No. 1

Citizens have gotten used to believing things without checking up on them. The majority of us have been educated by the government school system. Inexplicably, we have all stopped caring about whether truth is taught in schools: true history, true science, or truth of any sort.

The result, we all now know, is that the true stories of the lives of our founding fathers; the true story of our wars and the true story of our way to greatness has been hidden. I do not say this to blame anyone in particular. I’m not going to rail against those who, for whatever reason they were compelled to do so, have re-written and fabricated our history.

I challenge you, Citizen, to go back and read our founding documents. Read letters our founders wrote, read their papers. Go back to original sources before you allow yourself to listen to debates or party rhetoric.

The founding generation was a Godly generation. That doesn’t mean they were all perfect churchgoers or that they were anything like the hypocritical churchgoers you may associate with the word ‘Christian’. What that means is that they acknowledged the existence of God and His activity in the lives of men; they adhered to the same moral code based upon the words of God himself in the Bible. It means that they knew there is absolute Truth, that that Truth can be known, and they lived their lives by it.

To all of you who are neutral about this issue, I ask you: If the people who re-write our history despise and belittle the founders for being Christians so much that they would change history, what would they do to a living Christian if they had the power? How far would they go? Erasing the faith of these men from history is by far the most bitter disrespect. I can think of no greater act of enmity than to lie about someone posthumously…except perhaps to have assassinated them when they were alive.

No one can deny that over time, a story gets twisted a little. How to you prevent the “Telephone Effect”? By asking the person face-to-face what they said. As citizens, IT IS OUR DUTY to know the Truth and prize it highly.

I challenge you, American, to find the Truth about our history. Read what the founder’s themselves wrote-don’t trust a biography unless you’ve done that. Don’t know where to start? Let me help. How about reading the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Do you have a copy? Get one.

Prove you are a free-thinking American and opt for original sources instead of Cliffs Notes this time! You can think for yourself. You can discern what is true and what is a lie if you get the truth yourself. Truth is the torch of Liberty. Without that light, free men wander and are lost.

Citizen, inform yourself while the truth is still freely available. Too much is at stake to settle for second-hand information. Don’t lose your freedom out of ignorance. Uninformed and ignorant people are easy to enslave. Defy oppression. Find the Truth.

Only The Beginning

My filly is out of an unregistered Quarter Horse mare named Annabelle Oakley and a Quarter Horse stud names Jackies Gold Bee. Her name is Windsome Belle, but I call her 'Chisum' because 'Windy' was too girly, even for her. She was born in a wind storm, but 'Winsom' was a mare in a book I read a long time ago, and I liked the name. She is almost two years old now, but the picture up on this page was taken the day she was born.

So what? I know, you are getting impatient. Well, Chisum's story is something I promise to tell you one day. But there's one aspect of her life that I can tell you now. Being the only mare on the place, she gets to be alone all the time. For all of her nearly two years of life, she has not run with any other horses. As a result of this, she's had plenty of time to study them. It's clear by how she handles herself that she thinks she is all grown up. She never gave a bit of trouble loading and backing out of a trailer, being caught, tied up or having her feet picked out. "Why throw a fit? If the big boys can do it, so can I!" she seems to say.

She's had a pretty full life so far, but her mind isn't big enough to comprehend what is in store for her. In a month or two, she will learn all about saddles, bits, cowboys and ropes and she just won't know what to do with herself! But up until now, she has not been ready. She is almost there. Of course, from her point of view, there isn't much she doesn't know. She has the layout of the pens memorized, knows where to get feed and water and what time the two-leggeds always show up to talk to her and feed her. She thinks she knows pretty much everything, and the dullness of so much wisdom has made her cocky and perhaps a little disappointed. "Is this all there is to life?" she might say. "I was hoping there was more."

Well, there is more. A lot more. And real soon, when Chisum is ready, she'll find out just how much she knows and get the humiliating chance to measure that against what she doesn't know. Life will lose its dullness, and all the petty things like that ol' red hen in her feed bucket will lose priority in her day. New things that aren't so petty will take its place, like climbing over deadfall and chasing a cow. In her shrunken little world of the corral and dogs and chickens, she can't imagine there being more to it. She's figured it all out. But you and I know she hasn't. She probably wouldn't listen if I tried to tell her that, so she will have to see for herself.

