Faithbook

While most Christians would consider the Bible their Faithbook, some of us use Facebook as a Faithbook.
Indeed, thanks to some caring friends who saw on Facebook that I was faced with a cold winter outside, their warm hearts reached out to me last December and invited me into their lives.
So, Facebook isn't just a happy, happy talk social medium, it's a place where friends intersect with friends in a life-changing environment.
And in January Facebook served as the social intercourse for the Egyptian revolution which eventually deposed Mubarak.
A lady became so disenchanted she wrote on Facebook, "Meet me at Sahrir Square!"
Eventually over 100,000 Egyptians demonstrated their revolutionary zeal to oust the tyrannical Mubarak.
Facebook served as the intermediary meeting place for those who sought a revolution.
As we approach a new year when many resolve to change their lifestyles or lose weight or stop smoking or whatever grabs their fancy, Facebook may be an avenue of change.
But the tumult of 2011 in Egypt and all over the Middle East convoluted at Facebook.
Just because one desires a change doesn't necessarily mean declaring one's intentions in a social posting, actions speak louder than Facebook blather.
Facebook becomes Faithbook when we make resolutions revolutions.

Goodness infectious

"You are the benefactor of great kindness. And you have no idea how much goodness is lavished on the world by invisible hands. Small selfless deeds engender tremendous force against the darker powers.
"Great kindness pervades this world, struggling against pernicious selfishness and vulgar narcissism and the vicious streak that is smeared against each human heart -- great bounding goodness is rampant and none of it is wasted.
"No, these small gifts of goodness -- this is what saves the soul of man from despair, and that is what preserves humanity from the long fall from the precipice into the abyss." -- Old Chinese man in "A Christmas Blizzard" by Garrison Keillor.

"This is a thank you to the force of love which watches over all of us now and at all times, without which we would be lost for all times." -- Ibid

A heretofore unknown benefactor blessed me twofold the Thursday before Christmas.
As I was trekking homeward bound mostly dreading an expected uneventful Christmas, an angel appeared before me, turned her car around and generously offered me a ride.
Unbeknownst to both of us that was an act of reciprocal altruism.
Some call it karma, but psychiatrists term it reciprocal altruism.
Not only did I receive a ride, but she proffered me a large pizza!!
That was one of the most benevolent deeds I received during 2011.
I voraciously and emphatically enjoyed that pizza for three more days.
Lbuckmstr thank you from the bottom of my heart to the bottom of my digestive tract, both physically nourishing me but significantly rewarding me for all of the altruistic deeds I've tried to bestow on my friends.
I hope that altruistic lady received a reciprocal nice Christmas gift from her significant other.
Once when I was down and out and not expecting anything for Christmas while ensconced sleeping in the back seat of a car in Bentonville, reciprocal altruism enamored me with a humongous Christmas gift.
Back in the day when I thrived at Wal-Mart Supercenter in Bentonville I loaned a friend $100. He had just gotten divorced and needed gas money home back to Virginia.
Never in my wildest dreams did I anticipate payback.
I was sitting lonely and so broke I could barely pay attention in a McDonald's, lo and behold in stepped my long, lost friend KC decked out in a lavish suit and tie.
I hurriedly proffered my hand and he said, "David, I've been trying to find you."
He remarked that I came back the next day he would repay me that Benjamin Franklin I'd altruistically loaned him quite a few years ago.
Miraculously I was rewarded the next day.
Likewise, two years ago while in between sleeping in a tent and ushering at Arkansas Razorback basketball games, a friend who I'd covered during his prep career as a Bentonville Tiger greeted me at halftime with a handshake and a benjie.
Another Christmas miracle!!
This year Lbuckmstr's pizza provided me with a Christmas crescendo of goodness.
There is a force of love which watches over us.
So, selfless deeds engender kindness. I'm not perniciously selfish nor vulgarly narcissistic but my heart beats out a kind beat everytime I meet a kindred Christian who bestows altruistic good deeds.
Once this year a photographer who offers $20 to shoot profiles of the needy and feature them on Facebook, desired to altruistically snap my shot. He's a great friend!!
My Facebook photo is really a Faithbook picture from a divine loving spirit who invokes his love on us at very opportunistic moments.
Another benefactor, who prefers anonymity, bestowed on me a pair of snuggly, winterized boots which are both insulated from cold and rain.
So, thrice this year I've witnessed reciprocal altruism.
Here's to you Andrew Kilgore, a world renowned photographer. And here's to you my former P&G compatriot. And here's to you Lbuckmstr!!
God Bless You all!! I luxuriated in a Mary, Joseph and Jesus Christmas!!
If anyone desires to contact me after commenting, please include your e-mail address because when I do receive comments I need further reciprocal information. If I have your e-mail address it automatically is included in the comment. But if we're not befriended with that technical information I can't respond reciprocally.
Thanks and Happy New Year!!

