I Am Enough!

Luke 12:22-31 - And he said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? I then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you."

Luke 12:31 - But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

John 16:33 - "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."

Dear God, I being You my worries today. I am worried because November is still so far away and there are still people who threaten to take away my insurance and my healthcare over there hatred for the president, and they claim to be Christians. Well, I do not need that. My family does not need that. We do not need DeMarco or someone else coming in and hurting us like that. For the first time in my life, I have REAL insurance that is actually doing what insurance is supposed to do and saving my family money on healthcare that I need. For the first time in a long time, it might be possible that my family might be able to pay off some debts so that we can move toward saving what we are able to in order to get hearing aids for me, make long overdue home repairs, and maybe even go on a long overdue vacation. And that is awesome. Second, people keep misusing the scripture in defense of trying to hurt people who need SNAP to help them buy food. They keep saying Jesus said the words or they keep misquoting it by saying that a person who does not work should not eat or worse they keep adding to it citing some quote about teaching a man to fish which is not even in the Bible! But what Your word say is if a man is not willing to work, he should not eat. Big difference there. Many SNAP recipients are elderly (too old to work), disabled (cannot mentally or physically handle work), veterans (already worked for this country), working poor (working but just cannot make ends meet because their jobs are not paying the living wage that minimum wage was designed to be), or active duty military families (already working the job the veterans did by serving the country). That being said, there might be a few individuals on SNAP who are just unwilling to work, but under all due circumstances, I highly doubt that. Now on to the next attack being made: the entitlement mentality. Some doctor from Stanford has decided that being poor and on SNAP means someone is obese and should not be able to buy soda or snacks. He is apparently very close-minded and has not actually made observations that are connected to reality. You see, I have evidence that the opposite is true as well. Here in Alabama, there are more fat rich people than there are poor fat people. How do I know? Because all I have to is go up the road a but and walk into Wal-mart. Obesity ranks high in Alabama, and being rich or poor is not a factor. What factors in for the state of Alabama is all the fried junk people eat as well as all the products containing high fructose corn syrup. Instead of attacking the poor like that doctor from Stanford did and instead of making a discriminatory restriction on them buying it every now and then, what needs to happen is a lowering of costs for healthy foods, a removal of tax on all groceries in all 50 states, and then a special tax levied on products containing high fructose corn syrup which has already been proposed as a measure to fight back against obesity. And yes, if that tax was imposed, people would be surprised to learn what all contains that ingredient that is making everyone, rich and poor, fat. Everything from the obvious soda, to salad dressing to BBQ sauce to some "juices," and even some canned fruit?! You see, I have seen things and I have observed things, and I know for a fact that a lot more than wealth and types of food or drink plays into obesity. Genetics, thyroid problems, metabolism issues, hormones, and even someone being depressed. Instead of targeting the poor, which is what discrimination does, target the ingredient that has been proven time and again to be the culprit. If a ban or restriction is good enough for one set of people, then it is good enough for 100% of the population. Better yet, why don't people learn how to just check themselves before judging others that they do not know? And some people are claiming they see the abuses, yet if they see it happening, then why they aren't reporting it? They are just as culpable as the abuser if they see it but fail to report it. Frankly, I am the person that I do not care what a person buys or what is in their shopping cart and I do not care how they pay for it because it is not my business to know any of that. How does a poor person have a Mercedes or a BMW? Maybe their clunker is the shop for the thousandth time and the rental place gave them that car. Or maybe a friend or family member loaned it to them. Who does a poor person have an iPhone or an iPad or an iPod? Maybe they got it as a gift or maybe they got it on sale (iPhones can be acquired for as little as $39 or $49 at Wal-mart on that pay as you go phone thing and for $99 with a 2-year agreement). How do they have Coach handbags? Thrift store, gift, yard sale? But they wear Nike! Gift, yard sale, thrift store, consignment shop? People are judging what they see, but they do not have the full story. They assume that all people of certain races are poor. Oh look, a black woman with three young ones just got a cart full of groceries using a card and just got into an expensive car outside of Wal-mart looking like luxury! For all we know she is married to a doctor or lawyer, she comes from a rich household, and that card she used was a standard VISA or MasterCard. Oh look, a white person just bought a cart full of stuff and got into a Mercedes after using a card! She was wearing a nice manicure and pedicure and nice clothing! She may be the wife of a doctor or prominent lawyer and her card was also a VISA or MasterCard! I do not know how many states still have actual food stamps, but I do know that most have switched to EBT cards in order to remove the stigmas and save time at the stores. And we cannot judge based on appearances. The last time I judged on appearances, I ended up with a movie I could not watch because there were too many curse words on it. Lesson learned. Now I am just judging whether clothing is appropriate to wear in public. And many things out there are not. And I am baffled as to why someone would buy something already destroyed. One last thought. The abbuse of the second amendment to justify guns in the hands of the general populace. The amendment starts by saying a well-regulated militia. It ends with the right to bear arms. Well-regulated means organized. A militia is an organized group of people with a single purpose in mind. And arms is weaponry, not to necessarily mean guns. The general populace is not organized. Therefore, the general populace is not supposed to bear arms. The arms they were writing about at the time the amendment was written were not high powered multi-shot guns. They were muskets that had to be reloaded a lot. Guns today are designed to kill. People with guns kill. Therefore, guns kill. I said my reasoning was due to autism. Someone corrected me and said it was due to being logical. Either way. Anyway God, I just wanted to lay out some thoughts that have troubled me and even angered me this week. And maybe if someone happens on these thoughts, they may even learn something important. Thank You. In Jesus' Name, Amen!