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cosmicjoke · 6 months ago

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I just think it's bullshit to call Levi a "failure" over what happened. If you're going to say that about Levi, you have to say it about everyone. So why single him out specifically?

I'm sure Levi wishes there were more he could have done to prevent what happened, but in reality, there was nothing he could do, and I don't think his disappointment at the end can be linked to any sense of personal failure on Levi's part. He's disappointed because everything his comrades had died for turned out to be a sick joke, and deep down, I think Levi always knew the dream they had was an impossibility. People act like Levi should have been jumping for joy in the aftermath of watching 80% of the world get crushed. Anything less than that is, supposedly, evidence of Levi blaming himself for what happened.

Qafi claimed that Levi wanted to "use" Eren as a weapon to create a "better world", but Levi didn't "want" anything. Eren was the only option they had when it came to addressing the attack that Marley launched on them by sending the Warrior unit to attack Wall Maria. They needed Eren to plug the hole in the wall. Without their ability to take back that area, resources would have continued to dwindle within the inner walls, which would have lead to untold chaos and poverty and death. Something we saw already beginning to happen with Reiner and Bertolt's second attack, and the countless refugees that attack sent upon the inner walls, again, all within the span of a year. What other options did they have at that point, but to rely on Eren? Everyone was totally in the dark as to what Reiner and Bertolt's actual goal was. To the scouts, and to Levi, it just looked like two, massive titans they knew nothing about and had never seen before, repeatedly showing they could breach the walls any time they liked, and nobody could do anything to stop it. ANYONE would have chosen to rely on Eren at that point.

And Levi never believed in a better world. Like he says to the 104th, he simply chose the hell of people killing each other, over being eaten. He always knew the best they could hope for was a world in which people at least got to choose how they lived, rather than a world where they had no control over their fate whatsoever. He never believed in any sort of Utopia. He knew what people were, and that they would continue to live in a hellish world because of their own natures, even with the titans gone. Levi's respect for people's lives is what drove him, his natural compassion and belief that people's lives mattered. He believed they had the right to choose for themselves what they did with those lives, and he saw himself as a tool to be used by them to help them do that. He believed he owed that to them because he had something they didn't. Again, that comes down to a natural generosity and compassion, not some sense of guilt.

And Levi knew Eren had a monstrous will, but nobody, not even Eren himself, knew what his real intentions were, what his true desire was, and it's absurd to have expected Levi to know that. What was Levi supposed to do once they found out the world was their enemy? Kill Eren? Eren, whom he'd worked beside for 4 years up to that point, and who hadn't shown any sort of sign that he wanted to or was willing to, or that he planned to decimate 80% of the world's population? Was Levi just supposed to, without any real cause, go up to Eren and off his ass? Eren only realized the lengths he was willing to go after he inadvertently saw the future, after touching Historia's hand. If Levi had killed him, then Levi would have just been a murderer, and he would have paid the price for killing off the only, real defense the island had against a hostile world. And jailing Eren would have been just as unjustified. Again, Eren hadn't, up until he went awol in Marley, shown any sign of what he was actually planning to do. And they needed him. They needed him even more after discovering the existence of the rest of the world than they did before. They were backed into a corner, just like they had been throughout the story. The only reason Eren was able to, for example, force the Scouts to raid Liberio, is because he knew they couldn't, especially at that point, afford to lose him. Eren was banking on that simple truth and he used it against all of them. He knew they would come for him because they didn't have a choice. After that, they had even less options than to rely on Eren and the power he held, because Eren literally orchestrated and engineered a situation in which the entire world united against Paradis. It's because of that, that the imminent threat of their invasion was brought down on the island's head. If Eren hadn't done what he did, Paradis would have had years more to figure out how to deal with Marley's hostility, because Marley wasn't planning on doing anything with Paradis, their hands too full with dealing with what enemies they'd made out of the rest of the world, until Zeke and Eren intentionally manipulated them into declaring war on the island.

You and I have a fundamental disagreement on what was driving Eren, so we're going to disagree too on whether Levi's guidance had any bearing on Eren's actions. I don't think it did. Levi tells Eren to make the choice he can live with, but Eren made the exact opposite choice, and he knew it. He did exactly what Levi told him not to. Eren hated himself because he knew what he was doing was unjustified and wrong, but he couldn't help himself, because he couldn't accept the world for what it was. He wanted to make the world into what he saw in Armin's book, and he wanted that more than anything, and he wouldn't be stopped. Had he actually listened to Levi, had he been able to, Eren would have been able to stop himself from doing what he knew, in his heart, was wrong.

I'm posting this to my own blog, since @qafi told me in a DM they didn't want my reply on their post calling Levi a "failure". They suggested I make my own post instead.

Essentially, they claimed that Levi's sense of "guilt" is what drove him to want to save people, which is what led him above ground and what, in turn, led to him "sacrificing" so many people for a so-called better world, which is what led to Eren being able to enact the Rumbling. Basically, in a roundabout way, blaming Levi for how things eventually turned out with Eren because he was "too noble and selfless", driven by, supposedly, a sense of guilt for being a "bad man", and wanting to atone for that. They claimed that his desire to save people is essentially what ended up getting so many people killed, and if he had just stayed Underground, more people would have survived.

I didn't agree with any of that, so this is what I wrote in reply.

I wouldn't give so much weight to the idea of Levi being driven by a sense of guilt, nor would I call Levi a "failure".

Levi wants to use his strength to help others because he feels he's duty bound toward that end, having something no one else does. That comes from a natural inclination toward selflessness and generosity, which manifests in the form of protection.

It was Erwin who laid out a path that allowed Levi to utilize his strength to its maximum potential. But the desire to help others was always there in Levi, born of an innate empathy within him.

This quote from Isayama sums it up:

"It's that he found a place to make the most of what he can do, or rather, his own special abilities. Underground, where it was all he could do to stay alive, he had to live for that, but then he started to form relationships and began to feel that he could do things for others. And that's why he first went above ground... And then... he felt like he should make the most of what he can do. Or he was awakened to a sense of mission, I should say."

Erwin shows him the path toward utilizing his strength to it's actual potential, but the instinct to protect and help and save was always there in Levi.

We see this play out in "Bad Boy" with Levi's desire to protect his mother's memory. He only initially fights back against the men to protect Kuchel's honor. That's a sign of the empathetic nature in Levi, that even after years of lessons from Kenny in how to fight and commit violence and even to take lives, all to protect himself, Levi's instinct is to fight only in defense of another.

That isn't something learned, and we see this instinct in him displayed before he would ever have felt any sense of guilt from what the man in the glasses says to him. That we see that selflessness in him from the start shows it's not driven by or rooted in guilt, but simply a component of his nature.

The very fact of Levi taking Furlan and Isabel under his wing is also proof of an innate desire to help others. He didn't need to help them, and indeed, Levi would undoubtedly have had an easier time surviving on his own than with the added burden of two extra mouths to feed.

The thing one has to remember is that, Levi was of very limited means to help anyone Underground. He wasn't considered a citizen of Paradis, and he had no immediate means to make it up to the surface, and so had no recourse toward really utilizing his abilities on a broader scale than what he was already doing, that is, using his physical strength to defend those weaker than himself in a brutally harsh and cut-throat environment. That's what we see him do with his rescue of Furlan and Isabel. Again, that's Levi's natural empathy manifesting. But Levi had no path toward saving "more people" at that point. He could only do so much while trapped in the social status of being a resident of the Underground City. Being denied citizenry, he wouldn't have been allowed to join the military, for example. And Levi's own sense of imagination when it comes to using his strength is limited. We know this from Levi's own sense of directionlessness after Erwin dies. He relied on Erwin to show him what to do. So it wasn't so much a lack of desire to help others that kept Levi Underground, but a limited imagination, and also a lack of means.

Once he made it up top, we see that natural inclination to help others play out multiple times. For, example, when he saves the life of the solider who'd endangered his own by cutting him off mid-flight on the SC obstacle course. And we also see Levi display an empathetic concern for the scouts chasing him, before they ever even make it up top, hoping no one got hurt in their pursuit of him through the streets of the Underground. We also see Levi's concern for Flagon and the rest of his squad at the end of the story, not wanting Isabel and Furlan to come with him, in part, because he knew without them, Flagon's squad would be shorthanded, and thus, more susceptible to titan attack.

Levi didn't know what his strength could be used for up to the point he saved Furlan and Isabel because nobody ever showed him. Kenny abandoned him, and Levi was left without explanation for why he was so powerful.

His reaction to his discovery that he could use his strength to aid others was to then feel a weight of responsibility toward that end, and that in itself is a manifestation of his selfless nature. Because nobody ever taught him either that he should feel that way.

So I maintain that he never decided to use his strength to help others to sooth some sense of guilt in himself over disappointing his mother. If that were the case, Levi either would have vowed never to kill again, or he would have displayed an increasing sense of guilt and self-loathing over killing others, which we never see Levi do at any point in the story. He kills because he thinks it's necessary. As he tells Jean later, he doesn't know if it's right or wrong, just that it's a necessary act toward a particular outcome. There's no sense of moral quandary in Levi's acts of violence, no agonized worry or wondering over his actions being morally correct. He doesn't see it as a good thing, but neither does he see it as a bad thing. He kills and commits violence for purely utilitarian purposes. When it's necessary toward saving either himself or others. Questions of guilt or remorse never come into it. It's simply a question of factual reality.

Again, Levi didn't even realize his strength could be used to help others until he was essentially full grown. It was that discovery which compelled him toward that decision, not a sense of guilt.

That shows a natural inclination toward selflessness, just like him fighting for his mother, but not himself, does. That selflessness lead to him searching for an answer as to the reason for his great strength, this in spite of Kenny teaching him it was meant for his own power, which eventually lead to him realizing it could be used to help others. Once Levi discovered that, he was always going to be someone who used his strength toward that end.

I don't think Levi ever truly believed in a "better world", either. I think Levi always knew that the goal of the Survey Corps was a pipe dream, and that he, personally, never truly saw it as worth the lives of his comrades. But he supported it because it was what his comrades had chosen to give their lives for, and, again, Levi believed his strength was meant to support them in whatever way they chose to live those lives. His protective instincts found an outlet in supporting the scouts mission, for the scouts themselves, not for some far-off Utopian future.

His taking on the responsibility of Eren was also toward that end. Levi didn't want to use Eren as a weapon. It was Erwin's decision to bring Eren into the scouts, and Levi trusted in Erwin's judgement, believing he had a vision beyond Levi's own scope of imagination. Remember, again, how Levi wasn't able to imagine for himself a better way to utilize his strength beyond helping a single individual at a time, and even before then, he wasn't able to imagine that he strength could be used toward that limited end. And that ties back to Levi not ever truly believing in or seeing the possibility of a better world, but simply doing everything within his power to support and protect the ability of others to choose for themselves. Levi's mind is one of practicality and pragmatism. He isn't a dreamer. He let Erwin use him as a weapon because he trusted in Erwin's judgement more than his own instincts, and trusted in Erwin to make the best use of his strength. He believed Erwin could see something he couldn't.

And so Levi's disappointment in the end doesn't have to do with his own failure to realize the Scouts dreams, I don't think. Their dream was realized. A world without titans was brought to fruition. It was made reality. They succeeded.

Levi's disappointment in the end is because what he knew all along turned out to be true. Which is that that dream was never worth the lives they gave.

He supported them because it was how they chose to spend their lives, the cause they dedicated themselves to. But it was never something Levi himself believed in. There's a reason Levi never says "dedicate your heart" until near the very end, with Hange. Because Levi never believed in the ideology of an ideal or Utopian world being worth the lives of his comrades. He believed the opposite, that the thing his comrades sacrificed themselves for needed to prove its worth to them. His single salute at the end is for all his fallen comrades, for them personally, not the ideology behind the Survey Corps itself.

#Levi Ackerman #Eren Yeager #attack on titan #shingkei no kyojin

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phoebe-delia · 2 years ago

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Heart of Gold

This is for the marvelous, majestic, incredible birthday geese, @geesenoises. My love, I don't quite know what I'd do without you and your big heart and smart brain. You are so full of kindness, wisdom, humor and generosity. I simply adore you.

Thank you, also, for introducing me to Griff. For you, I have a little songfic offering based on "Heart of Gold," which as we've discussed is a great Drarry song. I hope I've done it justice. Enjoy!

