Fighting the Time Bandits and Moving forward

In my research, I'm finding that one of my biggest obstacles is fighting time bandits. You know what these are...the things that pull you away from what you really should be doing. These time bandits can steal time indiscriminately from you when you least suspect it. How do you move forward after these time bandits have come and gone? That's a good question. Sometimes you can't. By admitting that the time bandits have defeated your purpose and plans, you in fact move forward. Yes, if you can identify what time bandits you have then you will go farther than if you can't.

Time bandits come in all shapes and sizes. They can be things that you automatically put to the side and suddenly come up. They can be all consuming and compass everything in front of you like a fog. Piercing through that fog won't be easy. You'll get frustrated at time. I know I have. A few of my time bandits are finding enough time to do everything that I need to do, depression when something I tried so hard to accomplish falls through and fighting for resources I need to do the work. I have been actively seeking work for almost a year now. This is very exhausting work and I admit that it's very draining as well.

I know I'm not alone in this, which really does help. Too many are in this situation now, and it's very hard to continue to remain positive. This too is a time bandit. Feeling worn out and not energized doesn't help matters at all. Yet this is exactly how I feel now. I know I must move forward and focus on my passion or else drop out of life all together. You know the choice I'll make, and that is to move forward.

Finding time to pursue passion with a driven purpose in mind

I am finding now that obstacles tend to get in front of me when I try to focus in on my passion. One of the biggest obstacles is monetary. I realize that this is everyone's obstacle nowadays. Why is that? When did money become an all consuming barrier to doing what it right? I heard the saying at least a dozen times that money makes the world go around and the saying that whoever controls the money has the power. This to me seems so wrong in so many ways! I memorized part of a bible verse that says that money is the root of all evil. I believe that. I've seen it with my own eyes. Another big obstacle is time. Everyone seems to want to dominate your time for their own little projects. You have to step back, analyze the needs and see what you can do. You have to have that driven purpose.

This is hard to do. My mind seems to go off in so many different directions that I can't seem to focus on one thing at a time. I am glad that my ultimate purpose in life is to please God. He is the reason I live. When I focus on him, I do find that things settle down. I can then find the path, follow the Lord and move in his direction. It does take work. I have to discipline myself to call on the Lord. I can't go off on my own tangent hoping that I'll hit the right combination or find the right passion to pursue.

It all comes down to who you are going to serve. Are you going to serve God or money? This might seem like a no-brainer but when you really come down to it and analyze what you are doing, your actions speak louder than your words. If all you care about is gaining material possessions or having more money than you know what to do with, then your god is money. If all you care about is the people around you and their needs, then God is your master.

So if God is your master, why aren't you trusting him with your life? Hard question....I know for myself that I do tend to worry about food, shelter and having enough money to survive. I admit that sometimes my greatest fears get the best of me. I am still learning that God is in control of everything and that he will provide all our needs. God didn't say that he would provide all our wants. He said that he would provide all our needs. Once you get pass this, you realize that you have found time to pursue your passion with a driven purpose.

Looking for the good in others and trying to be patient

Yes, Thursday is Valentine's Day...a day set apart to think about love. When some think about what love means, all the filthy images you see sometimes on television come into view. You know the ones. I always have to turn my head away and mute the sound whenever they come on. I can't understand why anyone would enjoy watching that. It isn't love, it's lust in its ugliest form.

Today is Abraham Lincoln's Birthday. Unfortunately no one celebrates it anymore. It used to be a day off to reflect what he did to free the slaves. Now that day is celebrated in January ironically with Martin Luther King Day. I do have a hard time with this. I know that both men worked hard on behalf of their fellow men and both deserve recognition for their actions. Yet the man that set the stage for what happened over a hundred years later is neglected entirely while the other man who benefited from that set of actions gets venerated to an almost godlike proportion. I don't understand this at all. There are too many people that have done so much for civil rights that it almost seems that their stories are being neglected as well to venerate this one man. I do try to look for the good in others. I don't like to put down anyone, but instead lift them up. I know that I need to be patient with my fellow man.

Love is patient. It looks at the best, not at the worst in a person. It is difficult, especially these days when everything seems to out in the open at its worst possible form to see the best in a person. You really don't know a person until you actually sit down and get to know them. Some are totally impatient, wanting things from you that you're unwilling to give. Others are too much like putty, letting others walk all over them. Still others are just right. They follow the Lord's leading and patiently wait instead of either holding back or pushing forward. This is a lesson I'm learning now...to be patient and wait on the Lord.

Being thankful for the small stuff

A hard lesson to learn is to be thankful for everything. We should not take anything for granted, but instead be thankful for the small stuff. I know that this is hard to do when the world wants to dump all its sorrow and misery at your feet. It's easy to worry about what's going to happen tomorrow or the next day. We do it daily. The hard part is to learn to take everything with "a grain of salt." This means that you must determine on your own to filter through the world's stories and weed out the truth from them. No, it's not easy to do. All too often news agencies or even your friends will alter a story to suit their worldview. The truth does, given enough time and patience, eventually come out.

