A writing from my dad

This was written tonight by my dad on Facebook and I wanted to put it all together in one post to be able to share. It's a really great piece!! These horrific acts are not new. They have been around since the beginnings of time. Yet each time tragedy occurs, it touches an entire generation.  Here is my dad's take......

                                My mom and dad 3 years ago with 9 of their now 10 grand kids.

Another routine school morning in this small town school. Teachers and staff doing what they loved to do,watching over our most treasured possessions, our kids, teaching, nurturing,guiding and loving them. The kids were in their own world:a world we call childhood. They were in a world where they didn't know they would have goals, dreams, pressures and accomplishments. They were too young yet to know. They just lived a life in this place called childhood. And then, Hades came to call. When it was over teachers, staff,bystanders, and too too many innocent little ones were gone. Terror had come to this seemingly safe and secure corner of America.

Parents came to try to find their kids, husbands lost their wives and wives and mothers would be home no more. Yes this small, obscure town would be thrust into the history books as the place where the school disaster took place. For on that day, May 18, 1927, all Hell broke out in Bath, Michigan. Mr Andrew Kehoe clubbed his wife to death and set fire to their house. Then he proceeded to the towns school where he detonated hundreds of pounds of explosives he had planted there over the preceding months. When the explosions ended 45 people had entered eternity...38(1) of them just children. As well, another 58 were injured and maimed as the explosions rocked small town America. The ones left behind asked the same questions we hear today in our day of disaster: why here, why these precious little ones, what would possess a person to do this?

The bombings in Bath, Michigan was the 3rd largest massacre (non military) in our nations history behind 911, and the Oklahoma City bombings. The old Curmedgeon doesn't have the answers to all the questions being asked any more than others do...and my heart breaks for all the loved ones who have had their hearts ripped open by this wickedness that happened yesterday, but I can't help but think of what Hal Lindset wrote in a book many years ago: "SATAN IS ALIVE AND WELL ON PLANET EARTH"
I have shed many tears today as I have thought of these kids, their parents....and their grandparents. I have looked up above my desk at teh pictures of all 10 of our grandkids and prayed "Dear God, protect them from the evils of our world". 

Societal Responsibility-Our role in the Connecticut tragedy

Today I saw a status update on Facebook that stated the following:

"In addition to mourning the dead, I am reminded of what one woman said upon hearing that Martin Luther King was murdered: "I mourn society. We live in a sick society".  Obviously the lion share of guilt is with the young man who perpetrated this great crime. But we, contributing members of society, share blame for shaping a society that increasingly fosters and tolerates the conditions/teaching/morals that make this behavior more likely". 

This author stated so perfectly what I'd been wanting to say ever since I first learned of the horrific tragedy that took place in Connecticut. While there is most definitely a personal responsibility that has to be taken, we have to also question what we as a society played into it. For starters, in our attempt to vilify this type of tragedy, we actually turn him into some sort of a hero. His name is plastered everywhere, around the world! In an article in the New York Times, it was statedd by a neighbor "Who are they? I'm sure we rang their doorbell on Halloween". Because of this tragedy, everyone now knows who Adam Lanza is. People who likely mocked Adam while in school, called him 'different' or 'odd' (there are now reports that he may have had Asperger's Syndrome) now see his name everywhere. 

How many of us even know our neighbors? We don't live in the Leave it to Beaver days where everyone was watering their grass at the same time and the kids were in the streets riding bikes. We are so full of privacy fences and even fear of our next door neighbor. We come home and isolate ourselves on the inside of our houses and don't know the names of those around us, let alone what their life is like, where they work, their kids names or ages or anything else about them. There is a sense of community that needs to happen again. When people don't belong to a community, they eventually snap. We are not created to be isolated beings!



Next, we have a society that is constantly looking at media that is full of violence. We see graphic ways of killing people, blowing up cars, or causing mass hysteria. After awhile, a mind that is already altered due to drugs, alcohol or mental illness can't tell what is fact and what is fiction. The subconscious mind becomes powerful and blurs between subconscious and conscious mind.  We hear rap songs of rape and murder. We play video games full of violence. MILLIONS of dollars are made in sensationalizing these types of activities. The same people in Hollywood screaming the loudest about gun control, are the ones who are staring in these movies and making millions of dollars at our expense.

