...loving far outreaches the alternative

I'm another year older and I certainly feel it.
In fact, I spent most of the day yesterday on the couch. What a wimp!
No, this isn't going to be a gripe, I'm pleased that I got his far judging by the condition my condition is in.
It wasn't too long ago that I was questioning the possibilities, but here I am, still in one piece; still breathing.
There are so many in worse shape than I am. I marvel at some; the ones that never complain. They only issue words of comfort and encouragement even though the circumstances are far from bright. How I admire them with their stalwart personalities and strong convictions.
What with the 'climate' around the globe these days, it is easy to see how some might take exception to a favorable outlook on life. The news is often bleak and brimming with death and dire straits. Suffering is glamorized by polished reporters looking more like extras in a movie than news people. The ever increasing hatred that's growing day by day seems as though it may overtake the good that others do but I'm holding out for the positive. We can still change for the better if only we will try. Loving far outreaches the alternative.

I pray that it is so...

...how crazy things get sometimes...
I looked up and once again it had been way too long since I have written anything here. The more I try the less I seem to get accomplished. I do get things done, it just seems like its somewhere else.
Actually, I haven't written anywhere else but in the newspaper of late. I have had the opportuinity to do some articles for the Choctaw Times and I have thoroughly enjoyed doing them. The Editor is a great guy that gives me a lead and lets me take it from there. I want to get involved a bit to much in some of the subjects but Ryan (the Editor), pulls on the reins and I come back into line pretty easily.
There are so many things going on its hard to keep track. I completetly forgot to go to the Nursing Center today. I usually go once a month and sing, but I just spaced it out today and only remmbered it just as I was suppopsed to be there. Go figure.
I'll be 66 in a couple of weeks. It seems as though I am a lot older than that at times and then there are times when I feel like I'm 10. I want ice cream and cookies and a big bicycle to ride throught the park but I'm not gonna get the bike.
I find myself looking at Di more and more each day as well. She is such a soldier. I know how badly she hurts and still she keeps on going, day after day, never missing a beat. I only wish that there could be a way to ease her pain or even take it away all together. She most certainly doesn't deserve to have it this way, as much as she does for everyone.
When it gets still and the day has passed into another night, I think of all the hours spent working away at one thing or another. Has it been fruitful? Have I been doing what the Master wants me doing?
I pray that it is so,

...aren't we pretty close?

Time just seems to flow out of the hourglass like water. I look up and a month or more has gone by since I last posted anything here. How sad. Have I lost all sense of time? No. I just don't look at time the same way I did in the past. It's as though it doesn't exist anymore. Bare with me for a moment, please.There are just too many restrictions involved. It takes everything and twists it into a shape we're not familiar with and then it expects us to accept the obvious change without question. How quaint. Those of us that hate change really take a beating.... Time, the bully if you will.

I looked at my progress and saw lethargy. I have slowed to a crawl in too many areas. My completion rate is almost nill in comparison to three or even two years ago. I can't blame it it on age even though I would like to. It's inside. It's sitting there like a huge rock on front of the door of "doing something", keeping me from leaving the room called "idle".... and everyone knows I don't idle well... at least everyone that knows me...
The atmosphere has changed. The surroundings, the constants, the 'air pressure', everything. I can't recall any worse time. I dread watching the news and yet I'm drawn to it like a moth to the light. It keeps swirling like a small tornado off in the distance from country to country without resolution; much like a bad chord in a song played at the end. You can't quite put your finger on what's causing all of these things and yet you know, down deep, exactly what it is ...and then the system shuts down and opens up the 'denial syndrome' like a new window on a computer screen. ....
"Oh, it's not as bad as all that.... is it? Yes, it is.

Thank God for grace. We have our redemption. The price has been paid, we just have to do our part and the puzzle will come together and the end will come. I will be so glad when it does.
I see far too much hurting and anger and pain and destruction around me. The only solace is the Lord.

I find comfort in him and in Dianna's arms. She has a comforting spirit that gives me peace and negates all the tensions that build up each day when I'm away from her. What a lightening rod. She can dispell all evil in one look; one touch. I keep reaching over to touch her as we sit together each night. It's as though I have a "Dianna deficientcy" and her touch restores the loss. I regain sanity when she hands me that bowl of ice cream and I can settle back in my chair like a big panda with a fresh bamboo shoot.

How much longer Lord? I don't want to see anybody miss out on heaven, but aren't we pretty close?

...those of us that seek....

Are we so caught up in our own worlds that we don't see what is going on right under our own noses?
The times are so evident, so plain, that I marvel at the ignorance of the masses.
"We like sheep have gone astray...."

I sat dumbfounded listening to the president's speech. His characterizaions were so skewed I wondered how he kept a straight face for so long. If I didn't know better I would have thought it was a carney selling me a bill of goods in a sideshow. The spinning retheric wound around and around mesmerizing some and sickening others.
We are so 'in trouble'. How can people continue to ignore his record; his blatant actions that are tearing at the basic fabric of our nation, like the wolf he is? If you look closely, you will see the holes in his stories so plainly that it boggles the mind to see the reactions of our 'leaders' as they glibely comment on the rise in his approval ratings as if it were a good thing. I certainly do not approve. I am greatly saddened by the general public's view of this charletain. How can they be so obtuse?

