Month: May 2018

Check Back In…

On By Papa TonyIn ThoughtLeave a comment

image001Many people living today aren’t quite living anymore. They’re sort of half in and half out. You can see it in their eyes, the revelation of their souls. Something has happened to damage their heart, not fatally, but enough to dim their glow and diminish their passion for being. They only half participate with life and have long since settled for the mundane over the excitement of fulfillment and satisfaction. Sadly, they have checked out of life and need badly to check back in.

Assuming you aren’t so far gone as to conclude that “life’s a bitch and then you die,” what the hell has happened to people to reduce their fiery flame into a flicker? What catastrophic event or events took place to so harden and numb people’s hearts to the point of accepting mere existence? People are lost and without hope in a world created for their greatest fulfillment and blessing. No-one began their life this way, so something must have become involved along the way that worked to steal life and to reduce life and to suffocate life and worst of all to convince people that it was normal. What happened?

Every living person has a heart beating inside forcing life-giving blood into every part of the body. Likewise, every person living has a figurative heart, deep inside their mind, from which their life proceeds. As such, the heart of your mind, like your physical heart must be cared for properly if you are going to survive. But, unlike the physical heart, the heart of your mind was intended for much, much more than mere survival. Your heart was made to experience love and joy and wonder. Your heart was planned to be the fountain from which your life flowed forth. All that you could ever hope to be and to experience would begin in your heart, eventually manifesting outwardly into your life. Your heart by design is very tender and sensitive to feeling (like it’s Creator) with the capacity to respond to even the slightest sensation and with that react immediately to any attacks or assaults on itself with great displeasure and a determination to get back to its highest, purest most peaceful self. Thus God commanded man to guard his heart above everything that could be guarded in his life. When you find yourself but only half living, half experiencing, filling your days with pointless activities and routines to pass the time, it is safe to say that you have somewhere failed to guard your heart, a practice of which all men are guilty, with the degree of misery corresponding directly, thought for thought with the associated failure to guard your heart.

Living life on earth with an evil despot ruling the kingdoms of the world, not in accordance with God’s will, but rather as a result of guile and treachery, things are going to happen to you that will directly assault your heart. Parents, in their own conundrums, will fail you and speak damage into your being. Friends and experiences and relationships and any or all interactions will take shots at that vital part of you and work to steal away your life force and reduce your life to a glass of wine, a television and a couch! And sadly today more than ever before in history, there’s an electronic world artfully attached to your soul seducing you with a thousand messages assailing who you are by comparison and who you ought to be. Add to that life’s catastrophes that shake your very core or violence or the abject pain of broken hearts (aptly named) and broken dreams. The result of which is an entire mass of people with dimness in their eyes with little to no energy left to fight back and to recover. Then enters the greatest cruelty of all named religion bent on, by guilt, unworthiness and shame, wiping out any remaining hope for the future replacing it with fear of a punishment later on. Indeed it is a sad state of affairs of which only God can repair.

On the way back to your true heart, I think you will find compensations you have added to your life such as numbing elements or busy activities or anything that seeks to take your mind and thoughts away from the moment you are in. Step one is to be in the moment and notice what you are thinking or what pain you are avoiding or maybe just how uncomfortable it is to risk being with your own thoughts undistracted for a time. In order to change what is in your heart, if you don’t like what you are experiencing or how you feel, you have to start changing your thoughts. You have to be present to recognize what you are thinking and then start challenging those thoughts. Just like working to lose the weight that affects your physical heart takes time, ridding yourself of wrong thoughts and wrong beliefs takes time and consistent, persistent effort.

Naturally, if you are going to recover from the “life sucks” syndrome, you are going to have to do some things you haven’t been doing. Some of which might include getting out of your shell and going back out there where the people and your life are and stop incubating in your unhappiness. (Broken hearts incubate inward while healthy hearts extend outward…) Don’t even think you have any hope at deliverance and escape if you aren’t willing to be supremely humble. You got got man! You got taken woman! You and your “I already know” thinking aren’t going to help you here. (This is why you need God’s help to recover!) You have to honestly humble yourself and be just as willing to unlearn as you have been to learn. You have to start questioning the “wheel” of things and dismiss the notion of acceptance for that which is less than the best. It is not just how life is and it’s certainly not God’s will for your life!

