It’s Never Easy, but it Will Eventually Get Easier

So, it’s the eve of Easter, 2019.

And here I am finding it once again a little hard to fall asleep on this night.

My thoughts are swimming and I find myself dwelling on the very recent loss of a new friend.

No death is every really easy. No death is leaves us completely at peace. There is always going to be grief.

And so it is with the passing of this recently acquainted friend of mine.

I spoke with him and had some really great conversation on a Tuesday evening and looked forward to a group get together later that week.

Less than 48 hours later I received a text that he’d gone home to be with Jesus late the night before.

This was one of those passings that was just so unexpected and tragic that it left me. Yes me…

Truly speechless…

When I told Julie the news, she actually cried out… a raw moment of anguish… we just couldn’t believe the news.

I remember immediately going to God in prayer and both of us struggling just to produce any words.

Sometimes the passing of a friend or loved one will hit you that way. There are just no easy answers. There’s just not any cliché that would ever bring real comfort.

For those who loved this man, I can speak of God’s love for him. I could speak of God’s peace and comfort for those who mourn.

And, don’t hear me wrong or misunderstand me when I say that I fully believe that God can bring His peace that passes all understanding during these moments in our lives. Because He does…

I have personally experienced His peace at times of great personal pain and anguish…

But, despite my previous personal experience, I cannot write off or diminish the very real pain that this man’s long-term friends, his loved ones and his co-workers are now feeling…

There’s no easy nor cliché answer to those who have prayed prayers over someone for deliverance, or healing or some kind of rescue when it does not come.

I’m going to say something here. I’m not sure if it will offend anyone or make you think any less of me, but here goes…

There are times and there are circumstances where we simply may not be given an answer or explanation by God for why something plays out the way that it does. We may never know this side of eternity why something happened here in this life the way that it has.

I’m not even sure that God owes us any explanation for what He allows to happen in this world.

And no, none of that brings any easing of the pain and loss right now.

Despite the pain that I feel right now in the passing of my friend, I am placing my confusion, my momentary feelings of anger (I’ll explain that in a minute), my frequent moments of grief, at the foot of our Savior’s cross.

I have no answer for why this happened. I am comforted that God is walking with us (with me) through this time. I am comforted by that fact that He has promised to never leave nor forsake us. I am comforted by knowing that when grief is just too much, that He will carry us while we don’t have the strength to face our sadness and loss.

Now, I mentioned anger… yes, anger regarding this loss.

And, this is not the first time I’ve experienced anger in my grief. Anger is a natural part of grieving. We (I) feel the sting of our lost relationship with the passing of our loved ones. We feel robbed of all the potential of what the future could have been had they stayed.

All that to say, that God is not afraid of our anger and our questions. He understands our grief and how we experience life better than we do ourselves.

So I say to you. When you are feeling all the many aspects of grief and sorrow, go ahead and share those with God. Pray through your thoughts and feelings and you may start to find that God will bring the peace and comfort you seek whether we receive answers to our lingering questions or not.

I’m not going to lie… the tears have flown today. A couple of times and somewhat unexpectedly too. Grief seems to be that way. It comes and goes in waves.

It’s Easter time. And our pastor reminded us tonight that the cross, though it is certainly a symbol for what Jesus was willing to do to free us from the bondage of sin, it may not be the most important symbol regarding our faith and hope.

Our pastor argued that really the most important symbol regarding our faith is this:

That our Jesus did not stay dead… He rose on the third day and the tomb was left empty!! Hallelujah!!

So the biggest symbol of our faith is just that… the empty tomb and a risen Savior!!

With that, I leave you with this…

Grief will never be easy… I’m pretty sure that it shouldn’t be easy either.

Could it be that grief is yet another experience by which God ensures that when we weather the storm of grief, that we are refined and become stronger and better people, better reflections of His love to the World around us?

After all, we like diamonds cannot hope to become what God intends us to be without fire and pressure.

So, my prayer is this, that as we go through the many griefs that will assuredly come into our lives, that we go to our God in prayer daily and ask Him to carry us, especially when we are filled with confusion, anger and the roots of bitterness. Jesus was and is well acquainted with grief and can come alongside us to provide all that we need so long as we are prepared to receive it.

