We're all connected

Now that I’m retired I have some time to work on some of my hobbies. I’ve been researching my family history for quite a few years, but recently I’ve put a lot of effort into investigating my roots.

It’s been interesting, I’ve found that I have family members who fought on both sides of the Civil War, including a great uncle whose nephew was Abraham Lincoln. I have family who are doctors, lawyers, and even the Attorney General of Arkansas; as well as auto mechanics, barbers, and tons of farmers.

There is of course the weird side of exploring history. I’ve seen records of blatant voter fraud with family who lived on the east coast being registered to vote in California, I found a distant cousin who was murdered by a telephone repairman in her home. There are lots of cousins marrying each other, and even someone who, as a teenager, gave birth to two sons, only to find that their father was her father.

What I’ve come to realize is that the brokenness we feel each day isn’t by chance. We’re all broken in our own way. The sin of Adam and Eve runs deep, and the enemy takes advantage of our free-will whenever possible to exploit our faults.

But even in finding all these things in my family history there is one truth that doesn’t change: Jesus loves them all. Every single one of them.

No matter how much I research my family tree, I truly understand that we are all from the same root. Whether you believe in God, or in evolution, we all had to come from the first entity that spawned men and women. We’re all connected, and we should treat each other as family.

“Be excellent to each other” -Theodore “Ted” Logan

-God, help us to show the love of Christ to others in everything we do and say. Amen.

Protesting Humanity

So Trump is in town for a fundraiser and the city is going crazy. People are making big signs to “protest” him, and I’m wondering when did San Antonio become such a hateful city.

Seriously, protesting is a means for social change, like when people protest war and stuff. Protesting the existence of another human being is pointless and your hateful signs won’t change anyone’s opinion of him.

You’re not “protesting” Donald Trump, you’re just standing outside a building and saying you hate another human being and you have no manners. Congratulations, you just lowered yourself to HIS level of hate speech.

If you want to protest something try marching against gun violence, environmental issues, or equal pay for women - that is something tangible you can change. You can’t change Donald Trump or the people who want to vote for him.

Let your “protest” against the ideology of someone running for civic office be your vote for a different candidate, but I’m willing to bet none of the sign carriers have yet to donate one single minute of their time to campaign for the candidate they want in office.

So no, I won’t be at the Donald Trump “protest” today, I’ll just simply wish him well and say he won’t get my vote because he doesn’t represent the America I want to live in. But then again neither does Hillary Clinton, they’re both horrible people. So I think I’ll just make a big sign that says “Armagedon outa here.”

“Love one another.”  - Jesus

How Voting Trump Defines America

It’s been an especially contentious election year, mostly because of Donald Trump. You either love him or hate him, but I’m not going to debate the merits of whether he should or should not be President (he shouldn’t).

The phenomenon of Donald Trump says two very interesting things about this country –

1. We’re Tired of Politics as Usual:  It’s true, people are seriously fed up with the government and entrenched politicians who don’t seem to really give a rat’s rump about the people they’ve sworn to serve.

This was very evident here in San Antonio during the mayoral race last year. Our old mayor, Julian Castro was called to Washington to become the Secretary of Housing and Urban development. To finish his current term, the city called upon a nice lady named Ivy Taylor. She wasn’t a well-known name and certainly wasn’t a career politician so it was a surprising move.

Fast forward to the election last year. Ivy decided to make it official and see if the people of San Antonio wanted her to continue as Mayor, so she threw her hat in the ring.

Enter Leticia Van de Putte, and longtime politician who had been in the House and Senate but was currently out of a political job, so she decided to make a run at Texas government and ran for Lt Governor. She lost, bad.

It was evident she had no desire to get a real job so she immediately ran for Mayor of San Antonio.

It seemed the outcome of the election was a foregone conclusion. Van de Putte was a political powerhouse with a lot of rich, powerful friends, plus she had every major endorsement you could get, like the police and fire departments.

She lost.

The people of this city made it known that they were tired of the old guard. Career politicians aren’t being effective and the rancor between the Democrats and Republicans has reached a point that nothing gets done, and San Antonio didn’t want someone who was part of that in their city.

This seems to be what is happening with the presidential election. People are tired of the same old politics, so they’re throwing their votes at a person who isn’t a politician and says things that a lot of people are thinking. Unfortunately, he’s also saying a lot of things people aren’t thinking, and shouldn’t be said out loud in any setting.

