First steps...again

Occasionally in life we learn new things. We begin again. Or we learn to walk again. Sometimes we do it because we must, and sometimes we do it because we want to, and sometimes we do it out of necessity (in my mind that's different from the first).

Recently, I began again into a new career/life path. I became an EMT (emergency medical technician). Not a huge accomplishment by most standards (like say a brain surgeon - I don't care who you are, that's gotta be a pretty big accomplishment). Nevertheless, EMS is a valuable, difficult and rewarding field.

Since receiving my numbers (industry short for national/state level registry numbers for EMT/Paramedics confirming you are qualified to perform emergency medicine), I have relearned to "walk" a few times already. i.e. Two employers = two ambulance driving courses. Seemingly redundant, yet, if it was my company, I'd want to see each person drive prior to letting them take one of my trucks and a patient for a spin.

Finally, it's ironic that I've lived in Atlanta (albeit, with some travel and such ignored) my entire life, and yet I just drove thru parts of my city I've never seen before. Here's to learning to walk again in my hometown.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Lupis II

"Appetite, a universal wolf" ~William Shakespeare

We've all heard some version of the story; but just for overkill...

An elderly Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life...
He said to them, "A fight is going on inside me, it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.
One wolf is evil -- he is fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, competition, superiority, and ego.
The other is good---he is joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.
This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too."
They thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old Cherokee simply replied: "The one you feed".
------------------------------------------------------------------
Considering the long hiatus in writing, this may be rough... This should be a brief acknowledgment of appetite, and the terrible damage it can bring.
The more we consume of something, unless it is truly good, it will not satisfy. Typically we will soon be hungry for more of the very thing that didn't satisfy before. It's the nature of addiction. The downward spiral of humanity to depravity... And many of us live with a black hole of depravity buried, somewhere not so deep, beneath the illusion we project to the world around us.
I am not so interested in the reality of our depravity, nor the counter-intuitive truth that appetite begets appetite. I am; however, interested in why we chose to feed the wolf that we know is evil. I suspect, that, unfortunately, it is altogether human to think we know better than we're told, and to give in to curiosity. 

Dr. Strangeloss

Some days I'm reminded of the absurdity of this world and us in it:

Strange, that we can feel so strongly like we've lost something - something that we've never really had to begin with.

A Day Like Any Other

Today is like yesterday. And tomorrow will likely be like today.

Not the same, but alike.

In the difference is where I am now.

See, everyday I miss him. And everyday I remember him.

Today,

I hope,

I've honored him.

Because today is like any other day - today, I miss him.

And today is different than any other day - today is his birthday.

Happy Birthday Eddie! I love you and miss you more than I ever imagined I could.

You Won't Relent

Last month I was asked to perform a skit at Atlanta Vineyard for a message called I Believe in Victory Over Sin. The skit that was suggested didn't feel right to me, so I asked if I could make something new. With an idea in mind, I came in need of help to Krissy. Together, this is what we came up with.

Many thanks to Jimmy, Corwyn, Terry, and Allison for donating their time. And Josh for all his hard work on lighting.

Flames of Hate

Viewer discretion strongly advised

I hope this slide-show doesn't ignite any more flames of hatred for a country or its people. Instead, i hope you pray for a world of people who are persecuted or oppressed or attacked for any reason.

http://multimedia.thetimes.co.za/photos/2008/05/flames-of-hate/

http://multimedia.thetimes.co.za/photostory/alex_fire/soundslider.swf

Click here to play

the related article was published today, May 19th 2008.

in case you need some vocabulary assistance:
Xenophobia - an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange.

Jesus, please have mercy and forgive all who pursue repentance.

Scales

To my fellow kings and queens,

We are all blind. Whether it is by choice or by nature or by attack – none or us are seeing clearly. Shards of colored glass lie entombed in our eyes. They are formed in the uncertain fires of past experience, future possibilities, choices, and mostly life. Colored glass from colored sand. Made from sand that enters our lives at different times, the first of which is born into us in our DNA. Life provides the flames that transform the sand into colored glass. They become the lenses through which we view our lives, our world, our neighbors, our everything. Reds, blues, greens, yellows, blacks, browns, and all manner of shades in between and beyond. Our paradigms are as unique as any beautiful creation of God. And they are as flawed as everything in our world since the fall. In the worst of cases, we are more than partially blinded by the glass, we are in the complete darkness of a blindfolded life. In our blindness we pretend to learn. We lay claims of knowledge and wisdom on ourselves and others; however, those claims fall on foundations of ignorance. This concept should not be lamented nor provide a hold for despair to cling to; on the contrary, we should find hope herein. Hope that each of us will have our blindfolds removed. That clues of the beautiful mystery of life will be revealed unto us. Strange and sad how some of us clench to the bars and chains of our own darkness and demise while freedom and light are an open hand away. A hand called truth. Through my lens, a hand named Jesus. Placing both our hands in the open one allows the other free hand of truth to remove the blindfold. Walking into the sunlight from a dark place can hurt your eyes. Light, truth, beauty they're all like that; when we are accustomed to darkness, to lies, to ugliness the opposite hurts and repulses us at first experience. In truth, real knowledge and wisdom lands and grows from a solid foundation: soil, rock, and the wellspring of life. Solomon, the wisest man, says that the heart is the wellspring of life. In a healthy heart truth lives and thrives. There was a man whom had his blindfold removed while traveling a road to destroy a group of religious and political revolutionaries. He then chose to join and ultimately become the most outspoken and influential man of that revolutionary group. His life and words have impacted and transformed billions of people since his blindfold was removed. I cannot imagine the world had he not been given new sight.

To quote a common cliché: 'crystal clear' - to view through a lens without color or cloud. Of this lie we are all guilty. We are all guilty of this blasphemy – to assume, at some point in life, that we can see or know or understand in full any thing, idea, or being supplants God with us. By revelation of truth we exchange large, dark glass for smaller, clearer glass. The smaller and clearer the glass becomes, the more we begin to see the world as God does. But never, in this life, will we remove all the glass. In most cases we need the help of both God and someone with better vision than us to exchange the glass in our eyes. Divine intervention, then human assistance.

Proverbs 25:2
It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings to search out a matter.

Acts 9:3-19
As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" And the voice said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do." The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank. Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias." And he said, "Here I am, Lord." And the Lord said to him, "Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight." But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name." But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name's sake." So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized; and he took food and was strengthened.

Ephesians 1:9-10
And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

Besides choice and nature, we are under attack – attack by an enemy, who comes to steal, kill, insult, and destroy. The enemy has come in many different forms; one form has been that of a snake. A snake covered in scales. An enemy coming to steal sight and light. A man who has his sight restored and

from his eyes fell

something

like

scales.

May you put your life into the open hand of truth and find sight, light, love, beauty, wisdom, and purpose revealed unto you.