Thoughts on 70 Laps around the Sun

 

 

Wow! I’ve now made 70 laps around the sun and am hoping to log a few, or many, more. Here are my first 70 thoughts, possibly worth sharing.

1.    God is good

2.    God is holy.

3.    God is love.

4.    God loves you.

5.    Life is Good.

6.    Life can be tough, but it’s still life and still good.

7.    Jesus is Lord.

8.    That #4 should govern our lives.

9.    Integrity matters, and there are no small matters of integrity.

10.                       Love one another is a lifestyle, not an occasion.

11.                       Baseball is medicine. Prescriptions are still available.

12.                       The smell of horsehide is more soothing than a stiff drink.

13.                       Salvation is a gift of God alone. It’s a gift.

14.                       Discipleship takes work and requires discipline.

15.                       Your life choices are always clear.

16.                       Your life choices come with consequences—good, bad, and not sure yet.

17.                       Purpose matters.

18.                       Focus matters.

19.                       Effort matters.

20.                       Work as if you were working for the Lord matters.

21.                       Lead, follow, or get out of the way applies in most circumstances.

22.                       It’s Jordan. Case closed.

23.                       Yes, the wind still blows in Oklahoma. When it doesn’t, you’ll wish it did.

24.                       Taco Tuesday, Throwback Thursday, and RED Fridays are important. IYKYK.

25.                       Gun control is essential: Body alignment, sight alignment, sight picture, and trigger control are usually sufficient for most occasions.

26.                       No guts. No glory. Hold my beer.

27.                       Consider the target audience before you spend your time in an online diatribe.

28.                       Faith = action, even if the action is waiting.

29.                       GSR is the best men's cologne ever.

30.                       Social media is great for kids and grandkids pictures, reminding me of your birthday, and connecting with other Leathernecks from days gone by. Scroll on through most of the rest.

31.                       JUST DO IT gets you up the hill. I should have copyrighted and trademarked that before Nike stole it from me.

32.                       Cycling uses different muscles than running. (Lesson #1 after my first RAGBRAI)

33.                       Being in command is mostly TAKE THE HILL and FOLLOW ME.

34.                       Always keep a written copy of your sermons. When your memory goes, preach them. They will be new to you.

35.                       Hey, TDS people. Get a life. This hating one man is killing our nation and destroying your credibility. Let’s do positive things, and being governed by hate is blinding.

36.                       Read more.

37.                       If you read mostly nonfiction as I do, make sure you read one fiction book a year, and vice versa.

38.                       Do the math in your head whenever possible.

39.                       Travel. There is a lot to see in this miraculous creation.

40.                       Take the cruise, then book the next one.

41.                       Sit by a fire more often.

42.                       Make sure you keep a hard copy of a Bible that you trust the translation. Deception is on the rise exponentially.

43.                       Budget. It’s a mark of self-discipline (only if you stick to it).

44.                       "Stick-to-itiveness" is a word, and one worth being known by.

45.                       Your kids are always your kids, but only kids for a short time. Enjoy them while they are young and bring them up in the way they should go to enjoy future relationships with these men and women.

46.                       Two genders. ‘Nuff said.

47.                       If you are serious about leadership, learn logistics.

48.                       Eternal life began the moment you believed and professed Jesus is Lord. Quit trying to earn it and live in loving response to it.

49.                       Write. It doesn’t have to be much, but writing and thinking are inextricably linked, and one pays dividends in the other.

50.                       Best rule of public speaking I know. Put on your best clothes, talk only about what you know, and when you have said all that needs to be said, stop talking.

51.                       Parenting, coaching, and umpiring are No Wimps endeavors.

52.                       Also, Christian discipleship:  No Wimps.

53.                       Bill Russell was right. If you’ve got a good shot, take it. Don’t pass off.

54.                       Speaking the truth in love is more about our Christian maturity than the topic or recipient of our words.

55.                       Know how to bunt.

56.                       Keep a kid handy to open child-proof containers or fix your phone.

57.                       Johnny Carson stands alone as a late-night talk show host. I’m glad I watched him while I could still stay up late. Turn off this late-night poison that’s on now.