Third, we are a nation that simply can't turn away. We are all voyeurs at our core. If we see an accident on the side of the road, most of us (myself included) have to look at we pass and somehow construe in our minds what must have taken place in those final seconds. We sit by our televisions watching every second of the news coverage. We see the small children paraded in front of the camera being asked for details, asked how they are coping and if they are ok. We hear the media saying that this is the '2nd most deadly school rampage', which now opens up the door for another broken person to try to accomplish being the #1. We've seen the small victims faces, with no privacy for their hurting families. We crave every last detail and feel that we deserve to know. We deserve none
 of the facts. The families, however, deserve to mourn and
grieve without cameras and news anchors in their faces. 

We also have a society of hurting people. How many of us reach out to those who are hurting, the homeless man on the street, the drug addict and alcoholic? These people all deserve love. We may never know the issues this man was facing or if he had been rejected by society, but what we CAN do is look at those around us, be more compassionate and learn to love others who are 'unworthy' of our love. This, after all, is the Great Commandment! 

Ronald Reagan stated "We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions". While there is truth in this, we are also only as strong as our weakest link. Yesterday, our weakest link at that moment was revealed. We rise or fall as a nation, not as individuals. 

As Christians, we are told to love and support the orphans and widows and to help the poor and needy. We are told to do as Jesus did, and he loved those who society rejected. Even if society rejects them, WE are to love them! We don't know what happened int his situation yet, but only a broken, hurting person could do something so violent and evil. I'm not saying that loving the broken is easy, but what IS easy is to blame one person instead of looking at how we as a society could have also contributed to this in some way. (I'm NOT referring to more gun laws here!) It's about how WE treat others. It's a Biblical principle that if we, especially as Christians, would learn, maybe things would be different. 

I pray that through this tragedy, we will take a look inside and become a more compassionate people, a people who are looking for the hurting and find a way to reach out to them instead of turn from.  Praying that through this tragedy, we will unite in ways we haven't united in the past, hold each other to higher standards and accountability and rise from these ashes a strong, united front for justice and goodness. 

Happy Christmas-John Lennon

Every year it seems I have a new favorite Christmas song. Most of them are classics and not something new for the year, but just something that really hits me in some way that particular Christmas season. This year I have two of them.

This year it's Happy Christmas by John Lennon and a new song by Richard Marx (which I'll try to blog about later)
HAPPY CHRISTMAS
So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
Ans so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young
It really rang out to me when I first heard it on the radio this season. "What have you done? Another year older and a new one just begun".  What HAVE I done this year? I've done the big things like graduate and move back to Michigan, but what I have done to change the world around me, to help my community, to make the world a better place. How is this Christmas any different than last Christmas. We get so caught in the rut of life that we live day to day, never thinking about the future, those around us or how WE can make a difference.

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong

This is especially fitting after the horrific events that happened yesterday in Connecticut. So many school children lost their lives at the hands of a madman! This isn't supposed to happen, let alone at Christmas time. This is the type of things we expect in other countries, not here in the US. The fear that these children felt must have been overwhelming. The families that have lost their loved ones at this time of the year. The world really is so wrong. :(

And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight
And the the song pretty much just repeats. As we face the coming of Christmas, I hope that we can all take a look and see what difference we've made in the world this year. What have YOU done?

What's your favorite Christmas song?

Once A Beginnier

In order to be an expert in something, you must first begin. A triathlete didn’t become one over night. A famous musician took time to start in music. An actress at some point was taking her first head shot and having her first audition. In order to excel in something, the first step is to BEGIN.

When I ventured back to school, the mom of 5 kids who at that time were ages 3 months to 9 years, most people thought I was crazy. “I” often wondered if I was crazy! The journey to becoming a doctor was a long, hard one. Along the way I wanted to quit so many times that my husband quit keeping count. I struggled through classes, retaking several, and constantly compared myself to my peers. But I kept going. As Lance Armstrong is racing in the hills of France, it has to cross his mind at some point to give up and quit. Surely people would have understood if he decided that the current race was just too much for him. But he continued to ride, muscles aching and fatigued. He too, once rode a tricycle and then had training wheels. He didn’t go from learning to crawl to riding in a Tour de France. He once was the small, shaky child learning to ride his bike without training wheels, who fell and skinned his knee just like everyone of us did. But he kept going. Just think what would have happened if in that moment he decided the struggle was just too hard, that he wasn’t good enough to ride a bike and that he needed to quit? He’d not have won 7 back to back races and become world famous and a hero to many.

