Another punch on my “old man” card today. #hearingaids
Finding out they now have to pay a tariff. #idiocy
Super bowling when you don’t care.
Don’t follow the crowd!
Silent on Social Media Once Again
After careful thought and consideration, I have deactivated my social media accounts yet again on the major platforms. It wasn’t anything the people did on them as much as my way to protest the ownership partying with someone who pardoned the attackers of the US Capitol. I may be reached by phone call, text or email if you would like to know how we are doing.
This also means I will most likely be more active on this blog for the foreseeable future.
GUILTY x 34
Declining over time
I had something happen last week that brought to the forefront of my mind that I am on the downward slope of life. We notice changes physically as our original hair coloring is replaced with gray. Our once tightly wrapped outer layer becomes wrinkled and ill-fitting. Our synapses may misfire as we grab the wrong word from a storage bin in our mind or we misplace it altogether.
What brought about this reflection on my decline occurred while walking my granddaughter to school. I am very fortunate that I have the opportunity to do so each school day as she attends an elementary school across the street from the junior high where I work. As we walked along, she saw one of her classmates and broke away from me to talk with her friend. They continued talking all the way to school as I walked by myself. I realized this foreshadowed what lie ahead in our relationship. My influence and role in her life would diminish as time passes.
It reminded me of how John the Baptist spoke of Jesus. I am declining too.
John 3:30 NKJV
He must increase, but I must decrease.
We don’t talk about gun violence, no, no!
There are many things that the church is very vocal about like the value of unborn life and freedom of expression of our faith in public. However, our silence on gun violence is abhorrent. We will march and protest for some things, but when people are killed by the blight of guns in our society, we sit on our hands or label those who call for action idiots.
Let me provide some background for my belief that we must do something about America’s gun addiction. As a toddler, my parents had a hand gun in the home until they found me playing with it in the middle of their bed. After high school, I joined the Army and learned to handle multiple weapons. I also accepted the Lord while serving and lost all desire to take a life using those same weapons.
After leaving military service, I went to Bible school in Dallas, Texas. At that time, a lone gunman drove his truck into a Luby’s cafeteria in Killeen, Texas shooting fifty people and killing twenty-three. One of the survivors was our pastor. He became an advocate for gun ownership and still preaches with a firearm on his hip.
Five years ago, another gunman opened fire on a music festival from the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada killing sixty and injuring hundreds. I walked by this location multiple times while attending conferences over the years in Las Vegas. Had I been attending a conference during that fateful night, I might have been a victim as well.
There are more guns in the United States than there are people. More guns is not the answer. Texans have more licensed weapons than any other state yet have five of the worst mass shootings since 1991.
Unless you are an ambidextrous marksman, owning multiple firearms and more than a dozen rounds is excessive. If you say it’s for hunting, recent numbers show about 15 million hunting licenses issued which makes up less than 5% of the United States population.
I ask these questions of all Americans and especially the church. How many weapons are enough? How much ammunition is enough? Why do gun manufacturers continue to profit from tragedies as gun sales spike? How many innocent lives must be lost to gun violence before the church says something?
Keep fighting
The Big C, cancer attacks our lives in our own bodies or the ones we love. I lost my mother to lung cancer several years ago. My mother-in-law is in the midst of her battle with cancer. Renee recently underwent surgery to remove cancer and the surrounding organs it was impacting. My best friend is dealing with his father’s terminal cancer diagnosis.
Whether we like it or not, cancer will impact our lives in one way or another. Let’s not stop fighting it in every way possible.
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
I Timothy 6:12 NKJV
Who can it be now?
The 80’s song by the Australian band Men at Work comes to mind as loss once again comes knocking on our door. The longer we exist on earth, the more frequently this unwelcome visitor appears at the threshold.
I lost my parents in 2009 and 2017. My father-in-law passed in 2014. Recently, two classmates passed as well. In November, I had to put down our 16 year old feline family member after being diagnosed with renal failure.
Over the weekend, my sister-in-law called to inform my wife that their younger brother was no longer with us. He was only 46 years old, but had lived with diabetes since childhood. My wife looked at me and said “now there’s only 7 of us” referring to the four members of our family, her sister and spouse, and her mom.
While longevity is certainly what we all wish for it does come with this caveat. The longer you live, the more frequent visits from loss will occur.
But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
I Thessalonians 4:13?-?14 NKJV