Rubber Band Man
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13 NASB
All things– I opened a box of keepsakes. I’d had them for a long time. Too precious to discard but no space to display, so they stayed, carefully wrapped, in storage, not quite forgotten, gentle reminders whenever I came to look at things that mattered to me. One such artifact was a drawing, rolled up for preservation, kept in place with a rubber band. When I tried to unroll it, the rubber band simply broke. All that time under tension exhausted its elasticity. It froze into place, stretched to one particular size, until the day I tried to move it. And then it simply came apart. Nothing was left of its ability to change shape. Too many years under tension.
Sort of like me.
I wonder if I’ve been stretched in place too long to remain pliable. I wonder if I’m not just a useless shape these days, having held onto something for so long that I’m just waiting to fall apart. Once there was a time when I could manage my way around things. I could expand and contract to fit the need. But now I’m fossilized, stretched too long in one direction, filled with exhausting tension until I am no longer able to change. An addict of accidental accommodations. Human beings don’t have an infinite capacity for adaptability. Our personal histories often determine our trauma elasticity. We can only take so much.
My back hurts often. My ankle is constantly swollen. I have a persistent twinge in one knee. There is a sore spot behind my eyes. I probably can’t climb Aasgard Pass in the Enchantments any more. I’d like to think I can, but the reality is a worn out rubber band. I’m running out. It’s that simple—and that terrifying. Not in the sense of walking through a graveyard in the dark. No, rather in the sense of loss—loss of my time with those I love the most, loss of the beauty of the earth in places I won’t see, loss of understanding the depths of things that interest me, loss of not being all I wanted to be; and not enough time to become what I missed along the way. But most of all, regrets that I squandered what should have mattered most by trying to hold everything at once. I should have let the rubber band loose years ago, when it could still do its work. Now there’s just the petrified memory of its real purpose.
“ . . . because we know that we are less than our names: we are our names minus whatever belongs in the empty place. And the question a man is apt to ask in the darkest moments of his life is what salvation can there be, from anywhere, for the man who is less than his name.”[1]
“We have only one life, and the choice of how we are going to live it must be our own choice, not one that we let the world make for us . . . for each of us there comes a point of no return, a point beyond which we no longer have life enough left to go back and start all over again.”[2]
My clock is ticking, slowing down, coming to rest, ending. These days the hurts get deeper, the sadness more intense. Where has the time gone? Oh, yes, it was taken up while I was stretched too much to notice.
Paul might have been able to do all things, but not me. I might like to think that I could do all things, but that’s wishful thinking. The truth is much more harsh. I only had so much capacity and most of it dissipated just trying to hold things together.
Topical Index: stretch, do all things, Philippians 4:13
[1]Frederick Buechner Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons(HarperOne, 2006), p. 31.
Skip, I used to say “getting old beats the alternative,” but as I grow older and deeper in my walk with Yeshua I am not as convinced of that conclusion as I once was, but I do agree with the statement that “growing old is not for sissies”. You have earned the right of a Sabbath, a sabbatical and a siesta, my friend. There is no shame in “slowing down coming to rest, ending”. Still, it is hard to believe and difficult for me to process that this is the last offical day of the community comment section of your long standing blog. In a TW entitled VERY IMPORTANT waaay back in 2010 you wrote about when one of your “faithful readers and long-time supporters” asked to be removed from the community because he was struggling to keep up with the communities “swing toward intellectualism”. You wrote to him and us, “I have encouraged all in the community to add to the blog. The intellectuals among us don’t seem to need much encouragement. They are in the flow when they are thinking about all this. But we need to hear often from those who are right in the midst of this shift. We need to hear from the hearts as well as the minds because my friend who asked to be removed isn’t the only one who is struggling with all this.” Well, without a doubt, you’ve heard my heart and occasionally even recieved a ‘piece of my mind’ these past 8+ years that I’ve been privileged enough to count myself a member of this small band of Today’s Word commenters and sometime commentators. I am by no means an intellectual, like yourself. I am a High School drop out, but because of my TBI’s I really “quit school” in the 7th grade. I was and continue to be, one of “those who are right in the midst of this shift”. I have learned much and grown greatly by sitting at God’s Table being covered with the dust of my rabbi/teacher AND being able to share my doubts, fears, tears, failings, questions, answers, hopes and words with you and with like minded disciples of Yeshua. Thanks Skip and all of you who listened, heard, cried and laughed with me or at me these many years and hundreds of comments later. It has been my joy and honor to have shared my story and in being a part of your and everyone else’s story, saga and search. To those who had the courage, compassion and hutzpah to share on this blog (some 63,000+ times!) I respect you, salute you and love you. Thanks. I hope you and everyone else here will join us at Gayle’s MeWe site to continue this conversation on becoming human, a disciple of Yeshua and a member of YHWH’s family. Till then, have a sacred Shabbat, a snug siesta and a satisfying Sabbatical.