When I went back to school, it was out of desperation. My husband had lost several jobs in that year and I had just had baby #5. We knew that in order to survive as a family, we had to do something drastic. Within weeks we had applied to school, packed up our house and moved everything from Michigan to Georgia. The challenges on the way were mind blowing. To start totally over with no support system, no friends, no family often left me feeling sad and alone. We were living off of nothing but student loans as they encourage you not to try to hold down a job while going through medical school. We eventually had to give in and go on food stamps and state aid, which was devastating to me as someone who had always been anti ‘government handouts’. No one ever said it would be easy, but I was assured that I could have the desires of my heart, with the right amount of work.  In today’s society, we often find ourselves playing a victim role. It’s the president’s fault that the economy stinks and a job was lost. It’s our parents or spouses fault that we suffer with anxiety or depression. It’s McDonald’s fault that we are overweight as a nation. It’s not until we see ourselves in a new light, not of victim but of victor, that we can see that we are powerful, strong and determined! We are WOMAN!

Dr. Seuss once said “I start drawing, and eventually the characters involve themselves in a situation.” The key was that he started! He put his pen to the paper, having no clue what was going to show up on the page, and amazing stories and tales ensued.  And Dr. Suess said it best in “Oh the Places You’ll Go” when he said “ Congratulations! Today is your Day.

You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away!
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the (gal) who’ll decide where to go.”

As you look at your situation and see the things you’ve always wanted to start, whether going back to school, starting a new business, or something smaller like  learning to cook, sew, knit or paint, remember that you are a strong, beautiful capable woman who has the ability to accomplish GREAT things! When you look at your children and want the best for them, remind yourself that you deserve the same things you want them to have and set off to find a way to accomplish it. In order to achieve it, you must begin it. And if you don’t know what you’d like accomplish, do as Lucielle Ball once said “It’s a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy.” It’s a GREAT place to start! Find what makes you smile, start being the best YOU and go from there.


(Since I originally wrote this a year ago, we all know that Lance Armstrong has been stripped of all his medals. I still believe he is one of the greatest athletes to ever live and that he simply got tired of fighting the battle and surrendered to something that may or may not have actually taken place. I still believe that he is a great example of pursuing excellence, overcoming obstacles and achieving great success.)

Neighborhood Bully

Nobody likes the neighborhood bully. The one who is constantly tearing people down, telling them they are wrong, and beating them up, both physically and verbally. Everyone tries to avoid this person and eventually the tables turn and the neighborhood turns on the bully. Bullies are eventually kicked out of schools, end up in juvenile detentions and hated by society. 

When we think of a bully, we think of people like Biff Tannen from Back to the Future. His catch phrase "HEL-LO...McFLY" is still a common catchphrase when pointing out that someone is too slow or 'stupid' to understand something. We think of Nelly Olson from Little House on the Prairie who never had anything nice to say to anyone. She was incredibly selfish, physically violant and demanding. It was her way or the highway and when she didn't get her way, she would destroy everything in her path, including people, until her parents (usually her dad since her mom was already on her side) gave in to her demands. 

And what about one of our favorite bullies? Simon Cowell! He seems to enjoy cutting people down to a pile of ashes, smashing every hope and dream along the way. He tells them they are pathetic, says things like "Did you really believe you could become the American Idol? Well, then, your deaf" or "If you sang like that 2000 years ago, people would have stoned you".

Sometimes I think that we as Christians have become the neighborhood bully. We want rules and regulations. We want to make sure that everyone lives by "our" set of rules. I could make a list of these rules, but you already know what they are. We expect that everyone live like we do, despite them not believing in the God we serve, having the morals we have and following the Bible we read. Anything that is different than us is bad and our morals are bad. 

