I got this in email some time back and I couldn’t resist putting it here.  Thanks for indulging my frivolity! 

A Mormon was seated next to an Irishman on a flight from London.  After the plane was airborne, the flight attendants came along and the drink orders were taken.  The Irishman asked for a whiskey, which was promptly brought out, poured and placed before him.  The flight attendant then asked the Mormon if he would like a drink. 

He replied in disgust, “I’d rather be savagely raped by a dozen whores than let liquor touch my lips.” 

“Me too” said the Irishman handing his drink back to the attendant. “I didn’t know we had a choice.”

I just crossed over the 10,000 visit mark today.  Who would have thunk it?

Thanks for visiting everyone!!

A train of thought that I often visit, mostly out of necessity, is the forgiveness of God and although I would have never thought to actually write about it, here we are. I have always interpreted God’s forgiveness to be a well that we can visit as often as needed. Of course, thinking like that allows the enemy to whisper into my ear calling forth the cynic in me. My “inner cynic” often asks when God is going to open the flood gates and say, “Enough is enough!” The truth of the matter is that he’s not; He wants all of his children to come home for the reunion. Once again, David Hayward has captured in his art what was running through my mind.

My search for discernment has led me to a place where I have had to wrestle to find a message within scripture that on the surface seems like it should be so easy to see. After all, how hard is it to look at a verse and find God’s grace, God’s undying love and what I feel I’m supposed to do with it? I mean, c’mon! The more involved I get with the study of scripture though, the harder it becomes to glean what it is that God is trying to show me. On the surface, that’s such a pain because sometimes, the process can take weeks and even months and as I have said before, patience is one of my lessons. Every once in awhile, I’m allowed an epiphany but that seems to be the exception rather than the rule. I think that God’s plans for me are bigger than my desire for simplicity. I suppose that I should consider myself blessed that God has enough confidence in me that he feels comfortable making me work for it. This one was not an exception.

Isaiah 43:5-7 is part of the prophecy of the re-gathering and renewal of Israel.

“Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, “Give them up!” and to the south, “Do not hold them back.” Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth – everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

God’s chosen people were and always have been redeemed by the Lord. At God’s hand, they were freed from slavery in Egypt. They proceeded to go out into the desert and try it again their own way. Eventually, they were taken into the Promised Land only “once again, (well, continually really) to do evil in the eyes of the Lord”. Later, the Lord, in spite of the deliberate sin of his chosen people and their outright rejection of him, tells them, “Fear not, I have redeemed you”.  God’s chosen people are released from exile in Babylon; once again, being redeemed by our Lord. Eventually things here got so bad, that a sacrifice was required; one greater than any sacrifice we could ever make ourselves. Once again, we have been redeemed by our Lord.

In the King James Version of the Bible, between the books of Judges, 1 Kings and 2 Kings, there are fifteen direct references to God’s people doing evil in His sight. I didn’t sit down and count the references that lie in-between the lines but I think it can easily be said that there are hundreds if not thousands or more in the entire Bible. Can you see yourself in-between these lines? I can see me. I can see myself going a few days and then, oops, sorry God. Once again, I am redeemed. After that, I might go a few hours and then have to say, “oops, Sorry God”. Once again, I am redeemed. How many times have we been forgiven? It seems to me that the sacrifice of Christ covers all of my mistakes; not only the mistakes that I made prior to opening my heart to him, but all my slip-ups since then. I do a lot of apologizing!

So the big question for me is, if God can do all of that, what does he need me for, what’s my part?

“There has never been a single day since she has been missing that we don’t think and worry about her, we all miss her so much. We believe that she was so easily persuaded to leave…Since she has been gone, our family will never be the same”

These are the sentiments of a parent whose child has runaway. As I look at my past and how I have conducted myself, I liken my journey up until now to being a runaway from home. We are all God’s children and he wants us to come home. Like any loving parent, God will use whatever resources are available to locate his runaway children. That’s where we come into the picture. It is our job to help locate His missing children and not just to tell them, but to show them how much their Father loves them and how empty the family is without them so that once again, redemption can take place.

 
Comic used with permission of David Hayward

I have had a couple of requests to let my readers in on the cliff hangers from A Letter To Me.  So I guess I’ll go ahead and let my secrets out.

On my eighth grade graduation trip to Marriot’s Great America, I went into one of the auditoriums to see a magic show.  While we were waiting for the show to get started, there was a man sitting in the row just in front of mine, just off to the right.  He had his little baby with him and when he held the baby up in the air , it had the biggest grin I had ever seen on a human being.  The man then lowered the baby and kissed him in the cheek to the laughter of that precious little child.   That was my defining moment.  I have never ever forgotten it and it was that moment in time where I decided that one day, I wanted to be a father.  Now, thirty some years later, I have finally arrived.  When I see the smiling face of my little boy and kiss him in the cheek, I know that the wait was totally worth it!!

