Words of Wisdom from My Ol' Man

So, for those who don't know, my dad has recently been diagnosed with cancer. And I have to admit that our family's reaction to the news is slightly humorous. Rather than being broken up about it, we're all... well unchanged isn't quiet the right word, and hopeful is equally incorrect. We are all possessing the peace that passes comprehension that only Christ can give.

Now let's be honest, most of us in life are not facing challenges that are most likely going to kill you (it is, of course, our hope and prayer that God heals my father, but cancer is a disease that usually ends in death). And while this isn't to trivialize anyone else's situation, it is to say that my dad's situation is a little more threatening. While your situation may be passing your exam tomorrow, going through a rough time in your relationships, or being abandoned by your closest friends or loved one, none of those things are life threatening.

I say all this, because I came across a very interesting blog post made by my father. To summarize it, dad soul's was feeling tormented from worry over the possibility of having cancer (this post was a reflection back to a car trip we took just before he got the official news he had cancer but after he had been warned he probably did). In it, his mind kept coming back to the Psalm that said "Why are you in despair, O my soul?". So often that phrase flashed through his mind that he finally opened his bible and hunted down the verses to see if he couldn't find out WHY the psalmist was so upset, to find the cause for his despair. But upon finding the verse, he could not find anything that said why the psalmist was upset. But that was the whole point of the Psalm!

Here's the Psalm,

Why are you in despair, O my soul?
And why have you become disturbed within me?
Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him,
The help of my countenance, and my God.

This same EXACT phrase is found in Psalm 42:5, 42:11, and 43:5 that's three times repeated. Now, you may not know this, but when something is repeated in the Bible three times it is to really drive home a point. Examples of this can be found in places such as Isaiah 6:3 where it says, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" or in the gospels where Christ ask Peter three times if he loves Him. The point of three time repetition is to drive home the point that something is more than true, it is assured beyond any shadow of a doubt. In Isaiah, the entity speaking is a seraphim. It cries out the truth that God is holy. No, not just holy, but that He is firmly, undeniably, and unchangeably HOLY. In the gospels Christ isn't just rubbing it in Peters face that he denied Christ three times, Christ is stressing the fact that if Peter does in fact love Him then he will devote his life to the care of the Church.

The point being, that God doesn't allow this phrase to be repeated word for word three times for no reason. Look closely and notice a couple things.

1) No reason is ever mentioned for what is causing the psalmist problem. It's not important. Try and wrap your mind around that. We live in a world full of broken homes, broken hearts, and shattered lives. It doesn't matter if your wife cheated on you, if your daddy left you, or if your brother is trying to kill you (something which sadly happens all too often in Arab countries when someone leaves the Muslim faith). It doesn't matter if your home is getting taken away from you by the bank, if your closest friend just died, or if you failed the big midterm.

2) Here's what the Bible tells us is important: "Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance, and my God." Regardless of what happens, we are called to hope in God. See, the problem is that we're trying to hope in people. Sinful, imperfect, godless men will always disappoint you at some point in your life and you know what? So will God-fearing, righteous, kind men. We are all imperfect and though we trust in Christ, we have by no means become perfect and free of sin, just from the penalty of sin. When you begin to base your entire state of being on the actions of one person or one event you are looking right into the face of God and crying out "HOW DARE YOU?! What right did you have to allow this to happen? How could you let such horrible things happen to me?" You are looking at God and telling Him that you know what is better for your life than He does.

Can you grasp what it is I'm trying to say here? When bad things come our way and we go into despair, when we become suicidal, when we seek "self-medications", what we've done is cease to trust God . We've placed ourself in a place higher than God (that's making our will into an idol above God) and telling God He has no idea what He is doing!

What an amazing Psalm my dad shared. You and you alone are responsible for your life. No one, no one, NO ONE ruins your life for you. No one, forces you to adopt an attitude in direct rebellion to the teachings of the Bible. You are in charge of your emotions, in charge of your reaction to life. The question becomes, how will you react? Will you blame everyone else for your sin? Or will you, like the psalmist, cry out to God "I will hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance, and my God."

If you're going through hard times where you feel suicidal or depressed or just stressed out of your mind. I encourage you to pray through Psalm 42 and talk with me. I've been there and God can help.

Words of Wisdom from My Ol' Man

6 years of searching....

6 years ago in the year 2001, on August the 31st Toonami, a TV block on Cartoon Network had a special Midnight showing in which they showed music videos from the band Gorillaz, Daft Punk, and.... others.