Draco wonders when Harry will figure it out.

There will come a day, Draco knows, when Harry will come to his senses and realize that Draco—even at his best—isn't nearly good enough for him.

That idea is still somewhat foreign to Draco, still—this notion that being "good enough" can't be measured by a figure in a bank account, but is an imaginary value altogether that Draco has yet to calculate for himself. And yet he knows, viscerally, that on the hierarchy of Goodness, he is several rungs below Harry—shiny, smiling, giving, warm-hearted Harry.

Harry gives to charity at the supermarket. He holds the door for people. He picks up litter on the street. He volunteers at the animal shelter once a month. He has a smile for everyone and genuinely tries his best in everything he does.

Draco brushes past people handing out flyers on the street. He shamelessly takes the last muffin at work without asking if anyone wants it. He's selfish and he can be callous. He lets his anxiety and the urge to stay in his comfort zone overpower the shreds of a moral compass he's holding together in his soul with duct tape.

But more than that, Draco—deep down—still struggles to unlearn the lessons of his youth. He loves Harry—deeply, irrevocably and forever—and yet he still, constantly, has to swallow the instinctual judgment and prejudiced fear he was taught to internalize for so long. He doesn't act on it; he pushes the thoughts back down with all his might. But part of him hates himself a little every time it happens. He hates himself a little for knowing he doesn't measure up to what Harry deserves.

And, selfishly, he'll hold on to Harry–to this sacred love—for as long as he can.

______

Harry wishes Draco knew.

He sees it, sometimes; the flicker of self-flagellation in Draco's expression. Harry didn't know what it meant, in the beginning, but now he sees it for what it is—knows that it's Draco giving himself a mental slap for some imagined or arbitrary transgression.

Harry wonders if Draco knows it's okay to be imperfect—that he hasn't used up his chances in life to be wrong, to make mistakes and bad choices. He wonders if Draco will start to see that the best thing a person can do is try to do their best, each day.

He wants, so badly, to tell Draco all this. He could wax poetic about his love for Draco until he turns blue in the face; he could offer platitudes and comfort and reassurances. He could talk about how proud he is of Draco and how far they've come. He could tell Draco that everyone has thoughts they're not proud of—ones that make them cringe and scold themselves—but that what's important is how we act and treat others. And how we treat ourselves—with education and forgiveness.

But he knows words won't do what time can. Nothing will prove to Draco that Harry wants to be with him other than doing it. Living it out. Harry wants to give him forever, and that's a gift he can give every day, even if Draco doesn't see it at first.

And that's okay. Harry will give him time—as long as he needs—to figure it out.

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hello-thefatlosshabit-blr · 5 years ago

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THE STORY OF TWO WOLVES

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There is a famous a Cherokee legendabout the battle between two wolves. An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy. “It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.” He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you – and inside every other person, too.” The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”[i]

No one is without sin. We are all capable of doing great and terrible things. Inside each of us is a battle between these two wolves. What separates the virtuous person from the evil person is their decisions; thoughts married to actions.Nothing is inconsequential. Every action is taking us in one direction or another. People often wish they were more disciplined so they could take more disciplined action, but life doesn’t work that way. We must make more disciplined decisions to become more disciplined. Courage comes from overcoming fear, not wishing you were braver or wishing the fear was less intense.

We don’t have to start big, in fact, it’s recommended we start by taking small steps. The important thing is to start. Virtue requires deliberate effort. Start small, and build-up the virtue gradually. If you are scared of heights and want to overcome your fear, you might start by jumping into the water from a high of 10 feet before gradually building the courage to jump from a 10-meter platform.

Discipline is at the root of all good virtues. Discipline requires strength of character. You could boil down the story of two wolves to the struggle between strength and weakness. At the root of all vile actions is a weakness of character. Life is a battle of inches. We are either gaining or losing territory each day, each hour, each minute. Everything matters. We are either feeding virtue, or we are feeding vice. We are either becoming more disciplined or less disciplined. Every decision, every action, is either feeding the strong wolf or the weak one. The one we feed the most will form our character.

It has been my observation that people that will lie about seemingly small, inconsequential matters will lie about other matters. It should come as no surprise when a man, who cheats on his wife, also embezzles money from his company. You might think these things are unrelated, but they aren’t. They all come down to the man’s character. Everything is connected.

Some employers want to know a job candidate’s credit score. Why do you think that is? Why should they want to know that information? How could that information possibly affect the candidate’s ability to perform their duties and responsibilities? The hiring company wants to know if the person is responsible. A person that doesn’t exercise responsibility for their personal finances is unlikely to exercise responsibility at work. I made a peculiar observation as a young man. I noticed that the guys that didn’t wear seatbelts were also the ones that said they didn’t always have safe sex. The reasons in both instances were the same. It isn’t comfortable. It doesn’t feel good. They chose feeling good over being safe and responsible.

When we think something we do is an isolated event, we are lying to ourselves. It matters. Everything matters. Everything is feeding one wolf or the other. One is becoming stronger with each decision. We can change the trajectory of our life by constantly asking ourselves before making each decision, which wolf am I going to be feeding; the strong wolf or the weak wolf? It’s an easy question to answer. If we are doing what feels good vs. what our instincts are telling us to do, we are feeding the weak wolf.

I challenge you to make the little decisions that will nourish your strong wolf. These actions are often easy to do, but of course what is easy to do, is even easier to neglect. Neglect is an infection that we need to inoculate ourselves from by feeding our strong wolf. These small wins will lead to bigger wins. Habitually overcoming weakness will become a positive addiction.

Get excited about crushing these weak feelings. Get excited about feeding your strong wolf and developing your discipline. Discipline is like a muscle. It becomes stronger through repetition and effort. Anticipate the feeling of triumph overcoming weakness will provide. Every early morning workout will make you feel like a winner. Every pound lost, will make you feel like a winner. It will make you feel more in control of your emotions, more in control of your body, more in control of your LIFE!

When we feed the weak wolf, we are losing control of our life.Discipline helps us take back control. We will not win every battle, but if we don’t fight we’ll lose every battle, and we will fall into depression. Action is the cure for depression. Depression is caused by a feeling of powerlessness over our life. Taking ownership of your problems and the solutions to those problems is very empowering. It leads to the positive actions that help us escape depression. It’s a simple formula, but it is difficult for people that have developed the habit of feeding their weak wolf by giving into their feelings of hopelessness.

Progress makes us happy because we feel in control of our lives. As Tony Robin often says, “Progress equals happiness.Progress is the game.” Progress affirms our belief in ourselves and our ability to take control of our results. It reaffirms our belief that we are in control of our life. When we become more disciplined, we no longer feel like a victim of circumstances out of our control. We shouldn’t wish for better circumstances, we should wish we were better.

Waiting for better circumstances or opportunities to just show up and ring the doorbell is naive at best. Hope isn’t a method. Instead of wishing for fewer problems, wish you had more solutions. Instead of wishing for a more favorable economy, wish you had more skills. Instead of wishing for a more favorable wind, wish you had a better sail. Bruce Lee said, “Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.” Life challenges everyone. You can rip January from the calendar, but winter will come just the same. Instead of wishing winter away, prepare for winter.

Complaining about life’s realities and wishing they were different is a waste of time and makes you life’s victim. Life doesn’t happen to you, it happens for you. Instead of wasting your time and energy wishing your life was better, spend your time becoming more than you are. Focus on becoming stronger, smarter, more skilled, friendlier, BETTER.

We all fail and come up short, but the surest way to win is to always try one more time. Every single day, we start again. Every day you’ll have multiple opportunities to feed either the strong wolf or the weak one. Whichever one you most consistently feed is going to shape your character and determine your life’s direction. I challenge you will great love and respect to, FEED THE STRONG WOLF! Get excited about forging a new body; one molded by the cauldron of your iron will and sculpted with the chisel of self-discipline.

Change your habits, change your life!

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Best wishes and Best Health!

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The Fat Loss Habit: Creating Routines that Make Willpower and Fat Loss Automatic takes a new approach to getting leaner, fitter, and stronger. The program uses high-impact change strategies that make the process of adopting a healthy lifestyle easier. The nutrition and workout program, like the change techniques, have all been proven effective, and are all backed by research and scientific studies.

Our BOOK The Fat Loss Habit is NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON!!! We would greatly appreciate a brief REVIEW. Your feedback is our best marketing tool, and it will help us to make a better product. Your review will help other people who want to make a positive change by helping them to find our book.

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[i] The First People, Native American Legends Two Wolves, http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/TwoWolves-Cherokee.html.

The battle rages within us all. Which wolf are you feeding? THE STORY OF TWO WOLVES If you enjoy this article, please LIKE, SHARE, and follow us on…

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parkpavilion · 4 years ago

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Goodbye to All That

The following post was first published on Message in a Bottle, the Island Books blog, and on NW Book Lovers, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association blog, at the tail end of a very trying year. It’s being revisited now at the tail end of another, by way of celebrating the paperback release of Brian Doyle’s One Long River of Song.

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2016 wasn’t quite two weeks old when I first heard that it was cursed. On top of the usual bad news (Sharaban tea shop, bombing) came the announcement of David Bowie’s death, and something about it, hard on the heels of his most acclaimed record in years, songs that were released on his birthday, seemed especially shocking and unjust. Public celebration of the music quickly turned into lamentation for the man, inverting Hamlet’s sardonic lines about how “the funeral bak’d meats / Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.”

Given Bowie’s lifelong example of ironic detachment, it felt right to make black jokes about a curse, but as the months went by more and more celebrities died (Alan Rickman, Harper Lee, Prince, Muhammad Ali, to name a few) and so did a crowd of dancers in an Orlando nightclub, and the talk of curses started sounding serious. It became a commonplace that 2016 was the Worst Year Ever.

Not being a superstitious sort, I chalked this up to normal variation. The year may have brewed up an atypical amount of trouble, but there were also some high spots. Scientists identified the gene responsible for ALS and the Cubs came from behind to break a century-long string of bad luck. Things could have been worse.

But then came a one-two punch–well, more like a chin tap and a train collision. Within a couple of days in early November, Daylight Saving Time came to and end and so did my faith in democracy. It started getting dark earlier and, after the election, it seemed like it was going to stay that way for the foreseeable future. I fell deeply into what used to be called a “brown study” and couldn’t see the point in getting out of bed, let alone reading a book. No matter what I did, I couldn’t dispel the fog of depression. For almost two weeks I had no answers, and then it came to me to ask a question instead: “What would Brian Doyle do?”

Yes, the Northwest’s own Brian Doyle, author of beloved fictional classics including Mink River and Martin Marten. Ever since I first fell in love with his work he’s been a touchstone for me, and I like to imagine that we have a lot in common. We are both bespectacled, bearded men in our middle years; both of us have the creaky knees that result from too many hours of basketball and the quirky minds that result from too many years of Catholic education. Brian has written often about his lovely bride, Mary, a woman of Belgian extraction he describes as “no bigger than a heron;” my own remarkable spouse grew up outside of Brussels and has to stand on a chair to look a heron in the eye. Brian enjoys writing wise, witty, and lyrical books that make any subject important and interesting; I enjoy reading wise, witty, and lyrical books that make any subject important and interesting.

We differ, though, in respect to temperament. As he put it when I had the privilege of interviewing him earlier this year (another 2016 highlight):

“My sister the smiling Buddhist nun says I am congenitally optimistic, as the well-balanced middle child in a large family, but I think it’s more that I just cannot repress the constant stream of amazing examples and chapters of grace and humor and courage and tenderness and humility I see every blessed day. Fact. It’s all there if you look hard enough. I am not always stupid, and I get it that grief and pain and loss and evil are everywhere and daily fare, and people I love are hammered and have died, and I am terrified of fouling the nest so badly that kids can’t live in it, and I am enraged at murderous thugs and bloviating buffoons, but still, man, look at the armies of light pitted against it all! Isn’t that astounding?”