58.                       Say good morning, open doors for people, check on your neighbors, and never turn down an opportunity to take a nap.

59.                       Don’t walk by a bathroom without giving it a try once you hit 50.

60.                       Drink your coffee hot and your beer cold. Don’t get them confused.

61.                       Don’t use the same Q-Tip that you swabbed your rifle with to get the wax out of your ear, or so they say.

62.                       This take a knee business was skubalon. The NBA and NFL can live without me until those overpaid babies offer the nation an apology. It was a placebo in place of doing something of substance, which all of them were financially equipped to do.

63.                       Don’t spend too much time looking in the mirror at your appearance. Crazy hair scares off enough people to keep your schedule clear.

64.                       Spend much time in reflection—heart, mind, and soul.

65.                       Share the good news. You are commissioned to do this.

66.                       Forgive.

67.                       Hang in there. Even the Cubs win the Series once a century.

68.                       Get these right. James E. Jones when you need to get to the heart of the matter. Morgan Freeman, when the meter is essential, and Donald Sutherland to explain a mystery where the unbelievable makes sense.

69.                       Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.

70.                       When the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.

 

 

As soon as these are published, another dozen or so thoughts worth sharing will pop into my mind. Will see if they are still there at 75.

Carpet Bomb Iran

 

If we truly have air superiority in Iran, it is time for some carpet bombing. I’m not talking about WW II (two) style mass destruction of whatever is below.

I mean the public affairs and propaganda campaign of all time. Let’s put out millions of leaflets over every Iranian population center. The message is simple and along these lines, with adjustments for the language and syntax of our target audience.

The United States of America is your friend and wants you to govern your own country. We have targeted only targets directly related to Iran’s war-making ability.  That’s about to change.

If you do not do your part to remove those who would destroy your nation so they can rule over the ashes, the scope of the war will surely expand, and that means casualties that neither the people of your country nor ours want.

The people of both countries can get along and prosper. Your government must go. Now!  Time is running out. If we must do this last part, it won’t be surgical. It will be catastrophic for your nation.

We have no fight with the people of Iran. We have a common enemy—the IRGC. The IRGC is destroying your oil economy, and it will be an overwhelming task to restore it once it fails completely. Your government is sentencing you to decades of poverty when the great people of your land should know abundance.

Take charge of your country, be our friend, and receive assistance from your neighbors and us like never before.

It’s time for you to join the free nations of the world. It is time for Iran to enjoy the blessings of liberty.

We are with you, but you must take charge of governing your nation.

We are with you.

Let’s make sure the people of Iran understand their situation.

Grow a Set, America!

 

I have stayed out of most of the fraud, riots, ICE, and insurrection fray, but the insanity has reached a tipping point. When the judge restricted the use of tear gas (technically a powder) from use by law enforcement, I made a comment that the judge now owned responsibility for increased violence. He has skin in the game for he consequences of his actions.

Yes, his ruling said peaceful protests, but the mainstream media destroyed the term peaceful calling previous riots with fires and looting all around mostly peaceful.

Let’s be clear. This thing happening in our country right now is ugly and it will get uglier. If you restrict the use of non-lethal tools, you are left with lethal ones.  It works both ways.

Protesters that go too far may get shot. Law enforcement that restrain themselves too much are subject to injury and death as well as well as others they are protecting. They knew there was risk when they signed up, but they did not know that risk would be increased by one branch of government usurping power from another.

Peaceful assembly is not spitting in an officer’s face, beating on a manned vehicle or using one to run over law enforcement officers, or anything else that physically endangers those doing their duties.

This will get uglier now. Casualties will increase. More will die.

Who is responsible?

Trump? For some that’s always the answer. This weekend he is responsible for freezing temperatures in Florida. TDS is real but not the ultimate culprit.

The Democrats. They have earned their share of the blame. Now they are clamoring to bring back the fraud. I have neck issues from shaking my head.

Paid protesters? What a concept! Nothing says that I support this effort or that like sending someone else to stir the pot for you.