If you are going through a time of grief right now, I pray that you can come to a place of comfort and the peace that passes all understanding despite that knowing that right now there are no easy answers as to why your loved one was called home so soon.

It’s my prayer now that God will bring you an extra measure of peace as you read and reflect on what I’ve written here.

In Christ’s love,

Mike <><

Isaiah 53:2-4  “He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no stately form or majesty to attract us, no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He took on our infirmities and carried our sorrows..”

Why I’m Not Ok with Being White

Ok, so…

My title is

Provocative…

Inflammatory…

Maybe. Or maybe it’s just hiding the truth out in the open.

Let me explain.

Out of the blue, I received a phone call. And, it showed on my phone as being from New York.

The voice was definitely Filipino, and she was actually rather disarming.

A good thing too, because I was of course assuming that this was yet another one of the dozens of cold calls that I (like many of you too, I’m sure) receive every week now.

I’m never all that happy to get them but sadly I’m getting used to them and I often play a game and turn them around on the caller… Often now I try to prospect them as a client or recruit into my own business…

But I digress…

You see, it was a CBS News poll, calling of all things to ask me many detailed questions on my opinions over the now complete Mueller probe regarding President Trump and his alleged collusion with the Russians and the last presidential election.

I won’t bore you with any of the details or my rather obvious conservatism or right wing Evangelical Christian world view…

Oh no, some of you might actually be offended.

Please don’t be.

I’m just a man. And, I follow Jesus Christ. I’m not perfect. I’m not infallible. And, I actually do love people. I don’t always agree with them. But I do love them. I’m called to love them.

Again, I digress.

At the end of the poll, I was actually asked about whether my views could be construed as Evangelical and Christian. Asked whether these views affected the way that I vote?

That was interesting for sure.

I wondered afterward, if they ever asked if a person was an atheist, or a luddite, or a socialist etc…?

Why was I targeted and how did they even know to ask those particular demographic questions?

But, here is the real kicker. And, for some of you, maybe you would have let it go or brushed it aside as if it didn’t even phase you.

Needless to say, it phased me. And, I had to call out the elephant in the room. I wasn’t going to just ignore it. Not any longer.

The interviewer asked me, “Do you identify as any of the following races: Blah, Blah, Blah… “White?””

I blew out a little breath and chuckled.

I said, “You know, I really don’t like that.” … awkward silence…

She says, “You don’t like what?”

“I don’t like being thrown into the, let’s face it, category of just being white. I mean, if it’s not good to do that to anyone else, then why is it ok for me?”

Understand, that I was chuckling as I said this. I was not attempting to be inflammatory or disrespectful.

She got it.

I said, “Hey, is it ok if you write something in for me?”

She says, “Yes, of course sir.”

I say, “Can you write in for me, “Irish American?””

“Of course sir. She says”

Needless to say, I’m always happy to register my opinions or provide my thoughts when the interviewer is respectful and not mechanical in their responses to me.

She seemed amused and refreshed by my attitude and she indicated that she was actually taking note of my request and in fact wrote in “Irish American.”

You see, I absolutely respect the idea that many of us want to be identified as the race that God made us. I respect that maybe you and your family. You and your community. That, you and these others want to remain segregated into an identifiable people group. That is a space of belonging that sadly many of us have gradually lost here. A sense of heritage and history. A story of our past and how we came to arrive in this place and time.

I get that.

But, how is it that these selfsame people would have me be shoved into a mold and homogenized into nothing more than a color, not a distinct people group? They would be and are frequently incensed and even enraged when they are forced into a corner and given a color label.

Two wrongs don’t ever make a right.

Let’s agree to disagree on a lot of things. I’m ok with that. Hopefully you are too.

But, let’s agree here and now that it’s not ok to place labels on each other that disrespect our diversity and heritage, even if it’s what we often hear from the mainstream. Just because a majority says or does something often, does not inherently make it correct or right.

So, I’m actually not white as a race. That’s just my skin color…

I am a proud Irish American.

Let’s decide today to respect each other and to at least attempt to understand where the other is coming from…

Small inroads like that just might get us headed in the right direction again. As a people, and as a nation.

