Why does God like to play favorites?

[nmassman44]

Speed I think that if you think negative that negative things will happen in your life. Plus people can pick up on the negative vibe very easily and thats why they run in the other direction. You have to look at yourself first and figure out why things happen to you. Its not god handing you a raw deal. You cant blame that on god.
It also has to do with the people you surround yourself with too. Eartha Kitt once said in an interview that the secret of her success and her positive outlook on life is that she doesnt have negative people in her life. She is dead now but what she said rings true at least to me.
You also have to learn to love yourself because if you dont then how can you love another person....And look at it this way as others have said here...it could be worse.

 

[lavamat_jon]

Apologies

I do apologise anyway, I didn't mean to stop people believing what they want to believe, was just posting my view on life and my experience.

I do realise the US is a very religous country, over here the general opinion is quite different - as you can see from what we have pasted onto the side of some of our buses...

Jon =)

 

[ptcruiser51]

You're still a young man

I see in your profile that you've turned 30. Let me tell you, that was one of the most difficult transition periods for me. Even 50 was a breeze compared to 30! I was kind of fed-up at that point, too. After spending too many years in an abusive relationship, ending up broke and despondent; dealing with all the drunks, cheaters, liars and users that seemed to find me without any trouble.

At 31 I finally met Mr. Right.

Time isn't running out. It can and will happen if you remain open to it.

 

[panthera]

Goodness,

Jon, I'm the one who gets kicked in the nuts here by the Right-Wing Christians, normally, so if you've been getting flamed, my sincere sympathy.

I meant my question seriously - I just don't see how anyone can flat out state "there is/are no god/God/gods". I've been told that I'm an idiot here for saying so before, but I just don't see how one may prove a negative. So, please, don't feel I was attacking you.

And, yes, I do, personally believe in God...tho' not in the hateful jerk of a gawd of the super religious fascists...

And not all Americans are Right-Wing Christians, either, Just as not all Germans are Nazis, not all the English are CoE...nor are all thinking Brits necessarily strong devotees of Christopher Hitchens, who, if one bothers to actually read his writings, refuses to endorse that advertisement, because he grants that only a fool is certain he knows there is or knows there is no god.... Some of my dearest friends are pagans, in Sheffield. Well, they're transplanted Scots, but the principle holds.

Could it be that you are conflating religious beliefs (which are often pretty stupid, and not only in the US, tho' I grant you some of the most hateful bitches are among those who most loudly proclaim their religion, and Christianity has not monopoly on hateful queens...) with the potential existence of a higher being?

 

[sudsman]

Panthera

Your are refering to those who sit in the front pews and sing louder than the rest. Iknow a LOT of them..

Life is what happens to you while you are making plans to do something else!

 

[panthera]

Lee (Mac)

I do, too - except for my parents, my entire family are red/nex-fundis who think God is there to punish everyone who doesn't vote rethuglian and believe just the way they do.

 

[toggleswitch2]

As Quentin Crips one said during a performance:

God is quite busing suspending the planets and making them rotate for the days/nights and seasons that she may not have time to think about you not gettng the exact type and color of bicycle you wanted on your 10th birthday.

 

[sudsman]

Very good toggles

Now stand up and take a bow before God Slaps us all.

KEVEN most of my family was that way too.. No matter what happened it was God punshiment for something I had done.. I really wish I had known my German Parents or what really happened.. just dont think it would have been that way in Augsburg.

 

[panthera]

Well, Lee (Mac),

Maybe your transgressions were so B I G, it would take God to punish them???

Teasing, my dear, teasing.

Augsburg is a city built on the principle of live and let live. Literally - Treaty of Augsburg.

You'd have found your German parents probably not crazy about you being gay (unless you wanted to marry a man with kids, in which case that would be fine) but your passion for clean washing would have more than made up for any supposed failings. Here (I am 20 minutes drive from Augsburg), cleanliness is not just next to Godliness....

 

[sudsman]

Keven

I can ASSURE you MY transgressions WERE that BIG!

 

[iheartmaytag]

I was going to say something profound

But then I found myself glowing and I started to speak in an Irish accent so now I have to say:
God loves you. He loves everyone, it's just sometimes you have to love yourself, even forgive yourself before the true blessings will befall you. Sometimes you feel all alone, just look around. Many times you don't get things when you want them, but when God knows you are ready for them. Now start by looking in the mirror and say to yourself, "I love you." and mean it.

Now I have to get going, Tess and Andrew are waiting for me.

 

[panthera]

ah, yes, big

woops! Better not say what I was about to or the blue-rinsed ladies will get the vapours.

We'll just leave it at...you fit well into Texas...where everything is bigger...

iheartmaytag...try having a Scottish mother and an Irish partner for rumbling rrrrs and droped th's...

