Sarah Palin is right, the election for the U.S. Presidency IS in God’s hands after all.  Oh, you thought it was in the hands of millions of U.S. voters?  Well, yes it.  And no, it isn’t.

We do have free will, but it ends where God’s sovereignty begins.  If His hand is in this election, His Spirit is able to move the hearts of the people to vote one way or the other.  The Bible credits Him for building up nations and for tearing them down, democracy or not, and ultimately, just as so many nations have been before it, the future of our country is in His hands.

If Obama wins, I believe he will be the instrument by which God begins judgment on this nation for its grievous sins, beginning with the Christian church.  If McCain wins, I believe we will have been granted a miraculous reprieve from judgment, perhaps in part because of the remnant of God’s people who have even now refused to bow down to Baal and have prayed fervently for a stay of execution.  But whether it’s McCain or Obama, God’s will WILL be done.  He will work, and “who shall let it?”  (Isaiah 43:13)

In light of this truth, it makes me wonder: what if, in spite of a half-billion dollar campaign, in spite of massive voter fraud, in spite of polls predicting landslides and demoralizing the opposition, in spite of a dominating mass media machine that has been completely in his tank, in spite of a world population that overwhelmingly supports him, in spite of an economic crisis that has caused people to blame the wrong villains, Obama still loses?

In the face of such insurmountable odds, will we give God the glory for it?  Will even the non-Christians marvel and admit the “finger of God” has been in this?  Or wil lthey rationalize with excuses and claims of racial bias?

Or what if Obama wins, devastating the followers of movements such as Lou Engle’s The Call?  Will they take it as proof that God does not hear their prayers and subsequently fall away to bitterness and apostasy?  Or will they recognize the folly of their ways and repent, recognizing that in order for a nation to be restored, the church itself must be restored first?

These are interesting times we live in indeed.  But whether we face judgment or a stay of execution, I am convinced that those who belong to the Lord will lack for nothing even in the darkest of times.  They will not be forsaken, nor their seed begging bread.  One thousand may fall at their side, but it shall not come near them.  While the world of Egypt is plagued, the people of God will remain safe in Goshen.  This is the heritage of the servants of God, and their righteousness shall always be of Him.

Now, if I can just get a girlfriend… 

Tags: apostasy, bible, campaign, christian, Christians, church, country, economic crisis, election, fraud, God, judgment, lord, lou engle, mass media, media, nation, prayer, prayers, presidency, reprieve, sarah palin, Spirit, vote, voters
Categories: Politics and Poker
 
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Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaay beeeeeeeeeee
If I praaaaaaaaaay eveeeeeeerry niiiiiiiight,
You’ll come back tOoOoOoooOooOoOo meeeeeeeeee! 

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaay beeeeeeeeeee
If I crrrrry eveeeeeeeeeeeeryday,

You’ll come back toOOoOoooooOOO staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay,
OooOoOooOhhhh, maybeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

****************************

I’ve prayed and prayed,
To the Lord,
To send you back myyyyyyyyy looooOOOoooOve,

Buuuuuuut instead, you came to meeeeeeeeeee,
OoOoOoOOooOOoOnly in myyyyyyyy dreeeeeeaaaaaams!

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaay beeeeeeeeeee
If I praaaaaaaaaay eveeeeeeerry niiiiiiiight,
You’ll come back tOoOoOoooOooOoOo meeeeeeeeee! 

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaay beeeeeeeeeee
If I crrrrry eveeeeeeeeeeeeryday,

You’ll come back toOOoOoooooOOO staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay,
OooOoOooOhhhh, maybeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Care to guess what I’ve been praying for lately? 

Tags: chantels, dreams, love, prayer, praying
Categories: Comic Relief, Romance and Relationships
 
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I didn’t write anything about 9/11, because after 6 years, I’m starting to get a little tired of the morbidity of it all.

“Let us remember, blah blah blah, those who tragically died, blah blah blah, and join our hands in prayer, blah blah bladdy blah blah….”

Screw this crap.

You know what I want? I want that goat banging turdface’s head on a @#$% stick. I want my skyline whole again, and none of this nonsense about gay looking freedom towers that will never match the magnificence of the twin towers. I want a Who’s-Your-Daddy missile silo installed at the base of the towers and programmed to fire up the ass of anything that even remotely looks at the WTC buildings a little funny.

I want the government to stop being so bloody damned politically correct and checking up the skirts of 80 year old grandmothers at airports because they’re afraid of offending the Muslim community.