As a P.S., the lady I spoke with this evening asked if I was ok with an actual reporter possibly calling me back in the next 48 hours to interview me further…

I guess I was a little more interesting to interview than their average cold call…

Have a blessed week,

Mike

<>< 

A Still Small Voice

Some of you are not going to like this…

Heck, I don’t even like the idea of talking about it. But, silence = apathy and I can’t stomach the idea of being quiet. Not now. Not over this.

I’m going to get right to the point.

Let’s talk about what happened in New York last week. Ok?

We’re talking about abortion, so if this offends you,… well, sorry, but it ought to offend you.

Sorry, not sorry.

Let’s look at this from my perspective… not the typical news hype perspective, or the radical, rabid response from some erstwhile “activists.”

You see, I am an adoptive parent. And yes, that gives me just a little right to be angry, heartbroken and even sickened by those who defend the “right” to abortion.

I am not here to discuss those rare cases where many of us would come up with what seems to some at least, a potentially reasonable cause to abort a pregnancy.

Do you understand the sheer magnitude of how many lives have been snuffed out since just 1980 alone worldwide? The number should stagger you! It should make your knees go weak…

1.5 Billion plus!!! – more than 3,000 just in the time that I wrote this

Just today alone, there have been more than 108,000 babies killed and discarded for not much more than the inconvenience that they posed to the ones who might have taken care of them.

I am not here to make a judgment on any individual; however I have to ask…

When did human life become so cheap to us?!

You see, from my perspective, an adoptive parent… these poor little souls may not have been wanted by their would be families… but I can guarantee you that they were wanted by someone.

There are many, many families that would love to open their homes and their hearts to what for some was an unwanted child.

God says in scripture that He knows us from the time we are being “knitted together in secret.”

God and heaven weeps over our calloused choices here on Earth. These children cry out before the throne of God for justice.

There is mercy available from God for those of us who have made the choice to abort a little one, however it is my firm belief that God’s patience with us is wearing out. The actions recently in New York and the completely horrific ways that these decisions were made and openly celebrated I believe will be punished by God.

And, the coming judgment will be unfortunately deserved.

If abortion was not bad enough before, it has been made that much worse by the murderous choice to allow an abortion literally up until hours before the baby’s birth.

Why oh why can the population of this country, maybe even the World call it a double murder when a pregnant woman is killed in a homicide, and yet we now make it legal to kill that same child in the womb when the child is completely able to survive outside the womb.

That my friend is still murder.

We were all once children, were we not?

God has a purpose in creating all of us and now we are in the business of deciding on our own to snuff out the potential, the gifts and the future of a little child.

All scientific definitions of life are met in a child, all throughout their development.

Abortion and the defenses that surround the massive majority of all abortions are all based on abject hypocrisy by those arguing for them.

There is blood on the hands of all of us…

For those who wrote and voted for the legislation that approves of these acts. For those that have used these acts as a way to deny the future of the unborn and for those of us who have sat silently by and by our apathy let these acts continue for many decades.

Thank God for the few that have had the courage to carry their babies to term and take responsibility for the choices that they made leading up to the pregnancy and then sought help in either raising them or making an adoption plan for them.

For those who became pregnant against their will (sorry, these are statistically very few – just 744 from rape and incest this year), you have my utmost sympathy, but I will never believe that God cannot redeem these precious little lives no matter how they came to be here. God has a purpose and a plan for all of us.

As a nation and as a world, we must take responsibility for our behavior that leads us down these paths.

They are not tissue, they are not choices, they are babies and I believe we are going to (again) see tremendous judgment by God over this, because the deaths of all of these children were not only preventable, but absolutely unnecessary.

May God have mercy on us in the coming days and may those who wake up to the vile evil that we have (many of us that is) let overtake our land.

You may have your own opinions. And, I respect that, so please be respectful of mine to. If you want to discuss those opinions (civilly that is), please DM/PM me rather than attacking me. If you choose to be rude, I will remove your comments from my pages.

“For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139: 13-16)

Please understand that I wrote this out of the deep ache in my soul that I feel for the loss of children that will never know the precious embrace of love from either their own birth mother or an adoptive one.

