I don't even have a title.

I probably should have taken the nap. Now I am so indignant I'm not sure if I can find all the right words. There's this post which led me to a certain website(and a few you-tube videos), which led me to a fit of anger that actually left me speechless (other than two words, which I will spare you....)
The general thing I am feeling right now is a really wretched, nasty disgust in what seems to be, not only our fascination with making money off of sin, (yeah, I went there) but our fascination at watching people writhe in pain caused by these actions.... we put them on T.V. shows, in the newspapers, in 'gossip' magazines.....and then talk glibly about how horrible these things are. Or in one case a news reporter, smiling prettily, almost mischievously, while talking about people using a website to have affairs. What about the people who act like robots reciting 'facts' about people getting killed or mistreated..............etc. GET A FREAKING LIFE, PEOPLE! If other people's misery provides you a form of entertainment, you need a new hobby.

If you are going to spend your time worrying about/being informed about other people's pain....then learn the appropriate response, please. It's called crying and being deeply aware of their brokenness and our own. It's called being angry because people don't know how to love eachother. It's called learning how to love others before yourself.

I don't know if I can keep writing about this, I don't know that there's much to elaborate on. It's fairly obvious that we are all a little too obsessed with getting our own way, satisfying what ever desire we may have, and demanding that things happen instantaneously..... otherwise we will give up and go elsewhere.
...and in the end all to our own detriment. We will have refused to learn any of the lessons that would actually benefit us in the end, the ones that teach us what it really means to live, simply because they were hard lessons to learn. And we all know that easy is popular.


'Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.'

To those who are exploiting other people's pain or sin or whatever for their own benefit or profit:


How dare you.
Learn what love is and stop talking all this crap about some fluffy thing you've made up in your imagination that you ridiculously call 'love'.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

so please, go learn what love is. Stop robbing all these people of love- start giving it instead.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Stand in the gate of the Lord's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

5 “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, 6 if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord.

love your neighbor as yourself.....?

Here is an interesting read about food.


While I realize that many people (including myself) remain ignorant or naive as to the effects of our own actions on people thousands of miles away, in different countries, I still don't think that can be offered as a good enough excuse. You can blame the government. You can blame those evil people running corporations that are fueled by their need of money.
It's very easy to blame....and to point fingers at all those 'others'.

What I don't understand is the people who claim our country as a christian one. Putting an entire nation under the umbrella of Christianity is a dangerous and stupid (that's right, no eloquent words, it is what it is. Stupid. ) assumption.
I want to know what they think the word 'Christian' means.

Because I am pretty sure I recall some guy named Jesus quoted as saying 'love your neighbor'

And I am also pretty sure that the actions ( a very vast majority of them) of our nation don't quite fall into that catagory most of the time.

You can also claim we (commoners) aren't the direct ones causing these things to happen. You may not have malicious feelings toward others who are starving and dying in poverty in other countries. But can I just say something uncomfortable?

We are all guilty.

Have we never stopped to wonder where our greed and comfort came from? Have we never stopped to wonder at the price of it all?

Do we care about others enough to say something on their behalf? and do we love them enough to change?

Do we love our neighbors as ourselves?

Because right now I'm looking pretty well fed and clothed.....
and I have some neighbors around the world who can't claim any of that for themselves.

But I haven't said much of anything.
And I have changed the way I live very little.

some month-old thoughts

So then, some of the question is, how do you make someone realize they are partly responsible for someone half-way across the world? It should be easier than it is. We are all human, and if it were your child, your relative, your friend, you would care, you would care enough to do something drastic.
But for some it isn’t easy enough to tell them that they should care about someone they don’t feel responsible for. We already tend to suck about caring for the people around us as much as we should….If we can’t care about the people we see, interact with, live with……why would we give a hell about someone who practically feels invisible to us? So we face the dilemma of tracing down our steps to prove that our actions do indeed affect people we can’t see, people we don’t know who may be thousands of miles away as well as next door.(no man is an island) Some people may flat-out refuse to repent, But there are those, whom, shown the consequences of their actions, may actually decide to start making different ones based on that information…..or rather, based on what that information reveals about ourselves and our priorities.

So the questions run:

-How can people be taught to empathize with others they don’t know?
-What proofs can be brought forward that trace our actions ?
-Why should we be held responsible?
-Is it really our fault that others are deprived of opportunities we have?
-How do we help people see that they should help support organizations that are doing good work, but that they are also personally responsible…..and should learn personal change?


…..and then the harder questions stem from those

Why should we care (about others at all) ?
What makes life, and the way we treat others so important?
Honestly, why bother when we know we won’t convert everyone (to not be selfish or to help others)?

When we rid ourselves of all these other things, all we have left are ….each other…. Others.
Which is why it’s not too hard to be poor and happy, or rich and sad….. Depending on what value determines ‘poor and rich’


People who have sought after the world’s values and riches and prestige are deluded, people who have sought after only their own happiness are as well…..one day we all die. One day all our titles and things and measurements for who we are turn to ashes and blow away like dust. …and these three remain : faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. ‘love never fails’

Most pitied in the world should be those who grasp at power, those who believe who they are is found in what they have, or where they live, or how successful they can be…..those who strive for any and every distraction they can find….those who oppress, those who use, those who grasp, those filled with greed….. Because life has eluded them, and they do not know what it means to be alive, or how to have life and really live.

reduce, reuse, recycle..........

I saw a sign through a window today, and it almost perfectly sums up the problems I have with the newest trend.....that of being environmental/green/justice/issue minded people.




Um. I'm pretty sure before we ever had any need to recycle things the world was imperfect.



It's good that people want to try and help fix problems that we've helped to create....... but really??

None of that fixes us. WE are the issue. WE are the problem.

The fact is, the 'issue' isn't the issue.

Our characters are.

Our lack of love for eachother is.

Caring about the environment is admirable. Trying to save people from being horribly wronged by others is admirable, and these things should be done.
But what are our reasons for doing these things?

We've set up a system where we can ease our conscience and feel like we are doing our part without it really costing us too much.

Give us an issue to fight and we are mostly willing.

Point out that much of this is due to our own character failings, that we are in essence the cause of the 'evil' we are fighting....and people don't know what to do. They will fight hard in any battle, until they find out that the enemy is actually staring them in the mirror.

It's so easy to point fingers and tell someone else they are in the wrong, it's so much harder to realize that I myself don't love people like I should; That the enemy I am actually fighting is myself.

If we actually lived what Jesus taught, if we actually walked in his footsteps, if we learned to love like he loved..........
and none of it for personal gain.......
do you think more people would be convinced?
Do you think more people would see what love was?

If anyone out there knows of organizations that are doing some really good work out there, or situations that don't tend to get a lot of publicity.....PLEASE, leave me a comment with a website, or a link, or any information regarding it.