Packaging Is Everything?

Bam! She’s got a body like an hourglass, but is that sand coming out of her ears and mouth? She is gorgeous with and without makeup and can sang! But my oh my she gossips like nobody’s business. She’s so charming and walks and moves as smoothly as a cobra sways. Oh, and she bites like one too. Can you say “venom”?

Oh my goodness look at the ceps on that bi. What a marvelous hunk of flesh he is. But he can’t read or tell time. Bummer. Look at that Italian Black Stallion walking by like Denzel Washington. My bad, he’s a dog? But why do all the girls (and guys) still want to ride him?

Packaging is everything?

He wears thick glasses and plaid shirts, white socks with black shoes. He’s the top of his class? And a first class gentleman, opens doors for ladies no matter who they are? Maybe I should give him my number. J She’s chunky around the midsection and a little dark and her hair is kinda nappy. Wow, she’s a writer and a counselor who loves people? But you would never know by looking at her. As Gomer Pyle would say “Surprise, surprise, surprise!” Hmmmm.

Packaging is everything?

He has no ears, but he can sing? He has no arms or legs yet he’s a minister, counselor and motivational speaker? They’re African American and have no rhythm? You have three degrees and have no job? What gives? Or doesn’t give?

Packaging is everything?

Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been disclosed? For [the Servant of God] grew up before Him like a tender plant, and like a root out of dry ground; He has no form or comeliness [royal, kingly pomp], that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him.

He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him.

This guy doesn’t fit “The 100 Most Handsome Men of the 21^st Century”. But Packaging is Everything?

Surely He has borne our griefs (sicknesses, weaknesses, and distresses) and carried our sorrows and pains [of punishment], yet we [ignorantly] considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God [as if with leprosy].

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement [needful to obtain] peace and well-being for us was upon Him, and with the stripes [that wounded] Him we are healed and made whole.

Can’t judge a book by its cover or a wine by its bottle. But packaging is everything?

All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his (and her) own way: and the Lord has made to light upon Him the guilt and iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, [yet when] He was afflicted, He was submissive and opened not His mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth.

Sounds like a patient in a mental ward. Hmmm. But packaging is everything?

By oppression and judgment He was taken away; and as for His generation, who among them considered that He was cut off out of the land of the living [stricken to His death] for the transgression of my [Isaiah’s] people, to whom the stroke was due?

And they assigned Him a grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.

But packaging is everything?

He came into the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him [did not know Him].

He came to that which belonged to Him [to His own-His domain, creation, things, world], and they who were His own did not receive Him and did not welcome Him.

Welcome Home . . .!!! Packaging is Everything?

But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in , and rely on) His name –

Who owe their birth neither to bloods nor to the will of the flesh [that of physical impulse] nor to the will of man [that of a natural father], but to God. [They are born of God!]

Now we can say it with feeling: Welcome Home Jesus!! Packaging is everything?

And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us; and we [actually] saw His glory (His honor, His majesty), such glory as an only begotten son received from his father, full of grace (favor, loving-kindness) and truth.

Sometimes we miss our blessings because of the packaging they come in. We’re expecting it to look one way and thus we don’t recognize it when it arrives and so we reject it (or him, or her, or HIM). (But it’s because of what’s inside of us, not the one in the package.) Hmmmm. So yes in a way packaging is everything in this culture and society in which we live. Yes we should put our best foot forward in all we do and say and in how we present ourselves, but we must make sure it’s our “true” foot and not just a social prosthesis, mirage, i.e. a lie. For guess what? All boxes get opened. The wrappings and bows get removed and what’s inside gets revealed.

Then on the other hand, in our society we concentrate so much on the packaging that we pay little attention to the contents, and believe because we’re “beautiful” in some way that people can experience with their five senses, that we will be desirable to the world. But this is a lie. Chocolate melts. Ice does too and what gets left behind? Well, with too much chocolate probably an abundance of sugar calories on ones thighs and behind, and with ice, well, just possibly your thirst gets quenched. But truly what gets left behind? (No pun intended, but this is a good place to chuckle.) Anyhoooo . . .