Massive fraud and corruption. This has surely fueled the fires of discontent among Americans normally comfortable in ignorantly being bilked by those elected to represent them and serve their country or state.

The media. George Orwell said that history ended in 1936 based on his experience in the Spanish Civil War. The American media said, ”Hold my beer.”

Who is responsible? Who?

You are. I am. Everyone who slept through decades of corruption until it reached a point where those elected thought they could get away with anything and did in degrees unimaginable.

 I am. You are.  When we put up with producing an immigration policy that was unfair and ineffective. We let the politicians—who were supposed to have been our servants—use the topic as a political football to boost their election funds and hopes of holding on to power.  We just watched and complained.

We ignored our laws and thought there would be no consequences. We saw the consequences yet still ignored them.

We moved to lawlessness and now are surprised when it is a battle to restore a lawful state.

If you don’t like the law then change the law. There is a process. It may be too slow for some but that’s because we let self-serving politicians run the process. The process works when the electorate does their job. We didn’t.

This will get ugly. With restrictions on nonviolent methods, it will be more violent.

Don’t blame ICE. Don’t blame the police who have not forsaken their oaths and duties and became political partisans, but who still do their duty.

Look in the mirror. Our complacency brought us to this point, and we don’t have the backbone to own our mistakes.

So, we divide and fight and blame and some will die. Ther blood is on our hands.

So, what can we do?

Grow a set, America. Own up to our mistakes. Return to the rule of law even if you don’t like the law.

That means that many will have to leave the country. Yes, the baby will go out with the bathwater in many cases. We have to own that as well. That’s on us. We ignored the massive unlawful influx and now many who need to be here need to leave first.

The discernment process was to be upon entry. Exit is wholesale. Go look in the mirror again.

Do some legitimate protestors suffer in the process? Absolutely!

If you are holding sign that says Peace in a group that is starting a fight, you might catch some gas or spray. Now, the odds are that you might get a bullet instead, or be standing next to the guy that injures or kills a law enforcement officer. What is your culpability?

The right to peaceful assembly is not the right to be immune from the consequences of choosing to exercise that right. That’s snowflake thinking when legitimate protest takes courage.

This has gone too far and judicial interference in what is clearly in the executive domain has upped the ante in the world of likely violence.

All Americans need to call for an end to this by demanding those here illegally to surrender to authorities and to support those law enforcement efforts to apprehend and process those who won’t.

There should be mercy and grace for those who willingly surrender to authorities. That would look like eligibility to return, but defending lawlessness can no longer prevail.

We need immigrants. Support of lawlessness only hurts those who want to be here and be Americans. Both the potential immigrant and the nation that receives these contributors suffer.

We have to reboot the system. We let it go too far. This will be painful. It doesn’t have to be violent, unless the insistence of siding with those outside of the law continues.

We are people capable of great things. Concurrently with the law enforcement efforts underway, we could rewrite and enact an immigration law that is win-win.

We need immigrants not invaders. Many who come here yearn for the opportunities of our forefathers. Many come to exploit and destroy. Failure to discern and discriminate is cowardice on our part.

Send the politicians home and get statesmen who are public servants.  Keep it that way. We are paying too high a price for self-serving elected officials.

We can do this!

Stop the lawlessness and all forms of support attached to it and fix the immigration system.

There will be pain. We let corruption, fraud, and lawlessness go on for too long. In many cases our complacency was used to manipulate us for personal profit among those called to serve.

If we want a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, then we need to stop being a terrible parent. Our kids—future generations—are going to prison because we didn’t have the backbone to follow our Constitution and the laws derived from it processes. Yes, I have ventured into metaphor, so let’s add this one.

Grow a set America. Let’s fix this. We don’t back away from problems. We solve them.

Grow a set, return to being a society of laws, and let’s fix the immigration problem with real solution.

Mercy and grace will prevail again, but there is neither without repentance. We missed the mark and are paying for it now.

We can do this! And we can do this without much violence.

Code Breakers Hangout in South Padre

  

 

Reading reviews on a resort in South Padre Island (never been there, yet, but Winter is coming!) and came across this one review that made me laugh.  I found where all the code breakers hang out.

