Clueless Thanks

My personal list of things I have attempted to go after head on is so long that there is no real way for me to publish such a list of those moments. I’ve wanted to charge forward on so many situations believing I could help and because I had a desire to help too. If there is any such self-reflection in your life I’m sure you could create a list as well of such times in your life. In 2020 I began sharing from my personal journal written thoughts throughout my social media daily. I shared thoughts I was thinking, pictures that reflected a specific moment of thought, scripture, quotes, whatever was my focus of the day, I shared via twitter and Facebook. The 365 thoughts were a part of my desire to write a daily devotional book of encouragement, motivation, a reflection on Christianity and my personal thoughts as just another person living life as each day unfolded. On the 63rd day of my 56th year of life I recorded: “I thank God for all the things I haven’t a clue He has shielded and protected me from, which are countless no doubt. What can you name you know He has protected you from? #THM #56-63” Today as I continue to work toward completion of that project I find myself again thankful for all the things I haven’t a clue He intervened on my behalf. I do have a list of things I can name that there is no doubt He stepped into within my life and shielded me from. That list includes situations where I knew better than to get involved with, and only time proved His intervention was so “right on time”! My moments include relationships, purchases, trips and conversations. Sometimes our decision making ability seems to be infected with a virus of stupidity…go ahead, laugh at me if it helps you see those moments in your life where we reflect back and say “what was I thinking?” But what about all the times we are clueless about where we cannot see the direct hand-i-work of God in intervention mode? When I think about these moments, I think the only way to experience such wonders in question is by simply living a life of faith where we are doing what we should be doing and not questioning every step and decision involved in the moment. Should I pray…why wouldn’t we be praying all the time? Do we really need God to come and hold our hand and walk us through life like our parents did the first time we went to school and we had to leave the safety net they had built around us? We know what our parents had taught us thus far in life. At that age, if you have a question ask. If you don’t know what to do, ask. If you need help, ask the teacher. However, that which we know to do we should do automatically. Our parents taught us, if someone else is talking, listen. If you need help raise your hand. If you are told to go stand in line and be quiet, do it, you know how, follow the rules, or listen to the instructions. Such guidelines are here to help us navigate this new world of school safely. Faith and God’s all protecting hand is also there and we should find our spirit of thanksgivings readily available given the fact we know we can easily mess things up in seconds that took quite a while to construct. The ever protecting hand of God is always at work, actually His skill is so awesome we might even think we traversed such obstacles in life because we are a good decision maker or planner, all the while, forgetting to thank God for His interventions. Let us never forget to thank God for the things were are clueless about. Until then

Traveling connected

“It is easy in life to travel the wrong road spiritually. Just think about the last time you were traveling and lost. You kept driving along thinking I’m gonna see something that will help, but there is nothing on the wrong way that does”. #THM I have logged many miles on like’s highways. These logged miles include walking on foot, in a car, on a bus, in the air on a plane, by horse, and 4-wheeler to name some of my personal modes of travel. In each of these experiences I have looked for familiar sights that I recognize. Air travel I never had figured out how to spot the sights I need for reference. I’ve flown into the Northern Kentucky Greater Cincinnati Airport hundreds of times and seems like every flight travels from some new direction and I know there are only two approaches to the airport, so go figure my thinking. Life is often this way. We should be able to figure something out, but we don’t. We should be able to recognize where we are, yet it is so tough to do. We should be able to get our bearings but this is much more challenging to do at times than at others. As a Christian I have found myself in many a mess spiritually. I realize that this confess is tough for some to admit, but it helps me as a Christian to admit how easy it is for me to make a mess. The challenge for me as a Christian is staying in touch with my base, my base foundation being Jesus Christ. My communication connections are prayer, Bible study, listening to sermons and messages, reading the Bible for pleasure and allowing God to speak into my life. Thankfully the pilots of the airplanes I have flown have been in constant contact with air traffic control. A super system if you will, that allows for radar tracking contact, vision contact, radio contact, each with a specific purpose and yet each playing their part in the big picture of safe air travel. These features between the airplane and air traffic control helps keep the plane on target and on the correct coordinates that will land the plan in on the proper runway and even get we passengers to the proper gate for disembarking the plane. Really amazing how all these work together for the end product. It is possible that one of these different elements could be lost for a time period and all things still operate safely. For example radar and visual are important and we need both but there was a time that pilots landed plans by visual sight alone without radar. Radio communications are important, but with a clear understanding of what needs to happen, things can go on safely without incident if everyone does \their part and what they know to do and what others are expecting them to do. In the Christian life, sometimes we are absent some of the important elements that helps us as Christians navigate the journey of life, spiritually. Sometimes we forget to pray, sometimes we haven’t read our Bible, or taken time to make sure we remain solidly grounded by keeping all our contact points clean and grounded. I believe it is easy to travel down the wrong road and we help that dilemma because we keep traveling thinking we are going to see something that will immediately provide us our bearings and foundation again. Stay connected might not be easy always, but it is a sure way to travel safely. Until then

