Rick McVick

Its late, on a Wednesday, and tomorrow I have to work. I’m starting to like these late nights filled with bright screens and green tea… I wanted to take a second and reiterate that I love people! All of them! I know that human life goes far beyond skin, belief systems, and sexual preference. I find ignorance abundant in the current human condition, living and thriving off fear, hating people because of superficial differences and letting religious backwash boil to the surface and spoil what could be fruitful and beautiful relationships.

One target of my anger is that of violence. I am way over violence and the idiotic justification of such actions. Life should never be taken from someone and the action of such should be avoided at all costs. I understand that there are times when it seems unavoidable but I have not seen since 9/11/2001 and before when any official tried to find a manner in which peace had a chance. Peace will always win out when given the chance. Its harder to love someone who wronged you but I know that is how humanity should be and would be better off trying to apply to themselves.

Peace is a noble act to achieve; violence is the product of the absence of patience and an abundance of ignorance. That is typical of hate and prejudice as well. If you can hate someone because of a language barrier, or skin tone, it only proves ones own internal instability and lack of intelligence. Frankly such hating is weakness. A human is human, we all bleed and we all feel. Immigrants are people, Christians are people, Muslims are people, Homosexuals are people, Politicians are people and yet we treat them all like living punching bags. We treat them like they are beneath us. We treat them less than we treat ourselves because most are selfish and so absorbed in superficial non-cohesive mind numbing activities that we forget to breathe and see the world as a beautiful, living organism.

I challenge you to put away your weapons, to swear to peace, to love people for just being human. I have a hope for humanity, for love and for peace. I think that in the hands of a few many will open their eyes to the truth. I pray for peace in the world, I challenge you to do the same. I want peace in America, that politicians meet in the middle, no more “me against you” I pray for peace in the household, so that divorce drops off and people realize their partners are far more beautiful than the first time they met. I pray for all the children to know life and to live it. I pray for you to think about buying all that food and before you do help someone in need. Extend your hand and touch a dying soul; find a child a whole home.

Leave your house in love, leave your house in peace, and be a part of a world of change. God Bless

It’s a chilly and rainy day. All I need is a place to be alone. I find it hard to deal with the ordinary, mundane, and run down ram-shackled place called home. I find it hard to believe that for as long as humans have existed they can’t seem to find it in their mind that we aren’t going away and there will be more to come; and they cannot find a way to live together. I suppose it may be the human condition, or maybe just lack of intelligence. That’s one of the many reasons I can’t dig evolution; the human race should have had more intellect by now. Perhaps we have just numbed ourselves, let our egos get in the way. We are a sad sect of sentient organisms.

I suggest we learn something new for a change. We seem to think that these imaginary boarders we “own” have a point. Keep the riff-raff out and the chosen ones in. Well those chosen ones should have their rightful place; Pluto has a good view I hear. We fill our lives up with rubbish and clog our eyes with soot to the point we think being destroyed is the correct way. “Damn those people for wanting to live with us. They need to completely change their identity, way of life, and persona so they will fit in. Lets build a fence! Lets kill them! No wait, lets OWN them!” I know I am ranting, and I hate to rant, so please forgive me. I wish we all realized this is one planet and we are one people. We all bleed and we all breath the same air; the things that kill Americans are the same that kill a Muslim child. The people clawing to live in this country should be a compliment. Embrace cultures, embrace difference. Love people and you will see a difference. Learn to speak to them and they will speak to you. Learn to help people and in turn that will help you. Do not forget where you came from but embrace where you are going.

Want to make a difference? Say the Pledge in Spanish.

A new approach is needed. This week has been a little odd for me, honestly.  It’s funny how disappointment can be so damaging over time.  But what is disappointment? I mean who decides and figures out what exactly it is? Why do we measure this substance with a unit? To be realistic it is a foolish idea to count failures, yet we do it all the same. I do, a lot. I count the times I fail, or think I fail, or fail to think. I miss things I had no idea I could have and don’t have; and I’m not talking about physical items either. I have found in this earth that loneliness is an incurable disease if you are alone. I have also noticed that one can have knowledge of many people’s existence, but have no idea who they are or what makes them tick. We do not have friends, merely they are just shadows we give names to.

