The Witching Hours

"There is one simple thing wrong with you. You think you have plenty of time." - Don Juan Matus

There are witching hours each day. The hours, speculated between 12am and 2am, that supernatural activity is most prevalent. Pagan mysticism. These hours are also said to be prohibited for any Catholic worship. But I ask you, do you put limits on your worship? Are there limits to the work that you will do, especially when it needs to be done?

Hours that ask questions and we delay the answer. We delay because we fear work. We fear the hard answers. We are the bird that cannot learn to fly, for it has never left the cage.

BUT THE CAGE WAS NEVER LOCKED!

Just try the fucking door and you will be able to walk free. Is this too much for the average person? Must be, because there are only a few that can escape the illusion of lack that blinds the world. Charles Bukowski was a staunch proponent of work, because he understood that hard work sets apart the powerful and the mundane. Michael Jordan. Salvador Dali. I could name hundreds.

Man doesn't truly want freedom. True freedom, means WAR. A war within the self that means challenge and frustration. It could mean uprooting everything that you thought. All that you believe. Sleepless nights. Poverty. Disdain.

We cannot be boxed in when work must be done. So the witching hours will see work as well, and you will defy the tenets of restraint and age old codes of performance. You will be free.

Daily Devotional: Your Spiritual Appetite

John 6:27

27 “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

We are a nation of obese and lazy people. Even our military is overweight. It's a sad state of affairs when the people that should be able bodied are having a hard time with being disciplined.

We don't thirst and hunger for the food of the soul, that meat that nourishes our very being. God's word is there for us to study and meditate on, yet we find ourselves busy doing things of no consequence. I am guilty if this, for sure.

I pray that you all seek the manna of God, that he feed and water your very being. Be blessed with his word and find your appetite is renewed, your palate now ready for a more worthy meal. Look within and see that you could never be without.

May God grant you strength to endure this harsh world. Amen.

Daily Devotional: Pray for Rain Amidst the Drought

“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
– 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 (NIV)

We expect God to forgive us, but often we forget that we still must repent for our sins. We must seek God in earnest, asking not only for forgiveness, but for guidance.  We look toward him for deliverance, and we must find our way here, on the earthly plain while he works outside of time.

God does not condemn us to torment and pain. Often, we find ourselves on this path due to the problems we face and what we do to each other.  We are all connected.  Each and every one of us is linked, and what we do individually will eventually affect someone else; and so on, and so forth.  Surely, you did not think you were here on this planet, alone, eking out your existence in lonesome drudgery? No, my friends. We are here, together.  And until we understand this mere fact, that we share an eternal and fateful connection, we will consistently suffer each other's hurt over and over again.

Humility is not something one comes by easily.  It takes effort to admit you are wrong.  You, who have committed sin against another, will likely not admit it to their face.  We barely like to admit that we are wrong. Isn't that sad?  But God in Heaven shows us that forgiveness is not something that is just given, but earned and worked for, because you have to be able to forgive others, first.

May you be blessed today.  Amen.

Daily Devotional: Through The Flame

Isaiah 43:2

2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.

My father asked me today if I was feeling alright. He asked me if I was depressed. My father is quite insightful, able to see certain signs in my behavior. I told him that I was fine, although yesterday I had begun to think negatively about my present state of affairs. I had almost succumbed to the thought that I had failed. Yet, my father, being who he is, told me that this is only a temporary situation. Very true. It is indeed temporary.

I told him that even as it was temporary, I felt that we all must reap what we sow. We all pay for the choices we make sooner or later, whether they are good or bad. He was in agreement and conveyed that he felt much the same about his cancer.

But through these trials, God is always with us. He doesn't desert us, no matter how we feel about our situations or our lives. This scripture was perfect for today, and I must meditate on its perfection. It is like a sharp sword; how much the Word is like a soothing medicine. It heals and cuts. The word builds and destroys. May it give you peace and torment, bringing you to the Light of Day.

Amen.

Fulfillment

No difficulties here. Heh. I'm tripping, right now, sitting in a library about 8 stories up, thinking that the world is a much larger place than previously speculated. As of late, I have been posing questions to myself, wondering if I died today, would I feel complete? Would I be fulfilled?

Quickly, the question becomes, "Am I fulfilled?" Do I feel as if I have accomplished all that I set out to? Emphatically, no. Yet, I have striven for change and purpose and love and God, and I have found them all.

It is a wonder that some people commit suicide contemplating this life. It is sometimes a bit much to bear. Sometimes we just cannot let go of the past. At times, we feel we have no other choice. As the Good Book notes, it is a sin to kill anyone, even yourself, and you will pay for it in the fires of Hell. I don't take the Bible as literally as some folks, because it just wouldn't make sense to see it that way, but Hell could be something we have never thought of, something our feeble human minds cannot grasp.

The world is a much larger place that previously mentioned. I find myself at ease with seeing it all shine so bright in one moment, and be depressingly stark in others. It is the good and the bad, the give and the take, which balances this universe fully. One would be insignificant without the other. Best believe it.