Believing the War is a Game

Believing the War is a Game

8/25/12

The human has always been curious when it comes to war and all of its proceedings.  We have long since studied wars and the effects that they have on the participants of those wars.  We as humans also have loved to play armchair quarterback when it comes to analyzing these events and how the people who were involved were wrong or right in their decisions to fight.  All of us have had our opinions concerning war and likewise most of us have put in our two cents when it comes to this topic.  Humans love to fantasize about war and place it in a game situation trying to justify its outcome with our own interpretations.  But while we perform this ritual we fail to see what really is occurring, we are ourselves being attacked and formed in a line to defend our beliefs, then we fail to notice that we are actually the targets of this war effort and are sucked into the deeper division that our enemy wishes us to be.

Weeks before the beginning of the Civil War great anticipation of the coming events were buzzing off the lips of everyone in the area that would become the lands of the first battles and skirmishes of the war.  Of course many people were against the war, many supported the war, and almost every other viewpoint was represented in every community.  There were included in this population people who were anxious to witness the events of the war and could not wait until the fighting began.  Now, none of the people of this era could have imagined what was going to happen at that time since all they had to recollect was the American Revolution and the War of 1812 in which case the technology was less modernized and much simpler. 

Within these communities of people who wanted to exorcise their blood-letting desires, some actually came up with the idea that they should be allowed to observe the battlefield events as they occurred.  Many proposals were drafted and/or talked about during the weeks leading up to the said skirmishes and it was eventually agreed upon that if people really wanted to sit out in the open and watch the battles unfold that they may do that without any hesitation from the participants.  However, there were many protests against this decision but as time grew closer the decision did not change and the ones who wished to watch the events transpire were allowed to do so.

Most of this may not be well known to the majority of the people who have not studied or are really familiar with the American Civil War, but it did happen even though the spectators of these events did not continue the practice very long due to the details that would be witnessed in short time.  Most of these people were deemed war mongers and haters of the opposite side, whichever side that might have been.  This type of ideology should not be shocking since after all they were humans and had the same capability of forming their opinions about the current state of affairs.

The people that were enthralled with the idea of watching a battle being waged had no reckoning of what actually was going on and how the political posturing had allowed this series of events come to a head in this manner.  These people did not recognize the fact that up until the first shots of the war just how dangerous the situation had become and had ignored the signs due to the fact that they were consumed in themselves to take notes with their firsthand accounts.  And with their picnic baskets in tow and their Sunday best clothes on, these people gathered into their places to watch the skirmishes play out and who could blame them for it would be their first opportunity to actually see some fighting like never before, the thrill of the fight if you wish to make it in that light.

At the end of the first volley of shots I can imagine that the tone of the spectators changed pretty quickly, especially when they realized that the people that were being hit with the opposing gunfire did not rise back up to fight again.  I can imagine that as soon as the first volleys ceased the cries and screams of the wounded began to ring out and when curiosity reached the spectators they must have charged to the wounded only to notice that the blood was real and that things had changed for the worse.  Of course many thoughts must have run through the minds of the spectators including that only a few of these battles would occur and that the ones fighting would realize the damage and end the talk and actions of war.  Everyone soon found out that this was not going to be the case and after four long years of separation and fighting many families would be permanently devastated along with an entire country.  The realization that the thrill of the fight was now a reality in which was not a pleasant feeling at all and the consequences were going to be great.

The American Civil War actually served as a unique fight since it actually was a war that pitted not only regions of the same country against each other but in many instances it divided families against each other.  It is hard for us to imagine a mother losing one, two or more sons in fighting a war but to lose more than one son on opposite sides of the conflict is horrible to imagine, but in truth, this type of scene played out each day in this war.  And when this type of loss happens, in this manner there can be no way to deny that some longer lasting bitterness is born within those who had to face this tragedy.

I myself have fallen into this category because I have always been enthusiastic about war and all of its concepts.  I do not wish war upon anyone but I have to admit the action of war has kept my mind active ever since I was a kid.  I remember one time when we were living in California I had a train board which served as a battleground along with scenery and other types of communal environments.  Most of the boys in the neighborhood had these train boards and each of us had a different setting so that our battlefield scenes could present different challenges as the “battle” unfolded.  We would be continually upgrading our boards by buying more soldiers, scenery, buildings, etc until the board became too small for all of our landscape scenarios and expansion ideas had to be forthwith.

