Yes, put me on the ping list.
What if it rhymes? Does that count?
And I don’t mean none o’ that hoitie-toitie, fine art, finishing school rhyming, either. I’m talking about down-to-earth, gutter scrapin’ wordplay like, “chance”, and “dance”, or “horizontal” and “periodontal”. Know what I mean? REAL rhymes for real people. Three chords and the truth kinda rhymin’. Accompanied by bouts of Tourette’s. And drinking binges. But no crying jags, man, that’s for them folkie types. 4/4 rhymes is where it’s at.
Count me in!
Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me. Ping me.
Um...
Please.
I am interested
Please add me to the list
Thank you
Bttt.
5.56mm
I are already the goodest righter I can sure be.
EXIT FORTY-THREE ~ COWARDS, VILLAINS, AND FAITH
There are times in life, ugly times, which can change a personality. If those times come too often, or too heavy, you might find that you’ve become unrecognizable to everyone, including yourself.
Don’t despair. With faith, you can once again bring yourself back to a place of peace and purpose. The true account of two errant men that follows will verify that it’s been done by even the most implausible of people.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Over the centuries, their association has been written about and read many times. They were teacher and student, with one literally altering the course of his life to follow the other. It was a true giving and receiving experience where the teacher unselfishly guided and provided for his apprentice.
Then came the teacher’s hour of need. Although guilty of no real crime, he was arrested. Suddenly, it was neither safe nor wise to be known as this man’s follower. A crowd gathered and someone singled out the student, exclaiming to all that this man was an associate of the captured man. Then, the apprentice became afraid for his own life and repeatedly shouted, “I do not know this man.”
The student fled from the accusers, attempting to keep himself safe. He succeeded but, in reality, there was no place to escape the guilt and shame that came from being a coward. A few hours later, his devoted teacher was badly beaten, flogged, and put to death.
You could assume the apprentice never amounted to much in life. After all, the shameful label of coward should have remained with him for the rest of his time. Instead, this denying apprentice would become one of the most acclaimed leaders of all time in his mentor’s teachings. He actually rose above his shame to become someone who was admired and followed by so many others.
Now, there was another man during these times that was admired by many and was certainly no coward. And although he never met the teacher before his death, this villainous man made it his life’s mission to destroy his work. He went as far as finding, arresting, and putting to death those that dared follow the teacher.
Like the coward who would become a prominent leader, this heinous man also turned out to be another who defied man’s reason. On the road to town one day, a chance encounter with faith caused a change in his heart. As a result, he would become one of the world’s most famous and admired authors.
How is such a powerful, positive change possible? How could a coward rise from such guilt and shame to become a man of courage? How could a villain become an ally and a man of faith? Well, according to the testimony of both, each was visited by the teacher in the flesh after he was savagely put to death, and that altered their lives forever.
It was the Apostle Peter who shamefully denied Jesus three times in his hour of need. Yet Peter would become the first official leader of the Christian Church. It was the Apostle Paul who first sought out and persecuted Christians. Paul would then go on to spread the Christian Church to the outermost regions of his known world and authored more books of the Bible than any other man.
_________________________________________________________________________________
These are amazing stories for sure. When you think about them, however, if God created the universe, who else is more capable of transforming hearts and turning cowards into men of bravery and villains into allies?
If life has taken you to a place inside where you don’t want to be, or into a broken person you never imagined, faith will change your heart.
I often think I might have a story or two that is waiting to be explored, but I'm not motivated enough to put down the books I'm reading to create my own...
Thanks!
Another bump - Another Exit (Chapter) from my book, Digest of the Broken Road Traveler
EXIT EIGHT ~ DIAL IN THE GOOD STATIONS
You’ve surely experienced driving between towns in your car when the radio station you’ve been enjoying fades out. Why? Because you’re moving away from the source of the broadcast. The antenna that sends out the radio frequency is back in another town that you’ve purposely left behind.
If you do nothing with your radio dial, you might soon only hear annoying static. Or maybe you begin to hear several frequencies battling each other and belting out nothing but a confusing garble of inaudible noise. Knowing there’s a new town on the horizon, though, you begin retuning your dial, searching, finding, and then leaving it set to some new program that hopefully moves you.
Your soul is very much like your car radio. It, too, receives frequency signals from broadcast stations found along the waypoints of your life. Your conscious mind is the driver that listens to what’s being offered, based on where you are in life and where you’ve set your listening dial.
You can choose to listen to a myriad of stations as you move along your life’s journey. Some will broadcast programs that offer faith, hope, growth, and joy. Other stations transmit only despondency, doubt, confusion, and fear. Others, still, offer nothing but mindless dribble. Life is filled with endless offerings for a being granted free will by the Father.
To that end, your soul receives all those signals, whether good or bad, and presents them to you as a choice on your radio dial. What stations that you, the driver, or the conscious mind, tunes or retunes to is solely up to you.
Sadly, most drivers have absolutely no idea they even have a radio dial, or that they can change the station at all. They just go about life while accepting and listening to whatever’s being played at the moment.
Some desire positive support but are only tuned to negative frequencies and wonder why they can’t find happiness. It’s like desiring to hear rock music when the radio dial is set to a talk show format.
Some drivers move between waypoints and, as their signal fades, just accept the mind-numbing static that plays. Because of this, their journey seems boring and meaningless, but they just keep driving along.
As they approach the next town, however, their radio begins picking up a fresh signal on the same dial setting. Soon, a new program plays loud and clear. Unfortunately, this one is negative, with nothing that offers the driver hope and happiness. And, with no understanding of how to change the station, their life becomes a very sad journey.
How can you learn to change the radio station along your life’s journey? Train your conscious mind to always be aware of what’s playing. Focus on changing your thoughts from bad to good. Begin to become aware of when it’s fading or playing something that doesn’t serve you well. In those moments of realization, consciously adjust your radio dial.
You certainly want to change your dial to something pleasant and inspiring, right? But do it ever so gently, at first. Don’t try to force it. It’s actually better to let a bad broadcast play out than it is to fight against it. That only creates anxiety and tension in your mind. And if you remain consciously aware of what’s playing, you can take away as much positive growth from the bad as you can from the good.
Using your conscious awareness is always the best way to keep your radio dial tuned to what you want and need to hear. To that end, when you do hear it, remember to express gratitude and appreciation to your soul for making available that which you desire to hear.
With conscious effort, you can tune your soul’s radio, and your mind’s radio dial, into an inspirational way of experiencing life. You’ll have a full understanding that your soul takes in all frequencies and freely offers them for your use.
Tune your dial to a station that’s aligned with positive growth.