Christmas in Whoville

I'm not complaining, but it looks like this will be another Christmas in Whoville. As a matter of fact, I'm grateful. All too often, I get lost in the shopping, decorating, gift wrapping, food and all those props we use to "feel" like celebrating.

This year, it's my desire to focus on worship. If the Lord takes away the celebratory gadgets to get my attention and fix my eyes on Jesus to worship, then I'm grateful. He wants me to truly see the real reason for the season. And worship. It makes me feel blessed to realize the God of the universe would not only notice me, but he wants me to fellowship with Him. I am called, loved and kept. Who am I that I should be showered with such blessing? Even more important, who will be showered with the joy of coming to Jesus? That's the whole point of the Grinch. He was changed by seeing the Who's singing in spite of his having stolen their Christmas. I don't feel like my Christmas has been stolen but if there's no decorations, new music replaces the traditional, food changes,  no Christmas plays with a 4 year old lisping, "Welcome  to our program, everyone of you," no snow in Florida, there is still Christmas in my heart. I will still have family, food, music, and am about done shopping for gift cards, but they are not the focus I want to have.

Lovingly yours

The week before last was a very rough one. A cancer threat, screaming fights with AT&T, disgruntlement with Comcast, and a very sick dog ($ 417.00 worth) were among the things that I used to excuse myself for childish behavior. I've tried to tell myself I have a totally compromised nervous system and can't help it. Calmly, cheerfully, my very dear friend and computer guru reminded me that the Lord is "chipping away." God is using negative experiences to teach me to have faith in Him. From the bottom of my heart, thank you, John.

I begin my day studying God's Word and praying. How frequently I pray to be more Christ-like, to be a real example to both those who do and do not know Christ personally. Then, something happens that catches me by nasty surprise. It can range from annoying to catastrophic. And, my behavior ranges from frustration to outrage. Not very Christ-like. Embarrassingly unChrist-like. Such behavior is a total lack of faith. If I truly believe in a Sovereign God Who is good and loving, He has a purpose and a plan for what comes into my life-good, bad, or otherwise. It's been said what He brings into our lives is to bless or to teach. Gratitude for teaching as well as blessing is what He wants and what I need.

It's often been said to never pray for patience because God will use boot-camp techniques in order to stretch our faith and our endurance. But, if that's what I have been praying for, why am I not grateful that God is hearing and answering my prayer? I long for the faith of a Corrie ten Boom without the concentration camp experience. Ain't happening. It takes one to achieve the other.

When I'm having a stubborn, whiny moment, the Lord is so very good to send me someone who can see through my childishness and call me on it WITHOUT harping, preaching, or offensively offering unsolicited advice. John did that. He gently humbled me without humiliating me or letting me know how superior he is. He spoke truth in love.

The old adage, "I'ts not what you say, but how you say it," has good reason to have been around for so long. It's Biblical, for one thing.

I don't know about you, but it's my experience unsolicited advice is rarely, if ever, correct and NEVER appreciated.  It doesn't take much to see through those who point fingers and try to make me feel inferior. Personally, I have had to learn the very hard lesson that sometimes people have turned away from what I was saying, not because they hated me or even what I was saying. It was my tone and intent. I didn't realize I was coming across as a know-it-all. Sometimes what I was saying could have been helpful if I had been more careful about how, where, why, or when I said it. Self-examination (and prayer) could have shown me what I was saying was self-serving. Publicly praise and privately criticize has become my philosophy.

One of the many reasons I appreciate my friend, John, is that I've seen him in similar predicaments and he truly exhibits Christ-like faith and endurance. He's had ample opportunity to show me how to sulk or pitch temper tantrums, but he never has. Barbara Youdarian says self-pity rots the soul. How right she is. I have so much to learn and I'm grateful God isn't finished with me, yet. I'm grateful He gives me friends who are an example and a gentle adviser.
Thank you, Lord, for John.

Change

I've reached the age where accepting change is getting harder and harder. I'm also learning that a bad attitude is the reason change is even harder. For example, when Walmart put in their scan and go option, I was very unhappy and since I often complain about how technologically challenged I am, I vowed never to use it. Last week, one of the clerks noticed I use cloth bags and she remarked how much easier and faster it would be to use scan and go. So, I sucked it up this morning and decided to try it. Voila! It wasn't nearly as hard as I expected it to be. Of course, I was awkward at first. It took a while to know how to point the gun and then, it took a while to learn how far away to hold it in order for the gun to read the whole bar code. Thankfully, someone showed me how to do produce. Someone else got away with several sweet potatoes because she asked me how to record lose items and I still hadn't been shown.  I also had to be careful about where I left my phone, which held my grocery list. Having it stolen while I was scanning an item would not be good. Finally, I had to learn how to take something off my bill or change it. That has to be done at the register.