The state of the world, not politics, economies, structurally, none of that…but the state of the people of the world is disfigured, shattered. Equality is nothing more in peoples minds than “is the plastic in my wallet have enough, whatever, to equal what I am looking at?” We do not have much regard for people, or else most of us would have more friends; and not fruitless social web lackey’s, but real tangible people that we can go and have come to us when needed. Without friends, existence is pointless; its the kind of loneliness a beautiful marriage can’t even fix. There is nothing wrong in that picture, the human body needs more interaction with others than only one other. This is a horrid low; the lack of friendship. I know I usually attempt to not put out feelings on this thing, but sometimes they reach out of me. So on that note, look for a friend. This isn’t some stupid statement you have heard over, and over again…well actually it is. Maybe there is a good reason you have heard it over and over.

Find a friend, love them and don’t let stupid meaningless crap come between you. And no, this isn’t because I recently “lost” a friend, this is prompted by realizing LIFE, this idiotic waste, depending on what we do with it, has killed meaningful aspects of my life. I have lost precious aspects of my life courtesy of the American dream. And it is just and only will be a dream. Don’t let life get in the way of friends and love, and do something worth while. Don’t just sit around all day, move; be fluid and acidic. Be out among people, loving, mending. It’s so hard to write this by the way, without it sounding like a load of Swiss, but regardless love your friends, love your partner, don’t cheat on either.

So to the point as I am all sure we most know is that apparently Osama Bin Laden has been killed, along with his son, another shooter, and a woman. Among great rumor of this being false or somehow not the whole story, we have nation wide celebration. Now as a Christians, I mean true Christians, we should not take part in these celebrations. If we truly believe in what we say we do, this should be saddening, as we have seen 4 lives taken that will never again have the chance to feel God in the way we want all humanity to.  If we really truly believe that God is all powerful? Why didn’t we pray more FOR Bin Laden? Can we say that there are some people who just have no hope for finding God? I mean who are we to claim that about anyone but ourselves. Yes, according to the U.S. Government he was a bad person, but there is just so much we don’t know about him. As Christians, we really need to review our ideals when it comes to violence, and the lust for blood that has been so horribly instilled in us. Its true in that if we are wronged in any way our minds switch to vengeance. We know as Christ Follower’s that this is Gods area, not ours.

A lot of this boils down to the patriotism of land and country. I am calling for us to give those values a second look. What land our we defending? We came to acquire this land by means of force, lies, greed, murder, racism, and many other things that we would, in any other circumstance, label as a sin and not of God. So how can we consider our selves a blessed nation and a Godly nation after how we acquired this land? I know that when we first came here our intentions were pure but that quickly diminished into a downward spiral in which we are still encircled in. We took up arms shortly after 911 cursing Muslims and terrorists and wanted blood. People in churches joined in too; how is this Godly? That we should join in song with a militant government that cares not for peoples lives? The U.S. has taken innocent lives for no reason expect for personal gain. As I type there are targeted assassinations fulfilled in foreign soil killing innocents. And for what? Justice? We as Christians need to understand, I mean NEED to understand that we are all one people, we all bleed the same, breathe the same, and we should love the same. We need to pray for people, not seek justice. IT IS NOT OUR PLACE TO SEEK JUSTICE OR VENGEANCE IN THE WAY OF BLOOD.

I challenge all to re-think about our ideals, understand we do not own any land and will never have a right to any material property on earth; and that life is precious no matter how vile. That vengeance is God’s, not ours. I call for a movement of pacifism, a call from arms. I ask that we pray for the family Bin Laden has, and the families of all that we harmed when U.S. fingers pulled the triggers to end innocent lives. We are a sheltered nation, naive and ignorant, and we are lucky for this, and at the same time foolish for not knowing anything. God wants all peoples as his children, and what right do we as Christians have to take away any chances they have at seeing God as we do. What right do we have to say that they have had their chance, just because we want justice.  We have replaced the word vengeance with justice I think, and we have a right to pray, and we need to use it. Instead of celebrating, pray for those lost in the war, U.S. soldiers, and Muslims. Pray for all who died, for they are all people, all of one origin, and that origin is God.  So please, pray for Bin Laden’s family, that they may have a chance to know God if they do not already, and that we can maybe do something to help stop bloodshed, and spread a little love and light to the world. Peace be with us all and God Bless.

