We need God's love more than ever.

A young man robs a convienence store, does not obey a cops orders when confronted, possibly even fights back. The cop shoots the young man multiple times, most likely using excessive force and fails to even try any restraint what so ever, killing the young man, and at this moment will not be punished for any wrong doing. A community is outraged, and some overreact by destroying property of the very community they claim they love and are wanting to fight for. The cop in my opinion does not show any sympathy, and even if he was justified in his actions, I find odd, this cop never once had to discharge his weapon on duty previously, so the first time he did, a man dies, and he does not even show any remorse for ending a mans life. leads to questions I don't like to have to ask. The young man who is killed is from a broken family, living in a community that has very weak standards for themselves, its evident in how it has reacted to this tragedy, reacting in a way, hurting the community even more.

Millions of individuals have come to this country illegally, mostly cause they know that their chance of a fruitful life is 100% better here than where they where born. A large majority of them come with the expectation of working hard, and earning a life they could not have otherwise. Many of them do just that, work hard, trying to meet the systems guidelines,some of them though do not, and take advantage of a system that is very easy to take advantage of. But due to various reasons, some justified, some not, they are met with a strong dislike, even hatred by a group of people, who think just cause they where born here, they have more human rights. So much so that this large group of people are willing to very harshly punish the first group of people for doing something they themselves would probably do if they where in the others shoes. And though some of the punishment by law would be justified, the extent this punishment would reach, would be completely against what this country was built on.

A man and a woman live a married life for years, have a child or two. After time life's challenges wear on them, they start to blame the other for not meeting these life challenges to the expectations that had for each other. This leads to strong feelings of hurt, which lead to looking at each other in negative ways. They start to look to other people for support, to fill the need they once looked to each other for, and then they disgrace the marriage, doing things they promised they would never do. The end up living separate lives, passing on to their children the idea that this type of thing is the norm, and its ok.

A homeless man, visits a church. Hoping to find something that will cause him to want to hold onto this life. He sits and listens to a sermon, and feels hope, but as he is leaving the auditorium, he sees dirty looks, hears a mother tell her son to stay away from that man, while looking in his direction. And sees people try to aviod him, possibly due to his oder. He comes to a realization that what he was looking for does not exist.

A man harshly judges and treats his younger siblings very badly for a period of time. His siblings are not ones who deal with being hurt well and cannot forgive. So when the man tries to act as a loving Brother, and even make up for the hurt he caused, its not excepted. The hurt is to great to move past in their eyes.

These are all things happening right now, all over our country/world, and also have happened over and over again throughout the years. And seem to be happening more and more. And whats worse is that as they happen more and more, people just move along like these things are no big deal. They get chaulked up to, well its just the way things are, or it becomes so normal that people actually expect it to happen, thus do not try and prevent it.

What's the constant in all these. Selfishness, anger, lack of empathy, lack of respect for the individual, laziness? Yes, but at the root, its the lack of love. Where is the love for our fellow man/woman, our community, our spouses and siblings? And where is our love for God? Instead we are seeing the growing opinion that love is not needed, seeing a world where God is not needed.

A man now is not sure why this is effecting him so much, but it is all of a sudden. He has always been one to gripe about society, its greed, its selfishness, its lack of caring for each other. But it never made him feel like it has been lately, on the verge of tears at times when he thinks about the world his children will be dealing with when he is no longer here. Maybe its middle age, maybe its fatherly fears. Or maybe he has just recently experienced real love, Gods's love, and he realizes how lost he was without it. And he is so humbled by it, that he now truly hurts for the ones who are not experincing it. It's an odd feeling, so opposite of one he is used to, He does not even know at this time what to do with it. So he reaches for ways to use it, and at times he will reach in the wrong direction, and his actions might be misguided at times, because his is still figuring them out.

I pray that this man is able to see why God has done what is being done in his life, and what he is now to do going forward with what God has given him. That he is open to the path God has laid out for him, and that it leads to others finding the love he now experiences daily. And maybe just maybe these others that experience it will pass it along as well, and that maybe a few of the above mentioned scenarios will be avoided.

Whine and do nothing, or make an impact.

This short post is an accumulation of many things I have had thoughts on posting about. I have very strong opinions about many aspects of our world/country. and many of them are what is wrong, and what should or should not be done. I though many times do not widely share those opinions, the main reason being I am not actually doing anything to help initiate or make any changes.

Well these past couple weeks I have felt convicted to get involved somehow, to find a way to make change, or at least try and make an impact. The probelm is I have not an idea where to start, and I have no idea which of my various issues need to be focused on. So I have been looking for oppotunities, to use the few usefull skills I have been blessed with, to make an impact.

I have identified two of my biggest issues with society. 1. Our political system, and 2, America's selfish and prideful nature. Now there is no way I can make any huge impact on either of those, but what impact I can make needs to start with gaining knowledge of why these two things are the way they are, finding ways to show what changes I think can happen and what if anything I can do to make an impact.

First off I HATE politics, with a passion, but even with that disdain, I need to be knowledgable of how the system works if I want to even try to get involved in change. So next month I plan on attending city council meetings. Just a start.

Then I am going to find ways through my church, to get involved in community and missions. Starting with the greatest life group of all at Lakepointe Church in Rockwall.

This way even if my impact is that of a BB pellet shot at an elephant, at least I can say I have gotten off my Azz and tried, unlike 99% of the other people out there whining.