John Harrell's Blog, page 40

Help Is On The Way

Everywhere on the internet we see pictures of people memorializing the events in their lives. I think it’s wonderful to see people experiencing great travel, personal victories, and I can’t leave out the back to school pictures. We should celebrate life’s special moments.

We are given a certain amount of time in this life. I believe we all want a lot of the same things: to live life fully and live freely. We want to live in safe neighborhoods and not feel like we have to look over our shoulders every time we go out. If you have these things, take a brief moment to thank your Creator. Not everyone in the world lives like everyone else.

If we are able, we should help those who are less fortunate. Otherwise we are making it about ourselves. Living selfishly is not living fully…

Liked

Is it important to you that you are liked? I believe we all want acceptance more than anything. It is the rare few who will accept us as we are. Those people are a treasure.

I am reading a book right now about how a young woman learned about God. She was homeless at 15, a drug addict, lost in this world. Yet, through a sequence of events only God could orchestrate, she found acceptance by a family. The family had two rules: she had an 11:00 pm curfew and she had to go to church with them. She agreed, mainly because she wanted a warm bed and some food.

In her rebellion, the girl would come downstairs wearing her pajama bottoms, fuzzy slippers and a hoodie with obscenities written on it. She was testing them. The mom never told her to change. She went to church and found people who genuinely were glad to see her. These people didn’t look at her with shame in their hearts. They accepted her.

It’s not important to me to be liked or accepted. I cannot control how others feel about me. But I will be truthful. Perhaps the truth is what some don’t want to accept…

Reagan

Yesterday I saw the newly released biopic “Reagan.” The story of Ronald Reagan’s life was told by a retired KGB agent played by Jon Voight. You might think of tax cuts and Iran-Contra when you remember Reagan. I think of the fall of the Soviet Union.

Communism is alive and well-funded still today. Communism was founded by Marx and Engels in the 1840’s. On the surface, Marxism sounds like an ideal world. “Everyone prospers,” they tell you. But they lie. Your freedom of speech, freedom to worship wherever you like, freedom to live your life peacefully and go wherever you want are all controlled by the state. Neighbor spies on neighbor as well as their family and friends. Instead of prosperity you have paranoia.

We are always one generation away from losing the freedoms that many people shed their blood for. And don’t be fooled, socialism is “communism light.” It will sneak up on you if you aren’t paying attention. One minute you’re celebrating Christmas and the next minute you’re thrown in jail for saying, “Merry Christmas.”

Don’t take freedom for granted. Thousands died in the Revolutionary War so we can live freely today…

Friends For Life

There are people from my childhood that I’m still friends with. We have decades of history together. They are important to me. I know them and I care about them.

In the political culture we are living in, I have seen friendships severed because of politics. Relationships with people you know are tossed aside because of someone you don’t even know. The politicians don’t know or care about you. You might not like some of them if you got to know them. Politicians are self-serving, shallow people. They want your money and your vote. They don’t want your friendship.

You are going to go through periods in your life where you’re going to need people. You suffer a loss? Friends are there. Need some encouragement? Talk to a friend. Want companionship? Call one of your friends.

Where are the politicians when you need them? They are still in Washington pandering to the masses.

Value your friendships. They care about you…

Better Than

When I was nineteen years old, I had the privilege to live in Norway for the summer. It’s the most beautiful country I’ve ever seen. There’s a picture of the town I lived in at the end of this entry.

I worked as a tour guide for the American, British and German tourists who came through. One thing always pissed me off about the Americans: many of them made comparisons to the United States, saying “this is nice, but we have it so much better at home.” They might be talking about a flush toilet. Seriously. And the Norwegian toilets functioned just fine.

Insecure people compare and complain. No one is better than anyone else. God loves us equally, even the people I don’t care for. Insulting others is, technically, insulting the one who created them. I don’t believe that’s a wise thing to do.

If you feel the desire to compare, remember how important you are to God. He created you, and he didn’t forget about you…

Andalsnes, Norway

Pesticides

Pesticides are sprayed on the food we eat to control rodents, insects and weeds. Some of the chemicals are harmful, even carcinogenic. Organic produce costs more, no doubt. But what is our body worth? We can’t see the pesticides, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there.

Media influence in the culture of today are kinda like pesticides. The last true journalist was Walter Cronkite who simply reported the news as it was. Cronkite didn’t try to mislead us or politicize the news. He was reliable.

Pay attention to what you are told. I encourage you to question everything. Use multiple resources to vet what you are hearing.

Being well-informed is a good thing…

Sad Stories

Everyone has a story. Not all of them are pretty. For eight years now I have been a volunteer speaker in detention centers, and for the last twelve months I’ve been doing the same in Texas prisons.

There’s the 13 year old girl I met who ran away from her abusive home. She ended up in Houston, dancing as a stripper and turning tricks in the shitty motel across the street from the club. She was addicted to heroin. The Texas DPS raided the club which is how she landed in detention. What hope did she have?

There’s the woman in prison who told me she didn’t think she could ever forgive her stepfather for raping her. She suffered the abuse from the time she was six until she was 13.

I will never forget these young women who openly and willingly volunteered their stories with me and the rest of the inmates. It took courage.

The point of today’s blog is this: be kind to everyone. We don’t know what they might be living with. You have an opportunity to make a difference in their lives by your kindness…

Tension

My childhood home was filled with chaos and violence. As a result, tension became my close friend. I was used to it subliminally.

When I became free of living in that hellhole I thought I could leave it all behind and create a new, better life for myself, free of tension. Boy was I wrong! I had this innate ability to be attracted to people who created chaos. It was like a tractor beam. When I was married, one day I came to the realization that I had recreated what I was desperately trying to escape from. In that moment I realized the common denominator was me and I had to do something about it. So, I began working on myself.

Looking inside myself exposed why I made the choices I made. Then I went to work to modify my thinking which led to better outcomes. It wasn’t easy working through this stuff, and it took time, but it was worth it.

Today I’m peaceful, content, and still ambitious as hell. Do I miss the chaos? In a word, no…

Joyful

Romans 12:12 tells us to:

“Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” How do we accomplish this when the cost of living has skyrocketed, crime is rampant, and people are at each other’s throats over something as silly as politics. There is a way.

Put all your faith and trust in something greater than yourself: God. He is still in control of everything. Keep your focus on Him. Refuse to be distracted.

Your future is in God’s hands, not the politicians. Their futures are in His hands, too…
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Hints

What we criticize in others is something that exists in us. If you talk about someone’s looks, you possibly aren’t happy with your own appearance. By putting others down you feel better about yourself. But only for a moment.

There are many people who need to heal from something, whether it’s from their past or something that happened to them more recently. Perhaps you had a violent childhood, or your spouse cheated on you. If you don’t work on yourself to heal from it, you might be doomed to repeat it. You can break the cycle if you want to.

Do the work…