Grace, a real time example.

"Seabiscuit" is a great movie displaying how Grace works in everyday situations.

One of my favorite parts is the owner of the horse, jockey and trainer saying, "Its fine Tom, you don't throw away a whole life just because it's a little banged up." That is Grace; accepting that we all are a little banged up in one fashion or another. Grace says, "That's okay, you are still valuable to me."
The movie shows 4 losers - according to human standards that is, a man who lost his son and wife, a trainer thought to be a crackpot, a beat up horse trained to lose races and a jockey making huge mistakes causing both physical and emotional scars. Grace allowed them to pick themselves up and try again. What the world saw next was a team of winners. The whole time, Grace saw winners in need of a second chance.

Loving Those you Care For

Often, we think that True Love is that gushy feeling we get when someone we are attracted to returns our affection. That is not true love. True love, the love that lasts for decades is loving someone enough to put their needs above our desires. We must love them enough to put our desires on the rung below their needs, not their desires. The thing we get wrong about love is we tend to think that giving someone what they want is love. We are so anxious to have our own desires met, one of which is affection being returned, that we give and promise those things we can not or should not give believing that it will not only show another that we love them, but that affection will be reciprocated. Those things that we need in life are very much different than those things we desire. We desire candy that is neither good for us or positive in its benefits yet when someone gives us candy we say, "They must care for me because I wanted candy and they gave it to me."

As a recipient of love, we must love the other enough to say, "I would like to accept your gift, however, if you give this gift to me, it will create a burden for you. Even without this gift, I will reciprocate affection and accept your generous thought as though it were here and now, because my desire is to do what is best for you above my own desires. That is love. Each loving the other enough that burdens are not created, stress is eliminated and life becomes simple. We can trust in a love like that because we are confident that all will benefit equally from the relationship. We can trust in a love like that because we know the other has our best interest at heart. We can trust in a love like that because it is simple everyday actions that reinforce that both are willing to make concessions in the area of desire.

Love is an iron clad commitment of the will that says, "No matter what, I will be here for you to help you through," and then doing it. Love is work, a commitment to work out the rough spots. Love is work fighting against our own desires that try to preempt caring more for someone else. When we ask ourselves, "Who will benefit from this," anything with an answer less than, "Everyone equally with no additional burden," is not love, not the kind of love that we should try to model. 1 Corinthians 13:5 "Love, does not seek its own." 1 Corinthians 10:24 "Let no one seek his own, but each one the others well-being." No better definition of love exists.

Division - Promote it, or diminish it

When we find others that disagree with us over various topics, we have a choice to promote it, by passing it along to others which only increases the division and adds people to the divided camp, or, we have another option, one that few of us take because it requires a commitment of time and effort. We can choose to diminish the division, one person at a time; we can step outside of our comfort zone and ask them why they believe what they do. When we hear them begin to answer, we don't need to immediately form a debate to defend our own beliefs. We can walk a mile with them, in their understanding and have them show us, where they got their information. Together, we can check the source of it and see if there is merit to it, and if there is, then we both have learned something. If there isn't merit to it, we both have learned as well. We have probably learned that those that do not believe the way we do, are still kind, generous human beings that deserve respect and should have a voice to disagree with us. We have probably learned that we are more alike than different and as such, can form a friendship based on a respect for our differences. How much better would our world be if each one of us were to ask another why, not as a challenge, but as a sincere effort to understand one another and mend our battle scarred country that has been hijacked by those who do choose to divide rather than mend. Who will you be?

To Mom with Love

Heavenly Father,

You gave me a Mom who was not afraid to say, "No," when it was best to protect me from danger.

You gave me a Mom who was not afraid to say, "Yes," when it was best to encourage me.

You gave me a Mom who was not afraid to teach me at an early age that the most important thing in my life is knowing Jesus Christ and His forgiveness.

You gave me a Mom who was not afraid to stand against compromise, who taught me to know right from wrong, who didn't worry about being my friend and yet become my friend as I matured and recognized the protections she and my dad had covered me with.

You gave me a Mom who taught me a love of music that I will take with me the rest of my days; a song in my heart speaking volumes when words cannot.

You gave me a Mom that was in many ways, fearless, breaking barriers, standing against injustice and in many ways, frail, blended together by your hand.

You gave me a Mom that loved laughter and joy and corny jokes, a perfect match for the love of her life, my dad.

You gave me a Mom that was not afraid of commitment and taught me that love withstands all things and remains loyal and honorable to that commitment.

You gave me a Mom that shaped my life with all that is good in this world, a life lived that touched eternity.

I am humbled that I have received more than I could measure, more that I could have ever hoped for in the woman that you created to be my Mom.

