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Dead pigs, the Super Bowl, & freedom

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One of the saddest things to me when we were growing up was whenever there was a new herd of pigs born on our little farm in southern Missouri, you would occasionally find one or two of the baby piglets who had been scared by something and ran into the corner of a building or into a loading chute and suffocated themselves in their attempt to get away from whatever had scared them. It made zero sense to me. It made me sad to see such fragile life snuffed out so easily. My grandpa would just bend over, grab them by the hind feet, and throw them on to a burn pile. It was just part of the circle of life that we were part of. ———————- The thought of being herded into a place that I would not have chosen otherwise is a disturbing thought. But it’s the kind of thing that happens pretty constantly.  I think we see it constantly on the television, we hear it on the radio, and we see it all through social media.  Over the last several years, the margins of what is considered to be norma...
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Short cuts and snake oil

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  Just recently a social media ad series has been promoting something they're selling so you too can learn "how to heal the sick in 10 seconds just like Jesus did" .   And the subtitle on the promo on this fine piece is " How we went from 25% healed to 90% instantly healed and you can too. " Most likely, this is from someone who is just trying to make a quick profit off of desperate, hopeful people who are easily tricked into buying an easy way to get some kind of desired result. It's not real, in case you are tempted to try it - the "healing like Jesus part" that is.  The making a quick profit probably IS real and you could come up with a slick cover and way to make money too, using AI. A lot of things are "sold" to people using hopes, needs, desperation, desires, etc.   The nice thing about God is that he's not charging for any of what he offers. Need grace?  You have it without end, always. Need mercy?  His mercy triumphs over judg...
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Looking at how you look

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Other bright spots through deconstruction and rebuilding?  Awareness. For me, part of it comes from life experience, some of it comes from a sociological background, and some of it comes from “stepping outside” of your own assumptions. The ability to stand as close as you can in someone else’s shoes and see the world through their eyes or position is pretty high on the list of good things.   It also has a negative side, but overall it’s a good thing. I don’t pretend to believe that anyone can really stand in someone else’s shoes, but you can at least try to have empathy and see life from what appears to be the perspective of others. With that dynamic or process, you can get a larger sense of awareness than you might have had before.   Awareness of why people think and behave the way they do, or at least a better understanding of why or what we might call motive. Awareness of how people think or process information - a reminder of the fact that there are very d...
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Unending forgiveness

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What else is a bright spot through deconstruction and rebuilding?  Forgiveness We are forgiven of all our sins.  Past sin.  Present sin.  Future sin. Already done.   Already forgiven. This was different for me.   I grew up believing you needed to keep good records with God so that you could ask forgiveness for all your sins regularly, so that nothing was left unforgiven. The idea being that if you died without asking for forgiveness recently, you could go to hell for that.  For example, a friend of mine in high school had a pretty serious car crash when someone pulled out in front of him and he couldn’t stop in time.   On a Sunday a few weeks after he’d recovered, a well meaning deacon asked him what the last thought was that went through his mind before impact. My friend said, “Well, I can say that in here” - we were standing in the lobby of the church building.  The deacon’s reply was, “How would you have liked to have died a...
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