For Weal and For Woe ~ …and Taxes

 Greetings Dear Reader,

If we are honest, we all dislike paying taxes.  That thirty percent or more of our income could be used for much better things.  Still, Jesus makes it clear that we are to pay the taxes. 

We then object to the ways in which they are used.  I agree that homeless veterans and our elderly deserve more than our representatives from the billions of dollars that our government collects from us.  The waste that occurs bothers me greatly.  We have ways to object and to require better representation.  Unfortunately, we mostly leave it alone and complain.

For weal or woe, the use of our taxes is our responsibility but where I am thinking is a bit beyond that.  I must do my part to hold those who serve in government accountable.  I must not worry or complain about the incursion into my pay.  Jesus spent a great deal of time explaining and proving that we do not need to worry about money.  We are supposed to live by faith in the Father’s provision.

Beyond that, we are supposed to be generous and share what we have with others.  The poor are our responsibility, not the government’s.  We need to get this formula in our hearts and minds.  The Father will provide for our needs and we are to share with others out of love and compassion. Since the Father allows us to be taxed, we must lovingly speak our concerns and pray for our leaders.  Then, the smart thing to do is forget about that money and use what remains wisely.

I find that living this way creates great freedom.  I am free to see a need and meet it.  I am privileged to hear the Spirit direct me to help someone and respond without worry about my own situation.  This thought allows me to work and wait for the things I desire.  It even allows me to temper those desires in the right way.  It allows me to align my desires with the Father’s.

Our resources are provided by the Father whether we acknowledge it or not.  If I am to follow in faith, then I must accept that all that I have is a gift and it is all to be used to follow Christ more closely and share with others in their need and in my joy.  All that we have, Dear Reader, is meant to help us along the way whether it is taxing or not.  Whether things are good or ill, we are promised that our needs will be met.  Learning to trust that is part of the joy.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Every human story is part of the great story that leads to the Father getting everything back to Good.

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:
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Support Page on Patreon: www.patreon.com/aramisthorn
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“Render unto Caesar what is Creaser’s and to God what is God’s”

For Weal and For Woe ~ Death…

Greetings Dear Reader,

If you have been reading me for some time, you know that I deal with death in a fairly straightforward way.  My first published book, Chronicles of Thanatos the Reaper is an explanation of the necessity of death.  Death is part of life.  It may be the part that we least accept as belonging.

We comfort ourselves with palliative placeboes about the dead and use the loss to our own purposes.  We do suffer genuine loss and we do feel real pain at that loss.  Rarely do we deal with death in a way that acknowledges the God who allows it.  I will not speak to the purpose of death here.  I would, instead, palaver about the way we walk with it.

Humans have astounding skills at avoidance.  When the topic, like death, clashes with our ability to cope, we can avoid it as if it does not exist.  Then death stops by anyway and we are unprepared for his visit.  If we do not ponder and palaver over the good aspects of death, we are not able to process its unwelcome invasion of our reality.  The difficulty there is that death is the reality and our avoidance is the fantasy.

Many are still grieving the loss of Chadwick Bozeman.  I think that he understood death.  When death did him the courtesy of telling him what he was fighting and how it would end, he lived up to his own words.  Mr. Bozeman had previously said, “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything You gave me.’”  His approach to his cancer was not to use it for public attention but to keep working and fighting.  Death is inevitable and I would laud Mr. Bozeman for his faith and integrity. 

Death is the transition that we all face.  It is the debt that we all owe for the life we are given.  We choose whether we accept him for weal or woe.  I try to choose it as the transition that will fulfill all the things of which I dream.  In a time where death is part of the daily conversation, I hope that I am living out my thoughts on it.  I see many around me who have just settled in fearing death but doing nothing with life as they wait for his unwelcome visit.