But the fact is, people are voting for him and if the Republicans were self-aware at all they’d realize they need to regroup, restructure and remake their party.

Oh, the Democrats don’t get a pass on this either. The fact that a Socialist is getting their parties votes should tell them some things about their party too.

2. America has no Manners: I’ve been noticing this for a few years now. I do a lot of blog reading and I’ve been alarmed how the content has slowly become vulgar. People have stopped caring about how they speak and the words they use. It’s rare that I read an online article without the author using a lot of blue words.

Personally, I start reading an article and if I run into a f**k I stop reading. The reason isn’t because I’m a prude, it’s because people who use those kinds of words are too stupid to know the real words, which means they’re too stupid to write an article of any real intelligence that I would benefit from.

“Vulgarity is no substitute for wit.” -Maggie Smith

Trump says things that are ugly, mean spirited, and downright vulgar at times; but for some reason people are eating it up. Why, because the U.S. has become a country with no couth. 

There are myriad problems with this, but the one that applies to this article is that the President of the United States is a world figure. A statesman. Someone who needs couth. 

Conducting world affairs and meetings with Kings and Prime Ministers and other Presidents requires a great deal of formality and respect. I don’t think Trump has any of those qualities, and the fact that people are voting for him shows that we don’t either.

What the phenomenon of Donald Trump defines about America is that it’s changing. People want something different, for better or worse, they just want something that isn’t the same as what they have now, and since this is a country of majority rule all I can say is that if this is what the people want then the rest of us will have to accept it.

"God, please let your gracious spirit fill this country and let us become a people who understand that words matter. Jesus knew this and chose His words carefully. Help us do the same."

A Book and Its Cover

During my 3 month stay in Ireland I met some interesting people and did some fun things. One of those things was making friends at a local pub called Bolg Bui, which is Irish for “yellow belly.” Don’t ask me why, it’s an Irish thing. I made it a point to visit this pub because it’s a very fertile place to meet people. The Irish pride themselves on their ability to make conversation, so it was a good place to talk about my faith.

The owner of the pub is a wonderful lady named Tina, and she comes up with fun things to do which the pub sponsors, and one of those events is a “Mystery Tour.” The concept is fun, you meet at the pub on a certain day and everyone piles into a bus. Where does it go you ask? Only Tina and the bus driver know, it’s a mystery!

I decided to take the tour to meet new people and see some interesting sites. So I got on the bus one night and we headed out to parts unknown. I started talking to everyone on the bus and was surprised to find a very eclectic group of people of different ages and backgrounds, and as the bus winded its way down the tiny back roads of Ireland we all joked about our chances of getting to our destination because the bus driver was a little old man who was in his 80’s! We all wondered if this guy should be driving his own car, let alone a passenger bus.

However, we reached each place safely, and they were all really interesting. We went in and stayed about 30 minutes, had a pint, talked to each other and the people in the pub, and then headed for the next place.

The last pub we stopped at was my favorite because I’m a musician and there was a bunch of people playing traditional Irish music. This is something that a lot of pubs do in Ireland. They love their traditional music, and they’re fun to sing, so on certain nights people show up with their instruments and jam. There were 3 accordion players, an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar, a violin player, and a multipurpose musician who played percussive stuff, like the spoons.

We all had a good time, and since it was our last stop we stayed longer. After about 45 minutes I noticed our bus driver shuffle in. I remember thinking “thank God he came in, it’s freezing outside and the last thing we need is to go back to the bus for the trip home and find this little old man frozen to the steering wheel!”

The bus driver sat down at the bar and ordered a drink, and as the band finished the song they were playing something amazing happened. The violin player got up and walked over to the bus driver and handed him his violin. But it wasn’t just a hand off, the guy almost bowed to the driver as he handed the instrument to him. The guy next to me gave me an elbow and said “you’re privileged to be standing here right now.” My interest was, of course, very piqued, and I watched as this elderly gentleman raised the violin to his cheek, and suddenly the entire pub went silent. I mean totally, completely silent.

Have you ever been in a bar and had it suddenly go quiet. That happens, like, never. There are too many people in a bar and too many conversations going on for anyone to care what’s happening elsewhere in the bar, but this place came to a complete standstill.