I have been enlightened coming from a Southern Baptist environment; searching for truth. Thank you for this blog. Skip, your knowledge of the subject is inspiring. Reading the comments are interesting.
Best wishes
Well said Michael. I too would like to add my thanks to Skip for all he has done for me and my wife Penny. When we met many years ago I was questing for anything I could put my faith in and I found it by your recommendation to read your website. We have come a long way from the wilderness of that era thanks to meeting you and Roseann.
I once told you when you go past 70 things seem to get a lot tougher, so welcome to the crowd. I will miss these early morning EMS arrivals with the likes of Michael and Laurita and so many others but I look forward to meeting you once more at least in Italy. Ciao and au revoir, not goodbye.
Thanks so much for what you do and have done. Shalom.
In life, when the chips are down, the only gamble is, putting our life in the hands of the one who created us. The longer I live oh, I realize it’s not a gamble at all!! Memories are wonderful god holds the future in our hands
I just want to say thank you Skip from the bottom of my heart. Will keep following your writing and teaching, please send us from time to time the emails with your pictures. I love your talent to write and your sensibility capturing beautiful photographs.
Hasta pronto mi apreciado amigo.
Yes, you can be sure I will engage in the two passions, writing and visual poetry.
Ah… visual poetry….I love that!
Are there really any words for “goodbye”? There is no way for me to even begin to know how much I have been able to grow in this fertile soil of the ears and hearts of others. I was effectively isolated for decades: in solitary. To hear yourself through the ears of others is to really hear yourself. To see yourself through the eyes and the spirits of those around you is to become visible to yourself. I have found who I am through the most generous and loving and PATIENT community it has ever been my privilege to encounter. Skip, this one has topped them all, for me. I can’t even articulate why that is so; but the Body here is on the move: it has elasticity in its ability to accept all the wide differences and starting places of all of us. Thank you for providing that elasticity, Skip and all! That perhaps has been the single most precious thing for me: the acceptance and diversity. This is a high bar indeed! I am inspired for a lifetime, Skip, by what you have been and are doing. Thank you: all of you: for changing me so much more into who I really am. I have met myself, and I am us. I will carry all of you in my heart for the rest of my life. I love you – all of you. Thank you, Skip.
……and a time to heal. May it be so for you, dear friend.
Of all the powerful things that you have shared about your walk Skip, this is about the most revealing, transparent and refreshing that you have shared. I contend with these same pains and limitations in this younger but getting there body and mind. All through my life I composed a bucket list of this that I thought were important, but now I feel that all that is left is” coulda, woulda, shoulda”.
Thank you Skip for all the years of letting us be a part of your daily journey ,we have enjoyed it very much, but this is not goodbye, just do long, and as you stated in today’s post You Can Do All Things Through Him Who STRENGTHS You!
You and your family will always be in our thoughts. May YAHWH bless you always
As Hurricane Dorian is in the corner of my eye (Skip,
are you in state?), my focus is more directed at this
goodbye. This blog, and everyone who has contributed,
has keenly nurtured the Body, as the Father no doubt is
well pleased. “Come now, and let us reason together.”
And have we ever!
Going forward, Oswald Chambers has fortuitous words
for us in today’s writings: “If you keep your relationship
right with Him, then regardless of your circumstances or
whatever you encounter each day, He will continue to pour
“rivers of living waters” through you.”
I pray as these rivers flow, so does our faith, as we continue
to touch all who God intends for us to touch.
ON this last day of blogs, yes, I am flying to Indianapolis for a conference this weekend, then on to Virginia Beach for a fond farewell to the wonderful people there before I head for Milan.
I really wanted to meet you in Australia. A daughter is living In Melbourne. I do regret not trying to figure out a way to get there. Financial struggles. Abusive marriage. Stressful to say the least.