Wait, you say? What was that last little bit? That quickly muttered, under your breath, guttural cough that almost resembled a word? Oh, I said others. You'll never hear what the "others" consisted of from that special Midnight run of Toonami, just the words "and others." For six years this phrase has haunted me as I've searched for what was, at the time, the coolest stop animation video I had ever seen. I saw it only in passing as I quietly and secretly viewed some of my favorite, and my mother's least favorite, TV shows ever; shows that aired during Toonami's Midnight Run.

It's not a music video, just a video with some hauntingly good music playing along with it. It's a pretty cool story of a... guy... thing seeking happiness and bliss in a world of gray. The other night, fed up with the memory of this video I sat down and began my hunt. At first, I had no leads other than it was on Toonami, but I endured and little by little I honed in on my prey. It
aired on a special edition of the Midnight Run, that aired on August 31, 2001 (with a repeat showing in October due to its great success). Finally, after 3 hours of grueling searching, with continual dead-ends, I found a forum post about a guy seeking the same video! Scrolling through the topic thread I found not the video but a clue of pure gold; the video's name and maker. From there it was a quick search on YouTube that led me this video. Please enjoy MORE, by Mark Osborne

The video was taken off YouTube by the creator. If you want to watch it just google MORE, by Mark Osborne and you should be able to find it easily.

6 years of searching....

My Reaction to the News

So, I figure since this blog site is linked on my dad's website, it would be beneficial to outline a bit of how I'm taking all this. First, however, is how the rest of my family is doing with this.
Mom is doing well. I think this is the most stressful to her as its something new for her to have to handle. Not just something new, but something that she has no grounds for understanding how to handle it. The past weeks of going with dad to various doctor appointments has been good for her as she's been able to get a hand up on what Myeloma is.
Daniel seems to most affected by it. I imagine this has a lot to do with both the fact that Daniel is farthest away from dad right now, as well as the fact that he was the first born. The first born has a bit of a special relationship with the parents as they are able to experience the parents alone. All the rest of us experience the parents as being an additional part to the family. In fact, I would say that often the younger children experience the parents almost as on offset to the friendship they experience with the other children. Needless to say, Daniel probably enjoys... a deeper relationship (if that's the correct way to say it) with my father than the rest of us do.
I haven't really herd from Andrew to know how he's doing, but I think he's handling it well.
Emily has been stressing about this a little, but remains good.

Me? I'm good. To be perfectly honest, I'm not overly affected by it one way or the other. I know that may seem callous, but the fact of the matter is that the number of my dad's days has not been decreased one bit simply because he now has cancer. A lot of people may view this news almost as if where before there was some unknown limit to my father's day that was so far off it wasn't worth considering. After all, my dad's only 55 he has another 35 years easy by modern thought. But know we consider the fact he has cancer, that limit that wasn't worth thinking about is now a much smaller number. It's become a "how many of my children will get to meet their grandfather?" or a "how much longer do I really have with dad?", "what will become of mom without dad?" All completely legitimate questions, yet all questions that make me laugh. The whole notion of letting a sickness distress you makes me laugh.
My father is just as much in the hands of God today as he was yesterday. Just because he has cancer doesn't mean God has turned His back on my dad has it? So I'm good. My dad is in the best hands possible and he'll be around the exact number of days as he always was supposed to.

My Reaction to the News

Daniel Bennett; father, minister, brother, political figure. He'll stand up for the rights of the little man and insure equality and equity and other words that start with e and and in y. yes "y" that little do it all letter that could otherwise be known as a spineless flip-flop unable to decide if it's a consonant or a vowel. Don't vote for a yellow-belly, chicken like "y". Vote Daniel Bennett. He stands up for you.

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Viruses, Trojans, and Worms oh, my!