"worst place with the best view"

midatrading1 - 2025-08

the property is very decrypted. broken door, dirty bathroom, roaches, broken blind, broken garbage disposal, tv work some time. just don't waste your money or time here. there is other places with... Read full review

This traveler wasn't happy with anything else either, and I'm sure his English teacher would say he never knew him.

The Right to Kill

 I missed the Vietnam War by about a year but was very aware of the disgraceful treatment of our veterans at that time. Imagine calling a soldier a “Baby Killer” just for serving.

We kill millions of babies each year in this nation, but if you stand up for the rights of these precious innocents, you are labeled a hater.

I don’t want any more laws. I pray that we once again value human life. There are birth control treatments out of the wazoo. To men and women alike, if you don’t want to be responsible for a life, don’t conceive.

Beyond that, I would like to see the same standard that we apply to our service men and women and those who serve in law enforcement used in these cases where killing a child is involved. In war, sometimes civilian casualties are inevitable. The standard is military necessity.

Sometimes, a law enforcement officer must use deadly force to protect the lives of others or his or her own. Neither the soldier nor the lawman has the RIGHT TO KILL another human.

Let’s apply a standard similar to those who support and defend our Constitution or those sworn to protect and serve when it comes to the killing of innocent children.

Yes, the woman has a unique position. She carries the unborn child but she does not have the right to kill. Just as not everyone is called to serve in the armed forces and not everyone is beckoned to law enforcement, so too, not every woman is called to conceive a child.

Let’s not delude ourselves any longer. Masquerading the right to kill as the right to choose is repulsive, especially in our Western society, where birth control methods are ubiquitous.

It’s more than a fetus. It is a living human made in the image of God. Killing such an innocent being is, at best, manslaughter and most likely depraved indifference murder.

There is no right to kill. There is a duty to care for and nurture children in and out of the womb.

Are there exceptions to be considered for rape and incest, perhaps, but there is no right to kill. Let’s quit hiding behind the language of the right to choose and call it what it is—murder.

We must not kill for convenience! 

Making Scripture fit your Worldly Model

Seems like so many people are trying to make scripture fit into their model or mantra of the month.  There are several, but one of those has to do with Jesus in Luke 15.  If we are to be accurate, Jesus told the parables in Luke 15.  He is not in them.  He makes comparisons between what is lost and found on earth and the measures that we go to in order to find it or him.  He noted the rejoicing in heaven when a sinner comes home.

Elsewhere Jesus does refer to himself as the Good Shepherd, so let’s walk this parable through as proffered by the meme with Jesus as the shepherd.  He leaves the 99 not in the safety of their sheep pen but in the wilderness.  Some recent translations say in the open country.  The meme presumes  that they are not in danger.

What does that mean?  The 99 have some skin in the game (ok, wool in the game) as well.  As per the scripture, the sheep have no speaking parts.  They are not personified in any way, but if we play along with the meme, they say, “But what about us?  Don’t we matter?”

The convoluted answer is of course the 99 still matter, but they are not in danger.  Not in danger? They are not without existential risk.  They risk the danger common to sheep.  Thieves and killers usually top the list.  That is to say, they are involved and have a stake in this rescue mission even though they were not forward deployed. 

Now let’s look at who is this one sheep?  If we keep fidelity with this parable and the other two in chapter 15, this sheep is lost.  In the greater context, the sheep is a sinner or rebellious.  The sheep needs to repent.  Let’s leave it in the original context.  The sheep is lost.

So, as we try to make the parable fit the BLM narrative, are we saying that black lives—black people—are all sinners?  Are they rebellious?  Are they lost?

So, it’s not about white privilege or racial profiling or the one being disenfranchised, but that black people are sinners?  That surely is not the intended meaning, is it?

Is it?

But we all have sinned, right?  Remember the word “all” is what got this controversy started.  Which lives mattered?  It is as if saying all lives matter detracted from saying black lives matter.  So, is the one a sinner or a black sinner, or just a sheep?

