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Ain’t A Lot … or Is It???

You find them everywhere – at strip malls, in parking lots, grocery and video stores, the corner newsstand -  people who cheat other people on a daily basis without so much as a second thought.  Nice enough folks; people who smile at other people, maybe even open a car door for an old lady.  But cheats nonetheless.

There I was, standing in line with my A & W rootbeer in-hand.  I don’t usually buy pop but it was on sale for just $.99 at the corner convenience store where I usually get my cappachino every morning.  I smiled up at Earl, the clerk that was always so friendly, courteous and helpful, as I plunked down my dollar bill.  “One dollar” he said, smiling back at me.  Into the register went my dollar bill.

For a split second I did one of those infernal inner debates we gals tend to have with ourselves on occaisions such as this one.  No, I’ll not say it; I decided against correcting him and went out the door to my car.  As I buckled my seatbelt, it hit me; I’d allowed him to cheat me.  The  little devil on my left shoulder argued with a “It’s only $.99.”

The horned dude in red sitting smugly there was correct, but right and wrong were what you gott from eating the “other tree” in the Garden of Eden … the Tree of the Knowledge of Good AND Evil.  So while he insinuated the insidious fact into my left ear, the other invisible guy  – the one tsitting  on my right shoulder (we’ll dress him in white – how novel) whispered “That’s right;  but how many times a day on how many items a day, EVERY DAY of the year, does this happen?” 

It occurred to me that the possibility of monetary gain that little corner store made on just that small, one cent cheat could be a very big deal.  Think about it. That soft drink was only one of many items in that store priced at just 99 cents.

I’m conservative, so I quickly figured it up:  three, 99 cent items sold in an hour = $.03/hour stolen change (I know it’s got to be lots more than that in a busy store like this one) … the store opens at 6:30 am and closes at 10 pm (that’s 15.5 hours/day) = about $.47/day, and this place is open all 365 days/year, which comes to about $169.72/year STOLEN FROM THE COMMUNITY that patronizes this place!  If they’d done it all in one day, it would make the 6 o’clock news!

You can do the math from here on in; take all the convenience stores in just your neck of the woods PLUS the grocery stores (some of which are open 24/7/365).  It’s a lot, trust me.

Just by counting up the stores right around where I live, say in a 2-mile radius (just off the top of my head it was a dozen or more…but I used 12 as my figure for this example), if this were just all that was finaggled from the unsuspecting, albeit allowing public, the theft amount would surpass $2036.70 a year!

You could get a little fanatical about it I suppose and then think about all the $1.99 items that the very same little sneaky trick is done with, but that boggles the mind and scrambles the little brains most of have left at the end of a busy day.
A measly 99 cents isn’t so measly when it comes to something like this …
so don’t you let it happen, again (I’m just sayin’).

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Not Really New

The “same-old, same-old” on the menu & in the flavor. ..NOT GOOD!

I live in Mansfield, Ohio -  a very well-known city due to its infamousy for dirty politics, crime-infested legalities and lynch-mob police tactics as depicted in “Rotten to the Core” by Martin Yant – a book I’ve just finished reading – that was published several years ago on this city’s mark in history.    While the town itself has many beautiful landmarks (Kingwood Center, Malibar Farms, Raemelton Therapeutic Riding Facility plus others), good-hearted people and a meeting place on Park Avenue West that is wonderful for those who love the Lord and seek His face, what it offers in flora, fauna  and friendship it seriously lacks in culinary cuisines.  This is my opinion, to which I’m entitled and allowed by law to speak, print and/or publicize ,so far as the Constitution goes (just thought I’d get my ‘disclaimer’ out of the way).

This morning, preparing for a busy and long day in-office without a break in sight, I opted to try a new diner on Park Avenue West named the “Tribute Diner” – the replacement of the former “Lucy’s Diner” .  While I’d tried “Lucy’s” once – and never went back for obvious reasons (canned sausage gravy, watered down orange juice, bitter-tasting coffee – again, just my opinion) I decided that this “new diner” was worth a shot.  I was wrong.

Allbeit the waitress there was friendly and nice, there were a mere 3-4 cars in the parking lot – something that I’d noticed with “Lucy’s”, as well.  But since it was almost 10 am and the breakfast “rush” was probably over, I hopped in to get a to-go order – - – tastebuds set for some biscuits and gravy, of course!

My first question after I smiled a “good morning” was “Is your sausage gravy homemade?”  Her answer was “No, but you can sample it if you like”.  That was a definite improvement, because when I’d ordered biscuits and gravy at the previous diner, I was presented with a plate of flat, dried-out biscuits covered in what appeared to be regurgitated cat food that, as I closed my eyes and took a snicky like, tasted as such, too.

Brought a little sample cup of gravy (about 1 tablespoon full), I tried to forget the diner episode eighteen months earlier (shortly before said diner went out of business) and took a taste.  Yep.  Canned sausage gravey, UN-deluxe.  I smiled a “no thank-you” and chose French Toast with an order of bacon for my to-go for the day.  By the way…2 slices of bacon does NOT a side order make.   But that’s for another time.   When my order was ready, I asked the waitress if she’d like a little suggestion on getting more butts in the seats on a more continual basis, and she said  “Sure!”

My hint was: “Wow ‘em with homemade sausage gravy”, to which she replied “A lot of people just love this gravy the way it is and have asked us not to change a thing!”  Although she smiled at me, I could tell she wasn’t very happy.  While it’s true you can’t please all of the people all of the time (Captain Penny’s good, ‘ol saying for those of you baby boomers who can remember him from T.V.), I believe you could please MOST of the people MOST of the time with a menu that truly offered home cooking…like apple pie actually MADE on-site and served warm with some hand-churned vanilla ice cream … biscuits and/or homemade bread in little baskets that begged you to eat more … and yes, definitely homemade sausage gravy!

