Predicting my death?

My father died at the age of 57 years 362 days. He was buried on his 58 birthday.  As I have aged this has been on my mind and the thought of outliving his life span has become something of a morbid goal of mine. Now my 58th birthday is 6 days away. Three more days and I will equal Dad's life span.  Four days and I will have bested it.

Dad was a smoker who suffered his first heart attack at the age of 50. He quit smoking for a couple of years, started eating healthier, lost some weight, got more regular exercise ... and then relapsed into smoking about 3 years later.

I have my own health concerns. I am a type two diabetic. My ankles and knees are shot  and will need replaced at some point in time if diabetes doesn't claim them first.  I am overweight. I've lost nearly 60 (Edit: now 91 lbs) pounds from my one time high, but could still stand to lose a few more.

Today, I became quite angry over being constantly interrupted while attempting to prepare to coach a soccer camp next week. So angry, that I lost the ability to concentrate and focus on the task at hand. So angry that I felt anxiety and perhaps the beginnings of a panic attack. So upset that I became aware of my heart racing in my chest.

No, not a heart attack. At least I don't think so. (Edit: on July 8th I did suffer a heart attack) No pain of any sort in any part of the body. No other common symptoms of an impending heart attack or sudden cardiac arrest. I was just stressed, wound pretty tight and need space away from the trigger and time to unwind.

Still, I'm six days away from my 58th birthday ...

America will never be destroyed from the outside.

 "Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer. If it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." ~ Abraham Lincoln

The context of this quote was the Civil War, but it's message is as pertinent and resonates as strongly today. 

I will bring further clarity and emphasis to this point through the use of others quotes. 

For example, nearly 100 years ago,  American socialist, Norman Thomas, who six times ran for POTUS as the Socialist Party of America candidate ticket, stated that the American people would never vote for socialism but that under the name of liberalism the American people would adopt every fragment of the socialist program.

Empty words?"But at the moment I'd like to talk about another way because this threat is with us and at the moment is more imminent. One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It's very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. . . . Now, the American people, if you put it to them about socialized medicine and gave them a chance to choose, would unhesitatingly vote against it. We have an example of this. Under the Truman administration it was proposed that we have a compulsory health insurance program for all people in the United States, and, of course, the American people unhesitatingly rejected this." ~ Ronald Reagan

Consider that our colleges and universities have become bastions of liberalism. This is true of our K-12 educational system as well. Have we not seen students admonished and even punished for wearing the American flag on their clothing in school? Is MAGA wear not treated in the same fashion? Anything denoting the principles the United States of America were founded upon are under attack, from within.

Has the US been infiltrated from abroad or is this home grown destruction as our founding fathers suggested it would be?  I would think an argument for both could be made. And for conspiracy theorists it seems possible, and perhaps even plausible, that both are working collaboratively to bring about change that will destroy forever the freedom and liberties granted by God and set forth in the Constitution.

"The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."  ~Thomas Jefferson

Is there any among you who can argue that this is not the case?  

You say no organized plot to radically alter the US Constitution and ideals exists?  The motivation of an ever growing federal government and the restraints placed upon the citizens they are supposed to represent is founded in the good intentions of the elected leaders?

"Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters." – Daniel Webster 

We need look no further than to the continuing attacks on and erosion of the Second Amendment. The liberals / socialists have already restricted the types of weapons citizens can own and continue to seek banning guns.  Lost is the true reason for allowing citizens to bear arms of equal measure to the country’s military forces. 

 "Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any body of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States." ~ Noah Webster

Even the supposed great liberal John F. Kennedy knew the dangers of big government: "Every time that we try to lift a problem from our own shoulders, and shift that problem to the hands of the government, to the same extent we are sacrificing the liberties of our people." ~ John F. Kennedy

There have been great generations of Americans who have stood strong under the burden of fighting for, establishing and fighting to maintain the ideals and principles of the US Constitution. It is time for another great generation to arise.  A generation with convictions strong enough and courage rampant enough to stand amid and against the onslaught that that is liberal socialism to protect, maintain and regain true Constitutional Liberty

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of Liberty. ~ Thomas Jefferson

It is a battle not for the faint of heart. The enemy has infiltrated our fabric. The educational system, the media, entertainers and social Democrat elected leaders are using every weapon at their disposal to brainwash younger generations. Their propaganda machine runs 24/7 and without proper educational background our youth believe what they are told because if someone says something is true, than it must be true. If it's on the Internet, it must be fact. The will to freely think and assert one's own  opinions is eroding. We once again need a great generation to stand tall and firm to reestablish America as our founding fathers meant it to be.

