Too scared to pray

“FEAR:- False Evidence Appearing Rear”-some wise guy-

Today it happened,I was Too scared to pray perhaps I am just tired of all these attacks and mishappenings or perhaps it’s just that every-time I get into prayer deeply then the devil shows up.

Curious then that during my wild days of partying,poker,brandy and cigars it all worked out.

One drove home drunk as a skunk and never once scratched his M3 or the powerful 420d

In any case it would seem that the minute I changed allegiances,afflictions followed.

Now am not scared just tired,see when u operate in your calling opposition comes but then so does provision.I just wonder now considering what I ve gone through,I see a way out, but then it’s not

Not the way The Lord has made,…No this is ME Limbiley.

See Jacob sceemed lied and got his own way ….he was a schemer,a con artist, he could lie, ” sounds like all men I know”

I too wrested with angels
I too painted the herd striped spotted
I too have been there,so I am Jacob

Besides if I had a hairy brother who would sell me his birthright for soup…..then u knw……

In any case I fear praying coz the bad has happened in the last few years just after I prayed,

Coz evil manifests better and quicker than the good and the holy,

So now am too scared to pray

Yet in my heart am still a Schemer and I ll negotiate myself out of this calamity coz all I know to do is this “survive or die”

So I will ……but now, I will won’t Die,and I won’t be scared,coz I change my mind.
Since I must live ….I will live and when I do live….

I will pray

And I ain’t

Too scared to pray anymore

And when I get up you gonna wish u killed me when u had the chance devil.

Coz now

I ain’t :-

Too scared to pray

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HALT …hungry angry lonely tired

Watch you don’t get too hungry,angry lonely tired p
–AA–

This one is a popular saying supposedly in recovery where one has to watch out for these symptoms otherwise a relapse is bound to occur.
It is interesting then that in our lives although we may not be addicts to a chemical substance we are all addicted to some form of substance.

One individual put it this way

you can not find a chemical solution for a spiritual problem

It would all then suggest to me that in order to fix any part of one’s life,one must first deal with one’s spirit.
I also quiet like to see it this way;relapse would easily be defined as going back to that which gives us comfort and use that substance which gives us comfort to battle whatever discomfort we are going through at the time.

Therefore it would seem to me that we are all a bunch of addicts just different flavours,difference outlets points,blowing off steam as it were,some use yoga,others therapist,some hit the club,others fast cars,shoe shopping,religion,……………..(fill in the blank as appropriate.)

In any case hungry,angry,lonely,tired seems appropiate.
But then question comes to mind

What do you do if you are so hungry in your spirit that there nothing to feed it and drive it,don’t know your purpose/calling/duty/task/assignment just yet?Coz hunger in the physical can be quenched with food but what do you do when you hunger for more than food and drink?

What do you do when you are so angry at life and yourself and everything else around you,that your own spirit is .,Angry because your expectations don’t match your experiences,that the promises don’t live up to problems faced.

What do you of when your loneliness is beyond that which the woman at the well suffered?

Now see this woman married 5 times,now living with a boyfriend or whatever,we all sit in judgement.

But I see her differently,only coz I sat at the well once in my life,lonely,sorrounded with people,loved ones and felt so alone.(funny how earlier I lived alone in a strange country at 22 and never felt lonely) but now am ……older,wiser,more accomplished,mature and yet………….I have everything I ever wanted but yet…..I still feel alone.

It is this solitude that I talk about,the one that your spouse,mummy or daddy can’t fix,cousin Ed tried so did nephew Lisa but still it won’t work
I need that belly of living waters.

