Easter

Easter has always been a bit confusing to me as for most folks it seems more a celebration of the crucifixion of Christ than of the resurrection.  Died for our sins.  Yes indeed.  But he did so much more than that.

For me it's always been about the resurrection and the ascension than anything else.  We always see the cross on christian things.  Bibles and Churches and necklaces and rings and what not.

What symbol do we have for the resurrection?

I myself wear a ring with a cross on it all the time.  A hollow cross that reminds me that the cross is an empty thing and a doorway to other things.

I think Christ did not come to show us how to die, but how to live and live well.  To remind us that we are not of this earth, just passing through it via the body.  He showed us, right up personal and direct that there is no death. 

"Fear not"  What a great lesson!  Which we have a great tendancy to ignore whenever possible.  Most of us spend our lives fearing everything and in so doing show our lack of faith.  We worry over the job, the relationship, retirement, the kids, the boss, the car, what does he or she think of me.  And on and on.

We are to bring All things to God in prayer.  And then leave them there!


Fear not.  A simple lesson that takes all of our attention to actually learn to do.  Must be why we were also told to keep our minds stayed on God and to pray constantly. 

Bodies do not have souls.  They are simply vessels for souls.


We are the children of the living God.  Not just bodies.  Souls using bodies to interact with other souls also using bodies.

We call him the Messiah, the Teacher.  And that's just what he did.  We so very often seem to miss the lessons though.  At least I know I do.

And where the hell did that damned bunny come in?  Eggs?  Candy? 

We really do come up with some rather bizarre ideas we do.

Incidentally if you've never had it.  Fried rabbit is great!  It really does taste just like chicken.

Just my thoughts.

John.

How we think is how we live.

Recently I got a short pay check.  Too short for me to pay my rent on my time.  I always pay on the 15th or there about when it's not due till the last day of the month. 

Just a habit I've picked up as a cushion.  Well.  It didn't work this time around, so I'll be eating bread and cheese for a while till I get things back on track.

I prayed.  "There is always more than enough, I know this is true, as it has always been true.  The Father will not give a stone to a child who asks bread."

Next day, there it was.  A check from some Government agency I've never heard of for 410$ andsome change.

And I can pay the rent on my time once again. :)

Coincidence?  I don't think so!

Create well this day my friends.

John.

AARP on the move

Wow!  I got a letter form AARP today asking me to join up. 

Geez, I'm only 49 years old!  They want me half in the grave already. 

What they think life ends at 50?  My Dad is 70 something I think, and still going strong. 

While I'm ready to leave this world, and at times more than ready to do so.  It's not due to my age.

I'll go when I'm damned good and ready! 

Silly people!  I'm going to live forever.  This is God's word to me.  Now where I choose to live...that is up to me.

Be well all,

Create as if there is no tomorrow, because there's not one.

John.

How strange this life is

Today I've been reading blogs from my family and friends and am seeing a theam going on.

Prayer.  What does it do?  What does it accomplish?  Why bother with it?

These are my thoughts on the matter.

Prayer is not the speaking of the words "Thank you father for this food" is not a prayer unless you actually mean it.  Prayer is a feeling, a purpose, a commune with God.  A time of talking with God within and without.  For he is in our inside lives as well as our outside lives.

The Bible tells us to pray constantly and what better way to spend a life than to do just that?

I of course don't, or I'd most likely have moved on from this place before.

So...I give it a shot now and again.  But I'm lazy and the Father is patience.

What to say?  In your mind, see things as you would have them be for Yourself!  Doing so for others is a chancy thing as they are praying also and you don't know for what.

No matter what they say out loud you won't know their heart.  That's God's job.  And people lie.  Even to themselves.

Life is a prayer.  How we live is how we pray.  Seems a lot of folks don't believe that.  Yet how else would God be always in our lives, in our heads and with us always?

When it's all done and done and your at your lowest.  Is that not when God steps up and takes care of things?

He has for me at least.

And so often it's not an external thing that changes.  It's inside me, the way I see something, the way I do something, the way I think of something.  Behold!  There is God.

Again and again.  And I have to wonder if the worries of the world come to me or do I attract them to me.

If I can do that, I can be rid of them as easily.

God created us to be creators.  Don't settle for being small.  Be large!  Truly live as if there's no tomorrow.

Heck from what folks tell me the world will end in 2012.  According to the Aztec calendar.

Personally I wonder if the Aztecs just figured that they had done enough and let future generations do their own math.

Be well all and know you are loved.

Create a great day.

John.

How we reach out to God

I was just thinking about a church service attended a few weeks ago.  I'm not a regular goer by any means,

but this place I'll return to.

Folks talk a lot about true faith and the "real" path to God.  These folks seem to truly be trying to get there.

It's a very small church.  Maybe 30 folks or so in total.

In mid service one younger christian stated that we got to the path to God through work.  It's that sort of congregation that impresses me.  The congregation can and does ask questions, the the preachers/ priests/ whatever you choose to call them.   Answer them.  Pretty much a Q and A session each time. 

I love that!

If you can't ask others questions about God in church or ask God in church then what use it is?  Why bother?  Taking someone else s  view of God and just accepting it is rather silly to my mind.  Need to find out for ourselves.

