Thoughts

Drinking from the Carton-Father’s Day.

Ronovan Thoughts , , ,

Well, it’s Father’s Day here in the United States. Yes, that day when men all over the country have an excuse to eat as much meat as possible, watch sports, and scratch themselves wherever and whenever they feel like it.

Normally a person takes a moment to speak about their father, but I’m not such a normal person, am I?

However, I am a father, so let’s talk about a person that should be talked about today, my boy “B”.

If you think about it, without him, I would just be a man doing all those things I mentioned at the beginning and be considered an uncouth, animal hating, pig. I thank B for giving me a reason and an excuse for all my man behavior. Picking my teeth in public is a way to keep from getting cavities, scratching deep inside my ear and then staring at the results is a health check, and drinking from the carton of milk is water conservation, energy efficient, and less labor intensive than dish washing.

All those aforementioned things are life lessons as opposed to bad manners. The real reason for writing today is to say B is the reason I live. He’s the reason I found myself wanting to wake up and keep going after my accident. He’s the reason I maintain sanity at times. He’s the reason I remain a reasonable adult when I would rather throw things and say bad words, two things I haven’t done since finding out he was on his way into this world.

I love my boy B. Children are amazing to me. I run across some that I claim as my own at times. I like to try and be an example and a good male figure in their lives. Sometimes I succeed, while other times I fail. In other words, I’m the real thing.

Love to all the children out there that make Father’s Day happen.

Ronovan

A Great Life.

Ronovan Thoughts , , , , , , , ,

You ever have someone make you feel as though you were incapable of doing things, like you were an invalid of sorts?

Having Fibromyalgia, among other things, seems to give people some right to make claims over what I can and cannot do. Yes, I will hurt a lot if I exert myself too much. Does that mean I stop living?

“Never stop fighting until you arrive at your destined place – that is, the unique you. Have an aim in life, continuously acquire knowledge, work hard, and have perseverance to realise the great life.” A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. A career scientist turned politician…(Wikipedia)

I guess one needs to determine what their destined place is. Once determined, then decide what fighting means. One also must come to realize what ‘great life’ means for them. Your great life may not be my great life. In fact, I can guarantee it’s not. How can I be sure?
I already know what great life means for me.
It takes a lot to fight. I call it sticking to my guns. Once you make a decision you must follow through with it. Many things will be thrown in your way. Sometimes they even make a lot of sense. You are momentarily sidetracked, waylaid. The goal, the great life is still ahead and still attainable, but the path is now muddied and rather being in a car you’re on foot.
The thing is, why are you now on foot? It’s because you let it happen. You let doubt and fear get in the way. Fear comes in many forms. You may fear some physical reaction. Maybe it’s a form of emotional abuse that attacks you and attempts to prevent you from arriving at your destination.
Yet, here I am, taking steps to enjoy my life. Just because my life doesn’t match the everyday ordinary vanilla expectations of those around me doesn’t mean that it’s wrong. It doesn’t mean it’s bad. You would be surprised at how little in my life these past few years would have been accomplished if I caved at every turn.
Here I am. Come and take me.

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In God’s Sight.

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13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Romans 2)

Some might find it odd that Romans is one of my favorite books of the Bible, what with it being so controversial at times. It’s only controversial because of the way people take verses out of context and how a letter has been divided into chapters. Maybe I’m being a bit repetitive with my whole dividing books into chapters thing, but I think it’s worth saying, and saying often.

This verse is the one that came up today for me to study and I thought I would share it with you. Let’s look at all of it, and this is Paul speaking to the early church in Rome.

12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.) 16 This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

A lot of people ‘hear’ the words of the Bible. Many people even sit in church two or three times a week hearing the Word of the Lord, yet walk out to the parking lot and immediately do the opposite of what they had just said Amen to.

Some of you may have heard that if a person claims to be a Christian they need to do things called works to show they are Christian. I’m not that flavor of Christian. I do believe you need to show in your way of life that a change has come over you, that you are no longer a person that things a certain way is okay to act. What I’m talking about here is living like what Jesus said we should.

A Gentile is a non-Jew. God reaches people around the world through various means, even dreams. He reaches people through their heart. When you see someone being ill treated, even in a minor way, and it tugs at your heart, that’s the goodness of God that’s written into your DNA. We all have that code to unlock.

It’s a shame when professed Christians do things completely opposite of Christ. I share from time to time good words here on my blog. I like to encourage people. I like to give hope. I like to inspire. I like to show a side of Christianity that is nonjudgmental. The only person I can judge is another Christian when I see them doing something against the Word of God, and even then it’s only to say, “Hey, brother, maybe you should take a step back and think about what you’re doing.” I’ve done lots of things in my life, thus I know I’m far from perfect. That lack of perfection gives me the ability and inclination to speak out at times to others to say, “I changed. If I did all of these things with a decision, so can you.”

The world doesn’t become a better place when you become a Christian or if you decide to simply use the words of the Bible as a guide to a good way of living. Actually you see the world with a different pair of eyes. That new world is far worse than you ever knew. You see the problems, you see answers, but you know people think your solutions are just Jesus Freak brainwashing.

A lady from another country commented on a recent post about how her own faith leads to thinking much like my own, and words much like that of the Bible. Gentiles are given God’s words and will in so many ways. Who knows, maybe He spoke to someone and said, “Put this down, tell your people this.” I am not above saying God won’t use anything good to do his will.

Do good. Do what Jesus says. You can’t go wrong. Even Gandhi loved the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew Chapter 5.

Casting Crowns has a great song about how people in a church don’t really do what they are hearing.

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Islam & Christianity,SHARING MORE THAN WE REALIZE.

Ronovan Thoughts , , , , , ,

I got a problem. Muslims and Christians. Anyone getting nervous yet from those two sentences? Wondering where I am heading with it?

You see Muslims and Christians have something in common. Both get blamed for some jacked up mess. Extremists on both sides do radical things and then the entire faith of both sides get slammed for it. I know Muslims. I am a Christian. Guess what?

We’re friends.

Peace TogetherMuslims can’t stand what terrorists acting in the name of Islam. You know what? Those terrorists murder Muslims too.

My fellow Christians, you aren’t feeling this? No?

How much do you hate getting blamed for the Inquisition and all those acts by past power hungry mad men using God as a tool for their on means? How many Christians died at the hands of Christians?

Feeling it now? Do you feel that part of history being thrown at you all the time? Do you feel how screwed up people used Christianity and God to their own means and now you have to answer for it and overcome it?

People are People. They mess you over, okay, then don’t like them. If a person doesn’t mess you over, then don’t have a problem with them just because they have something in common with someone who has done something.

We don’t have to always agree with someone’s beliefs but that doesn’t mean we have to be against a person. If they are nice to you then what’s the deal?

Done.

