Vid

Vid made by some of my crazy friends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHb34ilO_A4

@. Chains

chain: anything that acts as a restraint

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=chain

How do we overcome the restraints that hold us back. I believe it starts with proper planning. My management book lists 4 steps in planning.

Analysing the environment:
Setting objectives and strategies:
Determining resources:
Monitoring outcomes:

In the first step involves determining what things affect our lives, and finding out why we do what we do. In the second step concrete reachable goals are made so we know where we want to be. Then it is necessary to find out what we need to reach those goals, which in many cases involves other people. And then monitor those goals so your can measure what your doing good at and what you need to give more resources to. There is lots of information available on tools like this but I find for things to change we need to make a sacrifices, and take a risks because I believe that change doesn't happen without it.

It turns out that these procedures are just that a tool. Allot like a hammer, or a nail gun they help you to build something, but whether you are building a house or a prison that is up to the builder. The tools just help you make the building faster and better. Logically there is only one difference between a house and a prison. In a house people are free to come and go as they please, a prison the person inside is forced to remain inside.

Sometimes I wonder if we are not building our own prison every day. So many times we make choices that close out the rest of the world. And by closing out the rest of the world we close ourselves in.

In the book Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller he talks about his first Christmas where he realized that he had spent all his Christmas money on himself and had spent little money buying gifts for others and how he felt like Hitler. I take that to be an example of a way we close ourselves in, by focusing on ourselves.

Do you realize that we may be breaking chains but really we are just learning how to build ourselves a stronger jail to lock ourselves into. That's why we should spend time thinking about what we want to do, and I believe that is why we need God.

Do you catch that knowledge, wisdom, power, social status, money... etc. is just a tool nothing more nothing less. You can have a brilliant person who locks himself up, and a martyr who can't help but praise God, a poor and starving person who would share with you their last meal.

[Picture on opposite side: purpose = Contrasting either side ]
[ideas: house -> homeless mans' house, or not well to do house | prison -> high end home and some how show that it is a prison]

Management by Michael A. Hitt ... [Et Al.]. Canadian ed.
Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller

Self Reflection

I have determined I keep to many secrets and I close in on myself to much so I propose to change that, even if it means talking to an empty room to start.

So if your wondering what has been up
there was this girl that I liked,
I wanted to know if things could work, and no they couldn't.
As I have said I made a complete fool of myself, but in some ways I'm glad I did.

I like the words end of an era with this as a sign post,
because it seems that way in many ways in my life.

I find myself wanting to do something for God. We'll have to wait and see.

I have determined that deep down I am always asking a question,
and I am always searching for an answer.
I guess I have lots of questions.
That's what makes me so strange and difficult sometimes.
I wonder if I will ever settle down.
When in heaven I don't want to ask a single one, but rather praise God forever.

I used to be the shadow, I felt the breath of life wake me up,
only to find myself in a parched land craving water.
I wonder about the road I have travelled to get here,
only God knows why.

I walk into this oasis from the desert.
I come to drink from the fount where I will never thirst again.
The keeper of the fount has one request,
that will make this water last.

I realize I am far from where I want to be
I realize God is all and all.

Oh God I am in need of your mercy
Oh God I am in need of your grace
God help us
God lead us

yes I have pushed off the next entry again, I guess it's really making me think about things.

In the Middle

So this is not a blog I plan on adding to the compilation but I feel compelled.
Three things are at the focus of my attention, one I really need a shave and a hair cut because it is driving my nerves nutts, two my MG got 20 MPG that is a down right miracle, three it is freaking cold why can't summer arrive.

I remember last year I went to a old time festival. You know the ones where they drive steam engine tractors and stuff the like. They were playing some older folk music and I have to say that I enjoy that music just as much as rap, or anything I listen to. I think part of the reason is it communicates to me an era where social assistance didn't exist, a place where people broke the land.

The national geographic had an article on Jamestown and there are two things that strike me. One is they landed not on a pure untouched landscape but a agricultural system of horticulture, and so the drive to be environmental and restore the land to it's "natural" state is really something that hasn't been around for a long long time. But that's not to say that parks are useless on the contrary I think they are very valuable, but what is intention behind them?

Two, it's really how the Jamestown people changed the landscape/environment by introducing earthworms and foreign animals,plants, and diseases that the the colonist conquered the land.

Now I realize I have a fascination with humans struggling. humm.

So if you want a teaser for the next blog the plan is to name it Chains.

!. Entitlement

United Nations Human Rights

The mission of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is to work for the protection of all human rights for all people; to help empower people to realize their rights; and to assist those responsible for upholding such rights in ensuring that they are implemented.

