The broken pieces 

Last night I listened intently to an amazing message from one of the great ladies of our little church. Her words began to ring out in my spirit as the topic of ‘being broken’ presented a strong argument for communicating with God on a one-on-one basis and how He puts the pieces back into place or has us leave some of those pieces out of the picture, improving us for the better. 

The message was depicted as a conversation between God and a real person. The ‘broken’ part dealt with failure, guilt, depression and even sin. 

What have you ‘lost’ due to your bad decisions? How have you coped with the reality of not ‘measuring up’ so to speak’ to the standards of others? Does everyone, or anyone for that matter, know what you go through as you mentally review your history and suffer emotionally from the impact of the negative influences? 

I keep seeing all the polls about this subject and that subject such as weight management, bullying, absentee parents and more.  

What about dealing with guilt and failure? Where are the programs for those two? We pay an enormous amount for government programs that often inevitably fail as well, because of poor planning and even poorer implementation. 

What we really need are more group therapy sessions if you will, where people can openly discuss the issues impacting their lives on a daily basis. If we learn how to openly talk about our problems and actually come up with good ideas to cope with or ‘get over’ these issues, we can begin to understand each other better and eventually overcome those life wrenching ‘valleys’ that are so hard to climb out of. 

Is this important or am I just looking for another issue to bombard people and vent? No, I believe this is very real and can be dealt with in a compassionate and informative way that helps people recover from these burdens and get on with a much more productive life. 

Okay, so how? As I said, we ‘have to’ talk to each other. Look around you. The majority of people you are seeing right now are ‘on the phone’. On the phone with who? We are for the most part, ignoring the ones around us and retreating into a much smaller world. The world of self. We pay more attention to self than the others around us and it should be on a more equal basis than it is now. Directly communicate with the ones around you and keep the lines of communication open so you can have dialog back and forth. Take some of the time you spend on ‘you’ and give that measure of time to understanding the people around you. How did the other person get to where they ae right now? 

Learn how others feel about the issues of life and consider their view as possibly being valid. If it’s not viable to you, discuss peacefully what will work for both parties. It’s alright to ‘agree to disagree’. Having a differing belief doesn’t necessarily make an enemy of a person. It just means that the other person sees the subject from a different perspective. I’m not saying we should compromise about everything either. That’s not the answer to what we’re discussing here. We have to take a stand on our individual beliefs and stick to them. But not with anger or hateful replies. Treat others with the same demeaner and respect you would like applied to your life.

Don’t ‘take’ more than you need. Leave room for others to have the things they want to accomplish as well. This is America. We are supposed to have certain freedoms, but not at the expense of others' liberty. 

There are any number of ways to deal with these issues. We only need to seek them out by coming together and finding the solutions to the problems and implementing the ‘fixes’ in a timely manner. Sometimes, trying out a possible solution can give us insight to what does or does not work.

We have fought against each other on so many things and for so long that it seems as though we have to ‘start out on the defensive’. Not true. If we begin with a peaceful approach to others, I believe we can make great strides toward solving our most pressing and divisive problems. 

The final point of the message by my great Sister I so enjoyed brought up the scenario of man conversing with God. The person asked timely questions but ultimately, God gave unexpected answers.

I thought, “how enlightening”. We never really know how the Creator will respond to us. We have to stay ‘open’ and involved. How many times do we ‘throw up’ a quick prayer and then go about our day, not giving God the chance to reply. Are we waiting for ‘the answer’, or do we expect the answer to be what we are thinking? ‘God’s ways are not our ways’. He thinks on a much higher level than we do and that’s what He is trying to get us to do. Think big. Open up your spirit to new and better things. God is waiting for us to be still and hear what He has to say, not what we think it should be. 

Remember, this is a complicated and diverse world. The Creator made it so; and for good reason. 

The clay 

It was an ugly green. Dark and filthy like sewage sludge. I looked at it and wondered how it came about and why was there so much of it? 

But wait, I need to start further back in the dream; back to where I can remember what was happening at first. 

The world was in a severe crisis due to the lack of fresh drinking water.  

We were trudging through this slimy green ‘clay’ looking for pools of fresh water. We had to carefully draw out the water, into some sort of vessel so we could drink it. I came to a huge wall of clay that had two small openings in it. The size seemed insignificant at first with two rectangular holes about a foot or two apart; one above the other. At first, I was reminded of the swinging doors on an old western bar where the doors swing back and forth to let you enter. They suddenly changed shape and became like human rib bones and a face appeared at the top opening and then quickly disappeared again.  

