Turning Outward Not Inward

Hello weight losing fans...


Today I stepped up onto the Magical-Mystical-Digital-Scale weighing in at 177-pounds. That's up from yesterday, and still under that 180-pound target.


Today I was walking through the Wal mart store. I am getting ready to leave for three days, and I am trying to close up some loose ends before I leave.


As I was walking through the store, I saw a rather thin young man sitting in a black T-shirt. He had long unkempt hair. He looked scraggly. He was sitting on the bench by the Pharmacy, and he was looking down at a tattoo on his arm. He was systematically pulling at the skin on his fresh tattoo.

I looked at this tattoo and saw lines that went around his arms like whips. I was a bit frustrated by seeing him at such a young age with a tattoo on his arm. I couldn't help but wonder what is the fascination with tattoos?

The old testament has clear warnings to the people of God. One of the warnings was, don't put marks on the body. In that time the pagans tattooed their bodies as a sign of worship to their gods.

God detested this form of worship and said to his believers, don't mark yourself. Now, in this modern time I can't help but wonder, does this rule still exist in God's mind?

Today I wouldn't argue that tattooing oneself is a worship form for a pagan god. I would argue that tattooing represents a worship of self. Many of the people who get tattoos use the line: "It's my body, I can do anything I want with it."

My thought is this: Oh really, it's your body? Hmmm, did you make you? Did you suddenly appear on this planet by your own volition?

Today In our perverted sick schooling system, the so called teachers with so much as junk for knowledge, are dogmatically pushing on young minds that human beings came from a primordial stew of water and gas. Oh, they didn't just jump out of water onto dry land, they evolved from creatures. Therefore we are creatures, and things, not human beings.

If this is so, then there is no god who created us. There is no one in this universe we owe a sense of allegiance to. There is no one we should worship.

And, since I am just a creature that came from goo I have no dignity ultimately. I have no reason to do anything god would want. I certainly don't owe anyone any respect in return.

I can't help but think this bad thinking is partially responsible for the degradation we are seeing in our society, and the world in general. I can't help thinking all the obese people we are seeing growing out of the ranks of our society have been effected.

Here is what I mean. Someone wrote that the reason he/she eats so much is because they have lost the sense of self. This person actually wrote that he/she has a sense of self loathing. This bad sense of self compels this person to over eat. OK...

Hmmm? What if for just one day someone could turn his/her thoughts off of ones self and turn the thoughts toward something more important, like God?

What if just for one day that house wife who is exasperated with the children, and her neglectful husband could turn her thoughts toward God?

What if that husband who goes to work, and then comes home to find the house a little out of order, and the wife with her hair up in a fuss, would turn his thoughts towards God?
What would be the results?

How about that poor person who is struggling with those impulses with food, what if she or he turned his/her thoughts towards God in a prayer for strength, and guidance?
What could happen?

I know I prayed about my struggle with my weight. I asked God for wisdom to lose weight. Do you want to know what he told me? Here it is: David you eat too much food. Oh....

Now, I am not going to say he said that directly to me. I will say that is what I gathered over years of working on my weight. Yep, I figured it out.

Well, what does this have to do with the kid and that tattoo? Hey, it's not his body. It's not your body. You didn't come out of primordial soup. You are a human being.

You have an obligation to God to take care of the body he loaned to you. He doesn't want you treating it like it's your personal property. Here is why. Because like all self absorbed human beings, we eventually ruin the good things we have been given. We think we can do anything we want. Then we end up destroying the little bit of good we have been given.

When we focus on ourselves we end up with a dilemma. We find we have to meet a set of standards of our own making. When we focus on ourselves we find that we have to gratify ourselves.

When we turn our thoughts out toward a more glorious being than ourselves, in this case the one true God, we will find our minds changing. The Bible states clearly, draw nearer to me, and I will draw near to you.

The thing we over look is that we don't really draw near to God. Nope, we stay put in our thoughts, or we even start to move away. I am as guilty as anyone about this.
And, I find myself praying and asking God help me in this time of hunger.


Number counter: 7232

Bye for now....

And that's the way it is...I'm David Dane

When I get to where I am going in Indianapolis, Indiana I will see if I can post from there.