The Power of a Good Story

Everyone loves a good story, or at the very least, entertained. Everyone wants to know the details. I think the bottom line is everyone wants to be educated, even enlightened. The better the storyteller, the more engrossed the listener becomes. Perhaps we all should become storytellers. Maybe we all are storytellers in our own right.

popularity and life

I don’t watch much television, but I was told that Michael Jackson had a heart attack today around the noon time frame (pacific time). Once I made it back onto my computer to check email and what not, everywhere I went that displayed news reports, there were stories about his cardiac arrest. I don’t get emotional at times like these, but I sometimes get dubbed as heartless. Death is as much a part of life as life is. I remember over a decade ago where Princess Diana and Mother Theresa both died at roughly the same time. Everyone knew about Diana because it was plastered on the news almost every moment the news was on. I saw one article briefly stating Mother Theresa had died and that was about it. The point is everybody has a date with the reaper, so we best be ready.

My Shameless Plugs

My gaming system of choice is XBOX  360. Game I’m currently into right now, Resident Evil 5. Games I might like after I rent them, WWE Legends, Ghostbusters, UFC Undisputed 2009, Batman. Drinks of choice, Starbucks Breakfast Blend coffee and Pepsi. I am often told I look like Stephen Segal. Vincent Price, Alfred Hitchcock, and Edgar Alan Poe are true masters of suspense. Apple Ipod’s are good on the go. The Carolina Gamecocks are going to have a very good winning season this year. And lastly, when Heroes new season starts, I will be one happy camper.

Change

We’re creatures of habit, but once we change for the better we wonder why it took so long to change. This is the way it is for those of us who have become Christians. When we in the ways of the world, we saw no reason to change. Then, once we changed, we wondered why it took so long to do it. The bad news is that, even as christians, we are subject to becoming complacent. We must return to our first love. This way we won’t ever have to wonder why it took so long.

Modern Day Eye Openers

For every generation, there is a contempoary who defies the social norm to open the eyes of those who wish to see a greater reality. Somehow they have this gift to see beyond the superficial of the here and now to see beyond to what awaits those who press on toward a greater prize. C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien are two such men. I believe their power lay in how they used the gifts in which they were given to express the unexpressable, to have their readers think past the trivial to the profound.

Define success

How do we define success in today’s society? Money, looks, possessions, popularity? In today’s society, we very much have a materialistic mindset. I believe our purpose on this Earth in this life is 1) to exist, and we can’t do that trying to keep up with the Jones’s, and 2) to make a difference in someone’s life and in this world. I have seen stories of where people have committed suicide because they gave way to the peer pressure and others who saw no purpose in life but continued on their way because that’s all they knew. When you’re living by the world’s standards, it’s all about the outside and what the world tries to get you to believe. I heard a story once where a guy who was a Christian wanted to serve God whole heartedly. He began by waking up one morning and aksed God what he should do. God told him to go outside and push on a huge boulder. The guy did and it never moved. Each morning the guy always awoke with the same question and recieved the same response until he died. When he got to Heaven Jesus noticed him crying and asked what the reason was. The guy said that he had failed because he never moved the boulder. Jesus responded, ‘You did not fail because I never asked you to move the boulder, but only push on it.’ We all too often feel that the results are left up to us, but we’re just to be obedient.

God so loved that He…..gave????

I find it contradictory that the church has become the most selfish of people. The Bible gives us examples of generousity and bases principles of getting on giving, and even shows us that God so loved us that he gave His one most precious gift, His Son. We have been so blessed, but what do we do? We hoard what we have as if it’s owed to us. Matbe we should pray that God remove all of our blessings to teach us how to truly give.

To tell it like it is

War, or fighting of any kind, is never a welcomed event, only at times a necessitiy. Whether you agree with nations going to war or not, whenever violence occurs, innocent lives with be taken in lieu of some of the corrupt. I don’t like that any more than anyone else, but it’s the reality of what happens. I agree in people being able to choose and to believe what they wish. I don’t have to agree with them, nor them with me. We’re both equally free to believe what we will and to agree or disagree to any degree. The difference between the U.S. and all communist run countries is that dictators shove a philiosophy down a whole countries throat, like most hate filled people. There’s a difference in expressing a belief and forcing it on someone else. When you voice, don’t force. That’s the difference in freedom and communisim.

Someone’s going to benefit

I’ve been helping a friend out. My friend has a friend who is on dialisis and uses the tabs off of soda cans to get some time on the machine. I’ve been stopping along the way here and there to get those tabs from cans or to stop and pick them up if i see them in a parking lot. Some questions have come up about this and I’ve even been asking myself about this. I’ve thought back that the best reason I can come up with is that someone’s going to benefit from me doing this. I don’t know where the person is in their walk with God, but i thought what better way to show them love by helping them out. If they don’t know God, perhaps this will show them a glimpse of Him, and if they do know Him, what beeter way to encourage them, but either way, I thought it was a good way to witness to others on why I’m doing what I’m doing and to show love to everyone some love that’s involved. You just never know.

Acceptance and tolerance are two totaly different things

We hear the word tolerance thrown around alot, seemingly by those who have the most to benefit from. Why must we tolerate? Everyone wants to be accepted, this much is true, but acceptance and tolerance are two entirely different things. Acceptance is where I take you for who you are, and as you are, with the things you may not necessarily be able to change, flaws and all. Tolerance is where I don’t try to help change the things in you that can be changed. I can accept a Muslim for following Allah, for who he is, but when beliefs collide, I don’t accept his beliefs to avoid a conflict. In an age of tolerance, why is it so hard to accept the good with the bad? I know what I believe and who I follow. It’s everyone else’s choice to do the same. We all are free to listen to what we hear or not. The ultimate choice is to do what’s right, and there is no law against doing right or no law that can stop one from truly doing what he feels he must.