See being alone and being lonely are too very different things

Anywhoo

Tired
Physical fatigue we can all handle with rest,get a massage,soak,
But what do u do when you are mentally exhausted?
it’s your mind now

when u get tired of being sick and tired

Tired like Elijah in the cave tired,tired like Moses to point of hitting the rock,tired like Jonah to the point of not going to Nineveh,tired like Paul to ask for the thorn to be removed,…3 times.
Tired like Jesus in garden when he begs

lLet this cup pass me by

Nevertheless your will ABBA FATHER

And as we stand never let us be too:-

Hungry angry lonely tired

Wedding,moving home and a baby

“3 most stressful things in life are getting married,moving home and having a baby” –survey–

I can officially say that I am tired,mentally drained to the point of exhaustion,emotionally pulled and tagged in all directions,my patience tried in ways I never thought possible,my resilience tested beyond grounds,my tolerance levels challenged.

But hey that’s what u get with wedding,moving home and a baby

One down 2 to go, you know life will come with it’s challenges but this wow!! I never saw this one.Attempting all 3 at one time will overwhelm you I don’t know what I was thinking.

Allow me a little background if u will.
My getting married was about time,now due to the nature of my work I am the more flexible one besides my other half makes more than I do anyway so the logical thing to do was to move home to a new continent all together, in any case the wedding plans started to come up as did family and friends who wished to “help”(who knew so many relations could ve so many opinions??)

And the fun began,ideas,how do we keep everybody happy,suggestions,not one night has gone by that we didnt argue coz this relative wanted this or that relative wanted that.Venues menus colours OMGosh, I feel like ……………Turquoise&Fuscia

Now comes the moving:- my other half had to do most of the paying,after all am new to the country I don’t know what’s what and you know I need a little time to get things moving …..bla bla…..anyway we find this beautiful place and it’s gorgeous even by my high standards I approve.But wait the guilt.I feel bad when she leaves for work feel bad when am having a shower coz she paid for the electric and she even got me a gym membership and a library card…
Hello is this normal I feel bad walking on the carpet,I feel bad reaching in the fridge, the Playstation has been off for weeks.
Worst part is the emptiness when she goes to work “all by myself”

Now the baby talk,we already agreed that I would work from home and she would go back to her career,now I don’t know,,,,,I feel bad enough right now,I ve loads of nieces and nephews,cousins …I am black after all,so I can raise a baby.(it does take a village to raise one and I well …..never spent time in a village but the principle counts)I could be wrong.ANYWAY
But it’s this feeling am worried about
I ve attempted to plan a wedding,have moved home and I am drained.What will having a baby and be a stay and work at home Dad do to me?

Did I take on too much?

Help me here as I attempt to tackle the big 3:-

Wedding,moving home and a baby

Goodbye my lover am bored……. Hello devil am back!

“So whatever happened to you?”
“Life. Life happened.”-David Nicholls-

Today marks the 6th month that I first wrote my first very post on WordPress and time does fly.Its been a somewhat interesting journey with emotions to reflect.
As much changes much remains the same,to be very honest am I such a different person to the one that put the ink to paper or fingers to keyboard as it were? Truthfully I don’t know.
Have I grown a little bit,yes absolutely,In experience yes,am I better for it?Well…..hmmm.

Now then if I have learnt anything is that the high of chasing the old stuff(which for reference I’d call the devil) just ain’t there anymore or at least is not quiet as exiciting,and my new lover (the new positive stuff I ve come to like and aspire to,,….)is or has just become rather boring,to put it simply.

So it’s a case of goodbye my lover am bored…….hello devil,am back or is it?

See the trouble is such that,one is caught in between steps where the old doesn’t cut it anymore and the new has already begun to get too familiar and it’s loosing it’s taste and it’s becoming all too regular and regular stopped cutting it ages ago.
So am stuck here looking for ways to “feel alive again coz I feel numb”
Days were I could simply find amusement in my own company and engross myself with a good book,or countless hours on the old playstation,take a little trip around but that has lost it’s appeal too.

Even more dangerous is the fact of finding everyone else around me uninteresting,boring,just not interested and am not very good company myself,for which am well aware for I feel irritable.

