I got a new car on Friday; well, it's new to me and it allows me some freedom of movement that I haven't had for a while. One of the things that it has allowed me is the freedom to attend a fellowship of God's people. The pastor has a real heart for the people not unlike many other pastor's do and he speaks in a very practical and straight forward way. So, yesterday afternoon, I went to the 5:30 pm service to sing, to worship, to contemplate and to listen to God's word for me. Rusty's message was " How do I know I am pleasing God?".
Now, there's a question...My immediate thoughts were of my own father and the struggle in my own life for his acceptance and approval. I think it is only natural to want those things...the assurance of God's love for us is sometimes hard to handle when the assurance of our earthly father's love is not so sure. And that pleasing thing is another story entirely. The acceptance and the resting in God's love has brought to me over time the knowledge that I am pleasing to my Father.
My struggle with this in my own father's eyes is not unlike that of others. I did things over the years that were displeasing to him and that displeasure was evident. I even tried in ways to get him to see that there were the things that he did wrong and how they affected me. In my haste to get my acknowledgement, I probably neglected to give him the props that he was due for his struggles to put a roof over our heads and food in our bellies. In the years since my father's passing, I have reconciled his love and acceptance of me. He did better for me, than his own dad did for him, I did better for mine than he did for me, and mine will do better for their children. Why, because we hope to learn from the shortcomings and attempt to be better and we take what was good and continue to pass that on.
The thing about God is that He is described as a generous God, who, if we ask Him, will give to us wisdom. The point of the message to me was that when I doubt, that is okay. When I need wisdom, then I just ask of God and He will give me that wisdom. I must place that trust in Him alone and not be unstable. It is hard to walk in stability in the world today, there are so many voices and opinions tugging and pulling us. I needed to be reminded of God's love and guidance yesterday. I needed to have reinforced that His Word, His Spirit and His People are the ways that He guides us. Sometimes we tend to really complicate things with our musings and our ideas.
I think what made yesterday special to me was that before I could answer the question "do I want to please God, I needed to know, again, that He Loved me. And He does, always has, always will....You see, it just comes down to love....God did for us what we could not do for ourselves and He did it through His love.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Act of Valor
I have been reading people's comments about the movie, Act of Valor, so I decided today to do something I haven't done in a while...attend a matinee at the local Cinema. The movie, based upon actual Seal Team missions, depicted the activities of a Seal Team deployed to various parts of the world tracking down terrorists, rescuing captured CIA operatives, and other baddies.
It comes as no surprise that I am a typical guy when it comes to movies like this; I like when we kick the bad guys' ass and rescue the operatives and stop the terrorists from wreaking more havoc upon the innocents who have done nothing but be born in the United States of America. Still, I think about the policies that lead us into war or the causes...I am not a blind, stick my head in the sand, America love it or leave person. Yet I appreciate the sacrifice of those who gave all...
Here is the song by Keith Urban that plays at the end of the movie...
It comes as no surprise that I am a typical guy when it comes to movies like this; I like when we kick the bad guys' ass and rescue the operatives and stop the terrorists from wreaking more havoc upon the innocents who have done nothing but be born in the United States of America. Still, I think about the policies that lead us into war or the causes...I am not a blind, stick my head in the sand, America love it or leave person. Yet I appreciate the sacrifice of those who gave all...
Here is the song by Keith Urban that plays at the end of the movie...
No Room for Apathy
A few years back, I had a discussion with someone who was involved in Hospice Care concerning the number of WWII vets that she cared for in her daily practice. She quoted a statistic of about 1,000 of this group were dying nationwide each day. So, I did a little research of my own and found the following information.
Over 16,000,000 American men and women served in WWII of which over 290,000 died in combat with another 113,000 deaths in non-theater related incidents. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs 1,711,000 survivors still remained as of November 2011, and of that number it is estimated that 850 die each day.
In an article this week in the Washington Post another group was profiled from that era; survivors of the Nazi Holocaust. In my research, I learned that the term "holocaust" comes from a Greek word, "holokaustos". The word is a reference to offerings made to gods and literally means "burnt whole" and was for years used to refer to any great massacre. However, since the 1960's, writers have used the word entirely to refer to the genocide of the Jewish people. The word Shoah, which means "calamity", has been the preferred term of reference by Jewish people rather than the more offensive Holocaust since the 1940's. Whatever the term, the horror of what happened that allowed over 80% of the Jewish population of Eastern Europe to be wiped from the face of the earth, should never, ever happen again.
Many of the one's interviewed in the article for the Post were survivors who entered the death camps as children or young adults. Many lost both parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters; some were sole survivors of their own families. I cannot even begin to imagine what loss of that nature does to a person; the trauma that is inflicted on one's soul, on one's sense of safety and well being.
