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Sometimes I think it's just time to act...You know?

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by TJandGENESIS, Jan 20, 2008.

  1. TJandGENESIS

    TJandGENESIS Are We Having Fun Yet?

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    1 Peter 2:9-10
    But you campers are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted. It’s awesome
    §

    We are the chosen, aren’t we? We are the ones who need to fight for the weak. To right the wrongs. To get the ship sailing again. For far too long, a generation has slept, afraid to wake up, to move. We sat there, watching TV, and we got lazy and fat and thought only of ourselves. We did not do what we should have to help those who need it, to inform those who are walking wrong, in various forms of sin of one or another, that no matter how you feel about God, it’s just bad to be that way. We need to think about the future, we need to help out when we can. We need to pay it forward. We need to feel good, as good as we can ever do. We need to accomplish the things we can’t or think we can’t. We need to be so busy, loving night and day, we need to stop the hate.

    For far too long, we have sat here, watching the planet slide out from us, as we just ponder the fuzz in our navel. When was the last time you got up, and opened the door for the lame? When was the last time you put away the cart? When was the last time you left the loose change for someone else? Paid a meal for a complete stranger? Did something nice to someone else?

    It’s not just me that needs to hear this, although I do, it’s a lot of people that need to hear it. When we look across the room at a loved one, a spouse, do we think about how lucky we are to have that person in our life? Do we tell them, at least once a day, that we love them? That they are not part of the scenery? Part of the furniture? We need to be so nice. Lonely days can turn to lonely nights if we don’t watch it. Sometimes, you need to see what you need to see, to take the long way home.

    When you wake up, do you thank God that you are awake another day? Or do you feel as if your life has become a catastrophe? When you look through the years, and seen what you could have been, what you might have been, if you had more time? It’s not to late. You can change it. You can think positive things. You can be the person you need to be still. You just have to believe. You have the power of positive thought. I know there is a reason that sometimes you need to be alone, to ask, is it mine oh Lord, is it mine? But after that, you need to declare victory. When everything’s gone, and nothing seems right, there is no time like right now, to stand up, and to declare victory. To right yourself.

    I know that I seem to have a bit more ‘preacher’ in me as of late, but I am trying to change. I am aware that I don’t have to win, that there is no need to fight, but there is a need to be more aware of how the butterfly in Africa causes the hurricane over Florida. How we are all connected. There must be a thousand voices, trying to get through on any given day, but we need to concentrate on that one voice, that voice that calls us all, and listen. I’m feeling less alone now. I threw it all away now. I have lost the craving for success in things that are material, and am focusing on the spiritual things more. So much liberation now; I had been under too much stress, that I almost was buried.

    We need to be nimble. We need to move swiftly. We need to give a damn about others now.


    Well. That’s about all I have to say about that for now.
     
  2. Neicy

    Neicy Member

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    TJ,

    So true. There is a tendency to get wrapped up in the day to day "stuff" and lose sight of what is really important. But we all seem to need to reach a certain point in life before we are able to see that the day to day "stuff" doesn't really amount to a hill of beans in the larger scheme of things. I must have needed to hear this. Thanks for posting.

    PS. How are you doing?
     
  3. Rae Vynn

    Rae Vynn Artist In Residence

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    "You campers"?
     
  4. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    Every night I tell him he is a good boy and that I will always love him.

    [​IMG]
     
  5. lefat1

    lefat1 Fat Member

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    me too!
     

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  6. TJandGENESIS

    TJandGENESIS Are We Having Fun Yet?

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    It's my translation...a TJV if you will.
     
  7. TJandGENESIS

    TJandGENESIS Are We Having Fun Yet?

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    I wrote about a life changing sort of thing yesterday. And it made me think: We are all capable of sinning. In fact, even those who claim to be Christians, still sin. This can sometimes weigh us down. It can make us feel as if we can’t get up, that we don’t deserve to be happy, that sin is the barrier between doing good, and being bad.
    On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean break of them—He, God, He won’t let us down; He’ll be true to Himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.

    Some would say, we don’t need God to forgive us, that if we just make amends, do the right thing, that we will be alright. That we will be healed by our good deeds, and we can move on.