Is this what life and growing up really means?
Have I become old and grumpy,coz I feel like it now.
Am I becoming that guy who sits on the corner alone with his coffee and tablet/newspaper coz no one can stand him as equally as he can’t stand everyone else?

It’s a nice sunny evening,normally it would be time for a trip up north as Friday tradition would have it but on this occasion it won’t be happening,stuck between steps,am neither this nor that as is the case or as isn’t the case…..

Goodbye my lover am bored…….hello devil am back

Hero or villain? is it fate or destiny?

Take the blue pill and wake up believing whatever you are still believing or take the red pill and I ll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes –Morpheus-The Matrix.

Whenever I have a moment of “non-event” in my life I tend to do a lot of reflection and thinking.This a time when life just sort of runs smoothly and everything is tranquil.Curious then that I should be ecstatic but I find that I am not.It would seem am versed for either extreme terbulance in my life,either too peaceful,happy and content or troubled,corncerned or planning an exist strategy for a problem I don’t have yet.
The trouble of being a driven person is such that once you have achieved or are on the path to achieving that which you have planned to and are seeing your goals manifest,the passion and all that energy doesn’t just disappear.Its got to go somewhere.

Energy cannot be created or lost,it can simply be transferred from one form to another – Albert Einstien –

But where? I know it has to be put towards something positive.

This then begs a further question; was I born this way or was I made this way by my environment?

-nature vs nurture –
Are we really a tabula rasa (blank slate) as John Locke suggested or is there more going on?

You see, I see all these “heroes and villains” & “good guys and bad guys” and often wonder what happened?
Most times the good and the bad guys believe themselves to be good and fighting for a just cause,rarely do you find a “bad guy” who just knows that he is simply bad.

Upon further investigation and being a man of faith I see this scripture in the book of Romans that makes things a little more clear
though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— Rom 9 v 11-12
It is up to God whom he chooses,not by our actions/works.

It is carried on to say:-

What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills –Rom 9 v 14-18

An interesting question then becomes:-
You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? -Rom 9 v 19-21 –
That then settles that. Judas comes to mind.

The almighty chooses to make us the way we are or is it that because he is ever present all seeing future,past and present that he already knows what decisions and choices we are going to make and in planning for this he “chooses” beforehand to put the right people in the right place at the right time in order that his purpose may be fulfilled?

I will just leave you with that one for you to digest.

I understand free will and the power of choice,but how much are we really in control of this power?
Do we shape our destiny? Or is it pre-ordained?

So still the question remains:-

Hero or villain? is it fate or destiny?

.

Identity crisis… …….who are you?

“He is 29,an entrepreneur,former day trader,father of zero,married to ………., he is from London,he has issues,he is crazy,immature….” -people-

Notice then that this is how people who know you describe you to other people.

It then becomes curious that since we identify ourselves by how other people describe us,we then begin to form an identity of ourselves based on how other people see us and not how we see ourselves.

I then begin to understand the importance of association.Let me break it down:- being lucky enough to be with a woman who builds you up instead of breaking you down is key.My other half refuses to see the negative aspects of me and my failures,a fact that she just reminded me of (funny I never saw this before),though I have tried this woman she yet remains strong ….I never knew how lucky I was until……….

Anywhoo I then realise that the definition of myself has been solely based on the opinions of the people around me.
My sisters always have a way of building me up and often times when I have done something which disappoints them I find that I too am disappointed.The same is true for my mum and dad.
This then means that the people who you think are important to you in your life,thier opinion matters to you to the point that your identity start to form around their opinions of you.

I hope I haven’t lost you here…stay with me now.

The danger is then in taking opinions of negative people who you think are important to you.
It’s easy not to care when someone says a negative thing about you when you already know they don’t like you anyway,they “haters” and “I don’t have time for that”, “am not the one” that don’t bother you so much.
But the issue comes in when someone pretends to like you when they really hate you and you think their opinions come from a place of love but it’s all coming from a hateful place and u begin to form an identity around this and their opinions.

