Roberto Needs the Money

Happiness Has Price

Exhale

The Scene:

I was in a place I'd never been and as I was being shown around we came to a swimming pool...

The Conversation:

Host:
Here there is no need to breathe by inhaling and exhaling. You can, but you don't have to.
Like most new arrivals you are still breathing, but that's a matter of habit.

Me:
So this means we could go under water for?..

Host:
Correct, there would technically be no need to surface.  However,  a lot of people drown.

Me:
I don't understand.

Host:
Right now breathing is all you know, you've been doing it so much for so long.
Once you realise, really realise, you don't have to, you can stop, and you will.
Eventually breathing will require a conscious effort, and there will be times that you'll want to.

Attemping to be fully submerged for any given length of time is such a foreign concept, not being used to it can cause panic. The default mode kicks in and people start trying to breath again.

They wind up drowning.

End Scene

It's taken me weeks to find the lesson in this dream, but here's my take away:

Fully experiencing and enjoying the moments and people around, you by not doing what you don't have to, may be the very thing that keeps you alive.

The Some Of The Hole

Some things must be experienced to be believed, other things must be believed to be experienced.

Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner

Effectively thinking outside the box requires a clear understanding of why that box exists in the first place.

There are no problems

The best solutions in life always seem so obvious AFTER they've been pointed out...

Wholly, Holey, Holy

I will not point you out, but for those whom this rings true... well this is for you.

It always helps me in times like these, to consider that when Jesus wept he wept for the grief of those who remained behind, not for the joy of those who had moved on.

As I've gotten older I've come to a sad realization. If we live well and love well, when someday our turn comes, we too will leave these holes in the lives of others.

Ironic isn't it?

The Stronger Your Certainty Is The Lesser Mine Is

The purpose of serving any greater good is generally lost on those who are not simply content to believe they are right but also feel the need to ensure that everyone else knows they're right as well.

This is to their shame, although they will rarely recognize it as so, as the loss suffered by the narrator does not exceed the damage inflicted to their audience.

Everyone believes to some degree they are right, this should be expected. The true nature of their need to loudly declare their certainty really only serves to reveal the lesser degree of certainty in actually being so. For them this rarely comes to light as they fail to see the greater value to be found by leading people to answers rather than dragging them.

It is okay to think you might be right, it is not okay to believe that only you are right, or worse, in thinking you cannot be wrong.

Such are the blinders of inexperience as the measure for espousing absolutes.

The key is to listen as though listening were your only and best option. Listening to learn and understand the perspective you would otherwise never have considered, listening as though it will never be your turn to speak, and that is fair enough.

Doing otherwise is adversarial.

While our inherent limitation of listening through our own lens of understanding and experience may, to some lesser or greater measure, be unavoidable, we must make certain that it does not confuse us into hearing those things which have not been said.

That you may not have experienced the same does not at all suffice as an argument against the truthfulness and honesty to be found in the experiences of others.

We may learn much from this one single life we have lead, but we would be all the more wise for taking the time to learn from the lives of others too.

Many would tell you otherwise, but the truth stands alone and is not subject to our desires for it to be otherwise. Regardless of our inherent need to blur it with feelings and perspectives, there is not your truth or my truth, there simply truth and it waits to be found.

It is our choice, each day, if we will make the effort to seek it.

Let the security of knowing you are right, allow you to remain silent about it long enough for others to be intrigued and ask.

Then consider that your cue to speak, and until then just listen.

You may learn a thing or two, and spare yourself some shame in the process.

Happy Thanks Giving

I find it sadly revealing when I read some  meme, intended to point out all the homeless and homeless veterans in our country as the justification for denying refugees from another, as though to imply those problems previously existing were simply for lack of resources.

One has little to do with the other.

It seems to me, one needn't look all that long or hard to see that a lack of resources can't really be the problem at all. We clearly have plenty, what is lacking, is only that which is lacking in us... character.

