WHY ME?

We all have such days when we ask ourselves this question.

We like to lay blame on others for our troubles instead of seeing the situation for what it is.

I never read Job and came across it and said to myself : "Yes. This sounds right."

So here is Job's Story.

Job 1 (New International Version)

Job 1

Prologue

¹ In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. ² He had seven sons and three daughters, ³ and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.

⁴ His sons used to take turns holding feasts in their homes, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. ⁵ When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, "Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." This was Job's regular custom.

Job's First Test

⁶ One day the angels ^a]">[a] came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan ^b]">[b] also came with them. ⁷ The LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?"
Satan answered the LORD, "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it."

⁸ Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."

⁹ "Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan replied. ¹⁰ "Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. ¹¹ But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face."

¹² The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger."
Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

¹³ One day when Job's sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother's house, ¹⁴ a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, ¹⁵ and the Sabeans attacked and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!"

¹⁶ While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, "The fire of God fell from the sky and burned up the sheep and the servants, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!"

¹⁷ While he was still speaking, another messenger came and said, "The Chaldeans formed three raiding parties and swept down on your camels and carried them off. They put the servants to the sword, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!"

¹⁸ While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, "Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother's house, ¹⁹ when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!"

²⁰ At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship ²¹ and said:
"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
and naked I will depart. ^c]">[c]
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;
may the name of the LORD be praised."

²² In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

Footnotes:

1. Job 1:6 Hebrew the sons of God
2. Job 1:6 Satan means accuser .
3. Job 1:21 Or will return there

New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica

I'm Sorry

I am sorry for tragedy
I am sorry for war
I am sorry for abuse
I am sorry for death
I am sorry for pain
I am sorry for ugliness
I am sorry for divorce
I am sorry for drugs
I am sorry for hate
I am sorry for everything
But......I am not sorry for Love.
:)ALADY'SLIFE

Bertrand Russell:

Three passions have governed my life:
The longings for love, the search for knowledge,
And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind].

Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In the union of love I have seen
In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision
Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
I have wished to understand the hearts of [people].
I have wished to know why the stars shine.

Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,
But always pity brought me back to earth;
Cries of pain reverberated in my heart
Of children in famine, of victims tortured
And of old people left helpless.
I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot,
And I too suffer.

This has been my life; I found it worth living.

Christmas. The Essence of Mankind.

As the snowy, cold, festive season approaches, many sit depressed,
to see life isn't cracked up to what they thought it would be.

The ho hum life of getting up in the morning,
getting ready for school or a job they hate.
Maybe housecleaning is not a forte they enjoy
but the dishes are piled up from the night before.
What is one to do?

I can't help but go back to when people had nothing after the war.
People like my grand mother and even my parents whose youth and even life,
was lost, in running from fear, sitting in labor camps and receiving beatings in front of sharp toothed German Shepherds.

That to me, would be very depressing.
I would be angry to have some one rip my life away like this
Not these people.
They were survivors.

They saw the humor in things going wrong. They understood the world's insanity.
It looked pretty threatening and cold and yet it was wonderful
and people valued each other's warmth and
shared in what little there was to share.

What more could go wrong? They'd ask.
And sure enough something more always did and they
would find the humor in it and go on living,
working harder, to make it better.

One had to respect that.
I watched my grandparents and parents who took nothing for granted.
They blessed their food every day.
They took great pride in the shelter they owned working,
dollar down dollar a week. No job was too demeaning. They were free people.
Recycling was not something governments had to be involved in
Everyone knew to do that.
Every bolt, every screw could be reused somewhere else.

They worked and they grew their gardens and they pickled winter preserves, made their own jams, their own moon shine, their own juices, their own clothes and they had so much fun competing as to who made what the best, over a table eating cabbage soup with potatoes tomatoes, beets and meat the butcher cut from the cow or pig they brought to slaughter, animals they raised, on food they wanted to grow them on.

Simple fun in taking pride in what you do,
Becoming the best that you can be, at doing the things you know how to do.
Every one took part in helping every one, continuing to learn, and sharing in the bounty.

What happened to those people?
Where are they today?
No wonder life is boring.

There is no more craziness, no more life or living.

People are bored and heart broken and keep asking is this all there is?
They need to be entertained 24 hours a day.
Even actors can't keep up with the demand.

Today when we want something, we run to stores or whine and blame our parents and our government for things we don't have. We make them responsible for our lives, blame them for our shortcomings and failures, instead of taking pride in the life God made us a gift of.

Life is something to be treasured and celebrated.
It is a gift of breath and sight and wonder.
Every day is a new day to be experienced, in a new way and I have to say at this moment, that if you do not experience and learn something new every day, it is your own fault.

The world has so much to offer man, that there is no time for boredom or depression.
There is no time to sit idle believing solutions lie in drugs and alcohol.
No time to run away. Where are you running to anyway? What's out there that you can't find here? It's just another piece of soil.
One needs to stay awake to appreciate what there is out there and clouding ones eyes just makes it harder to see or fools gold.

We say wars are insane and the people who make them are insane but if we still keep searching for a way out, in a land of plenty..........
Is that not insanity too?

When will mankind ever be happy?
Mankind is never happy unless it suffers.
Only when a man suffers, does he see the light and the joy and meaning of life.

Every day we wake up is a blessing. Insanity is a blessing.
It gives us an outlet to laugh........and this is also a blessing.
When you laugh it's because you see the humor, the irony of life.
In humor, you also see the light to guide you.
Instead of a whiner, man takes pride in becoming a survivor.

Celebrating Christmas is a time of joy.
In spite of all the hardships Mary and Joseph encountered, they found hope in a good person who showed them where their baby could be born and they found joy in receiving a healthy baby boy in spite of all the odds against them and people, who came to share in their joy following a brightly lit star that guided them.
Christmas is a miracle story about simple people suffering and surviving
It is a story about the essence and greatness of mankind.

Life has no time for depression.
Every day is something to be celebrated because
every day is waking up to the pangs of new birth.

Blue Spanish Eyes - Elvis Presley