It’s funny,these people will be picking their teeth after they have had thier pound of flesh from you,please bring me a word of comfort,speak medicine and life into my soul ….am already getting here,but you full.

The issue of mid life crisis
as best described by my friend http://dietrying999.wordpress.com Brings me to a revelation as to what happens.Essesiantialy it is the opinion of those around you and the media that tells you that your hair is receding and the belly is getting bigger and the energy isn’t what it used to be …,you are having a mid life crisis ah!! the power of suggestion which I would further describe as an

Identity crisis………who are you?

I just wonder who influences your identity? who do you let define who you are?

It’s often those who are around us,in a subtle way this happens and before you know it you are defined in a certain way :-

Young,beautiful,successful,intelligent,witty,clever smart,rich,driven,loving,kind,cheerful.

Or

Old,grumpy,hateful,liar,fat&ugly,crazy,foolish,idiotic,failure, etcetera

And before you know it you start to believe this and miss your destiny and abandon your dreams.

I present this to you
You are not your job,not your family,not your issues,not where you live or where you are from,you are not what you do.But most importantly you are not who they say you are.
Take control take charge of your life,no ones knows you better than you .They are not there when you are crying yourself to sleep or when you are about to jump off a bridge or when you sit alone in a dark empty room and wonder “how did I get here?”
Your opinion about yourself should be what shaped your identity not anyone else’s.

If you can’t shut them up,shut them out.

Your life is your own be mindful of how you walk it.You cannot tell me how to walk my walk, I ll take your advice but in the end this is my walk my destiny.

Stop being handled and handle your life,the most tragic thing is living a lie that someone professed on your life.

So today I ask you who are you listening to? who is influencing your life? Or should I say who are you allowing to influence you?

Identity crisis …… ………who are you?

I love you ………but sometimes!

“I thought she was an intruder when I shot through the door”–Oscar Pistorius-

This is the comment I heard this morning as I sat on the M1 sipping a coffee,as I reached for the radio while stuck in traffic.As gloomy as the morning is rainy typical of the UK the car is warm and comfortable,yes the Germans do indeed make good vehicles.But something does not sit well with me.Hearing about this case of the South African athlete who claims to have accidentally shot his girlfriend to death,something in me just doesn’t settle quite well.

But it’s more than that,I have in fact upset my other half,and every part of me feels it.

Let me just say as far as this case goes,I do not wish to speculate on this guy’s guilt or innocence,a family lost their daughter/sister/friend/niece and my heart goes out to them,in due time they will get the closure and justice but that still won’t replace the loss.

This just got me thinking as to why we hurt eachother and say hurtful and hateful things to one another that it drives us to the point that we can take a life.
Now I was going to walk into judgement and say “oh no not me” but then I recall some times when my frustration hits the roof and I need to take a “time out” not that I have anger issues but I do at times get angry,someone said to me once that if you don’t believe the devil exist next time you are acting crazy go look in the mirror quickly and you are sure to see one.

I love you……..but sometimes!

Perhaps it is my fault that I said something silly and have upset you,but still the passive aggression has to go.Often I will ask “baby what is wrong?” and I will get “nothing” when I know you are gearing up for payback.
Women have a subtle creative way of making you pay for your mistakes,for as any man knows when she looks at you like that,oh you in trouble and sooner or later you gonna pay.

I’d just rather we settled this right now,yes I am silly I am a man after all and we are not the smartest gender.I just wondered what posses people to enter into conflict with their other halves.I look around me and it’s everywhere,a couple arguing in the Que in the coffee shop,others clearly shouting at one another in the car (must be the traffic).

Oh help me here,I should be smarter than this,there is some grovelling to be done,only this time flowers aren’t going to cut it,I must admit I was wrong though I still feel she should have known better,that’s the struggle.

Now I love you ………….but sometimes!

