God is working

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God is working

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by Stan Faryna

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REM, It’s the end of the world as we know it

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In the fearsome face of unprecedented political scandal and tyrannous masquerades behind untenable promises for peace, security and prosperity, scientists argue the risks of x-class solar flares, falling stars, melting glaciers, bee death, epidemic and hyperinflation. We step forward to the brink of a world war and back again, but the leap into the inferno, the fateful decision – it belongs to the ambitions and vanities of a few – none of whom are greater in intelligence, wisdom or virtue than you or I.

It is like watching the perfect storm. The bright flashes dance and shoot across our eyes. The roar, rumble and growl of thunder shakes the world.

Some will lift up their hearts in excitement and anticipation. Others will stay still and quiet. Take cover. We are not masters of our destiny, life, property, and happiness – this is what natural disasters remind us. And man-made disasters (environmental, political, social and economic) – they too remind us of our frailty and vanities.

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His lightnings lit up the world;
The earth saw and trembled.

Psalm 97:4

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For those who put their faith in their own prudence and capability, they will prepare for the worst. At great cost, effort and sacrifice – if they have any sense of justice, conscience and freedom. The combination of a lack of spiritual hope and a lack of preps is evidence of an inferior intelligence and/or moral character. Such optimism is the refuge of the domesticated and pitiful slave bound by the necessities and envies of today.

For those who drink from the waters of faith, God is working in the storm – regardless of the apparent, invisible, and heart-breaking casualties. Two weeks of preps and certain self-sufficiency is prudent, but the real work is to love strongly (without fear), to give and lift others up (including and beyond our circle of family and friends), and inspire the same duty in the hearts of the human family.

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Love shines brightest in the darkness.

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I find myself in need of this wisdom. Often.

Maybe, you too?

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Stan Faryna
19 May 2013
Fairfax, Virginia

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Recent blog posts:

How not to Write Poetry

Freedom is Solid

Season 3 Finale of The Walking Dead

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Click and buy the mug shown below and help feed kids.

Nobody cares about your #Earthday tweet or post. #100inches

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Nobody cares about your disingenuous #Earthday tweet or post.

by Stan Faryna

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Michael Jackson, They don’t care about us

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Foreword

Earthday is on April 22nd. That could be today, tomorrow, or yesterday – depending on when you read this post. Most of my readership will not read this post. In fact, I predict that less than 20 people will read this post – regardless of the effort I made to pull readers in with a snarky title.

Did it work, Josh?

My doing this blog post despite the general dissympathy for Creation – that’s the kind of fire in the belly that distinguishes the blogger from the attention whores. [grin]

Enough with the snark! Because I have contempt for none. But I do have a place in my heart for you and the whole world.

This is what it means to fire it up, get ‘er done, and step up. There are no rewards and applause for doing the right thing – persistently. But the world, regardless of the lack of happy noise, gets better by these unappreciated inches – inch by inch.

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Earthday

The insipid, lackluster and uninspired description of Earthday provided by Wikipedia is here:

Earthday is an annual day on which events are held worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection

As Bill Dorman might ask – did a fifth grader write that?! [grin]

Ain’t I A Woman? And other social media DOHs.

Ain’t I A Woman?

And other social media DOHs.

by Stan Faryna

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Nia Long reads Sojourner Truth’s Aint I A Woman?

The contest of mice and men (The U.S. Presidential Election 2012) is finished. For now. The results are yet to be seen.

But it is not too late for the voice of women to be heard. To remind us that that responsibility falls into our caring and loving hands – responsibility to turn the world right side up again as Sojourner Truth once reminded us – women, men and children.

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Stan Faryna
07 November 2012
Bucharest, Romania

What decides the fate of a nation? And other social media DOHS!

What decides the fate of a nation?

And other social media DOHs.

by Stan Faryna

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Enigma, Return to Innocence

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Is the fate of a nation to be decided by an election?

Or is the election of a President (or Government) the poorest and most useless exercise of human will, noble ambition, and highest hope?

I don’t know…

Maybe, you know. Maybe, you can explain it and make me a believer in what now seems to me to be… but the greatest of mouse traps – a mouse trap for nothing less than the Abolition of Man.