Many within the Christian world look at Islam as an angry and violent religion. They point to extreme acts of terrorism and talk about how the Muslims want to take over the world. They forget that Christianity has the same agendas. Look at all the religious crusades, the Salem Witch Hunts and how we try to create laws in the US based on our religious ideas. We are trying to force people into our way of living instead of looking to see how our beliefs affect the overall community as a whole. We can't force anyone to embrace our way of thinking and by trying we are creating enemies. We are attempting sin management instead of working to bring people into an understanding of what it is we believe and why we do it. 

The Bible tells us that we will be 'persecuted' for Jesus namesake. What does that mean? Many believe that we are being persecuted now 'in our own country'. They feel that religious freedoms are being taken away. I point out that maybe it's a balance of religion, as I believe the nation was originally intended. It gives everyone a chance to worship how they want, or to not worship at all. And we aren't willing to work together to find a compromise. We continue to be the neighborhood bully. An example that comes to mind is in Dearborn, MI. There is a large Islamic community there and everyday, the call to prayer plays out over the entire city. Many people fought hard in an attempt to stop it. They tried to chase it out of the city. They were bullies. While it's an inconvenience for the non-muslims in the neighborhood, and I agree that it's not what I want to hear everyday, being angry and trying to simply ban it with a law isn't the way to go about it. We are forcing our beliefs, just as we feel they are forcing theirs by making us hear it. We are talking about the sanctity of marriage ...while we are getting divorced in record numbers or our leaders in the pulpits are having affairs. We are talking about abortion.....while we are arguing about not taking care of the kids that end up in the 'system'. We snub our noses at alcoholics or drug addicts....while we sit addicted to our tv, our ice cream or our Diet Coke.

Times in the US are changing, but I would challenge that we are not being 'persecuted for Jesus namesake'. We have been the neighborhood bully and people are beginning to fight back. We have reduced others rights and now there are those trying to reduce ours. Same sex marriage  while we may not agree with it, does not hurt OUR rights. Marijuana legalization does not hurt OUR rights. None of these things really affect us and our right to worship God the way we want. Even removing the 10 Commandments from public business doesn't change our ability to believe and worship and does not limit our rights in the least. It's time we look to Jesus and stop playing the Christian Victim card. Stop being the neighborhood bully and do as we were commanded to do "Love our neighbor as ourselves". If we have truly loved as we want to be loved, we are now reaping the same 'love' we sowed. 



Moving forward, I would challenge you to listen to how you portray your faith. Are you trying to create sin management in the people and community around you? Are you coming off as arrogant and self centered in your approach? Are you making others feel that if they don't agree with you, they are inferior, or better yet....sinners? Evaluate just how Jesus really WOULD have handled the situation. While he told sinners to 'go and sin no more', he walked in love with them. He brought them to an understanding on himself and his heart and love for them. He challenged them to go to the next level, THEN challenged them to go and sin no more. 

Forward

I've heard several people mention that it's too early after the election to be using the word 'forward' since it was the key phrase for President Obama's re-election campaign. Many have mentioned that the word will never be the same. Just as "Hope" and "Change" automatically take people back to the words of the 2008 election campaign, the word Forward" will likely be hard to disassociate from the most recent. We will likely visual the blue and red in the letter "O" for some time.

When we look at the definition of the word, it means "toward the front; in the direction that one is facing or traveling". As a verb, it means "toward a destination". When we move forward, we are leaving the place that we currently are and proceeding in a positive direction. We all look forward to something. It's what keeps us going.  Looking forward to 5 o'clock Friday gets many through the week. Kids look forward to their birthday, Halloween and Christmas and adults look forward to vacation.  When we look forward, we are assuming what that future will be like. We imagine the feeling of leaving work on Friday or boarding a plane fora sandy beach location. We don't know what it will fully feel like, we look with anticipation and desire.

Forward thinking motivates us. It invigorates our imagination and enlivens our senses. It is through forward thinking that our creative energies are released. Even if we are forward thinking and only can think of the bad, we don't know what that is going to look like but our imagination plays it out, creates situations and shows us details. Creativity and imagination are still at work.