You will find, if you are thankful, that you look at life a lot better. Life is precious. You shouldn't waste one moment worrying about things you can't do a thing about anyway. Besides worry is a sin and displeases God. I heard somewhere that worry sends a signal to God that you don't trust him. It makes sense. If you continue to worry about a certain situation, and I admit I do this, you're telling God that he's not doing a good job. So first and foremost, you have to believe that God is in control of all things. Being thankful for all things shows that you do believe that God is in control.

I know for my own self that I have to remind myself daily that God has my best interests in mind. This current climate that I'm currently "swimming" in won't last too long. I can look back and see how far I've come, even as I still struggle with issues that are weighing me down. I do thank God for so many things. He is my Rock.

Maneuvering through space and time

Does anyone remember the Star Trek the Next Generation episode where Georgi was trying to save the Enterprise from radiation exposure? One of the things that stuck in my mind this week is when he tried unsuccessfully to avoid the risk of fatal exposure by running the Enterprise through some trial runs. In about half the runs, time ran out and the ship was exposed. I have been feeling lately that I've been reliving that episode in my own life. Unfortunately there are no trial runs in life. You have to maneuver the best you can through a morass of choices hoping that you make the right one.

I know I have questioned my choices recently. I see that sometimes it's not easy to know what the right choice is. The best you can do is pray for guidance. The worst you can do is go off half-cocked and just wing it. Some advocate that method, telling you to go for it. There is a cost for everything you do, and being deliberate about what you're going to do next is prudent and wise. Much like Georgi did during that episode, you must take the issue at all angles before making a decision. Then you need to let go. You can't hang onto the problem or it will overtake you. I especially like the end of that episode when the solution was to shut the computer down and let the "master" take over.

I do fear that we are increasingly becoming too dependent on computers and its resulting technology to run our lives for us. We expect things to do what we expect them to do, and we want things instantaneously.. What we haven't yet realized is that there is an enormous cost involved when we let the computers run our lives. Sure technology is great. I wouldn't be able to post this without it. I believe however that there will come a time that we will regret the hold technology has over us. I've already seen that regret in the faces of those disenfranchised that have been cut off from the world.

Feeling the affects of time and space

Wow, I felt the affects of time and space this week as I tried unsuccessfully to coordinate my history projects with looking for meaningful work. At times I felt out of sync with the rest of the world. I realized that I am not alone in feeling this way. Some might call this future shock. Others might call it a longing for a simpler time and place. I've been thinking a lot about the way technology has overwhelmed and overtaken us in so many ways. Some of it is good. I don't know anyone who doesn't like to be able to access information quickly and easily or doesn't like what technology has brought in their lives. At the same time I can't help thinking about all the people that have been left out in the cold because of it. We lost a lot when we arbitrarily decided to send all our personal information over the Internet.

I watched "Les Miserables" on Saturday and could really relate to the crowd of poor waiting for a revolution. Like those poor people, I realized that we are in the same boat as they are. We too are waiting for a revolution even though most of us don't understand what that means or how to go about it. We cry for freedom, not realizing that we gave our freedom away when we allowed the government to control our very souls. At what price you may ask.....

The price is your life. Will we fight and die for those rights?....Rights that are already gone, by the way. Or will we slink back, hide and pretend that everything is normal? Yes, it is normal to shrink back, do what is necessary and hope for the best. We all struggle with step forward. I have to ask myself would I be willing to die for what I believe?

This is where the rubber meets the road. Will we learn from history? Unfortunately I see all too often that we neglect history. We tell ourselves that what happened in the 1940s won't happen again. We won't put people aside, discriminate against them or bar them from employment. Yet we're doing it now....literally thousands of people roam the streets looking for work. No one will give them a chance. Instead they prefer to send jobs overseas and abuse the people there. Then there's the cold hard fact that if you're not pretty enough, or you've been unemployed for too long....you're unemployable.

Fighting against time and space

The past few days I've been having issues with various functions on my computer. It's almost like I'm fighting against time and space. It started on Monday when I logged on and made me think that someone has gotten control of it somehow. Maybe I said something I shouldn't have said or maybe I'm just imaging things. I don't have a good feeling about having everything computerized. It is way too easy for someone to hack your personal information and run with it.

I don't want to think about identity theft. I know how long I have fought the good fight to do what I can. Unfortunately the technology is too readily available to use. What I don't know is if there is a way to fix these "glitches" that keep popping up. Makes it really difficult to write anything coherent when those glitches pop up.

There has been some good news of support in unexpected places. I never realized how much work it actually takes even to run a meeting, let alone start a group. I do still feel that I am fighting against time and space.