Be Thankful

So I had an epiphany a few years ago but I never really shared it with anyone because it only made sense in my head. So if the following confuses you, it’s completely my fault. But I digress.

The train of though that lead to the epiphany started with something Dr. Hovind said. He basically said that God is not stuck in time like we are. Then I stopped paying attention to him because my big brain started wondering around trying to figure out that statement.

We’re stuck I the present, reminiscing about the past and looking forward to (or dreading) the future. So, by definition, God should be able to see me as I will be and as I was all at the same time. Almost as if my life was a DVD and the first chapter is my birth and just before the credits is my death. (SIDE NOTE: I’d love to see the trailer for that movie; but I digress.) Except that God doesn’t need to see my life in any order or even just on one screen. He should be able to process every frame of my life simultaneously.

MATH (feel free to skip this part is it bores you)
The average US lifespan is 77.2 years.
That’s 28,178 days.
That’s 676,272 hours.
That’s 40,576,320 minutes.
That’s 2,434,579,200 seconds.
And as we all know movies are shown at 24 frames per second.
So that’s 58,429,900,800 frames of your life that can be processed by the Almighty at once. (DVD speed)
But that’s with movies; our eyes are capable of processing 70 frames per second.
So that’s 170,420,544,000 frames. (Human speed)
And you know that the Lord isn’t gonna settle for a regular screen.
He’s got ultra hi def with 360° surround sound, but I digress.

Then my mind wondered to the things I really wanted and worked hard to get and then when I got them I didn’t really use it. Among those things is my Nokia N-Gage QD. I got it, obsessed about it for a several weeks and then it was just my phone. The only game I had was Tony Hawke and I rarely played it.

Then I had the though that we all have too often. “If I knew then what I knew now …” There have been things that I have prayed for and never got and I thought that maybe God was just saving me from having to say it again “If I knew then what I knew now …”

Then I had a crazy idea. If I pray for something after I already got it, the prayer should have the same force and effect because God is not stuck in time. But that’s silly! Why would I pray for something I already have?

Me, being me, I decided to give it a shot. I got on my knees, closed my eyes, clasped my hands and prayed out loud: “Heavenly Father God: Thank y…” I stopped. I had the epiphany. I immediately opened my eyes and stud up.

I realized who God tends to listen to and which prayers he deems worthy of answering. If I pray for something that I will be truly grateful for long after I have received it, then I shall receive it. But if those post event gratitude is not to come, then neither is the event.

Now I could be way off about this, and it could be that I did a terrible job communicating this idea to you, but it makes sense to me and I believe it. I believe that the grateful receiver shall only receive more from He who is glad to give.

So I guess this epiphany is a message of Thanksgiving.
So be thankful, or else … nothing … will happen … to you.

There is such a thing as too right

What I think happened is that I was always on the right, a conservative by every definition. Then the right moved further right and I chose not to follow them. I didn't go to the left, the right went righter.

I received an e-mail from a trusted and beloved friend listing the reasons why Christians should vote republican in the upcoming election. What follows is my reply to his e-mail, and my impression to the opposite.



I don't buy it.

Obama was handed an economy on life support.
Put there by a republican president with majorities in the house and the senate until, I think, 2006.
Bush abandoned the war everyone supported for the one that noone understood.
He relaxed regulations that would have saved us from the economic crisis (maybe even the oil disaster).

I might agree with the argument that Obama has increased the deficit and international debt with little to show for it.
But look at what he has to work with.
Every proposal he has supported, even if it was one championed by republicans just a few years ago, now filibustered by those same republicans.
Filibusters not for any understandable objections, but simply because they are being proposed by democrats.

Example
The democrats want to extend the Bush tax cuts for all except those who make over $250,000.00 a year.
The republicans want the to extend that cut for all.
Democrats don't think we can afford that.
To get what they want, republicans are threatening to let those tax breaks expire, giving the middle class a major tax hike.
To get what they want, they are holding the middle class hostage.

I'm not saying democrats are saints.
But it's clear by their tactics and policies that the republicans aren't looking out for the every-day American; or at least not anymore.

The way I seek it:
Democrats are well meaning cowards.
Republicans are boastful jerks.

I find one more attractive than the other.

Republicans boast as believers, but by their policies and behaviors, many of them fail as Christians.
Democrats shy away from their faith durring elections, but seem to be guided by their hearts in office.

Reminds me of the parable of the two brothers.
One said yes, but didn't follow through.
The other said no, but delivered in the end.

I find one more attractive than the other.

I may be wrong.