Apparently there's a town my neck of the woods called, I kid you not... Screamer. It's only about 25 miles northeast of... Echo. No kidding. It's amazing what one can learn in the aftermath of tragedy.
We did wall to wall coverage of the storms yesterday, and the tragedy in Enterprise where one of our reporters, former lineman for the Florida Gators, Mr. Mike Gurspan, took his camera into Enterprise High School minutes after the tornado struck. If you watched the news last night and saw images of a gymnasium with water everywhere, and men carrying a student on a stretcher... that was Mike.
It was a tough day yesterday.
The owner of the flower shop where I work mornings spent much of THIS morning organizing a community (florist) effort to provide free flower arrangments to the funerals of the victims. The flowers themselves are being donated by a local wholesale distributer. Tomorrow, President Bush flies in to survey the damage. The station will be fully staffed in the morning if necessary, but without me... I'll be delivering flowers.
Enterprise is a nice 20 minute drive westward.
All I did yesterday was sit in front of the audio board for about 7 hours... didn't dig anyone out of rubble, carry the wounded... but boy was I wiped out by the end of the evening. The tension in the control room was positively crackling with energy. Everyone talking loud, and ignoring the audio guy... the one guy you DON'T want to fail to give direction to!
Which would you have preferred EL?
As you "progress" further and further down your religious path you care less and less for your fellow human being. You have had less happiness, understanding, and compassion. I could not live in the darkness and anger that swirl around you.
He cannot 'live in the darkness and anger that swirl around' me, yet last Friday evening he asked if I'd be interested in getting sushi with him. Hmmm. He doesn't want to LIVE in darkness and anger, but he's okay with SECOND-HAND darkness and anger. If I'd had the money I'd have gladly gone with him. B-TU's an alright guy in my book, outside any discussion of politics and religion....... Which should be apparent to anyone who reads this blog. Although, to be fair, his views on politics are far less abrasive in my book.
Now, I don't fancy myself a prophet... FAR FROM IT!... but his attitude toward me here, here lately, reminds me of Luke 4:24 and John 4:44 which essentially say, 'no prophet is accepted in his own country'... B-TU remembers the me that didn't display any concern for God or Godly pursuits. So his attitude toward me of late is understandable, though regrettable.
I hate that Ben is my biggest detractor. I would rather it were anyone else but him. As I said, he's alright in my book. My book, however, is not God's... He has higher standards than I, and expects more. Me? I like the people I like, and Ben just happens to be one of them.
You shout and swagger that your religion is the biggest on the block, and everyone else better just watch out. And when reality doesn't bow down to your religious bullying, you toss out threatening statements, or wide slurs.
I keep trying to show you humility and compassion, clear-sightedness and moderation. I see your religious views not as a shining light, but as a darkness of oppression and judgementalism. Look at your own profile picture for goodness sake.
I know only that over that past year you have stopped telling stories and jokes. You have stopped socializing with your colleagues. You sequester yourself in your alcove and no one knows what you are doing or thinking. You are no longer approachable or affable. These are the changes I have seen. I see someone who finds no joy in life. I see someone who looks only for others sins. I see someone whose creativity has diminished. I see someone who has less objectivity, who sees every issue from only one perspective. I see someone who has no curiosity.
You have become someone I would rather not get to know. You have never asked me what my personal religious beliefs are, you just keep stereotyping me.
----------------------------------
Back on topic: A tragedy strikes miles from your house and you have nothing to say about compassion or help or anything else. You writing here might have spurred people to donate or pray for Enterprise.
I do not think God hates homosexuals. He loves them, but being a just and loving God, He must punish sin. He is asking nothing more of homosexuals than He does the rest of humanity... accept the free gift of salvation through His son Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins and a guaranteed home in heaven. The acceptance of this gift, as you pointed out elsewhere, does come with a price; a hefty price, namely, to forsake the world and everything in it... to include personal, unnatural, and spiritually damaging lust. Harsher still, we are to love God so much that our love for family, and friends would seem 'Hate' in comparison. But no one is perfect, not even Christians... We still sin, because we are still in a corrupt body, living in a corrupt world.
The difference between us, and the rest of the world however, is our relationship to our Father... we confess our sins, he forgives us, and we move forward with a clean slate. For the unsaved, simply saying, "forgive me, God, for what I just said, I was just joking..." won't buy him/her forgiveness. God wants a commitment from the unsaved first-- First deal with the state of your soul, then let God worry about keeping you on the straight and narrow. Acknowledge you need God, that you have sinned against Him, and are justly condemned to hell for your sin, then call on the name of Jesus and believe ON Him not IN Him for your salvation. There's a spiritual battle going on; it's been going on for millenia, and each of us, whether we realize it or not must choose a side. I only want you to choose God's side.
We have discussed your personal regligious beliefs before, albeit in vague and indistinct terms. You've shared some of your experimental adventures in the woods with wiccans (or were they something else?) But as to what you actually/specifically believe? We argue vehemently over politics, and everyone else in the control room finds it amusing, but I'm, quite simply, tired of it. I have no desire to get into an agonizing discussion/argument with you over religion. If you want to share what you believe I'll happily listen. But honestly, I know we are not anywhere near agreement on faith on spiritual truths, so I've avoided the subject; choosing instead to pray for you each and every time I bow my head. Based on what you know of my belief do you honestly think I want you to end up anywhere else but heaven? If I've given you any reason to believe differently, I humbly apologize and assure you, that is NOT the case. I genuinely appreciate you and what measure of friendship we do have.
I am not perfect. You know this. You point it out every chance you get. And that's fine. I never claimed to be perfect, but I know what I know to be true, not because I can answer every challenge leveled against the Book of my faith off the top of my all but bald pate-- I can't! --but because my spirit tells me what is and is not true... whether or not I want to hear it! I constantly say things, do things, that immediately thereafter there's that small still voice saying, 'You were wrong to do/say that, you should have said/done this.. Go now and say/do this and make it right.' Sometime I obey (and I'm learning to obey more and more each day), and sometimes I don't... and I pay for it later with a horrible sense of aloneness... emptiness. I am never truly alone, however; the Holy Spirit never leaves, but He does shake His head in disapproval. And I am wounded deeply because of it. It may be difficult for you to imagine, but there is a great sense of loneliness when you feel the Spirit of God stongly disapproves of what you do... yet you do it anyway, and choose to walk in shame for hurting the one Person who loves you more than anyone else in the entire universe.
Thankfully, because I am a child of God, I don't have to worry about keeping myself pure, clean and unstained by personal sin, because I can't! That is God's job. There is nothing I can do cleanse myself. That is why I need God, and that is why He IS MY God. That is why Jesus is not only my Lord, my King, and my Savior, but my friend as well. Truth is, however, He is a better friend to me than I am to Him.