Find the time that frees us

Too many cooks in the kitchen?

Or.

Many hands make light work?

Success and failure are our oftentimes our most valuable teachers.

What the cost is, is the difference between freedom and self-hostage behavior.

The loss of meaning may just be the worst evil there is. Without meaning, so much is lost. We blame others. We blames ourselves. We blame God. We go no where. We become lost.

Lost.

To self.

To others.

We become so lost in the battle we forget the reason we fight.

We want so much an invitation to the banquet, an invitation to the dance.

We forget. He invites us everyday.

Everyday.

He invites us to opportunity.

To reject evil.

To do good.

Sacrifice is love.

It is not about feeling good about ourselves.

It is about feeling good about goodness.

Goodness can be contagious.

At this point in our existences, I believe all of us can use a dose.🙂

Of goodness.

There did not need to be a years long contagion to chart the course for us. But there was. It sought to weaken, destroying lives. Some may think. “So what.” To some this may cause no remorse. To others, lives destroyed. Some got to where they were going anyway, so what is the difference? When it becomes your problem, not mine, it really becomes all’s problem.

A lot.

At the end of the day, the price we are willing to pay becomes the question of the day.

Redemption is not a given. It has to be earned.

Just because we may think it to be just, doesn’t make it just.🙂

Yes. We still have a right to live our lives as we want.

But.

There are human parameters. That should, or at least, hopefully and faithfully, guide our hands and steps.

Yes.

We have a right to go to war. With ourselves. With others.

Yes.

We have a right to exhibit right conduct in war.

Yes.

We have a right to avoid below the belt behavior.

Yes.

We have a right to make our own decision.

Yes.

We have a right to not feel compelled.

Yes.

We have a right to not dance the dance if we so choose.

Yes.

We have the right to peace, confidence, joy.

Yes.

We have a right to not be too closed in on ourselves. (pf)

Yes.

We have a right to consent, respect.

Yes.

We have a right to not impose ourselves and be imposed upon.

Yes.

We have the right to keep company with the lonely.

Yes.

We have the right to be kind, own our affairs.

Yes.

We are not omnipotent.

Only He is.

He is all-knowing.

And.

God knows our hearts.

There really is no putting a fast one over on Him, As hard as we may try. As much as we may attempt to deceive. The question, then becomes, what path we take, and why.

Moral principles guide our ways. We must decide daily what matters most to us. How we choose to conduct our daily business.

Reconstruction may never occur. Devastation lingers. War is terrible, personal and globally. Just theory postulates the belief that war, while it is terrible but less so with the right conduct, is not always the worse option.(wk)

Important responsibilities, undesirable outcomes, or preventable atrocities may justify war. At this time, it is up to us where the lines are. Based on our personal and deeply held beliefs. We cannot impose our beliefs on others, just as they cannot impose theirs on us.

The line?

For some.

It is crime.

It is punishment.

Regardless of whether they fight for a just cause.

Moral equality of the boots on the ground.

The drones in the air.

The phone in our own hands.

In fighting global wars, it has been philosophized by Henrik Syse, “moral equality is a serious quandary. It makes little practical sense to ascribe blame to individual soldiers for the cause of the war in which they fight as it makes theoretical sense to hold the fighters on the two sides to be morally equal.”(wk)

War is hell.

The moral thing to do is obey.

Obey our leader when fighting.

And if you believe, you still have the right,

to believe in God.

He will really be the only one holding your feet to the fire.

The battlefields differ.

Success and failure sometimes looks eerily familiar, eerily similar.

We may believe there is justice in our cause, our daily causes.

From baking cookies in the kitchen with Grandma and Grandpa.

To

A battle of wills.

To

An outright declaration and attack of war.

We look to our grandparents, our elders, as having grown in knowledge and wisdom. We seek to learn the lessons of history to perhaps repeat or reject particular situations. It is with God’s grace that only the good do not die young.

We must feel vulnerable to say to another, “Hey, I don’t got this.”

The oddity comes not in the oddness. But in the oddness. For most of our lives, we are all still growing, still changing. Our wants and needs change. Perhaps our interests do, too.

Commitment takes time.

Commitment grows over time.

We sometimes forget this and feel alone, lonely.

Extending a hand is a sure way to start goodness. Creating without help may not mean the arrogance we think it does.

We have the right to figure it out. Without feeling compelled in knowing that we do not know what we are doing, Heck, policies and procedures have been developed and so called legalized to “help” those who have been determined not to

“Get it.”

The nuances in life can be mind-boggling.

Mind-boggling.

He proposes. He does not impose.

He is gentle. He is kind.

We too, can follow in his footsteps.

Use our hands for good.

Keep the lies, deception to a minimum. Just because we all do it doesn’t mean we should. But we do. The best we can do is dig deep in our own hearts and remember lives are at stake.

Reconsider our attack, our point forward.

Most of all, worth repeating:

God knows our hearts.

And.

Our soul’s are held deep within our hearts.