That’s the problem with trying to make scripture fit a human narrative.  Scripture is the lens, the paradigm through which we must view the world.  When we try to make scripture fit our thinking, we have succumbed to the tricks and tools of the Father of Lies.

This is nothing new.  Satan tempted Jesus by mixing God’s word with lies but Jesus didn’t fall for it.  We must know God’s word so well that we don’t jump on every bandwagon that glitters.

When people take God’s holy word and try to make it cute or catchy so as to fit their narrative, they mock God.  They want the disciples of the like and share kind that are not interesting in the truth but in going with the flow.  We have been conformed to the patterns of this world long enough.  It’s time for us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds and know the truth that sets us free and not the glittery lies that enslave.

Read all of chapter 15, especially the third parable.  It brings home that it is about the love of our Father in heaven and the celebration that takes place when a sinner comes home.  Sheep, coins, and sons help tell the story but the story is about the love of the Father. 

One of the memes along the lines of Luke 15 that is currently at large, inquires if you remember Jesus in Luke 15.  If you do, you will remember that he narrates the parables.  But the meme entices you that if you don’t remember, here’s the summary.

Wrong answer!  If you don’t remember, don’t trust the summary.  Go read the scripture yourself.  Then listen to what is proffered and go back to the scriptures and search them to see if what’s presented has any fidelity to God’s word.  Get Berean.

I use personification frequently in my messages, but I read the scripture to the people first.  I challenge people who hear and ready my messages to search the scriptures.  Take my messages as a challenge to learn more.  Stay hungry for God’s word.

I could go on about trying to fit scripture into human causes or to trying to make what was proffered in parable somehow allegorical.  Instead, I will offer some scripture that might help with this issue of what lives matter.

It’s only fair that if I want you to jump off the fool’s gold bandwagon, I should give you someplace to land if you want biblical counsel as you consider your part in BLM or other worldly constructs.

Consider what is often called the Parable of the Bigger Barns.  It comes just a bit earlier in Luke’s gospel.  We won’t try to match characters with black people or white people.  There is no allegory here, but there is a question.

Are we rich towards God?

The man in the parable was super rich, super blessed, and super privileged.  He had it all and more was on the way, but what was he going to do with it?  He was going to build bigger barns to store it.

The rich man, sometimes referred to as the rich fool, did not know that this would be his last day on earth.  He thought only of himself when he considered his privilege and blessing and bounty, but his life would be judged by whether or not he was rich towards God with what he had.

Most of the time that means are we rich towards others.

The second place to turn is the Parable of the Talents.  Again, we don’t seek allegory.  We ask ourselves a question that is never asked by the master but answered by all three servants.

What did you do with what I gave you?

Instead of insisting that others repeat your mantra, insist that you live your life to the full so as to bring glory to God. 

Instead of insisting on our own way, let love govern and let our lives matter in those whom we reach.

Stop trying to fit God’s word into your model.  Let God show you truth and purpose and next steps. 

Seek him first and his kingdom and his righteousness, then see what he blessing he bestows upon you.  They might be exactly what your heart is calling your to do but the world is enticing you to abandon.

Know the voice of the Good Shepherd so you do not follow those who would lead you astray.

If I took all the time I spent on Facebook

If I took all the time I spent on Facebook

And used it for something more

Would I lose my online connections

Or open other doors?

Could the world survive without my comments?

So much seems to be at stake

Between presidential politics

And ever vitriolic debate.

If I don’t post which lives matter

Do any matter at all?

If I don’t patrol the ongoing clatter

Through the cracks something will fall.

Can I live apart from the nonstop banter?

Does the absurd comment demand my immediate response?

If it’s not posted does it really matter?

Whose to turn it on or turn it off?

People say things ever so boldly

That in person they don’t embrace.

Some injustice brings bold words of broadcast

That they won’t say with you face-to-face.

Baseball and birthdays now come with video

And can be posted in a flash.

A welcome reprieve from the drama

Where opposing views must clash.

So what to do with this thing called Facebook

It has engulfed most every life.

Take it or leave it or a little of both

Either way there is a price.

Now reflect upon this premise

Not yet spoken in this rhyme

We are truly a blessed people

To have the time to be online.