It Can't Happen To Me

But, it has!!! I still see all the beauty in my world. I still see all my blessings, but when I look up I see a dark cloud hovering just over my head! Somehow, in my world of positives, I have let my door open just a crack and a bunch of negatives came rushing in! Suddenly I find myself a comforter that needs comforting! I could look over to my side and ask “why me God, why me”? But, why ask a question if you already know the answer? For several months, apparently I have been letting a few of those negatives that surround me slowly creep in. This past week something happened that kicked the chair, of stability, out from under me as I sat down. I will not try to comfort others until I get my own head back on straight. I know that I would just be exposing those already hurting to my hurts. For the next few weeks I will be posting blogs that have been written in advance. I’ll start publishing new blogs when I get myself under control. I now know how easy it must be for some to take a few pills or drinks to deaden the pain, but they are just band-aids that cover hurts for a short time. Many have found those “hurt deadeners” just adding more hurts. I now can understand why some take a hand-full of those pills to end those hurts forever! I’m sure that my God didn’t give me my hurts for me to look for an easy out. I’m sure they have been given to me as a learning tool for me to use for others, but truly, this is one of the most difficult tools that I have ever been handed! Today, I find my world the same, but entirely different! Suddenly little things, seldom thought about things, jump at me with new meaning! I’m finding this blessing from my God to be the most difficult for me to understand. But, with my understanding of those deep hurts in me, with a deeper understanding of those hurts in me, I’ll have the ability to feel those hurts and maybe have a better understanding of the causes. Maybe my hurts are there to show me ways to better help and comfort others. I know that God never hands me more than He already knows that I can handle! I’ll see you again early next year. But, right now I have a mountain to climb.

Just Bob

Most of my life has been filled with things I have wondered about, questions I have asked, and just talking to people. Maybe the most important part is I’m learning how to listen. Often I feel that I’m the only one left that will listen. Many times I feel the hurts of others in my heart. I feel I’m in this world to comfort others. There are times that I feel too close to some to be able to feel their pain. That saddens me and is something I’m trying to overcome. I have hurts, things that bother me, things that may be overlooked by others, many are God things. We have been given many exciting new teaching tools, but many teachers are still using the tools of our fathers and grand fathers. I’m uncomfortable with how commercial, big business, and scripted many of today’s religions have become. Much of today’s teaching reminds me of a concert where every note has been practiced and when the concert begins there is no room left between the notes for God to step in. I find this especially true in those large TV churches. They have just so much air time and just so much money to spend. Each second must be scripted and each of those seconds must end up on the profit side of their books. As I listen, I find it hard for me to understand how God’s time can be balanced against the time spent asking for money, but I guess that show must go on! It bothers me when I listen to those teachers and then walk away feeling that I was exposed to an editorial based on that person’s interpretation of what it says in the book. I find myself troubled when I look at all religions. Religion could be so simple! I’m sure most will agree that everything has a starting point, a creator; in my religion I call that starting point God! Now tell me why millions have been killed, because of that point we all agree upon, but just because we walk through different doors to get there. Why can’t we find ways to look at how we are all the same, not why we are different? Many times I find that God changes our lives in unforeseen and unplanned ways. Sometimes He just seems to sneak one in on us! An example of that is; many years ago I heard a second hand story about a little girl that stuck in my mind while many other things fell through. She came running home from Sunday school. As she ran up to her mother she told her mother that they were going to need an extra blanket on her bed that night, she said her teacher told her that the “Comforter cometh!” That one word “comforter” has always stayed up front in my mind. I find many hurting people finding me with their hurts. Many ask me questions that they know that I can’t answer, but they know that I will listen to their question. And, they know that as we part there will always be a hug. If I find they must have answers, I never quote those answers from a “Holy Book” as many have looked there for those answers and failed to find them. I have never been very good at reading from a book, so I go to my God and ask that words will be put in my mouth that will please Him. I find that comfort is sometimes beyond words. Many times we have to share those hurts in our hearts with nothing more than a long hug. That one touch often can say more than a thousand words. Well that’s it. That’s all there is to me! Hope you know me a little better. I hope you realize why I’m just Bob, a good listener.

Evil

After the tragedy in that New England grade school I have found many trying to understand how things like that can happen. How can a person like that, such an evil person, grow up unnoticed in a country like ours? Many are questioning just what causes evil like that and what causes someone like him to become an evil person that could cause so much misery and heartache to so many. I wondered, were some people born that way or maybe that way before birth? How could my God, my loving God, allow such a thing to happen? I found myself confused. When I find myself confused or troubled I go to my “true source” with my questions. My question; I’m finding more evil in my world today. Why? I was told that evil was an emotion that had to be learned! And that many start that learning at an early age. And that evil is easy to find in my today’s world. That many find it difficult to avoid! Also, that many find it difficult to distinguish between good and evil. Our marketing in today’s world gives the impression many times that evil is good! Makes it a desirable goal! Just listen to the words of many songs, look at the album covers and video covers, watch many TV shows, and look at the hate and violence we find creeping in to today’s sports. Sad as it may seem, evil sells! As we read past the headlines, we often find hate and violence walking hand in hand with evil. Sadly, evil is not expected or found until after a violent episode! I’m finding often that evil is overlooked or excused until it happens. Up to now I’ve touched on the easy stuff. Tell me this; do we look upon all evil as unforgivable or do we judge it on a one to ten scale as we do many other things in our lives? I lost one son to a man driving drunk. How evil do I judge that man to be? My son is just as dead as anyone of those poor little kids shot in their classroom! He never again will be sitting next to me at the dinner table! How do I rate that man’s evil that took my son from me? Or, how do I rate the fellow student who bullied me for every school day for over a year? I looked upon him as evil, but each was looked upon then or later as” respected members of my community!” I guess evil only is supposed to affect the ones it was directed to! I am finding that it is difficult for me to put a word description on evil. It is always easy to see the outcome of evil, but to put the emotion into words, I find is beyond me. I find it more difficult than fitting it within the boundaries of right or wrong, or even love or hate, both emotions that I find hard for me to put into words. As I look closely, I’m finding most of today’s religions are based on the principles of good and evil and the many different interpretations of evil. Some refer to evil as sin. As I sit here, thinking about those poor little kids, my mind shifts to the shooter. Could it be that the evil one really won? That he reached his goal? Being a loner and being mostly alone, could it be that all he wanted was to put his name in history books forever? And then he died! After something like that happens, I think God expects us to become comforters. I have found many that have asked me questions that they didn’t expect answers for, they just needed to talk and someone to listen! They didn’t expect me to answer, they just wanted someone to listen and maybe at the end to share a hug. There are some questions that only God can answer, but I’m not sure I’m ready to ask.

God and Prayer

Many of the people that I have talked to have told me that they didn’t think God answered their prayers. I can relate to them because for quite a while I felt that way too. For many years, each time I would pray, I would tell God what I expected Him to do for me. And, if things didn’t work out my way I assumed my prayers were not being answered! Now days when I pray; I ask that HIS Will, will be done, and that I will be able to accept and understand that will without question. That’s it! I never try to run His show. And, surprisingly I find that I’m never disappointed. As I walk through my life, often I find myself walking by myself in special places. These places seem to direct my thinking towards “God Stuff!” I have found much comfort and understanding there. These places are usually unplanned by me, and I always wonder if my God has set them up for me. I never find myself praying in these places. I find myself asking many questions and receiving answers there. I feel that while I’m there I’m in tune with a best friend. As an example; years ago I was at the beach, it was one of those exceptional days, the sky was that deep blue with fluffy bright white clouds and every place I looked was nothing but beautiful beach. After walking a few barefoot steps in the soft sand I sat down to enjoy the breeze and listen to the surf. It was such a great place, so maybe I would even think some “God Stuff!” It was there that I started thinking about my prayers, or maybe my prayers that I felt God had not answered. When I sat down I got sand on both hands that I quickly brushed off. As I glanced at my hands I noticed that sand was all back on the beach except for a few grains on my index finger. It was then that I got the message! As I sat there looking at those few grains of sand on my finger. I suddenly realized those few grains of sand were me! Wasn’t I always telling God in my prayers how I expected Him to answer? That God the creator of all things, and I was trying to tell Him how to run things! Wasn’t I like those few grains on my finger telling that entire beach what to do? That day on the beach was a humbling, but learning, experience for me. Since that day, I have never had a prayer unanswered! This past week I had a person ask me if things didn’t work out the way I wanted, would I consider it God’s fault? I never fault my God. I would never judge His answer. I accept God’s will as God’s will without question. I accept my God as all knowing, one who can do no wrong. As I study my God’s will for me, I find that I am being told that it is more important for me to belong than to control. Where ever I am, I feel that is where I belong.

