{"id":555,"date":"2008-10-10T19:15:57","date_gmt":"2008-10-10T23:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/?p=555"},"modified":"2008-10-22T16:50:46","modified_gmt":"2008-10-22T20:50:46","slug":"brooding-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/?p=555","title":{"rendered":"Brooding Days…."},"content":{"rendered":"

photo-2-small.JPG<\/a> <\/p>\n

Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land,
\nstrangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

—Isaiah 1:7
\n___________________________________________________<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a brooding week. Things going on. Unexpected shock and stress from latent shadows. Old demons, asleep now for some time, stirring again in the hidden crevices of the heart. <\/p>\n

And rage, like a sleeping dog disturbed, awakes again. <\/p>\n

And the dreams. Sporadic. Vivid. Exhausting. Violent. Waking up drenched in torrents of cold sweat.<\/p>\n

All of it uprooted by events beyond one\u2019s control. And all the old memories wash back like a flood. What was almost laid to rest rises again, attacking with its viperous sting. Rips again into the soft fabric of the heart where the healing process had begun.<\/p>\n

And one looks back over these last eighteen months. Each one an eternity. Yet moving along as all time does, at light speed. A year. Going on two. At all that transpired. From the first day, until the present hour. <\/p>\n

And one reflects. On the two lives, supposedly joined forever, brutally sundered. On all the things that could have been done, but weren\u2019t. The incessant haunting regrets, how they diminish only with time, but never entirely disappear.<\/p>\n

On all the words that were spoken. In anger. Sorrow. Rage. Pain. Grief. Despair. And all the words left unsaid. <\/p>\n

On the loneliness of one, living in a home where two had lived before.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s strange. I knew this day would come. Just not when. Or that it would be so soon. It\u2019s not unwelcome. Just jolting. There is no real way to prepare.<\/p>\n

All is truly vanity, as the Preacher wrote thousands of years ago. It was true then. It still is. <\/p>\n

Everything. Wealth. Possessions. Knowledge. Passion. Power. Pride. Even love.<\/p>\n

Everything, that is, outside Christ. The rebirth that\u2019s possible only in Him. And the new life that follows.<\/p>\n

A man can plan his path and pursue it. Make choices. Devastate his own empire, burn his bridges behind him and move to a far land. And yet, at some point, after he finds himself alone, after the corn husks meant for the hogs turn to dust in his hands, he may realize what a fool he was. Turn his hungry eyes again to the rich and fertile land he left behind. Long to return. Reseed the desolate fields. Pour new foundations. Rebuild the burnt and vaporized ruins of all he had so senselessly destroyed in his narcissistic passion and colossal pride.<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s even possible. Sometimes it is. And sometimes it\u2019s not. <\/p>\n

Because some inhabitants of that desolate land may have moved on. Picked up the shattered pieces. Rebuilt their lives. Made the flowers bloom again, as best they could. Their songs of joy, absent for so long, now returning hesitantly, slowly, now echoing tentatively from their wounded hearts.<\/p>\n

They may not welcome him back. Ever. <\/p>\n

Unless there is no other choice. Because of Christ. And His non-negotiable commands. If they even apply.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s about all I choose to say for now.<\/p>\n

*******************************************<\/p>\n

I pride myself on the matter. On never catching a serious cold. Never. Not beyond a few sniffles and coughs, sometimes for as long as a few days. While others are creaking around half dead. I credit my daily dozes of Superfood and a few other vitamins. Strict regimen. I stick with it.<\/p>\n

That pride was shattered last Saturday morning. I woke up feeling groggy, my head ready to explode. A severe head cold had set in. All I need, I thought, as I headed off to work. I was disappointed in my Superfood, for not fending it off as usual. <\/p>\n

It was awful. I could hardly breathe. Runny nose. Sneezing. The whole thing. But the not being able to breathe part drove me batty. <\/p>\n

On the way home, I stopped at a drugstore for some medicine. A friend had recom-mended Aleve-D Sinus and Cold caplets as the best stuff out there. At least the best available without a prescription. <\/p>\n

I asked the clerk for it. She reached behind the counter and got a packet. I stared. What was an over the counter drug doing behind the counter? I soon found out.<\/p>\n

The clerk unlimbered a great black ledger book and asked me for my driver\u2019s license. My friend had warned me. They don\u2019t sell the stuff over the counter anymore because it\u2019s used to make meth, or some such thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is insane,\u201d I muttered as I dutifully handed over my license. She copied all the info into the great black ledger. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a little silly,\u201d she agreed, scribbling away, probably furtively planning to report my complaint after I left. She then asked me to sign my name on the appropriate blank. I did so, grumbling. She cheerfully gave me an instant dollar-off coupon, which I appreciated.<\/p>\n

The stuff works. Opens my sinuses just like that. I can breathe. And that\u2019s all import-ant. The cold is gone now, having worked its havoc. I have enough Aleve left for the next one. But I\u2019m still quite irate that the government knows I bought it. It\u2019s none of their business. <\/p>\n

If I purchased several more packs of the stuff in the next month, my house would probably get raided without warning by the DEA goons, in their black masks, armor and machine guns. It\u2019s a disgrace and a crying shame. Not to mention unconstitutional. We are not free. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a wild week. Events are unfolding at breathtaking speed. The world is a far different place than it was last Friday when I posted. Despite the bailout, or because of it, the stock market has tanked and bounced wildly and irrationally. Still no bottom. We are in the midst of global financial collapse. Global recession. And only downward from here, into Depression. For the forseeable future.<\/p>\n

Business has slowed dramatically, all across the board. The air pulses with palpable fear.<\/p>\n

We have, I think, arrived at a place we would not have recognized even a few short weeks ago. Government bailouts mean government ownership. Nationalization of banks. Fascism looms. Or worse. Even the best case scenario looks pretty dark right now. <\/p>\n

Historically, economic collapse is always followed by the tramping sound of the jack-booted feet of great marching armies. There will be war.<\/p>\n

Like I said a few weeks ago, store some food and water. Keep your powder dry and hold on to your guns. They\u2019re coming for them soon enough. Hunker down quietly. Don\u2019t make a big scene about what you\u2019re doing. Cherish your family and friends. If events dictate a \u201cgathering of the clans,\u201d these people will be your support. And you will be their\u2019s. Don\u2019t be afraid. Be prepared.<\/p>\n

Those who think I\u2019m pedaling hysteria are mistaken. I\u2019m simply a lone guy, with a little blog, commenting on events as I see and interpret them. As for making preparations, we western Christians are far too fatalistic. We sit around, don\u2019t prepare, and say what will be will be. Because if the worst comes, we\u2019ll all go home to be with Jesus. That may well be true, but it\u2019s quite immature. As for God\u2019s promised protections, I think He would expect us to take care of ourselves as much as possible. Including making some basic preparations for unknown but possible disasters. Or bad economic times.<\/p>\n

Someone emailed me an excellent article on the issue. Instead of trying to paraphrase it, here\u2019s the link. Should Christians Prepare?<\/a> Read it for yourself. While I strongly disagree with the guy\u2019s eschatology (If I hear one more prophecy about end times and Russia being \u201cGog and Magog,\u201d I will need to wrap my head with duct tape to keep it from exploding.), it makes a lot of sense otherwise. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate\u2026\u2026 —Isaiah 1:7 ___________________________________________________ It\u2019s been a brooding week. Things going on. Unexpected shock and stress from latent shadows. Old demons, asleep now for some time, stirring again in the hidden crevices of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irawagler.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}