Christians Don't Cater to Rancor and Canker

3-7 So Jesus spoke to them, using this parable: “Wouldn’t any man among you who owned a hundred sheep, and lost one of them, leave the ninety-nine to themselves in the open, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will put it on his shoulders with great joy, and as soon as he gets home, he will call his friends and neighbours together. ‘Come and celebrate with me,’ he will say, ‘for I have found that sheep of mine which was lost.’ I tell you that it is the same in Heaven—there is more joy over one sinner whose heart is changed than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need for repentance. Luke 15  J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)

----------------------------- 

On Sept. 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all slaves in rebel states should be free as of Jan. 1, 1863.

Source

-------------------------

It has often been my conviction that Lincoln freed the blacks ......and the blacks freed me.  In brief, by helping me “come out of my shell.”

I’m probably the last reader of my blogs who has not made the connection of this Emancipation date (Sept 22) with the decisive and conclusive date in the movie Evan Almighty.  How might this apply to our current developing story?  One way of viewing the structure is that of a collapsed tower—Trump Tower.   (Important: please find structure here including description of source)

All's Well that Ends Well if (and only if) the towering arrogance of Trumpism (the Liar-in-Chief and his acolytes) repent and seize that great American cultural gift of second chances.

I have mention that when Dad was pastor at Bowling Green Fl--as a member later told me--Dad brought into the church family some famously intractable men of the town (including the one telling me). He remembered Dad as an honest and courageous man whose personal power was always held in check by a simple humility (Dad's example was just what he needed, he said). 

After the Civil War deep resentment took expression in Jim Crow Laws while Ruthless Repression became the ultimate enforcer.

It is my prayer, that after Trumpism, the American Eagle will straighten up and fly right in total friendship with joy, creativity, and generosity--her Lamp of Liberty piercing the night with ever-showering Fourth of July celebratory brilliance....Ever remembering that though we are richly blessed by God---the presumption that we ourselves are god may ultimately rest in sheering personal pain relieved only by compensatory compulsive behavior translated finally as anti-social arrogance.  May God bless us in understanding and curing this disease as a service to God and the human family.

Vespers -- Sunshine Soldiers Dedication Service

Every war appears romantic at the outset—a family picnic in the park. 

The dark news Friday that the Liar-in-Chief intends to prostitute the Justice Department means that to proceed further as a Sunshine Soldier requires the frontal recognition that painful sacrifice could lay ahead.  Story Book soldiering could soon be a relic of the past. Are the soldiers of Jesus outfitted and Scripturally steeled for the firing line?









Print Page

If You Build It They Will Come

A Merit-Based system of immigration is a fundamental policy error since God uses the "least of these" to elicit graphical entrée codes into his courts of creativity.  Beware of being too big for your britches.  God don't play with arrogance.  We simply don't know if this is a "value prerequisite" or an essential hard-wired communications protocol.



===================

According to Einstein, “cosmic religious feeling is the strongest and noblest motive for scientific research”. In his opinion, the goal of a scientist should be to try to begin to understand the universe. Einstein had a deep feeling of awe in front of nature and the universe and he believed that “strenuous intellectual work and the study of God’s Nature are the angels that will lead me through all the troubles of this life with consolation, strength, and uncompromising rigor” (letter to Pauline Winteler, 1897).  [Please again note "strenuous"  intellectual work.  God just can't help himself when rooting for the authentic earnest player. (--this note mine)]

(Source)

-----------

It is gratifying when one finds a renown person in apparent concert with a strong feeling arising from your own experience.  Time and again I find that at some level of authentic “strenuous intellectual work” the circuitry of the mind gains greater fluency into the realm of extra-human assisting powers.  I have sometimes found--after wrestling earnestly with God (our Great Creator and our Senior Partner)--that truly miraculous serendipity occurs.  From this point of view, I suspect any country can become God’s Country if true authentic earnestness is combined with utter assurance that God loves us and is eager to assist. 

The main threat to America mentioned in yesterday’s blog is a societal structure which produces such pain that the fun of creativity becomes replaced by dull despair.  (Having no 3rd party review-- "due process "-- at workplace; and the horrors perpetrated  by alcohol.)  A society adrift is a very dangerous thing—it may choose a dictator full of falsehood other than humble yet eager inquiry of intellectual integrity.  The endgame of which is that God cries tears as he watches us drift unto death.

******************** 

I am fully confident in the Good Heart of the American Idea.  When we genuinely and earnestly strive for the fun of dancing with generosity and creativity, God will show up fully outfitted to join in.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Print Page

My Campaign Slogan: IT IS WHAT IT IS… .JUST DEAL WITH IT

==========================

Indulge me while I apply the underlying mental stance of our current political climate to a simple analogy. In my view this is a stance that applies to ever widening aspects of our society and represents the single greatest threat to America. 