That mythological Christian American character that should afford us without fear or hesitation the conscience, convictions, voices and actions to right injustices that would have and should have, made the difference all along.

We have succumbed to a culture of fear and the argument is a very thin veil to mask it. If anyone stopped for a minute, it wouldn't take a lot of introspection to see what it's really trying to mask is that same lacking that has continued to ensure we have homeless veterans.

Why does so much of the world hate us?
Should we really be so surprised?

Let's face it, housing refugees won't really take any resources from veterans, just as denying refugees won't provide anymore resources to them.

The problem, the real underlying problem, at both ends is the same... it's us.

Do all things as unto the Lord, and in all things be thankful... give thanks.

It should probably be much more difficult for us to enjoy our upcoming feasts with a starving world just outside our door as our reasoning for turning away those we might have saved but turn away, just beyond our borders.

Nonetheless, we'll say our prayers and be thankful for God's blessings to us and His divine approval of the "my will be done" mentality.

All the while conveniently forgetting those uncomfortable words," As you have done it unto the least of these, so you have done it unto me.".

God forgive America, and God forgive me the worst of them all...

Solo Cristo Salva
db

Tell me I'm wrong, it's OK...

Misery

Doesn't always love company.

When Everything Gives You Nothing

Nothing can give you everything

Failure Is Not An option

When it's inevitable

The Winner of my Discontent

How long can my best self continue to hold back my worst self? This is not worst self...

The Better Part of a Decade

I literally cannot recall what it feels like to kiss someone.

Knot Now

Not knowing what you want and not wanting what you know can make for a very long and difficult life.

erulaiF

I used to try.
I did.

I would try with every ounce.

To be normal.
To be understood.

Inevitably I would fall short and fail.

The efforts toward any good thing always undone by the weight of every resulting bad thing.

Eventually I came to see, I would never be the expected.

I would never be the norm.

I would be mostly dismissed and misunderstood.

I would be barely needed and rarely wanted.

But...
I began to understand that I would without question, always fail, no matter how hard I tried.

The greater my efforts to succeed, the greater the resulting failures.

The one thing I was certain never to fail at was failing.

So I began to question what exactly failure meant and how it was measured.

And...
Once I could accept that, well then I was set free from the burden of even trying.

Because...
There was no longer any reason, outside of my own desire or conviction, to be anything more or less than what I was for myself, now that I knew what I would always be to others.

Failure...
It's really not the worst thing that could happen.

Business Time

Below is the dialogue in response to Kermit minding his own business.

I am identified as (ME)

(AP) In my judgment, that's not even a relevant comparison. My guess would be none of the refugees are Emanuel. There has to be a better way to handle it than one extreme or the other. Banning them vs letting them come willy nilly. The book of Numbers is one great lesson in mixing of peoples. When we get right down to it, have the open gates of America really made us stronger? Our faith as a nation has continually degraded. Why is that? Surely NOT from an influx of Christians.

(ME) As you have done it unto to the least of these, you have done it unto me... so no...
(ME) Faith as a nation is a contradiction. There is no national faith, by design.

Leviticus 19:33-34 ESV “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Matthew 25:35 ESV For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,

Exodus 22:21 ESV “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

Malachi 3:5 ESV “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.

Deuteronomy 27:19 ESV “‘Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

Hebrews 13:2 ESV Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Zechariah 7:9-10 ESV “Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”

Ezekiel 47:22 ESV You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the sojourners who reside among you and have had children among you. They shall be to you as native-born children of Israel. With you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.

Jeremiah 7:5-7 ESV “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

Leviticus 25:35 ESV “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you.

 Proverbs 31:8-9 ESV Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.

Deuteronomy 10:18 ESV  He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.

Philippians 3:20 ESV But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,

Matthew 5:46-47 ESV For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

Exodus 23:9 ESV “You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 26:5 ESV “And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous.

