Big Picture ?

If you are in a good mood and feeling cheery this wonderful day, you might not want to read my thoughts today without praying or chanting or drinking.  I never forget that my life is full of friends with  different faiths, no faiths, extreme faiths and confused faiths. So, I try to blog with that in mind..

So lately I've been on the telephone in deep conversation about politics and life and faith and God and Guns and War and Death and Patriotism and Conspiracies and Narcissists,Pacifists,Social/Communists and Capitalist. And, and do you know what?

It always ends in a mometary sick feeling of nauseous hopelessness.

Then i take a breath, pray, remember where my hope is found, remember the purity and innocence of     God in a childs eyes,  as they are viewing the world unstained.... before they quickly decide they want to own it (6months tops).  And then quickly the circle comes around again , and I know that like me, every child will lose that innocence,  that everyone will seek their own, that every mortal will live "fallen" and form and find groups that agree with them, and their views.
In the secular it will be country clubs or gangs,  political groups or anti-political groups (oxymoron-- ya think?) . And on the other end in the Sacred it will be.. More and more denominations and split denominations and, and, sectarianism and dogma. Splitting us into smaller and smaller insulated groups who find it harder and harder to find Jesus among us and across the isle.

And now we have social media to help us in the secular and sacred to figure out exactly who thinks and breathes like us, so that on our side and from our perspectives we can unite our smaller groups to become a larger more powerful, set apart, (self) righteous group.  While all the while, in the background, behind it all, those  global few, who plot and play to build these systems, can use our info,money and passions to sell us whatever they have pre-purchased to sell us in the first place.
Oh, like a court jester I'm laughing as I type..  Hey if i were one of the few who rule the world, and regardless of my faith, it is  the unfortunate byproduct of that wealth that makes man want more and more and more, I'm sure I'd be trying to find a way to be the winner as well. Whatever it took at the cheapest price.. And i'd Hire others to do the dirty work so I could put on my white robes and give away money through my charities, while others die creating it all for me. (would anybody like a potty break yet?)


And again, here I am, and it all comes back to that sick feeling. Why...

Is it winter?, the dreary cold and grey of January? Is it the incessant news cycles, rarely saying anything redeeming to us, except that 60sec. "life" story at the end of the news.
It is the global economy, and seeing your friends, family and loved ones losing jobs, homes,marriage and faith.
Is it possibly where I'm focusing my time and attention?

What am I looking for in my search for justice?  Some great solution. For God (or man)  to wipe out my enemies, my political and "whatever" foes. For my political, economic and social politics to rule and reign?  All to show the world "I" (and my small group) was correct; and that every time i called the rest of you names - for your views, well,  I am now vindicated?  Mooo Ah-haa-haa-haa-haaaaaaa.

If only they could see the truth "i say".( Ok, well me and MY friends say that... But the rest of the world, they are to ignorant or (add) rightwing or leftwing or chickenwing to really get it or see our solutions as the correct ones.)

Ya know, there was something in the 60's movement "all you need is love"  that was truth. Albit twisted and contorted to fit into a drug induced 5yr party. My generation - that generation,  through it all , at the core, I believe, was crying out for truth.  Few adults were listening or saw anything but sex drugs and rock and roll and it gave southern preachers one more reason to turn up the "fire" volume a bit higher.

Hey, we knew those two single beds with one Queen cover, were split much of the time. Ozzy and Harriet were hiding that, and no one was talking.  Television created such a false reality of life and what was really happening that I think it's part of the blow back to how far we've come to the other side of the street on TV and cable.

Were Ozzy and Harriet any less messed up  than Ozzy & the Osbornes.?    We mostly knew our fathers worked to hard and smoked and drank to much and went to church on sunday in a suit, at an attempt to find some redemption from their wives if not their gods.  We knew our mothers were living too much of life with un fulfilled dreams around an ironing board,  finding soap operas as one of the few fantasy drugs of choice. Hey forget about love, truth and justice, just obey the rules was the underlying thread. And really, honestly, Eddie Haskell was probably the most real person on family sitcoms at the time. God bless  Leave it to Beaver. I think The Osbornes is probably a pretty good look at what the Nelsons would have looked like 50 years later.