As for me, a quote from Leonard Cohen (another casualty of 2016) will suffice: “I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel completely soaked to the skin.” Like him, “I’ve always been free from hope.” That mindset carries me over most crises, but not this one. In this case I needed the boost that only Brian Doyle could provide. This is the man, after all, who made a legendary impromptu speech that brought tears and then laughter to a room full of booksellers in the wake of a terrible shooting in Roseburg, Oregon. This is the man who recently published something called The Kind of Brave You Wanted to Be: Prose Prayers and Cheerful Chants Against the Dark. It’s like he went back in time to write what I needed before I knew I needed it. I decided that not only would I go back to his books and read my way into the light, I’d do what he’s always telling us we have to do, share our stories. I’d write up that true tall tale of the time I was in my twenties and I beat that giant Viking guy one-on-one on a gravelly court with a rusty backboard and a bent rim and I’d send it to him and tell him what he meant to me.

And then the next day I learned that Brian Doyle has brain cancer.

Oh, if I could kick you in the teeth, 2016, I would. But I haven’t got the time. I have to Kübler-Ross my way through this and get my head on straight. I have to think of Brian’s family and friends and colleagues and students and readers and all the pain and sadness they feel. I have to figure out what to do next, because there’s a lot for everyone to do.

The doctors can take the lead. Even though they “can’t delete it or fix it or cure it,” they can treat it, and they are. Brian’s already had surgery that removed almost all of his tumor, and is beginning a course of radiation and chemotherapy that will, with fingers crossed, give him “a few more years of reading and writing and being with [his] wife and kids.” There’s a fundraiser online to assist them with medical and therapeutic costs, which will undoubtedly be vast. For an example of what they’ll be dealing with, one side effect of this kind of brain surgery, hopefully a temporary one, is homonymous hemianopsia, the loss of half the field of vision on the same side in both eyes. Particularly cruel of 2016 to force a writer to look at things from only one side, don’t you think?

Those of us further from the center can contribute, of course, and we can spread the word about the help that’s needed. And we can do what we’ve always done, support his work. Out now is his collection of short-short fiction, The Mighty Currawongs, which contains “This Is the Part Where You Say Something Real,” maybe the best story of a marriage that it’s possible to tell in three pages. Read it. In the spring will come another novel, The Adventures of John Carson in Several Quarters of the World. Put it on your wish list.

We can also give to each other what Mary Doyle is thankful that her friends have given to her. Give “your tears your hope your compassion your warmth your wit your generosity your respect your creativity your friendship your tenderness your humor your searching your reading your writing your cooking your dog walking your baking your mailing your typing your stamping your donating your sitting your roof cleaning your Christmas lighting your carpentry your hands held together in prayer.” Give the benefit of the doubt to the good who deserve it and no quarter to the evil who don’t.

We can put 2016 behind us and think about what’s ahead. We’ve got 2017, all of it we need, however long it lasts. As a great philosopher once said, “We’re only here for a minute, we’re here for a little window, and to use that time to catch and share shards of light and laughter and grace seems to me the great story. And I love that work.”

More Life. The Great Work Begins.

--James

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dfroza · 4 years ago

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Today’s reading from the ancient books of Proverbs and Psalms

for Sunday, October 25 of 2020 with Proverbs 25 and Psalm 25 accompanied by Psalm 34 for the 34th day of Autumn and Psalm 149 for day 299 of the year

[Proverbs 25]

Solomon’s proverbs, published by the scribes of King Hezekiah:

God conceals the revelation of his word

in the hiding place of his glory.

But the honor of kings is revealed

by how they thoroughly search out

the deeper meaning of all that God says.

The heart of a king is full of understanding,

like the heavens are high and the ocean is deep.

If you burn away the impurities from silver,

a sterling vessel will emerge from the fire.

And if you purge corruption from the kingdom,

a king’s reign will be established in righteousness.

Don’t boast in the presence of a king

or promote yourself by taking a seat at the head table

and pretend that you’re someone important.

For it is better for the king to say to you,

“Come, you should sit at the head table,”

than for him to say in front of everyone,

“Please get up and move—

you’re sitting in the place of the prince.”

Don’t be hasty to file a lawsuit.

By starting something you wish you hadn’t,

you could be humiliated when you lose your case.

Don’t reveal another person’s secret

just to prove a point in an argument,

or you could be accused of being a gossip

and gain a reputation for being one

who betrays the confidence of a friend.

Winsome words spoken at just the right time

are as appealing as apples gilded in gold

and surrounded with silver.

To humbly receive wise correction

adorns your life with beauty

and makes you a better person.

A reliable, trustworthy messenger

refreshes the heart of his master,

like a gentle breeze blowing at harvest time—

cooling the sweat from his brow.

Clouds that carry no water

and a wind that brings no refreshing rain—

that’s what you’re like when you boast

of a gift that you don’t have.

[Wisdom Practices Self-Control]

Use patience and kindness when you want to persuade leaders

and watch them change their minds right in front of you.

For your gentle wisdom will quell the strongest resistance.

When you discover something sweet,

don’t overindulge and eat more than you need,

for excess in anything can make you sick of even a good thing.

Don’t wear out your welcome

by staying too long at the home of your friends,

or they may get fed up with always having you there

and wish you hadn’t come.

Lying about and slandering people

are as bad as hitting them with a club,

or wounding them with an arrow,

or stabbing them with a sword.

You can’t depend on an unreliable person

when you really need help.

It can be compared to biting down on an abscessed tooth

or walking with a sprained ankle.

When you sing a song of joy to someone suffering

in the deepest grief and heartache,

it can be compared to disrobing in the middle of a blizzard

or rubbing salt in a wound.

Is your enemy hungry? Buy him lunch.

Win him over with your kindness.

Your surprising generosity will awaken his conscience

and God will reward you with favor.

As the north wind brings a storm,

saying things you shouldn’t brings a storm to any relationship.

It’s better to live all alone in a rundown shack

than to share a castle with a crabby spouse!

Like a drink of cool water to a weary, thirsty soul,

so hearing good news revives the spirit.

When a lover of God gives in and compromises with wickedness,

it can be compared to contaminating a stream with sewage

or polluting a fountain.

It’s good to eat sweet things,

but you can take too much.

It’s good to be honored,

but to seek words of praise is not honor at all.

If you live without restraint

and are unable to control your temper,

you’re as helpless as a city with broken-down defenses,

open to attack.

The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 25 (The Passion Translation)

[Psalm 25]

Don’t Fail Me, God!

King David’s poetic praise to God

Forever I will lift up my soul into your presence, Lord.

Be there for me, God, for I keep trusting in you.

Don’t allow my foes to gloat over me or

the shame of defeat to overtake me.

For how could anyone be disgraced

when he has entwined his heart with you?

But they will all be defeated and ashamed

when they harm the innocent.

Lord, direct me throughout my journey

so I can experience your plans for my life.

Reveal the life-paths that are pleasing to you.

Escort me along the way; take me by the hand and teach me.

For you are the God of my increasing salvation;

I have wrapped my heart into yours!

Forgive my failures as a young man,

and overlook the sins of my immaturity.

Give me grace, Lord! Always look at me

through your eyes of love—

your forgiving eyes of mercy and compassion.

When you think of me, see me as one you love and care for.

How good you are to me!

When people turn to you,

they discover how easy you are to please—so faithful and true!

Joyfully you teach them the proper path,

even when they go astray.

Keep showing the humble your path,

and lead them into the best decision.

Bring revelation-light that trains them in the truth.

All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful for those who follow the ways of his covenant.

For the honor of your name, Lord,

never count my sins, and forgive them all—

lift their burden off of my life!

Who are they that live in the holy fear of God?

You will show them the right path to take.

Then prosperity and favor will be their portion,

and their descendants will inherit all that is good.

There’s a private place reserved for the lovers of God,

where they sit near him and receive

the revelation-secrets of his promises.

Rescue me, Lord, for you’re my only hero.

Sorrows fill my heart as I feel helpless, mistreated—

I’m all alone and in misery!

Come closer to me now, Lord, for I need your mercy.

Turn to me, for my problems seem to be going from bad to worse.

Only you can free me from all these troubles!

Until you lift this burden, the burden of all my sins,

my troubles and trials will be more than I can handle.

Can’t you feel my pain?

Vicious enemies hate me.

There are so many, Lord. Can’t you see?

Will you protect me from their power against me?

Let it never be said that I trusted you

and you didn’t come to my rescue.

Your perfection and faithfulness are my bodyguards,

for you are my hope and I trust in you as my only protection.

Zealously, God, we ask you

to come save Israel from all her troubles,

for you provide the ransom price for your people!

The Book of Psalms, Poem 25 (The Passion Translation)

[Psalm 34]

A David Psalm, When He Outwitted Abimelech and Got Away

I bless God every chance I get;

my lungs expand with his praise.

I live and breathe God;

if things aren’t going well, hear this and be happy:

Join me in spreading the news;

together let’s get the word out.

God met me more than halfway,

he freed me from my anxious fears.

Look at him; give him your warmest smile.

Never hide your feelings from him.

When I was desperate, I called out,

and God got me out of a tight spot.

God’s angel sets up a circle

of protection around us while we pray.

Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—

how good God is.

Blessed are you who run to him.

Worship God if you want the best;

worship opens doors to all his goodness.

Young lions on the prowl get hungry,

but God-seekers are full of God.

Come, children, listen closely;

I’ll give you a lesson in God worship.

Who out there has a lust for life?

Can’t wait each day to come upon beauty?

Guard your tongue from profanity,

and no more lying through your teeth.

Turn your back on sin; do something good.

Embrace peace—don’t let it get away!

God keeps an eye on his friends,

his ears pick up every moan and groan.

God won’t put up with rebels;

he’ll cull them from the pack.

Is anyone crying for help? God is listening,

ready to rescue you.

If your heart is broken, you’ll find God right there;

if you’re kicked in the gut, he’ll help you catch your breath.

Disciples so often get into trouble;

still, God is there every time.

He’s your bodyguard, shielding every bone;

not even a finger gets broken.

The wicked commit slow suicide;

they waste their lives hating the good.

God pays for each slave’s freedom;

no one who runs to him loses out.

The Book of Psalms, Poem 34 (The Message)

[Psalm 149]

Praise the Eternal!

Write new songs; sing them to Him with all your might!

Gather with His faithful followers in joyful praise;

Let all of Israel celebrate their Maker, their God, their friend;

let the children of Zion find great joy in their true King.

So let the music begin; praise His name—dance and sing

to the rhythm of the tambourine, and to the tune of the harp.

For the Eternal is listening, and nothing pleases Him more than His people;

He raises up the poor and endows them with His salvation.

Let His faithful followers erupt in praise,

singing triumphantly wherever they are, even as they lie down for sleep in the evening.

With the name of God and praise in their mouths,

with a two-edged sword in their hands,

Let them take revenge on all nations who deny God.

Let them punish the peoples.

Kings and nobles will be locked up,

and their freedom will be bound in iron shackles.

This judgment against them, decreed by a holy God, will be carried out.

It’s an honor for all His faithful followers to serve Him.

Praise the Eternal!

The Book of Psalms, Poem 149 (The Voice)

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pamphletstoinspire · 7 years ago

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Padre Pio and Spiritual Formation - Article 5 - The Great Love Of God

"I will not be satisfied Oh Lord, until I feel myself united to You with all my heart. I want, Almighty God, to look at You and love You in the same way as You look at me and love me. To whom else could I give my affection when you have given me yours with your most gentle eyes always fixed on me?" - (Let this aspiration be your favorite)

***

Padre Pio described his spiritual director, Padre Benedetto Nardella, as the man who "formed" him. Here are some of Padre Benedetto's teachings on the Christian life.

Article 5

The Great Love Of God

Think that the most effective means of keeping a confident heart and to compel it to abandon itself always without reluctance in our beloved Savior, even after a fall, is to reflect on the following: Even though Jesus knows the state of our hearts, He commands us to love our enemies and to do good to those who harm us. Now, if He commands us to do this, we who are so evil, how can we suppose that He does not continue to love us when we are so unfaithful or when we even become his enemies through sin?

How can we suspect that He does not want to receive us with infinite affection when we throw ourselves at his feet. Oh, my God! We think that by mistrusting You we respect your holiness without realizing that by doing this we hurt your infinite tenderness.

Desire For Sanctity

It is one thing to say "I am a saint" and another to say "I want to become a saint." You can tell everyone that you want to become a saint without fear of pride because, after all, holiness is nothing else but divine love and the love of God is a sacred, absolute and essential duty ordered to everyone and required from all. Where is pride when protesting to observe a principal and elementary duty? Humility consists in being persuaded that one does not have this love to an eminent degree or even sufficiently, but humility does not prevent one from aspiring to it.