Sincerely,

Mike <><

Toxic

The world has lost its mind.

You may still be living in a fantasy… or maybe your head is in the proverbial sand.

But,

The world has definitely lost its mind.

I could monologue about a whole lot of trivia… or a whole lot of tragedies… or a whole lot of the good that goes unreported by a media machine that largely gorges itself on everything that is wrong in the world and then pretends that they do it for our good… instead of the ratings that keep them swimming in loot.

But, as always, I’ll just focus for this short while on one topic that seems to be getting an inordinate amount of attention lately.

So, I’ll out with it now:

Toxic Masculinity… oooohh! (cue dark clouds, lightning, thunder and the gasps of the victimized masses)

Now, please don’t get your chonies all in a wad… at least not yet.

I want to go on before you tune me out.

There is a segment of our society that just can’t seem to deal with reality anymore. They can’t stomach dialog, nor discussion, nor argument (productive argument), nor negotiation or compromise. It would seem that the days of agreeing to disagree and living in peace are no more.

I cannot speak for any one of you and I would not condescend to do so anyway. I am only speaking for myself. You can hate me or call me names or categorize me or write me off, but ultimately I don’t care. I’ve made up my mind that there are some in this world who simply don’t want peace. Some people simply want to rule the rest of us and would attempt to force us into a space where tolerance doesn’t exist.

Instead, these people want us to accept whatever their momentary, relativistic views are. They want us to say that lies are the truth and that the truth is a pack of lies.

One lie that is now being told to the males of this world… yes, in fact there are still males out there. And yes we’re males because God made us that way. We in fact have the… ahem! (cough!) … plumbing that proves it. (Contrary to those who falsely claim that gender is in the mind, not the body)

This new lie is that we males and the behaviors and idiosyncrasies that define us as males are somehow messed up and that ultimately we need to be a whole lot more like females in order to fit.

I would refer to that as emasculation now, wouldn’t you?

Now, before you blow a gasket because this monologue is making you mad, please read on…

There is something in this fallen world that some of us know as sin. Yes, sin. According to Jesus, we have all fallen short of God’s expectations of us (Sin by the way is an ancient archery term that refers to the archer having missed his/her mark (target)) If you don’t believe in sin, then I hate to be the bearer of bad news for you but there’s not much hope for you then, because that leaves you having to define all the evil that people do based on a completely fluctuating and indefinable behavioral target. If you won’t acknowledge evil, or sin, then you also cannot identify or accept hope.

Relativism ultimately leads you to anarchy and a world with no hope.

There is only one true lasting and overriding hope that sin may be overcome and His name is Jesus.

Jesus knew that the heart of humankind could not be trusted. That is one of the core reasons that he had to die on the cross and take on all of humankinds sin. The sacrifice for sin had to be made by one who had lived a sinless life.

All that said, I, like all men am not perfect. I have sinned many times in my life. And, I have had to go before God and confess those sins and repent of them. Remember what Jesus said though, that we have all fallen short.

I will not defend the actions of men that have taken advantage of women. I will not sit here and say that “boys will be boys” and act as if we should not work to make the world a better, safer place for the women and girls.

However, I will also not be categorized once again and shoved into a corner where we men either kowtow to the me too movement as if we are all guilty, or be forced to sit down and shut up.

Simply put, there have been, are now and will be many great men in this world. We come in all shapes and sizes. Some of us are average and ordinary. Some of us join the military and go off to defend those who need defending or destroy those who are committing all sorts of evil against the weak. Some of us are first responders, running towards danger or disaster to stand in the gap for those who need help. Some of us lead honorably from wherever that position of leadership takes us.

Many, many men are honorable, trustworthy and reliable people that contribute greatly to our world day after day. And, we men, we men of honor when confronted with the evils that other men do will (as always) come to the defense and aid of the females around us when the need arises.

We will not trivialize nor defend the actions of the victimizers that we have seen very much in the public eye lately in areas such as the entertainment industry, sports, politics, our places of worship or in our schools. Many of us already take an active role in ensuring that the other men around us are called out or corrected when they are behaving badly or defending those that do.   

