What a LIFE we LIVE

A Warning before I proceed - This will begin with a rant session and for what I regard as a very good reason but for those that believe in the truth being spoken I encourage you to stick with me to the end.

I have decided that it has come time for me to stop being a mouse and keeping quiet for fear of what others will think of me, and become a lioness and speak out publicly against human injustice.

If you are too squeamish to read the truth then you are free as always, to just hit the delete button or get out of this page. I will not judge you for doing that because I was you not so long ago myself. Your strength will come in time and when it is right for you.

For those that will have the courage to read on, it is my heartfelt desire that you reach out and help a homeless person or a family in need in your communities. The effort on our part is so very minimal and effortless really,  but the benefits and rewards to those that receive our acts of kindness are so very often life changing for them.

At this time of the year it is Homelessness Awareness time and we also acknowledge those families that are struggling so much at this time. 

The plight of these people in our communities that are in such need, some in desperate and dire need, is an ever increasingly growing problem within our communities and all across the world.

As the rich continue to get richer and amass even more wealth, the number of poor is increasing at an alarming rate. In just 1 year, yes 12 months the percentage of poverty stricken people in Australia alone went from 1 in 12 in 2013 up to an alarming 1 in 7 in 2014 that are living below the poverty line. Sadly I do not have the latest statistics as they have not as yet been released but from other reports the number of homeless and poverty stricken in Australia alone has increased quite considerably in the past year again. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind at all that the statistics from other countries will be far worse than ours are and some will be far better also.

For me it is not so much the statistics themselves that are a worry or even the issue really, but the fact that in a developed country that there should be poverty anyway and families forced to sleep on the streets or in their cars because they just cannot afford to pay the rents being asked by landlord investors.

We are hearing that this is truly a global problem and no longer confined to countries such as Ethiopia and the like.

This posting here today has been sparked from a couple of recent events that have been literally screaming through my mind to the point that I just have to get it all out. 

Firstly from witnessing not only violent verbal but also physical abuse being given to some homeless people a short time ago, and  the broadcast on the TV news last night of a young teenager set on and viciously attacked because he had no money to give his attackers, leaving this child scared for life, both physically and emotionally. Reports over recent years on the local news of people being killed because they didn't have a cigarette to give to a gang of thugs have all been far too frequently. These as with the second point are acts of Adult bullies and a section of this post that I will address a little later on here.

And Secondly by the extremely disturbing news very recently that a very large Christian charity blocked, and prevented a small group of people in providing a free BBQ lunch for the homeless people in their area because they "did not agree" with what this group of people were doing and diverted the homeless people away from the area where the BBQ was being held.

The aim of this small group of caring people was brought out of kindness, understanding and compassion for the homeless people in our area and to supply free hot BBQ food to the homeless and also to give them bags containing warm clothing, beanies, hats, gloves and toiletries etc. to help them out a little in our cold winter weather. This group of kind hearted people planned to make the free BBQ a regular thing, especially through the cold winter months for the homeless people in our area.

I was totally and utterly appalled, and yes, dare I say it - disgusted that this very large Christian charitable organisation would act in such an appalling and totally shocking and unchristian like manner.

I am sorry to say though at the same time, that I was not totally shocked by this action by the organisation either. I was however very surprised that they would display their actions in such a public way though. 

As a registered charity ourselves, over the past almost 4 years now, we have experienced this sort of behaviour and attitude privately and behind closed doors so to speak, from not only this Christian organisation but all the major charity organisations like this when we have gone to them for moral support or guidance, but never had we seen it portrayed in such an open and public manner before. 

This makes us now wonder just how much more of what they do to small organisations behind closed doors will leak out into the public arena for all to see just what they are truly made of, rather than just those they unleash their venom on behind their closed doors.

I was always brought up with strong Christian beliefs and principles - that we must help each other and more so those that have less than we do or that are less fortunate than we are; that organisations work together for the common good and help each other whenever and where ever possible, whether through physical manual help, sharing resources and knowledge or helping with fundraising events for example.

Sadly this latest action by a Christian organisation to destroy the good works of a small group of people now shows a much darker side to these large organisations and one that can only be described as truly ugly and so far from what Christian people should be doing and what as Christians we are instructed to do in the Bible for example.

Poverty has become a very dirty word in far too many homes. But what is so disturbing is that the issues of homelessness and poverty in general are not decreasing at all, but instead increasing at a vastly alarming rate.

As a small fully registered charity organisation ourselves, we are fully aware of the shocking attitudes that are expressed by some people in our communities, and the hatred that they exude and force onto other human beings and animals alike is disturbing to say the least. 

