LSU2ALA, like you, I typically lurk, and read through many of the pages of PT as well as the Rant, Saints, and Golf Board in my unhealthy addiction to this board in my spare time. Needless to say, although I vote and support
candidates who are America first and fight against the corruption that has infiltrated our government, I believe it is a great quality to keep an open mind about topics often discussed here.

For example, although I wish I lived in a time when America was pristine in nature and not overrun by concrete landscapes and our natural resources were bountiful, I do not take it to the extreme that the much of left does in terms of making it my religion. I believe the earth can alleviate the damage we've done to it with things such as emissions because God made our Earth resilient and able to repair itself even through our so many negative inputs and outputs.

It's easy to get trapped in whatever your political fold may be if your concern is merely what is wrong with the other side of the political spectrum.

quote:
I’m open to having my mind changed.

My faith has been a cornerstone to keeping an open mind. It was helped me remember that the advent of politicizing so many things these days is often merely a tool utilized by the powers that be so that business rolls along as usual. While we fight and argue about our petty differences because of our desires at war within ourselves, they use this division to their advantage in doing whatever they do behind the scenes.

I have been caught in the whirlwind of pointing the finger at the other side, only to come to terms with that fact that I'm a hypocrite in my some of my thoughts and actions and have seethed with hate for my fellow man all because they didn't align with my beliefs.

James 4:1-3 gives us a glimpse of what we've seen throughout all the ages that mankind has graced this Earth:

"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."
James 4:1?-?3

Instead of viewing your fellow mankind solely through the political lense, seeking a relationship with Jesus can be a rock that smashes everything you thought you know about life. It has for me and what I thought I knew about life. If I still lived as what both myself and the world called me, a drug addict, I'd still be aimlessly going about my life without the enriching and fulfilling mission of being a vessel of the mercy and grace the was abundantly poured out on an ole wretch like me. If you haven't already, with an open mind, I challenge you to this promise that will be fulfilled: Seek and you will find. I haven't gone off on in calling a potential brother or sister to Christ in quite a while on TD, but I'm going to make a proclamation that He wanted you to hear this: He loves you and has a purpose for your life to which He's calling you.

I was going to keep this post strictly political, but I had a customer the gut punch me the other morning, pouring out a loving reminder of the grace she had experienced to steer her life into an all-new meaning after her husband died. She was just a vessel reminding me that it's not all about me, but about loving on others who fight many of the same battles we all share in this crazy world of ours.

Sorry for the rant, but this was something on my heart that I felt the need to pour out.

This post was edited on 7/11/22 at 12:30 am