Beyond the Black and White

Life, the experiences of it, and the wisdom of age, well let's just say that it's a lot like the pixels on this screen.

Throw Your Hands Up

If I were ever in a situation, where for some reason I was forced to consume my own hands, I imagine that shortly there after my stomach would uncontrollably and forcibly reject them.

It might be projectile, and so I just might throw them up in the air, but not heave them like I didn't care...I use those things everyday.

They, Them, We

If we repeat what "they" say, do "we" then become "them"?

A Holy Man in a Funny Hat

The Laziest Pharisee

Just read this on a christian web site:

"In the end, 
if abortion was such a grievous sin 
Jesus would have mentioned it. 
He said nothing."

...on a christian web site.

Consider this: 

Oh, the humanity!

And this is just one branch of their military.

Our Successful Failures

What is failure? 
For that matter what is success? 

Even Better if I Were a Pirate

If my last name were Steele, I would have to name one of my kids Robin.

If I were a pirate, that would have to be my assumed name.

Stepping Up or Stepping Out

Providing for the welfare of individuals... 
well that's the church's job, not the government's. 

Scarlet Letters

Favorite 80's guilty pleasure band(s)? (Emphasis on GUILTY pleasures)

South Bound 51

Not too long ago I had a Honda. 

It was actually a pretty nice car.

One day I got in a car wreck. 

A pretty bad one in fact.

Really messed up the car.

Really messed me up too.

I recovered.

The car didn't.

Volumes 2

It's never good when the women start talking quietly.

Volumes 1

10 times otherwise quite things become very loud:

Living On A Prayer

I think I have half of an eating disorder.
(no purging)

You may say I'm a dreamer

I just had a dream in which I told someone I had Disassosiative Disease.

A disease in which no symptom had relation to any other symptom.

That was weird.

Money, It's a Hit

Money has a funny way of moving from an issue to the issue when people get it in their head that there is chance they might somehow get some of it. 

Spare Me

Inspired by a recent viewing of a documentary on Dietrich Bonhoeffer I've posted a couple of quotes that might help you to see why I found him so inspirational.

Enjoy or don't, whatevs.

d(-_-)b

Why settle for one?

It seems to me that if gun manufacturers could somehow find the link between non-hunting type guns and an endorsement of sorts from Jesus for actually owning and using them...well, they would be positioned to make a real killing!

Can You See The Real Me?

If the recipient is truly listening they will find that the messenger often reveals more about themselves than their subject matter by the manner of their communication.

Looking past the messenger however, is often required to hear the heart of message...

Good Bye and Good Night

Good bye 2012. 

While I am in deed grateful for the difficult, painful and yet very valuable lessons you have thrust upon me, I'm by no means sad to see you go. 

 You have reminded me once more that in business, the bottom line is always the bottom line and that in the end it is there and there alone that the commitment lies. 

 That the hourly employee is a resource, either asset or liability, and that the extra mile can quickly become the expected mile. 

 You have shown me quite clearly that before friendships, relationships or history, an employee is foremost, in the reality of things, nothing more than a dollar value, a profit margin. In striving to do their best and improve, as a result are often be seen as one that had not previously done so. 

 This being an election year, you have shown me the ugliness we become in pursuing the myth of the "American Dream". Reminding me once more that those who would identify themselves as "American Christians" are often identifying not simply their loyalties but (sadly) the loyalty, rights and freedoms under those citizenships in their respective order as well. 

 Through the grace and generosity of God's people you have also reminded me of my own pride and humbled me by showing me that it is not I who provide for my family, but God alone who makes that happen. 

 In the most unexpected of people, through the least expected of methods you have reminded me that the church is not at a building, or an institution. That it is not even a collective group of people who feel convicted to gather at a scheduled time in a preset venue, but that the true church is embodied solely in those who strive to do God's will and answer His calling. 

That it is those who do so whenever and however that opportunity arises, with a faith that allows them to do so without reservation  regarding personal cost, they are your body, the one true catholic church. 

 I have seen that "The" Church is often found and experienced in its truest form through people far outside of  "a" church. I have seen that it actively exists in the world Christ himself came to. That of the lost, the suffering, the searching...which is exactly where it  belongs. 

Something that was difficult for me to see the reality of when I was buried in the institution of it. 

 2012, you have been both blessing and curse, but you have served to remind me that if I am to serve God, then I must remember it is people and the souls of people that matter most. That my first ministry is to my family and God's. 