During this period of time in my life I even had the concern that my ideas about war were wrong in which case I asked my father about them and the advice he gave me was priceless.  Being a minister his answer came from the Bible and it was in a manner in which addressed both sides of the issue.  In one instance he told me that King David loved the concepts of war and proved to be a great warrior on the battlefield.  In another instance he told me that sometimes wars hit home to the families that are involved in the fighting and that all issues must be thought about before the actual fighting began.  He then said that no matter what the final decision about a war is always place God first in the decisions concerning the war issue and no matter what the outcome would be, God would prevail as the victor for finding the ultimate solution.

I also remember that Fort Ord Army Base was just a few miles up the road from where we lived.  At that time the public was allowed to drive through part of the base without having to go through any checkpoints or guard stations.  Part of the drive to Monterey took us past the airfield where all of the helicopters were parked when they were not participating in exercises.  I would always hope that some of them would be ready to take off as we were driving by or flying around in the immediate vicinity so I could gaze upon them.  Most of the time I would be disappointed but every once-in-a-while I would get lucky and see some “activity”.  This only fueled my desire to learn more about war and its concepts but even though my curiosity grew about the subject, I could not have imagined the consequences of war until I saw them first hand.

A popular science fiction movie came out in 1996 called Independence Day.  In this movie there was a scene that portrayed the alien spacecrafts over some of the major cities of the world and they were obviously positioning themselves in a fashion that would prove to be focal points of their weapons.  Their positions were strategically placed and when they arrived at their designated positions they stopped and began the final preparations for the usage of their weapons.  This was a tense moment in the movie since mass panic was occurring on the streets of the metropolitan areas and people were jammed throughout the areas and were stuck in fixed positions with no escape.

As the scene continued certain people were thrilled that the aliens had arrived and were wanting to greet the aliens and welcome them to the planet, as a gesture of goodwill.  These people went up to the tops of high rise buildings and began singing and dancing around waving signs of greetings to the aliens and “welcoming” their arrival to the planet.  Of course as the aliens watched the people below they had no intentions of stopping their plans and so the invasion force began their destructive process.  As the time arrived for the alien craft to fire upon the cities the bottom of the spacecrafts opened up and lit up the surrounding sky with a spectacular light.  This event caused the people on the ground witnessing the event to stop and look towards the light all while the people “greeting” the aliens danced and cheered at the appearance of some significant gesture by the aliens.  As the people sand and danced the aliens opened fire on the people and no matter what their opinion was about the aliens, everyone around the area were destroyed.

As in both scenes the reality of the situation, participants and observers did not matter, the process began and was completed without these people being asked to move or if they wanted to change their minds when the “shooting” started.  The course had been set and the players had been chosen and the consequences and hurts set in stone.  It does not matter if one of the scenes was fiction or not, the reality is that the concepts of the mindsets of the people were similar and we are seeing the same mindsets being played out in our society today and it is a very dangerous setting that we allowing to occur.  Even though the second example has never taken place the first example is a reality that has once again fronted itself in our society.

What many people fail to see is that this type of scenario is playing out once again within our modern society.  With each passing day we are exposed to more and more intimate details about people’s lives and how we try and convince people to choose to be on one side or the other.  We lash out with ridiculous thoughts and ideas to make our believed points seem the truth all the while hiding the true agenda of division.  We want so much to be right and to believe that we have helped our fellow man to “see” the light.  We love to point out damaging aspects of our opponents while patting our stance on the back with cynical greed.  Who cares what is really happening in the worlds of the people, it is all about being right and to intimidate others through words and phrases.  In these types of settings our posturing to sit at the right hand of the popular people is costing us our integrity and our true interests in the name of correctness.

I find it amazing of how many of the young people of the modern world follow blindly to certain politicians, musicians, actors and actresses simply because all of these people portray lives of glamour and glory but what these kids fail to realize is that they will never have the life that these people live and nor will they be able to comprehend this concept if things do not change soon.  It is this wedge of division that has now crept over into the family system and of course it has begun with the kids.  Historians have stated that there is not a single family lineage with American roots that was not affected by the Civil War in some form.  If this is true then it should be common knowledge that some type of division could take place within modern families.

We continually see this scene play out on our airwaves and until God is allowed back into our lives and we get our eyes off of ourselves this trend will continue and we will once again have severe fighting in the streets of our country.  Not only will the fighting be of the physical nature but it will be of the mental, social and spiritual levels as well.  No level of life that the human can imagine will be spared since humans always like to up-stage themselves down the road.  The excitement that humans have to be right and to be popular far outweighs the consequences that these beliefs bring them in the long run.  Popularity comes and goes and it will be gone from your world in what seems like a day but the truth may be compromised by your actions for an entire generation or even longer.

