GOD PROTECTS YOUR SOUL - Amor Vincit Omnia

For my generation — post Elvis Presley and The Beatles — Michael Jackson was not just the soundtrack of our childhoods, but of our teens, 20s and a good chunk of our 30s.

That's a whole lot of water under the bridge for us 40-somethings, that's a whole lot of history, mind you. I used to have his posters posted all over my walls in my early teens, listening to Thriller and Beat It, bopping around to it.

I was chatting with a friend of mine over at Facebook when she told me the news flash on CNN, I was stunned. How could Michael Jackson be dead?

I raced through the internet, turned on the TV and looking for the news coverage.

The longer I watched, the more angry I got.


Ever since Jackson's passing Thursday, the same allegations have been repeated over and over on television, in print and on the Internet.

None of this, mind you, based on a single shred of evidence.

But why let facts get in the way of dragging someone through the mud? Especially if they're dead. You can't get sued for libeling or slandering a corpse. We all know that Jackson was eccentric and flamboyant and so what??? He chose to live his own life! Humanity sometimes utterly disgusts me, with their opinions, judgements, racist comments and they rarely look at their own faults. I have no reason to believe in all the utter nonsense I have read on the net or seen on TV.

As I watched Jackson's jarring physical transformation over the years and his odd behavior, it pained me because I could still remember the incredibly talented, sweet boy of my youth. Yes, he surrounded himself with young boys, trying to help them see a better way in living their lives, which in turn led to allegations of child molestation. Jackson was NEVER found guilty in a court of law — he settled one civil suit for a reported $25 million and was acquitted of a second set of charges. Yet the damage to his reputation and career was devastating. Sadly, I don't believe those boys told a word of truth in their allegations, money was all they ever wanted.

This was a human being for f*ck's sake. He grew up with an abusive father. He had problems to deal with, health and some other issues. He had a family that loved him. Three children, who, in a flash lost the only parent they have known, and will one day probably see a lot of the bullshit people have written and said about their father. How pathetically sad that people can be so petty and mean without of shred of evidence for anything they're saying. And who the hell are you to judge!

At least allow Jackson the dignity in death that he was denied when he was alive.

Yes, the news upset me, I grew up listening to his music since I was a little kid. I used to be a big fan in my youth and in adulthood, there are a few songs I still listen to. I cried when Elvis died and I cried for Michael, the only celebrities that ever upset me. I believe Michael was a true humanitarian, who went out of his way to help those he could and found himself surrounded with vultures!


May you finally rest in peace, Michael. You will forever live in my memories and thank you for all the memories, you gave so much and they just took all they could from you. Every song brings me hope and brings back so many wonderful memories. Thank you, never knew you in person, but I really loved your work. I believe you had a beautiful soul despite everything.






http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWeyLLzyIUw


Hold me
Like the river Jordan
And I will then say to thee
You are my friend

Carry me
Like you are my brother
Love me like a mother
Will you be there?

Weary
Tell me will you hold me
When wrong, will you scold me
When lost will you find me?

But they told me
A man should be faithful
And walk when not able
And fight till the end
But I'm only human

Everyone's taking control of me
Seems that the world's
Got a role for me
I'm so confused
Will you show to me
You'll be there for me
And care enough to bear me

(lead me)
(lay your head lowly)
(softly then boldly)
(carry me there)

(hold me)
(love me and feed me)
(kiss me and free me)
(I will feel blessed)

(carry)
(carry me boldly)
(lift me up slowly)
(carry me there)

(save me)
(heal me and bathe me)
(softly you say to me)
(I will be there)

(lift me)
(lift me up slowly)
(carry me boldly)
(show me you care)

(hold me)
(lay your head lowly)
(softly then boldly)
(carry me there)

(need me)
(love me and feed me)
(kiss me and free me)
(I will feel blessed)

(spoken)
In our darkest hour
In my deepest despair
Will you still care?
Will you be there?
In my trials
And my tripulations
Through our doubts
And frustrations
In my violence
In my turbulence
Through my fear
And my confessions
In my anguish and my pain
Through my joy and my sorrow
In the promise of another tomorrow
I'll never let you part
For you're always in my heart.