Luke 13:29-30 ESV And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. And behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

Deuteronomy 10:18-19 ESV He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

Mark 12:30-31 ESV And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Isaiah 16:3-4 ESV “Give counsel; grant justice; make your shade like night at the height of noon; shelter the outcasts; do not reveal the fugitive; let the outcasts of Moab sojourn among you; be a shelter to them from the destroyer. When the oppressor is no more, and destruction has ceased, and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land,

Leviticus 19:10 ESV And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.

"Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. Ezekiel 16:49

(ME) Need more for your national faith?
(ME) The weak faith of the "American Christian" has NOTHING to do with the strength of faith that foreigners have. That my friend is bald faced racist fear and blameshifting.

(DB) Now see, Roberto? I knew I couldn't take you anywhere!!  AP is actually an awesome individual - as are you!

(ME) I'm sure he is, and he certainly motivated me to do a little research, for which I am thankful. My intention isn't to attack, my apologies if I have done so. As for the "as you are"... as a comedian once said. I wouldn't be a member of any club that would have me as a member. (thanks)

(AP) Roberto, I don't even get the point of all your posts on this? It seems you are arguing for mercy and acceptance for the refugees, but missing my points completely. So, in passionate pursuit of Christ's love let me try again.

1. The meme Don posted is NOT relevant, it's silly to me. It seems to reference Joseph and Mary, who were NOT refugees, not fleeing persecution and anyone who reads Luke will note they were not turned away for any other reason than lack of space.

2. I never said NOT to help the refugees, my point is we need to be smart about it. Like it or not, not all people are going to serve the Lord or be open to the message of salvation. Demon controlled people are everywhere. Even in some churches.

3. I don't agree that we have never had a national faith. The Great Seal of the United States bears two affirmations: Novus ordo seclorum, “A new society for this world,” and Annuit Coeptis, “our undertaking is favored.”

They both suggest the American dream and self-understanding. This was to be a new nation. Here people would begin anew. A new type of society would emerge, one that had not existed since the original creation. This was to be Zion. Here men would realize all earthly hopes. Our favorite patriotic hymn has said it for generations. This was the place of sunlit purple hills and of winds rustling the tall golden grain and fruited plains. “America, America, God shed his grace on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.”

We are now a nation of chaos, we have religious freedom that is unprecedented...and we are worse off for it.

(ME) You make some very valid points. let me get home, eat something, tuck the kidsin and hit you back in a bit. thanks for replying though.

(ME) So let's start at the beginning... In a narrow sense you are correct about certain technicalities of what is said in the meme. It is by virtue of semantics incorrect. However, with the focus of being correct, the larger point is being missed, plus there are some fundamental issues with your arguments as well.

In the Nativity story, you are correct in that no one was in that moment fleeing persecution, but only in that moment, as persecution was impending.

What drove the people to return to their hometowns was certainly not matter of convenience or melancholy but one of fear.

So while no one was being persecuted per se, at least not at that point in the story had Joseph and Mary not returned to Joseph's hometown for the "census" they most certainly would have been persecuted. So the greater show of grace in hospitality is exemplified here in that much and the attempted point here proves far less relevant, if not irrelevant all together.

I would have to agree with your keen senses, that in all likelihood none of the refugees intent on coming to America are Emmanuel. However neither was Emmanual seeking refuge in the nativity narrative either.

That would in point of fact have been Joseph and Mary, not Emmanual, since he had not yet been born. Consequently that logic truly bears no relevance to the argument presented as such here.

As for the justification of being turned away for lack of accommodations or resource, those were decisions made by business owners and driven by money.

America also being business and money driven lacks neither resources or accommodation, and under the guise of divine approval seems to be making the same choice. This argument seems to fly in the face of any supposed undefined national faith, even one vaguely alluded to in the dead language of Latin.

If semantics alone is to be considered then the statements as such could be Christian or Muslim or Jewish or anything for that matter.

Taken at face value however they could also be very reasonably attributed as being statments based more in egocentricity and self-righteousness rather than being religious or faith based.

