The Lotus Flowers of Providence

 I watched the Odessey movie, last week.  It was done very well.  In one part of it, Odysseus is delayed for years by someone feeding him lotus flowers, which by way of its pleasure caused him to forget and to remain, rather than returning to his wife.

The lotus flower element has been used in several other Greek tales and movies, and it is a good way to illustrate the point I want to make here. I saw a meme, earlier, that said they trusted the timing of the universe or their story or such. It's a cute saying, but it is not only incorrect but will keep you from reaching your goals.

How?  Because, if you enter a mental state where you are not at work in your own life, nothing is happening.  So, people can be sitting there waiting on the universe to do it for them, when all the time they fail to realize they ARE in the universe and are tasked with their own life.  They are the answer waiting to happen.

To echo my recent post, Do the Work, I wanted to be in shape and get fit for decades, til I got discontented and dedicated to get off my but to start doing it.

There is a place for patience, and the universe will respond to your work, but as Benjamin Franklin once said, "God helps those that help themselves."  So, what is the universe waiting for YOU to do for yourself?

Providence

As some might know that's followed me for some time, I have a Bible degree under my accounting, and I spent time no only active in churches but writing devotionals.  I became jaded from personal  experiences and what I have seen in many churches over time, until recently being reminded of the good that does exist in some of them.. probably most of them even if not leadership if I am honest.  Even when the leadership or structure is being run by greed and power in many, the newest of faith often have the purest of hearts.

Anyways, back then I wrote several devotionals.  One of them I considered my best work at the time and for a long time kept it 100 percent free to benefit the most people possible.  It would have thousands of downloads over the years with my paid promotion.  It was called 30 Days of Providence.  Somewhere along the time of my being disheartened in the church, I removed it from the sites of highest promotion and left it on a very lesser site HERE.  Check it out or not.  I only mention it for context.  It is good, but I've also grown much since writing it, especially in struggle. 

My point, though, is I used to BELIEVE in providence.  Then, for a long time, I did not.  I felt that things could NOT operate by plan with the world being how it was.  Then, two things happened over the last year to understand clearer and to regain my belief in it.  First, rather than being "blessed" into belief, I faced more and more hardship, til I began to understand there is value in the darkness.. character in the struggle, and we are often shaped in part by the evil we have faced .. even in opposition to it.  Then, I met the most perfect person for me, when I had all but given up hope that such a person did exist.  It came at the perfect time in the perfect way that would not have worked, otherwise.  She is everything I want and more, and I would have missed it and hated myself for it if known, had I been "blessed" with what I thought was good enough before.  I HAD to be cursed to now be blessed... and all of that is providence.

So, even when things look dark, and it looks or feels like God has abandoned you, consider that he might actually be blessing you, and the pain is actually loving you in a way you are not able to see or understand.  There is hope, if we left God craft us and bring us to where we are meant to be.

The Truths We Don't Speak

Part of the reason so many live disillusioned lives of depression is found in one society problem that has existed all my life and will probably always exist.  We celebrate fantasies and literally tell and expect people living dark days to keep silent.  We... don't say bad things out loud.  I was never very good at that rule.

The unfortunate result, of course, is that no one can learn from the failures of others, so we keep having to learn them over and over like one of those movies of days on repeat.  I try to make a difference in that area and honestly feel peace only when the truth is spoken.  I thought it would be good to post a few of those truths that are known to those that lived them but kept silent from those about to live them.

1.  You can do everything right and still lose... often that's the case, in fact.   Why?  Well... in part it us because while you're living a code of ethics, others are ... not.  So, you become easy bait and meal for the sharks that would feed on you.  In fact, it is my experience that when you start to object and defend yourself, that is seen as an attack by those only wishing to use you.  But... rather than lamenting all that, why not break free and save yourself.

2.  Religion has been anything but a history of comfort.  The religious get all silent when you mention their dark history... in part because many approve of that past and know it's non pc  to say it.  They don't see anything wrong with the church spending centuries trying to convert otherwise by the sword in the crusades, hanging scientists, burning witches, selling tickets to heaven, expecting women to keep silent in church and submit to men and make babies, and imposing christian morals on everyone that is NOT members of the faith.  Again... we keep the bad things quiet, so we can repeat them again.  And, we definitely don't talk about things like churches harassing LGBTQ members or the sexual assault happening in many church camps or by ministers to altar boys.  I'm not an atheist, but I definitely don't believe in churches from my experience.  I just haven't found one that doesn't turn out to have more sin and problems than the world from whom they... separate and condemn.

3.  Bad things happen, and that's a good thing.  People STILL maintain God will bless those that does good, and they judge those with struggles as sinful.  To be wealthy is to be "blessed" the belief goes.  Problem is that we have literally thousands of years of believers suffering and dying in their faith, and Jesus, himself, said its hard for a rich person to enter heaven... another thing we just don't... say.  But, facing challenges helps us all to grow up and mature, and that's what you need to do, if you're going to actually address your problems and overcome them, yourself.

I have much more I could say, but... some other time.  That's enough for today.