The Third Book The 12th Chapter - 20/20 Hindsight and Intuition

May 30, 2020

How many times have you had a thought or a feeling or wish to do something or respond to moments around you? How often have you ignored your internal warnings and radars? Ignore the fact that your red flag warning bells were going off like a air horn? But you chose to believe in the good of others and not wanted to disappoint others. Then with the gift of your time, you realize that your intuition was correct the entire time.

I thought of a direct impact of not listening to your internal danger system is a lowering of your self-esteem. With time you are given the gift that your thoughts are true to you. How often do you keep ignoring yourself yet want growth and an increased sense of enlightenment? Over the last few years, I have experienced moments I've trusted myself followed with almost as many moments of putting off myself or ignoring myself.  When I felt moments of moving and knowing my strength, I felt growth and a sense of accomplishment. Then when I have moments of losing myself after ignoring my intuition, to others that are focused in a way that is not in alignment with my sense of self. A sense of frustration occurs, and understanding of why did I make these decisions, even though I knew of the outcomes before they happened. 

Recently I was chatting with a friend and mentor and shared the thought of a mindset—the mindset of how you view others. One can either think the best or the worst in others. Depending on your viewpoint drastically will impact your interactions and how you experience life. This can be a positive thing; however, the negative can be the complete lack of listening to your intuition. Red flags are going off, and you know you shouldn't be making those choices, but it's like you are in autopilot heading towards the sea of regret. In the past, as I was feeling myself become weak, more often than not, I would give in to cynical impulses and ones that didn't add value to my life.

I realize a significant change has happened to me and that it is a strength to make better choices, that has come from embracing Christ into my life.  I realize the force is coming from an unlimited source, a source from Christ that genuinely is empowering and a cause that keeps on giving. That source is the power of prayer for me. Now when I am feeling a moment of regret or the need to repair moments that I cannot repair, I turn and ask for strength to not repeat the same experiences that I have done in the past. I can move forward now, and even though it is difficult to make different choices, I can make positive choices. The direct result is a growth of strength and a growing sense of trusting my intuition. That intuition comes from everlasting strength and source and is based on the act of having a relationship with Christ.

When I was talking to my mentor, I realized a gift I have been given is always choosing to see the best of others. I also thought of how grateful I am to live a life believing in the positive. I couldn't imagine living a life where a person feels the worst thing others. A life of misery and unhappiness and victimhood will follow with that mindset. I'm also grateful I'm able to recognize the gift of thinking the best.

The skill I am now learning through the gift of prayer is to walk away from others that aren't adding value and have my strength to walk away. Forgiveness is powerful and needed trait, but when people hurt you, not going back to that relationship is essential. Even though Jesus forgave Judas, he didn't ever go back to help Judas after his betrayal. This all relates to making your truth, and by using the power of prayer, you can change your life for the better. Using prayer for strength and to truly forgive others allows you to forgive yourself. Through this act of forgiving others, will enable you to move forward and will let you to not repeat the same experiences over again. By doing this, you can avoid the definition of the insanity of doing the same thing yet wanting to experience different results.

I have experienced this only by turning to Christ a higher and enduring power greater than myself. By using the power of prayer, this has moved my growth, and I wouldn't have done it without the help of Christ and his love.

The Third Book The 11th Chapter - A Peaceful Future

May 22, 2020

Let us start today by asking you a question how do you feel right now about your future? With the current events that we are experiencing and the daily changes, what is your plan for the future? How do you feel about your future? Are you contemplating what your job will look like next month, next year? How will your relationships be impacted? How will your family adjust to our new normal? What is your vision to gather strength and lead yourself, and how are you going to do that?

I think these questions are on a lot of our minds today, and we know that we will get through this uncomfortable event we just don't know how we're going to get through this event and what it will look like tomorrow. I think about these questions, I pause a moment and look around our current reality and how things have changed in my short lifetime. A general observation is one of we have the most choices available to us, the most information available to us in our modern society to help us live a fulfilled life but, it seems like the opposite is happening. It looks like more people are uncomfortable and more people are searching for answers that the future has not revealed to us yet.