Lets take a second to think here, about the ideas in a Christ Followers mindset when focused on a few good ol’ American ideals. I’ll start off by saying that I have been struggling with the idea that I want to own a gun for many a reason. Mostly it boils down to protection, and self defense – then for recreational shooting. As there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and I am in no way saying that guns are bad things; but as a Christ Follower, I mean a true Follower, I have been struggling with the idea that me owning a gun for protection is in some ways saying that I do not fully trust God in keeping me and my family safe. In a way I am saying, I need you, and this gun for protection but not just you. I am not at all condemning owning a firearm in any way, but I have been concluding that as Christians, we are to take a stand of complete pacifism. Now does that mean one should not own a fire arm? No, I am not saying that. What I am saying is that I feel as though if we claim to have faith in God, we need to actually have the faith we so claim to have, and believe. I know that if someone breaks into my home, I will defend my home, but I will not use violence; after all there is a difference between force and violence. So I challenge you all, my friends, to look at yourselves in this regard. Look at the reasons you would own a weapon. If you cannot walk down a street at night without a knife, how can you walk down a hallway and expect to talk to a complete stranger about God? Faith is faith, and you must be complete in your words. This is something I have hated in myself, because I cannot complete this task, easily if at all. At all times, we will doubt in some shape or form, we are only flesh and blood. And at that point, we are all human – flesh and blood. And this leads me to my other thought. People are people, the same as Jesus was back when his sweat fell from his chin and onto the dirt. We tend to forget that so damned easily that its sickening to the soul to see how we treat each other in every day life. Sin is sin and that is shown in the bible and people are all people. So then why the separation? We hate, honestly – get ready for the shocker – we hate because we are told to. We are fed this filth about people groups all our lives and we grow to agree. Throughout history this is proven to be true. People were taught to hate groups such as: Jews, Christians, Muslims, people of different skin tone, and many more. We learn to hate, because it is human nature to hate.  Humans need something to fight against; be it a Muslim “who are all terrorists” or a person sitting on something we want. We will do anything to make them our enemy. This boils into patriotism, for country, creed, and so fourth. The only way America is what it is is because we made people our enemy for no reason other than they looked different and we wanted their land. And you have people now saying “oh let it go its over and done with, we make mistakes” yeah, that’s true but we still do it today. As a Christ Follower, hate is something I try to leave out of my vocabulary, and it is ever so hard. For that reason, patriotism cannot exist; based on the simple fact that we stole the land we live on. In fact, what makes this land our land, even – what makes any land anyone’s land? To stake a claim on anything man made is utterly a foolish act, especially when we have to kill, steal , or even lie to get it. So how does this tie in to pacifism? I think even owning a gun to defend this land is wrong, as a Christian at least. This is honestly a hard concept. But true pacifism is all encompassing. I think the Bible shows a clear depiction of how we should act. Christ LET himself be conquered physically, as so should we. When the enemy comes to our gates with death on their lips, we should welcome the martyrdom, and supply dinner. I do think that the majority of people will laugh at this notion, but think rationally. Do you think Christ would have only lead that example just for the only sole purpose to redeem  us or that it should be an example of how to live as well? Christ established the church on the foundation of Peace, He also established the first community that practiced communism. Which in turn, they never owned anything of real value, and traveled everywhere not settling down to “own” land. I know we have houses and property and other such belongings, but if we claim that all that we own is the lords and he gives and takes, what right other than by mens right do we have to defend it – especially when violence is involved? I ask you all who read this to go back and read over the Sermon on the Mount. I challenge you to do that. Pray that God may speak to you. I pray that this leads to a personal conviction or peace about what troubles you in life, and Peace be to you my friends – love one another and treat all with the same respect you would treat yourself with. Turn the cheek and hug those who need it. Love is the greatest of all things.

Life is one of the most sacred things we have in this day and age. It allows us to fail, and get back up. We are weak and fragile; our pride is a humanly attempt to even become something remotely real. We are fake, images of something we can only hope to become. A mask for each day, each emotion, and each person we encounter. We spend a lifetime being who everyone wants us to be. Our jobs, our friends and our styles are all based off of visual occurrences and slight hinting at who we are  to be as an ideal individual. Can we break free? Can we possibly leave behind a mentality we have known our whole lives? Can we believe in something that no one else does? Can we really have individuality? We are so focused we are right, when we have missed the point of it all. Look through the ink, and to the page.

