Hatred does not cease by hatred, only by love. – attributed to Buddha

Love someone unlovable this weekend.  Pray for those who persecute you this weekend.  Do something kind for someone who has hurt you this weekend.

Then do it the next week.  And the next.  And the next.  And so on…

If I want peace, how much will I give to attain it?

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Grace and peace to you.
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Check this young lady out. I’ve caught bits and pieces of America’s Got Talent this year and watched the last 30 minutes Tuesday night and got to experience this 10 year old girl. Simply amazing.
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What’s up with the Rangers?

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My mind is fragmented again, hence few new posts. 

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The following video doesn’t make George Bush a better President or a great man or cause me to want to say bad things about the current President.  I think it’s just a representation of a kind heart and pretty dang cool.

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Grace and peace to you.
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I’m off to a late start this morning so a brief thought about something I saw last night. 

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Lou Pinella has retired from baseball early to spend time with his ailing mother.  I suppose the Cubs not going anywhere in the postseason makes it easier to retire now but what struck me last night was this big, loud, demonstrative man when mad was weeping while speaking about it being the last time he would wear a uniform.  Weeping.  His passion for what he does and has spent a lifetime involved with was obvious.

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I remember Paul Faulkner reading the account of Jesus’ death in my freshman Bible class and weeping.

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I heard someone recount visiting a cave in the Holy Lands and their guide telling them it may very well be the cave where Jesus was praying before his captivity while sweating drops of blood and the man weeping while trying to recount the story.

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Passion. 

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Passion for Christ is something that has been building in my life for a while now.  I admit that reading the account of Christ’s death or the account of his heavy prayer didn’t hit me hard enough to bring me to tears at one time and today there are some songs we sing in worship that I almost can’t get through, readings in the Bible that leave wet pages in my Bible and time spent thinking about my God that cannot end without tears.  Tears of grief for what had to be given for me, tears of joy for who I am as a son of God, tears of thanksgiving for the reward that awaits me because God is a loving God. 

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I hope my passion for Christ will continue to grow by leaps and bounds, day after day.

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Grace and peace to you.
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Blogging has been hard for several weeks now and it’s been difficult to write congruent thoughts without creating a book.  While writing has been an outlet for me, it is also a barometer of the stress and strain of what is going on in my life.  More so, it is a barometer of where I stand in my relationship with God because when I am trusting Him completely there is a peace around me that is certainly supernatural, but, when I am in the old mode of wanting what I want and struggling with emotions that are neither healthy nor productive, there is no peace and I am a tangled mass of confusing thoughts and feelings.  This isn’t a good recipe for writing.

Moving on, last night I watched a study video from the Frances Chan book , Crazy Love and was again reminded of what this world might look like if we tried to live more like Jesus and less like Americanized Christians.  I will read this book again and hope that it is used to teach a class at our church one day.  All the while, I know there are many people who would fight against what it teaches because of the author’s convictions.  One of his comments in the study video is something along the line of “have you ever looked around your church and wondered who might not get into heaven because they are lukewarm?”  That’s a pretty strong thought but one I support because I feel I was one of those lukewarm Christians – ready to do whatever I needed to do in the church but doing little, if anything, outside the church where the lost are wandering around.  I assume the people in the church at Laodicea were all baptized believers and God was ready to spit them out of His mouth.  Woe be it to me if I find myself in that situation ever again.

I look to the day I climb out of this valley and hope and pray that I will be hot, that my words and my actions will be geared to glorifying God and shining a light on the path that is traveled by the lost so that they may also find their way home to the Father who is waiting to run and greet them, arms stretched open ready to wrap them up in His good and perfect love.

Grace and peace to you.

I continue to watch the analytics of this blog with part fascination, part curiousness about who and why people are following my site.  In the last 30 days I’ve had people come to this blog from the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, India, Malaysia and couple of other far flung places and I’ve had people start following me that I don’t know.  Some of the people stopping by have bad intentions wanting to get visitors to their sites that want money from you and I try to delete those as fast as I can.  When I started this blog, it was for me and I guess I never expected anyone else to read it.  Then a few people found out and Rick and Kyle even responded.  Now I’ve had 951 unique visitors in the past 30 days.  It adds a bit of fear to what I do because most of what I right is about me, emotions I’m not sure I want to share with people I don’t know.  On the other hand, I wonder if it is an opportunity to reach out to people and let them know they are not alone in their struggles, in their failings, in their fears and in their victories.  I need to decide where I want to go with this I suppose.

That said, yesterday was a struggle for me but today I feel lifted up.  I feel like today is a better day because I have asked a few very, very close friends to pray for me and for some emotions I am battling.  I believe I am feeling better today because their prayers are at work on my behalf.  My point is this, if you don’t have some close friends you can share everything with, you are in a tough situation.  To go a step further, I am convinced men need men in their lives they can tell their sins to, tell their temptations to, tell their darkest fears to who will love them unconditionally.  The tragedy is most men are afraid of that level of intimacy but I am here to tell you that once you make that step, your life will make a turn for the better.  Granted, it has to be someone you can trust and someone who isn’t going to gossip about what they’ve heard but once you find that person or group of people, more peace will enter your life than you think possible.  I assume women need that same type of connection and I think it might be easier for them but I don’t know. Being a man, it’s just easier for me to speak about men.  🙂

I know this.  I have walked through some dark, dark days and I can’t imagine how I would have come through it without some very good friends who let me cry, let me talk and cry some more, who listened without judgment or unsolicited opinion, who asked questions that made me search my heart and who have prayed prayer after prayer for me and my relationship with God and people.  I love them dearly and I thank God for bringing them into my life.

Grace and peace to you.

Another day where I can’t get my thoughts into words.  Too much hurt, too much confusion and not enough peace makes writing hard.  Today is just one of those days.

Let’s talk Rangers.  They go 10 innings with the Yankees and a future Hall of Fame closer throwing and little-heralded David Murphy drives in the winning run.  Wow!  Cliff Lee is on the mound tonight.  While I wanted to watch one of my favorite shows tonight, as soon as I get home from church the Ranger game will be on and I’ll have to try and catch a replay of the show.  I’ll be at the game Friday night for the Red Sox.  I can’t wait.

How about the airline attendant that opened the emergency chute and took off?  He’s being considered a folk hero by some.  Craziness.

That’s it.  I haven’t watched the news this week and don’t know what’s going on elsewhere.  Oh yeah, Obama did make a stop in Texas.  I think I’m done with politics. 

If you read this and haven’t read Crazy Love yet, go get it.  Everyone I know who has read it thinks it is a great read and very thought-provoking. 

That’s all I’ve got today.

Grace and peace to you.