Some would say this little diner would be too small for such grandiose thinking; too many butts begging for seats wouldn’t be cool.  I say “think Waffle House, folks”!  Their interior space is quite small – all of them are about the same sq. footage in size – and on Saturday and Sunday mornings you’ll wait in line to be seated.  WHY?????  Because the food is hot, fresh, extremely tasty and prepared right in front of you when ordered (a real plus for those who fear testy cooks and/or grumpy waitresses spitting in their food).  Now I can’t prove it, but I’m willing to guess by the chewy, dried out taste that my French toast was waiting for me before I ever sauntered in the door.

Do I go to a Waffle House and get homemade sausage gravy?  No; their specialty is waffles – DUH.  But their other menu offerings are fabulous, as well: pork chops, steaks, Burt’s chili, and of course those hashbrowns scattered, double smothered, chunked, topped and on and on you go.  But that doesn’t mean I can’t dream.

Look alive, Mansfield, Ohio!  Try a little creative ingenuity, imagination and old-fashioned home-cooked goodness, why don’t ya?  I’m certain there are more tastebuds than mine in town that aren’t so dead that they’d prefer REAL sausage gravy to the canned, cat food style.

**By the way…the closest Waffle House to Mansfield, Ohio is one down I 71 south towards Columbus or off I 77 N. on Whipple Ave. in North Canton..**

And yes…I’m still waiting for sausage gravy that’s NOT Bob Evan’s .  Surely we can do better in Mansfield than this, can’t we???

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 Does THIS Sound Familiar?

I’ve read a dozen or more times in God’s Word about praying unceasingly, and it’s usually a command accompanied by the words “with thanksgiving”.  But all too often my internal attitude, which is what unceasing prayer adjusts and restricts (in a positive way) is not that of prayer with thanksgiving, but prayer with some petition and a little “but it’s because of” self-justification added in.  Most of my prayer life to date, I confess with a heavy sigh, has been like this little YouTube presentation (except I’m not a cat!).  

My point is this:  all too often we go into prayer with a want, need, or desire for forgiveness without realizing just WHAT prayer is and how to pray with tha authoritative standing we as believers possess because of who we are in Christ Jesus and where we are in Him!  As the Body of Christ we are actually “in ascension”  where he is, with all things under our feet!   THIS is the Biblical viewpoint and so it should be worked into us to be our viewpoint as well.  When it is, we won’t be believers who is in prayer one minute then pulled out of our human spirit & out of sinc with the Lord the next.

When I saw this little YouTube presentation I laughed, but in my inner being I sensed the truth as it applied to me; many times I’ve prayed for the Lord’s forgiveness, only to follow my petition with a quick “but”.    See if you don’t get what I mean .

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Based on What We Believe,  We Have the Action of Believing

The Christian belief is Christ Himself in His person and His redemptive work;  Christ’s person and Christ’s work together constitute my belief.

I was reading my morning’s nourishment in “The Holy Word for Morning Revival”  entitled Crystallization-Study of the Gospel of God, Vol. I.  Among other things, it reminded me that the top blessing to me, once a sinner, is God Himself as the life-giving Spirit, Who is nothing less than the consummated Spirit … Who is the consummation of the processed Triune God.  This is, indeed, a real blessing.

I reflected on this and some other verses in Galations 3.   It had always been unclear to me how I was saved out of the ‘hearing of faith’.  Did I actually have faith prior to hearing something about the Lord?  Was “faith” something that had laid dormant in my human spirit, awaiting to be enlivened?  I think it must have.  For I can tell you that in my practical, daily living since becoming a lover of Jesus, this is how things have happened for me.

As a natural health advocate and holistic health care practitioner, specializing in therapeutic, integrative massage and energy bodywork treatments,  I daily employ the benefits from the all-natural of many things as provided by God – to us – in His creation (essential plant oils, dried herbals, teas, balms).  Whenever I talk to a client about what God’s creation has done for not only my physical body, but the physical being of many of my other clients, my belief – because it’s centered on my experiences and is therefore very resolute and solid – infuses whomever I’m speaking with.   The infusion or “transmission” is one of belief due to substantiated facts … and when I speak about these things, the person “hearing” me receives a definite impression.  The result is a  “belief” that what I’m telling them is true (because it is).

They’re impressed to believe what I’m saying – not because I’m adept at speaking or I’m some kind of aggressive snake oil salesperson – but because my foundation is based on a belief and trust fathered by a factual happening.  As they listen and hear about these experiences with herbals and natural healing aids, something happens echoes within them, giving them a new option – a new hope.  It’s “good news” to them.

This is exactly what happens when we have daily, fresh experiences of the Lord and it bubbles over into our speaking and more importantly – our living.  The FACT of what has transpired in my being as a direct result of gaining more of the life-giving Spirit within me,  speaks forth Christ.  The belief I have in Him, because He’s a part of my practical, daily reality causes something to “rise up” in the hearer:  a “believing”.

It’s the same when someone first hears of the person and work of Christ, or re-hears it as a result of personal experience in Christ;  that hearing causes a reaction in the depths of the hearer’s being (within their human spirit) that translates into believing.

In Galations 3:2 the word faith is first the things we believe in; THEN, based on what we believe in, we have the ACTION of believing.

If I had not known of people whose body had healed naturally, I may want it to be true but wouldn’t KNOW it to be true.  But because I have personal experience with the positive outcomes of using God’s creation for health, this has lead me into something I can place my trust (belief).   What follows is the action of believing.

So it is when we speak of the gospel, the truth of the person and redemptive work of Christ.  People listening hear our conviction – our faith – what we sincerely believe – and they have a response,  not to us … but to our faith / belief.

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