To love another person is to see the face of God.
- Les Miserables

There are people under public scrutiny all the time... criticized for doing things as if they were doing it as some publicity stunt, simply for the fact that they are in the public eye... I could mention Angelina Jolie as one, and her adoption of children of third world countries... Bono Vox, Hugh Laurie and many others. Personally, I think it is a wonderful thing, that just because they can and that they do it, and I sure as hell won´t criticize them for it... I think it´s beautiful regardless of their status quo. People argue about the fact, that there are many kids in Jolie´s own country that she could do that for, which to a certain extent, is true, but it is also true, that her own country is set up to help kids left right and center, and most third world countries are not.

Here, I would like to talk about all the unsung heroes in our own communities and the things they do to make the world a better place. I know quite a lot of people who go out of their way to make someone smile and make their lives a little bit easier in some way. People I have met and have had wonderful conversations with and even had, eye-opening views to the millions of ways that people go out of their way to help people and make their lives easier in some way.

I have friends who have set themselves up in Gambia, Africa, to teach the kids there how to read and write, also set up a charity to help these kids have a better life. No one really know these two, and they are two of the most wonderful people I´ve ever met. And a family who goes there every year to play Santa for these kids to watch them break into smiles... I think that´s beautiful! I also have a very long time friend who is now retired, but still lectures at the university and still does research in breast cancer to help fight that disease, although technically, he should be retired. I think that´s wonderful! Oh and the list of all the unsung heroes would go on and on. The new neighbor who moves into a community and the neighborhood comes and welcomes him/her in. It´s really nice... isn´t it???

The beautiful people, true beautiful people we meet everyday, people who we are glad to know and make us smile that such people exist and that is what true humanity is all about. Being kind to each other. Trying to make life easier for everyone. Even if you are only able to lend an ear and spend time with someone who isn´t doing too well, to hold their hand and let them know you are there. To let them know you really do care.

To be able to sit with somebody and enjoy a cup of coffee, a complete stranger even, that has sparked your curiousity and have an interesting conversation without any false pretenses... just learning something new everyday and not spoiling the beauty of the natural curiousity for learning something different. Not transforming the natural smile of human kindness and curiousity into tears...

Creating Random Acts of Kindness... that´s what true humanity is all about. The rest is just garbage.
post by Isabel Gallagher

God is

a condition of Being—
not a person,
not a place.
*
"If I was to personally define faith or spirituality, I would say that it is the binding force that we humans have to protect and heal our hearts from becoming tarnished by the circumstances that life presents us and that in which bonds us humans together. I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in the human spirit.
The spirit of humanity, like the forces of nature, is just as much a development of the evolutionary process as physical life is; that the origin of spiritual life comes from within our hearts.
It is the source of our power, our faith, that keeps us going, that which inspires and enables us to keep going in this journey we call life.
Faith is the most centered act of the human mind.
Faith is the energy, it is the creator of change.
Faith is active, positively and fearlessly upheld."
-Isabel Gallagher (my thoughts)



A friend is the miracle of human warmth that God operates in the heart.



"Without faith, nothing is possible. With it, nothing is impossible."
- Mary McLeod Bethune



"Wherever there is a human being, there is a chance for a kindness."
- Seneca



"The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil."
- Cicero



"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing."
-Albert Einstein



"The moral sense reappears today with the same morning newness that has been from of old the fountain of beauty and strength. You say there is no religion now. 'Tis like saying in rainy weather, There is no sun, when at that moment we are witnessing one of its superlative effects."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson



"Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love."
-Fyodor Dostoyevsky



"The unique personality which is the real life in me, I can not gain unless I search for the real life, the spiritual quality, in others. I am myself spiritually dead unless I reach out to the fine quality dormant in others. For it is only with the god enthroned in the innermost shrine of the other, that the god hidden in me, will consent to appear."
- Felix Adler: An Ethical Philosophy of Life



"This is my simple religion.
There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy.
Our own brain, our own heart is our temple;

the philosophy is kindness..."
- HH the Dalai Lama:

“Everything happens for a reason. Every action has a reaction. Always remember that... Life is a series of mirrors..."

and please do read Scott´s poem. (click on name) Brilliant!