How Do I Look, To Me

In general, as I reflect, I look pretty good to me. Since my motto has always been; if I walk in feeling inferior, I have lost. I have yet to meet someone that I felt was better than me. In my life’s journey I have met quite a few that I considered to be my equals, but no one that I considered to be above me. I have met many so called “greats” like Amelia Earhart, Ronald Reagan, Henry Ford, Gen. Joe Kelly, Count Basie, Jabbo Stokes, and maybe even a few Jane and Joe Blows. And, looking back, I found that I learned something from each and I possibly came away a little smarter and possibly a better person because of my God opening those doors and allowing so many to walk into my life. I thank my God for showing me how to open the ears to my heart so that I could listen to and enjoy all the fine music that I have been exposed to. From that music of the river boats plying the Mississippi River of my early childhood to the music I hear each week in my place of worship, I always feel that all those great sounds are put there just for me! Sure, I have messed up big time a few times, but that same God has shown me ways that I can be forgiven. Walking through this life it would be hard for me to count the many times I have been shown how important the positive is for me and how unimportant all those negatives can be. I have learned that every person that touches my life is put there to be a teacher. My God keeps emphasizing to me that I must keep learning, learning, learning! Years ago I learned how important each second of every day was for me. I try never to waste a one. I have learned to look for beauty in everything I touch and everything that touches me. Again I have to thank my God for showing me how to open my eyes to see with my heart! Each morning, after I wake, I look into the mirror. It is then that I notice my hair line has moved back and that hair that was once brown is now white! And, even though I had a good night’s sleep, those eyes looking back at me look tired. It is then I realize that my growing old is one of my God given rights! I must learn to accept it as such! How do I look to me? I’m not overjoyed with the wear that shows on that person looking back at me, but at the same time I’m pretty satisfied with me in general. Could I have done better? I’m sure we all could have, but I could have done a lot worse. On a scale of one to ten, I would give me a high eight. What would you give you?

Assumption

In our world of today, commercial interests have learned that most of us live by our assumptions. If a person looks the part we assume that person knows what he is talking about. You only have to look at TV commercials to realize the truth of that statement. Today we find all kind of those “look like props” trying to affect our lives. In the manner of dress, speech, tempting advertising, sex, even in our religions we are led to assume our lives would be better “if” we would only do those things we are told to do. We are led by the hand or eyes, to those assumptions that would cause us to live a better life. We are expected to live in our world in a way we let others bait that world for us. Our world is nothing more than a stage and we have front row center seats with most of the actors showing us ways to separate us from our money. Millions are spent each year on “if it looks like, it must be.” But, we must remember this, we often hear the saying; if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck. But, many ducks ended up in the pot because of decoys and duck calls! Our assumptions must be controlled. They are nothing more than a form of judging others. A white jacket does not make a doctor or druggist. My old butcher always use to wear a white jacket! Crowns, robes, special clothing, or titles does not flag God to listen more carefully to one than the other. Many times I feel the sincerity of a prayer by you or me is as important to Him as one coming from a third party. I’ve also learned that prisons are not full of only bad people. Many good people are there because they made a mistake. Yes, even good people make mistakes. I’ve also noticed that our assumptions and our ego often walk hand in hand. Often it is as hard to admit that our assumption was wrong as it is to admit that we could be wrong. Is everyone else wrong if they don’t read out of the same holy book that we do? Many are told they are! Many assume that is the way God works. Just because we see something on our TV or are told something in our places of worship that shouldn’t always cause us to assume them to be right. Actually in our today’s world we can find as many wrong assumptions as right. Too many will tell you that they are oppressed by their sex, race, education, or color. Many of those old assumptions of our fathers have been disproven in today’s world. Education stomps on most of those old assumptions with both feet! It is impossible for anyone to walk into today’s world feeling inferior and win! As the world turns, the world always is changing. Only a bigot can remain static in this changing world and assume that he can hold it back.

When I Grow Up

During my formative years I always wanted to be a pilot. I wanted to fly airplanes! Happily, I flew many times while I was growing up. During my life in the military I flew four-engine bombers. After I got out I still flew quite a bit. I was a good pilot, but it was at that time I realized that I would never be a great pilot and at the end of the war there were thousands of great pilots. It was at that time that I realized that God gives each of our body’s limitations and I had to learn to accept that fact. That was the day I learned that my “want to be” would never make me great! My decision that day helped keep my life ever exciting. It opened my door to a new world of “try it you may like it.” And, suddenly I found that my world was full of new and exciting things for me to try! Even today, I find my world full of “when I grow up, things I want to be!” I realized that if I found myself doing something I didn’t like to do or doing something that I really wasn’t good at, maybe I shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. As most of you know, I talk to many people. A few days ago I talked to a man who had the dream of playing pro baseball. He said he was good at it and had a scholarship. Half way through his college, one day he started out his door for practice. Then he stopped! At that instant he quit playing the game! He said he realized that he wanted more out of his life than practice and schedules. He said that he felt he had fulfilled his dream but found himself wanting more. I talk to many older men and women that have lost mates of fifty or more years. Many of them find themselves lost. I wonder if they didn’t have dreams when they were younger. With today’s world so full of things to do, surely they could find exciting things to do. I ask a friend what she had wanted to be and her answer surprised me. She said that; she always wanted to play music and while growing up she was getting good at it. Then, she changed teachers; he would only accept music played “his way,” she felt that everything she had learned or felt in her heart was wrong. One day she played something differently than she was told and he hit her across the hand with a ruler! That day she walked away from music and the desire in her heart! It was many years until she could again start to play because each time she started to play, she could feel the pain from that bully’s ruler across her hand. Surprisingly, sometimes it takes less than a second to change a person’s dreams forever. I keep on trying to decide what I want to be. My trying has helped me to learn what I can do with what my God gave me to work with. It has helped me learn my limitations and how to work within them and maybe most important, how to accept those limitations. I have reached many goals that I set for my life. I think that by reaching my goals and being satisfied with my accomplishments and then setting new goals has made my life exciting. I can’t remember a time that I failed to reach a goal, but I have learned what my limitations are. I treat each new goal as a learning experience. In my world of today, I have found that many of the dreams and opportunities at the time of my growing up, and that was almost eight decades ago, have changed or disappeared. And, my ability to learn new things is far beyond the dreams of our fathers or even my early growing up. As my world progresses, new unheard of opportunities for me may open up tomorrow. So I’ll wait until tomorrow to tell you what I want to be.

God's Right Side

This morning, while watching the Morning News, I listened to a Christian minister who proclaimed that he was on “God’s right side!” But what he was really saying was; either you agreed with his interpretation of that religion or you were wrong! He repeatedly referred to himself as “a man of God”, I thought of him as more of a bigot. In the country that I live in, the country I love, my United States I have learned that at this time only four people out of five now claims membership in an organized religion. That means that twenty out of each one hundred people holds no organized religious faith! I believe that most believe in God, but they just don’t walk through organized religion’s doors. Could it be that ministers and religious leaders like him are making many think twice before claiming membership in any organized faith? For many years I had religious questions, I would go to an authority with my questions, I received answers, but many times those answers just didn’t feel right. So, often I would take my question to a different authority, many times I found myself receiving an entirely different answer! That really confused me! As I became more confused by those different answers from people reading from the same book, but giving me the impression that each answer was right, those troubles grew. About that time I started directing some of my questions to My Father in Heaven. To my surprise He would answer those questions for me in a manner that I could easily understand! Since I started asking questions of Him, I have been taken places and shown things along with those answers. I have found that my faith in organized religion has weakened, but my faith in my God has become rock solid. That part of my faith is without question! Now if I am ask my religion, I can state that I belong to God, I don’t feel that any middleman is needed. Please tell me how anyone can truly determine God’s right side? This man stated that he was a “man of God”. Aren’t we all? Don’t we believe that all of us are God’s will? I do not believe that a certificate on the wall or a different manner of dress would cause our God to listen more carefully to them anymore than He would to you or me. I don’t think God ever checks to see which side we’re on before He listens to us. I often wonder if many of our religious leaders and teachers are more interested in themselves than the ones they are talking to. At times I also wonder if God speaks to them like He does to me. My God told me “I give you My word for you, others may hear those same words differently.” I will never tell you that I am on God’s right side, but I will often tell you that I know that God is always at my side.

Birthdays

For many, birthdays are something to be dreaded. But, for all, it means that each of us has used up twelve months of our life that God has granted us. Some have used that irreplaceable time wisely, while others find they have wasted most of it. I’m sure most of us can find a few “I wish I hads” or a few “I should haves” and maybe one or two “I’ll know better the next times”. I like that last one the best because that means possibly we have learned something. Yes, we were granted the use of that year, but it also means that we find ourselves twelve months closer to our ending! Tell me this; did my body have this many hurts my last birthday? I guess it’s all a part of our God given right called “ageing!” That year is now gone, it’s now past history, it’s all used up. It died when we stepped into our new year! How much of it did we waste? How much did we use wisely? Wouldn’t it be interesting to sit down and write an obituary for those past twelve months of our life? That way we could see the things we feel needed improvement, and isn’t that an excellent place to start? With the start of a new calendar the world starts its new year, but everyone’s birthday comes before the worlds new years. But, all mortals have their birthdays before the world celebrates its new years. I don’t think it’s fair to make us all wait for the world to catch up. Many try not to admit it, but what we gained or lost in our past year was entirely our fault. Most of us hate to admit our mistakes and try hard to lay the blame on others if our life hasn’t worked out, aren’t those birthdays a good place to take more responsibility for ourselves? We never are sure just how much more time our God has granted us, but one thing is for sure; that time granted is our time. It is important time, but also time to use as we see fit! But, we must realize that however we use each second, it can never be reused after we use it once. Happy birthday and may this next year be the best year of your life. My last birthday was one of the best days of my life and I hope yours will be too.