    Maybe that is what you think. But I am here to tell you, you need to ‘talk’ about your sins to someone, to something, to make them clear. You need to look at yourself, and figure out what you can do to right your ship, before it takes on more water. To Christians, that means confessing ones sins to God (and no, I don’t have a list of all the sins)...and God will forgive you. Simply put, though, you can’t just kill someone, say, and confess it, and it’s all right. No, you have to make amends, and in that extreme case, it means turning ones self over to the authorities, and accepting punishment. Not that anyone I know is guilty of this, but you get the point. God is not some magic ‘do over’ kind of being, but He does offer peace after the fact.

    We are part of the process. We have to FREELY admit to our sins. We have to own up to them. Believe in God, or not, it makes us better people when we fess up. This in turn, makes the world a more productive place. If everyone who every screwed up, just admitted to it, just came clean, we would move the planet to a better place.

    It’s not easy, turning the right leaf over, and then letting that leaf go, but we have to if we want to move forward, we have to let our past go, and in doing so, our future is more secure.
    I get knocked around sometimes, for being a Follower of Christ, and it’s not easy being a person in the 21st Century admitting to believing in what many think is a fairy tail. It’s a hard thing to do, but God tells me, that where He is, I may also be, up where the truth will set you free. That in the ‘world’, we may get knocked around for believing. Well, I am ready for my knocks.

    What is strange to me, is that atheists don’t have a problem with believing in nothing. I have a harder time with that, then believing in God. In Christ. NOTHING seems so...final. That there is not one thing out there that may have started all this, and is still out there, full of knowledge, that is harder for me to buy. GOD seems so liberating to me. It’s easier to take a single leap of faith, and fall into God’s loving arms, with no resistance, then to take a leap into the nothing, not knowing what will await you on the other side of that leap.

    I am not here to tell you to believe or you will go to hell; not my place. I am not sure what hell will be for some, or others, but my own personal hell would be to die, and finally find out the Truth, and be told that I have to walk around the planet, unseen, unable to reach out to those I loved, to tell them what really happens when you die, how alone you might be, separated from your loved ones for all of eternity...yikes! That is hell to me.

    In the end, no one knows our destiny, not me, not you, no, none. Christ knows, God knows, but He ain’t telling me about it yet. I can read the Bible, I can study it day and night, I can surround myself with The Word, and still at the end, I am not sure when I die, or why. I once heard it said, ‘Why not believe in God? Why not at least play it safe?’ I mean, what is the worse thing that can happen? What if all that I believe in, is just bunk, and when we die, that’s it? Well...what if it is not? Why not play it safe? Why not just relax, and put your sins away...

    It’s harder to keep all the lies, the sins, up in the air, never knowing when one might bite you in the rear, then to just let it go, and let God take it. You have to admit, there is a certain freeing up to letting sin go. But you have to really want to do it. It’s not a half way kind of thing. And I don’t expect everyone reading these words to buy it, or to want to try it, and that is fine.

    But I made a promise to God in the hospital. That I would find a way to take the loss of my toe, and turn it around for some sort of good. Maybe someone will realize that I was able to face the loss of my toe due to some sort of strength that God gave me. Maybe it will take a while for people to see that my life is changing. Maybe some will never. But that is okay.
     
  8. Loveit

    Loveit New Member

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    Yes, TJ, I see the changes. I know that you believe the Lord and His Word. I see the glory of the Lord working in you. Keep looking to Him, He will not fail you no matter what.

    I will remember you in my prayers as you go through each day TJ.
    Take care!

    loveit
     
  9. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    For many people forgiving yourself is much more difficult than accepting forgiveness from others. Forgiving others is so much easier than forgiving ourselves.

    I've always felt that Jesus' commandment "Love thy neighbor as thyself" was the hardest because sometimes we find it very difficult to love ourselves. Loving others is so much easier.
     
  10. TJandGENESIS

    TJandGENESIS Are We Having Fun Yet?

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    Yup, tis true what ye say there.
     
  11. Loveit

    Loveit New Member

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    I like the picture of your dog! It reminds me of my GRAND-DOG, Maggie! (Don't have grandkids yet! Maybe one day!) And in the same position too! The paws up salute!