The world over, we can see the utter hatred that one race has for another for example. Whether it is because of the colour of their skin or the different religion that they believe in. The utterly vicious and horrific lengths that they will go to just to enforce their own ways, views and that hatred onto others. 

Examples of this are "911" and the "Bali Bombings" to name just two. There are far, far more atrocities that have occurred in the most recent years.

All these years on and we still feel so deeply for the families and friends of the victims of these tragic, horrific and senseless acts of violence and all the other similar events that have occurred around the world.

As a small organisation, we have sadly had to encounter and endure in silence, some pretty tough and at times very nasty and outright vicious attitudes and actions from other people such as:

Highly Judgmental attitudes

Arrogance

Ignorance

Degrading

Betrayal

Destructive

Sabotage

Bigotry

Hateful

Jealousy

Spitefulness

Belittlement

General Abuse

Mockery

extreme Sarcasm just to name a few.

Sadly many of these were thrown at us from the large charity organisations, many of which are Christian based and should know much better than to take part in such foul unchristian like actions as I have listed above. 

People that possess attributes like, or similar to those listed above, generally tend to have very dark hearts, and not those lit up by the love and grace of God. Many hide behind their bibles and think that they are immune to any consequences of their actions because they call themselves "Christians".

Religion is a very ugly thing at times but true Christianity is so very different in its nature. You will discover that the majority that possess the attributes listed will defend their honour loudly professing to be very or in some cases, extremely devout religious people and how dare anyone say any different of them. These people are very dangerous to be around.

A good Christian person for which I know many wonderful ones, are very gentle of heart and would never do or say anything intentionally that would hurt or harm another person. They will give you the shirt off their very own backs if they thought that you needed it more than they did and they would most definitely share the last of the food they have and go hungry themselves the ensure that someone else had food to eat for at least one meal and more often than not more than that one meal.

I know so many so called atheists that are far more like the latter group of "Christians" than the former group of "Religious" people.

I don't know about anyone else, but I reckon that as Christians, we need to take a "Warrant of Fitness" test on ourselves every few months just to ensure that our hearts are still pure as God intends us to be. To check off whether we have been helpful or disruptive, encouraging or discouraging and whether we offered a helping hand to someone in need or rather walked by and ignored the silent plea for help.

I know that for myself I do not give myself frequent enough "Warrants of Fitness" and it is times like this when we are given the opportunities to quietly reflect, that we can be reminded that we can all still do more.

As I am sitting here in the small hours of the morning waiting for the sun to rise, I ponder on many things and wonder if what I have written will be thought provoking. 

Will what I write spark renewed hope, or just something wonderful in a damaged heart or soul? 

Can it reignite a fire that may have long since burned out for whatever reason? 

Will it bring a smile to the face of a reader that recognises things in their own lives? 

Or will it just bring forth untold anger from a person hurting so deeply inside?

It does appear and certainly seems to be, that hypocrisy is increasing far more rapidly than that of learning to live Christ like lives or in other words, as God would want us to live our lives, in peace and harmony and helping one another.

It genuinely saddens me when I encounter people that have very bitter or hateful resentments, attributes and attitudes, and even more so when those people profess to be such devout Christians with such deep religious beliefs while at the same time inflicting their bitterness and apparent hatred onto other people.

Sadly these are the people that are what we have heard time and time again called the "Wolves in sheep's clothing", and can be among the most destructive and soul destroying of people on the planet. Over the centuries they have destroyed families, people and even brought down whole communities and nations. 

This is not a new development of course by any means, but so very sadly it is a massively increasing issue in our societies today.

I doubt that there is a person that has not encountered at least one of these attitudes or actions before, either to themselves or seen it happen to a friend or loved one. Many will have even encountered such behaviour from work associates, friends or even a member of their own family. It is not bound by race or creed. People with these unpleasant attributes come from all walks of life and from all countries. It is only the degree of the abuse that they inflict and extend outwards on others that may differ.

Many of the people that have these unpleasant attributes and attitudes tend to justify their own actions by putting the blame onto someone else, their bad upbringing, or hiding behind God's word or the protection of their churches.

In reality though, their bad attributes, attitudes, behaviours and actions very clearly show their inner most selves. 

Most are cunning, deceitful and manipulative. Seemingly sweet and charming on the outside, but all just masking the fact that they are in fact "Bullies". And just like bullies they derive great pleasure in being nasty, tormenting and vicious to other people and in some cases also to animals that they see as weaker or inferior to them.

The topic of bullying is by far not a new one at all either. But we tend to concentrate solely on child bullies in the school playgrounds and are oblivious to those that grew up to be adult bullies.

We seem to dismiss the basic fact that those child bullies, if not pulled into line early enough and made to be accountable for what they do, actually grow up to be adult bullies in our communities, our organisations, our churches and the corporate sectors etc. 