The evening of May 18, 1997 was the day I met my wife at Kelly’s Grand Ole Opry.  I was standing with a group of my friends near the stage and she was standing in the same area with a group of her friends.  All told, there were about forty people around these two small picnic tables.  I turned around for what seemed like a second and when I turned back, everybody was gone except for her.   I grabbed her hand and pulled her onto the dance floor and the rest is history.  (No, I didn’t ask either).   Me meeting her was such a God thing!!

In the words of Paul Harvey:

and now you know the rest of the story…..

No, this does not mean that we’ll be having hamburgers.  Hmm, wait!   That’s not a bad idea!  Ok, wait, back to the post.  When I made the move to WordPress from Blogger last year, I kept my site active so that if I ever found a purpose for it, it would still be there for me.   Besides, Just Another Night Owl was my key into the blogosphere and I am a sucker for reminiscing.   Now I have found the purpose for it. 

Having that in mind, I will be in and out of here sporadically as I go through the blogs of my two readers and their five trying to find where my favorite posts went to.   This should prove to be interesting and quite honestly, inspiring since I will be looking at posts that I have not yet seen.    

Stay tuned…… 

For whatever reason, the comments on “A Letter To Me” were turned off.  I guess this is the new and improved function here at WordPress.  I just assumed that they were always on by default.  At any rate, comments are now available for that post if you can find it within yourself to actually read it since it is a lengthy post. 

Just off subject, I recently took a “quiz” if you will to check at what level of verbosity I was posting and as it turns out, I am, on the average, 81 percent less verbose (chatty) than other bloggers.  I guess I’ll have to do something to remedy that situation.  Things like actually writing about videos instead of just one liners, cutting out the one liner jokes in the posting, and occassionally making absolutely frivolous posts just so I can rant and rave about how chatty, talkative and rambling I am.  As Steve Martin once said, “I’m a ramblin’ guy”.

I was tagged by Sean at Samish Patrol for a meme that he started based on the Brad Paisley song, “Letter To Me”.   From what I gather, I am supposed to write a letter to myself; myself of the past.  The letter should tell me whatever it is that I think I should know.  What an amazing chance to re-visit my life.  Thanks Sean!

1.  Listen to the song first.
2.  Write a letter to yourself.  You can specify what age/s you’re writing to but you don’t have to.
3.  Tag or don’t tag and provide a link to the person who tagged you and the original post.  (I’m not going to specifically tag anybody.  If you feel brave enough for this type of introspection to be made public, then post away)

Dear Me,

Wow!  Where do I start?  First a disclaimer I guess.  I don’t want you to get the wrong idea.  I don’t have any regrets.  I am happy with the life I’ve lived and the person I’ve become.   It’s just that sometimes people look back on their lives and think about what might have become of them had they made different decisions or turned right when they should have went left.  The difference is now, I get the chance to reach back in time and give you some direction.  Whether you listen to my (your) counsel or not is your choice but if you don’t heed another word I tell you, please listen to this one.  You are about to embark on an amazing adventure.  Treasure it, relish it and most of all enjoy it because it goes by way too fast.

Barnabas Collins is not living underneath your house, King Kong is not going to come over the mountain and get you even though you hid inside of a rolled up mattress in your closet, the Zodiac Killer is not living in your city and Dracula is only a movie…really.   So do yourself a favor, go outside, ride your bike and be five years old.  

You’re going to get your first kiss in the first grade from a little cutie named Terri.  Do yourself a favor and try not to snub her after that; it becomes a life-long habit.   Oh yeah, when you start using cuss words in the first grade, you’re gonna get caught.  If you just can’t resist, remember this; fishing poles hurt and lava soap tastes like crap.  

Don’t eat the peas!!!!!!!!!!

When you’re about six years old, your mom will take you to work with her and you’re going to meet a friend of hers who is a cop.  You are going to think that he is the coolest thing to ever to walk the face of the earth and from that point on, you will always want to be a cop.  Forget this!  Throughout your life, you’ll find different interests and paths that interest you.  Do one of those!  You have to trust me on this one.  Being a cop is an underpaid, thankless job that is full of negativity.  PICK SOMETHING ELSE! 

In 1974, your grandpa is going to die unexpectedly.   It’s ok to cry.   He is still my hero, even today. 