But most of all, I want people to stay mad. REALLY mad. A piece of our national heritage was taken away from us on that day, and I want all of us to have the fire of someone who had just lost something very precious, and is prepared to unleash hell on earth until he gets it back again.

That’s what I want.

Tags: 6 years, 9/11, airports, crap, freedom, freedom towers, goat, hell on earth, magnificence, memorial, missile silo, morbidity, muslim community, national heritage, nonsense, political correctness, prayer, skirts, skyline, twin towers, world trade center
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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I was kinda in a really bad mood.

I do have moments like that (more than I’d care to admit), but after I calm down, a kind of melancholy then sets in. I really don’t want to be this angry with Him, but it’s hard trying to make some sense out of the events of the last few years, and since I’m the kind of guy who wears his heart on his sleeve, every bad thing that happens in life tends to cut me deeply.

There are times though when I suspect that I’m personally the butt of some sick, heavenly joke. I’d pray I meet someone at work for example who could be “the one” for me, and when I do meet that person, she ends up rejecting me and marrying another co-worker. If the answer to a prayer has to be no, fine, but why rub it in my face? Why humiliate me like that?

And that’s what life seems to be like these days: a series of prayers that not only go unanswered or rejected, but also seem to require some form of divine punishment for even daring to make them. Why?

It’s a simple question, but one that I don’t think will ever be answered.

Tags: abandoned, bad mood, blush, co worker, forsaken, God, hate, hated, heart, humiliation, joke, melancholy, prayer, prayers, unanswered, unloved, unwanted
Categories: Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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Maybe.

18 months of soul searching, seeking, knocking, begging for clear direction, begging for signs, begging for ANYTHING that might give me an indication that I wasn’t making the mistake of my life by signing up for law school, and now here I am… one day before the deadline, STILL without an answer.

I spoke to my supervisor about my intentions and how keeping night pay would be a necessity for me even if I switched to a day shift. One of my co-workers was still getting it even though he now works days, so I knew it wasn’t impossible, and if they rejected it in my case while he continues to collect night pay, it would clearly show favoritism, and they know I’d raise hell about it. After my boss spoke to his boss, he came back to me and said I would need to come up with a plan and a new schedule that would still keep everyone happy, and if I could I do that, maybe I’ll be able to keep my night pay as well.

I looked at him like he had gone mad and thought, “Isn’t that supposed to be YOUR job??” I couldn’t believe his response to my request had been to simply pass the buck to me.

So I went to my union rep, who told me she would call another union rep, who as luck would have it, was out with a broken ankle and wouldn’t be back for some time. After I kept emailing her, she sent me a testy response basically indicating that I was on my own.

I didn’t know what to do. Why couldn’t I get any straight answers from anyone? Why couldn’t I just have been told, “No, you can’t do it!” and then I could finally move on with my life? Why did I even have to be accepted to law school in the first place, and thus avoid all this grief?

I was now saddled with the burden of coming up with a new work schedule to accommodate 5 people, while also having to ensure that their work schedules would stay intact with as little change as possible. I also had to deal with one erratic co-worker who I knew could not be trusted to adhere to any schedule I propose, even if she might initially agree to it.

What a mess. With a broken and heavy heart, I called my coworkers together and explained the situation. We talked about it for a while without really resolving anything, and then I went to work on diagramming our complete work schedule to see how I could possibly fill in the gaps.

Some how, some way, I saw a possible solution that involved my coworker Mickey coming in a little later than usual on Mondays and Fridays to cover, which he agreed to. I put together the new proposed schedule with a letter, and left it on the desk for my boss to go over tomorrow, which of course is also the same day as the deadline to make my deposit.

And I know what will happen too. Nothing will get resolved, the issue of whether I’ll be able to keep night pay will still be in limbo, and if I make a deposit after the deadline expires, I’ll only be able to secure a seat if someone else withdraws and my name comes up next on the waiting list. I could easily be waiting all summer long before I’ll know anything for certain.

I’m beginning to understand now why so many Christians simply can’t wait around for an answer regarding these kinds of life changing decisions. Who could do this really? Who could be willing to wait and wait and wait while life passes you by and all of heaven seems to be as brass? Some people just do whatever the heck they want and assume whatever path they choose is automatically God’s will, yet without consulting with Him, or seeking His direction, or waiting to give Him a chance to guide them. And sometimes they’ll get blessed anyway, in which case they become even more obnoxious and convinced that because they prospered, they have been operating within God’s will all along. It’s a form of pragmatism that never did sit right with me.

