I have an issue that really irritated me the other day and I thought about it again when I was in the shower tonight.
I was minding my own business driving to a doctors appointment, and flying past me on my right was a little silver car with a big ol' bumper sticker on it that said "I love Jesus do You?" Now I am thinking I used to do that. Meaning put bumper stickers or emblems on my vehicle telling everyone I PASSED what I believed. I had it on the back of my car when I lived in California and was on my way back to Cali from Arizona after a weekend of visiting with my grandfather and mother. This time it did not help. I was in Quartzite Arizona, doing what I called bombing the desert. Meaning I was really flying, radio as loud as it would go, windows open having a good time... Until.... Yup I got nailed. The cop approached and asked if I knew why I was pulled over? (why do they ask this) I said "I can guess". I knew because it took about a mile to catch me and get me pulled over. I was not trying to out run him, I just took my foot off the gas. He wrote me a ticket for in access of 95 which he said was being nice because he clocked me at 120. After he handed it to me with a MANDATORY court appearance at a later date, he said "ya know to have that on your bumper you should know you are to obey the laws of the land too." Ouch, OK that was a good one.
Now I am not saying I do not fly low under the radar when I drive, I do and it seems I get faster and faster the closer I get to my destination. I will say the any vehicle I have owned since that day has not had a marker like that. The fine I had to pay was a lot, but I think I probably should have learned not to speed, in turn I just learned To put a radar detector in the front and back of my SUV when driving a long distance and not thing things like that on it.
I really wanted to say to that guy just wait your time will come too....
OK I am going to bed now. I know this is a strange post but I am in a strange mood. it is call "Just My Thoughts"
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
servant's heart
OK, I have been away from my blog for a while. However, I am back with a few thought.
Last Friday I did a relief aid trip to a place in here in my home state of Wisconsin after all the devastating flooding that has been happening. I started a drive to collect bottled water, bleach, non-perishable food, diapers and baby food or formula. The local new TV stations picked it up as well as the local paper ran the story. Now, let me say I love doing these trips weather it be to New Orleans or where ever. This time was a bit different because the items were staying in our own state. We needed to rally around people in our own communities this time. So while I am grateful that the stations and papers helped get the word out about the drive, I hate the camera or reporter in my face stuff. I really just think of myself as just the driver. The people that donate are the real heroes. They are the ones that make it all possible. To them I am thankful.
It took me 5 hours through some very tedious curves and some fairly steep down grades like they have in the mountains except this time there were more than a few 10 mph turns with no guard rails and nothing but a steep slope down. On every trip I have ever gone on I always have those moments where the devil attacks me and I get the thoughts in my head this is it I am going to die. I am going to go off this cliff roll who knows how many times and die at the bottom. Than I start to pray and I am like are you kidding me, I doing something God made happen shut up already. But it's scary initially, and takes a while to get through it. I always come through it on the other end, but going through it is tough.
I know that we are all called to be servants of the Almighty. I am willing to do this. I enjoy this. it just really struck home this time for some reason. Not that I have not had this revelation in the past I have but this time it was closer to home I guess. I do not do this for any kind of fame from the TV and certainly not for fortune considering the out of pocket expense for gas and getting the SUV checked before I go, but for the sheer joy I get in peoples faces when arrive. I pray that they see the glint of God in my eyes for hat He is doing.
People don't like to ask for help, so I call and ask if they need the help, if they do and I can give it I do. it is the most fulfilling thing i do. volunteering to help those that need it. I know that is God in me coming forth. I know it is what I am called to do in that moment.
For those who have never experienced this I encourage you if you have the time to do something like this. Even if it is just dropping off supplies.
I got a card from a friend with a donation enclosed that said I had a servant's heart. I guess I do because I get joy from doing it. However, aren't we all called to be servants? When we serve others we are in turn serving God. When we serve God we are in His presence. What better place to be.
So today, Monday, I am still tired and have a few pulled muscles, am still in rest mode, but grateful for the another experience. What have you done lately to serve others and in turn the Lord. Bring his glory to those in need?
OK, this may not all make sense but that's OK, after all I am still tired and sore.
By the way, Sharon, I am praying for you. Hope you feel better soon. L, K
Kristina
Last Friday I did a relief aid trip to a place in here in my home state of Wisconsin after all the devastating flooding that has been happening. I started a drive to collect bottled water, bleach, non-perishable food, diapers and baby food or formula. The local new TV stations picked it up as well as the local paper ran the story. Now, let me say I love doing these trips weather it be to New Orleans or where ever. This time was a bit different because the items were staying in our own state. We needed to rally around people in our own communities this time. So while I am grateful that the stations and papers helped get the word out about the drive, I hate the camera or reporter in my face stuff. I really just think of myself as just the driver. The people that donate are the real heroes. They are the ones that make it all possible. To them I am thankful.
It took me 5 hours through some very tedious curves and some fairly steep down grades like they have in the mountains except this time there were more than a few 10 mph turns with no guard rails and nothing but a steep slope down. On every trip I have ever gone on I always have those moments where the devil attacks me and I get the thoughts in my head this is it I am going to die. I am going to go off this cliff roll who knows how many times and die at the bottom. Than I start to pray and I am like are you kidding me, I doing something God made happen shut up already. But it's scary initially, and takes a while to get through it. I always come through it on the other end, but going through it is tough.