When you are 12 years old, your mom and dad are going to split up and eventually get divorced.  No matter what you do or say, it’s going to happen; you can’t change it.   (Oh yeah, you can’t keep the puppy so don’t even bring it home)  The most important thing about this situation for you is that I want you to understand that it’s nobody’s fault.  Your parents have grown so far apart in different directions, they just can’t live together any more.  I already know that you are not going to think that it’s your fault.  What I want to try and keep you from doing is placing blame on one parent or the other.   You see, I did that.  I lived with that for another eighteen years until I went through a divorce of my own and finally realized that it really wasn’t anybody’s fault.  Think about that hard.  I finally made amends, but that is eighteen years of my life without a relationship with a person that I love more than life itself; eighteen years that I can’t get back.   I don’t want you to have to live with that. 

Your eighth grade class is going to go to Marriot’s Great America for its graduation trip.  Sometime during that day, you are going to experience a single moment in time that is going to define you for the rest of your life.  I’m not going to tell you what it is because when it happens, you’ll know.  One more thing, leave the firecrackers at home. 

You are a smart guy.  You will always be a whiz at school who gets straight A’s and needs to be challenged.  However, when you are a sophmore in High School, you are going to take a job at a Bar/Restaurant operation and that’s all going to end.  This job is going to lead you into a life of sex, drugs and rock-n-roll.   You will stay out all hours of the night hanging out with people in their early twenties, your school work is going to suffer and eventually, you will just stop going to school.   Don’t take the job!  Stay in school, go to college and keep playing baseball!!

When you’re twenty seven years old, you are going to get married for the first time.  A couple of months before the wedding, that little voice in your head (you know the one) is going to be screaming at you to not go through with it.  Listen to it and do what it says, it hasn’t let you down yet.   I didn’t listen to it and three years later, I went through the most traumatic thing I ever experienced; my divorce.  After that, I dove straight into a bottle of Jack Daniels and turned into the biggest ho you will ever see and I hurt a lot of people that I really cared for in the process.  (Cathy, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry)  Eventually, one day I woke up and realized that everything I ever had or was; was gone. 

Please remember these things.  Love deeply.  Don’t be afraid of being hurt because that only causes you to hold back.  Keep your family close to you and close to each other.  You are going to be the glue that binds them all together so stay strong and don’t take sides.  God will be speaking to you throughout your entire life.  Open your eyes, your ears, your mind and mostly your heart to him.  He loves you very much and it is my wish that you don’t take almost forty years to figure that out. 

Finally, no matter where you are, you need to make sure that you are at Kelly’s Grand Ole Opry in Stateline, Idaho on the night of May 18th 1997.  Hang out in the area between the stage and the bar.    Trust me on this one. 

Wow!  They finally came up with a medication for my biggest disease.

Thanks Sarcasma!!

Can’t put my finger on it but his pretty much describes how I am feeling today!  (Disclaimer:  I was referring to organized religion with this post!)

I’ve been thinking ’bout catching a train
Leave my phone machine by the radar range
Hello it’s me, I’m not at home
If you’d like to reach me, leave me alone

A change would do you good
A change would do you good

Sheryl Crow

Back in January, I participated in a meme started by Happy called Standing At The Crossroads.   The purpose of this post was so that we could actually sit down and have a discussion with God about what we wanted him to do in our lives this year.  One of the ideas was to re-visit our crossroads to find out how we were doing.  That is what I’m doing here. 

1. Patience
God and I have talked many times this year about my patience and I am getting better.  Nowhere near where I should be but better.  Just the other day, I pulled to the end of the road to get onto the highway and it was like somebody opened the flood gates and let all the cars out at one time.   I’m the type of person who is going to hit every red light I come to so sometimes I feel like at the highway, I could be there at 3 in the morning and there would be headlights as far as the eye could see.  The other morning, I just smiled and said thanks for the lesson.  As soon as I said that, a car turned and there was an opening. 

2.  Show Me The Way
This is interesting because I have not read my original post until tonight.  I am still growing outward from the “church” yet I still can’t discern whether or not that is where I’m supposed to be going.  In everything I do, I feel led to work outside of the church so I don’t have an issue with that part.  It’s just that sometimes I feel like I am growing away from the church.  This is perplexing.   So God, please, show me the way!

3.  Say What You Want To Say
Now here’s a sticky wicket that I’m trying to bat.  It seems like everytime I feel led to say something or deliver a message, there is some type of interference that inevitably keeps me in the pews.  This is interesting to me since I believe that when we are doing what the Lord wants of us, we meet with the most resistance.  

I’ll post another update in a few months to let you know how things are going for me.