Are You Alone in Your Choices

Do you feel lonely?  Often in our daily activities and pursuits many of us feel imposed into a box of desertion.  This happens often in our good deeds.  Yet, it also happens during the wages of sin.  Where does this feeling come from?  Who authors such abandonment of spirit?  It is a big problem which can lead to the disestablishment of the family, skewed lifestyles and even death.  I am not a doctor or even someone schooled in such a field of psychology.  Perhaps this makes me all the more qualified to contemplate the mindset and state of man.

I'd like to break it down into varied areas which this occurs.  Starting with deeds that you enact for the benefit of others.  Serving your fellow man is of utmost quality and is the greatest means of building ones integrity, charity, understanding and pure love.  However, a correct and stable mind is essential in allowing your spirit to reap that light which prevents that isolation and loneliness which may come.  Envy and jealousy is a rampant disease which caps one's own potential and happiness.  You may see others prospering and being productive in their good works.  Unfortunately this may give the false reasoning to endeavor is good works yourself.  Competing with the character and seeming blessings of another man is not good, and all subsequent works that you do will be tainted and stained with your own fingerprints.  It is an eternal truth that your works rooted in envy and jealousy will always leave you bitter and feeling forsaken.  Envy and jealousy will also leave you focusing on your own rewards as you engage in the service of others.

A growing mind, a stable mind, will always strive in good works for the temporal and spiritual well-being of others.  It is to look upon the fatherless, the widow, the homeless and sick and feel in your soul that longing to provide relief.  It is that prompting from that unseen power that brings you into fields of choices (your agency to choose) whereby you may serve.  A proper heart and mind will always strive in a path of selfless service.  When you extend a hand to the downtrodden without thought of self or reward - that is where the blessings flow.

This is the little known silent truth that should resound in the familiar heart of man:

Spending your life in the selfless service of others magnifies and expands your liberties and choices - which ultimately leads to true happiness.

Understand from your reading so far that your happiness and favor in the sight of your own God depends on your intent of service.  For the Christian the following passage from Deuteronomy 6:5 clearly states that your whole being must be turned toward God and his will, not yours.

"And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."

Yes, at times this may leave you feeling rather alone as far as with other men is concerned.  They may scoff, point and even persecute you for your good works.  Yet, your proper service may leave you in your sweet solitude with your own Maker who comforts all hearts.  This is where your integrity is.  This is where your happiness is.  You've exercised selfless service and walked into fields of liberty.  Now, you are truly not alone.  

There is a self-imposed emptiness in sin.  There has only been one perfect Man to walk the earth.  That is by design and equally by design that all other men are flawed and subject to sin and correction.  When we do engage in sin or ill-will against another it is most often done in secret dark erroneous shadows.  We wallow in the prideful nature of deceit and ugly masks.  Your endeavors may offer you the view of success and satisfaction but it is always a far cry from legitimate happiness and fulfillment.  To entice and drag you through the depths of despair is the mission of the adversary and his legions of imps.  That is part of the reason why they were cast down forever disembodied.  Yet, like cowards they will always veil your eyes with the illusion of success but leave you utterly abandoned when the curtain surely falls.

Interestingly, this path does leave you restricted in liberty and your choices continually become few.  This funneled outlook is contrary to the unlimited potential design of the human spirit.  Of course, engaging in sin will leave you utterly alone and feeling forsaken.  The key is at the start of each decision you make.

It is so important to feel inclusive with your fellow man.  We are created not to be alone, yet stand alone when occasion warrants it.  We are a community of beings inclined to progress as a team with a common cause or goal.  The choices we make every moment of the day dictate our place in that journey.  The key to not feeling alone is literally in your choices.  Make healthy choices designed in interaction with others, genuineness of spirit and selfless service.

Don't be afraid to self correct at the first sign of your choices being restricted.  That is a giveaway that you may be under adverse conditions.  Refrain from daily habits that degrade or attempt to degrade your senses.  Always walk in the light of uplifting information and interaction.  Think big in your positive effectiveness in the world.

Last but not least always know that you are a son or daughter of the Most High.  Whatever God you figure that power to be, that enables you as a potential prince or princess, a king or queen.  All based on your choices.  The accountability thereof will be your reward or downfall.  There is no loneliness but what we make.  Know your potential, walk the path and you will find yourself in the company of concourses of angels and friends.

