Good Morning Digital Neighbors! Happy Wednesday ADD Irregulars, Refugees, and PHAM! Hello again Early Birds, Later Dayers, Dawn Patrol, Conversants, Lurkers and all you Vagabonds of the WSN!
MOAR OPPORTUNITY!!!! GET TO IT!!!😁🤣
Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity, we only have this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand - and melting like a snowflake. Let us use it before it is too late. - Marie Beynon Ray
Use it or lose it! Such a common reality that even the Master addressed it to his disciples. Everyone is apportioned talents according to their ability and one has a lifetime to make a return. None of us are created equal in terms of abilities are liabilities , he have a our own mix of singular personhood caused by that mysterious whatness that we might attribute to genes, good, bad or indifferent parenting, influential teachers, mentors and friends, cultural influences uncritically embraced and emotional reactions that have become assumed truths.
Somewhere in that soup of You-ness, are those talents and gifts that you alone can contribute to humanity. It probably isn't globally shaking, but it is life changing for some select souls, perhaps even your own. Other souls unknown to you will probably benefit from the pursuit of that unique You-ness that is meant for others. How odd that if you obsess about your You-ness, you will probably not discover what it is. If you pursue it in the service of others, you have a much better chance of stumbling upon it and making them most of it. As Marie said, let us use it before it is too late.
Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must first be overcome. - Samuel Johnson
Better the Doer of Deeds with all your imperfections than the Perfectionist that never acts. I am not sure who the quote and similar sentiments come from, I think General Patton. Better a good plan you can implement than a prefect plan that you can't. If you strive to be a Doer of Deeds, I think the best you can hope for is not to incorporate known faults into you plans that you fail to acknowledge at the onset. This is the best we can do with the cards that we have been dealt. Play your hand as well as you can and wait for the next deal.
Give little hearing to the critics that have no skin in the game, but give a hearing to those who share mutual investment as well as those impacted by the doing. In striving for some degree of transparency and responsibility it is the best you can do for your invested and affected neighbors. One of the headaches of your skinless critics is their occasional ability to convince others who would be better off ignoring them. The gutless and skinless rarely stand on their own merits, they frequently, if not always tell you what "everybody" is saying or thinking. Rarely does everybody number more than their five friends or allies. I have bit at that hook far too often as a young pastor to trust it anymore. The moment I hear "everybody" I know that the person telling me that does not possess the courage to stand on the merit of his or her own concerns.
Leadership is action, not position. - Donald H. McGannon
I am appointed pastor, I strive to be a spiritual father. The title of father, while used frequently, in the end matters little to me. The enacting of my fatherhood, the genuine concern I have for my flock, is what really matters. God knows, (And HE does) I don't do it perfectly. I not only engage in poor judgement from time to time, I succumb to the same selfish inclinations that effect everyone I am striving to serve. Prayerful vigilance and openness to questions, criticisms and concerns by those closest to me help me stay on the path more often than not. I can't say that I am usually happy about questions and criticisms when they are interrupting my spiritual fathering, but usually I am appreciative down the road.
Be a leader, not a bearer of titles, ranks or accolades that others give you in appreciation or recognition of the position. It is hard to not let that collar choke off the common sense and humility that one needs to be an actual leader rather than clinging to unconvincing authority. I value my spiritual fatherhood more than any other recognition of my ministry. Sure, there are some Christians out there that cringe at he use of the title because of Matthew 23:9. Most are well meaning and I can respect that, they are trying their best to honor the Word and live it in their daily lives. However they address me is good, I am happy to be Tom all the time. (Well not in the moments of stupidity, but we try to make those few and far between in the day to day living.) 😉Others are ignoramuses and I wonder why they haven't gouged out their eye, cut off their hand or pulled out their tongue in their pursuit of the Word. Well my friends, enough rambling from your digital friar! Off to shepherd other flocks that I encounter in my daily wanderings here and in non-virtual life.
Ha Ha Tonka State park in Missouri
Today marks the three hundred and thirtieth birthday of the Frenchman François-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume, Voltaire (1694-1778).
Born into a bourgeois family during the reign of Louis XIV, the “Sun King” (r. 1643-1715), Voltaire suffered tragedy at a young age when his mother died. Never close with his father or brother, Voltaire exhibited a rebellious attitude toward authority from his youth. His brilliant mind was fostered in the care of the Society of Jesus, who introduced him to the joys of literature and theater. Despite his later criticisms against the Church, Voltaire, throughout his life, fondly recalled his dedicated Jesuit teachers.
