User Friendly

Change your thoughts and you change your world. (nvp) Strength and growth comes only through continuous effort and struggle. Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit. (nh)

Opportunity knocks and we ask ourselves—“How will I answer the call.?” 📞 We have endless moments of moments to do the right thing, even when we do not feel like it. We take a quick look in the mirror and convince ourselves we do not have to make nicey-nice with our enemy and frenemy. We have become accustomed to using others in our relationship orbit and of continuously using their naïveté or trust in a hasty greed of getting what we want. We begin to believe we can continue to take what we think we deserve.

Winners never quit and quitters never win. (vl) When the chips are down and the glass half empty, (or full), silently there is a deep down churning of never having known what being beaten means. So used to winning, we have no idea what adversity may look like.

Perhaps we have been way too “User Friendly.”

We have been using the ignorance of those who held us up high and man-oh-man was it good times.

Until it wasn’t.

Then what happened? The talking and explaining of what the “least of these” deserved because our own color blindness was impossible for us to admit. We resorted to our own blabbing on and on about personal slights and projected them onto those who put their trust in our capabilities. When we failed them, the blabbing was the only course of action to keep the narrative going. Or at the very least, make us feel relevant as we felt the world we created slipping away.

Sadly, short-sighted we gainfully used the many and vast opportunities and motivations and blew up the world of others. And built up our own world on their breaking backs. Our planned world order was breaking down before our very mic drops and denials.

”The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.” (nvp) There you have it with the insidious nature of idoltry, idol-building. We are not talking role models or influencers. He. Is the most honest influencer of our or any day. The only thing left to do? Stop it. Pretending something we are not is the surest way to swing the wrecking ball back and forth is a cowardly attempt to hide our inner true feelings of contempt.

Stop talking and start doing. Something. Anything.

Sometimes, taking the path of least resistance is the only momentary solution. Tears are nature’s way of cleansing the palate. “I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.” “A woman drove me to drink and I didn’t even have the decency to thank her.” “Start every day with a smile and get it over with.” Once during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water.”(W.C Fields).

At the end of the day, or the start of the days “It’s always too early to quit.” Norman Vincent Peale

Easier said than done but Peale has a four-square-kinda awesome list for success: Work And Pray, Think And Believe.

Peale goes on to say to all us procrastinators out there, “If you put off everything until you’re sure of it, you’ll never get anything done.”

True.

Actually, the poignancy of this thought kinda gives whole new meaning to jumping into the deep end of the swimming 🏊‍♂️pool without a paddle of any kind of support. Coming up for air is akin to the doggy paddle of all doggy paddles. Try and take in a big gulp of air of life and water may simply go down the wrong pipe.

Who saves? Him. The Lord helps those who help themselves. “Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that.” (nvp)

Stop talking and start doing.

The tears will come and they will go. We are not talking about how great we are. We should be talking about how great we can serve Him if we just get over ourselves. For some this is a gargantuan task. For the least of these, we really are their hands and feet. Life moves in directions and goes on in ways we do not always plan for.

We all have said it from time to time. “I quit.” I cannot go on this way. What happens?

He shows up.

Yep. Him. The guy who knows no color, creed, shoe size, pant size. He whispers that we ARE all that a bag of chips. Puts strength in our hearts and souls, and firmly says,

”Get out there and do one small good.” One small good +one small good+one small good+ another small goodness +another small goodness+ another small goodness = a contagion.

A good contagion for the whole and not just the pretending “few.” We may not recognize it in the moment nor know it when we see it. Again, a user friendly individual has been so used to the practice of usury of others, they may, too, be blinded by their own selfishness.

Have mercy on them as they know not what they do.. Don’t join their party, though. It may end in a life gone down the winding, wide and too confusing path. Instead. The narrow path is the more difficult, yet in the long haul in the long run, less short sighted and wondrous path to take in His eyes. Service to Him produces service to others in an honest, courageous, thoughtful ring of honor.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Be not so used to the usury of others that forgetting why we are here, on this earth and He has specific instructions of how to treat one another—our fellow man.

We are stronger together, when we keep our opinions to a minimum and our fight to keep our finger on the pulse of wholeness, harmony and a peace that passes understanding.

Otherwise. The quitters will continue to spew mis-truths, and those who do not believe in their personal strength will continue to be mindfully weakened.