I was pretty shocked when I saw the notice recently about the blog being stopped. Also I was kicking myself for not posting sooner. I said I would explain what I meant by ‘actual brain damage’. I just explained and posted but I don’t see my post. Takes time? Censored? I don’t know but I hope it will show up!
I have only known you for a short period of time but I see the feeling of loss that everyone is feeling! Had you thought about a weekly word or even a monthly word?
Or a YouTube channel? Live chats are interesting! They are very popular it seems.
What about your beautiful home in Italy? Host guests in your home on Airbnb????
Hope you will still be speaking at conventions etc in the future! And hope to meet you someday!!
Perhaps you misunderstood. I will continue to write each day and conferences maybe next year. The only thing that stops is the ability to comment here on this blog.
Rich, when I read the Utmost page today, it certainly re-directed my day. While I won’t “accomplish” what I had thought I “should,” the Relationship is, without a doubt, the most important thing. How appropriate, considering the upcoming season, that this is a day that some things end. Even so, I will miss this particular format, which has been a well of refreshment to many!
Thank you Skip, especially you, for taking me under your wing for a little while. It has been hugely impactful. There have been days that I wanted to drop out, not feeling like I could keep up with everyone else’s brilliance but when I look back I think of all that I have received and it has been worth it. If you continue to write, I will continue to read, ingest and process with the help of my Tutor.
I’ve always wanted to be in a personal conversation with you so as to get more personal feedback and coaching . But then maybe that’s part of your tiredness comes from, the sense of energy being pulled off or drawn off of you, your desire to be more for everyone And that has to take its toll. I know this just from my time spent mentoring, even though you seek to stay somewhat detached , you pay a price. That’s a good one to remember.
Take care, know that you’re appreciated and have fulfilled God’s calling in this arena.
Shalom. Larry.
Hi Skip, I have learned so much because of you. Today you revealed your most inner being and I realized that you are just like the rest of us, human beings having a spiritual experience. At our age things do get tougher and we slow down. It isn’t fun learning new ways of doing our life but we can do it. Accepting limitations is a humbling experience. In the past several months I had a double hiatle surgery and an open heart surgery to fix a heart defect. I had to grieve over my past life of no limitations to adjust to those temporary limitations and oh my! Asking for help. Such a learning experience! I am so grateful for my husband, my friends, you, my mishcopa, all the prayers and the doctors that helped me through this. Most of all I am grateful for Yahweh and a relationship with Him. Blessings to you and may your journey be filled with love, joy and peace.
Skip, I feel your pain. Please take some pleasure and satisfaction in knowing that you helped me loose the rubber band wrapped so tightly around my Christian paradigm that was choking myself and my family to death. I am now free to discover the joys and depths of God’s revelation through creation and Torah–the rest of my life! Yeshua learned obedience through suffering. Israel gets redeemed through suffering. We all go through the test of life, waiting for redemption and resurrection. I will miss this blog, but will invite everyone to join us on the Facebook group, “Today’s Word Messianic Community”. That link can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2224095334520901/
MIchael, your words bring me to tears! I will miss your eloquence.
Laurita, I will miss your heart and passion! I need your email address!
I will also miss George, Brett, Craig, and everyone else I forgot to mention. Feel free to communicate via email: danmook at gmail dot com.
Blessings and Shalom!
Daniel and everybody: let’s not miss each other: in God’s kingdom there is provision for us to never have to do that. Here and now, here is my email address: I like to communicate with others and pray for them, too. Thank you for the link. I will try to get F B to take me back! hayeslaurita at g mail.
Agreed. Missing everyone already! My email is
stanleynm at aol.com
Skip, Thank you for ALL that you have done thru TW and thanks to those who have shared their words thru this site. You all have been a tremendous light to this path we all take. I look forward to your continued posts of wisdom thru words and photographs. G_d bless you brother!!!
With ’83’ two weeks away, I can identify with TW, but as I read the notes from Skip’s friends across life’s spectrum, they give encouragement that the rubber band around us all still retains elasticity that we individually lack. Last month, just before my daughter entered into her Eternal Rest, we often spoke about our spiritual journey and the enriched changes that came about after our Israel trip with you. So it is with a grateful heart that I send Alicia’s message, “If you have opportunity to connect with Skip again, please let him know how thankful I am for those days of sitting on ‘The Land’ while learning and growing through his teaching. It made a real ‘praise the Lord’ difference in our family.”
Skip, you are not the elastic band you are the scroll written not by pen on paper but through anointment. Thank you for the past 7 years of inspiring reminders to look deeper and ask the right questions.