In conclusion, if the powerful women in this world want to take an active role in ensuring that the men who behave badly are held accountable, then I and many other men do support that. However, once again we seem to have a movement that wants to hold an entire group of individuals somehow responsible for the actions of a select few. I won’t buy into that and a great many men that I’ve spoken with do in fact take offense at that. If you alienate those that you want to help further your cause by insulting them, berating them (unfairly) and lumping them in with the actual offenders as if all men and all male behavior was inherently bad, then you have contributed once again to yet another societal divide in both our country and the world.

God does not categorize sin. He says that it is all worthy of death. Our only hope is in his ability to transform hearts. If women want the men who behave badly to change then that change has to occur in the hearts and minds of those men through a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. If the women who want this transformation in men to occur would just realize that they need to enlist the help of the good men around them, then those of us who are being led by God, would be more apt to listen and more apt to get involved with being active participants in helping guide the misbehaving men around us into cleaning up their acts.

Blessed are the peacemakers…

Seize the day and go do your part in transforming the world into a better place!

Mike <><

I Miss You

Momma, I miss you.

It’s just that simple.

You never realize just how much someone means to you until you’re separated.

But there are differences in separation. Aren’t there?

Separation can be across the room. It can be around the block. It can be across the country. It can be across an ocean.

But, then there is separation across the greatest divide. When our loved ones pass across the barrier between life and death, that barrier is insurmountable from our human perspective.

Some have said that after Christ beat death at its own game that, “Death, where is thy sting?” But Despite death having been defeated on the cross of Christ, there is still the reality of grief and separation. That is real… and, that is where my family is right now… My Dad first and foremost, and then for all of my Mom’s children second, and then lastly, her friends.

We are hurting. It’s just reality. It’s just where grief takes you.

Where the lie of grief comes in is this: Nobody else is feeling this pain. Nobody else can relate to this pain.

Our Savior Jesus knows exactly the pain of our grief. The scripture explains how.

Jesus wept.

Many of us have read this verse. Many of us have seen it and not put ourselves in that moment. We haven’t let the circumstances of that moment connect with our hearts.

Jesus wept.

God understands our pain. He understands it and His promises are a part of our healing should we choose to accept them and believe that they are so very true.

I have chosen to believe in Christ as God’s only son and my (our) Savior. His death and His payment of the price for our sins gives us the grace and mercy that it takes for us to arrive at eternal life.

And, in that eternal life there are promises that He has gone before us to make us a place in which to live out eternity with Him.

Eternity is a place that scripture says will not be a place of suffering, tears or pain. We will dwell with our creator in restored eternal new bodies and we will praise Him for all He has done for us.

We will be reunited with those that we love that have also given their hearts over to Him as their Lord & Savior.

Our hope is not in medicine. Our hope is not in government. Our hope is not in mortal men or women that have claimed some false godhood or immortality. Our hope is in the only person who lived a sinless life. Our hope is in the only one who has defeated death and been raised back to life and that as life eternal!

Praise God for His son, Jesus Christ!

So, yes, I grieve the passing from this Earth, my dear mother. Even today, I am still shedding tears.

I will miss my Mom until the day when I too will let go of this mortal tent that I live in.

Until then, I will honor the life she has lived and the legacy that she has left us. I am confident that when she entered into God’s presence that she heard that which we all long to hear… “Well done my good and faithful one.”

And I know that she was embraced by the Savior that she loves.

And I know that she was surrounded and embraced by many loved ones that have gone on before her.

And she was also surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses that cheered her entry into eternal life.

May we all run this life’s race as well as she did.

That is my prayer.

Give your heart fully to God and go out to seize this day!

