And I'm back, Life is an open door.

I'll be honest with you.  The habit was hard to break.  I really missed sitting down and posting a blog for the past week.  And I'm really bummed that I'll have a small window of days missing from the post lineup.

I did write while I was away.  But I did a lot of re-reading of some things I had written a long time ago.  I think today all I'll do is post a song I wrote a little over a year ago about my time spent in Haiti.  It's actually performed with Bone, Thugs and Harmony as a major influence.  And what the heck...I might as well let you listen to the rough cut version.  Most likely because it may be a long time before I actually finish it.  So here.  

(Missionary perspective)
And we'll put our feet down
And we'll put our feet down
And we'll put our feet down
As we lay our lives on the ground
We can make all these walls fall down
Put on your tuxes and gowns
We sing love from our lungs and our hearts to our lips
 out of our mouths let's turn this city around.
All across town
We bring the love to our brothers and sisters and  cousins
To the father, the mother , the family, the home.
 Home. Let's bring em all home
Let em feel the love of home
Let's bring them hope from above
Bring Heaven bring love.

Have you ever looked inside the eyes of child and see a world that's coming to be. All the hopes and dreams hiding behind their hurts and fears


(Haitian father/mother perspective)
And I'll put my feet down
on the floor head out the door
to find some work for pay
So my family could eat today
My arms are tired legs drag me down
working my bones to the core
I want to live my life for the crown
But it's hard not to  feel that I work like a whore

I'm going downtown, tryin hard not to frown
but it's hard when you workin with a million others
Makin concrete to keep
holding up the walls of a house
that I'll never have or raise my family in, without living a life in sin

i walk home to a tent with a dirt floor, no door
one bed in a room, what can we do we don't even have a fan, to keep the baby cool.
and yet we live under gods rule
wondering when will we die, why even try?
Every day this is my cry

Have you ever looked inside the eyes of a child and seen a world that's coming to be. All the hopes and dreams.


(Orphan perspective)
And when I see you there standing there in the gate
Way to my soul I have a hope I have a zeal to do so much more than those before
I can lead the least of these
Just follow me and then you'll see
All you've sown through all those years
 all those miles and all those fears
I know you wonder if you'll make a difference
But Just be patient wait with me.
Let me show you the world you've set before us
Life is an open door

Daily Blog Shut Down

The powers that be have sent a cease and desist for my daily blogs until further notice.  I will most likely still be writing...just not publishing.  So stay tuned.....

In the meantime, enjoy the rest of the NBA's All Star weekend.

Why Not Love?

I want to dive into something here.  It's a sensitive topic for some.  But I want to share some thoughts I have on it.

I reserve the right to be wrong.  But this is where I've landed.  For now.

I have reason to believe that the premise of Christianity is to love God and to love people.  There is also a huge emphasis on going to heaven to be with Jesus.  It is also to spread a message of salvation, repentance, and to profess a belief in Jesus.  All the while bringing hope to the world.  It is not in my knowledge that a Christian is led to shame, guilt, harass, heckle, annoy, or show hate to anyone.

I also have reason to believe that most Christians would agree that aborted babies go to heaven.  Because if you think that God would send an aborted baby to hell, you are some special kind of sick and twisted...and so is the God you believe in and worship.  So in this scenario, one of the primary goals of Christianity is taken care of.  Heaven.

So moving forward with the premise that a Christian's primary focus is to love people and that aborted babies go to heaven....where do we go from there?

I think it's safe to say that most people, Christian or not, don't want abortions to happen.  But they do.  Unwanted pregnancy's happen.   What would make this predicament easier for all those involved?  I find it hard to believe that shame, guilt, harassment and a general lack of empathy and compassion for a woman or couple facing an abortion decision or recovering from a decision to abort would help the situation in the least bit.  EVEN if it goes against everything you believe, what benefit would come from belittling someone instead of showing them love, patience and understanding?   I'm having a hard time finding any benefit from that tactic.

Guess what?  You could swap out abortion for homosexuality, transgenderism or Muslims and anything else of the sort you can think of.

"If all you ever do is attack someone's behavior then you’re never going to be able to set them free to become who they really are. Accountability is not calling somebody out on their behavior, it is calling them up to their identity!" Graham Cooke

Because Revelation Said So...

I read some parts of an article yesterday that someone close to me posted.  The comment above it read "interesting article".  It was interesting alright.  Claimed that Jesus was in favor of walls and strict vetting.  Because in the book of Revelation, the coming kingdom, had walls and a strict vetting process.

I really didn't know what to do with that.  Engage? Not engage?  I'm not in shock the person that posted it...but that someone would actually write something.  Maybe they  are like me and sometimes just like to go down the road of a thought experiment for entertainment only.  I sure hope so.


But seriously...this my real thought.  I can relate to this guy.  You got a close spot to the stage.  You want to see your favorite band play.  But the way I see it, you can watch them living out their dreams.  Or you can have fun and enjoy what they created.  I hate concerts.  I've been to maybe 3 or 4.  I don't want to watch.  I want to participate.   What is that spot near the stage watching people live their dreams going to do for you?   Those on stage...they aren't any better than you.  Not one bit.  They've just done something you haven't done.  They've learned something you haven't yet.  They've worked a little harder and smarter than you have.....so far.  So go have fun in the pit.  And if you really want to be the one on stage, stop looking at it and learn about what it takes to get there.

What's the Point? Church stuff, ranking systems and mistakenly excluding children.