Shenandoah Installs the Pledge of Allegiance

Given the current state of the world it isn't often we have something good and virtuous to report on.  I am pleased and filled with hope as the news crossed my ears that our youth in Shenandoah, the heartland and corn belt of America, are once again saying the Pledge of Allegiance at the High School.  It is my deep desire for the sake of the rising generation that this continues along with the displaying of our national flag.  With gratitude and thanks I humbly offer to the local school board and/or other entities and individuals that made this wise decision for the youth of this community.

Many of us remember the Pledge from our own youth.  We crossed our heart with our right hand and focused on the flag.  We weren't "offended" by any means.  In fact, patriotism aside, most of us enjoyed those few brief moments because it got us out of our seats and "saved" us from school curriculum (jokingly said).  By and large none of us knew the depth of meaning the Pledge of Allegiance was intended to produce in us.  Yet, in a subtle quiet way it did help bond us as one in an identifying way that we were all Americans.

"I pledge of allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Since when did this simple yet powerful few words cause so much heartache and distaste for so many with internal personal problems?  Is it really so difficult to understand that once you strip patriotism and allegiance from the schools it is a sure road to mutual and national distrust.  It also leads to entitlements and complacency.  In essence it strips all personal responsibility and the very spiritual means to prosper and appreciate the United States of America.  

Many of our modern leaders have been raised up by adverse means to lofty positions.  They would have us think that America is substandard and undeserving of the liberties its foundation ensures.  They seek to sway us from those things that have served to cement or unify us as a people on this blessed land.  Most all nations render its citizens under a singular flag.  Curious how we've let ourselves go so far as shrink to minority opinion and look with regret our flag and Pledge that so many have fought and died for.  Such sacrifice on many foreign lands as well as our own for the stars and stripes and the freedoms and liberties which they represent.  

That next phrase identifies the system of government we ascribe to.  It is interesting how the mass of talking heads in the United States render America as a Democracy.  This is incorrect as we are truly a Republic.  I believe this is a key part of the problem that is quietly swept under the rug.

This Republic stands as one nation under God!  I am confident and resolute in saying so.  I relish and give thanks for that assurance and truth.  This phrase doesn't dictate what form of God we are all to believe in.  Instead it just places our gratitude and prosperity at the feet of a God whom we acknowledge as being subject to.  This phrase is crucial!  With proper observance it prevents ill-decisions and most of all unproductive pride.  Any amount of study into nations that have fallen before should bear witness that conditions spiraled unto destruction with the boasting pride of its people caused by the virus of its leaders.

We simply acknowledge that Higher Power for which we owe everything.  Everything from our prosperity to our very lives and property.

The rest of the inspired Pledge characterizes our people as being one and equal in opportunity and liberty.  With so many people today screaming "unfair!" and feel entitled to certain things they fail to see that at the heart of the foundation of this nation we are still bound by basic liberties and freedoms that we can all take part in and benefit from.  Its only when we become "offended" that we feel infringed upon and belittled by those who do prosper in the United States of America.  

"To be offended is a choice we make; it is not a condition inflicted or imposed upon us by someone or something else."

This is a quote offered by David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Finally a leader takes the blade of truth to the heart of every American.  Unfortunately, many Americans would take offense to that statement about offense!  Duh!  Anyhow, I believe like quotes are what is needed from our national leaders.  They need to stop pandering to voter blocks and start trusting in God (i.e. the Pledge) in the discharge of their duty to serve the people and protect their freedoms and liberties.  To not do so would be to welcome a destruction the likes of which has never been seen before in the history of the world.  

I am grateful for Francis Bellamy who in 1892 under the inspiration from his Creator formed the Pledge of Allegiance.  I am grateful for a by-and-large God-fearing Congress of the United States who adopted the Pledge of Allegiance in 1942.  I am grateful for the inspiration of God in 1954 to install "under God" into the Pledge.  Again, I am grateful for the powers of the Shenandoah School system and others across the nation for allowing this vital piece of growth back into our schools.  Now, the test shall be to see if we all will maintain this standard or fold in time to political or legal-threatened pressures.

Disturbing Epileptic Grand Mal Seizure and God in Religion

Facing life-marking events that affect not only you but those around you is not always easy.  In fact, I believe they aren't meant to be.  This is true for events which you have no control over your own body.  I've had around seven or eight grand mal seizures in my life.  These seizures have a profound affect on my emotions, outlooks and self perception.  These are tonic-clonic seizures which qualify as a life-marking event.  To exit the 2013 year with a grand "c'est la vie" I marked the occasion with a full blown tonic-clonic grand mal seizure.  Forgive me if that last sentence seemed light-hearted.  If I don't keep laughing at myself then what's the point of it all.