I always thought it noble that I defer to God’s own desire for my life, and allow Him to guide me where He wanted me to go, instead of just simply doing my own thing. But I NEVER expected that this would have been the price I’d have to pay for clinging on to that belief, losing so much time and experiencing so much agony just in waiting for an answer that may in fact, never come. It angers and depresses me that this how I am rewarded for having what I thought were the noblest of intentions. I wasn’t arrogant in pursuing my own path. I wanted the Lord to lead me, to choose a career for me, since I felt He of all people of course would know where I’d be able to make the most difference, where I could do something worthwhile and meaningful. Instead, I’ve been left to drift endlessly, mourning wasted years and feeling abandoned by a Father who had promised He would never abandon me.

What kind of testimony can I possibly give now to the world? My very life up to this point indicates that it is unprofitable to wait on the Lord for much needed answers. We can but only direct our own life without His input or His guidance. We are in a way orphans, left to fend for ourselves, tossed to and fro by the storms of life, without hope of ever seeing calmer waters.

And yet, in spite of it all though, somewhere deep down inside of me, my soul is still clinging on to hope… praying that the stormy chaos of today will give way to a peaceful, joyful calm in the morning.

So let us see what the morning will bring.

Tags: answers, boss, Christians, co worker, co workers, coworkers, favoritism, God, grief, guidance, hope, idiot, job, law school, prayer, schedule, signs, supervisor, unanswered, union, union rep
Categories: Legally Speaking, Lincoln's Personal Log
 
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Alright, this has gone on long enough.

My decision on whether to attend law school or not has taken me on a road almost as long as law school itself. It all began in October of 2005, and it may finally, FINALLY come to an end on Friday the 13th, which is the deadline for the deposit I would need to make to secure my place in the part time evening class of the law school I applied to near my job. Interesting enough, this would mark the 18th month of this pre-law school to the DAY. Hmmmmm….

I’ve been asking for signs, for answers, for guidance, for ANYTHING to indicate whether this was the way to go. I got in return: nothing. But nothing might eventually become something this week. Because I couldn’t get the school to accommodate my night time working hours, I was ready to write off the legal profession once and for all and finally move on with my life. But then something happened at my job. Our night work got eliminated, leaving the possibility that I might actually get transferred to a day shift after all. There’s no telling whether this might happen or not, especially given the idiots that run the place here, but it’s certainly possible. I looked into the possibility of switching my acceptance to the school from part time days to part time evenings, and much to my surprise they were happy to accommodate me in this respect.

The issue now though is my night pay. I earn roughly $400 more a month just for working in the evenings. If it came to me having to voluntarily switch to a day tour (instead of being forced to switch) so I could attend school at night, then I wanted to do so without losing that money. One of my other co-workers at least was still getting night pay even though his hours had been switched, so I knew it was possible. I’ll have a meeting with my union rep this Tuesday to discuss the issue. My union rep also knew of a scholarship I might be qualified for, so we’ll be discussing that as well.

It also hadn’t escaped my notice that for the first time in the almost 7 years I’ve worked here, a new change would be instituted that could eliminate more than 50 percent of our workload. That this was scheduled to happen the same month that I would start law school was very peculiar. It meant the amount of work would soon be light enough that I could spend ample time studying on the job. It was yet another concern that had been squared away.

Finally, Uptown Girl is a lawyer herself. It raised new possibilities for a future relationship that could happen between us, but in what way I didn’t really know. Still, it was another peculiar coincidence. But whether all these strings of coincidences point to something or not remains to be seen. I guess what will seal it for me is being able to secure my night pay even if I start working a day shift. If that happens, it will be a minor miracle that would allow all the pieces to finally fallen into place, and the law school dream formerly left for dead comes alive once again.

If I know my luck though, nothing might actually be decided this week. If I don’t get a definitive answer from my union rep about the night pay until after the deadline, I would still be able to make a deposit, but I would not be guaranteed a seat unless someone else withdraws their enrollment. In this case I would just have to cross my fingers and hope for the best. Of course, if I can get night pay AND be able to secure myself a seat in school even after the deadline had already passed, than I bloody well owe it to myself to give this thing a real shot.

If God is merciful though, than this week will finally be the one to provide me some solid answers.

Tags: answers, co workers, coincidences, differential, evenings, friday the 13th, God, guidance, job, law school, lawyer, legal profession, money, night, night time, part time, pay, prayer, schedule, scholarship, signs, surprise, union rep, uptown girl
Categories: Legally Speaking
 
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