Many of us lie to ourselves when we look in the mirror because we’re only looking at the outside. We dress well at all times and make sure our hairs are on straight, and we tell ourselves we’re okay. But this is how we will know how, and what we feel and think about ourselves: When we hit the pavement and come in contact with others, what do we say about THEM? Herein is the clue to what you believe about you-yourself, for we only give what we have in our soup bowl, our cup, on our plate. What we feed to others is what we’re eating ourselves. So, if you’re with someone who is constantly making fun of others, revealing secrets, gossiping, always have to be the bell or belle of the ball, etc. (can you say “noise maker?”) then you need to make a decision. You either need to ask that person “why do you feel so negatively about yourself?” OR you need to distance yourself from that person because you don’t want to share what he or she is eating. It is not good for you.

True dat, you met him or her in a good looking or sounding or smelling or tasting or feeling box (situation) – maybe at a concert, or a party, or a church gathering, or the post office, or at work, but now you realize that all the goodness was only in the packaging. Sometimes you have to discard the whole kit and caboodle.

Now I’m not saying that we “throw people away”, but what I am saying is . . . hmmmm we need to pay attention to how much attention we put into big things in small packages or small things in large packages. Some things/investments cannot be recuperated once they are lost like time, emotions and other valuable resources.

What about good, better and the best things which come in packages we would not envision? What do we do with them? The verses above from Isaiah and John's Gospel [Amplified Bible] describe a man who was misunderstood, judged and rejected because of the package He came in. He was born into a family, to what our culture would call a “single mother” since the earthly father was not His biological father. He was not handsome. His hair was wooly, not long and straight and blond, neither did he have blue eyes. His skin was not white and creamy but brown and ruddy. Even though He was a King, He did not live and act like a king. He worked a nine-to-five job with his dad as a carpenter so his hands were ruddy and he was often covered with dust. He knew more about the law and the prophets than the law and the prophets, yet he had no earthly proof of his education, so just who did He think He was, having the audacity to read from the Torah in the synagogue and then teach others older and more educated than Himself? What right did He have in giving so much love to others, being moved with compassion to the depth that they could touch His clothing and be healed with just a tiny mustard-seed size faith? Who gave Him the right to forgive sins when only God could do that? Who “died” and made Him God? And let’s not talk about raising more than one person from the dead. Please give us a break! God doesn’t look like this man, yet He does what only God can do (and desires to do).

You don’t look like what people want you to look like either do you? Have you ever been rejected because your skin is too dark or too light? Your hair is too long or not straight enough? You’re American and not another nationality, or another nationality and not another nationality? J You’re male and not female or you’re female and not male? You’re tall or short, wealthy or a hard-worker who can’t make ends meet, have a car or not? Over qualified or under qualified? What is your packaging? How are you wrapped? Are you wrapped too tight(LY) or not at all? What are you made of inside? What’s inside your cup? Are you worth the packaging you’re in? Would it be worth someone’s while to unwrap you and see you for what you really are? If yes, then kudos to you. But if no, what can you do to make yourself a better wrapped package, a gift worth God’s giving and worth receiving? What will make you a gift worth having and not just a pretty package?

Jesus came and gave His life in every way. He placed something valuable in each of us, but in order for us to manifest that gift truthfully, we must not reject Him for it is only He Who can bring us to our full potential as the gifts we are meant to be in, and to this world, for the glory of God. The real gift is inside the package.

Peace.

Is it Time Yet? Am I Ready?

2012 is the year!!!! Okay. For what? For who? I heard this same phrase for 2011 and 2010 and 2009 and . . . and you know what? I believe everyone was (and are) right, because each year is the year for something for someone, somewhere. Of course each of us would like for it to be our year for something special, especially if we’ve been waiting for something to happen for a long time. And when I say “waiting” it’s not to say we’ve been doing nothing and waiting passively for that unique event to occur.

For many of these special dreams and desires, we have to be doing something to prepare for them. We have to be ever learning, creating, changing, investigating, deleting and completing and maybe a host of other things to move us in the direction we desire to go. Can you say “Preparation”? Nevertheless, try as we might, we cannot control every single thing in our lives to make “it” happen when we want “it” to happen. Yes some things take time, and some things take MORE time. Ugh!! How much time? For me, in my opinion, some things are taking just too much time, but try as I might, and believe me I have tried, I cannot make “it” happen. But this is the normal mentality for normally impatient people. LOL!

Most of my efforts have landed me in situations which have taken more time to recover from. So you have to be careful if you ask me “what are you doing to make 'this' happen for yourself?” It’s not a very good question to ask, so don’t. J Anyhoooo, recently I’ve been running into a similar theme through different writers and also just my own method of studying, and it has been this phrase, “My time has not yet come.” It takes a pretty humble person, someone who knows him or herself, someone who understands his or her purpose, someone who knows why he or she is where he or she is, to say something like that.

