In God We Trust???
The last post, while clever, cute, and mildly humorous, is far more disturbing however. Corporate America is literally ripping us off from birth! We buy into the “Sure, but God doesn’t want us all to be poor and miserable” or the “it’s just today’s culture” lines that seem to perpetuate themselves even inside the “Christian” circles. Now honestly I want my own Ipod, I could really dig having a sweet sled, and I would not turn down one of these (available only to us vets). I am not anti-things, and I don’t hold some deep seeded distaste for people with more money than me (well maybe a little). But at the cost of loosing our identity as a nation and as individuals, our worth has become measurable by our wealth. The virtue of a woman is no longer seen through God’s eyes, but through the lens of a camera. It’s not ok to beat your wife, but its ok to send your daughter half way around the world, only to come home in a body bag. I am neither advocating beating our wives or that women don’t make good soldiers, but when you send your nations daughters to die and then have the biggest welfare program in the world, you have just succeeded in robbing the honor and worth of the men of your country as well as the virtue of her daughters. We have been sold out! And Satan is loving it! Who needs God when you have nike, microsoft and the NFL? We can just buy our__fill in the blank___. (body, happiness,looks,education,gods) Just plug into your entertainment. Wear these shoes and you will be fast, and drink this and you will be faster longer. Wash your hair with this and you will float when you walk and put this under your arms and no woman will resist you! So let me ask; what music are you listening to, what race are you running, what quenches your thirst,what is so important about your hair? Or check out the Isaac Effect when it comes to attracting women.
So why are we offended when our country wants to remove “In God We Trust” from our monies? As a nation do we? So then what do we do, embrace or eradicate? Sound off! Let me know what you propose we do, as a nation, to Trust in God and not be sold out by the very money it’s printed on. In God We Trust? Do we? Do you?
My lifes Present Darkness
I know I promised you another post. I was going to rant about some issues I have with the blogosphere. Not that it doesn’t warrant my opinion, I have begun to face some issues far greater than some goofy illogical oral vomit from some liberal pseudo-intellectual sitting in his cubicle some where in NYC. I am in nothing less than a spiritual campaign of the greatest magnitude. After some discussion on the matter, I am convinced that our little town has become some evil playground for satan and his cohorts. I can’t help but to be taken back to the memories of reading “This present Darkness.” And yes before you get all bent, I KNOW it was only fiction. But I also know that spiritual warfare is real and if you don’t, I either have a very warped, yet shared, understanding of scripture, or we are not reading the same Bible. Either way, my heart is broken to see what I see in the hearts of people. My heart is broken for those who hinge their entire spiritual experience around what kind of music is played on Sunday. My heart is broken for all those who call on the name of God, but in their self-righteousness forget to teach Him to their children or display Him in their lives or speak Him from their tongue. My heart is broken for the lost daughters of our community. My heart is broken for the children that we teach to perpetuate hate and judgement. My heart is broken by secrets in the church. My own pride breaks my heart. Even among “relatively good people” my heart is broken over how much evil I see there.
So imagine this for a moment;
My heart is broken from so much in such a small part of the world. I am truly struggling finding love to give to others as Christ asks of me. Imagine then if you can how great our God is. Far beyond the reaches of this little town, God sees all this and more. I am sure I (we) have broken his heart more than once. But he still loves us, and never struggles finding it. Even for the ones that have not yet met God in His glory, he still offers his love. And to those of us who have encountered Him, how much greater is that love when we know the Truth, yet continue to fail? I present my broken heart here to you as an emotional window to my life.
I present my broken life here to God with an emotional heart to be healed.
The Smell of Death…..