Love. A poignant essence and grim reminder that we, as humans, are looking at an unobtainable feat: true love. Now I am speaking humanly, as we are imperfect to the utmost degree, and fail at being real. With a sense of pride and protection, we limit ourselves to daily exposure of being who we really are. We are flawed pearls and cannot love the way we ought to love: each other as ourselves. If we did this, the peace it would bring, and blessed are the peacemakers! A contrast to this is that we, because of our pride, have been made stubborn and we do love the best we can. A congratulatory letter is in the mail for everyone, but this isn’t the end. Trying is not good enough, and will not suffice. No matter the denial one is in, the world is round, the wind blows, and the sun rises and sets. A never ending pattern with little to no variation. And humans, a separate race set apart long ago from animals and beasts, all share this planet weather we like it or not. Now, we have fashioned in our dull tiny little brains, that we are somehow different from one another, and this would be foolish to pass off, because we are different, but mentally so. We as humans, I mean all of us, have developed over time, this idea, to prejudge a situation before it actually occurs and this is true of every human that has, and will exist. Also we add this demeanor to the thought process when meeting somebody new. We place them in a small, brittle, and preconceived box for safe keeping, or at least until they show us other wise resulting in a friend, or someone who we “would rather not talk to”. This sadly, brings about racism, because of any small, individually perceived imperfections, weather it be mentality, skin, or gender, we place a label on people we see and meet on a regular basis. Lets take a hot button and see what we can do. Muslims are the new “it” crowd of preconceived virtues and morals. However these are more often inaccurate than accurate. We tend to think with our emotions rather than our hearts, which most of the time is controlled by emotion as well. People need someone to hate, its ingrained in us, we are taught it in schools. We grow up with a innumerable amount of personal complexes and conflicts that dictate who we are and how we act. In history, we hated females who could think freely and burned them. We hated those of a different skin color and decided they were lesser. Now that we have been harmed by a certain small part of a people group, we naturally see them as enemies; and dare us to think other wise. I however choose a different path, and call others to do the same. Love your neighbor as your own personal self, the inter most self. However you would want to be treated, treat others. I know Christians have a hard time with the Muslim population, but as Christians, we do not like to be compared to the people of Westboro Baptist, so how dare us treat Muslims the same as their extremist counterparts. People’s hearts are the focus of mending; love comes before the judgment, and second chances are first gifts. I know truth is in order but at what expense? If some will not listen who are we to force them? If we label as evil, who are they then to take our words seriously? God does not need defending, nor justification. He needs people to love. Love is the predominant factor in the decisive line between waking up happy or waking up dead inside. All peoples, everywhere, in all corners of the world need the same thing: equality which comes with love. Love, and become friends! Then and only then will hearts open, and true forms of our rusty selves with shine through the thick of hate.

I know I haven’t been so diligent, but, my goal is one post a week. So… New posts every friday!!!! hopefully….

So there are these games that we all like to play, like “I’m going to prove you wrong” and “Here’s how I’m better than you” and my favorite “Damn I’m more religious than you!” Ok, ok, so that’s a little harsh, but all politically correctness aside that’s how I feel when these games are played. I have to ask myself, why? Why would people reach so low as to put themselves on a pedestal to be higher than their peers? (Here’s a hint: ask yourself) Why do I do that? Its quite simple really; from early on we are taught to be better than our parents, subliminally, but its there. We hear things like, “be better than us”, or “I should have done this different, so learn from me” and so on. We get this seed of progressiveness planted in our brains to where we will often castrate ourselves to get a step higher than someone. Perfect example: My friend can post some racy things sometimes on various social networking sites, and in turn, post a very heartfelt statement exclaiming his faith in God. Someone will chime in saying something to the tune of: “well what about the time you said this bad thing about getting drunk or doin’ some random person? Isn’t that somewhat contradictory about your “faith”?” I when I see things like this, I get a little pissed off at the audacity of hypocrisy. I know, every single person, no exceptions except for me, is a blatant hypocrite. And we feed of pointing out others flaws. Its like we thrive on someones failures, we consume it for food. We lust for people we can spit on and laugh at. Now what I am getting at is this; why as Christ Followers do we feel the need to point out flaws in other people, to which we feel the need to point at people who aren’t even of the Church! I know, we need to speak truth and shed light on the evil in this world, but honestly, most evil does a good job of that itself. And for the evil that isn’t so blatant, and may be considered as a norm, who are we to point fingers at those who believe it so when we ourselves take part? NO one is more religious than another! and we should never act as such. God does not punish, so why should we? I try my hardest to Love and accept, and I try to help others find the Bible, but if a person is still searching, what more can we do other than lead them in the best direction? Hold brothers and sisters accountable, but hold those who wish to be held close as a child, not an enemy. This is very hard to write, as I feel horrible for classifying Christ Followers, and people who choose not to follow, but that’s reality. But we cannot treat people different, we cannot treat them with discontent. We are called to LOVE, its all we need. Love and hope, God will do the rest. “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?” 1 Corinthians 5:12. Love people, show them light, treat them as you would want to be treated, and keep people equal.

Peace

So I started a little project called “This, My Witness” please check it out!!!

http://www.reverbnation.com/thismywitness