Military Charge

Charge of the Light Brigade

Lord Alfred Tennyson

Half a league, half a league, half a league onward, all in the Valley of Death.

“Forward, the Light Brigade! Charge for the guns!” he said:

Into the Valley of Death rode the six hundred.

“Forward the Light Brigade!” Was there a man dismay’d? Not tho’ the soldier knew someone had blunder’d: Theirs not to make reply, there’s not to reason why, theirs but to do and die: Into the Valley of Death rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them, cannon to the left of them, cannon in front of them volley’d and thunder’d; Storm’d at with shot and shell, boldly they rode and well, into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of hell rode the six hundred.

Flasha’d all their sabres barem, flash’d as they turn’d in air, sabring the gunners there, charging an army, while all the world wonder’d:  Plunged in the battery-smoke  right thro’ the line they broke; Cossack and Russian reel’d from the sabre stroke shatter’d and sunder’d. Then they rode back, but not, not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them, cannon to left of them, cannon behind them, volley’d and thunder’d;  Storm’d at with shot and shell, they that had fought so well came thro’ the jaws of Death back from the mouth of hell, all that was left of them, left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade? O the wild charge they made! All the world wondered. Honor the charge they made, Honor the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred.

Source: 

SparkNotes. “The charge of the Light Brigade.” Tennyson’s Poetry. 2013. Accessed 4^th May 2013.                  http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/tennyson/section9.rhtml

I was watching the movie Blind Side this evening. I had already seen it several times and loved it. In the movie, the father, Shaun, spoke of this poem being about Ole Miss and LSU playing on the football field. I looked up this poem and read it for the first time in my life. How could I have missed reading such a passionate poem? I had to look up the quick reference in spark notes as to the history behind this epic classic.

This was a poem about a disastrous historical military engagement that was in the 1^st half of the Crimean War between Turkey and Russia (1854-56). British forces led by Lord Raglan 1854. He sent his forced of about 650 men and in the matter of a few minutes over 100 men died. Britain lost.  The poem is a moving tribute to the courage and heroism in the face of devastating defeat. Now this military action is considered as a military disaster.

Would this poem apply today? I would like to think so. It makes me think on so many different levels about our soldiers today that face their adversaries on foreign land. They are so far from home in a desert type region fighting for obscure reasons that were made among the leaders of the “free world.”  Yet they do their job. They lay their life on the line every minute of every day while they are on foreign soil. The reasons in which our country went to war do not exactly hold true any longer.

The difference between this poem and now is the gentleman’s war. The British in the Crimean War would line up and charge. Now the soldiers crouch and slowly attack to seek the kill without being killed. There is a difference in bravery compared to the British in 1854 and the NATO Peace keeping force in 2013, which is primarily American Soldiers. I am not saying that they are not brave, but there is difference in the military perspectives on a national basis. Our soldiers are not raised with the military nationalistic value that other countries instill in their youth. We are more of a country based on emotion with an overabundance of personal rights. I wonder about the future of our country, though. I often wonder if the governmental decisions are being made for the honorable reasons and not for some power play over economic money reasons of a few elite.

There is no reason to doubt that our “Light Brigade” is just as fierce now as it was in 1854. I hope and pray that our government is making the correct honorable reasons to justify our losses of so many honorable men and women. I hope and pray that in 100 years that our wars are not voted as government/military disasters to be remembered. God bless our military.  

My Prayer

Many will wake up this Friday morning only to hear more news about violence in the State of Massachusetts.

They seem to be targeted at this time. Why? I do not know. Could it be that they we an honorable lot that helped with the formation of this country? Are these acts of terror some sort of cruel joke among those acting in such a criminal nature? 

Shooting at MIT at Cambridge and then shots fired and bomb went off in Watertown. 

This is truly sad to say. 

While many slept, many wept last night. 

I pray to God not out of fear but out of pleading that this is not the beginning of an age of terror that many of us have never experienced personally other than through the news media.

Oh we can watch and rant about what we would do faced in the brink of such but the strongest weapons we have is our brains. 

If we use them wisely we will prevail. 

I call for a prayer of nationalism and unity among the people and the act with the wisdom that God has bestow on many of us. 

In the words of FDR "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." 

Do not fear. 

Fear is what true terrorism is based on. 

Do not Fear! 

We need to use our wise judgement to stay calm in the midst of these horrendous acts. 

It is past 3 AM on the east coast and I am sure our President has been awaken with the news of this evening. 

I pray so earnestly for their instructions from God to guide the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches to help unify this country and stop this as soon as possible. May God open the doors in which they should follow as godly men and women. 

I further pray that God keeps everyone calm and rational during this time. 

I lay all this at the feet of Jesus to take our worries from us and soothe our fears and sorrows.

I call for unity and nationalism!  I call for NO FEAR! 

Amen....

The Unborn Life

I have been taking a class on the “Unborn Life in American History.” Prior to taking this class, I was Pro-choice. Now that the class is coming to an end (like all great things) I am now of the contention that there is a medium ground. I believe in both. How can that be? Simple! I am taking a stance that there is such but I am still not sure as to what that is other than questioning the motives of people involved wanting to terminate and those outsiders wanting to stop a termination.

