Good People Bad Things

I do not believe My God punishes people. I do not believe anyone is punished with disasters or illness for things they have or haven’t done. My God is a loving God certainly not one hovering over my head just waiting to punish me each time I mess up.
Most of us would prefer to have bad things only happen to bad people but life just doesn’t work that way! I’ve had people tell me that God was trying to test their faith. Why should God “test” anyone? Because He already knows!
Many people spend much of their lives trying to analyze life’s happenings but in the end they still end up with no more than gray hair and a stupid answer or two. I’m sure they end with more questions than answers!
Many of our religious leaders of today are considered to be consolers. Look twice before you ask one of them for advice! Most of them have messed up their lives just like the rest of us. Some even more!
Many religious organizations thrive on threats of dire happenings for members of their congregations if they do or if they don’t. Their main objective is to put the “fear of God” into each member’s heart! I personally do not fear my God. I look upon my God as my friend. How long would you keep a friend if you were always afraid of him? Maybe that’s the only way they can pay their expenses!
I have seen bad things happen to good people many times. I just cannot believe that is a tool my God uses. When tragedies strike, like the one that hit Japan, there is no way you can convince me that all of those people are being punished by my God. I look upon it as a happening of life, a part of living and dying. I’ve talked to some that expressed guilt for it happening, I feel no guilt. I feel sorry for those affected. I will help in any way I can but I feel that each of us must continue living our own lives the best we can.
I do not believe that when something tragic or major happens in our lives it becomes necessary to stop living, stand around and wring our hands, and then ask “why me Lord, why me?” Think back, when we prayed didn’t we pray ‘Your will, will be done”? That’s why!
With that prayer (and if we TRULY believe) we have to accept life as it is handed to us. Life has few favorites. We must learn to live or die with what has been handed to us. Life is nothing more than doing the best we can with what our God has given us!
Don’t always try to judge yourself, others, or even God. Learn to accept what has been given.
If you are a person who KNOWS that God punishes people, then, can you explain to me, how bad people receive good things.
I’m sure if each of us could have written our own “Book of Life”, each of us would prosper and live each of our days without grief or pain. Sorry, but life just doesn’t work that way!
Good or bad, rich or poor, each will have good days and bad days. But I don’t believe those bad days are because of our transgressions. I believe each new day is a blessing for us. How we end each day is in relation to how we started that day. I feel that if we start each day with a positive first step, no matter how we feel, we’ll keep that positive all day. If our first step is negative----may God help us!
Good people, bad things-bad people, good things. It’s called LIFE! Live each day for that day, tomorrow will come soon enough! Yesterday? That’s history learn to live past it.

Count Your Blessings

If I fall face down in the mud, please tell me, just where is my blessing? I can’t just lay there; I must roll over and open my eyes! I’m still breathing aren’t I? I’m alive and still breathing. Isn’t that a blessing? Think of all of that mud on the back of my head, isn’t that all in the past? When I opened my eyes I saw all of that bright stuff in front of me. That is my future! All I have to do is stand up and walk into it!
What made me fall? I know what it was! I’m sure I’ll never let that happen again; I’ll remember how it happened and never ever let it happen again! Learning experiences like that seldom come easy, but that’s how we learn.
Please don’t let anyone try to tell you that life is easy. When we started school we found the hard parts of our life was ABC’s or 1234’s. As we grew older we found we had to trade those letter and numbers for unexpected rocks that we found in our road of life.
Each letter, number, or rock was nothing more than a learning experience. Actually we were receiving God’s blessings as we learned to overcome each difficulty. I guess you could say that there is a direct relationship between our learning and the blessing that we receive.
There is also a relationship between our positive or negative outlook on our lives. You will find it easy (with negative thinking) to let a negative attitude blind a person from seeing many of the blessings normally received each day.
It is easy to giveaway things we don’t have (ask anyone who plays the lottery). But, sometimes if all we have to give is just a few moments of our time, that time can be a real blessing to a person in need. There are times that just a hug, a squeeze, a hand on the shoulder, or a listening ear can be that persons blessing.
Those blessings come in all sizes. They can last a lifetime or they can last but a minute or two. They can seem trivial to the giver and mean much to the receiver. Those blessings are God’s gifts to each of us.
Our blessings can range from a pleasant smile from someone we love to something earth shattering that changes our lives forever. Blessings also depend on how the receiver accepts them. To a rich man a few pennies found would mean little. But. To a poor man they could be his next meal!
I have found the more times I thank My Father in Heaven for those blessings the more conscious I become of my blessings. It seems to open my eyes to seeing more of those blessings.
The way each person interprets those blessings can be quite different. What you see as a beautiful flower may look like just another weed to someone else! Our God has seen fit to give each of us our own personality. Each has developed their own way of seeing, feeling, hearing, smelling, tasting, and smelling. That does not mean your way is wrong or my way is right. It just means that God gave you your way and He gave me my way.
Blessings are God’s way of putting learning and joy into each of our lives. The more we become conscious of those blessings, the more we learn how to look for and find and appreciate those blessings. The more love and joy we will find that God has put in our lives. If you ever feel that God has put more blessing in the life of others than you. It’s not that God loves them more, It’s just that they have learned where to look!

