Faith

a-ladder-to-the-stars

This is a drawing I made back in May of 1998… when I made this drawing I was in the midst of my first big depression, laid off from work, injured, and on Workman’s Comp.

If you would like to get a framed print, sticker, note card, journal or greeting cards of this drawing, you can visit my Cafe Press shop here

faith-framed_print

UPDATE: Later in the day, August 13th…

streamsEveryday Tania and I have a few devotionals that we read and have been for a long time. One of those devotionals is “Streams In The Desert – 366 Daily Devotional Readings” by L.B. Cowman, revised, 1997 edition.

For today the reading included this:

“If the clouds are full of water, they pour rain upon the earth” – Ecclesiastes 11:3

“…How can we have rain without clouds? Our troubles have always brought us blessings, and they always will, for they are the dark chariots of God’s bright and glorious grace.”

There was much more in the devotional that seemed to go with the drawing… funny how things work out like that.


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The Bankers and the Homeowners – A Story

It’s Friday, and I thought it would be a nice day for a little story…

The Bankers and The Homeowners

A new administration and a new Congress had come to Washington DC, along with a massive financial disaster brought about by a number of things, but one major factor was the greedy and shortsighted bankers collapsed plan built on inflated home values and reckless loans. And because of their bad decisions, economies around the world were devastated.

But the new administration came in and started to clean house, and they called these bankers before them to explain themselves. Even though they were guilty of massive frauds and mismanagement, the new administration and Congress forgave them, and in order to keep what was left of the economy afloat, they loaned them more money and told them to get their houses in order.

Very quickly the bankers had money flowing back to their banks, and their jobs were saved and bonuses were awarded… and then a letter came from a homeowner who was three months behind on his house payment, and was not asking for money, but just a little more time so he could save his families home.

The bankers were outraged. “You should be more responsible… no more time – foreclose on that house today…”

Well, word got around the Internet pretty quickly, and soon the outcry was so great that the new administration and Congress heard about it and called the bankers back in to question them about this situation.

“We forgave you and helped you to keep going, but your fellow citizen just asked for a crumb by comparison and you’re ready to throw him out on the street with his wife and children… Now, not only are we going to take your companies, but also your homes, cars, airplanes and bonuses, and you are all going to be put into prison for a very long time…”

Credit Where Credits Due

This would have worked just as well as The Bankers And The Credit Card Holders, but I went with the homeowners…

I hope you enjoyed my story, but I must admit that I borrowed heavily from the greatest story-teller of all time, Jesus of Nazareth.

Lots of people do comeback tours, I’d sure like to see Jesus do a return engagement. He’d be great on Letterman or with Jon Stewart, Live with Larry King…

The original version of my story can be found in any Bible – Matthew 18:21-35 (that’s the first book in the New Testament) – and really, Jesus tells it better… and the question he’s answering is about forgiveness, and how often should we forgive someone… a good thing to think about in the days ahead.

Have a great Friday and a blessed weekend,
Jon, onehumanbeing


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Double Rainbow

Double Rainbow Detail - Click to see full Image of the Moment

Please note: I am publishing this post about a week [2-25-2009] after I first wrote it. See the note at the end of the post for more details…

Ripples After The Splash

The last 36 hours have been very difficult. (the story gets better, really…)

I’ve experienced this before, the relapse after a big depression, just as you’re heading out of the whirlpool. It’s like ripples from a big splash in a pond.

Peeved

That’s the word I settled on to describe how I feel today. I’m angry, bothered and vexed – but mostly it’s wrestling with God, trying to get through my confusion of the moment…

So today, I’m not the best to be around – I have a short temper, and I feel like I have an agenda in every conversation… most of which have been with Tania who had the day off today and got to enjoy my dark windstorms and blowing clouds…

I don’t get this way very often, and haven’t in a long time, so it’s really throwing me around this time, and tripping up my footing.

I believe in a God of big promises, and today I need to see some of those show up… like I said – I have been peeved today. Maybe it’s something I ate, my various medications – I don’t know…

A note to those who don’t understand the work of faith: faith is not blind, it’s a force that strips away all your illusions and makes you face the real problems, like food on the table and clothes to wear. To learn about faith that works you have to ask questions, it’s fear and doubt that keeps you one quiet.

I found out from Tania as I was muttering about in my peeved ramblings this morning, that she was dealing with the same kind of thoughts, and she had been praying about the same things that were bothering me.

Praying – a much better response. That’s how we’ve moved from questions to answers in the past – we prayed – and it has worked every time so far…

We both agreed that we needed to see some of those promises, and now was a really good time, really… and we prayed.

