- Not The Only One!
- Post# 69
- 09Mar. 23
- ” In Plain Sight “
- Howdy!
- Welcome to a kind of safe space, but not always and it’s not always for everyone, but for those of you who do check in on a regular basis, I say thank you .About a decade or so ago, there was a TV show on by the same name, “In Plain Sight”. It was a show about the U.S. Marshal service and witness protection. I really like the show, it was usually about people who were trading testimony for a new identity. These weren’t always criminals, who were turning on their previous colleagues, I can’t remember if there is honor amongst thieves or not, but I would guess not , just based on their chosen profession and job title ☺️☺️ . Sometimes it would be just innocent bystanders who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and witnessed a crime of some sort being carried out. As these people took on new identities , careers ,and to completely different parts of the country, they often left behind lucrative jobs, schools, and most importantly, family, which was not considered immediate. So, while they were being hidden away from individuals who may have wished them harm, they were hiding away in plain sight. I think that most of us have missed placed our keys or wallets at one time or the other. Sometimes those items are permanently loss, like dropping your cell phone off of the boat on a supposed to be romantic harbor cruise trying to get just that perfect selfie for your Instagram with you and your honey. Turned out not to be so romantic after loosing the latest version iPhone ☺️☺️. Some other times ,these items may turn up, and sometimes in strange, odd or even surprising places, perhaps do to a pet or a child. At other times it’s almost as if it were In plain sight. Come on! I can’t be the only one who has ever been looking for my shades or a pair of glasses, to only find them on top of my head . Have you ever been looking for the remote for the TV, or some other device, to only discover that you had just walked past it a dozen times or so? We are a culture who loves convince and things made simple for us, to make our lives easy , or to encourage the couch potato thing into overdrive, your pick or choice as to which☺️☺️. We now have thing to help us to keep track of other things. We have apps to help us figure out where we miss placed phones or remotes and sometimes now we can just talk to it or call out for it and it will respond. Yes, this is true,, it’s a low version of artificial intelligence, which I’m not sure some of us are ready for. Well, let’s turn the page, some of you may have caught a magician’s act , where they perform these grand illusions and make things disappear into thin air, some of the more talented ones , like Copperfield have even made the statue of Liberty, look as if she has abandoned her post in the harbor at Ellis Island. So, as we move into the area illusions and delusions, more commonly known as self denial. This is one of these things that cuts like a two edge sword, or as my friends from the Midwest would say , it’s bitter/sweet. I believe that most us from time to time are plagued with negative self talk, self shaming and condemnation. It looks different for everyone, whether we tell ourselves that we are to old, to fat, to unsophisticated, unattractive, not smart enough, or whatever your particular cyanide pill may be. We can chip away at our own self esteem and no outside assistance is required. I know that some of you have had labels hung on you, and perhaps the consistency of that has you believing the lies. We are all gifted in some shape form or fashion, and what usually gets us into trouble is the comparison game. Stop! Looking around and comparing yourself to others. God took the time to make you uniquely you. It may come as a surprise to you but you aren’t supposed to be as tall as your brother, or as quick witted as a coworker. The plan for your life may not require you to have a PHD, or any degree at all. I don’t even want to get into , who has a nicer home, or other possessions. When it comes to personal appearances, we are all over the place, we want bigger perkier boobs, and the person who has them want smaller ones because of back issues. It really can be feast or famine. I think what we should all shoot for is being that less than one in two hundred people, that is completely happy with their appearance and wouldn’t change one thing about themselves if given the chance. If you are a math wiz then you know that is less than one percent of people are happy with their appearance. I believe the saying is ,⁰ be you and be the best you that you can, because everyone else is already taken. I know that may sound strange in our culture, because we all want to stand out in some way to be different or set apart, but at the same time we are trying to troll celebrities and to look like and behave as they do, and personally I’m not sure how they got to be the standard, when they can be such a weird lot themselves, don’t get me started!. When we are here, this is what is known as a tick down position as if we don’t measure up, or are some how not good enough… according to who? We seek balance, so there is also the tick up position. These are the individuals who sometimes have a high opinion of themselves, accompanied by a low opinion of others, as they are some how better than. I will ask the same question,…according to