It is through forward thinking that board games and chess matches are won, and how ideas and inventions are created. It's through forward thinking that fields are created to be harvested, how a house is built and how a wedding is planned. Most of our lives we spend in forward thinking...what we will wear to work tomorrow, what we will make for dinner, what movie we will see this weekend.

Forward thinking is critically important. If we didn't have it, we'd be stuck in despair with no way out. We'd fall into depression and inner chaos. The Bible is also forward thinking and encourages us to be as well.

It tells us "Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

The ant knows that the winter is coming. It knows it needs to prepare and store up food. It understands being a forward thinker.

But the BIble also tells us not to fear the future. 

I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Plans to proper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.

Forward thinking. We HAVE a hope and a future! We have something to look forward to. Everyday, we can look forward to our future, forward to what God has in store for us. He tells us not to worry, that the birds of the air don't toil for food, yet they are fed.  This is NOT telling us to not work for food or to just sit back and do nothing. It is however, telling us that tomorrow is ok. 'Don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself'.  Notice it says 'Worry". It doesn't tell us to not think about tomorrow or not dream about tomorrow. It tells us to not WORRY about tomorrow.

Right now there a lot of people, a lot of Christians and Conservatives (of which I am) WORRYING about tomorrow! Many are talking about stockpiling weapons and food. They are worrying about what the future is going to hold. We are told NOT to do this. We are told to be forward thinkers, but not worriers.  Worrying accomplishes nothing, but more worry and anxiety.  Through forward thinking, we will find viable solutions. We will find that the reward through forward thinking is much greater. The reward is more contentment, more happiness and more peace.

ACTION STEP
So, while the word "FORWARD"  may always remind us of this nasty, expensive campaign, reclaim the word. Remind yourself to be a forward thinker. Let your creative imagination work FOR you. Let  God fill your mind with new ideas, new visions, new opportunities. Remind yourself to look for the positive in the situations. Remind yourself that the future is bright....and go towards it! No Fear! 

My husbands thoughts....

My husband is much more eloquent than I am. He's also much more of a deep thinker. He makes my head spin sometimes I read his stuff, but I thought I'd share it for everyone to read. It's really good.

I realized today, through this season of political campaigning, that I suffer from Conflicted Political Identity Syndrome (CPIS) just like I suffer from Conflicted Religious Identity Syndrome (CRIS). The later of the two I got from Brian McLaren's book, Why did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed cross the road?. What I've realized is why it is exactly the I suffer from these syndromes. It is 

because I am trying to distance myself from these political and religious hostilities that both of these belief systems, albeit in their current state, tend to bring out in people. If you understand hostility as meaning opposition, as in the sense that the other is the enemy you realize that hostility makes one unwilling to be the host. The "other" must be turned away, kept at a distance as an unwanted outsider, unwanted in hospitality as a guest or a friend. Brian McLaren states that hostility is an attitude of exclusion, not embrace; of repugnance not respect; of suspicion not extending the benefit of the doubt; of conflict not conviviality (friendliness) and I agree wholeheartedly! Some may think that my lack of identifying myself with a party or its belief systems is irresponsible and uncommitted and from where I stand I am confident that this is not a bad thing. I am interested in a dialogue with people who can rise above their world views not in search of more information that can support the belief systems they already have but to search for truth at a higher level. A truth that will raise our humanity for the greater purpose. Does anyone really believe that they have all the information that everyone ever needs??? You know this is absurd. Than why don't we tolerate each other more, talk to each other from a place of understanding rather than to be understood. I am convinced that this is a forgotten art, an invaluable skill set that we need to embrace with all our might. Think about it, how do we communicate at that higher level? If you can answer that question you become part of the solution! Food for thought.

Settling for Mediocrity

As I watched the results of the elections pouring in last night, and woke up this morning, it was very clear we are in a different America. It is becoming increasingly clear by the results of last night, that we are in a country that applauds and celebrates mediocrity and punishes achievement. We are in a country that the harder you strive to get ahead, the more you are going to be taxed and beaten back down. We are in a country where working hard and becoming wealthy is a bad thing and therefore you must now support the person who isn't willing to work hard to get ahead. We are in a country where 1 in 7 people (47 MILLION) rely on food stamps, and there is little to no incentive to get off of them. We are in a country where you can have food stamps, medicaid and even TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) and still have an iPhone, Nike shoes and drive an expensive car. We are in a country where the fight has been taken out of the dog and it is rolling over and asking for it's belly to be scratched, it's food bowl to be filled and it's bed to bed soft and flea free. We are a nation of entitlement not betterment.

