The Counterattack

We've heard the story over and over.  Our first ancestors didn't comply with the rules of the garden.  Congrats to the Evil One for his cunning ways.  What seemed relatively harmless at the time resulted in damage to every single member of the human race.  Paradise was lost.   The Evil One pretty much incarcerated every single one of us.  The fallen angel even tried to tempt Jesus when he came to rescue us.  Even though Jesus conquered sin, we are all still damaged.  The attacks continue.  Is there a way to survive? I have an idea, although it's not original.  It's a counterattack.  It may not be the approach you might try if you were placed in charge.

The answer, my friend, is love.  Specifically, love your enemy.  Besides loving your enemy, pray for your enemy.  Go big.  Pray that your enemy is blessed beyond his or her wildest dreams.  Celebrate when your prayers are answered.  Love is the only weapon I know that can completely disarm those rebels who want you to suffer all the days of your life.  Give love a try.  Don't forget to forgive.  Have a great day.

Is There a Template for Your Best Life?

Before I delve into today's story, I would like to give a shoutout to my aunt Teresa, my first cousins, Mary, John, Tom, Mark, Patty, Paul, Steve, and David, who are grieving the loss of Dr. Thomas Mulligan, my dad's older brother, who is now in Heaven.  My prayers are with you.  Today's story is inspired from one of his mini talks with me during my childhood years.

Are you living your best life today?  If not, it may come down to three areas of your life.  When these three areas are out of alignment, chaos ensues.  The wheels fall off the bus.  I fully believe with every fiber of my being that the right alignment allows a fulfilled life.  These areas are your work, your family, and your faith.  Warning.  If you don't have room in your life for God, nothing else really matters.  

Consider how you rank these three areas of your life.  If work is number one, I have a feeling you are driven by things of this world.  What happens to all the "things" when you die?  Do they really matter?  That's why I'm not in favor of putting work as your number one priority.  In my opinion, you are not the best employee you can be when you do this because your family suffers.  Eventually, this will seep into your work life.  Your marriage will suffer and your relationship with your children will suffer.  

What happens when you put family first?  Sounds plausible, right?  Family first has merit but it lacks the most important part of your life, God as the top priority.  Family first means all those events that happen to be going on during worship time keeps you away from God's house.  It may be hard to believe that sports can be false gods.  The truth is, anything that keeps you from regular worship is a a false god.  No bueno for your eternal life.

If you buy into having God as your top priority, you are on your way.  The next is to rank family and work.  Many people I know choose work first because they want to provide for the family.  The challenge here is that when there is a conflict between these two, the family suffers.

The ideal template for your best life?  God first, family second, and work third.  Before you call me a slacker, let me assure you putting work after God and family, in my opinion, makes you a happier, healthier, and more productive employee.  Take a look at your template and consider doing some rearranging if you feel you are lacking the proper priorities.  Have a great day.

Men's 18+ Tennis Team Off to Fast Start in 4.0 Division

 I finally got to contribute to my men's tennis team this season.  We are grateful to have a committed coach, Jim Sichterman, who is tasked with helping us maximize our tennis potential.  Due to staffing shortages at my day job, I'm often away from my teams.  The Men's 55+ team is on their way to post season play.  Unfortunately, I didn't meet the minimum guidelines of two regular season matches and will not be able to participate.

This year's team is loaded with talent.  One teammate is from Australia.  Another is from Indonesia.  We have fun but we also work hard.  It's also a great place to test my food theories.  At, 62yrs old, it's vital that I find every edge possible to remain competitive.  So far, so good.  Congrats to my teammates on a big 3-2 win against a competitive team from the quad cities.  Special thanks to our captain who logs numerous hours filming us and sharing video with the team for needed feedback.  Also, I would like to thank one of my teammates at my day job for trading shifts with me so I that I could be back on the courts.  Have a great day.

Are Your Border Collies Guarding Your Stored Energy?

 This story comes from my own food storage vault.  I've accumulated some interesting ideas about food theories.  The idea here is to present the information in a way that may inspire you to dump the SAD (Standard American Diet) approach and perhaps return to the ways of our ancestors.

One of the highlights of our Ireland pilgrimage last year was a trip to a family farm.  We watched in awe as the border collies herded the sheep.  I got this crazy idea that what was going on at the farm is similar to what's going on inside your stomach every time you eat processed foods, sugar, and anything else that might pose a danger to your health.  Think of the sheep as the harmful foods.  The body senses trouble and sends out the border collies to protect the farm.  The sheep are corralled where they remain as stored fat.  

Do you ever wonder why you're always hungry no matter how much food you consume and how often you eat?  Does it seem like you're hungry every couple of hours?  Why isn't that herd of caged sheep shrinking when you reduce your food consumption?

Maybe the problem is that those border collies aren't going to let the sheep out of their pens until something important happens – your decision to stop eating the same foods that become like dog whistles summoning the border collies.  You need access to the caged sheep and you need to send them into your blood stream as energy.  You need to unlock the gate and let them out.  Stop blowing the dog whistle.  Set those stored sheep free and you will eventually slim down.  Think about this when you're watching the border collies in action in the YouTube video attached.  Have a great day.

Do You Have a Food Strategy?

Remember all those resolutions you made at the start of the New Year?  How are you doing?  Are any of them still in play?  If you are in the middle of the pack, I have a feeling most or all are gone and these resolutions won't resurface until about ten months from now.  Also, it's probable that those resolutions involved getting your budget in line and/or trimming some pounds from your belly.  Maybe a resolution isn't the best way to achieve your objectives.  I'm focusing on the area of food management today because that happens to be what I'm working on.  I'm discovering that food strategies as opposed to annual New Year resolutions seem to have a better chance of having a successful outcome.