Now to learn how to scan items on my phone for Weight Watchers information. That's next. The book we were given, of course, does not list all packaged foods and sometimes a packaged food has  to be used in a recipe.

One of the employees at Walmart and I were talking about how much we hate change. The older we get, the harder it becomes.  Unfortunately, the world is not going to come to a stop just because I don't want to accept change. Neither is it going to hold my hand and sooth my anxious feelings  or tolerate my whining. I either catch on or get left behind. Technology is moving so rapidly, the time is going to come when survival depends on learning to adapt.

Dial phones were an improvement over the ones on the wall where the operator came on and asked what number you needed her to call. My aunt had one of those on the farm. Neither they nor the dial phone exist anymore. In fact, when I was growing up, 911 did not exist. Some change is good. Those old black phones weighed a ton and the cord kept you from doing anything but sitting and holding the phone. With cellphones we can multi-task almost anytime, anywhere.

There was a time when I wasn't quite so intimidated by technology. When we moved to Florida, we got our first cellphone. Had a ball with it. Called everyone we knew every time we crossed a state line. In those days, there were roaming charges and we had a whopper of a bill for months, just paying the roaming charges. Roaming charges no longer exist, another advancement in technology that is an improvement. Reluctantly, I have to admit they're not all bad.

But, the biggest change comes when the attitude changes. A computer expert once told me to make the computer work for me, not the other way around. Now if I just get them to understand that, life would be even better than it is now. I've always said the day I stop learning is the day I die, but I never expected it to be technology. For today, I'm just pleased I took the chance and learned to use something I'm sure is vital in the future, whether I like it or not.

Perspectives

I just finished "Hacks" by Donna Brazile. I found it interesting to read the opposition's perspectives. Since I have recommended the book to several people, I am going to give my own perspectives. Obviously, they're different, but surprisingly, there are similarities in those differences.

To explain, I found the author to be highly intelligent, hard working, religious, and deserving of high praise, even from me, who disagrees with her politically. I found her efforts at honesty something to admire. However, she has blind spots. Seeing her blind spots wakened me to the fact that I have them, too. Because of our differing perspectives, our blind spots are different, but we both have them.

For example, take a look at the subtitle of her book. "The Story of Break-Ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House."  Really?  At one point, she states that Donald Trump was colluding with the Russians without one scintilla, one iota of evidence.Wrong. The panic and paranoia those hacks caused could well have distracted experts like herself and caused her to do less on the election and could have caused some votes to be lost. I'll give her that.  However, from my perspective, Democrats chose an extremely flawed candidate who has more enemies than friends.  Her illegal and unprotected private server could have been how the Russians got even more damaging information as well.

Ms. Brazile speaks of the President's flaws. I'll agree. However, one of her blind spots is the flaws of Hillary Clinton and the Obamas. We're ALL flawed.  She claims Hillary Clinton is an honest woman. Really? Hmm, what about her getting off the plane in a hail of bullets? Or how about her saying there was no fire, even if there was smoke? Bleach bits? A private, illegal server?  Her husband's talk with Loretta Lynch was only about golf and grandchildren?  Her sale of uranium to the Russians? Russian contributions to the Clinton Foundation? If that's honest, I have a bridge for sale.

She also denied Hillary had health problems. That she was a hard worker. She excoriates Trump for latching on to Hillary's collapse. However, there were  occasions when Trump was hard at work while Hillary was resting at home and it cannot be denied that Hillary did collapse. She may have been a hard worker, but not hard enough to win the Presidency.  She may be healthy, but she was not on at least one occasion, leading to speculation about the other times she went home instead of campaigning.

From my point of view, Donald Trump was chosen by God to be President for God's purposes. But, Democrats hate him so much, they're still trying to rewrite the election. Short of that, they'll do anything to impeach him, forgetting that high crimes is the criteria for impeachment, not tweets. Not even winning over Hillary Clinton or sexual misconduct, ala Bill Clinton is criminal enough for impeachment. The media also hates him. Even former President Carter has stated the media has been harder on him than any other President. The media was horrible to President Lincoln, but they seem even worse towards Trump. Establishment Republicans are against him. They've blocked a lot of things he promised to do during the campaign.  As a novice at politics, he made every mistake in the book and even created a few new ones. Yet, he became President and he's succeeding in spite of all the opposition. God chose him for His purposes and he'll be there until he fulfills those purposes. Hopefully, it will take eight years. Eight years for Pence and then maybe another eight for Nikki Haley.

