetrated by one side or the other. We show a row of tenement houses with an Escalade parked in front of it, implying that they are all on the take from the government, and that by and large, their career plan is to survive on welfare. Or we show cockroaches crawling on walls and babies living in filth to demonstrate how poorly we help them. We show made up videos of horrific acts on fetal tissue. Or we only focus on the equally horrific practice of killing abortion providers. We show only examples of corporate greed and crime, and nothing about the giving and volunteering sponsored and organized by those corporations. Or we show only the profits and sanitized claims mouthed by corporate shills. We claim that people kill people and not guns, but then cannot explain why it is not worthwhile to be more rigorous in determining which people should then be allowed to buy guns. Or we claim that guns are the root of the evil, and there is no conceivable reason anyone should have one, look at Europe and wonderful that place is.
We do not demand HOW, we just get together and shout about WHAT. We have done that since 1988, and look at where it has put the country. What do I personally hold against Obama? He spoke of change, and while he enacted some needed legislation and made some difficult but necessary command decisions, he has not effected change. I don't think it was in his power, unfortunately.
We still have the same uninformed angers driving uneducated debate around nonsensical issues. And very few of our candidates are even aware that that is true. That is the part that is so concerning. It is one thing to be unintentionally ignorant, I am on many subjects. It is another to be willfully ignorant. I beg of you, please ask your candidates for all offices which kind of ignorant they are. They are one or the other, we all are. To do that, ask HOW? It is the fastest way to test for the truth in their answer.
GLYASDI
Friday, January 1, 2016
Resolved this New Year
New Years Resolutions are not much good to anyone, in terms of body shaping or quitting anything. Having an arbitrary date as the basis for why you are going to commit to changing something that requires dedication and determination, ends up being a really poor basis. I don't demean anyone that wants to change their life for the better. Lord knows I do and I have to. I just think there are better reasons to do it, that are more lasting and motivating. You should have New You Resolutions.
I think New Years is a great time to do it. It is custom made to bracket your time, gage your progress. It presents a great opportunity to do so. It is reinforced by the input of society around us. There are few more times more conducive to success.
And, I am not immune. I understand the need to change and to improve and have the bug so to speak. But, I avoid doing it for New Years. For example, I need to be healthier in 2016, so that I can enjoy life with Katrina. This is a good time to start a new regiment of health and track my progress, but I am doing it for me, and Katrina. I need to be more organized and timely in 2016, so that I reduce my stress. I put a lot of the stress in my life on myself, and this is a great time to adopt new methods and track my progress.
But, for any kind of resolution to be successful, it has to be a NEED. You have to need to do it, and approach it in that way, for any change to be long term and successful. I think that this puts the power of God on your side.
God knows what we need. I think that if we need something, that is worthwhile, God becomes an irresistable force. He cannot be overcome, and you ultimately are successful. You don't need to win the Lotto, but you may need to be more financially sound and independent. You don't need to marry a Kardashian, but you may need to find a social circle that provides sustaining and enriching relationships. You don't need to see the Redskins win the Super Bowl, but it would not hurt anyone in the world, now would it?
That last one I just threw in there. But, things that are needs energize the power of God on your side. Any power that can make a mountain move, can feed thousands from a cooler's worth of food, can save you from death, is going to make sure you are successful. That is the power that we all need to gain for our resolutions and our improvements.
We are untrustworthy to determine our needs. We NEED to pray over it and ask God. A Lexus is not a need. Financial independence that allows you to drive whatever vehicle you desire, can be a need. A 4 bedroom house is not a need. A home that is secure, warm and healthy for your whole family is a need. A certain size TV screen is not a need. Nothing about TV is a need, that doesn't make it necessarily bad, it just is not a need.
But, after careful prayer and consideration, if it is on our heart as a need, then it is worth pursuing with all the power of God. That means continuing to pray and focus on it with God. That means continuing to listen to the voice of God in your life. That means being open to the change God is going to work in your life.
When you reach that point, and get onto that path, nothing is out of your reach. Nothing is beyond your potential, if you are growing in God. We are created in God's image, which means we have no limit, no cap on our growth. In that way, and that way alone, are we still, in this broken world, true children of God. Nothing is more evident, when you begin that journey.