Impressions

Or maybe, I should say first impressions! The first fifteen seconds of the first meeting with someone new can give them an opinion of you that may last a lifetime. Just last night I overheard someone say that they didn’t like a person because of that person’s type! I did not understand what that “type” thing was, but it had to make a strong impression on the one that spoke those words. I did not understand how one person could be that opinionated of a person before that other person could say one word. Some could call impressions a form of segregation. Sadly some of the impressions and opinions we create are brought on by us. We bring them on ourselves by not looking at ourself before others do and as others do! Many have expressed to me that they could not understand why other people treated them the way they do. Could it be that they cause that impression of you to be negative? Other times we can create those bad impressions by the way they dress or our manner of speech. A person that uses a lot of “street talk” will be judged as one with a lesser education or one with a lower opinion of themselves. They have allowed themselves to be placed in the “those people” category by others. I feel extra sorry for Black People, for they have been segregated and held down for centuries. The thing that hurts me the most is that so many of the black kids, the ones we worked so hard to give equality and opportunities to, now think it is their thing to dress differently and to speak differently. And, many of our younger black kids think that their education is something to be played with or even tossed away. They must realize that many sweated blood and many were beaten so that those same kids could have a good education and many who helped them get to where they are today are heart- broken to see that education disrupted and dropped out of. Freedom is not to drop out of, it’s to work with, and it’s learning and making use of that learning! It’s being a part of! As most know, I ask questions of many. A few weeks ago I asked a young kid what he wanted to be when he grew up. His answer shook me all the way to my shoe-soles. His answer was; “why should I plan anything after I grow up? By that time I will either be dead or in prison”! Sadly, there was no emotion in his answer, he was just stating fact! I ask myself how could it be possible for a nice looking young kid like that to think there was no future. He acted as if his life was a throw away. He acted as if he had no future and no place to go if he had one! It seemed to me that he had the impression of himself that he was lost and no willingness to change that impression! Looking back today, I realize how much my impression of me has changed. Then as I look around, I notice that the impression of me, reflected in the eyes and attitude of my friends and family has also changed. Maybe all of those impressions, the snap, the changing, and even those we think are lasting are nothing more than how we live our lives. That life that’s ever-changing. Could all those impressions be nothing more than our judging others as well as ourselves?

The Hardest Parts

Just think, it all started a few days before my eighty-fifth birthday. Now, it’s a little over two years and over a hundred and fifty essays later! And, of course, I’m working on the next hundred. And, as I have told you before, each word is still hand printed on one of my trusty steno-pads before being typed into Word by my trusty one finger. Today I was told to put my feeling of this blog thing into words. That is how the title of this blog came into my mind. When I started to write this essay, the title word “Part” had no s after it. As I started putting this essay together I realized how necessary that last s was. My blog’s “first hardest part” was the day I was told to start a blog. You may remember, I had no idea what a blog was, having never seen one before. So, I had to learn! The “next hardest part” was figuring out what to call the thing. I did not want those readers to have the impression that it was going to be a know it all blog. My “third hardest thing” came when I had to come up with a description. How do I describe something that I had never done before? About that time I felt I had things all wrapped up. Then “hardest number four” smacked me between the eyes! I had my blog all ready to go, but nothing for it to say! That was the day I ask My Friend what I was to write in my blog. The day I was told to put my pen to the paper and start to write! I thought; what help that was? I had no writing experience, what could I do? So, I did as I was told, I put the pen to the paper and started to write! When I stopped writing I typed it into Word. I found my printing had translated into a page and a half which looked about right to me. I failed to mention, as I’m sure many of you know, but I didn’t, that to put things into Word you first have to choose your font and its size. That didn’t prove difficult enough for me to list it as a “hardest part,” but having to learn how to us Word certainly was. I had many never done before decisions to make while learning to publish my blog. Decisions like deciding how long I wanted each essay to be. After looking at the first one, I decided five to six hundred words was about right. I never liked long orations. I think I possibly give “the hardest part number six” to trying to decide what to call what I do. Although someone suggested “words of wisdom” that sounded a bit conceited to me. I’ve decided essays are my best description, because they are just my thoughts as they come into my head. It amazes me each time I think how much I sweat, just trying to come up with that first page and a half of words, for that first essay. Today I find pages of notes for more essays. My old English teacher would be proud of me today. I’m sure she felt that I had learned nothing. But, many decades later I’m finding many of her teachings, yes, the ones I thought so boring at the time, have come back to help me today. You may wonder why I continue to publish these essays today, it’s because of a man in Africa, readers in Canada, England, France, Norway, and Brazil, and that couple in Taiwan! I hope it starts you thinking. It sure does me. I’m sure I have all those “hardest parts” under control and it will be a breeze from now on! One more thing; please don’t tell me that you are too old to learn!

Shapeless Thoughts

I’m going to go back a bit in time. Back in 1997 artist Ray Charles and his backup singers recorded a song. I’m not real sure of the title, but one line in the song made a deep impression on me. That line was; Just a shapeless thought in the shadow of my mind. That one line made me wonder just how many of our thoughts lay there in the shadows forever waiting for us to shape and develop them? It has always been difficult for me to find that one thought and develop it. My mind has always been full of those thoughts hiding in the shadows and all waiting for attention. I guess my mind is like a packet of seeds each seed waiting to be sown. If you are a regular reader of this blog, I’m sure you have wondered why these essays have so many different themes. Many have started with only a one or two word headline, but that is the way those thoughts are put into my head. It usually takes only those few words to pull the rest of the essay out of the shadows. It seems my mind works much like the hard drive on my computer that needs only a few key words to start a search. Each of us has been given the gift of thought, but like our outward appearance we are all different. No two of us look alike or think alike. I’ve found that most of us need something to trigger those thoughts and bring them out of the shadows. Sadly some find that trigger harder to pull than others. Sadly the goal of organized religions is to control our thinking and our thought process. My belief is it is far more important to teach people how to think, than what to think. The goal of education should be creating a desire to find and use OUR thoughts each has hidden in the shadows, to find and share those thoughts for the good of all. Much of today’s thinking of our kids is directed towards letting others do the thinking and only standing by and watching other’s thoughts happen. Seldom do we find great ideas coming from the middle of the flock. Most often we find those ideas coming from the Geeks, the breakaways, the loners, the thinkers, and the ones that will not allow the distractions from others to get in the way of their thinking. Then many times those ideas are returned to the group for fine tuning. The genius is the one that can see those thoughts in the shadows that no one else has ever seen before. Our God has given each of us untold numbers of those thoughts hidden in the shadows of our mind, but each of us must have a desire to find and use those thoughts. As I talk to people, it makes me sad to find so many unwilling to open the lid of that treasure chest of thought that each of us has been given.

Typical

A couple of days ago I had a person tell me that he was a typical American. What he was really telling me was that he was right and if I didn’t think like him I was wrong! He was as much as saying that what his prospective of life was the norm or typical. But, from my point of view, he was far off in his thinking. Throughout my life others, including my family and my religious teachers, kept telling me that I was not typical. Little did they realize that I always looked upon those words as compliments! Most religions cater to those typical people. They are the ones who sit and nod in agreement and approval. They are the easy ones. They are the ones that don’t ask questions. They don’t make waves. Several times I was told not to return! Could it be that I ask too many questions or maybe, they did not know how to answer those questions. Or maybe they were only taught to teach “typical people.” I’m sure that if you ask each grand leader of each of the world’s great religions to define typical, each description would be quite different. Although each would probably agree that each of us had started the same way and would end the same way. Now, I’m going to tell you my answer to one of those “why” questions. When someone asks me the question;” why aren’t you typical like someone else”? And, if they haven’t already asked, I’m sure someday they will. I look them in the eye and then I tell them that if my God would have wanted me to be like that someone else He would have created me like them. We must realize that typical has different definitions for different people. The place we live, the way we speak, the way we have been taught, even our own standards and goals make a difference on how we view typical. Because, we usually use the word as a judgment tool, that typical is nothing more than judgment . All of my life, I’ve had people trying to teach me better ways to do things I didn’t want to do in the first place. Tell me why I would want to do them better? Just because that better for them seems typical for them, doesn’t make me want to change MY life just to make someone else think I’m typical. Since I started this essay I have become more conscious of how often we us this word in our everyday speech. I was shocked to find how many times we use it in describing our foods, our friends, and in life around us. It is fun for me to have a common used word brought to my attention and then notice the many times and ways we use it in our everyday world. Fun and excitement for me, often can be found in a single word, but you must realize that I’m not typical.