Sincerely, Mike <><

May We Be Found Ready

Dear Lord I know you’re near

You promised you would be

Near to the broken hearted

And you’ve never failed me

Though I would pass this cup

I know Earthly life has an end

It’s just a fact that I can’t deny

Life is a gift that you only lend

I’m afraid that like so many

I’m prone to take for granted

This precious gift you’ve given

Each of us a seed you’ve planted

All of us loved and valued

Each endowed with gifts

A lifetime to unwrap them

Living our purpose our soul lifts

And so I ask dear Lord

For an extra portion of grace

Pressed down and overflowing

So that we can finish this race

For our lives are so fragile

And good health does leave

We fight and struggle

But one day we all grieve

So when that day comes

And you call out our name

I pray we’ll be found ready

Hearts afire with Jesus’ flame

When our final breath we breathe

Whispering our last farewell

May an escort of angels carry us

To heaven where You dwell

I’m Not Burying My Head in the Sand… However…

So, here is how the story goes…

A factual account…

News Flash!! … I have political opinions… oooh! Big deal right?

Everyone does. Don’t they?

Well, I’ve made a decision for the time being…

I’m done with political talk on my social media platforms.

I know, I know… It’s about time I shut up right?!

I mean I’m so darn ignorant and never cross examine the issues, or look into fact checking sources… etc.

I am a human being as are you and yes, I am subject to failings such as bias, prejudice and stubbornness.

But, to be fair, aren’t most of us like that at least some of the time.

All that to be said, I still have opinions and if prompted I still don’t mind debating an issue (face to face) so long as the other party in the debate agrees that it is ok to have our minds changed through discussion, presenting of evidence as to the contrary points of our opinions and just realizing that we overlooked some facts.

I will keep said opinions still, but I pledge to keep them to myself.

However, don’t expect me to bury my head in the sand. Don’t expect me to just accept a lie. Don’t expect me to kowtow to “expert” opinions without solid fact to back them up. And probably more importantly to the current environment, don’t expect me to accept anyone rewriting history (ugly or not) and in that atrocity to forget the lessons that factual treatment of said history can teach us.

There are those in this current moment in history (mid-terms, 2018) that would like me to believe certain things that I know to be nothing more than propaganda by the current power wielders in our once great state. I know that their stated facts are just repeated (cut & pasted) dialog taken straight out of messages put forth by the current political powerbase.

I don’t respect borrowed opinions.

The last word I have for you has been repeatedly spoken by me over many years.

Just go vote ok?

Read up on the propositions. Read up on the politicians. Weed through the diatribe and cliché to find what facts are available and make your best educated picks on the ballots.

If you do that then, whether we agree on the issues or not, you’ll at least have the kind of respect that is given to someone who I observe has made an attempt at educating themselves before deciding.

True tolerance can only exist where we can agree to disagree and still treat each other civilly and maybe even remain as friends.

I foster no illusions that we live in probably the most divided and divisive times that I have ever observed in my lifetime. And with that happening I don’t foster much hope for recovery without God’s intervention in the hearts and minds of those on each side of the divide.

But it is in the hope in the one true God, a God of reconciliation that I do not give up hope because I know that He has overcome the World and He has already conquered death and hell. So, I still retain hope that He will make all things right in their time.

So, consider this my last hurrah on social media at large.

I want to be a catalyst for positivity, hope, love, forgiveness, peace and compassion. I don’t think that there is a law against any of those.

Peace!

Seize the day!

Mike <><

Shame

I found myself in an awkward position this week.

Don’t feel sorry for me. Trust me. In the end I don’t feel all that sorry for myself since I am the one who stuck his hand in the proverbial hornet’s nest.

It seemed so innocent at the time. I just wanted to point out that so many of us these days like to rewrite the rules to fit our own perception of how things ought to work.

You know. They should always work in our favor right?

Right?

No?

Let me just explain and maybe you’ll either feel sorry for me or you’ll side with my worst critic at the time. I don’t know.

Our daughter just started High School in the last few weeks. Her school does not offer bussing, so the children either make their own way home, or a parent has to come pick them up. Unfortunately, the way the world is nowadays, there is no way we’re letting our 14 year old daughter walk the mile or so home all alone. Not happening.

So depending on which one of us, my wife or I, is available, we drive over to the school around dismissal and wait for her. It so happens that the place I wait for her has an area of the street in front of a residential neighborhood that is painted in very large words, “KEEP CLEAR.”

Well after a few trips over I began noticing that this one particular gentleman would come basically every day and park in that painted area to await his child’s arrival.