"The artist does not dedicate himself to the preservation of his country, but to the preservation of what is human. He is the link between the man of today and the man of the future. He is the bridge over which humanity as a whole must pass before it can enter the kingdom of heaven." -- Henry Miller, Remember to Remember



The artists will save us, or else we will not be saved. You are the artist. It starts with you, reading or hearing these words, right now. In this instant, in this holy moment, in the Now, you make a choice. You either choose to live creatively, or you choose death. You either choose to face your fear and find your innate talents for creative self-expression, for sharing your love with the rest of us. Or you choose to continue poisoning the planet with the emotional and mental pollution of one who has chosen to live as less than human.

Oh, by the way? There's no fence-sitting, no weighing the options, no period of reflection. If you chose to wait and see, to put it off for another day, to wait until you feel a little stronger, well my friends, you just chose death.

So, get help if you need it. Help is just a yelp away. Jesus is on the mainline. Operators are standing by. The love lines are open. The love telephone is ringing.

It's your soul on the other line, waiting to give you love like you've never known. All you gotta do is pick up the phone.

...from the novel I See A Darkness, by Kirkhoff, 2005...

How Our Emotions Reveal Our Deepest Questions About God

OPEN A WINDOW INTO YOUR HEART.

Our dark emotions are much more than just uncomfortable feelings we struggle to control. They are windows into our heart. They are the cry of our soul. These emotions-the ones we tend to suppress and hide-actually have something important to tell us. They can reveal, in a very graphic way, where we are in our relationship with God.

So often we find ourselves caught between extremes. Either we feel too much or not at all. We tend to ignore our feelings or fight them off as if they were an enemy. But all emotion-whether positive or negative-can give us a glimpse of the true nature of God. We want to control our negative emotions and dark desire. God wants us to recognize them as the cry of our soul to be made right with Him.

Beginning with the Psalms, Dr. Dan Allender and Dr. Tremper Longman III explore what Scripture says about our darker emotions. In this ground-breaking work they reveal that often our attempts to control our emotions-far from an attempt to be Christlike-are really a form of rebellion against God or an attempt to flee from Him.

The Cry of the Soul is a penetrating look at the condition of the human heart. You won't find the kind of answers that alleviate struggle or help you overcome anger, jealousy, or despair in three easy steps. But you can encounter God Himself, who exults in using darkness to reveal the brilliance of His infinite goodness.

The result is joy. Not a superficial happiness that ignores the problems of our lives, but a profound emotion that can confront darkness with open eyes and confidence.

"Allender and Longman add an important contribution to a new wave of Psalm studies. There is an enormous temptation for 'high faith' to deny the 'dark side' of life where 'things do not work.' Against that common propensity, they show how the Psalms make contact with the 'emotions of failure.' Such places in life become, by their sensitive reading of the Psalms, places of revelatory healing and transformation. Readers will be helped to fresh and faithful discernment of life and text."-Walter Brueggemann, professor of Old Testament, Columbia

"Dan and Tremper have done us a fierce kindness. In a culture committed to either running from or wallowing in our emotions, The Cry of the Soul offers an excruciating but hopeful alternative-to listen to our own hearts (as did the psalmists) so we can better receive and worship the pursuing heart of God."-Nancy Groom, author of From Bondage to Bonding and Heart to Heart about Men

"The Cry of the Soul offers insight after surprising insight into the unexpected relationship between our emotions and our view of God. A needed correction to the simplistic explaining away of pain and suffering."-Daniel Taylor, Ph.D., author of The Myth of Certainty and Letters to My Children

"In The Cry of the Soul I hear an echo of my own heart-cry and that of the psalmists-to know God intimately and authentically, and to see Him powerfully at work in our broken world."-Luci Shaw, poet, teacher, author of God in the Dark and Writing the River