His name was Joe

One of the joys of camping is the people you get to meet. Away from the stresses of every day life and among mostly strangers the best in people seems to come out. If you require help, perfect strangers step up. Of course, there are exceptions, but these seem to be rare. There's a sort of animinity available to those who seek it as well. One does not have to give out their real name to others if one choose not to.

While camping last week a gentleman pulled his rig into the site next to ours. It was immediately apparent he was a friendly type. He introduced himself as Joe and shook hands right away. Exchanging greetings is not an unusual occurrence at campgrounds. It's good to establish a relationship with those who will be camping on adjoining sites. Most of the time anyway.

Joe sat up his campsite and came over to visit as my wife and I enjoyed some wine by our campfire. He said he had something to show me. Joe held a small simple calculator and began the conversation by explaining he had something he'd like to share with us. Okay ... I was tired and just beginning to relax, but being a gracious host I agreed to listen.

Joe went on to explain he had prayed to God for an explanation of how the universe was made. I was thinking to myself, O' Lord, not a Bible thumper wanting to share how he came to accept Jesus as his Saviour. Look, I consider myself a Christian. I believe in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. I just wasn't wishing ti listen to someones come to Jesus story that evening.Well, it turns out Joe wasn't really interested in sharing his come to Jesus moment either.

Joe continued with how after asking God how the universe was made he had almost nightly dreams. In these dreams God made it known to Joe that the secret to the universe and life itself was to be found in numbers. Okay ... now I wasn't sure where this was going. As Joe explained it, God answered his question about making the universe over the course of six months via dreams. Once Joe gained an understanding of the importance of numbers and there ordering, the dreams suddenly stopped.

Now, I readily admit I cannot remember each and every detail shared with me that evening. It was a lot to take in. Some of the basics were that we read left to right but numbers in the heavenly realm are read right to left. Jesus sits at the right hand of the father meaning if we were to look at them God would be on the right and Jesus to his left. Hmm.

He further explained that when we read numbers left to right there is always a zero at the end. That is a decimal point followed by a zero. Joe proclaimed that when reading the numbers in heavenly there was also a zero at the end of every number.

The Joe began a series of calculations on his calculator. I'll share but a couple as a representative of the many he shared. 11+22+33= 66. Now, as Joe explained it, 66 was a very important number as it represented Jesus. 066? I am unclear about that. And I do not know why Joe believes 66 represents Jesus although he stated it was Bible based. Joe also stated he had looked on the Internet for references to what he was discovering and found none. He believed what the dreams revealed to him were revealed uniquely to him alone?

Joe then ran off some more calculations: 11+55+99 = 165 or as Joe pointed out, 66 again. That is take the middle number, 6, as a stand alone and add the two outside numbers 1 + 5 = 6 to produce 66. Again, hmm and ... okay. My interest is piqued, but I'm still not sure where this is going and freely admit to not giving my full attention to all this.

Next came a series of calculations where one could take any number double it(sometimes and again and again), add 10 (one for each dimension) and 1 the number for God. Whatever it was that Joe was doing he kept coming up with the number 1660 and he excitedly explained to me this number represented Jesus death on the cross which was a X shape and not the t shape so commonly used to represent the crucifixion. THIS, I already knew. So, 66 in the middle with 1 representing the person saved that day and the 0 representing the one who died and went to Hell. Why did Jesus go to Hell upon dying on the cross? According to Joe, Jesus went to retrieve the unsaved sheep, the man who did not confess his belief in Jesus while being crucified next to Jesus. This was also "proven" by a series of calculations that saw Joe arrive at the number 1661 demonstrating how things changed upon retrieving the lost sheep from Hell.

According to Joe, while there are 10 dimensions, the devil only exists in one dimension. Of course, there were calculations to prove this as well. And Joe showed how the number 666 represents the devil. 111+222+333 = 666 and so on. And how 777+555+333 = 1665 or 666.

99 represents angels. And there are similar calculations to prove this. Supposedly, an individuals place in the universe can be determined by the number that represents him or her. Birth, spouse, kids, death - all in the numbers. Now, how one was to determine their individual number was unclear to me and I believe to Joe as well. That was one he was still working on.