In my circle of friends there are some who follow the Hebrew faith and I have asked the question, "Have you been to the Holocaust museum in D.C.?" Some have and some have not. The one's who have not all have told me similar stories about a grandmother or another relative telling of those times in Poland, Germany and other Eastern Europe countries where relatives or they themselves were taken from homes and sent to the death camps. For them, there is no need to see what they already know. There is the need for us, as a nation, to constantly remind ourselves that things like the Holocaust can never happen again. We had hoped once the film of the death camps reached the eyes of the world that the horror of the suffering of the Jews; the loss of two-thirds of the Jewish populace of over 9 million that lived in Eastern Europe would shake up to our very core. That, as a nation, we would do what ever we could to prevent the repeat of this atrocity in other places in the world.
However, the genocide continues; Rwanda, Darfur in the Sudan, the Iraqi Kurds, Bosnia....there are just too many to name. This country cannot and should not be the police of the world, but we should be the uniters of like minded leaders to do everything in our power to stop this senseless slaughter of people because of the race, creed or religious origin.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran pastor and theologian who was involved in a plot to overthrow Hitler made the following statement,
Over 16,000,000 American men and women served in WWII of which over 290,000 died in combat with another 113,000 deaths in non-theater related incidents. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs 1,711,000 survivors still remained as of November 2011, and of that number it is estimated that 850 die each day.
In an article this week in the Washington Post another group was profiled from that era; survivors of the Nazi Holocaust. In my research, I learned that the term "holocaust" comes from a Greek word, "holokaustos". The word is a reference to offerings made to gods and literally means "burnt whole" and was for years used to refer to any great massacre. However, since the 1960's, writers have used the word entirely to refer to the genocide of the Jewish people. The word Shoah, which means "calamity", has been the preferred term of reference by Jewish people rather than the more offensive Holocaust since the 1940's. Whatever the term, the horror of what happened that allowed over 80% of the Jewish population of Eastern Europe to be wiped from the face of the earth, should never, ever happen again.
Many of the one's interviewed in the article for the Post were survivors who entered the death camps as children or young adults. Many lost both parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters; some were sole survivors of their own families. I cannot even begin to imagine what loss of that nature does to a person; the trauma that is inflicted on one's soul, on one's sense of safety and well being.
In my circle of friends there are some who follow the Hebrew faith and I have asked the question, "Have you been to the Holocaust museum in D.C.?" Some have and some have not. The one's who have not all have told me similar stories about a grandmother or another relative telling of those times in Poland, Germany and other Eastern Europe countries where relatives or they themselves were taken from homes and sent to the death camps. For them, there is no need to see what they already know. There is the need for us, as a nation, to constantly remind ourselves that things like the Holocaust can never happen again. We had hoped once the film of the death camps reached the eyes of the world that the horror of the suffering of the Jews; the loss of two-thirds of the Jewish populace of over 9 million that lived in Eastern Europe would shake up to our very core. That, as a nation, we would do what ever we could to prevent the repeat of this atrocity in other places in the world.
However, the genocide continues; Rwanda, Darfur in the Sudan, the Iraqi Kurds, Bosnia....there are just too many to name. This country cannot and should not be the police of the world, but we should be the uniters of like minded leaders to do everything in our power to stop this senseless slaughter of people because of the race, creed or religious origin.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran pastor and theologian who was involved in a plot to overthrow Hitler made the following statement,
“First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me."
There can be no doubt that apathy in the face of tyranny will only result in there being no one left to speak if we don't speak up in the face of evil.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Friday and Saturday Workout
Left the office and took the shuttle bus to the other campus last night and then the Arlington bus to Washington Sports Club. Did a 5 minute warm up on the tread mill and then jumped into a 20 minute kettle bell workout consisting of 1 hand alternating swings for a count of 10 and 10, rest 30 seconds and repeat, Followed by 1 handed snatch 10 per side, then rest. Followed that with 2 handed cleans squat, overhead press and repeat. Pretty tanked after this and then I did some partial TGU's for more direct core work.
This morning I continued my training for the 5 k repeating the 5 minute warm-up followed by 6- 3minute intervals ( 2 min run, 1 min) 5 minute cool down. This was very taxing physically in that the other night I used the treadmill at the gym. Going to do more open road work with the hills and that will give me a true measure of progress.
Going to spend the day with a friend and enjoy the weekend....
This morning I continued my training for the 5 k repeating the 5 minute warm-up followed by 6- 3minute intervals ( 2 min run, 1 min) 5 minute cool down. This was very taxing physically in that the other night I used the treadmill at the gym. Going to do more open road work with the hills and that will give me a true measure of progress.
Going to spend the day with a friend and enjoy the weekend....
Two weeks
Two weeks ago, we shared an indescribable time together....
Two weeks ago, I held you in my arms and the magic of our first time together was still there...
The kisses, the touch, the laughter, the tender way our hands intertwined....all still there
Two weeks ago, I declared what was in my heart but never expressed in words....
The spark it seemed had been rekindled again.....
But......it seems my timing was off, my declarations a bit late....
Another had sought your heart and was saying the same as I....
I understand the place and I understand your decision....
But, still....two weeks ago I was transported to a place that in my heart of hearts, a place in the depths of my very soul that I know, today and for all of time...that I want you for my love for a lifetime.
Nothing has changed, nor will it change...don't feel regret or remorse because of the way things were...