When I put myself in her 'shoes', I see how much alike we are. I'm a young woman who thinks she's seen it all, but God knows my destiny and certainly does have a lot to teach me. There's a world out there, a life I haven't even begun to live...and here I am at the starting gate thinking I've already run the race! Everything up to now has been calculated preparation on his part, and slow monotony for me looking back. It's easy to smear it all with the dust of the 'everyday' and sigh and look over the fence, like Chisum, thinking the world is so dull. I probably wouldn't understand God spelling out to me what's next in my life anymore than she would understand a lecture about getting the right lead. That's why timing is so important to God. He doesn't waste our everyday moments telling us stuff that won't make sense right now.

If you are still with me, let's try to grasp a bigger picture. A mere 90 years of life on earth is really only like Chisum's two, and my twenty-four. We have the rest of our lives to live. This part is the morning of life, the getting-out-of-bed and brushing-your-teeth part. From here, we enter ETERNITY, where life will really get started. At the end of a lifetime here, we are nowhere near halfway to the halfway mark. As immortal souls, we have an unending life ahead of us. It stretches on beyond what our minds can scope. I hope you read what I'm trying to tell you. I guess the best way to end this is to ask you what your eternity will be like. Because you do have a choice where you will spend it, and who you will spend it with. All this preparation, all this dullness; all the thoughts you've had about how much you know of life, it's just the beginning of the beginning. And when the next chapter begins, like Chisum, we will have to humble ourselves before our Master and submit in order to truly live our destiny and fulfill our purpose. Because there is more. A lot more.

Now I hope this gives you some food for thought.

Not In The Mood

On the subject of procrastination and neglect I'm probably an expert. You know, one of those experts that has 'learned from experience'. A lot has happened since I last posted here, but the nice thing about it is that you don't have to hear it all! I'm not in the mood to write, which is how I've been all year, pretty much. Just generally dry when it comes to words. I could apologize, but that won't do any good either, because I'm the one who 'suffers' for being so out of practice!

My Lord has been so kind to me, and I don't deserve his patience. He's just amazing, you know? The report on my life's direction sounds kind of like last year. My life is at His disposal. I'm not here for long; while I'm here, my calling is to bear fruit, i.e. invest my gifts (from God). I know this sounds kind of crazy when you see what it looks like. For example, I have tiny, miniscule, nothing-much of a gift in the areas of art, music, writing, and horses. So, what I do is I take my little mustard-seed-sized talent in each, I plant it, and I let it grow. This is a full time job, you know. Because none of these things are careers, and all of them 'don't count' in a money hungry culture. I am actively pursuing my Lord's directive in Matthew 25:14-30. And it is a scary thing, but I'm taking it step by step.

The last thing I want to do is turn this blog into a diary. But someone told me back when I wrote more that there was nothing on here about me. Well, the last few posts are a piece of me. Whatever appears here I hope is something that will touch someone else with light.

"...you have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much..." I pray what I'm doing reveals the Master.

So, What Happened?

I'll keep it brief. I still don't know about permanent plans (are there such things?), but right now, I work for a horse outfit. I never sit down long enough to write because I'm so busy riding horses, feeding horses, grooming horses, doctoring horses and looking at horses! I'm happy, and I'm still looking for God.

Nothing notable has happened yet, but let's keep watch. I'll let you know what happens next.

Oh no. He's At It Again.

If you’ve read the post below, then you probably knew something like this was coming. There was change in the wind, but I didn’t know it until a couple of days ago.

So how did it come to pass that I suddenly decided not to go back to PHC, and have surprised my family and disappointed a few of my friends…all in the space of a couple of days?

There’s not much to the story, really. I had everything packed, and was planning to arrive in Virginia by Wednesday at the latest. Ahead of me was a semester of managing the women’s soccer team, editing The Soundboard, soaking up more and more about journalism, life, God…and enjoying close friends. I was starting to load the car and realized I couldn’t go. I couldn’t go back to Virginia.

I’ve struggled with the back-East culture, I’ll be honest. But I had a gut feeling I just needed to throw it all to God. He’s in charge, right?

To all my friends and family, I hope you are watching closely. I don’t want you to blink and miss seeing something God does. I’m actually expecting him to move now at any moment. My heart is God’s, you see. And as flawed as it is, some of the desires in it originated with Him. Those are the things I am looking toward now…

I feel awkward, at this moment in time, and uncertain of what the heck I am doing. Just watch. See if God can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

I would absolutely love to hear from any of you, so please talk to me. You have not seen the last of me yet.

Via con Dios…and so will I.