Challenges come in all shapes and sizes:  Small, Medium, Large and Extra-Large.  Some challenges morph from the tiniest of concerns into seemingly insurmountable obstacles.  Regardless of the size of the challenge, it requires time for processing and reflection.  Ultimately, the outcome of any challenge is truly in God's hands.  The truth is, we have a choice as to how we confront any challenge we face.  We can look at it as an "impossible situation" or we can see it as "God's handiwork" in the vast unknown of His infinite wisdom.  Approaching any situation in the light of God's Divine Wisdom helps to expose the true underpinning of his grace and reveal the ultimate intention of a loving and sovereign God.

Now, please remind me that I said all that when I'm facing a XL challenge!

"Be anxious for nothing,  but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thankgiving, let your requests be made known to God...and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard you hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7

HAPLESS, HELPLESS and HOPELESS

I'm reading the book "The Marketing of Evil" by David Kupelian. You probably won't find it in your Barnes and Noble. The store in my hometown doesn't carry it NOR can they order it. It's only available on eBooks ($9.99). Now that I'm reading it, I understand "why" they are distancing themselves from the book. IT EXPOSES THE MARKETING SCAM inflicted on the American people and just how effective the scam has been. In addressing the "biology" of a nation gone awry David Kupelian quotes STEVEN LEVENKRON from his book titled, Cutting: Understanding and Overcoming Self-Mutilation:

QUOTE- "Someone who stumbles upon self-injury in this manner and discovers that it relieves one of the painful states listed above will be inclined to use this discovery again in the future. The individual who needs this kind of solution is a person who cannot redress the grievances she has with others, who is afraid to argue, to articulate what she is so angry about. The self-mutilator is ashamed of the mental pain that she experiences and has no language with which to describe it to others.
However they came to it, the self-
mutilator is someone who has found that physical pain can be a cure for emotional pain…. When a person attacks his or her own body with an instrument that will wound the skin, and often worse, it means that the person feels helpless to use any other means to manage the mental anguish and chaos that is borne out of unmanageable feelings."

Here are the painful states he refers to in the first sentence of the quote:

"Yet I consistently encounter two characteristics in all self-mutilators:

1. A feeling of mental disintegration, of inability to think.
2. A rage that can’t be expressed, or even consciously perceived, toward a powerful figure (or figures) in their life, usually a parent.

Thus the Hapless, Helpless and Hopeless daily lives of a humanity bent on self annihilation.

It is a sad state of affairs and , indeed" HOPELESS without intervention. Yet who is to intervene if all of us harbor a RAGE that we cannot express and have lost the ability to THINK!

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME!

I Woke up this morning with this song on my mind: "I'm going to have the time of my life when the time of my life is over...I'm going to get carried away, when I get carried away." (Isn't that clever...and AWESOME! :) Listen to this and see if you find yourself smiling. My foot is tapping away. (Sing it, Ivan!) THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME!

SO, I DANCE!

In "The Divine Embrace," a book by Ken Gire, he shares the following quote from The Baal Shem:


"A musician was playing on a very beautiful instrument, and the music so enraptured the people that they were driven to dance ecstatically.  Then a deaf man who knew nothing of music passed by, and seeing the enthusiastic dancing of the people he decided they must be insane."
Gire goes on to say:


"Those enraptured by the music are driven to dance. Those deaf to the music are driven to critique the dance of others."

So... I DANCE!

FAUST: The Story of "Every Man"

I remember it vividly.  I was young.  It was late at night, or early morning.  I had finally stopped to sit down.  It had been a long day. Two small children require a lot time and energy.  Maybe I was vulnerable.  Maybe I was emotional.  I don't know.  Escaping the reality of my exhaustion, I turned on the small black and white television.  Flipping through the only four channels available, I stumbled upon an intriguing moving picture.  It was an old silent film with captions.   The movie was in progress, but I was hooked before I could casually dismiss it.  The scene was the devil and a man.  The man, Dr. Faust.  It could have been "Any Man".  The battle was between good and evil.  The choice, excruciating.  I was peering into the window of struggle.  In fact, I was witnessing a reality of the human soul.  I was transfixed.  What follows is indelibly etched in my mind.

Be Still...

Is it possible?  Do we even KNOW HOW?   Listen and allow God to speak.
"BE STILL...AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD."  (Psalm 46:10)

"Ask the blind man, he saw it all"