Imagine what the 60's would have been like if we had had the internet revolution after Sputnic instead of it dropping in the lap of Clinton and it's inventor from TN, 50 years later.
Nixon could have hacked the DNC from 1,000 miles away and would never have had to get caught lying.  Where would we be now.  Pretty scary eh?
Well, that's where were going, and the car might be getting 40mpg now, but it's still headed to the same end at a faster pace exponentially every day.

So can you stop it, or in the imortal words of Mr. Smith "It's Inevitable Mr. Anderson".

And what do we do in the mean time. While the world and man is crashing around you?

Because we are safe in a prosperous democracy, most never even think about this stuff.. But the time is coming when we all will have that reckoning in America, and with what's happening in the global economy i think more americans are sobering up each day to these possible realities.

As my last blog said. "My hope is found in Christ alone, and all that that entails". Yup, each of us must find that on our own. Every journey different, every moment changing how we view and accept it all.

For me, I can't live a day without His Grace, Forgiveness, Mercy, Peace and Joy.  Or the  knowing "in faith" that this is the beginning not the ending.  Heaven and Earth will pass away but His "Word" which has always been and will always be, which was in the beginning, and through it, all things were created from it, which was made to flesh, and dwelt among us, and lived and taught us and redeemed us from ourselves.  (all supernatural mumbo jumbo to anyone who doesn't study scripture, but it is "the living Word" none the less).
{sidebar} I know many people hate or don't understand all the Christian "catch words and phrases" used all the time. Sorry.. I do try hard not to quote scripture and use those words, but it can be hard truly explaining yourself without them sometimes.

A friend blogged lately of a dialog with God. He mentioned in essence, that for so many, when we pray or worship Him he hears ssodk, kdjjook ajdp c;lkjf kpldks a pl foekdj s vnkdolps lpleks because our motives in it all make our worship worthless.  Well,  I'm sure that without faith, much of the bible looks the same.  Confusing and worthless.  It sure did for me before I began a walk of faith. It was only then that those " aldk slkdj  9idjf ckkw tow". words became  "I have come to give you life and life more abundantly".

Solomon, oh Solomon.. in all the sorrow and sadness of money and power and wisdom, maybe you should have asked for only 1 wife and a house on a hillside with a cantor job in the synagog. After all, ignorance is bliss if you can live with it.

I look today at my family, children, grand children and friends. My father has gone, my mother is rapidly going. They will all go away. So too will I.
None of us taking anything with us, but a ledger of decisions and choices mixed with memories in our souls. As Don Henley so properly sang "Aint no luggage racks on the hearse down the block".

News Flash.....  none of us choose the best answer very often. I certainly don't.  Get over it.  Stop lying from high lofty places to yourself.. and others..    I'm really trying each day to lay it all down even though I fail so often.. but...
Yup. , again, that's where Grace, Mercy and Forgiveness come in to your life.  Replacing the fear of laws and judgement, that are used to make you stop and think if all else fails. Mercy does triumph over judgement.

And in the end it's Private Ryan again.

Yup, over and over I'll end blogs with that. Even knowing that Christ did it all, and paid the price. There will always be that mortal part of me / of us, that "is" Private Ryan in the final scene photo above. Asking, begging, for acceptance from the one who gave his live for him.

And as for the beginning of todays "rabbit trail blog" comments on American politics and what it does to my heart (and your's most likely)..
I must vote, I support democracy.  I want less Govt., (and all that means) I do love the American Experiment over all the others. I will try to respect others whom I painfully disagree with, by, not responding to things I can't change, and actually trying to listen to them when they won't listen back and hopefully the same goes for them.:)

I said in a Facebook post a few weeks ago that now with 800 million people all connected and sharing their opinions behind a glossy screen and a Mobi, that this is gonna get really ugly before Nov. elections in  the USA.

So my friends of faith, strap on a helmet, seatbelt, ear buds and get your heart ready to handle the onslot of onslots coming your way.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and He will never leave nor forsake me. (repeat as needed).
And for my friends who don't believe, but love me enough to still wonder what I'm thinkin...
I love you all regardless, and hope you return the favor :)....