This is a post series I started last year…and then I quit blogging…another story for another day.  So, let’s revisit what I started in an attempt to make the most of today and tomorrow.

Posted December 16, 2018 – I just read an article written by a hospice nurse who interviewed multiple 90+ year old patients and recorded the top 5 regrets as they looked back on their lives.  Regrets are tough things because, in some cases, whatever caused them is too far gone to reverse.  However, the good news is that some regrets can be rectified or, at least, mollified and we can move forward.

My blog space is something that carried me through hard times, dark times, and now that life is better I spend less time writing.  Maybe it’s because I allow myself to be busier now or maybe because it’s just as simple as not making time for what is or should be important.  The latter is what often allows choices to become regrets later on.

Over the next few days I’ll cover the top 5 regrets as noted in this article and weigh in on them with my thoughts, feelings, experiences and dreams.  In the meantime, anyone want to share some of their regrets and whether they believe they can turn it around?

Grace and peace.

Another year, another birthday.  That’s how I have always looked at them, from the earliest I can remember all the way through number 54.  For some reason, this one seems to be different.  When I hear 55, the gears start spinning.  I’ve been alive 55 years and what have I accomplished?  What mark have I made?  What have I done to make taking up space on this planet worth me being here?  What’s ahead?  I only have a certain number of years left.  What will I accomplish?  What mark will I make?  Will I do anything worth taking up more space for another 5, 15 or 25 years?

The mind is a powerful thing with the ability to propel us to do more than we ever thought we could and the power to stop us in our tracks.  How do we use it for the former and to avoid the latter?

Maybe that’s my challenge for the next however many years I have left.  I’m not worried about what’s on the other side of life.  In fact, I long for it but until that day comes I want to do something that makes someone’s life better, that leaves a legacy of loving others well and giving them something to pass on to someone else so they also love people well.  I don’t expect or seek fame but I would be comforted knowing there is something I have done before I expire that made a difference for someone and makes a difference for a future generation.

I suppose I can sit here and type about what about’s and what-if’s and nothing will happen.  I will leave this for now and say a prayer that my 55th year of life has some meaning to someone, that a thing or things I do will improve someone’s life, give encouragement to go forward, to lift someone out of the depths of despair.  If I can do that, it will be a successful year.  A successful life.

Grace and peace.

The recent spate of sexual harassment/sexual assault claims is horrifying.  Again, we see the effects of dehumanizing people and the effects of an inward mindset.

At times, it might be hard to know where flirtation ends and sexual harassment begins.  I have seen office affairs spin up because it started as something small and worked into something much bigger that was accepted, albeit wrong, by both parties.  Then there is the line that gets crossed between flirtation and harassment.  Then there is another line that is immediately crossed with power and intimidation and fear.  It would seem these are fairly easy lines to identify and, if so, one would know where the line between mutual interest and harassment, or assault, lies.

What happened in the past that made people think they could take advantage of someone emotionally or physically?  What happened to make people think forced or coerced sex was acceptable?

While I am perplexed about what drives people to these dehumanizing steps, I am even more flummoxed by people who say they love/fear God and defend these things as “boy-talk”, “locker room humor” and other ways of saying they accept bad behavior.

I accept no one is perfect and there is danger in pointing fingers.  I have a past with many mistakes as does everyone I know (who is willing to be honest) but it doesn’t mean we accept our failings with off-handed descriptions that make it seem acceptable.  I’m all for second chances but those chances need to come after true remorse has been expressed at the least.  There are also times when the offense is so heinous that a second chance isn’t appropriate at the time or for a certain position.

All that to say, before we need second chances, I sure hope we as a society can start valuing others more, see human life as something sacred and special and worthy of honor.  Let us all seek to be kinder, more compassionate, more loving.  Let us all seek to show empathy and care for others.  Let us all do the right thing because it is the right thing to do, to lift others up when they need a hand, to see “the least of these” as equals in worthiness of dignity, respect and value.

Grace and peace.

Part 1 of more to come…

Knee-jerk reactions.  I’ve had them often.  When we see the tragedies of Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs it is easy to focus on the end and not the beginning.  It is easy to blame the easy thing and not the hard thing.  I am not here to advocate for guns or gun rights but to call attention to a bigger problem.  Why do these people behind the guns not see the people they are killing as humans, as someone of value, as something we should cherish and build up, not tear down and kill?

One article I read called it dehumanization.  That’s a good word for it.  What has happened to the hearts of these killers that they do not value human life?  What has caused them to lose the decency and morality and goodness that allows them to take human lives, innocent lives?

I am not hearing people call for a hard, deep look at our society.  It has reached a point where our biggest politicians have resorted to name calling and mud slinging and it has filtered down to hatred of people of a different color and religion and it has filtered down to someone killing another.

What is going on in our society that allows one person to treat another so worthlessly?

The problem is in our politics.

The problem is in our schools.

The problem is in our churches.

The problem is in our homes.

The problem is…us.  There is a rampant problem in valuing others who are in a different economic level, social level, racial level.  There is a rampant problem on looking down on those who are poor, sick, homeless, less educated.

I read posts on Facebook by people who are more worried about refugees and statues and taxes and the majority of them proclaim to follow Christ.  (If Christ is first, wouldn’t we see refugees as an opportunity to proclaim the Gospel, wouldn’t we see concerns of racism as a time to talk and heal and wouldn’t we see money as something to give away the way Jesus calls us to and highlights in parables?)

I am taking broad swings.  I am writing big strokes.  I know many will disagree and denounce (and confident most will do it before spending 5 minutes thinking about it) all that I have said.  Yet, killings continue.  Sexual predators continue.

If we aren’t the problem, who is?

Grace and peace.