 “For YOU formed my inward parts; YOU covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise YOU, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are YOUR works, and that my soul knows very well.” (Psalms 139:13-14)

What I have learned is there actually is not a verse in the Bible that covers abortion according to the original Church fathers when the canons were being assembled. But, that does not mean that it was not taken seriously as tampering with the wonders that God has created. They continually tried to understand that which has does not have an answer to the question “When does ensoulment begin?” Only God can answer that question and not man.  

In latter Christian modernity, we (certain sects of religious society) started to adapt and apply biblical passages to the forcible termination (abortion) of the unborn. One of the passages that we have applied to this situation is “Thou shall not murder.” (Exodus 20:13) But in applying this, we come to realize that there are different variations to life and this passage applies to them all. But we must also abide by the laws of the land which is a tradition handed down from the original Mosaic laws as written in the Old Testament.   

When it comes to a child, who is dependent on their life subsistence to the person responsible, it is a different matter entirely. It is a biological fact that a fetus cannot live outside the womb under 20 weeks after conception unless God wishes it so.

That fetus does not belong to the mother or the father as a possession—we have forgotten that fact. When God created Adam, he then turned life over to him. When people make babies, the woman is the vessel that houses the unborn. God breathes the soul (life) into that fetus. When it is born it is the responsibility of society as a whole to become concerned about that tiny soul. We have to set good examples for that tiny child to learn from about life. We forget or just simply do not chose to remember that the womb belongs to the woman; the fetus is a product of male and female in a 50/50 biological partnership; the soul (life) belongs to God and none other. That precious new born is a gift from God.

We do not sit in the shoes of the woman wishing to terminate the pregnancy. We do not know whether she has been in prayer with God to make the appropriate decisions to keep or terminate such pregnancy which is allowed by the law of the land. Therefore it is up to the law of the land to do what is best for all concerned. If that fetus (baby) has any chance of living outside the womb (to breathe independently) then there should not be a choice but the continuum of life. This does not mean that the biological parent(s) are of the appropriate character to raise that child. The same would apply to any adoptive parent(s) as well.

It is difficult to determine, what is the correct thing to do in this situation? There is no easy answer. Pro-life or Pro-choice matters not. Pro-prayer over the situation is vitally important. Ask this of yourself. Are you willing (if you stop an abortion) to get involved with the mother, father, and unborn child? Are you willing to commit to earnestly being concerned about their soul and wellbeing? Are you willing to become dedicated to assisting society in the rearing of this child as Christian sponsor? If you are not, do not protest something you only ½ believe in.  We also must keep in mind that it is impossible to place legislation on morality because God afforded the human being free will.

This is my rendition of a possible middle ground. (I may not be correct, but I have been in deep prayer over this issue.) There should be laws in place for the accountability of every single life. The biological mother and biological father should equally make the decision to terminate a pregnancy because it would not have happened without the man or the woman becoming equally involved to form that fetus. Any fetus that has more than 60% chance of living outside the womb should not be terminated. Each termination of a pregnancy should be considered on a single basis not a blanketed covered law; meaning the biological parents have the opportunity to plead their case on an individual basis based on the character of parents requesting, medical information (statistics), the health of the biological mother including mental health, and or the health of the fetus.

That precious infant can only communicate by body language. If a woman who is seeks to terminate a pregnancy will find a way—legal or not. Do you want a mother or father who continually violates the law through narcotic abuse like smoking crack cocaine that would harm an unborn fetus as well as a living child for their entire life? Do you want to see parents who procreate just to be doing so but cannot afford to care at anytime for their offspring? Do you want to see a parent who cannot take care of their mental health with a child? Loving a child does not make a necessarily make a good parent either. An abuser loves their children very well; so well they kill that child after birth in less than 24 months.   

There is no guarantee how a child will turn out in society, but we as a society that wants to get involved with the unborn life better make sure we are 100% committed to the long road of helping raise and sponsor that child if you personally do not want it to be aborted.

This is my rendition of a possible middle ground. 

What is your secret?

Do you have a secret? Yes I do and I will never tell.  Funny thing about the south and secrets because we all have “skeletons in our closets” and sweep our cat pooh under the rug because we know for fact that our houses are never clean. That is what is called old time evangelicalism. Those antiquities of petrified cat pooh and fossilized bones are found years later by some descendant doing a genealogy research on the family. Our secrets do come out of the closet and blow out from under the rug eventually.

(1Timothy 1:15) “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

Those secrets are so often our sins.

Those secrets may be horrible experiences.

Do not fool yourself into thinking that you are not hiding something from anyone—you are only hurting your chances to be free.  Get it off your chest and forgive yourself and talk to God about it. Then it is no longer hidden.

The horrible experience secrets are the hardest to get off your chest. You might ask why forgive yourself? Well you just should. Deep in our hearts sometimes we feel responsible for bad things that happened to us. If we forgive ourselves, then we admonish any doubt in our conscious state.

