...just wanted to let everyone know that JESUS loves you and so do I and there's nothing you all can do about it!
I know things are extremely tight out there with the economy..I pray that since GOD always provides a WAY, that reaching for it becomes our priority. Sometimes I've discovered a lack of provision is a provision in and of itself.
I woke in my cell late (or should I say early morn, at 2:45...so yeah, let's say early morn...the amount of education in here!)....anyway I stared out from my bunk almost 10 years deep in my contrition looking at my cell block number. I was reminded of a time (although constrained now within 80 or so square feet and another man three feet from me) of when I was out there running and gunning on the mean streets. Shot and bee lining it to the emergency room hoping to GOD that I don't bleed to death, homeless and cold seeking any form of warmth...even the cardboard in the woods and under the bridges to stave off the cold...jumped by a gang of well..gangsters...a gaggle of them that's gotta be the new catch phrase...and the worst feeling of it all...nay I say (who talks like this?) the granddaddy of emotional distraught, loneliness...a darkness that could be felt.
So I must concur with some who profess that they weren't arrested, but rescued. As a tear leaked out and I brazenly sucked it up to brave my punishment for my sins, I had the stark understanding that GOD truly loves me. And it's as tough a call to make late in the life of myself yearning to hold my newly birthed yet not seen nor held grandchildren, as it is for those of you not recognizing the very real providence of GOD as HE places some life upon the POTTER'S WHEEL shaping and fashioning it according to HIS PURPOSE.
I so dearly miss my little boy...Dojo..who in spite of his old man is revering a lifestyle replete with the chivalry that has yet to die in a man's challenge for goodness in a world fraught with despair of epic proportions. And my wife...Rosemary whom I've refused to call that accursed "ex" word so flippantly strewn about for common causes from which struggle was too much to endure. It is through better or worse that I've drug her through, yet now in the precipice of the autumnal...so they say (whoever that estranged group of folk are) part of my life, she's come full circle to banter with me over the cyber lines of a tethered and tenuous umbilical commonality, to offer up solace from whence (there I go again) she'll not realize, gains chuckles and smiles in a place bereft of this all important character bounty that reigns in the hearts of those who never give up. I'm grateful to a GOD who can do all that I can not...
Praise HIS HOLY NAME!
...later...
dougie boy
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Hello my friends...
..it has been a while as you may know how that song goes. But I've been thinking always on you all. Last night was an unusual night for me and my cellie...of course a few of you know that I speak of the man residing three feet from me. The term familiarity breeds contempt flourishes in such dire circumstances as these imprisoned walls and cells can wrought upon a man seeking a different way...or THE WAY.
It started out as a normal lock the cell doors at 10 pm kinda night, but quickly regressed into an argument about whether one of the two of us turned off the radio, moved the radio, had any relation with the radio from which we enjoy comfort and solace through the advent of NPR and an eclectic taste ranging from oldies...(don't ask...) to some hip hop...opera....talk shows..Los Lobos last night. Anyway I swore that I got up at 4:30 am to turn it off (batteries don't you know) and Sam says that he did something to it (moved it...turned it off...etc.) well I wasn't going to give one inch up there because this is a REALLY important issue! And being the older man by 25 years, I had to be right. During the course of our heated discussion (on my part anyway...he has this excruciating habit of remaining calm--ever since I've known him as a matter of fact--how irritating is that!?! I mean throw out some form of engagement other than this quietness!) But I knew I could show him how to get the props I deserved. As I tried to search my mind of the previous evening's activities (did I get up to turn the radio off? Or like he insinuated was he defense- that he must've been hallucinating..said with a placidness that shames the lake's namesake...okay you want to play it rough then huh?) So I went way back into my worldly self and dropped the one argumentative ploy that would rile his feathers for real. I mean once he threw at me that he was just being logical--that was the hay...the straw if you will--and out it came: The "F" bomb. I said with the true vehemence wrought from years of actual arguing within the ranks of military folk, "you can stuff your f------ logic!" Yeah! Take that mister serenity. And of course I need to add that rarely has anyone heard me use profanity of such acquired ilk as to belong to the prison populace at large, so I knew I had him then. And then he looks at me--all the while he's been calmly (go figure) folding his laundry, and laughs--not uproarishly...rarely has that ever happened, but almost as a chuckle...and this had an effect on me that I can't quite explain. After all I'm a CHRISTian dammit!
So today I wanted to share some of this lesson plan that GOD brought to me via this altercation...albeit one-sided thanks to Sam, but still friendships are so rare on earth. It means identity in thought and heart and spirit.