Christmas

"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." -- Charles Dickens, "A Christmas Carol"

The spirit of Christmas resides in our hearts and we should practice that spirit of giving unto others all year round.
I've enjoyed this Christmas profoundly thanks to a sweetheart who ran up to me at Seven Hills Homeless Shelter and proudly handed me a candy cane and said, "Merry Christmas, Santa."
My heart jingle-jangled.
So, spread a little Christmas joy by being nice to people 365 days a year.
Don't be a Scrooge and bah humbug your way through life making every around you as miserable as you might portray yourself.
Smile and the world smiles with you. Frown and you frown alone.
Another very nice female turned around yesterday afternoon and not only offered me a ride, but gave me a large Supreme pizza.
That was the nicest present a bachelor who can't cook could receive for Christmas.
I'm not a panhandler who holds up signs and begs for money. I never was a very good dishwasher and I can't cook, so I'm a lousy pan-handler.
Cynics will never enjoy Christmas, and the spirit of Jesus' love. They're trapped in their solitary lives of drudgery and ill will.
I pity them. They should brighten up and maybe someone might befriend them.
So, dear reader thanks for reading and digesting these ruminations from a sexagenarian who yearns for a more complete life.
Happy a Happy and Prosperous New Year!!

The end

"And in the end it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years." -- Abraham Lincoln

"Every man's life ends the same way and the details of how he lived and how he died distinguishes one from another." -- Ernest Hemingway

So, what is God's purpose for your life?
Whenever facing adversity one ponders that dilemma. Why, Oh God, am I suffering?
There has to be a reason. I don't deserve this fate.
Maybe it's a wakeup call from God that I wasn't doing the right thing and he wanted me to be aware that there's more important things than my measly little view of reality and I placed way too much importance on that 35-inch Mitsubishi television I used to own when I had a good job and I thought a good lifestyle.
Now I realize God wanted me to be homeless, er, a camper, to understand what it's like to not own anything of real importance. And he wanted me to try and enlighten others as to how it feels to be without a home, with nowhere to roam and no goals in life except to just survive and wake up the next morning and thank God for another day of life.
I experienced the true values of the meaning of my existence last Tuesday.
I gave a confessional experience at Central United Methodist Men's Bible Study.
I related that the first time I attended the bible study I was very meek and sleeping in a tent.
Then, I found a nice job in Rogers, thanks to a charismatic Christian friend who prefers anonymity.
Six months later I was destitute again, jobless, homeless and asking God, why me?
I think the answer should be: WHY NOT ME!
A gentleman at the Bible Study related that he and his wife had resigned their positions after seven years and were trying to ascertain their next significant plan God had in store for them.
He said he enjoyed hearing about my experience and he firmly believed God had a plan for me.
Sometimes I wish it would be easier for me if God would just pop up in a burning bush and relate to me his plans.
Once I pleaded with God for me to have a Saul, Paul conversion experience.
Sometimes we must endure the pain and suffering to appreciate the most meaningful things in life. Oxygen. Breathing. Consumption of food. Clothing and insulated boots and gloves to keep us cozy while walking through the winter's blustery conditions. And just life which is the ability to live and breathe and sustain and maintain.
It's nice to hear grown men say "I love you David."
I've had five gentlemen friends tell me, "David, I love you" this year.
So, I must be doing something right if men love me as a friend.
Hopefully I'll be telling everyone I care about, "I love you," more often.
I remember when I eulogized my sweet, dear mother Ruth Kornmeyer Lanier, and I rued not telling I loved her the last time I saw her in her earthly bodily form.
So, I said, "Mom, I love you with all of my heart and all of my soul!!"
Love can be the unifying force which bonds us with our fellow men and women.
So, I love everyone who reads these ruminations. I would love to hear more comments, though.
To you dear readers, have a Mary, Joseph and Jesus Christmas! Happy Hannekah!! and Hippy New Year!
Shalom.

Mary Christmas

Ask not what God can do for you. Ask God what you can do for him.
In this spirit of giving unto others, we all should pray to God to ask him for what we can do for others. Not for what others are going to give us for Christmas.
Likewise, we should observe Christmas in the spirit of what God gave us, his Son.
Many of us are oblivious to the significance of the Christmas traditions. And to how Thanksgiving was originally celebrated.
The fir tree tradition began almost 1,000 years ago when St. Boniface, who converted the German people to Christianity, was said to have come across a group of pagans worshipping an oak tree. In anger he cut it down and to his amazement a young fir tree sprang up from the roots. He took this as a sign of the Christian faith. Not until the 16th century were fir trees brought inside.
So, why do some of us put up an artificial tree and decorate it and worship the lights, the bulbs, the trinkets and all of the gifts we bestow to our loved ones?
Maybe that's a pagan ritual, too.
"Jesus didn't celebrate Santa Claus' birthday." -- Willie Nelson
Why don't we put up a manger instead and give out gifts to loved ones in the memory of Jesus, not Santa Claus?
St. Nicholas of Myra, which is now a part of Turkey, gave generously to the poor.
He presented three impoverished daughters of a pious Christian with dowries so that they wouldn't have to become prostitutes.
Some of us prostitute ourselves to the love of money and forget about the heritage of St. Nicholas of giving to the poor. We'd rather receive an I-Phone and text message or e-mail a thank you message.
Clement Clarke Moore's 1823 poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" and the song "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" originated the spirit of Santa Claus which is ingrained into our modern Christmas culture.
So, this year ponder these thoughts in your mind.
Have a Mary and Joseph and Jesus Christmas!!