Day Six: For All The Broken Ones.

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We all know broken people. Many of us are numbered among that group. Today I’m asking you to set aside some of your prayer time for the ones who are not quite right, off at a kilter, missing a chunk, and broken.

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You don’t have to be physically wounded to be in great pain. A dear friend of mine is watching her life spin out of control as she and her husband drift apart. It’s not a quick drift, it’s spurts and jagged pieces of wreckage poking out of the dark. It’s not controlled: neither knows what’s coming next. But she’s broken just the same.

The greatest service I can provide is prayer and an ear. We’re many miles apart, and I wish I could buy her a brownie and a cup of coffee. I’d even hold her head while she cried into my shoulder. I would do anything to keep her aware of the fact that she is loved from above, and that her life is important to God.

So much of our misery and brokenness is due to our own action. We wonder why God doesn’t fix it for us. Well, we broke it, we can ask for help fixing it, but it isn’t always going to be fast, and it almost never is what we expect it to be. I used to have a job with a utility in the credit department. People would call in to pay their bill once they were disconnected and then get angry when I’d tell them it may take up to 72 hours to get the service restored.

“Why, all you have to do is flip a switch?” was the usual response. I wanted to say (but didn’t dare) “Look at the bright side: it took us three months to disconnect you for non-payment. It’s only going to take us three days to restore it. Seems like a good trade to me!”

We expect God to just flip a switch as well. That’s natural. We don’t always look at what led to our troubles. Sometimes we did nothing to get in the bad place. Other times we did it all by ourselves. There’s hard work there that needs to be done to be healed but we want Him to fix it immediately. I wish it were so.

Since it isn’t like that, today is a great day to pray for your friends who are broken. Pray that God gives them respite and healing. Pray that they can muster the strength to do the hard work of healing. Pray that you can support them in this journey. Most of all, pray that God heals your broken parts enough so that you can help others.

That’s the best healing of all: healing others.

Day Five – Nah, September 11th.

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I broke the fast on the 10th. My body wasn’t having any more of it and I needed calories to get through my challenges. I’m still praying, will pick up the fast in a few days, but needed physical strength to go with the prayer. I was never cut out to be a monk – but I do look the part.

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Today marks a day in our history that many will describe as tragic, a terrible incident, and a day of great sadness.

I’d like to think of it as a day of rage. Rage that barbarians from the 7th century came to my homeland in larger than usual numbers and slaughtered my countrymen in an act of war. Rage that our political class is so quick to abandon the drive to exterminate the threat. Rage that we are more politically correct than prepared.

Savages.

Savages.

For those that say Islam is not about these barbaric acts, and that ISIS is not Islam, (yes, you Mr. President) I’d like to give you one book to read. The Quran. Read it and the commands to the faithful to pursue the growth of the religion at the tip of the sword. The statements that infidels do not deserve to live. Not to befriend infidels. Not to tolerate them in the midst of good Muslims. It’s in their own book. It’s in plain view. If you deny these facts you are a fool. And the next victim.

Today may, or may not, bring large attacks against this nation. But they will resume in the near future. I was listening to a talking head on Wednesday who spouted the line that we’d had no foreign attacks on our soil during the past 13 years. Really. Fort Hood? Times Square? The Underwear Bomber? And the list goes on. If you are attacking the United States on behalf of Islam, you count. I don’t think it’s work place violence.

What shall we do to prevent it next time? Darned good question. One thing I know is that being tolerant of our enemies in our midst is not the answer. This does not mean that you should run to the nearest Arab restaurant and break their windows. Let’s be honest: most Muslims are like most Christians in that they follow some tenets of the faith but aren’t members of the hard core. The average guy who came here from Lebanon thirty years ago isn’t building bombs in his basement.

But others are here to wreck and destroy. We can’t fight them if we cover up their activity and ignore the radicals. David Cameron had that part of the equation right in his speech last week. We should not tolerate those who would kill us in our midst. It is time for the government to get serious about protecting our borders. We have no clue who’s coming in at this point.

But they are here. They are here in large numbers. They are in your city, your state, your children go to school with their children. And unless we wake up to the threat, another day in the near future will replace September 11th, 2001 as the worst day in our history.

I can promise you that without a single doubt in my soul.

Pray, America. Pray for courage, guidance from above, and strength. This war has been going on for 1400 years and it didn’t end just because we killed Bin Laden.

Day Four Of A Week Of Prayer And Fasting.

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Sometimes being a bit hungry can focus you. Our nation needs to be a bit hungry and get focused.

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We’re coming up to the anniversary of September 11, 2001. All I heard today was about some slimy football player who beats women. And the women who let slimy football players beat them. And then apologize for them.

Much as I abhor domestic violence, today’s a great day to focus on the real world. I have noticed, for decades, that the media machine presents us with many distractions to draw us away from the truly great issues facing us as a people. Today it’s a jerk in an elevator. Last week it was golf. Next week?

I hope next week it isn’t the horrific attack that some insane Jihadist group made against an American target.

It was just two years ago that Benghazi was attacked. Regardless of your current state of hero worship, I’d like to point out that this administration violated what I consider to be a sacred trust and abandoned the people on the ground to the hordes.