I thought about a time when I was a young boy, and I remembered then every morning at the start of a school day we all stood up and recited the Lord's prayer and sang our national anthem. Our society was founded and based on Christian values and living the importance of the teachings of Christ. One of the ways that we ensured we all remembered the gift that we have been giving to live in such a beautiful place was by reciting a simple prayer. Not only did it provide us value on remembering where we came from and remembering all those that went before us to allow us the gift of today. It also provided comfort and strength even during uncomfortable times and what the future may or may not bring to us. I realize now that I'm older that is granting the gift of faith, and through the gift of teaching allows our choices to be ones that are based on a spiritual reference of stability vs. one that isn't.

As I reflected on the power of choices and our environment, I realized something as simple as a Lord's prayer getting taken out of our school system, maybe affecting our current reality. What was once known to live a life based on faith and relationship with Christ has been replaced with placing our faith in information and not need an everlasting gift. In a short time, society has erased reference to Christianity in our school systems and many areas with our culture. When I was a kid, I did not think a time would come so quickly for the erasing of Christian values within our communities. As change has accelerated on turning away from God, there seems to be a correlation between the general unease of people. People seem to be lost, people seem to be unsure, and people are using social media for comfort that is filled with misinformation.

Another thing that I have noticed in my observation of others and interactions. The folks that have embraced Christ have a calmness about them that others lack that haven't embraced Christ. The theme of the people that have embraced Christ is one of concern of the future but not one of fear. The idea I noticed is a general feeling of mistrust of current world leaders spreading information and growing distrust of organizations. However, in the face of uncertainty, there still is faith, there is calmness, and there is hope for a better day tomorrow. I wonder as this new generation is moving into the workforce, and as they are making adult decisions, the lack of Christian exposure is having an impact on their mental state? It would be interesting to see some scientific data and correlations between removing Christian values within our communities and the increasing community unrest. I have no way of how we would achieve such an analysis but it would seem that the further we push our way from the gifts of God in our society, the more discontent we have in our community. The harder we struggle to try to solve our misery with science and facts and data, the harder and the more complex the problems seem to become.

My goal today, as I share these thoughts, is that one person that turned away from the teachings of God, or one person that is searching for something more than what the world is offering right now will be able to read this and integrate these concepts into their life. Perhaps if somebody reads these words for the first time, they might think about reading the Bible or downloading the Bible onto their phone. I would start with reading in the New Testament to learn Jesus's teachings and how to apply this information to provide a sense of vision and personal strength. As they read these passages, will it feel like living in the void that they're feeling now? Like when Jesus is at the well and offered the woman the choice to drink of this well, or you have the option to drink of me. One choice will have you never fulfilled and always having to return, and the other choice will leave you satisfied and continually be able to grow and evolve. By embracing his love and teachings, this will provide the strength you need to transition from now into your tomorrow.

The Third Book The 10th Chapter - The Love of Christ

The Love of Christ

May 17/2020

Wow, it has been such a long time since I have wrote my thoughts on paper. So I thought it fitted to add another chapter of the topic of reflection. I also wanted to share some of the events that have happened since I've written the last time. We all go through events in our lives that we think we are adding value to ourselves and adding value to others. The thought that comes to my mind is of a time exposed picture of an airplane coming in to land safely. With that time-lapsed photo, you can see the aircraft makes hundreds of small course adjustments to land on the runway safely. I guess I can relate to that visualization right now as I am making a course adjustment to head back to that safe landing on a runway.

One of the significant events that happened to me not that long ago, I started a new relationship with Jesus Christ. The last time I wrote, I would have been embarrassed to share that fact, and I would not have used the name Jesus Christ due to embarrassment of what others would think of me. The gratefulness of what I experience daily right now is because I have changed my mindset, which is building my spiritual relationship with Christ. The gift that I have has provided through that fellowship with Christ is beyond my wildest dreams and the most important gift I have received is a new closeness with my family that I have never felt before.

When I was a kid, I was part of a religious group that has a focus on a linear mindset of the gift of God's grace. And through that interpretation, what I learned at that time is God's grace is often transactional and straightforward. What I have now acquired with my new relationship with God and Christ is that the gift of his grace is never transactional and always transformational. The unlimited love and gifts of Christ I feel daily and I'm so grateful for the fact of Christ not giving up on me and still allowing love to embrace a sinner like me.