Just recently my best friend and I have been having some great conversations and in one of them she said (and I'm paraphrasing) “as much as I want to do 'this', and as long as I’ve been waiting for what I can feel and know is coming soon, I know I’m not yet ready. I still have much learning and changing to do.” I truly admire her because she is honest and not afraid to say “I’m not ready” and therefore “it’s not time yet”. Me on the other hand, most of my life I’ve been a little more cocky. LOL!! Why? Because of fear. Fear that the wheel will not turn around again to bring me that opportunity, so I feel I have to take it while it is there. Strike while the iron is hot, even if I don’t know what I’m doing. I can learn along the way. J In band we call it "sight reading". Sometimes this has worked, but many times it was not the best thing to do. I can admit I was not very humble because people who live in fear are not humble.

Humble people know and respect their limitations and acknowledge that they need help, and they are not afraid to ask for help. Those of us who fear missing what could be our dream job or the moment-of-our-life-which-may-never-pass-this-way-again, we may know our limitations and know we need help, but we also may not respect our weaknesses and ask for help. Somewhere along the way we’ve been taught and told that if you want something done right you have to do it yourself. We’ve also been told that “you don’t want to wait too long, for some things in life will only come around once, and most things will not wait forever.” Can you say “tick-tock bio clock”? We’ve been taught to fear that the future may NOT hold anything good and positive for us, so we have to make the future happen NOW! We don’t live in the present, but we live ever making the future our now reality. But now is all we ever have anyway, so what the heck?

Like Bart and Lisa asked repetitively with impatience in the car to Homer in one of the "Simpsons" episodes, “Are we there yet?” Is it time yet? Are you ready? Which scenario would be best: A) To be ready before the time and to be kept waiting. B) To not be ready when the time arrives.? And of course there is a third and fourth scenario: C) To not be ready and it’s not yet time. D) To be ready on/in time. Of course D would be the ideal, but I’m more interested in the first two scenarios. Some of us know ourselves well and others of us only think we know ourselves.

I don’t know who penned the lyrics to this song but I love it. It says “Put me in coach, I’m ready to play today. Look at me, I could be centerfield.” LOL!! Maybe that athlete is ready to play and the coach needs to give him a chance or maybe the coach knows him better than he knows himself and that’s why he continues to sit on the bench, or pitching balls in the dugout. Either way, his mentality is one of “I’m ready”, and I believe to think one is ready is half the battle even if we are not ready.

As life continues to reveal to us what we lack on our way to becoming “ready”, our ready mentality is what can keep us from falling backwards into discouragement and depression as time continues to pass us by. Or it could cause us to become closed-minded to learning new things which would aid our much needed continued preparation. The problem is we cannot SEE what’s missing for maybe we don’t know what’s all involved and needed to do what we want to do, and go where we want to go.

Also, if there are other players (no pun intended, but it is apropos) involved, maybe they are not ready and therefore we cannot move forward until all the legs have been nailed to their chair or table (or coffin. LOL!! Just a little humor.), until all the wheels have been mounted on the bus, until all the appliances have been installed in the house. You see what I’m saying I’m sure. Is it time yet? Are they ready? Are WE ready? Hmmmmm.

In different places in the Bible, in the Gospels, we find verses which quote Jesus as saying “My time (hour to act) has not yet come.” [John 2:4b] (Amplified Bible) In this particular passage, they were at a wedding and the wine ran out. Mary, the mother of Jesus told Him about it and He had to lovingly tell her that she could not tell Him what to do. He could not do what people wanted Him to do just because they wanted Him to do it. There’s a time and a place for everything and it is important that we know our times and seasons so we will be in the right place at the right time, with the right people.

The wisest man King Solomon penned these words, “To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die . . .” [Ecclesiastes 3:1-2a] (Amplified Bible) In another place Jesus responded to His biological brothers that His time had not yet come for they were pressuring Him to go to a feast and reveal Himself and His powers to the public. Has that ever happened to you? Peer pressure to do something before you are ready to do it? Before your time?