I know that we are all called to be servants of the Almighty. I am willing to do this. I enjoy this. it just really struck home this time for some reason. Not that I have not had this revelation in the past I have but this time it was closer to home I guess. I do not do this for any kind of fame from the TV and certainly not for fortune considering the out of pocket expense for gas and getting the SUV checked before I go, but for the sheer joy I get in peoples faces when arrive. I pray that they see the glint of God in my eyes for hat He is doing.
People don't like to ask for help, so I call and ask if they need the help, if they do and I can give it I do. it is the most fulfilling thing i do. volunteering to help those that need it. I know that is God in me coming forth. I know it is what I am called to do in that moment.
For those who have never experienced this I encourage you if you have the time to do something like this. Even if it is just dropping off supplies.
I got a card from a friend with a donation enclosed that said I had a servant's heart. I guess I do because I get joy from doing it. However, aren't we all called to be servants? When we serve others we are in turn serving God. When we serve God we are in His presence. What better place to be.
So today, Monday, I am still tired and have a few pulled muscles, am still in rest mode, but grateful for the another experience. What have you done lately to serve others and in turn the Lord. Bring his glory to those in need?
OK, this may not all make sense but that's OK, after all I am still tired and sore.
By the way, Sharon, I am praying for you. Hope you feel better soon. L, K
Kristina
Sunday, June 1, 2008
I am sure I am going to face some backlash from this but this is something I read on the Internet that I found interesting. Most people know where I stand on the Israeli - Palestinian conflict and my belief that the US has no business backing either country in what is an age old war that continues in part because our country can't keep it's nose out of certain things. Most of you also know that I love my country and the freedoms that affords me. I also like others have done extensive research regarding the ancient maps and regions from Biblical times. Israel knows it has US backing and has used that status to bully others around. If you do the research you will find out for yourself that this has been a bone of contention for other parts of the world and has created much of the anti-American sentiment that exists today. Read the the article below and choose for yourself. I know what my opinion is and I can back it up. Can you?
By Ghada Karmi Fri May 30, 4:00 AM ET
London - In 2005, I was invited to do something most Palestinians can only dream of: visit the house from which my family had been driven in 1948. Of all people, a New York Times correspondent discovered that his apartment was built over my old home.
When I met him there, the Jewish occupants who showed me around were almost apologetic, perhaps aware how that incident encapsulated the central story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the expulsion of Palestinians and their replacement by Jews. Yet when I asked the reporter how he could still write articles that betray this reality, he was evasive.
His evasion is part of an industry of denial called the Middle East "peace process." This industry feeds the current international consensus on the two-state solution as the only "comprehensive" settlement to the conflict. But there's a better solution, one that's slowly picking up steam among Palestinians and Israelis: a one-state model.
The two-state approach is flawed on two major counts. First, Israel's extensive colonization of the territories it seized in the 1967 war has made the creation of a Palestinian state there impossible. Israel was offering nothing more than "a mini-state of cantons," as Palestinian Authority negotiators recently complained. This leaves Israel in control of more than half of the West Bank and all of East Jerusalem. With the Israeli position largely unchallenged by the international community, the only route to a two-state settlement will be through pressure on the weaker Palestinian side.
This leads to the second flaw: The two-state solution reflects only Israeli interests. It proposes to partition historic Palestine – an area that includes present-day Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem – massively and inequitably in favor of Israel as a Jewish state. By definition, this rules out possibility of Palestinian return except to the tiny, segmented West Bank territory that Israeli colonization has created, and to an overcrowded Gaza, which cannot accommodate the returnees. Thus the "peace process" is really about making the Palestinians concede their basic rights to accommodate Israel's demands.
It also panders to Israel's paranoia over "demography," an ambiguous term that refers to the morally repugnant wish to preserve Israel's Jewish ethnic purity.
But the two-state solution's biggest flaw is that it ignores the main cause of the conflict: the Palestinian dispossession of 1948.
Today more than 5 million dispersed refugees and exiles long to return. It is fashionable to ignore this, as if Palestinians have less right to repatriation than the displaced Kosovars so ardently championed by NATO in 1999. As recognized by the Western powers then, the right to return was fundamental to peacemaking in the Bosnian crisis. It should be no less so in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Yet the present peace process aims to preserve a colonialist Israel and make Palestinian dispossession permanent. This is not only illegal and unjust, it is also short-sighted. As the early Zionist thinker Vladimir Jabotinsky warned in 1923, native resistance to dispossession is irrepressible and Zionism would only survive with constant force to quell it.
Israel has heeded the lesson well. With an oppressive military occupation ruling over the West Bank and Gaza, it has herded Palestinians into ghettos and prisons, aiming to paralyze any resistance. The response to this brutality is misery, expressed by some in violence against Israelis, and continuing instability in the region. American collusion with Israel has led to growing anti-Americanism among Arabs and Muslims.