My apprehensions at this moment are reflected by the same indecision, division, and doubt which prevents commentators to preclude a victor. History, tonight, is a mystery to us.

God, however, makes no mistakes.

The Divine decides the fate of a nation (no amount of campaign spend shall contradict the Divine authority) and God’s will is spoken through the human heart – tonight, we know these signs include our own fears and worry.

I am moved to prayer – not to the election booth. I am moved to repent and, more importantly, to an examination of conscience. My own and for a nation that searches it’s heart for the sign of Jonah.

Meanwhile, I will reflect on The Final Speech of the Great Dictator. I invite you to join me too.

http://stanfaryna.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/the-final-speech-of-the-great-dictator-by-sir-charles-chaplin

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Stan Faryna
06 November 2012
Bucharest, Romania

When Deepak Chopra says “Do Not Panic”, you should be concerned.

We live in interesting times

by Stan Faryna

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If you happen to be shit out of luck, it’s “cyclic.” That’s what the spiritual teacher to celebrities and the big corporate C-suite, Deepak Chopra, is saying.

I am reminded of an ancient warning. Beware of false prophets and teachers.

I’m also reminded of an award-winning and NYT Best Selling novel by Aravind Adiga, an Indian. The White Tiger. Balram Halwai, the protagonist of Adiga’s novel, was never a good man and he will never be a good man. He will only ever say what he needs to say to further himself.

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Fleetwood Mac, Tell Me Lies

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RIP Bassel Shehade #Syria Please RT

There are worse things than death and dying

by Stan Faryna

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To my Syrian friends:

There are worse things than death and dying. Among them is the shame that you have forsaken your dignity and allowed beasts to become your masters.

There is the shame that you did not fight the good fight. Instead, you cowered in safe places while good men and women died in the arena. There is an inescapable and boundless shame in your self-deceit that your place was not by their side but instead in seeking your fortune, pleasure or safety.

Bassel Shehade did not die in shame.

An aspiring film-maker with a Fullbright Scholarship at Syracuse University, Bassel was killed in Homs, Syria on the 28th of May 2012 by the Syrian army.

In memory of Bassel Shehade

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Stan Faryna
02 June 2012
Bucharest, Romania

Harvard Biz Professor Michael Norton Says Money Makes Us Happy

Harvard Biz Professor Michael Norton Says Money Makes Us Happy 

by Stan Faryna

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Can money buy you happiness? At TEDX Cambridge, Michael Norton argued that money can buy you happiness – when you spend it on other people.

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Enrique Iglesias, I Just Wanna Be With You

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Beautifully and brutally honest: @tweeting_lies writes about how he feels Out of Step

Beautifully and brutally honest: @tweeting_lies writes about how he feels Out of Step

by Stan Faryna

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Here, Ward Defender writes:

You know for a while, I was feeling ok, and all seemed well, but this last week….  I just can’t shake this awkwardness in everything I do, again.  Work, interpersonal relations, and just life in general seems to be wrong.  Everything, just wrong. It’s not as though I’m going to stop being myself and I do keep trying to figure it out, but I don’t get it, and just can’t seem to figure out why.

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Pusha T ft. Tyler, The Creator. Trouble On My Mind

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Hristos a înviat! And other social media DOHs.

by Stan Faryna

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There is a special Romanian greeting at Easter.

It starts with, Christ is risen. Or Hristos a înviat!

The proper response, His Resurrection is the truth. Or Adevărat a înviat!

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Johnny Cash, Were you there?

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A Letter to the Baby Boomers – Prodigal Sons and Daughters of the Republic

by Stan Faryna

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My friend Billy Delaney writes that the Boomers are at the Gates.

And I am reminded of Kipling who wrote, “Stand up and take the war, The Hun is at the gate!”

For all we have and are,
For all our children’s fate,
Stand up and take the war.
The Hun is at the gate!

Outraged, Rudyard Kipling wrote these opening lines to For All We Have and Are in 1914. He wrote to stir the British to war against the looming German threat.

Billy Joel, We Didn’t Start the Fire

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