As I was walking to the store one evening I grabbed the branch of a tree and it was rubbery and bendable. It did not snap, crackle or pop. Yet the season is the mid-winter and I thought to myself “should not all the sap in the trees descend into the ground for the winter, rendering the branches more likely to break rather than bend and bounce back?” I continued to ponder times and seasons versus circumstances and conditions. Nature knows what time it is I’m sure, but for several years now our winters have sometime seem like spring and summer, and I wonder if nature gets confused and responds to “the conditions” (environment) rather than the calendar by which we are informed of what season it should be. Of course nature doesn’t take her cues from humans, but the other way around. But if nature continues to become unpredictable, how will we know what time and season we really are in? J

“. . . a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal. . .” [Ecclesiastes 3:2b-3a] (Amplified Bible) 2012 is the year for all of us in some way or another. Maybe what we expect and desire will happen for us this year and maybe it will not. But I’m sure that either way, at the end of this year we will be closer to our goal(s) than we were last year and than we are right now. J A good question to honestly ask ourselves is “am I ready?” for whatever it is I’m aiming and waiting for. And even if we think we are and KNOW we are, what can we do in the mean time while we wait for all the other players to get in place, for we do not exist in this life alone, and we do nothing by ourselves. I know I’m not ready to be left alone in a pool of water for I cannot swim, yet. But maybe this year it will be my time to learn. What about you? What is it time for you to do? What ARE you ready to do while you wait for that great desire, that great opportunity to present itself to you? It IS time for something, and we are ready for something. Always.

Peace.

Credit

Living on credit. Credit cards. Credit trap. What’s your credit score? Credit limit? Credit card balance. Credit account. Huh? Oh, I got a little carried away. . . but did I? If you’ve been alive for at least seven years, you have heard at least one of these phrases. Heck some children may even have credit cards. This blog message is one that I’ll call a “short-take” meaning I’ll only take a short minute to speak my thoughts. It’s not written like prose or poetry, but still it is shared to make us think about . . . credit. J

I no longer have a credit card for whatever reasons, be that as it may. And the more I read about credit and credit cards I am sooooo glad I don’t have one. I just read in an issue of Reader’s Digest that if you have a credit card with no balance, and you don’t use it for 12 months, this of course does not make the credit card company happy. So they’ve created rules and laws to their benefit to make you pay just for carrying their piece of plastic in your wallet. They will charge you an annual fee up front and there’s nothing you can do about it except pay it, cut up the card and cancel the account. Not using the card does not automatically mean it is a dead dog. It is only sleeping mind you, and because the credit card company gets hungry, it will “kick your dog” and wake him up and demand that you feed him some Annual fee by Purina, or some other dog food company. Hmmmm. With real beef too!!

I thought this was going to be a short-take but already I’ve written more than I intended to so let’s just jump write in. Oh I mean right in. Just a warning though, for this short-take there is more reason than rhyme to what I’ve written so please just hang in there ‘til the ride is over. And then jump off. Thanks!

In the field of accounting, credit, or “to credit” means to deduct an amount from an account whether in your favor (what you owe to a creditor for instance) or in their favor (from your nest egg. Hmmm.). By the way, to debit means to add to your account, or in layman’s and laywoman’s terms “a deposit”. Now that sounds like paper music to my ears!

Living on credit: Spending resources you see with your eyes (hopes, desires, needs or greeds) only. It’s not yet yours. Has not yet landed onto the landing strip of your hands.

Living on credit: Thinking and dwelling with a futuristic view and mentality (can you say “impatience”, or “are we there yet?”) to the point that when the present arrives you never meet him, her, or it, etc., because you never saw them; because you don’t recognize the day of your visitation. But yet somehow you find yourself sitting in, with and on a mountain of “debt”, that you never saw coming. What a paradox.

Living on credit: Back to the future where time just passes through my fingers. My how time flies. Like the wind. Never late, never early. Always on time. (Can you say “credit card payment due date?” Don’t be late!!)

Living on credit: Borrowing against something you will never own. Whoever created credit may be rich now and at everyone else’s expense, but he (or she) is not your friend. But of course, no one is forcing us to go plastic, but because we have, and have just jumped overboard with it, we’re on a slippery slope of our own making sliding into a “cashless” society where no one will be in control of his or her own . . . Money? What’s that?

There really is no reward to living on credit. It's not like getting extra credit in school for doing extra work. Come on my fellow froggers, I mean bloggers, let's wake up and jump out of the pot before we get boiled to death! Trying to live in tomorrow today leaves nothing for tomorrow when it becomes today. Can you say “where’s my social security?” What’s that?

Peace.

