At First Sight

     A few years ago I saw a movie called "At First Sight" during my crazy-about-Val-Kilmar phase.  It was a pretty good movie, interesting, about a blind man who, at the urging of his girlfriend, went through an operation to get his sight back.  The surgery was a success (spoiler alert-hopefully I'm not ruining the movie for anyone) and most of the rest of the movie was about the struggles he went through after he got his sight back.  He had to "learn" to see again.  He was so used to "seeing" things with his hands that he couldn't tell just by looking at something what it was, he had to feel things to identify objects.  In the end it was a temporary fix and he contracted a retinal disease and went blind again, which seemed fine with him because he was struggling so much with sight.  It's funny the things that stay with you.
     A little while later I was studying the story of Jesus healing a blind man, the one where He mixed His spit with mud and put it on the blind man's eyes, told him to wash in the pool of Siloam and his sight was completely restored.  I began mulling that story over and meditating on it and one of the first things that came to mind was that movie, "At First Sight".  When humans are healed through the miracle of science and brilliant doctors that process is often long and arduous.  A paralyzed person has to learn to walk again, a long and frustrating journey; a blind person has to learn to see and retrain his or her brain to recognize things and adjust focus on objects near or far away; a deaf person has to make sense of what they're hearing, adjust to loud and soft sounds, and make sense of people talking (especially fast talkers like me, lol); and on and on.  However when you study the miracles of Jesus and the people He healed they had none of those problems.  When He healed the lame, blind, sick, etc... even those who suffered their particular ailment from birth, He healed them completely.  He healed their minds to cope with the change in body situation, to understand what was going on and adjust to it.
     That's not to say I don't like doctors or scientists.  I highly respect and admire them, the work they do and the knowledge they have striven to attain.  I want to be one!  And lot of people need that struggle.  God teaches us a lot through struggle.  As we've learned from butterflies coming out of their cocoon or (most, if not all) oviparous animals hatching out of their eggs, it's the struggle that gives us strength.  God could have helped and led the Israelites in defeating Jericho the first time they encountered it but because they didn't trust Him they had to wander in the desert for 40 years.  And during that time of wandering and struggle they became a hardier people that developed a stronger trust in the Lord, in large part due to the fact that they HAD to depend on Him for... well just about everything.
     That being said I was awed when thinking about how thoroughly Jesus healed people and everything that was involved in that healing.  I've read about the miracles of Jesus so often that it became commonplace and maybe even a bit boring.  The very act of healing someone from an ailment is amazing, but when I began to realize the extent of that healing the wonder and mystery of those miracles came alive again.
     Our bodies are a wonderful, self-repairing organism but it takes a bit of time to do the job.  Still when Jesus is involved in the process (if he doesn't think we need the struggle or to stay that way) the healing is instantaneous and complete.
     It's amazing the things the Lord will use to teach you a lesson.

Distracted Heart

     My heart has wandered.  It has become full of distractions, lists, helpings, and busyness.  It has become disentangled from the One I love.  This, unfortunately, is not the first time it's happened and when I come to the realization that it's happened it's easy to get mad and ask Him "Why? You're the head of this relationship, why can't You just keep us together?"  I feel Him smile lovingly at me and whisper to my heart "Because this relationship is not a prison.  I want you here because you want to be here.". Psalm 32:9

     I hear stories of people that have become so busy doing for Him that they forget to be with Him.  And when you spend time with Him and are so full of Him and the joy and happiness that He brings to your relationship, you think "I don't see how that could ever happen to me.".  But thieves steal over the wall, foxes spoil the garden and it all happens so gradually so slowly over a long period of time that you don't even realize it's happening and before you know it you look around for the One you're so full of and see that you're no longer full of Him and He's been pushed into the background.
     It's not always the world that gets in the way, your sin or selfish desires, sometimes you get busy helping people or doing things you think are for Him and you forget... You forget that the most important thing in this relationship is... Him.  Not the things you do or even the people around you, nothing but Him.
     When you're full of Him, when He is in you and you are in Him then the doing, the helping, the serving comes out of a full heart, an overflow of the love you are wrapped up in and joy of the One you're with.  Like the perfect explanation of a baby born from the love of two people so your works, service, and deeds are born of the excessive love of being in Him.

If only I could remember that all the time...

The Supremacy of Christ- Symphonic Sermon Jam Video

Blank

I read Lexy's blog and it has inspired me to write again.  Shout out to Lexy: girl, you are way talented, I mean I knew you were good but that was fascinating.  Most of the time I think we must be soul mates.

I want to talk on "paper" to write out things that I think and feel, to put out there the mess that seems to be floating around in my head.  But I think about something I want to say, then I go to write about it and either I wind up with a blank or I way overthink and I'm not sure how to put it into words or even if it makes sense to anyone but me.

How can you express in words, truly, what goes on in the deepest recesses of your mind, the place where you know yourself, you believe in and understand yourself but you're not sure how to convey that to others.  Is it right?  Is it necessary?  Is it even needed?  But then you know no matter whether it is or not, it's something that you have to get off your chest, boring or not, necessary or trivial, you must express, you must put into words (or at least try to put into words) those things that you contemplate and mull over.

Maybe it's in the hopes that someone feels as you do, that someone out there knows what you're going through and has felt the same way.  It's a refreshing thought but then when writing it out you began to think, they may take it the wrong way.  Are you expressing it in the right context?  Using the proper words to help them understand what's truly there?

No man is an island.  We were not meant to be alone and struggle with this on our own.  God is there to help us through but He gave us humanity for the connection and solidarity that we so need and long for and desire.  So there it is, my reaching out to the world, whether I'm thought dumb or smart, whether I can articulately express myself or sound like an uneducated idiot, this is my mind.

Clothing Label

Clothing label...

Clothing label by a small US clothing company.

This shipment was headed for France.
Small business is alive and well in America!

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

If you want to tax the privileged class, you should tax THE privileged class.

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc.

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1. Term Limits.

12 years only, one of the possible options below..

A. Two Six-year Senate terms

B. Six Two-year House terms

C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms

2. No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/11.  

The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves .

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

Stars

Someone made an interesting comment the other day about the people we admire and put on a pedestal and it got me thinking.  In this day and age the popular people, people we look up to, admire and use as role models are a lot different than they were 1,000 + years ago.  It seems today we like people who have money, power, or fame.  We like actors, we have baseball trading cards, we create dream teams of our favorite football players and the more money you have the more power you can get.  But it wasn't always that way (except maybe the money = power part).  In the times of the Greeks, Romans, Spartans, etc, the people you admired and built statues of were warriors, philosophers, and poets.  Actors were people just struggling to get by, there for entertainment of the rich and games were played by servants.  I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with liking actors, admiring a good movie, or getting lost in a close game; I like many of those things myself, I have my list of favorite actors, movies that I like and sports teams that fascinate me.  But maybe some of our time would be better spent if we focused a little of that energy and admiration on people who really made a difference in our lives, people who do things that go unnoticed.  Such as the men and women that serve our country and protect our freedom, that more often get ridiculed rather than praised and admired.  Or doctors that work hard to keep us healthy or get us well, that in this day and age are more likely to find themselves at the end of a lawsuit.  Just a thought from someone who herself spends way too much admiration on fluffy things.