The Analogy:  I regularly visit two medical doctors—both doctors I really like.  Each sees me first as a human being—a person with the usual broad sweep of relationships, characteristics, interests, ideas, and emotions.  Concurrently with this extended friendship, each sees me as a human organism replete with a wide-ranging array of physical processes involving a complex variety of required resources.

Now suppose my kidney doctor since our last visit has imbibed heavily at the fountain of our society’s current dangerous mental stance mentioned above. I ask the heretofore friendly and forthcoming doctor a factual aspect of my condition—"Doctor why is minimizing potassium  intake important for my kidney condition?"  Rather than relaying  in layman’s terms a short sketch of kidney functioning, he launches a full-throttled tirade against me, my attitude, my motives, my hidden agendas, my political and religious proclivities.  Finally, he concludes triumphantly with this question, “Why are you so defensive?”   I probably would be thinking: "Doctor, why are you so paranoid?"

To repeat my campaign slogan:  It is what it is….Just deal with it.  Perhaps my first campaign question should be “Is there a doctor in the house?—a doctor experienced in human nature and concurrently in physical processes, structures, and needs.  In the instance of a little hurting child before us, a doctor might address the obvious need for love and reassurance as well as mustering the insights and skills of pediatric medicine.

My campaign will need to address the broad landscape of human personhood as well as the sometimes tedious details of complex systems.  Obviously, this will take many more resources than I alone can muster—it would be laughably ludicrous for me or anyone else to pronounce—I alone can fix it.  Success will require numerous individual heroes who thoroughly understand that our efforts must always of urgent necessity begin and end with our society's deep affliction of personal pain—perhaps of our own furtive and desperate tears.  Enough of phony smiles, empty small-talk diversion, and hollow, ricocheting laughter sourced in pain and despair.  It is NOT the economy, stupid!  Human meaning and destiny depend on far more than an air-fryer in every kitchen.  If we should foolishly barter our God-given integrity and joy for the latest gadget addiction from hell, then it is truly only a matter of time before we end up precisely there.

Print Pa

Sincere Regard for Sympathetic Souls Insinuating Your Unfailing Greatness

====

Let me explain to the Russian saboteurs what resides a few inches below the epidermis of most Americans.  This might scare the hell out of you, but I’m here to testify that on deeper levels we Americans yearn to bind concerns in the Spirit of love and unity (which we do on the sly anyway....you would genuinely be surprised by the kind prayers said for one's most vocal critics).  Those greedy sophomoric dilettantes and two-dimensional dictators hooked on glitzy, self-projected supercilious mirages of America tell us more about their fetid selves than a thousand gigabytes of lies.

Let me help you presumptive bastards understand a thing or two.  Let's take the most recent news regarding the the abortion controversy. (For a moment let be those kiss-ass intelligent agent sycophants located down the hall and listen up to what a free man sounds like--who has among his family and close friends those who disagree about many things.)  Now this is very important to understand (one might call it democracy's secret ingredient)--the glue of personal attachment will always hold SO LONG AS BOTH PARTIES VIEW EACH OTHER AS EQUALLY EMBRACEABLE BEFORE GOD. {Otherwise endless cat fights are inevitable.} 

You see.  Knowing how to love is absolutely essential since bottles of poison (ironically called "spirits") soon lie empty, yet still the heart cries out for that genuine integrity made possible by the intimacy of love and the humility of contrition.

Now we have areas in our nation in which the backbone of the economy derives from agriculture and livestock.  Having lived in such an area, I can relate that the weather gives us frequent practical warnings that humans don’t control everything.  We appreciate that the fast-talking dude from out-of-town guaranteeing a perfect growing season is very probably full of shit.  It follows that when we are assured by big-town elites that a developing baby in the womb is not human, we more or less sit there awhile in silence.  What could come next, we thought.  Sure enough here comes that tried and true carnival barker selling the “free choice doctrine” snake-oil elixir he makes a good dishonest living selling.  That dude I guess thinks we were raised in a concrete city and just fell off one of its liberated subways when it rocketed off the tracks and arced from horizon to horizon.  He said mankind has the free choice to do whatever it wants to since its all about liberated individuals acting individually.   Well, when we country folks talk over the pasture fence we think about each of us having a right to pollute a stream with tons of chicken shit because individual liberty is guaranteed by our Constitution…..yet sometimes we can't help but puzzle at our quaint low rural IQ’s…especially when our own place is the one downstream and, doing our very best to understand the concept, just can’t seem to escape the smell of chicken shit.  Out here in the sticks where farm animal birth is as regular thing, it kind of puzzles us when people claim that a human child developing in the womb is not a human child and liberty and individual dignity are not a bit violated by shredding to pieces a growing and healthy child in the womb.