Trapped

“Trapped inside this body.” “Trapped inside my mind”. “Caught between a rock and a hard place.” These are just some of the clichés we use to describe that “feeling” (and even maybe the reality) of being in an impossible place, or situation out of which we cannot see our way. Not only does it look and sound impossible, it feels negative and ominous. Very rarely do we look at being “trapped” as being a positive thing, at least not while we’re in it.

As psychologists (and ministers of the gospel) we are trained to help others (and ourselves) to learn to see the glass as half-full rather than half-empty, even though it’s the same amount of liquid. J You say “po-tAt-o” and I say “po-TaT-o”. Hmmm, the exact letters, the same food, but it’s all in the pronunciation, or in how you see and hear a thing. (Or taste it. I still love French Fries, my favorite way to eat a po-tAt-o or po-TaT-o, but if you give me a baked po-tAt-o with cheese, bacon bits, chives and onions and butter, I will not get offended not one bit. Neither will I feel trapped in a negative way by the calories.) Anyhoooo, still we too are human experiencing life which is not always flavorful. We still have to be realistic, yet we cannot let our current and present reality become our thermostat, only the thermometer.

I recall from my own life experiencing some life-changing situations, disappointments, surprises with “no way out”. I not only felt trapped but I was trapped by my past decisions and choices (even though they seemed good and positive at the time, and I had no regrets or reasons to regret them). Commitments, loyalties, obligations, contracts, covenants, legal decisions, etc. When you say “yes” to a new job offer with better pay and benefits, you breathe a sigh of relief and make plans for a better and different future. There is nothing wrong with that at all. The only problem is “life happens” and keeps on happening no matter what positive or negative things are happening for, with, without or against you. And there you are “trapped” by your name on the dotted line. Can you say “lay-offs”, “down-sizing” and “pink slips”? What about “memos”? Hmmm.

That’s just one way I’ve personally experienced feeling trapped. Here of late I’ve been assessing my life in conjunction with my relationship to God, the church, the ministry, God’s Word, and to be honest with you I have felt trapped. Now most “religious” people who feel they must defend God would get offended by my statement, and that would be their right and their prerogative, for after all, I used to be just like them. I used to get offended for God over the least little thing, until I began to let His Word and nature transform my character. God doesn’t need me to defend Him against myself neither anyone else, and neither does He want me to spend my time doing that. He’s a big God and can take care of Himself. I need Him to take care of me. Hmmm. Three m’s that time.

Anyhoooo, I’ve been feeling trapped by my commitment to God, the call upon my life, even the anointing. Why? Because with them comes responsibility to live the Word of God we call The Holy Bible. It does not mean I am perfect for no one is, and neither will we ever be in this life. However, as a child of God and as ministers we are always judged more harshly by our brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ. We cannot pick our nose, clean our ears or floss our teeth in public without someone making a fuss about it. J We are held to a higher standard of conduct than anyone else, yet we are disbelieved and mistreated more harshly than anyone else. On the one hand people will say “they’re only human. Why do they think they know more than we do? After all I hear from God too.” But as soon as our humanity shows, church people (and non, who know absolutely nothing about being a disciple of Jesus the Christ) will sing another song, “He’s (she’s) a minister and should know better.” And why is that pre-tell when we all have the same access and opportunities to learn and know exactly what “better” is?

As a child of God and a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ I cannot date the first man I see (neither do I want to), and neither can I marry the first man who proposes to me (and neither do I want to do that). But neither can I just run around with any and everyone without thinking about consequences. I cannot go any and everywhere which may be, and seem to be harmless to those who are not children of God through Jesus the Christ. And let’s make one thing clear here so we can be in the same story book: God is the Creator of everyone in the entire world. He loves everyone the same, and He gave His Son Jesus the Christ to reconnect us to Himself as children are connected to their father. But not everyone in the entire world thinks of Him as Father. Not everyone wants to worship or love Him, or obey Him or seek Him, and adore Him as Father. Not everyone even believes He exists. Therefore He is not the FATHER of everyone. There is a difference. Your daddy may be the principle of the school, but He’s not everyone’s daddy. Just your daddy, and any other children who may adopt him as daddy and be adopted by him. Yet he is the principle over everyone in the school. (Read the book of Romans for more on adoption.)

