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Not All Progress

Not All Progress

Not all that seems to be or is called progress, is in fact progress.

I recently purchased an older home with an unfinished third bath. All plumbing in place with no fixtures. I purchased all new fixtures, but upon testing, the toilet and sink didn’t drain. It turns out the plumbing on that side of the home had been disabled years before.

There are claims of prepress in our culture that I’ve come to believe are not in fact progressing us spiritually, intellectually or otherwise.

Some primitive examples are that we simply don’t have the environmental survival skills or knowledge of our environment as our ancestors did just two generations ago. Although we have volumes of literary works available at our finger tips, our ancestors just two or three generations ago had many literary works committed to memory such as holy scripture, government documents, poetry, etc.

Morally and ethically it would be difficult to prove we’ve progressed with the rate of divorce and lack of traditional families.

Suffice to say, it is plausible if not factual that we have taught to believe we’re progressing while I’m fact regressing.

And like my futile attempts finish my unfinished bathroom, we’re installing fixtures to plumbing that doesn’t work.

A Note To The Kid Down The Street For July 4th

A Note To The Kid Down The Street For July 4th

I haven’t forgotten you. We grew up on the same street. You and your family moved in just after my family. We all played war, tag, hide-and-go-seek and we played video games at your house until your father got upset.

We all grew up and went separate ways. When 9-11 happened, you, like many young men, enlisted. You hardly finished boot camp and they sent you off to do your patriotic duty.

I remember admiring your patriotism and courage.

You were a young man of principle and duty, and a lover of your country.

You died within a couple weeks of arriving to the war zone.

I remember hearing the news in disbelief; how could you have died, it seems you had just enlisted?

I remember you on these patriotic holidays and the other young men like you. I believe you wanted to stand up for your country, your family and our way of life. I believe you wanted to be honorable, patriotic and courageous. I remember and pray for your family and for the families of all those who’ve lost loved ones to these wars in foreign lands.

Rest In Peace

The Winner Writes History

The Winner Writes History

Investigate the history that you’ve been taught. Read opposing sides. The history of this photo is now suppressed even here in the west.

It may seem difficult to avoid conspiracy rabbit trails, but often times the bits of truth at least, are easily collected.

This photo from Tiananmen Square tells a story whether those in power like it or not, and it won’t completely go away. But ponder for a moment, if a story as important as this one is suppressed and censored, what else has been? The winners get to write the history; vilify their enemies and moralize their actions against them. What if history, especially the last couple hundred years is more nuanced than we’ve been popularly taught? Or what if Hollywood and media have gone along with narratives passed down and not necessarily true? The result would be an accepted narrative that is based on a lie or lies.

Not every conspiracy is worth investigating, but truth is always worth the search.

We are His Workmanship

We are His Workmanship

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

We live during a time that many are uneasy about the future as plans and lives have been put on hold. In our modern time, we have connected our jobs and “life goals” to our sense of fulfillment and sense of self with to a high degree, and I believe, to our mental detriment.

Fulfillment, I have found, is found in varied places. That sense of sublime joy that comes from a deep place; a connection to God and His divine plan for our lives, is already within us. I have found it flowing from being a husband, a father, helping those in need, being helped when I’ve been in need, acting on something I’ve believed was asked of my by God for reasons I don’t understand although outside my normal routine, sacrificing the “now” for future security, dirt-bike riding, playing with a dog, rebuilding an engine, studying history, etc.

There are things that that will bring great fulfillment to you, I believe, that are all around and are natural to your state, for example; parenting; if you find yourself a parent, then great fulfillment can be found by working to excel in that state.

If you find yourself a caretaker for a loved one, great fulfillment can be found by excelling at being such.
Often times the thing that we are supposed to be doing and fulfilled by is the thing right before us.

When God sent Moses to Egypt to bring the Israelites to Canaan land, Moses used his shepherd’s staff. He used it to perform miracles, to part the Red Sea, and more. He used the thing that had been part of his nature; his shepherd’s staff, and God used him.

What is in your hand today? Not a staff, but maybe something else that’s particular to you. It’s probable that God placed you in the natural state you’re in right now for a particular purpose and reason that if acted on with faith and perseverance, will bring great fulfillment and satisfaction.

Grandma’s Cherry Tree

Grandma’s Cherry Tree

My wife and children and I picked cherries, filling up plastic bags, as Grandma also picked some. Grandma was happy as we all worked to harvest the tree that grew in her small front yard.

We ate cherries as we picked and laughed together. Grandma told stories of my mother and uncle picking cherries decades before from the same tree.

As we picked, I had a sinking feeling this could be the last time we would pick cherries with Grandma. But at the same time my heart was filled with gratefulness that my children got to experience time with my Grandma, their Grandma and the love she had for children and really anyone in want.

Grandma always had something to give to her own and outsiders. The more in want someone was, the more she had to give. The cherry tree was a simple testament to Grandmas charitable heart. Any passerby might have all the cherries they wanted to eat, even harvesting some to take along, and Grandma wouldn’t mind.

Although the cherries were enjoyed by strangers, the tree wasn’t planted for them. The tree was planted for Grandma’s children and grandchildren by Grandma herself.

When my grandparents bought the home to raise their family in and run their business out of, Grandma planted the tree with the express intent of growing a tree for generations to pick cherries from.

Grandma had a wisdom about giving and loving. When my wife and I were young newlyweds and had experienced some financial success, Grandma invited us over to give some advise. She said, “don’t expect or ask for repayment of whatever you lend to friend and family, consider it in your heart a gift and never bring it up whether it’s repaid or not”. She went on to explain that friendship and family are more important than money, and that there’s always more money, but not always more family or friends.

My wife and I took that to heart over the years and have followed it as a rule, to the benefit of many relationships in our life.

My grandparents owned an appliance business of which I grew up working in over summer breaks.

Many a time I can remember overhearing Grandma discounting or giving away appliances to some poor single mother or family in poverty. I remember her never charging any pastor or church for an appliance, no matter their affiliation.

That’s not to say her business skills were lacking, on the contrary, Grandma was a shrewd and profitable woman, always seeing business opportunity. She would negotiate down to the last penny on her purchases and hold the line on every negotiation.

But if those that lost to her in negotiations only knew the secret, which was if Grandma thought them in need or want, mistreated in way, she would have given up her position in an instant. Grandma was the perpetual champion of the underdog.

The squirrels knew. As a teenager I remember arriving at Grandma’s house as she fed the squirrels from her hand. They would climb up her leg, onto her lap for her to hand feed them nuts and treats. She had the neighborhood squirrels as lap pets whenever she was outside. The neighborhood cats knew too, as she would leave food out or milk for any cat that seemed to her in need.

That was Grandma; she always had something, some money or food, for anyone in need. She had someone’s rent payment, electric bill, ready to pay for them whenever they asked. Some might say she was being used, but she would say she loved.

Grandma’s cherry tree is dead now, it died the winter she was buried. Those cherries we picked together with her were the last anyone would eat of that tree’s fruit. It died, the leaves fell and branches turned brittle. The tree, like Grandma, is gone now.

The tree is gone, but the gesture of love remains. The memories and the legacy live on. Grandma has gone on, but the love and values live on, and hopefully we, her children, will love and give as she did; loving the least of these.