Ronovan

Life’s Plan-Life’s Purpose.

Ronovan Inspiration & Motivation, Thoughts , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I have a lot of ideas. Too many of them actually. It’s very difficult for me to stay on one path to the goal of completion. The reasons are partly medical and partly a need to grab hold of that next big idea I have in my mind before it slips away.

Life's Purpose Image by Ronovan.

We do a lot of planning. Perhaps years or even decades are put in to a plan but then the plan comes to an end. The bad part about the end is that we didn’t have that in our plan. Although it isn’t  always a bad thing when your personal plan comes to an end.

Proverbs 19:20-21

Listen to advice and accept discipline,
    and at the end you will be counted among the wise.

Many are the plans in a person’s heart,
    but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

The many plans we make are not always for our best. We travel along, sometimes staring out the window at the monotony of life passing us by and are mesmerized into complacency and routine. We believe what is may perhaps be all there is.

I have moments of indecision. I don’t mean indecision of the mind, but of the heart. No, not about love, I am certain of those parts of my life. But there is indecision about creations and taking the right step that tear at my heart. My mind does a good job with decisions and filing them away properly. It knows what to do, but the heart is the part that throws plans into chaos.

Fortunately a verse came to me today, a verse of the day, the one above. Those plans in my heart that tear at me? I need to learn to let them go. God knows the best plan. He even tells me the plan, I just don’t either always know the language/manner he’s speaking in, or am just not hearing it.

A great many things have happened in my life. One is about a young man I played football with. He was a star athlete, super intelligent. He had it all. Then one rainy game he tackled a player and with the wet uniforms, field and everything else, his neck broke.

The young man was a leader in many ways. People looked up to him. There was a bright future ahead for him. He was also a Christian.

Our team was losing badly, it was late in the game, and the other coach had asked our coach if he wanted to call the game and end it early. Our coach said no. It almost would appear that things were working against my friend from fulfilling his purpose for God and for life.

He has graduated from college, is now driving his own van, still paralyzed from the neck down, and travels to do speaking engagement to sports groups and FCA groups. That’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He doesn’t drive himself to those events, just wanted to make that clear. He’s my age and just recently was able to get a van and go through everything to be able to drive.

But God has a purpose and he uses indecision, and attempts to take away a bright and shining star to make them even brighter, IF that star chooses to move forward and upward with the purpose and the plan. My friend could have went through life in his wheelchair and no one would have said anything about it. But he had a support group, his parents, and all those who knew him to encourage and be God’s language in my friend’s ear.

I didn’t know where this was going when I first began writing. I thought it would be about my efforts to write novels. Then I put the scripture in. After that the part about my friend came to mind. He leads a more enriched life than most of us do and he is a benefit to more people than all but a handful of us will ever have the opportunity to. Well, that is unless we realize what the purpose for us is.

Ron_LWIRonovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.

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Why the killings?

Ronovan Thoughts , , , , , , ,

Broaching the subject of guns in the U.S.

That’s right, I don’t take it easy on Sunday, do I?

My past life included data analysis. I can look at numbers and spin them to make them say what I want them to say. With that in mind, when I see an article about Why the Killings?numbers and shootings in the U.S. I always take it with a grain of salt and find that one key fact, or fact the article reveals that they really didn’t want to say but had to in order to be legit.

What you do is surround that one fact with everything you want the reader to see, or bury it so far down the article that the reader has left by then with the opinion you wish for them to have. For this article, good information and articles to read are actually at the end.

First of all, we all know shootings and killings happen in the U.S. and with the media coverage, we know it happens daily. Even our president addresses the subject at times. After the recent shooting in Oregon at a local community college, the president called for more gun control. This after over the past weekend there were 50 shootings in his home city of Chicago without a word being spoken by the president. That according to information provided by Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee in a recent interview on CNN.  I’m just pointing out how information and numbers are USED for a purpose. Killings are killings no matter the location or number or by whom. No matter the spinning, the killings happened.

Looking at an article by the Washington post from this year, although it is written to influence readers of the evils of guns, or so it seems in this writer’s opinion and that opinion may be in error, the data given shows the number of owners of gun owners, according to a poll, is decreasing and the number of Active Shooter Incidents has been decreasing since 2010.

That says to me that in the overall, the U.S. is on the way to where it needs to be. So why so many shootings? For one, it’s easier to report these days than it was at one point, at least on a national level. We see it more easily in the media and thus it must be reported to the F.B.I. from which most data for analysis is culled from.

You all know I have issues with media on this subject. A mass shooting happens and the U.S. media coverage becomes a feeding frenzy. It is almost sickens me how they almost seem to thrive on reporting this information. At times the initial information reported is not accurate, but instead of waiting for confirmed details, some news outlets want to beat their opponents to the news punch first. This initial report is at times all the casual news and media consumer pays attention to.

The percentage of assault deaths has been decreasing over the past 40 years as well. But with such a large country, large population, free reign of the media without government interference, everything is show in all the gory details. Well the details we’re given.

So why an increase in mass shootings? That’s what people want to know and what I’ve been asked, although not exactly that way.

There are a few things you can look at and all are opinion. Why opinion? Because if it were the fact that gun owner numbers are increasing, the information in the article doesn’t support that. So we have to look at what is making it happen. I think all of these things work together to give the answer.

  1. Mental instability, not always mental illness. In order to go out and perform a mass killing by shooting you have to have something wrong with you. I don’t care if you pass psychological tests for sanity, that doesn’t mean you are mentally stable. There is something twisted to make you want to do that.
  2. Media attention is given to mass killings. If you do a mass killing and you have the problems in #1 then you are likely seeking attention and want to either become a 15 minute celebrity or a dead note statistic to always be on some list forever.

There are likely other reasons, but those are the two I seem to always think of. Mental instability encompasses so many things. I think I need to clarify what I mean I say mental instability. I also include those who are unduly influenced by life situations to do stupid and despicable things.

What influences these “things”? Well that would be a matter of opinion unless each and every individual involved were truthful during a psychiatric evaluation and knew for themselves why the did what they did. But that’s not going to happen. But let’s look at what might be those things that are not life/mental scarring/altering situations but are still mental influencing things.

  1. Relationship breakups
  2. Feelings of being an outcast and rejection
  3. Economic situations giving one a feeling of nothing left to lose
  4. Anger at political environment/situations

And of course more. But these are what I thought of in this moment. A more recent Washington Post article talks of how there has been a more mass killings than there have been days in this calendar year so far in the U.S.

Here’s the thing about reporting, and I hate to say it because it upsets me that it happens on both sides of the line. The articles lean one way or the other with data spun to support what the writer wants to convey. I know. I was a data spinner. Being a data spinner doesn’t mean a liar, it means you take the truth, report it, but you don’t emphasize the parts you don’t want focused on.