As our days are …..so is our strenght

Its a cold pain,a chill you feel right in your bones -limbiley-

There is nothing more imaginable like the pain of loss,we have all lost things before but I doubt many appreciate the pain of loosing something that is connected to you.Your fresh and blood.That which is a part of you or at least could have been.

This weekend was beautiful,in the middle England on a cold Saturday morning a man treks through the cold weather with a bag on his shoulder,he has been away and she doesn’t expect him to return home just yet.He has managed to catch the 5:11 transport out just to be with her,if only for that weekend,upon arrival he then rings her and says “look out your window” and a joy spurns in his heart as he sees her red painted fingernails draw the curtains.Much of their day is spent in the shops and they get to meet family and friends,its a productive day.Later these two lovers in essence prepare for a Sunday service,as he irons her grey shirt he is greatful and thankful to heaven for not only the iron but for giving him someone to iron for,in matching suits they step out.All is well and it is good,its obvious the Love and peace is flourishing.

Fast forward a few hours later he must leave her again Because circumstance demands it,Now this is where it gets complicated.You see now on the transport back he gets a txt from a friend,this guy has a wife at home and she is expecting a child,and his txt is thus “i am at the hospital with the mrs” eagerly he answers back congratulating them,cos in essence the water broke and we should be welcoming a new life into the world.

He boast to his other half that he left behind and they jokingly but seriously wonder and consider when this will be them,celebrating and welcoming a new life of their own.

It is not until later that the friend messages back with the words “sorry mate,we lost him my son is gone” they suffered a miscarriage,at 8+ months.

At this point I know that there was a life kicking and very much alive but its gone now,my hopes are dashed and I end arguing with the very person who I was planning to share that experience with,she is my sarah,my other half,my promise,my meet from God, but still I am afraid, coz you see now am afraid of how its going to be should the very thing that happened to my friend happens to us.

He calls me later 0800 hours he seems okay and I admire his braveness,but deep down I know he is hurting,such pain cuts deep and its a chill that sets in the bones.

I could only comfort him as best I know how,with the word of the Lord.

I then remember something else,as our days are so is our strength,so I was praying the wrong prayer,the evil worrysome day is upon us,how do we get through it?

as our days are ………..so is our strength.

Ur woman; a helper or hindrance? What do you do when the other half is a Haggar?

And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.–Gen 2 v 18

So it is then established that it is not good for man or woman to be alone,but wait a minute now why is it so often that the very half that we can’t live without is often the very half that influences us to do well let’s just say that which we would not do had we stayed in and watched a football game with the boys,or had we golfed it.I of course am speaking from a male point of view which being one isn’t so hard.

Curious then that when I look around me I see most marriages/relationships that your doom/absolve lies in who you end up with.

Now don’t get me wrong here but in his quest for man to find a wife he most often finds a knife.

Notice I said quest meaning the journey to marriage which covers all relationships in general.In my pondering while looking at my own life,friends,colleagues and history itself the biggest downfall of a man has always been a woman! Oh I feel something here.Wars were started, entire cities fell,blood brothers killed eachother,credit scores ruined all because of this beautiful creature called a woman, I need some help here.

As men we should know better but we don’t,check this out;

Eve: influenced Adam to bite the fruit.

Sarah:influenced Abram to have Ishmael and She even laughed at God once.

Jezebel: well had some influence on her husband’s relentless pursuit and killing of prophets.

Job’s wife:told him to curse God and die.

Helen of Troy: Greek mythology so beautiful her abduction brought on the Trojan war.

Cleopatra:her beauty was equally marched with her conquest of strong and powerful men.

Your ex/ current other half:………….

It then occurs to me that a man’s success and happiness is as determined by the woman in his life.Coz look if your woman is willing to overgo a couple of extravagant Christmases so that the business can do well in year 1 then you have been lucky indeed and she will be smiling all the way to the shoe shop later on.
Conversely I have seen a few men whose credit score has been ruined,the business has disappeared,others are working just as hard trying to keep 2 families afloat for once divorced and remarried one has 2 families he just doesn’t get to see the other one much if at all.

