Insidious Adaptation

"Do you love your guns?" Yeah "god?" Yeah "The government?" "Do you love your guns?" Yeah "god?" Yeah "The government?"- Marylyn Manson, "The Love Song." 2000 The love of money, fame, fortune, notoriety, the love of other men regarding what we produce in this world, the worst drug out there. A drug, as I am using here, deviates people from truth. Drugs cover what the mind naturally does, therefore drugs are found in various forms, with the addition of chemicals being just a few.  "You say I am loved when I can’t feel a thing You say I am strong when I think I am weak And You say I am held when I am falling short When I don’t belong, oh You say that I am Yours And I believe (I), oh I believe (I) What You say of me (I) Oh, I believe" - Lauren Daigle, "You Say" 2018 Two choruses, one God. Two supposedly opposite ends of the spectrum. Two people, Marylyn Manson, and Lauren ...

Love is the sacrifice of oneself for another. "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs."- 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 What love is can easily be defined by what man isn't. WE are typically love's anti-venom and we have redefined "love" in a culture of lovelessness. Love is not lust, nor is it a present, nor is it controlling. You do not love if you need to know where that person is or what they are doing or to receive reassurances about your worth or their feelings for you.  Love does not need to be proclaimed in some bold statement for others to see, nor does love have to break another person down, hoping they lose so that we can remain their caregiver. Love does not steal. Love does not covet. Love is not some romance movie where the unhappily married woman finds her, "true" love and is acceptab...

It was the night after a long run, one where I went out too far, gone too long, didn't eat enough either. It was a time when I thought I could push it a little more, a little farther, and maybe I could finally obtain a coveted self-accomplishment to allow myself a little peace. "When I hit 15 miles, then I will buy those new shoes."  I will never buy the shoes, I just need something to look forward to, even if that, "thing" will never be allowed to happen.  It was at the end of one of those days, where the push of an accomplishment consumes any other idea that is life and the payment for such an accomplishment, isn't just the fatigue, for that is masterable, but it is the mental craving for something.  I have a theory based loosely in logic, one of chemicals and exercise; the longer the exercise, the more the chemicals used, so then the less brain chemicals there are later. Either way, I was burned, a longer, deeper burn that muscles provid...

One must realize that we invest in the worst investment ever when we toil away to make money. Yes, money is the worst investment out there, and that is not because I do not have any, but because what I do have can only buy things of this world. Like fun money at an amusement park, I don't really need a lot because I won't be here long. I figure maybe a few bucks here and there, get something to eat, something drink, sustain myself. Overall, the park will close, and I will go home, why be left with a bunch of worthless pieces of garbage along the way for someone else to pick up. The turmoil over money is one I am very familiar with and thought would save me one day. Yes, one day a yacht was going to show up at my house and take my family and I away to a different world. One where I would then be content and I would then be generous and then I could be the peaceful father depicted on the TV commercials and sit com shows. A lie I was sold on as the greed for more money leads...

Thou shalt not... Christians are commanded to, and commanded not to. Yet, this freedom Christ gave when he died on that cross has gotten distorted. A sense of entitlement has come about. It is not your church or church attendance that matters, the list of actions, charities you contribute to, or reciting of verses that are lingering words in your mind to sound haughty, that matters, but our love. We are commanded to love the Lord our God and love a neighbor like ourselves. These are non-negotibles. Due to needing to categorize and condemn a man for their actions, keep them away from us, we Christ followers sure think a lot and do a lot for ourselves. We justify a sin when we know better. It turns out we are good at one thing aren't we, reviving an old forgiven nature, going back to our own vomit, awaiting a time to be spewed out of the mouth of the one who gave us life. A nature that a conversion of the Holy Spirit should no longer be in love with, no longer stand. A Christian ...

It isn't that we have such great lives, and that man as a whole is not living in his own squalor, but it's the fact that there is a reprieve offered. There is a way out of suffering, out of heartache, there is a peace that can be found here on earth that few really allow themselves to see. One could argue that man has a desire to suffer, living in destruction, to harm one another to then receive harm. We know that if people are suffering in the world that even as calloused as we have become, saturated with news of horrors unheard of in our own life, that we still hurt because others hurt. We can continue to distance in our minds of the suffering of other people, but we hurt, or we distance ourselves from the reality of it. When we start, in one way or another, to distance from the reality of human suffering, we all suffer. Think about when you read a memoir about some horrors a man or woman has lived through. We read these things as stories, yet there is a thin strand of re...