who? Again, with the comparisons, I’m doing better than,…..you feel in the blank, they may be, but guess what, there is someone doing better than they are as well .It’s a vicious cycle with no winners, just people with higher self worth, and the constant striving to be more…more this and…. more that, they are never satisfied, and wouldn’t know what contentment was if it bit them in the ass. There is the old saying of what goes up, must come down, well if it’s not gravity, a puncture to that huge ego can be very deflating . When we have to maintain those lofty perceptions of oneself, it can be pretty devastating at the realization that they aren’t all that and a bag of chips☺️☺️. I don’t know what form it will take when they come to that self realization, but its just lurking around the corner of whatever there false hope is anchor to, and Lord I hope that it is not to the stock market or their 401k plan. ☺️The truth is that most of us are pretty average human beings and that is ok. I’m not telling you not to strive for more, as to learn a foreign language, or some other self improvement project that you have been wanting to do, stay away from those gym memberships ☺️☺️, no just kidding, if that’s your thing. Whatever it is you want to do, do it for yourself and not for the many on lookers and critics. I guess for myself the big take away is to stop comparing ourselves to others and to not let others define you and what success looks like for you. If you took of ten pounds and others thought that was a great start for you, if that’s what you got, then it’s a win and it should be celebrated. Well this one is called ” In Plain Sight “, so let’s get to the crust of the matter. We can one up ourselves or look down upon ourselves and others all we want. We can feed egos or squash temperaments , but there is just one place where that doesn’t fly at all, and that is in the sight of God the creator. He sees all, and not just sees, but he understands all of your thoughts and heart whispers, and the really scary part is that He knows it better than you do. He see it all, you are completely exposed, with no rock to hide under. He sees you as you are, He sees who you were meant to be and He is aware of every heart beat. There are no pretenses and no facades that you can conjure up to escape His knowing. I think one of our biggest faux pas is that we try to understand or judge God by human standards, a little bit ridiculous, but with our finite minds, sometimes that is our best efforts, still far and away short. Example, see, we think that we can do things to impress God, like we do with one another, flawed immensely. We think if we go to church, or give money, or work at a charity, or whatever it is, that God will somehow be pleased with us, as in earning brownie points. The truth is that there is nothing that you can do to make God love you anymore than He already does and there isn’t anything that you can do to get Him to love you less. God is love, and that is just His nature and everything that He says or does, is motivated by and through His love for us.. I don’t want to, nor do I have the time to get into all of the complexities of God’s agenda or His “MO” , method of operations. After all, I’m not God and I don’t presume to speak for Him, but I will share or repost the things that He has already said about Himself. I know that we can look at all sorts of tragedies and human suffering and ask the question, how is that rooted in love. I don’t see the whole picture or have all the information to make that determination, but somehow God does. This is probably not the best example, but my very good friend Leo, up in Connecticut, had to put down one of his beloved Bassett hounds, just last week, she was old and suffering from many afflictions, and that was done in love, maybe to simple of an example, but you should be able to extrapolate that out. I do believe that we can and do have the ability to make God smile, but it is probably not the times that we think or when we are so desperately working at it. It could be a kind word of encouragement or a gentle smile at an old person, and be careful about who you are calling old☺️☺️, probably the times when we are most unaware of it. I want to say trust me here, but its not you giving money to a charity, because God sees your heart and He knows the motives behind you giving. He knows if it was done as a tax right off. He knows if you did it for self gratification, to make yourself feel better or superior. We are just undone before God, everyone and everything is in His plain sight. When I was a kid, perhaps I should say before cartoons became politically correct, they were funnier, and I use to enjoy the characterization that portrayed the dilemma of what someone should do, and it had an angel on one shoulder and a little devil on the other side. I mean the reality of that is real for each and everyone of us every day. When we make a choice or find ourselves at a crossroads, do we choose something to draw us closer to God, or something that draws us away from Him and perhaps closer to that little devil. I , personally try to stay away from judging others, not so much because I don’t enjoy it ☺️☺️, but because God has this great way of helping me see just how far that log is jammed into my own eye☺️. Back to the cartoon character, would it make us operate or do things differently if we had a little angel