Find someone that energized God in their life, that accepted the course of Christ in their life, and you cannot help but understand what I am saying. There is nothing about them that proclaims they triumphed, they are clearly, and claim to only be, the vessel of change that God filled and overflowed. They shine with something that is not definable by our senses, but plainly evident to our souls.
Now the wants come in. I really want to be that person. I want it to be evident in me, in ways that are not definable by our sense, but is plainly evident to everyone else's soul. I want that in my life in a way that I cannot express. I NEED to be closer and more entwined in God and His word. I NEED to be alive in Christ, in ways that I cannot even see now.
How do I do that? Well, after much prayer, and lots of consideration, I have to act. God is a god of faith, and we walk by faith, not by sight, but He is also a god of action. I have to act, have to seek a change, for God to be visible in my life. That is a false premise in lots of the books and "self-help" media out there, that we have to act first to get God to act. The fact is that God has already been acting, to get you to the point that your recognize the NEED. God is going to act in your life, and continue acting in your life, regardless of your input.
I NEED to act, if I want to be the change that I desire. Need comes before want, but if you don't want to meet the need, nothing ever happens. It is not that you have to just discern between wants and needs. You have to identify your NEEDs, and then you have to want them. It is not a decision between needs and wants. For example, every smoker knows that they need to stop smoking, to be healthier. But, until they acknowledge that, and want the need, it is not going to happen.
So, what is my point to this ramble? After lots of prayer and consideration, I have come to understand some NEEDs in my life. I NEED to be and live healthier. I NEED to better organize and utilize my time. I NEED to expand my knowledge and practice of my faith. There are lots more needs, as I am generally just a big, hot mess. But, those are the ones that God has put on my heart to act upon. I think he has set me up on a path that has informed that knowledge, as the things in my life are pushing me directly to these needs.
That makes my setting of resolutions easy. Healthier, better organization and utilization of time, and expansion of knowledge and practice of faith. That is a pretty full agenda, and some pretty lofty goals. I would tell you that there is absolutely no Joe way to see these accomplished. Based on past experience and actions, this is undoable, I have years of documented evidence that this is impossible.
But, God tells me that He is the God of impossible. He is the architect of undoable. He has overcome. What do I say to that, other than let Your will be done. I NEED God's will more than I need anything of Joe's desire. So, rather than being discouraged at the task in front of me, or concerned about how this will happen, I am energized. I have absolutely no idea how God is going to make this happen.
I have plenty of ideas around what God is going to do. I have prayed on each of these NEEDs and have an answer for each. I have written them down, and I am going to track these changes. Small incremental changes that can be continued are important, and then add one additional change each month. Small allows sustainment, incremental allows seeing progress, compounding benefit drives encouraging drive, but have to be informed by prayer and sustained by faith.
For example, what is healthier? What three things can change that are sustainable and informed? Healthier, for me, means some small, but big, changes. No soda except at meals. 3 helpings of salad a week. Cut out chips and processed salty foods. Those three things, if sustained, probably cut 20-40% of the calories out of my diet, triples my input of fiber and cut my sodium intake by 75%, regardless of how much salt I add to food.
Make that for a month, and then I can add something new. By the second week of the month, I will identify what to add. If I am struggling with adding salad to my diet, doing something around adding more raw vegetables to my diet is kind of foolish. If I am doing well with chips and salty stuff, then maybe it is limiting the amount of salt I add to food. But, you capitalize on gains, drive through success. Continue to work on what is a struggle, but adding additional constraint and focus will only result in less success, discouragement and loss of commitment. I know this from long personal experience.
It is the same for the rest. If you have not spent time in prayer and consideration, I urge to reconsider making resolutions until you do so. I mean it, better to make a Valentine's Day resolution informed by prayer and preparation, then a New Years resolution that you guess at, and don't remember in 3 weeks. God wants to be a power in your life, but He will only be a power at the things He thinks are most important and urgent. I would suggest you trust the architect of the universe for things like priority and importance. He is a much better expert than you, and He wants to be your expert, which is the most important thing.
Suppose you are not in a place to do resolutions? You will not regret time spent in prayer and consideration. That might lead to nothing more complicated than just praying every day. But, while uncomplicated, I can think of no more important and powerful life change. And nothing is a greater NEED to be prayerful and in communion with God.