Also according to an article in USA Today titled Behind the Bloodshed, 53% of the occurrences are family killings. Although mass killings in the media always seem to be involving shootings, the truth is stabbings, strangulation, blunt objects, and even house fires account for them as well.

An article by livescience.com  titled Why America Is Prone to Mass Shootings states that even though violent crimes are down, the mass shootings are on the rise.

“Especially some of the younger ones — they want attention,” said Mary Muscari, a forensic nurse at Binghamton University in New York who has studied revenge-driven mass killers. “That’s why you see them wanting to have a bigger head count, a bigger body count, to try to outdo the last one or to do something that is going to cause more of a rise.”–livescience.com

In an article on qz.com by Corinne Purtill titled It’s time to change the way the media cover mass shootings, numerous references and links are provided to research about the copy-cat syndrome being real. The final paragraphs are very revealing. Also the study in Vienna, Austria after the great number of suicides in their subway system and what the government did, are very interesting and telling. I encourage you to read the article.

So why so many mass killings in the U.S.? Is because the number of gun owners has increased? Apparently not since that number is supposedly decreasing. So what is it? Is it the because the number of gun related incidents are on the increase? Again, that number is on the decrease, with only the mass shootings on the rise.

That makes me believe it’s not the number of guns in the country, it’s those certain people who own them and their stability of mind with some seeking attention/fame/celebrity.

What do I think should happen? That is one huge article I could write and perhaps I should, not that it would influence any decision making people. People are going to kill if they want to kill no matter what they have to use. I think maybe I will write that other article, just to get it out of my head and system.

Ron_LWIRonovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer through his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.

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 © Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

Not a Martyr. Not a Hero.

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I wasn’t planning on posting anything about a certain issue here in the U.S. but I will now. A clerk in the state of Kentucky refused to give out marriage licenses to same gender couples, stating it was against her religion. From my understanding she was then told specifically by the courts not to interfere with her employees passing the licenses out.

As a Christian I am to follow the law of the land as long as it does not keep me from following the Word of God.

Apparently the court actually gave the woman a way out. Although she was the head clerk and in charge and was supposed to sign the licenses, they said she didn’t have to. She simply needed to stay out of the way and not issue them herself.

She chose instead to do something a Christian is not to do. She forced HER Christian beliefs onto others, other workers. I say HER because her understanding apparently differs from mine.

She is not a hero or martyr for Christianity. That’s my opinion. She chose to make herself an example. The government where she lived could have fired her. Not a Martyr or HeroBut instead it was arranged for her to work around the law.

Every Christian has their own interpretation of what Christianity is. Even non-Christians have different opinions. But his is mine. I believe what I believe and I don’t force it on anyone. Each persons beliefs, relationship with God or not, is their own PERSONAL thing. By doing what this woman did she actually did exactly what the Bible said would happen, she gave people cause to speak against her and against Christianity.

I wanted to say something. I have. I’m done.

Added 18:23 EDT 9/13/2015

Reading some of the comments, I believe there are a few misunderstanding what is being said here. I am for her right to stand up for her beliefs in regards to what she does with her OWN job. But when she stands in the way of the court order that stated to allow her subordinates to issue licenses, that is when she forced her belief onto others. She in effect was making them do what her belief stated. Although some of them are Christians as well.

For those who are thinking I must be a liberal politics leaning person, I’m not. I am conservative. But what I truly am is Jesus led. Someone asked what would Jesus do in this case. Jesus would tell his opinion and then move on. He would not stand in the way of a couples personal decision to follow the law of the land OR be with whomever they chose to.

 

 

 

 

 

Much Respect-Much Love

Ronovan

Ron_LWIRonovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.

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@RonovanWrites

 © Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

Easy Connecting and Disconnecting: The Problems.

Ronovan Blogging, Thoughts , , , , , , , , ,

They come and go, sometimes without our even knowing it. The social connections, the tangible next door friend and the stranger a world away who friend in a click and are gone in another. Do people disconnect on a whim or is it for a real reason? What has the ease of Online Social Interaction and Easy Connecting and Disconnecting: The Problems.Disconnection done to us socially as a society and perhaps even morally?

Thinking about things like this puts a knot in my stomach I can’t get rid of until I sort it out through words. Admittedly when I have someone disappear from my social network of “friends” I don’t always ask why. I know the coming and going is a part of the world and of this modern way of forming connections. But sometimes I do wonder.

On Facebook you must deal with people you’ve allowed into your circle of reality. When those people decide to drop you, then you wonder what happened. There is no explanation and thus the knot in the stomach begins. And dropping is the feeling that one may feel.

“What did I do?”

That’s the question that comes to mind first. For me my online social connections are my lifeline. When I lose one it rattles me somewhat and I dwell a little bit.

For someone like me, when someone, especially a female, decides to no longer be a friend you then wonder that very question above. Then you wonder what has been said. I’m a pretty appropriate guy when it comes to online social communications. Maybe in the past I’ve had moments. You would have to ask that old me. Like the one from a few days ago. That’s about how far some of my memories go.

Those social contacts keep the memory lines open. A lot of people don’t realize it but for some of us we may visit various social platform profiles in a rotation to keep people familiar to us. For a memory problem sufferer it can be important. A disconnect can throw things haywire in a major way, especially for someone who is sensitive and has actual feelings.

What has easy detachment brought about in society?

For one there is a lack of working through a problem. A person now unfollows a person and the argument or discord is over. Or it is as far as the un-follower is concerned.

In the celebrity circles it’s an easy way to get publicity and start a celebrity feud to drive up public interest in yourself. Pick the popular flavor and attack them and people will then take notice of you if you have begun to slip in notoriety. VMA awards anybody?

But for the rest of us it is more than a platform. We may have thousands of “Friends” or “Followers” but we have a lot in the offline world, the online world may at times be like a phonebook of all our old and new friends. Facebook is like that for me.

With the not needing to finish a conversation, or work out a situation, society is slowly becoming less and less able to resolve conflicts to the needed end. They still float around and build up into a frenzy. You can look at society and see how things spread like wildfire but no one ever took the time in the very beginning to try to stop it from happening—they went straight into the fire.

When once we had the chance to think overnight and arrive at some common sense we now have people go off onto Twitter or Facebook and speak emotionally.

I mentioned morality.

The ease of online sharing of EVERYTHING with ANYBODY has brought about many problems, even its own show—Catfish. If you have one person you share something with because of distance, I get that. Some relationships are separated by miles because of many reasons. And I do believe there are cases where online capabilities has made for some relationships to stay close and survive instead of drift apart during times apart.

But online has given some this sense of power and invulnerability that one can say and do anything without repercussions. They carry that over into offline life and you can see in society how some things spread and get out of hand. When certain agencies need social media experts just to do their jobs properly I think we have a problem.