Two things, 1) In most respects I couldn’t care less about this person’s behavior individually. I mean, he, like everyone else has the right to make whatever decisions he wants to so long as he is not physically hurting someone. 2) It was not my goal to get this person in trouble and I deliberately avoided providing any personal details when I did what I did.

Probably on the say fourth time this guy parked in front of me, I made the decision to discreetly take a photo with my camera phone that captured a small corner of the driver side rear of the car and the words “KEEP CLEAR” painted on the street clearly shown. I then posted the picture on a Facebook crime watch page for our city and basically pointed out that so many of us these days only obey the rules when it suits us. We often turn a blind eye to rules when they cause inconvenience or seem silly to our own way of seeing things. I didn’t even call it a crime, I just pointed out that many of us just don’t feel any compelling reason to obey the rules much anymore.

Again, I made an effort to not show the car’s license plate, the person’s face, or even any street signs. I just called on those who are part of our community to maybe think about more than just themselves. To respect the law and how what they do affects the other people around them.

So.

So.

So, for a little while, the responses on Facebook were in agreement, sarcastically humorous or curious as to whether this person’s behavior was really all that egregious.

Then.

Then a couple of people came on. Trolls I assume.

And, it got ugly. Way ugly.

They told me that I ought to get a life, punctuated with a few really choice 4 letter words. They schooled me on my being a dirtbag for Facebook shaming this person. And… it went on… and on… and on.

Until.

Until I decided to take down my post. I took it down after it had only been up for maybe 30 – 40 minutes. I took it down because I realized that pointing out other’s thumbing their noses at the rules wouldn’t really change anything. I realized that when people say, “If you see something, say something,” it did not refer to a minor traffic violation.

But I mainly took it down because these other Facebook users had shamed me to the point that it really stung.

It stung no matter what my intentions were.

It stung even though I was very aware of the irony of someone severely Facebook shaming me in front of my whole community.

This is what we’ve become, a society of anarchists. We write our own rules and laws and stuff our little personal constitution into the back pocket of our mind to be whipped out viciously at the slightest provocation. We won’t let anyone or anything cause us to place into question our personal beliefs or our actions. It jeopardizes our core beliefs not only about ourselves, but about our own worldview.

“Don’t you judge me!!”

We’ve truly lost our way.

Folks, this is what anarchy looks like.

All of us thinking that nobody has any right whatsoever to call us out for anything.

We make the rules or at least decide when it’s ok to cross a boundary.

And many of us wonder why our politicians feel so empowered, especially here in California to ignore us. To enact laws and taxes without providing us with our right to vote on their decisions.

It’s why they no longer truly punish those who commit crimes in California, at least if the monetary value is under $1,000. It’s why those who run our state keep creating new laws that protect the “rights” of criminals and not the victims.

Our country and our state are increasingly divided because those who rule over us do not enact justice on those who should have incurred it. We have one side who worships their false god of the “honorable thief.” A person who does not exist.

Victim’s blood cries out from the ground and these days only God hears them. Our rulers do not. And, our rulers don’t have any courage or desire to stand up to the criminals in this country and truly bring justice by executing harsh punishments that would truly bring back deterrents to future crime.

It’s as if they were not afraid that a civil war could come again. I know many in this state and in this country who would not be afraid to enter into a civil war if that’s what it took to bring back a respect for the rule of law and a respect for our country’s constitution.

As for me, I stand in the middle of that great divide.

I believe that we need to be willing to have dialog between all parties. I believe that we need to be unafraid to compromise where something could be given up that is less important. However, I also believe that we cannot live under delusions that freedom comes without cost. We equally cannot delude ourselves that big government and unsustainable programs that ride on enslaving us to unreasonable taxation in order to feed the machine are good either.

Free is a myth.

So, I learned a small but valuable lesson earlier this week. Don’t sweat the small stuff, but be ready to defend myself when a real threat occurs because there are apparently many around me who don’t believe that there are solid lines defining right and wrong anymore, nor are there many who believe that the rules should apply to them.

So for now, I’ll keep watching my back. Doing what God says is right and letting Him deal with those doing wrong around me.

Have a blessed week.

Mike <><