The time it takes to read this, you could have done something else. You could have presented to someone and made a sale. You could have went for a brisk walk around the block, for this I will make it quick, maybe half a block. You could have done what you've always done and continue scrolling through social media waiting for that one thing to distract or entice just enough that you can feel satisfied. The internet has no end, but my words do. Well, inspired words I must confess. Rarely do we get ideas on our own, for our entire life we are saturated with environmental conditions we have to understand and adapt to. We have to learn and grow for our individual environments. Learning about and playing into social media is some people's new Siberian tiger trying to eat them. their new reality. People need to adapt and learn the lay of the land as they navigate through the treacherous waters perceived as social expectations. I am slightly older than that, not much, but enough ...

Like a sentencing from the judge, the pain inside when the inevitable truth is revealed has me torn. The benefit here is that the Judge grants me a life of eternal freedom from all woes and allowed to live in His glory for eternity. No more sorrow, no more pain. That's it, it is finished, as His son that he gave to the courts in payment of all the wrongs I have been accused of. I stand, in rags of clothes draped off my pathetic body, I am sick and weary, and yet, I am being treated like a King. I have been redeemed in this court room where I am definitely guilty. One thing is asked and it is that I give to the judge, my shoes. An easy thing to give for all eternity in my future. Take everything, these rags, I will stand here naked, unashamed for I know that I am now redeemed, given a gift I could not repay. Oh glorious judge how much you must love me, not in charitable compassion, but as one of your own. He watches knowing what I will do, however waiting for me to take the shoe...

When it all comes down, and all the things of this life, the accolades, the accomplishments, the desire for more, more money, more retirement, more wealth, no longer mattering, no longer allowing to define a man on a sinking ship, I think it will only be then that we can see what really mattered the entire time. Give thanks to the God of heaven, for  his steadfast love endures forever . -   Psalm 136:26   When a day comes, there are no accomplishments, there is no great writing for the day, no awesome gym workout, the clothes don't fit like they used to, old photos are nothing more than reminder of previous youthful looks, negating the happy times they were indicated for, we are still loved. No matter what the social group, the status quo is, if we fail to meet it, we can relax because we are loved. We are loved no matter what we do. We are loved when we screw up. We are loved when our hair is a mess, or we wear the improper clothing items to the work event. We...

"Trick or Treat." "Yes, good, say that. We knock and we say that." My coaching is weak, I don't think I ever said "trick or treat" when I was a kid, probably just a "hello." But us fathers want our children to be better than us right? So, the follow through, the delivery, that is what has to happen here. Let's see if she sticks the landing. ... "Look at them run up there." A few houses in and a neighbor and new friend of our daughters are together, no longer needing an adult to guide, but convince each other this is safe, this is what we do. "Did you say thank you?" I ask my daughter, "Thank you." She says to a now-shut door. "Sweetheart, let's say thank you to them." "Ok." The walk from one house to the next started slow, apprehensive, turned into a slight jog for the children, then a run from the house almost going into the street. A few falls, a couple crash...

It's too bad... When the principals of America, based on Christianity, are now defiled with corruption. There's not even anyone to blame. There is the devil, he finds this stuff all very fascinating. There are people who have inundated the devil in their life, by way of a justified purpose. There are people who continue to remain on the outskirts, not wanting to choose sides. There are the rights the lefts all of which have their flaws, man and sin and all that. It's when we look to the wrong of the other side more than we spend time on promoting our own that I find fascinating. Offense wins games. To go on the offensive, is to be active in an attempt to score, in an attempt to win of some sort. Defense protects, tries to stop the other team from scoring. However, what side is it that continues to devalue the opposing team completely? What game is that where we stand on the sideline, send out a tweet or make a meme not to promote anything, but to defile the other ...

On a drive back from a military funeral, one that a team and I performed as an honor to a lost World War II veteran, we hear it. "Want to look better, naked?" The phrase intrigued me. It was a commercial for a company that I would eventually work for. It was the breaking down of that phrase, that indicated to me, that being naked is our most pure form, in this world. There are no hidden flaws behind mountains of sweaters and scarfs. There is no makeup or cover-up. There is the self, vulnerable, exposed. Now, one may think that words like, nude, naked, bare, are synonymous with sex and immorality, and trust me, at the time, I too thought, I probably need a little help in the nude. Consumed by an all-or-nothing thought process of, "bigger is better,"   figuring that tight sleeves were all I needed, realizing that being shirtless, or even more intense, pant-less, brought about inadequacies. It was the idea of exposing my hidden parts, that someone else is ine...