People Of All Faiths

All things must have purpose. So, why this blog? I’m not here to convert anyone. The purpose of this blog is to get people to start thinking, to ask questions, to expect answers, and to find a purpose for themselves. My reasoning for this is; I ask many questions of many persons, but receive few answers. Most of my questions are simple like; what did you learn these past few days, or what exciting thing happened to you this past week? Often the reply is “nothing”! Can anyone go seven days and learn nothing? Or, can a person live those seven days and find nothing exciting in their lives? Can anyone waste seven of those precious days that God has given them and come up with nothing? If my finger is pointing at you it’s time to start asking questions, isn’t it time for you to find a purpose in YOUR life! In the days of our fathers and mothers their worlds were much smaller. Most of their lives centered around an area not much more than a hundred miles in any direction, but today I can write a six hundred word essay, like this one, then post it on my blog and then suddenly it becomes viewable to BILLIONS throughout the world! Just think about that! Within less than a second those words can be seen and read on every continent in our world! We must remember that everyone doesn’t see that world the same way we do. I feel that it is important for us to learn how others see things and feel it’s important for them to learn about us. For many years people could hide things from each other, but suddenly with only the touch of a finger we see things happening in our world. And, many times just as they happen! Suddenly we find our religions are no longer our tribal leader, our religious leader in that building down the street. No longer is it just a local call to worship or people dressed in fancy robes while chanting hard to understand things. With but one click we suddenly see people of one faith killing people of another faith! Look, that’s real blood flowing down that street! If it happens close by, could that be my neighbor’s blood? Or, could it be mine! We have to start asking those questions. We have to learn more about the others beliefs, aren’t they our brothers and sisters too? Many are afraid to ask that simple one word question “why?” Are they afraid they will get an answer? But, isn’t it time to start asking? That’s the purpose of this blog! To wake you up! To help you to start asking that “why” question! We will quickly learn that today’s world is no longer that small world of our Grandparents. It enables us to learn and see how others live and think. Never in history have mortals had so much ability to receive answers, but you must ask a question if you expect to receive an answer! Religions without questions are nothing more than an unopened book! We all should be a part of, but we must know what we are a part of. We all should learn to ask that “why” question, but most important, we must learn to ask ourselves the same question! Your belief is unimportant to me. It’s the you inside that belief that’s important to me. If you have been told to hate me just because I don’t walk through the same door as you that makes me sad! Aren’t we all headed for the same exit door? I don’t understand why the different way we get there should make a difference. If you should need a hug, a hand on your shoulder, or a pat on the back, I’m not going to first ask your religion. That was the way some of our father’s old religions worked. Progress has shown us that way did not work! Please help me make each new day “a day of understanding.” Are we really that different? When we bleed isn’t all our blood the same color?

The Right Thing

Who do you let determine the “right thing” for you? I’m sure your right thing is different than mine. After all, didn’t God create each of us differently? Sadly, most religions believe their right thing fits all. Conformity is the basic goal of most religions. It seems that their main goal is getting all their members to think the same way. Yet God, the same creator of all religions, created each of us differently. Does this mean that our God created us differently so we could be made the same? Think of how boring our world would be if everyone was the same and thought the same. But, isn’t that really what most of our religions are trying to do to us? Each of us was born with some kind of an inner belief. We were born to be inquisitive; we were born with a need to know, we just needed to have some kind of an answer for things. Sometimes we call that answer “faith.” It’s basically we believe in things we cannot see. I believe that my God is invisible, and will always be. That way each of us can picture our Creator the way we see Him or Her in our minds-eye. Some will tell you that they can see their God as an old man with long white hair and a beard living someplace up in the clouds to be called on only when needed. I see my God as one who is always walking beside me, always there, never waiting for my call. I never see Him in a long white robe, maybe even sometimes in jeans, but never in a five-hundred dollar suit. Yet that same God you picture at the same time you picture differently in your minds-eye is as real to you as mine is to me. Being invisible does have advantages. Just because we live in different countries and worship our God in different ways and even call Him by different names doesn’t make one of us right and the other wrong. It just makes us different. It just keeps us the way God chose to create us in the first place. Could we both be right and just heading for our same final goals in different ways? Many times we allow our “right thing” to be determined by others. That’s the easy way, if things go wrong we have someone else to blame! We know in our heart that “one size fits all” will not always work. Our differences are what our Creator gave us. Doesn’t that make our being different our God given right? Something that really bothers me is; religious leaders trying to govern my life by rules they say were made for me thousands of years ago. Rules that were handed down, then translated, then opinionated, and finally used by our teachers who give us their prospective of those rules and state that they are all “words of God!” When my God speaks to me today, are His words less important than those words spoken thousands of years ago? My “right thing” is different than yours. I plan on keeping it that way. And, I hope you want to keep yours different too.

Differences

Most religions will tell you that they are right and all others are wrong. I like to find that starting point that makes ALL beliefs the same. Why do most of those beliefs have to start on a negative? Why do we have to start with I’m right and all others are wrong? Doesn’t everything start from that same Creator, the starter of all things? My goal is to find that starting point, that point zero and find something we all can agree upon. We know we all came from a man and a woman. Isn’t that a good place to start? Something had to determine who those two people would be. But, that is only a part of our story, the point zero for each of us. In that determination was also: our time, our color, our point of origin, the basic religion or lack of that we would be born into. If you are one of those that credit fate for all of this, please tell me what you think this fate thing is. I believe that all of this happened because the Creator, the starter of all things, determined that it was time for our point zero to start. I believe that each of us is a part of God’s Will! I believe that each of us is an important part of our Creator’s plans! Never ask “why was I born?” Accept the fact that we are important to our God, or whatever we choose to call Him! And then, run with it! If we all would spend as much time appreciating all of the good things in our lives, as we do looking for the bad, we would make a better world for ourselves. Maybe make a better world for others as well. For some reason we find it easier to find and say bad things about others than to take the time to find and say good things. It seems that we often are more attracted to bad. It always seems to stand out! My prison ministry helped show me that there was a lot of good even in bad places. In today’s world I find hate makes the headlines, but good seldom makes the front page. I find that it is far more important to find something that we can agree upon than to always want to argue. You may be shocked if you are bad mouthing someone and I ask you to stop and tell me something good about that person. I expect you to be able to look for good along with the bad. Opinions must be a two-way street. Judging limits that street to one-way! Most will agree that there has to be a creator, a starter of all things. Isn’t that a good place to start? No one can teach love by hating. We all must do the best we can with what we have been given to work with. There is differences and sameness in all things, but there is also that starting point!

The Gift of Seeing

About noon last Sunday I realized that I had been given a gift from God! I had been using this gift for many years, but it took a few words spoken at just the right time to open my eyes and make me realize the gift I had.
While listening to a speaker I heard him say that he had many beautiful places in his life that he wished he could return to. Up to then I had not given much thought to my way of thinking. I have had many beautiful places in my life, but then my only thought of returning to them was to share them with someone else. I gave thanks for being allowed to savor that beauty and then returned it to its owner.
I taught photography in the field for many years. And, being the selfish person I am, I always tried to choose the most beautiful places at the most beautiful time of the year for my classes. Then, I would go into that area several days before that class and pick the best teaching spots. That way I could show my class the most opportune photo spots for the time they had to spend in each class. It was back then that I first realized that finding beauty was exciting, but that beauty didn’t bloom until I was sharing it with others.
I looked upon all of those beautiful places as gifts to be used and then returned to its owner. I looked upon those places as memories to be filed on film or memory cards and then returned to the world for the next person.
At that time I started to realize our cameras were teaching tools, teaching us to see. Those cameras gave us an excuse for learning. Could it be that our God has given all of us gifts, but we have to find an excuse or a tool to realize what we have been given?
Sunday, yes the same Sunday but a few hours later, my cane and I were walking across a sandy lot when a weed in my path caught my eye. Atop that weed was a vibrant yellow flower no bigger than my thumb nail. Its brilliant yellow was breathtaking! I had to stop and admire it for a moment, because I knew it was put there just for me to see. Others had walked right past it!
You may have noticed that I said my cane and I. Today I find that I have used up most of the goody left in this body, but that doesn’t stop me from finding and enjoying the beauty in my world. My today’s world is much smaller; I can no longer travel to those most beautiful places of yesterday. Today I spend several hours each day sitting on the couch and looking out our large living room window. That window I look through looks out over one of the most beautiful places in the world. I see people, cats, dogs, squirrels, birds, especially humming birds, butterflies, not to mention all of those bright white clouds floating on that dark blue sky. And, many of those clouds form images of different animals! And yes, I know all of that beauty is put there just for me to see! I never have a desire to “go back” because I have already received those blessings. I just keep looking forward to find all those blessings yet to come! Of course I can look back on all of those beautiful memories, but they are just that memories, past memories. I have never wanted to look forward to the past, especially when I can always find my future so exciting!
With my gift I realize it is no longer necessary for me to travel to those exotic places, all I have to do is look around. I guess you could call me one of the richest persons in the world with all those gifts my God has given me. Each step I take finds me knee deep in beauty. All I have to do is open my eyes to find it!