 You have taught me some difficult lessons and reaffirmed those things which I already knew. 

In the taking of it, you have shown me the value and briefness of life. The importance of living it, living it well...and living it now.  
To express love, grace and compassion to those that you can while you can, for tomorrow never knows.

 I hope these things will make your follower, 2013 a much better year as a result. For 44 years I've hoped this though... 

 Your trials and tribulations somehow have not crushed my faith, though they certainly did come close at times. In the end it seems they have served simply to perhaps change how it is manifested it and certainly served to strengthened it. 

 No, 2012, I'm not at all sad to see you go, but I do not all together regret experiencing you either. 

 Best wishes to all of you for a blessed new year...whatever that looks like. Do yourselves a favor and don't assume that because those blessings do not look as you think they should that they are not there. 
For God alone is faithful, even when we are not.

Solo Cristo Salva

d(-_-)b

Hey,Sofia. What are you watching?

Lady and the Trampoline.

Increasing the Volume 1228

Alabama 3 "Woke Up This Morning" (Sopranos Theme Song) Live

I'm gonna take you down
Deep down to the front lines

You woke up this morning
Got yourself a gun,
Mama always said you'd be
The Chosen One.

She said: You're one in a million
You've got to burn to shine,
But you were born under a bad sign,
With a blue moon in your eyes.

You woke up this morning
All that love had gone,
Your Papa never told you
About right and wrong.

But you're looking good, baby,
I believe you're feeling fine,(shame about it),
Born under a bad sign
With a blue moon in your eyes.
Chorus
You woke up this morning
Got a blue moon in your eyes
You woke up this morning
Got a blue moon in your eyes

You woke up this morning
The world turned upside down,
Thing's ain't been the same
Since the Blues walked into town.
But you're one in a million
You've got that shotgun shine. (shame about it)
Born under a bad sign,
With a blue moon in your eyes.
You woke up this morning
Got a blue moon in your eyes
You woke up this morning
Got a blue moon in your eyes

When you woke up this morning everything was gone.
By half past ten your head was going ding-dong.
Ringing like a bell from your head down to your toes,
Like a voice trying to tell you there's something you should know.
Last night you were flying but today you're so low
Ain't it times like these that make you wonder if
You'll ever know the meaning of things as they appear to the others;
Wives, mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers.
Don't you wish you didn't function, don't you wish you
Didn't think beyond the next paycheck and the next little drink?
Well you do so make up your mind to go on,
When you woke up this morning everything you had was gone.

Woke up this morning,
Woke up this morning,
Woke up this morning,
You want to be the Chosen One.

Woke up this morning,
Woke up this morning,
Woke up this morning,
You got yourself a gun.

I Wonder

What I do, I do for your benefit.

So it would appear we have at least that much in common.

Who then is my neighbor?

In this journey of mine, it seems at times that I have gone great lengths of time (perhaps distance as well) without the benefit of confirmation that I am still moving in the right direction, or if I am moving at all.

I'm not at all sure why God allows this. Perhaps it is to test, teach or train, I cannot know. What I do know is that it becomes a discouraging way to travel and those who travel with me can offer encouragement but not certainty.

The landscape seems not to change for great stretches, without markers or signs, and every rest stop seems to serve only as a reminder that I need to keep moving toward my destination, whatever that may be.

Sometimes though, along the way I encounter travelers that serve as certainty, strength and encouragement about my direction. They lighten the load by helping to shoulder the burdens I bear.

At times simply by listening, sometimes by speaking as well, but always with grace, compassion and with a level of generosity that is humbling. They have always been good to offer encouragement from insight, rather than the discouragement of mere judgment.

They can seem few and far between, but they exist and in greater number than I would have expected, and in the most unlikely of people.

They let me know, by virtue of their own wisdom and experience that the road less travelled, the narrow path I travel, is none the less a road that can and should be travelled for the destination is well worth the obstacles that must be overcome in forging it.

It is only by God's grace in sending these travelers my direction, or perhaps sending me in theirs, that I have been able to continue on, for I am not by my own means a strong man in many respects.

This has been the voice of Christmas past, this Christmas past, and were it not for God's faithful elect, Christmas would not have looked at all as children should expect it to be.

Thank you, to so many of you who have travelled with me and been my strength in times of weakness. You have been the reminder of the higher calling. A resource in times of poverty and have served to make the seemingly impossible a reality.
I am truly humbled beyond words once more.

However long we may travel together, wherever the road may take you, God's blessings to you and yours in your journeys.

db