 

[iheartmaytag]

Touched

Here is my reference to my last post.

I started to form the though and then it started sounding like a reveal. I didn't mean it in a flip manner, I was sincere.

http://www.touched.com/touched05/index.php

 

[sudsman]

Keven

maybe I should have said and that many too.. When I said Bless me Father for I have sinned he would yes I know I was there! you would be shocked what went on when wifes were at Garden club meetings.. Oh how I loved those, and the things that really went on in a small country cowboy town.. Just feeding a couple of horses could take hours if done with the right person helping!!!!!

 

[panthera]

Oh, yes,

well, my high school covered the ranchers and farmers out to Timnath and beyond. Manys an afternoon I went home for dinner with a cowboy from my class (yes, I was a freak back when it wasn't yet spelled phreak) and discovered that the skills gained persuading bossy to let down have other applications.

Wow, haven't milked a cow since friends of ours in the north of Germany took a week off for their daughter's wedding and we volunteered to run their little farm for them.

Yee-Haw, it was fun...for a week. Goats are easier. And before somebody says it's all done by machine now, you still had to get her goin' on all four (and sometimes five!) cylinders before you hooked her up...stroke and twist. Ah, yes...

 

[panthera]

uh, before anybody feels the need...

that's four (sometimes five!) for cows, not goats...

 

[sudsman]

keven

Bet between you and I we could have TEXass COVERED!

 

[laundromat]

SQ

Try having everything you love and cherrish other than the clothes on your back stolen like theaves in the night including your pets.I was real sick and died 3 times with hyoper active thyroidism and Grace'a disease.It effected my emotions,thoughts and strpped me of all my involintery body functions.I was bitter,hatefull and depressed to the point of suicide. John Le Fever,Tom Steyer and Jon in Boston will tell you how horrible it made me. I lost many "friends" except those who realy loved me and,even though I was a true bitch causing havoc among friends,they knew that something was deffinately wrong.Even though I was homeless living under a bridge on I83 and had nobody to help me,somehow,the God I know and trust, with no bitterness or hatetrid toward Him,reached out and led me to where I am today.Nothing is perfect or permanant and I learned from losing everything that material things are temporary but spiritual things are permanent and need to be properly maintaines through prayers,fasting and faith.Without those,you're sunk. We all choose our own paths to walk and if there becomes a detore or dead end,it may be hard and take some time but that's what it's all about. We all make mistakes but,learning from them and not repeating them over and over again is what we call life.bitterness,hatred and vengince do nothing but tare up your insides and cause your heart to harden.Just like a cancer,it eats us up inside out.It takes a lot more muscles to froun than it does to smile. I haven't had a boyfriend for almost twenty years. Maybe a few one night stands but no serious relationship. I am not bitter,angry or depressed about that. I had four lov ers in my life and only the third one was my true love and he died of a massive heart attack.My fourth one,Ron,who was married and had four sons,just died of cancer this past August.I thought it strange to recdeive an email from his wife of 43 years!! she said she was aware of our "weekend endevors" after finding a receipt for some washer parts in Ron's pocket. No bitterness from either end though.So,my own track record isn't that great but,I'm not bitter or angry. Maybe a bit disapointed but not bitter.Trust,faith and belief are the three main tools you need to use.You make your own choices,not God.

 

[sudsman]

Chuck Very well put

I too lost my love about 7 mons. ago. Ray was totally crazy for me. So much so he had his brother bring him here first to tell me he loved me Before he was taken to the hospital. I have always thought if maybe he had gone on to the hospital he might have made it. Never thought a 39 year old big scraping guy like him could die of pueumonia. Yes very hurt and painful and still is. But never felt like God was punishing me for anything. that is just life. No one has all the good all the time.

 

[danemodsandy]

Lee:

Sustained effort in your endeavours is very important to realising your goals. God may be very important in whatever is going on in this universe, but so is stick-to-it-iveness. If you want a partner, it's not enough to go to a bar once in a while, sitting and talking only when spoken to. You have to go out to lots of places, and you have to have the spherical brass elements to go up to everybody you like the looks of and talk to them. It's the same in business. I'm on staff at a national magazine, and that's wonderful, but only today I sent out my resume to someone advertising for a free-lancer, and also filed a story with a magazine I've written for in the past. You have to keep moving, is my point; you won't get more if you don't ask for it - long, loud and often.

P.S.: That story I filed? They bought it. Wouldn't have happened if I hadn't worked on cooking up an idea, putting it on paper, and sending it to them. It would have been easy to say, "Oh, no one's been in touch to ask me to write anything," and leave it at that.

"Some people sit on their butts
Got the dreams, yeah, but not the guts
Well, that's peachy for some people
For some hum-drum people, I suppose
Well they can sit and rot!
But not Rose!"

- Stephen Sondheim, Gypsy, 1959