Gas, Minivans and New Years.

We missed our minivan. It was almost like a death in the family we missed it so much. A bit more then 3 years ago when the prices of gas was up over $4 a gallon, my wife and I made one of the worst decisions of our life; We traded our van for a small car. Economically it made sense, it would be cheaper on gas and it would technically cost us about $10 less a month in payments and we, being the environmentally conscious people that we are ,OK all my Liberal friends can stop laughing now , we thought that this would be a good move. We were so wrong.

Two things happened, at least one of which we should have seen coming. The first was that the price of gas started dropping again, OK that's not so bad, still cheaper to run, but the second was this little thing called puberty. My two smallish children suddenly hit puberty with a vengeance and they became large adult sized children crammed into the back seat of a car that was not meant for large humanoids. A large can opener should have been a standard feature...

So what does this have to do with anything?

Well it's the price of gas and my New Years resolution that I want to talk about.
I realise that I don't determine the price of gas, in fact there is almost nothing in the financial world that I have any part of. I get paid and I spend what money I have and ,like most of you, I go about paying my bills and living life.
But it is the price of gas that got me to sacrifice something that I really enjoyed. The problem wasn't with the price of gas, though the cheaper the better is a good motto to me, no, it was listening to all the naysayers and believing almost everything that I was being fed that got to me.

As some of you probably know, I have time on my hands,and I am a news junkie so I have had the time to research and look at various problems going on in this country and the world. I fell into one of the biggest traps of them all and that was simply this; The world as we know it is going to end with chaos and anarchy. We are all going to become slaves of the man, and basically the world as we know it is going to come to an end and only those that are prepared for the chaos that is to come will survive.

I am not saying that their are not some serious problems in our nation and the world. What I am saying is that it became almost my sole focus, leaving little to no room for anything else but cynicism. This way of thinking has all but ruled to the point of where I gave up a vehicle that I liked and moved back ,and into, a place that I am not so fond of just to avoid some of the issues that I can see coming.

I still believe that if things don't change soon that we will have some very serious problems both in this nation and in the world as a whole, but my New Years resolution for 2011 is live my life to the fullest and let G-D worry over the finer details. Let me give you a text to consider Gen. 8: 20-22.

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

 As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night 

will never cease.”

G-D is in control. He made a promise and He will keep it.
He didn't ask me to spend my time fretting over every stupid thing that government does, though it is good to be aware of whats going on, but if it becomes the sole focus of my life then I will miss out on the "joy of the journey".
I am not a complete idiot, I do understand that we are living in some very unique and even scary times. I also know very well as to what the various prophets have had to say about the end, but I take comfort in the knowledge that G-D is in control, He will deliver His people, even many who don't know that they are His and through very perilous times, but for now we are called to live the life of Ecclesiastes. What is that you might ask?
Two verses sum it up well, Eccl. 9:7-10

Go, eat your bread with joy,
      And drink your wine with a merry heart;
      For God has already accepted your works.
      Let your garments always be white,
      And let your head lack no oil. 

 Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity; for that is your portion in life, and in the labor which you perform under the sun.

 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.

The first is to enjoy this life and to love your spouse and be glad in doing so. The second is love G-D with all your heart and serve Him.

Eccl. 12:13-14

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:
 Fear God and keep His commandments,
 For this is man’s all.
 For God will bring every work into judgment,
 Including every secret thing,
 Whether good or evil.

So for me the conclusion is simply that G-D is in control and that all will continue as He says it will until He decrees otherwise and that I am to serve Him with all my heart and to rejoice in this life that He has given us rather then spend all of it in fear.

So while I still live in a place that I'd rather not live, G-D is on His throne and all is well.

My kids are the size of small horses now and this is as it should be and all is well.

We have health and life, a roof over our heads and food for the table and all is very well.

We are still as poor as church mice and that is still OK because G-D is on His throne and all is well.

We have Love and that is definitely as it should be and that is well!!

Oh yea ,we are back to a minivan, but even if we were not, G-D is on His throne and all is well.

My resolution for this next year ,and for the future, is simply to live the life that G-D has given me and spend more time rejoicing then in worry. Be prepared, yes, But do so while rejoicing.

From my family to yours I wish you a very happy and G-D filled 2011 !

Shalom,

Ignacio

Let There Be Peace

This is the time of year, almost above any other time of the year, most people give the idea of peace some serious thought. Our holidays even allude to that ideas of  " peace on earth " and that seems to be across the board. Does anyone who is sane wish for anything else? Yes I know governments and perhaps big business finds war to be a profitable thing, but for the average man and woman who is engaged in that war the vast majority of them will tell you that they would wish peace would break out everywhere.

I want to relate a peace story to you,one that actually happened, no fantasy no warm fuzzies, but a true peace story that happened during one of the darkest times in this modern worlds history.

