Thoughts Are Things

Don't take for granted any thoughts/ideas you have for creating something for granted. A ton of ideas, mine included come and go that could have been worth..well..millions. For instance, take the Breathe Rite Strip guy. Although, he undoubtedly fostered his ideas, he didn't take it for granted. Have you ever tried one of these things? I love them especially for sleeping. The Ab Roller Guy – Don Brown even thinks so.

Some of the internet marketing ideas are the same too. Just the idea of copywriting in and of itself. Let's say you are able to do it well. So, then why not teach it? How much is that idea worth?

According to Think and Grow Rich, United States Steel was simply an idea..worth $600 billion.

Depending on the subject, teaching/coaching obviously pays pretty well if you are good at it.

The coach of Butler's basketball, Brad Stevens, is pretty good at it and you can google that.

Football, the game, was an idea.. now any idea about running an offense/defense can be worth quite a bit when implemented by the right coach.

Coaching CEO's has apparently been on the rise too. What if you are the CEO of a major corporation? What ideas do they have that are valuable?

Is any of this making sense? All of what I am writing is just one idea after another and the lot of them is now my 'post'/ 'a thing'. Is there any value in it? Was it a complete waste of your time reading it? That depends on whether it generated any ideas in your head that can become some'thing' of value.

Let me know..

In the meantime, there will be some valuable ideas that I am going to be sharing over at http://www.internetanswerkey.com very soon...

Good Friday

My Take On Good Friday...

I grew up getting dragged to church every Sunday. It's a Presbyterian church. I wasn't the only kid there...some good friends were there too. I just remember that I would have preferred to not get all dressed up with a tie and such back then. It would have been much easier to stay in bed and sleep than to prop my head up in the pew pretending to pay attention while not letting drool run down my hand during the sermons that seemed to last a day and a half.

In any case, I remember being fairly young...maybe 10-11 when my Dad woke me up at the ass crack of not even dawn one morning – probably on the order of 5:30 am -and said.. "Hey, want to go to breakfast?"

Thinking it was more than a little bit odd while at the same time not wanting to miss a chance to hang out with him, I staggered out of bed. We rolled down to the Knights of Columbus Hall in Oil City.

"What kind of restaurant is this?" was my quiet thought of protest. As we got closer, there were more and more guys heading for the door. When we stepped into the hall there were 3 million guys in there. Well more like 300, but things seem bigger when you are younger. "What in the world is this madness?" All these people are sitting at rows of tables...for what? So I am compelled to ask...what is going on? Dad says, it's the Laymen's Good Friday breakfast… oh...well ok, in that case...must be something special…Easter and all. In my mind I am now confronted with "what in the world is a Layman?"

So the master of ceremonies gets things started after we sit down. He gives the blessing and afterwards instructs the tables to line up at the window to get served. We get up to the window after about 10 minutes and there is no menu. Just a plate of scramble eggs and Canadian bacon waiting for me. Oh and some home fries. What in the world is going on? I got out of bed for this! Of course as a picky eater back then this was outrageous. I grabbed a plate and followed dad back to our seats to pick at what was on my plate.

At about 6:50, the MC stands up and says...ok we are heading across the parking lot to the church. The service will start promptly at 7:00.

Service? What the *%$@ is he talking about, service?

So I ask dad. "What are we doing?"

"We are going to church."

Are you out of your mind? Church? Holy cow! I can't believe how bad I got bushwhacked on this deal. By my Dad no less. He ran two buses over me that morning...the food and then "church"

By the way… the manner that my Dad would say.. "time to get up" "goin to church" induced rage back then. I had no argument in the totalitarian regime back then.

I remember the sanctuary filling up with all the men from the town. It was kind of cool...but not quite cool enough to get up this early. I do remember the hymns too. "The Old Rugged Cross" and 'Ten Thousand Angels" but not the sermon.

Glad to have it over, I b-lined it back to the rack as soon as we got back home.

Fast forward about 20 years. I had been to several more in those years and I'm glad Dad introduced me to it back then. I haven't made all of them, but quite a few. They had guests that had some type of ties to the community give the sermons. Laymen. Hence the name Layman's Good Friday Breakfast. One in particular that I recall was Pittsburgh Steeler offensive lineman Jon Kolb. So, guys like that were part of the draw over the years.

There was a particular surgeon this one year. Someone that had a bit of knowledge on the human anatomy. In his sermon, he vividly described the crucifixion.

The tools the Roman centurions used to lash Jesus. Handles with long leather strings with bone and stones weaved into the ends to mutilate flesh.

The mallets and the long railroad type spikes used to drive into His wrists and heel bones.

These spikes were driven into the precise spots where the nerves end. Spots that not only induce overwhelming pain, but support the weight of the human body when hung like a piece of meat. Keep in mind that these centurions were skilled. This is what they did. They crucified people. So they had this procedure DOWN.

Try carrying that cross beam across town without getting a lashing, let alone having your back torn up and sporting a crown of thorns.

There is obviously more to this. For instance, Jesus sweating blood in Gethsemane. Read this article for more details: http://www.evangelicaloutreach.org/crucifix.htm

So Jesus is hung to ripen on his shredded back. He gets to try and breathe while hanging there. I'm just going to cut and paste here:

As Jesus slowly sagged down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating, fiery pain shot along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain. The nails in the wrists were putting pressure on the median nerve, large nerve trunks which traverse the mid-wrist and hand. As He pushed himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He placed His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again there was searing agony as the nail tore through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of this feet.

At this point, another phenomenon occurred. As the arms fatigued, great waves of cramps swept over the muscles, knotting them in deep relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps came the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by the arm, the pectoral muscles, the large muscles of the chest, were paralyzed and the intercostal muscles, the small muscles between the ribs, were unable to act. Air could be drawn into the lungs, but could not be exhaled. Jesus fought to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally, the carbon dioxide level increased in the lungs and in the blood stream, and the cramps partially subsided.

Jesus gets a little relief when He says "I thirst" and receives some vinegar to quench it.

How much could you take? How much would you take if you were the Son Of God? According to the 'story', some say 'fairy tale', he did it willingly for you and me. To save us. He finally is put out His misery when they thrust the spear into His side.

The end.

Quite the contrary. It's only the Beginning.

It was all I could do to hold back the tears in that sermon. Jesus did it for me. I accepted it that day. Up until that day, I think it was only intellectual for me. I believed it to be true, but it was like history or something. I hadn't really embraced it. That surgeon put it in a different light. Jesus was from then on MY savior.

Now, by no stretch of the imagination have I been without sin. But you know what, I am saved and forgiven. I CHOOSE to believe. How about you?