It is a great time, but it is not the only time. Whenever, if you stop struggling and try to figure out what God wants in your life, you will get the answers. God does not have to come near, He is already there. There is no part of you that is not filled with God, whether you realize it or not.
I have faith that you can have a wonderful year. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So, regardless of your past performance, regardless of your previous history, completely regardless of your sins and failures, there is substance in things hoped for, and evidence of things not seen. Faith, and I have it in you, because God does. In Him all things are possible.
That is the New Years premise that we should all recognize. In Him all things are possible. I have faith that if you get in Him, and realize He is already in you, all things are possible through Christ who strengthens you. I like New Years, it is a great time to look forward. I urge you to take in the most important Christian tenet, all things are possible through Christ who strengthens you, therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Happy New Year! The new is here! I pray and have faith that it will be a new year for you, and a great kind of new. I pray that God continues to bless us all, and that we all recognize those blessings.
GLYASDI
I think New Years is a great time to do it. It is custom made to bracket your time, gage your progress. It presents a great opportunity to do so. It is reinforced by the input of society around us. There are few more times more conducive to success.
And, I am not immune. I understand the need to change and to improve and have the bug so to speak. But, I avoid doing it for New Years. For example, I need to be healthier in 2016, so that I can enjoy life with Katrina. This is a good time to start a new regiment of health and track my progress, but I am doing it for me, and Katrina. I need to be more organized and timely in 2016, so that I reduce my stress. I put a lot of the stress in my life on myself, and this is a great time to adopt new methods and track my progress.
But, for any kind of resolution to be successful, it has to be a NEED. You have to need to do it, and approach it in that way, for any change to be long term and successful. I think that this puts the power of God on your side.
God knows what we need. I think that if we need something, that is worthwhile, God becomes an irresistable force. He cannot be overcome, and you ultimately are successful. You don't need to win the Lotto, but you may need to be more financially sound and independent. You don't need to marry a Kardashian, but you may need to find a social circle that provides sustaining and enriching relationships. You don't need to see the Redskins win the Super Bowl, but it would not hurt anyone in the world, now would it?
That last one I just threw in there. But, things that are needs energize the power of God on your side. Any power that can make a mountain move, can feed thousands from a cooler's worth of food, can save you from death, is going to make sure you are successful. That is the power that we all need to gain for our resolutions and our improvements.
We are untrustworthy to determine our needs. We NEED to pray over it and ask God. A Lexus is not a need. Financial independence that allows you to drive whatever vehicle you desire, can be a need. A 4 bedroom house is not a need. A home that is secure, warm and healthy for your whole family is a need. A certain size TV screen is not a need. Nothing about TV is a need, that doesn't make it necessarily bad, it just is not a need.
But, after careful prayer and consideration, if it is on our heart as a need, then it is worth pursuing with all the power of God. That means continuing to pray and focus on it with God. That means continuing to listen to the voice of God in your life. That means being open to the change God is going to work in your life.
When you reach that point, and get onto that path, nothing is out of your reach. Nothing is beyond your potential, if you are growing in God. We are created in God's image, which means we have no limit, no cap on our growth. In that way, and that way alone, are we still, in this broken world, true children of God. Nothing is more evident, when you begin that journey.
Find someone that energized God in their life, that accepted the course of Christ in their life, and you cannot help but understand what I am saying. There is nothing about them that proclaims they triumphed, they are clearly, and claim to only be, the vessel of change that God filled and overflowed. They shine with something that is not definable by our senses, but plainly evident to our souls.
Now the wants come in. I really want to be that person. I want it to be evident in me, in ways that are not definable by our sense, but is plainly evident to everyone else's soul. I want that in my life in a way that I cannot express. I NEED to be closer and more entwined in God and His word. I NEED to be alive in Christ, in ways that I cannot even see now.
How do I do that? Well, after much prayer, and lots of consideration, I have to act. God is a god of faith, and we walk by faith, not by sight, but He is also a god of action. I have to act, have to seek a change, for God to be visible in my life. That is a false premise in lots of the books and "self-help" media out there, that we have to act first to get God to act. The fact is that God has already been acting, to get you to the point that your recognize the NEED. God is going to act in your life, and continue acting in your life, regardless of your input.