If someone said to you: "I do not love God as I should, nor do I want to love Him" what impression would you have? But it is the same thing if someone who knows he is not a saint says "and I do not wish to become one."

Therefore you can be convinced that it is not scandalous but edifying to express a desire for sanctity and charity assuming, of course, through divine grace.

Short Prayers And Aspirations

The best short prayers and aspirations are those that raise the heart and urge it to union. You can use the ones that are in fashion, but for those with strong sentiments it is best to use spontaneous prayers that come from the heart.

I think that the most suitable one for you is this: "My God, I am yours, all yours through creation and redemption, and this is how I consider myself and wish to be."

Then let this aspiration be your favorite: "I will not be satisfied Oh Lord, until I feel myself united to You with all my heart. I want, Almighty God, to look at You and love You in the same way as You look at me and love me. To whom else could I give my affection when you have given me yours with your most gentle eyes always fixed on me?"

I will not tell you how many times to repeat this but the more you say it the more good it does you. The Saints had this language in their hearts perpetually.

Always Start From God

You mustn't stop at wondering if your heart is worthy of God. The biggest obstacle to devotion is to begin always with ourselves wanting to find something that gives us confidence; whereas there is no other foundation for hope than divine Goodness. And is virtue not a gift of his? And is corresponding to grace not another grace.

Oh, place yourself before Him enlivened by the vision of his love. Consider his patience, tenderness and compassion, and while He looks at you with eyes more gentle than a father or mother, tell Him you want to stay near Him and united to Him without the discourtesy of being diffident. You must reflect on yourself briefly, after having been moved to tears for love of Him.

Panegyric Of The "Heartop"

You are quite right. That's how it is. The first requisite, the first quality, sine qua non to become a saint is the heart. Everything is good and useful but the heart is indispensable. With the heart science is beneficial, prudence helps, good sense provides, zeal comforts and strength takes the lead, without it science is vain, prudence is cunning, good sense is diplomacy, zeal is impetuosity and strength is violence. In the army they look for broad chests to form picked troops; to form the elect, generosity of heart is necessary.

Influence, efficacy and success with hearts is reserved to hearts. Beginning by Jesus whose heart melted with love, all the saints were men of heart who gave themselves for others. Our sublime triumph comes from no other source. Our religion is victorious principally for this.

Not for nothing Saint John defined God: Love — John 4,16. He almost wants to tell us that before anything else and above all we must have a heart; this is enough to give us the vital union with Him. "He who abides in love abides in God and God in him" — John 4,16.

The Holy Spirit does not ask for either doctrine or ability, nor languages or anything else but the heart. "My son, give me your heart" — Prov 23,26.

Loving In The Midst Of Crosses

The Apostles considered suffering for the love of Jesus an exquisite privilege and rejoiced; you too must arrive at rejoicing when you suffer. Love that does not suffer is not strong, nor generous and if it deserves something it deserves very little. Tranquil and cheerful love is beautiful but does not have the radiance of patient love. Who can prefer the love of a mother at the cot of a happy son to that disconsolate and anxious love by the bedside of suffering?

Jesus was inebriated at the thought of suffering for us and therefore he exclaimed almost ecstatically: "But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!"

Yes, one can ask God for tribulations but first one must beg him for the grace which consoles. But anyway, I think, it is useless, since they are prepared and enforced. Crosses are like hair. The moment you cut it, it grows again. The saying of Saint Francis de Sales is very wise: "Don't ask for anything and don't refuse anything." That is, one must be ready and well disposed to undergo the trials that always return and that when one disappears, it is only to make way for another.

Temperance In Love

Love is not taught. It is a truth known to all and that you do not ignore. Therefore, you do not ask to be taught to love, but to feel love and enjoy it. If you were really satisfied to just love, you could be rewarded because you love already. And does not the desire to love pertain to love? Whoever desires to love what they don't love?

The secret of enjoying love , consists in being content to love it when one can and not to permit desire for it to disturb your tranquility. Is it therefore wrong to desire it? No, because as I said before it is an indication of love, but it is not possible to taste the good we have by seeking for what we do not have and that God does not give.

Just as you are content to grow in height imperceptibly each day, so it is with love. Would it be right to be afflicted because our Lord does not let you grow one inch or more every day? Temperance in this also is beneficial.

#padre pio

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ssfoc · 7 years ago

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Sea does not need to post because I just want to vent. Harry did the trick yesterday to take pictures with the bandana, and in the photo with the dog he has a defiant possession. He began to wear the blue bandana by the time he and Louis were submerged in heavy stunts. So I think he just wanted to reassure those who can see through the lines, and what heavy things will come. I feel for them, and for those who are afflicted with it. ( 1)

If it is difficult for us, imagine for them that you have to live this lie? Many people think these little demonstrations are for fandom. But I think this is actually for them. Louis giving rings to Harry and Harry making strange tattoos like the mermaid, the bear and the bee, tattoos that do not have a correct definition and that clearly is not “just a boat”. I’m glad Harry had Louis and he still has him, to go through these trials. Kisses in your hear Sea. I hope you stay. ( 2)

_______

Dear Anon,

This is a beautiful message for today. Thank you for sending it, and if you don’t mind, I’ll add a few of my own thoughts.

Last week I went off Tumblr for a few days, and thought about an extended leave. For me, it has to do with personal issues in my life, not with the band or fandom. I don’t consider myself a big or influential blog. People sometimes do leave/ take a break for personal reasons, and nothing more. I still believe Harry & Louis are together, I still believe in supporting them, and I still believe in a happy ending for them. I don’t think it’s naive or wishful thinking to hope for that.

My blog is centered on the music of 1D, but I’ve been inspired and moved by OT5 in so many ways, I can’t even begin to count them. Over the years, they’ve shown abundant talent, charm, intelligence, generosity, compassion, and most of all, courage.

It’s hard to duplicate 1D because the boys weren’t about pursuing success at any cost, or merely chasing fame or money, or climbing over each other to grab the top prize.

Instead, from the very beginning, they took care of each other and took care of the fans. No one was left behind. They did not let the powers of industry destroy their faith in themselves, or in being good artists AND good people.

They raised money for charity, advocated for tolerance and love, argued against prejudice, shaming, or bullying of any kind, and stood up for those who felt most vulnerable in the fandom.

They appreciated our creative endeavors in making fan art and fan fiction. They thanked us for raising money and awareness for charities. They inspired fans to make their own music, to start writing for the first time, to rekindle their love of art or poetry or songwriting. They made us believe in the power of creativity. They educated us on the music industry; we learned along with them.

The way that the boys of 1D made everyone feel included translated to an incredibly happy feeling at the concerts. Being at a 1D concert, even for an old person like me, was an amazingly uplifting, positive, happy feeling. On a day like this, when Liam is turning 24 and Niall is starting his solo tour, I feel so thankful and nostalgic for the band, it makes me a bit tearful.

The boys were so young when they started, and now they are men. Their tastes and talents have matured, they’re much more savvy dealing with media and fans, they’ve learned to shield themselves from intrusion. That means limiting some access to fans. On balance, that’s a healthy development.

In a way, Harry and Louis are living the best of times (in their career so far) and the worst of times. Their free time is their own— many days spent MIA together, without obligations to 1DHQ, with friends who know them and understand their situation. No magazine shoots, interviews, mall book signings, television appearances, writing/ touring/ recording simultaneously, unless they want to. They are starting solo careers and establishing significant presence in the industry; they are high revenue generators and have large fan bases.

They have a modicum of control over their closets, and can control some of the terms. If they imply relationships with women, they can have some say: who, when, where, how. They will never be able to address what happened during 1D; what they went through will only come to light through carefully worded anecdotes, like the one Louis told about Simon summoning him to LA.

They are still not able to openly be with the person they love, and no matter what, that hurts. Fandom’s ruptures and arguments can’t begin to approximate what HL went through for seven years, through ugly innuendos and stunts, with opportunistic people wanting a piece of their fame.

We know Harry and Louis are people who cherish family, love performing, and love each other. We know this not because we’re “tinhatters” or any other epithet that tries to undermine our intelligence or sanity. We know because they’ve shown their love openly, over and over, year after year, in every medium, in various forms; because they have proclaimed through songs, tattoos, speeches, actual fan encounters, clothing, etc. to give love, share love– always to enlarge the sphere of love in this world.

Lastly, if I’m away, I will still live by this philosophy, and will be supporting Harry and Louis until they get their happy ending. I will check my messages, and even if I don’t answer, I am reading them. Hugs.

Sea

#fandom #closet #HL

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gracewithducks · 5 years ago

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With One Heart (Acts 4:32-37) - Sunday School Stories #11, preached for Commitment Sunday 11/18/19

I once heard a story about a man named Thomas Hearne, who was travelling on an expedition to the mouth of the Coppermine River in Ontario. But a few days into the journey, Thomas and his companions were attacked, and most of their supplies were stolen. In his journal about the incident, rather than bemoaning what was lost, Thomas wrote, “The weight of our baggage being so much lightened, our next day’s journey was more swift and pleasant.”

Lloyd Douglas, one of the most popular American ministers and authors of the early 20th century, reflected on this story, saying, “Hearne was in route to something more interesting and important; and the loss of a few sides of bacon and a couple of bags of flour meant nothing more than an easing of the load. Had Hearne been holed in somewhere, in a cabin, resolved to spend his last days eking out an existence […] the loss of some of his stores by plunder would probably have worried him almost to death.

Douglas concluded by reflecting, “How we respond to ‘losing’ some of our resources for God's work depends upon whether we are on the move or waiting for our last stand.”[1]

It’s a preacher story, so I don’t know if it’s true – although I do know that making my kids carry their own bags makes them second-guess just how many books and stuffed animals they really need. When we’re sitting still, we can easily surround ourselves with stuff, but when we’re on the move, we reconsider how much it is we really need.

In our scripture today, we are given a glimpse into the life of the very early church. Luke writes, “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had… and God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them” (NIV).

It’s a beautiful picture of a community of people living in mutual harmony with one another – but let’s be honest, it sounds a little too Sesame Street, a little too Pleasantville and Pollyanna – just a little too utopian to have ever possibly been real. It makes me wonder, did the early church ever actually live that way? Maybe in those early days, the good news of the resurrection was still so new and exciting that the first Christians just didn’t worry about anything else. Maybe it’s easier to let go of your possessions when you expect Christ to return and usher in the new age at any moment; you don’t have to worry about saving for the future if you don’t think there will be one. Or maybe, even though Luke says, “all the believers were of one heart and mind,” he doesn’t really mean all the believers. Maybe there were small pockets of communal living, which were celebrated and lifted up as models for the rest, or maybe this is the story that the Christians told about themselves, a hopeful image of the kind of community they aspired, in their own faltering ways, to be.

But even if the story really did start here, with sharing everything and no one in need, it didn’t last for long. Just a few verses later, the Gentiles come to the apostles complaining that only the Jewish widows are being cared for, while Gentile widows go hungry (Acts 6:1-7). The early church quickly faced conflict and division over the question of if and how non-Jews could be a part of the new Christian community (Acts 10, 15). And Paul wrote to the Corinthian church admonishing them, because not only were they divided into factions, but the richer members would feast and leave nothing for when their poorer members made it to the table (1 Corinthians 1, 11).

Truly loving one another as we love ourselves – it’s hard. Sharing what we have, generously and without reservation, is hard. Keeping an open mind, keeping an open heart towards people who are different from us, who hold different ideals and different views – it’s hard. And trusting that, if we share, there will be enough to go around – it’s especially hard, when we see around us over and over again that there just doesn’t seem to be enough.

In many ways, the early Christians lived in a different world than we do. Many of us are carrying debt, significant debt, sometimes more than we even imagine or hope to pay back in our lifetimes. And at the same time, far too few of us have any money saved for the future. However, the early Christians also knew about debt and fear for the future; then as now, it takes so little to derail our plans and throw our lives into a tailspin. It’s overwhelming and terrifying to realize that one medical emergency, one mistake, a fire, a downsizing, a disaster – or even just outliving our savings – can leave us begging for help.

