- Not The Only One!
- Post# 96
- 07 Sept. 23
- “THE CYNIC”
- Howdy!,
- and once again, thank you for being there and for the feedback, which challenges me and hopefully makes me better, if I don’t get to pissed off in the mean time ☺️☺️. No!, but seriously, I both need it and appreciate it. I have a post that I’ve been trying to bring to the table and publish for a few weeks now, and while this is not it, there has been some movement in that direction, so hopefully soon, and maybe this one is a little bit of a lead in. I’m a person who believes in the chain of command and I also believe that life has a certain order to it, even if it’s nothing more than going from being young to becoming old. Hopefully as we get older that we become wiser, but sadly that is not always the case, and at times I can be proof positive of that☺️☺️. I believe that we usually find what we are looking for in life, whatever that may be. I know!!, hold up!, some of you are thinking that your life looks nothing like you thought or hoped that it would be or become, and I did say ” usually “, but as my friend Max likes to say, let’s peel that back for a minute ☺️. If you happen to be one of those people who believes in shoot for the moon and if you don’t reach it as least you would be among the stars, well I don’t want to be the one to point out that the majority of the stars are way past the moon, in proximity ☺️☺️. Well ,I’m not a pie in the sky kind of the guy and I believe that we all need something that we can anchor with and have as a foundation of truth from which we operate, and for me , I claim the banner of Jesus Christ . The chain of command speaks to the fact that we have thoughts that propagate in our heads and sometimes our hearts, and those thoughts will often propel us into a certain direction or path in life, and that path will lead to our actions and behaviors that will help us to pursue our dreams or derail them. So, if you are a little bit of a negative Nelly, and you often negative self talk, or negative thoughts about yourself and abilities will lead you in that direction, so in fact, you have the life that You pursued. You should never discount the power of your thought life. People have imagined incredible innovations pursued them and realized something that was once nothing more than a mere idea or thought. The opposite is true as well, and people have talked themselves out of being successful and accomplishing their purpose in life. We now find ourselves in what could be considered the most this country has ever been divided since the war between the states. Everyone has opinions and views that they feel need to be expressed at some high volume, and not that everyone should know what they are, but emphatically agree with. This may be the ultimate my way or the highway,☺️ mostly because we don’t know how to respect people with different views from ourselves and there is very little in the form of listening and truly trying to understand the oppositions point of view. We are now, for the most part rude beyond measure, and care very little about anything or anyone else besides ourselves. There !, I said it and I will stand behind it. I guess I’m one of those people who are always fascinated when words take on a new meaning, or used in a context outside of what it had been previously known for, such as the word “Bad”, or the word “Gay”, and now we can add the word “cancel” to the list, as now we live in a cancel culture, whereas when people don’t agree with you, they do everything in their power to discredit you and to make you some kind of a pariah, and that everything that you say should be completely disregarded and they could go as far as wiping you from the face of the planet as if you were never born. I was from the school of thought that our differences were one of the things that made us stronger as a nation and as a people. Sadly I believe those days are gone for ever . It’s kind of ironic, that we all seek out to be different and somehow distinct, either through our body art, the clothes we choose to dress ourselves in , lifestyle choices from diet, exercise, the hobbies that we pursue, but some how just amazingly we are all supposed to think a like and have all of the same persuasions, when it comes to politics, lifestyles ,and the way that we comb our hair☺️☺️. I’m not going down the road on the part that social media gets to plays into this, but it can play a very significant roll. So, when it comes to Cynicism, we should not be surprised at the high level of it sprinkled through out society. I mean it’s not a new thing, it’s been around like forever and if you went back to the ancient world, it was taught right along side of philosophy with a lot of the early ” enlightened thinker” , that goes back the Greeks. It flourished in the third century B.C, and then it had a resurgence in the first century A.D, and now we find ourselves here once more. There is so much deception in the world, not all of it intentional , but much of it is. People, parties, and organizations, often have an agendas, and often if people saw it for its original intent, there would be push back. So, it doesn’t have to be Hitler on a quest for world domination and hopes for breeding a superior Aryan nation ,but many ideas that aren’t mainstream, get dressed up as something else to make it more palatable, case in point, planned parenthood, and I will let You sniff that one out for yourself. The majority of cynicism is based in the belief that most people only look out for themselves and that people are rarely genuine and that they usually have a trick up their sleeves. I think that this often goes way beyond if it sounds to good to be true then it’s probably not. Yes, yes, buyer be ware! However at times we in our pessimism, we don’t see how it causes us to judge a great many things as none valuable, without Scrutinizing it or somehow investigating it based on it merit. Many of us will not even acknowledge that we assume this posture as a self defense mechanism to keep from being duped, taken advantage of or somehow made to feel the fool. We are all so busy and have so many things begging for our attention. We are just so dog on overload that we don’t often see the point in taking the time, after all we have kids to get to soccer games and dinners to make , on top of the parent/ teacher pow wows ☺️☺️. We can look all through history with miss opportunities and not just in the business world, but also in our personal lives as well. There was an entertainer in the twenty century by the name of Art Linkletter and he was approached with the idea of starting a family fun theme park, and when he looked at that opportunity, all he saw was a bunch of swamp land, and of course we all know that Walt Disney, made him regret that decision millions of times over. I mean that’s just one, but Apple is another, and probably countless ones in the area of entertainment, industry and politics as well. What about those lesser known ones, as in our personal lives? They aren’t out there for public consumption the majority of the time, but they roll around in our heads. We can second guess ourselves on a great many things, from the college we choose to attend, right on down to did I marry the right person, and if you got that one wrong, that’s a subject for another day ☺️☺️. I don’t want to say this, because many people have played musical spouses, including myself, but for the most part bad decisions and poor choices aren’t things that we can go back and fix, so learn from it , but don’t dwell on it, or some how allow it to keep you hostage to your past. I have known people and still have a fair share of them in my life that are the biggest cynics and critics of people who live by faith, and I said faith, which is not the same thing as trying to live a good moral life on your own. I think that one of the more common theme through out scripture is the invitation to ” Come and See”. I know that has often been perverted and twisted, but if you are looking or expecting perfection from imperfect people , good luck with that☺️☺️. There are people out there who will absolutely under no circumstance find themselves in a church, temple, or synagogue unless they are rolled in horizontally ☺️☺️, and then, it’s like what’s the point? The invitation to come and see, or come and taste, isn’t exclusively about attending a church or any kind of service what so ever. As believers we have God’s Holy Spirit indwelling us and because of that we should look different, and yes I’m fully aware, often that is a not so much! If God is our father then we should resemble Him in our actions, thoughts and deeds. We are created in His image and should bare witness to His character. This is like the highest calling in your life, that allows and empowers you to be a good spouse, a good parent, or a good business person or employee, but hopefully a good neighbor. We often think being a good neighbor refers to the person on the other side of the fence, when in actuality it’s the person that You are sleeping with, or the misfits down the hall in the other room. I said it’s a high calling and it’s something that most of us struggle with each and every day or completely fail at , or just throw in the towel, because we believe that it is to hard or beyond us, and the bad news is, that it is absolutely hard and beyond us. I’m reminded that God didn’t leave us here as orphans and what we can’t accomplish on our own, is completely possible in His power. This is for the cynics who falsely believe that they have it all together. This is for the cynics who think to themselves that I’ve gotten this far in life just fine, have you?, have you really? This is for the cynics who thinks that it is to good to be true, that someone else would take their punishment for them, no less, a King!. This is for the cynics who say that they don’t understand the message of the gospel, yet they are completely fine with not knowing what they absolutely need to know. The posture of their arms folded across their chest and a blank look of not being receptive at all. There is another time coming when someone else will be folding your arms across your chest for you, are you ready for that? . This is for the cynics who believe that faith is a crutch and only for the weak, please tell me or show me anyone who has gotten stronger and defeated father time. This is for the cynics, who says not today, but somewhere down the road, good, good for you that you know that tomorrow is promised to you, not so much !This is for the cynics who are to embarrassed to be associated with a lowly carpenter from Galilee, if you don’t acknowledge Him, He can’t claim you as one of His. This is for the cynics who get so wrapped around the axel , worrying about everyone’s else’s flaws,,that they miss the beauty of grace, forgiveness and A Savior. If you go around looking for missteps of church people including pastors and deacons, and whatever title people are called by, there is always plenty of that to go around, and will always be because we are all sinners. We don’t like that word, but that is what we are, even the one’s who think that they are above the fray. Looking around for people that have been put on a pedestal and then mess up or drop the ball, is going to happen and in fact it’s just as common as do bears poop in the woods?, yes absolutely they do, and if you have video that contradicts that, I would love to see it☺️☺️. See , here is the rub, not everyone who calls themselves a Christian is one , no more than every person who has a kid is a parent…and you know what I mean, so don’t get cute☺️☺️ . Here is rub number two, if you let a hypocritic, stand between you and God having a relationship, then that is just straight up sad. Less just reverse the order here for a minute. Just because someone didn’t birth a child, doesn’t mean that they can’t be a parent, and some do way better jobs than the ones who pushed them out in the first place. So, what I’m saying is don’t be so high and mighty, we are all hypocrites in one form or the other, we are just much better spotting other people’s than owning our own. There are things in life that we should be a little cynical about and I think that will vary from person to person and from situation to situation, but it should never be about how much God loves you and how much He wants to spend time with You in a one on one. We can be skeptics and choose to sit this one out, but this is the only life you get so don’t waste it with being cynical, and remember that choosing not to, is still a choice.
- Till Next Time ✌️ Peace!
- Sandy The Southerner
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