What I must do is listen to Chadwick Bozeman.  I must use the gifts given to me in each moment of life.  I must love life but also realize that it is only a dress rehearsal for the great adventure waiting for us beyond the horizon.  There are those who will mock me for my belief.  Instead of being offended, I intend to live life more deeply by loving them.  I am not better than them.  I am simply going to honor my Father by letting him worry about it.  We can see death as weal or woe Dear Reader.  The choice is ours.  We are accountable for how we live and for our attitude about death.  When he shows up for me, I hope that I have the faith and courage to welcome him as a friend who is there to guide me home.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Every human story is part of the great story that leads to the Father getting everything back to Good.

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:
#aramisthorn
Support Page on Patreon: www.patreon.com/aramisthorn
Novels: From My Publisher or on Amazon          
Web Page:  www.aramisthorn.com
Bookings: aramisthorn@aramisthorn.com
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Some things are inevitable and we choose whether they are for weal or for woe.

For Weal and For Woe ~ Opening Thoughts

Greetings Dear Reader,

 If you have not heard this phrase, it is an old one.  The word “weal” comes from the tree of language that gives us the word “well” as in you are doing well.  I think we all know the meaning of the word “woe”.  What the phrase means is that for good or for bad we will do whatever it is we have chosen to do.

There are things we choose no matter how the outcome and that is one facet of this phrase's use.  The other is that there are things to which we hold for weal or for woe.  No matter the circumstances, this is where we choose to stand.  No matter how good or bad times are, I hold to these standards.  It is something I value highly even though I have not always lived it.

As summer takes a long slow look at its last twenty-one days, I want to consider that the Autumn of this year will ask us the latter question.  Already people are hating the year as if the good and bad in our lives were ruled by the time through which it passes.  The good ship Earth carries us through time the things that unfold are not ruled by it but, rather, by the Father.

In the interesting times through which we pass, there are things that will try our faith and test our resolve.  I wish to ponder the things that are not subject to the weal and the woe of it for me to be what I should be as a follower of Christ.  I wish to ask the questions that I used to avoid and choose where I stand.  If there are questions you have concerning this, feel free to share them and I will address them.  As I have promised my Grandsons, I will never tell you what to believe but I will always tell you what I believe if you wish to know.

This will be a journey of values and standards.  They are mine even when I fail at them.  Failure on my part, however, does not diminish truth.  Rather, it is the truth that draws me back.  It is the standard of truth that gives me a place to stand when I am uncertain.  If we know where to stand, then whether the world turns for weal or for woe, we will weather it. 

The one we follow never promised it would always be good. He did promise that he would be with us and that when we reached our destination, all things would be made good again.  Until then, for weal or for woe, there are places we must stand.  Please walk with me as I ponder a few of these.  I promise that I cherish your companionship and long to hear your thoughts and questions.

Pilgrims to the City of God – Michael Card

Pilgrims of passion we follow the One
Who holds out a cross and a crown
We travel a dark road that has but one Light
For we have here no lasting town

Sometimes we run by the power of His might
On our own, at the best, we can plod
What we hopefully look for is just beyond sight
We are pilgrims to the city of God

The stigma of strangers lost in a strange land
In a fallen world that's not our home
But we are not homeless prodigals here
Because we have someplace to go

Sometimes we run by the power of His might
On our own, at the best, we can plod
What we hopefully look for is just beyond sight
We are pilgrims to the city of God

Behold you have come to Mount Zion
The City of Great King
To thousands and thousands of angels who've come
Assembled to joyfully sing, they sing

Sometimes we run by the power of His might
On our own, at the best, we can plod
What we hopefully look for is just beyond sight
We are pilgrims to the city of God

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Every human story is part of the great story that leads to the Father getting everything back to Good.

Contacts for Aramis Thorn:
#aramisthorn
Support Page on Patreon: www.patreon.com/aramisthorn
Novels: From My Publisher or on Amazon          
Web Page:  www.aramisthorn.com
Bookings: aramisthorn@aramisthorn.com
Facebook      
Twitter        
Medium         
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BLOG Archive:  http://aramisthorn.blogspot.com/ 

For weal and for woe, we have somewhere to go.