I am thankful for online social connection. But I do have problems at times with the Disconnectors. But I suppose we all do it at some point. It’s easier than facing someone and telling them whatever the problem is. If you ever get disconnected by me, put it down to a memory thing. I pretty much stay connected to everyone. Well, unless you are like an uber-jerk. You know who you are. Muahahahahaha.

(Um, that last part was a joke people. So stop thinking it was you I was talking about. Paranoid much?)

There of course is the idea of Ease of Social Connectivity leading to Societal Disconnect. That’s another topic my thoughts are circling around and I may discuss another time.

What do we do?

Keeping a protective barrier is one idea. By barrier I mean have emotional security checks in place people need to pass through before entering that real Easy Connecting and Disconnecting: The Problems.“Friend” circle. Not everyone will hang around but using our mind and not heart will protect that heart. Yes, I know…sometimes that heart is going to take over. And sometimes it will be correct. But with the majority, treat your heart and self like you would treat a child in your care and who you would allow them to be with. In other words, Guard Yourself by taking your time in who you let into your private circle of true friends and remember that social network is like social anything, it’s just an every now and then thing. Just like social drinking though, it can get you in trouble.

Oh, and write a lot about a lot of things. That always helps. I mean who can socialize when they write all…the…time. I’m looking at you, and you know who you are.

Much Respect

Ronovan

Ron_LWIRonovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.

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@RonovanWrites

 © Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

How Young People Can Be Our Examples.

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Sunday Thoughts has returned. My views on my Christianity and how I see it through reading the Bible and not listening to the dividing of interpretations.

Today let’s talk about how young people can be examples to us old folks, well maybe older folks.

There are so many problems in the world today that I don’t even bother speaking about them here any longer. They exists. We know they exists. I won’t give those movements, or murders for celebrity sake any further exposure by putting their names in my writing. That’s partly why some do what they do, they know they will go out in a blaze of glory and be on the news for several hours–at least–and then mumbled out for a few days following.

Instead of glorifying them, unexpectedly so, by naming them, people of all ages should help others not go that route.

How?

There is really only one way to do that and that is by being an example.

No matter your age, you are an example ALREADY. You may be an example for good or for bad. I don’t want to hear arguments that there is no such thing as something being good or bad and that it is simply something based on ones personal views. I am certain many people reading this could  come up with examples of what is bad. I don’t want to think about the examples that come to my mind. So let’s move on to being more productive.

I periodically am in touch with former students and some say how much they look up to me and appreciate me. The funny thing about that is I’m envious of them and what they have going on in their lives. Great college experiences are being entered into. Futures are waiting to be discovered and shaped. And I don’t shy away from expressing that to them, that appreciation of them.

“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.”-1 Timothy 4:12

Here you see there is no age to being an example. We can learn from the young as much as the old. My son, who has learned from me a great deal of his, will say or do something and I learn from him. The young see things in a way that is less colored by years of experience and wounds.

Those wounds are caution signs for us, but they can also be false signs in some cases. There are exceptions to every situation–every rule. We can’t spend our lives living in fear of the exceptions and miss out on the exceptionals.

I’m not saying we should ignore our past experience in favor of youthful belief, but I am saying we can capture that belief in moving forward with caution instead of either not moving at all or moving backwards.

How does this all make to improve the world?

We continue to be open to the world, to communication, to experiences, to views. We refuse to let a bad experience dictate how we view similar situations. Yes, I mean we don’t allow past moments to let us not like people of a certain color–as one example. Think about it. If we did that we wouldn’t like any skin color at all.

And there we are. The problem. We really don’t trust very many people to the extent we need to. We don’t trust situations. Jadedism is one of the worst isms out there. We just don’t believe the good because we only witness the good being debunked in the news. The true good is rarely if ever reported with as much gusto and zeal as the bad.

Young people will listen to young people and follow young people a lot more freely than us old folk. Even us old folk that try to be a good example. Us old folk can be examples too, and perhaps help with the old folk problems as well as the young folk problems by not giving fuel to problems. We fuel things, as well as young people fueling things, more than we all realize. Young and old working together will make it work.

Much Respect-Much Love

Ronovan

Ron_LWIRonovan is an author, and blogger who shares his life as an amnesiac and Chronic Pain sufferer though his blog RonovanWrites.WordPress.com. His love of poetry, authors and community through his online world has lead to a growing Weekly Haiku Challenge and the creation of a site dedicated to book reviews, interviews and author resources known as LitWorldInterviews.WordPress.com.

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Finding Happiness.

Ronovan Inspiration & Motivation, Thoughts , , , , , ,

I did a guest post on Meanings and Musings, Florence’s blog. Go take a look, won’t you?

Ronovan's avatarMEANINGS AND MUSINGS

Hello to all. Florence doesn’t know I’m here right now so please…don’t tell I came for a visit.

“To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.”~Oscar Wilde

I give a great deal of thought each day on achieving happiness. Actually thinking in great depth about something brings me happiness, so I guess I fulfill my quest for it each day.

Being able to devote copious amounts of time, and quiet time at that, I’ve wrestled the subject of contentment from many different sides.

To make a very long struggle short for the sake of your sanity and my strain in writing these days, I now give my oh-so-wise realization.

Determine the things that give you joy.

So often you are asked “What makes you happy?” and then, how often do you either struggle for an answer or allow your shoulders to sag and reply with, “I don’t…

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Ronovan’s Whacked Out Blog!

Ronovan Thoughts

You may notice something odd about the blog. Like no sidebars. Well the sidebars have gone whacky so I removed them for now until the laptop comes in. I did some cosmetic changes for the time being. Hope you enjoy.

Much Respect & Much Love

Ronovan

Paul and Don’t Judge the Non Christians.

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Yesterday I wrote a somewhat controversial article. Reactions have varied but I have found them to be of the expected so far as of the writing of this article. I removed the article because I decided I don’t think it quite got my message across the way I wanted to and it has affected me a bit. Now after some thought I decided to put it back up. I figure, my blog, my thoughts, so why not? 🙂

Thus, I am taking my time for my Sunday Thought to make some things clear to Non Christians and Christians alike. Because I think both need to understand something that has not been emphasized enough in churches and the public domain.

1 Corinthians 5 NIV
12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”~Paul to the Corinthians

The only people Christians are to hold accountable to New Testament teachings are other Christians. Paul’s verses above followed a section where he had to explain something.

9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people. (Purple text refers to a fellow Christian.)

Don’t get these verses wrong. Not associating comes a long time after Christians attempt to help the fellow Christian to see what they are doing and get back on track. It’s not like, oooo we caught you at something and now you are to be gone from us you bad boy you.

Now, don’t get me wrong about not judging Non Christians, that doesn’t mean a Christian should say, “Hey, that’s awesome,” when seeing something that is against our faith.