As my well-endowed city cousin always says when sporting a new T-shirt:

It is what it is------Just deal with it










Print Page

Searching Questions

In a recent blog I wrote about a head coach (in movie Remember the Titans) who forcefully asserted the following mantra: THIS IS NOT A DEMOCRACY.  That was also the mantra of a history professor I heard about.  Have you not heard similar sentiments from line authority in business?  Now think carefully and be honest…on hearing this statement in your own personal affairs, did you have a sense of security and peace....a childlike sense of relief from responsibility  ......perhaps thinking.....now at last we will get something done—not another desert filled with inaction on the one hand or frenetic chaos on the other!

Should we wonder that “strong bosses” can creep insidiously and pervasively by side door into the national psyche?

=====

The other day my blog embedded a video that included Mahalia Jackson dedicating a song to Louis Armstrong  (Found Here).  She said of him that if you don’t love him, I don’t think you know how to love.  Let us consider these words for a moment:  Are there people in our society that don’t know how to love?  And what could be the back stories of these unfortunate people.  What implications are there for a society in which a substantial number of its members have somehow never learned to love?

How Does That Make Any Sense?

If American as our democracy yearns to flourish within the Kingdom of God, how does that make any sense?  How can a democracy be part of a Kingdom?  I have urged us to see God as our Senior Partner and we ourselves as Junior Partners.  We are made in the image of God the Good Book says and He reigns as the God of love. Jesus demonstrated Godly love as the son of God and simultaneously as a human being fully aware of our human nature—He knows as the song STILL says--that we are fully known. That is, there is no need for us to conjure up those ridiculously outsized fictions called Resumes.  He accepts us for employment because of something even better--for who we really are!

Now earlier I discussed the wonderful fact that the American Spirit understands through practical experience that is possible to enjoy equality and the fun of being special at the same time.  This mirrors the simultaneous extensive dynamic of the People's Democracy in sumptuous concert with the Creator’s Kingdom. Of course the Spirit that enables is love itself—the love that uplifts and humbles simultaneously to produce creativity, generosity, and happiness that flashes a laser beacon from our little corner of the universe.

Now in American society we intuitively understand that the sketch for most organizations take on a more or less hierarchical shape.  Most all institutions—let’s be honest—sooner or later define numerous roles including far-reaching line authority.  The American Constitution understands that due to human nature, the only real check that works to control the drive to existentially eliminate vulnerability can be expressed in a phrase: checks and balances.  The theme of checks and balances echo's throughout society.  I must thank Dietrich Bonheoffer (in book Ethics) for the insight that when an institution seeks to usurp the role of a balancing institution, it ends up forfeiting its own role.  You might think of it this way, for the enterprise sector, when the defining role of an engineer is trumped by an over-eager marketing department, the very existence of the organization can be put into jeopardy

In our culture we all know that most hierarchies are significantly impacted by America’s commitment to the Equal/Special paradox. An inexperienced line manager or supervisor usually soon learns that Cock-of-the-Walk line authority Hotshots predictably find himself gracing a delicious pot of chicken soup.  In the brain of each American employee—like it or not—is a clear sense of what it means to be equal and special--and they expect appropriate accommodations.

Before retirement I worked for the City of Saint Petersburg Parks and Recreation Department.  There is no doubt that I would have a very rough day as a computer grunt if I should decide to toss out the organizational need for specificity in both accountability and responsibility. Thus, I post-haste conjured up a genius conclusion that the duly elected City Councils/Mayor were all wrong about their purpose for a certain project. Hence today I threw the whole thing out and angrily refused to take delivery of critically needed equipment. I think every day—even the mayor himself—mentally affirms equality and the special contribution he can make. We all understood we owe no less to ourselves, each other, the organization, and the residents of our Sunshine City.  We should not as American's bust gut over problems that really don’t matter much  and seldom practically arise.  We are blessed with the balm of our democracy, our love for each other, and the love of our Creator.  

PS:  To all Sunshine Soldiers—this day and every day—let us defeat Trumpism by serving up for all we meet love and kindness with a certain flair to accentuate our sure victory—these "impromptu votes” each and every day will defeat those self-appointed geniuses from hell. Thank God our forefathers were childlike enough to make happiness an essential part of our daily diet.