A Lifetime to Learn

When I was sixteen, I knew everything! When I talked with “old folks” (and that was anyone older than me) it seemed to me that all they wanted to talk about was things that had happened to them. I couldn’t understand why they expected me to listen to all their stories about all of that “old stuff”.
Little did I realize at that time that many of those old person conversations were really teaching experiences aimed at me to help me avoid situations that had caused them problems in their lives. Many times they were showing me ways around problems that had caused them to stumble and fall. But, I already knew everything so--- I thought it would be a waste of my time to listen closely to all that boring stuff.
There was one old person that I listened to. That person was my Grandma. Looking back now, I realize just how many times it took her bop on the side of my head to get my attention and help me put my head back on straight.
It took me many years and many scars before the smarts moved in and I started to realize that those boring stories, the ones I so casually brushed off, were teaching experiences for ME! Often they were showing me how they found rocks in their road of life and how they had overcome them. They were teaching me LIFE and many times I turned that teaching off! Or, maybe I just didn’t realize they were that important.
Today there have been times that I have looked down my nose and criticized today’s kids. Looking back, many of those kids are much like I was. And, I didn’t have to put up with all of today’s “correctness”. Also, few of today’s kids have a Grandma like I had!
Another thing, my teacher could march me out to the coat room, pick up that big paddle hanging from a hook and give me ten swats on my bottom. With closed eyes I still remember the sounds of the giggles from the girls as I walked back into the room with tears still on my cheeks. Many of my learning experiences seem to last a lifetime. I wonder how teachers and Grandmas get the kid’s attention today.
Today I realize that one of my greatest accomplishments has been learning HOW to learn. My greatest blessing is learning! I know that as long as there is a breath in this body there will always be things for me to learn. It’s learning that makes our life exciting!
As I age I have found that some of the things I have learned I tend to forget. Could it be that my hard drive gets full and I have to empty a few things out to make room for more learning? I wonder if forgetting a few things in later life is just as important as learning.
I want you to think about this; have you ever thought to yourself; “ I messed up this time but if it ever happens again, I’ll be ready for it.” That wasn’t a mess-up, it was a learning experience! In life, if we survive, each time that we stumble it is nothing more than another learning experience.
I’ve heard folks say; I try not to have to face things like that or I put things off as long as I can and I’ve heard students say that they were having too much fun that they would go back to school later. Catch-up is a hard game to play, especially when it comes to your education.
Please, make each day a day of learning. Because, the day you learn nothing is a day wasted and those days are too precious to waste.
Here I am nearly seventy years after I thought I knew it all and I’M STILL LEARNING! That should tell you something, it has me! My Grandma, each time she scolded me, would finish with “Bob, you know that you are better than that!” I heard these same words quite a few times but it took me years to learn their true meaning.

Preparation

A lot of people get so “uptight” preparing to die, that they forget how to live. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that you should never plan ahead but, please never let those “what should I do ifs” become overpowering. Living for each minute of each day is the reason we have to look forward to waking up each morning. Our goal each day should be living THAT day. If it ends up being the day we die, so be it!
Many work so hard preparing that they lose sight of the goal they were preparing for. Much of our life’s preparation ends up in the file we call learning experiences, sometimes they work and then….. If our planning and preparing involves others, discuss it with them, consult with them! Please don’t wait until you have everything “written in stone” to spring it on others. Plan first then prepare!
Husbands and wives often make plans for their other not knowing (or caring) if that other already had that time slot filled with their list of planning and preparation. Often this ends with a tip-toeing situation for both sexes.
In my list of definitions (that sometimes sounds foreign to others) I list planning as something fluid. Something fairly easily changed. I have hundreds of ideas flipping through my brain most of the time. When I find a free moment I pull an idea out and go to work on it. For an example of my kind of planning the idea could be nothing more than what I would like for dinner, or it could be as complex as should I use 2x4’s or 2x6’s for the framework for the lighthouse I’m planning to build in my front yard---sometime maybe. But, each is only an easily changed plan floating in my head!
When I’m preparing for something, it will be a firm happening! It will happen! And, I must be ready for the consequences!
Many times I’ve felt I had things all in hand, then at that last minute the whole thing falls apart! My past instruction to my kids has always been; have a backdoor, build in an alternate. I have found that at times my ways and God’s ways differ. It took me a while to remember that I ended each prayer with “and your Will, will be done”. And, it took still longer to learn to accept that will!
Other times, just a trivial thing messed up my plans. I call these; clashes with “Murphy’s Law”. I’ve had Murphy hand me a new set of law books at the very last minute. In time I’ve learned to allow a little something extra in both my planning and my preparation for my friend Murphy!
For many years I was a wedding photographer. During that time I photographed over a thousand weddings. At first I was surprised at the number of Mothers who referred to their daughter’s wedding as “MY wedding”. I always took that as a warning sign! Several times, after I saw how controlling those Mothers wanted to be at their daughter’s wedding, I would ask that they choose another photographer. Many of those mothers not only wanted to prepare for that wedding, they planned to control it! In preparation they had lost sight of the goal!
Years back I learned the difference between preparing for a situation and trying to control a situation. In all things human you must still leave room for your God to walk beside you.
In planning and preparing the hardest lesson to learn is when to let go. And, we cannot expect God to do all the work!