Every day we see signs advertising spaghetti fundraisers and posts for go-fund-me accounts, saying: please help this family, please help this friend, with one more heartbreaking story to tell. Even the most heartwarming stories we share – of children raising money to pay off their classmates’ lunch debts, and engineering students crafting medical equipment that insurance won’t cover, celebrities or even churches stepping in to erase medical debt or help someone in need – those stories are beautiful, yes, but they’re also discouraging, because beneath the warm fuzzies is the reality that we live in a world and a nation where fear is woven right into the fabric of our being, where at any time, any one of us could go into a freefall, where school lunch debt and medical bankruptcy aren’t just real but are common and overwhelming – we live in a society where, in our own fear and in our own greed, we’ve lost our sense of responsibility for one another. I remember once hearing a suggestion that, instead of forcing everyone to make a go-fund-me page when they got sick or a tragedy occurred, we could instead all contribute to one great big go-fund-me fund that could be used by anyone in need – you know, like some kind of social safety net? But somehow it’s a crazy, impossible ideal – even though other nations seem to be able to make it work – it’s a crazy, impossible idea to suggest that I’d be willing to pay more in taxes if it means I knew my neighbors wouldn’t go hungry, that when someone got cancer their family could support them without worrying about how to afford the treatment they need – and if it meant knowing that, when our family falls on hard times, there would be a net to catch us and something in place to help us back up.

Maybe we imagine that we’ll never be the ones in need. Or maybe we just like to be heroes: we like to feel generous, to hear those sad stories for ourselves, to see misery on display, to be appealed to individually, maybe even groveled to and gushed over – it makes us feel good, feel important and powerful, when we choose to give. And God absolutely calls us to step up and help whenever we see someone in need. But just as important – maybe even more so – just as important is the far less glamorous work of consistent giving, of faithful generosity, of giving back a portion of our resources to God. It’s less flashy, less gratifying, but even more powerful in our lives and in the lives of others when we build generosity into the very fabric of our lives.

When God was preparing the people to enter the Promised Land, they first had to learn to trust in God. They learned the lesson of the manna, the miracle of bread from heaven – and the real miracle that, somehow, each person always had enough. And God said, “When you enter the Promised Land, remember how, when you were hungry, my grace kept you fed. When you enter the Promised Land, give back the first and the best parts of our harvest for my work. And build into your society care for others, especially for the hungry and the vulnerable, the strangers and the sick and the poor.”

And when Jesus came to call us back to God’s ways, he said, “Where your treasure is, there is your heart” (Matthew 6:21). And he said, “Don’t worry about tomorrow” (Matthew 6:34). And he said, “They will know you are my disciples by your love” (John 13:35).

The book of Acts paints a picture of a generous community, the kind of place where people are willing to give everything they have in order to make sure no one else is in need. Not everyone gave everything – and I’m not asking you to give everything today. But it is worth asking: what do we give? Do we bring our best to God, or do we give God the crumbs, the leftovers, after everything else is said and done?

The biblical standard for giving is a tithe, or 10%. Actually, that’s the Old Testament biblical standard; in the New Testament, as we’ve seen, the standard for giving is everything. But on average, most Christians today give about 2.5% of their income to churches.[2] Some give much more, of course, but many give much less. Among the three major religions in our nation – Christianity, Judaism, and Islam – Christians aren’t even the most generous, not by a long shot; our friends in the other Abrahamic faiths almost double our giving.[3]

It’s a shame that the religion of the cross and resurrection, of dying to self and rising to Christ, of loving others as we love ourselves – it’s a shame that our faith is no longer know by our generosity, compassion, or grace. The world outside knows us by our judgmentalism, by our hypocrisy, by our worst examples, by our biggest failures, by our exclusion and prejudice and unwritten rules – but how I wish they would know us by our love.

Two and a half percent. Some give more, but many give less. And we can say maybe people are giving to secular charities these days; we can blame church politics and scandals, we can blame the lousy economy – but then again, during the Great Depression, the average for giving was 3.3% - in the season which, for our nation, is the literal epitome of poverty and despair, Christians were more generous than they are now. Maybe it’s because there was a shared sense of struggle; maybe it’s because the suffering was so clear and so prevalent, that more were willing to share so needs could be met. In fact, throughout history, the most generous people aren’t usually the rich – the rich are too far removed from their neighbors – but the most generous people are those who don’t have much to share… but who know their neighbors, and try to love them as they love themselves.[4] While big numbers make the headlines, most giving – whether to churches or to charities – most giving comes from moderate households, from modest and ordinary folks, but when all those smaller gifts are put together, they really add up.

That’s why Jesus doesn’t praise the giving done by the rich, but instead he praises the gift of the widow’s mite (Luke 21:1-4). The one who fed crowds with just a few loafs, who said faith like a mustard seed was enough to move mountains – Jesus knew that it’s not the size of the gift that counts, but the spirit and faith therein (Matthew 14:13-21; Matthew 17:20).

Maybe you really are giving all you can: friends, God sees you. The Lord who knows all the hairs on your head; the one who clothes the lilies and praises the widow’s gift is with you. God sees your heart. And maybe this isn’t a season when you can make a financial commitment or give any more than you already can. But maybe God is inviting you to step up in another way: we have open seats on committees, work areas and ministry teams; you could volunteer at church events, you could commit yourself to calling and checking in with church members, to visiting, to serving at Alpha House, volunteering in the community, praying regularly for our church and our members, brainstorming creative fundraising ideas. Jesus didn’t come to balance budgets; he came to show God’s love. Jesus cares about what you do with your finances, but more than that, Jesus loves you.

And maybe, when a little extra income surprises you – a raise, a bonus, an inheritance, a tax refund, or some other unexpected blessing – remember to share and pass that blessing on.

Many of us are giving all we can. And I honor that; I honor you. But I also know that many of us aren’t giving all we can – not even close. We aren’t giving until it hurts; in fact, we’re barely even feeling it. Maybe you haven’t stepped up your giving in a while. Maybe you give when you think about it, when you happen to come, when you remember to put some money in your pocket on the way out the door. Our church is currently operating at a deficit; we are sustaining many of our ministries thanks to the generous investments of the saints who’ve gone before us. And we are grateful for those gifts, for those investments in the church’s future, for those who made sure their ministry would outlive them – and if you haven’t thought about it yet, what legacy are you going to leave behind you when the day comes? Will you remember the ministries of the church in your estate? Whom will you bless, even after you’re gone?

Friends, I am so grateful for the legacy that brought us this far, and for the generosity of each one of you and of the saints who’ve gone before. But I firmly believe that we are at a crucial moment in our church’s story: and I believe, with all my heart, that God is not finished with us yet.

The question is: do you believe it? And are you willing to commit to the work, to invest in the vision, to support the worship, the discipleship, the fellowship, the missions of this body in this place?

In the future, when they tell our story, will they say: this was the season when the church was afraid; when giving dried up, and they circled the wagons, and anxiously counted the sacks of flour we had left? Or will this be the season when we keep moving, when we trust God enough to lighten the load – to share and use what we have, to dream big and give bigger, to trust that, by God’s grace, there will be more than enough to get us where God is calling us to go?

May they know us by our faith. May they know us by our generosity. And above all, may they know us by our love.

We thank you, God, for the saints who’ve gone before us; we stand in awe of the legacy we’ve inherited – and we also stand in awe of the opportunities you’ve given us. We find ourselves in a crucial moment: will we plan for the future with hope, or with fear? Will we be known for our stinginess, or will we be known for our generosity? We pray, Lord, that the world will know us by our love. We pray that you would make us like the earliest church, people united in heart and mind, a community of people committed to caring for one another and to sharing the good news with the world. Send your Spirit on us, as we make our promises and our pledges for the coming year. Fill us with hope; fill us with courage; fill us with peace. In Christ’s name we pray; amen.

[1] Lloyd C. Douglas, The Living Faith. http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/s/stewardship.htm

[2] https://pushpay.com/blog/church-giving-statistics/

[3] The average American Christian donates a little over $800/year; Muslims on average donate more than $1300, and Jews $1440. https://www.cheatsheet.com/money-career/average-church-religion-donation.html/

[4] People with a salary of less than $20K are eight times more likely to give than someone who makes $75K. https://pushpay.com/blog/church-giving-statistics/

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joestilllives · 6 years ago

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To give, to receive and to dance.