Although he spent time as a civil servant in the French embassy to the Hague, Voltaire’s main love was writing—an endeavor where he excelled in various genres, including poetry, which led to his appointment as the royal court poet for King Louis XV. Widely recognized as one of the greatest French writers, and even hyperbolically referred to by ...
Padre - Tom Miller invites you to a Coffee Talk, Speakeasies, Schmoozes, Tea Times, Afterhours and other gatherings.
https://teams.live.com/meet/93792382189049?p=DiBHsYfuECPgDrG7vO
2026 Coffee Talk with the ADD Irregulars
Thursday, January 1, 2026
6:00 AM - 8:00 AM (CST)
Occurs every day starting 1/1 until 12/31/2027
Coffee Talk - Daily beginning at 6:00 AM Central Time Zone - USA
White Pilled Wednesday - A break from the heaviness of news and current events to focus upon things more personal & positive for the first hour of Coffee Talk.
Afternoon Chats - Most Tuesday, Friday & Sundays 2:00 PM Central
Other chats as posted in the community.
Good morning, digital neighbors! Happy Thursday! Autumn is unfolding beautifully around us. In the foothills of the Ozarks we have had a sudden temperature plunge from the high 90s to the low 70s during the day and the low 60s at night. It is a bit drastic, but most welcome. It will be another few weeks before any trees show signs of turning; the ones that have now are all the result of heat stress from four weeks of nearly 100-degree weather and zero rain. Mother Nature does as she pleases.
As I have mentioned before, the Liturgy of the Hours is cyclical prayer. There is the four-week cycle of Lauds and Vespers, along with the midday hours. It is a weeklong cycle for Compline and a yearlong cycle for the Office of Readings. All of the hours are infused with the psalms and readings from other sections of the Bible. Part of the Office of Readings is writings from the Fathers of the Church, saints, or various Church documents. It is the longest of the hours of prayer and takes about 20 to 25 ...
XIII
The Proud Minister
One day there came into the Garden a man in torn clothes badly bruised and cut, who said to the Lover, “In the name of the Beloved I demand your help.”
So the Lover and the Disciple let him in and dressed his wounds and prepared the best of the vegetables from the Garden for him to eat. When his wounds had been dressed and he had eaten and rested the Lover asked him how he had fallen into this plight, to which the man replied, “I was Minister of the Beloved in a city near this place, where I preached His gospel and expounded His doctrine to the people. I pointed out to them how their sins had made them wholly hateful to the Beloved and how therefore they were utterly beyond the range of His love and He would condemn them to eternal torments, whereon some fell into despair and wept bitterly but many were angry. One day the magistrates called me before them and begged me to leave the city and preach elsewhere for they said I had made many people so angry and desperate that they feared there might be a riot and they might not be able to protect me but that I might suffer some injury. I, however, very zealous for the Beloved and believing that the magistrates only feared that their own sins might be proclaimed, preached the more vehemently, denounced the magistrates and made it abundantly clear that the whole wicked city was foredoomed to eternal punishment by the just provision of the Beloved. Whereon a mob, stirred up no doubt by the corrupt and venal magistrates, fell upon me with sticks and stones, nearly killing me and driving me out of the city in the state in which I came to you.”
“My friend,” said the Lover, “this was not a good deed of yours, for besides denying the unfathomable compassion of the Beloved, you have by your obstinacy caused these people to commit a grievous sin, and this cannot be pleasing to the Beloved, that through you who profess to be His minister the people should become worse. Surely you remember that He Himself said, ‘If they persecute you in one city flee to another.’”
Therefore the man was very angry, and cursing the Lover, said, “I see that I have had a very false report of you and I do not believe that you are a servant of the Beloved at all. When I came to you so injured for the Beloved’s sake you set before me only herbs and fruits although the garden is full of birds which you could have killed to make me a worthy meal. I shall proclaim everywhere that you are no true servant of the Beloved but a mere falterer who dares not suffer in the cause of the Beloved. Be sure that you are foreordained to eternal torments who suffer nothing here.”
For the man was so blinded by his own pride that he could not perceive the scars on the hands and feet and the brows of the Lover nor how the cloth beneath the armpits of his tunic was dyed with a red dye. So he went out of the Garden cursing and shouting.
But the Lover looked sad and said, “A man like this does much harm to the cause of the Beloved, for by thus speaking falsely about the Beloved he may bring men to fear Him but none to love Him, and by love alone can any man approach the Beloved.”