The value of life, you decide

The 56th year of my life was personally documented with daily published thoughts, expressions, photos, ideas and questions through Facebook and Twitter. Highlighting you're thinking through social media was challenging for me. I took this course of action as a way to publicly share my self-motivations, thoughts on Christianity, my attitude about life and what keeps me smiling. I have written personal journals throughout my lifetime, but never have I attempted to condense my thoughts down to 280 characters or less. I remain fully committed to the thought that most people like to think they will always remember what we believe, shared or the stories we told, but with time and age memories sadly fade. However that which we write down becomes a recorded part of history about us, our life, and all that we write about, that will never fade away. “The value of life is one lived where a difference is made in the lives of others”, my written thought for day 329, which occurred on July 23, 2021. I have the practice of identifying key words from a sentence and then putting them together and seeing if they communicate the same intent. It’s kinda my own sentence diagram and in this case, the message communicates strongly for me. Value, life, difference, others. One of the greatest opportunities we have in life is the gift of observation. Having the chance to see and watch others and to witness how they live their lives is one outstanding teacher. I would never suggest that one embraces freely and without any cost analysis the impact of following the leader, but to see the positive and the negative provides a clear picture of what is best for you. To question the value of life, I’ve see the value be placed at such a low cost. The value has such a low threshold that mentally one could care less whether you had it or didn’t. Thats not the value I have for myself or anyone else. Attempting to give others value can be an up hill battle especially if they have never cherished life nor considered what an appropriate appraisal would look like. Selfishness is one of the easiest traits that can develops and grow. Without consistent checks and balances you can be overwhelmed in no time flat. In developing land, environmentalist, engineers, and contractors are always interested in the “Impact Study”. What is going to happen if we do this, or if we do that? The same is true for individuals and this one life we have to live. The difference I want to make in others is positive, but I know my short-comings and how easy it is to miss the desired impact, but I won’t miss it because of a lack of effort. Real friendship and investment allows for honesty to be a hallmark of ones life, surrounded by mutual respect and appreciation. Failures, when shared constructively, are an awesome tool of learning and difference making. I am not sure what you consider your life purpose to be. I don’t know how you evaluate if a life lived was a good one or not, but for me, I’m watching to see the impact of your life on others, then that will tell me a big chunk of who you are. Life can be filled with quotes, phrases, thoughts and ideas, but if action is never taken purposely to intentionally make a difference in the lives of others, I would say you missed the value of life completely. Until then

The Joy of Life

Oh the joy of life! I write this knowing very well, personally, that there have been moments and times in life where to mark them off as joy would seem to be a lie I’m attempting to convince myself that it is true. Not sure if you have ever been in one of those types of situations, but there is no way we can check such off the list as joy righty? We might check it off as hurtful, a struggle, unacceptably or as bad, but we reserve the thoughts of joy for moments of pure pleasure, celebrations and complete happiness. Joy, in Christian circles is often expressed as “Joy comes in the morning”, but do you know what that means? Sometimes peopler are described as joyful, does that mean they are like “happy crazy”? Joy certainly has several different images to display but my statement, “oh the joy of life” is a vastly encompassing phrase for me. Joy arriving in the morning indicates that wherever we are presently, if we allow a sunset and a sunrise things can are different. I‘ve had those 245 hour turn arounds, but most of mine moments are like a 72 hour deal, when I’m looking for the sun to come up. I find joy in life because I have learned some Biblical truths that have become foundational truths in my life. Anyone can shout in church when things are going great. A matter of fact I know a lot of “good time church shouters”! Those folks who when life is going great have the most uplifting comments to share, they have a smile on their face when your frown is about to fall from your skin. However when the road moves from 4 lane interest travel down to a one lane dirt path the positive shouting has disappeared just like that great paved highway of travel has too. The purpose in life and the purpose for living seems to have vanished in a puff of wind. It is in these moments that the joy of life will be required to put on a full frontal assault against the enemy. James, the brother of Jesus Christ writes in the Book of James, chapter 1, verse 2, “…count it all joy when you fall into temptation”. Counting trails as temptations as positive doesn’t sound very honest or realistic, but I believe it is totally both! Let’s be honest, have you ever laughed and cried at the same time? Life, some want it to be either one way or the other, but for me I’ve found is a mixture of sunshine and rain, happiness and pain. Oh the joy of life, it is an expression of thankful, for me, that I get to experience all of life’s journey experiencers. Good things and bad things. They are going to happen, we plan for the good, but the bad arrives uninvited every time. Does this mean we quit?, no. We keep pressing through, we keep attempting to get another angle of view, we push our way through or we seek to find a detour to get around the mess we’ve found ourselves in and we do it all for the joy of living life. We need to count our joys in every chance we have to count a joy. Make a joy if necessary but never lose purpose that our attitude matters when we are discussing our joy definition and our living of life experience. Are the next words to be spoken from your mouth going to be “Oh the joy of life”? They should be, others are looking for hope and it could be your words unlock their vault that is a spring of joy that will sustain them through anything. Until then