Here stands a new week.

Right in front of you stands a new week.  It either starts on Monday or Sunday, take your pick.  Either way it is a new week and the questions stands....What are you going to do with it?  We are only guaranteed the moment, not the whole day, not the whole week or the whole month or even the whole year.  We have the moment we are in.  So what do you do with the week?  What do you do with the moment or the day?

Do you let it go by?  Do you plan something interesting?  Do you make new decisions?  Do you pray about your week?  Do you do anything about your week or day or moment?

Some of us live in the moment and a day at a time.  Some of us obsess about the future or the past trying not to repeat past mistakes or trying to make each day better and planning so far into the future they are overwhelmed. Others still move about with not ambition at all.

I want to speak from experience and from a friends point of view.  We both have this strange feeling inside of us.  It calls us to do more.  It calls us to strive to better ourselves.  Sometimes that means living in the moment and making the most out of that time.  Other times is calls for planning a little ahead of ourselves.  Where do fit in?  I want to do more.  I want to grow and change.  So does my friend.  My friend is planning to take some classes and I plan on learning more about what I want to do or what I should be doing.  I am going to take my time, enjoy each day and what it has to bring and I am going to continue to change and grow.

I want to become and I want to be.

What do you want?

Who do you want to become? (I mean your person.  What kind of a person do you want to become.)

Think about it, pray about it.  Let that be a moving factor in your life.  Let God be a part of it and follow your heart.  Be and Become.  Do and Act.  Live and Grow.

This is your day, moment, your week, month and year.  Make of it what you can and what you want.  Take advantage of the moment and Carpe Diem....Seize the day!  Enjoy and Live Life it is he best thing you can do for yourself and for others.

Quotes for Today

These quotes I got today and thought I would share them with everyone.  They struck me as funny and very appropriate for me.  Take what you want from them.  I like quotes because sometimes they make me think and sometimes they just make me laugh.  These were in both categories for me.  They made me think and they made me laugh.  So enjoy this.  Maybe I will make this a weekly thing, when I get some quotes that I want to share.

So if this is the first installment, enjoy!

Time sneaks up on you like a windshield on a bug.
  - John Lithgow

Ahhh. A man with a sharp wit. Someone ought to take it away from him before he cuts himself.
  - Peter da Silva

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
  - George Bernard Shaw

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts. - Einstein

Plunge or not...

Have you ever wanted to jump over the side? You know take a plunge?  Just do something that may seem irrational to some, but quite logical to others.  I sometimes have moments where I want to do something like that.  I know someone else who did a plunge, a leap over the side, someone who fell and lived to tell us all about it.  His name?  Well you might already know the name depending on your outlook on life.  Let me tell you a little about this person before I give out their name.

He fell in love.  He fell in regards to that love.  He took a leap off the highest point ever.  He was older than anyone here now, before now and in the future.  Took a lot of flack from others who could not understand the reason for what he did.  You know what that is like don't you?  Doing something because you know its right, but getting put down by others about it.  Others just don't understand.  Well a long time ago that is exactly what happened to this man.  He did what others did not expect and was ridiculed for it.  They wanted one thing and he gave them another.  Just like a politician.  The only difference was he was no politician, at least not in the usual sense.

He understood people better than any else has ever.  I don't mean like con artists or anyone else who is into understanding people to get something from them, like a politician or a lawyer or con artists, and the like.  I mean he really understands what makes people tick, what we are all about, what we want, what we need.  He knows us better than ourselves.  He could have been anyone, he could have made himself into being famous, rich, ruler of all, you name it.  Nothing was withheld from him.  Yet he did not aspire to greatness like we know it.  He had a different view and he shared that with us too.

Do you have a clue yet?  He is famous.  Really, Honest, not kidding!

I mean for him to fall, to take that leap, to plunge in meant to be vulnerable.  Vulnerable to lots of thinks including pain and it hurt for him to fall.  It hurt him all his life in ways we can never understand.  I can not imagine hurting all my life.  I know there are some people that all they can remember of their life is pain, either physical or emotional.  I have had some pain and hurt in my life and I can still remember the good times and the bad with equal difference.  

He is Jesus.  And he fell in love with mankind and with each and everyone of us.  So much so that he fell from heaven and came to earth to feel what we feel and to live out life here like we do.  He experienced it all and yet He still loved us enough to die for us, to sacrifice Himself for us.  With all the choices He could have made He made the one that we would not have made.  Everyone at that time thought that the Messiah should come in strength and fight.  But Jesus came in Love instead.  A much more powerful ally and a much more powerful way to accomplish for all what could not be accomplished any other way.