The driver nestled the violin under his chin, raised the bow, and launched into the most amazing Irish song I've ever heard. This guy’s fingers flew over the neck of the violin faster than anything I've ever seen, and it was precise; every note perfectly played.

Everyone in the pub stood motionless while the song filled the place, and when it was over the pub erupted into raucous cheers and loud applause. The driver handed back the violin and continued to work on his drink.

The band went back to playing and the din of conversations swelled into the air again. I was amazed at the reverence shown to our bus driver, and it wasn't the only time. Several times throughout the night the violin was handed off and our driver played again, and each time the entire pub didn't make a sound. It was awe inspiring how this guy commanded the attention of everyone in the pub.

The next day I contacted Tina and asked who the driver was, and it turns out he is a legendary traditional Irish music composer named John Dwyer. Who, you say? Well take a look here for a brief bio on John at the Irish Tune Composers website. It only takes a minute to read it, so I’ll wait until you get back…

So yeah, John Dwyer is a really huge star in the Irish music scene. You can see him on YouTube at the 2012 Traditional Irish Festival here if you care to watch him play, it’s worth a few minutes if you like interesting music. He’s from a famous music family, he’s been composer of the year, he’s still touring… and he drove our bus!?

I asked Tina why this legendary musician was driving us around Ireland, and she said “because he loves me.” Wow, that’s sort of like having Van Cliburn drive the limo taking you to prom because he’s friends with your dad.

I learned a great lesson that night and what it means to be humble. John Dwyer didn't care about his fame, he just knew a friend needed someone to drive a busload of people around for a night, so he stepped up. He showed me that the cover of a book does not tell the real story inside, and I’ll endeavor to be worthy of this experience.

"God, teach me to be more like John Dwyer, and to never forget what true humbleness should look like."

Ireland Blog - Obstacles

I love to travel. It’s something my wife has nurtured in me over the past 10 years we’ve been married. I wasn’t like this before I met her, I was more of a home-body who would take car trips to different places. I didn’t really like air travel so I never really traveled very far.

But then I met and married my awesome wife who loves to jet off to destinations unknown. While my idea of a vacation was driving to Florida, her’s was going to Russia.  Seriously, she’s been to Russia, and she displayed her love of travel from the very beginning as she made all of our honeymoon arrangements and took us to Fiji. The only time I’ve ever traveled that far was on military business, so the travel arrangements were a bit different.

The past 10 years of being with this well-traveled woman has instilled the same love for going to new places in distant lands.  Last year we flew to Europe and spent two weeks traveling the Greek islands, Turkey, and Italy. I loved it and remember being very excited about going to the airport to start our journey.

So why am I so nervous today? I’m boarding a plane to travel to Ireland where I get to stay for almost three months. I should be jumping up and down because I love to travel! But over the past few days I’ve been pensive, even scared with thoughts of planes not arriving safely and being separated from my family.

This morning as I wait to go to the airport I’ve been more nervous than I’ve ever been about traveling. I can’t eat, I’m pacing, I’m restless and agitated. I don’t want to go.

And then it hit me… the reason I’ve been so out of sorts is because of the nature of the trip. I’m going to Ireland to tell people about Jesus.

Whether you want to believe it or not, the enemy has a very real presence in this world. He doesn’t just run around making tragedies happen, he also has the power to effect you personally. That’s right, he can push your emotional buttons and effect your moods.

A good example of this is looking at what happens in your life just before you go to church. Some of the best fights I’ve ever had with my wife have been on the way to church. That’s because the enemy doesn’t want us to go there. He knows we’ll be fed by the Word of God so he puts up obstacles to stop it. Think about that the next time something happens to steer you away from a Christian event, and don’t give in to it.

The evil in this world doesn’t want people to hear the redeeming message of Jesus, and right now they’re working overtime to push my emotional buttons to keep me from going to Ireland by instilling fear and doubt in my mind.

It won’t work.

Just identifying why I’ve been so nervous the past few days has helped to push those feelings aside this morning. I’m stepping forward to extend the ministry of Jesus Christ, and the enemy will not stand in my way.

Pray for me, my friends, and I’ll do my best to keep you informed of my adventures overseas.

In God’s space –
Bret L