May the next anointment uplift and keep you inspired and motivated to stay the humble witness I have experienced.
Till the next time you visit Pretoria…
May God shine his countenance on you.
Skip, since encountering you on this site 15 years ago, your words have had an eternal impact on me, and I will be forever grateful.
To those who would like to continue the interaction we have enjoyed in this precious community, you are welcome in our group on the MeWe site. You only need to go to mewe dot com, and sign up, then on the side bar, click on Browse Groups, type in Today’s Word Discussion Group, and request membership in the group. If I don’t recognize your name, I will message you and ask you where you heard about the group, and you only need to reply something about Skip’s website, so I know you are legitimate. I am looking forward to staying in touch and sharing what we learn.
Dearest Skip,
A great teacher is a great student first and last…always humble and teachable…forever a life-long disciple! It’s an honour and great privilege for me to learn from Yah’s finest!
Thank you, Skip, for saying yes when Abba called you…for going where He sent you…for doing what He tells you…for loving those who are hard to love, understanding those who are difficult to understand, for making a place for those who have none (the heretics amongst us)…for every good work (and word) that you’ve done (and spoke/wrote) for His kingdom and esteem!
You’ve shed light on so many parts of Scripture. I enjoy reading and studying Abba’s book now more than ever. And I praise Yah everyday for wonderful teachers like you!
You’re Yah’s rubber band that binds His children here in this community…not by your limited strength, but by His infinite and awesome “chesed”…covenant-loyalty, loving-kindness, patience, favour, mercy, etc. Thank you for giving so much of yourself! Nothing has gone unnoticed or unappreciated. You and your beautiful family will be in my thoughts and prayers..with great fondness!
Thank you, beloved brothers and sisters, for letting me join in your journey…for being a big part of mine. You all have made walking with Abba Yah more enjoyable and more meaningful indeed! See you on MeWe! (Thank you so much, Gayle!)
May Abba Yah’s joy and shalom, great blessings and favour be upon you all and your beloved ones! Amein!
Skip: all the very best for your new adventures! You have been a real blessing to all of us!! Keep writing stimulating and challenging material!!
It’s been interesting and real no need to say good by. We are only a moment away from eternity.. I’m only sorry we are yet limited by space, time and matter and cant share huggs and holy kisses- but this too will transition. In the few years I have frequented ths table the food has been wholesome, the company interested and interesting. I thank you Skip and team. See you all (I hope) in the Olam Habba. Mark@IdeaStudios.com 707-486-2572 http://www.worksofwords.live
I have terribly procrastinated. About one year ago, I was going to reply to you regarding the ‘actual brain damage’ that I had been talking about in my posts.
Life has been stressful which is my excuse for my procrastination.
First of all, to quote Gabor Mate from a December 23, 2017 post of his: We have to realize that, whatever’s going on, it can’t be some genetic ‘problem’ because genes don’t change in a population over 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, or even 300 years. So whatever is going on, it is not genetically determined. It may be biological but it’s not genetic because we can’t reduce biology down to genetics.
With this in mind, what’s causing all the problems? Believers blame it all on sin or Satan. People want to blame their childhood. Or blame others. The blame goes to Big Pharma with the use of vaccines. Vaccines are filled with toxic ingredients and disease. They are used for 3 reasons: 1. Depopulation (Look up Bill Gates and depopulation on a TED talk.) 2. To alter a person’s personality (behavior modification is how it’s described) 3. To create customers for life.
It took me years to figure things out. ONE PIECE of the puzzle at a time. Dr. Fallon’s talk about finding out he had the brain of a psychopath was another piece I needed to explain the damage vaccines have had on us. He has actual brain damage which is common now whether it is detected or undetected.
If we received vaccines in our childhood, even one, we are brain damaged. Sorry to say. The vaccine has altered our brain and thus our personality.
While listening to a talk given by Dr. Tent on autoimmune issues, a memory from my childhood came back. Stored in my brain for about 40 years. I grew up Catholic. When Dr. Tent talked about ‘the spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down’, the memory of a sugar cube (pink I think) with the polio vaccine (poison) being given to us in Catholic elementary school. Was I in the first grade? Maybe? Am I angry? So angry at what they have done to us and what they are still doing to us. Dr. Fallon also was raised Catholic. He talks about his personality and how ‘he doesn’t care.’