Print Page

Why I Know My Daddy Would Never Have Voted for Donald Trump

My father was a United Methodist minister but that religious denomination is not why his very being would have rejected Donald Trump.  I suspect my father was a democrat, but that also would not have been the reason.  As I have mentioned before, my father never once in his life showed much concern over my academic grades.  He made it clear that he trusted me to figure it out sooner or later.  I can assert with full assurance that never would I end up in deep shit over grades.  But I can tell you with absolute certainty that deportment issues would have received his utmost and undivided attention.  I think he had a profound understanding as to the rightness of the adage—It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.  This little phrase melds perfectly with his deepest understanding of his Christian faith.  Christ, we know as savior, would die on a cross—at that time a symbol of utter derision—the final and conclusive symbol of LOSER. 

That is, my father firmly believed that his God was many times more interested in the guiding spirit of process rather than whether Ed Standifer ended up driving the newest luxury car thanks to a trophy bonus or, instead, drove an Axel Foley rattletrap.  I cannot stress to you how deeply and broadly this little aphorism reflected what my father was all about.  My mother was the same.  My mother would have absolutely laid down her life for me.  Even so, she would have never--never—simply could not have lied for me to get me out of a pending deadline for school work.  I knew in advance that my parents loved me too much to allow me to betray my personhood in this way.

Mr. Trump, on the other hand, was not so lucky in growing up.  He had the great misfortune of having parents who valued reputation a thousand times more valuable than integrity.  In his milieu, it was all about winning at any cost, rather than how you play the game.

Actually, that was the black hole trap door opening upon the anti-universe of arrogance and evil.  Let’s face it, mankind has often described a grotesque and bizarre headlong leap into self-destruction as evil and the work of the Devil.  I’ve heard atheists joke they are not afraid of ending up in hell.  I could never join them by mirroring a similar smirk.  Often mankind will create a shorthand label for what is nevertheless very real—often with a hope that sometime and somewhere in the future a more helpful—even scientific—explanation will develop full of promise for understanding leading to effective management and control. No, I do not smirk at evil and Satan as too simplistic for my elevated intellectual gravitas--any more than I find a railroad crossing warning a little joke intended only for the local yokels.

I think we have all been amazed at the degeneration of veracity and reliable perception in the behavior of Donald Trump.  We are even more astounded by the plain evidence that his acolytes undergo rapid and deep reversals of what typically are seen as very stable personality traits. In these cases, there seems to be an over-the-cliff type of phenomenon—a born-again phenomenon not of salvation but of perdition—a period of possible reversal followed  by a steep declension from possible reversal.

I have discussed my view of this phenomenon in earlier blogs.  In my view it would be wonderful if research originating in American labs in concert with our Senior Partner could provide relief along a path of more precise understanding of the physical layer under-girding spiritual perception.  In God’s good time (even in our generation) may we be blessed with the honor and opportunity to practically acknowledge the hard work, humility, pain, and grace of our resplendent surrounding cloud of witnesses. 

May God Bless America!!

============
Suggestion: view on Netflix recent release: GET ME ROGER STONE

YouTube video recommendation: 



--------

My blog links with brief indication of my understanding of over-the-cliff phenomenon

https://www.wayneblogs.com/2018/11/your-word-is-lamp-to-my-feet-and-light.html

https://www.wayneblogs.com/2018/11/hospital-family-room-news.html

=========

Further readings for my current understanding of things: I would suggest viewing my blogs beginning with most current—not getting bogged down on anything....just keep going ....and to proceed backwards for several years of blogs.  At any time you can browse a chronological archive of titles and call up individual blogs. Of course, Google search conventions still apply. For example, with this on the Google Search line:  www.wayneblogs.com "Trump"    Google will find all my blogs that include the word Trump.

As always (though silently in my heart) I would like to thank the invisible-to-user-and-reader unsurpassed example of excellence—the Google staff.  Also, I frequently include within my blogs videos created by others unknown to me……but I am sure astound God himself by their uncompromising creativity and excellence.

Print Page

Special Message to Bleeding Heart White Skinned Liberals

Please consider what one of the greatest orators of all time had to say.  MLK makes very plain that we can transcend a good distance from self-indulgent guilt trips when we leave behind kindergarten infantile prejudices and pretensions..

However, Dr King DID NOT stop there.  He did not ask us to stop dead and to replace our brains with fistfuls of silly-putty.  In fact, once we trash our childish and dimwitted prejudices about skin color, the heavy responsibly of discerning human character kicks in.  That is, MLK charges us to pay special regard to that hazardous yet sometimes essential task of discerning character.  Experience, wisdom, and petitions for divine guidance are clearly indicated.

In other words, be vigilant for signs of extortion directed your way in underhanded attempts to control you by strumming sentimental chords of trumped-up guilt.  Remember, you have no real love in your heart for anyone you weakly indulge with credulity rather than calling that person to personal integrity and  accountability.

=====


More than I like to admit, I am often sure from another room that my wife is challenging me to new heights of accountability....that is, until I discoverer she is in discourse with other of our family members:








Print Page