Tragedy Too

You may find me referring to the tragedy in Japan in more of my blogs. After each of the unfolding worldly happenings, I find it takes but a short look to find many new things to learn. In many ways each of our own lives runs parallel with the happenings in our world. Our world has its ups and downs just as we do. In days gone by tragedies were only known by word of mouth, later by written word in books and news papers. But, today we sit in our living rooms and only have to press the on button to see history being made, as it is being made.
That on button has caused me to realize just how unimportant and even useless all of our prized “stuff” can become when one is fighting for survival. When I press that on button and see miles and miles of lifeless rubble mixed with those lifeless bodies, it starts me wondering just what part of our lives hold the REAL important part. Could it be that all my prized stuff isn’t that important after all?
In the last blog I listed many ways uncaring folks could justify their uncaring ways about people that they consider different. In this blog we’re going to turn a page and I’m going to list some of the ways I find those brothers and sisters of the world the same. We all have families we care for, we all have our homes, our jobs, our likes and dislikes, each has his own language of his country (although we sometimes feel uncomfortable around someone speaking a language we don’t understand) and each has his or her own beliefs (or should I call it faith), each has their own hopes, joys, and dreams. Probably, each has their own pile of stuff! But maybe the most important thing we ALL must remember is that each and every one is a Child of God. Deep down doesn’t that make us ALL brothers and sisters?
I’ve found deep feelings in my heart, it’s like with each new disaster My Father puts his hands around my heart and gives it a squeeze. Maybe, it’s as I get older it helps me to realize that deep down we’re all family under the skin. Or, could it be my inner spirit talking to me?
I tried to compare the earthquakes and waves to our great terror here on the Gulf Coast, our hurricanes. It has only then that I realized there was one great difference between the two. With the hurricanes we have warnings before they strike. Many times the poor are the ones that take the greatest hits. This gives most of the rest time to flee. With an earthquake and wave the escape time is usually not there. This leaves the bodies of the richest of the rich lying in the rubble alongside the bodies of the poorest of the poor. That kind of disaster plays no favorites!
Each time I see those hundreds and hundreds of new cars that were waiting to be loaded on ships to take them to the dealers on distant shores it helps me realize many of the things I valued just aren’t really that important. It now makes no difference how many cylinders its engine had, how many whistles and bells each had, even its color and last of all how many miles it got on a gallon of gas. Now they all sit there on shore atop each other, nothing more than piles of junk rusting in the mud. They will never again feel that surge of power after the key was turned.
I’ve heard the term “great equalizer”, but it was always a term I never really understood, or paid any attention to, until this tragedy struck. For me, every day since has turned in to be a series of great learning experiences. I now know that often takes our hurts and the hurts of others for us to truly learn.
I just now received another hard squeeze on my heart. As I watched CNN I found them covering some of the many rescues. They were showing a boat returning with several newly found persons, people just pulled from the rubble. A member of the rescue team held out his hand and helped three or four out of the boat. The last person slowly stood up and slowly moved to the edge of the boat then, three of the rescuers almost had to pick her up to lift her out of the boat. The camera moved in and I could see she has an older lady, probably in the late autumn of her life. Then, I saw it; she was clutching an old crooked handled umbrella! Was it the only thing she was able to save? Can you imagine how you would feel if all you had left from your lifetime of work was a worn umbrella?
Did I hear you say you were having a bad day? After the things I’ve seen in the past few days, I don’t think you’ll ever hear me say I’m having a bad day again.