Rainbows

Later this afternoon I drove over to A Soothing Remedy Collective, and saw my new friend Dr. Shillstein (that’s his weedtracker username), the guy who runs the place.

2009-mmj-week

I usually enjoy visiting the Dr. but today I was just a dark cloud coming to visit. I had gone there just to drop off some MMJ (Medical Marijuana) Week buttons for them to give away,  but I also picked up a gram of Mango OG Kush (the Dr. recommended it for my situation – a very good choice) and left…

After I got home and had some of my new herb (still feeling peeved, but in a nice, kush-induced, fuzzy kind-of-way) I glanced out the front window and saw the most beautiful rainbow I’ve ever seen (and no, the rainbow wasn’t because of the herb).

I called Tania over to see, and we both ran downstairs to try and get a photo of this amazing sight.

I’m very serious when I say I’ve never seen such a brilliant, complete, colorful double rainbow. The composite photo above does not do it justice.

Now I realize that there are “rainbows” and there are “Rainbows: The Amazing Version” – This was the latter…

I have never seen one such as this, but I imagine that the one Noah saw must have been like this, because you look up it and go, “Wow…” – you just have to.

You might or might not know that the rainbow Noah saw was a sign to him from God that represented God’s promises to him, God’s covenant with Noah, and all mankind after him. I feel like today, God answered my storms with a rainbow…

An after note: 11:30 pm – I’m still feeling a bit peeved – I hope this feeling goes away when this current depression ripple passes because I do not like feeling this way…

Note from about a week later – Feb 25, 2009

I didn’t publish this post on the day I wrote it because in it’s draft form it was such an incomplete picture of what was going on in our life, the much bigger picture where this is just one footstep of faith leading to the next – but for those that don’t walk this way it could cause confusion.

My life is about fanning the spark of faith in the people I meet, and I don’t want to do anything to blow out that spark…

This double rainbow was followed up by a show the next day on the Science Channel about Uncertainty and Quantum Physics. When I need spiritual clarity, I turn to Quantum Physics – it gives me great perspective.

All the peeved feelings melted away after that night, and my questions have started to return to me as answers that help me see the world with more love, hope and purpose…

And I have a new material for my work now – Uncertainty. More about that coming up soon…

So now, over a week later, I’m starting to understand in an even-more-amazed-way the beauty of that rainbow, on that particular day, and that moment. It’s a gift that keeps on giving. My faith is now stronger and has a larger vision…


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Change

Change

I have been one busy human being, and much goodness is in the works from onehumanbeing.com in the weeks ahead…

As you can see from the picture above – this blog is getting a redesign, both to speed up the page loading and make the site easier to understand, navigate, and all-around more enjoyable. I think of myself as a blogging rookie this year – but I’m getting this thing figured out.

As I’ve been working, a theme and approach to my work has surfaced after 11 or so years of meditating on this idea: Share Your Truth.

I first felt the compulsion of this idea in March of 1998, and have spent a long time growing out of who I was and into the skin of this idea… All things in the fullness of time.

As we begin 2009 I feel compelled, an urging from every creative part of me to orient on this idea…

I wasn’t expecting to move this way – I have a whole other agenda prepared and ready to build… but that is the way of the Spirit, and I am just the wind… going where the pressures of the Spirit move me.

On the plate, but out-of-view right now, are the following site updates:

  • onehumanbeing.com – better organization and navigation.
  • The MMJ Project – complete make-over to accomplish goals I originally started with (more on that when the redesign is ready, but you can go peek at it if you like…) including medical marijuana graphics and other souvenirs of the project available for download (through Creative Commons licensing) and merchandise to purchase through CafePress.
  • The Medical Marijuana Lists – a major piece of work from The MMJ Project, very big project site underway – anticipated launch date is January 31, 2009

Sign-up for the newsletter and get updated when it’s all good to go. Until then… Best of health, Jon, onehumanbeing


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Some Things Are True, Whether You Believe Them Or Not.

This was my desktop for quite a long time… I took the quote from something I wrote a long time ago.

I like to remember how limited my knowledge and wisdom is, that there is a huge universe out there that I know nothing about… and there are just some things that are true, whether I believe it or not.

If you would like to have this image for your computer desktop, here you go… click the image below, then just right click the image and save it to your computer.

2008-10-26-some-things-are-true-desktop_0.jpg

please note: this image is copyrighted by onehumanbeing.com and Jon, onehumanbeing


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