Just like Non Christians may say, “It’s fine for Christians to believe what they want, but don’t expect me to applaud what they believe.”

A commenter mentioned it was offensive for Christians to proselytize and tell people they are wrong and bad. I think Christians understand the feeling when we are told we are wrong and bad daily in the media and by our government.

And please, don’t confuse Jehovah ‘s Witnesses’ dogmatic ways of Saturday morning door-to-door knocking and telling you that you are wrong with how Christians are supposed to do it. They even tell Christians they are wrong. Most of my family are Jehovah’s Witnesses so I get it. They and I have had some interesting talks in the past.

I taught my youth group to simply listen to people and if a reason came up to share their faith then do so, otherwise don’t. Forcing never works.

But back to the verses mentioned. Paul had a great way of bringing the focus of the early Christians back to where they belonged. Whenever the early church began whining about everyone else, he always said don’t worry about them right now, worry about yourself and the church first.

Romans Chapter 1 is one of the most misrepresented chapters in the Bible. Why? Because a letter was divided into chapters. Paul talks about what certain things are sins in Chapter 1, then in Chapter 2 he points out that the church members are doing those things so shut up and take care of yourselves instead of yelling about others. But because of the Chapter break people tend to study that first Chapter as a separate piece instead of looking at the whole.

Romans 2:1 NIV
1You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.~Paul to the church in Rome

Gotta love it, right? Paul sure had a way with words. So Christians, the next time you begin to judge a Non Christian by our Christian standards, think about these verses in this article today. 

For Non Christians I hope there is an understanding that the majority of Christians don’t have problems with anyone. In fact our very faith teaches us to love everyone, no matter who or what they are. Sometimes Christians forget that part, I think it’s partly because it’s not taught enough or mentioned enough in the churches. And I hope people understand that more and more Christians are being told they are bad and wrong as a whole because of a vocal minority that gets the attention and brings negativity to us.

In closing I will say this, do not tell me I cannot speak my my beliefs. I don’t ridicule others, and I expect the same in return. Learn the difference between hate speech and a belief. I may say something is a sin but it does not mean I hate someone who does that sin. You shoplift, you are  a thief, you have stolen, you have sinned. I tell you that you have sinned. That is not hate speech. Oh, sorry, the government says it’s bad, so I guess I am covered…for now.

Much Love, Success, and Respect

Ronovan

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Say it on Saturday! I am Blessed but you call me Bigot.

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Welcome to the first Episode of:

Say It On Saturday!

The post where I share my honest feelings about an issue that’s really bugging me of late and possibly lose some readers along the way. Rant? Hopefully not. But I do hope it will be informative to people on both sides of whatever I end up talking about.

It was difficult to pick just one topic this week, there are so many after all. I think my main annoyance with things are when situations are misrepresented against one side so far that it becomes ridiculous.

The Phobics

Have you ever been called gossip-phobic?
How about adultery-phobic?
Or maybe slanderer-phobic?

I think we all agree those are sins. Okay, okay, I know some of you don’t like that word but I’m a Christian and according to the Bible those are some sinful things. And who among us has not probably committed every one of them. Remember, adultery to Jesus was even thinking about it.

But I’ve never been called liar-phobic or any other phobic about sins mentioned in the Bible. So why does a Christian who says the sexual act between same genders is a sin called homophobic?

Notice what I said. The sexual act, I did not say the act of love. I want to make that clear. I have been adamant here on my blog that any sexual act outside of the God identified marriage of man and woman is a sin. It doesn’t matter who the partners are, no marriage plus sex equals sin.

Am I a Phobic?

Now do I fear anyone that is gay? Not unless they are planning to beat me up or shoot me or something like that. So I fear a gay person as much as I would fear anyone. You see I am, and I would like to say most Christians are, not afraid of gay people or their engaging in sex with their own gender. Believe me, most of us are of the opinion of do with your life as you want to. It’s just there are some vocal idiots out there that make problems and use God and Jesus as their battle cry hoping to get some support and people opposing the noise makers end up saying or doing something that includes something Christians can’t support.

It’s kind of like when the political parties try to pass a bill that is for one thing but includes something else and because of that something else the other political party votes no.

It’s not that the political party is against the main point of the bill, but they can’t pass it because the minor point is against what they are for.

Being a Christian

Part of being a Christian is not forcing our faith on people. We should love our neighbors as ourselves. Part of that loving is not butting into their bedrooms and the like. There is nowhere that it says we do anything like that.

But then we come to some political issues where a Christian who believes in the Bible as written is faced with having to decide to vote or support something that goes against what the Bible says. Now if the Christian says no to that issue then they are said to be a bigot or something like that.

And we are actually not surprised by any of this. Consider the environment the first Christians were in with Rome. At least we haven’t been used as torches yet. I tell you, that was some serious faith back then. You have to really believe to go through what those people did and not back down.

What About Me

I don’t think anyone can say anything bad against me from what they have experienced on my blog. I believe I have been respectful and hopefully informative about my faith so everyone can better understand what I think a Christian should be, what I think Jesus meant for us to be.

We are not to judge. We are not support what the Bible says is a sin. But we are also not to apply our Biblical laws to those who are not believers. God will handle that later.

1 Corinthians 5 NIV
12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”~Paul to the Corinthians

Matthew 5 NIV
11“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”~Jesus, Sermon on the Mount

The following has been added after posting:

Now if this has been a bit confusing and you don’t get exactly what I am saying which I have a feeling a lot of people aren’t, visit the comment below by Florence. The link will take you right to it.

https://ronovanwrites.wordpress.com/2015/07/18/i-am-blessed-but-you-call-me-bigot/#comment-14511

Much Love, Success, and Respect
Ronovan

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Peacemaker to Positivity.

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One way to help others is to be honest with yourself, and that’s also a step toward a positive life.

There are situations you will find yourself in where if you have been honest with your past you will be able to identify with the situation and then give advice. Too many of us like to deny our past and our less than admirable deeds. We run from it instead of accepting it, owning it, and turning it into something useful.

God uses everything He can to make things better, if we choose to work with Him. A horrible experience you had can help another person by your being able to give them support in your having made it through that same kind of event.

I’ve had horrible things happen in my past that I could let turn me into some hateful man, but I choose not to do so. I choose to work with God and use my past to help others.

I’ve been fairly honest in my writings, perhaps overly honest at times, but by doing so I think people realize that when I do speak about something I know what I’m talking about. That’s one reason I may sound like I talk about some things several times. I don’t really like to talk about things I don’t know about just to get a blog article out that I know will make a lot of blog traffic.

The episodes of life we go through help lead to the spiritual gifts each of us have. People have said I have certain gifts but I don’t dwell on that. I do as I do and take each moment as it comes. I’ve known pastors who talk about having a spiritual gift only for me to discover they are wrong and that is one reason I don’t like to focus too much on a certain gift idea. Focusing on one at the exclusion of all else weakens what you already have.

