January 25, 2016 by Bill

Reflecting on Life

When I look back on my childhood, taking the time to evaluate my life, or maybe I should say the areas that I wrapped my arms around and embraced and those that I didn’t, it brings great joy and in some cases a level of sadness. Turning the clock back to my childhood, growing up on the farm during the 50’s and 60’s with little spare cash, just enough to get by with and sometimes not even that much, I had a good life that taught me more than I ever gave it credit for.

Graduating High School in 1968 while the Viet Nam war was in full swing, seeing many of my friends serving there and returning home not the same person, some in a box, some missing limbs, but mostly changed personalities due to the effects of the war, was a difficult time.

Getting married at age nineteen, building our first house at age twenty, becoming a father at age twenty-one, were huge steps in life for me.

The foundation learned as a youth growing up was never lost, only forgotten for many years. Saddened by so much I had witnessed as a youth and my mid-teenage years in the religious arena, set my life path in motion. Determination set in, a drive to enjoy life, to become financially sound, to take a stand against all that didn’t fit into my version of faith, all began while still in high school.

Working my way up the ranks of my first job, I worked hard. I took on two jobs in those early years trying to earn what I felt was required to be a good provider. Then becoming licensed in the electrical trade and eventually starting our own company my life was very busy. Between work, family and fun, I had my hands full. Then my eyes were opened to the rest of the world when I took a new job in 1986. Being able to travel to many parts of the world, I began to see and feel the effects that war really has. To be close to war, hearing how others dealt with war both old and new, grasping the many religious faiths and beliefs including those that have no belief in God, it kicked in motion my past and the emotions caused me to re-evaluate my understandings of life.

So what does this mean in the grander scheme of things? It shows that from childhood on, our lives and personalities are set in a direction and become altered as we continue to age, grasping new information, learning about others we cross paths with. The real question is; do we allow ourselves the freedom to open our mind and explore what we see and hear? Or do we remain set in our ways determined not to allow change? Do we even recognize that we are closed to anything that may disrupt our desires and beliefs in life?

For me, I spent the time to re-evaluate my past, examine what I had learned and experienced, and to wrap my arms around what I believe this life is all about. I worked hard to eliminate the mental blocks that so often accompanies our attempt to truly understand, disabling any rational outcome. What I found was that I could make a decision for myself, placing my faith in what I had come to understand. While it was influenced by many, it was in the end, my choice, my decision, my beliefs.

So there’s this lingering question

When was the time you slowed down long enough, shoved the distraction aside, threw out the external influences of those that educate with an agenda whether religious or non-religious or educational and dug deep enough that you allowed yourself the freedom to choose where you have placed your faith?

One of the biggest things I learned along this adventure is that it takes faith to believe in life, it takes faith to believe what it is all about. It takes faith to believe in God or to not believe in God. It takes faith to believe in the direction we choose for our lives.

Where is your faith placed?

November 7, 2015 by Bill

Walking the “Middle of the Road”

The CENTER – The LEFT – The RIGHT

Where should we walk, talk and live?

What happens when one try’s to walk down the middle of the road? Have you ever tried to stay neutral? Do you believe in live and let live, don’t rock the boat, or to each their own? Everyone generally has an opinion, a belief or an understanding on many of todays issues of life, but do you feel that it is sometimes more healthy to keep it to yourself?

What happens when we are forced into a corner and are required to take one side or the other, when we are confronted by something bigger than we are and the center lane of life is taken away? Your desires, understanding or position may be on the right or the left or maybe you consider yourself in the center when it comes to politics, but what about your health or someone else’s health or what about religion? What will we do when we are forced to make a choice?

For some people living today, this question is faced everyday. We could be forced to make a decision based on “how will this impact my life” or “how will this impact my family” or “how will this impact my job”. It could truly be a matter of life or death. Will we go with the majority, side with the ones forcing the decision, enabling a temporary feeling of safeness? Will we tell the questioner what they want to hear even if we don’t believe it? Have you ever thought about what you would do if you were confronted by someone that would do you harm if you didn’t side with them? Would you stand by your beliefs or cave to the pressure?

When we look around the world we see countries and regions that beat, mam, and kill, the men, women and children who stand up for their beliefs. In many countries including mine, this generally does not exist today, but what would we do if it did?

Question: What would you do?

Being prepared, knowing what to do or say is one of life’s challenges. To prepare, one first must acknowledge the need and then step out and ask themselves those critical questions.

September 7, 2015 by Bill

Where Does Faith in Science Stop and Faith in God Begin – It’s a Choice

True story: A man visits his Doctor and after some test he is diagnosed with cancer. Surgery is scheduled and during the surgery the Doctor find that he is full of cancer, much worse that they had anticipated and they can do nothing. They sew him back up and after a short stop in the recovery room, the Doctors give him the results of what they found explaining to him and his family that he has only a short time to live. They tell him to go home and call them if he feels things are progressing or if he has any additional issues but that he should return in one month and they should be able to tell how fast the cancer is spreading and how much time he has left.

The man goes home and together with his family they begin to pray for his health to return.

The man returns one month later and when the Doctors checked him out they look at each other not believing what they are finding. They run more test and finally return to tell the man they cannot find any cancer. They have no explanation. One of the Doctors added; I have seen this happen once before. I cannot explain it. First it is there and then it is gone. The other Doctor added; I know what we saw when we had you opened up. There is just no medical or scientific answer to how this could have happened.

” I know such a man that this happened too. No explanation outside of his prayer asking to be healed. No pills, no drugs, just prayer to God.”

The question is: If we as a human population rely so heavily on Science and stand so firm on the idea that for ever action there is a reaction, that all things can be proven by Science and only after proven will we believe something is true, then what did this just prove? Science tells us he should have died of cancer, but he didn’t. So can Science be wrong at times?

Conclusion: if Science tells us one thing but something else happens then it is a Miracle and yes God exist! However, if one chooses to not believe in the existence of God, that the miracle just happened for what ever reason, then we are still choosing to place our faith in something without a proven explanation. So it does take faith one way or the other.

The follow-up question: how deep have you looked into the possibilities that some of what you have been told may not have real scientific proof behind it? In the doctors case they had the proof that he had cancer and that he would only live a short time. Case after case people died with this type of cancer. But how did it go away? If you dig deep enough you will find other cases where science is defied as something else is the final result.