on our shoulders representing God, or would we just brush him off like he was dandruff, in the way, and something that we didn’t want others to see or notice about ourselves. The truth be told is that God is always with us and He is not in some kind of a drunken stupor, or a doodling old grandparent who nods off every now and then, but He sees everything, and yes ,one hundred percent of the time. If we are actually aware of God’s presence, would we make some of the choices that we make to watch certain things, or to use certain words, or to go to certain places. I know that is crazy to think about God in the strip club, but He is there as well. None of us are perfect or anything close to it, but if we are aware of His presence, would we continue to date the married man, who is not getting along with his wife, as if spending time with you is some kind of counseling session ☺️☺️. I know that may be on the extreme end of the spectrum ,but how about how we speak to our kids, and not just to the annoying teenage one’s, but sometimes little kids are spoken to as if they are adults with full time jobs, and we wonder why a six year old takes a gun to school and shoots a teacher. What must his home life be like?. I get that most of us sit back and think that we are above reproach because I didn’t call you out on your specific hidden tucked away secret,, but again, there are no secrets with God. I don’t know how to get the point across to some of you who are trying so hard to be ” Good”. There is no one good enough, no not even one of us, and if you think that you are ,what’s the standard for that ?and who determines what it is?. Are we comparing ourselves once more? And if we are then be aware that the standard is the only person who ever lived without sin, it’s a real short list. We can lie to ourselves, we definitely lie to other people as we let them see, what we want them to see, but you can’t pull that trick with God. He is aware of every person whom you have ever hurt, and every person who has ever hurt you. It doesn’t matter if it happened when you were in grade school or in your last dating relationship or job. He knows of your secret shame of an abortion that you had in the past, ,and He knows of the fella who coerced you as he was ducking his responsibility. He’s keenly aware of our heart’s pain that stifle us unto a place where we just feel stuck and are not always sure how , or if we should continue on. I so self identify with the worse of the worse. I think about the apostle Paul, who called himself the worse of all sinners, have you ever been there? I mean if I’m honest, I’m probably on the wrong side of a lot of things in history. How wrong you say?. I would have probably been one of many in the crowd shouting crucify him, crucify him, when I knew that He was an innocent man and as I turned and walked away, I knew in my heart of hearts that I needed the very forgiveness that He was offering . God doesn’t leave us at a place of depravity and without hope, actually the complete opposite. There is this crazy and tremendous reconciliation process, where a Holy and just God offers us grace, when we deserve the complete opposite of that. This transaction took place on a rugged cross on a hill called Calvary. I know that many have trouble digesting this truth, which means that you need it all the more. Ok, a quick story to illustrate this truth. Two kids, in a neighborhood grew up as best friends, played together and for the most part were inseparable, close like brothers .We all know how life can just happen, so as they got older they both took separate paths in life. The one kid, went through life kind of focused and we will just say that he checked the boxes. The other boy, became a young man and let’s just say his choices made his life look something close to a dumpster fire. The kid who checked the boxes, became a judge, and low and behold one day his dear, dear friend shows up in his courtroom with a string of offenses longer than the day is long. As his old play mate enter the courtroom, he immediately recognized him, even though it had been a couple of decades since they last had any contact with one another. Well, the evidence was presented and his friend was found guilty. He remembered the fun that they use to have together and how close they use to be. Even though he had the desire to let his old friend off the hook, he couldn’t do that because the law required that the penalty be paid. So he banged his gavel and pronounced judgment. After that he stepped down from the bench, took off his robe ,pulled out his checkbook and paid the penalty in full for his friend, he had compassion on him, and that is exactly what God has done for us, compassion, mercy and grace. God offers us mercy and not just that, but tender mercies. Tender is when you just experienced your third miscarriage and God brings someone along side, who has already walked, where you are walking now. Tender is when you have a wayward teenager in your home as a single parent, you don’t know how to deal with them and the disrespect, and God brings along side a mentor for your child, that just happens to be a cop.☺️☺️. Well you get the picture. Speaking of pictures, remember He sees the whole picture from beginning to end, and to Him, it’s all in plain sight.
- Till Next Time ✌️ peace!
- Sandy The Southerner
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