Think of a body builder who likes to work on his arms the most. When he gets up there you see how odd he looks. His arms are too large for the rest of him. You can see he takes pride in one thing over the others.

But I will share with you one of the spiritual gifts another pastor said I had, the gift as a peacemaker.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Matthew 5:9 NIV (Jesus, Sermon on the Mount)

Peacemakers to me are sort of jacks-of-all-trades. They pull from several of the gifts to accomplish a mission. I am not saying I am a peacemaker but that I have been identified as one. And I am not saying I have all of the gifts. I don’t think anyone has them all.

Really what a peacemaker does is study the Word of God, has consistent prayer, and lives a life habit that helps them see clearly in times of need. For me, I do what I can. No one is perfect.

Here is one example of peacemaking:
I have been helping lately in some conflicts by being an opposing side’s views and thoughts in a situation. I give the thoughts of a side in a unique way that is honest and helps the person realize what is happening or might happen. I don’t soften what I share. That does not help the person.

How does this bring about peace? By knowing and then acting upon that knowledge to not react to what might happen, you have already won. You don’t become entangled in the strife. You are prepared to maintain a peaceful place. That is one example of a peacemaker.

I do these same things for myself. A peacemaker needs to keep peace within in order to help others.

Having the spiritual gift of faith is also something that goes along with that of peacemaker. By faith I mean the unshakeable kind. I don’t mean the ignoring of the world kind. I enjoy learning everything I can and pulling fact from opinion. Perhaps that is a gift as well. And even Christians have opinions in some areas just as much as non-believers. Those are the opinions you have to watch out for.

People may notice how my faith sneaks in to my articles at times. Or you may not notice at all. The fact is my faith has been in just about every article I’ve written lately. I’m guided to a place of positivity and peace by my faith. Teachings of Jesus are a wonderful thing. Polluted through time by man, they have taken on meanings that Jesus never intended. That’s why I always encourage people to read the words for yourself. You don’t need a denomination or even a non-denominational church (They are really a denomination at this point in time.) or a church of any kind.

You and the Words of Jesus. Great advice for the world. He’s been recognized as a great teacher by many. Even those who don’t believe in him think the teachings are good. And believe me, they help so much.

My Christian blog speaks about many things and I intend to have it be a place for people to learn about what the Bible says without the pollution.

For today, be a peacemaker. That may mean you are silent when you want to speak out, or speak out when you want to be silent. You may need to overcome a fear, or overcome a false pride. So many things to learn and be aware of, and sometimes within a split second. But it is possible. It’s possible with learning, with practice.

Much Love, Success, and Respect
Ronovan

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Always be prepared to…

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So I have one more consecutive post of offering up a Quote to do in order to meet the challenge by Greg of Potholes in the Road of Life.

Today I want to share one for perhaps not only my Christian friends, but all my friends. Thinking upon this quote helps you quite a bit.

1 Peter 3:15-16 NIV

“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”

I know, those of you who don’t believe in Jesus could just not read that part, but the rest would work.

A long time ago I would shy away from engaging with people who would lash out against my faith.  Why? Because I didn’t know the details as much. The truth is, to be saved you don’t have to know the details. You learn how to LIVE like a Christian along the way. The knowledge in the Bible doesn’t magically fill your Bible because you whispered to a preacher at the front of a church one Sunday morning.

Although, a lot of the basic things about being a Christian we all know. A lot of it is common sense things.

But back to the purpose of the article. Several years ago I began to get involved in something called Apologetics. This is not an apology. This is defined as “reasoned arguments or writings in justification of something, typically a theory or religious doctrine”. It might be more commonly known as Defending Your Faith. And the religious doctrine part sort of came about later. It was a legal thing back in the day. Like, oh about 2000 or so years ago.

As I began to study and learn more about the Bible, the facts of information found in the Bible and a lot of other things, I was better able to defend my faith. I was prepared to give an answer.

For Christians we’re told here to to study the Word of God. We are told to be prepared. Why? It’s not just to defend our faith to others, but to ourselves as we face various trials in life. If you are confident in your belief nothing will shake it loose. It may tremble, but it will not fall.

I know this for a fact. I’ve seen it in action, in the worst possible moment imaginable.

But as to the quote. If you defend your beliefs in a polite fashion, and I don’t mean roll over and give up, then when people try to say you are a bad person other people will ignore those reports. Unfortunately we have a lot of Christians that don’t defend in a polite manner. I try. Maybe I fail at times, but so far I think my previous articles have been polite and I haven’t ridiculed anyone or anything like that.

Would be nice for all people to be like that.

Much Love, Success, and Respect

Ronovan

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I am not ashamed…

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Greg from over at Potholes In The Road of Life nominated me to be involved in a Three Day Quote Challenge, sharing a quote three posts in a row. Since he’s a friend and is faithfully dedicated to doing my Haiku Challenge each week, how can I say no, right? So I’ll see what I can do.

Romans 1:16 New International Version (NIV)

romans-1-1616 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

I decided to pick three of my favorite quotes. What better quote than one from Paul about 2000 years ago? But why did I pick this one?

Many people read the book of Romans chapter by chapter. In doing so they fail to understand the message. For centuries since the Bible was divided into chapters and verses  some misunderstandings have been around. And Romans chapters one and two being divided as they are has been one of the biggest.

But I digress. The reason Romans 1:16 is a favorite quote is because of what it says. All are included in salvation who believe in the gospel.

I also like how it says “I am not ashamed of the gospel”. Some Christians are ashamed to admit they believe in Jesus to their friends. And they certainly are afraid to say they believe in his teachings. I’m not certain why except for all those misunderstandings ingrained throughout the generations by the ill informed.

The gospel, the truth, the power. God took the control of sin out of Satan’s hand and put it into the hands of each person as their own choice to make. The perfect sacrifice, Jesus, God in flesh as man, suffering as man, without power to give us a chance.

And since the day I realized the truth of all of that, not the day I became a Christian, but years later, I have not been ashamed to say what I am. Many celebrities are ashamed. No one wants to be ridiculed as the next Tim Tebow. Oh how he’s suffered. Sarcasm there. Only time he ever was a teams starting quarterback in the NFL he lead a down and out team to the playoffs and actually won some games.

So I am proud to say I am not ashamed of the gospel. It gives me a confidence in my final destination and a peace within me in not fearing the future.

Much Love, Success, and Respect

Ronovan

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My Declaration of Independence from . . .

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It’s a bit late in the day to be writing my Independence Day letter. I hadn’t planned on doing one, or maybe I did, I’m not really certain. But I’ve learned something over the past year or so and that is if I don’t let something out, it will keep eating at me and I can’t rest. So here it all goes.