As I roll along the blogosphere I have come to several realizations. Some of them are very positive while others simply sadden me. There seems to be nothing better at bringing out the wolves than when something starts reeking of death! About the only other thing is the sound of possible or eminent death. I know this well. One of my most favorite past times at the moment is finding those predators and shooting them. My weapon of choice at the moment is a 22-250. Now before you go and get all sad or activist on me, no I don’t shoot wolves. I only hunt cute cuddly coyotes that feed on ranch animals and domesticated pets. And I must say that to date, they are the most contumacious animal I have ever hunted. Now mind you, they often prescribe to a very predictable behavior pattern, but all too often they adapt to the environment in which they have decided to ensconce. Once one gets comfortable with their environment, it is much easier to either bend or break the rules. So if the wind is blowing in one direction, but the predator finds that there is a more positive vantage point up wind or even to the side, well then as a hunter you can’t expect him to come from the direction that the rules used to dictate. Not to mention if the animal has been tricked before by synthetic allurement, he has become wise to your methods and much harder to fool again. There is one more crux to consider as well. Coyotes are very territorial. If you are a mere 50 yards outside of their sphere, you will fail to “call” them in regardless of your solicitation method. At this point you have a couple choices. You can try in vain to lure them in with the most irresistible of your repertoire. He will rarely be fooled twice. Your other choice is to try to take the shot from where you are. Now I can say here that at 300 yards, I have a great grouping (multiple shots to the same area of a target) that could effectively eliminate my prey. However a paper target and moving animal are diametrically opposed. I always take the chance at wasting ammunition (this would be a prideful way of saying, I can miss from that range). So my final option is to move. I must study the movements and habits of this one particular foe, and then find the most affective vantage point within his sphere. I must go to where he is and then simply rely on the things that will make sense to him and appeal to his nature. I must admit here, that while it is easy to theorize how to approach changing this predator to prey, out of the 20 plus hunts I have under my belt, I only have one “confirmed kill”. From here I will leave it up to you to find the parallel to that of the perilous undertaking of the Christian evangelist. As well, in my next entry I will attempt to cast my view of what saddens me most in the blogosphere.
SSHHH!…..did you hear that?
I want to share with you all my most recent experience with the “whisper of God”. I went down to watch my mother graduate from her correctional facility boot camp. She is an educational technician in a corrections facility. After the ceremony, we had to go pick up my mothers 1989 Grand Caravan. Apparently it broke down right when she got to town. Now this is a good thing because that means my mother was not stranded in the middle of nowhere. So we get to her van and I ask if I can check it out first before we call the tow truck. Most of you know I can fix most anything. So to make a long story short….um, ok to make it shorter than it could be, I fixed my mother’s van, I missed a meeting that I planned, and my mom ended up spending the night at our house. Listen to what God whispered…come closer…closer…good. “Family is more important than work“, by missing the meeting I made a commitment to my mother to get her home, safely and cheaply. I am also confident that the meeting went better with out me. Someday I will tell you why that makes sense. “Your mother needs to see your heart, as well as hear your words“, I never got irritated that I had to “save the day” or take time to fix a problem that wasn’t mine. I did not complain about being late, but embraced the time together. I was without burden. “Trust me with your mother“. God allowed me to share my faith with my mother in a way that has never happened before! She just listened. No debate, no rebuttal. She just listened! “Embrace what I have given to you” My mother is almost 60, and my children are growing fast. Usually my mother just wants to “push on through” to get home, so she never spends more than a few minutes with my children. Even when she comes here specifically to visit, it always seems to last less than two hours and off she goes to “get home before dark”. This is not to say I am complaining or she is doing anything wrong, it just seems like life is moving way to fast. But this morning, my children woke up with Grans there and they ate scrambled eggs together. Our time together was priceless.
Are you listening for God’s whisper in all things?
God Bless you,
BigDaddy
Locked Up!
Well, I am off to watch my mother graduate from her correctional facility training. She will even be wearing a uniform. I am very proud of all her accomplishments over the last 10 years. She earned a B.S. and her Masters, and now this. I will post something profound yet encouraging when I get back. Its a two hour drive over to Canon City so I better get on the road. God Bless you all and thanks for checkin in.
