Faith and Doubt

Faith and Doubt are two sides of the same coin and this applies to more than religion. There are many beliefs systems such as economic, political, social, and personal. You may have faith in democracy or in capitalism and you may at the same time have doubts about aspects of either. Doubts are those little nagging questions that have never been fully answered for us.

Doubts actually helps us strengthen our belief systems because being able to question what we believe either gives us a stronger understanding or causes us to change to a better system. What may be better for us may not be appreciated by those around us. We have to be able to answer our own doubts and questions in order to articulate our concepts to other fellow travelers.

In our republic we are always questioning our leaders and that is a good thing. In dictatorships questions are not allowed and that leads to oppression and pain. Today we have a variety of political groups that raise plenty of doubts about their opponents and that can be good but we also need to evaluate their bias and question their version of the truth. 

Antidisestablishmentarianism

When I was in High School in the late 1950’s the longest word in the English language at 28 letters was “Antidisestablishmentarianism” and I was intrigued.  Once I discovered the longest word I had to find out what it meant.  That was the point when I was introduce to the concept of the separation of Church and State.

The word was created in the mid nineteenth century in England. At that time the Church of England was [and still is] the official established church. The church and state are united therefore established. The queen of England is the official head of the Church of England. It is her signature and seal that officially appoints Bishops and Archbishops. This is also the reason we have the King James Bible because in 1611 King James of England “authorized” it to be printed as the official printed English bible. It made all other English languages illegal. For hundreds of years it was the only English language available to the masses.

Around 1800 a movement in England began agitating for the Church of England to be “disestablished” and they began to get noticed.  That prompted yet another movement who did not want change in the church. They liked things the way they were, thank you very much. They were the antidistablishment movement, meaning that they were against the idea disestablishment of the Church of England.

To identify the concept of this movement the word “antidisestablishmentarianism was coined.

In our US constitution bill of rights we forbid the “establishment” of a state religion like they have in England and other countries. By the constitution we separate Church and State and I believe that we are the better for it. We have over three hundred and fifty “Christian” church groups and many other non-Christian religions in the United States. To make any one of them the “established religion” would do great harm to all the rest.

Emotions Are A Gift

All of our emotions are a gift of God. Sometimes you're going to feel
angry. Other times you will feel sad. There will be times when you feel lonely, or any of the wide array of natural human emotions which are nowhere near being happy. You're a human being; you're supposed to feel those things when life takes a wrong turn.

The desire to be happy all the time, to avoid feeling those "unpleasant" or "unwanted" emotions, is what leads many people to use drugs to change how they feel. As a healthy human being, you know that it is okay to not feel happy sometimes. These feelings help you examine the circumstances so that your can work out a new plan of action and make a change. You do not need to change how you feel at that moment your feelings will change as your circumstances change.

In fact when you feel unhappy, accept how you feel, make your peace with it, and know that this too shall pass. Your unhappy state of mind is neither your identity nor your permanent state of being. This is simply how you feel in this moment and you know that brighter feelings will come eventually.

Use your gift of the natural medicine of humor to ease your way through rough moments of life. You'll be amazed when you go back to review your journal to see that it all starts with a simple smile of knowing that the sun will return to your life.

God Created Children

GOD CREATED CHILDREN (AND IN THE PROCESS GRANDCHILDREN) 


To those of us who have children in our lives, whether they are our own, 
grandchildren, nieces, nephews, or students... here is something to make you chuckle. 

Whenever your children are out of control, you can take comfort from the thought that 
even God's omnipotence did not extend to His own children. 

After creating heaven and earth, God created Adam and Eve. 

And the first thing he said was 
" DON'T !" 
"Don 't what ? " Adam replied. 

"Don't eat the forbidden fruit." God said. 

"Forbidden fruit ? 
We have forbidden fruit ? 
Hey Eve..we have forbidden fruit ! " 


"Do NOT eat the fruit ! " said God. 


"Why ? " 

"Because I am your Father and I said so ! "God replied, 
wondering why He hadn't stopped creation after making the elephants 

A few minutes later, God saw His children having an apple break 
and He was ticked !  "Didn't I tell you not to eat the fruit ? "God asked. 


"Uh huh," Adam replied. 

"Then why did you ? "said the Father.. 

"I don't know,"said Eve. 
"She started it! "Adam said. 

"Did not ! " 
"Did too ! " 
"DID NOT ! " 

Having had it with the two of them, God's punishment was that Adam and Eve 
should have children of their own. Thus the pattern was set and it has never changed. 

If you have persistently and lovingly tried to give children wisdom and they haven't taken it, don't be hard on yourself. 

If God had trouble raising children, what makes you think it would be a piece of cake for you ? 

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT !

1. You spend the first two years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next sixteen telling them to sit down and shut up. 

2. Grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your own children. 

3. Mothers of teens now know why some animals eat their young. 

4. Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word 
what you shouldn't have said. 

5. The main purpose of holding children's parties is to remind yourself that there are children more awful than your own 

6. We childproofed our homes, but they are still getting in. 


ADVICE FOR THE DAY: 

Be nice to your kids. They will choose your 
nursing home one day 


And remember the parents curse, when you said "I hope when you have kids they turn out just like you."

Five Fingers of Prayer

There are five fingers to real prayer:

Prayer is internal not external.  One does not need to say a prayer aloud for it to be real.

Prayer seeks inner fulfillment, rather that outer manipulation. 

Prayer is standing at attention before God ready not only to speak to God but also to listen for God. Before you say amen, shut up and listen for a time. 

The goal of praying is not the fulfilling of our request; it is communication with God. 

In prayer we don’t need to tell God what to do, we need to seek God’s message for us.

Alter Ego

Forty-four year old my eldest daughter was born and what a Joy she is to me. As a history buff I wanted to name her after a strong woman in history. I loved the story of Queen Zenobia of Palmara and how she stood up to the Roman empire for many years. So I wanted to name my daughter Zenobia but her mother objected to that name so we agreed on Katherine.

All this to say that she, who has long been aware of the name story, has chosen the name Zenobia as the name for her gritchy alter ego. I love my darling daughter!

Happy Birthday

The Lowly Mesquite Tree

I grew up in the panhandle of west Texas where any three trees in sight of each other are considered a national forest. Most trees do not naturally grow there unless planted and watered by people. The exception is the lowly Mesquite tree. Though the mesquite wood makes great bricketts for the grill.

Mesquite trees put down a long taproot that they use to locate enough moisture to keep them alive in the dry season. This feature allows them to survive through long droughts. There are recorded instances of taproots of the mesquite tree reaching a depth of almost 200 feet down into the soil. The roots of the mesquite can regenerate if the tree is chopped off above, making the mesquite one tough tree to get rid of. Ranchers feel that the mesquite sucks water from the land that could be used for livestock and farming, making it unpopular with those individuals. On the other hand cattle eat the bean pods and spread the seed around in the resulting fertilizer.

The bible in the book of Isaiah 61 likens God’s people to trees of righteousness. Because we carry the precious seeds of faith, reconciliation and love we can draw others into the kingdom of God. Like the desert Southwest our life can often be like living in a drought when trouble hits, as it will. If we, like the mesquite, will put down deep spiritual tap roots in the Holy Spirit then we can weather the spiritual droughts.  Those deep roots will let us have enormous potential to reproduce the gospel in other people.