A food strategy is your guide that you implement in order to achieve your goals.  Keep in mind you have very strong opposing forces trying to stop you.  There may be some people with ulterior motives who want you to consume their products even when they are detrimental to your health.  When these people become influencers by being elected to positions of power and they say something that may not be truthful, beware. 

Another opposing force is your brain.  Sadly, this brain of yours sends signals to the stomach that may be contrary to what you need to trim belly fat.  Listen to these messages from your brain and you're doomed to failure.  That's why a food strategy can counter negative influences.  Teach your brain to follow your strategy and demand complete obedience.  

My own food strategy is a baby step approach.  The first step is to tell your brain you are in charge of the food strategy.  The second step is to lay out your action plan as detailed as you can.  Consider your food strategy as something that will become a way of life rather than a resolution.  The next step is to decide which baby step you want to act on first, like giving up soft drinks.  Stay on this step until the food addiction is mastered.  Now, keep going.  Is the next step chocolate and all things sugary?  Stay here until mastered.  Keep going.  The advanced steps are ideas like intermittent fasting or even OMAD (one meal a day).  This doesn't have to be every day but it can be what you want it to be.  That's it.  Remember, this isn't a fad or a diet, it's a strategy.  Follow this for a year and let's see what happens.  Have a great day.

Do You Care to Take a Faith Quiz?

 Don't worry.  You are the only one who will see your answers.  This is a quick quiz for you to see where you stand.  Here goes:

1. Do you believe in God?
2. Do you worship regularly?
3. If you answered no to question number one, do you think maybe you could change your answer if you found proof there is a God?
4. If you answered no to question number three, why do you think you are on this planet?
5. Do you believe in evil?
6. If you answered yes to question number five, where do you think evil comes from?
7. If you are stuck on question six, is there a possibility that evil comes from the absence of the presence to God?
8. If you answered no to question one, and no or maybe to question seven, are you willing to pay the eternal consequences of an eternity in Hell should you wake in the afterlife and discover you were wrong?
9. If you answered yes to question one but no to question two, are willing to pay the price of an eternity in Hell because you said no to God's commandment to keep Holy the Sabbath?
10. How do you feel about your answers.  

Thank you for taking this faith quiz.  Have a great day.

Created, Captured, Rescued & Response

Ash Wednesday, today, marks the beginning of a journey for Christians of many denominations towards what I consider to be the most important event in the history of man.  If you are thinking about who created you, why you're here, and want to explore a bit more about this 40 day journey(Sundays and the final three days including Easter Sunday are excluded), this story may be of interest to you.  It's a summary of an online presentation I heard that I believe is the most concise summary of who we are and why we're here.  If you happen to be a nonbeliever, let's compare notes the next time our paths cross.

I suspect one of the reasons nonbelievers remain on the fringes of organized religion is because they view the Bible as something filled with untruths.  For example, in Genesis, we hear the creation story.  Seven days.  Really?  Something out of nothing.  Really?  How can this be?  Science reveals we have been around much longer.  So, what's the deal?  Let's begin with what you and I both know – we exist.  Yes, we were created.  But how?  Was this random or did someone create us?  I happen to believe we were created by an all-knowing and all-loving being.  I believe we were created in love.  There is a theory that this all-loving being shared a thought about creating us with other beings that this being, God, created prior to us. These angels are 100% spiritual in nature so they have no physical bodies.  The theory is that this may have caused a rebellion in the spiritual world.  The idea was these angels would serve man once created in the image of the Creator.  That didn't go well with the angels who believed they shouldn't lower themselves and serve man.  These angels were kicked out.  Then, God created us.  Was it seven days?  No.  That is a poetic way of showing that God could have an idea, create based on his idea, and, poof, we were on the planet.  In fact, God is still creating.  Science and God do not have to be apart.  Science explains God's brush strokes.

The dark angels didn't like us showing up on the planet so one of them tempted our first ancestors, Adam and Eve, to break the rules set up for their benefit.  What happened next messed up everything.  Like the dark angels who refused to obey God, our first ancestors were captured by the first of God's rebel angels.  Everything has been a hot mess since we were captured.

The rescue is God's response to our fall from grace.  It was planned even before all of us were created.  The plan was to set apart a chosen group of people and prepare them for the rescue plan to be initiated.  That's what the Old Testament is all about.  First, the creation story.  Next, the capture, and then, our Creator slowly revealing himself to his Chosen Ones.

How did the rescue happen?  Well, it was done so perfectly that not even the Chosen Ones could see it even when it was right in front of them.  That's the time period believers are in now beginning with today, Ash Wednesday, where believers are reminded, "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust."  We are preparing ourselves to see God's rescue plan unfold once again as it was over 2,000 years ago.  The rescue plan was carried out and we are now free.  All debts are forgiven, not by anything we do, but by the Son of God becoming man and dying on the Cross for all our transgressions.

What is the final step of the plan?  It's our response.  We are asked to share God's love story with others.  The rescue plan has no meaning if we don't respond to God's perfect love for us and share this with others who think all of this is a fairy tale.   

If you happen to be a non-believer, ask yourself one question, "What if I'm wrong?"  I personally have been asking this question over and over in one area of my life where I believe I have been misled by people who should know better.  This happens to be in the area of food.  Maybe, just maybe, you might be enlightened when you explore the idea that there is a God.  If you are a believer, maybe this period of time leading up to Easter Sunday can be a time of great reflection.  Have a  great day.