Revolutionary WarThe Gadsden Flag from the Revolutionary war.
Nothing to do with any political group for this post purpose or ever.

My Declaration of Independence from . . .

I will no longer be strangled by heart strings. Those that I love know the one way to get to me is through the heart. Well that is over. Attempts to guilt me into things just won’t work any longer. Those that try it obviously don’t love me enough to love me as I am. And it’s not about choosing between either or.

Blog writing will be more open and honest and maybe in your face on issues. I’m tired of keeping quiet like the good little roll over Christian boy. I’ll voice my views, just as my friends do, and expect the same respect I show them in not commenting negatively about it. As everyone knows, I don’t stoop to petty bickering. And my Christian articles are well thought out and polite. They don’t attack anyone.

I love. I love hard. And I love faithfully.

I will no longer feel guilty about not remembering people. Some blog friends and real life people over the past year have disappeared from my memory not too long ago because of illness and stress. Nothing I could do about it, nothing that can be changed about it.

High maintenance, and emotionally needy people need not apply at my door. I’m a good friend, but I can only handle so much these days. I will do my best but the surest way to stress me out is to be a needy Ned or Nelly. Harsh, I know, but I’m just laying it out there. Stress will only lead to more memory problems. I already lose memories after sleeping too such as days in bed while in a Fibromyalgia Flare. I try hard to hang on to the memories I have.

These are the hard things one has to do in order to help themselves. These are the choices to have peace of mind and maybe someday peace of heart. I don’t know if that last one will ever happen because of some of those choices up there. If people I love don’t want to love me for me alone then so be it. Call me selfish if you like.

I do my best every day to bring a positive message to my blog and my world. It is much more difficult than anyone may realize. But I keep doing it every day. And I will keep doing it every day.

I’m done.

Ronovan

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God and Meditation.

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Are you a Christian or even an Atheist and afraid of Meditation because you think it will turn you into a Buddhist, turn you away from your belief in whatever you believe?

Don’t laugh. A great many people associate Meditation with Buddhism because it is such a central part of that philosophy and way of life.

You’re already meditating.

Meditation, for Christians should not be something to fear. In fact, if you are doing as you should, you are likely meditating and not even realizing it. Each morning you should be spending quiet time preparing for your day by praying or talking with God. You are preparing yourself to not allow the events of the day to sway you or influence you.

During this time you are pushing the world out, those sounds and thoughts, and you are focusing on one thing, God. During these quiet times you may not even be thinking of anything but simply being at peace and calming your mind for the day ahead. Perhaps you are repeating the word “calm” or “peace” in your thoughts over and over. A one word prayer.

When you are in these moments you find things become clearer to you. All the outside stimuli are blocked away and central ideas come into focus and you discover solutions to problems or clarity of purpose, and even a clarity of scripture void of the traditions man has applied to them in trappings and rhetoric.

Jesus was a man who meditated.

“But Jesus did not meditate, so why should I?” What do you think Jesus was doing while fasting in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights. While fasting he must have been doing something. Preparing himself for his ministry ahead? How? By talking with God, talking with the Father, by meditating. And through this preparation, at the end of those 40 days and nights, Jesus was prepared for the trials of Satan.

People forget a few things about Jesus. For one, he was a man. Yes, he was God in the form of flesh as man on earth. He had to be. For him to be a sacrifice for us he could not be the all powerful form of God without the ability to be harmed, feel pain, go through trials, be tempted, and all the other things a human could go through.

He performed miracles by asking the Father for His help. I mention that so no one thinks he had these powers on his own and thus was different from normal humans. But how did Jesus stay pure to be the perfect sacrifice for humanity?

Remember how Jesus would often go off on his own, away from his disciples? What do you think he was doing during this time? Remember in the garden on the night of his arrest and he asked the disciples to keep watch? What do you think he was doing?

Jesus was the rock star of his time of ministry work. Everywhere he went people wanted something from him. These things could be simply to hear him speak or to get some miracle from him. But there was a constant buzz around him. Jesus needed to get away from all of that and be alone. He needed to refocus and reenergize. He was human. He had a human body. He had a human mind, all of which were susceptible to fatigue and deterioration. He needed his quiet time.

The Bible speaks of meditation.

Meditation is not a religion. Parts of this article came to me during meditation. People want to be enlightened. For a Christian—as a Christian, I feel as though I am enlightened already. As I meditate in my quiet moments and refocus on God, He gives me thoughts and revelations.

Does the Bible speak of meditation? I know some of you are wondering. If it’s not in the Bible then you don’t want to hear about it being possible, even if you are a Christian or not. Joshua 1:7-9~“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Meditation is not just sitting quietly it is also a way of life. You can meditate through every moment of life. In the above scripture, Joshua speaks to this. The word meditate (hâgâh)  here has meanings such as; to utter, speak, muse, imagine, to meditate. To get the full benefits of the Word of God you need to be in it throughout your day, in all your actions. To get the full benefits of meditation you need to be in it throughout your day, in all your actions.

To prosper (tsâlach, tsâlêach), to make progress, to advance; all definitions of the word translated as prosperous above, you need to be in whatever it is you are doing and stay on the path of what you are doing at all times. Otherwise you are sidetracked and have to either start over or take time getting back on the track where you left off.

I’m a doer, not a sayer.

As a Christian, by combining these two the Word of God/prayer and Meditation that go hand in hand, written in the Bible, you can achieve a divine enlightenment and peace of mind. I don’t say this as some guy trying to get you to do something; I say it as someone who does it.

I did it before my accident two years ago, lost it for a while, and now you may have noticed in recent months a change in my writing. I live what I am talking about. I didn’t call it meditation, but that is what it was.

josuha-1-8

Much Love, Success, and Respect

Ronovan

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Letting Go so you can Go On.

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Themes. I guess you could say my writing of late has a theme to it and today will be no different. A few months ago I made a conscious decision to begin writing about positivity. Oddly enough it turns out I have been writing about that since my blog began, I just didn’t realize it because of all the somewhat angst riddled poetry I was writing back then.

Yes, I can do angst well.

Six months ago I wrote an article titled Choose to Let Go. The article spoke somewhat about my amnesia and how I look at it and move on in spite of it. As I was thinking of this article for today that article came to mind and I realized how themes seem to come back around. Cyclical is what people call something like that.

I write about these things because I continue to see these things and they are everyday obstacles in my path. The difference in them being cyclical or not is how you handle them.

Cyclical means you haven’t discovered how to deal with something. I am not speaking of how every year the tornadoes come through the south here in the US. I am talking about those things you can control. Although if you don’t want to keep running for cover every year because a tornado coming . . . move.