There is a great deal of sin devised and designed that is never executed. As bad as things are in the world they are not so bad as the devil and wicked men would have them. The FBI just changed the law defining rape to include a broader use that brings men with men into the picture (see Romans 1)..shoot... we of such long time prison lore know all about this. It is GOD that restrains men from doing the ill (such a nice word don't you think?) that they would do (see Genesis 20:6). It is not from HIM that there is sin but is from HIM that there is not more sin, either by HIS influence upon men's minds, or by HIS providence taking away the opportunity to sin...hence some incarceration. In Romans 12:2 there is a stark reminder of how we ought to be..."be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind". See to it that there be a saving change wrought in you, and that it be carried on. "Be not conformed to this world..." me syschematizesthe"..do not fashion yourselves as it means. Those are best able to prove what is the good, and acceptable and perfect will of GOD, who are transformed by the renewing of their mind. The sweet smelling savor- serving the LORD...that is, improving your opportunities and making the best of them..(see my recent example)..complying with the present seasons of grace. Worship is giving GOD the best that HE has given you. If you hoard a thing for yourself it will turn to a type of spiritual rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded. Some of us receive HIS blessings and know HIS WORD, but do we really know HIM? Genesis 18:3...my LORD if I have now found favor in your sight, do not pass on by your servant. Like the song..."Pass me not oh GENTLE SAVIOR...hear my humble cry....while on others THOU art calling...do not pass me.....by....
with all my love to all that is yours...
...later
dougie boy
It started out as a normal lock the cell doors at 10 pm kinda night, but quickly regressed into an argument about whether one of the two of us turned off the radio, moved the radio, had any relation with the radio from which we enjoy comfort and solace through the advent of NPR and an eclectic taste ranging from oldies...(don't ask...) to some hip hop...opera....talk shows..Los Lobos last night. Anyway I swore that I got up at 4:30 am to turn it off (batteries don't you know) and Sam says that he did something to it (moved it...turned it off...etc.) well I wasn't going to give one inch up there because this is a REALLY important issue! And being the older man by 25 years, I had to be right. During the course of our heated discussion (on my part anyway...he has this excruciating habit of remaining calm--ever since I've known him as a matter of fact--how irritating is that!?! I mean throw out some form of engagement other than this quietness!) But I knew I could show him how to get the props I deserved. As I tried to search my mind of the previous evening's activities (did I get up to turn the radio off? Or like he insinuated was he defense- that he must've been hallucinating..said with a placidness that shames the lake's namesake...okay you want to play it rough then huh?) So I went way back into my worldly self and dropped the one argumentative ploy that would rile his feathers for real. I mean once he threw at me that he was just being logical--that was the hay...the straw if you will--and out it came: The "F" bomb. I said with the true vehemence wrought from years of actual arguing within the ranks of military folk, "you can stuff your f------ logic!" Yeah! Take that mister serenity. And of course I need to add that rarely has anyone heard me use profanity of such acquired ilk as to belong to the prison populace at large, so I knew I had him then. And then he looks at me--all the while he's been calmly (go figure) folding his laundry, and laughs--not uproarishly...rarely has that ever happened, but almost as a chuckle...and this had an effect on me that I can't quite explain. After all I'm a CHRISTian dammit!
So today I wanted to share some of this lesson plan that GOD brought to me via this altercation...albeit one-sided thanks to Sam, but still friendships are so rare on earth. It means identity in thought and heart and spirit.
There is a great deal of sin devised and designed that is never executed. As bad as things are in the world they are not so bad as the devil and wicked men would have them. The FBI just changed the law defining rape to include a broader use that brings men with men into the picture (see Romans 1)..shoot... we of such long time prison lore know all about this. It is GOD that restrains men from doing the ill (such a nice word don't you think?) that they would do (see Genesis 20:6). It is not from HIM that there is sin but is from HIM that there is not more sin, either by HIS influence upon men's minds, or by HIS providence taking away the opportunity to sin...hence some incarceration. In Romans 12:2 there is a stark reminder of how we ought to be..."be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind". See to it that there be a saving change wrought in you, and that it be carried on. "Be not conformed to this world..." me syschematizesthe"..do not fashion yourselves as it means. Those are best able to prove what is the good, and acceptable and perfect will of GOD, who are transformed by the renewing of their mind. The sweet smelling savor- serving the LORD...that is, improving your opportunities and making the best of them..(see my recent example)..complying with the present seasons of grace. Worship is giving GOD the best that HE has given you. If you hoard a thing for yourself it will turn to a type of spiritual rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded. Some of us receive HIS blessings and know HIS WORD, but do we really know HIM? Genesis 18:3...my LORD if I have now found favor in your sight, do not pass on by your servant. Like the song..."Pass me not oh GENTLE SAVIOR...hear my humble cry....while on others THOU art calling...do not pass me.....by....
with all my love to all that is yours...
...later
dougie boy
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