We see this legacy of division presenting itself every day across our world.  It is just not in our country but in so many countries and in so many different tribes of people.  Anger is driving our world to a death march and it has no signs of letting up, only increasing.  We are on a path of civil destruction that only God can delay.  We must stop and notice that what we are doing is actually hurting the world and not helping it.  Our actions come truly from our spirits and this is the type of battle that is being waged on our lives and we are blind to its blooding.  We must stop the blood lust of our spirits and contain ourselves within the confines of God’s laws or we will become once again as in the days of Noah.  God is a patient God and a loving God and I know that there is a time frame that is completed before His judgment is poured out on His people and whether you know it or not or believe it or not, all of us are His people.

Time is running out on this course of action that we have chosen.  God will allow certain things to come to pass on this country and other countries of the world which will serve as a warning to greater judgment.  God does not wish this on His people but He must always do what is correct and just no matter what man thinks.  Let us wake up and begin to see what is actually happening in our world.  Let us drop the political posturing and trying to deem who is right.  Let us forget about what we want for our lives and how we believe that we should live.  Let us return back to God and to embrace His laws for our lives once again.  Returning back to God is the ONLY way that our society will have any chance of survival.  Returning back to God will fix all of the problems that the world is facing today, not some of them but ALL of them.

DLB

Heart Condition XXII

Heart Condition Part XXII

8/12/12

As the blood pressure cuff finally released on my arm the aide said that it was still coming down.  My pressure was still high but at least it was headed in the right direction.  The aide completed all of her other vital sign duties and wrote each result down on my bedside chart.  She then asked if I needed anything to which I said no and she then took her things and left the room.  I thought for a second about my theory and how it was panning out as I had believed.  So I began planning my next move in order to keep myself off of other blood pressure medications and to get off of the one that my doctor was surely going to put me on.  My mind was racing at this point trying to outthink the doctors and all of the other medical staff.

I knew that my weight would be the first issue that needed to be addressed, I had been overweight for quite some time now and in the back of my mind I knew I would not feel good until I was back down to my normal and healthy weight.  My diet needed to change which would correspond with my weight issues.  We needed to change the intake of our food and how much we actually ate would also need to be adjusted.  At this time in my life I did not know my biological history within my family but I knew that my cholesterol and associated enzymes were not good, and as stated before they had been high ever since the mid 80s.

I had a plan so I thought.  I believed that once my blood pressure lowered back to normal that I would return to my normal ways of living after a couple of more days off from work.  With my current episode I had made up my mind to work at this goal and to obtain it as quickly and healthily as possible.  I then took another “scan” of my pain level and I noticed that the pain continued to diminish in its intensity so much so that when I thought about the pain it was actually tolerable.  I guess with the confirmation of my blood pressure going down and my pain level following suit reinforced my belief that I was out of the woods and ready to take on a new strategy for my health.

I turned on the television sound and began to hunt for the football game.  It was getting late in the evening so I knew that some of the game would be history by now but it was something to do to kill time.  As I adjusted the television to the correct channel and sound level my nurse walked in to give me my meds.  As she handed me my pill cup I noticed that they were for my cholesterol and my blood pressure.  She asked how I was feeling just as the aide came back in with her blood pressure pole.  I had forgotten that once they give you a blood pressure pill that they had to monitor your blood pressure on a regular basis for a certain amount of time, I became slightly depressed once again but I had a smile on my face.  I was hooked up to the cuff as both of my pills made their way from the cup to my mouth and then were swallowed as instructed.

After a quick wash of water to flush the pills down I answered the nurse’s question about how I was feeling.  I was getting better as the evening drug on and I explained that my localized pain was easing as well.  Just then the blood pressure cuff released and my new BP was even lower than the last reading, which further ignited my little gray cells in my head to believe that this episode was only a high blood pressure incident.  With a few more surface checks the aide wrote my numbers down and then proceeded to leave the room.

The nurse glanced at my oxygen tube which was being hidden behind my back and when she asked why I did not have it in I gave her the excuse of that I did not want it in.  She did not like that answer and then traced the tube and threatened to put it back in herself if I did not accomplish the task within the next ten seconds.  I could tell she was serious and at the same time I knew deep down that I had to have it on but I also knew she would leave the room shortly and that I could take it right back out.  My stubbornness and “know it all” attitude about medicine almost cost me more than I was bargaining for.  My nurse stood over me like a mother hen as I grudgingly placed the cannula back into my nostrils and looped the tubing around my ears.  I then looked up at her and asked if she was happy and she replied yes and then stated that all she wanted was for me to get better so that we once again could work together as it should be.  With that she smiled and turned around and headed to the door.