The attack in Benghazi went on for 13 hours. In that time you could easily have brought in armed drones, aircraft from Italy (it’s really close to Libya – go look at the map,) and started moving forces to rescue the Americans in Libya. Instead the president took a nap so he’d be fresh when he got to Las Vegas for a fundraiser. The Secretary of State? Well, what difference does it make at this point. (Her words…)

I am disgusted with our media for brushing this off over the past two years. The fact is that we may not have been able to save a single life in Libya even if we’d mobilized and gotten everyone ready to react. But since we sat on our hands, and our president was absent from the situation, we’ll never know.

Here’s an intel tip for the clown squad in the White House: Jihadists like anniversaries. And every other day as well. Perchance this would be a good week to have extra forces on standby to go to the Middle East? Embassies on heightened alert? Extra assets on the ground, either in uniform or plain clothes? Maybe even a dash of extra security at major facilities in our country that are vulnerable to attack would be in order.

No, instead I fear that we will get none of the above and so it will continue. Our feckless leader will ask, in prime time, for us to join in a coalition with Arab states to combat ISIS. We will talk about aid, training, perhaps even outreach to the Islamic world.

Let’s review history – yeah, that stuff is all a waste unless we have a leader who leads from the front.

But we’ve got “Back of the pack, Barack.”

Skip a meal, America. It’s time to be a little hungry. I hope I’m wrong, but the magic 8-ball says no.

Day Three Of A Week Of Prayer And Fasting.

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I made it almost two days before I started going crazy. About four this afternoon, as a matter of fact.

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I guess my highly tuned physique wasn’t ready for an abrupt change in diet to simple, high-fiber foods. I usually subsist on a diet of bacon intermixed with caramel, hamburger, chips, and diet soda. The switch was… well, let’s just say that I did actually contemplate what would happen when the man who cleans my area came by to vacuum tomorrow and the walls of my cube were desecrated. Blown out, covered in bits of skin and flesh, just like Monty Python’s Mr. Creosote.

Yes, I did have a long evening of misery thinking about whether or not I’d survive. I have decided to moderate the fast tomorrow and eat at least 2 pounds of meat to offset the healthy stuff. I will only eat that one meal a day, and only during the hours I’d talked about, but I have to give my guts a break or I will not survive.

Back to the topic – well, there wasn’t one. But in the comments I have been asked about the book, Assault On Saint Agnes, and where you can buy it legally (bootleg copies are evidently available in Kazakhstan.) The answer will be forthcoming next week. Really. Honest. Dates of availability and the whole thing. That’s the plan.

Last but not least, there is a State Fair jam update: we didn’t win. Heck, we didn’t even place. The whole thing was rigged. I don’t know who got paid off, but one guy walked away with at least $20 in the end. Seriously, we did well. I got the score sheets for a couple of the products last night and the orange rhubarb got 90 out of 100 points. I was really pleased with that one. My tart cherry got 70+ points – hey, I like it more than that score. The hot cherry version didn’t get judged because there were so many entries that it wasn’t even ranked. Too bad, it was even better than the tart stuff.

Tomorrow I will be working on a top-secret project – fine, I’ll share that one next week as well. It’s pretty exciting.

Keep praying, keep working on your fast (I will, after I recover,) and count your blessings.

Day Two Of A Week Of Prayer And Fasting.

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If you’re tuning in for a blow-by-blow of my rumbling stomach, I’m going to have to dissapoint you. Consider the fact that a gigantic clod like me is only eating a simple meal once a day and running on fluids the rest of the 20 hours and it’s a given.

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Today’s blog is focused on some reflection I’ve done over the past year. I have not been able to go on a missions trip in 2014 and instead focused on meeting the nutritional needs of the homeless in my birth city. It has been very rewarding. I think the smile on my face says it all:

Overwhelmed with joy.

Overwhelmed with joy.

There is a part of my heart that loves travelling to Haiti, or Belize, or to whatever destination God puts out there, and doing His work. There is an equally large part of my heart that says to stay here and work with people in need that I pass on the street each day. I have been torn with the conflict and wondered how to resolve it with some kind of coherent thought process.

Whether you love her, or hate her, Ann Coulter always makes you think. She wrote an item a few weeks ago about Ebola and the missionaries that had contracted it while treating the victims.

Her question, and it’s a valid one, is whether or not we are narcissistic for “saving” people overseas when so many in this country need our help and witness. It made me stop and ponder the question once again and I’m a little closer to an answer. But not yet firm in my thinking: it will continue to evolve.

I will again go overseas on a missions trip. But I will also work here, in my home town, to provide that witness, evangelical message, and support to those in need. It means I have to work harder to raise that money next year, to take that trip and provide those meals, but God has been good to me in providing over the past few years. He has presented me with an opportunity to grow my income once again, and very soon I will share that with all of you. No, it’s not a pyramid scheme, and nobody wants your email list. But it will open doors for me and help me meet those goals I have in the missions field.

Each of us will have to answer the questions that Ann raises. She’s a smart-aleck with a sharp tongue, but she made me think hard on the topic. I appreciate that fact, and enjoy her style.

So my thanks go out to Ann Coulter for questioning my actions and plans. Now the question is, will she read my novel Assault On Saint Agnes for possible endorsement? It’s only fair, Ann: I just endorsed you.