I NEED to act, if I want to be the change that I desire. Need comes before want, but if you don't want to meet the need, nothing ever happens. It is not that you have to just discern between wants and needs. You have to identify your NEEDs, and then you have to want them. It is not a decision between needs and wants. For example, every smoker knows that they need to stop smoking, to be healthier. But, until they acknowledge that, and want the need, it is not going to happen.
So, what is my point to this ramble? After lots of prayer and consideration, I have come to understand some NEEDs in my life. I NEED to be and live healthier. I NEED to better organize and utilize my time. I NEED to expand my knowledge and practice of my faith. There are lots more needs, as I am generally just a big, hot mess. But, those are the ones that God has put on my heart to act upon. I think he has set me up on a path that has informed that knowledge, as the things in my life are pushing me directly to these needs.
That makes my setting of resolutions easy. Healthier, better organization and utilization of time, and expansion of knowledge and practice of faith. That is a pretty full agenda, and some pretty lofty goals. I would tell you that there is absolutely no Joe way to see these accomplished. Based on past experience and actions, this is undoable, I have years of documented evidence that this is impossible.
But, God tells me that He is the God of impossible. He is the architect of undoable. He has overcome. What do I say to that, other than let Your will be done. I NEED God's will more than I need anything of Joe's desire. So, rather than being discouraged at the task in front of me, or concerned about how this will happen, I am energized. I have absolutely no idea how God is going to make this happen.
I have plenty of ideas around what God is going to do. I have prayed on each of these NEEDs and have an answer for each. I have written them down, and I am going to track these changes. Small incremental changes that can be continued are important, and then add one additional change each month. Small allows sustainment, incremental allows seeing progress, compounding benefit drives encouraging drive, but have to be informed by prayer and sustained by faith.
For example, what is healthier? What three things can change that are sustainable and informed? Healthier, for me, means some small, but big, changes. No soda except at meals. 3 helpings of salad a week. Cut out chips and processed salty foods. Those three things, if sustained, probably cut 20-40% of the calories out of my diet, triples my input of fiber and cut my sodium intake by 75%, regardless of how much salt I add to food.
Make that for a month, and then I can add something new. By the second week of the month, I will identify what to add. If I am struggling with adding salad to my diet, doing something around adding more raw vegetables to my diet is kind of foolish. If I am doing well with chips and salty stuff, then maybe it is limiting the amount of salt I add to food. But, you capitalize on gains, drive through success. Continue to work on what is a struggle, but adding additional constraint and focus will only result in less success, discouragement and loss of commitment. I know this from long personal experience.
It is the same for the rest. If you have not spent time in prayer and consideration, I urge to reconsider making resolutions until you do so. I mean it, better to make a Valentine's Day resolution informed by prayer and preparation, then a New Years resolution that you guess at, and don't remember in 3 weeks. God wants to be a power in your life, but He will only be a power at the things He thinks are most important and urgent. I would suggest you trust the architect of the universe for things like priority and importance. He is a much better expert than you, and He wants to be your expert, which is the most important thing.
Suppose you are not in a place to do resolutions? You will not regret time spent in prayer and consideration. That might lead to nothing more complicated than just praying every day. But, while uncomplicated, I can think of no more important and powerful life change. And nothing is a greater NEED to be prayerful and in communion with God.
It is a great time, but it is not the only time. Whenever, if you stop struggling and try to figure out what God wants in your life, you will get the answers. God does not have to come near, He is already there. There is no part of you that is not filled with God, whether you realize it or not.
I have faith that you can have a wonderful year. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. So, regardless of your past performance, regardless of your previous history, completely regardless of your sins and failures, there is substance in things hoped for, and evidence of things not seen. Faith, and I have it in you, because God does. In Him all things are possible.
That is the New Years premise that we should all recognize. In Him all things are possible. I have faith that if you get in Him, and realize He is already in you, all things are possible through Christ who strengthens you. I like New Years, it is a great time to look forward. I urge you to take in the most important Christian tenet, all things are possible through Christ who strengthens you, therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Happy New Year! The new is here! I pray and have faith that it will be a new year for you, and a great kind of new. I pray that God continues to bless us all, and that we all recognize those blessings.
GLYASDI
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