Check back in folks! I know why you checked out (been there and done that) but I also know it isn’t the best use of your one go round around the sun. You can get that glimmer back in your eyes. You can put your heart back into life fully rather than half guarded and calloused in anticipation of further pain. You can once again risk by giving love and being kind to people and sharing your tender heart. Waiting for you on the other side of your damaged and broken heart is life in all of its manifestations and variations, exciting, fulfilling and joyful just as God designed it to be…

Check back in, it’s so, so worth it.

Just some good thoughts…

 

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Birthday Blog #57

On By Papa TonyIn ThoughtLeave a comment

31577004_10216052592129486_1231818185523593216_oAs I reflect back on another trip around the sun, I cannot help but be filled with great thankfulness and joy for the sweetness that surrounds me in this life. As a youngster in college, a generous and loving man reached out to me and introduced me to God. I should say more formally introduced me, as God and I had many conversations in the past, but back then I only hoped He was all that I thought He should be. Since that immortal day, my life has never been the same.

Back then I, like you, was full fear and trepidation about life. And although I had all the vim and vigor that surrounds youth, I was still pretty shaky about how it would all turn out. I mean let’s face it, life can be pretty scary with loads of potential pitfalls. In college, I had some run-ins with a couple of religious groups and I knew I didn’t want that! I didn’t want anything that seemed designed solely to make me feel bad about myself! Shoot, I didn’t even know I was looking for something, but apparently I was.

Then I took this class called PFAL (Power for Abundant Living) and learned the Bible for myself. Holy shit, I found the holy grail. I found a congruous whole that didn’t cause me to sneeze, cough or sputter! I found out that God was not only all I had hoped He would be, but He was even better than that. I learned that He is only good and never changes in His views towards me. My life took off like gangbusters as I began to shed fears like old skin. I was living on the high road and the sky literally was the limit. (Cliche junction)

Some years later as my children got older and my purpose became less clear, I, like you, sort of lost my way a little bit. I forgot about how good God was to me and began to see Him in a different light. Oh, He didn’t change, I did! I learned from certain folks that the Way I knew and loved so much, wasn’t really as easy and free as I thought. I was taught rules and regulations and requirements that accompany maturity – so-called. And, apparently all those days I was living the high life were really just a figment of my youth and real life, life with God was damn arduous and fraught with the danger of “blowing it” or worse. Welcome to the life suck club.

I found out the hard way, that once you get captured by religion, the way back is difficult. That stuff attaches to your brain like oil and you can’t just wash it out overnight. In fact, it likely will claim years of your life. However obnoxious it begins, it seems less impactful as I imagine you get used to its claims. All you know is that you now have fear where you used to have love. In your desperation, you try to do good works hoping the Lord will start to like you again like He did before. The harder you work, the less He seems to care and you start morphing into those people you hate; the ones filled with self-righteousness, but miserable as f*ck! You’re struggling, but God is still bigger than your malarky!

Then, not suddenly but surely, something or someone gets you back to God’s Word; the Word that saved you and changed you and blessed you. And in your private quest, you, like me, begin to discover who God is again. You read what it says and you study what it says and you begin to relish what it says and just like that it dawns on you! The light at first flickers then glows into full flame. All this bullshit you have been thinking and regretting and worrying about God is not true and it was never true. You were taught incorrectly. You were led off course. You got sucked down a rabbit hole and lived there for way too long!

As you shake off the last vestiges of error, your heart wakes up. Your sleepy, numbed, slightly wilted heart wakes back up. You understand the profound significance of keeping your head in God’s Word and putting nothing ahead of the truth of God’s Word! You see, glory heallelujah, that it’s not famous charasmatic men that saved you, but God in the sublime accomplishments of His son, carefully outlined in His Word. You catch glimpses of not only who you are, but who you have the potential to be! You feel like you got some power going on inside and you need to let it out to help set others free; the free you cherish so dearly!

You may now be thinking this a sad story or a warning for how you live your life.  It’s not. What this is – is an ever-growing thankfulness and joy and blessed love between a son and his Heavenly Father. It is a deep, heartfelt, inexpressible gratefulness for having a God that never gives up on you even when you sort of give up on Him. It’s indescribable joy that comes from the pure truth minus the religious admixture. It is 57 glorious years of life on earth with God as my backbone, my rock and my fortress. It is, “Life – you don’t frikkin scare me anymore!” It’s just the greatest ride ever and I wouldn’t change one piece of it!