Yes Father, you gave this to me as a gift, a heart full of memories that will carry me over until I see her and my dad again in Heaven.

I love you Mom.

Being on the Outside

A member from our credit union came in for a loan. As we talked, he told me about a woman whose husband had died. They had been married for 32 years and she was very upset because in the tribal tradition of burial, she could not be part because she was not Indian. As I questioned him about this he said that the man was taken, given the burial ceremony and then buried in an unmarked grave in a remote area on the tribal burial grounds.
That tribal ceremony had no respect for a life lived of 32 years together. It didn't acknowledge the love, care and support spouse had given to spouse. No acceptance of two lives lived together for most of an earthly existence.
I told him how wounded I would have been if I had given that much of my life to one man and then not been allowed to be present in death simply because I was or was not a particular blend of humanity. I told him that God is no respecter of persons, He doesn't require us to be a particular blend of human, or have particular rites. He agreed, he said, "Man is the one who shuts people out based on their perception of what is allowed. God does not."

Week 4 Political Science Post

2) If you could interview a prominent political activist (living or dead), whom would you select? List five questions that you would ask about that individual's childhood or personality in order to better understand his or her political behavior. Why are these particularly revealing questions?


If I could interview a prominent political activist, I would choose William Wilberforce. Wilberforce was responsible for the abolition of the slave trade in England, spending the larger part of his life fighting it. He fought tirelessly for many years against political corruption and greed that kept slavery alive and well, as it was a very profitable trade for many of his peers in Parliament.

1. What first unleashed your passion to make a wrong right by abolishing the slave trade?

2. How did meeting John Newton, (the creator of the song Amazing Grace) affect you and lead to your decision to take on the challenge of abolition? (John Newton had been a slave trader for years responsible for the miserable life and deaths of hundreds, if not thousands of slaves that he brought from Africa, until one day, he met God. He did not stop slave trading immediately upon his conversion, however, after some years and much study, he did give up that life and began a life of church service.) Wilberforce had gone to visit Newton to inquire about giving up his life of politics now that he had met God. Newton wholeheartedly encouraged Wilberforce to serve God and mankind where God had placed him, in politics.

3. As a youngster, you were frail and sickly, and as a man, while still frail and sick often times, you took on a challenge of gigantic proportions in the slave trade. Were you ever concerned that you would not have enough fight in you to prevail in winning freedom for the slaves?

4. Did you feel overwhelmed with the amount of adversity you faced with political opponents, motivated by large sums of money, which were entrenched in Parliament, having enough political clout to continually thwart your efforts? What kept you going during the times when victory seemed unobtainable?

5. Your biographies mention that you have a beautiful speaking and singing voice. Would you sing Amazing Grace for me? What does that song mean to you?

These questions reveal the tenacity that is required to accomplish great things via a political life. Without a foundation of courage, character, compassion and commitment, the important issues that need attention and correction will not be addressed. William Wilberforce was beloved by his countrymen and his opponents, and, left a legacy that is still celebrated today both in England and the United States, with colleges that bear his name as well as celebrations of the historic day his legislation passed. Wilberforce College in Wilberforce Ohio was one of the first African American owned colleges in the US and is primarily an African American college.

The Cocoon

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.The butterfly then emerged easily.But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been.And we could never fly.

Intelligence vs Wisdom

From a post on my college online class homework. Steve's main issue was how the old people had it made because the young people would have to support them with SSA payments.

Well Steve,I am old and so far I have taken care of, mentored, encouraged, protected and served far more young people than old. Speaking from a life lived for half a century, (plus a little but who the heck is counting? Not me for sure!) I can tell you that I have more WISDOM now - even without my college education than I ever had when I was young. I think God gives everyone intelligence but that it doesn't become wisdom until we learn to use it to serve others; to encourage those who loose hope, to mentor those who need to learn, to protect those that need protection and to take care of those that are not able to care for themselves - young or old. I'm glad I'm independent enough that I won't plan on being supported by SSA but at the same time realize that it is our dependency on each other that keeps us humble and teaches us our most important lessons. And for the debt being incurred? If we all lived off of a cash basis, we probably wouldn't send folks to Washington that didn't have the same respect for money that we do.

Why Grace?

Folks often wonder why Grace would make a difference in a persons life. All too often, we judge, we condemn, we gossip, and we discourage everything we don't agree with. Things that make us stretch outside of our comfort zone because we really don't know how to react.

Grace doesn't fear. It doesn't judge, it doesn't condemn. Instead, Grace allows wisdom to speak and to question; to determine the best response. One that will respect humanity while protecting honor and integrity.