One thing that comes up all the time for all of us is people slighting us or hurting us in some way. Hurt can mean hurt feelings, made fun of us, forgot about us in some way or anything that impacts us emotionally in a negative manner.

I was watching some interviews of professional wrestlers-I don’t actually watch matches, I watch the real person interviews about their careers, the not fake stuff part of the world, I know, I’m weird. Anyway, I noticed how so many people hate this one wrestler because of how he used to be. Since that time and for the past 13 years he has been a born again Christian and very devoted.

These people he slighted in the past, or who felt they were slighted because his career rose as theirs fell, refuse to believe who he is now, that he has changed. They want to hold on to that, well, truly childish and horrible acting person he once was. I mean he really was bad.

You can look at these people and see this hate and bitterness eating away at them. It’s in every part of them from the way they look at the camera to the way they talk and from the way the walk to the way they act in the ring. I know most of pro wrestling is scripted but the wrestlers have to act and by allowing the bitterness to remain they can’t be anything but these mean guys called heels. Even when they are good guys, baby faces, they are still not quite fully there. Then the success doesn’t come and they hate that guy who was a success even more.

So that was one example, another is as I was reading some sports clips online one was about a pro pitcher in baseball who looked at a fan calling to him. The guy blew the pitcher a kiss. The pitcher did a ‘say what’ type of face, turned around, but then turned back quick, caught the kiss and then tossed it onto the field. It was an obvious joke. Yet the writer made it out to be something bad.

That led me to wonder who spends their time, their days, looking for something they can put a negative spin on? Who makes a career of this?

People filling their lives with negativity all the time.

I was looking for that perfect verse to share today about forgiveness. There are so many in the Bible. To paraphrase a saying “if something has to be mentioned so many times there is a reason for it.” I came across a short one.

“And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.“-Matthew 6:12

When I came to that verse I sat and thought for a while. That wrestler can’t make people forgive him for what he once was. But he has forgiven all those who did the same to him through the years and asked God to forgive him. His life is in a good place with a ranch, a wife, and two great kids. He’s retired from wrestling and considered a legend and perhaps one of the Top 10 wrestling entertainers ever, but he doesn’t focus on the wrestling part of his world.

He’s a dad and husband who helps home school his kids. I mean they are on a ranch in the middle of nowhere. Those who hate him are in nowhereville wrestling for noname wrestling.

I’m not saying forgiving others will bring you great things, but it will bring you great feelings. Once you let go of all of that baggage you grow taller. You grow taller in the eyes of those around you as they see something change in you. Just think about it. If you go around brooding and angry all the time, to me that means you are filled with hate and doubt and are frustrated. If you go around as though things don’t bother you, you then appear confident and people are drawn to you. People then want to be around you and work with you.

Forgive people things. Seriously. What can you do by holding onto something that can’t be changed, something that happened years ago? Let it go. You don’t even realize what those little things have done to you over the years and what they have turned you into.

Much Love, Much Success, and Much Respect to You All,

Ronovan

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Return to Focus: My Sunday Thought

Ronovan Thoughts , , , , ,

This week’s Sunday Thought is going to be a little more direct in nature. I have strayed in recent months in my writing from what I most enjoy and have delved more into some serious and gray area topics. I think this is a reflection of my creative energy being low. I don’t talk about my low creative energy because people always say, “Oh, I’ve been through that.” No, they haven’t. Not in this way. I always have creative ideas going through this whacked out mind of mine, I just can’t physically do anything about it at times.

But I’m taking steps to get back there to where I belong. Baby steps, if you will. Today I wanted to talk about my faith. That’s what my Sunday Thoughts is supposed to be. Hang with me here as I talk about it.

return-focus

I’ve been watching a lot of interviews on youtube of various types. For one, I used to be a huge wrestling fan, professional wrestling. I go back to the days of the old Memphis wrestling with Jerry “The King” Lawler and “Superstar” Bill Dundee. Don’t worry, this article isn’t about wrestling.

Watching these interviews of wrestlers telling the truth of how things were led me to two things. One was the wrestler Sting’s movie Moment of Truth about where at the height of his popularity and with his personal life in shambles he turned to God and became a Christian. The other thing I discovered was how incidents and even people are viewed so differently depending on the person telling the story and that you have to be careful of who you listen to for the truth because the most convincing ones can turn out to be the ones with the worst views and personal agendas in the telling.

Being led through all the chaos of professional wrestling to a Christianity movie was interesting. I knew Sting was a Christian. I also knew one thing, with the same information, can be interpreted two or more different ways depending on the interpreter. Somewhat confirming in many ways and refocusing for me.

I’ve been wondering about the purpose of my blog. I know it is to share my thoughts and creative output but we each have something about us we want to share. I tend to share everything. But it’s how we share that makes each of us different.

When I speak about being a Christian I can sense the wincing of some, the flinch here or there, and the shutting of doors in others. And I actually understand all of that. If I didn’t know me and had to go on most of the in-the-spotlight-Christians, I might do the same.

But my goal here in sharing my faith and how I present myself, although I don’t do it intentionally, is to show people what a Christian can be. Just another person who is like everyone else. A person with problems. A person who is not perfect, and doesn’t claim to be. A person who has ups and downs and way way lows.

A person who can lose focus and find it again. Also a person who sees people as people and nice people as people to be friends with, regardless of beliefs, locations, or lifestyles. A person who says here I am, here is what I believe, take it or leave it, but I’m not forcing myself or my beliefs on you. Be my friend if you like, just the way you are.

Not everyone understands a Christian can be like that. That in fact a Christian isn’t supposed to be a judger of others or a forcer of beliefs. In fact we are the last ones to be judgers and forcers if we follow the teachings of Jesus. Too bad not enough Christians do that.

But I get the extremist Christians’ point of view at times in feeling they have to get out and cause some noise. Every movement or cause does that. For some reason when it comes to Christians it’s seen as some vile hate thing. Okay, maybe it’s because some of those, okay one of those churches out there that likes to call itself a church protests funerals and goes against everything God says about Christian behavior.

Great way to get people to turn to God!

Notice I don’t mention their name. I don’t want to give their church site any traffic or have there name pop up on searches because of me anymore than they already do.

As you visit my site, I hope you find a person that is fair, friendly, welcoming, and loving to all who are nice to him. Be mean to me and I’ll ignore you. I’ve decided to refuse to waste the little physical and mental energy I have on mean people. I’m focusing on the positives of life. I think if we do that and build more and more positives, that some day we will overcome and overpower the negatives.

Emotionally, mentally you will get what you focus on. If you expect negatives you will see the negatives and ignore any positives. Focus on the positives that happen in your life. You will find the negative people in your life will find your positivity repulsive and slowly drift away. Then you will discover even less negative things are happening around you.

Well, that’s it for today. Returning my focus where it belongs. Now to see what comes out of that.

Mush Respect

Ronovan

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