Vanity of vanities

I’m not depressed, so don’t go all suicide hotline on me.

But I’m beginning to see that there is no meaning to life apart from God.

What about working for the good of mankind, providing for your family, or even seeking pleasure and comfort?

All useless, and vain, and meaningless. All mankind will die, including your family, and pleasure and comfort only postpone the inevitable.

What about making a name for yourself, so the world will remember?

How many of you know who the guy is that that bridge down the road is named for? Who will remember you? And even if you are a George Washington, or Ben Franklin, or Ghandi, or anyone else famous and dead what possible good would it do you?

It dawned on me today that there is no one on this earth who knew my Grandfather as a peer. My Father is 79, and a good many of his peers are dead. Within two generations all first hand knowledge of anyone is gone. And within three almost all secondhand knowledge is gone too.

And what about your plans for the future? Your heart could stop an hour from now (regretting that double cheeseburger last night, aren’t you?) and you’d simply be gone. End of story. So eat, drink and be merry, numb the ache, dull the pain, whatever you’ve got to do to get by. Life sucks and then you die.

Unless. 

Unless there’s something more. Something bigger than this world.

Unless there is a God who has a plan for me, things I’m to do in a bigger plan. Unless no one leaves before he’s through with his job here, and no one leaves without His say so. 

Unless I can leave my leaving (and my loved one’s leaving) in His hands, trusting that he knows what he’s doing even if I don’t, I’m without Hope, meaning, or purpose. 

I don’t see any other alternatives.

So I know which one I choose. It seems a no brainer to me.

Where else am I going to go? You’re the only one with the words of eternal life.

Runnin’ On Empty

I’m running on empty lately. Physically, spiritually, out of gas.

Not much to say, not much going on, not doing much about it.

My life is that way sometimes. I start living in my own strength, only to chug to a stop after a while.

Hopefully I’ll learn a better way of being.

Hopefully sooner rather than later.

This Is Funny

This is too funny…

 

 

(HT- Challies)

Words fail me

I’m… I’m… umm… stunned!

 

 

Next time, I beg you, put your phasers on “kill” instead of “stun”, and put me out of my misery.

(HT- VanTil)

Brant Hansen for President

Today I’m officially kicking off a write-in campaign for the presidential election in November. My candidate of choice, and quite honestly the candidate for the ages, is Brant Hansen. (que backdrop of fields of golden wheat and waving flags)

Brant was born in the heartland of America to hard working middle-class parents, whose work ethic and simple family values taught him at an early age how to reach for the stars, and yet never loose touch with the common folk that make this great land of ours what it is today. 

His leadership skills and executive experience began at an early age, and continue right up until today.

His sense of humor, his deep love of animals , his unusually high intelligence, and humility all showcase his ample qualifications, and prove his competence for the position as Commander-In-Chief, while his life-experience keeps him well grounded, remembering his roots.

He has been recognized for his outstanding work in the field of National Communications with numerous Major Award nominations along the way in a career path best described as “meteoric”.

Having, over the years, displayed an an almost savant-like understanding of foreign policy and environmental issues, Brant has defied the confining categories of conventional politics and charted a course not dependant on the latest public opinion poll.

Won’t you please join me, in this most dangerous of times, give our great nation the leadership it needs, nay, deserves?

Write-in “Brant Hansen ” this November.

Just a few of many reasons why…

… american football wins everytime.

 

This right here’s funny, I don’t care who ya are…

 

 

This sums up my feelings on the subject…

(HT to Despair.com -I wouldn’t mind if you guys want to throw a calendar or something my way for the product placement. Just a thought.)

 

A Prayer

I love this prayer. It makes me laugh, and cuts to the quick. If you ever find a piece that does both, hang on to it! That combo is rare.

 

Prayer Attributed to a Seventeenth-Century Nun

 

“Lord, you know better than I know myself that I am getting older, and will someday be old. Keep me from getting talkative, and particularly from the fatal habit of thinking that I must say something on every subject and on every occasion. 

Release me from craving to straighten out everybody’s affairs. Make me thoughtful but not moody; helpful but not bossy. With my vast store of wisdom it seems a pity not to use it all, but you know Lord that I want a few friends at the end. Keep my mind from the recital of endless details- give me wings to come to the point.  

I ask for grace enough to listen to the tales of others’ pain. But seal my lips on my own aches and pains- they are increasing, and my love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by. Help me to endure them with patience. 

I dare not ask for improved memory, but for a growing humility and a lessening cocksureness when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally it is possible that I may be mistaken. 

