"God’s voice is often “still, small”; we have to strain to hear it. This isn’t one of those times. These days God seems to be shouting. But like the garbled command from a field general to his troops in battle, we know the message is vital but it is hard to decipher. We are left to figure it out.In Florida we’ve seen an already deeply damaged woman waste away amidst anger, contempt, bitterness, and most every other ill trait of human nature. Even now, like insatiable vultures, the opponents battle over a body, a memory, a sympathetic place in our hearts. In Rome we've watched Pope John Paul II finishing what Paul the Apostle called the "race" following Jesus of Nazareth".
This was just an excerpt from an article by David Kuo on http://www.beliefnet.com/ . To finish the article, I would admonish you to go there and read the article yourself. I think that this is just as newsworthy as any other "celebrity news" that passes for human interest stories now a days. Not being catholic, I didn't really know much about the Pope. I do know that he was born Karol Wojtyla, in Poland. I've heard that he was a "good man". He was much loved also, by hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people all over the world.
When you think about it, it's only right that he should get as much air time as Michael Jackson, more even!! ( yet, why we hear so much about Mr. Jackson, is still a surprise to me). Like, I've said so often before, WHAT is our obsession with celebrities all about? Right before I would turn the channel from the news, I would see people waiting outside of the courthouse, waiting for JUST A GLIMPSE of Mr. Jackson, some even crying, when he did show up!! I just don't get it. Oh, well. I think that I missed getting that "prone to obsessions, gene," when I was born. Don't get me wrong, I LIKE some celebs, I just don't obsess over any of them.
This may sound weird to some of you people now a days. I don't buy much music, (cds), and I don't buy many DVDs, if someone asks me for something like that, for say a birthday gift, or even a christmas gift? Mainly my grandchildren, or sometimes my own children, and/or their spouses? I will spend a few dollars for a favorite cd, or DVD, but for myself? No. I got a cd of music by the artist, Maxwell. This was a gift, to me from my niece, Janeen, a couple of years ago, (well maybe four or five years ago), and it is the same one I listen to now, and about the ONLY one I listen to over and over!! My daughter Cherokee, loves cds and dvds, so when ever one comes out that she likes the singer, or loved the movie, she buys.
Yeah, I watch them, or listen to them with her. One thing that I can say for her though, is that when she gets paid, the FIRST thing that Cherokee does is "tithe". She is faithful about that. Not to brag, but I tithe also, but after that, I just cannot see giving my money to these people that I hear about, on the tv. Not in a good way usually either! Not all of them of course, but the ones I do hear, or see negative things about, really don't get my few pennies!!!
Over at Plush, (my darlings), Geno and Ann's cafe, in Fullerton, CA., we heard a new music artist called, Sandbloom. I think it was, and he was relatively unknown. Now him? I bought a cd from. He was selling them himself, out of the trunk of his car. Hey, the guy was enterprising, and he was also very GOOD! That was $15.00 well spent. Then, I gave the cd away. I also have one cd of Carlos Whitaker's Band*, and one of MOI, both of whom I heard at the church I attend, http://www.sandalschurch.com/ and I love both of those groups, alot.
These are just the people I chose to support, the other singers or even actors, making millions on the rest of the people who buy their music, or films, don't need my few dollars. I feel, to each his/her own. Live and let live. Do What you like. Now people like John Paul II, while they are there at the top, they live like kings. They have the best of the best. Hopefully, they worked for the good of mankind, while they served in office. I cannot bring myself to say, "served GOD", 'cause, I don't know who they served. In reality, who really knows what goes on behind closed doors?
Popes, kings, emperors, czars, queens, presidents, potentates around the world, the whole lot of them, history has always shown that they lived to comfort themselves. First and foremost. Even those we thought we knew and loved, when the real (at least what we think is the real) stories of their lives come to light. There is no "hero" behind the lot of any of them. No role models, no one to look up to. Maybe Mother Theresa, I never heard anything behind her service to humanity, no hidden agenda. I, for one, pray that that legacy holds fast. Through-out time, and discovery.
Only one, in my estimation, deserves true loyalty, love, honor, and dedication. That is JESUS. Regardless of the bad press, and the denials of HIS diety, and the non-delief that HE even existed, I cannot believe that HE didn't. That HE wasn't WHO HE claimed to be, that HE didn't do more for the human race than any other MAN that walked on this earth. As far as I am concerned, JESUS is the ultimate of the utmost, and deserves all the praise, honor and glory each of us has and are willing to give, (amen), and if Pope John II was the man he is presented to be by those that knew him, then I believe he has, and will receive his due. No doubt about it. Amen.
*http://www.carloswhittakerband.com/ <.http://www.moimusic.org/>.