I once recently spoke of a secret that I had kept for more than 21 years. When my son was 3 months old in 1990, I had a serious gallbladder attack. I rushed to the local hospital thinking my guts were being torn apart. They administered a very strong pain killer which sent my alertness into another world. I was wheeled into the imaging department. I was dressed in hospital gown. A man came over to me and pulled my gown open and felt my stomach to ask me where the pain was. I never saw his face but I heard his voice and saw the necklaces around his neck. I saw them enough to remember as he fondled my breast. I called for help and shushed me and said I was dreaming. I remember him putting his hands in between my legs and then I fought him as much as my conscious state would allow. He stopped because I started swatting at him and making a lot of noise. I wanted to kick him and felt that I couldn’t.  He covered me up quickly because another person entered the room. I remember him saying that I was fretful because of the medication they had given me in the emergency room. Everyone male that entered my hospital room for the next 4 day stay, I immediately looked at their neck. I never saw him again.  

I didn’t report it until the nightmare started about a week later. They were horrible. I was 2 months into being 30 years old when that happened.  Needless to say no one in my family found out about it until this very night.  I told my son (of course he is no longer three month’s old but in his 20s.) He was listened intently with a great deal of concern for his aging mother.

I remembered this incident when I started thinking about secrets we store. I had to forgive myself over this because I my ignorant mind I thought may I had provoked the attack so I asked God to forgive me. But you know what I didn’t provoke it or cause it.   But the ultimate solace came from the word of God.

So what secrets we have in our “closed door closet” or “under our rug” let them out. If you never tell anyone, confess them privately to God. The union of the Holy Trinity will ease your pain and suffering.

May each of you be blessed and nestled safely in the arms of God.

If you need me to pray for you, leave a message, or email at juliaburns253@gmail.com

You will be missed but never forgotten.

This I believe that the American Dream is not one of material success but to leave a legacy, some proof that we have been here, something so simple that we often overlook. The neat thing about this is a child’s touch, a mother kissing her babies check when they are 30. A father’s kiss on the forehead, when he covers his little one who is 20 and home for the weekend just to do dirty laundry. It is a dog or a cat running to see their human parent when they arrive from work. Sometimes jumping up and down, barking wildly or meowing to let their presence be known. These are the loved wonderful things that are truly ours, our memories. “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, may the name of the Lord be praised.” (Job 1:21) Our simple legacy is that we are the memory in someone’s heart and soul that will never be forgotten. Let us make sure that it’s a good memory that we leave in the minds of others—a pleasant memory that will wipe out all the “negative” parts of us that exist. Our prayers are simple today. Let us pray for everyone that needs a prayer—let us pray for each other.  Let us pray for eternal happiness and a settled spirit, for healing, for love, for strength, for perseverance.  From this day forward, tell someone everyday for the remainder of your life that you love them. God bless you all and keep us safe cradled in God’s arm.   

Mrs. Larry (Patsy) Keating went home on 4th March 2013. She will be missed but never forgotten for the love she shared on this earth. 

Not Guaranteed Tomorrow.

Mathew 24:36—“No one knows about the day or hour, not even the angels in heaven nor the SON, but only the Father.” That is the most powerful statement that I have ever read about the life in which we live. We have children and we raise them to the best of our ability. We honor or parents and try to care them in their golden years. Then the cycle repeats itself. It is centrifugal because as stated HE is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega.  

We often sit at the sea shore watching the waves come in and reflect on the wonderful time of life in awe. GOD created it for us. We grow up, get jobs and become productive citizens. We are surrounded by all these wonderful things, bobbles I will call them (cars, houses, and utterly fantastic trinkets). There really is nothing that belongs to us here. We claim ownership but it isn’t really, not even our own bodies. To prove a biological fact, when our skin dies (not us but the skin), it flakes off and turns to dust. Therefore it returns to nature and who is the great creator of that nature?  None other than GOD!

In Genesis 2:7, “HE formed man from the dust of the earth and he breathed life into his nostrils.” What more proof is needed that GOD exists? We came into this life with nothing, and we go out with nothing other than our memories.

A lady that I know will eventually come home to God if it is his wish. It may not be today and it may not be tomorrow. I call her a lady because she has always represented herself as such in my eyes. The woman I speak of is the wife of a former teacher. They are in pain at the thought of loosing someone from the earth, as we all are. Yet the ANGELS of GOD dance around us more than what we think. Psalms 91:11.   We are not guaranteed tomorrow. We are just here in the now, this moment, millisecond of feeling and compassion we have for each other.

So…..before you take your next breath, think: why are you breathing? What is your purpose, your existence here on earth? Are you really doing everything spiritually you can do for that ultimate high...GOD’s high? Are you willing to drink up everything HE has to offer? Read his words and get closer to GOD. Give him your all. Turn it all over to the blood of the Lamb. Jesus symbolically dies for us every year. Now is the time.

If you are in need of a prayer, contact me, leave a comment. I will pray for you.

GOD bless you and keep you safe from harm.

Just say the word.

If you have a need for prayer. If you are afraid to say something. If you need me to pray for you. Just say the word. I have a need in the comments. When I read it, I will pray. If you need someone, a friend to listen. Just say the word in the comments. If you need a shoulder just say the word.

I will pray for you...just the word...