This is a bit too long but do still read it till the end. ------------ Graduation address by Nipun Mehta, on May 27, 2013 When the student body of an elite private school in Silicon Valley was given the chance to vote on who would give their graduation address this year, they chose a man named Nipun Mehta. This is the speech that Nipun Mehta delivered. Thank you Jennifer Gargano, Chris Nikoloff and the entire faculty at Harker. To you, the class of 2013, congratulations! I’m delighted to be with you on your special day, and it is a particular honor since I know you chose your speaker. So, graduation day is here and this once-in-a-lifetime milestone moment has arrived. In the words of Taylor Swift, I can tell how you’re feeling: “happy, free, confused, and lonely, miserable and magical at the same time.” Who would’ve thought we’d be quoting words of wisdom from Taylor Swift at your commencement. Today, I’m here with some good news and bad news. I’ll give you the good first. You might be surprised to hear this, but you are about to step out into a world that’s in good shape - in fact the best shape that that it’s ever been in. The average person has never been better fed than today. Infant mortality has never been lower; on average we’re leading longer, healthier lives. Child labor, illiteracy and unsafe water have ceased to be global norms. Democracy is in, as slavery is disappearing. People don’t have to work as hard to just survive. A bicycle in 1895 used to cost 260 working hours, today we’ve gotten that number down to 7.2. So, things are progressing. But I’m afraid that’s not the full story. You’ll want to brace yourselves, because this is the bad news part. This week, Time Magazine’s cover story labeled you guys as the “Me, Me, Me” generation; the week before, NY Times reported that the suicide rate for Gen X went up by 30% in the last decade, and 50% for the boomer generation. We’ve just learned that atmospheric carbon levels surpassed 400 PPM for the first time in human history. Our honeybee colonies are collapsing, thereby threatening the future of our food supply. And all this is just the tip of the iceberg. What we’re handing over to you is a world full of inspiring realities coupled with incredibly daunting ones. In other words: miserable and magical isn't just a pop-song lyric - it's the paradox that you are inheriting from us. So, what do you do with that? I’m going to be honest - I don’t really know. I do know this, though: At the core of all of today's most pressing challenges is one fundamental issue: we have become profoundly disconnected. Rather ironic, considering that we live in an era where Facebook has spawned 150 billion “connections”, as we collectively shell out 4.5 billion likes on status updates, every single day. Yet, a growing body of science is showing what we already feel deep in our gut: we’re more isolated than ever before. The average American adult reports having just one real friend that they can count on. Just one. And for the first time in 30 years, mental health disabilities such as ADHD outrank physical ones among American children. Somehow we’ve allowed our relationship to gadgets and things to overtake our real-world ties. We’ve forgotten how to rescue each other. Yet, deep inside we all still have that capacity. We know we have it because we saw it at Sandy Hook, in the brave teachers who gave up their lives to save their students. We saw it during the Boston Marathon when runners completed the race and kept running to the nearest blood bank. We saw it just this week in Oklahoma when a waiter at a fast food chain decided to donate all his tips to the tornado relief efforts and triggered a chain of generosity. So we know that we can tap into our inner goodness when crisis strikes. But can we do it on a run-of- the-mill Monday? That’s the question in front of you. Will you, class of 2013 step up to rebuild a culture of trust, empathy and compassion? Our crisis of disconnection needs a renaissance of authentic friendship. We need you to upgrade us from Me-Me-Me to We-We-We. Reflecting on my own journey, there have been three keys that helped me return to a place of connection. I’d like to share those with you today, in the hope that perhaps it might support your journey. The First Key Is To Give In the movie Wall Street - which originally came out well before you guys were born - there’s a character named Gordon Gekko whose credo in life reads: Greed is Good. When I was about your age, Silicon Valley was in the seductive grip of the dot-com boom. It was a time when it was easy to believe that Greed was Good. But a small group of us had a different hypothesis: *Maybe* greed is good, but Generosity is better. We tested that hypothesis. When I startedServiceSpace, our first project was to build websites for nonprofits at no charge. We ended up building and gifting away thousands of sites, but that wasn’t our main goal. Our real purpose was to practice generosity. In the early days, the media was pretty sure we had a hidden agenda. "We're doing this just to practice giving with no strings attached," we said. The few who actually believed us didn’t think we could sustain it. The thing is - we did. A decade later, when our work started attracting millions of viewers, entrepreneurs told us that we'd be crazy to not slap on ads or try to monetize our services. The thing is - we didn't. We probably *were* a bit crazy. And when we started Karma Kitchen, people really thought "No way!" It was a restaurant where your check always read zero, with this note: "Your meal is paid for by someone before you, and now it’s your chance to pay it forward." The thing is - 25 thousand meals later, the chain continues in several cities around the globe. People consistently underestimate generosity, but human beings are simply wired to give. In one study at Harvard, scientists surprised a couple hundred volunteers with an unexpected monetary reward and gave them the choice of keeping it or giving it away. The only catch was that they had to make the decision spontaneously. Lo and behold, the majority chose - to give away the money! Greed, it turns out, is a calculated after-thought. Our natural instinct is, and always has been, to give. When you take Economics 101 in college, you will learn that all of economics is rooted in the assumption that people aim to maximize self-interest. I hope you don’t just take that for granted. I hope you challenge it. Consider the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa, who have rocked the history of our planet with the exact opposite assumption, with the belief in the goodness of our human nature. Or consider Ruby Bridges: Six-year-old Ruby was the first African American girl to go to an all-white school on Nov 14, 1960. All the teachers refused to teach her, except for one Mrs. Henry. Ruby received constant death threats and on the way to class every day, people would line up to shout and throw things. Mrs. Henry instructed Ruby to not speak to anyone, as she crossed the jeering crowds every day. But one day, she saw Ruby saying something, so she said, “Ruby, I told you not to speak to anyone.” “No, Mrs. Henry, I didn’t say anything to them.” “Ruby, I saw you talking. I saw your lips moving.” “Oh, I was just praying. I was praying for them,” Ruby responded. Then she recited her prayer, and I quote “Please, God, try to forgive these people. Because even if they say those bad things, they don’t know what they’re doing.” A six year old! Wishing well for those who were wishing her harm. How generous is that? And what does it say about the power of the human heart? Our capacity to love is a currency that never runs out. May each of you tap into that generous ocean and discover every day, what it means to give. The Second Key Is To Receive When we give, we think we are helping others. That's true, but we are also helping ourselves. With any act of unconditional service, no matter how small, our biochemistry changes, our mind quietens, and we feel a sense of gratefulness. This inner transformation fundamentally shifts the direction of our lives. A couple summers ago, we had two 14-year-olds, Neil and Dillan, interning at ServiceSpace. One of their projects was a 30-day kindness challenge - they had to come up with and do a different act of kindness every day for a month. In the beginning they had to plan "kindness activities", but slowly they learned how to spontaneously turn their daily life into a canvas for giving. Doing the dishes for mom without her asking, stopping to help a stranger with a flat tire, standing up for a bullied kid, gifting all their winnings at the arcade to a child. Very quickly, kindness shifted from being an activity - to a way of life. It wasn't just about who they were helping; it was about who they themselves were becoming through the process. Last weekend, I happened to see Neil after a while, the day after Senior Prom, and he had a story to share, "Last night I noticed that the dance floor was too small and a few of the special needs students just couldn't get on. So I grabbed a bunch of my friends, and we started dancing in a little circle around them. Everyone had a great time." Then, he paused for a reflective moment, and asked me, "But I felt so good about doing that. Do you think I was being selfish?" What a profound question. What Neil experienced was the fact that when we give, we receive many times over. Or as the Dalai Lama once put it, "Be Selfish, Be Generous.” It is in giving that we receive. When we think of generosity, we typically think of it as a zero sum game. If I give you a dollar, that’s one less dollar for me. The inner world, though, operates with an entirely different set of rules. The boundaries aren’t so easy to decipher. Your state of being inherently affects my state of being. This isn’t feel-good talk. It’s actual science. Research shows that, in close proximity, when people feel connected, their individual heartbeats actually start to synchronize - even with zero physical contact. In neuroscience, the discovery of mirror neurons has shown us that we literally do feel each other’s pain - and joy. And joy is *definitely* not a zero-sum game. The law of abundance says that if I give you a smile, that's not one less smile for me. The more I smile, the more I *do* smile. The more I love, the more love I have to give. So, when you give externally, you receive internally. How do the two compare? That's a question only you can answer for yourself, and that answer will keep changing as your awareness deepens. Yet this much is clear: if you only focus on the externals, you’ll live your life in the deadening pursuit of power and products. But if you stay in touch with your inner truth, you will come alive with joy, purpose, and gratitude. You will tap into the law of abundance. May you discover that to be truly selfish, you must be generous. In giving, may you fully experience what it means to receive. The Third Key Is To Dance Our biggest problem with giving and receiving is that we try and track it. And when we do that, we lose the beat. The best dancers are never singularly focused on the mechanics of their movements. They know how to let go, tune into the rhythm and synchronize with their partners. It’s like that with giving too. It's a futile exercise to track who is getting what. We just have to dance. Take one of my friends for example, a very successful entrepreneur. Along his journey, he realized that it’s not just enough, as the cliché goes, to find your gifts. Gifts are actually meant to be *given.* In his daily life, he started cultivating some beautiful practices of generosity. For instance, every time he walked into a fancy restaurant, he told the waiter to find a couple that is most madly in love. "Put their tab on my bill, and tell them a stranger paid for their meal, with the hope that they pay it forward somewhere somehow," he would say. Being a fan of Batman, he took his anonymity seriously: "If anyone finds out it was me, the deal is off." Many restaurants, and waiters, knew him for this. And as a food connoisseur, some of his favorite places were also quite pricey - upwards of a couple hundred bucks per person. On one such day, he walks into a nice restaurant and does his usual drill. The person serving him obliges. However, this time, the waiter comes back with a counter request. "Sir, I know you like to be anonymous, but when I told that couple about the tab being covered, the woman just started sobbing. In fact, it’s been ten minutes and she's still tearing up. I think it would make her feel better if you were to just introduce yourself, just this once." Seeing this, he agrees to break his own cardinal rule and walks over to introduce himself. "M'aam, I was only trying to make your day. If it has brought up something, I'm so sorry." The woman excitedly says, "Oh no, not at all. You’ve just made my year, maybe my life. My husband and I, well, we work at a small nonprofit with physically challenged kids, and we have been saving up all year to have this meal here. It is our one year marriage anniversary today.” After a pause, she continues, “We always serve others in small ways, but to receive a kind act like this on our special day, well, it’s just an overwhelming testimonial that what goes around comes around. It renews our faith in humanity. Thank you. Thank you *SO* much." All of them were in tears. They kept in touch, he joined their board and they are friends to this day. Now, in that scenario, who was the giver? Who was the receiver? And more importantly, does it even matter? Dancing tells us to stop keeping track. Sometimes you're giving and sometimes you're receiving, but it doesn't really matter because the real reward of that give and take doesn’t lie in the value of what’s being exchanged. The real reward lies in what flows between us – our connection. Conclusion So, my dear friends, there you have it. The bad news is that we're in the middle of a crisis of disconnection, and the good news is that each and every one of you has the capacity to repair the web - to give, to receive and to dance. Sometime last year, I spontaneously treated a homeless woman to something she really wanted - ice- cream. We walked into a nearby 7-11, she got her ice-cream and I paid for it. Along the way, though, we had a great 3-minute chat about generosity and as we’re leaving the store, she said something remarkable: "I'd like to buy you something. Can I buy you something?" She empties her pockets and holds up a nickel. The cashier looks on, as we all share a beautiful, awkward, empathy-filled moment of silence. Then I hear my voice responding, “That’s so kind of you. I would be delighted to receive your offering. What if we pay-it-forward by tipping this kind cashier who has just helped us?” Her face breaks into a huge smile. “Good idea,” she says while dropping the nickel into the tip-jar. No matter what you have, or don’t have, we can all give. The good news is that generosity is not a luxury sport. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best, when he said, "Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve." He didn't say, "You have to be smart to serve." Or "You have to be famous to serve." Or "You have to be rich to serve." No, he said, "*Everybody* can be great, because *everybody* can serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You don't need to know the second law of thermodynamics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love." Harker Class of 2013, may you ALL find greatness in service to life. May you all give, receive - and never, ever, stop dancing.

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alteregobyiqra-blog · 6 years ago

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Acts of Kindness

Acts of kindness can be the smallest deeds but can have a tremendous impacts on both the givers and receivers as well as make the world a better place and that’s why these acts are encouraged.

My mother always tells me, “Something is always better than nothing at all and it doesn’t matter what it is because it’s the thought that counts”.This quote is relevant to my speech and applies to everyone because too many individuals underestimate the impact of a small, good deed that could fix one of the problems in this world that everyone seems to complain about but does nothing for. Random acts of kindness could fix a lot in this world.

Most of you may wonder, why is this girl so obsessed with the spread of kindness? Spreading kindness is something I’ve been actively doing since I was 5 years old and I’ve been recording the impact of kindness throughout my life. I used to give the clothes to this little girl to wear to school because her family of 6 couldn’t afford it, give Gatorade and $5 every time I saw this mother who sat on the floor everyday with her one year old baby, and used to go to volunteer my time to mentor kids who needed someone to lift them up and provide extra positivity that turned their whole world around. Those are some of the things I’ve done but I'll tell you later how those situations ended up presently.

Today I will talk to you about why it's important to spread kindness. First, I will share what can be caused in the absence or the lack of kindness. Then I will tell you what great things can bloom out of random acts of kindness and finally, I’ll show you what the world and us personally can receive from these actions. With this post, I hope to show you all that no act of kindness is too small.

First, let's start off by addressing the issues in the world that lack kindness. I'm sure everyone has had a bad day before, been there, and done that. I’m sure we were all wishing for something to brighten up our day and some of us are lucky to randomly have someone go out of their way to make us happy and turn our day around but for others, not so much. Aside from the causal, “sometimes” bad days, there are people who suffer with more than weeks of bad days at one time. Some other things that are an issue that I’m sure everyone has heard of is people who suffer from poverty, hunger, disability, and loneliness on a daily basis.

A major concern to the lack of kindness that lies amongst y’all is suicide. According to Richard Worsnop’s article, “…more than 5,000 American teenagers and young adults will take their own lives and perhaps 50 times that number will make serious but unsuccessful attempts to do so.” Not only is suicide a huge problem but so is untreated depression, that leads to suicide. According to suicide.org, Some of the negative life experiences that may cause depression, and some other causes for depression, include:

Loss of hope.

Being victimized (domestic violence, rape, assault, etc).

A loved one being victimized (child murder, child molestation, kidnapping, murder, rape, assault, etc.).

Abuse of any kind

Unresolved abuse (of any kind) from the past.

Feeling that things will never "get better."

Feeling helpless.

Now that you know the problem and how they are caused, lets start with how you can help by acting on this issues immediately to make the world a better place. The solution to the problem is literally in your hands. Everyone in the world is capable of making the world a better place but it just depends on who would ACTUALLY do it.

All the problems I’ve listed above can be solved by kindness and compassion. Just like how someone could turn your day around by the smallest gesture, is the same exact way someone can prevent a person feeling down and if it's a certain situation, it may even stop someone from taking their own life.

For all the people suffering from poverty, hunger, disability, and loneliness, there are plenty of cures for that. For the poverty and hungry people you can donate old toys, canned goods, spare items, used clothing, or any unwanted items because some one who is not fortunate to have it can make good use out of yours. As for people who have a disability or are lonely, volunteering your time to help out could make a huge difference in those people's lives to show that someone cares. Bottom line is, give if you can’t volunteer your time to help or volunteer if you can’t give.

Why is donating money, items and time important you may ask?

According to Jay Robertson he reported, “According to a report recently released by Atlas of Giving 1, after a stellar year of charitable donations in 2014, the outlook for this year is less than robust. In fact, U.S.-based giving could decrease by as much as 3.2% for a variety of reasons—including rising interest rates, a possible stock market correction, and continuing decline in employment compensation. But just because certain economic factors may have an impact on giving, this doesn't mean that you should put off your own charitable efforts. You might be surprised to learn that, ultimately, it might be you who reaps some of the best rewards of your donation.