If the aim of the peace process is to resolve the conflict properly, then we must tackle the root of the problem: the creation of an exclusive state for one people in another people's territory. The strife this caused will end only when the Palestinian rights to repatriation and compensation are addressed. This cannot happen in a situation of Israeli hegemony.
A different approach that puts the principles of equity and sharing above dominance and oppression is needed: a one-state solution. In such a state, no Jewish settler would have to move and no Palestinian would be under occupation. Resources could be shared, rather than hoarded by Israel. Jerusalem could be a city for both. Above all, the dispossessed Palestinians could finally return home.
Indulging Israel is a dangerous folly that postpones solution. It harms Palestinians, the region, and long-term Western interests. It even harms Israelis, who are less secure in Israel than anywhere else. Palestinian and Arab support for the two-state proposal only reflects resignation to Israel's superior power and fear of US reprisal, not conviction. The two-state proposal is unstable and cannot replace a durable solution based on equity, justice, and dignity.
A decade ago, the unitary state idea was ridiculed. Today, as the two-state solution recedes, a one-state solution is the stuff of mainstream discussion. Now it must become mainstream
By Ghada Karmi Fri May 30, 4:00 AM ET
London - In 2005, I was invited to do something most Palestinians can only dream of: visit the house from which my family had been driven in 1948. Of all people, a New York Times correspondent discovered that his apartment was built over my old home.
When I met him there, the Jewish occupants who showed me around were almost apologetic, perhaps aware how that incident encapsulated the central story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the expulsion of Palestinians and their replacement by Jews. Yet when I asked the reporter how he could still write articles that betray this reality, he was evasive.
His evasion is part of an industry of denial called the Middle East "peace process." This industry feeds the current international consensus on the two-state solution as the only "comprehensive" settlement to the conflict. But there's a better solution, one that's slowly picking up steam among Palestinians and Israelis: a one-state model.
The two-state approach is flawed on two major counts. First, Israel's extensive colonization of the territories it seized in the 1967 war has made the creation of a Palestinian state there impossible. Israel was offering nothing more than "a mini-state of cantons," as Palestinian Authority negotiators recently complained. This leaves Israel in control of more than half of the West Bank and all of East Jerusalem. With the Israeli position largely unchallenged by the international community, the only route to a two-state settlement will be through pressure on the weaker Palestinian side.
This leads to the second flaw: The two-state solution reflects only Israeli interests. It proposes to partition historic Palestine – an area that includes present-day Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Jerusalem – massively and inequitably in favor of Israel as a Jewish state. By definition, this rules out possibility of Palestinian return except to the tiny, segmented West Bank territory that Israeli colonization has created, and to an overcrowded Gaza, which cannot accommodate the returnees. Thus the "peace process" is really about making the Palestinians concede their basic rights to accommodate Israel's demands.
It also panders to Israel's paranoia over "demography," an ambiguous term that refers to the morally repugnant wish to preserve Israel's Jewish ethnic purity.
But the two-state solution's biggest flaw is that it ignores the main cause of the conflict: the Palestinian dispossession of 1948.
Today more than 5 million dispersed refugees and exiles long to return. It is fashionable to ignore this, as if Palestinians have less right to repatriation than the displaced Kosovars so ardently championed by NATO in 1999. As recognized by the Western powers then, the right to return was fundamental to peacemaking in the Bosnian crisis. It should be no less so in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Yet the present peace process aims to preserve a colonialist Israel and make Palestinian dispossession permanent. This is not only illegal and unjust, it is also short-sighted. As the early Zionist thinker Vladimir Jabotinsky warned in 1923, native resistance to dispossession is irrepressible and Zionism would only survive with constant force to quell it.
Israel has heeded the lesson well. With an oppressive military occupation ruling over the West Bank and Gaza, it has herded Palestinians into ghettos and prisons, aiming to paralyze any resistance. The response to this brutality is misery, expressed by some in violence against Israelis, and continuing instability in the region. American collusion with Israel has led to growing anti-Americanism among Arabs and Muslims.
If the aim of the peace process is to resolve the conflict properly, then we must tackle the root of the problem: the creation of an exclusive state for one people in another people's territory. The strife this caused will end only when the Palestinian rights to repatriation and compensation are addressed. This cannot happen in a situation of Israeli hegemony.
A different approach that puts the principles of equity and sharing above dominance and oppression is needed: a one-state solution. In such a state, no Jewish settler would have to move and no Palestinian would be under occupation. Resources could be shared, rather than hoarded by Israel. Jerusalem could be a city for both. Above all, the dispossessed Palestinians could finally return home.
Indulging Israel is a dangerous folly that postpones solution. It harms Palestinians, the region, and long-term Western interests. It even harms Israelis, who are less secure in Israel than anywhere else. Palestinian and Arab support for the two-state proposal only reflects resignation to Israel's superior power and fear of US reprisal, not conviction. The two-state proposal is unstable and cannot replace a durable solution based on equity, justice, and dignity.
A decade ago, the unitary state idea was ridiculed. Today, as the two-state solution recedes, a one-state solution is the stuff of mainstream discussion. Now it must become mainstream
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