There's an example of this that has been discussed frequently. The example goes like this:

You are sitting in a classroom and working your tail off to get good grades so
you can go to college and have a good life. You are getting straight As at this
point in your schooling. You are tired, overwhelmed but feeling hopeful and
determined. Next to you sits a student who goes home everyday and plays
video games instead of study. He too hopes to go to college, but he is more
interested in the feelings of the moment than the future. He is failing his
classes, but he still expects to go to college, somehow.

The teachers decides that they are going to start normalizing all the grades.
All students tests will be graded and then everyone will be given the median
grade for the test. The A student does his thing, stays up late, studies hard and
gets an A. The other student does his thing, plays his video games, parties
with his friends, hangs out at  the mall and fails. The class is graded and all the
 students get a C on the test. The top student feels frustrated and defeated. The
bottom student feels exuberant that he got a C.

The next test comes along and the top student decides it's not worth it to study
so hard. He now gets a B on the test. The failing student still does what he
does. The grades are normalized and all the students how get a D. The top
student is extremely upset with this process. The bottom student is still excited
cause he still passed and did nothing for it to happen.

The next test comes along and the top student gives up. There is no reason to
study at all if he is likely to fail anyways. He decides to just take whatever the
teacher gives out. The grades are normalized and all the students now get an F.
The entire class fails and is weakened.

The object of the story is that as we take from the top to give to the bottom, what is the incentive for the top to continue to work so hard? They won't reap the benefits of their hard work. Those benefits are normalized and given to those who refuse to put in the work. The top start to not push as hard, not fight so much and eventually, everyone finds themselves dependent on a failing system. The top, by giving up, no longer are paying the high taxes, which are needed to fund things like education, road construction projects, and every other tax based project. The entire nation suffers!

After the election was over last night, I posted a comment that said "OBAMA WON!!! OBAMA WON!!!! I'm so excited! I don't have to work anymore! Obama's going to pay my rent! Obama's going to buy my food! I'm getting me an Obamaphone!!!! WOOHOO!!! I'm never going back to work again!!! No more responsibility for me! YES! Life just got EASY!!!!!"

                                    


I really upset a lot of people. One 'friend' ended up deleating me this morning after mentioning it on her own page and having someone say that 'sometimes they just don't understand' and 'some people are so closed minded. You just have to pray for them'.  I understand far more than this person thinks I understand. I understand struggle and I also understand working hard to overcome the situation. While I was half joking last night, I was also quite serious. If you take a look at YouTube, there quite a few videos of people saying the exact same thing I said! People who have found that it's easier to live off the government than work for themselves. Here's just a couple of them:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36x8rTb3jI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpAOwJvTOio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfGLB8LO1aM

Instead, how about we start to find creative ways to empower that lower section to rise up. Give  incentives. Currently there are no incentives  to work harder. They are given the 'grades' based on  non-performance. Empower the lower sections of our culture to better themselves, go back to school, get their GED and Associates degrees. Empower them to further their education. I'm 100% for putting more money into education and higher education. While going through school, help with their food and health insurance, but give a way to get off of these programs. I can speak from experience on this that it is hard to get off assistance once on it. While going to chiropractic school with my large family, I qualified for $1000 a month for food! It is encouraged that students not work while going to any sort of post-grad program so this is a way to help with that. After graduating, it was a major struggle to overcome $1000 of 'free food'.  Where in the budge would I pull that money from? Shoot, that might mean giving up cable or down grading my cellphone from an iPhone to basic service. Heck no! It's easier to lower my income a bit, keep my $1000 of 'free food' and keep all my luxuries.  The system was NOT set up to be this way and we need to find a way to help people who are ON 'the system' get OFF 'the system'. 