She makes a very strong case for the Russian hacking. Let's face it. Hacking is wrong, but so are the terrible things Democrats said in those emails they wanted to keep hidden. If they hadn't said those terrible things there wouldn't be a story, would there? Again, it may have been God using the Russians. His Word plainly states to be sure our sins will find us out. Although she spent a great deal of time praying for her candidate, God said no. He said the same to me when Obama was in office.

Since Ms. Brazile was big enough to apologize to donors who got caught in the crossfire, let me do the same to her. I am ashamed of any Republican who threatened her life because she's a Democrat and worked hard to elect Hillary Clinton. And, I'm sorry. I will go further and say behavior like that is NOT Republican. It's despicable for anyone, Democrat, Republican, or Independent. I will also say the Trumps deserve an apology as well. Their lives have been disrupted and threatened far more than any Democrat donor and even Ms. Brazile herself. According to her, the threats stopped when Trump won. The Trumps are still suffering.

To be honest, I asked for "Hacks" as a Christmas present because of the comments she made about Hillary's ingratitude for her hard work. I was hoping she was going to talk about political hacks, not computer hacking. The definition of political hacks are people whose interests are more aligned to victory than personal conviction. I admit my motives were not nice because I see Democrat loyalty to victory more important to them than governing. My bad.

She did breeze over some of the things that made her uncomfortable and again, I saw that I breeze over some of the things Republicans do that makes me uncomfortable. There is sameness is our differences. She breezed over the financial issues that she said were not illegal, but were definitely unethical. And yet, as a Democrat, she paints the party as having the moral high road. Sorry. Not true. She breezed over the power grabbing of Obama, Hillary and Debra Wasserman Schulz, but did not condemn it. She mentioned but did not condemn the fact that Obama left the Democrat Party millions of dollars in debt. Nor would she say anything against Wasserman Schultz in spite of the mess she left for Ms. Brazile to clean up. She could not pull the plug on Hillary's candidacy because she was a woman and a friend. Not good enough.

In both the beginning and at the ending of the book, Ms. Brazile mentioned the importance of listening to the people. From my perspective, the Clinton campaign people weren't the only ones who weren't listening. If Democrats had been listening to all voters in flyover states instead of just Democrats in the coastal states, the Lord might have allowed a different outcome. No. He chose Donald Trump to fulfill His purposes.

Well Done

The announcement that President Trump would announce the move of the US Embassy to Jerusalem is causing an outcry from those who've hated him since the day he announced his candidacy for the Presidency. Frankly, it's a little hypocritical. President Trump was a Democrat at one time. If he'd have run as a Democrat, they would have adored him. Like Reagan, he changed parties because the Democrats have moved in a direction he didn't believe was in the country's best interests.

His move today reminds me of Harry Truman, another reason to consider Democrats who hate Trump hypocritical. If Harry Truman had not been a man to uphold the courage of his convictions, there'd be no Israel today.  In May, 1948, Truman recognized Israel as a state and the rest of the world went nuts. Sound familiar?

Truman was also a man who spoke his mind. Sometimes with less than diplomatic words. He didn't hesitate to call someone as SOB, regardless of the status of the individual he was talking about. From Stalin to Martin Luther King, he spoke his mind. Democrats loved it. Republicans, not so much, but certainly not with the hysterical vituperative vitriol we're hearing now.

Regardless, the fact is that today President Trump will change history. He's the only President who has proved to be a man of his word out of the last four. Clinton, Bush, and Obama all said they would move the embassy to Jerusalem and recognize it as Israel's capitol. Like Harry Truman, President Trump has done a good thing, no matter what others say.

Former ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, just said the reason the UN doesn't want this done, is because they want to have jurisdiction in Jerusalem. Many are screaming it will destroy the peace process between Jews and Muslims. What peace process? Every effort has been met with the announcement that Muslims have every intention of wiping Israel off the map.

I just found Truman's statement and think it's a good fit for Republican President Trump as well as Democrat President Harry Truman. Harry Truman was known as "Give em hell, Harry." For President Trump, I thinks he's doing the same thing. I say, job well done, Mr. President.

Happy Columbus Day

                                                                                           

Happy Columbus Day. That may seem offensive to some, but that's not my intent. I'm trying to say politically correct bias and prejudice does not end by changing the victim. Nor can there be a meeting of the minds by using nasty names for the opposition, tearing down historical figures, or any other thing being done at the moment to express outrage. I have the feeling history may be far more harsh on our day and age than we are being on someone who lived more than 500 years ago.

This morning, on FaceBook, Chelsea Clinton was quoted as saying she would not be celebrating Columbus Day because Christopher Columbus took Native Americans back to India. News to me and my history lessons were far superior to hers, I'm sure. I say that because I once applied for a job in San Antonio and had to take a math test. I groaned and said I hadn't been in math class for 25 years. The woman administering the test said I would do better than someone just out of high school. She was right. I aced the test and the kid who took it with me didn't do well at all.