Here are reasons why you should donate, according to thelifeyoucansave.org,

1. Experience More Pleasure

2. Help Others in Need

3. Get a Tax Deduction

4. Bring More Meaning to Your Life

5. Promote Generosity in Your Children

6. Motivate Friends and Family

7. Realize that Every Little Bit Helps

8. Improve Personal Money Management

9. Give, If You Can't Volunteer

I advise everyone who participate or barely participate in these acts of kindness to start. By doing these acts of kindness I, myself, have helped that little girl who is currently in middle school and a few of her siblings have something to wear to school, helped that poor mother and her baby, who is now 7, get energy so she can survive the heat as well as contributing money for vaccines for her child, and helped a little girl with overcome her depression and antisocialness. I'm only 21 and if I can do little acts like that to help people, imagine if everyone did it and how different this world would be.

I hope this post got through to you guys by influencing you to help spread kindness and do the world a favor because everyone needs some in their life. I shared what can happen with the lack of kindness, what great things can come out of random acts of kindness and what the world and us individuals can personally receive from these actions.

#kindness #help #charity #poverty #activism #giving

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theliterateape · 6 years ago

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American Shithole #20 — Vacations, Part One: Camping Is For Masochists

By Eric Wilson

This is as good a week as any to introduce my series on vacationing: American style. The president has been overseas; leaving rotten chum in his filthy wake for allies and enemies alike. At least he gave us all a break here domestically from our daily mouthful, I suppose.

My good friend and housemate just returned from two weeks in Iceland, Scandinavia, Europe and Russia, while I have been dog sitting on what was supposed to be a staycation for me (it wasn’t) — providing more than enough material for future articles on the topic.

Part Two of this series is a piece I wrote before American Shithole. It was to be my first feature for Literate Ape; one in which I found myself on a miserable LA weekend getaway for an Eric Clapton show. Unfortunately, the night before I submitted my draft some asshole murdered 58 people at an outdoor concert just down the street from where I live, and I didn’t feel it was an appropriate time to share that story.

In fact, I slid into a funk that week, and I hardly interacted with anyone for a while. A few months later Trump called Haiti and unspecified African nations “shithole” countries, my inner fury was rekindled, and American Shithole was born.

So I will be returning periodically to this series that never got off the ground. It was always my intention to write a few pieces on the American vacation. I know it's a boon for comedy. Holiday travel is a goldmine for humor in general; in my case, even more so because I truly suck at vacationing, and terrible things always happen.

Staycations — if I am to judge them by the last two weeks — have me faring only slightly better.

The good news is: things are looking up, baby! This was my least disastrous vacation (okay, staycation) yet, even though I slept fitfully, had only a very limited amount of fun, and as expected, terrible things still happened (even though I stayed at home), I still feel like it was a success. More on this later.

If you’re wondering how it’s possible that a mostly unpleasant staycation was my best vacation ever, it’s because my experience with vacations includes heavy hitters like suicide, sickness, hurricanes and other natural disasters, being thrown off a bridge embankment — and camping, which I’m sorry outdoor aficionados, but camping is just the worst.

I am convinced that folks that choose to go camping over a plethora of other vacation destinations — sunny beaches, moonlit resorts, islands with sexy people, places with people of any kind, coordinates that include a nearby lavatory, locations that aren't teeming with wildlife looking to eat you, etc. — those people are fucking closeted masochists. Here is how many times you should go camping in your life: one-half of one time. You should attempt to sleep on rocks, in a damp tent, with a wet blanket, soaked shoes — like some sort of cold burrito for bears — hungry, exhausted and homesick, just one-half of once. Then pack up in the middle of the night, drive home, and never look back.

In my lifetime I have been camping roughly a score of times. That’s twenty, millennials. (Well why didn’t you just say twenty then, fuckface?)

While I cherish the time with my father (an avid, well-respected angler and outdoorsman), and I do genuinely love the remoteness and beauty of the wilderness, I have camped nineteen and one-half times too many in this life.

I assume I have never taken to vacationing as an adult, at least in part due to my experiences on vacations as a kid; which were at times awful. Or perhaps just some of it was traumatic, and that is all that I remember.

On one of the first camping trips I can recall I was eight years old, and while we were in the Grand Tetons the mother of my best friend at the time committed suicide. She shot herself while her son and I were camping together. I'm still haunted by that quiet drive home. I can’t imagine being my father and having to tell a child his mother was gone. I can’t possibly fathom what that was like for my friend.

That event set the tone for every subsequent camping trip over the next forty years.

I have been on trips that didn’t involve camping; although only a handful. I have taken one cruise back in the nineties — we were hit by a hurricane. The captain made a late decision to turn the ship around and head back to LA, missing our ports of call, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlán, and Cabo San Lucas. Half the ship was throwing up for hours as the swells throttled that behemoth vessel like it was a tug boat in a bathtub with a fat, unruly toddler.

I have never forgotten the generous 25% discount offered by Carnival on our next Carnival cruise adventure, as compensation. Thank you Carnival Cruise Lines, I will never stop telling people of your boundless generosity — I hope you don’t mind that I roll my fucking eyes every time that I do.

On my next vacation (other than sporadic wilderness treks whereupon I fall into rivers, catch zero trout, or get bitten by nasty critters) I spent a month in Belgium, France and Spain during the summer of 2001. I picked up a lung infection on the flight over that dogged me the entire trip. I also fell asleep shirtless on the beaches of Biarritz, after not running with the bulls in Pamplona — probably one of the few smart moves I made. I got drunker than my normal drunkenness to ease the pain of my scorched backside, and somehow managed to offend a tiny British woman; who subsequently shoved me off a bridge.

Besides a brief sojourn in Dublin shortly after 9/11, I haven’t been back to Europe since — or anywhere else of note for that matter. Except camping of course, I have heartily not enjoyed plenty of camping.

I was also taken to Disney World by my mom as a young lad. I cried on the roller coaster, so she took me on the Tea Cups. I cried on the Tea Cups.

I found out much later in life that my vacations — the majority of which involved camping, I think I’ve mentioned already — were not the vacations my friends from later on in life enjoyed when they were kids. The key word here is enjoyed.

They traveled to exotic places that offered not only luxuries such as food and lodging, but culture and entertainment.

I stared at trees.

My European friends seem to have it all sorted as well. They enjoy paid holiday at least twice a year for as long as they can remember — to wonderful destinations all over the world. Yes, that European socialism sounds like a real nightmare.

Yet, before this bit of light entertainment is taken as some sort of whingeing by my friends at home and abroad, I would like to mention that I am very thankful to have had any holiday trips at all — as I know millions have never been afforded a single vacation in their entire lives.

Except camping, but I have made the case that camping doesn’t count.

We can all agree, right? That camping doesn’t count?

It’s not a vacation if what you are doing is indistinguishable from survival training. Preparing for the coming apocalypse by eating baked beans straight out of a can is not a vacation.

That being said, I have a feeling staycations are the vacations I will look forward to in the future, until it is time that I shuffle off this mortal coil. I am fine with that, although wary that the comedic arc of my creative endeavors will suffer. Granted, this staycation over the last few weeks was rough — and I will get to that story someday soon — but at least I was home.

I don’t know what it is about travel, but I never seem to enjoy myself the way it seems everyone else does on vacation. How about you, dear reader, are your holidays all they're cracked up to be?

On a more somber note, I watched a lot of Parts Unknown this past weekend — I imagine quite a few of us did — and I would like to take a moment to honor one of humanity’s great travelers, Anthony Bourdain. I looked up to Anthony. He had suffered, he was honest, he had integrity. I had always hoped that one day I would be able to call him my friend. As a writer, entertainer, culinary master and cultural ambassador for the world, he was peerless.

Bon voyage, Mr. Bourdain — you will be missed.

B.S. Report

Two of the families of the Parkland student activists were Swatted last week. If you don’t know what Swatting is, that’s when someone calls in a phony emergency — usually involving imminent danger — whereby a SWAT team is deployed to an unsuspecting household, in hopes that they will shoot innocent people accidentally.

So yeah, that’s what conservative gun-loving fuckheads would wish upon the surviving family members that dared to stand up to the NRA. Trump’s base truly is a festering hive of dickless cowards, with no sense of compassion or empathy, and nothing but shit for brains.

4LWjr.

#vacationing #staycation #camping #Parts Unknown #Anthony Bourdain

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hello-thefatlosshabit-blr · 6 years ago

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tainghekhongdaycomvn · 7 years ago

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The Moz Year in Review 2017

Posted by SarahBird

Yay! We’ve traversed another year around the sun. And I’m back with another Moz year-in-review post that promises to be as boring as its predecessors. Reading it feels like being locked in your tin can space capsule through lightyears of empty space. If you’re a little odd and like this kind of thing, do please continue.

Before we begin our odyssey, I invite you to check out previous reports: 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012. Transparency is a Moz core value. Putting detailed financial and customer data on the blog is one of the ways we live our values. We’re a little weird like that.

Okay spacepeople: take your protein pills and put your helmets on.

Launch to your favorite parts:

Part 1: TL;DR Commencing countdown, engines on

Part 2: SO MANY wins Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare

Part 3: Customer metrics You've really made the grade

Part 4: Financial performance And the stars look very different today

Part 5: Inside Moz HQ The papers want to know whose shirts you wear

Part 6: Into the future I think my spaceship knows which way to go

Part 1: TL;DR

Commencing countdown, engines on

What a year! 2017 was a time of doing new things differently — new teams, new goals, and new ways of operating. I’m so proud of Mozzers; they can do anything. If I’m sent to a far-off space colony, I want them with me.

In spite of (and because of!) all this change, we grew revenue and became significantly EBITDA and cash flow positive. Nice! We have a nice economic engine primed and ready to make some more big investments in 2018. Stay tuned.

These positive results were not from one single thing. Rather, iterative product and operations improvements helped improve both our top and bottom line. Plus, we made a bunch of longer-term investments that don’t show up yet in the 2017 report but will bear fruit in 2018 and beyond.

Part 2: Ch-ch-ch... Changes!

Now it's time to leave the capsule if you dare

Here’s a little more detail on some of the changes I talked about.

We launched Keywords By Site, relaunched our crawler (a major technical undertaking), sunsetted two products (content and Followerwonk), built a bunch of new developer tools and standardized on some dev frameworks, and improved our local data distribution network. Check out Adam Feldstein’s post for a lot more detail on our 2017 major product accomplishments!

We’ve got another exciting launch on the way, too. We’ve invested a ton of blood, sweat, and tears into it during 2017 and can’t wait to share it with everyone.

All of these changes support our 2016 strategy of “more wood behind fewer arrows.” We choose to focus our energy on being the best place to learn and do SEO. Our mission is to simplify SEO for everyone through software, education, and community.

For those of you worried about Followerwonk, it’s going to okay. Better than okay. Our beloved “Work Dad” Marc Mims is now the proud father of Followerwonk! Marc’s dedication to the success of Followerwonk has never wavered over the many, many years he’s been building and maintaining it. We already miss his compassion, humor, and bike stories around the Mozplex. We wish him and Followerwonk the best! We bought that product because we loved it then; we love it even now. Sadly, though, it never quite fit with our mission as well as we'd hoped.

We created new programs to help people get the SEO help that’s right for them. We completely rebuilt our SEO Learning Center with fresh educational content. There’s a brand-new SEO podcast, MozPod, for you to check out.

We also began experimenting with and are now expanding SEO training workshops delivered by experts we trust and admire. I’m so excited about this because it’s a new way for Moz to have impact; it’s personal, live, interactive, and immediate in a way that most of our SEO education work can’t be. We won’t stop doing free, scalable education. It’s core to our beliefs. But it is fun to deliver custom, live training sessions in the mix too.

Many of our accomplishments are behind the scenes, and will deliver long-term positive impact.

Our investments in retiring tech debt, improving monitoring, investing in our development platforms, and nurturing our engineering culture have resulted in the most stable and performant software in Moz history. Our hard work and ingenuity is paying off in resilient and performant software.

We’ve also rebuilt most of our customer stack: new Salesforce implementation, HubSpot launch, new internal data warehouse, new CMS (Craft), Segment.io, and more! Phew! That’s a lot! In Q1 2018, we started with Terminus for Account-Based Marketing, and partnered with third-party data vendors, like Full Contact, to supplement our data warehouse. These big changes are going to set us up really well for the years ahead. And we’ve got more internal tools launching soon!

We are on a roll with internal improvements and momentum.

Part 3: Customer metrics

You've really made the grade

We could ship and launch until our circuits go dead, but at the end of the day all our work is in service of meeting your needs.

We know you can hear us! You’re following us now more than ever before.