I have always hated it when other people say things to me concerning my health and I have to sit there, or in this case lie there and accept it as the truth.  I knew that she was correct and that there was nothing that I could say or do to counteract her short pinpoint speech because even though I did not want to admit it she was right in her assessment of the entire situation.  AS soon as the door to my room was closed I immediately took the cannula back out of my nose and placed it on my pillow.  I took a deep breath and had no pain in my breathing exercise.  I then turned my attention onto the football game.  For a person who had learned about compromising his beliefs in his path and vowed never to do it again, I was unknowingly following that same path once again by not following directions.  God was merciful in this time and I thank Him for His mercies each day.

The football game on TV was not interesting at the time I began to watch it but as the game drew further the scenario became very interesting.  The big lead of the one team was slowly dwindling every few minutes.  I still did not enjoy the professional football league but for whatever reason this game caught my attention and I decided to follow it until the end.  The aide came back in the room after a few minutes and took my blood pressure again, which revealed even though I was watching an exciting game my pressure continued its fall back into the normal range.  I then noticed that the pain in my shoulder was almost completely gone which gave me greater relief.

Towards the end of the game my new night nurse came into my room to see how I was doing and to let me know that she would be taking care of me during the night.  I had known this nurse for many years and we had a good working relationship.  Her daughter had recently graduated from nursing school and had started working in the hospital as well.  We chatted for a few minutes and then she told me she would return after report to get my vitals again before they let me sleep.  She asked if I needed anything and after I said no she turned and headed for the door and closed it behind her.  I went back to my game all the while thinking that at some time the lab night tech should pop his head in to get some blood but being a stable angina patient that probably would not come until the middle of the night.

I bring back the construction of the new hospital building to the story.  The reason I do is to make a point about how God works in people’s lives without them even really realizing it until an even occurs within their lives happens; and as being humans we might not even realize what we are seeing or encountering in our lives how it plays into our lives at a future point down our path of life. 

Having worked at the hospital for many years I was keenly aware of most of the plans that transpired throughout the hospital and the plans of the new building was no different.  When the construction of the building began I was at the ground breaking ceremony, saw the first dirt being dug by the huge machinery and witnessed the columns going up as the building began to take some kind of visible form.  This process naturally continued at its slow and methodical pace but each day it seemed like nothing happened to my eye but in my head I knew that something different was there within that building after each working day.  As days turned into weeks the changes became visible and the shape of the building grew and actually started to look like the sign that stood at the front of the property.

I would then turn back to the current building and look at its condition and I could not help but to remember some of the problems that I knew about concerning the construction of the current building.  The outside structure of the building looked fairly decent but the insides or the guts of the hospital were in terrible shape.  One example was in the laboratory where every so often the large pipes that carried coolant to the other end of the building would leak and produce a wet spot on our ceiling tiles.  This was not a problem most of the time but if the leak occurred when no one was in the lab, we would walk into a huge mess the next morning.  It was these types of flaws that only people who worked in the hospital would know about and would associate with.

Looking back on my life I knew that all of humans are like the old hospital building and that we try and put on so much of a physical front on the outside that many times we totally neglect our inner conditions.  This old building was sound for the most part but some of its inner structures had flaws that hindered the overall function of the hospital.  This is exactly what happens within the majority of our lives and we need to first recognize these flaws and correct them as soon as possible.  But at the same time we need to recognize that God wants to restore our lives in His image and ways. 

This new image and ways represent the new hospital and all of its stages in the building process.  Most of us fail to realize this activity that is going on within our lives once the process begins.  The restoration process is not an overnight project but it takes time to establish the boundaries, rooms, etc of our new building.  It is very important that we remember where we have come from and how we functioned in our old ways and means.  It is just as important to remember that our restoration process is actually a work in progress and that it will change our lives completely if we allow the master to complete His work in our lives.

So, as we look at the new building project that God is completing in us, it is ok to remember the areas in which we are being improved upon and accept the pains of the building process within our hearts.  It is ok to remember our past but it just as important not to allow cracks to be obtained in our new building by not allowing God to complete His work in our lives.  Even though I walked by the new building every day and watched it being built literally from the ground up I had no idea that God had that same process in mind for my life both physical and spiritual.  It does hurt sometimes and it is scary to be honest but I trust in God to know that He knows what He is doing in my life and I try to obey more than I sacrifice, because obeying is the original foundation for a relationship.

DLB