It is true Columbus was trying to find India by sailing west to get east and when he arrived on our shores, he called the natives "Indians" in an effort to prove himself right. It may also be true he enslaved many of the natives he met.

 
Some of the he did things were not Christian, although his writings show he was a believer. However, that being said, Jesus plainly said that we are not to judge or we, too, will be judged. Only God knows our hearts. Never have I heard that He retired and handed the gavel to an imperfect human being. I have to wonder how we will be judged. especially the Clintons. To many in earlier centuries, slavery was not a bad thing because it is mentioned in the Bible. That's certainly not our understanding today.

Our understanding of slavery may also be flawed. What about people in bondage to drugs or alcohol? Those selling it and getting rich may have to answer for enslaving others out of pure greed, although it's very much an accepted part of society today. Then there's the abortion industry. Pharmaceutical companies, food companies, and cosmetics have put fetal material in their products without telling the pubic, turning us into cannibals without our knowledge. What will history say about that? Far worse, what will God say? He took down ancient nations because they soaked the land with blood. What will He say about us? Adrian Rogers once said if God didn't punish America, He owed Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.

Then, too, what happened in history cannot be changed. Right or wrong, there it is. Trying to make Italians feel bad about their hero doesn't fix a thing. Columbus was a product of his time, just like we are a product of our time. How will history judge our generation? Especially the Clintons. Should history ignore wrongs? No. By the same token, it should not negate the good done by the very same flawed people. We're no better, but we've been too busy pointing fingers to see there's more coming back at us than there are pointing at someone else. Focusing on the negative is one of the reasons America is so angry and depressed. Be grateful for the advances made and leave the negatives to God.

Let's face it. Nobody's perfect. When I stand before Holy God, the only thing asked of me is what did I do with Jesus? Did I acknowledge my sin, repent, and ask him to be my Savior? Christopher Columbus, Chelsea Clinton, Donald Trump, nor anyone else will come into the conversation. It's all between me and God. 

Heart problem

This morning, as I read Isaiah 26:9-10, my thoughts went to the latest tragedy that has sparked an old controversy. People are screaming for gun control. Others are saying it won't work. Isaiah 26:9 -10, tells why. "My soul yearns for You in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for You. When Your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness. But when grace is shown to the wicked, they do not learn righteousness; even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil and do not regard the majesty of the LORD."

The Las Vegas shooter had so much to be grateful for. He was a successful businessman, had people who cared for him, and pretty much seemed to live the life some people envied. It seems like everyone is asking why he did such a horrible thing. All the grace that God showed him in giving him the intelligence and skill to go from the son of a bank robber to a millionaire prior to turning killer
is exactly what Isaiah 26:10 is saying. All that grace and look what happened. There's been nothing on the news about his training spiritually. Who knows what he was taught when he was a child? Righteousness must be learned. He didn't.


Yes, I know full well that the religious can be evil, too. I knew an elder in my church who killed another man in cold blood over a business dispute and said it was OK with the Lord. NOT. His actions stated loud and clear that he did not regard the majesty of the LORD. What that man claimed and what he was is known only to God. I have no right to judge his spiritual condition, but I do have the right to say that his actions were anything but Christian. The reason gun control will not work is that the problem is not with the weapon. The problem is with the heart of the person holding the weapon. I've been around guns all my life and have no fear of them because I know and trust the sanity of the ones holding them. Sane people cannot understand the actions of the mentally sick or minds deranged by a chemical. A quote that turns my blood cold every time I hear it, "The heart wants what it wants." It's usually used to excuse illicit sex, but it's appropriate for killers, too. Or anyone determined to do evil, for that matter.
Maybe how he got rich also points to a heart problem. How did he become a millionaire on a mailman's or an IRS employee's salary? Certainly saying he'd like to kill his mother points to a wicked heart.

On the news yesterday, a Congressman mentioned several weapons of mass destruction that won't be affected by gun control. He even mentioned one I never thought of: drones. Gun control won't stop the person determined to kill and destroy. It didn't stop people who burned others alive, drowned them, stabbed them, beat them-the picture is clear. Guns don't kill. People do. Someone posted this morning that over 84 million gun owners did NOT commit murder.

For all those gun control advocates, please rethink this. Both the head and the heart must be in the right place. All heart is selfish emotion. All head is cold disregard, but when the heart chooses to do evil, God gave us a mind to control those selfish hearts that wants what it wants. Regarding the majesty of the LORD is the only answer.