Holy Places

Do we feel that we are closer to our God when we walk into our place of worship? If so, why do we? If we believe that God is always at our side, tell me why, we should feel that He is more receptive to our prayers or listens more carefully to those prayers in some places than in others?
I believe our entire world is one big holy place. I believe that God is our creator, the starter of all things. I do not believe God’s teachings and ideas stopped when the last period was placed on the last pages of all our holy books. I do believe that God continues His teaching and that He expects us to continue to learn throughout our lives. Why else would God give us all of the NEW learning tools we have today? We have been given more tools and the ability to learn from them than the creators of our father’s religions could have ever dreamed of.
Any person of today, with the help of just one sixty-four gig jump drive that can be can held between two fingers, can hold more knowledge than could be found in the head of the smartest person of old! But, we must also realize, that all knowledge is worthless to anyone that refuses to use it. The finest library in the world is useless to the person who can’t read. All the information in the world is useless to the person that CAN read, but can’t comprehend the meaning of those words.
Those religions that require their members to learn and recite pages of text without teaching those members understanding is like trying to teach someone to read in a dark room! Anything is nothing unless it is understood. All of the scriptures of old are worthless without learning and understanding their meanings in today’s world.
I have received hundreds of pages of answers from my God to questions I have asked. Probably people of old would have called them scriptures, but to me they are just my God’s answers to my questions. All of these answers have been easily understood by me and needed no interpretation to know their meaning. All of the essays that you read in these blogs are Bob’s words, not God’s words, but I know who is always guiding my hand. I’m sure God wants me to use many of the answers I have received from Him in these essays because my eyes are continually being opened to new ideas and ways to express them.
One last thought; how many of your blessings have you received in your place of worship, your holy place? Haven’t most of your blessings been one on one, away from any third party? Mine have, I’ve never found that I had to be in a “holy place” or that I needed a “holy person” to intervene for me to receive my blessings.

All About Me

Last Sunday I had a birthday party. It was my eighty-seventh. It was one of the best days of my life. It was a great wake-up call for me. It made me realize what I should do with what my God gave me to do with!
Please don’t cut me off until you read all of this. I want you to know that I know that I talk to my God and my God talks to me. It is up to you if you want to believe this or not. That is unimportant to me because I believe that I can and do.
For all of my life I and others have tried to set unreachable goals for me. Many were just unreachable for me with what God gave me to work with. Many of those goals left me unsure where I was headed and maybe a little unsure where I had been. Sometimes I felt as though I was trying to be a substitute for me. Looking back today, I find that sometimes I was only setting my failure as my goal.
There were many things in my life that I found hard for me to understand. My God told me He was giving me the gift of hearing. But, most of the time I need a hearing aid! I now realize that I hear many unspoken things from others. While sitting in a room with hundreds, as a solo is being played, I find that player and me alone in that room! My gift is the ability to hear with my heart.
My God told me He was giving me the gift of seeing. But, I have glaucoma in both eyes and I’m dependent on three types of expensive medication twice each day! Then, I realized that many times I can see the hurts and pains of others although never being told. Then, I thought about the many times that I see blessings and beauty put there for me to see, while others walk on past and never see those things. My gift is the ability to see with my heart.
My God gave me the gift of healing. Yet, each morning I wake with pain! Many times, just by putting my hand on someone’s shoulder, I recognize a problem, yet unknown to them, and I ask God’s Will to correct or heal that problem. My gift is the ability to recognize the problem and hand it to God for His will.
I’ve tried many different things in my life. Some that worked and some that did not. All things were looked upon as the will or forgiveness of God. In my many years I have learned that God’s things work on God’s time. My God waited until I had lost much of my body’s ability to do things before He told me to start this blog. And remember, when I ask Him what I should write, all I was told was “Put the pen to the paper and write!”
Many “religious” people will tell you that they know what God wants them to do. Then think about this; my God gave me the means and the start and then allows me to do this thing my way.

A Child of God

Many times in this blog I have mentioned “a child of God.” My belief is; each of us is a part of God’s Will. I believe we each started in eternity, and then at the time of our birth we entered our earth life. Upon the completion of our earth life we return to eternity. I believe we have existed in eternity forever! My reason for that belief is because on November 8, 2010 My Friend (My Father in Heaven) told me this; your inner spirit was created in my image. It is the same from eternity to birth to death, then through eternity. Your spirit is a perfect circle there is no beginning and no ending. Your spirit has always, and will always live with Me. Within that circle you will be given many talents. You must use them wisely and share them with many.
I believe that each of us is that “child of God!” I believe that every person is here because it is God’s will! I believe that each of us was created into and born into whatever religion His Will directed us to be. I believe that each of us (you and me) is a product of His Will. That it was the Will of God that determined who we would be, where we were to be born, when we were to be born, how long we would be here, who our parents would be, and even the color of our skin. Even though many mothers and fathers are surprised, God never is! I believe our entire “Book of Life” was written (from the first capital letter to the last period) long before we were born. I just don’t believe we have ever surprised God!
I believe many have tried but few have succeeded in talking and listening to God! I truly believe that I have the ability to talk to my God and to receive answers! For many years I have walked out of places of worship with more questions than answers. I found that many times, all I had to do was ask My Friend questions from my heart to receive my answers. We have had a question and answer relationship for many years. Over the years my God has helped me develop a “fire wall” for those answers. This prevents “hackers” from getting between Him and me!
I’m very careful with my questions because I don’t ask questions of Him that I don’t feel are important enough for me to have to ask my God for answers. Surprisingly some of my answers come to me before I can ask the questions!
I look upon each of our inner spirits as I would a piece of endless string that runs from all the way back to all the way forward. I look upon our earth life as just a knot in that string! In eternity there are no more wars, no arguments, no bickering, just love and good feelings. I think our earth lives are given to us so that when we get back we will know just how good we have it in eternity. In this life, it seems as though we keep building smaller and smaller boxes to house our ideals and limit our lives. In eternity there are NO boxes!
I’ll see all of you later back there in eternity. You’ll find me behind those outstretched arms waiting to give you your welcome home hug.

World's Greatest Weapons

No, it’s not a nuke! Not even a fully equipped army! It’s something most people in our world today have easy access to! It’s the TV, the cell-phone, and the home computer!
Since the beginning of time, fear and ignorance allowed a few to rule over their small worlds. Until recent times all worlds were small. Those worlds were nothing more than a family, a tribe, or an area you could see, in its entirety, while standing on a mountain!
All it took to rule one of those worlds was first a fist, then a club, then a soldier, then later an army. It seemed that to be able to rule those worlds, you had to be someone everyone else was afraid of! Later, people learned that they needed to band together and talk things over. That’s when languages were created. Suddenly people discovered that those from different worlds “talked different!” Quickly people learned that they were “RIGHT” and if “others” did not understand them, they must be “wrong”! We’ll use our armies to show them how wrong they are!
About that time people started to ask questions. They soon learned WHO to ask. If they ask the wrong person, they found themselves dead! They started noticing things; the sun came up on one side of their world and went down on the other at the end of the day. Then came the questions; was it a different sun each day? How did it get from one side of their world to the other?
That is when the learned ones started coming up with answers! They knew that something made it happen. They decided to call that something GOD! They decided to use this “God thing” to explain the many things they did not understand! And besides, that made them look smarter to those “others!”
Then one day, one of the leaders of one of those small worlds had a thought; I can use this “God thing” as a weapon! I can go right into the homes of my people and tell them that if they don’t believe in God, in my way, they’ll die and go to a bad place. We’ll call that bad place “HELL!” If that doesn’t work, there’s always the army! And, I can always send my armies into other worlds and teach “them” how to worship my God “my way.”
For thousands of years that is how things worked! From the beginning of time until the 1940s, that’s when TVs came into the world! Suddenly our world changed! We no longer lived in our safe little regional world! Now we realize that there were others living in “our world!” Billions of others! Most of them also had a God! Could it be the same God just called by different names?
The next shock came in the 1960s when we saw two men standing on another world looking back at our world! Didn’t you think that our world looked small from the moon? Did you wonder if the same God was up there too? Only two men on that entire world, but they had TV!
Before we had TV we could ask questions and receive local interpretations to our questions. With TV often we received those answers before we ask the question. But, with the coming of our home computers in the mid 80s, suddenly our doorway to the world opened! Our information age was here! And then, as the icing on our cake, along came our cell-phones. Suddenly our world was not only in our homes, but also in our pockets!
Never before, in the history of our world, has each person had the power and understanding that each of us have today! And, that power and information is there for all of us. We are able to find information that was available to a chosen few just several years ago! Those new weapons are some of the most feared by some of the world powers and even some of our religious leaders! It’s much harder for them to convince us today, that if we don’t do things their way, bad things will happen to us. Could it be that all of our new weapons are their Hell?