My delays cost me having you in my life....I will lament only that and the fact that your heart belongs to someone else...but for now, I am thinking only of the magic of......
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
5K workout at Washington Sports Club
A couple of days ago I decided to begin training for a 5K. The program is actually called 12 weeks to running. Sunday nite I did the run in my neighborhood. 5 minute warm-up, then 10 intervals ( 1 minute run, 1 minute walk) followed by a 5 minute cool-down. The first 4 intervals I felt like I was 18 years old again...just picking them up and putting them down...the last 6 not so much...really felt my age. I am tweaking my diet somewhat...today I opted for oatmeal with blueberries and mixed nuts with dark roast coffee and a little cream..in fact I had several of those today, coffee I mean. Lunch was a roasted eggplant sandwich with bake ruffles and water( sorry the salad looked really bad). Dinner after my workout was two grilled fish tacos from Baja Fresh with black beans and rice and a banana and asian pear when I got home.
I talked to my friend Tim Tandy tonight and he has been pretty much a vegetarian for over a year, but being a Cajun, he likes his seafood. I told him I would be cutting my red meat back to 2 times a week, eating more fish and chicken, and lots more of the green veggies. If nothing else I want to curb the effect of Diabetes Type II. I can't reverse some of the damage like to my eyes but it is my hope that nothing will get worse..
Tonight's workout was Intervals again; this time 5 minute warmup, 6 intervals (2 minutes run/1 minute walk) followed by 5 minute cool-down. I picked up a 35 lb curling bar and did about 15 curls and then put it over head and did 15 triceps presses. The above picture shows the distance, calories(?) I suppose and time. I was pleasantly surprised when I got on the scale tonight and I was down to 258 from 262 last week.
I talked to my friend Tim Tandy tonight and he has been pretty much a vegetarian for over a year, but being a Cajun, he likes his seafood. I told him I would be cutting my red meat back to 2 times a week, eating more fish and chicken, and lots more of the green veggies. If nothing else I want to curb the effect of Diabetes Type II. I can't reverse some of the damage like to my eyes but it is my hope that nothing will get worse..
Whitney Houston and LL Cool J
By now, we have all been saturated with the news of the passing of Whitney Houston last Saturday. The tributes for this child of Gospel music have poured out with much the same feeling across the board; gone too soon....whatching the Grammy awards on Sunday night I must say I was moved to trears by the prayer offered by actor/rapper LL Cool J for Whitney. I remember hearing Whitney pounding out "I will always love you" and that voice moved me to tears..the same when she sang The National Anthem a few years ago, but I have never been more moved, more touched when I heard her sing "Jesus Loves Me" because after hearing her sing that sweet song...if I didn't believe it before, I believed it then.
Peace to you, Whitney. May God comfort your family in their time of loss and sorrow...
Peace to you, Whitney. May God comfort your family in their time of loss and sorrow...
new iPhone
Got the iPhone 3Gs recently...okay I'm a cheapskate...should have gotten the larger version 4G with the fancy camera and 16 gig memory. Still not adept at touch screens, but I love having the space for music and the ability to play my Pandora. Actually have become quite accomplished at playing Battleship...have acquired the rank of Admiral and evidently I should have been a naval officer based upon my uncanny ability to acquire and sink ships....will see how it turns out down the road.
One of my favorite apps is the guitar tuner and that is a pretty cool thing to have around....now if I only could play the guitar!!.....stay tuned
One of my favorite apps is the guitar tuner and that is a pretty cool thing to have around....now if I only could play the guitar!!.....stay tuned
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
First blog of 2012
This is my first blog of the new year and I realized that I haven't really written anything since I returned from Chris and Aimee's wedding in July. 2011 was a strange and eventful year and 2012 and brought much joy, tension and sadness in the first few weeks of this short year.
The above quote was my Facebook post for Valentine's Day; a day that began much as other days of recent weeks with petitions to the Almighty for guidance, peace and direction...lately it has been more about strength; the strength to stand firm on truth that is one's heart...a direction, a commitment, a decision....sometimes you can't see the end of a thing because what is in the beginning is unclear or disjointed.
The end of 2011 brought a new position(actually two) and then the transition from a technical lead to a managerial lead and the responsibility of addressing issues never before encountered, building trust, forging a relationship based upon one's own personality and not on that of previous holders of the position.
In the personal arena, there was the realization that I had neglected areas of my life due to that above referenced change and it would seemingly cost me an opportunity to forge forward in a new direction that would give my life more meaning than any job ever could.
I said once that I would never become one of those people about whom would be said, "He lived to work..." and yet, in an effort to be the success I needed to be, there I found myself. Also, I realized the neglect of my spiritual pursuits had made my life appear disjointed.
The above picture was taken at Great Falls, Virginia with a very special person to me. We shared some very wonderful moments looking into these waters that day. I realized what I had neglected and that was to speak what was in my heart, to say what was true....I will not look back with regret, but forward with hope for a second chance, just as with the dawn of each day brings a fresh opportunity to do good, love justly and walk humbly...
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