I have 12 days left to get my bike ready for the 3rd Annual Congregation Car & Bike Show in Charlotte, NC. I'm plenty motivated, the weather on the other hand is not. April is in like a Lion out like a Lamb up here. My plan is real simple, arrive early and get a parking spot that everyone must pass in and out. Go and look at the rides, observe and then park my rear next to my bike until I get bored. If the Lord so wills it perhaps, someone will be fool enough to ask "Could you build a bike for me, I have money" or even better "Hi, I'm Sam von Spam from 'some bike magazine' can I take pictures and ask questions?"...."sure, knock yourself out".    
   "There's no place like home...there's no place like home." Thanks Dorothy but, I'm aware it ain't gonna happen. You don't have to rub it in. I carry the mark of L visible only to the fates so they know who to safely take a dump on. Get back home Loretta. 
  True dat? I haven't done anything but crap jobs since I was laid off almost SEVEN years ago, we could have moved to where the money was but, family came first. 
   When I was at IRC I was important, they depended on me being there and getting the job done. The machines I kept running made profit, we were just not profitable enough to satisfy our Corporate Overlords. I did that with my wits and determination, and nothing I've done since has come close. 
   All I've done since is crap that monkeys could be trained to do. Being the best at doing crap is still doing crap! Doing work I actually enjoy would be nice.
  The season is about to begin at BRCC, 6 nights a week all summer long. It pays good for here and I guess I shouldn't complain but, I'm not getting any younger and I don't want to wind up like the old people who work til they die and never do anything else. Some are quite happy to do that and good for them, truly if that floats your boat GREAT!  "More par t ye".
  I do not get the sense that that's God's plan for me, I mean why make me the way I am, just to fester, bustin' my ass working with potheads who are too messed up to have a productive conversation with. All that does is make me frustrated and wanting to get zonked with them to forget what a total waste of time it is. The crew of college kids changes but, they don't listen to an old biker with weird assed ideas.  Aaaaaaaagggggghhhhh!!!!!< that = frustration. Yes, my problem is I'm frustrated because I'm reaching NO ONE!!!  No one gives a shit! That is a fact, Jack!
"You know, the Bible wasn't written for 21st Century America and cannot be properly understood when viewed from that context"... 
"oh...is tha...I haven't seen you at church recently"... 
"Yeah, because it's bullshit"... 
"you said a bad word"...
"ya know, I think God looks at what we do and says the same thing in Heavenese!"
Stunned silence...
"Well answer me this because, I'm having a hard time with it. Why is it that people go to church say 30 years and never seem to get past step one? Y'all rehash the same thing over and over and over but, no one seems to grow. The turd you met 30 years ago is still the same turd just fatter and balder?!"
  Now,  that is a conversation I've never had, I want to but, I'm much too nice to say such things outside the house.
Yes, the people that occupy the same space as I hear stuff like that all the time. They are immune. At least my daughter is still gracious enough to feign interest  and she's showing signs of "seriously?"
  No, I have a new goal; forget everything I've just tiped, I'd erase it.....nah, can't someone else do it? 
I want to leave this cage NOW, no more fooling around I'm done, I'm on strike " I demand heaven Now! I'm not gonna achieve diddly squat and it's a total waste of Your valuable resources Lord, just take me now!! Done"
Dang! I'm starting to sound like a .....wait for it......a JEW!!! Another failed experiment. Well, that experiment was meant to fail so, God could bring salvation through Jesus. 
  The problem with Evies is that they're self appointed receivicants of Salvation and not actually God chosen Saints therefore very much slaves to the flesh and the few elect are just not numerous enough to have an impact because, they are buried under a mountain of man made crap. A uniquely human trait, take something God made and destroy it.
   This is why I prefer the company of nature to that of people, once creation accepts you as a non threatening ally,  it's like you have a new family that extraordinarily wise. I'm just cracking the lid of the wisdom contained in creation left there by it's Creator. Creation rejoices in sharing but, we are "thick" as in slow in comparison.