Some of you may be familiar with the story of the Christmas Truce of 1914 during the beginning of WW1, for those of you who are not I will give a brief telling of the story.

Somewhere near Ypres, Belgium on or about Christmas eve 1914, approximentaly 100,000 troops along the western front, these were mainly Scottish, German ,French and Belgian troops, agreed to a cease fire for Christmas. A truce or ceasefire was not that unusual because they were so close to each other, sometimes as close as 30 yards, that they could send messages back and forth. What made this so amazing, at least in my humble opinion, was the massive scale of it. One hundred thousand troops spread over many miles who had been engaged in the madness of killing each other came to a very abrupt halt. In many places even the artillery stopped firing. As one soldier described it " it was an eerie kind of silence". It is said that the German troops put candle lit Christmas trees up on the top of their trenches and started singing Christmas songs and eventually they were joined by the Scotts and the French as well. One telling of the story has a French Opera singer standing at the top of his bunker, in full view of "the enemy" singing "O Holy Night" to the pleasure and applause of all who heard him.
In other places along the lines the troops actually came out of the trenches and exchanged gifts, buried there dead side by side and had memorial services for all the fallen. There is even an unofficial story of the French and Germans playing a game of football ( soccer ) where the Germans won 3-2.
All along the lines men who had been trying to kill each other before, came to understand that the "enemy" was no different then they were, they just wore a different uniform. It is also said by some that this ceasefire lasted a lot longer in some spots then in others, with men and officers on both sides very reluctant to start the killing again.
The stories are varied as to what happened and  the effects, but there was no doubt, at least for a little while that "peace" broke out in that horrible place. The powers that be from all sides had the proverbial cow and ,sadly,they went back to the madness of killing each other.
Some of you may be thinking that this was easy for them to do because they shared, at least, the same religion. I would disagree for 2 reasons. One; They were constantly being told that their enemies were evil and corrupt and that it was their "Christian duty" to stop the spread of this evil. This was told by priests on either side. Second would be my own war time experience.
I was a 37 year old husband and father of 3 children at the beginning of the Iraq war. I carried pictures of my children and my wife through all those dark days and sometimes it was those pictures that kept me going.
We weren't in trenches but many times we found ourselves on trash heaps outside of various villages and cities or behind a freshly plowed trash heap mixed with sand as a defensive posistion or parked right next to open cesspools. The filth and garbage was horrendus and we were constantly being assaulted by flies. I can tell you for a fact that I went 57 days without a bath and I discovered just how badly I stank after I finally got a chance to get clean. So I have a basic understanding of what those who lived in the trenches experienced.
It was on  a patrol one day just outside of a city where earlier we had experienced some heavy fighting and casualties, that I met an Iraqi man and his family. Remember this is in the beginning of this long war, we did little more then shoot and move during that whole time so while I saw people I had not met any of them.
Our patrol came to a halt outside this city, while our recon guys went out to scout, and we set up a defensive perimeter to wait for their return. There were children everywhere. Picking over rubble for usable bricks, pouring through trash to look for anything that might be worth saving and, very cautiously, approaching us.
You have to understand, even something as simple as that can set you on edge, when you don't know what to expect and you see everyone as a potential enemy. Having said that we let the kids get closer.  We also noticed that among the children that there were some adults, but because they didn't appear to be a threat and  they were only approaching us to get some food, we didn't worry...too much.
During this time I noticed a man with 2 children,one was a small boy that he was carrying and the other was a girl who was about the same age as my daughter, and she was wearing a pink dress with ponytails bouncing from her head.
I don't know what it was that he saw in me that made him approach me, but while his daughter was bouncing around from Marine to Marine , he came directly to me and we started "talking". I did not speak his language and he spoke very little English, but between hand motions and a few words, I found out that he was from the village that was out side of the city , which I could see in the distance ,and that they had been hit very hard during the fighting and that they were looking for food and what ever else might be salvagable. He also told me that the two children were his, which I had kind of assumed. I then proceeded to show him the pictures of my wife and children and we discovered that despite apparent differences we had much in common. Not once did we discuss politics nor, other then the damage to his village, did we discuss the war. We were simply two family men put in one very bad situation by people, who would never know the fear of war or of never seeing your family again.
I guess that would really be my point, we were bonded together by our very humnanity. It had nothing to do with our religions, it certainly was not about politics, we were two men with families who shared many of the same goals and fears that all parents face.
I think that this is a lesson that can be learned from the Christmas truce of 1914 and from my own experience.
All of us are human. We have fears and desires, hopes and dreams and it is up to us to bring about a true and lasting peace. For a little while it happend in Belgium during one of the bloodiest wars in history and it happened between 2 men in Iraq. If it can happen then it can happen now but only if we all want it to be.
To quote an Irish song "There were Roses" " the ones who give the orders are not the ones to die, it's Scott and McDonald and the likes of you and I.