Normal

Are you normal? Am I normal? I hope not! Many times I’ve wondered who draws those lines that determine what is normal and what is not. As I started this essay, that one word suddenly shifted my thinking process into high gear! Just think of how the definition of that one word has changed in just the past decade. It’s hard for most of us to find “wiggle room” in that one word, yet all of us do! Our “normal” life style in today’s world makes walking a straight line, in each of our worlds, very difficult as most find that line changes with every step. Beside, who or what could you compare yourself to?
I feel that how far we allow others to judge us is determined by the size of the box that we allow those others to build for us and try to put us in. Most seem to want to build the boxes for others, but get up tight when they think others are trying to build boxes for them. Most put more guide lines on others, they are more judgmental of those “other people!”
My Grandma, my guiding light, used to judge everyone by her interpretation of how they “should” be acting. She had the highest standards of any person I have ever known and sadly everyone was judged by her standards! Many times I remember her pointing to someone and saying; what they are doing is not normal, or at times she would tell me I should learn to think more normal thoughts! She loved me, but in her mind she had a picture of a box she thought I should be living in. Of course the box that I pictured in my mind had a very different look. Much of Grandma’s normal had been established in horse and buggy days. My life style moved much faster!
Most of today’s religions were built on things that were considered normal back in those horse and buggy days, or even donkey days. Many expect us to live our lives as lives were lived a thousand or more years ago, the “though shall or shall not’s” days of old! Most are still trying to draw straight lines and boxes that they tell us we must use in our today’s world. But, many like me find it difficult to walk those narrow lines or live in those small boxes. Many of those teachers of religion today are finding that it is easier to tell someone else how they should be living their lives than living their teachings themselves.
I have found many things that effect our outlook on normality, the region we live in makes a big difference, as does our religion, our music, our neighbors, our belief in our self, that list goes on and on. I want you to think about this; if our God created each of us to be different, how can any of us be normal?
I truly believe that throughout our lives, we are continually being pushed one way or another by a world trying to make us over to its interpretation of normal. A world trying to keep us in a small box! After living all these many years, I have yet to meet that person I could look upon as normal, thinking back , not even as NEAR normal! I believe all that normal stuff is nothing more than an invisible, ever-changing goal that others set for us, but will never be reached by us as long as we are mortal!

Questions and Answers

If you expect to receive answers; first, you have to learn how to ask the question. Second, you must learn how to listen for those answers. Many try to have a rebuttal ready before they ask the question. Too many are thinking negative thoughts that make their understanding of the answer difficult. Others find those answers that are different from their teachings are easy to brand wrong. Right, wrong, or indifferent any answer deserves thought before being judged.
There needs to be a wide gap between an answer and an argument. If a person is subject to argue, they may learn that they are the subject to fewer questions. Questions are asked for knowledge; all knowledge is subject to interpretation. Just because something is written in stone, does not make it always right.
If we are asking for answers from Our Father in Heaven we must be willing to accept those answers. At times we may find those answers to be different from the way we were taught. It is important to accept those answers without questioning, qualifying, or trying to analyze. For those answers we have gone to the source, the starter of all things, and the highest of the high! I have always found those answers to be understandable. They are always in my language and the way I speak it today!
I believe God gives answers to all throughout our lives, but few have heard them or cared to listen. The answers are much like our many blessings, most walk through life never seeing or hearing them! All are present, but few are recognized!
The people that God speaks to are no different than everyone else. They’ve just learned to listen! We learn much more from the answers than the questions. Each of us must learn when to talk and when and how to listen.
Our talking with our God does not require special words or special places. I speak with Him as I would to any other good friend. I’ve heard words from Him in many places. I’ve heard His words; while driving down the highway at seventy, and also heard then in my bathroom while in the shower, and a multitude of other places as well!
I never tell Him what I expect of Him, but several times I’ve been told what has been expected of me. A time or two I have been told to do things that I normally could not do, but I tried, and found I could do them. I know that He knows me better than I do! It’s so great to have a friend like that!
I have no intention of telling you how to think. My goal is to hand you something to think about. I don’t expect you to agree with my every thought. I just want each of my essays to be a starting point in your thought process.

Our Rating

Every program that you watch on your TV has one greatly feared item. That item is its “rating,” the number of viewers that go to that show’s channel each time that program is on. Most shows also have a site for comments. They want to know the comments from each presentation. Each new presentation is based on the response from viewers of past shows.
Each show has one or more sponsors. They are the ones that pay the money to keep the show on the air. If the sponsor starts to see that show’s ratings declining, they go to the producers of the show and inform them that they must bring more viewers to the show or it will be canceled!
Now, let us take that same train of thought and move it from our TV set to the place we go for our religious instruction one or more times each week. How is its rating?
Are more old faces dying off, than new faces coming in to fill those recently vacated seats? Are we receiving enough interesting new material each week to give us a talking point for the week that follows? Are we being shown new ways to look and talk about the same thousand year old material we’ve heard about all of our lives?
Are we in the center of a protest of our teaching, a protest by people not showing up? Are we still trying to sell our product the same way it was sold in our father’s world?
Scriptures, or the interpretation of them, have modified over time, but in many places those who teach expect time to stand still. Look around us; we are living in the information age, things change by the minute! Our ratings are determined by our willingness to accept change!
It’s hard to move into the past, when the future is all around us. We must realize that our ratings are not a tool to use to judge ourselves. Those ratings are there to show each of us how to do things better. We have more tools and better tools than any generation before us. But, those tools are only as good as the use we put them to. The best tools in the world are worthless to the person that refuses to learn to use them.
The people that we talk to today are more thinking, more intelligent and more questioning than those of yesterday. Most want to hear more than; it’s so because I say it’s so, or that is my interpretation of what it says in the Book! Today’s peoples have learned to ask questions and expect answers. If we can’t give them those answers they’ll find them elsewhere. We must remember: the rest of the world is only a mouse click away!

Marketing God

Many of the large religious places of yesterday are standing as empty shells today, while others have far less activity than in days gone by. Most are using the same tools that worked well for them years ago, but many of those tools have become obsolete today.
With the coming of TV, the cel-phone or Smart phone, and most of all, the computer, many find their congregations falling by the way side. With most religions based on teachings based on hundreds to thousands of years of successful teaching, suddenly many find that today’s world requires that God has to be marketed in new ways!
The key words are “the people of today.” Today we face a more educated people! Those unafraid to ask questions and many refusing to accept; it is true because I say it’s true! One person’s interpretation means far less when people, with just a few clicks of the mouse, can go to that computer, in their own house, and find many different interpretations of that same statement! I believe that having the ability to contact the world is better than sitting week after week listening to someone preaching to the choir.
I believe religion, in general, has been handed the greatest tool to market God our world has ever seen! To give you an example; just before my eighty-fifth birthday I was told to start a blog. Me, one who had no idea what a blog was! I had never heard the word before! Now, less than two years later my blog has been read by someone on every continent in the world! This same world that at the time most of our sacred works were written, the people that wrote those words had no idea that the continent I’m writing this from today even existed!
I have a point I need to make before I go farther: it makes no difference to me what you call your religion! I know there is but one God, your God and my God. Doesn’t that make each one of us either a brother or a sister? Aren’t we each a part of all religions under that God? Isn’t that God, our God, the creator and started of all things?
A ways back I mentioned my blog, I had to learn many new things in a very short time to get it on line! I found that I had to learn Word (that I had never used before), next I found that I needed Face Book, then I heard about Skype! I’m working on that too. Can you imagine both of us sitting at home and talking face to face?
Lastly, in my spare time I’m starting to learn YouTube! When I become a “Tuber” you will be able to pull me up at your convenience and both watch and listen to my essays. I promise, each message will be three minutes or less. And, I look forward to your feedback on those. Today, I’m only on page 53 of that 440 page manual, but I’ll get there!
I have been very surprised by how far my blog has come with little financing, no formal writing training, and just my computer in my home! To the many people that have read my essays, I say thank you. If you see something you like please pass it on. I, like I’m sure you have wondered why I was chosen to do this, Then one day I realized that many times our God uses the least among us to do His work.
With the tools that have been provided for us today, many of the old world religious ideas have a lot to learn. Many of today’s young people learn from their cel phones, Smart phones, I pads or lap tops. Most messages are watched or listened to for a minute or two at the most and then deleted! If you can’t get your message out in that time it’s lost forever! There is no reason to expect those kids, in this new digital age to listen and watch the old long orations! There are too many more exciting things for them to do!
Many of today’s leaders are lazy! They love to address the sure things! They address their messages to the ones they know are already there! Many allow themselves to become computer illiterate. Many refuse to use those tools that God has laid at their feet! If they were salespersons for another product they would have been fired! We must realize that our God hands us new miracles every day, but we must learn to recognize those miracles to be able to use them!
A few minutes ago a man and an older lady came to my door trying to interest me in their interpretation of God. While we talked I told them about my blog. The lady was shocked; she told me that my computer was a tool of the Devil! Then she told me that her Bible told her the only way to reach people has to knock on doors! And, then she turned and walked away! See what I’ve been talking about?
For each door she knocks on, I’m able to knock on thousands! I want them to keep all of those easy ones, please give me the hard ones, because they are the important ones to me!