Keep me reasonably sweet. I do not want to be a saint- some of them are so hard to live with- but a sour old woman is one of the crowning works of the devil. 

Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places, and talents in unexpected people. And give me, O Lord, the grace to tell them so.”- (From- Between Heaven And Earth, Ken Gire)

A contradiction

I am a mixture of holy and unholy. As is everyone else who has, living within them, the Spirit of the living God and is still on this earth.

But this blog isn’t about the rest of the world, it’s about me.

So far today (it’s now 11:22 am EST) I’ve struggled with-

 

• Fear- (This one whispers to me constantly in the background all day)- of anyone finding out what I’m really like, of death, of what might happen, makes me hide in the dark. The Spirit says, “I am perfect love, and perfect love casts out fear”
• Naked women- years of training, easy access, the more you feed the appetite, the hungrier (and duller) it gets. Oh, be sure and clear the “history” and “recent searches” on your browser. The Spirit says, “Don’t do it, you know where it leads. Rejoice in the wife of your youth. May her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love.”
• Laziness- I want to take the easy way out, I don’t like to do hard things. The Spirit says, “Anything that’s actually worth something will always cost a lot.”
• Boredom- “Nothings tastes”, as Marie Antoinette once said, so I’ll do anything to pass the time. The Spirit says, “Why do you spend your time on stuff that doesn’t satisfy?”
• Being Judgmental- I’m in the top five of all the people I know, everyone else has real problems that I can clearly point out if you’re interested. The Spirit says, “Leave all that to Me, you don’t know enough to sit in that chair.”
• Devotion- Sometimes easy, mostly hard, like running laps in football practice. The Spirit says, “Do you love me?”
• Wasting time- I look back and see what could have been if I’d just done something else, but it was and is easier not to. The Spirit says, “Quit wasting your life!”
• Regret- My past mistakes, and how they’ve shaped my present and future, there’s no end to the “what might have been”’s. The Spirit says, “Do you trust me to redeem it?” 
• Possessions- I like stuff. It gives me the same endorphin rush as over-eating, and the same empty feeling later. The Spirit says, “What do you really want?” 
• Arrogance- With all of the above, I’m still better than you. The Spirit says, “You’re dead wrong, but I still love you.”

Oh, by the way, I’ve also worked on a lesson on Holiness for Sunday.

You know when you hear truth

Way too close for comfort, too much truth to be ignored.

“But I, hurting and stubborn, preferred my sins. I preferred my peevish, snide, small-minded, mean-spirited comments, grunting at people when they walked in or out, and letting food drool out of my mouth. Those were sins that I had made my own. You know what it’s like when you make sin your own. You housebreak it. You domesticate it. You shield it from the Spirit’s scrutiny. I did not want to let go of the sick, strange comfort of my own misery.” Joni Ericson Tada

(HT-Tim Challies)

Molehills and mountains

I’m an introvert, so doing something in public that might call attention to myself causes me a to experience fairly high level of anxiety. 

Well, I went to the grocery store last week and saw a police cruiser in the parking lot with the officer sitting in the driver’s seat. I thought , “I ought to go tell him, ‘Thanks for doing what you do.’” But the little anxiety shot that comes with the thought of talking with “strangers” was enough to stop me. Besides, I was thinking thankful thoughts. Isn’t that enough?

I thought about why I didn’t say something for a while and scolded myself for letting this stupid personality quirk stop me from doing what I know is the right and good thing. And when I had scolded myself enough to make the guilt go away, I forgot about it.

Until this week.

Same grocery store, almost same parking place, maybe the same officer and cruiser.

Same thought, same anxiety, almost same action. Except this time I say to myself, before I walk past him, “Well, he looks busy. If he’s still here when I come out it means I’m supposed to say this to him, if he’s gone then….” 

I no sooner walk in and grab a cart when his partner walks right in front of me not ten feet away. But there’s people around and I freeze up. 

I walk on for about thirty seconds and decide I’ve got to do this. So I turn around go in the direction he was headed to find him. I find him, only he’s talking with a couple of people. Abort! Abort! 

I turn around.

Five minutes later, the first officer, the one that was in his cruiser, comes in and walks right past me.

This is getting stupid, and ridiculous. 

I’ve got my groceries and I’m headed to the car. He’s back in the cruiser. I go up to him, say, “I just wanted to thank you for what you do.” He says, “You’re welcome.”. I go on to the car. No big deal.

What a small thing. How hard I sometimes make small things.