Of continuing these blogs?  I don't know.  I'm probably going to stop this weekend.  It won't be a full year...but I think I've proven that I could if I wanted to.

It's been over 11 months straight without missing a day.  I'll most likely write next week but not not be able to post any of the blogs I write.  So maybe instead of 7 extra bonus blogs when I get back, I'll work on one complete project.

This is for church people.  You won't relate if you never went to church as a kid.  And I carry some deep wounds from growing up in the church.  I didn't realize that until much later in life.  Might be my own experience, but I can't help but think others feel the same way.

Anyway.  Memory Verses.  Who remembers those from church?  I don't.  Well, I remember the task to accomplish the memorization but I can't say I memorized them.  If anything, just for that moment.  Can I say that I think having children memorize verses is not important whatsoever.  Why?  Because it's not knowing the verse that's what's important.  It's about knowing what the verse means.  Remembering the lesson of the verse far outweighs the knowledge of every word.   Often times that includes memorizing, but for kids (and adults) like me, memorizing words from a page is very difficult.  And no, that's not what Phillipians 4:13 is for.

Reading your bible and praying.  There's no real gauge to tell if a child is doing this or not.  But again...You can't judge someones relationship with Jesus based solely on how much the read the bible or pray.  Although prayer can really be anything....

How about inviting friends to church?  I get the point.  You want children to have fun and learn about Jesus's love.  You also want to help kids share their belief.  I guess I just have to ask, why not just teach them how to love others?  Isn't that sharing their faith?  Isn't that spreading the gospel?  Inviting people to a church event isn't really a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

I don't want to throw all these things under the bus.  But I often remember and still see competitions or rewards for many of the activities shown above.  Earthly rewards.  Like candy or special parties.  I don't want to pretend I know how to do all the kids stuff.  All I remember is how those things made me feel when I was young.  I wasn't good at memorizing.  I wasn't good at reading my bible.  I wasn't good at inviting guests.  And all those rewards for that stuff I wasn't good at, made me feel like I wasn't good enough.

Not all kids are created equal.  Not all can learn and do the same way.  So to put a system in place that judges their engagement in the basics only one way is a great way to exclude certain kids.  Why not just keep the main thing, the main thing.

Just trust the system Jesus laid out.

Teach the children love all.  And they will reciprocate that.  Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self control.  Be an example of that.  That's what they need to learn.  Don't create a ranking system.  Don't create competition.  Don't do anything that will leave some children feeling excluded.

I remember a story in the bible that Jesus told.  About 99 people that were doing just fine.  But one wasn't.  One was lost and confused.  They didn't feel like they were good enough.  And Jesus made sure that that one person was found and cared for.  He made sure that one was brought along with everyone else.

It's not to late.

I was driving back from dropping food off for my wife at work yesterday evening.  My two kids were in the car.  My 5 year old son told me I shouldn't say "It's to late" as much as I do.  Instead of brushing it off like I normally would, I thought about it.  I do say it a little bit.  And it's usually at the kids after I gave them a decision to make only to have them reverse it a little while after.

Like earlier that day for example.  I offered my 3 year old daughter a piece of frozen dessert.  She refused it, saying she didn't like it.  But she does.  She's had it plenty of times.  On the car ride home she asked for a popsicle and I told her no and reminded her she said she didn't like them.  She said she did now and what did I say....."it's too late."

In reality...it wasn't to late.  It rarely ever is.  Even if they were gone, we could always make more.  My son once again reminded me that it's never to late to reverse a decision (most decisions).

The things we learn from 5 year olds.....

Not at all Donald.  

Salvaging a Stomach Bug

You know that feeling.  When someone gets a stomach bug.  All you want to do is burn everything they may have come in contact with.  Unless it's your kids, don't burn them.  But you know that bug spreads like crazy.  And it's one of the worst 24-48 hours of your life.  Every rumbling or weird feeling in your tummy puts you on high alert.

Sometimes you escape, other times you don't.  But you know the cycle.  As soon as you think you might get it, you cut back on your food intake to prevent a large upheaveal  of what's in your system. In the event you do catch the bug, it's inevitable that you will lose just about everything in your system and deplete all your glycogen stores.  You will be tired, sluggish and feel awful.  By now you've probably been fasting for about 36 hours.  You don't want to eat anything because you are afraid of it coming right back up.  After about 48 hours your bug has passed and you are trying to find something to eat again.  But what's weird....it's hard to choose what to eat.  So many of us think it's because we are still sick.  But I think it's because we really aren't hungry.  I think our body took care of itself and by the start of that third day with extremely limited calories we started using our stored fat and produced ketones for fuel.  At this point your body is in a state of ketosis and is burning fat.  This is totally natural and healthy.  You've gotten through the hard part of switching from carb burning to fat burning via a stomach bug.

So next time you get the stomach bug...that 8 pound weight loss is not all from puke and shit.  You've actually started burning fat and it is a great time to continue onto a keto diet!  Don't go back to BRAT, Bananas, rice, applesauce and toast.  There is NO evidence to say this has any benefit.  It is outdated and moot.  If you aren't hungry...it really is ok not to eat.  If it's been 24-36 hours and you feel like you can keep something down, start with water.  Get some electrolytes in you.  But don't add carbs or sugar.  If you want solids...try scrambled eggs or chicken.  Eat something with healthy fats and low carbs in it that will sustain your fat burning.

Just something to think about to bring a light at the end of the tunnel for a stomach bug.