Upward Thought

A friend of mine sent me a video reviewing the enormous number of immigrants pouring into the US and the stunning amount of money the US government is spending on housing and feeding them. The video highlights how the government is funneling billions of dollars to NGOs who move the immigrants into the country, where they are housed and fed long-term in hotels. The example of a hotel from NYC was given, where some 5,000 illegals are being housed, each being fed by a $35,000 per year budget--just for food. Add in the hotel cost, medical, etc., and that amount could easily double. The causes of this crisis are multivariate, like so many other problems in the complex modern world. An insistence on single-cause analysis simply empowers the problems to continue, in the same way cutting the head of a hydra does nothing to stop its attack. One variable is the interest the Chinese have in continuing their decades long asymmetric war against the United States. The purpose is not limited to impor...

Over the years, I'm sure I've met quite a few people who are expecting some sort of sudden warning from God to tell them to leave their present location for a safer place. This expectation isn't unfounded. There are plenty of examples in the scriptures of a person being warned by God that something was about to happen that would render their locale undesirable, to say the least. What is interesting is that so many of these people seem to overlook a few things that ought to be glaringly obvious, namely the differences between themselves and those who received the warning. All information that God sends to the earth is received in a cascade. For important reasons, in almost every case, the idea is initially received by a single person here on the ground before being spread to others, either through repetition from the first recipient, or through subsequent revelation to others thereafter.[1] Light and truth is successive. You can't learn greater things without first livin...

A friend of mine was texting someone he cares about who is struggling, and he shared the texts with me. I asked him if I could post them here. He said I could. He said he would polish them if he knew they would be publicly posted, but I think there is great value in them as they are. I would invite you all to think about the power God places in our hands to share highly valuable ideas with others. So many of these opportunities cost so little but benefit so much. For context, you should know that my friend suffered the untimely death of a son a few years ago. Here is what he said: Rise above it.  You need all of your logical / rational abilities to figure out what to do next. If you are in an emotional state, you can't even think straight! I've been there! Focus on removing all of those distractions. I've done meditation and it helps! Get up super early, find a quiet place, meditate for an hour and pray for another hour. Practice removing all your thoughts. Blank out your m...

If you've been paying attention, you've seen the unfolding of the cessation of freedom of speech, something I have long told you would happen. See, for example, this newly proposed law in Canada. The pattern: - Pass laws giving authorities the ability to arrest nearly everyone. - Achieve desired behavior through the threat of enforcement. - Selectively enforce these laws on the subset of violators who pose the greatest threat to your power. This is not specific to the UK, the EU, or Canada. It will happen here, too. As it does, the internet will continue to dwindle in its ability to make available ideas that are different from what those in power want you to believe. I believe that the constraining of channels of information has been underway for around ten years now, and we will eventually reach the point where you have less access to information than people did before the internet. Make use of what you can still access to learn and improve as much as you can while you can. Th...

A friend wrote me an email that included this line: "We are a work in progress I hope." As long as we are pushing with all our might, mind, and strength, there is progress. I've thought about how sledging a boulder is progress, whether you see cracks forming or not. You never know when the next stroke will achieve the end. Similarly, even if you aren't strong enough to lift a certain rock, trying with all your might will actually make you stronger. Even if you can't yet move it, trying to with all your might will eventually succeed. Whatever physical limits are involved in this analogy do not apply to spiritual progress. Search for the Pearl of Great Price with all your heart, might, mind, and strength. Seek what is worth the most with everything you have to give. Reconcile your time, resources, and desires in life to what you perceive to be of the greatest value, and adapt your target as you learn more. As long as we cling to the iron rod [1], keep our hands on t...

A friend of mine subscribes to Joel Skousen's email newsletters. He forwarded me a recent one that included this quote: "I told them frankly that we don’t have enough time to change where this country is headed, given how limited are our capabilities to reach the people via mass media, and the growing wokeness and moral corruption of Americans which makes them resistant to these kinds of hard truths. But the great advantage to telling the truth, however negative, is that they will someday remember who told them the truth, and that opens the door for future leadership."  I agree with Joel in this assessment of the lack of time to change where the country is headed, and the reasons he gives. I am not so sure that people are as inclined as he hopes to remember and recognize those who told them the truth before they realized it was true. There have been oh so many examples of truths told by individuals before they were accepted as such by the majority--usually through sad exp...

Many have attempted to achieve unity in groups numbering two or more through creating and adopting a set of shared beliefs. The problem with this approach is that our lives consist of a stream of new experiences which hopefully catalyze growth in what we think, feel, and do. Subsequently, whether as pair or more, the only way to maintain unity is to either continue to grow together or to ignore the growth suggested by new information. The former is difficult, but the only way to achieve true and continuing unity.  As applied to marriage, this principle suggests that the criteria of finding someone who thinks, feels, and does what you do is not ideal, as this will only result in someone who matches who you and they are right now.  A much better metric is to find someone who cares about improvement as much as you do; someone who desires, searches for, and does what is best, and does so based on their own independent rational evaluation of evidence. Under this paradigm, you will ...

Jared Eastley posted a list of protocols he aspires to live by. I think they are pretty solid. He gave me permission to repost a few of them here, and you can read his full list if you feel so inclined. Always do that which yields the best value, the best benefit, and the best outcome—short term and long term, individually and universally. Always seek to better understand the character and perfections of Jesus Christ, and to manifest Him in how you live every day of your life. Continually ask yourself: What do you sincerely believe Jesus would do? And what would Jesus NOT do? What would the ideal you do? And what would the ideal you NOT do? What would a real hero do? And what would a hero not do? Be the hero in your own journey. Always tell the truth, or at least don’t lie. Always do what’s best, or at least don’t do any harm. Do not sacrifice your standards or ideals for short-term convenience. Be honest. Do not rationalize. Think things through. Do not just go the easy way. Do not o...