I know the sense of frustration, too. Nobody around here where I live will open up to faith right now. My ideal times of mission activity have all been in the military, and the last episode was early 1993. I've been hankering for something similar ever since. I've come pretty close to giving up on life quite a few times since then. Perhaps not in the sense of suicide, but something just as stupid. The only thing that keeps me going right now is this group in one hand, and the overwhelming prophetic sense of mission in the other. I keep begging God for one more mission adventure, and I've come down to leaving that door wide open, no strings attached. "Anything at all, Lord!" I know it's coming, so I keep hanging on, but it sure has gotten boring waiting for it.

In my humble little heart, I believe we are all being honed.  Our "time" has not yet come.  I have no idea when it will, but I do believe it will be way sooner than later.  In the meantime, we must keep focused and ready, Bible in one hand, sword in the other, so to speak.  Faith is what we must carry at all times: Faith to know without a doubt that despite the freaking challenges to our "what we wish/want/need" in this world must remain in check.  Just keep on keeping on and know that He is preparing us for the job He has planned for us when He gives the Word.  When He says "GO!", we will be ready.

It's all good.

(04-01-2019, 04:48 AM)Ed Hurst Wrote: I know the sense of frustration, too. Nobody around here where I live will open up to faith right now. My ideal times of mission activity have all been in the military, and the last episode was early 1993. I've been hankering for something similar ever since. I've come pretty close to giving up on life quite a few times since then. Perhaps not in the sense of suicide, but something just as stupid. The only thing that keeps me going right now is this group in one hand, and the overwhelming prophetic sense of mission in the other. I keep begging God for one more mission adventure, and I've come down to leaving that door wide open, no strings attached. "Anything at all, Lord!" I know it's coming, so I keep hanging on, but it sure has gotten boring waiting for it.

Yessir, 26 years a long time but, hey! you didn't count ME!  It may have been a passing fancy had you not answered my inquiries. The Lord sent me to you, at just the right moment. Now my belief is God orders events in our lifes for His reasons to which we are not privy. Personally, I believe free will to be limited, on the other hand there are points where we can make choices that relieve us from being useful and God has someone else do it. The result always leads to unpleasantness for us, yeeech, I still have Brit understatement leftovers. 
  I get it though, the longing is for direct human interaction. 
  What grates me is knowing that I could pack my gear and throw my leg over my bike with a couple of hundred bucks and disappear and thrive. In 1983 when I made the decision to return to the US my intention was to do what I said in the previous sentence. I did some in 85 and 87 but, that was it. I failed due to alcoholism and other drug use, as it became the focus of my life. I place my adult life as beginning the morning after St Patrick's Day 2000, when I woke that morning, I knew the boozy part of my life was over. That means I'm 19, whoa lifes just beginning, what am I worried about?  Uh...does sway back mule mean anything to you, Mr Iain? Yeah, well there is that. It'll be maze walking time soon. Exercise that'll do it.

(04-01-2019, 08:15 AM)forrealone Wrote: In my humble little heart, I believe we are all being honed.  Our "time" has not yet come.  I have no idea when it will, but I do believe it will be way sooner than later.  In the meantime, we must keep focused and ready, Bible in one hand, sword in the other, so to speak.  Faith is what we must carry at all times: Faith to know without a doubt that despite the freaking challenges to our "what we wish/want/need" in this world must remain in check.  Just keep on keeping on and know that He is preparing us for the job He has planned for us when He gives the Word.  When He says "GO!", we will be ready.

It's all good.

Suitably chastened Mizz Linda, I'd say "go" is soon, it has to be, we is gettin' long in the tooth or in my case short because my teeth are all but rotted out of my head. There are only a few things left that are not taboo to make fun of, rural white people, Rednecks and Hillbillies will remain a safe target. I don't know any people in this group who would make a stink over being the butt of jokes.