Learning Two

In the third or fourth grade I had a teacher that I disliked. In fact, I developed a hatred for her! She taught me English. She taught me if I wanted to learn or not!
Back then, each student was supposed to learn the “Palmer Method” of writing. It was a form of writing using ovals and lines that was supposed to make one a better writer. For me it just did not work! It taught me how to hold my pen, but nothing else! One day, about halfme to stay after school. She told me to sit at a desk just in front of her table!
With tears in her eyes, she told me that she never befo-way through the school year, my teacher pointed her ruler at me and told re had to give up on one of her students, but that she was giving up on me! She told me that she didn’t think that I would ever learn to write long-hand that could be read by others! Then, she told me that I should learn to PRINT! And, then she told me to go home!
The very next day, she again pointed that ruler at me and again told me to stay after school! This time she told me that even though she had given up on my hand writing, she had not given up on me speaking properly! In fact she said; if I did not learn proper English “we both would die trying!” All the while she talked she kept slapping the palm of her hand with that dreaded ruler! And, I was scared to death of that ruler!
Looking back today, I think she was one of my best teachers! She had learned to walk that fine line between love and fear! Although I can’t remember her name, I feel she and my Grandma were the two with the most effect on my early life! And, I can still remember the sting of that ruler on the back of my hand!!!
My guess would be that we only use a small percentage of what we learn, but you can’t use what you don’t have! I also feel it important to learn things that are considered impractical today, because they are the things that can change our today’s dreams into tomorrow’s reality. Only that last breath puts a limit on our learning!
I’m always surprised at how many times I refer to things I learned decades ago, when I write these essays. To those of the past who took the time to teach me to think and learn, I give you my warmest thank you!
Much of my school life, I looked upon my education as a group of teachers propagandizing captive people in a closed room. I now realize that, as I live each day, each of those teachers who took time to teach me is also living it with me.
I feel so sorry for all the kids that drop out of school today. Many will never have the chance to feel the excitement of learning all of those new things that I feel each day!
For me, life is the need to always have something to pursue! I thank those before me that taught me to ask questions. I’ve learned; what you get out of life, depends on what you bring to it!
P.S. every word in this essay was first printed by hand as per that third or fourth grade teacher!!!

Captive Persons

Captive people are those we formerly called slaves. Those slaves were thought to have been freed, in the USA, by Lincoln in the 1800’s you say. If you believe that, sit down, because I’m talking about you and me TODAY!
I know, because, I pride myself in thinking that I do most things “my way!” That is until I started putting this blog together! For starters, let’s pretend that we are each a box of cereal, yes breakfast food! We all want to feel that the box we’re housed in is a “king sized box!” We visualize ourselves quite a ways from the edges so that we don’t feel boxed in. We need lots of room to move around. Room to do our own thing!
Dream your dream! A few short moves and we find that we have run into the sides of that box we find ourselves in! It’s not that king-sized box of our dreams. We’ve found ourselves packaged in only a ‘single serving” size box!
Did I hear you say “no one puts ME in a box?” Each time you sit down to watch that game on your TV you put yourself in an eight minute box! It’s commercial time! You unknowingly have let someone else put you in a box, and you pay to have it done to you! “So what?” you said I can turn the thing off any time I want. I’m still in control! Wrong!
You and me, all of us, are slaves to ourselves, our jobs, our addictions, our spouses, our health, our laws, our ageing, our religion, even our want to be’s. With each item our box becomes smaller! You may have noticed the first that I listed was OURSELVES. It’s difficult to really be satisfied with our self.
One of the most difficult things for most of us to handle is ageing and all must face the fact that it is one of our God given rights! Many associate old with ugly. I would like to hear the term “attractive older person” used more often. It’s more gentle than that old woman or man.
I would also like to touch on addiction. I look upon it as a health issue. Never feel one must hit the bottom before asking for help. Please remember I am always here to help and I never point fingers or brand people with names.
Sometimes I can recognize when help is needed, sometimes I can’t. Help is always just an ask away. There have been too many times I’ve found myself saying; if I would have only known! Sometimes it has been too late!
We, you and me, determine the amount of captivity we find ourselves in. The faith each of us has in ourselves will often determine the amount of control we allow others to have over us.

Bubbles

If we want to admit it or not, we each live in a bubble! That bubble is one of our own making, or one that we have allowed others to make for us. Like it or not, I have found that those bubbles are our own choosing! We either allow our life to happen, or we make our life happen! Although that bubble is transparent, we often find ourselves running headlong into its limitations. Boundaries, that either we have made for ourselves, or have allowed others to make for us!
Please forgive me for using myself as an example, but I know me better than I know anyone else! In one of my last essays, I mentioned that many unplanned things happened that changed my life. I also mentioned how, at an early age, I realized that others were trying to put me in a bubble of their choosing, not mine! That will be the starting point for this essay.
I had found that a majority of those I wanted to talk to would only show an interest in conversation at their convenience or their choosing! As soon as I realized this, I started forming my bond with My Father in Heaven. I knew He was always at my side and would always be there and would always take the time to listen! I learned that with Him at my side, I had much less need for the rest of the world.
With Him at my side and a few special friends, suddenly I felt free to start building my bubble my way! I spent many years bubble building and ended with one I could live comfortable in! I could open its door and let those of my choosing in and close its door to others! All the while knowing My Friend was beside me with the ability to open that door to opportunities that I would otherwise miss! I found that my bubble allowed me to watch and learn without having to participate!
Today I still find My Friend and me still living in my bubble, although I find the two of us walking in and out more often. Today I find many trying to escape from their bubbles, their bubbles that they built for themselves! Many tell me that they would like to go, or be, someplace else. But if they aren’t happy here, how do they know that “someplace else” would or could, be any different? Others have stated that; they would just like to get away from it all. Where could you go if that new place looked no different after you got there and you still found it full of “it all?” Ever think about chasing a few out of your bubble and then remodeling it to your liking? It’s hard to escape from yourself!
Years ago, I discovered that my bubble could become a lonely place, even with My Friend beside me. I learned that excitement can turn to burdon unless we learn to work and find new and exciting things to do.
It takes just a short time to change our bubble from a place of pride and joy to a prison! And, that choice is up to no one but you and me!

Pontential

In your life, do you feel that you have reached your full potential? As I started this essay, I realized that our potential (our ability to accomplish our capability) is a major part of each of our lives! It is a part of living that we often use as we judge ourselves. It is a part we fear, always feeling we could have done more, while at the same time cherish, as we look back at our accomplishments.
Sadly, it is one of the principle things our leaders try to control! And, as I refer to leaders, I’m referring to EACH person we come in contact with that could have the ability to change our lives
I truly believe each person’s true potential is one of society’s most feared objects! In every religious book, we find passages that tell us our God wants to hold back many of our potentials, especially those of women! Could God really want that of any of His children? If My God gives me the potential to do something, I just can’t believe that He would have instructed that person, the one who wrote a religious book thousands of years ago, to tell me now that I can’t do something because it is wrong! Just because it was wrong then, does that by necessity make it wrong today?
Often, in my lifetime I have been told that I ask too many questions. But, I found that many times if I ask the same question of different people, many who felt they were qualified to answer; I could expect many different answers! About that time, I started going to My Father in Heaven for my answers1 I was looking for true answers, not someone’s interpretation! One day I asked Him if I was asking too many questions, His reply was; if you don’t ask questions, how can you expect answers?
I believe our potential is like many other gifts our God gives us. Like our other gifts, if we use those gifts well they will grow and more gifts will come our way. But if, we hide those gifts or let others try to control them they will wither and fade away. Those potentials, that we have received, should not be compared to those given to others. My potential does not make me more right or wrong than you, just different. I maybe can’t jump as high or run as fast as you, I just don’t have that potential.
My Grandma was one that taught me to never underestimate my potential. She would never allow me to say that I could not do something. If I would tell her that I could not do something, her reply was always; have you tried? If my answer was yes, her comeback was: have you really tried? I never could fib to my Grandma because she always knew! Because of her I fulfilled many of my dreams that I normally would have backed away from. I have had several times in my life that I ran above my potential and did the impossible dream! I’ve had other times that I ran full steam into corners! But, I tried, I really tried! The only way you can find out how much God gave you to work with is to try, to really try!
I know the world is always trying to keep our potential safely in a box. We are told to use our potential to the fullest, but then we hear a whisper behind our back, someone saying; but, we can’t let it go too far!
Most of us have some idea of what our potential really is, but many times we use it as a whipping boy! When talking about it in our conversations we often slip in that BUT word! That one word is used so often to allow us “wiggle room.” It gives us the satisfaction of knowing that we aren’t any worse than the rest of the world!
Let’s kick that “but” word! Let’s spread our wings and fly! It was God that gave us our potential, let’s use every drop of it!

