Sometimes the devil likes us to be silent

The air is silent. It lingers all around you as it encompasses you forcing you to feel safe and warm. It tugs at your senses allowing you to catch a glimpse of its true intentions. But your common sense tries to reassure you that the silence is a welcomed respite as compared to your normal surroundings; the city.

The time out in the woods is a time for you to relax, it's a time for you to collect your thoughts and connect with nature once again. Connecting to your surroundings of nature is a longing when you are surrounded by tall buildings, and bustling people who invade and pollute your personal space with cigarette smoke, verbal excessives, spilled coffee at the check out counter. The weekly grind for you has a way of sapping the energy from you as if demands from work and the outside world weren't enough, the demands of home is also draining as family affairs sometimes get too be too much.

Out here in the forest surrounded by meadowy hills as far as the eye can see is the grounding calm you've longed for all day and as you step out into the wilderness, you feel your senses reboot and come back to normal. Sometimes you travel to this place alone, but today you bring your family as you want to encourage them to connect with nature. It's a feeling you want to share with them as you want to encourage in them a sense of purpose and peace.

See no evil, hear no evil.

My daughter had been talking about having a bunny as a pet. I have been very firm on the idea. Rabbits do not belong in cages. I know, I owned a few in my early twenties and they were the happiest when I let them out of the hutch to roam free around the yard. It was a conversation her and I only had to visit once, as she understood my point; God's creatures need to be as free to be themselves as they can.

A few weeks ago, we got a lesson in just how true that sentiment is; my daughter came across a baby bunny in the most peculiar way. Our conversation wasn't long before she had found the bunny, maybe a week or two before, however long it was, it was a recent conversation. That's the point I want to make clear. I do not believe in coincidences, and God tells us we shouldn't either. Everything has a reason, a purpose and plan, and all things come together for God, for those who choose to follow Him. ( I'm paraphrasing.)

It was the weekend, I had made plans to to go out on Saturday August 30, but I decided to stay at home. It was raining, and I just needed to get some things done around the house, so Sunday we went. My daughter was the first to leave the house and go to the vehicle. I usually lag behind, making sure things are off, and say a prayer before any trip. I had no sooner stepped out of the house pulling the locked door to a close behind me when my daughter came up to me and said, ' Mom, I think there's a baby bunny by your Tahoe. I'm not sure but that's what it looks like. I almost stepped on it!'

I asked her a series of questions, not that I doubted her, just I knew this highly unusual for rabbit behavior, especially a wild rabbit. The instincts to flee are a part of the creature's behavioral habits that is simply overwhelming, to the point the animal acts by reacting to any outside response. If my daughter almost stepped on the poor thing, than it most likely was dead.

The devil IS in the details PRT 2

Continued from The devil Is in the details  PRT 1

Six years ago I began a friendship with Jason online. This person had a love for God that was invigorating. It was innocent, and raw, tangible; a bit naive, but encouraging. Jason's love for God revealed my own shortcomings, and highlighted his strengths; although we did not talk often when we talked it was always about faith, and helping others.

I had met Jason on a particular website that I frequented because of what I do; I am in crisis outreach and I offer emotional help and support to those in need. Jason, to my knowledge was not a person in need, but had specifically asked me to pray for someone he knew, to which I did, but that prayer also revealed to me that Jason was one who needed God's help.

I had not known anything personal about Jason. He did not reveal much about himself to me. He enjoyed talking to me about God, and that was fine with me. However when I turned to God in prayer, I was shown a very personal side to Jason and I knew God wanted me to tell Jason what I knew, but I didn't. I stayed silent on the one opportunity I had to let Jason know that God knew. What God revealed to me would have gotten Jason's attention and had the potential to help, but I was too worried about my ego. I was anxious that I might loose a friend because of what I knew. I made the situation about me, when the situation was about Jason and his salvation. Time was running out for him, although it was his choice to commit suicide, it was my choice to stay silent, and not say anything. I didn't reveal to Jason what I knew about him because I was too afraid of how it would look.  What I knew of Jason would embarrass him as God revealed to me that Jason was conflicted and had tried to commit suicide a few times before. It has been my experience that if you ask someone who is thinking of suicide, sometimes they can become defensive and scared, and this stops them from asking or reaching out to you for help. ( Not always, but sometimes.)

The devil IS in the details. PRT 1

Continued from 'Is the devil in the details?'

Why is the question we all ask. Why was my son or daughter taken? Why did my dad have to go missing? Why was my friend not found on a well known trail? Why is a question that seems no one can answer.

Why was I not taken yesterday ( Friday June 20) while I sat motionless, alone in my yard? Why are YOU and ME not missing victims but there are countless of others who are?

"Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left." Matthew 24:40-41 

"I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left." Luke 17:34

If I could just ask you to lay down what you know about scripture; and lay down the common belief that these two scriptural passages direct our understanding towards a rapture theory, because in truth; they do not.  It's been a common understanding that being left behind is a 'bad' thing. Those that believe in the rapture theory are anxious as they await a time to be whisked away to escape God's coming wrath.  What if the above scriptures were not directing our attention to a time of a 'rapture' but a time of judgement? Then in that case to be left behind is a good thing, and to be taken is -not so much.

Is the devil in the details?

There is a re-occurring issue between these missing person's cases that seems to be a problem  no one wants to address. It lingers like a big ol pink elephant in the room, and as obvious as it maybe, it goes ignored because- many people would get offended.

Who in their right mind likes to be told that they are wrong? But that is the issue- human error.

It is a lack of common sense, good judgment and ill equipped and ill informed people that get themselves into trouble because most people ride the assumption that the worst could never happen to them.

Wrestling with the truth that becomes reality

The missing persons situations show us that it no longer matters what we are willing or unwilling to accept. To place such boundaries on improbabilities only continues to make the situation about us, and it isn't. It's about the victims, those who are left behind and those who are taken. The only way this becomes about us, is as a collective group on how we can possibly keep ourselves safe, by watching out for one another by informing each other. We need to do that; to start watching out for our fellow man for the betterment of our world.

We need the truth. The families deserve the truth, because the reality of what is going on is a crime against humanity. I am guilty for not taking this as serious as this needs to be. Shame on me, because I know and what I know is not something the families would want to hear. Thank God for David Paulides for his working slant helps the families come to some sort of understanding. While those understandings are beneficial to a point, they don't help in discovering what needs to be discovered; the truth.

We assume we have all the answers; I know I do. But as it turns out just when I think I have things all figured out; I really don't. That's what happened with me and this interview.  I assumed I knew what David was going to say, and his interview was just more of the same. I don't mean that to sound rude but like I said, and I am sure you will agree, that listening to missing person's stories leaves a black cloud around one's heart.
I wanted to listen but in all honesty, I had been engulfed in a separate area of study, that needed my attention. How was I to know that one had everything to do with the other?

I didn't and I didn't assume that they did as I couldn't have known this until after I had concluded my area of study. They say timing is everything and the bible tells us that there are no such things as coincidences. Things truly happen for a reason...

Wrestling with the truth

I finally listened to David Paulides most recent interview on Coast to Coast. It was an interesting interview, promoting his newest book '411: The devil is in the details'. I have to admit, it was another sobering and heavy burden to listen to. I had to ask myself why was I so conflicted? For me it goes a bit beyond human nature  because I know what I know; it's what most people don't want to know or aren't willing to admit. I don't mean that to sound arrogant. I just have no choice but to stay true to my experience.

I could have been one of those victims, a thousand times over. Any one of us out in the field of study can be at any given moment. Why them and not us?