If we are to use the argument of national heritage to justify our reasoning of why we should keep out foreigners, or site books of the Old Testament as a justification for refraining from the intermingling of persons from varying cultures and religions, both of those arguments are very easily refutable as well, each within their own context.

The very nature and birth of America is founded in violence and bloodshed, driven by greed under the guise of the "American Dream".

So the degradation of any national faith seems inherent to its origin and any personal choices to proclaim or deny one's faith certainly can't be blamed on anyone but the individual making those choices.

Blaming other cultures for diluting your faith means deciphering a fair amount of the Old Testament as much of its content and indeed the development of the Jewish faith is owed to other cultures.

So America is without argument, a land of immigrants, founded in the very essence of intermingling of people of various cultures. If we are prone to quote American rhetoric, allow me to present this, and perhaps you may be able to reconcile how this fits within the logic: "Inscription on the Statue of Liberty" "Give me your tired, your poor,  Your huddled masses, yearning to breath free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door." - Emma Lazarus

The purpose of my many posts of both Old and New Testament Scriptures is primarily to exemplify that the Bible clearly has a great deal to say about the treatment that the followers of his word should exemplify to foreigners, sojourners and strangers alike, all underscored with Jesus stating point blank as we have treated the LEAST of these, so we have treated Him.

Scripture also has a great deal to say about defending the defenseless and providing for those who cannot provide for themselves. If required I could cite many of those verses too, however it doesn't seem that it would be required here.

I'm sincerely not trying to be argumentative. I'm only stating what I see here. If you can enlighten and correct my thinking I welcome it.

That said thought, let's face it there's always a good reason not to do the right thing and generally far more logical arguments are found in support of not doing the right thing.

Consider how long it took the church to speak out for the Jews in WWII.

I suppose this is where (we) rely on our illogical faith, since there are many examples in the New Testament where logic of this world if followed would have disallowed many of the miracles that Jesus performed.

There is a part of me that would love to agree with you. The problem however is one inherent to Christianity, but not exclusively so. As I see it, it is this:

Applying the standards of the next life in this one, it is logical that one will not make sense in the context of the other since they are contrary in nature.

So allow me to digress for one moment when I say, if one claims only the title of human there are certain answers to certain questions, if one only claims the title of American then there are different questions and different answers to be found, but if one claims the title of Christian then there is almost no question and only one answer.

It seems to me that the fundamental issues then to be rectified, and those which I wrestle with myself, is where does the greater loyalty lie within that triangle and how do we reconcile living for another world while trapped in this one?

I understand clearly that you didn't say a good number of things, but in terms of how to help, that too was unsaid.

I hope this all makes sense.
It's been a long day and I'm beat.

(ME) I just realized that you stated the national faith is the American Dream and Self-Understanding. My apologies you may be very correct indeed.

Lady Liberty and the I Fell Towering Inferno

I suppose it is much easier to share the virtues of peace when machine gun splatter across the front of your house, and mustard gas bombs are a reality from which we are separated by thousands of miles.

And I suppose it's much easier to talk about the forgiveness of our enemies, when we don't have to look our enemy in the eye every day, seeing them face to face, watching them walk our streets and  outside our homes, armed to the teeth, while wondering if it will be our family's turn next chosen for torture, execution and rape.

That much is easy... easy is the only life most of us know.

We are free to speak out as we feel the inclination to do so. 

We reject any faith based worldviews, and deny our Creator, choosing depravity as our entertainment. We celebrate it and pay homage with our wages, while another world away they despise it and us.

We change religions freely, on a whim and have the liberty to mishmash ideologies which only marginal logic would reveal to as not running parallel, all at our leisure.

With the turn of the tide we make decisions which weigh far more heavily in the rest of the world and carry far greater consequence.

We speak freely against the government, freely against the church, and freely against our neighbors, with no fear of any real repercussions. It is not so elsewhere.