At any rate.  This fellow had stated that we get to God via work.  He was stopped immediately and advised that God comes to us through Grace and not work.  So very true.

There is not one thing in the world we can do to bribe God with our works or our money or our promises to do this or that.

He gives, we receive and that's all there is to it.  We tend not to like this one wee bit.  We have that desire to give and get.  Even the people in the lowest positions in life believe that all is give and take.

Yet...we are not God.  The rules and different when dealing with God than with man.

We are not God, we are the children of God that are still in training to join him back home.

All that comes to us is a blessing of God.  If we know it or not.

We live in grace and we end this world in grace.  It's all his giving and none of what we do.

What we do have a need to learn is how to accept that grace.  Blessings come and we tend to ignore them or discount them.  Thus we place ourselves in our own mind further from God.  We talk about coincidences, or things that "just happen".  They don't.  We create within God. And by his grace we create all that is in our lives.

It is never our work that brings us blessings.  But God's love that does so constantly.

I don't need to work for God.  He is water to me.  My environment.  My life.  No need to seek him out, just accept that he is here with me always.

A note of wisdom.

This is a note I received from my beloved sister Jen today.  Words of wisdom and strength.  She has much of both.

 

 

Everyday you are born anew!!!!!!

 

While cleaning out my email, I ran across this list of guidelines for 2010 that a friend emailed me. If we take the time to follow them, I think we'll all enjoy life just a little bit more this year. 

Ann

 

HANDBOOK 2010
Health:
1.       Drink plenty of water.
2.       Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a beggar.
3..       Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
4.       Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy.
5.       Make time to pray.
6.       Play more games.
7.       Read more books than you did in 2009.
8.       Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
9.       Sleep for 7 hours.
10.    Take a 10-30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile.
Personality:
11.    Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12.    Don't have negative thoughts on things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13.    Don't over do. Keep your limits.
14.    Don't take yourself so seriously - no one else does.
15.    Don't waste your precious energy on gossip.
16.    Dream more while you are awake.
17.    Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
18.    Forget issues of the past. Don't remind your partner about his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19.    Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don't hate others.
20.    Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
21.    No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22.    Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn.  Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
23.    Smile and laugh more.
24.    You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree...
Society:
25.    Call your family often.
26.    Each day give something good to others.
27.    Forgive everyone for everything...
28.    Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of  6.
29.    Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30.    What other people think of you is none of your business.
31.    Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
Life:
32.    Do the right thing!
33.    Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
34.    GOD heals everything.
35.    However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
36.    No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37.    The best is yet to come.
38.    When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
39.    Your inner most is always happy. So, be happy.
Last but not the least:
40.    Please forward this to everyone you care about, I just did.    

 

_________________________________________________

 

 

 

Snow Daze

The snow finally stopped about 3:30 today.  We've got a lot extra if anyone would like some?  That would definately be a come and get it yourself sort of thing.  You can start at the front of my truck and keep taking it till we hit the plowed path in the parking lot. :)

 

This was about 12 noon today.

  

This was taken after dark.  Note the way it's changed?  That is from the heat from the building melting some of it off.  Snow only comes in cold weather and is a cold substance.  But oddly enough when there is enough of it.  It acts like an insulator.  Thus igloos are what they are.

 

  

  

  

The front walk.

 

Those lumps you see out there are cars.

 

This is our walk way that was already shoveled out once. :)

 

The left side of my truck.  Umm...about 8 inches on the side there I think.

 

  

Stomping my way out to the door to get to the truck.

I do believe we may be snowed in for a day or two.  Depends on how lazy I feel about going out there with a shovel to dig out.  

I was able to get a shovel at least.  It's this oddly small thing that's only about 3 feel long.  But that's what I could find.  Between that and the entrenching tool I have from the service it will have to do.  

All of the stores are sold out of snow shovels   Oddly enough they still have pleanty of garden shovels and the like.

Amazing what we create.  I feel a bit like one of the characters in a book I read last year.  "Who ordered this?"   Was his line.  

Please don't anyone think this is the way MD always is.  Normally we get Maybe 3 to 4 inches of snow a year and it melts off the same day.  This year the winter has been a bit much for snow.  Minds me a bit of ND when I was stationed there.  We've had 2 major storms and supposedly more to come before winter is done.

Well, what I consider major storms anyway.

I'd love to just sit here, take a leave day on Monday and let the sun melt it off.  But....unless we get some sort of sun flare or global warming really kicks in I'll still be digging out 2 or 3 feet of snow to get my truck out. :)

On the up side.  I'll have the chance to talk more with my neighbors.  The last big storm we had a lot of fellows and even some of the ladies were out helping each other with the digging out.  One fellow I spoke with was just a pleasure to meet an older black gent who simply said "this is our neighborhood".   As he started in on the snow in front of my truck.  It was no grand pronouncement.  Just a simple statement on his part.  I am truly and deeply blessed.

I hear they've called out the national guard for the state.  Seems odd to me as it's really not what I'd consider all that bad.  But I'm not an EMT who has to deal with someone with a heart attack or a house fire either.  So I'll trust the folks who know to do what they do.

I'm sure my Dad would know a good bit about that as he's taken classes for emergency reaction and even wrote a book about the Jacksonville Fire Dept and the history there of.

Be well all.