People claim to believe in a Higher Power, something (and maybe Someone – male or female, mother or father) bigger than themselves, but yet they don’t want to call Him “Father” or God until we start talking in the context of being “God’s children”. Hmmm, please make up your mind so you can stop being confused and walking on both sides of the street. That’s a good way to get hit by a truck. J

No, I’m not defensive but just sharing what I’m feeling at this Christmas season of 2011. No, I don’t have a Christmas blog message for they’re all over the place. As a matter of fact as I write this the movie “Shrek II” is playing in my DVD player and has given me my next blog topic. LOL!! So you see where I get some of my inspiration. LOL!! But back to my original focus.

When people say they are trapped, the first thing we do is ask questions like, “why do you feel trapped?” What’s happening in your life to make you think you’re trapped? Trapped by what? Exactly what are you referring to? What do you want to do (or where do you want to go) that you cannot, and what is preventing you from doing what you believe you want to do? Who holds the keys to your “prison doors”? What can you do about that? Why do they hold the keys? Who gave them the keys? Do they have the rights to those keys? (Who really has the rights to the keys to someone else’s existence? Hmmm.) Is your assessment of your situation real or from your emotions? Has the expiration date for your current place in life come and gone? If so, then it is time for you to move on. If not, then you're not trapped. There's still some milk in that cow for you.

And if you’re in a place you hope to never end up in again in the future once you get out, these may be some of the questions you may need to ask yourself NOW so you can learn from this experience: What choices and decisions did I make which have landed me on this island, this planet, in this cave, in this marriage, in this relationship, on this job, in debt, etc.? What’s inside of me that moves me to make those kinds of decisions etc.? (This question must be investigated and dealt with because everything we do on the outside is first inside of us, and this is from where history will repeat itself. Believe me, I know.) What is one thing I can do differently today which I’ve never done which can change ME so I can change my environment, that I may eventually change my situation? Can you see the progression here? All lasting change begins from inside of ourselves, and right now as I write, I am counseling myself. Really, Holy Spirit Who lives within me – the Great Counselor, is counseling me. J Maybe it’s a thought and a belief. Maybe that’s where you need to start. Maybe that’s where I need to start.

Another way of looking at this feeling and place of being trapped is to turn the coin onto its other side and ask positive questions. For instance, “What have I learned about life, myself, people, God, finances, health, etc. from being where I am now? What are the benefits of this situation? What is it keeping me from doing? What is it protecting me from? Have I milked this cow dry and gleaned from it all I can before moving on to the next desired change in my life? Have others been helped by me from being in this situation, and if so, how have they been helped? What has it prepared me to do? What is it empowering me and allowing me to do? Am I really ready to move forward into the new that I think I want to experience? What do I have on hand that can help me make a positive move?

Trapped. I guess no one felt more trapped than the donkey that fell in the well, and the woman who bled for many years and could not get healed. Most of you know the story of the donkey which fell into the well whose owner had no way of getting him out. So he decided to do the most humane thing he could think of: bury the donkey in the well with dirt. So that’s what the farmer did. He continued to shovel dirt on top of the donkey in the well and the donkey would shake it off and pack it under his feet. After a while the farmer would look down and still see the donkey, for he thought of course that the donkey would be under the dirt. So he continued, and so did the donkey. After a second and third look the farmer realized that the donkey was rising on the dirt, not dying under it, and eventually the donkey walked out of the well on dry ground. J When we feel trapped we tend to use extreme terms like “dying”, “under the weight of this or that”, “can’t see no way out”, “the weight of the world is on my shoulders”, “there’s no one I can call”. Just to name a few.

Imagine yourself bleeding every day of the week, month, year after year non-stop, and living in a society which “knows your business” for everyone knows you’re “unclean” and it is illegal for you to be around people, especially men. (Makes me like less the song, “This is a Man’s World.”) Yet the doctors are men and they don’t have a problem coming into your unclean house to examine you and take all your unclean cash until you have no more resources for any more doctors. And they can’t even cure you. Hmmmm. Sounds like our current healthcare system. Talk about being trapped in your body. What’s the alternative? Where do you go? Who can you call? (Ghost Busters? Well you could, but I’m just not sure if the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man will be of good help. Maybe with some hot chocolate for comfort.)