As we awoke this morning, we are divided. Roughly 50% of the nation supported each of the candidates. We are split down the middle. We need to stop settling for mediocrity. We need to challenge the status quo. We need to empower the lower classes, not so they can feel entitled to more, but to raise them up to level of contributing citizens. We are only as strong as our weakest link and when 47 million people are on food stamps, we are no longer strong. We are a nation that is government dependent. We are entitled not empowered. We are emaciated as a nation instead of emancipated. We are in need of unification, not more division. 

So Where DO we go from here?

As we move forward, I challenge you to raise the status quo in your own life. Step up and do your very best in everything you do. Don't accept mediocrity, not from yourself, not from your local government, not from your federal government. Stand close with your elected officials and push THEM forward to success. Pray for them. Hold them accountable to the standards they say they are going to follow. A house divided can not stand. We are divided and we need to work to find ways to stand together. This goes for BOTH parties, all races and religions.  Find your brother and come along side him. Nudge him along in love and empower him to greatness. We were ALL designed for it and we all have the same opportunity to achieve it. 

10 things I've learned about politics

10. I've learned that, just like people will take little segments out of the Bible and distort them to fit their belief systems, they will do the same in politics. They will take one line out of a speech or debate and twist it to mean what they think it should mean. The politician will go back many times and say "That is NOT what I said" and prove that it was out of context, but the commercials blasting the person will play over and over and the other person's supporters will use it in every single argument.

9. We all believe what we want to believe. No matter the truth and facts presented to us, we like to put our blinders on.  I've watched debates on Facebook, where when facts are presented, the other person simply stops talking. The blinders were put on and their head was buried in the sand so they don't know the truth.

8. There will always be people who shouldn't vote. The way our nation is set up, a person with a felony is denied the privilege to vote. I think we should let them vote. But, we should take away the right to vote from all the stupid people. If you are voting simply because of a person's race (black or white) or their religion, or strictly based on their party and not their policy, you are too stupid to vote! If you are voting for someone thinking they are going to make you rich or pay your bills, you shouldn't be allowed to vote! Maybe we need to have a high school degree or GED in order to vote. If you haven't finished school, haven't done all the required courses in civics and government, how can you be allowed to vote in something you don't fully understand??

This lady might not be the best to vote. She seems to have voted, thinking that her mortgage and gas would no longer be a problem. The way she talks makes it sound like if she can't pay her bills, she can just call up President Obama's personal line and he'll fix it all for her.

On the other hand, this family probably shouldn't be voting either! This is NOT America's finest at least I hope.

7. The electoral college is an archaic method and needs to be replaced. The system was put into place by the founding fathers as a way to help the smaller states be held as equal as the larger states. The problem is that it does not truly give each of a chance to 'have our voice be heard'. When you hear the saying 'every vote matters', it isn't necessarily true under the current system. It defeats the purpose of letting us, the citizens, have a right of who we want to be our president. I truly believe that we can likely end up in this election with one of the candidates walking away as the winner of the popular vote, but losing the election because of the electoral college.

6. The best candidate is usually in one of the 3rd parties, but with our 2 party system, it makes it hard for them to ever win an election. 

5. Both the democratic and republican parties have become so corrupt that voting for either party is like voting for satan himself!

4. Elections bring out the worse in people. Friends can be totally split apart during the election season. Thank goodness that the big elections only come around once every 4 years!! I'd probably be pretty lonely if we had the big elections every year. We all, including myself, have an opinion and we all think we are right! 

3. For the most part, we all truly want what is best for our country. While there are some who vote for other reasons (see #8), most people love their country and want to see it succeed. We may not all agree on what is 'best', but we all want it. 

2. All the political ads WILL come to an end! I was thinking the other day, wondering what the commercials after the election will be like. It seems like it's been awhile since we've seen anything BUT political ads!

1. No matter what happens, life will go on. It may be altered drastically and we may have to find new ways to earn income and provide for our families, but the day after the election isn't the Apocolypse, although I have a feeling that it's going be feel like it!