You, like me, should learn about God and not allow the promoters of religious sacrifice to rob you of one of the greatest experiences you could ever have, not just now, but throughout all eternity! God is not too good to be true, He is so good He is true! He is your first love that makes all your other loves that much sweeter… Choose God! Choose love!

I am one blessed individual…

Just some good thoughts.

 

Getting Your Peace of the π…

On By Papa TonyIn Thought3 Comments

il_300x300.1478352631_i5dd“There’s a peace in this world that the world never gave; a peace it cannot take away. Though the trials of life may surround like a cloud, I’ve a peace that has come here to stay…” The peace that passes all understanding is absolutely not dependent upon the circumstances of life. It is not something to be sought and found on the outside but instead something to discover from within. It is perhaps the most beautiful experience of life and makes everything it touches radiate with love. It is time you got your peace of the π (the infinite)!

In a world ruled by what you can see and what you can hear; by how things feel and how they smell; by each good taste and every bad taste, peace is damn hard to come by! In fact, often the success we so ardently seek is pursued in the hopes that we may find that elusive peace of mind, that hard-fought financial stability or some other similar guarantee that we can finally relax and be okay. We find ourselves agitated and pushed around each day. The demands of life nag at us and require that we bend, modify and cajole ourselves (and others) in order to escape the grasp of the next threat, the looming trouble, the disaster waiting just beyond the horizon. We run and we run from an enemy we cannot clearly discern though we cannot deny the effects of his presence. We cannot find our peace because we look in all of the wrong places for it. We keep waiting for the stars to align; for our ship to come in; for some grand circumstance to occur that spells the end of all worry and concern.

Peace is properly defined as the end of the strife. It is the back side of the conflict. It is the quiet after the clamor and the silence that follows the struggle. It’s the calm air above the turbulence. It’s the water in the sand after the roaring tide goes out. It is not something to be won by fighting but something to be embraced when the fighting is done. The reason it tends to escape the minds of men is because it is not something to be earned or garnered by toil and trouble, but something to be enjoyed simply by being and accepting. Peace presents itself to you when you finally disengage yourself from the threats; from the incessant demands to do something and trust in something bigger than yourself to continue on the fight! It is letting go and letting God! It’s a decision to no longer be party of the first part, party of the second part and party of the third part. It’s to gently entreat and convince that gargantuan monster of an ego to give up its coveted first place in line. It is a resolved decision to stop relying entirely on seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and tasting as the only means from which to draw conclusions and to trust the wisdom of Someone infinitely larger and smarter and wiser than you can ever hope to be…

Outside of God and His goodness; His unparalleled ability to do, there is no peace; no genuine lasting peace. Instead there will be a fleeting, counterfeit peace that follows promising circumstances or the sun shining or a new job or more money or a larger house, or whatever it is that you can see and experience that points clearly to better days preparing ahead. And though enjoyable, it’s fleeting because sometimes the sun doesn’t shine and sometimes your current jobs sucks and something took your money and then you had to move out of your larger house! And in your circumstance dominated existence you will never be happy because you are always waiting on something outside of yourself to make you happy! Genuine peace, rare in its discovery, rests upon a foundation more sure than favorable circumstances! It rests upon the truth, perfect and without cracks where no error can seep in and agitate. It is a guarantee from the only true Guarantor!

This life with all of its twists and turns; its bumpy roads; its endless list of things to be worried about, will wear you out before your days are complete. It will eat your soul, age you before your time and suck the life force right out of you breath by breath until you are done! You cannot gather up enough riches and banks and fortresses and armies and followers and knowledge to do this thing alone armed with the limitations of your solo brain power or collective brain power for that matter.

Your peace will greet you when you have finally punched out from the rat race and let all that stuff go that used to haunt your mind. Quit trying to figure it all out and see the end at the beginning. Stop allowing the circumstances of a day to falsely predict your future! Cease from all of your works and feeble attempts to make yourself deserving of God’s goodness and instead expect the goodness He gives you not because you deserve it, but because you don’t! Trust His accomplishments for you above your own. Take what He gave you and quit trying to pay more for it! Be done…

The peace that passes all understanding transcends your humanity and reaches deep into the spiritual world from whence it has its beginnings. Have you ever experienced what it feels like to be completely and absolutely at peace, unafraid and secure in every respect? Have you ever felt the sublime excellence of a complete and utter lack of agitation and tumult? If not, it is there for you, waiting for you to let go of self and human perseverance and reach into the infinite. Get your peace of the π!

Just some good thoughts…