We watch safely in HD, from our homes the terror invoked by terrorists, and the greatest course of protest and support we can seem to make is by virtue of technology through social media.

There is a storm coming for us, and I fear we may perhaps be ill-prepared.

Not in terms of weaponry, for the war at hand is not one of flesh and bone.

We are illequipped spiritually, intellectually, for it is war of ideology, of faith. It is waged by a people that do not enjoy the luxury of declining a faith in God, such that our affluence and freedoms easily affords us.

Faith is all they have.

It is what they have live for...
  ... it is what they will gladly die for.

So we watch, and wait, for the enemy to come to us, and the extent of our support for most, is barely more than changing our profile photo to incorporate the flag of a nation, that a faceless corporation has chosen for us.

So we are allowed to feel we have done something when all we have done is actually nothing at all.

God forgive America, and God forgive me, the worst sinner of all.

Solo Cristo Salva

db

Write or Wrong

The fewer the likes, the fewer the shares, and the fewer the comments, the greater I feel that what I've shared of my own thinking must bear at least some relevance, and a relevance which probably proves contrary to the popular concensus (which I have never lent much credence or cedibility  to anyway).

So, I am left to deicide for myself which is the case, whether I am either so indisputably correct, or so indisputably wrong, that no one cares to make the effort to comment whichever the case may be, I must decide.

In thinking the best of others and admittedly myself, I would prefer to think that I am am not so far beyond the effort of correction by those much wiser than myself, that being correct is what I am left with as resolution.

If it were otherwise I'm certain the people I know would have told to me.
I trust those around me to be bold enough to gently lead me to correction with compassion rather public chastisement for simply being wrong.

db
Solo Cristo Salva

Stay Tuned

With increasing frequency it seems my faith's greatest strengths and weaknesses violently collide in the exact same moment and I have to wonder how much longer I can endure watching such a brutal fight with no clear winner before I arrive at the point that I simply have to turn the channel.

Blew in the Face

Want to know if what you're doing matters?

Stop doing it.

For Telling

As I have said in the past:

Tell me what you are for, and I will know what you are against. Tell me what you are against, and that is all I will know....

So tonight I wonder, with such ease and convenience, if social media, being used with so little discretion and being conducive to creating disproportionate levels of misdirected anger along with an endless cycle of perpetuating increasingly overwhelming amounts of misinformation, isn't as a result creating a fear based, confused culture prone to cynicism and apathy.

A culture inclined to simply shrug it's shoulders and walk away, disbelieving and demotivated to discern what is and isn't real anymore.

After all, it takes a lot of energy to be angry, and when we find out our energies are for naught we become decreasingly enthusiastic to engage again.

So why do we waste  the energy we can muster on stupid bullshit that ultimately doesn't matter... for instance which people like Starbucks cups and which groups don't. Protesting the protesters.

As much as people would like to fool themselves into thinking otherwise, simply clicking the share button doesn't really affect much (if any) change in the world toward a cause. It's not really action, it's information.

Nothing actually happens.

That is of course, nothing beyond the guilt relieving feelings of having done something as a result of sharing the thoughts of others rather than formulating our own thoughts.

However what can happen with the content of what we share is the resulting  positive or negative impact on the people we would call friends and who otherwise might (or might not) go on to affect change in the world for the greater good.

So, if somehow your real, your actual life affords you the energy for action beyond that much, why not direct it toward the bigger battles.

The ones that actually matter.

In the end, it seems to me that very few things in life truly matter all that much. But those things in life that do matter, matter infinitely.

Be good to yourselves, and of greater importance, be good to eachother.

Solo Cristo Salva,

d (-_-)b

Speck and Log

Check yourself...

No old goat is sheepish about telling ewe what it was like when they were a kid, unless they're on the lamb.

When I was a Kid

Every generation laments the simple joys of youth and impeccable ethical integrities they carried into adulthood that kept this planet spinning, soon to be lost forever with their passing. How will the next generation manage to go on?