God LOVES Broken People

Growing up I had a love for going and ministering to people outside the church. As a teenage, I spent time in the men's and women's units at Oakland County Jail singing and ministering. I worked in the homeless shelter with various groups and in the men's Oakland County bootcamp. I saw grown men weeping as Jesus touched them. As I got older, I lost sight of that. I worked for the Prosecutors office and took on a new side of the law. I taunted men in the holding cells of the courthouse. The story that gets told the most is when a man who was in for murder was banging on the cells calling for an officer. One of the sheriff's we called Herby, told me to 'go take care of it'. Here I was, a 16 or 17 year old girl, standing face to face with a murder. He asked me what time it was to which I replied "Why do you need to know what time it is? You got big plans to night?" He started to talk and I said "You aren't going anywhere anytime soon. You don't need to know what time it is. Tonight is going to be more of the same for you as last night". Yep, I was cocky, and since there were bars between us, I was perfectly ok with mouthing off. 

As I got older, I lost sight of ministering to the hurting. I enjoyed being with people who were wealthy and seemed to have it all together. I spent about 8 or 9 years in Amway striving to have riches and this glamorous life. When we were doing that, we were told to be careful who we associated with and who we approached about the business. You didn't want to add these people to your business who had 'issues'. I found myself looking down my nose at the homeless guy on the street or the 'redneck' down the road.

God has pulled it full circle and I'm so grateful. I look at the people in my life right now, the stories they have and how God is, and is going to, use them.  I see a doctor who lost his practice because he had sex with a patient. The story behind the story is that they were dating and when she broke up, she pressed charges. Unfortunate situation but most can't look past that and see his heart. His heart is for helping people avoid the mistakes and succeed in THEIR business. I see a meth addict who has become such a dear friend and is drastically changing his life. In the past few months he has gotten his GED, has a good job and just voted for the first time EVER! He is becoming an amazing citizen and God is using him. Another story is a father who has struggled with alcoholism. He gave up literally everything in an attempt to get sober and get his kids back. He is now getting ready to go to college and working towards a law degree. His goal is to give back and help other dads like him. God uses broken people in HUGE ways!

I see alcoholics and drug addicts changing their lives. I see men and women with felonies for heinous crimes growing into men and women with a higher vision and purpose. I see people who've had affairs and some who've had multiple affairs. These people have become closer to me than most of my old circle of friends ever were. I was sitting and talking to my husband about it and how so many people snub their noses at you when you mess up and I was trying to figure out why my life is full of the people others avoid. He said "By HIS grace, we are made whole" and pointed to the sky.  He reminded me that our office is Restored Life Health Center. We are called to restore lives not only in health but in spirituality, emotionally and in all areas of life. God has surrounded us with people who have had their life restored or are in the process of restoring their lives. God uses the BROKEN people. Jesus says 

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  For I have not come

 to call the righteous, but sinners.” 

Passage after passage reveals a God who embraces the broken-hearted, the marginalized, the oppressed, the sick and the sinners. He used the murderer, the prostitute, the suicidal, the alduterer, the liar. Why is it that so many Christians overlook these verses and stand more on the 'be not equally yoked with unbelievers'.  The church is full of people who have spent their entire lives in church. People who the Sunday after they were born were there, who had their kids their immediately after they were born and are now seeing their grandkids there as well. People who think they have it all together. People who show up on Sunday and do their deeds, say their prayers and never think about God during the week until something bad happens and they need him. I am NOT saying all Christians and churches are like this, but my experience is that church is overall full of people who 'have it together'. This is no longer my life. The thought of sitting in a church being told what the Bible says sickens me. I desire to be around 'broken' people. I long to be around people that God is pulling out of the mire and mud and being on their journey with them. I heart now hurts for the homeless man on the street. I know there is a story. Drugs & alcohol have likely stolen everything from him! He feels hopeless and helpless and the drugs and alcohol keep him going and avoiding the realities of his life. God is calling out to him, but who will help him see it?

I challenge you to look for the person you can help. Look at the circle around you. Are all the people in it just like you? Is it all people of the same color, same income level, same religious beliefs? Let God know you are willing to branch outside the comfort zone of this group and keep your eyes open to see who He brings to you. You WILL be offended more than likely. You WILL be uncomfortable at some point, but the work is so rewarding and fulfilling. God's sitting and waiting for you to be open to working with Him to bring others into their wholeness and to be part of someone's story.