I had some sort of tool that resembled an axe handle, and I began to punch away at the edges of the hole to get a bigger, better view. The clay slowly crumbled away, and so I dropped the tool and took hold of both sides of the opening and pushed inward.  

The scene changed as I peered in. I could see the shapes of people sitting in pews all around, and there was a stage in the center of the huge room where a few ‘people’ sat staring at me. By then the others had joined me in the ‘cavern’ and we were instantly frozen in place upon seeing such a sight.  

Were they alive? Yes, and they were moving and reaching towards us desperately.  Amazingly, they were the same clay; green and ugly and melting into the whole; becoming the clay. 

I immediately reached out and began pulling the people out of the green sludge and putting them behind me. We went on, room to room, and there were more and more people. One woman was lying on her side as though she was paralyzed. She was calling out to me saying, “don’t leave me...don’t leave me”. 

I assured her that I would come back to get her and continued, into more rooms where even more people were sitting in pews. Sadly, it. I reached down into the clay and pulled as hard as my strength would allow. The sludge gave way and she appeared, grasping at my arm in desperation. She was free! 

It was too late for some, but we managed to save a lot of them by pulling them out of the green slime and pushing them into the light of day that shined brightly behind us, giving us light to see and do our work. 

The scene changed again and all of us became shining white lights. Each time we reached out our hands and arms they became rays of white energy. As we touched each one, they too became white energy and went behind us.  After searching many rooms, I remembered the woman. Returning to the room where the woman had called out to me, I began to scan the room for her. She had all but disappeared into the clay. All I could see was her face, about to be covered up by the clay. I reached down into the clay and pulled with all the strength I could muster, and she slowly came out of the slim, smiling and waving her arms. She was free! 

I began to laugh as I touched each one, knowing that they were now safe and alive and free of the ‘green death’ that had such a grasp on them just moments ago. 

I don’t know how long we stayed there, plucking them from the awful clay but it was a while. I awoke and marveled at my experience and instantly knew it was both spiritual and evangelic. 

I don’t know how many of you dream, but I dream almost every night, and sometimes have more than one dream. The significance of this dream will stay with me for some time, I’m sure. If you have any thoughts on this, please email me and tell me what you ‘see’. Thank you. 

 

The battlefield of the mind.

Do you find yourself looking into the past and not pleased with the result? Have you been plagued with 'memories' that are both unpleasant and degrading? I know all too well what the past can 'conjure up'. Our thoughts have a way of drifting around in our heads and 'condemning' us for whatever reason. And if you linger on the past, you will be bombarded with the negative and only slightly impressed with the positive. Our lives continually change day by day, but the memories stay the same. We either did a 'good job' or we didn't and that's the rub. Do you consider yourself a good person or a bad person?

Well, here's another part of the equation. How did you 'grade' your experiences? If you believe you are a good person you will have a positive outlook. But on the other hand, if you think you are a bad person your outlook will be negative with more backward thinking than forward thinking. That can send us into a tailspin of sorts. Most call it depression, but I call it 'attacks'.

However, I have good news. We can overcome even the heaviest of encounters with the negative forces by implementing a very simple fix. There is peace with God. There is healing with God. As a matter of fact, there is no peace without God. God invented peace.

I know some of you are questioning this in the strongest of terms. Someone that has experienced this peace can attest to the validity of my point, while nonbelievers will totally discard this truth as 'religion'. This truth is far from religion. It is reality in its finest form.

Our lives are ruled by laws. Laws that were put into place from the beginning. God designed and implemented these laws (truths), so that we could build on the design making it better and better as time continues. The Creator is still creating, still improving, still repairing 'the 'breach'.  The breach happened when Adam took a bite of that damned apple. 

In order to succeed, we just have to follow 'the plan' and keep in touch with our Creator. After all, He made us to be companions not robots or slaves. God wants a 'family' not a work force. Only man defines our relationship with God as slavery. God calls us 'His children'. How wonderful is that? How great is the 'upside' to having a personal connection with the one that made all of this? We are missing out on a lot of good things by disregarding this all-important truth.

The machine of the mind can be tuned to hear the Master. If we focus on Him and disregard all 'the clatter' and misinformation the evil one throws at us, distracting us, how much better is that than self-condemnation and guilt? Wow. We can begin and enjoy a close personal relationship with the great Creator of the universe. Think about it. How powerful is this? We actually have access to God; real access, not having to 'go through' another person to communicate. We just 'talk' to God, enjoy the Father for who He is and reap the multiple benefits and blessings His way presents. Think about it. Yes, really; think about it and then make the move in God's direction. Focus on Him and only Him and see for yourself.