With the internet you would think that people would be able to put two and two together but the actual brain damage and the years of brainwashing are two huge obstacles. All the injuries and deaths are waking people up. Still slow going. A flu vaccine killed a friend’s husband. Dead a few hours after getting one.
No one is very healthy these days. Asthma. Allergies. Brain damage as in autism (a spectrum). Autoimmune issues. Cancer Etc etc. Then there’s death. 600 children were recently killed by an experimental vaccine in the Philippines. 600! SIDS is caused by the injection of the poison. Babies die for a reason.
A well known lady who many considered a Christian suddenly passed away recently. Rachel Held Evans.
There is no doubt that the flu vaccines killed her. If you don’t believe me, I can show you the posts she made before her death. She was like a rep for Big Pharma. First her family received flu vaccines and got the flu anyway. Like ‘duh’! But she also received tamiflu in the days before her death.
What’s a very common sign of brain damage? Visual impairments! Bad eyesight is NOT genetic or maybe in 3 percent of the cases according to an article I read. A huge epidemic would be a way to describe it.
Most of us need prescription glasses to see! The late Dr. Andrew Moulden has a lot of important information about the eyes and facial signs of brain damage. I do know two men who don’t wear glasses but I do know after dealing with them for so many years at work, that the vaccines in their childhood caused their personality issues. I knew that before Dr. Fallon’s talk. One is Catholic and was also born in 1958 and the other is Jewish.
Vaccines have not saved the world! The poisoning has to be stopped.
‘Insane is the new sane’. A Japanese Fb friend posted this and it’s true! I could write a book! And I would like to. The poisoning has gone on off and on through the ages but the big push started after the war and during the war. Watch ‘The Accountant if Auschwitz’ and listen to what the twin said about the experiments they were doing. Hasn’t stopped.
So that’s what I meant about ‘actual brain damage’. A huge paradigm shift for me when I realized that it isn’t our fault. And sadly to say it is why some people, more often than not, don’t change. They can’t change.
If anyone wants to discuss this with me, let me know!
Jeanette, have you joined Gayle’s MeWe TW group discussion? If not, please do. I really hope you’ll be able to share more over there. Wow! You’ve added some more info re how bad these all are. At the moment, I’m watching a free 5G summit. Thank you for everything you posted here. I’m taking notes. And sharing them. Yah bless you!
Thank you so much for your reply and for your support. There are so many trolls on the internet (government workers are also hired to troll) and there are a lot of people still in the dark regarding the snake oil concoctions! Look up the meaning of pharmacy etc. Spells. Witchcraft. Etc.
I really wanted to write something a long time ago. The time limit really pushed me into doing it. I see everything very clearly now! Why is he like this? She? Even a whole country. So many questions all the time.
I learned a lot about psychopathy because of my marriage to a psychopath! He looks like a great person but being married to him has been ‘hell on earth’. Flying Free is a page on fb for women if faith in similar situations. Nothing to do with vaccines but all the stories are the same.
If I had known the truth as in presented in Guardian Angel, it would have helped me in dealing with a person who only cared about himself. I often wrote in my journal ‘Do I have to put up with this for the rest of my life just because I am a Christian?’ Or about how I will never understand him. Impossible to understand a person you can’t reason with. I will never call him ‘my husband’ because he has not been one to me. I heard Skip talk about this in one of his talks and it only confirmed what I had already thought.
I know the truth now. It wouldn’t have changed him and I know that he was affected by vaccines in his childhood as everyone else was. His father was military and he was born in Austria. Also Catholic. Anyway the military is the worst in a way and in those days it was just beginning in the States. Japan had to agree to the poisoning at the end of the war. They use soldiers as guinea pigs all the time. But we all have been affected whether we realize it or not. It doesn’t mean that we aren’t capable but what we could have been capable of is something we will never know. For some of us, it severely limited our options. I see it all the time. In my own family. In my colleagues, friends and acquaintances. The news is filled with stories related to crime. All have been affected. Now I understand. And I am angry at what they have done to us.
I actually have a few contacts in Italy. One person recently told me that he figured out that his facial symmetry was off and he realized it because of information I shared with him. I don’t know how he became involved in this issue but there were a lot of protests in Italy not too long ago. One man often shares his son’s story. Normal boy until the poison was injected at the age of six months. Now he will be handicapped for the rest of his life. Same thing happened to a friend in Japan. Their son spent 6 healthy months and about 18 years being totally handicapped and cared for after the shot until he passed away. The stories are endless. Brains are delicate! Not even fully developed until the age of 10 I read in regard to a big crime case (the beauty queen child) and the age of responsibility. I know without a doubt that all the babies and children getting cancer is a result of the poisoning. The body goes into overdrive.