Seems like we can’t count on those who are supposed to care for us (the farmer gave up on his donkey and decided to bury him alive), neither can we always count on those who are educated to be able to “cure” what ails us. Yes indeedy, we do need to believe in and call on “A Higher Power”. This bleeding woman made her way to Jesus to get her out of her trapped situation. You can find her story in Luke’s gospel chapter 8:43-48. I will give you the first two verses, and you can read the rest for yourself, “And a woman who had suffered from a flow of blood for twelve years and had spent all her living upon physicians, and could not be healed by anyone, Came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His garment, and immediately her flow of blood ceased.” [Amplified Bible]

She did something she had never done before. She did something she was told she could not do, which was socially unacceptable. But she was trapped and no one could help her thus far. Drastic needs call for drastic measures. One of the other gospels tells us what she thought, that “if I can just get to Jesus and touch the hem of His garment, I will be made WHOLE” (not just healed physically.). She believed that Jesus would be able to restore her mentally, emotionally, physically and socially, and guess what? He did just that, all with just one touch. Because He acknowledged her in front of everyone He restored to her her dignity in the community which would allow her to come out of her home, where she was trapped in and by her body. She could get a job. She could become someone’s wife. Maybe she could become a mother too.

So now I do a hmmmmmm on myself and I think about my thoughts to see if they are trapping me, or opening another door for me. Something to think about.

Peace on earth and good will towards men and women.

Magnets

How does a magnet get its magnetism? J Yeah I know, here I go again with one of those trivia questions (or maybe to some a trivial one), but anyhooo, since we’re here let’s continue. Have you ever thought about it? What makes a magnet a magnet? What material is mixed into the metal in its liquid state that gives it that magnetic attraction force and power? Or is there some process it goes through after it is hardened that makes it attractive to some and repellant to other metals? Magnetic attraction. North and south poles attract while south repels south and north repels north. Hmmmm. But I don’t think this is a “rule” we can depend upon in relationships, for it seems that opposites attract and attack, I mean repel each other, while like personalities attract and attack each other too. J It just depends on what’s happening in the mixture of the character of the parties involved. Magnetic attraction or magnetic attacktion. A new word from my “Allnthejeans World Dictionary”.

This magnetic stuff got me thinking of love in all its forms between God and humans especially, but as well as horizontal love between the genders, family members, friends, etc. Everyone has a different model and thus a different definition and understanding of “love”. How is this so? It’s because of the amniotic fluid in which we were conceived and the “oxygen” which we “breathed in” starting at conception throughout childhood and into adulthood. Our understanding of love was modeled for and to us by our parents and authority figures, the most important people in our lives. For many of us these models were balanced, but for most of us they were not.

For instance, if you grew up in a household where affection was little to nil, then your understanding and experience of love is one that is absent of affection. So maybe when you see people who are very affectionate you may feel a little uncomfortable or even exasperated by all that outward and public display of “love”. Or maybe if you were raised in a very affectionate environment between parents and children and between siblings, you cannot conceive of not giving and receiving affection in your relationships. Maybe you are the “touchy-feely” type and you may feel that people don’t like you when they don’t reciprocate affection.

For others love has been modeled as severity and abuse of all sorts – “I love you” while I’m hitting you or punching you or . . . The earlier in life this type of “brainwashing” occurs, the more difficult it becomes for the person to see a different type of love as more desirable and healthy. I asked the question “when did the magnet become magnetic”? I think the answer is “at the very beginning”.

I recall in science class our teacher rubbing two metals together. One was magnetic while the other was not, but it became magnetic, temporarily, because of the magnetic one. But after a few moments it would lose its magnetic powers. Sounds like a super hero story doesn’t it? J The magnetic one had the power inside of itself while the non-magnetic one did not. The magnetic one was the one that did the pulling and drawing, while the non-magnetic one was the one being drawn and pulled.

Hmmm, our upbringing, background, culture, etc. prepares and primes us for the world positively and negatively according to what is “modeled” for us as “normal”. Across the races, generations, countries, great culture divides normal will be different for everyone. But to me, what is (should be) “normal” for everyone is the pure love of God. This love does no harm to the person mentally, emotionally, affectionally, spiritually, physically. This love is only for the benefit of the one being loved. So if what is normal for you or me is not beneficial for us and those we affect, in all of these areas of the soul, spirit and body, then it is not good, and it is not NORMAL. To me, it doesn’t matter from what country you originate. For something (or someone) to be Normal, it must be for the good of the entire person, and for everyone involved, for what is inside of us either attracts others to us, or repels them from us. Who knowingly desires to attract what is abnormal? Hmmm. Anyhoooo again.