I had a fun little run in with virus this past two weekends. In a typical fashion of "bad-timing" my main computer was hit was roughly 400 occurrences of the same virus. It was truly frustrating as I spent the better part of Friday afternoon, practically all of Saturday removing the virus from my computer.
It was the essence of frustration as I would seem to no sooner have removed the virus than it would pop right back up on my computer. Literally fuming as a much needed day of homework (homework that required the very computer in question) I stormed around from computer to computer in my house making sure that the virus wasn't coming to me through the network.
Mom's faced a problem as the Anti-virus software had long expired, but I was able to at least scan it in part and set her's and dad's computer (which though being old was kept well up to date) to the time-consuming task. And then, in a stroke of unmitigated fortune, I found the source: Emily's laptop.
Oh, yes! It was dear, sweet, little sister Emily's laptop that was sending it's deadly pathogen through my beloved network. It had fortunately only found a home on my main computer (which is by far the most resilient to such things) and had for a very short time found it's way to my laptop (though I crushed it swiftly and without mercy). The cause, you ask? No virus protection. ooops. After quickly rectifying that slight oversight, and 1346 occurrences of this virus later, Emily's laptop was freed from its horrid grasp and my computer soon was free too.
Sadly, the problem continues as it turns out Emily received it from some random dude on campus. I suspect through iTunes. We sent him a message telling him to get an Anti-virus program (such as my personal favorite, Norton Anti-virus) but have yet to hear back.
Though her laptop is more or less back up to snuff, I fear my main computer was a little worse from the wear and took me much of this past Friday to get it back to a point of stability again (i.e. to a point where it didn't randomly crash). Though I have found I am missing a few programs after this nasty little virus.
sad times. sad times

Viruses, Trojans, and Worms oh, my!

Designer Babies

Okay, so while I was watching nightline tonight, they ran this story about a lady who's selling embryo's that come from a union between PH D, handsome men in their 20s and equally smart attractive women. (here's the linkage http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=2895615&page=1 )

That right there is a little disturbing to me, as if, to coin the phrase from nightline, you are trying to build a better baby. What's more disturbing, however, is the fact that people are going way out of their way to do stuff like buy embryos or in vitro fertilization when in the US alone we are killing 1.37 Million babies a year (approx 3,700 a day) via abortions ( http://www.abortionno.org/Resources/fastfacts.html ) yet we are only adopting 120,000 children a year (approx 329 a day) that comes out to our adoptions only equaling about 8.9% of our abortions.

But check this statistic out, 7.3 million couples in America suffer from infertility ( http://www.resolve.org/site/PageServer?pagename=fmed_mcff_ffi )! That’s right, a little over 5 times the amount of people having abortions would love to have that child! What about the leftovers? The ones who want a child but would be unable to save the life of a child facing abortion? Well, there’s still another 44.63 million abortions happening around the world every year. Guys, first of all, there should be zero abortions in America. We’re better than all that, we’re supposed to be civilized and know the value of human life. Instead, we prefer the right of a woman to murder the result of a night of illicit sex.

What about rape? I sympathize, I do 100% and more, but should the sins of the father be paid by the sons? Do we kill the children of a mass murder? No! They have just as much right to life as annoy, if you don’t desire the baby then give it up for adoption! There are people who would love to cherish that child!

We should make protection more affordable, give it to teenagers, it’s not encouraging them to have sex, the one’s that are gonna do it are gonna do it with our without it. It will, however, save a life ( 20% of abortions come from teenagers).

This embryo thing? It’s sick. If people are having that much problems finding the money to adopt, then we need to take a serious look at why it costs so much. Think of it, we could save 7.3 MILLION lives. That is with infertile couples alone. My brother and his wife are adopting, some friends of the family have adopted and a third are about to adopt. That’s 3 friends I could think of in 10 seconds, I could name more.

I’d like to encourage everyone to check out my brother’s blog ( http://danielbennett.blogspot.com/index.html ) and talk to annoy considering abortion to consider adoption instead. Even if we got couples to donate the fertilized embryo over aborting it (the difference being natural conception that was going to be murdered verse a “test tube” baby), the child would have a chance at life!

One final note, the lady in the nightline article says “I suggest buying a pair because the first one doesn’t always take”. It’s just one more life, that we helped kill. We created it not caring if it lives or die, we got a second one standing by. If that doesn’t work we’ll try a third. Guys, we should give the ones that are already existing a chance.

I fully plan to adopt a child at some point during my life. And I encourage anyone who is planning abortion to PLEASE reconsider. There are alternatives. 7.3 million people are waiting for your child.

Designer Babies

Testing, 1...2....3

Okay so I made this just so I could comment on my brother's site, but the xanga community was dying, and, to be honest, there were getting to be a lot of people who knew about that site that I didn't want a part of my life so maybe an unknown little spot is just what the doctor ordered. Signs point, however, to me never using this. I might post some of my odder ideas every once in a while simply so they can be corrected or explained. In fact, I'll probably do just that.

Testing, 1...2....3