    Aw!!!!!!!!! Your dog is so cute! :)
     
  12. TJandGENESIS

    TJandGENESIS Are We Having Fun Yet?

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    John 17:26, KJV
    And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.
    I in them. Reminds me of something.
    ‘I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together. ‘
    ~John Lennon, The Beatles, I Am The Walrus.
    We are all together, aren’t we? We all ride on this planet, spinning in space, together on a magical ride, with no end in sight. No end in sight. Which means a long time to forgive one and another, am I right?
    It’s harder to forgive oneself, then to forgive others. It is. But you know something? I know this to be true: You will be unable to work with what ever God has called you to do, be it a musician, or photographer, or cook, whatever, unless you have God’s love. You can’t forgive others, or go that extra mile for others, or even sacrifice for others, unless you have been filled with the endless love of God. And to get that, you have to forgive yourself.

    God wants you to forgive yourself first. ‘ Love your neighbor as you do yourself’, I think God said. So you need to forgive yourself first. Not too easy to do, am I right campers? Yet...it is.

    You have to just let it go. I have read a comic strip for years, called ROSE IS ROSE and it’s just about as sweet and syrupy as can be. But it does have one occasional feature that might have some merit to it. The title character, Rose, who you would think by the strip has not a problem in the world, will often go to this tree and lean against it. It’s her ‘Let Things Be Tree’ and there, she just let’s things be. Maybe you need to find a tree of some sort, and just lean against it, and let things be. A tree can represent the strength of God for sure, but if you don’t dig God, maybe the tree can just be there for you. To let things be. Once you let things be, you can go forward, you can help others. If your spirit is light, so shall your step be.

    My step has to be lighter lately. I walk slower. Yesterday, for the first time since I lost my toe, I walked two steps with out any bandage, across the bathroom floor. And I felt like a baby taking their first steps. It’s weird; You would think, without a toe, you could get by fine. But I am here to tell you, you can’t. It’s as if God had a reason for all ten toes, and now I have taken one away, and without it, I have to learn all over again, how to walk.

    When I do walk, as I was saying, I walk slower. I can’t go fast. I can’t put all the weight I would normally put on my foot. So I meander. I walk like a man who has no time limits, no where to go, no hurry. And it has allowed me to slow down, to notice all the people that are in a hurry, but to where? Where are we all so fired up about getting to, that we can’t just slow down? Slowing down means that yeah, I am not getting there as fast, but in the long run, I am extending my time here, and in doing so, I have more time to learn, to experience, to share the joy of Love that I feel even more then I did before I lost my toe.
    Love, love, love.
    Love, love, love.
    Love, love, love.
    There is nothing that you can do that can’t be done
    It’s easy.
    Love is all you need.

    Love is often called Christ, God, and in that area, I often think, all you need is Love, love is all you need.

    If we all just experienced Love for one day, and then Forgave ourselves, and then Forgave others, we could all be happier, we could all fulfill each others dreams that much easier, the planet could indeed, right itself.

    All together now.
    All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
    The Beatles and King James. Together again.
     
  13. TJandGENESIS

    TJandGENESIS Are We Having Fun Yet?

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    We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planed, in order to have the life God has planed for us. It’s a fact. With some things, change has to happen. Sometimes, you have to admit that it’s time to change, it’s time to rearrange, and then you do. In doing so, you might ruffle feathers of those who like you the way you are. If you are the quiet type of Christian, and suddenly you come to work, all fired up, you might upset those who liked you the way you were before. You might make some enemies. That’s right, you might. But you know what? It’s often okay, even encouraged, to ruffle some feathers. You may in fact, lose a friend or two. You might. And I bet, at first, you won’t like that.

    But in the long run, you might find more friends. Not might, you will get more friends. More friends with like minded goals. Maybe at work, they drink a lot. Now, I am not one to say never drink. I have had a beer or two in the past. But what I am saying here, is maybe you have friends that like to drink, if you know what I mean. And that might have made you uncomfortable at times, but you rolled with it, you did it to fit in...and you know what? That was Weak. You know it was. But we have all done it from time to time, tried to fit in...