I was talking with a friend recently and we discussed the reality of some negative things that happened in real time that really should not have happened in the life of a mutual friend. As we discussed what she experienced and what we knew about her, we realized that her upbringing set her up to experience the negative events to which she exposed herself and endured. The “negativism” (ingredients) of the situation was already inside of her drawing her towards another negative situation, like a magnet. Because of her past – the environment in which she was raised, the love model she knew - her present situation thus, was “normal” to, and for her, even though she did not like it or desire it. It was what she “knew,” it was what was familiar to her. She was already magnetized for it, from the inside.

So when we observe friends and family in certain situations and life scenarios of maybe abuse, alcoholism, drugs, religion (positive and negative), molestation, positive and healthy love relationships, etc. and we wonder “how” and “why”, we know the answer. Somewhere back in the beginning – in their “once upon a time. . .” is the answer to these questions. But you remember, all “once upon a times” do have a “happily ever after.” J I do believe in them even if the “B” to “Y” is filled with wicked witches with poison apples and magic mirrors and mean stepmothers and jealous fairies and wizards and dragons and . . . Yes I have to believe that things don’t have to remain the same and that we don’t have to end where we began or even leave by the same door we came in. A change IS gonna come. As a matter of fact, everyday, as long as we are willing to change from the inside out, our change IS come. It IS upon us. It IS within us. The power to change our love model, our magnetism is within us.

In order to change the type of people you are attracted to or who are attracted to you - who are not good for or to you, you must be willing to change something inside of you which attracts them. Those character traits that are in them which you have no desire for in your space you must first be willing to evict from yourself, from your own character and personality. There is a lot of truth in the cliché “it takes one to know one.” This is why so many people get involved in one-night stands or short long-term relationships, because of that immediate first meeting attraction (i.e. love at first sight. Yeah right. Maybe, and maybe not). There is something common inside the persons pulling them towards each other like magnets. Given time, the true personality of each person gets revealed and depending on what happens next, either they stick together and work it out and help each other to grow and mature, or they abuse each other and stick together and hurt each other, or they abandon one another right away.

Those who realize that the negatives in the other person are too strong for them and that they don’t have the “resources” to invest in any type of relationship with that person will jump ship right away. For many others, we stay and endure, wink the eye and turn our heads to things that are not life and death, until we realize that the person has begun to turn on us and the friendship (or whatever type of relationship it is) isn’t going to go anywhere positive or good for all parties involved, in every area of life, but only one is getting his or her fix at the expense of the other.

If we want to attract positive people for the duration of our lives, meaning we don’t want them to just come and go, then we must make sure we are the types of persons we want to attract. I’m not talking about the beautiful clothing and jewelry, ones gifts and talents, money and jobs etc., but we’re talking about the inward character. This is not a “self-help” blog topic because we did not “get here” by ourselves, so it stands to reason we will not be able to change “all by ourselves.” We need help from outside of ourselves to come and reside inside of us to transform and change our magnetic attraction, our love model so we can know the difference between the good and the bad, the sour and the sweet.

The Bible says about one of the prophets, when the angel told his parents they would have a baby, the child was only to eat “sweet” things so he would know to reject bad things. You see, it happens at the beginning, for permanent magnetism and not just a temporary one. But since most of us (none of us) did not “get it” at our “once upon a time”, God has made it possible for us to start again, to be “born again”, to receive a new name, with new blood (a spiritual blood transfusion to change us from the inside out) to change our inner magnets so we will desire and be drawn to the good, and reject the bad.

There was a man named Nicodemus, one of the Pharisees. He was an important Jewish leader. One night he came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a teacher sent from God. No one can do these miraculous signs that you do unless they have God’s help.” Jesus answered, “I assure you, everyone must be born again. Anyone who is not born again cannot be in God’s kingdom.” Nicodemus said, “How can a man who is already old be born again? Can he go back into his mother’s womb and be born a second time?” Jesus answered, “Believe me when I say that everyone must be born from water and the Spirit. Anyone who is not born from water and the Spirit cannot enter God’s kingdom. The only life people get from their human parents is physical. But the new life that the Spirit gives a person is spiritual.” [John 3:1-6] (The Healing Bible)

And I get my hope from these words everyday: “Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!” [II Corinthians 5:17] (The Amplified Bible) As long as I stay in Christ and He stays in me and I allow His nature and character to change mine to become more like His (by the fruit of the Holy Spirit), my love model will change, transforming my magnetic powers J. And I will become the Sister Wonder (thanks Jua) I was created to be! Now what color cape should I wear?

Peace.