So, why share this with you? Well, I began to wonder if Joe were a modern day prophet. Or was he a false prophet as the Bible warns us about? Maybe he was a custodian of modern chemicals? I wonder why God brought Joe into my life? I wondered if perhaps Joe could be an angel or ... even Jesus himself. Maybe the devil or one of his demons? So many questions raised from a half hour spent with a stranger at a campground. I don't even know if his name is actually Joe although we do apparently have a mutual friend from here in Lima. I honestly do not know what to think and so, of course, my prayers to God have been for clarity regarding a man named Joe.

Slamming Doors

So, I've been thinking. Always an interesting undertaking. Sometimes entertaining. Once in awhile dangerous. 

We have all heard the saying "when one door closes, another door opens." We get the message. Stay positive. Look forward. Be prepared for the next opportunity coming your way. This is sound advice. Just move on. Rarely, if ever, do we hear about trying to reopen the door that just closed.

How about another perspective?

That door that just closed on you? Well, that same door was slammed in my face. I'm on the other side from you.

Now, sometimes we need to move on from certain people. No disputing that. But a door closing cannot be taken lightly or as the easy way out. You are saying to that person "You're not worth my time and effort" ... to forgive.

Forgiveness takes a lot of work. It's not an easy thing to do. And the bigger the transgression, the more difficult it becomes to forgive.

I believe it is okay to close a door and move on when necessary... but only with forgiveness in your heart. Otherwise the door isn't merely closing but is being slammed and you carry the negative emotions that brought about the slamming of the door with you.

The Ripple Effect.

It has been an extremely rain spring. Our communities have suffered from flooding and even tornadoes. The damage is widespread. Exactly how widespread I did not realize until on vacation to New York state and Canada recently.

You've seen the ripple effect of dropping a pebble into water?  It's real and on a much grander scale than I was consciously aware of before this vacation.  All those many raindrops that have fallen at home have a ripple effect. They gather as runoff and flood our streams and rivers. They flooded our campsite at Lake Loramie State Park a couple weeks back. They flooded nearby St. Marys, Ohio and other communities. A majority of area farmers have not been able to get into their fields. June 10th is the deadline for planting corn and a lot of farmers will not make it.

These are the facts as we know them to be. We live these facts and so they are very much real to us. We pray for those affected locally ... but do we consider the ripple effects of the rain in our area?

So, your thoughts may have drifted to rising prices for corn and other crops being impacted. Higher prices looming in grocery stores, restaurants and so on. But these are more immediate ripple effects.

While in New York and Canada this past week we witnessed shore line flooding of Lake Ontario that is having devastating effects. In fact, Lake Ontario is at record levels.  What dos this have to do with rainfall totals in Northwest Ohio?

Well, we live in the Lake Erie watershed meaning our streams and rivers carry water to Lake Erie. Lake Erie, via the Niagara River and the Niagara Falls drains into ... Lake Ontario. The rains we have endured here in NW Ohio are contributing to the record levels of Lake Ontario.

In Youngstown, NY the head of the local boating club / marina stated people were building docks upon docks upon docks to maintain access to their houseboats and boats. There is sandbagging taking place on shoreline properties trying to keep the waters at bay.  We witnessed boat houses and even houses under water.

The story of dropping a pebble in a pond and its ripple effects is a profound one. We are seeing it play out in real life on a much grander scale. The point here is that any action taken has a ripple effect. We often see the immediate rewards ... and or ... consequences of our actions, but do we consider the wider ranging and longer term impact our actions can have?

It might take a dramatic example to drive home this point to its fullest.  Say a soldier leading a patrol decides to take the left fork in a road instead of the right fork.  The left fork sees them safely through, but had they taken the right fork they would have walked into an ambush.  That one decision saved lives. In the immediate, the lives of the soldiers on that patrol were saved, but also the lives of their future children, grandchildren and possibly countless generations. That's one helluva ripple effect, is it not?

Did the soldier leading the patrol ever know the immediate or long tern ripple effect of his decision to go left instead of right? So, every decision we make has the potential to dramatically change lives: ours and others for generations to come.

I was once told a soccer player makes 3 decisions per second. I thought that absurd at first. Upon further consideration I came to realize this is a realistic number and might even be underestimated.  Think about it in this context: you are sleeping and the alarm goes off. Open your eyes? Turn the alarm off?  Hit snooze? Get up? Roll over and go back to sleep? That's 7 decisions in the first instance of conscious awareness of the day. In a soccer match this equates 16,200 decisions. If we consider a person sleeps 8 hours a day the number of decisions in a typical day would be nearly 175,000 decisions per day. Each of those decisions have immediate and long term impacts.  Each of those decisions have the power to change lives: yours and countless others.  That's pretty heady stuff, don't you think?