Part 4: Financial performance

And the stars look very different today

Check out the infographic view of our data barf.

I’m proud of what we accomplished in 2017, especially considering the incredible amount of change in strategy and team structure. More revenue while spending less = magic! Also, the economic strength we’ve built will allow us to place some nice-sized bets this year. Boom!

We made $47.4 million in GAAP revenue in 2017, an increase of 11% from 2016.

We brought our over all expenses way down in 2017. Cost of Revenue increased slightly to $11.8 million. We reduced operating expenses aggressively. Curious on what we spend on, and trends? Check out this breakdown of our major expenses (OpEx and Cost of Revenue) as a percentage of annual revenue:

We generated cash, positive EBITDA, and for the first time in recent Moz history, we were positive net income.

That’s quite a turnaround from 2016, in which we closed the year negative EBITDA of $5.7 million! We flipped EBITDA! We have adopted a cash-flow-neutral-to-positive operating philosophy right now to be ready for some future investments. We may decide to go cash flow negative again to fund further growth.

Part 5: Inside Moz HQ

The papers want to know whose shirts you wear

So, who is behind the wheel here?

We ended 2017 with roughly the same number of Mozzers as we began. It was a conscious choice to remain approximately headcount neutral in 2017; we only opened up new positions after ensuring rigorous conversations took place around the business need for the role. This discipline is hard to live under, but we like the results. We’re working smarter, and getting more rigorous in our decision-making.

Let me be clear: WE ARE HIRING! These are just 5 of our currently open positions:

DevOps Engineer

Sr. Platform Software Engineer

Backend Engineer - C++

Fullstack Engineer - JavaScript/Node

Chief Marketing Officer

See more at our Careers page!

Here’s where we need YOU: Moz is committed to bringing more women into tech. There is a dire lack of diversity in the technology industry. This past year we added 6% more women to the company overall and 9% to engineering specifically. We must and will do better. We need more women in engineering and leadership roles here. Check out those jobs above and join the team!

Moz partners with some fantastic organizations focused on getting more women into the tech pipeline. Ada Academy, Year Up, Ignite Worldwide, and Techbridge all encourage women and girls to pursue STEM careers early in their lives. Our newest partner, Unloop, enables people who have been in prison to develop skills and succeed in careers in tech. It is our responsibility to ensure that all people have opportunity and access to participate in STEM fields.

Generosity comes in many forms. One way in which we support the generosity of Mozzers is to match charitable donations to 501c3 organizations by 150%.

We also donated our space 35 times to various organizations in the community requesting to use the Mozplex as a venue for their meetups. Check our our event brochure and take a 360 tour of the Mozplex!

Mozzers also donate a ton of time to causes they are passionate about. We also offer a very discounted price for nonprofits that we’re happy many folks take advantage of. We’re passionate about communities and helping folks.

Moz partnered with Halo Partners to provide professional coaching to all employees. 54 Mozzers received coaching. 27 Mozzers used this benefit for the first time! I’m a huge believer in coaching and training. Beginner’s mind is how we grow and become the best versions of ourselves.

Through it all, we made sure to have some fun. Moz offers a Paid Paid Vacation benefit, reimbursing employees $3k per year in vacation costs. Yes, that’s right. You get your regular pay, plus another $3k a year to spend on your trip! It’s bonkers!

Mozzers visited 6 of the 7 continents last year!

We also had 7 Mozling babies last year. Luv those babies.

Part 6: Into the future

I think my spaceship knows which way to go

2017 was a strengthening year for Moz. We went through a lot of change and made some important investments. Mozzers are dynamic, helpful, smart, and hardworking. They have a service orientation and build for the long term. The investments we made in 2017 will bear fruit in the years ahead. And we’re poised to make some ambitious moves in the coming months.

While I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished, I believe we have higher mountains still to climb. We have had triumphs and tribulations, heartbreaks and happy dances. These many years later, the SEO industry is healthy, growing, and dynamic. Many organizations are still struggling with basic web presence, let alone thoughtful SEO strategy. Moz is still teensy-tiny compared to the opportunity. I believe the opportunity for SEO expertise is vast.

I want to close on a note of gratitude.

First, a bunch of folks helped pull together the metrics for our 2017 report, and I am deeply grateful for their help. This post is kind of a bear! Thank you Jess, Felicia, Christian, Kevin, Susan, Michael, Jeremy, and anyone else who pulled data and helped get this post off the ground!

Second, thank you to this community. It’s because of you that we are here. This community would be nothing if it wasn’t for your care, attention, and feedback. We will continue to work hard to make your work lives more enjoyable and successful. We want to be your favorite resource for doing great SEO. If we’re not there yet, trust that we will keep working to be. Thank you for the opportunity to serve.

Gratitude also to David Bowie for inspiring this post and so much more. We miss you. <3

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

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dfroza · 5 years ago

Text

Today’s reading of the ancient Psalms and Proverbs

for Saturday, january 25 and the 36th day of Winter with Psalm 25 and Proverbs 25, along with Psalm 36

[Psalm 25]

Don’t Fail Me, God!

King David’s poetic praise to God

Forever I will lift up my soul into your presence, Lord.

Be there for me, God, for I keep trusting in you.

Don’t allow my foes to gloat over me or

the shame of defeat to overtake me.

For how could anyone be disgraced

when he has entwined his heart with you?

But they will all be defeated and ashamed

when they harm the innocent.

Lord, direct me throughout my journey

so I can experience your plans for my life.

Reveal the life-paths that are pleasing to you.

Escort me along the way; take me by the hand and teach me.

For you are the God of my increasing salvation;

I have wrapped my heart into yours!

Forgive my failures as a young man,

and overlook the sins of my immaturity.

Give me grace, Lord! Always look at me

through your eyes of love—

your forgiving eyes of mercy and compassion.

When you think of me, see me as one you love and care for.

How good you are to me!

When people turn to you,

they discover how easy you are to please—so faithful and true!

Joyfully you teach them the proper path,

even when they go astray.

Keep showing the humble your path,

and lead them into the best decision.

Bring revelation-light that trains them in the truth.

All the ways of the Lord are loving and faithful for those who follow the ways of his covenant.

For the honor of your name, Lord,

never count my sins, and forgive them all—

lift their burden off of my life!

Who are they that live in the holy fear of God?

You will show them the right path to take.

Then prosperity and favor will be their portion,

and their descendants will inherit all that is good.

There’s a private place reserved for the lovers of God,

where they sit near him and receive

the revelation-secrets of his promises.

Rescue me, Lord, for you’re my only hero.

Sorrows fill my heart as I feel helpless, mistreated—

I’m all alone and in misery!

Come closer to me now, Lord, for I need your mercy.

Turn to me, for my problems seem to be going from bad to worse.

Only you can free me from all these troubles!

Until you lift this burden, the burden of all my sins,

my troubles and trials will be more than I can handle.

Can’t you feel my pain?

Vicious enemies hate me.

There are so many, Lord. Can’t you see?

Will you protect me from their power against me?

Let it never be said that I trusted you

and you didn’t come to my rescue.

Your perfection and faithfulness are my bodyguards,

for you are my hope and I trust in you as my only protection.

Zealously, God, we ask you

to come save Israel from all her troubles,

for you provide the ransom price for your people!

The Book of Psalms, Poem 25 (The Passion Translation)

[Psalm 36]

The Blessing of the Wise

A poetic song, by King David, the servant of the Lord

Sin speaks in the depths of the soul

of those who oppose God; they listen closely to its urgings.

You’ll never see the fear of God

in their eyes,

For they flatter themselves—

convinced their sin will remain secret, undiscovered, and so unhated.

They speak words of evil and deceit.

Wisdom and goodness, they deserted long ago.

Even as they sleep, they are plotting mischief.

They journey along a path far from anything good,

gravitating to trouble, welcoming evil.

Your love, O Eternal One, towers high into the heavens.

Even the skies are lower than Your faithfulness.

Your justice is like the majestic mountains.

Your judgments are as deep as the oceans, and yet in Your greatness,

You, O Eternal, offer life for every person and animal.

Your strong love, O True God, is precious.

All people run for shelter under the shadow of Your wings.

In Your house, they eat and are full at Your table.

They drink from the river of Your overflowing kindness.

You have the fountain of life that quenches our thirst.

Your light has opened our eyes and awakened our souls.

May Your love continue to grow deeply in the lives of all who know You.

May Your salvation reach every heart committed to do right.

Give me shelter from prideful feet that hunt me down

and wicked hands that push me from Your path.

It is there, far away from You, that the wicked will be forced down,

face to the earth, never again returning to their feet.

The Book of Psalms, Poem 36 (The Voice)

O God, how extravagant is your cherishing love!

All mankind can find a hiding place

under the shadow of your wings.

All may drink of the anointing from the abundance of your house.

All may drink their fill from the delightful springs of Eden.

To know you is to experience a flowing fountain,

drinking in your life, springing up to satisfy.

In your light we receive the light of revelation.

The Book of Psalms, Poem 36:7-9 (The Passion Translation)

How exquisite your love, O God!

How eager we are to run under your wings,

To eat our fill at the banquet you spread

as you fill our tankards with Eden spring water.

You’re a fountain of cascading light,

and you open our eyes to light.

Keep on loving your friends;

do your work in welcoming hearts.

The Book of Psalms, Poem 36:7-10 (The Message)

[Proverbs 25]

Solomon’s proverbs, published by the scribes of King Hezekiah:

God conceals the revelation of his word

in the hiding place of his glory.

But the honor of kings is revealed

by how they thoroughly search out

the deeper meaning of all that God says.

The heart of a king is full of understanding,

like the heavens are high and the ocean is deep.

If you burn away the impurities from silver,

a sterling vessel will emerge from the fire.

And if you purge corruption from the kingdom,

a king’s reign will be established in righteousness.

Don’t boast in the presence of a king

or promote yourself by taking a seat at the head table

and pretend that you’re someone important.

For it is better for the king to say to you,

“Come, you should sit at the head table,”

than for him to say in front of everyone,

“Please get up and move—

you’re sitting in the place of the prince.”

Don’t be hasty to file a lawsuit.

By starting something you wish you hadn’t,

you could be humiliated when you lose your case.

Don’t reveal another person’s secret

just to prove a point in an argument,

or you could be accused of being a gossip

and gain a reputation for being one

who betrays the confidence of a friend.

Winsome words spoken at just the right time

are as appealing as apples gilded in gold

and surrounded with silver.

To humbly receive wise correction

adorns your life with beauty

and makes you a better person.

A reliable, trustworthy messenger

refreshes the heart of his master,

like a gentle breeze blowing at harvest time—

cooling the sweat from his brow.

Clouds that carry no water

and a wind that brings no refreshing rain—

that’s what you’re like when you boast

of a gift that you don’t have.

[Wisdom Practices Self-Control]

Use patience and kindness when you want to persuade leaders

and watch them change their minds right in front of you.

For your gentle wisdom will quell the strongest resistance.

When you discover something sweet,

don’t overindulge and eat more than you need,

for excess in anything can make you sick of even a good thing.

Don’t wear out your welcome

by staying too long at the home of your friends,

or they may get fed up with always having you there

and wish you hadn’t come.

Lying about and slandering people

are as bad as hitting them with a club,

or wounding them with an arrow,

or stabbing them with a sword.

You can’t depend on an unreliable person

when you really need help.

It can be compared to biting down on an abscessed tooth

or walking with a sprained ankle.

When you sing a song of joy to someone suffering

in the deepest grief and heartache,

it can be compared to disrobing in the middle of a blizzard

or rubbing salt in a wound.

Is your enemy hungry? Buy him lunch.

Win him over with your kindness.

Your surprising generosity will awaken his conscience

and God will reward you with favor.

As the north wind brings a storm,

saying things you shouldn’t brings a storm to any relationship.

It’s better to live all alone in a rundown shack

than to share a castle with a crabby spouse!

Like a drink of cool water to a weary, thirsty soul,

so hearing good news revives the spirit.

When a lover of God gives in and compromises with wickedness,

it can be compared to contaminating a stream with sewage

or polluting a fountain.

It’s good to eat sweet things,

but you can take too much.

It’s good to be honored,

but to seek words of praise is not honor at all.

If you live without restraint

and are unable to control your temper,

you’re as helpless as a city with broken-down defenses,

open to attack.

The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 25 (The Passion Translation)

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