It is my conclusion then that a woman is this powerful,beautiful,God laughing,serpent speaking(what was eve thinking anyway talking to a snake?) influential man pulling creature.A kryptonite if you will,which has the ability to bring even super-man to his knees.

This then makes me wonder for when I look at Sarah though she was the ideal one still had her faults but when I look at Haggar she is the one you are attracted to for all the wrong reasons but just can’t seem to help yourself,and this always ends badly (for you the man that is) there is always a price to pay turmoil,emotional pain,financial pain,spiritual and even mental anguish to physical pain at times (or most times lol, depends)

So the question is and still remains ……

……a woman:a helper or a hindrance and what do you do when your other half is a Haggar?

What do you do when God isn’t funny

GOD HAS MADE ME TO LAUGH AND THOSE THAT HEAR WILL LAUGH WITH ME
-Sarah the wife of Abraham in genesis 21v6 said this just after a blessing from God. –

I want to reflect on the unfairness or what it would seem,this might be a little heavy just after Christmas but nonetheless life goes on.

Notice now then, two sisters who are from the same parents raised in the same household,both are married to equally good men,one has 4 children and just finished telling her sister that she is pregnant again,and her sister has mixed feelings about being happy for her sibling over her own sadness seeing as she has been on IVF treatments for the past 10 yrs and nothing has come of it…she is in fact hurting here and it’s no laughing matter.

Isn’t it funny though how the richer keep getting richer and the fat fatter and the dumb ones well you guessed it.

I have always believed every single thing happens for a reason; a cause and effect kind of thing and I just can’t accept the “things just happen” stance,my brain just can’t accept that.
This led me to a situations where things would happen I couldn’t quite explain with the cause and effect theory for as a man I too have done things which I couldn’t explain why I did them I just “did them”.Some might say that is in fact being human.

As a great apostle once observed:
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.”

So then I conclude that “something” made me do it and it wasn’t just my insanity but there was a cause for the decision I “chose” to take that lead to that particular effect.This then means that nothing “just happens” there is a reason behind the madness.

Now I hope you are still with me up to this point,I don’t wanna lose you just yet..there is a point to all this.

If I am then created in his image then this should at least reflect that if a lesser being such as myself has been given a measure of intelligence to discern subjects like these,then my Almighty Lord God the creator of heavens and earth he who knows all has already seen this,figured it out and knows the reasons why things are happening this way.
I cannot come upon him and be calous and ask childish questions in strife, oh no! that would be foolishness and I know better than that.

But nonetheless a part of me still finds this situation not funny, I am hurting here and what I seek is wisdom and revelation, to, at least understand why what is happening is happening and in this fashion.What purpose does it serve for a man who has so much already to be given more while those that have so little continue to remain in such a needy state if not worse.

It is not that I don’t trust him and in him or that I have lost my faith oh no,I am still here for stronger is he that is in me that he that is in the world and for that very reason something inside me is so strong, I am still standing ……(just).

For my faith isn’t dead and I can show you my works that are a corresponding action to such faith I practice,after all I have been taking the injections,kept the marriage counselling appointments,have been sending out the CV like crazy,been talking to this teenage child of mine that’s acting a fool,praying for this wife to stop hitting me,and for that husband to get it together ……..I have tried it all,and yet the drunk gets away with that hit and run,and the crooked keep filling those pockets,what am I missing here oh Lord?!

I am hurting here.

I remember that

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

And the word continues

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

This indicates to me not to think myself smarter than he who gave me wisdom.So I use that very wisdom to act in intelligence by choosing to believe his promise,follow the instructions and simply WALK BY FAITHand not trust what the circumstances look like.

But I am hurting here oh Lord.

God has made me laugh and all that hear will laugh with me.

so it is not strange for him to make me laugh too.

So I then wonder:-

What do you do when God’s isn’t funny?