In these positions they command great power and a much larger playground than they ever had when they were bullies merely as a child at school where they learned their bullying skills. As they head through the teenage and post teenage years, unchecked they learn to hone their bullying skills and by the time they have become fully fledged adults their skills are so well honed and polished that they have accumulated vast power and position in which to unleash those skills on others to a far greater degree than ever before.

Everyone talks about stopping bullying but in reality very little is actually being done to stop it or even prevent or curb it. All find the need to get reports done to see what the extent of the problem is at a vast cost each and every time. Each time the reports will show that bullying does indeed exist and we need to stop it but it is not being stopped. 

We all know that severe bullying so often will lead to suicides, especially in teenagers, but still no one is made accountable for their actions. The bullying is not stopped and more people throw their arms in the air and scream blue murder that this must all end. And so the circle of bullying abuse, noncompliance with accountability and passing the buck remains turning. 

With all the money that has been and still to this day is poured into reports being created on whether nor not bullying is a problem, there could have been solutions formed and put in place to stop the problem decades ago.  

Maybe if the schools had not constantly insisted that there was no bullying in their schools, when indeed it was actually riff throughout the schools, then something would have been done positively to stop this disease well before now. 

The work that I assisted with for a thesis with a university on the extent of bullying in schools in the mid 1980's over the period of a year, showed without a single shred of doubt that bullying was more than just a problem - it was becoming an epidemic, even way back then. 

The number of cases of self physical abuse and self harm was unbelievably alarming due to children being unable to cope with the extent of bullying. The number of very young and I do mean very young children using illegal drugs to dull the pain that they were forced to feel from bullies was mind blowing and we wonder why there is such a horrendous drug problem in our society today.

Those that were seen to be bullying were not pulled up and spoken too but rather praised for their resourcefulness or ability for leadership. However the story was very different for the victims of the bullying where those children were actually singled out by some of the teachers and made examples of in some pretty degrading ad demeaning ways. This only added to the praise that the bullies were getting and empowered them to do even more bullying and to much worse extents.

It did not take a genius to conclude that the teachers that promoted the bullying and praise those that were bullies, were in fact the grown up adult versions of the very bullies that they were praising and thus protecting.

In today's day and age we have lost one of the most fundamental principles that we once had- that of acknowledging and accepting that there will always be consequences for our actions.

Sometimes, someone somewhere will send us something via a letter, an email or a message that is so thought provoking or heart warming that we are just compelled to share it around.  

This is now one of those times.

I know that I have probably overloaded you all on the thought provoking aspects of the world we live in but here is one last thing that I will leave you with as I head off for a well earned cup of coffee and to sit and think long and hard about how I can make more changes in myself to ensure that I am a better person for the future. 

Can I be so bold as to ask you all to do the same? Maybe, maybe not! The choice is always ours to take alone.

 Photo Credits - Unknown

What a LIFE We LIVE
Have u taken Note of the CO-INCIDENCE OF LIFE:
1. CHURCH has 6 letters so does MOSQUE.
2. BIBLE has 5 letters so does QURAN.
3. LIFE has 4 letters so does DEAD.
4. HATE has 4 letters, so does LOVE....
5. ENEMIES has 7, so does FRIENDS.
6. LYING has 5, so does TRUTH.
7. HURT has 4, so does HEAL.
8. NEGATIVE has 8, so does POSITIVE.
9. FAILURE has 7, so does SUCCESS.
10. BELOW has 5, but so does ABOVE.
11. CRY has 3 letters so does JOY.
12. ANGER has 5 so does HAPPY.
13. RIGHT has 5 so does WRONG.
14. RICH has 4 so does POOR.
15. FAIL has 4 so does PASS
16. KNOWLEDGE has 9 so does IGNORANCE.
Are they all by Co-incidence? We should Choose wisely, this
means LIFE is like a Double-Edged Sword.
If u think it is your alarm clock that woke you up this morning, try putting it beside a dead body and you will realise that it is the Grace of God that woke you up. If you are grateful to God, share this with all your friends to inform them that it is JUST BY THE GRACE OF GOD that we are alive.

Author Unknown

I truly hope you have enjoyed reading my post today. I know that some will not agree with me and that is fine. We have all been made differently and that includes our thoughts and views too.

Either way, I would love to read your thoughts and comments on the topics that I have brought up here - good or bad.   

If you like what you read then please do take the time to follow me and share what I write.

So please share with me and let me if you agree or disagree. Or whether all this has turned on a light bulb and brought a renewed spark into your life for whatever reason. You may never know how your comments could positively inspire another person to step out and help someone in need.