In carrying out its mission OHCHR will:

* Give priority to addressing the most pressing human rights violations, both acute and chronic, particularly those that put life in imminent peril;
* Focus attention on those who are at risk and vulnerable on multiple fronts;
* Pay equal attention to the realization of civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights, including the right to development; and
* Measure the impact of its work through the substantive benefit that is accrued, through it, to individuals around the world.

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/AboutUs/Pages/MissionStatement.aspx

Entitlement

1 a: the state or condition of being entitled : right b: a right to benefits specified especially by law or contract
2: a government program providing benefits to members of a specified group ; also : funds supporting or distributed by such a program
3: belief that one is deserving of or entitled to certain privileges

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/entitlement

Sometimes we get convinced that we are entitled to certain rights, and for some of use this includes luxuries we enjoy.

But how can you claim something like free speech, or a luxury. A Christian in a religiously controlled country can't show the rulers their rights and expect a change just with that piece of information. I child in a refugee camp can't demand enough food to survive on. Is a victim of an assault entailed to a reason why.

Sometimes we like to gloat that we earned our entitlements. Now wait a minute yes we work hard sometimes, but so do many people who receive nothing. The question comes down to did you earn your physical heath, the family/community you were born into, did you earn the air you breath. If you add up everything you receive without payment only an ignorant person could keep the list short. Can we hold God ransom, till we get what we want.

So what do you call something that you receive that your not entitled to. I would call that a gift.

If you think about it most of what we work for would not have been even possible without having a foundation in a gift that we received. Where would Alexander the Great be without his inherited highly skilled and equipped army or Einstein without his brain, the turnaround street victim with out the people who helped him.

So I propose to take the gifts I have an use then to multiply those opportunities for others, or of course you could hoard your gifts and use then to multiply your own opportunities.

[Picture on opposite side: purpose = human suffering ]
[ideas: person on the street, refugee camp, medical conditions]

Choo Choo

Many times I feel like a train,
going full steam into a train wreck.
This is one of those times.
I have a crazy idea,
and it involves a fair amount of work with little pay-off.
Hey it's like what I usually do lol.
So my plan is to make a short compilation of blogs,
and eventually wrap them up into a pdf with pictures to match.

humm ...

So if there is any input, corrections, insights they would be much appreciated but,
not very many people say anything here any ways so here we go ....

MGB

So yesterday I revived my MGB back to life again.
Had to do some nerve surgery, ie completely replace the ignition system,
So yah I had to take it spin, actually a couple of spins.
You know I like the adrenalin of having fun, but when it is all said and done,
I know how much more it would take to get the same rush and
I realize how completely worthless working hard just for a rush is to me.

Easy to forgive, quick to forget.
Very important words for me.
This new direction is home.

What ever the reason ...

What ever the reason for my foolish ways,
I know I had to do it. It's always a WOP or guess it is WIP.

I find myself asking God for a bigger risk,
though I have no idea why.
It seems to me risk is connected to sacrifice.
Are the two interdependent?

I find no matter which way the wind blows or how strong,
I catch a glimpse of light and it has me hooked.

God has shattered my conceptions,
knowing and agreeing are different that taking something to heart.
God has showed me that in another part of life.

God ruler of all,
I called on you awesome name,
to give you thanks and shout praise.
Come bless us. Come lead us.

The Motions by Matthew West amazing.

I worry this is political

What's the fool to do?
To young and everything to lose. lol.
Lessons learned ...
Maybe just myself understood.

I remember;
I saw the bottom of the bottle,
before my first sip.
I felt the pain in my hand,
before I hit.
I may have asked God for that.
It's always a choice for me,
and sometimes I ignore.

Somethings you have to be passionate about.
Somethings you have to forget about.
I find I can mix those up,
more often it's unclear.

There are many things I would like to know,
but when the scale is tipped.
I find I don't need to know,
maybe one day I will know ...
one day I will not care.

To be cynical
The world is a hard place,
it owes us nothing.

To be optimistic
Everything we get is a gift,
that we can give.

Hope For

This is way beyond my pay grade,
and way over my head, but here is my attempt.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 NKJV
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
Fear God and keep His commandments,
for this is man's all

Galatians 6:8ish The Message
But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

John 10:27 NKJV
"I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own sheep and my own sheep know me."

Luke 18:22ish The Message
"When Jesus heard that, he said, "Then there's only one thing left to do: Sell everything you own and give it away to the poor. You will have riches in heaven. Then come, Follow me."

Matthew 4:19 NKJV
Then He said to them, "follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."

For me this is what I think -I hope to do what God asks me to do, I hope to follow God-