Salk, Hilleman and Sabin were no heroes. The CDC was started in 1946. A coincidence? Definitely not. Everyone should do the research themselves but I like to keep it simple: Vaccines are poison. The ingredients are toxic. No one even knows what’s being injected. It is on CDC’s site. I am doing what I can and warn people directly when I can. Brainwashing works. No doubt about it. I have made t-shirts recently with ‘Vaccines are poison’ in about 18 languages.
Anyway, feel free to message me on messenger. My name is Nette Slaby. I hope I don’t get any hate mail! This info could be shocking but I hope no one rejects it and especially not without doing a lot of diligent research. Vaxxed is a good source of testimonies. I can’t be silent on this issue. Minds are at stake thus affecting our lives and decisions. Our relationship with our Creator is affected too. Our lives are being destroyed by the poisoning. Relationships are being destroyed.
All the pain, loss and suffering in countless number of ways. Dealing with regret is a form of self-abuse that is hard to bear. Like being in a constant state of grieving. I can’t change the past but I can and must do what I can for others.
Just to add to your long list…
I just heard from the 5G summit that I’m listening to, that the 5G agenda is also very much connected with vaccines and other heavy metals put in/absorbed by our bodies. How? Remember in the “olden” days when we used to have radios and tv sets with metal antennas attached to them, and we would have to move the antennas around to pick up better signal? Well, guess what? Heavy metals IN our bodies will pick up the “signals” emitted by all the EMFs around us. And 5G is the worst of the lot (for now). So, those who are able to avoid vaccine injuries via administration, will not be able to totally escape from being harmed because of EMFs, 5G, dirty electricity, etc. around us.
Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that friends of mine also shared with me these past few weeks some YT videos about brain health and scans. Have you heard of Dr. Daniel Amen? Try searching for his talks on YT re how to heal the brain. He also did a TED talk. Very enlightening, encouraging, and hopeful.
Jeanette, re your husband, I’m sure you’ve done a lot of research already. I’m just beginning to look up certain things for a year now, esp. on narcissism. Not that I’m married to one. My dear husband is a wonderful man (and he and our sons have been very blessed by Skip’s Guardian Angel lectures). I have other reasons to do research. I came across many helpful resources. But only one that actually says there’s healing for narcissism. The mainstream approach is to treat it as a personality disorder, when it should be treated as PTSD because it’s trauma based. The speaker himself was a born genius, child protégée, and currently a healing narcissist. I’m not sure if this is at all applicable to psychopathy.
I’m so sorry, this is so out of topic to Skips’s article above. ?
I have been thinking, this forum might not be the best place for this topic. If this site gets down-regulated because of this (very hot) non-pc subject, it could possibly affect the ability of people to find this site site or even upload it at all. Perhaps you two (and myself) could continue this conversation on the MeWe site instead, and if necessary, be willing to delete it on this one in the larger interests of helping (instead of inadvertently) hurting the larger goal of reaching others here? Just my two cent thoughts, talking to myself and not knowing any better!
I agree, Laurita. Thank you for this foresight. I hope there’s still a way to delete the thread. I don’t see the “edit” button on my comment anymore.
Jeanette, can you please transfer the info you posted to MeWe? Thanks.
Shabbat shalom!
More and more people are seeing the damage done to us physically (Dr. Nancy Banks. Dr. Robert Mendelssohn. Dr. Tenpenny. Dr. Moss.) but unless we understand how our brains are being affected, we will miss what’s even more important. Our brains are directly affected and thus damaged. It does affect us SPIRITUALLY (how could it not?) and it does relate to Skip’s message. Every decision we make in life is important and how many of us are not without regret because of bad decisions we have made, often made out of confusion.
I know that a lot of my bad decisions were made because of this confusion. I trusted other people because I thought they knew the truth which turned out to be nothing but lies passed on through the years. Many topics. I have lived long enough to know the power of brainwashing. Skip mentioned Jacques Elull. He has a talk on brainwashing. Very interesting. Cognitive dissonance is a nuisance as well. I understand that too.