Think, Believe, or Know

For much of my life I had a testimony of that life. I had things I thought. I had things I believed. And, I had things I knew! For many years I found myself satisfied with my way of thinking, as I had no reason to change. Then one day, My Friend explained the difference in each way of thinking and expressing myself.
Basically I was told; if I think something, I’m giving my interpretation of that thought. If I say that I believe something, I’m saying that I agree with something that has been spoken or written, but I still leave room to question. If I say I KNOW something, it is something beyond question! It is as positive as the sun coming up in the morning! It is something directly related to God! It is beyond question! It is beyond interpretation! It is truth! It is faith!
You may wonder how I got to where I am today. I will try to explain my journey to you. Soon after I learned to talk I started asking questions and listening closely to those answers. Later I found that many did not want to “waste a lot of time answering little kids questions!” Others had other “more important things” to do than bother with “foolish” questions. A few would say “Bob, come on over and sit a spell and talk a spell.” They were the ones that I learned the most from, they taught me how to listen. They were ones that took the time to answer questions that were important to me!
My problem was that I was beginning to feel that most of the world was trying to put me in a bubble not of my making. Then one day, while skipping home from Sunday school I remembered something the teacher had said! He had told me that My Father in Heaven was always at my side! He told me that I never would be able to see Him, but if I had faith I would know He was there.
I had no idea what that faith stuff was, but maybe I could believe My Father was always there. At first, occasionally I would reach over and try to touch something or look down to see if I could see a shadow. I found that I could do neither! But, I knew I had a special feeling just knowing something was there! In my heart, I knew He was there, but what could I do with Him?
About that time I had a friend, another little boy that I played with. This little boy could not talk. While we were playing together, I noticed that when I would talk to him he would smile and if I ask a question he would shake his head in answer. I told this friend many things because as I talked he would smile.
This made me wonder if my other silent friend would like to be talked to. I started talking to Him as well; I told Him all kinds of things, just like I would to any other friend. Then sometime later I noticed that I had dropped the prayer talk and was addressing Him as My Friend.
One day much later, I happened to think about my silent little playmate and thinking about him shaking his head in answer to my questions. I started wondering if my other silent friend would answer too? But I could not see Him!!!
For many years I had been talking to that friend, but I never had ask a question because I had no idea how that unseen friend would or could answer! And, if I got NO ANSWER could I ever be sure again that He was really there? How could I ask a question of someone that I have been accepting as fact throughout most of my life, and suddenly have a shadow of doubt?
I decided that it was time! I had to know! Then I started wondering many things; was I prepared for an answer? Dare I ask? How should I ask? Am I worthy to ask? Can a common person like me ask a question of My Father in Heaven and even expect an answer? For a while I was afraid to ask!
Then I jumped in with both feet! I ask my question! Since I had been addressing Him as My Friend for years that was how I worded my question! My question was “My Friend, if I ask you a question, can I expect an answer?”
In a short moment I received my answer! It was not in the booming voice from Heaven that many would expect! It was ONLY ONE WORD! That word as it was placed in my heart was a “YES!”, and it was as soft as a meow from a pussy-cat!
Since that day, I have had many conversations with My Friend. Many were no more than chit chat conversations that one would have with any other friend. But others were words that needed to be written accurately, word for word, and then dated, words that should be read over many times. Over the years I have accumulated pages and pages of those answers to my questions.
One day I asked My Friend if I ask too many questions. His reply was; if you don’t ask questions how can you expect answers. I must add I don’t look upon myself as anything special, I’m not a minister, a prophet, an anointed person, or a chosen person, I’m Just Bob, just someone that has learned to hear my God’s answers when He speaks to me!

Learning

This essay is going to be a bunch of mismatched ideas that are as close to the way I think as I can put on paper! I guess you might call it Bob’s logic, but I’m not sure I ever was logical.
When I think, I think thoughts (notice I put an s on the end of that word)! If you have been reading my blog, you may have noticed, it has no set theme!
Years ago in school, I hated to take notes. Today, I have hundreds of notes, pages and pages of notes. I look upon them as my external hard drive. Most of them will be found in future blogs. Today I use outlines. I hated them too.
If you are a teacher and one of your kids ask; why they have to learn all of that boring stuff? Tell them you know someone that took seventy years to answer that question, but he knows the answer today!
When I started this blog, my worry was; how can I come up with enough material to fill that first page! Today my worry is; can I find enough time to put all of my ideas on paper?”
Writing these essays has taught me much about ME! I’ve learned that I don’t mind being told what people want done, but I don’t want them telling me how to do it! A good example of that is; when My Friend told me to start a blog. He told me what He wanted and then left it up to me to figure out how to do it!
Looking back, in the hundreds of questions He has answered for me, never once can I remember being told how I should use those answers! Even in writing this blog, I am given the subject and then allowed to work with it my way! Of course I know that He is always looking over my solder!
Please tell me, how many other eighty-six year olds, find excitement in each day of their life? After talking to hundreds of others I’ve found excitement is only is only found in the eye of the beholder. Many are looking so hard to find boredom, that they can’t see the excitement around them.
I feel excitement is learning! I look upon a person that has stopped learning, as a person that is brain dead!
I try to talk to everyone I come in contact with. I find very few I talk to that I learn nothing from. I’ve also noticed that the more people I talk to, the more I find in common with them. And, this gives me a broader subject base to talk about.
Many times our dreams contribute to our learning. I’m sure you’ve heard me say that if you can dream it you can do it. But, you have never heard me say that all those dreams will be easy to fulfill! Many of my dreams have taken days of learning to be fulfilled!
If anyone would have told me, on my eighty fifth birthday, that I would ever publish over a hundred thousand words on a blog, I would have told them that they were flat-out crazy! Now, in a few more weeks I’ll be over that number! And, that is probably more words than I wrote all the rest of my life!
You must remember that each of those words was first printed by hand on a steno pad, then typed by one finger in Word, before you got to read it on my blog!
At eighty five I ask “Why me God, why me?” At almost eighty seven I find myself saying “Thank you God, You opened up a whole new world of learning and excitement for me!”

I Saw Love

Last Sunday evening, Sandra, I and others attended a farewell concert for our departing Snowbirds held at the Destin Florida American Legion. Those Snowbirds are the folks from the north that come to our area to spend their winters with us and then return home in the spring. The music was provided by our friend Jabbo.
Jabbo’s voice started giving him problems about half way through his program. I’m sure he wondered if enough was left to be able to finish. Being the trouper he is, he made it! Although, I’m sure that he wondered if that last hour would ever end!
After Jabbo’s part of the show, Bob the bartender, came out from behind the bar with his bagpipes. Yes, I said behind the bar, and yes it was Sunday! And no, I did not say “forgive me Father for I have sinned!”
Bob played “Oh Canada” and “America” on his pipes, and then, he started playing “Auld Lang Syne.” All fifty or sixty of us had been standing and singing but with the start of the new song, everyone joined hands and formed a circle of LOVE!
Suddenly, I had the feeling that every heart in that room was beating as one! For over eighty years I have attended many religious presentations, but here I stood on a dance floor in a bar room on the Sabbath and I found myself experiencing one of the strongest feelings of group love of my life! Could it be, when God is ready to touch someone, he doesn’t bother with the surroundings?
I’m sure that each of us walked from that room with a bit of that shared love that I had just experienced! It seemed that no one was in a hurry to leave! It was important to hold that experience as long as possible! Those moments are so few and far between and I feel sorry for anyone that goes through life never having the opportunity to experience one.
Many times in my life I have felt love happening, but I can’t remember a time that I could stand and watch it happen! And, watch it happen to so many!
Thank you Jabbo because it takes someone like you to set the mood for it to happen! Thank you Bob for doing the right thing at the right time! Thank you God for bringing all of us together in that odd place! Many of us walked in as strangers, but we all walked out as family!

Programming

Programming is simply brain washing. I know that, if asked, each of us would argue that no one would be allowed to program ME! But, think again! Our lives are nothing more than program after program being thrown at us every step of the way!
Much of our programming is of our own doing. Our standards, our goals and the standards we allow others to set for us. But, the greatest programmer was our God! Fore it was He that determined who our parents would be, where we would be born, the environment we would be born into and the color of our skin.
With much of our world telling us what it expects from us, many times we find our lives difficult to figure out just who we are or what we really want our lives to be! Worse than that, we must decide, many times, just who is living our lives. It’s sad to say, but many try to set our goals for us higher than they would ever set for themselves.
We have to learn to program ourselves, yes ourselves, and how much we will allow others to program us. At every step in our life we run head long into others who are trying to make us someone we are not.
Have you ever thought about who all those people are that take it upon themselves to change us? They are our loved ones, our doctors, our religious leaders, our TV, our computers, that person on the other end of your phone, even most printed matter you read, and yes even this blog! And, each will tell you that they are “helping you” or making you “a better person!”
Much of our programming is there to make us “feel good” of “feel bad” about ourselves. To make us feel “worthy” or “unworthy” of ourselves! Some of the adds we read try to convince us that we need “this or that” to make us look important to others. Aren’t they really trying to make us someone we aren’t?
Tell me this; who determined what is that “better” that others expect us to reach? What gives “them” a right to judge me? I’m careful of the standards and the goals I set for myself. But, when something is “right” for me, it is not necessarily “right” for the rest of the world! Please don’t try to program my dreams, because they could be all wrong for you.
If I would allow some religions to program me; I could find myself scooping up horse manure in my street and be riding in a horse drawn buggy as their members still do! For me, I would much rather drive down a highway at seventy-five in my air-conditioned car, but that’s my choice!
I have found it wrong, for me, to compare programming and progress in the same breath. I also have found it wrong, again for me, to consider programming a tool of the future. I’ve found many still trying to program themselves to the past, the “good old days.” The future is never yesterday or thousands of years in the past! That future is from right now and on!
I allow myself to be programmed only if I feel it is right for me. How about you, are you going to live your life by your standards or by theirs?