    And all along, we could have just as easily fit in with this one person, Christ, who did not lay down a bunch of rules to accept you . And His type of person, if they are doing right by Him, they will accept you as you are as well. I don’t know anyone who is ‘Christian’ who does not have a past, and that past often can be butt ugly to look at. Heck, mine is horrible in places. But I have found, that we often are holding up a mirror to ourselves, that no one else is seeing. We are often still refusing to look at the Truth, and the Truth about us now? We are changed, and for the better.
    If you don’t feel that right now, take comfort in these words:
    Philippians 4:13
    Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.

    Ain’t that the truth? It is! Romans 8:28 says that God can take anything you have going on right now, and work it into His good. Like my toe being removed: That is a difficult situation, for sure. But it has lit a fire under me, that I have never felt. I am more sure of what I am doing now, then I have ever been. I am speaking out, again, in a way that I have frankly, been avoiding. I can sense things in my life, sorting out, and I feel like I am on Fire for a Righteous reason, and not my own.

    I am sure that I am ruffling feathers. I have spent the day, with people here and there on the internets, in lively discussions on what is Truth and what is their truth, and where the two can meet. I feel as if the Promise of God is available to everyone, and not just me. I feel as if, truth be told, that Satan, or whatever you consider the evil force in this world, is trying to beat us all down, so we can just be like him; biter, and truly devoid of good.

    Part of this comes from an observation I had to make: There is this church, Westboro Baptist Church , where they just preach hate, no two ways about it, IMHO, and they proudly say they will picket at actor Heath Ledgers funeral because, (this actor mind you), this human being once played a gay cowboy in a movie. That is just wrong, and frankly, it has stirred up a lot of resentment towards this church, some would say rightly, but I would say: No. Sure, it’s wrong to take the Peace and Love message of Christ and pervert it. It’s wrong to advocate hate, when Christ was and is all about love. Its even more so, wrong, to hate these folks who are doing this.

    It brings us down to their level of hate. We need to rise above it, we need to forgive the unforgivable, we need to Love on them that Hate. Otherwise, hate becomes your extra weight, and that can bring you down.

    God does not hat Fags, as this church would have you believe, but He does love us all.
    How could God, who loved us so much that he sent His son with the message of Love for us all to see, to feel, and to experience, hate anyone? It boggles my mind.

    But we have to forgive these folks who say things like ‘God Hates You’, we have to be better then them. We stand to lose a lot more if we don’t. Again, I am convinced that Satan, or what ever you want to name the evil force, is behind all this hate. Why, if we all loved one another, and did not hate one another, Satan would lose all power, and influence, and frankly, (not to put too childish a spin on it), would lose. He would lose the game he thinks he is playing, and we, the good folks who inhabit this planet, we would win. Some don’t like to talk about Satan, because the image of a red suited dude with horns and a pitchfork is so mid 15th century, but let’s face it: The equilibrium of this planet is upset as of late. We have more and more people hating, and more and more storms, and as I said the other day, the flapping of the wings of a butterfly in Africa can cause the hurricane in Florida. It’s all interconnected, and we all either benefit from positive vibes, or we will all perish from the negative vibes. It’s really your choice.

    I for one, don’t have children to leave the planet to, so in the strictest, most selfish way possible, I could say, ‘Screw the planet’ and just keep on keeping on, not helping, not doing anything to be a positive force...But that would just eat me up inside. The stress of it...would kill me, and slowly at that, in a painful way. And I suppose, in a even more selfish (I’ll admit it) way, I want to live as long as I have to, painlessly as possible. I had my dose of pain in the hospital, well, sort of, since I could not feel my foot (thanks God for that little trick), but I did have the pain of sitting there, day after day, doing nothing, not able to rest, not able to do anything, really. It was a pain to me, and I don’t want that again, if I can avoid it.

    So. It’s part of what drives me: A selfish desire to avoid stress, and thus pain, as I walk around this planet. Okay, maybe that is something I have to work on, but for now, it’s a motive, yes it is.

    Can we achieve peace in our lifetime? Yes. I believe it, and I want to really work towards that goal. We just have to stop hating others who hate. Really. And then Peace can happen, for Jesus once said, ‘What are you doing, saying ‘if?’. Man, campers, there are no ‘ifs’ among believers. Yo, dog, anything can happen.’ (Mark 9:23)

    And I really, really do believe that, no kidding around.