When talking about psychopathy, I am not talking about BTK or Ted Bundy’s types but normal looking people. It’s a spectrum. There is a very interesting article titled ‘Is everyone on the autism spectrum?’ New York Magazine. 2012-11.
No one seems to be very healthy these days, mentally and physically. I don’t think anyone could argue with that one!
Jeanette, I think precisely because of that damage there is also no time that is a better one for God’s grace to shine and for His mercy and sense of fairness, too. Yes, there is terrible despair all around us, but we are told not to despair: His strength can be perfected in even this weakness. I know from experience that I went from blood that clumped under an electron microscope the likes of which my Dr. said she had never seen, and brain fog so bad I had lost all my nouns (some days I marveled that I could remember my name because I could not say my children’s names) and chronic fatigue so bad I could do exactly one thing a day to being well with NO OTHER INTERVENTION other than getting the fear back out of my life. That was it.
I was tired of being afraid: bored, even, of the same old fear over and over. I had had enough: I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I was even tired of feeling sorry for myself! (Now, that’s a REAL miracle!) And that was all it took: He did the rest.
I think there is more hope for the worst of us in this day and age than for the ones who pride themselves in continuing to ‘hold it all together’: you know, the rich camels who have a needle eye to get through. We are commanded to never despair. That is because despair is a liar. Hope shines brightest in the darkest of nights because that is the nature of hope. I have hope for all of us because God loves all of us and is able to meet all of us no matter where we are. Halleluah!
Jeanette, I sad-heartedly concur that something insidious is going on in the realm of vaccinations. In 1970 the first autism prevalence study showed an autism rate of less than 1 in 10,000 children. The autism rate in American children in 2017 was 1 in 36, a 27,000% increase in just 50 years. Some project it to rise exponentially to apocalyptical proportions in the next 20 or so years. Our children are the target and both we and they will pay the price for our passive submission to Big Pharma’s co-opting of the medical establishment into a system of Medical Fascism. As in all types of evil we know who is behind this phenomenon. John 10:10 states. “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy”.
I also agree with Kay that you should come join us to continue these types of conversations on MeWe. Go to MeWe.com, and sign up, then on the side bar, click on Browse Groups, type in Today’s Word Discussion Group, and request membership in the group.
Once Gayle or I see your name we will approve your ‘membership’. Looking forward. Shabbat Shalom.
Thank you! I think I am already accepted in the group. And you are so right.
Thank you very much for allowing us to see a glimpse of your journey, Skip. We all have learned so many things from your insights. Words aren’t enough to express our gratefulness to Abba Yah for blessing us through you. May His abundant favor be upon you and your family.
“Everything turn[s] on the smallest of choices. Joy and despair are separated by only a laugh.”[1]
“…against the meta-silence of Tohu—in which human acts are gratuitous, have no effect—God gives Torah, which is founded in the promise of justice. ‘Great reward’ is the affirmation at the heart of darkness.”[2]
[1] Skip Moen, TW, The Sound of Recovery, October 7, 2018
[2] Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Beginning of Desire: Reflections on Genesis, p. 132.
Skip,
Thank you! Your teachings are part of the current that turned my ship. i’m forever grateful.
Sandy Smail
Søren Kierkegaard, whom many consider to be the “father of existentialism”, summed up the plight of being a philosopher and, perhaps of being human, when he quipped, “Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way…This, gentlemen, is the essence of all philosophy.” Skip, being an Oxford trained philosopher I wonder if you pondered this decision in like manner.
“Cancel the community comment section and I will regret it, don’t cancel and I will also regret it; cancel or don’t cancel, I will regret it either way.” However, I hope your regrets are few, as much good came from this community comment platform in its 16 years of existence; questions were answered, doctrines debated and many friendships were formed; including at least one that led to marriage. I met my wife, Arnella, 8 years ago on this very blog when I responded to a comment she had made. As for me, in spite of Kierkegaard’s warning on marriage, I have no regrets. So thanks, Skip, for the memories, the answered questions and for indirectly acting as a Shadchan (matchmaker) for my ezer kenegdo.
Another well known philosopher wisely penned these words, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every a purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted…”
Apparently it IS time to say good-bye to us and to regrets. Shalom my friend.
Wow! What a nice way to meet! Sounds so interesting!
One final point. A special shout out to Skip’s “Tech Geeks” Mark and his predecessor, Patrick. Their skills and devotion kept this site up and running. Thank you. We are grateful for your selfless service…past, present and future.