If I were alone for this year-end bang I wouldn't have as much a problem with it.  However, as the stars would have it I was standing at a church pulpit conducting a meeting.  This is the horror which faces me.  I care not what happens to me and my health but the affect this condition has on the people around me runs deep with lasting magnitude.  What were the people thinking?  More importantly, what were all the children thinking?  Even more important, what was my family thinking?  These are questions asked by those of us who suffer with periods of total control loss over one's own body.

I don't have these seizures all the time.  It's interesting, my first encounter with a tonic-clonic seizure occurred during my Army service in 1991.  I was outside the tear gas chamber when I went down.  I remember standing there waiting to be dismissed and next thing I know I had a brief encounter with conscientiousness on the medivac helicopter.  My sergeant looked at me and said, "Son, you had a seizure."  Before I fell unconscious again my last feelings were of utter and complete failure.  That was all I recollect from that helicopter but that one sentence became emboldened in my soul and formed, in large part, who I am today.

After my medical discharge I did, shortly thereafter, have a couple more grand mals that year.  Seizure-free was my dance clear until the end of 1999.  At that point I could have killed myself and others as my episode took place around the juncture of Interstates 80 and 29 in Council Bluffs, Iowa.  My senses were roused with the sound of a State Trooper knocking on my window in the ditch on the other side of the interstate facing the opposite direction.  During rush hour I apparently crossed all east-bound lanes, crossed the median and then all the west-bound lanes.  Finally, I wound up in the ditch.  Now only ignorance and arrogance would dictate someone to say there is no God.  Especially when no other accident, let alone any deaths, were spawned by this medical emergency.

Again, living in fear for several years I enjoyed my lack of seizures until January of 2009.  This episode was most grievous thus far because it happened right in front of my impressionable son who didn't know what to do.  It is times like this that make a father feel so lost and worthless when his own blood sees him as anything but a protector and provider for his family.  For the next few years I began to refer to my epileptic seizures as something that occurs every ten years or so.  According to the math this is correct..... until now.

For what purposes do epileptic seizures occur?  One of man's grand purposes in life is to learn, continue to learn and always strive to learn more of everything.  I have always struggled with my self perception and living with that one sentence on the medivac has placed me in a "boxed in" mode from which there is no reprieve.  Instead of loathing over it my life endeavor is to learn from it.  Yet, this last episode takes it to a new level.

Obviously not conscious I can only speculate how much I disturbed that meeting just as a sacred ordinance was beginning.  To go from returning to my chair from the pulpit to waking up on a gurney in ER with blood on my white shirt was not only a shock but also confusing as heck to the senses.  For those questioning the blood it is common during a seizure to repeatedly bite the tongue.  Yes, ouch!

Believe it or not I did learn some lessons from this.  First, I address a symptom which may interest those who suffer from seizures.  I remember from my 2009 and this last episode that prior to the seizure I went through intermittent periods of lethargy.  At least that's what I call it.  It is like a fluctuating curtain of awareness.  For instance at this seizure at the pulpit I remember trying to utter a thought.  It was said, sort of, but the concentration on what was said and how it was said fluctuated in and out.  So for me and others if we experience a span of time from a few minutes to several hours of "in and out" awareness or concentration it may be a sign to seek help or at least remain in safe activity for a while.

As a final thought I believe we all need to remember that mortality is fragile.  These bodies are corruptible and subject to all sorts of ailments.  To question your Creator every time an abnormality strikes is futile and will only serve the undoing of your strength and perseverance to endure to the end.  Instead, take your fragility AND your Creator and live your life in not only learning but also expanding and extending to others.  Teach, share and reach out to others that they may understand.  Reach out because your experience and what you have learned IS something that someone out there needs to hear.  It is part of the grandeur of the design of God's plan for us.  We are obligated to share what we have learned.  We are accountable!

If you suffer from epileptic seizures as I do take it not as an opportunity to cut yourself short of opportunity or self worth.  Know that you are given this challenge tailored to you so that you may learn and then to edify those around you as well.  In whatever ails you it would be wise to accept that we are all ministering angels to one another in compassion and support.  Be grateful for what you have.

I guess I wrote this more for my own self benefit than anyone else's.  Writing is a good way of working out one's own feelings and emotions.  However, if any part of this has served to enlighten your understanding than I am grateful for this.  God bless and remember that charity and compassion never faileth!