Since I started re-reading the scripture and specifically in the New Testament, I have found old stories that are new to me. I see these stories from a different lens of life now and realize there are layers of stories in these stories. I also realized that the people in the Bible all had hopes and feelings and desires and trials of struggles that we all experience today. When I was a kid, I didn't see that vision and thought that folks have an easy life when I read the stories. One of the first things I learned about lately was the miracle of Jesus changing water to wine. When I was a kid, I thought it was as simple as just that miracle and that act to engage followers and create believers. Yes, that is true, but there's so much more to the story that I didn't realize before. It is very subtle, but when his mother Mary asked him to do the miracle Jesus wasn't ready, even Jesus, in his human form, had doubts about his ability to make miracles happen. It truly takes a village to create greatness, and what I realized next was Mary didn't accept that statement from Jesus, and she directed the events team to do what Jesus asked and walked away. When I reread that passage, I stopped, and I couldn't believe what it just happened there and what I had missed for so many years. Mary had faith and knew the strength in the special abilities that were within Jesus, yet she had to show him that she would not accept anything but his ability to teach others. She knew the time was now for Jesus to start showing the love of God to others, and Jesus needed that gentle push to start performing miracles. The love and support that Mary gave to Jesus at that moment changed everything that we now get to experience once you've accepted Jesus into your life. It also shows we all require support at every level in your life, and you will be given the gift of that support when you ask for it and need it the most.

What I realized in my journey that feeling the love of Christ is not about acts and deeds to show others how great you are. It is genuinely having a relationship with Christ and allowing that to be my focus. With the center of that relationship, the energy is given to me builds, and I have it a higher level of the need to share and provide value to others. During unsettling times that we live in now, I have found the strength through Christ rewarding and provided comfort and Peace of Mind. There is so much information out there generating so much fear, and it feels like our current trajectory to landing on a safe runway is entirely off course. What I have found through my growing relationship with Christ is the strength to be able to look into the future for that safe landing. Even though I don't know what tomorrow may bring, I have faith and confidence and hope and love within my heart that I have never felt before. There are moments where I struggle, there are moments where I feel anxiety, there are moments when I'm not sure what to do next, and it is in these moments I pray for the strength and calmness. When I do, peace returns, anxiety disappears, and quiet confidence resumes.

With the recent shift of events of social distancing, I also thought of the traditional worship buildings that are not currently used. When I started reading again in the New Testament, one of the first things Jesus did when he began his ministry was to show it's not about a building and brick and mortar. It is about a relationship where you can feel Christ within you every day, and through that grace, you're able to grow and become a better person every day. Jesus modelled the behaviour of giving to the weak and helping others, showing forgiveness and providing value with each conversation and act he performed. As I thought about this concept, I then thought about our current churches across North America and the world sitting empty and vacant. What would Jesus say right now? What would his counsel be? All these empty buildings cost billions of dollars every year, and where is that money going? Why is that money going to brick and mortar? Are there not still sick and poor people? Aren't there still people that need help? Aren't there still people that go to bed hungry? Aren't there still people that need to hear Christ's voice? How is that happening now? How do we move forward? We need a way of providing the service and worship of Christ and God. With the rapid increase in the use of technology, the word of Christ can go to everyone now. There is no need for brick and mortar, and there is no need for the financial cost and burden that it puts on everybody to keep brick and mortar buildings open. All we need is Christ, and all we need is his love, and all of us can experience that in a way that we have never experienced before by using technology. Through technology, we can connect up with every person in the world and share the gifts Jesus wants to give to all of us. It is not held with constraints, and it is not attached with any tithing to a building,  it is not owned by strict rules and regulations and protocol and tradition. It is simple as loving God and allowing that love to come to you and then to pay it forward to someone else.

The time is now to connect up with others the time is now more than ever to share Christs love the time is now to make a difference the time is now to help others. The time is now to give people the word of Christ so they will feel everlasting love and feel his everlasting strength, and they will understand it is not with conditions, and they'll realize it's not with tradition, and they'll realize there is hope. Some of the greatest gifts I have ever received in my life I realize now is based on the fact I had faith. The random life events that I have experienced would have never happened if I didn't have faith. Through this faith, the time is now for all of us to experience hope and joy and know that even though right now we do not know what tomorrow will bring but by through the service of Christ it will get us where we need to go, and it will indeed be a beautiful experience. By embracing the love of Christ, we will also be able to share with others unlimited love and the infinite gift of grace that will provide hope for tomorrow.

Be safe, be strong, be kind, be open, seek love, and give love all in the name of building a relationship what Jesus Christ. Until next time stay well.