I praise the name of Jesus, because without Him I would have no future.  Because of Him I have a future and a hope and a life that will never end.  It will end on this earth, but I will be in Heaven forever after.  


Thank you Jesus for taking the plunge, the fall, the dive that none of us could make and for rescuing us in that act of Love.

Every Act Is Significant

I want to share something with you.  The few that read my blog.  And any others that happen by.  I get a newsletter about once a week from My Jewish Learning and sometimes it is very deep and interesting.  This was one of those times.  Here is a link to the actual newsletter.  It is called the weekly Torah and they talk about different things in regards to what Judaism and Christianity are like different and what people should do according to GOD's word.

This weeks' title was "Every Act Is Significant" and when I read it I thought that really is something that people should know about.  You can read the article yourself it is not very long, but I am going to tell you what I got out of it.

The littlest act that we do all the way up to the greatest acts we can do all count.  It does not matter if you are giving someone a hand up that has fallen or giving a million dollars to help the Red Cross.  It does not matter if you keep a bird safe or help someone with a flat tire or stop to help at an accident or grab someone from falling onto the tracks.  It all matters.  It all is important.  For the last year my wife and I have been learning something about that in a different area.  We have been learning that everything that happens from getting hurt physically to getting hurt emotionally, from having a good day to having a stinky day, it all matters and it all has equal importance.

Do you see where we as a culture and as a world are missing the boat.  We think that the person who gave away a million dollars is more important or what they did was more important than those saving sea lions.  We take the person or the act and we label them important more so than the every day people who are driving safe and preparing vitamins or medicine for others.

We need to know that every little thing we do is equally important and everything that happens to us is equally important.  I think we can live better lives if we move in that direction.

Truths and Change

I had some interesting truths splash my way yesterday.  Try these on for size:

GOD wants us to want things!

GOD wants us to be happy!

Now in the case of the first one.  It is not like wanting a new car or a new hair style or a trophy or an apple fritter.  It is in wanting things for ourselves.  Like a career we have been interested in.  Or getting a place of your own.  Wanting the best for your child, your spouse or yourself.  And like eating right, brushing your teeth and taking your vitamins.  You know what I mean.  Not the wants in life that everyone strives for mindlessly because we think that it is what we are supposed to want, like more money, a new computer, or to be famous.  But wanting things for yourself that would bring a sense of accomplishment to your life.  Like wanting a child, a dog, a place of your own, or a job helping others or that dream job.

Many people go through life doing what others want them to do or what they think others expect from them.  Like being perfect and not wanting anything.  We need to encourage others to grab life and their dreams and not let go until all their avenues of trying are used up.  We need to encourage others to want to change and grow and be come their own person.  No one should be living life like others want them to live it, they should be living their own life.  They need to find their "one thing" in life that makes them happy.  If it means flying an airplane, fixing computers, helping others, learning about GOD, being a friend, encouraging others, being a secretary, police person, firefighter, nurse, teacher, driver, etc.  What is it that makes you Happy?

That brings me to the second truth, which has an joint statement:  Not only does GOD want us to be content, but he also wants us to be happy.  You can not stress it enough and some people have stressed it too much.  At least the part about being content.  But that only means to be content in situations that you can not change.  It does not mean being content to be a door mat or to be something or someone that has no aspirations.  I never really got it like I did yesterday.  GOD wants us to be happy, not just content.  We can be content with out meal sometimes, we can be content with the weather or the time of day or sometimes the situations we are in, like waiting in line or following a slow driver down a narrow road.  Look at the Serenity Prayer in its fullness:


God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.


Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

Look at just a few of the main points, "courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference."  Also this section at the end, "That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next."  Change things that we can and the courage that we need to accomplish that task.  Why not change what we can?  Why do we have to accept everything that happens and just let it be?  Why not change the things we can and know the difference between those things that we can change and those things we need to be content with.  So many people think that just because things are the way they are that they need to accept it and just stuff it down and be content with it.  Instead of changing the things that they can change.  I know because I have been there myself.  There were things in my life that I allowed to be just the way they were for too long and some of those things I am changing.

So can you grasp these two truths: GOD wants us to be Happy and to Want things for our lives.

So what are you holding back on because you think you can't have it?  What can you aspire to that would make you happy?  What can you change in life that you just need a little more courage to change?  What do you want to become?  What area of your life have you thought that you needed to leave alone because it would "rock the boat" or be different and others might not have thought you capable of doing?  Remember this "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."  - Dr. Seuss