History will one day write the story and many will be incredulous to see what he has destroyed by his under handed tactics and deceptions. I say again; we are so 'in trouble'.
I thank God for his mercy and his longsuffering. We will have a lot to answer for in the fnal judgement but it seems that God is stil giving us time to 'turn about' and recover. Israel has been in this positin over and over again and God always came to their aid when they repented.
The things we did not do; cheifly, stopping this man when we could, will come back to haunt us for decades; if we last that long. We have most assuredly shortened our days by our actions or rather by our inactions. Either way we cannot stand much more of this type of leadership and example. Our enemies see it as plainly as we do but even more so. They see ways to subvert and circomvent the truth so that their agendas are supported and implemented instead of the right ways of doing things. There are no rules for them. They win at any cost and sadly, the cost is always paid for by those of us that seek right and truth and peace.

...only he can

How many times have you found yourself frustrated with the work you are doing? I realized that I was getting more and more uptight about a job I had been doing for a man that lives near us. He had asked me a few months ago to replace the floor below his shower. It had fallen through and needed replacing along with the walls and floor pan. I finally agreed to begin on what I thought would be a short weeks work. As of today I have been on this job almost three weeks. Anything that could go wrong has. Everything is taking 4 times the amount of time I originally thought it would take and the cost has more than doubled. He has been very nice about it all, but I believe he too is getting frustrated and that, of course creates stress for the both of us. No one likes stress.
I have a few things left to do, weather allowing, and I'll finally be done. How does one deal with circumstances like these? I thank God that I have a place to go to get my peace back in times like this. I can get off to myself and just 'veg' with the Lord and let him calm my spirit. Nothing soothes more than that. The stillness and the surety that he is there, applying the salve of comfort and well being only he can.

...for many of us

The wind was singing all night. I woke up several times, promptly going right back to sleep until about 5:30 or so. It was harder to get back to sleep after that for some reason but I made a valiant attempt.

The alarm sounded at 8 and I dragged myself to an upright position and onto the floor, dreading every second. 

This was the first 'cold' morning of the season. People should be able to enjoy the warm covers and the view from inside the eyelids and not have to 'do the daily'...unless they want to. That of course is the lazy me talking. I had a doctor's appointment and staying in bed was a much better option even if I didn't get to take advantage of it.

I know, some of you are thinking 'those thoughts' right now and wondering if I'm getting soft but don't go mistakin' my 'want to's' with my 'have to's'. I got up. I made it to the appointment.... on time. So there, I've said it and I'm not takin' it back. There has got to be one of these mornings in your past as well, admit it, you are tempted to hit the snooze button now and then yourself.... yeah, I knew it... I can see it it in your eyes....(metaphorically speaking) Yawn.

Isn't it funny how we treat ourselves sometimes? I mean, there are times when I have all the energy in the world and can go and go and I get things done left and right. And then there are 'those' times when I can't even get enough energy up to think about what's next. I lean back in my chair and cross my legs and stretch my arms out and cross them over my chest and just sigh out loud, disgusted at my attitude.

I always have to be 'doing', planning, measuring, gauging..."finishing", or I don't think I've accomplished anything.

And then I'm reminded of the times Jesus took the disciples aside "for a rest". They weren't always 'doing'. They 'rested' sometimes.

They didn't 'hang out', they rested. They restored the energies they had expended and regained their strength, making ready for the next battle, the next encounter, the next miracle.

I say, "don't be afraid to rest". The days ahead may be long and arduous for many of us.

....we the people

We The People.

                                                                                              

What does it mean when we say “We, the people”?

Does it mean that, as “the people”, we have certain rights to say and do certain things as free human beings in a free society? Or have we perhaps traveled so far away from that austere and humble beginning that we now overlook some of “the people” that should have these rights?

Have we committed ourselves wholly to this premise, planning carefully to include all citizens in these rights and privileges? The same rights and privileges that we so proudly flaunt on the global stage as being available to all?

Let’s take a moment and look at some of our citizens and their conditions to see if we really are who we say we are. This venture into reality may paint a somewhat different picture.

After every war there has been a time of rebuilding, reshaping and rehabilitation; a time of rest, if you will. People on either side of the conflict have had definite advantages or disadvantages, and close observation easily tells us where compassion truly lies.

On the one hand, we pour our time and hard earned resources into projects that seemingly make great strides toward healing, all the while leaving holes in the tapestry of the moment, only to see far too many seeping through the cracks, falling on hard times.

Often times our best efforts are jaded by the greed of the very facilitators we have entrusted to carry out those intricately designed and well-funded plans. We fall short of the mark leaving disappointed lives scattered about the landscape like so many forgotten leaves in autumn. Is it any wonder that we look back in disgust at those uncompleted dreams and complain to the snoring that sit by doing nothing because apathy has overtaken pride, lulling them to sleep.

We, the people, have changed. When leadership polls for answers and hides among the laws we are without leaders. When truth is a variable the only constant is change. We need stability not more change. 

Our borders are fluid and without definition. We no longer contain as a sovereign nation the stable ingredients of right over wrong and good over evil. Our moral compass has lost its magnetic north and now swings about wildly without true direction. Minorities rule majorities with vague innuendo and dictate policy, overstepping their place and overruling true order.

The inevitable reckoning will be swift and without warning, because warning has not worked. It has only served to become fodder for the canons of the unscrupulous that spin their webs of deceit in the hearts of the innocent and unsuspecting. The toll will be entire, save for the remnant and that only by the fulfilling of the Word.

And so, we, the people are in trouble. We are like the unruly child that will not see the truth that is so evidently displayed before us. We choose the candy of sin and deprivation over the healing bread of righteousness and truth.