At the top I have included a link to Walter Cronkite and the Mormon tabernacle choir giving a rendition through music and words of what happened in 1914
Let there be Peace.

Shalom,
Ignacio

A Rhetorical Question

I have to ask you a rather rhetorical question. I know that it's rhetorical because I really already know the answer to the question or at least for some of you what your answer is likely to be, but once I ask the question I only ask you to do one thing and that's seriously look at the question and then seriously look at yourself before you consider the answer. First a bit of an explanation.

This post was originally going to be an answering of many questions that have come up from some of you and perhaps a defense against those that would suggest that I am somehow "godless" because I believe differently from you. But after writing a rather long explanation and sort of rebuttal, I have come to the conclusion that no matter what it is that I write you won't be able to get past our differences of opinion as to the divinity of Jesus.
You would start quoting from the Greek NT and I would quote from the Hebrew OT and the battle of the ages would continue to be a standstill. We would essentially accomplish nothing.

So my question to myself then ,and to you as well, is what can I say that might make some sort of sense and cause you to think outside the box ? Note I didn't say to convert you to my way of thinking or to try and convince you that you are wrong, but simply what can I say that will make you stop and think.

Now as a general rule I am not rattled by name calling or accusations. In fact, as some of you know, I will even defend your right to disagree with me and call me all the names that you wish, I am a huge fan of the right to free speech, but I guess there does come a point where you have to speak up a bit in your own defense and question the sanity of some people who not only call you names, but would even call into question your moral compass simply based on a difference in religious beliefs.

I recently read an article by a man claiming that he was a Christian pastor who said that if you didn't believe in Jesus as the son of G-D , then you were essentially blind to all the moral decay and was not capable of discerning the difference between what was evil and what was good. If this was the only time I had read something like that I would just pass him off as being some freak of nature, but he's not. Time and time again I run across articles like that claiming to come from one Christian pastor or another stating that because they believe in a man-god that this somehow makes them morally superior to others. Funny how some of those morally superior people let a lot of hatred pass through their lips.

So what is it that  makes you somehow morally superior to others? I read the news, I see the evil that is all around us, I detest it and I fight against it in my own way. What is it that I am missing? I see the corruption in the government and in the governments of the world. I see the moral corruption that attacks our children and our women turning them into nothing but sexual objects. I see the pain of drugs and suicide amongst our teenagers. I see this evil for what it is.I pray for the people and ,where ever possible, I try to help end the suffering.

I once saw a video that included a bunch of people from various churches who went out to help homeless people out on the streets in cold weather. What I found interesting was that they all put their religious differences aside for the purpose of helping out those in need. It was a beautiful thing to behold. They weren't trying to get anyone to follow their particular brand of religion, instead they were simply helping them out. The Love of G-D was shown that day. Not only to those that were being helped ,but by those that were serving and those of us who saw it.

In Deut. 6:4 , which in the Jewish world is called the Shema, it says " Hear O Israel the L-rd our G-D, The L-rd is One. You shall love the L-rd you G-D with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.
That is the greatest commandment, in my humble opinion, and all others lead you to that one command.
Even Jesus, whom most of you believe in, called it the greatest commandment.Of course he would he was Jewish after all, but he added something that is very true as well, when he said that the second greatest would be to love your neighbors as yourself and that you could sum up all the commandments in those two. If any of you have ever taken the time to read all 613 laws you will find that they come down to loving G-D and serving Him and how to treat your family and neighbors,strangers and even enemies.

Now just imagine if all of us actually did those two things just how different a place this world would be.

Instead, we would rather argue over who is morally superior to whom and call others names when they don't agree with us.

There are days when I wish that G-D would do as he did in the book of Job. After Jobs "friends" basically accuse him of being a sinful man, G-D speaks to him and essentially tells him that they haven't a clue on the things of G-D. Job's response was simply to say that he thought he knew who G-D was before but now that he has seen Him, he was going to remain silent. There is a lesson here for all of us.We simply don't know all that there is to know about Him.in fact,like Job, we only know a little.

So finally I come to my rhetorical question ; Do you really think that it matters to G-D what our personal dogmas and beliefs are? Do you really think it matters to Him what it is that you think you know?
If someone who doesn't believe as you do, loves G-D in their own way and is doing acts of kindness, following the  greatest commands ever given, fighting against those proverbial forces of evil, do you think G-D is going to just cast them aside because they don't believe the way that you do?
If you believe that way then I would suggest going back and looking at the things G-D said to Job.

My humble belief is that we only have a small inkling of an idea of who G-D is and what he wants. We know what is right and wrong. We have the choice to follow the good or follow the evil. He has told us what he wants from us but I still don't believe that we have a clue as to the whole picture.
The day will come when we will, the prophets make that very clear, but until that day comes we need to stop all this senseless arguing and bickering with each other. You don't like what I believe? Fine, that's OK with me, but let's set that aside and try to do some good in this world.

Shalom,
Ignacio