weekly post from October 7, 2006

Hello friends & loved ones,

Another week is behind us...WHEW!!! I've been praying like it's going out of style this week. Praying for loved ones in Mass., praying for people in church, praying for my spouse, praying for our world. We do live in a world, by the way, we are not alone.

I had a "What the hell did I do?" moment this past week. I got an automated message from Hollywood Video telling me that an item I rented out a month ago may not be returnable. First of all, is it returnable or not? Anyway, I had rented a movie the first week in September and then returned it. Only I returned it to the public library thinking it was a movie I checked out from the library. Needless to say the library had no record of receiving it and I was forced to pay for the movie. Thankfully it was Harvey, a movie from 1950, and it was less than $20. I shudder to think how much it would have been if the movie had been new. It's just not like me to do something like that as I'm usually so anal about that kind of stuff. Yes, I just called myself anal. Mark it in your record books.

I've another comment regarding this past week. Why, oh why, do we as humans let our baggage and ego get in the way of what's important and what matters? I believe we are here to become wiser, more enlightened and certainly better people. We should strive to lead better lives and do good work. A preacher recently preached a sermon in which they included a comment about predatory behavior in the church; that would be vulnerable, nervous, hurting, and scared newcomers coming to a church and then being hit on by someone else in the church. Some people got "all in an uproar" by the fact that the preacher was saying we can't form relationships within the church. We can't find a boyfriend/girlfriend in the church. POINT MISSED!!! No, that is not what the preacher was saying, in fact quite the opposite. Forming relationships (friend, sexual or otherwise) is fine. What's not fine is zooming in on a newcomer and thinking, "One night stand" or "Hey, let's get together and have some fun." These new people need to feel welcomed and safe and secure before they can even think about entering into some sort of sexual relationship. I've talked to new people at church and barely been able to engage them in conversation because they were so uncomfortable or nervous or unsure. Imagine if I tried to hit on them! Another thought that comes to mind is the Mark Foley scandal. Some "pundits" have mentioned the fact that Foley is gay (as if that's the reason he wrote sexually explicit things to the pages). POINT MISSED!!! It doesn't matter if he's gay or Republican or a Southerner or even what religion he is. The fact is that he wrote those things to underage kids. That's the point! We need to be aware of what's being said and look beyond the rhetoric, look beyond the surface, look deeper and see the truth. When we do that then we can be wiser, smarter, better informed and actually see the point. Earlier I mentioned that we let our ego and baggage get in the way of things; just throw them out. Toss them out like nasty smelling trash. And whatever you are doing this weekend look deeper and beyond yourself to see the bigger picture of things.

peace,

paul