Armageddon

In most religions you will find a reference to terrible end of the world. In the Christian religion it’s called the Armageddon. In the days when most holy books the world were written, it was thought the world was a much smaller place. My personal belief is the end of the world will be a regional happening. An example of what I believe is the recent earthquake in Japan. In that example we find it to be the end of the world for thousands of people, through no fault of their own, that happened in less than an hour. That mighty wall of water, caused by the quake, did not pick or choose who was to live or die. It did not ask if a person was of great wealth or if they were a poor homeless person. It took everyone!
From the instant we were conceived our only true promise was that we would die. Seldom is it to be the time or way of our choosing. But, in many of our holy books we find that we are told or threatened that it must happen.
This time it happened “over there”. It happened to “them”. But, they’re different than us! They talk funny! They go to a different kind of church! It is really too bad. It is such a shame.---What are we going to have for our evening meal? Do you think all that bad news is going to mess up my favorite TV shows tonight? I wish I could do something for all of those poor people but---Thank God it was them not us. If I think about it, I’ll say a prayer for them before I go to bed.
Let’s put the shoe on the other foot. Let’s visualize what would happen if it happened in MY neighborhood. I’m sitting watching my TV, all of a sudden the screen flickers and then it goes black. Then the lights go out. What’s all that noise? I walk to my front door and look out. I see several of my neighbors also looking out their doors.
It seems we all see it at the same time. It’s a solid wall of water treetop high! It’s crushing everything in its path! I could see my neighbor up the street. He was mouthing the words “O SHI” he never finished that last word before both he and his house were crushed!
As I looked I could read my next neighbors lips, as she was crossing herself, her words were “forgive me Father for I”. She never had that chance to finish! As I watched, that mighty wall of water struck! The only survivor was my unseen Friend who always walked beside me. I was sure He would still be there when I got there!
I’m sure that there were many that had last words on their lips like; would have or should have, but now they were just fellow travelers on a short journey. And that was a journey that was dictated by a mighty wall of water.
When our end of the world comes, and we’ve been promised it will, it does not matter what we want to call it.
As I looked at that massive wall of water rolling across those cities in Japan I thought to myself; how important many felt about their accumulated stuff had been to them and as I looked I saw all those lifeless bodies rolling in waves of lifeless stuff. I realize how unimportant all of our precious stuff can become in little more than a blink of our eye!
How differently we would feel about waterfront property if we realized it was only there so we would have a bird’s eye view of our coming doom.
Don’t always think it can only happen to “THEM”. Sooner or later it could happen to “US”. And, it’s later than you think!

Darkness and Light

In the past, I heard a speaker say; “In all darkness there is always some light.” That’s pretty strong stuff and it started me thinking.
I my darkest days, it seemed I could always find a glimmer of light. Maybe it was just a small bit of hope but I found that I never could completely close the door on that last bit of hope.
One of my favorite songs goes something like this; “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine!” As long as I have a spark of hope I’m gonna let it shine!
I have never had the financial means to help a person that way but I have found it takes nothing more than my time to listen. Many times I’ve heard people say if only they could have had SOMEONE to talk to or someone just to listen to them they could have talked those hurts out of their system. Well, maybe you or I could have been that someone! Did I hear someone say they just didn’t have the time to stop and listen? What was so urgent in YOUR life that you could not take a moment or two to help another person through those dark times?
Sometimes we find ourselves holding our plate of troubles that is full and running over. At times like that it is easy to forget about That Friend that is always by your side. Remember Him, hand Him that full plate and ask for a clean one. He is far more experienced handling our troubles than we are. That is what I do.
Most of our darkest problems started as yesterday’s problems. If we stew about them they will spoil today and probably also many tomorrows as well.
It seems to me that many times we only have to look the other way to find all of the good things Our Father in Heaven has put in our lives. I believe if we would look as hard for the good things in life as we do the bad it would be easier to put our life back in balance.
Our society and our lifestyle is continually trying to “brain wash” us, teaching us to look first to the dark side of life. We seldom see the GOOD side of the news making the headlines. When we turn on the TV, more often than not all we and the kids see is one tragedy after another. They want us to believe we live in a negative world!
It seems the commercial world is more and more afraid of the positives. Even in the ads for healing drugs, if you listen closely, they tell you about all of the bad things that could happen if you take them. If the cure is that risky, why bother? I want to live my life without having to hear all of those could haves.
When my Grandma used to scold me when I‘d done something wrong, she would often say “Bob, you are better than that”. Today the things I read and hear help me realize what she was telling me. For much of that stuff I KNOW I’M BETTER THAN THAT!
I want to let my light shine. I don’t want someone I will never know or see to keep pulling that negative shade of darkness over my life. In this world of darkness, I want to let this little light of mine SHINE!